There's a good chance you've never heard of M2, a small free-to-play MMO developed by Japanese company Sankando and operated by Hangame, and if it wasn't for a major misstep last month, your ignorance might've gone on indefinitely. Due to a recent accident, the MMO was deleted and won't be coming back. Ever.
The story goes like this: On October 21st, M2 suffered a critical server issue and the game was taken offline to check it out. Unfortunately, the problem was widespread and the company could not restore the game's data from whatever backups it did or did not have. With no other option but to declare the title dead on arrival, Hangame posted an announcement that it somehow deleted an entire MMO and could not -- or would not -- restart it from scratch.
Hangame has since apologized and is offering conditional refunds to affected players, who were undoubtedly miffed when the money they spent on M2's microtransactions went poof during one October night.
Reader Comments (50)
Posted: Nov 15th 2011 9:45AM Unshra said
Now that's what I call "end game." ^_^
Posted: Nov 15th 2011 9:53AM avidlurker said
own up, who did the "rm -r * " while in / as root ?
Reminds me of the JournalSpace fiasco a few years back.
Reminds me of the JournalSpace fiasco a few years back.
Posted: Nov 15th 2011 10:02AM Cassius81 said
That's pretty funny. Seriously there must either have been a massive chain of small things leading to something like that or they were just incompetent from the get go. If it's the former I feel sorry for them but I'm leaning toward option 2.
Posted: Nov 15th 2011 10:10AM dudes said
Whoops.
Posted: Nov 15th 2011 10:57AM Maraq said
Backups. Backups. Backups. Its that simple. So many departments treat backups as a poor and unsexy cousin to the system itself. You can tell a lot about a companies priorities and quality of system engineers by how much thought they've put into their backup strategy. Accidents happen, obviously, and no plan is fullproof. But thats why you take backups.
That said, i've worked at companies with no backups for certain systems, but those systems can regenerate their data from other sources quicker than a restore from backups would take.
But seriously... I wonder if anyones jobs is now at risk because the game they worked on is no longer up? If so, bet they and their colleagues wish they had 5 minutes in a dark alley with the exec who thought no backups was smart, or with the engineer who couldn't get them right.
That said, i've worked at companies with no backups for certain systems, but those systems can regenerate their data from other sources quicker than a restore from backups would take.
But seriously... I wonder if anyones jobs is now at risk because the game they worked on is no longer up? If so, bet they and their colleagues wish they had 5 minutes in a dark alley with the exec who thought no backups was smart, or with the engineer who couldn't get them right.
Posted: Nov 15th 2011 10:58AM jimr9999us said
This is any gamer's worst nightmare. A sad day for everyone involved.
Posted: Nov 15th 2011 11:28AM FrostPaw said
This is the business equivalent of natural selection....stupid needs to be culled.
Posted: Nov 15th 2011 12:59PM (Unverified) said
@Saker
So are physics if I choose not to believe in them.
Oh crap my keyboard is floating awa
Reply
So are physics if I choose not to believe in them.
Oh crap my keyboard is floating awa
Posted: Nov 15th 2011 12:11PM (Unverified) said
This company should go out business if it can't handle how to manage a game.
Posted: Nov 15th 2011 12:15PM Tizmah said
Something that important should be backed up way more than once or twice..in different areas as well..
Posted: Nov 15th 2011 12:20PM TheAngryIntern said
Someone accidentally the whole MMO
Posted: Nov 15th 2011 12:32PM (Unverified) said
you would think that something like proper backing up and such would be the first thing that made sure was right.
Posted: Nov 15th 2011 12:36PM DeadlyAccurate said
I'm trying to figure out how you completely lose an MMO. How do you not have a single backup somewhere? For crying out loud, they could've emailed the files to their Gmail accounts and had a better system than they apparently had.
Posted: Nov 15th 2011 1:01PM (Unverified) said
@DeadlyAccurate Same here, actually. I mean, typically the machine where you run the game is a different one than the machines where you develop it, that alone should have given them some redundancy.
Reply
Posted: Nov 15th 2011 1:04PM DeadlyAccurate said
@(Unverified) I had a thought after I posted that it could've been sabotage. Someone wiped the servers and databases and deleted the SourceSafe/Subversion files.
Reply
Posted: Nov 15th 2011 12:56PM ndessell said
i can just see the the outlandish chain of events in my head. this is priceless.
( i assume the backup failed or got destroyed)
( i assume the backup failed or got destroyed)
Posted: Nov 15th 2011 1:04PM (Unverified) said
@ndessell
I'm just getting the scene in Spaceballs playing over in my head.
"Everything you're seeing happening now, is happening now"
"Well go back to then!"
"I can't."
"Why not?!?"
"We just missed it."
"When?!"
"Just now."
Reply
I'm just getting the scene in Spaceballs playing over in my head.
"Everything you're seeing happening now, is happening now"
"Well go back to then!"
"I can't."
"Why not?!?"
"We just missed it."
"When?!"
"Just now."
Posted: Nov 15th 2011 1:29PM Vandal said
Terrible....news.....must....refrain....from....breaking....out.....with....inappropriate....laughter.....at.....epic......stupidity.....









