On January 31st, the gates of the MMORPG Asheron’s Call closed. Fans gathered in-game to say goodbye.
For 17 years, players experienced adventures in the fantasy world of Dereth in the MMORPG Asheron’s Call. But that is now over. Publisher Warner Bros. shut down the servers on January 31st. There are no plans to continue operating the MMO or hand it over to another developer.
Even requests from fans to continue maintaining the game were ignored.
Fans said goodbye to the classic
Several players uploaded videos of the final moments of the classic to capture those moments. Fans said goodbye with emotional words. Twitch streamer loud_lou, for example, stated with visible grief that Dereth had been like a second home to him for ten years.
He grew up with Asheron’s Call and made friends there. Now he has been deprived of his virtual second home and a part of his childhood is lost. He hoped that Warner Bros. would have a change of heart and pleaded with the publisher to keep the game running.
Will there ever be a reunion in Asheron’s Call?
But eventually, the screen went black and the connection to the server was interrupted. This happened to other fans besides loud-lou. The mass disconnect when the servers were shut down resulted in a nice play of colors, which is fitting for the players’ farewell.
Blizzard steps in with WoW
74-year-old Julien had been there since the launch of Asheron’s Call. A video of the 74-year-old showing his Asheron’s Call characters to his granddaughter went viral a month ago. The video currently has over 1.1 million views.
As Kotaku reports, Julien has now received a version of World of Warcraft from Blizzard so he has an MMORPG that he can continue playing. His granddaughter was also provided with a WoW account by Blizzard.
And so the chapter of Asheron’s Call ends. Whether there will ever be a reunion with the MMO is currently uncertain.
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