There is not much to say for a MMO that launched nearly six months after World of Warcraft except that you quickly learned how to appreciate the time that you had with that game. The Matrix Online launched in what most would consider to be the "golden era" of MMORPGs, and it was a refreshing twist on a genre that was primarily dominated by fantasy settings. Create your idealistic "residual self image" avatar, choose between an arsenal of firearms, martial arts styles, and hacking, and jack into the digital world of The Matrix. Combat was incredibly clunky, the world was bland, and the standard quests were ultimately forgettable, but The Matrix Online's story was the game's true selling point. Taking place after the events of The Matrix Revolutions, The Matrix Online would continue the story of the film series in an innovative way: a developer-lead story team would craft the game's story in real time, playing as characters from the movies in the games (such as Morpheus, and Seraph), and allow players to interact with them, and directly influence which direction the story would go. This care and appreciation for the lore of the movies, partly thanks to the involvement of the Wachowski sisters for a good portion of the game's run, created a world that allowed fans of the cyberpunk series and MMO roleplayers to coexist and create a breathing, dynamic world. The Matrix Online would eventually shut down in 2009 due to dwindling player numbers, sharing the fate of many MMOs that came before, and after, World of Warcraft. More than a decade later, no other online game has come close to presenting a licensed world in the way that The Matrix Online had done so all those years ago.

se a versão desse jogo mantida por fãs tivesse as quests e o combate que a versão oficial tinha antes de ser desativada eu iria surtar de alegria e jogar matrix online por 8000000 horas. eu não joguei na época mas vi vídeos. as vibes são imaculadas. eu amo essa ambientação. joguei a versão sobrevivente dele e fui tomada pela melancolia que vem no ato de habitar uma cidade fantasma que um dia foi habitada por outros usuários ao redor do mundo e npcs amigáveis e hostis. um dia o projeto do fã que está mantendo ele vai estar mais completo, e eu vou viver aqui de novo. eu aguardo.