The Pre-Order Saga
By Josh "djsandman" Wallace

This past week many questions were answered. But, as questions are answered, there are always more that arise. With the announcement from Warner Brothers Interactive Entertainment regarding The Matrix Online being pushed back until January 18th, 2005 and the pre-order beta starting on November 18th the long wait for information has ended....or has it? Right now, it's basically a waiting game as gamers everywhere are pre-ordering their copies of MxO in order to get into the pre-order beta. Where did this pre-order saga begin? How did it turn into such a scandalous affair? I've been following it from day one and I have a timeline of events and my opinion on why it happened.

We'll start at the beginning. It was a hot afternoon on July 14th. I was browsing the forums as usual when I came across an interesting post that read "Preorder perks on PCGamer...". It gave details of an ad describing things I had never heard of before.

"See it sooner when you pre-order today. Pre-order the Matrix Online and you will be granted access to the Matrix before the rest of the world. In addition, you'll receive access to The Matrix Online beta and an exclusive Matrix ability or game item. Just visit www.thematrixonline.com for details. Then get ready to take an active role in the continuing saga of The Matrix trilogy."

I was the first to post to this thread as it was shocking news to me, although I had pre-ordered earlier the same month expecting that we would eventually hear about some kind of pre-order perks. The poster who went by the name of mcm0818 mentioned that the ad was in the September issue of PC Gamer and only named Warner Bros., Sega, Monolith and ATI, meaning it was an ad taken out by the devs and not a store. Everyone posting on the thread questioned the authenticity of the ad since no one had even seen the September issue of PC Gamer yet. I even ran out to my local book store and picked up the latest copy they had which was August and there was no ad for Matrix Online in there. This made me even more suspicious of the poster. He also mentioned that this issue had the first review of Doom III as a cover article. He did offer to scan the article for everyone and a few hours later when his scanner was working he came up with what appeared to be legit images of the Doom III cover and the Matrix Online ad. At the time of this writing the links to the photos seem to still be up so you can still view them out on that thread if you want. At this point all we needed was confirmation from a dev or admin that this was legit. There was some speculation as to why none had responded yet. Some saying they didn't know or weren't allowed to say and others claiming it were still not legit or false advertising. Finally we got word from MxO.Mastema.

"We are planning on doing something for people who pre-order The Matrix Online. As far as what that will entail has not been finalized. So until we iron out all of the details, you will have to wait until we can give you more information. I believe that issue of PC Gamer that mcm0818 is referring to is the September issue, which shouldn't be hitting newsstands until August. Hopefully by that time, we will have the information that you want."

There was a little bit more general info on pre-orders from MxO.Mastema, a thank you and that's where that thread's story ended. But, that wasn't the ending of the story... not by a long shot. My speculation on why that magazine got out as early as it did is because of the Doom III review. Doom III was released on August 5th and mcm0818 received his copy of the magazine on July 14th which advertised the first full review of that game. It makes sense from a marketing standpoint for the Doom III game to get your first review out within weeks before the release of a game. So, the PC Gamer magazine sent out that September issue to its subscribers a little earlier than usual. The Matrix Online ad was probably not expected to be public knowledge until mid August at the earliest which is when MxO.Mastema mentioned the magazine would hit store shelves.

Our story continues a few days after the pre-order info became public in a Broadcast Depth thread created by MxO.Walrus titled “What would you like to get for preordering MxO?". That thread contained MxO.Walrus' explanation of the pre-order info getting out before they had any information finalized other than what was in the ad. He also asked the community what items they might want to receive for pre-ordering The Matrix Online (USB Cranial Jack Not Included). The answers that appeared on that thread varied from a soundtrack cd of music from the game, a cloth map of megacity, the posters and t-shirts that were available at E3 and even a plush Thoth toy. Most of these suggestions weren't used and in the finalized information that came out we still only saw the three items from the leaked magazine ad. Why weren't the well thought out and very good suggestions from the community used? Maybe we'll never know and maybe they are planning something for a future expansion pack or collector's edition...who knows?

As the days went on we got little bits of information from the official website about pre-ordering. I could not find an exact date for the first real info going up on the website, however the first pre-order discussion thread which was started on August 2nd by MxO.Eris. At first the information was basic and contained only what was in the magazine ad. It had no confirmation of the beta date and no confirmation of the pre-order bonus item. Both of these set the community into a spiral of mixed feelings over the lack of information. There was much speculation over what the bonus item would be, in particular. That information came to us first in the form of the bonus item and the pre-order box art. On September 10th, MxO.Walrus posted the announcement that the info was up, and we learned that the pre-order item was the hyper jump ability. This was a let down to some, yet others understood the value of having high level travel ability at launch. I had mixed feelings on it. I had hoped for an ability exclusive to pre-orders, but instead we got a high level ability that was used frequently in the movies and made famous by the "jump program" in the original Matrix film. The pre-order saga doesn't end here though.

Recently, the forums were hit with a huge announcement that completed the pre-order perk info and gave a release date to the game. January 18th, 2005 is now the date we all are looking forward to as the beginning of the next chapter in the Matrix story. It was also announced that the pre-order beta would begin on November 18th, and we would get to play the game and get used to the mechanics two full months before it went live. This info brought out more mixed feelings from the community, as many were angered by the delay, and others welcomed the pre-order beta in November. Regardless of how you may feel, the pre-order info saga of the Matrix Online development is now over and we have a waiting game. As I am typing this editorial, the pre-order countdown clock on MxO Stratics reads that we have about 61 days left until pre-order beta begins. 61 more days to speculate, and 61 more days to scour the internet for more information. 61 more days until questions are answered and more questions arise. The waiting game has begun...and thankfully, everything that has a beginning has an end.

Guest Editorials and the opinions expressed therein are those of the author and not necessarily the views and opinions of the staff or editors of The Matrix Online Stratics.

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