For this trio of opinion pieces, we are going to be attempting a general connecting theme. That theme being canceled games. It is never a good thing when video games become canceled games. What was going to be a good experience can quickly become a “what if”. In the first of the Roundtables focusing on canceled games we will be going over our favorites that were rarely shown to the masses. Let’s begin.

Allan Muir – Site Admin/EiC/Looking To Ascend

Stargate Worlds (PC)

Announced in 2006 by MGM, Stargate Worlds was to be an MMORPG where you could explore the world of Stargate. The two key factions would be the forces of Earth and the Goa’uld, the latter being the primary antagonists of the series for the first eight seasons of Stargate SG-1. With developers Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment at the helm what could go wrong? Why I chose to go on about this game out of the other canceled games out there? I have good reason, I was a regular on the forums in 2009 and had much delight on those forums.

(The Companion ran an excellent article that I will be referencing, so make sure to read it if you want more information on what happened to the game)

The main plot of the game was to be focused on the return of Ra; the villain of the 1994 film that kicked everything off. As with most MMORPG’s, there would have been two sides at the heart of the story. One for, and one opposed to the return of the villainous Goa’uld.

Credit: MMORPG

The game was to be an expansion on much of the lore introduced into the series canon as well as making use of one of the four races that were mentioned in Season 2’s “The Fifth Race”. The four races being the Asgard, the Nox, the Ancients, and The Furling’s. Or in the case of Stargate Worlds’ THE Furling. As CME developer Steve Garvin mentions the Furling being “a single entity that stretches across time, able to see the past and the future, “a single entity that stretches across time, able to see the past and the future,”

The gameplay that was made visible to the public by CME looked very much influenced by what games like World of Warcraft were doing at the time. As the video above shows, there was a sense of “tactically approaching combat”. One of the main things I would see on the CME forums around the time Stargate Universe debuted in Fall 2009 were questions revolving around when the next beta would be. Considering this piece is about canceled games, you know where things are headed now.

After more difficulties discussed in the article, the game was canceled even though the game was “four or five months” away from the beta phase before things went downhill. While something ultimately did come from this whole operation (Stargate: Resistance) the entire situation is one of the biggest “what if’s” in gaming.