Today we were met with some account access challenges with regards to the cessation of billing process for the eventual closure of The Matrix Online servers. Active MxO customers were informed that June 1st was the cutoff date for active subscriptions to be eligible to participate in the world ending events (as outlined in the e-mails notifications that were sent out to active subscribers when the service closure was announced).  When word of the announcement spread, many players took this as an opportunity to hop in and subscribe one last time to spend time with friends and server-mates in The Matrix Online.

When service to those that subscribed prior to the June 1st date was removed today, there were many players who were left wondering what happened and what all was going on.  Unfortunately, there was an issue where accounts that subscribed after May 27th and before June 1st lost their MxO access.  Also, due to some technical issues, some customers were able to subscribe after the June 1st cutoff date up until the 4th and these accounts lost access as well.

We are pleased to announce that those who were able to subscribe prior to the removal of the subscription page will be able to participate in The Matrix Online until it’s official closure on July 31st at 11:59PM PDT.  We are currently in the process of re-granting access to the accounts that were able to successfully subscribe between May 27th and June 4th and will have those folks back in game as soon as possible. 

There is no need to contact customer service regarding the reactivation as we have a complete list of accounts that fell into the categories mentioned above and all accounts on this list will be flagged when the process is completed. We do not expect to encounter any further issues with this as the subscription process for MxO is now officially closed.
 
We’d also like to extend our apologies to our MxO community regarding the challenges of today and let you know that we appreciate your understanding and patience while we sorted everything out.

Today we were met with some account access challenges with regards to the cessation of billing process for the eventual closure of The Matrix Online servers. Active MxO customers were informed that June 1st was the cutoff date for active subscriptions to be eligible to participate in the world ending events (as outlined in the e-mails notifications that were sent out to active subscribers when the service closure was announced).  When word of the announcement spread, many players took this as an opportunity to hop in and subscribe one last time to spend time with friends and server-mates in The Matrix Online.

When service to those that subscribed prior to the June 1st date was removed today, there were many players who were left wondering what happened and what all was going on.  Unfortunately, there was an issue where accounts that subscribed after May 27th and before June 1st lost their MxO access.  Also, due to some technical issues, some customers were able to subscribe after the June 1st cutoff date up until the 4th and these accounts lost access as well.

We are pleased to announce that those who were able to subscribe prior to the removal of the subscription page will be able to participate in The Matrix Online until it’s official closure on July 31st at 11:59PM PDT.  We are currently in the process of re-granting access to the accounts that were able to successfully subscribe between May 27th and June 4th and will have those folks back in game as soon as possible. 

There is no need to contact customer service regarding the reactivation as we have a complete list of accounts that fell into the categories mentioned above and all accounts on this list will be flagged when the process is completed. We do not expect to encounter any further issues with this as the subscription process for MxO is now officially closed.
 
We’d also like to extend our apologies to our MxO community regarding the challenges of today and let you know that we appreciate your understanding and patience while we sorted everything out.

As you have recently read in Dan “Walrus” Myers producer letter All Good Things Must End, The Matrix Online service will be discontinued and the servers will go dark on July 31st. After 4 memorable years of sharing amazing stories and epic adventures with a wonderful and dedicated community, we saw how deep the rabbit hole went and it was time to write the final chapter of the story. We understand that there are many questions and will do our best to answer them here.

What happens to all the code/data for The Matrix Online?
Sony Online Entertainment and Warner Brothers will retain all of the code and data from The Matrix Online.

Can someone open an emulated server for The Matrix Online?
Sony Online Entertainment and Warner Brothers hold the copyrights for The Matrix Online stories and data so creating a fan owned and operated emulated MxO server would be against those copyrights.

What happens to the staff that made The Matrix Online?
Staff that were involved with The Matrix Online will transition over to new projects and responsibilities at SOE.

How are The Matrix Online subscriptions refunded? / I just re-subscribed, how will I get a refund?
As of June 1, 2009 any currently entitled active player with an account in billing will not be billed again. For players who have previously purchased prepaid subscription time via a multi-month subscription service, SOE game time card or other retail game time card that extends the service period past June 1, 2009, SOE will refund these accounts for the unused time and where indicated will mail refund checks to the current billing address on the account. Please be sure to update your email and physical address in your Station Account as this will be critical to the refund process.

Are The Matrix Online subscribers going to be compensated for their loyalty to the game?
On July 31, 2009 at 11:59PM PST the ability to play The Matrix Online will cease. We encourage players to transition their active service to one of the other SOE games available for trial during the transition period of June 1 through August 1, 2009.

Will The Matrix Online be at Fan Faire?
While there won’t be any official panels at Fan Faire 2009, there will be many Sony Online Entertainment staff members that have worked on or supported The Matrix Online who would enjoy hearing your favorite in-game memories from your adventures in Mega City.

Will The Matrix Online story come to a conclusion when the servers are shut down?
The final days of The Matrix Online will include revisiting some of the great events experienced in-game, leading up to a climactic final event.

Will the MxO Website, Players Pages, and Forums be available after the service shuts down?
The main The Matrix Online page will not be available after June 1, 2009 and the MxO Players Pages will be available through July 31, 2009. The MxO Forums will be available for a short period of time after the service shuts down and there will be an update posted there at that time as to how long they will be available.

The Community Relations team has been fortunate enough to share in many memorable events with The Matrix Online community. We’ve battled with you through some of the most devious enemies to face Mega City. We’ve watched with you in disbelief as the memorable characters from the movies that we have all rallied behind are slain.  It’s truly been amazing to see the MxO story unfold and carry on where all these wonderful movies left off.

From meet and greets to Block Party, from Los Angeles to Fan Faire, we’ve been lucky enough to have some incredible times with everyone who has made it out to these events to hang out with the SOE Community Relations team. We have seen locals to the area stop in to the Block Parties and hang out well past our designated closing time, just to share some more laughs and wondrous ideas about where they would like to see the rabbit hole take them. At Fan Faire The Matrix Online has always been well represented, even more so internationally as we often saw folks from the U.K. and Japan fly in to share in the memories.

We believe The Matrix Online has changed us all, in a good way, and while we soon won’t be able to create new MxO memories, we shall all hang on to and cherish the ones we have for years to come.

We would also like to hear your favorite memories, anecdotes, and stories from your experiences in The Matrix Online. Please use this thread to share your memories but try to keep your post to around 500 characters or less. Multiple memories are always welcome as well so feel free to post multiple times. If you’d like, feel free to include a picture of your avatar in game in your first post.  We’ll be gathering your responses and pictures for use in an upcoming feature.  Also, if you have any memorable screenshots you’d like to share, please feel free to post them in A Visual Archive of The Matrix Online.
 

Thanks for taking the Red Pill,

The Community Team

Hey Folks,

If you happen to have any screenshot that you would like to share with us that shows off some of the memorable times that you've had in The Matrix Online please feel free to share them in this thread. Anything from your early screenshots from Beta up until now is more than welcome and appreciated.

Thanks for all the memories!

As you have recently read in Dan “Walrus” Myers producer letter All Good Things Must End, The Matrix Online service will be discontinued and the servers will go dark on July 31st. After 4 memorable years of sharing amazing stories and epic adventures with a wonderful and dedicated community, we saw how deep the rabbit hole went and it was time to write the final chapter of the story. We understand that there are many questions and will do our best to answer them here.

What happens to all the code/data for The Matrix Online?
Sony Online Entertainment and Warner Brothers will retain all of the code and data from The Matrix Online.

Can someone open an emulated server for The Matrix Online?
Sony Online Entertainment and Warner Brothers hold the copyrights for The Matrix Online stories and data so creating a fan owned and operated emulated MxO server would be against those copyrights.

What happens to the staff that made The Matrix Online?
Staff that were involved with The Matrix Online will transition over to new projects and responsibilities at SOE.

How are The Matrix Online subscriptions refunded? / I just re-subscribed, how will I get a refund?
As of June 1, 2009 any currently entitled active player with an account in billing will not be billed again. For players who have previously purchased prepaid subscription time via a multi-month subscription service, SOE game time card or other retail game time card that extends the service period past June 1, 2009, SOE will refund these accounts for the unused time and where indicated will mail refund checks to the current billing address on the account. Please be sure to update your email and physical address in your Station Account as this will be critical to the refund process.

Are The Matrix Online subscribers going to be compensated for their loyalty to the game?
On July 31, 2009 at 11:59PM PST the ability to play The Matrix Online will cease. We encourage players to transition their active service to one of the other SOE games available for trial during the transition period of June 1 through August 1, 2009.

Will The Matrix Online be at Fan Faire?
While there won’t be any official panels at Fan Faire 2009, there will be many Sony Online Entertainment staff members that have worked on or supported The Matrix Online who would enjoy hearing your favorite in-game memories from your adventures in Mega City.

Will The Matrix Online story come to a conclusion when the servers are shut down?
The final days of The Matrix Online will include revisiting some of the great events experienced in-game, leading up to a climactic final event.

Will the MxO Website, Players Pages, and Forums be available after the service shuts down?
The main The Matrix Online page will not be available after June 1, 2009 and the MxO Players Pages will be available through July 31, 2009. The MxO Forums will be available for a short period of time after the service shuts down and there will be an update posted there at that time as to how long they will be available.

From 9:00 PM PDT until 11:00 PM PDT on Thursday, April 23, 2009, SOE Account and  Commerce flow, Station Store and the Station Marketplace will be unavailable due to maintenance. We expect this maintenance to take  approximately 2 hours.

This might also cause some forum accounts  to temporarily lose permissions, due to the inability to verify account  status while the maintenance is taking place. This is only temporary  and normal permissions will return automatically once the maintenance  is complete.

We apologize for this interruption and will resume all affected services as soon as the maintenance is completed.

On Wednesday, February 25th, from 3:00-8:00 AM PST, SOE Account and Commerce flow, the Station Store, will be unavailable due to maintenance. We expect this maintenance to take approximately 5 hours.
 
This might also cause some forum accounts to temporarily lose permissions, due to the inability to verify account status while the maintenance is taking place. Normal permissions will return automatically once the maintenance is complete.
 
We apologize for the interruption and will resume all affected services as soon as the maintenance is completed.

So how many of you out there watch Dollhouse? I kind of thought it was a bit similar to The Matrix in some ways with the "dolls" getting uploads with new memories and abilities. Overall I have to say that the show is just ok and it hasn't made me a true believer just yet however I'll continue to watch a few more episodes to see how the story develops.

Session Maintenance and SOE Services Maintenance

Beginning at 4:00 AM PST on Tuesday, February 17th, all log-in servers will be undergoing maintenance. During this maintenance you will be unable to log-in to all games and account management tools, and you will be disconnected from the server if you are already logged in. We expect this maintenance to take approximately 30 minutes.

Also on Tuesday, February 17th, from 6:00-8:00 AM PST, SOE Account and Commerce flow, the Station Store, will be unavailable due to maintenance. We expect this maintenance to take approximately 2 hours.

This maintenance will prevent log-ins, but players who are in-game should stay in game until they zone or otherwise make a request from the session system.

This might also cause some forum accounts to temporarily lose permissions, due to the inability to verify account status while the maintenance is taking place. This is only temporary and normal permissions will return automatically once the maintenance is complete.

We apologize for these interruptions and will resume all affected services as soon as the maintenance is completed.

• Slums: Mannsdale Housing Projects and Camon Heights
• Barrens: Manssen Park and Gracy Heights
• International: Furihata and Ikebukuro
• Downtown: Creston Heights and Edgewater

• Halloween Masquerade event runs from Oct. 30 through Nov. 8
• Jack-o-Lantern objects found around the city can be activated to spawn Exile NPCs.
• Ultra-dark skies with a Halloween full moon have been turned on.
• Hardline and club decorations have been turned on.
• All Halloween masks will work during this period.
• Level-appropriate zombies will spawn on players in certain neighborhoods.
• Players can be turned into zombies by being bitten by an NPC or player zombie.
• Players infected by the zombie virus can use the Zombie Bite Ability (under Awakened in the Actions panel).
• Antibiotics can be used by player characters to clear the zombie virus from their RSIs.
• Holy Water causes extra damage to NPC zombies and clears the zombie virus from player characters.
• Seven new masks have been added this year: five common and two rare.

• Halloween masks now place on the Marketplace correctly.
• Fixed positioning of muzzle flashes for silenced submachineguns and shotguns.
• Fixed positioning of pistol muzzle flashes.
• The bluepill Amber asks you to escort in her second mission, "A Safe Place," will no longer be attacked by Amber's own ASP street gang.
• Jack-O-Lanterns now break stealth active stealth abilities on the player activating them.
• The close button on the map legend window now works.
• The scrollbar on the description window in character creation no longer looks chopped off.

• Zombies will be spawning in two neighborhoods per district (Mannsen Park, Gracy Heights, Mannsdale, Camon, Furihata, Ikebukuro, Creston Heights, Edgwater), three waves each, and have a chance of dropping lootable masks
• Jack-o-lanterns will be making an appearance at set positions in each district, spawn Exiles when activated, and drop a lootable box with a chance of containing masks
• There are 21 masks: 7 from 2005 ("V"), 7 from 2006 ("VI"), and 7 new ones from 2007 ("VII"). They have an indefinite duration, and have no effect on whether or not you can be attacked (ie, they are just for decoration).
• Zombies have a special bite attack that turns the victim into a zombie. While zombified, players can use the bite attack to zombify others. Holy Water and Antibiotics clear the zombie virus, as does reconstructing.
• The sky is set to become pitch-black with a big moon, hardlines get little decorations on them, and clubs get special decorative spotlights.

The Matrix Online Story Continues in Chapter 8.3!

Chapter 8.3 critical missions begin on Thursday, October 4th, with another new mission arriving on each of the four following Thursdays: October 11th, October 18th, October 25th, and November 1st.

Changes and Improvements

• Running a mission in wrong district no longer invalidates it in all districts for 16 minutes. Similarly, if all the mission areas in a given district are full when a mission is requested, or if two mission teams simultaneously request the last placement from the objectserver, it will now only disable that mission in the one district for 16 minutes, instead of everywhere.
• The email interface now has a 'Save' button. Press this button to store an email you're writing. You can then close your mail interface, and go do something else, like chat. When you re-open the mail interface and start composing a new mail, the saved mail you were composing previously will be restored, so you can finish writing it without having to retype the whole thing.
  
• Lowered the sound radius of the Bomb Pet luggable FX.
• Toned down the Signal Booster FX.
• Increased the difficulty of Headless NPCs at levels above 10.
• A new character near the White Lotus Hotel directs players on a trip through the White Hallways to combat dangerous Elite Commando programs who have escaped from the Merovingian's storage constructs.
• Desperate Speed, Hyper Sprint, and Hyper Speed now increase sneak and invis movement speeds.
• The Melee Training Simulacra in the White Hallway areas now drop special melee combat pill programs.
• Reduced the radius of the "Enraged" sound effect.
• "Signpost" NPCs no longer have to be clicked multiple times to clear the "(!)" icon above their head, unless they actually have multiple messages to give.
• Fixed Ookami's clothing specularity.
• The extreme gold shine on the female Yuki Ninja Gloves has been toned down.
• Cleaned up the Avero Cuffed Trench base texture.
• The male version of the Quicksilver Gloves is now using the correct icon.
• Recall Team Member and Recall Mission Team now teleport team members to the recaller's exact position.
• Weapons may now be set as Preferred while in the loading area, and the preferred weapon flag will now display there properly.
• Darkened bright-white ad space signs of the type found around Creston Heights.
• Enter key no longer opens the chat window if you have the interface toggled off with CTRL+U. The chat window can still be opened with the "/" key.
  
• Serene Calm now increases defenses 0.5 points/level and stacks with other defense upgrades.
• Pressing 'Default' on the chat options window will now set font size to 'Small'.
• You can now interlock someone who is in midair if:
• You are in range
• You will be in range of where they land
• Player should no longer have the combat state applied to them from being hit by an attack after being defeated in Interlock combat.
• Inherent accuracies for special moves in operative discipline trees have been adjusted.
• The in-game compile progress bar now updates continuously rather than once per second.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed some incorrect NPC settings in Sculptress mission 4, "The Lease."
• Changed the placement method used for the Uriah Headless NPC boss "Barebones"; hopefully this will resolve his currently unreliable respawn behavior.
• Fixed a typo in Landlord mission 4, "Oh, I Almost Forgot."
• Small green pip FX now orbit the user's hands while using a Tactics Booster.
• Pugilist Gloves' proc buff is no longer removed by antibiotics or negative condition sweeps
• Changed the spelling of "Overdrive Bandanna" to "Overdrive Bandana" to be consistent with the rest of the bandana items in the game.
• Fixed a typo in Intro mission 6, "The Potential."
• Binary Boy and the Fumigator once again show and give clothing reward items even if the item does not match your character's gender. (Thanks Brommerz77.)
• Some issues with the chat options window have been fixed.
• Email attachments should be be able to be sent after reconstructing.
• Concealment Countermeasure Tools now correctly deactivate disguises.
• Event disguises and RSI overrides now show up properly in player detail windows.
• Catsuit and motorcycle suit sleeves no longer stick through long gloves.
• Swirling Ki Summon no longer incorrectly states that it causes the confuse state when it hits an enemy.
• The Movement Speed upgrade for Escape and Evasion is now Sneak Movement Speed instead.
• The FX of the toughness boost from the Tiger Master's Gi/Coat is now orange and black, to distinguish it from the green Tactics Booster FX.
• The correct chat message should now appear when Dual Pistol Execution's downgrades are applied to a target.
• Fixed some gang members who were spawning in the ground in Richland.
• Hardlines will no longer remain red after a server crash.
• Weapon requirements not met effect will now return after reconstruction

If you are planning to attend the E for All expo in October, or if you are going to be in the Los Angeles area, join the SOE Community Team at the Standard Hotel in Downtown LA for a Meet and Greet! We will be partying it up on the Pool deck of the Standard during the E for All expo. The party starts at 7 PM and ends at 11 PM on Thursday, October 18, 2007. The food and drink are free, and conversation will be plentiful. 21 and older only please.

Address: 550 South Flower St. @ Sixth St. Los Angeles CA 90071
Phone: 213-892-8080
E-mail: downtownla@standardhotel.com
Web Site: Click to visit their web site –
http://www.standardhotel.com/

We look forward to seeing you there!