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ArcheAge restricts chat for low-level characters
Papa Trion is lowering the boom on naughty chat in ArcheAge, as the studio announced recently that it will be restricting chat accessibility for low-level characters. From now on, players will need to reach level 15 to access faction, shout, trade, need party, and nation chat channels. Presumably this is intended to combat gold-selling spam and other unwanted advertisements from free accounts. Other changes for build 4.11 include a tougher Kraken, healer weapons as quest rewards, and larger warehouses. Trion says that over two million players registered for the sandpark MMO. [Thanks to Varth for the tip!]
ArcheAge boasts two million registered players
ArcheAge's local launch has gone pretty well, according to producer Scott Hartsman. A recent letter to the players confirms last week's whispers that over two million players have registered for the game, which certainly goes a long way to explaining those launch queues. Between North America and Europe, the game currently has 21 active servers in total, and Hartsman stated that character creation restrictions are being rolled back as the populations begin to stabilize. The letter goes on to address the issue of bots, many of which have already been unceremoniously ejected from the game. The game's most recent patch restricts chatting in several channels (Faction, Trade, Nation, Shout, and Need Party) to characters who are level 15 or higher, and a learning anti-spam feature is on track to be integrated into the base game. There's also discussion about catching up with holiday content and the like, so those two million registered players should have plenty of stuff to do.
Norrathian Notebook: Seven things EverQuest Next and Landmark really need
What do I want to see in EverQuest Next and Landmark? I know that is a question that all of us have asked ourselves and each other. Heck, even the developers ask us this! It's a key component in the open development process; it is the discussion of these answers that lead to some great ideas. So in the hopes of sparking another meaningful conversation (and hopefully giving the devs a few ideas!), I'm going to detail five things that I desperately want to see in these upcoming titles. While most of these items are a wish list for both games, there are a couple that are title-specific. I am not going to dwell on those desires I have brought up in the past or things I have already talked at length on, such as player-written books, theme-enforced Islands, and larger landmasses of multiple islands for more seamless experience. Instead I hope to present seven more morsels of food for thought, and hopefully you'll add your ideas in as well.
The Daily Grind: Do you theorycraft or do you heed others' advice?
I've been playing with various skill builds in ArcheAge lately, and I think I've narrowed down one, maybe two, that I'm going to play for the duration. For the first time in a long time, I haven't looked at forum discussions or heeded flavor-of-the-month advice and am opting instead to test things out and arrive at some sort of personal happy medium between PvE viability, PvP survivability, and looking badass in my armor. What about you, Massively readers? Do you do your own class or skill testing in your favorite game, or do you make use of theorycrafters and their research? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Global Chat: Through a monitor, darkly
No matter who you are, and even if you are independently rich and can game all day, it's impossible to get around to playing all of the MMOs out there -- even all of the major ones. This is why I love MMO blogs, since they allow me to vicariously visit many of the games that I lack time to play. Even if they're silly observations or dutiful reporting on last night's activities, these posts are my window into a universe of virtual worlds. In today's edition of Global Chat, we'll hear from a gamer visiting an older MMO for the first time, a rant about Guild Wars 2's new player experience, a tribute to the late Rusty Hearts, and why "entitlement" is overused as an attack in our community.
ArcheAge's Auroria continent is on the way
Although players can see the continent of Auroria on the map in ArcheAge, they can't access it. All that, however, is about to change: Junkies Nation reports that Trion says the third continent will unlock within the next couple of weeks, rather than months, before the release of Patch 1.7. The 1.7 patch itself has no ETA; it's currently being translated. The opening of Auroria will usher in not only new adventures but more land for player homes and farms. The exact date will be announced soon so that guilds can prepare for castles, and the release time will be region-specific. Trion also confirms that fishing tournaments are coming, that the 10-man Dahuta raid is purposefully being held back but may release with Auroria, and that there's no ETA on new races. Additionally, for those who prefer to keep all their games organized on Steam, Trion is working on getting the game back on that platform. For more details, check out the report on Junkies Nation.
Last Week on Massively: Path of the Titan
This post originally appeared on Massively from Editor-in-Chief Brianna Royce. At the end of every week, we round up the best and most popular news stories, exclusive features, and insightful columns published on Massively and then present them all in one convenient place. If you missed a big MMO story last week, you've come to the right post This week, Blizzard made Titan's cancelation official, sending analysts scurrying to make bold statements of doom and/or apathy and leaving MMO fans to ponder what Titan's death really means to our genre. Read on for a look at the rest of this week's top MMO stories.
One Shots: Because who wouldn't want a 12-story-tall killing machine?
What does this sight make you think of? Voltron? Pacific Rim? A convenient excuse to wet yourself in front of your fellow soldiers? Thank goodness it's not fully online and operational, or else we'd be facing down a mechanical killing machine that would take a million-person raid to bring down. "I call this one 'You're Gonna Need a Bigger Bot'," reader Bunglerm00se submitted. "Yes, that is a several-stories-high killer robot, and no, this one doesn't have that cute boy from Sons of Anarchy calling the shots in its brainpan. I was already pre-disposed to liking WildStar, but this is one of the visuals that sealed the deal." Wait... am I the only one who piddled in my bloomers? C'mon, guys, I thought we were in this together!
The Daily Grind: What do you think of ArcheAge at this point?
A little over a week ago I asked what you thought of ArcheAge's PvP. As a few commenters pointed out, it was a premature question since founders were the only ones with game experience at that time. Now that AA has been live for a couple of weeks and the queues are (sorta) becoming more manageable, let's expand that original question. What do you think of ArcheAge in general at this point? If you're a patron, do you feel it was a wise use of your gaming money and will you continue to be? If you're F2P, will you continue playing and/or consider paying in the future? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
ArcheAge addresses AFKers in patch; new servers added [Updated]
A patch delivered to the ArcheAge EU servers last night and en route to NA today should further address queue problems players have been experiencing during this beleaguered launch, albeit in a roundabout way. Idling or AFKing during character creation or selection will now boot you from the server rather than hold your place in line. Better still, "available character slots (via Character Slot Expansions or deleted characters) will now be recognized prior to logging into a game world." Massively's MJ confirmed yesterday's lifting of the character creation embargo as announced via Twitter. The full patch notes are on the official forums. [Update: As of this afternoon, the patch has arrived on NA servers and three new European servers have been opened: Nui, Janudar, and Nebe.]
Massively interviews Trion's Scott Hartsman on ArcheAge's rocky launch
ArcheAge's server issues, endless queues, and housing woes are the subject of hot debate in comment sections across the MMO world this week as players wonder just how in the heck the sandbox's launch went so awry. Massively spoke to Trion Worlds' Scott Hartsman to ask him exactly what went wrong with the launch and what the studio is doing to fix it. Massively: Prior to the head start, Trion seemed to be aware of the huge interest in ArcheAge, citing a million signups for beta and knowing of the launch problems faced when the game launched in other countries. And yet Trion has seemed largely unprepared for the deluge of players for the head start and even for the F2P launch. Why? Were there really far more people trying to play than expected? Scott Hartsman: Yes. There's a lot of science that goes into forecasting how many people are going to show up for a new game, when they're going to show up, and how long they'll stick around. Beyond that, external factors such as what else is going on in online games can also have a huge impact.
Last Week on Massively: QueueAge
This post originally appeared on Massively from Editor-in-Chief Brianna Royce. At the end of every week, we round up the best and most popular news stories, exclusive features, and insightful columns published on Massively and then present them all in one convenient place. If you missed a big MMO story last week, you've come to the right post Let's not sugarcoat this: A startling number of gamers are willing to wait in some ridiculously long lines to fling sand in the ArcheAge sandbox. This week, ArcheAge's launch woes were inescapable as Trion struggled to add waves of new servers and deal with the fallout of queues and character creation embargoes that have kept both paying and freemium players from logging in, let alone claiming land. Massively's Jef Reahard chronicled his first six days in the game: Massively's ArcheAge launch diary: Day one - Introduction Massively's ArcheAge launch diary: Day two - Classes, skills, and combat Massively's ArcheAge launch diary: Day three - PvE, quests, and story Massively's ArcheAge launch diary: Day four - Trade runs, sea beasts, and pirates Massively's ArcheAge launch diary: Day five - Random knowledge Massively's ArcheAge launch diary: Day six - Pay-to-win and the early verdict Read on for a look at the rest of this week's top MMO stories.
ArcheAge opens still more servers, promises compensation [Updated]
Trion's Scott Hartsman has delivered a "progress report" following another shaky weekend for ArcheAge's servers. He writes that patron queueing changes and three new North American servers (Ezi and Lucius Saturday and Calleil yesterday) have helped alleviate some though far from all of the login issues and queue times. To Europeans, he issues an apology, saying the new hardware for that region is still in customs and should arrive Tuesday. Daily restarts will also "flush out AFKs clogging the server," and he claims that around 10,000 botters and fraudsters have been recently banned. What about the reportedly long customer service wait times? "Our CS capacity has continuously been increasing even in the short time since launch. Chat wait times are about two thirds faster than what they were last week, even though the weekend's been the busiest time ArcheAge has seen as a whole. We're still pushing hard here to make sure even more people are wanting to help, and the next group of folks ready to help starts work first thing Monday morning." Hartsman notes that players will likely be compensated for last week's problems. "We are continuing to look into ways to make sure that everyone's made good for their troubles during this launch," he wrote. We have reached out to Trion to follow up. [Update #2: Hartsman has spoken to us about the game's launch troubles here.] [Update #1: Trion says the EU hardware has cleared customs early and is currently being set up.]
The Daily Grind: When's the last time you stopped to smell the MMO roses?
I got my first aquafarm in ArcheAge over the weekend, and after I'd planted some coral and laid a few bamboo fish traps, I floated up to the surface and sat in my rowboat. My farm is situated inside a picturesque bay that almost always features player clippers cutting to and fro as well as beautiful weather and water effects that I've talked about before. So I just sat there, taking screenshots and taking it all in. It's been quite a while since I've played an MMO that made me want to simply exist in it and it's nice to be virtually home, so to speak. What about you, Massively readers? When did you last stop to smell the MMO roses? What were you seeing or doing at the time? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
The Daily Grind: What's the grossest quest you've ever done?
So yesterday I picked up piles of dookie in ArcheAge. Yes, there really is a quest in Anvilton that requires you to go around and fill your bag with yata manure, yatas being those floppy-eared rabbit/kangaroo mount things. As if stuffing crap in my quest bag wasn't enough, there's an occasional overpowering stench status effect that causes my character to temporarily pass out and fall down. Finally, the end of the quest required me to deposit a huge helping of poo on an NPC's workbench, complete with buzzing fly and rising steam animations. How about you, Massively readers? What's the grossest quest you've ever done? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
ArcheAge battles queues with new servers, character creation blocks
In a post on the official ArcheAge site last night, Trion Worlds confirmed that it had opened two new servers and shut down character creation on others to alleviate some of the queue congestion plauging players since the game's head start last weekend. The entry reads, We've added two new worlds to our North American server list: Ezi (NA) and Lucius (NA)! These servers were racked (physically installed) and imaged (updated with ArcheAge server software) in our Texas data center all in the past day. Here you can see Ezi (NA) and Lucius (NA) in their new home with Senior Systems Engineer Jonathan Johnson. These two servers will be on the new Auction House cluster 5 (AH5). These new servers are now online and available to play right now: Friday September 19 at 4:15 PM PDT (GMT-7). Critically, four US servers -- Kyrios, Ollo, Salphira, and Aranzeb -- have been "temporarily closed to new character creation," so we sure hope you aren't trying to join friends there today. The studio also says new European servers are physically en route to the Amsterdam data center. [Thanks, Siphaed.]
Trion's Hartsman on more ArcheAge servers, communication
Trion CEO Scott Hartsman has posted an ArcheAge launch update letter on the game's official forum. The long and short of it is more servers, expanded customer service, and more aggressive AFK sweeps. Hartsman also mentions that he's "personally tweeted more during this launch than [he thinks he has] since Twitter existed," and he says that Trion's communication will be "redoubled," most notably on the game's forums.
The Think Tank: Surveiling ArcheAge's launch
Some of the Massively staff have been playing ArcheAge during its head start and launch week, and some haven't, but all of us have been watching to see how the first major sandbox launch in recent memory fares. For today's Think Tank, I polled the Massively writers about their impressions of the game whether they are playing it personally or examining the launch from an industry perspective.
Massively's ArcheAge launch diary: Day six - P2W and the early verdict
Is ArcheAge pay-to-win? That's a question I've been asked several times in recent days. Before I answer it, let's get something out of the way up front. And by "out of the way," I mean that this is the most important part of the article and needs to be emphasized in the intro. Pay-to-win is 100% subjective. There is no scientific or universally accepted definition of pay-to-win. Some things in this life are absolutes. Pay-to-win is not one of them.
ArcheAge endeavors to quell queues, bugs
Following ArcheAge's official launch earlier this week, Trion has continued its work on bugs and queues and other issues affecting the game. Last night, the team said that it planned to increase the total capacity of the North American servers and EU server Kyprosa by 10%. Players have complained of long wait times to log into Kyprosa specifically; one Patron claimed to have waited nine hours in the queue. Other players have taken to calling the game "QueueAge." Trion also says that it is working on fixes for Patron status bugs, having "deployed a fix for accounts that were missing their Patron Time after this morning's NA server maintenance." Community Manager Scapes says a relog after server-up is necessary. EU's fix should be in now as well, tweeted Trion CEO Scott Hartsman.
