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Turbine brings back Asheron's Call 2
Well this is one story we never thought we'd be writing: Asheron's Call 2 is coming back from the dead. No, really! Turbine announced the return of the long-dormant title, which will be on a brand-new server called Dawnsong. The studio also provided a link to download the old client. There are a few caveats that come with this MMO resurrection. You have to be an active subscriber to Asheron's Call to take advantage of the AC2 server, and the game is currently in beta status, so there might be a few hiccups as Turbine figures things out. Asheron's Call 2 came out in 2002 and was closed in 2005. Our Game Archaeologist column has a great retrospective to bring you up to speed if you're unfamiliar with this short-lived MMO. [Thanks to Padre for the tip!]
The Game Archaeologist answers Asheron's Call 2: The former dev
I've been a long-time follower of Eric Heimburg on his blog, Elder Game, where he and a friend have spent years delivering insightful commentary about MMOs and supermodels (well, mostly MMOs). Because I'm not that observant a fellow and I assume that most fellow bloggers are mere players like I am, I didn't realize until a little while ago that he and his co-writer were former Turbine developers who had worked on Asheron's Call and Asheron's Call 2. You can see where this is going. Once I learned that, I knew I had to get him to contribute to this series. I began a multi-year wooing campaign that involved skywriting, cupcakes, celebrity kiss-o-grams, envelopes stuffed with unmarked bills, and all the tea in China. Of course, this was well after he'd already said "yes" to it, but I like to keep up appearances. So hit the jump as I talk to a guy who was on the flipside of Asheron's Call 2 as a producer and generally swell fella!
The Game Archaeologist answers Asheron's Call 2: The highlights
MMO sequels are funny animals. Sequels (along with prequels and "reimaginings") are ingrained into the entertainment industry so deep that it makes sense that MMO studios would follow suit. And yet these types of games -- with their ever-growing nature and heavy involvement with loyal playerbases -- are not always conducive to such projects. More often than not, a sequel to an online game becomes its ancestor's main competition, which is not a desirable outcome for the studio. Perhaps back in the early 2000s, studios simply didn't know better. There's good evidence that the typical "hit video games need a sequel" mindset ran rampant across the industry, from the multiple attempts at Ultima Online 2 to the release of the don't-call-it-a-sequel sequel of EverQuest II. Perhaps developers didn't realize that MMO players didn't necessarily want to be uprooted and moved to a new game every few years. While sequels, spin-offs and remakes are still present, the genre learned a hard lesson with Asheron's Call 2 in the first half of the decade. Asheron's Call was a success on Microsoft and Turbine's behalf, and a sequel -- with vastly improved graphics and deeper gameplay -- seemed like a logical next step. Unfortunately, it was a Greek tragedy in the making, destined for a short but memorable life in our world. This month we're going to look at the brief shining star of Asheron's Call 2 and get all sorts of misty-eyed romantic over it!
