auberean
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Asheron's Call readies radical February revamp
When you have an MMORPG that's well into its second decade, there's got to be a strong temptation to simply keep the servers on and let it ride. The community is probably pretty hardcore -- and they're certainly faithful -- and throwing a bunch of changes at them could be a dicey proposition. Turbine is taking that gamble with its venerable Asheron's Call sandbox, though, as the title's February update is bringing sweeping changes to the world of Auberean. New skills and new systems are the order of the day, and whether you're talking about the removal of racial skills or the ability to have six additional specialization skills, there's probably going to be an adjustment period after the patch. Head to official AC boards for all the details. [Thanks to Rehlik for the tip!]
The Game Archaeologist answers Asheron's Call 2: The fansite managers
Back when I covered Asheron's Call for The Game Archaeologist, I got an impassioned email from a former fansite operator who made me promise that I'd drop her a line when the time came to talk about Asheron's Call 2, as she was not only a huge fan of the title but still in contact with many former players who carry a torch for Turbine's long-departed MMO. One thing led to another, and I ended up talking to both her and a fellow AC2 fansite manager about the ups and downs of covering the second coming of Dereth... The Game Archaeologist: Please introduce yourself, your current job position, and how you got involved with Asheron's Call 2 back in the day? Kiersten Samwell: I'm Kiersten Samwell, Community Relations and Social Media Manager for KingsIsle Entertainment, the creator of Wizard101. I used to be the Site Manager for Warcry's Crossroads of Dereth/Asheron's Call site as Ellen Ripley, so it was natural to work with the site manager of their Asheron's Call 2 fansite as well. His name is Roberto, and he was just an incredible site manager. Of course, being an avid AC1 player, I enjoyed AC2 for both its similarities to and its differences from AC1. Robert Hackett: Hi, I'm Robert Hackett, the Managing MMO Editor of GamersInfo.net. I actually got invited to one of the betas along with a friend of mine. The lag was so bad (the day I logged in may have been a stress test; I can't remember) that I told my friend that there was no way my rig could handle that. Fast forward to the month after release and Ophelea from the old AC Crossroads site begged me to come over to AC2 and be an editor for the database she was trying to build. Logged in and the game was a million percent better. I stayed to work on the database and eventually fell in love with it beyond "work!"
