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Massively's pre-launch interview with Runes of Magic
Runes of Magic has continued its domination of the blog-o-sphere as more and more MMO bloggers give in to the temptation of sampling this free-to-play game. We here at Massively have done our fair share of dabbling, including an article on the game's open crafting system.With the game set to launch in just about a month from now, we jumped at the chance to have a chat with the folks at Frogster concerning their much-anticipated fantasy MMO. Are they on track with this March launch date? How has beta reaction been so far, and what do they have to say about the growing concern that the game is "nothing more than a cheap WoW clone"? See what they had to say just after the jump below, and let us know what you think in the comments.
Preview of first two dungeons in Runes of Magic
Runes of Magic is a free-to-play fantasy MMORPG. It is currently in open beta and will release March 19, 2009. According to a recent player review, ROM will feature a rich blend of PvP and PvE action. A big part of PvE in most fantasy MMOs is dungeon content and we just learned from MMORPG.com that ROM will feature many types of dungeons, including normal instanced raids, camp, gated, and even PvP.This MMORPG.com feature goes into some detail about the first two dungeons you'll encounter in ROM called Moongorge and Barren Cave. They explain some of the quests that will send you off to explore these dungeons and even offer directions on how to get to them. The author gives insight on of the history and lore behind these dungeons, what kinds of monsters and monster-types you can expect to find inside, and strategies that will help you conquer the interior bosses. If you're a fan of WoW dungeons, ROM dungeons will probably feel a little familiar, however, the author still found them challenging and entertaining.
Runes of Magic officially launches March 19, 2009
The feature rich free-to-play (and free to download) Runes of Magic has received an official launch date of March 19, 2009. This MMORPG has been in open beta since December 2008 and has seen over 450,000 testers explore the rich world of Taborea. Key features Massively has covered in the past include a dual class system that allows for up to 30 primary and secondary class combinations and one of the most open crafting systems you will find on the market.Just yesterday we discovered and shared an objective player review of ROM open beta that was mostly positive. The reviewer seems to have pretty good credentials considering their experience with other A-list MMORPGs. After extensively weighing the pros and cons of ROM's various systems, they vowed to stick with it for the foreseeable future. We also hear that open beta characters will carry over to release (i.e., no wipes), so now is as good a time as any to get your feet wet in this fantasy-based MMORPG. Be forewarned though, the game is still in beta and will probably undgero major changes as the looming official release date approaches.[Full press release at Allakhazam]
Why you should be playing Runes of Magic: Open Crafting
"Why you should be playing ..." is a freeform column from Massively.com intended to inform you about our favorite parts of our favorite games. We want you to know why we're playing them, so you can know what to play.Runes of Magic is enjoying some well-deserved attention lately as it's wrapping up its open beta and preparing for a launch in March. To offer some more incentive for interested gamers to check out the game, we figured we'd let you in on a little secret: this game is awesome! How awesome? Although this would be a 10,000-word essay if that question were to be answered entirely, we're going to give you some information on just one of our favorite features of the game: open crafting professions.What exactly is open crafting? It's a crafting system with no restrictions and no limits. The crafting profession system in Runes of Magic is the gathering and manufacturing of materials to create in-game items. It's the process of creating these items with special recipes and selling them on the Auction Hall. This is something we're accustomed to in most of our favorite big-name MMOs, but in RoM, you can take all crafting and gathering professions right from the start.
Runes of Magic announces a new dungeon, "Cyclops Stronghold"
Frogster Interactive's free-to-play title Runes of Magic has announced the brand new level 50 dungeon "Cyclops Stronghold," and a brand new addition of a new instanced cave system that leads into the new dungeon.Runes of Magic is still in open beta, but certainly coming along nicely with its updates. The new dungeon centers around the cyclops King Uguda and his generals and assistants. One of the boss battles includes cyclops soldier trainer Instructor Boddosch, right as he's training some of the new cyclops recruits in the art of combat. Later battles include disrupting officers, fighting the generals, and challenging the extremely quick and strong cyclops king to an intense battle.The usual rewards apply here, as the developers have promised that Uguda will be dropping some pretty impressive loot, as well as offering a strategic challenge to any level 50s interesting in engaging in the new content. Ten Ton Hammer has the press release, check it out.
Accessing the Runes of Magic Item Shop
With the official launch date still about 2 months away, Runes of Magic seems to be ahead of schedule with their features. While the open beta is sailing along nicely, we get word of the game's Item Shop opening to the masses.According to the official press release, the Runes of Magic Item Shop is now open for those players who want to "achieve their goals in the game world faster." They've compiled a handy guide to the Item Shop and the Diamond currency system, which should help any players who are new to the game, or new to RMT in general. You can also keep an eye on the latest items added to the shop, which usually include items such as special potions, jewels, pets and mounts. Check out the complete press release after the cut below.
A guide to the Runes of Magic dual-class system
Runes of Magic is launching in March, and the information we're getting from current players in beta is overwhelmingly positive. To highlight one of the most predominant features in the game, a dual-class system, MMORPG has written a guide for choosing your second class.This guide is extremely helpful as it describes the step-by-step procedure for not only the "whens" and the "wheres" of completing your second-class quests, but the "hows" as well. Once you reach level 10, you can begin the quest for a second class, and the decision is permanent. Although the six current classes (with more to come!) in RoM are pretty straightforward, it's helpful to know how the combinations of classes can be advantageous to your play style.
Runes of Magic to launch in March
Runes of Magic, the new free-to-play fantasy MMO from German publisher Frogster, has just announced its official launch for March of this year. The game has enjoyed a productive closed and open beta for several months now, and the news of a launch coming so soon should surprise no one who has been playing throughout that beta.In fact, make that 300,000 someones playing the beta. The game has received some well-deserved buzz lately, and this launch should be an exciting time for fans waiting anxiously to play "for real." Be sure to keep your eye here for more info on the game as the launch date approaches.
Runes of Magic reaches 100k characters created on first day of open beta
As we mentioned last week, the highly-anticipated Runes of Magic fantasy MMO from Frogster Interactive has just entered open beta on December 15th. Normally the news of a small free-to-play MMO would be mentioned, and then subsequently forgotten as the larger, big-budget games continue to hog the attention. Yet Runes of Magic has an announcement that they're quite proud of: 100,000 characters created in the first 24 hours of the open beta.Not only that, but out of the total 220,000 registrations to date, 20,000 accounts were created on Monday alone with more than 2 million quests completed. Just to be clear, this is not 100k accounts created on the first day. It's 100k characters created by 20k accounts. Still, it's great news for Frogster Interactive and we expect those accounts to rise throughout beta and into launch, which is scheduled for release in Q1 of 2009. For the complete press release and more information on the game's features, continue reading after the cut below.
Runes of Magic enters open beta on December 15th
If you missed out on the closed beta for Frogster Interactive's Runes of Magic MMO, you may be pleased to hear that they've just announced their open beta to start on December 15th. In addition, Frogster aims to thank their current closed beta testers by holding an in-game event beginning December 7th and ending just before the open beta begins. Daniel Ullrich, Frogster's Director of Product Management stated in a recent press release that "more than 170,000 registrations from players worldwide shortly before the start of the open beta show us, that we are on the right track with Runes of Magic." The game is set to launch in the first quarter of 2009, and we will be sure to keep Massively readers informed on the game's progress.
Acclaim to publish The Chronicles of Spellborn in North America
Action-oriented MMORPG The Chronicles of Spellborn has found a publisher in Acclaim Games, the MMO-focused reincarnation of now-defunct Acclaim Entertainment. The company was founded by former Activision CEO Howard Marks, who bought the brand name from the original Acclaim after it crashed and burned in 2004.David Perry -- Chief Creative Officer of Acclaim Games -- published a letter to the Spellborn community announcing the deal. In it, he talks up the game and the dev team behind it, saying that they immediately stood out to him and the other folks at Acclaim. We'll assume that Acclaim was the company that wrote the letter of intent way back in April, but who can say for sure?Spellborn had already landed a publishing deal for Europe and Asia with Frogster Interactive. Last we heard the game was due out by the end of 2008, but we're not super-confident about it. Spellborn is still in its closed beta testing phase at the moment.
Runes of Magic reveals walking trees and Aslan Valley
The third region in the free-to-play, beta-ready Runes of Magic has been revealed by Frogster Interactive. The new region is called Aslan Valley and carries a very strong magical forest vibe. You'll see walking trees, undead guys and what we're pretty sure is trolls of some variety. If the screen pictured above reminds you of World of Warcraft, we wouldn't blame you. In fact, it seems as though Frogster is going for that look with their game. We honestly don't know why, because there's a really popular game that's already got that look: World of Warcraft.Unfortunately the press release about Aslan Valley didn't really discuss gameplay features for the new region. So we can't tell you how awesome battles between you and the undead thingies will look, because we honestly have no idea. We could make something up, like: Fight gloriously against the fallen foes of the light in a high-fantasy setting that will blow-your-mind! Or, you could just check out the screens in our gallery for yourself, too.%Gallery-24476%
Closed beta registration for German version of Stone Age 2 begins
Joining the English Stone Age 2 closed beta that we saw earlier in the month, a German version of the prehistoric free-to-play MMOG now also has a registration page for a closed beta. The registration can be completed at a newly launched German website for the game -- which is being handled by company Frogster Interactive in this territory, as opposed to Aeria Games -- where you can also find a community forum and a desktop wallpaper. At this stage it doesn't look as though there will be any significant differences between the German and English versions of SA2 -- well, apart from that really obvious one (duh) and the fact that they seem to prefer to leave out the spaces in the German title, making it StoneAge2.
Genero-fantasy to reign with new, free Runes of Magic
Have you ever dreamed about being a medieval knight or magic-wielder? Does the thought of castles or chivalry fill you with feelings of excitement? Have you been living under a rock for the last fifteen years and totally missed all the excellent games that meet and exceed these criteria? Then boy do we have the game for you! All snark aside, Frogster Interactive sent us a line this morning informing us that they've put out a trailer for their upcoming free-to-play fantasy game Runes of Magic. While neither the trailer nor the accompanying press release give us the greatest insight into what sets their world of Taborea apart from every other generic fantasy game on the market right now, and truthfully the trailer is less than exciting, we always try to reserve judgment until we've seen more concrete materials, especially for a free title. For those more in touch with the Asian MMO market, this Taiwan-developed MMO is known over there as Radiant Arcana. It should release in all English-speaking territories by the end of the year. Click on through below the cut to check out the trailer.
