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ArcheAge brings two new head start servers online
ArcheAge responded to "burgeoning" player populations during the head start period by releasing a pair of new servers today. North America gets the Inoch server while Europe is graced with Aier. Since everyone is in a mad scramble to secure housing plots right now, a fresh server might be your ticket to a primo location. [Thanks to Stephen for the tip!]
ArcheAge Russia struggles with overloaded queues
ArcheAge's recent launch in Russia has not gone completely smoothly, as overloaded and somewhat unstable servers have struggled to accommodate those interested in trying out the fantasy sandbox. A post on the official Russian website says that XLGAMES is working hard to bring new servers online in order to reduce the queue. The team is also looking at ways for players to transfer characters from full servers to the new ones, but this may take time and further testing. "Developers continue to work to improve the function of the client and working on priority entrance to the server for premium account holders," the team posted. It informed players that those trying to stay logged in while AFK will be "forcibly disconnected" going forward. The free-to-play game is rumored to have brought in $10 million so far from its Russian launch.
Final Fantasy XIV combats server congestion
Square Enix Producer Naoki Yoshida wants to assure players suffering from the heartbreak of server congestion that sunny days are indeed ahead for Final Fantasy XIV. To lessen the crush that players have put upon the game, the studio has added new worlds, instance servers, and a third duty finder group. "Even with the previously discussed measures in place," he wrote, "there remain several overpopulated worlds that may still be subject to peak-time login and character creation restrictions." Yoshida said that if all goes well through the weekend, Final Fantasy XIV's digital sales will resume. Future plans include relaxing restrictions on simultaneous logins and going forward with world transfers.
RuneScape is bringing old-school back
There ain't no school like the old school. RuneScape players have spoken, and Jagex has listened: It's time to bring back a touch of nostalgia to the game in the form of pure old school servers, with the exact mix still to be determined. A recent announcement confirms that the servers will be coming back and reminds players to keep voting to determine the makeup of these servers. All voters will receive the first month on the throwback server for free. For those who want more hard information from the development team, a special live forum chat will be held on Wednesday at 3 p.m. EST. Players can also begin posting to a forum thread tomorrow to help give the developers some advance idea of what to expect. If you're one of the 160,000 players who wanted to party like it's 2007, it looks as if your wish is coming true.
Star Wars: The Old Republic goes dark in preparation for launch
It's as if a million gamers cried out in... you know what? We've done that joke too many times, as has everyone else. We're officially declaring it off-limits for the remainder of this game's history. It's a trap, trust us. And you thought that intro smelled bad... on the outside! OK, it's all out of our system -- as is Star Wars: The Old Republic. As the game nears its official December 20th launch date, BioWare is bringing down both the servers and the website in preparation for the momentous event. From 7:00 p.m. until 12:01 a.m. EST, SWTOR will be inaccessible. BioWare says that as the game comes back online at midnight, the studio will be adding "a large number of new servers" to facilitate the influx of launch players. Even so, the studio predicts that queues on popular servers will be present and urges players to consider rolling characters on lesser-populated realms. Because of the recently instituted grace period, early access players have until 3:00 a.m. EST on December 22nd to register their product codes or be cut off from gameplay.
SWTOR brings up six new servers to match demand
As more players flood through the gates of Star Wars: The Old Republic, the team is keeping busy behind the scenes. On the game's Facebook page, BioWare has announced that it has brought up another six servers to accommodate the new players. The new servers are all PvE, and three cater to the East coast, while the other three cover the West coast. For those interested in rolling on a new server, the servers are Kathol Rift, The Constant, and Krayiss Obelisk on the East coast and Wall of Light, Darth Sion, and Kaiburr Crystal for the West coast. Good luck, and may the Force be with you.
RIFT adds 31 additional servers for launch
If you thought Trion Worlds was running out of hardware for RIFT after the previous week's onslaught of new realms brought online, think again. In anticipation for tomorrow's official launch, the studio is bringing a whopping 31 additional servers to bear between the North American and European markets. RIFT's US side is getting 11 new PvE and eight PvP servers, while EU is due for six of each. This brings the grand total to 58 North American and 41 European servers. While the role-playing realms have repeatedly boasted high queue times since the head start, it's interesting to note that none of these 31 new servers are the RP or PvP-RP ruleset. You can follow the status of the servers -- including if they're up, how full they are and how many players (if any) are in the queue -- by using Trion's shard status page (also available in German and French varieties).
The Anvil of Crom: Blood and Glory reactions and concerns
So the interesting news that Craig Morrison was hinting at via Twitter earlier this week wasn't free-to-play. It was, in fact, something altogether more surprising. For those of you hiding under a Bori rock and who managed to miss the announcement: Age of Conan is adding a couple of servers, one each to the U.S. and EU game regions. These aren't just any servers, either, but rather hardcore FFA PvP-enabled servers with custom rulesets (tentatively titled Blood and Glory) that make the pre-1.04 bloodletting on Tyranny look like a walk in the proverbial park. Player looting. Single character. No guards. These are just a few of the choice morsels Funcom has dangled in front of the snapping jaws of its ravenous PvP crowd. Join me after the cut for a bit of discussion on the potential impact of these new shards.
RIFT's head-start is standing room only
To almost no one's surprise, Trion's RIFT head-start was an exercise in multitasking for many would-be players. MMO launch-day veterans are probably familiar with the one-eye-on-the-queue and one-eye-on-something-more-productive routine by now, but for everyone else, the fact that a good portion of the day was spent not playing RIFT was a bit frustrating. In some cases, estimated wait times approached 15 hours (though in fairness to the folks at Trion, the counters did fluctuate quite a bit). Demand was so great that a whopping 13 additional servers were added around noon, with 10 more going up as the day wore on. Tell us about your head-start horror stories in the comments (if you're not too busy playing, that is).
Age of Conan readying new hardcore PvP servers with corpse looting
Hardcore killas rejoice! Funcom has heard your cries of injustice and is in the process of putting together a new server ruleset for the old-school PKers in the audience. Age of Conan game director Craig "Silirrion" Morrison unveiled the news in his most recent monthly dev update, and while a few things remain up in the air (chiefly a release date and official server names), it looks like most everything else has been hammered out. In a nutshell, Funcom will be adding one new server to both the US and EU versions of AoC, each featuring the new PvP ruleset (tentatively titled Blood and Glory). The new realms will require players to start fresh -- i.e., there are no character transfers. The hardcore shards will also restrict players to one character and will lack NPC guards. PvP will be re-enabled in the Underhalls and White Sands portions of Tortage, and a player looting system will take effect (though details on this are scarce at the moment). Funcom hopes to have the new shards deployed in early May, with some version of the ruleset making an appearance on the test servers prior to that date.
DC Universe Online adds even more servers
Things are seriously taking off for Sony Online Entertainment's newest MMO, DC Universe Online. Just a couple of days after launch, the company needed to open up two new PvP servers (one each on PC and PS3), as the extant PvP servers were slammed full of people, and more were picking up the game daily. Now, due to demand, SOE has decided to open up even more servers, and this time it's not just for PvP -- or North America! The newest servers -- four in all -- include two new PvE servers for North America: "Last Laugh" and "Relentless" on PC and PS3. Meanwhile, our friends in Europe are getting two new PS3 servers to enjoy: the "Justice for All" PvE server, and "Absolute Power" as a new PvP server. With six new servers online since launching a week ago, it's a great sign that DC Universe Online is attracting a lot of players with it's interesting mix of action-packed game play and story. [Edited to correct new server name]
Bring it on: DCUO launches new PvP servers
We can only assume it's a good day for Sony Online Entertainment when demand for its new superhero MMO, DC Universe Online, creates a need for more servers. Starting tomorrow afternoon at approximately 6:30 p.m. EST, two new PvP servers -- appropriately titled "Cry for Blood" (PC) and "Blood Will Run" (PS3) -- will be available for bloodthirsty superpeople everywhere, bringing the total number of North American servers up to 16. That's not a shabby number for a new release or for SOE in particular, which has in recent years seen a slew of server merges and closings across some of its older games. On PvP servers, villains and heroes are able to duke it out via open-world factional combat while blasting through storyline content as well as in special PvP arenas. Word to the wise: Red means dead! Massively is interviewing DCUO's Game Director Chris Cao this very evening, so expect an exclusive interview on this and other new content goodies en route for DCUO players tomorrow!
GodsWar gets graphical love, new mounts, and more
It seems like things are going great for the team working on Godswar Online. With update 2.0 now live on the servers, players are getting a chance to check out all the changes the team at IGG have been hard at work polishing up. This new update offers a nice graphical upgrade to armors, pets, and more offering even more kawaii than before. The level has been raised to 130, with the possibility of even more adventuring than before, as well as the addition of new class suits of armor and even mythical gear! There are even new mounts for Level 40 and higher players, to give your tired feet a rest. IGG has also opened up two new Godswar Online servers to help balance out populations: Heracles in the US, and Pisces in the EU. These new servers also carry with them some nice rewards for new players looking to check out the game in the form of super experience potions, some fireworks, and other goodies you'll need down the road -- although the special goodie bags are only available until March 18th. Be sure to head on over there and sign up before the goodies run out, if you're curious.
Age of Conan launches 9 new servers to meet growing demand
A surprising 700,000 Age of Conan boxes were shipped in time for launch. Even with the collector's edition sold out at many stores across the country various skeptics including some here at Massively weren't assured that AoC was going to be a breakout hit unless new servers opened to prove the playerbase was growing and now they have! Funcom is accommodating the growing demand by launching the following servers: PvE: Mannanan, Ajuju, Badisattva, Damballah, HanumanPvP-RP: HyperboreaPvP: Bluesteel, Shadowblade, ScourgeThis is fantastic news and offers clear-cut proof that AoC is selling like hotcakes and players are eating it up. It will be very interesting to watch whether or not AoC takes a big number of players away from World of Warcraft or if the growth tapers off after the first few months. Staunch WoW players can find a few compelling reasons to give Age of Conan a chance before WotlK is released, and why you might end up liking it.[via, Kill Ten Rats]
Ever-enlarging WoW realms spell continued success
In a forum post about the ultimate downfall of WoW, Drysc pops in to explain that WoW still has a long lifespan ahead of it. People who say that the lack of new servers proves there are fewer and fewer new players in the game are missing the big picture. Back before The Burning Crusade was launched, Blizzard did a series of server upgrades that left each realm down for a few days. At the time, they said this was to make things ready for the expansion, but little did we know it would be to such an extent. Apparently these upgrades allowed Blizzard to keep pushing the maximum realm population up all this time, as more and more players joined the game. There are some relatively "low" population realms, of course, but only in comparison to the new much-increased maximum limit. As Drysc says, "aside from literally a handful of realms (I could count them on one hand), every other realm has a population that would have been considered high to overpopulated before the launch of Burning Crusade." Only recently have certain realms become truly crowded enough to merit free transfers to other realms.People always like to talk about the eventual downfall of the strongest player in any arena, but the steady growth Drysc is talking about continues, it looks like WoW will be the biggest 800-pound gorilla in the MMO jungle for a good long time to come.
New servers spotted on Realm Status? Think again!
After receiving reports of new US realms, we feel it is our civic duty to inform you of the truth behind these mystery realms. Fairly regularly people see new servers on a realm status report. A name they have not heard, a realm they have not seen. And they announce, breathlessly, that there is a new server. The fact that no one can create a character on the "new server" does not appear relevant. The urge to see a new server is far too great to overcome a simple fact: Blizzard announces new servers. Forum posters do not. And these new servers, for the past year, have never actually become live servers on which we can play. They're testing, configuring, event servers, who knows? Blizzard won't say, that I've seen. But they're not Live and not intended for Live, and in a year they've never gone Live.There's no sense in getting our hopes up for something like that. Blizzard has said there will be no new servers until further notice. A friend on the forum who posts a link to Realm Status showing a previously unseen server is not a Blizzard announcement. This concludes our public service announcement for the day.
AQ gates opened for players on transfer servers
Blizzard has just recently opened a new server over in the EU realms called Molten Core, and not only are they already seeing queues on there (due to all the migration), but Blizzard is thinking about opening the gates of AQ for them.Which strikes us as a little sad. Admittedly, the Gates of Ahn'Qiraj is a huge undertaking, and it would likely take a long time for the players on the new realm to get the War Effort over and done with (and surely Blizzard wouldn't want that competing for attention with any World Events planned for the next expansion). And even after the gates open, players can still complete that giant quest to get the Scepter anyway (just as they can right now on any other live realm). And as Blizzard says, most of these incoming players are coming from realms where the gates are open already anyway.But it's still a little sad that Blizzard is stepping in to open the gates automatically rather than leaving the task up to the players. Just like all of the old world instances, Blizzard seems more than happy to leave all their old content and hard work behind, and instead focus players on what's coming out in the future.
The plague of the reroll locusts
If you ever visit the WoW forums on a daily basis, you'll notice that a large portion of the posts are people asking, begging, wheedling and whining about their wish for new servers. These posts have gotten so bad that Blizzard has now classified "new server plz" posts as spam and threatened to ban posters from the forums. But even so, you can see "Are there new servers today?!?!?!?!", "New realms: Why they are needed" and "Perfect time to release new realms!" Blizzard has said that they don't plan to release any new realms until the current servers are overpopulated -- and with the large number of "dying" low-pop realms, this doesn't seem to be on the agenda anytime soon. But many of the rerollers say they don't care that newly released realms will become low-population -- they just want a "fresh start" so they can get server firsts. Devonw, who starts a number of the threads, has rerolled seven times on new servers, oddly enough with mostly night elf females. This has led to the popularization of the term "reroll locusts." The locusts demand a new server to start anew on, roll a character there, and in a few months when it becomes a low-population server, desert en masse to call for yet another new server, leaving the old server a barren wasteland. I've got to say that the attitude of many of the reroll locusts has turned me off from supporting their cause. They don't seem to care about any of the low-population realms desperately in need of players, but only about their own need for a new playing field. I do understand the fun of starting out on a brand-new realm, having tried it once myself in the past, but I think Blizzard really has to balance that against concern for the low-population realms, and they've decided in favor of the latter. What do you think should be done about new realms and low population realms? Do you support new servers, or do you wish the threads would just go away?
New servers (must be Thursday!)
From the continuing-battles-against-queues department, I bring you the following tidbit. Six new realms are now open, forming their own new battlegroup, Emberstorm. The realms are closed to transfers for six months and the gates of AQ are starting out closed. Ordinn says that a few more realms are planned to be opened next week, in addition to an unspecified number when the Burning Crusade hits the streets, though he says "the exact timing will depend on the amount of those new and return players."The new realms open now are as follows:
New realms for US and EU players
Yep, you heard me right. Today has brought news of four new US realms and one new English-language EU realm. US players have their pick of Misha (PvE, PST, Whirlwind), Ravenholdt (RP-PvP, ET, Whirlwind), Bladefist (PvE, PST, Whirlwind), and Maiv (PvP, PST, Whirlwind). European players hoping for a fresh start can look towards the new Burning Steppes realm (PvP, Nightfall). While there's no further details on the US front, CM Thundgot tells EU players that they should expect several new realms opening up when the expansion launches -- and thus they shouldn't hope for more new realms before then.
