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Runes of Magic celebrates Chapter II release
The Runes of Magic community has been waiting a long time, and now, Chapter II: The Elven Prophecy has arrived! With new raids for the community to enjoy; new elven characters; new Druid and Warden classes; and a few different contests to participate in, you'd think that Frogster Interactive and Runewaker Entertainment would have more than enough to celebrate! Well, it turns out that not only have they managed to release a huge new chunk of content extremely smoothly, they've also managed to attract 1.9 million players to their game since the initial launch a scant six months ago. With the continual focus on improvements, the gifts to the player-base in the form of the occasional diamonds, armor sets, and the like, we're not too surprised. Runes of Magic is a F2P that seems determined to make their mark. With an expansion, almost 2 million players, and a bunch of free fun for their player-base, we're curious to see how the next 6 months go for them. In the meantime, we'll be in Taborea, leveling our Druids and Wardens. Gallery: Runes of Magic: The Elven Prophecy Gallery: Runes of Magic: The Weeping Coast
Exclusive: New Runes of Magic screens for patch day pondering
The teams over at Runewaker Entertainment and Frogster Interactive have been hard at work polishing up all the new content coming in the next big Runes of Magic update - Chapter II: The Elven Prophecy. Along with adding elves as a playable race, players will be treated to sweeping new lands, and even new group raid content like the above-pictured Hall of Survivors. Considering there's going to be at least 24 hours of downtime starting at 3 AM PST tomorrow and going until 3 AM PST on Tuesday while they release Chapter II, this handful of shiny new exclusive Runes of Magic screenshots will help kill some time! We've added them to our overall Elven Prophecy gallery just in case you never checked out the other images - and to give you more to check out during the lull. Just don't forget to start your patcher up: Chapter II looks like it's going to be a big one. %Gallery-65922%
Runes of Magic to add new raid instance
With the advent of The Elven Prophecy expansion, Runes of Magic will be embracing a brand new 12 player dungeon. The new "Hall of Survivors" will pit the players against ancient evil, including huge golem protectors of the cavernous halls.The raid will include 8 new bosses to face off against and it will be targeting only the highest of the current endgame players. If you're looking forward to tackling this brand new encounter, then you're going to have to wait just a few more days until September 15th rolls around. That's when The Elven Prophecy will be hitting servers, and also when you'll be getting this brand new raid dungeon as well as all of the other features accompanying the expansion.But, if you're still bouncing off of the walls for a look at this new raid, then look no further than the new teaser video on the Runes of Magic website.
GamesCom 09: Frogster and Runewaker are up to something
Along with all the news coming out of GamesCom this last week is one interesting tidbit that may have been overlooked in some circles. It would appear that the partnership behind Runes of Magic - Runewaker Entertainment and Frogster Interactive - have decided that they're going to take another leap of faith together and develop an all new "next generation" MMO. According to the release this new title is "aimed to set new standards in design, technology, features and sheer dimension." What's it about? Where is it set? Will it be Free-to-Play like Runes of Magic is? Honestly, we haven't the vaguest idea, and they're not falling for our usual intelligence-gathering tricks either. All they've announced at this point is the partnership granting full worldwide publishing rights (except Taiwan) to Frogster Interactive, and that whatever this shiny new IP is will release in 2013. Let the speculation begin in 3, 2, 1...
One Shots: Shoop of magic
While you can't help but turn around and hit a fantasy MMO these days, we do have to admit, we're fond of Runes of Magic when it comes to great free-to-play fantasy games. Today's glowy screenshot was sent to us by William B. who retouched it a bit before we got it. Even so, it's a nice view of the outside of Varanas. Here's what William had to say: I just re-downloaded Runes of Magic again to give it another shot. Upon heading to Varanas for the first time on my new toon I ended up looking towards the town at this spot. It looked and framed so nice that I had to take a screenshot. The image is slightly altered to remove certain aliased areas (as there is no anti-aliasing in the game) [which gives] the town a very bright, fantasy look.If you're out wandering in an MMO this weekend, we want to see screenshots of your travels! Feel free to add yourself in the action, or grab a lovely landscape. All are welcome! Just email that image along with your name, the name of the game, and a quick description to us at oneshots AT massively DOT com. We'll post it here for everyone to enjoy and give you the credit! %Gallery-9798%
One Shots: Frozen dwarven canyon
From hot summer lakes at night, to snowed-on ridges, the beauty of MMOs is that they offer just about any type of landscape you can imagine. Today's chilly lake scene is from Runes of Magic, a free-to-play favorite among some of the Massively staff. This interesting view comes to us from Mobly, a Knight/Priest who plays Runes of Magic on the Smacht international PvP server. Mobly writes in: My favorite zone is Dragonfang Ridge, and I took this with graphics settings on high. I think it really came out good. This is a picture of "Ice Dwarf Valley" within the area known as "Mulgrum Canyon."Do you have screenshots from a game we haven't seen often - or at all? If so, we'd love to see them. Just send them to us at oneshots AT massively.com along with a quick blurb on what we're seeing in the screenshot. Yours could be next!%Gallery-9798%
One Shots: Outside Varanas
We here at Massively dig Runes of Magic, and are part of a group of selected blogs giving out some pretty cool armor to readers, courtesy of our friends at Runewaker Entertainment and Frogster Interactive. However, if you've never wandered in this very cool F2P game, today's Runes of Magic One Shots gives you a look at the first major city you run across on your travels, and was sent in to us by Nicholas H. He writes in: This is my level 15 Mage in-front of the major city Varanas. The shot really shows off the beauty of Runes of Magic when you have a graphics card that can handle it. Having recently left World of Warcraft, Runes of Magic is a breath of fresh air. The game is truly great! If you've found something interesting, cool, or strange, grab a screenshot and send it to us here! We're always on the hunt for more One Shots. Just send it to oneshots AT massively DOT com along with your character name/server/guild and a quick description of what we're seeing. We'll post your screens and give you full credit for it.%Gallery-9798%
E3 2009: A taste of what's to come in Runes of Magic
We had the chance to sit down and catch up with the guys from Frogster Interactive as well as a few of the Runewaker Entertainment developers at E3. While we knew Elves were coming to Runes of Magic, we didn't have too many details of just precisely how they'd be implemented into the game. As part of our talk, they let me check out the never-before-seen area that the elves will be a part of, as well as showing off some of the new instance content and guild buildings that they're adding to the game. This next chapter - The Elven Prophecy - will give players the option of playing the elven race (surprise) which starts out in a strange and wonderous new area. Beyond that, they're also working on PvP arenas, destructible guild buildings, and some new epic powers. Along with this sweeping update, the game is being updated with several graphic improvements including updates to things like water, and adding in some incidental sounds and music to start to help close the gap in regards to the dearth of sound issue many have decried Runes of Magic for. If you'd like a preview into some of these areas, be sure to check the gallery below, as well as the newly-released trailer showing off the Elven Prophecy, coming to Runes of Magic this September!%Gallery-65389% Massively was on the ground in Los Angeles last week and covering all the latest E3 MMO news coming from the convention. Check out our breaking coverage (or all the Joystiq network E3 reporting) and keep your eye on Massively's front page for the latest developments.
Runes of Magic reaches 1 million registered users
Here we are, not even two full months after the release of Frogster's Runes of Magic, and they're already announcing that they've hit the one million registered user milestone. Not only has this announcement come so soon after launch, but the EU and NA public hasn't even known about the game for a year yet, according to the Berlin-based publisher.Frogster plans to release the free-to-play MMO in at least four further localized versions later this year, including a Russian version in a cooperative partnership with Game Factory Interactive. "We are convinced that with the up-coming offering of additional language versions we will achieve further strong growth in Europe," stated Andreas Weidenhaupt, Chief Licensing Officer of Frogster Interactive Pictures AG and CEO of Frogster Online Gaming GmbH. We wish Frogster, Runewaker and the entire Runes of Magic team continued success with their game.
Runes of Magic new dungeon is a Treasure Trove of pirate fun
Since the official launch of Runes of Magic in March, the team at Frogster Interactve and Runewaker Entertainment have been incredibly busy developing more and more tasty content for players to enjoy - for free! With more than 1,600 quests in the world so far and counting, Runes of Magic is proving to be a really solid, feature-rich free-to-play title. Now we've received word that the RoM team is at it again, this time including more piratey content based on the recently introduced Black Sail Pirates. This new dungeon for players to explore is called the Secret of the Treasure Trove, and it will offer lots of swashbucklin' adventure for those scurvy dogs brave enough to step foot in there. This new area, a cave located off the new area Ravenfell, will be home to a bevy of new monsters - from undead pirates and skeletal warriors, to weird mutated part-squid monsters. Players will also have the chance to test their skills against a variety of named mobs from a giant octopus named 'Will's Curse' to the missing pirate leader, 'Snow Blake', and her fearsome phantasmagorical crew. So if ye be lookin' for a Treasure Trove of adventure, this sounds like it may just be your Runes of Magic ticket, mateys. %Gallery-24476%
Plants mean power in Runes of Magic
Free-to-play MMO Runes of Magic is prompting players to get green-fingered with their brand new plant system. While currently being tested, it is due to be implemented in an upcoming patch. Basically, players will be able to plant seeds in colourful pots (no boring visit to the garden centre required). Seeds can be purchased from the Item Shop or found left behind after slaughtering your foes, we assume some enemies must be stashing seeds in their pockets which fall out when they expire.The plants must be watered regularly -- they will shrivel up and die if you forget -- and can take up to a week to grow. You can fertilise them with magical runes which will help determine what the plant will yield. This can be anything from more seeds and runes to the rarest of crafting items.It's certainly an interesting mechanic and the range of plants and pots seems quite impressive, as does the detail involved. We're sure Runes of Magic fans will be pleased with this new system. Plus, we think the plants work really well as their secondary purpose: ornamental objects.
Anti-Aliased: Five free to play MMOs that are ahead of the class pt. 2
#3 -- MabinogiYes, Mabinogi is one of our all time favorite free to play MMOs. This is probably obvious by now, but we're fans of the game. The design of Mabinogi really stands out when compared to all of the other free to play MMOs because it's so open. You can take up day jobs, gossip with townsfolk, make NPC friends, engage in a wide variety of crafting, go exploring for monuments, and even terraform the land to find buried treasures. And I haven't even mentioned combat once!It's this wealth of options that makes Mabinogi a gem for the free to play market. Certainly there is an amount of grind to the game, but the grind is not focused in just one area. This is a game where you will find yourself doing a wide variety of activities if you should choose. It's not all about going out and beating on the nearest snow wolf so you can gain access to the next dungeon (though you can if you want to.) If you don't want to do it, Mabinogi doesn't force you to do it. That's the beauty of it.Our downside to Mabinogi? The spam. Gold farmers like to infest this game for some reason, and it just gets to the point over overwhelming your chat box at times. We love the game, we're just not that keen about the farmers.#2 - Runes of MagicIt's a game that steals all the best aspects of every other game! And if you think I'm kidding, I'm totally not!No, really, Runes of Magic has gone around and pulled the best of the best and smashed it into a form of their original game. While this sounds kind of offensive at first, it actually comes out pretty nicely, especially as the game is free to play. RoM features very polished features similar to World of Warcraft. The game plays through completing questlines and killing monsters as you level up from 1 to 50. But, the game also features player housing, a dual-class system so you can have two classes instead of one, some awesome choices for character and weapon customization, and Warhammer-esque public quests. If you're looking for something to take the edge off of your WoW addiction for cheap, then you certainly want to check out Runes of Magic.#1 -- Free Realms If you didn't see this coming, then you need to drive your browser to the Free Realms site right now. Yeah, sure, it's targeted at kids. Yeah, sure, it's a little overly cartoony. But if you want a game that's going to hold your attention and provide more than an endless grind all for the low price of free, then this is the one. It has kart racing, mini-games, silly quests, and an enjoyable atmosphere. You can grab a variety of professions from brawler to cook and find quests for all of them. Yet, most of all, it's an enjoyable game. You don't have to worry about racing to endgame or drilling for the best items or trying to find someplace to have some fun. In Free Realms, you literally trip over fun at every corner. Inventive gameplay, a wide variety of fun activities, great graphics that run well on most machines, and it's free. You just can't argue with that. Colin Brennan is the weekly writer of Anti-Aliased who doesn't want money to get in the way of good games. When he's not writing here for Massively, he's rambling on his personal blog, The Experience Curve. If you want to message him, send him an e-mail at colin.brennan AT weblogsinc DOT com. You can also follow him on Twitter through Massively, or through his personal feed.
GDC09: Runes of Magic has lots more in store
We had the opportunity to sit down with the Runes of Magic team at GDC last week. As one of the strongest free-to-play entrants in the MMO genre in the last little while, we've been very curious as to some of the things they have in store for the future. Luckily the guys from Frogster didn't disappoint as they sat down and gave us some hints of the many things that players can look forward to in upcoming months. Unlike many MMO publishers, the Frogster team is actually maintaining a fairly large live team; 65 people are currently working on Runes of Magic. Normally when an MMO launches, you'll see the teams cut down to about 20 or 30 people. That said they have a fairly ambitious schedule of things they want to release, so maintaining a full live team was something they said they felt was important to do. The Runes of Magic live team are looking to publish new content approximately every four months.%Gallery-24476%
The Ice Dwarf King comes to Runes of Magic
The teams at Frogster Interactive and Runewaker Entertainment are hard at work, continuing to develop more content for Runes of Magic, not content to rest after the hard work that went in up to the recent launch. Players wandering into Taborea for the first time are greeted by a world that will remind them of many of their favorite MMOs. By the mid-teens, Runes of Magic will begin to break away and stand on its own feet as an interesting free-to-play title with its own culture. For those of you who have been playing for a while (or just play a lot) you may well be up into the 30's or 40's, looking for new challenges to overcome. Luckily, there's some good news coming for you.Today, there was an announcement of a new instance being added to Runes of Magic. Called the "Ruins of the Ice Dwarf Kingdom", the new area will offer adventurers all new quest arcs needed to unlock access to explore the ruins atop the Dragonfang Ridge. Meant for players around level 35 to 40, this new dungeon boasts several 'middle-bosses' that you'll have to defeat in order to get to the central part of the labyrinthine complex. Of course, once you've made it there, the fire giant Thynos will be waiting to greet you, set to guard the Font of Power with his life. %Gallery-26824%
Runes of Magic nabs 700,000 players at launch
In the free-to-play market, the competition is fierce. It seems like we hear about a new game being ported and launching just about every week, and have for the last while. That said, Runes of Magic, the recent entry into the market by Runewaker Entertainment in partnership with Frogster Interactive has definitely caught our attention in playing through the game recently. That's why we were glad to hear that they've announced 700,000 players are checking out this interesting new world. According to their press release, response has been so good that they've been required to add another European server to their line-up for a total of nine launch servers altogether. They've also had to lock down character creation on the Laoch and Aotacht servers due to population, and state that if any other servers reach max, they've got the infrastructure in place to open more servers should the demand become greater. With mechanics cribbed from everything from World of Warcraft to EverQuest II and even a bit of Warhammer Online and Final Fantasy XI for good measure, this is definitely one of the strongest new titles to hit the F2P market in the last while. Just how large the game will continue to grow, considering it reintroduces some less popular mechanics like death penalties and a fairly involved tradeskill system remains to be seen. Still, it's a good sign for Runes of Magic, and we wish them all the best luck on the future of their game! Gallery: First Impressions: Runes of Magic
The Daily Grind: Single or dual classes?
As more and more of the Massively staff jump in and check out Runes of Magic, we're having a ball playing around with different dual class combinations. Shawn Schuster, our Managing Editor, is running a Warrior/Mage combination he says is a lot of fun. Kyle Horner has a shiny new Mage he's thinking about what he wants to add to the mix. I've opted for a Rogue/Priest combination since I'll run the Rogue solo, and will be keeping the Priest to run with friends who are several levels lower. That way, I figure so long as I keep the Rogue's level well above the Priest, I can level the second class along with my friends who don't play as often. Of course, this system really isn't anything new - it falls in line with Final Fantasy XI's job system, offering players the chance to combine a couple of different things on the same character without requiring you to keep an alt to see a second class. This morning, though, we thought we'd ask what you thought. Do you think that more games should introduce a dual class system, allowing you to play two completely different classes (or a hybrid of them) at the same time? Or do you prefer to focus on one class at a time so you're not split in terms of trying to gear it up, or having to spend too much time to level two classes at the same time?
One Shots: There's a naked person in my house
I admit, I couldn't resist holding on to this One Shots for posting with today's launch of Runes of Magic. That said, this is undoubtedly one of the funnier stories we've heard from a player to date, and this time we're even kind of involved in it. Curious? Here's the story to go with today's One Shots, courtesy of Saylah, who runs the Mystic Worlds blog. She writes: This is a shot from Runes of Magic. I'd shared my house number on my blog and in game chat for people to visit my crafting workshop which you also featured on Massively. A couple of days later I went inside to put away some items and found a player naked and chillin' in the living room. We had a good laugh about it and he hung around for a while to chat. I left while he decided to say and "house-sit". Several other players visited while I was out and he acted as the naked host. The experience was very funny.If you're playing Runes of Magic and would like to show off your own personal space or adventures, we'd love to see some screens! Just email them to us here at oneshots AT massively DOT com along with your name, the name of the game, and your story. We'll post it here and give you the credit for sending it in.%Gallery-9798%
First Impressions: Runes of Magic
Welcome to First Impressions, where I play through the first few hours of an MMO, report back to you on some of the things you can expect as a new player - and whether or not I enjoyed the experience of the game. This week, we have Runes of Magic, a game currently launching early tomorrow morning (or late tonight, if you prefer) at 2:00 AM Pacific. Developed by Runewaker Entertainment and distributed by Frogster, this free-to-play MMO may well be the one that gets even the most staunchly anti-f2p player interested enough to give it a whirl. Also, keep in mind these impressions are on the open beta of the game, so some things may change slightly at launch.I'll start off by saying that I've heard some truly positive things about this game from several MMO fiends I know. That said, a few of them bagged on it for being a World of Warcraft clone - but I'd have to argue that point now that I've played it. There's definitely enough in Runes of Magic to feel eerily familiar to anyone who has played World of Warcraft for any length of time. However, I feel that there's enough different in the two games - aside from the obvious free-to-play versus subscription - to say that each game will ultimately stand (or fall) on it's own merits. I'd also be remiss in noting that as a First Impressions posting, there was no possible way to reach everything there is to get to in this game - PvP arenas, player-killing, pissing off NPC factions, guild castles, high-end crafting, raids and a bunch more - there's a depth and complexity that I am glad to find in a free title. That said, today's overview should give you enough of a taste of the various parts of this easy to pick up but hard to master MMO for you to decide for yourself if it's worth trying.Now, on with the gallery, and my First Impressions of Runes of Magic!%Gallery-48065%
Runes of Magic: Not just another pretty game
There's been more and more buzz about Runes of Magic as their release date of March 19th draws ever closer. From what we've seen, it looks like a pretty rich world, featuring lots of different things that MMO players love: PvP, lots of quests, player housing, cool-looking mounts, a dual-class system - and let's be blunt, it seems to remind everyone who touches it of Blizzard's 800 pound gorilla, World of Warcraft. Considering there are half a million people who have registered for the open beta of the game, it would seem that players are definitely curious about all that Runes of Magic has to offer. To those who (like us) are curious about how this game is progressing, there's a great interview with Joerg Koonen of Frogster over on IGN. Among the juicy bits served up, we are treated to some interesting insights into how closely Frogster is working with the development company, Runewaker Entertainment, and just what kind of a role the community has been taking throughout the process. Also in the mix, we noted how the items in their cash shop are the same ones available in game for those who don't want to spend money - and how they feel this is the way it should be to keep the playing field level for all players. Also, be sure to check out our recent interview with Daniel Ullrich if you're hungry for more Runes of Magic information!
Runes of Magic unveils the starting area of Taborea
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and in Runes of Magic (AKA Radiant Arcana), Runewaker Entertainment has taken all they loved about Ultima Online and World of Warcraft, combined that with elements from EverQuest, EverQuest II and Final Fantasy XI Online to make a free-to-play MMORPG combining all the elements of both Western and Eastern games. It's like a highly-concentrated booster shot of high fantasy goodness -- and it's free!Runes of Magic will include a dual class system, where you will choose a primary and a secondary class, armor dying, player housing, crafting, an auction house, unique mounts, a fully customizable user interface and either click-to-move or WASD controls. The starter zone of Taborea has a deep and rich lore, a colony struggling to stave off the darkness, with your help. You'll need a PDF reader to read that, but we have some of the highlights in our gallery. Can a free-to-play homage to some of the Western world's greatest MMOs succeed on in North America? Distributor Frogster is looking for a US publisher to take that chance.The game play video from the Chinese open beta (you can find that after the break) shows clearly the developers at Runewaker loved World of Warcraft perhaps more than is really healthy. Still, a free-to-play WoW clone may be exactly what players want, and Runes of Magic may just be different enough to make it interesting.%Gallery-26824%
