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Turbine Expansions And Turnovers
According to Gamespot Asheron's Call 2 players don't have long to wait before the "Legions" expansion will find its way to store shelves. The content expansion for the graphics intensive game went gold this week. Players of the original Asheron's Call will have to wait until this summer to enjoy their new content, as the expansion has been pushed back for further testing and refinement. Additionally, MMOG industry veteran Jessica Mulligan used the expansion announcements as an opportunity to mention her departure from Turbine. She hasn't publicly stated a reason for her departure, saying only that the decision is unrelated to the expansion titles. Gamasutra has an interview with Ms. Mulligan about the state of the industry up from last week. From the Gamespot article: "Legions will include a new continent, called Knorr, which will increase the size of the Asheron's Call 2 world by 30 percent. Also included in this expansion pack are new playable races (one of which is the much maligned Drudge), three new prestige classes, more than 100 new quests, and 10 new monster types."
Ah yes, the great continent of Knorr, where players can find a variety of high quality canned foods. Watch out for the fearsome Beef Broth swamps(TM) and search for the Frying Pan of the Gods(TM).
Far exceeding Sony's pizza endeavors, players will be able to order canned pasta sauce, gravy, broth, and other delicious sauces in-game and delivered to the door in 30 minutes.
More information about the mighty continent of Knorr is at www.Knorr.com
(Note that this is one of those alternate-reality game sites, like www.ourcolony.net).
That'll bring the number all the way up to 150!
pooptruck
The thing has almost no players depending on the time of day - it has never surpassed AC in it's subscription numbers. It brought nothing new to MMORPGs except fancy graphics that most people's PCs at the time could not handle.
There might be a small spark of life when the expansions releases, but it's delaying the inevitable. AC2 will not last the year.
First comment on the game -- I think AC was a great game and when the expansion comes out, me and several ex-players plan on returning to it. If you've never played it, you don't understand the depth of the game -- it's truly incredible. Now, is anyone theorizing yet on where Jessica Mulligan is going next? I have a couple theories -- either Horizons or Ryzom, given her track record with poorly launched games.
Killer Betties - www.killerbetties.com
Did it go gold, or did it get pushed back?
I want a new world. I think this one is broken.
I seriously thought it had died already I havent heard a freakin peep about the game forever. I hear more about Shadowbane than I do about AC2 .
So, does it still suck?
"I am a kernel in the linux army"
I have to wonder. Both AC and AC2 saw real drops in their playerbases since she came along. Yes I know Jessica isn't totally to blame but she was tasked with running the show.
Before Turbine and even before Themis she used to write a column called "Biting the Hand". From here she pointed out the issues in the computer gaming industry. She showed what went wrong, sometimes offered insight as to why, and also showed how most failures were simply repeats of another companies failure.
Yet her stint at Turbine seemed to be oriented towards doing everything she told others they were wrong for doing. Even after Turbine took control of both of franchises they didn't change their tune. They continued the shoddy patches, the leaving of bad exploits in game for long times, and worse actively condoned macroing in their first game AC. They even retreated to the safety of message boards they manage.
It is suspicious she left at the same time the AC1 expansion was pushed back (just 14 business days from its announced release). This all smacks of upper management removing someone (or asking ever so politely) for project mismanagement. It also may be related to a previous article she released which basically attacked a few notable people.
AC2 is effectively dead. Less than 400 people at one time play it at primetime across two servers. Stupid bugs persist from launch still that should have been quietly fixed a long time ago. Its not much fun for a new player as most new areas are simply devoid of players.
AC1 is in slightly better shape. However most of its servers barely crest 500 each. With the latest announcement that number will probably fall further. Worse the Turbine published pictures of the improved textures, no poly changes, were horrid. It was fan pictures from beta that made it look good. The whole expansion left a bad taste in many long time AC players mouths as it smacks of being a reward to those using combat macros (permitted by Turbine). The prime example are "augmentation gems" which are purchasable using experience points. For a macro character that makes them free for all intents. How are real players ever expected to compete?
AC died when Turbine favored experience gaining over the experience of playing. AC had a depth of lore not seen in a MMORPG unti WOW. Yet they sold out to the exploiters and cheaters, also know as macorers. When a game company abandons their integrity the players are not bound to respect them either, let alone pay for the game.
Good riddance Jessica. Hopefully you will take your lack of job at Turbine to get back to writing Biting the Hand and actively identifying what is wrong in the industry - including the problems you caused at Turbine. It would be best if you went back to what you were good at - analyzing from the sidelines instead of being someone in need of analysis yourself.
C.
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
Can you post a link to the article where she attacked folks? I don't recall anything like that, but I may have missed it.
You're not allowed to leave Turbine!
I can be a drudge?!? Cool! Oh wait I let my AC1 account lapse and see no reason to let another MMORPG steal more of my real life. AC2? No thanks.
It's the ultimate in shallow games and this "expansion" pack doesn't change squat. It's just several months of delayed monthly content wrapped in a new box. /yawn
YOU LOOK LIKE A MAN
The thing is, Turbine's future is not tied into Asheron's Call. Turbine is developing Dungeons and Dragons Online, and the D&D brand name has the potential to catapult them to the top of the heap if they can make a good game. By no means is the brand a guarantee of success - but it is a guarantee of attention. If the game's beta picks up good buzz, I wouldn't at all be surprised to see DDO enter the market with 250k subscribers.
This has no bearing on your criticism of AC at all, but as far as Turbine, DDO is their future, not AC.
it just is dated.
The ability to DODGE a spell or arrow is one thing I miss in EVERY OTHER game I have played. That made for enjoyable PvE and made PvP truly exceptional. Another great aspect was that damage types actually mattered as did your armor as each type of armor had resistances to each element. People would kill for armors with all above average ratings because IT MEANT something in non-magic combat. You also were not limited in character by non-sensical limitations (like no armor for mages etc)
The part of AC that failed design wise was that they did not cap experience with level. This gave macros a reason to exist and made the game impossible to balance. You cannot balance a game when characters do not stop progressing.
Another issue is that the magic system and combat system were developed separately and then grafted together.
An incredible game whose magic was lost when the developer failed to keep control of the game in their hands and let the exploiters run a way with it.
I would love to play in a 2005 Graphics capable version of the engine with a few of its issues fixed. AC is one game that definitely would benefit greatly from a full blow graphics enhancement. It has all the lore and background already - just toss in industry leading graphics, cap character progression to a reasonable level, fix a few of the balance issues, and finally do not tolerate macros/cheaters/etc and Turbine would have a world class game again.
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
I gotta agree with you on this. The augmentation gems evidently will take huge amounts of xp to get which definitely awards the combat macros. Of the people that I know that still play AC1 only one of them actually physically plays. AC2 they should just let die peacefully. Nothing they can do will save that game. I will say I don't think Turbine is neccessarily going under. They still have LOTR MMORPG and DNDOnline of which either could be a blockbuster. I like DNDOnline because it looks like it will make it easy for me and my far flung friends to have set times each week to meet together and play like we used to when we lived in the same town.
This is the second time I have seen her characterize the 52 montly updates equated to 8 or 9 expansion packs delivered free of charge. I would like to set the recored striaght by noting that the montly updates are an advertised feature and not a free addition so generously bestowed upon us by Turbine.
Jessica can brag about delivering what was promised (sometimes a rarer thing than giving free stuff), But she shouldn't characterize AC players as being spoiled by receiving free expansion packs.
BTW, the advertised montly updates have been suspened until after the release of the expansion pack. Last one was in February, next one has been pushed back until August.
dead serious.
All your base are belong to Google.
Not that I disagree much with this assessment, I do feel the need to point out that the poster, Shiv, is a notorious AC troll. Back in the glory days of AC, 1999-2001, cod.xrgaming.net was the place to be for AC fans. Shiv was constantly being banned because he couldn't play nice with others. He was sometimes spot on, but mostly not. He holds a serious grudge against Turbine.
You see, Shiv was stalked in game. There was a guy who had Shiv on his friends list in game and would spam him with anti-semetic trash the whole time he was in game. AC, at that time, lacked the ability for a player to ignore another player. AC has had @squelch for a long time, but it didn't exist at the time. Also, the player couldn't be banned, because believe it or not, at the time, the Turbine admins had no ability to monitor direct player to player messages(@tell in AC), they could only monitor open chat. That has also been changed for years.
At a technical level, AC is the greatest MMORPG yet.
At a visionar level, AC is the greatest MMORPG yet.
As the level that counts, implementation, AC has been run into the ground by first Microsoft and more recently under the cross-dressed leadership of Jessica Mulligan.*
Shiv was a very angry man on the COD boards, he was always banned. He was one of those guys who spent months pissing and moaning before he quit. He was always way to hard on Turbine and AC. Warts and all, AC is still the best MMORPG on the market.
*for those who don't know, Jessica has a penis, not that it matters much
Turbine in Cambridge MA is having a job fair on April 30 (3 days from now). Heavy MMORPG players who would like to game-master are encouraged.
It takes too much for anyone to kill anyone else now. The xpack has so far promised extra health for all who pre-order.
AC has the best PK I can imagine but it keeps getting worse and worse with turbines changes.
[20:36] wwwdot/.dotorg
Well a 30 percent increase in the size of the game but only 10 new monster types. Sounds like a lot of things are going to be looking similar. Yeah i know that a monster's appearance isn't all that important to gameplay but still.
So if it doesn't matter, do you just like bringing up the topic of penises? Who has them and who doesn't?
As a criticism of a "troll" you lost a lot of credibility with that rather bizarre nonsequitir.
don't most new gen games like this (WoW, EQ2 Etc) have more than 100 quests in their noob zones?
:D
getting excited by 100 new quests seems to be as silly as getting excited by 10 new mob types... oh wait