lineage-2 posts

NCsoft's open letter to the Aion community targets all players of NCsoft games

by Colin Brennan Jun 27th 2009 at 10:00AM

Filed under: Fantasy, Aion, Culture, MMO industry

It's not everyday that we find a letter addressed to an entire company's audience when it's posted on a specific game site, but that's what NCsoft West's executive producer, Lance Stites has done with his recent letter to the Aion community.

To sum up his letter, it's been a busy series of restructuring the company and preparing for their next big release: Aion. While much of the focusing has been on Aion, the company isn't looking away from Lineage, Lineage II or Exteel. Those are still high on the company's priority list, according to Stites.

But things are going along smoothly for Aion, as more voice overs are currently being recorded, the localization is continuing smoothly, and tutorial videos are in production. It sounds like Aion really is the golden game of the studio, but it's also nice to hear about all of the staffing changes going on with the other games.

For the full letter and all of the nitty gritty of what's going on with the studio, head on over to Aion's website and check out Stites's report.

Source

Tags: aion, executive-producer, exteel, lance-stites, letter, lineage, lineage-2, ncsoft, ncsoft-west, open-letter

Buy some MMO games, save some cash on Steam this weekend

by Colin Brennan Jun 12th 2009 at 7:10PM

Filed under: At a glance, Business models, Culture, Events, real-world, News items

We're not usually ones who talk about sales or point out discounts, but this is one of those offers that we just couldn't refuse. It's the weekend, so Steam has to put some of their games on sale, as per the usual. This weekend however, it's most of their massively multiplayer collection.

This isn't just a select few games. No sir. We're talking about EverQuest, Everquest II, Pirates of the Burning Sea, Lineage, Lineage II, City of Heroes, the Guild Wars trilogy pack, Age of Conan, EVE Online, and Vanguard have all been discounted. Most of the games have been marked down by 20%, but EVE Online has been cut down by 50% while EverQuest II: The Shadow Odyssey has been slashed by a 75% hit, bringing it down to the wonderful price of 10 bucks! That's all of EverQuest II for 10 bucks!

So why are you still here, reading this post? Get over to Steam!

Source

Tags: age-of-conan, breaking, cheap, city-of-heroes, coh, discount, eq, eq2, eve, eve-online, everquest, everquest-2, guild-wars, guild-wars-trilogy, gw, l2, lineage, lineage-2, mmo, ncsoft, pirates-of-the-burning-sea, potbs, sale, soe, sony-online-entertainment, steam, store, vanguard

Should MMOs have sequels?

by Brendan Drain Jun 11th 2009 at 1:00PM

Filed under: World of Warcraft, Fantasy, Sci-fi, EVE Online, EverQuest, EverQuest II, Lineage, Lineage 2, Business models, Culture, Expansions, MMO industry, Opinion, Runescape, Academic, Education, Virtual worlds

From movies and books to computer games, the concept of the sequel is firmly embedded in the entertainment industry. It's usually a much safer bet to make a new part to an existing successful intellectual property than it is to back an untested product. In the games industry, sequels are a great way to make more money from the same game concept but as usual MMOs have proven to be something of a different animal. Subscription MMOs don't conform to the same rules as non-subscription games, favouring recurring orders and longer-term customer commitment over single purchases. While development studios often take sequels for granted, I'm forced to ask whether MMOs should have sequels at all or if a different paradigm is more appropriate.

In this article, I explore the games industry's obsession with repetition as I ask the question "Should MMOs have sequels?"

Tags: business, eve, eve-online, everquest, everquest-2, everquest-ii, featured, industry, joystiqfeatures, lineage, lineage-2, lineage-ii, opinion, runescape

Cloaks finally come to Lineage II in Gracia Final

by Colin Brennan May 27th 2009 at 5:00PM

Filed under: At a glance, Fantasy, Lineage 2, Expansions, Patches, Endgame

Lineage II never had cloaks. It's funny that we never really realized this before, but those characters just never wore cloaks. Luckily, the developers have realized their oversight and have finally fixed it -- cloaks will now be available to characters in the Gracia Final expansion. However, don't expect that you'll get a cloak just for logging in.

Cloaks are reserved for players who fight in Territory War, have high ranks in their clan, and those who fight against some of the major raid bosses of the game. The cloak rewards for these accomplishments are the Ancient Cloak, Knight's Cloak, and Holy Spirit cloak respectively.

Gallery: Gracia Final Cloaks and Items

Source

Tags: ancient-cloak, cloaks, expansion, gracia-final, holy-spirit-cloak, knights-cloak, l2, lineage-2, lineage-ii, ncsoft, seed-of-destruction, seed-of-infinity, vesper, vesper-armor, vesper-weapons

Lineage II anniversary event runs into snag, now extended to May 12

by James Egan May 9th 2009 at 4:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Lineage 2, Events, in-game, News items

5 years of operation for a massively multiplayer online game is cause for celebration. The sad fact is that many games never live that long, and not all titles that run for 5 years have a lot of steam left by that point. This doesn't seem to be the case with Lineage II which still appears to be going strong in both Korea and in the West. Massively recently interviewed the Lineage II developers about the 5-year milestone they've just hit with the game, and we also mentioned the anniversary celebration was about to get underway.

Unfortunately, there were some technical issues that affected the commencement of the event. NCsoft has decided to make it up to the players. Originally slated to end on May 5, the 5th anniversary event has now been extended to May 12. The Lineage II team clarified: "The letters that dropped from monsters in Aden and Gracia will begin dropping again by 2:00 PM Central Time Friday, May 8th and will continue until maintenance begins on Tuesday, May 12th. The Event NPC's will still be removed from the game during maintenance on Tuesday, May 12th, so be sure you exchange all of the words you've collected before the servers are brought down."

Source

Tags: anniversary, fantasy, lineage-2, lineage-ii, ncsoft

Massively's anniversary interview with Lineage II

by Shawn Schuster May 1st 2009 at 10:00AM

Filed under: Fantasy, Lineage 2, Events, real-world, Events, in-game, Expansions, Interviews, MMO industry, Massively meta, Massively Interviews

NCsoft's Lineage II has just celebrated its fifth anniversary earlier this week, and as we've previously reported, they've marked this occasion with a brand new expansion entitled Gracia Final. Plus, there have been in-game events, special contests and free reactivation for lapsed accounts! What else could you ever want?

How about an anniversary interview? We had the chance to sit down with the Lineage II team and ask some questions about the last five years with the game. What were their biggest challenges? Will there be a Lineage III? Follow along after the cut below to find out more!

Tags: anniversary, featured, gracia-final, interview, lineage-2, lineage-ii, ncsoft

Lineage II reactivating lapsed accounts for free in 5th anniversary celebration

by James Egan Apr 29th 2009 at 9:30AM

Filed under: Fantasy, Lineage 2, Events, in-game, MMO industry, News items

We've got good news for any former Lineage II players out there who may have been toying with the idea of heading back in to see how the game's changed since they last subscribed. Lineage II is letting former subscribers return to the game for free, for a limited time, in celebration of the title's 5th anniversary.

The NCsoft announcement states: "To help Lineage II celebrate its 5th anniversary we've reactivated all former players' accounts that are in good standing. This reactivation begins today [April 28th] and will end on May 11, 2009 at 11:59PM Pacific Time." It's a no-frills announcement really, but you can check out the details on the official Lineage II site for more info about how to get your free play time until May 11th.

Source

Tags: account-reactivation, anniversary, free, lineage-2, lineage-ii, ncsoft

The Daily Grind: MMO Anniversary Extravaganza!

by Shawn Schuster Apr 24th 2009 at 8:00AM

Filed under: Events, real-world, Events, in-game, The Daily Grind

This next week is quite a big week for anniversaries, birthdays and celebrations in our favorite MMOs. We kick off the festivities today with Lord of the Rings Online's 2-year anniversary, and finish off next Tuesday with a 5-year for City of Heroes, a 5-year for Lineage II and a 4-year for Guild Wars. Each of these games promises to have their own unique anniversary celebration in-game and out.

So the question is, which of these games have you stuck with since day one? As traditional MMOs are entering their golden years, yelling at those younger F2P games to get off their lawn, it's becoming increasingly more difficult to stick with one game. Even if it's not one of these games celebrating a milestone this week, which games have you stuck with for years and years?

Tags: anniversaries, birthdays, city-of-heroes, guild-wars, lineage-2, lotro, milestones, the-daily-grind

Lineage 2 talks aerial combat arena and changes to the olympiad coming with Gracia Final

by Colin Brennan Apr 22nd 2009 at 7:00PM

Filed under: At a glance, Fantasy, Lineage 2, Expansions, Game mechanics, PvP, News items

Aerial combat is cool and all, but wouldn't you like a PvP gametype to go with it? Of course you would, and now you don't have to wait too long!

Lineage 2's last expansion on the Gracia continent, Gracia Final, will be adding a brand new aerial combat PvP arena to the world, as well as making some changes to the olympiad event. The Aerial Cleft, the new PvP arena, will pit players against one another as they race to shatter crystal cores and score points for their side. To the victors go special Emery shards that can be combined with Star Stone pieces to create attribute cores to change your class up.

As for the olympiad, now you can participate in teams of three instead of one on one! Also, the olympiad event will now reward olympiad tokens upon winning, so victors can spend their tokens for the equipment of their choice at the olympiad vendor.

The full developer log is included after the break, so continue reading for the full explanation of the events from the words of the developers themselves! Also, check out our screenshots of the expansion in the gallery below.

Gallery: Gracia Final -- Aerial PvP & Olympiad Shots

Source

Tags: aerial-combat, developer-log, devlog, gracia, gracia-final, l2, lineage-2, ncsoft, pvp

Lineage II expansion Gracia Final gets preview site

by James Egan Apr 15th 2009 at 7:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Lineage 2, Expansions, PvP, News items

The next free expansion for Lineage II is Gracia Final which is expected to bring a number of new features to the long-running fantasy MMO title. NCSoft announced this week that Gracia Final will expand gameplay to a new continent which offers aerial hunting grounds. The Gracia Final expansion will give players new ways to get in on PvP action, including three-vs.-three, or heading into the Aerial Cleft PvP arena solo for random match-ups.

Gracia Final will bring expanded clan benefits that come with the ability to level up your clan to 11. Another change for Lineage II is the Territory Battles feature, a capture-the-flag form of PvP that differs from the territorial control systems already present in the game. NCSoft states, "Unlike castle sieges, where battles are fought between clans, territory battles allow individual players and groups unassociated with clans to participate as anonymous mercenaries in these epic wars over the lands of Lineage II . All territory war participants can receive Territory which can be traded for new items through the Territory Manager."

The Lineage II Gracia Final preview site is now up and gives a basic overview of the upcoming expansion.

Source

Tags: aerial-combat, expansions, fantasy, gracia, gracia-final, l2, lineage-2, lineage-ii, pvp, territorial-control, territory-battles

Anti-Aliased: You don't need PvP to be successful, honest

by Colin Brennan Apr 15th 2009 at 4:30PM

Filed under: Culture, Economy, Game mechanics, PvP, Opinion, Anti-Aliased

Player vs. player combat has always been a double-edged sword, in my opinion. While it has the ability to be an amazing part of a game, I find that it usually falls flat thanks to a few loudmouthed jerks and people who exploit their way to "fame." Please note the use of fame in quotation marks, as fame through PvP isn't exactly fame as we understand it by dictionary definition. It is something far less desirable.

So, I knew my stance on the issue. I like well executed PvP, but I don't like PvP in general. But I wanted your opinion, readers of Massively, and I got it thanks to a spot on The Daily Grind this week. What resulted from that story was a very interesting discussion on the place of PvP in MMOs, and if PvP is really the staple we think it is as a community.

Tags: all-points-bulletin, anti-aliased, ccp, conflict, darkfall, darkfall-online, eve, eve-online, featured, ffxi, final-fantasy-xi, game-design, joystiqfeatures, l2, lineage-2, mythic, mythic-entertainment, ncsoft, opinion, player-conflict, player-vs-player, player-vs-player-combat, pve, pvp, social-conflict, square-enix, war, warhammer-online

Putting MMOG research under the ethical microscope

by Brooke Pilley Mar 5th 2009 at 5:00PM

Filed under: Culture, MMO industry, News items, Academic, Virtual worlds

As MMOGs creep into mainstream culture they are becoming a valuable place to conduct scientific research on social systems and behaviors. Are certain MMOGs as addictive as cocaine? Do certain MMOG players use these games to escape from real life or stay more connected? Do certain MMOG players make better citizens? These are just some of the recent questions being asked by academics around the world.

An interesting and informative paper titled Playing a Good Game: Ethical Issues in Researching MMOGs and Virtual Worlds has just been published in the International Journal of Internet Research Ethics. The paper examines a number of ethical issues encountered when researching MMOGs and virtual worlds. What should be considered public or private in these spaces? What can researchers study, record, and reproduce without informed consent or permission? Should researchers simply observe or actively participate in the online community/ies they are studying? Part one of this paper develops a theoretical framework for researching MMOGs and part two presents qualitative data from interviews with five MMOG researchers (City of Heroes, City of Villains, Lineage I, Lineage II, and Second Life). The resulting data can be used to guide future research ethics in the MMOG space.

[Via Terra Nova]

Source

Tags: city-of-heroes, city-of-villains, ethics, lineage, lineage-2, research, second-life, social

Top 10 money-making MMOs of 2008

by Shawn Schuster Feb 2nd 2009 at 1:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Business models, Economy, MMO industry, Free-to-play, Browser, Casual, Academic

In an upcoming "comprehensive study" by DFC Intelligence, they take a look at the top money-makers in the MMO space worldwide. To no one's surprise, World of Warcaft has topped the list, followed by several Asian MMOs like MapleStory, Lineage I and II, Shanda and Fantasy Westward Journey. As for the most users, this study doesn't touch on that. With such a wide discrepancy between active subscribers and prepaid game card users, it's a difficult number to tack down.

What makes this list frustrating is the complete lack of details involved. While WoW is reported to have earned $500 million+ in 2008, the next four on the list are reporting $150-$500 million, and the final five are reporting anything in the $50-$150 million range. To the company's credit, this isn't the final analysis. Their detailed February 16th report promises to give more information on each of the top 10 games. We certainly look forward to that.

Source

Tags: dfc-intelligence, fantasy-westward-journey, lineage, lineage-2, maplestory, money-making, revenue, shanda, world-of-warcraft, wow

The Digital Continuum: City of Heroes 2

by Kyle Horner Jan 10th 2009 at 9:00AM

Filed under: Opinion, The Digital Continuum, Rumors

A surprisingly large amount of people didn't believe me at all when I said something to watch out for in 2009 was an announcement for City of Heroes 2. In fact, pretty much everyone has disagreed with me here. That's fine, but they're all wrong, and in this week's Digital Continuum I'll explain why I think as much.

Tags: arenanet, city-of-heroes, city-of-heroes-2, coh, coh-2, dc-universe-online, featured, guild-wars-2, joystiqfeatures, lineage, lineage-2, lineage-3, nc-norcal, ncsoft, soe, the-digital-continuum

Celebrating the holidays with Lineage II's Saving Santa event

by James Egan Dec 15th 2008 at 3:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Lineage 2, Events, in-game, Quests, News items, PvE, Humor

The holidays are in full swing across several of the games we've been covering at Massively. In fact, a number of massively multiplayer online games now have holiday-themed quests, items, and unique winter settings, and NCsoft is getting in on the action as well. The latest holiday event announcement we've gotten word of is happening in Lineage II with its Saving Santa Event, which will run from December 16th through December 30th.

The holiday event pits you against one "Thomas D. Turkey" who holds Santa Claus captive. If Santa is freed, he will visit random players throughout the world, placing presents into their inventories. Some of the rewards include specialized buff scrolls for your occupation, weapon exchange tickets, a year-round Christmas tree, and for a rare few -- a Rudolph Agathion (pet).

If celebrating the holidays in Lineage II sounds like your thing, you'll want to check out the full announcement for the Saving Santa Event.

Tags: agathion, christmas, fantasy, holiday, holiday-event, holiday-events, holiday-quest, holiday-quests, holidays, lineage-2, ncsoft, pets, quests, rudolph, santa, saving-santa, winter, winter-event

Massively Features

Featured Games

Events Calendar

Name	Date
Fallen Earth Launch	Q2 2009
Global Agenda Closed Beta	July 2009
CrimeCraft Launch	Aug 25 2009
Champions Online Launch	Sep 1 2009
Cities XL EU Launch	Sep 3 2009
Aion Launch	Sep 22 2009
Earth Eternal Open Beta	Q3 2009