lineage-ii posts

NCsoft responds to City of Heroes speculation

by Eliot Lefebvre Nov 5th 2009 at 4:00PM

Filed under: Super-hero, City of Heroes, Business models, Interviews, MMO industry, Opinion, Rumors

A couple days ago, we had a post detailing some speculation on what City of Heroes: Going Rogue meant for NCsoft West, City of Heroes, and the future of the entire branch of the company. Ryan James, director of corporate communications for NCsoft, took the time to issue a direct response to us regarding that post. We also got an opportunity to ask him a few questions regarding NCsoft's current and future direction, which helps provide some context and some behind-the-scenes information to offset the speculative nature of the aforementioned post.

The official response is as follows:

"We wanted to respond to your post from November 2 on City of Heroes and clarify a few points for you and your readers. In short, the piece offers a rather sensationalist view of NCsoft West and our success thus far.

We're very proud of what we've accomplished here in the West – we have several major MMO franchises, including City of Heroes, Lineage and Guild Wars. And our newest addition to the NCsoft portfolio, Aion, has just seen a very successful launch here in the West. As you point out, we have had to make some tough portfolio decisions, but this is very much par for the course for any major game publisher today. That being said, we remain extremely proud of the Paragon team's accomplishments with the City of Heroes franchise. City of Heroes is still the world's most popular super-powered hero MMO. Even with an increasingly crowded landscape, City of Heroes remains the gold standard for comic book-inspired MMOs – it has stood the test of time and we're excited to be bringing Going Rogue to players next year.

As you note, the author of Vicarious Existence is indeed 'alarmist' in his assessment of NCsoft West and our future. We couldn't agree more. On the contrary, we're optimistic about our future."

Following the statement, Mr. James took the opportunity to answer a few questions about the company's game portfolio and future plans. Take a look at the questions and responses after the break.

Tags: aion, aion-the-tower-of-eternity, business-models, city-of-heroes, city-of-heroes-going-rogue, city-of-villains, coh, cov, cox, dungeon-runners, going-rogue, guild-wars, gw, interviews, lineage-2, lineage-ii, ncsoft, ncsoft-west, opinion, rumors, ryan-james

Massively interview with Aion's new community manager part 2

by Kyle Horner Oct 28th 2009 at 11:30AM

Filed under: Fantasy, Aion, Massively Interviews

Tags: aion, blizzard, community, daoc, dark-age-of-camelot, everquest, lineage-2, lineage-ii, nc-west, ncsoft, ncwest, planetside, soe, sony-online-entertainment, tamat, world-of-warcraft, wow

"Eva's Inferno" event kicks off in Lineage II

by William Dobson Aug 26th 2009 at 4:00PM

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

While the latest event in Lineage II started off as a mystery, the players soon literally put the pieces of the puzzle together to reveal information about "Eva's Inferno". The event is now underway, and players might have noticed that things are a bit hotter than usual -- and it's not just because of skimpy elf clothing either. The god of destruction Gran Kain has sent Spirits of Fire to cause trouble in the world. The goddess Eva apparently doesn't like the warm weather and has asked her high priest to recruit adventurers to help sort things out.

Players must collect Fire Seeds by killing monsters, then use those seeds to summon the Spirits of Fire and defeat them without a weapon equipped. When enough spirits are killed, Eva will grant a server-wide experience blessing. As the event continues, more powerful blessings will be given. On top of this, visiting her priest Jack Sage on Days 6, 10 and 14 will provide opportunities for more tangible rewards. Visit the event's page at the official Lineage II site to check out the bonus items on offer, and while you're there, you can see all of the people responsible for finding the puzzle pieces that unveiled the mystery. The event will continue until the 8th of September.

Tags: eva, evas-inferno, event, jack-sage, lineage-2, lineage-ii, ncsoft, spirits-of-fire

NCsoft dev discusses the genesis of Aion at GDC Europe

by Lesley Smith Aug 21st 2009 at 12:00PM

Filed under: World of Warcraft, Fantasy, Aion, Lineage 2, Game mechanics, Lore, MMO industry

Aion dev Yongchan Jee spilled the beans on the game's origins as part of a GDC Europe Q and A session. Gamasutra were on hand to find out what exactly makes the game stand out in Korea. This included addressing a gap in the market for 'AAA' titles after the release of Lineage II and World of Warcraft, as well as focusing on a faction warfare angle which sees the two player-controlled races of the Elyos and the Asmodians fighting against each other and the terrifying Balaur. Jee also discussed how the game was rebooted in 2006 and while this did affect the moral of the developers, it ultimately allowed them to start from scratch and create a truly memorable game.

Lee also focused on the character customisation, discussing the concepts of beautiful and ugly characters in MMOs like World of Warcraft, where Korean players often favour the Alliance over the Horde. He also explained why the devs chose to create Aion as a zone-based MMO over a seamless world. Aion fans should definitely check out Gamasutra's write up for even more hints at Aion's gestation and conception.

Tags: aion, aion-beta, aion-the-tower-of-eternity, aion-tower-of-eternity, asmodians, balaur, elyos, gdc-europe, gdc-europe-2009, lineage-2, lineage-ii, world-of-warcraft, Yongchan-Jee

Lineage II mystery event has players hunting down puzzle pieces

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

Filed under: Fantasy, Lineage 2, Events, in-game, Forums

Lineage II has a mystery event on the way, but NCsoft is remaining silent about the details. Instead, they've turned the announcement itself into a game for the players. Lineage II Community Manager Lyzira has hidden clues in the form of puzzle pieces for players to find, presumably tucked away in the Lineage II website.

Once all of the pieces are found, the next in-game event will be revealed, literally spelled out with the completed jigsaw puzzle. A player named Ghast kicked this off earlier in the week by finding the first piece and since then five more players have found and added pieces to the puzzle. Plenty remain to be found however, and the event info is still fragmented at best. Have a look at the Lineage II mystery event site and see if you can make sense of the message.

Tags: community-manager, fantasy, forums, lineage-2, lineage-ii, lyzira, ncsoft, puzzle, puzzles

Score some cheap NCsoft game time

by Krystalle Voecks Jul 31st 2009 at 10:00AM

Filed under: Aion, City of Heroes, City of Villains, Lineage, Lineage 2, News items

If you, like us, are always looking for a way to save a few dollars in your monthly MMO budget, then you may be glad to hear this news. After all, replacing all those robot minions when they get trashed can be really expensive - or maybe that's just us. In either case, if you're an avid City of Heroes or City of Villains, Lineage, or Lineage II player, then you'll be glad to hear that our friends over at GoGamer have a great sale on NCsoft time cards going on now. (We'd assume they'll work on Aion as well, considering their site lists these cards as being valid for Auto Assault....)

Right now, you can score two months of prepaid game time for the seriously cheap price of $18.90. While there is a shipping cost, the charge becomes very minor compared to the overall savings when you stock up on multiple cards. Of course, if you don't really want several months of cheap game time, you could always go in on an order with friends - or just send them to us. We'd gladly take any spare pre-paid time off your hands. Expensive robot minion replacements and all that, you know.

Tags: aion, auto-assault, city-of-heroes, city-of-villains, gogamer.com, lineage, lineage-2, lineage-ii, ncsoft, robot-minions, saving-money, silly, time-cards

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 Seraphina 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

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."

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.

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

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.

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

How do MMOs make money?

by Brooke Pilley Mar 15th 2009 at 8:00PM

Filed under: MMO industry, Making money, News items, Academic

The Simple Lifeforms blog went through a recent DFC Intelligence report on the most commercially successful MMOs and pulled out some interesting points. World of Warcraft took home the most revenue for a single game in 2008 with an estimated $500M+ and all MMOs combined (worldwide) earned an estimated $1,875M.

The top 10 earners list for 2008 included only one game that launched in the 1990s and that MMO was Lineage I. The majority of the top 10 list also featured MMOs of the fantasy genre, which probably won't come as a surprise.

Simple Lifeforms classified four primary ways that make MMOs money: retail, subscription, virtual goods sales (aka RMT), and hybrid models. While the retail/subscription model is generally considered the tried and true way to run your MMO business by most of the big publishers, you might find it interesting that only half of the top 10 list is comprised of these types of MMOs.

An unfortunate drawback of the DFC Intelligence report is that the revenue figures for the nine titles other than WoW have very large spreads. We see they made more than $150M and less than $500M but aren't given anything more specific than that.

Tags: DFC-intelligence, lineage-ii, rmt, subscription-based, world-of-warcraft, wow

Lineage II's Kratei's Cube has ruthless PvP, extremely creepy mobs

by Samuel Axon Nov 24th 2008 at 12:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Lineage 2, Patches

Having looked at Pailaka and New Kamaloka, we're as pleased about Lineage II's Gracia Part 2 update as anyone, but we have to admit we're now a little... creeped out. NCsoft has described another adventure area appearing in the update -- Kratei's Cube -- and as awesome as it sounds, those demented killer anime doll monsters are just plain freaky. It's high fantasy, not Chucky, alright?

Kidding aside, we've got the scoop on what you can find in Kratei's Cube. Once you sign up through an NPC on Fantasy Isle, you'll be whisked away to a big maze that resets every 30 minutes. During each cycle, players kill monsters -- and each other -- in a competition to rack up the most points. Once things settle down, folks receive experience, SP, and Fantasy Isle coins based on their performance.

The cool thing is that if you die in the maze, you'll pop back in with full health and mana, so there should be very little downtime. If you're in a party, carrying a cursed weapon, or of chaotic orientation, don't bother signing up though -- you won't be allowed in. Poor you!

[Via MMORPG]

Tags: fantasy-isle, gracia, gracia-part-2, hunting-ground, krateis-cube, l2, lii, lineage-2, lineage-ii, maze, ncsoft, patch, pvp, update

The Daily Grind: Penny for your Tabula Rasa thoughts?

by Samuel Axon Nov 22nd 2008 at 8:00AM

Filed under: Sci-fi, MMO industry, Opinion, Tabula Rasa, The Daily Grind

The announcement that Tabula Rasa will close in February came suddenly, what with NCsoft employees saying there were "no current plans" to close the game only a couple of months ago. We're sad to see the game go, though we're not surprised in the wake of Richard Garriott's departure.

Are you a current or former Tabula Rasa player, and if so, what's your take on all this? Did you see it coming? Is it a tragic early death, or an appropriate end to an era? And where do you plan to go next? NCsoft is offering a fair deal to refugees -- months of free playtime in City of Heroes, Lineage II, or the forthcoming Aion. Does that tempt you, or are you going to take your business elsewhere -- to Turbine, Blizzard, SOE, CCP, or Funcom, perhaps?

Tags: aion, city-of-heroes, closing, coh, discussion, lineage-2, lineage-ii, ncsoft, opinion, rgtr, richard-garriott, tabula-rasa, tdg, the-daily-grind, tr