Before Aion, before Guild Wars, before anything else for NCsoft, there was Lineage. Not the sequel (which actually takes place significantly before the first title) but the original game, released not too long after Ultima Online came on to the scene. While the game is old, it's long maintained a viable community within North America... but apparently not quite viable enough. Today, NCsoft announced that as of June 29th, the game's servers will be shutting down for good in North America.
Players who had registered previously have had their accounts reactivated in good standing, and all recurring billing has been cancelled from this date onward. The community team for the game is also promising some live events to help memorialize the game and let it go out with a bang rather than a whimper. We can also expect to see a few new live server rule pushes. Still, it's a sad day for Lineage fans, who are well advised to look at the official announcement and the refund policy to see how the plans for the remaining time will affect them.
Reader Comments (31)
Posted: May 11th 2011 6:04PM Deadalon said
Fantastic game in its time. I was more for games like Legends of Mir tho - simulare artstyle - great fun to play.
Posted: May 11th 2011 6:05PM Vagrant Zero said
Always sad to see people thrown out of their homes, even if said homes were cardboard boxes in chainmail bikinis.
Posted: May 12th 2011 11:37AM Icemasta said
@Vagrant Zero
Well, not all hope is lost. I am strongly against private servers except for when a game has been shutdown. Certain private servers have already opened their doors and are willing to "restore" characters (Recreating a character with the same exp/stat/items, provided that you send time-stamped pictures).
Same thing happened when the original Space Cowboy online(now ace online) servers went down and same thing for when the original RF online servers went down.
Reply
Well, not all hope is lost. I am strongly against private servers except for when a game has been shutdown. Certain private servers have already opened their doors and are willing to "restore" characters (Recreating a character with the same exp/stat/items, provided that you send time-stamped pictures).
Same thing happened when the original Space Cowboy online(now ace online) servers went down and same thing for when the original RF online servers went down.
Posted: May 11th 2011 6:12PM Germaximus said
lol@Zero
I never played it but wow thats interesting news. Sad, but understandable. Maybe they should give a free month of play for Lineage 2 to those currently playing 1?
I never played it but wow thats interesting news. Sad, but understandable. Maybe they should give a free month of play for Lineage 2 to those currently playing 1?
Posted: May 11th 2011 7:54PM tmarg said
@Germaximus
If you read the announcement, they are apparently giving current players access to every other NCSoft game, plus two months free game time for each.
I never played it, but if people enjoyed it, it's sad to see it go. Eventually this will happen with every mmo, it's just part of the business.
Reply
If you read the announcement, they are apparently giving current players access to every other NCSoft game, plus two months free game time for each.
I never played it, but if people enjoyed it, it's sad to see it go. Eventually this will happen with every mmo, it's just part of the business.
Posted: May 11th 2011 6:18PM Dukeun said
I have always wanted to play this game, but didn't want to buy a cd key or sub.
Posted: May 11th 2011 6:45PM dudes said
Bye bye.
Posted: May 12th 2011 1:06PM kasapina said
UO doesn't have a sequel. EQ's sequel has gone f2p. Plus, NCSoft have always been the fastest company to cut games that they don't consider profitable. I also wouldn't say that UO and EQ are 'going strong', both of those games hardly have any new players.
Not that I can agree with the '13 year old p2p game is closed, meaning p2p sucks', but the UO and EQ argument is also bad.
Reply
Not that I can agree with the '13 year old p2p game is closed, meaning p2p sucks', but the UO and EQ argument is also bad.
Posted: May 11th 2011 7:03PM Fakeassname said
So much for how viable p2p games are.
*shrug*
oh well, it's not like there isn't a half million Linage 1 private servers out there for these players to migrate to. heh, most of them are run by 3 Russian hackers and a Soccer mom from Ohio yet they still manage to provide better support than NCsoft.
*shrug*
oh well, it's not like there isn't a half million Linage 1 private servers out there for these players to migrate to. heh, most of them are run by 3 Russian hackers and a Soccer mom from Ohio yet they still manage to provide better support than NCsoft.
Posted: May 11th 2011 7:58PM tmarg said
@Fakeassname
Really? Over 10 profitable years isn't good enough for you? Keeping in mind that there is already a sequel out, which is still profitable.
And as much as everyone (frequently including myself) loves to hate on NCSoft, they have at least done an admirable job at not screwing up GW.
Reply
Really? Over 10 profitable years isn't good enough for you? Keeping in mind that there is already a sequel out, which is still profitable.
And as much as everyone (frequently including myself) loves to hate on NCSoft, they have at least done an admirable job at not screwing up GW.
Posted: May 11th 2011 9:33PM Fakeassname said
@tmarg
10 years down the drain for some poor bastards that still play it ... for them it doesn't really matter how long the game has been up because now they have only got about a month left with their characters.
is NC soft going to furnish them with 10 years of memories, friends, and (most importantly) character development in Lineage 2?
Insult to injury is that the Korean version is still active.
Reply
10 years down the drain for some poor bastards that still play it ... for them it doesn't really matter how long the game has been up because now they have only got about a month left with their characters.
is NC soft going to furnish them with 10 years of memories, friends, and (most importantly) character development in Lineage 2?
Insult to injury is that the Korean version is still active.
Posted: May 12th 2011 1:42AM Suplyndmnd said
@Fakeassname
All MMO's are going to shut down. Do you not play MMO's? Your characters too will be gone one day. It's a fact of life. It's not 10 years wasted if you had fun.
Reply
All MMO's are going to shut down. Do you not play MMO's? Your characters too will be gone one day. It's a fact of life. It's not 10 years wasted if you had fun.
Posted: May 12th 2011 10:27AM (Unverified) said
@Fakeassname
And UO and EQ have been around longer and still going strong. Sorry, F2P fanboi, sub games are still where it's at.
Reply
And UO and EQ have been around longer and still going strong. Sorry, F2P fanboi, sub games are still where it's at.
Posted: May 11th 2011 7:32PM Saker said
Tried it a million years ago and frankly hated it deeply.
Posted: May 11th 2011 7:57PM (Unverified) said
muuuwhahahhaha the days of mmorpg's, in their stale current form, is OVER.
Posted: May 11th 2011 8:43PM hami83 said
I miss Tabula Rasa. :(










