Asheron's Call

It's a little amazing, when you think about it, that all of these magic-users who prance around in extremely flammable robes don't suffer from third-degree burns more than we see. Or maybe the game is hiding the awful, scarred truth from us. In any case, our opening screenshot this week should have resulted in a quick trip to the ER for both parties.

"This is a simple yet fun battle in Vindictus' early levels," reader Carolina says. "I love the detail of the damaged shoe on my spellcaster character."

Forget the human element; now the shoes are the ones suffering for our casual disregard of fiery magic! If you can get past the misery of the moment, we've got plenty of other great one shots this week for you to admire.

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Sequels are both the bane of and a fact of life for movies and video games. Well, "bane" is a strong word, and you're probably thinking of Batman right now anyway, but personally, I'm always willing to give the benefit of doubt to any continuation of a favorite franchise. While we don't see sequels pop up as often in MMOs, they do exist and have significant effects upon the original title that bears the same name.

It's here that MMOs diverge from movies and other video games. With those, the original is not in any sort of danger, other than the perception of having its legacy dragged down into the muck (Caddyshack II, anyone?) and perhaps overstaying its welcome. An MMO sequel, on the other hand, can cause serious consequences to its ancestor.

Here at Game Archaeologist, we look at classic games that have often seen their time come and go. But what happens to one of these titles when a sequel attacks? Almost anything, it turns out.

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A period of global maintenance for Turbine's servers is now pushing well into its second day of downtime for all of the studio's games. Dungeons and Dragons Online, Lord of the Rings Online, and both Asheron's Call titles have been offline since 6:00 a.m. on February 14th. The servers were scheduled to be brought back online after 24 hours, but as of the time of this writing, they are still down as the studio works on issues that "cropped up during the night."

The downtime was to overhaul the billing system and other back-end projects.

LotRO CM Sapience posted this update at 4:20 p.m. EST:

"We are working to resolve ongoing issues with our system maintenance. At this time we do not have a specific estimate for when the game servers will be available. Our goal is to make the games available as soon as possible. However we would like to advise players that the service may continue to be unavailable this evening. We will continue to provide updates as we have them.

"As a thank you for your understanding and patience during this downtime, all Premium and VIP players who have logged into their account in the past 30 days (as of 6:00 a.m. EST on 2/14/2013) will receive 250 Turbine points. In addition, all VIP players who have logged in during the same period will have their accounts credited one day of VIP time for each day of downtime, plus one additional day. All points and additional time will be granted automatically as soon as our regular service is restored and stable."

It seems quite fitting to the season for Asheron's Call to name its newest event Darkest Night. The January event continues the game's story with an attempt to put down Hoshino Kei once and for all.

Several new quests are being added to the game for the event, and an interesting "tell the story from the villain's point of view" lore tidbit gives some insight into the challenges that lie ahead for adventurers. There is also a quartet of screenshots from the event that include a lock with no key, a treasure room, a deadly pit, and a key. Hm. Going to be hard to figure that one out, eh?

It's time once again for the Frindie Awards, my attempt to shine some light on the best indie, browser-based, free-to-play, and unusual MMOs that are all-too-often ignored by press -- and players. This one is for the little guys! Well, mostly. It's also for those games that seem to have passed under the collective radar of Massively readers or that seem to be very misunderstood.

Picking the winners this year is just as hard as it was last year, maybe even harder. 2012 was an incredible year for MMOs, so I would rather have just put together an article that highlights every single favorite. In the end, it's more helpful to make myself pick out a winner. It's a rare thing for some of these games to even receive a nod on a major website, something I still can't figure out. Either way, it's best to think of all of the MMOs on this list as my favorites from 2012.

Anyway, let's get to the awards!

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As another gaming year spins to a close, we here at the Institute for Digital Interactive Entertainment have been holding our archaeological department hostage with a trained buffy-tufted marmoset until it delivered a final report. After hours of begging and infected monkey bites, the head of that department, Prof. Justin Olivetti, Ph.D., handed us a scrap of urine-soaked paper with the following article inscribed.

While the Institute strongly suggests that you ignore this report and instead work on your button-mashing exercises, the board of directors stated that all such papers must be posted for the public to see.

This report is presented in the Yetbari typeface and contains a sequential series of items that number between 11 and 13.

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So Asheron's Call 2 is back. And if that's not the strangest sentence I've typed all year, then I don't know what is. Turbine's 10-year-old fantasy sequel dropped off everyone's radar seven years ago and was suddenly reanimated last week seemingly out of the blue.

It's hard to know what motivated the resurrection, as AC2 wasn't a hugely successful MMO even by the genre's incredibly modest pre-World of Warcraft standards. Is Turbine simply looking for a bit of extra end-of-the-year income or does it plan to actually develop the game over time? Is this merely a way to wring a bit more revenue out of the original Asheron's Call minus any significant production costs (you must sub to AC to access AC2, currently), or is AC2 going to implement its own subscription plan or some sort of cash shop?

Whatever the reasons, it's a feel-good story and an early Christmas present for fans who wrote the game off years ago. With the rash of MMO closings over the past 12 months, though, I suspect that some folks are wary of settling down in AC2 even though they might want to. For today's Leaderboard, tell us how you're playing Asheron's Call 2. Is it looking like your long-term MMO home, or is it merely a novelty that you're checking out while you can? Vote after the cut.

Ever wish that you could put to rest a long-standing MMO debate once and for all? Then welcome to the battle royal of Massively's Leaderboard, where two sides enter the pit o' judgment -- and only one leaves. Vote to make your opinion known, and see whether your choice tops the Leaderboard!

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No, the above picture is not some sort of long-forgotten, dusty archive picture of Asheron's Call 2 from back in the day; it's from the live game this past Thursday evening. How incredibly, insanely weird is that?

Turbine absolutely stunned the MMO community the other day when it casually announced that it was bringing back its second title, cancelled since 2005, on a new server. Our editor-in-chief burst into the office chat room screaming, "AC2! AC2! AC2!" It took us a minute to realize that she wasn't just discovering the Assassin's Creed series but had in fact learned that the impossible had happened: An old, deceased MMO had been brought back to life.

As the resident MMO historian here at Massively, I felt this was kind of like going to Jurassic Park and seeing all of those dinosaurs after spending most of my time merely reading about them. In the blink of an eye, Asheron's Call 2 went from the ancient past to the playable present. We've got a lot to talk about today, including my hands-on experiences with the title and thoughts about what this means for classic MMOs. Let's not waste any time!

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Well this is one story we never thought we'd be writing: Asheron's Call 2 is coming back from the dead. No, really! Turbine announced the return of the long-dormant title, which will be on a brand-new server called Dawnsong. The studio also provided a link to download the old client.

There are a few caveats that come with this MMO resurrection. You have to be an active subscriber to Asheron's Call to take advantage of the AC2 server, and the game is currently in beta status, so there might be a few hiccups as Turbine figures things out.

Asheron's Call 2 came out in 2002 and was closed in 2005. Our Game Archaeologist column has a great retrospective to bring you up to speed if you're unfamiliar with this short-lived MMO.

[Thanks to Padre for the tip!]

Another week of this column makes me amazed at how yet another older title, this time Asheron's Call, got so much right and yet remains so under-appreciated. A lot of this dismissal of past MMOs comes from the simple fact that humans do not enjoy something they have seen before, at least not the same as they enjoyed it when they first found it. In other words, we loved games like Asheron's Call, but they have fallen out of favor because we have moved on to bigger, newer, shinier things. After all, most of us don't sit around a fire and swap stories for entertainment anymore; we watch television. Although, damn, a fire sounds nice doesn't it?

The warm feeling that I might feel from an evening swapping tales in front of the hearth is the same one I get from older titles like Asheron's Call. These elder titles have a charm built in, thanks to dated graphics that remind us of younger years and times of discovery.

But there's something else going on here. These older games, games like Asheron's Call, are still really good.

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Asheron's Call has put childish things behind it and entered the elite realm of MMO teenagers. Turbine's oldest title is celebrating its 13th anniversary today. "A huge thanks to our community for sticking with us through the years. AC is older than children!" the Turbine feed said.

Asheron's Call released on November 2nd, 1999. It was originally published by Microsoft until 2004, when Turbine (which developed the title) purchased the rights. According to the forums, the team is still chugging forward despite recent Turbine layoffs, and there's a February update in the making.

You can read Massively's history of Asheron's Call in our Game Archaeologist column.

One of the greatest things about the mobile market is the reappearance of older, single-player titles that are now being introduced to a new generation. Tablets and smartphones are quickly becoming go-to gaming devices offering not only more powerful processors and bigger screens but access to the internet and huge stores of digital goodies. Recently, I've been playing through titles I've missed, like Broken Sword, a point-and-click adventure game from 1996. Touch devices are proving to be perfect for many older-style games. We're simply replacing the mouse with the finger, and the move feels natural.

When I interviewed the Ultima Online team during a livestream this week, I asked Producer Bonnie Armstrong about a mobile version of the game. After all, I've played games, like Conquer Online, that look almost identical to Ultima Online, so I know it can be done. Her answer?

I would love to, personally. I think it would be pretty cool. I think somebody kind of joked around and said you know when somebody's 90 years old, they're going to be in an old folk's home playing UO on their phone. [...] That kind of sums us up.

There are many MMOs that I could see offering a mobile version. Would it be better or worse for these classic titles?

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I find the whole cosplay subculture at conventions to be both foreign and fascinating. On one hand, I deeply admire the dedication and time it takes to put together a complex outfit and then spend all day wearing this custom-made sweatsuit. On the other hand, it does tend to bring out some folks' narcissism and unnecessary cleavage.

While many facets of geek and video game culture are adequately represented by those crazy cosplayers, I don't see as much when it comes to MMORPGs. Was it truly underrepresented, I wondered, or have I just never looked?

Consider the following 10 costumes the result of an afternoon or two combing through so much amateur cosplay that it vastly exceeded the recommended amount as set by the American Medical Association. I'm glad to make the sacrifice for you, and besides, you just know those doctors are the ones in these outfits, anyway.

(Please note that if you're looking for more skin than skill, this will not be the list for you!)

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It's amazing to me how quickly the industry has shifted to where we don't just welcome free-to-play as a business model in MMOs -- we downright expect it. Take a look in the comments of any new MMO that dares to launch with a subscription-only model: People will be tripping over each other in an attempt to predict just when said game will break down and admit that it needs F2P. Whether or not BioWare's admission that it's looking into F2P for Star Wars: The Old Republic surprised you or not, it's a sign that no game is immune to the allure, dollar signs, and downright necessity of the popularity and flexibility of this model.

I think this brings a pressing question to bear in the field of classic MMOs: Will they survive without free-to-play? It's a pretty important question for a few reasons. One, a surprising majority of remaining sub-only MMOs are older ones; two, people now expect free in games they try; and three, players aren't exactly flocking to classic MMOs anyway.

This week I want to explore the conundrum that these games are in and why some players may have blinders on when it comes to the fate of their favorite games.

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