*EDIT* Seems WebZen is starting their own servers which will continue Archlord in Western territories. Bought credits, however, will not transfer over.

This message went out today:

It is with much sadness that today we announce our intention to close the European and North American ArchLord game servers operated by Codemasters Online.

Our licence for ArchLord is due to expire shortly and unfortunately, after several weeks of negotiations with NHN, the Korean developers of the title, we have not been able to reach an agreement to renew the contract, therefore the service will be transitioning across to Webzen.

This means that Codemasters will no longer have the right to operate the service in the Western territories it currently provides service in and therefore we are obliged to shut down all associated game services before the licence expires.

The last full day of service will be 1st October, 2009. All ArchLord world servers will shut down on the morning of Friday 2nd October, UK time. Further details of how the transition of the service will be handled, will be provided closer to the time of the transition.

The purchase of credits is now no longer available to ensure all players have the opportunity to spend their remaining Chantra credits in game and use their remaining Chantra items. Likewise, the creation of new ArchLord game accounts/subscriptions is now disabled. For further information, please see our ArchLord Service Transition FAQ in the forums.

ArchLord was Codemasters Online’s first free to play MMO service and we have been very proud of its development and success during its three years of existence. Over that time the service has gone from strength to strength and has one of the most passionate communities we’ve ever seen.

We’d like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who supported ArchLord and those players that not only played it, but also raised an army and ruled the world in Chantra.

The Codemasters Online Team
www.codemasters.com

I guess most of you know Cryptic is the studio behind City of Heroes/Villains and the new Champions Online superhero games. These MMOs excel in customization options, and Star Trek Online will continue this trend. During the behind closed doors demo at Gamescom, we were shown a character generator that allowed an almost limitless creativity. It even allows the player to create his or her own alien race. This feature worried me at first. Not that I am a stickler for canon or anything, but it struck me as weird to have many people play a creature which is the only specimen of that race. It turns out, this does not have to be the case. I asked if it was possible to share designs with other players, and the answer was yes. This shines a whole new light on this feature. It makes it possible to start a guild (‘fleet’ in STO) made up of a new unique race, designed by the players.

Come fly with me
When the guys from Cryptic wanted to show how ships can be just as unique, a small glitch caused some hilarity. Rather than the expected ship model, a rather confused looking human materialized in outer space. A few button presses later, the correct model was flying on the big screen. Ships can be fitted with all kinds of parts, creating a unique and personal look. Ships cannot be every shape you want, though. Every class has its base configuration which will always be recognizable. There will be no mistaking a Galaxy class starship from, for example, a Constellation class. These craft can of course be taken into combat. Starship battles will be tactical and allow for huge epic fights. Imagine, for example, fleets of 25 ships working together to fight a Borg cube.

Up, up and away
The core of an MMO is of course team play, and STO has its own way of dealing with parties. Every standard away-team will be composed of five characters. If there aren’t enough players to fill out all spaces, NPCs will step in. Every player will have access to NPC officers, who are ‘pets’ with different strenghts and skills. As you move up through the ranks, you can have more and better officers in your ship, and therefore in your party.

To boldly go…
Damn, I was doing so well. But how else could I describe the exploration system? Cryptic designed what they call the ‘Genesis system’, which procedurally generates planets. The game designers use Genesis as the basis for in-game missions. But it will also be used to allow players to actually explore strange new worlds. By going into certain sectors, players can find stars and planets that have never been seen before. Not only that, it is possible to share coordinates with others, to show off your discoveries. I am very curious about how this will play out in the actual game, and if these player discovered planets feel like part of the universe, or ‘tacked on’. The idea is great in theory, anyway.

Star Trek Online certainly seems to have the correct ideas about what makes Star Trek great. It gives players a tall ship and a star to steer it by. It looks very well and the art style is dead on. I do hope the game will have many more sandbox-like elements, like the exploration system. For me, Star Trek was not about grinding for an epic phaser, but about the freedom to fly to the stars. So far, Cryptic seems to give us just that.

Let’s not beat around the bush here. You can hardly call yourself a geek if you haven’t ever fantasized about jumping to light speed in the Millenium Falcon, or about staying on target while strafing the Death Star. So it’s not hard to understand the appeal of a game set in the Star Wars universe. Especially if it’s a persistent world where we can all live out our most geeky fantasies. The Old Republic, as you probably know, promises just that.

Thumbs up!
Bioware have a thing about choice. As they demonstrated in their single player RPGs, they consider the story that unfolds based on your actions to be very important. The demonstration at Gamescom began with the now famous trailer, where Sith and Jedi battle it out. Following that, we where shown a live played sequence where a Sith warrior decides whether to save or kill an Imperial captain. It must be noted that all of the events where displayed in real-time, looked awesome and where fully voiced.

By showing a thumbs up or thumbs down, the press in the audience was asked to decide the captain’s fate. To my surprise, most of us wanted to see him live. Unfortunately, it seems the Dark Side had overtaken the demo systems and the sequence crashed. This was doubly unfortunate for that poor captain, as the only playable ending was now his demise.

Yada yada yada
After this, it was time to move on to the behind closed doors portion of the demonstration, where I was finally allowed to take control of the same Sith warrior, and to play through the same sequence. This time, I chose to save the captain, and saw an entirely different set of events unfold. Everything was again perfectly voiced, and playing though the dialogue was a joy. The same system is in place as in Mass Effect, and it works great.

Fortunately, it wasn’t all about menus and dialogue. There was action as well. After the cut scenes, it was up to me to first cut through dozens of troopers. Using several attacks, I could string together combo’s. For example, there is a charge attack, which launches your character through the air towards a targeted enemy. You can follow this up with saber strikes, use an AOE to stun nearby enemies, or force choke your target.

More is better
Controls are very responsive, and even though there are the typical MMO cooldown timers on your actions, combat is extremely fluid and fast. After battling through the minions, I was finally confronted with the boss character: another Jedi. Killing him awarded me with his light saber, which allowed me to dual wield. This is just as cool as it sounds.

A Bioware guy asked me what I thought. My first reaction was: “This isn’t an MMO. This is a next gen Knights of the Old Republic”. The whole experience felt very much like a single player game. It is very hard to imagine how this all will feel when playing with others. Combat and story are so streamlined and so scripted, that I cannot yet see how the experience will be with a random PUG or even with some good friends.

No comment
Bioware wasn’t talking much about this yet, but confirmed parties of “approximately four or five people” where planned. Exact numbers where not given. Same goes for raiding, which was confirmed, but again no team sizes where specified.

I can say I walked away from this demo impressed. I have played dozens of MMOs and TOR seems to be unlike every one of them. If the quality of the rest of the game is like the demo, I might not even care if there are other players around to group with. This truly feels like a true KOTOR sequel.

1. Classes
You are the healer. Or the tank. Or the DPSer. And once you chose DPS, you are DPS until the levelcap. Why? It’s not impossible to give each player the potential to learn each skill in the game and allow them to persue the playstyle he or she prefers. Healing killer? Why not? A stealth mage? Could be fun! It has been done before. And I am not just talking about the Elder Scrolls series. What about Final Fantasy V, and its flexible Jobs system? Especially in an MMO, where you are supposed to be part of a living, changing world, it makes sense to allow you to really be whatever you want to be.

2. Agro/tank/heal/dps combat system
You know the drill. The tank grabs agro. The DPSer hits as hard as possible without taking agro away from the tank. The healer heals and the rogue debuffs. Yeah, that is fun and allows for interesting combat. But why is that the only way to play? What about mobs with more than two braincells, who take cover, flank you, call for help and generally make more tactical decisions? That would liven things up!

3. Zones with level ranges
You start off in the newbie zone. After ten levels you go to the next area. Level some more and on to the next. If you go to the wrong area, every beast will kill you by just looking at you. Or no quest gives any XP at all for being too low level. Why? Sure, it’s easier to design a zone that’s just tailored to a certain range. But easier isn’t more fun. A more open design with something to do for every level would open up a world tremendously. Travel from town to town, looking for the jobs you’re capable of and come back for the rest when you’re ready.

4. Quest hubs
You arrive in town. You see the question marks or rings or whatever floating above the NPCs. Pick up your quests and you’re off. Okay, fair enough. But must every task be so obviously placed? How about the entrance to a cave, somewhere in the hills. You go in, explore and find monsters, and some treasure. You keep going and at the end of a coridor you find a cage with a trapped woman inside. She begs you to help her. Now the quest starts and you do what she asks. The quest becomes the reward for exploring. Hide lots of these ‘secret’ quests and people have much more incentive to explore every inch of the gameworld

5. Player influence
The gameworld you enter at level one is probably about the same when you cap out. Sure, some more area’s have been added and you feel your class has been nerfed more than any other. But generally, it’s all the same. Wouldn’t it be cool if players had an actual influence on the world they are part of? Would it not be cool if the towns in the world are actually built by players. And I am not talking about suburbs of player houses. Imagine Stormwind, but built by players. And every city is like that! Places start out as small hamlets and grow during the game’s lifetime. Who knows what will be the capital after three years? And what if some towns are destroyed during player-fought wars? And how about the landscape itself… Look at what humans have done to the earth… what if a gameworld would allow similar interference, with rivers blocked by dams, tunnels dug and mountains leveled…

Of course, these are difficult things to pull off. But after seeing MMO after MMO follow the Diku mud rules as if it is the only way of doing things, it is time for some change. Isn’t it?

1. Storytelling
Not surprising, since LOTRO is based on one of the greatest Fantasy books ever written. But there is arguably more story in the game than in the books. At least more than in the movies. The Epic Storyline is a side-story to Frodo’s journey, and includes epic moments and wonderfully crafted instances and story sequences. Compare that to WoW, in which story is something that you notice vaguely in the corner of your eye while grinding out your next lvl 70.

2. Graphics
Even though WoW’s artstyle is fun and colourful, it hardly qualifies as ‘high impact’. And even though there are better looking games out there, LOTRO offers beautiful vistas and (at higher levels) impressive boss characters. This is one pretty game.

3. Raid access
You know how in WoW you have to grind and grind and grind to get all that epic gear to make any kind of useful contribution to that next raid? Even though WoW’s endgame offers some of the greatest team-based play in the industry, only a small percentage of players will see it all. Here comes LOTRO which has opened up raiding to any character of suitable level. No keys, no gear, just get a group together and dive in. This makes so much sense, it boggles the mind. Why keep players from doing the high end stuff? Just let them in and do it, already! Now if only Lotro offered raids of the same quality as WoW, but that’s another article…

4. Crafting
At a first glance, you might think WoW and Lotro are the same in this respect. Nothing is further from the truth. Players can get proficient in several crafting tiers, each with progressively better products. But mastering tiers offers the chance to crit items, that are even more incredible. Also, crafted items in Lotro are better than any other in the game. No drop can compete with the best critted craftwork (edit:except Rift Raid gear). It takes time, but the system is far more rewarding than WoW’s.

5. Updates
Even though WoW is updated often, and new content is added, it can’t hold a candle to Lotro’s ‘book updates’ that arrive every two months. Updates that contain substantial additions, including whole new areas. And more importantly: updates for all level ranges. It’s not just the endgamers who feel Turbine’s love. Everybody can join in. This keeps the game fresh and alive, even if you can’t spend 8 hours a day to play.