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Posts Tagged ‘ArcheAge’

Archeage CBT5 is available for Korea & China

March 22nd, 2012

It is expected that not only Korean, but also Chinese gamers will have chance to join the next generation MMORPG Archeage CBT5. Tencent announced they are going to provide Chinese version of client software for CBT5 at the press conference in Beijing.. Tencent is the major online game publisher in China who is responsible for Archeage publishing in China.

Jake Song said “I think it is important to have Chinese users’ opinions. We will add Chinese style shoes, maps and events for CBT5.” He emphasized that the main ideology of Archeage is ‘Change’. The original novel for Archeage called “Firs and a hawk” will be published in Chinese as well.

Archeage’s 4^th CBT was closed on the 11^th of March. XL Games introduced the original continent and siege warfare system for the first time and added various PvE, PvP contents.

However, XL Games did not announce when CBT5 will be.

You can watch the latest Archeage teaser and additional images here

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Posted in Asia, China

Tags: ArcheAge CBT Jake Song MMORPG Tencent XL Games

Report for Archeage CBT4 and upcoming CBT5

March 20th, 2012

Archeage closed its 95days 4^th Korean CBT on the 11^th of March and was held the meeting with invited CBT4 users and press. Jake Song greeted the audience and said the team thinks the decision they decided to have 95 days CBT was good because they fixed many issues during the test period.

Things prepared for 4^th CBT

XLGames added 3 new regions, 4 seas, an original continent, the new race ‘Hariharan’, improving the shape of Ferre race for the 4^th CBT. In addition, various animations for characters and monsters was improved as well.

Log-in stage has been modified to figure out the specialties of each class much easily. New monsters, vehicles, furniture, and the accessories are bonuses. Option menu has been improved, too.

Things have been added during the test period

Self-defense and Footprint system have been added. Footprint system is if someone steals woods, his footprint would be remained to report. Footprint system was not in the development schedule, but the team decided to have one because users plant trees far away from their houses a lot. Kraken and Pirate system was added, too.

Fortification and siege warfare was added later. Both are still long to perfect them, the team found many obstacles to improve.

Seonyukmari(It is original Korean words and might be translated as The end of the west) and The land of peace was added as new regions because users has complained the lack of regions for leveling up. The sign of the break was also added. It is a kind of an in-game event that monsters attacking the world.

Some oceanic items such as a diving helmet and Refloat system was added, too. Quests for the late level 30 characters added to make users leveling easier.

Aution house was added for the last to observe users’ preferable items.

There has been an item called the bomb of liquor barrel for fun, but it was deleted because some pirate users threw it to where the wedding ceremony was held and killed all users who were attended.

Fix all issues as much as the team could handle

During the 95 days of the 4^th CBT period, about 2,000 feedbacks were received and most has been solved. Complains about the family system that Jake Song created were handed over to him to resolve.

What can we expect for the 5^th CBT?

XL Games said they will fix all bugs they have now and improve a several things such as downloading speed for the client software, a connecting error, and more optimization. Instant dungeons will be coming too.

A house will become more like a place where users are living. Furniture items will be classified into several categories. There will be furniture for interior, furniture for upskilling, and furniture for boasting of user’s skill.

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Posted in Korean Games Industry

Tags: ArcheAge CBT Jake Song MMORPG update xlgames

ArcheAge Ends 95-Day-Long CBT4

March 12th, 2012

XL Games finally ended its fourth closed beta test of MMORPG <ArcheAge> yesterday.

The CBT kicked off last December 8 with an initial schedule of 80 days, adding two more weeks for further test later.

The testers actively played the game, creating 173 guilds, constructing 3,400 houses, selling 130,000 livestock, 750,000 pine trees, and 660,000 strawberries, and planting 2,200,000 trees during the period.

They also left 20,000 feedback and 260,000 posts on forum over 40 patches including a gigantic boss monster, Christmas festival, pirate system, family system, siege warfare, new mounts, aquaculture, and others over the course of the test.

XL Games often held offline and online events to support and listen to the testers.

“We deeply appreciate the testers who participated in the long test of an incomplete game. Later schedules will be announced as soon as we finish reviewing the test,” said YongGon Kim the director of marketing team of ArcheAge.

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Posted in Korean Games Industry

Tags: ArcheAge CBT MMORPG XL Games

Peeking at ArcheAge’s 80-day-long journey

January 10th, 2012

XL Games’ highly anticipated MMORPG <ArcheAge>’s 4th closed beta test is about half way to the end now. A lot have changed. The Land of Origin and more part of the eastern continent are revealed; new race Hariharan is introduced; and a resource called Akium became the most valuable material in the game.

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Posted in Korean Games Industry

Tags: 80 days akium ArcheAge CBT chain system closed beta test crafting Jake Song MMORPG pvp XL Games

[NDC2011] Jake’s Challenge Via Experience and Reflection

June 1st, 2011

Jake Song, a CEO of XL Games and a developer of <Lineage> and <The Kingdom of the Winds(or Nexus)>, showed himself at the NDC 2011 as a keynote speaker.

Some might ask why the CEO of XL Games speaks at Nexon’s conference. Well, he founded Nexon with the current CEO, JungJoo Kim, and made <Nexus>. Enough to participate as a keynote speaker, huh? :)

Reflection on MMORPG

Jake had fell in love with WoW in the past.

After resigning NCsoft, Jake just chilled at home and his wife did not like it and said “go out and play.” So?he, frankly saying, founded XL Games in order to escape from nag of his wife and to loaf his life away from his wife. And he played <WoW> all day at the office. :D

He said he had thought <WoW> would be the complete model for MMORPG, but soon had felt somthing stuffy. He confessed “What is the directon of MMORPG I think? MMORPG stands for Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing which is, as far as I know, created by Richard Garriott. HakGyu Kim, the CEO of IMC Games, also admit that he cannot think MMORPG without the word ‘Massive’.

Jake echoed him. ‘Massive’ is the biggest and the most important feature of MMORPG. Interaction derived by thousands of people in a server. Then what MMORPG is the most MMORPG?

MMORPG has been improved as time passes by fixing and supplementing the wrong and mistakes. For examples, cash trade has been prevented with BoE(Bind on Equip), indiscreet PK is restricted by faction, and occupied field is replaced by instance dungeon.

Direction of MMORPG

Guys, that way is not only way.

The problem is that all the MMORPGs has gone to one way as the environment became standards. They should have return to their own path after evading the obstacles, but they have failed it and have been walking the path which MMORPG looks more like a package game. He throwed a question to himself. “What is the feature of MMORPG that is more like MMORPG?”

He thought “Basically party play?rather than solo play is the most fundamental. Most games support it but the final content is concluded with it eventually. But some gamers do not like it, and it is true because it is forced.

So his conclusion is that pursuing the coincidental party play instead of the forced pary play. Just like wrangling each other at the field and then getting to know each other and naturally playing each other before they know. He emphasized MMORPG world must reflect the real world.

MMORPG should be a mirror to the real society. Unexpectable elements just like the world we are living should exist and excitement comes from it is the pure fun of MMORPG. This is his idea.

“As unforeseeable fun thanks to multiple players is the MMORPG’s exclusive excitement not like?playing for the provided ending in console games,?we should design the MMORPG in this way,” said Jake and it is the basic concept of his latest title <ArcheAge>as well.

A Challenge Based on the Experience in the Past and the Reflection of Today

Balance btween freedom and provided entertainment creates fun game.

Lastly, Jake Song said <ArcheAge> is a challenge based on the experience in the past and the reflection of today. Another experiment on MMORPG.

He also addressed that contents balance is very important as a key feature of MMORPG. In other words, both?buffet which gamers can help themselve and course cuisine which developers provide for the gamers should be well balanced.

He ended his speach with a comment, “I will do better to make better MMORPG.”