Released January 15th, 2013 in Korea by XL Games, the massively multiplayer RPG Archeage quickly gained a reputation as a standout in a field of ‘me too’ MMOs that have been launching over the last few years. It was enough to gain the attention of Trion Worlds, the developer and publisher of the fairly successful Rift and the somewhat less so Defiance. They and Archeage‘s eastern publisher, Tencent, worked out a deal that seemed like it’d benefit everybody: XL Games would continue development of Archeage, and Trion would handle porting and releasing it in the States and UK.
Then things got interesting. For those who aren’t aware, Archeage considers itself a ‘sandpark’ MMO, a game that blends aspects of conventional theme park, quest-driven titles such as World of Warcraft and Rift, with sandbox elements that promote player-driven events in the vein of EVE Online and the now defunct Star Wars Galaxies. Those who first boot up the game might find it similar to many MMOs they’ve played, dictated mostly by quests and gradually learning new skills and taking up crafting professions, but after proceeding a little further, the kind of freedom the game offers rears its head in the form of in-faction world PvP, being able to build and transport “trade packs” full of valuable goods between continents, and gathering materials to construct everything from non-instanced housing to enormous galleon ships loaded down with cannons.
This freedom, and the responsibility it implies, quickly attracted gamers tired of entirely constructed experiences. PvP and crafting enthusiasts, as well as many who longed for the freeform days of games like Ultima Online, began to pay attention, and Trion didn’t miss the opportunity. The game’s marketing quickly began playing up the worldshaping aspects of the game, with advertisements boldly proclaiming, ‘Craft. Claim. Conquer.’
Though the title is considered ‘Free to Play’, special benefits are granted to those who opt into the $15 a month subscription fee, such as taking priority in server queues, the ability to own land on which to build houses and farms for growing crops, and increased regeneration of ‘labor’, a resource in the game designed to dissuade excessive play and botting by limiting the amount of things that can be harvested or crafted per hour. Those who really wanted to show their support of the game and get a four-day headstart, in addition to other in-game goodies, were give the option to purchase a ‘Founder’s Pack’ ranging from $50-$150 in price, depending on what was being offered.
After a lengthy closed beta and a four-day open beta to stress the servers, Archeage prepared to launch. The game’s official launch date was set for September 16th, with the Founder’s pack head starts beginning on the 12th. Everything seemed to be in place for the port, well-timed between the releases of genre sluggers like Wildstar and World of Warcraft‘s next expansion, Warlords of Draenor, to make its mark on the MMO community.
Then, briefly, everything fell apart. Halfway into the first day of early access, the servers were already full. All six in the US and all four in the UK, which seemed like a paltry amount in the first place compared to Korea’s twenty-five. Queue times started high and then exploded into absurdity, escalating past four to six hours for most players; and these were exclusively the founders, the people who had paid at least fifty dollars for the privilege of playing early. On top of this, server disconnects ran rampant. Those who could get into the game took full advantage, executing strategies they had practiced dozens of times in the beta to lay down cheap, temporary houses on as much land as possible to stake their claim and expand upon, or sell at inflated prices later. Considering the game’s advertising was primarily fueled by the ‘Craft. Claim. Conquer.’ tagline, the speed with which all habitable land was snapped up left many players feeling cold.
On the 16th, the floodgates were opened to free players, and the situation started to seem hopeless. Paid players were still facing queues going on six hours long, and they got priority over free players, which meant those who hadn’t fronted for a founder’s pack or subscription would often spend up to ten or even twelve hours waiting for access. Perhaps the worst part of it was that much of the delay came not from in-game players, but those who were using bots to simply run in circles and prevent being kicked for being AFK in order to keep their labor regeneration up, which is slowed or nullified when a player is offline, depending on if they’re a subscriber or free player.
To some extent, it was hard to blame Trion Worlds, despite the fact that they likely knew what to expect. Many MMOs have tried opening with plenty of servers to accomodate launch day crowds, only to have half or more of them become ghost towns later; a lesson Trion themselves learned with Rift. Merging servers is typically the go-to tactic in response to this, but Archeage, due to its sandbox nature, doesn’t really have this option. Merge two servers, with two players occupying two non-instanced houses in the same spot on each, and you have problems. Still, the facts remained: there were more people who wanted to play than could play, and that wasn’t good.
Between the 16th and the 20th, Trion began rolling out new servers, exercising moderation in what may have been an attempt to play the long game. Save for a few token statements from community managers, and the announcement of two new servers every other day, they remained oddly quiet about the situation, which didn’t inspire much confidence. On the 21st, however, a forum post was released by Trion CEO Scott Hartsman, which can be found here for those curious.
In summary, he issued a promise for more communication, a smackdown on botters and exploitative AFK’ers, and announced the continued release of new servers. It was a smart move from a PR perspective, but at first, it seemed like it was only that. Then, bit by bit, the queues began to lighten. Players flooded to the new servers, balancing out the queues a bit, and the capacity on existing servers was raised. Disconnect errors got hammered out, and as of the 24th, the game’s well on the way to being where it should be.
Still, it’s not entirely there, and it shouldn’t have taken nearly two weeks to get to this point in the first place. When you actually get into the game, Archeage can be a lot of fun, something I’ll be covering in my upcoming articles on the title, but first impressions mean everything, and Archeage‘s could have been a lot better. Time will tell if the game will succeed in the West like it did in Korea, but for now, Trion has their work cut out for them.
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