MMOG Expansions Incoming

Gamespot has news that Asheron's Call 2: Legions has hit the shelves, the newest expansion to the three year old title. At the same time, Sony Online has announced a new expansion for Everquest II, as well as the upcoming release of a new adventure pack. From the article: "First up is EverQuest II: Desert of Flames, the first full-priced EQII expansion pack. The pack will introduce the chaotic-but-colorful city of Maj'dul to the game. Players will be able to participate in gladiatorial contests inside the Middle Eastern-themed metropolis, either against some of the 40 new creatures included in the pack or against other EverQuesters in 'a new style of player versus player combat.'"

City of Heroes

[dleifelohcs]

City of Heroes has also added a patch to their live servers today that includes Player vs. Player action, as well as even more character customization -- body scaling, and tons of new clothing / accessories.

SWG: Rage of the Wookiees

[zamboni1138]

Let's not forget that expansion two of Star Wars Galaxies [sony.com] is going live tomorrow*.

Right on top of that Combat Update everyone loves.

* Tomorrow might be today where you are right now, realtive to me.

AC2:Legions, hits the shelves and stays there too.

[Shivetya]

I guess you can call it a "shelf queen". My friends and I are still trying to figure this one out. Here is a game where the PEAK player count on its most highly populated server is less than 500 people and it usually hovers in the mid 300s.

I know Turbine cut a deal with Sony Station to distribute the expansions, did SS also take the risk of selling the boxes?

While the graphically superior of the two AC games AC2 was such a change in game play mechanics that it did not attract many of the original AC players. Laden with bugs, exploits, and a poorly implemented crafting system at launch it failed to hold the interest of new players. AC2 was a game that told a story, through the vault quests, but forgot that players wanted to make the story or be part of it too. It also had some of the most boneheaded design decisions I have seen to date. The big two were no NPCs and having cities where the buildings could not be entered or used! The cities themselves were nothing more than monuments to the developers. A beautiful game with all the interactivity of a Hollywood western set.

The AC1 expansion is set for July and Turbine is very much risking that franchise by taking so long to deliver the box. To top it off they recently came up with a new account migration system, having left the Microsoft Gameing zone, that essentially allows people to steal inactive accounts. The "exploiters" already jumped and found it allowed for the reactivation of banned accounts but Turbine is "fixing" that. The system only requires a person to know the zone name, a character name, and which game world the character was on, to take possession of an inactive account. That is not weak security it is NO security.

Turbine has placed their bets with D&D Online and LOTR Online. I can only figure that they are keeping the AC franchises alive simply because it is totally theirs. AC was a great game when it came out, taking the big risk of not following the standard D&D setup that other games used. It had one of the most advanced combat systems that provides to this day some of the best PvP action. We can only hope that after making money with D&D and LOTR that Turbine takes some of those profits and brings AC up to date in graphics and usuability. AC is one game where the biggest improvement would be graphics as they have more lore than most other games combined. They just need a better look to attract newer players. New servers with Guild War level of graphics and a few game tweaks could make for a real relaunch. It won't happen but many of us old timers love to dream.