ArcheAge has found a publisher for the west
 

http://archeage-online.com/post/1718109677

This means it's highly likely it'll be released in US/EU this year.

In case anyone cares.

Personally, I consider ArcheAge the most promising MMO in many, many years. It's literally the only MMO I'm excited about.

It's just been released in Korea - I believe, and I'm hearing some really cool things about it.

I'll gladly provide information, if people are interested. I think I know most of what there is to know about the features and such. So, ask away if you're curious :)

I'll shoot.
Questy or grindy?
Fetch-samey or JJAbramsey?

It's an MMO - which means there's going to be an element of grind when you start tiring of the gameplay. It's supposed to be less grindy than the usual asian-developed MMOs, however.

It's a hybrid themepark/sandbox MMO - and the leveling experience is primarily meant as an introduction to the mechanics and the many, many features of the game. This aspect of the game will be heavy on quests and storyline - or so they're saying.

Once you reach the higher levels - the gameplay opens up and the third continent becomes relevant as a gameplay avenue.

The third continent is the "player-controlled" continent and there will be open world PvP - with wars based on resources and land areas, etc.

1. It's from Korea, so grindy alll the way. They love their grindy games in Korea.

2. No idea. There are apparently quests, but I never heard anything about them or seen anything of them. All the Beta videos I've seen only show open PvP elements, crafting houses or how pretty the landscape is. It's all in Korean too…

Now that's objective trustworthy info :)

leveling experience is just an introduction? lost me there, I actually prefer very long leveling time (as to me, reaching max level pretty much means game over, or at least character over)

You may be used to an old formula, and I can't blame you for that. But you're really missing out if you exclude new ways to approach the genre because it seems too different.

This game has an end-game that's nothing like you're used to, and you can grow yourself at that stage in ways that are much more significant than another level dinged.

I'm not in the least bit interested in any game which is primarily focused on PvP.

I'm very interested in PvP if it's team arena/map. I'm very happy with MOBA genre. No classic quests there, but no utterly annoying grinding either!

If it's however 1vs1 duels, I'll skip it as most developers never heard or care about balance and so 99% of players will play the OP class = boring "OMG did I really wasted my time on this" game.
Usually in such cases developer makes a class or class combo or itemset for a class that provides huge HP/resistance so you're against a miniboss, abnormal DPS so you die after 3 hits, gapcloser so noone can run away and longlasting cc (stun) just in case you managed to dodge one of those three hits that would kill you, started running to the safe area or something, but your "poor" opponent's gapcloser skill is on cooldown.

Though the game is not necessarily based on open world PvP - it's a significant part of it.

I'd say the sandbox elements are the core of the experience, including stuff like crafting your own house, ship, castle and so on. You can grow your own food and plant trees that actually grow visibly. Stuff like that.

Then there's the massive exploration elements both on land and under water. It's probably the most elaborate underwater MMO in existence. You can get stuff like diving helmets with lights so you can explore the deeper areas.

You can be a pirate and have your own pirate ship - and attack other ships/towns from sea and get a complete Sea Dogs/Pirates! game as well. Resources and the economy is going to play a major role.

So, if you're not into that kind of Ultima "virtual world" experience - I'd definitely stay away.

If you're looking for just another themepark with no player influence or content, this is definitely not it - it just has those elements as well, so players can be eased into the world.

By the way, the world is really beautiful and the game is running on CryEngine 3.

Openworld PvP is something I definetly want to skip. It'll be designed without teammembers number control or with duels. In case of first, the team with bigger number of players wins, not the team with more skill. In sesond case, a player will uninstall being utterly annoyed by spammed invites to a duel.

That's hardly new stuff and is a part of a game I've aready mentioned a few times: Wizard101. I should mention that in w101 you may get several different houses/castles, decorate them (decorations are questrewards, bought in stores or mob drops), and outside you can besides piling up those decorations, grow different plants that are when harvested used to feed pets, etc. Maybe I'll try ArcheAge just to see if they managed to make it better than a years old game, but I doubt they did.

Again, nothing new. I've mentioned wizard101, it has a huge underwater area you have to explore with pretty hard enemies lurking. It doesn't have helmets with lights though.

Finally something I'm really interested in! I've seen a few attempts of such MMO, I've applied for betatest in new such Innogames browser (flash - so no smartphones!) game, but if they do this right, ArcheAge could be my next MMO.

If I have to choose beauty vs fun - I'll take fun any day. IIRC FarCry3 runs on CryEngine and it's beautiful, but it was so fun that I'd still play it even if it didn't look that good.

ArcheAge housing is shown in this video.

You're talking about mass PvP - which is not the only kind of PvP in ArcheAge. The world is big enough to support lots of small scale PvP, where individual skill matters a lot.

There's no way to balance mass PvP and have individual skill be the deciding factor, apart from the skill of the leaders. That's impossible.

But, no, the game doesn't make working in groups worthless - as it's a social multiplayer game.

I never said it was new, that's your fantasy. The combination of features and the implementation of them is what's new.

As for Wizard101 - I prefer games that don't look like someone threw up on my screen made for little children, thanks.

How can you compare the underwater environments without knowing anything about them. Lots of games have underwater areas - it's about the detail and care that went into the exploration.

You're not well, are you? You've bashed this game for all kinds of serious reasons - and now it might be your next MMO because it has a feature you like.

Do you even know what you're saying? :)

Your point being? Why would anyone play a game that isn't fun? That sounds stupid.

I like beautiful AND fun myself - though, but that's just me.

Anyway, ArcheAge is just a game that I'm excited about. I'm not suggesting it's for everyone - as it most definitely isn't. I'd say if Wizard101 is the kind of MMO you like - then there's a good chance AA won't float your boat. It's not made for children or people who prefer to live in a merry cartoon.

I suggest just staying away from it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWN4muSv4FU

There's a recent video of how the (above) water environment looks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixng9tQ1lwA

There's some underwater stuff.

well that's the major point I don't like. I'm also totally anti-pvp so that big part of the game is off for me as well. It doesn't have to be theme-park (in fact, I don't like theme-park either). What I like is something like Everquest and City of Heroes had… join a group of people, go to some place, fight hard battles against the AI where tactics are important, and at the end of the day gain progression towards max level, which is retiring time and should be at least like 6 months-1 year away.

So it seems this game and me don't have much in common :)

No, I think you're right. There aren't many games left that stretch the actual leveling experience out that much.

You might check out Vanguard, however. That's a pretty old-school game with some serious challenges all the way to the end.

My fantasy can be only a person, nevar a game.
…
Suggestion noted, not accepted.

PvP like that of RF online? Every time you go out of your safe zone, you get massacred by other races.

I'm at least interested in seeing what this game has to offer.

Hey Dart!
I'm so hyped about this game and I got to know it only after you mentioned it.
What I want to do is simply be a farmer/lumberjack, growing my stuff and harvesting and maybe selling for some money; hunt some wild beasts and cook their meat or bake bread =)
Then I also might go fishing and/or hunting for treasure in the deep seas.
I'd keep my combat aspect limited to healing/supporting other players but mostly I would like to roleplay as a lumberjack/hunter.
Basically I want to go back to the good old ultima online times when I was not forced into combat =)

Would that be possible?

If so please sign me up, I'll be your buddy there!