Acclaim has announced a new expansion  entitled Bad Moon Rising for the free-to-play MMORPG, 2Moons. The expansion will add new bosses, skills, and equipment.

Tricia "Seridove" Bennon of Stratics talks to Dave Perry (Director of 2Moons and video game vet) about MMO subscriptions and keeping games honest.

GameAlmight previews Acclaim's 2Moons. 

If you've played any Korean MMOs in the past, then you should know exactly what you're getting in to with 2Moons, though it does have a few tricks up its sleeve that help separate it from the pack. The first thing you notice is the graphics, which are quite nice and fluid, packed with details with no hesitation in using a full color pallete. Locations are well designed, characters look cool, animations are smooth and the interface is probably the best I've seen from that side of the world, offering quick access to the most pertinent options while not taking up half the screen.

Rusel DeMaria, the Assistant Director of 2Moons, answers a few questions at MMORPG.com. Nine exclusive screenshots are also on offer.

MMORPG.com: How do you feel free online MMOs stack up against the pay per month MMOs?

Rusel DeMaria: That's an interesting question, since there is quite a range of free online MMOs. Honestly, if a free MMO is popular and finds an audience, it's good. Whether I personally like it is irrelevant. There are lots of "low tech" MMOs that have dedicated followings, and I think that's just great.

If you are asking about 2Moons, I think it compares pretty well with the pay-per-month games. Not only is it already a fun, well-designed Diablo-esque MMORPG, with great graphics and action, a stable engine and a deep storyline, but it's constantly improving and adding new areas and features.  

A second GDC preview is up at WarCry, this time looking at Acclaim's 2Moons:

Acclaim has announced a closed beta for 2Moons:

Los Angeles (January 10, 2007) - Acclaim Games is pleased to announce the start of Closed Beta testing for 2Moons, a totally brutal Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG) that is FREE to download and play on a PC. With the tagline “No mercy for the weak, no pity for the dying, no tears for the slain”, 2Moons was designed exclusively for Adult gamers age 17 and over, featuring extreme fantasy violence, profanity, an epic story, and heart-pumping action.

Since Closed Beta email registration began in August 2006, without any marketing, over 100,000 gamers have already signed up to participate via the official 2Moons website at www.2MoonsGame.com.

These Closed Beta testers will be given an exclusive & confidential first look at the game, and are asked to report bugs and issues, and to make suggestions to the development team.
2Moons was designed to be easy for any player to get into and enjoy right away. Featuring elements of traditional role-playing games and arcade-style fighting action, 2Moons will appeal to a broad range of players who seek a thrilling, action-packed gaming experience in an exciting story. The game story is set in an aggressive, dangerous, and visually stunning world and was written by writer Henry Jones.

MMO Portal has a series of new 2Moons screenshots available. 

Game Mustekeers has spoken to Dave Perry about 2Moons.  Here's the first question:

1. Since you have console and strategy specialist can we expect a more "twitch reflex" based MMO or will this game still stick to the standard MMO conventions of leveling equaling more power?

 I'm a big fan of action fighting and yes, I much prefer console style fighting (like God of War) to basic MMO fighting.  That said, if the game has good spells and skills that need to be mixed in, then the MMO fighting can get dramatically more interesting. MMO fighting is the way it is for good reason and so programming convention dictates the way things will work.  I've always been from the school of "There MUST be a way", much to the frustration of the programmers I work with.  So my suggestions for radical changes are usually followed by "There MUST be a way?"

The kind of programmers I enjoy working with the most are cool with experimental concepts.  They can take an idea and run with it, seeing the goal and finding a course to get us there.  Other programmers can only see problems, they point to every hurdle, even if only imagined.  Those dudes are frustrating!

With this project I've been promised a certain amount of attention.  Initially that's very focused on getting the game functional and getting the BETA testers happy.  That said, one of my favorite things about MMO's is you get the ability to keep adding.  So if a programmer was truly too busy in BETA, after shipping is when he can get to the "new" stuff.

So in a very long answer, the answer is YES, I've identified ways to make MMO's more twitch and at some point, they will just "appear" in the game.

MMORPG.com talks with David Perry of Acclaim about the company's work on bringing GameHi's 2Moons to the North American market.

MMORPG.com: Give us a little background on 2Moons. How did the idea begin? What was Acclaim's motivation for an MMO?

David Perry: I'm just one of these people that want to fire up a game and have fun. If I'm required to know the back history of 5 clans, or watch 20 minutes of cinematics, or read a website before I can have fun, it just bugs me. So I've been toying with the idea of making an MMO that's easy to get into, easy to understand, possibly funny at points, but that makes you feel bad-ass. Not wanting to wait 3 years to find out how it went, I looked for games/engines that could be a match. The closest I could find was a game called Dekaron made by GameHi in Korea. So now I had to convince the creator of that game to let me make any changes (not small ones, big ones, like "Erm... Would you mind if we changed the entire story?") They agreed! So being on a roll I made a list of "difficult requests" and flew to Korea again to explain those in person. Again, they seem receptive and are working on those. The great news is that we are just a few months away from launch.

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