Well on February 9th my Lineage 2 account will be 4 years old.
I registered and entered for closed beta at that time.
Spent a total $1288 to Ncsoft over those 4 years.
Break down:
Pre-order— $10
Retail game -- $ 50 x2 (2 accounts)
Subscription for 2 accounts over 4 years. -- $1,148 ( 12 month subscriptions)
L2 T-shirt from PlayNC -- $ 20
DVD C4 install disks -- $ 10
Out lasted (can you name them all??)
8 large updates.
1 forum (currently on 2nd forum)
2 Producers (currently on 3rd)
4 Community Managers (currently on 5th)
Computers:
Still running Lineage 2 on the same computer as it was installed when open beta went live. I built the PC just for Lineage 2 open beta, as I was upset when trying to run into Gludio town during closed beta. That’s when Gludio was the market hub.
Specs as of Lineage 2 open beta PC.
Pentium 4HT 3.0Ghz
Nvidia Geforce FX 5950 Ultra 256.
2 120meg 7200RPM drives in Raid 0
512megs of ram.
Windows XP pro.
Upgraded memory to 2 gigs and video card to a Nvidia 7800GS AGP 256 card.
I have never re-loaded Windows XP in all this time, and still have the original Lineage 2 Folder name from when we had to download the game from the FTP site for closed beta.
I have done just about everything in this game from running a clan to becoming the first Arcana Lord hero on the server. I have met many new friends, and have even lost a few while playing this game. I have experienced heart-break, agony, anger, bitter sweet victory and bitter sweet defeat and maybe a few other emotions.
Was it worth it? I would have to say yeah it was worth it, and would do it again.
Looking forward to the future, and hopefully just 1 double xp/sp/drop event!!! :P
Started with 1 week of OB left. Had it running on the same pc the whole time... until yesterday when I upgraded. Not going to calculate my costs, because I don't have enough caffine yet.
The lineage 2 costs are the same since I started about the same time, add that the years of lineage 1 costs, omg, I am in the wrong business.
I have updated my computer twice in those years. Not for the game, but for work related things.
Only other thing I bought just for the game was my N52 and my Logitech keyboard.
Now, that is a lot cheaper than dating and cheaper still than kids so the entertainment value per dollar spent per hour is extremely high.
though, ask my wife and kid, and they will tell you I got off cheap there :)
$1288 spent in 4 years for entertainment is money well spent imo. That's 322/year, 26.83/month. I quit smoking by starting to play L2, so I can honestly say that playing L2 is SAVING me money and certainly my health :) Not that I've played for 4 years though, but considering I spent almost 40 euros/WEEK on cigarettes... yay for L2 addiction!
Hm I registered Autumn 2004 and paying since then. 4 months later I got second account, then I took payment for my BF's account from buddy code gift because he had no CC back then and it stayed that way for whatever reason :) (we are both lazy to change billing).
Luckily for me, Slovak Crown has got stronger and Dollar weaker over the time, so first I paid like 1400 SKK, now it's like 900 SKK per 3 months :)
Computer was AMD Barton 2500+ 1 GB RAM and ATI 9600 Pro then XT, then I got AMD 64 3000+ 2 GB RAM and 7600GT, upgraded to dualcore 4600+ year ago. We bought second computer so I can play at BF's house, ASUS barebone S-presso, some P4, 1 GB RAM, ATI 9600 XT, and later it got all mixed up when I built third computer from remaining 3000+ AMD processor :)
So now I got 2 computers, both run L2 very well.
I still don't understand why everyone say the game runs terrible now, I run it just fine on my PC, once in a blue moon I get hung up for like 5 seconds while my PC does something, then I am back to normal, yet I hear people with brand new top of the line PC's say they get cruddy performance.
I still don't understand why everyone say the game runs terrible now, I run it just fine on my PC, once in a blue moon I get hung up for like 5 seconds while my PC does something, then I am back to normal, yet I hear people with brand new top of the line PC's say they get cruddy performance.
Are you dual or triple boxing?
I use to be able to run 4/5 clients without too much issue. Now? 2... that 3rd makes all 3 perform horrible.
Memory leak's abound, to the point of even a person writing a 3rd party program to fix it.
I am not dual boxing, I do not see the point of playing more than 1 toon in a MMO. If I want b a buffer or a healer I will simply find one in game (live ones do exist and love when they get invited to do things). I feel that dual/quad boxing etc ruins the game to an extent(but thats not something we are discussing). I can if necesary run 2 clients at once, and have done so recently. In windowed mode with little to no lag in the active window, and only video lag in the non active window that immediately goes away when you switch to that window. And this game has always had horrid memory leaks btw.
I could run 5 clients(yeah, so what?) before CT1, now even 2 is much poorer performance and going past 3 makes it impossible to actually play unless you're doing some cata room only. Not to mention how badly GG will be locking down pretty much every other application.
PS. Live ones are not always around, without boxes, many parties would never form.
I do n ot remember producers, but remember Ash, Sarge, Mistryl and Alyra.
One was between Ash and Sarge, casnnot remember name.
Edit: yes Dhevrin, thanks Balis.
I am not dual boxing, I do not see the point of playing more than 1 toon in a MMO. If I want b a buffer or a healer I will simply find one in game (live ones do exist and love when they get invited to do things). I feel that dual/quad boxing etc ruins the game to an extent(but thats not something we are discussing). I can if necesary run 2 clients at once, and have done so recently. In windowed mode with little to no lag in the active window, and only video lag in the non active window that immediately goes away when you switch to that window. And this game has always had horrid memory leaks btw.
Well, that would be one big reason why :)
No one has really complained of single client performance but more dual+ boxing.
Regardless of your feelings about the issue, the bottom line is it has been hit very hard.
As to the memory leak, sure its been there. Not this bad however. Its purely map memory leak too as the 3rd party program fixes it immediately if you dump the map memory and reload.
Been here since 10/03 when I played Taiwan OB, then CB, OB and so on. Old boards, new boards and 5 accounts on and off for 4 years. Only my main acct is still active.
I don't even want to think of how much NCSoft has made off of me in subscription fees for multiple accounts. Add in the collector's item box sets and various upgrades...well, it's not a pretty picture.
I've retired an old HP and a Dell computer completely, and have bought 4 other PC's and a notebook since I first started playing this game. I can't credit the game for that, I just have an upgrade fixation. Right now my primary PC is a no frills HP Pentium Duo Core media machine, upgraded to 4GB RAM and with a 8600 series graphics card doing the heavy lifting. This one won't last long, just waiting for the price of quad core PC to come down to earth before I buy.
Monitor evolution: 14" tube --> 15" tube --> 17" tube --> "15" LCD --> 17" LCD --> 19" LCD --> 22" LCD. I'm not done. I recently bought my second 42" plasma TV. If I could manage it, I'd use my older 42" EDTV as a monitor, too. Insane. I'll probably just get a 28"-30" LCD and call it a day. Ironically I don't play the game as much as the first year, but my need for bigger screens hasn't diminished.
Now here's the kicker: in game I usually just play the market. That's it. I can go for months without hunting a single mob. That probably explains why I don't have any toons in the 70's (although I do have 4 or 5 in their mid to high 60's. As a consequence, many aspects of the game are still undiscovered country for me. Don't get me wrong: I grasp the mechanics of end-game, but just haven't been in a particular rush to get there. Many of the higher levels are already jaded and bored. I'm trying to avoid that.
Was it worth it? No. :D
Maybe if they found a way to integrate a dual box PC into an exercise bike and workout bench. Then I wouldn't feel so caught in the middle of the Great War between time spent in the gym vs. the hours and hours of playing L2. (And wouldn't you know it, as I am typing this, my girlfriend is looking over my shoulder and playfully rubbing my midsection. Time to go to the gym, folks!)