It's not a real old school server. Besides, it's been announced as an event, so if the response is lower than expected it will be closed without a second thought.
It's not a real old school server. Besides, it's been announced as an event, so if the response is lower than expected it will be closed without a second thought.
lol this guys rly thinks it aint gonna be a huge success
gonna be so huge thet they even gonna close current servers because of lack of players, and evolve back the c1 in a totally different way
cant wait to be back at cedrics training hall again
WTS all my toons/stuff and wait for classic servers
lol this guys rly thinks it aint gonna be a huge success
It will be in Korea. Over 18000 posts about it since they announced their plans to open it. Korea is not NA. But I know most people that left game other then to becoming poor left due to the fail updates. We all know people who did.
i just read at rochand will not be the actual old versions of the server, will have some adjustments to evolve in short time up to lvl 85 and kamael at 2015.
i just read at rochand will not be the actual old versions of the server, will have some adjustments to evolve in short time up to lvl 85 and kamael at 2015.
I COME TO SAY IN ADVENCE THIS IS A GOOD START BUT WHAT EWE RLY WANT IS THE ACTUAL OLD CHRONICLES/CLIENTS.
AGAIN:
WHAT WE WANT IS THE ACTUAL OLD SERVERS/CLIENTS.
ONCE MORE TO BE TOTALLY CLEAR:
WE WANT ACTUAL OLD C1 SERVERS WITH OLD C1 CLIENTS. PAY TO PLAY BASED AND WITH STORE THAT DONT ****** BREAKS BALANCE.
The classic server does not need to be the old C1 exactly, and not even the same old client. They are launching an upgraded client with the classic content, and with some additions, which would be very interesting to see.
They will never do this in the NA market, the only way we'll see this is if another company bought the license for it from NC and released and managed it on their own.
yes cause all want to be forced to spend as much as they have to stay competitive vs other ppl spending as much as they can instead of just paying a fixed small fee and staying competitive.
They will never do this in the NA market, the only way we'll see this is if another company bought the license for it from NC and released and managed it on their own.
AND NOW !, From the people that rushed the forums to say IT WILL NEVER HAPPEN to everything !, we are proud to present you... I AM ALWAYS WRONG ! With the participation of BigBubbles ! , 1Peri1 !.........................
As Elmar in Rochand boards said, it is more like a test than an event, they want to know how players will react in the mid-long run, and what will happen to the revenues.
The fact is: L2 is dying, on june 11th there will be major server merges due to lack of players in Korean retail.
I hope at least that this mess that happened to L2 becomes a lesson for NCSOft to understand why Lineage 2 is dying while Lineage 1 still is successful, in order to prevent the same mistakes to happen again in their future Lineage games.
As Elmar in Rochand boards said, it is more like a test than an event, they want to know how players will react in the mid-long run, and what will happen to the revenues.
The fact is: L2 is dying, on june 11th there will be major server merges due to lack of players in Korean retail.
To make this unequivocally clear, in the 1st fiscal quarter 2014 Lineage 2 generated on their Korean home market a revenue of only 5,406,000,000 Won (5 million US dollars), and that was before the ferry disaster of April 16, when young people became aware that there are more important things in life than video games.
For comparison, NCWest (Lineage 2 + Aion) generated a revenue of 23.1 million US dollars in the 4th fiscal quarter 2013: http://global.ncsoft.com/global/ir/quarterly.aspx
The Classic Server, which will be pay-to-play from June 3 onwards, is an attempt to get at least a bit of cash money coming in. Whether this works out in the long run remains to be seen.
AND NOW !, From the people that rushed the forums to say IT WILL NEVER HAPPEN to everything !, we are proud to present you... I AM ALWAYS WRONG ! With the participation of BigBubbles ! , 1Peri1 !.........................
I said in the NA market, now be a good boy and go hold your breath while you wait for it. :D
To make this unequivocally clear, in the 1st fiscal quarter 2014 Lineage 2 generated on their Korean home market a revenue of only 5,406,000,000 Won (5 million US dollars), and that was before the ferry disaster of April 16, when young people became aware that there are more important things in life than video games.
For comparison, NCWest (Lineage 2 + Aion) generated a revenue of 23.1 million US dollars in the 4th fiscal quarter 2013: http://global.ncsoft.com/global/ir/quarterly.aspx
The Classic Server, which will be pay-to-play from June 3 onwards, is an attempt to get at least a bit of cash money coming in. Whether this works out in the long run remains to be seen.
Elmar
well what they want? grow exponentially? its not like l2 staff gonna starve with 'only' 5 million for quarter.
That's their home market, NC doesn't pull in anything close to that from the NA servers. To them we are a failed experiment and as soon as the bottom line agrees with them they will pull out rather then waste time and money trying to fix things here. :o
well what they want? grow exponentially? its not like l2 staff gonna starve with 'only' 5 million for quarter.
Being capitalists they would very much like an exponential growth like in 2003/2004 when every few months new servers were opened: http://boards.rochand.com/viewtopic.php?f=52&t=1265&start=10#p26119
5 million dollars may seem a lot to you and me, but that's not even 2 million per month. To say it again, if we assume that L2 and Aion are more or less equally distributed at NCWest, then we with 5 servers generate almost twice as much revenue than NCKorea with 14 servers (a part of the 11 million global revenue for L2, excluding royalties, is also coming from NCJapan and NCTaiwan).
The L2 staff in Seoul is not starving, they got laid off in December 2012, and some again in June 2013. Of the 200 developers we had in 2011 when GoD went live in Korea, only 27 are left. But apart from the developers there are also the GMs and the whole administration. When you click on "Credits" in the lower right corner of the log-in screen you can see how many people need to be paid to make Lineage 2 work. And that's without the subcontractors who do the graphics, the actual coding and the horrible translations. 2 million dollars per month is nothing :p
This is not some abstract complaining - the poverty in Seoul immediately affects us. The bugged Wednesday patches are a direct result of the lack of staff. And now, with the Classic Server, the developers have to maintain an additional, completely different version of L2. As I have said on Rochand, those are not the old Chronicle 1 files but a newly created game in Classic style. You can see the difference in the maps Laby and I have posted here and in the following post: http://boards.rochand.com/viewtopic.php?f=52&t=1265&start=20#p26122
After a free introductory phase the Classic Server will be pay-to-play. This means in theory that cash money is coming in, especially with the devious concept of going through the Chronicles with a different class being on top every three months: http://boards.rochand.com/viewtopic.php?f=52&t=1265&start=50#p26198
But times have changed. Young people, at least in Asia, are spending less time in internet cafes and more time with their iPhones than back in 2003. Getting positive feedback is very nice, but at the end of the day it's only money that counts. Next year we will see whether the Classic Server was a good idea or whether the players there will be offered a free transfer to the regular servers and their beloved nostalgia server gets shut down :D
I'm curious about something, correct me if I'm wrong but I thought their royalty market in Asia was China. I know about NCJapan, but I thought that was a branch of the parent company and not royalties.
I also thought they lost their royalty market in Taiwan when NCSEA was not re licensed years ago and they shut down their servers and only gave that player base 30 days notice, did they re-license a franchise with a new company ?
Its really funny that Lineage 1 is actually experiencing growth over there still after all this time, I wouldn't be so sure the nostalgia thing will fail there, I just don't ever expect to see it here. I honestly believe they would prefer to cut ties here and prefer to franchise us, just don't see a NA company ever taking that chance with NC.
Next year we will see whether the Classic Server was a good idea or whether the players there will be offered a free transfer to the regular servers and their beloved nostalgia server gets shut down :D
the classic server might lead to a different branch of the game ... like it or not the undoing of the game was GOD and what followed it (both in terms of content and the IG shop), it's entirely possible in the back of their minds they are hoping the classic server (if it gets enough of a playerbase of course) might allow them to undo the massive mistakes they made. A soft reset if you like. Nobody knows. But yes for anything to happen they need to make money off it.
I honestly believe they would prefer to cut ties here and prefer to franchise us, just don't see a NA company ever taking that chance with NC.
I don't agree, they make a boatload of cash off NA for very little capital expenditure.
The stupidity of NCSoft was pumping that truckload of money into Garriott and Tabula Rasa, that's something they will regret till they die, but otherwise NA has historically been good to them in ROI terms, and now with F2P it's really really good to them
I don't agree, they make a boatload of cash off NA for very little capital expenditure.
The stupidity of NCSoft was pumping that truckload of money into Garriott and Tabula Rasa, that's something they will regret till they die, but otherwise NA has historically been good to them in ROI terms, and now with F2P it's really really good to them
As you can see, Lineage 2 doesn't even factor in for them on a global basis, never mind over here. With F2P their profits come mostly from the "whales", or big spenders as we would say, and on that end we are tapering off quite a bit over here. We might see a up surge when the new race is released, we'll see.
When we were P2P we had 11 servers at our height and a much larger player/profit base and they still considered us small potatoes, a drop in the profit bucket. They never had to expand our servers beyond 10k limit, and that was just our big two, Bartz and Teon. The rest were and are 5-6k I believe. Their home servers support many more then this, of course they advertise there and never did here.
Just look at Lineage 1, still going strong over there, much healthier then L2, and we had L1 here as well, they shut it down when it hit three servers and they decided it wasn't bringing in enough profit, it was also F2P with a cash shop btw. :o
P.S. Please note, L2 falls below even the "other" category.
NA is generating 23 million in quarterly sales for minimal investment. Assuming the global ratio of 2:1 Aion:L2 sales L2 in NA is still making them close to 8 mil per quarter (32 mil Annualized) with what? A 5 person skeleton crew? I have no clue what background you have but in business terms that's freaking good ROI. In fact L2 NA is making them double the money L2 in Korea is making them. And NA for them is a lady translating patches in Korea and 4-5 people in Cali managing the game. That's the definition of minimal investment.
The fact L1 in game sales are working much better than L2 ingame sales in Korea is a totally separate issue. My response was to how "useless" NA is to NCSoft ... and I just said NA is making them decent money for little effort.
I'm curious about something, correct me if I'm wrong but I thought their royalty market in Asia was China. I know about NCJapan, but I thought that was a branch of the parent company and not royalties.
I also thought they lost their royalty market in Taiwan when NCSEA was not re licensed years ago and they shut down their servers and only gave that player base 30 days notice, did they re-license a franchise with a new company ?
The situation in China has changed over the years. Originally the Lineage 2 license was taken by sina.com. Then, around Interlude/Kamael/Hellbound, NCsoft ran the game directly, with an NCChina office in Shanghai. As far as service quality, number and competence of the staff is concerned, that was the best time we ever had. But for foreign companies an enormous amount of paperwork is required to operate independently in China. Therefore Lineage 2 was licensed out again to a small company around Freya/High Five, which, through their technical incompetence, lost almost the complete player base. So for GoD the license was given to Tengxun and a team of developers was sent over to Shanghai who made a very special version of L2: http://boards.rochand.com/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=1037
This took longer than expected, with a lot of friction loss, and now NCsoft maintains a permanent studio for technical support in Shanghai. The game itself (and Blade & Soul) is still run by Tengxun though, according to the requirements of the Chinese market and paying (lots of) royalties, like Innova in Europe and Russia.
L2SEA was run on license by Asian Media from Manila/Philippines. Since corrupt GMs ran the game into the ground all over South-East Asia, the license was not renewed. Asian Media went bankrupt and does not exist any more. There is now an Indonesian company which runs the game on license for the area, in Indonesian language and also used by Malayan Malaysians, Philippinos etc. Xanvial, Liu and several others from Rochand are playing this version.
In Thailand NCsoft cooperates with the local Post and Telecommunication Company, holding 49% of NCTrue. Since that's a minority, they are considered as an equity method investee. NCTrue runs a bilingual version where you can chose between English and Thai.
NA is generating 23 million in quarterly sales for minimal investment. Assuming the global ratio of 2:1 Aion:L2 sales L2 in NA is still making them close to 8 mil per quarter (32 mil Annualized) with what? A 5 person skeleton crew? I have no clue what background you have but in business terms that's freaking good ROI. In fact L2 NA is making them double the money L2 in Korea is making them. And NA for them is a lady translating patches in Korea and 4-5 people in Cali managing the game. That's the definition of minimal investment.
The fact L1 in game sales are working much better than L2 ingame sales in Korea is a totally separate issue. My response was to how "useless" NA is to NCSoft ... and I just said NA is making them decent money for little effort.
You don't get what I was saying, I was using L1 as an analogy for L2 here, we are approaching their numbers here, when we reach them or dip under them, they will cut the cord with L2 just as they did with L1 here. L1 was making a profit, just not enough of one that they considered it still justifiable to maintain here. L1, L2 and Aion all shared staff and offices here, L2 and Aion still do. They each also maintain a smaller separate staff.
GW2 is totally separate for whatever reason. As for the numbers, Elmar already broke those down for you at 5 mill for L2, and I think he was being generous. :D
They will be putting a lot into their Wildstar release here as well ( well for them anyways, NC just won't advertise for whatever reason over here ) OB started May 8th. They will still have Wildstar, Aion and GW2, I just see them phasing L2 out just as they phased out L1.
The situation in China has changed over the years. Originally the Lineage 2 license was taken by sina.com. Then, around Interlude/Kamael/Hellbound, NCsoft ran the game directly, with an NCChina office in Shanghai. As far as service quality, number and competence of the staff is concerned, that was the best time we ever had. But for foreign companies an enormous amount of paperwork is required to operate independently in China. Therefore Lineage 2 was licensed out again to a small company around Freya/High Five, which, through their technical incompetence, lost almost the complete player base. So for GoD the license was given to Tengxun and a team of developers was sent over to Shanghai who made a very special version of L2: http://boards.rochand.com/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=1037
This took longer than expected, with a lot of friction loss, and now NCsoft maintains a permanent studio for technical support in Shanghai. The game itself (and Blade & Soul) is still run by Tengxun though, according to the requirements of the Chinese market and paying (lots of) royalties, like Innova in Europe and Russia.
L2SEA was run on license by Asian Media from Manila/Philippines. Since corrupt GMs ran the game into the ground all over South-East Asia, the license was not renewed. Asian Media went bankrupt and does not exist any more. There is now an Indonesian company which runs the game on license for the area, in Indonesian language and also used by Malayan Malaysians, Philippinos etc. Xanvial, Liu and several others from Rochand are playing this version.
In Thailand NCsoft cooperates with the local Post and Telecommunication Company, holding 49% of NCTrue. Since that's a minority, they are considered as an equity method investee. NCTrue runs a bilingual version where you can chose between English and Thai.
Thanks for the update and breaking it down for me. :D
Your gonna go whacky reading all their stuff they way it looks post translation one of these days, gave me a headache when I used to. :D
After a free introductory phase the Classic Server will be pay-to-play. This means in theory that cash money is coming in, especially with the devious concept of going through the Chronicles with a different class being on top every three months ... Next year we will see whether the Classic Server was a good idea or whether the players there will be offered a free transfer to the regular servers and their beloved nostalgia server gets shut down :D
The choice for a P2P model is actually a good sign.
AND NOW !, From the people that rushed the forums to say IT WILL NEVER HAPPEN to everything !, we are proud to present you... I AM ALWAYS WRONG ! With the participation of BigBubbles ! , 1Peri1 !.........................
Just because Korea runs a throwback server doesn't mean we will have one. It's an event no less so not a permanent server. Why bother basically starting over with nothing with old content. Don't you remember how hard it was to get to 40 and then do THREE long *** quests to do the job change?
Yeah I'm going to stick with current servers and my toons. I have no desire or time to go back to the beginning on the throwback settings of "OMG I WANT ALL UR TIMEZORS!"
Just because Korea runs a throwback server doesn't mean we will have one. It's an event no less so not a permanent server. Why bother basically starting over with nothing with old content. Don't you remember how hard it was to get to 40 and then do THREE long *** quests to do the job change?
Yeah I'm going to stick with current servers and my toons. I have no desire or time to go back to the beginning on the throwback settings of "OMG I WANT ALL UR TIMEZORS!"
The event is that it is free to play for a few weeks. After that it becomes pay for time in game.
A lot of people left L2 due to trashy g.o.d. and other less then fun updates. Maybe its a way to rail in old players whom don't log anymore.
The event is that it is free to play for a few weeks. After that it becomes pay for time in game.
A lot of people left L2 due to trashy g.o.d. and other less then fun updates. Maybe its a way to rail in old players whom don't log anymore.
I wouldn't want to pay to get into an old chronicle. People left because anyone was able to log into the game and that opened the door to a lot of trash. With the lack of GM in game I knew as soon as they announced this it was going to be bad.
A throwback server doesn't excite me and being here for 10 years that looks more like desperation for money over anything.
I wouldn't want to pay to get into an old chronicle. People left because anyone was able to log into the game and that opened the door to a lot of trash. With the lack of GM in game I knew as soon as they announced this it was going to be bad.
A throwback server doesn't excite me and being here for 10 years that looks more like desperation for money over anything.
it's not intented to excite you, it's intended to excite the hordes of KOREANS that quit post-GOD, and in the process it excites a bunch of people that quit over here for the same reason.
it's not intented to excite you, it's intended to excite the hordes of KOREANS that quit post-GOD, and in the process it excites a bunch of people that quit over here for the same reason.
And I'm saying..I'm over here and not excited..not a tiny bit
And I'm saying..I'm over here and not excited..not a tiny bit
bolded bit is key ... you 're still here ... it's not aimed at you. It's aimed at those that arent here (or there) anymore. And yes. It's ok you not being excited.
I think it could work over here, as a separate new server of course, I just don't believe they will do it over here. Besides, in this day and age of L2 it would get zerged by bots on day one. :o
In case this money grabbing project passes over here, I'm waiting for the day where threads with content like "levelling is so slow, I quit" will pop up and I will be able to safely say: "told ya"
In case this money grabbing project passes over here, I'm waiting for the day where threads with content like "levelling is so slow, I quit" will pop up and I will be able to safely say: "told ya"
In case this money grabbing project passes over here, I'm waiting for the day where threads with content like "levelling is so slow, I quit" will pop up and I will be able to safely say: "told ya"
well took me years to get 85 and I enjoyed way more then 85>99.
much better level slow having options on where to level where anything can happen than almost having to do the same stupid, boring thing everyday and get nothign but little xp.
much better level slow having options on where to level where anything can happen than almost having to do the same stupid, boring thing everyday and get nothign but little xp.
Is the option grinding in LoA all night long to gain 1%? Because eh, it doesn't sound much different from grinding Hellfire or Crossroads or LoC. Same concept, same execution.
Not to mention that you're not even supposed to reach level cap.
Is the option grinding in LoA all night long to gain 1%? Because eh, it doesn't sound much different from grinding Hellfire or Crossroads or LoC. Same concept, same execution.
Not to mention that you're not even supposed to reach level cap.
it was not that bad rly. i remember beeing lowbie 7x on loa bridge archer grp, it was faster than 98 at gainak with 200% rune+dragon buff+50% buff. and thats before of any type of xp bonus. dirty old plain static 1x.
and for $15 only.
Great upload just hearing the classic music takes me back 10 years of me downloading the game and waiting to play.. Relaxing ahh game was so fun and healthy then and so much activity..Darkelf village being packed with shops and me looking at the store weapon npc and day dreaming of what i could do with a Journeymans staff hahahahahahahah..If you love this game like i do and have played as long then this would be amazing to be able to do. I would start over in a second
I also enjoyed 1-85 more then 85-99 like a few has said u had way more options when it came to places to lvl and not to do the same over and over.
On top spoils drop where better and it was fun when u spoile or got a drop.
Now days spoils are **** drop are almost 0 and u are locked to certain areas depending on your lvl.
No give me back the classic and even if it's pay to play I wont mind as long as they keep that bloody ingame shop out of the classic server.
Well the classic server launched yesterday in Korea ... went full pretty much immediately and they launched a second classic server so at least the launch seemed to go OK. Obviously we 'll really see in a month if people stick to it or just logged in for nostalgia and quit
Well the classic server launched yesterday in Korea ... went full pretty much immediately and they launched a second classic server so at least the launch seemed to go OK. Obviously we 'll really see in a month if people stick to it or just logged in for nostalgia and quit
I'd return to Lineage II for sure. I don't like what The Goddess of Destruction Expansion and everything after it has made of the game I used to love so much.