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What the hell happened to Chronicles of Spellborn?
Nadriell
Member UncommonPosts: 197
I remember following this game for a while, then i went on a business trip for a couple months and came back, now its F2P?? is this game worth it still?? anyone tried it?? google has told me NOTHING about it.
Comments
from what i remember, most of the problems with it had to do with the publisher (acclaim i think). Other then that i think it might have been a bit buggy.
Playing: EVE Online
Favorite MMOs: WoW, SWG Pre-cu, Lineage 2, UO, EQ, EVE online
Looking forward to: Archeage, Kingdom Under Fire 2
KUF2's Official Website - http://www.kufii.com/ENG/ -
You missed the boat :P
Acclaim officially shut the game down. They left a couple of servers running with little to no support while they allowed Frogster to obtain rights and re-engineer the game to F2P. You could play on these servers for free, IF you could get it to work.
The game went up as F2P in Japan, and was suppose to come back to Europe and NA. Something happened, Frogster pulled out, so there goes that. We don't really know what's going to happen now.
damn, does that make this game the shortest lived MMO of all time? =P Acclaim let it slip to frogster, wow... i remember people where so hyped for this game. Its kinda ironic that vanguard outlasted it. NOW that was a bad launch. lol
The company developing spellborn (SPellborn NV in The Hague Holland) couldn't come to an agreement with Frogster. They where probably to emotional involved and wanted to finish teh game as they intended too, instead of making another cashshop cow for Frogster.
Seems its over..
And i still keep wondering why no other newly indevelopment games picked up the good things Spellborns combat system tought us...
-Rolling combat bars (ideal system for console MMO game)
-FPS like targetting
-Buffing debuffing stats (3 bars)
If they'd have made the game sandbox and full PvP centered conflict around their 5 main faction (houses) as proposed by most of the beta testers the game would have been an insta hit. Tough spellborn listened to the testerbase, they lacked resources to make the changes neccesary. Those resources should have been supported by Frogster and Acclaim. But those companies just want maximum revenue from small investments and they weren't up to investing big time...
So, the only conclusion we can make now is that if you want to make a big game you need to be with the big guys like EA, Activision, SOE, Microsoft, Square Enix or NC soft to get the funding needed to finish an MMO. And even then a project gets cancelled when it looses the support of major investors ..
Best MMO experiences : EQ(PvE), DAoC(PvP), WoW(total package) LOTRO (worldfeel) GW2 (Artstyle and animations and worlddesign) SWTOR (Story immersion) TSW (story) ESO (character advancement)
I tried it for a little over a week. The rolling action bars were very interesting and had some potential to be a very deep combat system. I just thougth the first zone was a real grind, even for an MMO. The space/rift graphics were interesting. I kinda recall the focus of the game as having a unique avatar rigth from the start, but that didnt really pan out either. You had the option to mix 4 diffrent armor sets for each slot type, and then pick 2 colors for each. All in all, it was just a forgetable game.
The acclaim servers are running without updates, no glitches while installing , i would play the game if my crapmachine would let me. just go to http://spellborn.acclaim.com/ , register and hit download
The download from there hasn't worked for a long while now
I love the game, the combat system, the lore, the missions everything. I was waiting for them to finish re-development but it seems that it wont happen. To bad.
"you are like the world revenge on sarcasm, you know that?"
One of those great lines from The Secret World
Let's see:
The devs, while I believe they had good intentions all along, were not only very inexperienced and understaffed for what was intended to be a large scale "AAA" mmo, but were also really naive in how the business works and made a LOT of amateur mistakes right from the beginning ( spending large amounts of money to promote a band ( Within Temptation ) when it was supposed to be the other way around and IP lockouts were just the tip of the iceberg, I was in the closed beta and there was not alot of confidence instilled during most of that time of development ).
Frogster then pushed it toward the shit pile by, well, being Frogster.
Acclaim then finished it off by shoving it into the pile.
That about covers it.
-Letting Derek Smart work on your game is like letting Osama bin Laden work in the White House. Something will burn.-
-And on the 8th day, man created God.-
found this in the OF:
Let me give people a little history on the game. I have been around it for a long time.
The Chronicles of Spellborn was developed privetly by a company called Spellborn NV. This is the parent company, they own the idea for the game. They sell rights to the development and the publishing of the game. And, find investors to help create the game.
Spellborn NV created a company called Spelllborn BV which is where all the development monies were sent to have the game created. Spellborn BV hired a game development studio called Khaeon, who created the P2P game you play, which at the moment is for free.
Spellborn NV then had to pitch the game to game publishers, where Frogster bought/acquired the publishing rights for most of Europe, and Accalim Games bought/accuired the publishing rights for the USA and some other parts of Europe. There was another company which owned the rights for Asia.
Well the game finally got released, but thing didn't go well. Some how, the comapny which was developing the game, (Spellborn BV,) went bankrupt. They did not survive.
Spellborn NV, then decided to redevlope the game to become a F2P game with an item mall. Spellborn NV hired subdivision of Frogster to do the work. This company is called Frogster Asia.
Development of the game didn't go well and so now Spellborn NV terminated the agreement they had with Frogster.
Here is a quote from a Spellborn BV employee after they went bankrupt:
Quote:
Yes it is a bit of a complicated story. The game itself continues, but the company that was responsible for supporting and expanding the game was given up. So basically the game was launched, it didn't generate the cash they hoped, and then the team was let go, while the game goes on with a skeleton team and in a different shape..
The original dev team, Khaeon, has long moved on to other projects and is not affected by this.
Development has know a huge amount of problems. This wasn't entirely unexpected. The game was simply too big and ambitious and development was living hell at times. Still it a shame that it went down of course and I hope the people that were still on the project get hold of a nice new job somewhere else and continue with their careers.
I am amazed that the game got this far. We started it with just 20 people, trying to tackle this huge game. Most were inexperienced, management was far from helpful, and against the odds we actually did succeed at putting down the game. It is far from perfect, and the price we paid for it was too high, but I am proud of the achievement of putting down the impossible.
Here is the latest new from Frogster Asia in regards to its Spellborn's redevelopment:
Quote:
Update on Frogster Asia
The 64% Frogster subsidiary Frogster Asia Co. Ltd. could yet again not reach an agreement on further cooperation with the Dutch licensor Spellborn NV regarding the intended enhancements and publishing of the free to play version of the MMO Game 'The Chronicles of Spellborn' in Asia and is thus forced to close down the development studio and to dismiss all staff who dealt with the free to play version by order of Spellborn NV. Herefrom arises an extraordinary negative P&L effect for the subsidiary which will have a negative impact to the group result in a small to medium six digit Euro amount. The Frogster Interactive management had informed the public several times before about the uncertain outcome of the ongoing talks. On the other side, Frogster Interactive will reclaim the paid prepayments for the product of a seven-digit Euro amount while it is unknown whether the developer could make such a payment. The company has already fully written off all prepayments on Frogster's balance sheet regarding the game so that no noteworthy negative impacts from the balance sheet are impending.
Frogster Interactive will finance the further, not yet break-even operation of 'Runes of Magic' in Korea and, as already announced, the market launch of the MMO Game 'Ghost Fighter' which was recently newly licensed by Frogster Asia from the Chinese market leader Shanda and is scheduled for launch in autumn. This funding will be done per a shareholder loan to Frogster Asia in a medium six-digit Euro amount. At the same time, the holding company will receive a call option on for the acquisition of further stakes in Frogster Asia at face value.
To top that off, while the game was going into redevelopment Acclaim Games decided to host the P2P game on there server for free while the game was becoming converted into a free to play game with an item mall.
Jul 1st. 2009, BluFlash (Site Administrator at Acclaim Games) wrote:
Quote:
Los Angeles, CA (June 29, 2009) – Acclaim Games announces the re-development of their recent MMORPG The Chronicles of Spellborn which was released in February, 2009. The development is planned to carry into 2010 and will include several enhancements and changes to the current game. The enhancements and development of the new model will be carried through a joint venture between Spellborn NV and the development studio of Frogster Asia Co. Ltd. based in Seoul, the Korean studio bringing its expertise in the field of free-to-play and micro-transactions.
After the re-development, the current subscription model will be switched to a free-to-play system supported by micro-transactions. This will open the world of Spellborn to all players and give them a chance to experience the rich lore and game-play in its entirety.
Aug 26th. 2009, TheHistorian (The Community Manager at Acclaim Games) wrote:
Quote:
Today, as you read this, Spellborn as it currently exists is now free to play. Keep in mind that there will be no upgrades and no patches. It has become in effect, an Action RPG with superior Multiplayer. The only thing it will cost you to play is the time it takes to download.
Well during the games redevelopment, Acclaim Games, (the games publisher,) was bought out by a company called Playdom.
So the future of this web site, the future of the servers, and the future of the game itself is all in question. But thats how its been for about a year. The newest news isn't fulfilling anything hopeful. To me, things keep getting worse.
I hope this helps everyone understand what is happening. And, why you will not get a response from anyone to your inquiry.
1. the game will not be supported by the publisher or a developer, (that was pre Playdom.)
2. the publisher was just bought and so the future of the servers and this site are now at risk of getting shut down.
If any other veterans have something to add please feel free to do so.
I got to play it when it first released and I enojoyed it alot. It deem seem to be lacking alot though, and I could only play to a certain part of the trial. It was fun none the less and there were many people through out chat clammering away.
It makes you wonder how many successful fantasy based MMOs have succeeded since WoW?
LOTROL is one, AoC another (although it had a rocky start, it got there in the end) and Aion. WAR more or less failed as did Vanguard. There is EQ2 also and GW.
And when was WoW released? 2003? 7 years ago now.
So few decent fantasy based MMOs with such high demand, this is a terrible indictment for the devs of these type of games
Please correct me if i am wrong and have missed out relatively successfull MMOs(fantasy based ones)
They had some clearly superior mechanics in their gameplay and a beautifull world to back it up. And even a background story to push out a decent PvP setting (5 houses) .
As said above their never was a budget to finish this game and its a miracle that they got this far with just a few millions.
Sad thing is that no other companies picked up the good parts of htis game and implemented them intoo their new projects. Targetting combined with the rolling combat bar and the way you could buff/debuff certain stats hrough use of spells. (i just loved to psuh my red bar up and my oponents bar down, it made me much faster and my opponents really slow.
Next to that they had the perfect deathpennalty for PvE.
Best MMO experiences : EQ(PvE), DAoC(PvP), WoW(total package) LOTRO (worldfeel) GW2 (Artstyle and animations and worlddesign) SWTOR (Story immersion) TSW (story) ESO (character advancement)
Well im from holland and almost zero dutch gamers even know its made btw dutch let alone play it, you see it rarely in shops and there was almost zero advertising over here.
I gues rest of world its even worse.
I dont say its a very good mmo but its not that bad even and combat is a little bit original also at least not same as most mmo's have.
I think dutch dont know how to promote there game or no money to promote it?
Games played:AC1-Darktide'99-2000-AC2-Darktide/dawnsong2003-2005,Lineage2-2005-2006 and now Darkfall-2009.....
In between WoW few months AoC few months and some f2p also all very short few weeks.
What finished Spellborn for me was the staggeringly stale, boring and oft-repeated quests. I've never seen a game that had less interesting quests, and having played Aion and Star Trek Online I know whereof I speak! Honestly, my heart sank every time I saw what the next 'action-packed, fun-filled' quest entailed...
The combat skill system was quite novel, and I liked it. It was a clever way of doing it, clicking on the revolving skill bar as the situation and the cooldowns demanded. But every zone had the usual done-these-for-the-last-five-years "kill X wolves for X" type of quests, "varied" once in a while by "Kill X Boars for X" and by the ever-(un)popular "Take this message/item to X for me" quests. They may have shot themselves in the head to save time, with that level of quest invention.
I'm sad to see it go, though, in a way.
As said in previous posts, there was absolutley no money, not to finish the game and not to promote it.
Best MMO experiences : EQ(PvE), DAoC(PvP), WoW(total package) LOTRO (worldfeel) GW2 (Artstyle and animations and worlddesign) SWTOR (Story immersion) TSW (story) ESO (character advancement)
The game had a lot of good things, it's a pity it failed before it ever took off. They had some odd launch with only certain countries in europe allowed participate and when the smoke cleared it already had very little people playing. Combat was fun though and I really liked the art style. It was zoned with loading screens and the quests were really boring however...
What was funny was the fanboism, which we still see right now, only for other games.
I remember the posts. Themepark games suck, Spellborn is giong to be a REAL game, and it will blow away everything, and you are an idiot if you want to play WoW, or LOTRO, or are waiting on TOR, because Spellborn will rule!
And the same posts about Mortal Online, Darkfall before that, and now what is it? Something else I"m sure.
It's not "innovative gameplay" until it's released, it works, and it's actually fun. Anyone on these forums can type up a list of "features" that sounds cool. But unless they work together in a way that's fun, you don't have a good game.
and gamers dont' wait for you to fix it after release, and then come back.
I played Vanguard, it was buggy as hell, I quit, I didn't go back. I don't want to do the SAME content again, now that it's "fixed", and I think that's the reaction you get from most people.
You get your best shot at release, and if it doesn't work then, you're screwed. I think the devs of The Old Republic know this, and with the backing behind that one and the development put into it, I'll be very surprised if they don't release a game that works pretty damn well right out of the gate.
As you say, every bloody game on the drawing-board that has more than a couple of screenshots, a video trailer and some company blurb underneath it extolling the forthcoming epic game is always leapt on by the fanbois as "The WoW-Killer", "THE Sandbox Game we've all been waiting for....", or "The PvP game that will rule all others". Christ, will they never learn - they've falling for nothing more than what the company SAYS it will be. There Is No Product At That Stage. Nothing but empty promises. They must still believe in Santa, the vast majority of them.
Again, as you say, a poor MMO on launch will NEVER get a second chance. There is no "Magical Patch Of Wondrousness" that will fix everything, in spite of the fanbois nodding sagely and repeating the mantra "Ah, but wait until Patch X comes out in a couple of months...". They do this every time, and they never learn. Hell, the daft buggers even leap like lemmings to buy "Lifetime" subscriptions to a game they haven't even really seen, never mind played!
One sure-fire, tell-tale sign that a game is going to fall flat on it's arse is when the poor fanbois bring out twaddle like "It has potential", or , "It's a Beta" or "Well, look a <game name> because they had a terrible launch too, and look how good it is now". If even the hardcore fambois are reduced to spouting that, it is literally "game over man"... well, to rational people, anyway.
You cannot polish a turd.
Unlike some people here, I didn't really care for the combat system. The spinning wheel thing didn't really do it for me. Aside from that, the game lacked the 'it' factor. After waiting for probably years to see this game launch, when it finally did I played for a few days and lost interest quickly.
On the plus side, I think they had some interesting graphics.
From my few days at the end of beta, it just didn't do anything right enough. The graphics while interesting and weird, were really nothing special. The combat while interesting at first, wasn't interesting enough. I was killing multiple higher level foes by exploiting pathing issues and simple kiting. It was like an action game but not good enough to warrant all the extra clicking. Everything seemed instanced, closed in and on rails. After a few hours, I had a feeling it was DOA.
you can't polish a turd indeed, but this game is playable. i didn't have a problem getting it up and running. Sometimes there's problems with gameguard. You can google those and fix them pretty easy. For a f2p game option with a fun combat system and challenging eviro/creatures it's not bad. It's super quest heavy and having a partner makes it easier. I played for a few months and got kinda bored cuz there are not too many people playing but it was a good experience and I'll probably dip in again at some point if servers are still up.
Well the only plus side I found was that it's free to play. The graphics weren't all that impressive, maybe I'm spoiled.
Waiting for Guild Wars 2, and maybe SWTOR until that time...
See the other threads on this board, apparently the game is being completely shutdown in September 2010. I won't repeat any drawn out laments here (for good laments on a game's death, see Tabula Rasa and The Matrix Online) but will say what the game's positives were for some of us.
The Story. The lore was amazing. They had everything they needed with this IP as far as story content was concerned.
Graphics. The world was unique and well crafted. (Yes this is totally subjective.) And when I say unique I don't mean just standard fantasy fare. These environments were a lot of fun to play in.
Combat. Either you liked it, or didn't. If nothing else, (most) would agree that it was a good idea.
Factions. Amazing potential (like so much else in Spellborn.)
This game was almost there. It had almost everything it needed to succeed. But obviously, potential, good intentions and some good game systems aren't going to bring a game to success.
R.I.P. Spellborn. You'll be missed.
It had two main bugs, one a problem with certain video settings and second a glitch in the login screen, but either one of those was a simple matter of adjusting settings and then only if your computer was not so great. .. in which case there was a degree of lag.
The Quests were GREAT though and it was very playable, it just had NO support at all. No Debugging no professionalism at all, ACCLAIM seriously screwed it up. Acclaim could have dropped all its sub par FTP mmorpgs it has put everything into this one as a PTP MMO and be doing great now, but they treated it like one of their Free to play let it die and ressurect it projects and killed the game. Acclaim should die by a painful burning death.