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For former AC2 Players - READ and tell your Friends
Lmah
Member Posts: 7
Let me start by pointing out that we have, collectively, made absolutely NO EFFORT at trying to get Turbine to relaunch AC2. Online petitions are pretty useless in general, even more so when they aren't even brought to the attention of Turbine. I think it's about time to apeal Turbine on a mass scale.
I did a little digging and found some members of Turbine's Board of Directors and others who attend the Board meetings. If you really want to do something to bring AC2 back, I think this is the best bet. These are the people who control Turbine, they control the funds, they control the decisions, they are the investors. And if you haven't heard, Turbine did some restructuring recently. Jim Crowley is the new President & CEO so maybe they will be open to new ideas. Former President & CEO Jeffrey Anderson's (murderer of AC2) fate is unknown but rumor is that he will remain on the Board of Directors. Jim Crowley, too, obviously attends the meetings and I didn't include him on this list either.
Below is a list of Board members/attendees. I included their fax numbers & email addresses. Fax numbers because there are free fax sites online, (faxzero.com for example) so anyone with 5 minutes to spare who still thinks AC2 is better than any other MMORPG can do their part in trying to get it back. Most free fax sites fax a page of advertisements included with your letter so that should get extra annoying for them 
Email addresses are too easily blocked and I'd recommend spamming them all with letters atleast once a week so FAX or MAIL is probably best. You can get the addresses from their websites, just google the investment firm (example: Highland Capital Partners) and find the person or send it to their (usually Massaschussetts headquarters).
Major Points you might include:
-Turbine All Access Pass
-Advertisements ingame
-Any other reasonable way of making AC2 profitable, these are, afterall, business people
-AC2 is ALREADY MADE, meaning there is 3 years of content, so they wouldn't have to invest any coding for atleast 3 years...
-Don't sell CDs, put Client up for D/L and just sell cdkeys
-Gamers are bored with Tolkien lore
-There are people who still want to play AC2 and have no choice but to play WoW, why give Blizzard that marketshare?
and anything else you can think of...
Anyways, here is the list. Include Jim Crowley the new Pres. & CEO of Turbine and maybe Jeffrey Anderson:
Bob Davis, Managing General Partner - Highland Capital Partners
-Fax: 7818615499 -bdavis@hcp.com
Richard de Silva, Partner - Highland Capital Partners
-Fax: 6506873899 -rdesilva@hcp.com
Stephen D. Arnold, Managing General Partner - Polaris Ventures Partners
-Fax: 2066524666 -sarnold@polarisventures.com
Michael Hirshland, General Partner - Polaris Ventures
-Fax: 7812900880 -mhirshland@polarisventures.com
Alexander B. Suh, Managing Director - California Technology Ventures
-Fax: 6263513702 -asuh@CTVentures.com
Carmen Scarpa, Partner – Tudor Ventures
-Fax: 6177370993 - cscarpa@tudorventures.com?
Dan MacKeigan, Principal - Tudor Ventures
-Fax: 2038631868 - dmackeigan@tudorventures.com?
-Fax: 6177370993
Jeff Patterson, Partner - Columbia Capital
-Fax: 7812902241 - jpatterson@colcap.com?
Jim Fleming, Partner - Columbia Capital
-Fax: 7812902241 - jfleming@colcap.com?
Rohit Dixit, Associate - Columbia Capital
-Fax: 7812902241 - rdixit@colcap.com?
Comments
AC2 was OK, but not great. It needs to stay dead. There's no reason now that it would be popular or profitable. It's old. Turbine would just lose more money.
Ok I'll bite.
I think there could be potential out of AC2 for turbine just purely on the financial front as you listed. AC2 was basically the first "2nd Gen" MMORPG released and it really failed in the Vanguard Sense. Good game but it was released far to early and buggy. The game didn't fail on the gameplay itself but on a ton of other reasons. Had AC2 been given another year of dev time, the game would still be around today. When AC2 was released it was far to ambitious for that current generation of hardware. AC2 had alot of personality with the 3 races and the 2 extras with the xpac.
I think the easy part for Turbine would be using far less resources required to develop a re-released AC2. Basically they can take the old AC2 game and bring it up to speed with the current engine that DDO and LoTRO use. I know the Legions xpac was developed with the same world builder that was used on LoTRO.
It also would make sense for an all access pass as it really give Turbine 3 distinct games that compliment each other. AC2 is more sandboxy and is not contained by the lore like DDO and LoTRO as Turbine completely owns the IP and are free to choose how they want to develop it. It also could be their game that appeals more to the pvp crowd which DDO and LoTRO don't.
Plus the game could be F2P or offer a lifetime sub for a reasonable amount. Or they include it free with either a DDO or LoTRO subscription to give the customer more incentive to stay subscribed. Open up 1 PVE server and 1 PVP server.
I would only suggest this if Turbine has no plans for adding anything new to the AC franchise as they would be better off continuing AC1 in a shiny new package.
Re-release AC2 and you get instant 500$ from me for lifetime sub.
REALITY CHECK
I'd pay the $500 for a lifetime subscription.
I miss ac2, would love for them to have a all-acces pass.
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I would for sure re-up if they brought it back. They could model it after Dungeon Runners, just an opinion.
Towards the end when Legions came out I would say that is what AC2 should have started out with. The game worked and was a lot of fun, but you only get once chance to make an impression it seems and people will quickly move on.
I agree with your major points, they sound like it would work.
I miss my little low level drudge.
.. .... .- - . - .-. --- .-.. .-.. ... .-- .... --- .-. . .--. --- .-. - .-.-.-
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Promote what you love instead of bashing what you hate.
AC2 deserved to die, let's leave it that way.
If they updated AC with new graphics, then I might consider it, but never AC2.
These kind of statements are starting to get very old
Update AC2 to the new engine build, fix all the niggling stuff that remained at the end and polish the sucker up -- I'd buy a lifetime in a heartbeat!
Playing: Everthing
Played: DAoC,AC2,EvE,SWG,WAR,MXO,CoX,EQ2,L2,LOTRO,SB,UO,WoW.
I have played every MMO that has ever come out.
AC2 had a lot of disappointment from the AC1 crowd when they were used to a keystroke system, a free skill system, and an eye-catching amount of live events.
AC2 delivered none of that .. I really wish the game was a build off of the perks and feeling of AC1. Afterall, it is a sequal, right? If they brought it back as a REAL AC2, I'd give it another shot.
Otherwise, let the game go.. it has some promise but wasn't done correctly.
I would play AC2 if it would be rereleased but pay for it no.
It also must be like darktide was not the carebear version.
There are these days so many free mmorpgs on market even good ones, ac2 becouse its old should also be free to play.
Turbine should make a business model to buy ingame items or make it posible with adds.
So all who wanne play it can play it free and ones who wanne buy items or lets say new races they make possible with last addon so they can buy it the drudge for example.
Ac2 specially on darktide was a superb game, but it need players now mmo market grow in last few years so HUGE i think there is a market still for games like AC2.
It deservers a second chance its not that bad as some say look at SHADOWBANE man that game sucks and looks AWAFULL but still around to play for free, then AC2 should be up and running to, its 100% better then SHADOWBANE.
But to say it looks bad becouse of grafics is untrue many games today even ac looks wursh.
Asheron calls 2 must be LAUNCHED AGAIN, GO FOR IT TURBINE I KNOW YOU WANT IT TO:p
At least you make your loyal fans who bought the expansion happy!
My 2 cents from ac2 vetran.
Hope to build full AMD system RYZEN/VEGA/AM4!!!
MB:Asus V De Luxe z77
CPU:Intell Icore7 3770k
GPU: AMD Fury X(waiting for BIG VEGA 10 or 11 HBM2?(bit unclear now))
MEMORY:Corsair PLAT.DDR3 1866MHZ 16GB
PSU:Corsair AX1200i
OS:Windows 10 64bit
The darktide version was still much better then wow pvp server:)
Hope to build full AMD system RYZEN/VEGA/AM4!!!
MB:Asus V De Luxe z77
CPU:Intell Icore7 3770k
GPU: AMD Fury X(waiting for BIG VEGA 10 or 11 HBM2?(bit unclear now))
MEMORY:Corsair PLAT.DDR3 1866MHZ 16GB
PSU:Corsair AX1200i
OS:Windows 10 64bit
I'm late to the thread but here's my 2 cents.
Would I pay to play again? You bet.
Was AC1 better? In some ways way better. Truer to a RPG. It was (IMHO) more hardcore. But, to this day my friends and I still talk of the good old days in AC1 and AC2. The most fun though... AC2. I mean FUN like LMAO stuff. We loved AC2 but it wasn't so serious like AC1. And I/we liked that. None of us were power lvl'ers or anything (well not in AC2 at least). We loved AC1 and we loved AC2. But to this day we still just laugh about the old stories. "Remember that time when...". ;^)
Things I would love to see if AC2 came back...
1. Add some NPC vendors like AC1. You know, real towns that had a good selection of items. Buildings with doors, etc.
2. An auction house. Be it only in game drops/crafts or "bonus" items from Turbine. In game or IRL money.
2b. Better crafting. I hated crafting stuff that wasn't as good as the drops I would get within a week of lvl'ing. (If not sooner.) BTW this is a gripe of mine about most MMOs.
3. An eye/ear candy update might be needed, though I don't really need it I know some would.
4. PvP a must.
I think many of your wishes were already put in the game...
1. Vendors came to AC2, but not npc vendore selling basic stuff, it was more a auction house type vendor. they were placed inside various buildings and trees (omishan)
2. Did you try crafting 2.0? a pretty hardcore crafting system, but the items created was better then most loot items. (I think the balance was; 1 out 100 loot was better than crafted.) And with spellbinding, you could create some really unique items... miss this crafting system
4. did you play when they introduced war alter and peace shrine? with the war alter you could go "red" and PvP anywhere - anytime, except inside kingom shrines. After 3 days, if you wished, you could use the peace shrine and go "white" again. Kingdom vs Kingdom got alt more interesting
I realize some of you liked AC2 but you have to realize you're in an extreme minority.
I was involved with AC2 from closed beta and it was clear early on it was not a good game and there was not much leadership involved in the direction of the game.
They promised alot and delivered on very little of it. Many issues were raised during beta and nearly all of it was ignored. Alot of things were not working correctly or were outright broken(turrets, buildings you can't walk in to, forges not working, chat broken for months after release).
Top that off with the billing fiasco for European players on release day and it was a recipie for disaster.
AC2 was a bad game, with bad leadership, and bad implementation.
The players didn't deserve how they were treated in the end with the shut down right after the expansion, but that really typifies how things went throughout the life cycle of the game.
Einherjar_LC says: WTB the true successor to UO or Asheron's Call pst!
This post smells like a whiny AC1 fan who didnt get their precious game with updated graphics. Cry me a river!
During Ac2's last year it became a very good game, beleive or not... And minority?. offcourse we are, just as AC1 fans are also a minority. Did you know AC2 had more subs then AC1 when it was closed?
Yeh in beginning alot of bugs and chat was for while terrible but they fix it and done nothing? ......, they released almost everymonth for 3 years new content.
This game was better then most out there specially on darktide i had some awsome times there and for me it was superior to pvp in wow.
Ac2 was surtenly not a bad game peeps like you from beginning demonize ac2 on the net and ingame, you damn whiners bah:(, thats why it failed.
Hope to build full AMD system RYZEN/VEGA/AM4!!!
MB:Asus V De Luxe z77
CPU:Intell Icore7 3770k
GPU: AMD Fury X(waiting for BIG VEGA 10 or 11 HBM2?(bit unclear now))
MEMORY:Corsair PLAT.DDR3 1866MHZ 16GB
PSU:Corsair AX1200i
OS:Windows 10 64bit
I know it's fun to dream, but that's all it is. This game is never coming back online. It's sad to think that a fully developed game is just sitting on tapes somewhere.
Perhaps if you could buy the game altogether from them, then open source the code. Even if you agreed to not profit from the game but just have player run servers it might find a new life.
From time to time i google to see if someone somewhere running a private AC2 but so far no luck so i keep dreaming like i do with darkfall:)
Hope to build full AMD system RYZEN/VEGA/AM4!!!
MB:Asus V De Luxe z77
CPU:Intell Icore7 3770k
GPU: AMD Fury X(waiting for BIG VEGA 10 or 11 HBM2?(bit unclear now))
MEMORY:Corsair PLAT.DDR3 1866MHZ 16GB
PSU:Corsair AX1200i
OS:Windows 10 64bit
May I ask how long you played for?This post smells like a whiny AC1 fan who didnt get their precious game with updated graphics. Cry me a river!
During Ac2's last year it became a very good game, beleive or not... And minority?. offcourse we are, just as AC1 fans are also a minority. Did you know AC2 had more subs then AC1 when it was closed?
I listed well documented reasons why I and many others felt the game was broken. But in true AC2 fan fashion, you attack the messenger instead of addresing the message.
But here goes anyways.....
I played until 6 months after release.
It became very clear to me at that point that AC2 under it's current leadership was not going to get better. I followed through the Jessica Mulligan period and things got marginally better if at all.
My point stands whether I'm a "whiny AC1 fan" or not. AC2 was a broken game in beta and long into release....until the last year apparently.
Speaking of, it's great that AC2 was good in it's last year but do you realize how ridiculous that sounds? The first couple of years the game was horribly broken and they bled subscriptions, as they should for it but it's ok, they got things together the last year it was up and running...at that point very few cared any more.
AC2's subscriptions at close is nothing to brag about. As a big name, second genreation title, the game never came close to the subs AC1 had at it's peak or overall. Secondly, while your statement may be true(I'd like to know where you get this info), AC2 was only out roughly 3 years. You are comparing a relatively new game to one that had been out 3 years at that point and had already seen it's peak years pass. Never the less AC1 is still up and running 8 years later, AC2 is not only after 3 years so I dispute your subscription statement.
Einherjar_LC says: WTB the true successor to UO or Asheron's Call pst!
True where maybe in minority but if a game like shadowbane still is free to play and that game sucks major, ac2 is surtenly good to be a free game to play.Yeh in beginning alot of bugs and chat was for while terrible but they fix it and done nothing? ......, they released almost everymonth for 3 years new content.
This game was better then most out there specially on darktide i had some awsome times there and for me it was superior to pvp in wow.
Ac2 was surtenly not a bad game peeps like you from beginning demonize ac2 on the net and ingame, you damn whiners bah:(, thats why it failed.
AC2 failed because of the whiners?
Hardly.
It was demonized by players like myself from the beginning because it was broken, you even admit it yourelf. They were told throughout beta about the broken issues and did nothing to fix many of them and then released the game in that state. They deserved to be demonized. It was unaccpetable to release a game in the state that AC2 was at launch, and it paid the ultimate price by being the first major "second gen" game to shut down.
Secondly, how am I a whiner if what I state is true? Why should I praise a game and it's publisher for not delivering on what they promised and what they did deliver on was broken in alot of cases? I'm not just complaining because my character wasn't powerful enough or got nerfed.....that's whining. Pointing out how many CRITICAL things were not working AT ALL(chat, unenterable buildings, forges) is deserved critcism.
Einherjar_LC says: WTB the true successor to UO or Asheron's Call pst!
AC2 had its chance when it was live. All they needed was to hit the threshold of 35k subs to keep it live (rumor, I don't remember the source of that) which it never did in its last year.
Players voted with their wallets. It sucks to part of a community that lost their game but what can you do? The game had its chance and thats how it went.
Turbine didn't let it go to waste though, they used the engine for DDO and LotRs.
There are rumors that Turbine is working on a new "secret" MMO project (whats with all this "secret" crap from MMO companies lately?) Logically, IMHO, a total remake of the AC franchise would make the most sence. Again thats my opinion if it is even true. AC is just to old and AC2 has way to much bad baggage attached to it. It would be stupid to reserect a game that died off in the first place.
Just like the SWG vets, let it go. Look forward not back. The market and technology have changed, even if they re-released it, it could not compete against newer MMO's. All they would maybe draw back is some of the old players, who were not numerous enough to keep it running anyway.
If it was me over there I would redevelope the AC franchise, and when the new game was ready...ease the current AC pop (a really small pop by the way) over with some sort of migration program and shut the old one down and market the new game normally. At that point the newer game could compete with whats out there and on the way. Seeing as the AC franchise does enjoy a great deal of fond nostagia from MMO players in general, I don't see a massive failure unless its a poorly made game.
I'm an idiot though, what do I know