I’m keeping tabs on a game called ArcheAge. From what I can tell, this sandbox MMO is being developed for the North American audience by a Korean company… or Russian… heck, I don’t know. However, they currently do not have a North American publisher. Despite a lack of any real information about the game’s future, plenty of neat screenshots and videos come my way. Over at our forum community we have a board dedicated to upcoming games. In our Archeage thread you’ll find plenty of goodies to go through.
In the past I have written that this game looks too good to be true. Honestly, my opinion hasn’t changed. How can one game accomplish such dynamism and complete player ownership of the world like they’re telling and even showing. I’m waiting for the catch to be revealed or the big revelation that it’s all one massive joke. Technically, until this game releases somewhere it may as well be one cruel tease.
One of the videos I really like shows boat combat between players.
Read more for screenshots.
Here are some beautiful screenshots.
 
I’ve been watching this too. Readying myself for being disappointed again too.
Archeage is a Korean MMO being developed for a Korean audience first. Sometime after release, it’s expected to be translated over into English. All I can say is that so far everything I’ve seen from the game looks amazing. I keep tabs on it at http://archeage-online.com/ Lots of good information and videos there for anyone who’s interested.
Keen during the Korean closed beta events tons of people live stream on twitch… It’s a real game. You can find people stream recordings on there.
Sorry Keen, off topic but http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwhWtl7IcEQ&feature=player_embedded
Is this dev a brother of yours or something?
@Bartillo
You know Keen was commenting on that in tongue and cheek right? Haha
http://www.archeagesource.com is also a really good resource. That is where those screen shots came from. A lot of Beta testers comment there.
@Jim
mutable world + permadeath? I wish the guy all the luck in the world, he’ll need it, the only people playing it will be himself and immediate family/friends/sycophants. That is, of course if it ever evolves beyong vapourware.
I really wish the boarding combat in Pirates of the Burning Sea could have been like that video.
I read somewhere that it was being developed with the NA market in mind. Now I can’t, when needed, find that article. Anyway, yes my comments were tongue-in-cheek. I know the game exists, but it is shrouded in such a mystery right now.
@blargh you never played haven and hearth did you?
Salem is a spiritual successor to that game.. perma death can happen just like in H&H but when you make your new char you transfer some of the skills from your first and you get all the property back.. so its not a total loss.
Theirs this whole ancestor system in H&H about praying to your past lives for benefits etc.. Sounds like it’ll be similar in Salem.
Its an incredibly ambitious project. I cringe at anything made by Koreans though… Aion flashbacks.
http://archeagesource.com/topic/636-archeage-cbt4-review-and-extensive-game-info/
best review of the current game.
The sieging kind of turns me off. its 50 vs 50 and everyone else is locked out of the area of the siege.
They are thoroughly testing the game though. Many many beta cycles each adding more and more stuff. They also have excess of 30 million in the bank so funding should also not be a problem. The guy who is making it made the original lineage and worked on UO back in the day. be basically brought MMO gaming to Korea.
“The sieging kind of turns me off. its 50 vs 50 and everyone else is locked out of the area of the siege.”
I see that as a good thing.
Unlike war in “real life”, which is a job, this is just a game. You have to have mechanisms to ensure balance so everybody has fun.
Have you seen this btw Keen?
http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/790/feature/6167/Game-of-Thrones-GDC-2012-Game-of-Thrones-Goes-Sandbox-Warfare.html
Mero you know there have been plenty of games that have sieging that dont block people out or cap numbers and are extremely fun? This is not a concept foreign to game mechanics or developers.
@ wuf
50v50 was a beta cap only. It is supposed to be 100v100 on release and the Devs stated it could increase based on testing. I agree that restricting seiges does kind of suck, but 100v100 should be more the enough to accomodate people.
Yeh, even that still destroys the randomness factor. My biggest fear of this is game that you will be able to do all these sandbox features but non of them will connect to each other in a meaningful way.
@wufiavelli
Developed by an original UO member or one who brought UO to the Korean market? Either way that sounds promising to me!
@bart, ooh, thanks for that clarification, thats one more title on the long-term watchlist for me
back on topic: I am sure I will be checking out Archeage come the day. I would be extremely surprised if it is not at least as good as any other “3-monther” as Keen calls ’em :p
@The Merovingian: Looks like it may end up being a gimmicky money grab. We’ll see.
@50v50 or 100v100 comments: I don’t like siege caps, myself.
I’d thought this was just going to be another Korean grindfest, with bells on, but your post prompted me to do a little research: their are comments in a couple of interviews with Jake Song, that the game is intended for the western market. At best though a western version looks at least a year away, on the optimistic side, given that it will probably release in Korea later this year and there is no indication of localisation for the western market yet.
The PvP rules look interesting. Apparently there are 3 continents. One is FFA PvP, whilst the other two have somewhat more restricted rules (inter factional is deterred), but still not consensual. There’s no full looting, but you can loot what a player has in their backpack. This could be a good compromise that would mean that one isn’t constantly being ganked by 12 year olds, whilst starting out, and can hang onto a few of one’s possesions. Anyway it’s encouraging that XL games have actually thought about PvP rules, at this stage, which is a rarity in itself.
@Keen: aye, I just realized that German company which is doing the game isn’t very trustworthy. Too bad, “Game of Thrones” + “MMORPG” + “Sandbox” sounds very yummmy, but I’m afraid it will be another of those lame browser based crap games.