Asheron's Call 2 - Interview

[Fantic1980]

The worst thing that happened to AC2 was when Microsoft was the publisher. The game was HORRIBLE to play at time, because it was laggy in raids and mobs your own lvl, 2 hit you. Mobs would be able to dodge all missile attacks by just moving one pixel left or right.

Loved playing Tact and FI so much, but the game was just so full of bugs.

Doing a Demios run with a £5,000 computer at the time would give me 5 fps at most. Eidalon crashed the whole server.

[KENNYokdonthave2yell]

It was NOT a forced group game... I played it to the end and was able to solo whenever I wanted.. dunno what you are talking about!!!

Loved the game... Wish I could play it again :(

[finsfan13us]

It was buggy, then they turned it into a forced group game, EPIC FAILURE

[Xanerithe]

I miss Asheron's Call 2

[Chronicle2150]

I want my Lugian Elementalist back :(. I miss my little sand minions D:

[Insidious1]

I want my tumerok zealot back you bastards

[Quivna]

so its this fat guy that doesnt wanna give our AC2 back to the people

[CSDragon31]

I'd say they hit the mark with DDO Unlimited, they should take more from that.

[bosmer26]

Sorry i don't know the legality of the issue.I just wish it would come back.I was really upset when the ac2 emu projext ended :o(

[bosmer26]

I don't understand why these companies just can't sell the rights to this game to someone else for cheap.Or just make it free to play.Why punish the players who loved the game.(ac2,dark and light,shadowbane)

Including many other games.

[ACGuy31]

@bosmer26 In the case of Turbine, it was due to source code from the AC2 engine being used to build the engines for DDO and LOTRO.

[Jsimp0487]

@ACGuy31 Truth! +1

[ACGuy31]

@bosmer26 In the case of Turbine, it was due to shared source code for the Turbine Enginer.

[IMRavnos]

@bosmer26 I agree, although as fun as AC2 was, it had zero end game content for the most part and let's face it, for every 3 steps forward it took from MMORPGs at the time it also took 2 steps back. No cities, no merchants etc...

However AC2 was the first MMORPG to utilize a well rounded skill tree system and it invented Intant quests and questing as being the best way to level. Before AC2 grinding was the best way to level and quests gave next to no exp.

I's hoping for AC3

[Shadowmask49]

this guy needs to take a better look at Ac1 lol mr ceo

[ACGuy31]

He's no longer the CEO of Turbine, Inc.

[randlox]

Worst MMO ever.

[rsaint]

AC2 was the best gaming experience ever to me, people that say the game was bad don't know what they talking, game had problems with bugs, but after 1,5 years of developing it was a good game, bring AC2 back Turbine, stop being dumb :(

[woodsta1992]

uggh i loved my huge tyrant i had!1

[Lilarcors]

God .. This .. Was just, something I will never forget, In my mind, No Online game would even compare to this game. I still remember farming for mounts. Hunting Quest mobs on Omnishan. Killing Burons for Ebon. To camp a big Spawnsite and just harvest exp. To do Instances. Just it was amazing.

[aeasus]

Turbine making a desperate attempt to stimulate revenue by making DDO F2P, holding millions in AC2 developement = just collecting dust, less than half the subs currently in AC then when AC2 wasn't financially feasible, which means LOTRO is the only real paycheck Turbine has. And they have to pay investors and a lease agreement on that IP.

Unless Turbine is working on a new release they look prime for a corporate takeover.

So why let AC2 collect dust when it's a paid for solely owned IP?

DUH

[ACGuy31]

Turbine is always developing new games. Just because you haven't heard about what is in the works, doesn't mean something isn't in the works. As for AC having less subscribers than AC2, I find that hard to believe. AC2 was running three servers when it closed down, one of which (Darktide) seldomly hit 20 players during peak hours.

[Kaynos]

The reason it failed is mention in the first few seconds of the interview when he talk about going beyond AC1.  What fans wanted was the game mechanic to be similar to the original game.

[ACGuy31]

It could have succeeded even without the support of AC1 fans. The reason it didn't, was because there were a lot of stability issues at launch. The beta was almost unplayable and game had numerous memory leaks and would bring even the strongest systems at the time to a crawl. There was also very little interaction with the world and no NPC vendors.

[snailman44]

Ac2 could have been an amazing game. I played it since opening day and can tell you it downfall was that it was released waaay too soon. They had to rework all the class's and mobs as the player base became nothing more then beta testers but paying for it. Shame really.

[lingojac]

i haven't played AC2, but i've seen clips of some of the most amazing-looking environments in MMOs at its time

[forestchild2003]

I started with AC but im maybe one of few who had more fun in AC2then ac:)

I realy dunno why i always see ac2 as one of my best mm's sinds '99

[Yorboxl]

im in the same boat as you ;_; god i miss it so much

[ladyfeathertail]

The best MMO I've ever played to be honest. I've played alot of games from WoW, DDO, Age of Conan, Lord of the Rings Online. And nothing compares to AC2.

Bring it back Turbine!!! PLEASE.

[ACGuy31]

I think a lot of the appeal in AC2 had to do with the unique setting and character classes. The gameplay in WoW and LotRO is very similar to AC2.

[lupine73]

Indeed. AC2 stood apart in so many ways. A friend of mine and I talk about that game fondly all the time; about how we miss playing our respective characters... the Vaults.. the different areas.. the bizarre creatures... and on and on.

It might be a fool's hope... but I'm with all the others hoping AC2 can be brought back somehow.

[Tsutomu6]

I realy wish too...

[Tsutomu6]

I disagree, I've had lots of fun Raiding in WoW. But the atmosphere in AC2 is non comparable to any other MMO.

The comunity was alot better. In WoW you have to reroll if a class is overnerfed. In AC2 you just reskilled and you could stick to your caracter.

It was my first MMO, so my view is pretty subjective.

[tubefu]

@ACGuy31

gameplay is vastly different. ac2 gave you lot more freedom. archers shot from 100 yards away. i set up 4 arrow attacks that land at the same time. can't do that in other games. tacticians stayed in one place and fought with turrets and walls. collision is a major factor and made pets and pvp work as intended. overall combat feels very responsive and intense, which i never felt in wow or lotro. group play, group quests and group camps were great times. bad idea to remove camping.

[ACGuy31]

@tubefu I enjoyed AC2, expecially after they released Legions. They resolved countless long-standing bugs, as well as introduced a large amount of fresh content. As a game seperate from the original, it was a lot of fun. As a sequel to the original, I wish it had things like collision detection and a vast spell and skill system.. as well as more of the creatures found in the original setting.

[Dymmy83]

Funnest game ever. No mmorpg has had the breadth and scope this had. Community was so great, could dye armor, no instances, pet dragons, open worlds, great lore, monthly updates to the story... le sigh. I will never forget it.

[evillizard3]

ive played both games (ac1,ac2:legions)legions was so much beter in every aspect.but sadly they closed it it was to buggy at the beginning and not enough advertizing,i think it could have a come back w/ a fiew advertizments.BRING AC2 BACK

check out the ac2 emulator

[dehlz]

great graphics for its time (and even today) but boy was this game boring and nothing like the original

[arboachg]

not anymore...ac1 as it currently is blows. id much rather play ac2 again. this is coming from a guy who played both games in their beta periods.

[subconjus]

BRING BACK AC2 !!!

[adidaac]

the regular asherons call was way better then the second one. had a great community way better then WOW. skills every thing was a ten. when they started making healing potions that is when every thing went down hill. people went solo and did their own thing, and eventually ended the epic battle. the second one had to many bugs, the next should be AC the revival and have every thing they had in the first one

[Ymgarl]

AC2 was very buggy, true, but by the end, it was completely fixed. It was much better than any other games around

[hybridx2k]

what i wouldnt do to bring this game back!

[DangerousGother]

man i miss it badly, bring it back

[ac2bdd]

wow ... a very old video.

[Soliturna]

Jeff Anderson made a bad choice in closing AC2 I hope the new CEO has some balls makes some history in bringing this game back!

[feelmyice]

I seriously miss AC2. The ambiance and atmosphere was amazing. The visuals were very stunning. I guess they just realize that there is no chance with competitive WoW since their hogging all the MMO market share.

[ACGuy31]

I completely agree. It was a beautiful game.

[Lmah84]

We're still pretty active on the VN boards (they are linked with the ac2hq site). We are going over ways to get the game brought back up.

[ACGuy31]

I think the only hope is that Turbine, Inc. eventually releases Asheron's Call 2 as an open source project.

[wildauddie]

He said in the opening that there are big differences. It was never intended to be AC1 with better graphics. So it makes sense that it didn't appeal to ever AC1 player. What's too bad is once AC2 got good (after bug fixes) they closed it.

[ACGuy31]

Aye. Those bugs needed to be fixed before the game ever launched. It was rushed out the door.

[atbestvague]

thats where he screwed up the formula :(

"we wanted to let the player get into the game as fast as possible... there arent really any bad choices to be made...instead of focusing on numbers and stats"

you made a brilliant looking game, called it AC..... and didnt make it like AC! SO CLOSE BUT NO CIGAR :'(

It's so sad that the best gameplay had a shot at being shiney enough to attract people who cant decide what good gameplay is.... and they screwed it all up :(

[ACGuy31]

I wasn't a fan of the skill system, but it was a fun game. Unfortunately, it had a horrible launch after a beta riddled with bugs.