Comments on: Chronicles of Spellborn pushed back to January

By: David

David — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 00:35:31 +0000

Forgot, and keeping in mind this is the company’s first, it’s a hell of an achievement.

-Currently addicted to beta so I have to get back to it now :)

By: David

David — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 00:33:58 +0000

Having been in the closed eta and now playing the open beta I must say this game rocks. Although if you are purely a statbased mmo’er keep in mind playerskills (dodging for example) are dependent on you not your level.

I hope they get this game grounded with a nice playerbase, I absolutely believe it deserves a chance as a breath of fresh air through the stat driven mmo genre.

As a not so stat loving (nor hating) mmo’er this will be my next mmo.

By: Tipa

Tipa — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 19:13:25 +0000

@Sente — I am definitely sharing that lack of confidence. I have this horrid feeling that we in the English speaking part of the world will have a great game robbed from us by an indifferent publisher.

Isn’t this about the time SOE steps in and saves the day?

By: Sente

Sente — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 19:09:04 +0000

Acclaim will probably have a closed beta because they had that written in the original plans and perhaps in the agreement with Spellborn NV and they will follow that to the letter.

“Oh my we screwed up with the preparations for the release date. But we will promise them that we will do everything else that we agreed upon!”

And the Acclaim release is set to “January 2009″ – not any specific date and that is 1-2 months away. If they cannot set anything more specific than a month I cannot say that I am not that confident in their ability to be ready and handle the game.

By: Tipa

Tipa — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 18:41:24 +0000

@Bildo — hearing the reactions of someone I trust and has seen the game recently would be amazing :)

By: JoBildo

JoBildo — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 18:34:25 +0000

The NDA is down today apparently… I’ll have to think hard about whether to just write up what I liked and didn’t like. Due to many reasons I wasn’t able to spend much time in beta until recently, and since I’ve been able to… I’ve had AoC, WAR, work, school, TTH work, and other things going on.

So yeah… I’m not the best judge of how good the game is past the first few levels. Maybe I’ll do a “new players experience” type thing.

By: Tipa

Tipa — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 16:52:07 +0000

@Toldain also note, re: embarrassing American English/British English goofs that the Acclaim version is for both NA, UK, and most other English-speaking countries. (I imagine the other English-speaking countries in Africa will piggyback off South Africa, and Singapore will be included with the other Asian countries).

@Edge we’ll see the game sometime!

By: Openedge1

Openedge1 — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 16:42:01 +0000

“some marketing exec got a reminder on his BlackBerry to “step up Spellborn promotion” and had to ask around until someone remembered what Spellborn WAS”

OMG…you are probably right too.

“Hey, is that an Asian game? Oh…no Cash shop?…Oh…(note to self…I will get to this when I can…)”

Stupid Acclaim!

My favorite was the 2 Moons / Dekaron debacle. It seems that David Perry said they only bought the “engine”, and would be making the game more for Western Audiences.

I played the Japanese version of Dekaron, and when I tried 2 Moons and found the EXACT SAME game, it was pitiful.

Still, 2 Moons is an acceptable grinding Diablo clone for those who want to try it…just ignore the really bad dialog with swear words for no reason.

As to Spellborn…I will mourn your loss…

By: Tipa

Tipa — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 16:31:33 +0000

I guess it depends what websites you follow. Sarkozy always seems to be in the news for some reason.

The reason Spellborn doesn’t need a closed beta is because we were told the game was delayed six months PRECISELY to take care of the issues surrounding the North American launch — translation issues, renting server farms and so on.

Unless it turns out that during this six month delay, Acclaim didn’t do ANYTHING and is now having to play catch up at the very end, well. That’s it, though, isn’t it? They signed a letter of intent back last spring, and then forgot entirely about it until maybe September, when some marketing exec got a reminder on his BlackBerry to “step up Spellborn promotion” and had to ask around until someone remembered what Spellborn WAS.

By: Toldain

Toldain — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 16:23:44 +0000

I can think of one reason for a closed US beta, with variations. There’s stuff involved with either the localization from British English to American English that’s potentially embarrassing, or the hosting solution is ragged, and also potentially embarrassing and they don’t want horror stories leaking out. Hard to say whether it’s a good reason unless you get in the closed beta.

I wouldn’t call that a good sign, but there it is. Then there’s the people-are-stupid reason. Americans and American media, as a rule, don’t pay much attention to what’s going on in Europe.