Tagged News: 9dragons

Recently, WarCry had the chance to talk to Acclaim CEO Howard Marks. We received an update on his company's quest to bring the Eastern MMO business model to Western shores and got a peek at how 2Moons, 9Dragons, BOTS!! and Dance! Online have fared on the open market.

9Dragons

What "free-to-play" really means is that all Acclaim's games are free to download and can be played without the player ever laying down a dime. In 2Moons, for example, the company makes money through in-game advertising that appears in the user interface. In 9Dragons, players can play for free, but also can buy upgrades and customization items securely through Acclaim.

Marks emphasized through that the company is committed to actual free-to-play. One common consumer complaint with the model is that while some games advertise their games as such, many build in an artificial gameplay wall where a player basically is forced to buy items or coin to progress in the game. He says that none of Acclaim's games do this, nor will there ever be any artificial walls.

Read more after the leap.

Acclaim Games' relaunch business model has been about the virtual market and digital download. But a new partnership with SwiftCD.com will allow those who hate lengthy download processes or who just want to have a CD or DVD to get involved.

At the main site, when you click the download option, you will also have the opportunity to to grab the CD/DVD for the cost of shipping. What's nice about this deal, is that the CD/DVDs are made on demand, so it's the latest build available. No patching FTW!

Do you guys think more free to play/digital download games should offer this option? Discuss in the forums!

Looks like 9Dragons has gone offical! And along with the launch of the Kung Fu MMOG by Acclaim, they introduce their Item Mall where players can purchase items for in-game use with Acclaim's proprietary money. Seems like more and more developers are looking at this form of in-house virtual property as a viable financial model.

Click below for more deets!

Open Beta draws to an end and Acclaim is hosting a couple events to thank their testers. One event gives players two hours a day to earn double XP before the beta closes, while a second event on Saturady is a PvP clan war.

Double XP
Earn double Experience Points on Fri, Sat, and Sun
4-6pm PST on US server
4-6pm GMT on EU server

Black and White Clan War (Sat Only)
Starts at 6pm on both US and EU servers
(This event will be turned off if no winner is declared by 9pm)

New PK server coming on April 9
Engage in combat with rival clan members in designated PK zones

You can read the details for yourself over at the 9Dragon Site!

Today we're kicking open the doors on two new websites. Both 2Moons on WarCry and 9Dragons on WarCry debut today with fresh previews from the Game Developers Conference. Both articles are based on interviews with Acclaim CEO Howard Marks by WarCry Senior Editor Dana Massey.

Both websites will bring you the latest news, features and community content on each of these games. With 2Moons and 9Dragons both in beta and slated to launch this year, we're thrilled to get started.

You can read the 9Dragons article here.

For 2Moons, follow this link.

Today we're pleased to debut 9Dragons on WarCry and to celebrate, we took some time during our trip to San Francisco to catch up with Howard Marks, the man who brought Acclaim back to life as an MMO company. In the first of three articles based on this interview, we learn about 9Dragons as it approaches commercial service in April.

"The game is doing well, it's a niche game as you know," Marks told me when asked about the progress in beta. He alluded briefly to a plan that he thinks will "make heads spin" to improve the game's content prior to launch.

He also emphasized the company's belief in consumer feedback. Earlier this year, they commissioned a large survey of questions about 9Dragons. These spanned from gameplay to economics to presentation and with the results in, the team have been hard at work bringing these suggestions to the players. The full results of this survey are available on their website.

You can read more at the link below.

Acclaim now has over 1 million people who have registered for their free-to-play, micropayment powered MMOs. The resurrected brand now offers the casual MMO Bots and the upcoming DANCE! Online, 9Dragons, 2Moons and Top Secret.

You can read more by clicking below.

Steven-Elliot Altman, 9Dragons' Lead Writer, and Howard Marks, the CEO of Acclaim, took the time to answer some questions we had on the game that went into Open Beta today. This martial-arts MMORPG will be the first major title released by the resurrected Acclaim.

WarCry: Are you worried that the far more famous Shaolin or Wu-Tang Clans will attract far more people than the others and hurt the game's balance?

Steven-Elliot Altman: Actually, it's Wu-Tang Clan (the noble clan of peerless swords) and Heavenly Demon Clan (the sinister clan of demonic sabers), who passionately hate one another, that seem to draw the most disciples in-game. As a balance to that, those two clans are actually much more difficult to join, requiring a far greater degree of training and skill. Female players playing female characters dominate Sacred Flower clan, as expected, and Shaolin has an equal number of male players playing Shaolin Monks. The League of Beggars has that great drunken monkey style Kung Fu appeal, and The Brotherhood of Thieves has that Sopranos mentality and some of the coolest wardrobe items. We could let you check our server stats yourself... it's surprisingly well balanced among the six starter clans.

You can read more below.

9Dragons is heading to Open Beta in North America, a press release from Acclaim told us today. They also lumped in an announcement that Acclaim would take over as the operations for Europe, which had been left since Persistent Worlds, the game's European partner, closed late last month.

Find out more at the link below.

The website for Persistent Worlds carries a grim message all game developers and fans fear. "It is with regret that we have to announce that as of Jan 22nd Persistent Worlds has ceased trading. The servers will be shut down in due course," it reads. The sudden news is a blow to Acclaim and almost certainly means the cancellation of Carpe Diem, a fantasy MMORPG the European group was working on.

When contacted by WarCry, Acclaim CEO Howard Marks told us: "9D is doing great in the US with over 160,000 registered users. The game is great and the developer Indy21 is creating lots of new content."

The Persistent Worlds website is here.