After the Family & Friends Test, the upcoming Free-to-play online role-playing game ArcheAge officially enters the Alpha phase. To celebrate this significant step towards release, there’s also a trailer on top.
With this announcement, the non-disclosure agreement (NDA) is also lifted, meaning the participating players can take pictures, record videos, and even stream live – and now comes the crucial point – they can also report publicly about it.
Initially, the diligent community members will receive the coveted entry into the game. However, it won’t be long before more chosen ones can get a ticket to the world of the localized version of ArcheAge. According to the publisher Trion Worlds, there will soon be key giveaways, and for players who have registered on the official site, there’s also a chance to “win” access to the Alpha from the random pool.
Alpha or not, ArcheAge is ready soon
Why a MMORPG that has already been released for quite some time still has to be labeled as Alpha remains a mystery to me. Since these terms are already totally blurred, it’s only a matter of time until development and testing phases after Beta are declared Gamma, Delta, and Epsilon.
ArcheAge is by no means still a game that needs to go through several development stages before release in the West and expand significantly in functionality, as it would otherwise be unsuitable for the market.
It’s known that the game is struggling with some weaknesses in Korea and Russia, but that’s rather due to the game design. Moreover, we know that the game is mostly already translated. While this might have been difficult, it has almost nothing to do with programming. The content that is changed in the course of westernization mostly involves adjustments and not entirely new content.
That said, I am really looking forward to my first visit to ArcheAge, because the open world offers, based on the renowned Cryengine, truly beautiful settings, interesting peoples and races, as well as a variety of features that nearly every MMO fan would relish. Whether it’s eventful sea adventures, ahoy, spectacular castle battles, boom, or the dream of having my own four walls, hurray – it seems that a lot of possibilities are offered here. The only question left for me is whether I will like the implementation.
Speaking of Housing
A guiding introduction to player housing and farms in ArcheAge was released almost simultaneously. Housing is a feature that has become indispensable in online role-playing games and is increasingly mutating into a must-have.
Additionally, this is a special form of housing because, unlike many other variants in the genre, these are not instantiated. If players collaborate properly and the structures created by the game allow it, villages or even imposing cities can be built collectively. Sandbox indeed.
Thinking back to Ultima Online, it was incredibly fun to be part of a neighborhood and chat with other acquaintances in front of your houses. The fact that one can also make a name for oneself as a farmer through the farms, in addition to the builder business, sounds very entertaining in combination with the player-driven economy.
According to the introduction, there are several plans for the houses available, meaning that depending on wealth, a whole range of possible dream houses in various dimensions is available: From a small hut to a middle-class domicile, all the way up to an opulent villa. Let’s hope that there won’t be any bottlenecks in the open world. This became a problem in Russia. After a relatively short time, most places were already occupied. You can reach the English guide here. If you are not proficient in this language, you can alternatively just watch the following video.
http://youtu.be/n_TMl3a3Pf4
