ArcheAge
This is what ArcheAge was supposed to be: When ArcheAge came to the West in September 2014, it had been considered an interesting sandbox alternative to classic theme park MMORPGs in Korea since January 2013. After all, ArcheAge came from Jake Song, the creator of “Lineage,” and thus had already received much praise ahead of time.
Players could move more freely in the world of ArcheAge than in western MMORPGs like WoW.
Crafting, house building, and trading were the focus.
The game was marketed as a “sandpark” MMORPG, meaning a game in which players could unfold freely and really live.
Why was the hype so big? ArcheAge was a free-to-play game and had a good reputation from Korea. In Korea, it was still in the midst of development and appeared to many as the “next big thing”.
Moreover, at that time, things were quite slow in the West, and the hunger for a new MMORPG was already huge: After all, WoW was again in one of its content-poor years.
WildStar and The Elder Scrolls Online had indeed been released in 2014, but they had been rather disappointing at launch. ArcheAge appeared as a strong alternative to capture the free MMORPG players.
Moreover, ArcheAge was so surprised by the influx of players that there were huge queues.
The impression was created that it was a fantastic game that everyone wanted to join. And those who once entered ArcheAge never logged out again. An “AFK kicker” was introduced only later.
Being AFK was good anyway since that was how one regenerated the “energy” needed for activities.
This is how the launch went: Even the beta was well received and played diligently – as launch approached, people stormed Trion Worlds.
ArcheAge is a front-heavy game. In the first hours after a server launch, people dash off to secure the most sought-after building spots. Because those are limited.
It was a sort of “gold rush” and a struggle for the best spots. Many experienced the initial period of ArcheAge incredibly intensely.
Although there were always technical difficulties, the excitement of the new was strong. ArcheAge thrived in the weeks following the launch as players dived into the strange world and experienced new adventures.
In contrast to the western “solo MMORPG”, community and guild were extremely important in ArcheAge.
What went wrong? The western publisher Trion Worlds hurried to capitalize on the huge hype around the game and wanted to quickly roll out the content that had already gone live in South Korea.
However, this led to significant problems. There were server crashes and login difficulties when the crucial “Auroria” update was deployed.
Additionally, the game was constantly under attack from bots, cheaters, and exploiters. There were also severe pay-to-win criticisms directed at the game.
At one point, the servers were unreachable for several days due to technical issues.
Trion Worlds seemed totally surprised by the massive influx of players and was unable to cope with the problems and player masses.
Gradually, the hype around ArcheAge faded, and resentment towards publisher Trion Worlds built up.
What did ArcheAge fail at? Trion Worlds apparently wanted to rush ArcheAge out in September before WoW’s “Mists of Pandaria” released in November 2014. This put ArcheAge under tremendous time pressure in the first weeks.
Additionally, the game was heavily cash shop-oriented for a western MMORPG. Trion Worlds referred to an agreement with the partners at XL Games and that they had little influence over this.
We crowned this partnership in 2014 as the MMORPG flop of the year.
The technical execution was apparently a huge problem for Trion Worlds.
Ultimately, ArcheAge went down in history as a “good MMORPG” that was severely damaged by pay-to-win and poor publisher decisions.
Where does ArcheAge stand now? ArcheAge is still running, and there is supposed to be a renaissance in Korea – however, Trion Worlds no longer exists . Gamigo has acquired the brand, while Trion Worlds was dissolved.
