there was an article about tcos on kotaku and  the majority of the comments were pretty bad.

They either said its a generic mmo or acclaim sucks why would they make an mmo

Either way I think acclaim is giving off a bad vibe for this because everyone thinks they made it.  Thus making nobody play it.

They should have picked another publisher.

I'm looking forward to trying it none the less. Any game company that's confident enough in it's product to give a non time based trial of it is okay with me. Game developers would do good to follow this trend.

I am looking forward to trying it also. I still think it will be the best MMO to come out this year.

All I'd say to them is try it.  It's going to be free to download, free to play thru 7, it can't hurt to check it out regardless of who is publishing it in NA.

Originally posted by Korvenus

I am looking forward to trying it also. I still think it will be the best MMO to come out this year.

I would have agreed with you, except that as a NA player, it isn't coming out this year.

The freemium model will allow folks to try before they buy, and this will help folks see how the game is, now... whether that will hurt them or help them depends on Acclaims level of service.

Acclaim is going into closed beta from the EU release date on.  I'd say that's pretty bad service to start with.  Wasn't the EU release already pushed back so things could get squared away with Acclaim?

Ah whatever.

have any of you played acclaim's online games?

seriously they do suck, this would be the first game that didnt suck for them (if it doesnt suck...and i hope it doesnt). it really is bad to have their name on it though, probably worse than SOE even; since SOE can at least be credited with SOME great games (even if not currently).

my exact thought when i saw that acclaim picked the game up was "ouch". i dont know who i would have hoped for (EA?  ::sarcasm::) but i will be whole heartedly surprised if it is not the kiss of death for what looked like a totally promising game up to that point.

Well, if it turns out to be true that IP blocking will separate the UK from the rest of Europe, then I believe it too. But for the moment I am willing to give them the benefit of the doubt.

To be honest, I wouldn't want to be playing side-by-side with the fanboys complaining about Acclaim anyway. They would most likely be the bad apples in the community. It honestly isn't hard to do research before giving an informed comment on a game.

EDIT - Does anyone have an idea as to where South Africa will be added in the mix? We're usually placed along with the UK as a result of our English being almost exactly the same and a number of other details. 

there's a big chance they're going to use IP blocking to keep player playing on the countries that are supported by a publisher.

In other words, chances are that Europe is going to be split in THREE parts since the publisher in Europe are Acclaim(UK), Mindscape(Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg and scandinavian countries) and Frogster Interactive(Germany and France).

So people that are in the UK will be FORCED to play with people from the US which is a time diffirence of 12 hours! Instead of letting them play with fellow European players.....

Official announcement has not been made, but if you read the moderators and community managers their responses, IP blocking is 90% chance of been used

Originally posted by L0k1-

there's a big chance they're going to use IP blocking to keep player playing on the countries that are supported by a publisher.

 

In other words, chances are that Europe is going to be split in THREE parts since the publisher in Europe are Acclaim(UK), Mindscape(Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg and scandinavian countries) and Frogster Interactive(Germany and France).

 

So people that are in the UK will be FORCED to play with people from the US which is a time diffirence of 12 hours! Instead of letting them play with fellow European players.....

 

Official announcement has not been made, but if you read the moderators and community managers their responses, IP blocking is 90% chance of been used

How many times do I need to say that Mindscape and Frogster will not be using IP blocking according to CM *Mirage* before it registers?

yes Mirage told me that afterwards

Originally posted by L0k1-

yes Mirage told me that afterwards

Sorry, for over reacting a bit.

Originally posted by Lydon

To be honest, I wouldn't want to be playing side-by-side with the fanboys complaining about Acclaim anyway. They would most likely be the bad apples in the community. It honestly isn't hard to do research before giving an informed comment on a game.

EDIT - Does anyone have an idea as to where South Africa will be added in the mix? We're usually placed along with the UK as a result of our English being almost exactly the same and a number of other details. 

you plainly havent played any of acclaims games if you think the people who say they suck are the bad apples.

for example 2moons: its ok to say fu*k or di*k, but you will get banned for directing it to another player...which kind of negates the use of the words except for people who like just blurting those words out tourettes style.

another class act was being asked for sex @ level 1 in nine dragons.

but yea we are the bad apples for knowing acclaim sucks.

Originally posted by tastethegold

Originally posted by Lydon

To be honest, I wouldn't want to be playing side-by-side with the fanboys complaining about Acclaim anyway. They would most likely be the bad apples in the community. It honestly isn't hard to do research before giving an informed comment on a game.

EDIT - Does anyone have an idea as to where South Africa will be added in the mix? We're usually placed along with the UK as a result of our English being almost exactly the same and a number of other details. 

 you plainly havent played any of acclaims games if you think the people who say they suck are the bad apples.

for example 2moons: its ok to say fu*k or di*k, but you will get banned for directing it to another player...which kind of negates the use of the words except for people who like just blurting those words out tourettes style.

another class act was being asked for sex @ level 1 in nine dragons.

but yea we are the bad apples for knowing acclaim sucks.

You clearly aren't understanding my message. I'm saying that you can't simply write the game off because of the publisher. Making comments such as the comments those people were making without doing an ounce of research into the game is silly and those are the types of people I would prefer not to play with.

I'm glad that they extended the release date, because after being in BETA, it needs work and was not ready to be released this year.  I hope it does well, but I have to say I was dissapointed actually playing the game.

Originally posted by Pyrostasis

The freemium model will allow folks to try before they buy, and this will help folks see how the game is, now... whether that will hurt them or help them depends on Acclaims level of service.

 

They're screwed, then.

Originally posted by Delanor

Originally posted by L0k1-

there's a big chance they're going to use IP blocking to keep player playing on the countries that are supported by a publisher.

 

In other words, chances are that Europe is going to be split in THREE parts since the publisher in Europe are Acclaim(UK), Mindscape(Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg and scandinavian countries) and Frogster Interactive(Germany and France).

 

So people that are in the UK will be FORCED to play with people from the US which is a time diffirence of 12 hours! Instead of letting them play with fellow European players.....

 

Official announcement has not been made, but if you read the moderators and community managers their responses, IP blocking is 90% chance of been used

How many times do I need to say that Mindscape and Frogster will not be using IP blocking according to CM *Mirage* before it registers?

Umm? Delanor, please quote Mirage and post the link. Because from what I understand he said all except UK will not be IP Blocked, meaning Frogster and Mindscape are only railroading UK players to the Acclaim servers. So infact they are IP Blocking just one country the: UK.

If I'm wrong please correct me with proof. Also make sure to post it on the official forums in the petitions and rant threads RE: UK IP Blocking.

Edit: for good measure so you don't bloody miss it Delanor:

@ Delanor: screw it I'll do it for you:

Mirage wrote:

"Hi L0k1-,

For European Territories (except UK) there will NOT be any IP blocking.

Mindscape and Frogster will NOT do any IP blocking."

Found: http://www.tcos.com/sbforum/viewtopic.php?t=15194&highlight=

Clearly he states that IP Blocking will not be in affect except for the fracking UK - so yes AGAIN there will be IP Blocking.
 

That's a bit misleading, and it seems to me like Banshee is having some trouble keeping their own information straight (just my view on it).

The European Open Beta test of Spellborn will start on Saturday the 22nd and will end on Monday the 24th of November. This Open Beta test is only available to European Players from the following European countries:

• Germany
• Austria
• Switzerland
• France
• The Netherlands
• Belgium
• Luxembourg
• Sweden
• Norway
• Denmark
• Finland
 

Source: http://tcos.com/sbforum/viewtopic.php?t=15201

Which is then further added to with: For countries that are not in the list indeed that means no open beta.

Regarding trial, purchase and import of the client, I cannot tell you for sure at the moment, but it is likely that it will be available only for the same countries in the list, at least in the beginning (since a lot depends on things that are not entirely in our control).

Source: http://www.tcos.com/sbforum/viewtopic.php?t=15200&highlight=

Both of those quotes are from Banshee.  It looks to me like more countries than the UK are going to get an IP block.

They made a game that looks nothing short of fabulous to me, they're just having some difficulty in getting the game to the players.  I certainly hope they're directing all of their efforts towards getting their publishers to resolve these issues.

Now, I can certainly see why a publisher would want to protect his "territory" (although I wonder whether it's legally possible to do that, especially within the EU and the free trade contracts between its member states, which do also cover services), I can see that Acclaim fears UK people will play in Europe for more than one reason (better connection, better grouping option due to time zone issues, existing relationships with other EU based players...), but it will hurt sales, at the very least in the UK, for exactly those reasons.

Certainly some people won't care. They'll play on US servers or EU servers, no matter. Others will not. They will not want to pay monthly fees for what will feel to them like a single player game due to prime time on the server being around 3am their time. Then there are existing clans moving to new games when the old one gets stale or folds. My clan is currently looking for a new game, it looks like TCoS will be the one we're moving to, but we don't have the EU/UK issue in our clan. Other clans have that problem and for them as a whole TCoS becomes a non-issue because it would split the clan up.

There are also international clans that span continents. In some games, this was a necessity so you're able to protect your territory 24/7 (can't really do that when 99% of your players are from a single timezone). For them, the mandatory separation of players becomes a killer argument against TCoS. And usually such groups of players consist of rather many individuals.

In total, I have a hunch that the need they feel to "protect" their turf will eventually be their loss. Yes, you can force the people who play your game to play where you want. But you cannot force people to play it at all.