To many folks' great delight, Lineage II developers recently announced that the game would be adopting a free-to-play revenue model. MMORPG.com Managing Editor Bill Murphy caught up with Associate Producer Nico Coutant and Executive VP of Publishing Matt Turetzky to talk about the announcement and the upcoming Goddess of Destruction expansion. Read on and then leave us your thoughts in the comments.

MMORPG: One of many things a F2P conversion does for a game is bring in a lot of new players. What sorts of improvements have you made to handle new players, and more so… to make sure they’re not feeling too far behind in a game that’s been around for a while?

NCW: The new player experience and the first 76 levels have been revamped to make the game a lot more accessible and to allow new players to close the gap with veteran players faster.

Additionally when we launch Goddess of Destruction we will have new fresh servers that players can choose to start on if they wish.

Read more of Bill Murphy's Lineage II: F2P and Goddess of Destruction Q&A.

Ladies and Gentlemen, TOR will not kill WoW. GW2 Will not kill WoW.

AS funny as it sounds, L2 f2p relaunch has the most chances to bring down the current hyped games. Even if L2 is, well older, it retains a constant player base and once its all free, expect all those private server players to rush into global servers too.  

Not ot mention the rumours of NCSOFT finaly anouncing L3 in this year's G*Star, this might just be the best business move NCSOFT could have done.

Originally posted by Yuui

Ladies and Gentlemen, TOR will not kill WoW. GW2 Will not kill WoW.

 

AS funny as it sounds, L2 f2p relaunch has the most chances to bring down the current hyped games. Even if L2 is, well older, it retains a constant player base and once its all free, expect all those private server players to rush into global servers too.  

 

Not ot mention the rumours of NCSOFT finaly anouncing L3 in this year's G*Star, this might just be the best business move NCSOFT could have done.

What's with the MMO death obsession? It's kinda emo dude....

OT: Will likely give this a try once it goes F2P. Is there any known date yet? Couldn't find one in the article. L2 is about the only big MMO I haven't played I think.

Originally posted by Yuui

Ladies and Gentlemen, TOR will not kill WoW. GW2 Will not kill WoW.

 

AS funny as it sounds, L2 f2p relaunch has the most chances to bring down the current hyped games. Even if L2 is, well older, it retains a constant player base and once its all free, expect all those private server players to rush into global servers too.  

 

Not ot mention the rumours of NCSOFT finaly anouncing L3 in this year's G*Star, this might just be the best business move NCSOFT could have done.

L3 F2P will kill TOR AND GW2 !11!1!1!

But TOR2 And GW3 will kill L3 !!!

I still have mixed feelings about both GoD and F2P. Been playing L2 for the last 6 years on & off (started on private and hopped to official after 1 year) and had the BEST MMO EXPERIENCE EVER!

Yeah, I think 99% of the private servers will go down now (good thing), and Lineage II will most likely show it's TRUE pLAYERBASE for once. I bet that L2 will have OVER 10M ACTIVE PLAYERS world-wide when EU & US go F2P and all those private players finally go for 'the real deal', and thus rivalling WoW's claimed 12M players.

@Yuuri - forget about L3, it's been dead since 2007. GoD is what L3 would have been, but instead they'd continue on the L2 game.

Any date on when this goes F2P?

Originally posted by Reizla

@Yuui - forget about L3, it's been dead since 2007. GoD is what L3 would have been, but instead they'd continue on the L2 game.

 

Ncsoft is making a huge anouncement of new project at this year's G*Star .

http://www.mmoculture.com/2011/10/gstar-2011-preview-ncsoft-set-to-reveal.html

I doubt NCsoft will just stop developing their top cashcow franchise :)

Originally posted by elocke

Any date on when this goes F2P?

US (NCWest) will go F2P somewhere December as said in Sace's statement on the official forums.

Also, Lineage2.eu hints to half December as well "As the Darkest Days of Autumn impend... Lineage II arises." (or they mean Hallow's Eve - November 3rd...)

Originally posted by Yuui

Originally posted by Reizla

@Yuui - forget about L3, it's been dead since 2007. GoD is what L3 would have been, but instead they'd continue on the L2 game.

Ncsoft is making a huge anouncement of new project at this year's G*Star .

http://www.mmoculture.com/2011/10/gstar-2011-preview-ncsoft-set-to-reveal.html

I doubt NCsoft will just stop developing their top cashcow franchise :)

Project C, right..? I heard of it, but I doubt it'll be L3...

I've read long ago that L2 will only have 13 chapters. By now we're already long past that 13 chapters, and finally GoD is coming out with some HUGE changes. Changes that don't make sense to the old L2 other than that NCSoft would implement L3 into L2...

...But I certainly hope that L3 is still in NC's thoughts.... ;-)

Originally posted by Telondariel
I have a question though for the vet's of the game: what made you leave L2 and would you go back with this new gaming model?

Over the 5+ years I've played Lineage II, I've quited a couple of times, but my total paid time is 3+ years. Small list of quits & reasons:

early 2007 - Changes to Lord of the Rings online for a while (wanted somthing new & easier for a change). Was away 6 months.

late 2009 - Bot issues. Everywhere you found those 24/7 AFK-XPing players. Returned may 2011

Now - Uncertainties about the EU server's future (will be moved to the US, but most EU players leave - what then?). My accounts (2) will expire in 2 weeks and then I'll wait and see what both Innova & NCWest will do with the F2P in December and (more importantly) the cash shop (I hate Pay2Win).

I am pumped L2 was my first and only true mmo love looking foreward to this

NEW servers?

can't wait! :)

I was expecting it to happen. Good move, will definitely be checking when out.

God I feel such nostalgia. Cant w8  *-*

Man a lot of delusionary talking in this thread, L2 F2P will not "kill" anything, I tried the trial the other day I had forgotten how boring this game was. And the guy who said 10m players I really hope you are trolling.

This free 2 play model is more flexibile than CoX....I have to say it defintitely will bring life back to the game as this is a very bold (and much needed) move.

Surprisingly impressed. 

No MMO to date has ever killed another MMO.

Looking forward to trying it, would not have done so if it didn't go f2p, so good move in my opinion.

They had me at fresh servers.

Whether I stay long terms depends on their cash store. If I can play and achieve (and even sub if I want to) then I will give it a proper go:)

This is actually great news! I played this game a few montsh ago just to see how it was these days, and the graphics were actually awesome. With HDR and the other graphical updates the game does look amazing, environmentally speaking.