A real shame, but Spellborn NV killed their own game with these stupid deals and seeing their last reaction on their forums (wich are pretty much dead as well) they have no plans to lift the IP bans nor change anything.

Wich sounds pretty much a company suicide to me really. 

Cheers

Hubris and greed from Spellborn NV. And I agree, the forums are pretty much dead now (which is a symptom of  an unhappy community, which never bodes well with an MMO).

My main reason for liking MMO's is they are supposed to be MASSIVELY MULTIPLAYER. When I play an MMO the people on it before I go to work  are from different places compared to who is on after I get home from work.

I like socializing with people from all over the world. That, combined with a good game, is what I look for in an MMO.  So in this game I can only talk to other Americans and the UK? No thanks, I won't even bother trying it.

Trouble is though, MMO's in europe are never as popular as they are in america.   some MMO's dont even release an EU version, and if they do there are usually half as many servers.

so Maybe when an american version is released it will have the players to make it worth while.

But even then, the graphics from what ive seen look very drab, dusty and old.  Not so much the technical aspect of the graphics but more the style, the colours.  

I know that a 'realisitic & atmospheric' style is often looked for but if im spending 5 hours a day on an mmo I dont want it to look like a rainy day.

Originally posted by sadeyx 

But even then, the graphics from what ive seen look very drab, dusty and old.  Not so much the technical aspect of the graphics but more the style, the colours.  

I completely disagree. Spellborn has one of the most "wow factor" art styles I've seen yet. It's big and it's bold. The colours perfectly fit the setting.

Originally posted by sadeyx

Trouble is though, MMO's in europe are never as popular as they are in america.   some MMO's dont even release an EU version, and if they do there are usually half as many servers.

so Maybe when an american version is released it will have the players to make it worth while.

 

That's utter bullshit man. Just have a look at WoW here in EU and how many servers there are!

UK, Germany and Scandinavia (Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland) are huge gaming countries here in Europe and France is now catching up quite a bit as well.

Especially Germany has always been one of the biggest gaming countries, with UK being a close second.

The reason that in most MMO's there are less EU servers is:

1. Bad quality EU publishers (delays in patching, communication issues, sometimes poor customer support)

2. Poor marketing here in EU

3. Lot of EU players prefer to play on US servers (mostly because of point 1 and 2)

You US people think you are best in everything and rule in everything, but reality is quite different my friend.

In Professional gaming it's even mostly European gamers that rule the Top Rankings. 

Johnathan “Fatal1ty” Wendel is from Holland and he is a 12-time World champion in Professional Gaming.

So go figure!

Cheers

Wow, rant much? You can't seriously be taking the largest Western MMO and be using that as an example to make your point? 

Originally posted by Lydon

Wow, rant much? You can't seriously be taking the largest Western MMO and be using that as an example to make your point? 

If you actually read my post, then I proved my point further.

Warhammer Online had more servers in EU at launch (and filled). Simply because Games Workshop is from UK and thus European and has his largest Warhammer fanbase here in Europe.

That GOA screwed up bad.... well... that's another matter. See point 1 in my previous post.

Cheers

Originally posted by Guillermo197 

If you actually read my post, then I proved my point further.

Warhammer Online had more servers in EU at launch (and filled). Simply because Games Workshop is from UK and thus European and has his largest Warhammer fanbase here in Europe.

That GOA screwed up bad.... well... that's another matter. See point 1 in my previous post.

Cheers

That's hardly reason to use WAR as an example either. How many EU servers does WoW have compared to NA servers for starters? Why are the European districts in Guild Wars nowhere near as teeming as the NA versions?

I've played many MMOs, and my country is considered part of the EU when it comes to gaming, meaning we're usually forced to play with the EU guys. I've since started buying the NA copy of MMOs in order to have more people to play with. And so far my plan has worked very well.

Originally posted by Lydon

Originally posted by Guillermo197 

If you actually read my post, then I proved my point further.

Warhammer Online had more servers in EU at launch (and filled). Simply because Games Workshop is from UK and thus European and has his largest Warhammer fanbase here in Europe.

That GOA screwed up bad.... well... that's another matter. See point 1 in my previous post.

Cheers

That's hardly reason to use WAR as an example either. How many EU servers does WoW have compared to NA servers for starters? Why are the European districts in Guild Wars nowhere near as teeming as the NA versions?

I've played many MMOs, and my country is considered part of the EU when it comes to gaming, meaning we're usually forced to play with the EU guys. I've since started buying the NA copy of MMOs in order to have more people to play with. And so far my plan has worked very well.

It all comes down to Marketing.

All MMO's that have been marketed really well (like WoW, AoC, WAR, LOTRO) have sold really good here in Europe and have many servers with good populations (except for the publishers or studios itself screwing up, like Funcom and GOA).

Prime example of MMO's doing bad here in Europe are games from SOE. Why? Because SOE has never bothered to actually market their products here in Europe at all. You have to go through great lenghts to get a physical box from a SOE game here in Europe and usually forced to order from a US site.

NCSoft has a EU division, yet this division does a very poor job at marketing their games here in Europe as well. They mostly busy with localisation (like french and german) and that's it.

So what I was trying to say is that US isn't a bigger and larger gaming territory then Europe.

You got more MMO Gaming Studios granted... and thus a lot of games publish in US first in general.

But that doesn't mean you US people are some kind of superior and bigger then us. Like I pretty much proved in my first post.

EA for example and other big publishers for console and other genre PC games market their products really good here in Europe and they sell like crazy. Sometimes far more then in US.

So it's all a matter of perspective.

And that Cronicles of Spellborn is doing so pisspoor here in Europe at the moment, is because it's only launched in the German language countries (Germany, Austria and Switzerland), France, Holland and Scandinavia (Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland).

Add to that, that the game hasn't been marketed at all! Physical game boxes being only available in Germany, because Mindscape screwed up so bad! (still haven't seen a single box of TCOS in any of the Gamestop stores here in Oslo, Norway).

Then it's no suprise really that the game is doing so bad!

And if Acclaim is going to screw up too, doesn't do a single thing about marketing ... then the game will fail in US and UK and other EU countries as well.

And if you like it or not. These stupid publisher deals with idiotic IP bans has pretty much killed off the whole TCOS community in one breath!

Cheers

Originally posted by Lydon

Originally posted by sadeyx 

But even then, the graphics from what ive seen look very drab, dusty and old.  Not so much the technical aspect of the graphics but more the style, the colours.  

I completely disagree. Spellborn has one of the most "wow factor" art styles I've seen yet. It's big and it's bold. The colours perfectly fit the setting.

oh okay,  well screenshots never do a game justice so I'll put aside my predudice for now.

Originally posted by sadeyx 

oh okay,  well screenshots never do a game justice so I'll put aside my predudice for now.

I have a few screens in my gallery:

http://www.mmorpg.com/galleries/Lydon/1118_The-Chronicles-of-Spellborn

Originally posted by Lydon

Originally posted by sadeyx 

oh okay,  well screenshots never do a game justice so I'll put aside my predudice for now.

I have a few screens in my gallery:

http://www.mmorpg.com/galleries/Lydon/1118_The-Chronicles-of-Spellborn

 

Wow Lyndon ... did you take those screenies on purpose or is the game *THAT* empty. If so, that game won't last six months. Shame.

Originally posted by toord 

Wow Lyndon ... did you take those screenies on purpose or is the game *THAT* empty. If so, that game won't last six months. Shame.

How did you gain the perception of emptiness from those screenshots? It's clear you haven't played the game as you have no idea as to the size of the areas. 

And yes, generally I take my screenshots like that on purpose as I'm trying to get the environment into the picture - not the people occupying it.

Originally posted by Lydon

Originally posted by toord 

Wow Lyndon ... did you take those screenies on purpose or is the game *THAT* empty. If so, that game won't last six months. Shame.

How did you gain the perception of emptiness from those screenshots? It's clear you haven't played the game as you have no idea as to the size of the areas. 

And yes, generally I take my screenshots like that on purpose as I'm trying to get the environment into the picture - not the people occupying it.

Lyndon,

Usually it is pretty hard find that kind of people void in any public area -- at least not in most MMOs I've play or have played. Usually in town and taverns where NPCs give quests and such are *usually* bustling thus why I asked.

Peace.

Originally posted by toord 

Lyndon,

Usually it is pretty hard find that kind of people void in any public area -- at least not in most MMOs I've play or have played. Usually in town and taverns where NPCs give quests and such are *usually* bustling thus why I asked.

Peace.

TCoS is designed in a very different way. Not all taverns give quests and the world is rather large, meaning the trip from point A to point B can be a bit of a run. Hawksmouth, the city featured in most of those screens, is designed in such a way that there are a number of roads circling a central plaza, with roads leading into the plaza through those circular roads. As a result there are backstreets and even alleyways where people have no reason to be other than for the sake of personal exploration. 

Originally posted by Guillermo197  

That's utter bullshit man. Just have a look at WoW here in EU and how many servers there are!

And just looked how many US Servers there are compared to EU.  Tons more.  I cant even think of an MMO thats released in both EU and US where there are more EU servers + players.  Its not bullshit its a fact.

You US people think you are best in everything and rule in everything, but reality is quite different my friend.

Excuse me sir but Im British, and while I share some of your sentiments, its a fact that america has way more people playing mmo's than EU.

In Professional gaming it's even mostly European gamers that rule the Top Rankings. 

Johnathan “Fatal1ty” Wendel is from Holland and he is a 12-time World champion in Professional Gaming.

But MMO's are completly different from competative FPS games (to which Wendel is famous) not only that an MMO's survival depends upon subscription numbers and has nothing to do with the skill.

I think you need to eat some chill pills or something, my point isnt about who's better than who its merly about mmo's traditional success in America over Europe.

Originally posted by toord

Wow Lyndon ... did you take those screenies on purpose or is the game *THAT* empty. If so, that game won't last six months. Shame.

Yes, those shots like like they are on purpose.  Shots taken on purpose are usually clean of other characters.

Ive seen screenshots similar to this before, and am still not conviced.  But I do know that the Graphics on Vangaurd were always the best graphics in an mmo i've seen, and yet a Vangaurd screenshot makes the graphics out to be awful!!

Even with video's that are compressed to hell, you cant properly make out what the graphics are like until you start playing.  So I guess we'll just have to wait and see

A bit off-topic, but please bear with me.

How does an American go about getting a free trial account?  I'd be willing to wait if I can try out the game and find that I like it.  Step-by-step non-techie instructions, please.  :)

Originally posted by AlienShirt

Each new bit of information I read about TCoS makes me less and less hopeful it has any chance of succeeding at all.

          Yeah I had high hopes for it when I first heard about it a year ago but at this point have little hope...... It wouldnt shock me if the whole game was f2p sometime in 2009......

Originally posted by Cedia

A bit off-topic, but please bear with me.

How does an American go about getting a free trial account?  I'd be willing to wait if I can try out the game and find that I like it.  Step-by-step non-techie instructions, please.  :)

Well, see. In order to give those step-by-step instructions, the person posting them is helping you break Spellborns own rules. The game that is running is not meant for the U.S to play, and the U.S. is purposely blocked.

I think it's about time we start enforcing the rules on this site as far as posting ways to access games when the publishers and game developers do not want your demographic playing.

In fact, I will be reporting any such posts from now on, as they are against this sites rules and the Spellborn devs rules. They do not want anyone from an IP blocked region playing on the currently open servers, and I'm going to do my best to ensure they get their wish. I want them to be happy, after all.