Indeed, it's an amazing thing to behold.

It's like the old AC2 community never was interrupted. It just picked right back up where it left off. People talking, reuniting with old server/allegiance friends and generally thrilled to be back in AC2's Dereth.

There's true community happening. The type you see us "old-timers" going on about. People openly and actively seeking to group up with others, people offering their help or ready to jump at an opportunity to help a newer player out with some info, or directions, or helping with completing a quest, or figuring something out. People aren't being bashed for asking questions.

You see people standing around socializing, forming drum-circles, music-circles, impromtu jam sessions.. people talking, joking around, etc. People aren't in a hurry every second they're logged in. They can hang out, chill and just have fun with fellow players.

Out and about in the world, you see people everywhere running in groups of 2s and 3s, on up to 6 and 7 people, doing content together - running Vaults, quests, etc. None of them are grouping up under duress, or because "they're forced to". They're doing it happily and willingly... because they enjoy it more that way.

It's an awesome reminder of what the genre was like before it all started going toward "more solo", "less social", before it became more about "me", and less about "we".

The only downside is a small handful of annoying and very vocal players trying to troll the general chat. Unfortunately, others are getting dragged into it, rather than ignoring the person as they should so they'll just go away. Hopefully Turbine gets the friends/block list system sorted out and we can just squelch them. Or maybe we'll get lucky and a GM will simply ban them.

Is AC2 perfect? Nope. Is it buggy and quirky? Absolutely. Does it have more of a learning curve and some different ways of doing things? Absolutely. But, more importantly... AC2 is a game in the true spirit of a MMORPG, and it's an awesome, and quite fun, experience.

It's one of the only true MMORPG experiences - as they were intended to be - that you're going to see these days. And there's a lot of people who are thrilled to get to experience it again.

It would make sense for Turbine to try and get their own IP up and running in the form of AC3, it's nice to see the AC2 server up and running again and I had alot of fun running around again in Dereth, but....

Even after all this time AC2 still feels like a failure, as an AC1 vet I tried to move to AC2 but aborted after a few months when I realised that AC2 just didn't feel like the original, and that got me thinking, if it had felt more like AC1 I think it would have been more successfull.

It also makes me look at EQ and EQ2, I played EQ1 from release untill about 2 years ago, while also playing EQ2 on and off from release, EQ2 does kinda feel like EQ1 but not quite enough, and now SoE are going with EQNext who knows what will happen.

I find it hard to play these games now without the old rose tinted glasses being worn, I loved them back in the day but when I go and play them now I remember just how limted they were (and are).

AC2 does deserve another run of it, I'm having fun for abit playing it, but I know it won't last due to the limitations of the game, but hopefully this will serve as a springboard for others to re-release old games or even do complete revamps!

Kudos Turbine.

Originally posted by vorpal28

It would make sense for Turbine to try and get their own IP up and running in the form of AC3, it's nice to see the AC2 server up and running again and I had alot of fun running around again in Dereth, but....

Even after all this time AC2 still feels like a failure, as an AC1 vet I tried to move to AC2 but aborted after a few months when I realised that AC2 just didn't feel like the original, and that got me thinking, if it had felt more like AC1 I think it would have been more successfull.

It also makes me look at EQ and EQ2, I played EQ1 from release untill about 2 years ago, while also playing EQ2 on and off from release, EQ2 does kinda feel like EQ1 but not quite enough, and now SoE are going with EQNext who knows what will happen.

I find it hard to play these games now without the old rose tinted glasses being worn, I loved them back in the day but when I go and play them now I remember just how limted they were (and are).

AC2 does deserve another run of it, I'm having fun for abit playing it, but I know it won't last due to the limitations of the game, but hopefully this will serve as a springboard for others to re-release old games or even do complete revamps!

Kudos Turbine.

See, I think the thing happening here is that you're saying "AC2 feels like a failure" because it didn't meet your personal (and I know, others' as well) expectations of what it would be. Turbine never said "AC2 will just like AC1, but with better graphics.". In fact, they said it would be quite different back then in interviews, etc. Fans of AC1, for whatever reason, seemed to ignore all that and continued to paint this picture in their own minds of it being "AC1 with better graphics". They were hyping themselves up over the game they wanted it to be, not the game Turbine was quite clearly talking about and demonstrating.

So, Turbine didn't "fail" anyone in that regard, because it was never their intent to begin with.

Now, the game did go on to do poorly, thanks to some awful issues at launch that they never fully recovered from. However, it was not to do with "the game not being AC1 with a new skin". It was never intended to be that in the first place.

Originally posted by TangentPoint

Originally posted by vorpal28

It would make sense for Turbine to try and get their own IP up and running in the form of AC3, it's nice to see the AC2 server up and running again and I had alot of fun running around again in Dereth, but....

Even after all this time AC2 still feels like a failure, as an AC1 vet I tried to move to AC2 but aborted after a few months when I realised that AC2 just didn't feel like the original, and that got me thinking, if it had felt more like AC1 I think it would have been more successfull.

It also makes me look at EQ and EQ2, I played EQ1 from release untill about 2 years ago, while also playing EQ2 on and off from release, EQ2 does kinda feel like EQ1 but not quite enough, and now SoE are going with EQNext who knows what will happen.

I find it hard to play these games now without the old rose tinted glasses being worn, I loved them back in the day but when I go and play them now I remember just how limted they were (and are).

AC2 does deserve another run of it, I'm having fun for abit playing it, but I know it won't last due to the limitations of the game, but hopefully this will serve as a springboard for others to re-release old games or even do complete revamps!

Kudos Turbine.

See, I think the thing happening here is that you're saying "AC2 feels like a failure" because it didn't meet your personal (and I know, others' as well) expectations of what it would be. Turbine never said "AC2 will just like AC1, but with better graphics.". In fact, they said it would be quite different back then in interviews, etc. Fans of AC1, for whatever reason, seemed to ignore all that and continued to paint this picture in their own minds of it being "AC1 with better graphics". They were hyping themselves up over the game they wanted it to be, not the game Turbine was quite clearly talking about and demonstrating.

So, Turbine didn't "fail" anyone in that regard, because it was never their intent to begin with.

Now, the game did go on to do poorly, thanks to some awful issues at launch that they never fully recovered from. However, it was not to do with "the game not being AC1 with a new skin". It was never intended to be that in the first place.

That's correct. AC2 was never stated to be AC1.5 or anything, it was a sequel in name and story only. If you want to know the many reasons why the game ultimately failed, you can go read Eric Heimburg's (aka Citan) blog (http://www.eldergame.com/author/eric/). You'd have to go back a number of years though. To give the short and dirty story.

When Turbine signed on with Microsoft, they had to sell the rights of the game to MS. So when they started to work on the new game, aka AC2, MS required them to use certain features. One was the GUN server, which was newer tech made by MS, iirc. It was buggy, things like chat and friend's lists were tied to it. So when GUN would fail (frequently) chat wouldn't work. That issue lasted a couple of months before they were able to take chat off the GUN server.

Additionally, the timeframe that MS gave Turbine wasn't anywhere near enough. Devilmouse had to create all of the skill trees for all of the different classes. He had so little time, that he couldn't even write proper dev notes about each skill. So, when they were given to QA, they had no documentation to go from, thus, nothing to really test except to see if the skills were "working". That's also why each class tree was completely re-written after launch, because they had to literally write and test all of the new class trees. MS gave a deadline and forced the launch, even though Turbine stated it wasn't ready. Hell there was about 3000 undocumented bugs at launch.

If Turbine could've tested more, and had more time, they probably would have released a year later. The "Hero" patch is probably when the game should have released, because the game was in good shape then. Nothing that can be done about that now. Except, that the game is relaunching in about the best state it ever was, and will be a good jumping off point if they are going to further develop this title.

Turbine just needs to remember, they may have a small fanbase in the AC franchise, but the fans they do have are rabid and will be loyal as long as they are treated well.

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Originally posted by Dantae87
So with the relaunch of AC2 could this be a sign of a possible Asherons Call 3 in the works or planning!? 

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Maybe their pulling a funcom and opening the servers in anticipation for the end of the world?

Originally posted by TangentPoint

Indeed, it's an amazing thing to behold.

It's like the old AC2 community never was interrupted. It just picked right back up where it left off. People talking, reuniting with old server/allegiance friends and generally thrilled to be back in AC2's Dereth.

There's true community happening. The type you see us "old-timers" going on about. People openly and actively seeking to group up with others, people offering their help or ready to jump at an opportunity to help a newer player out with some info, or directions, or helping with completing a quest, or figuring something out. People aren't being bashed for asking questions.

You see people standing around socializing, forming drum-circles, music-circles, impromtu jam sessions.. people talking, joking around, etc. People aren't in a hurry every second they're logged in. They can hang out, chill and just have fun with fellow players.

Out and about in the world, you see people everywhere running in groups of 2s and 3s, on up to 6 and 7 people, doing content together - running Vaults, quests, etc. None of them are grouping up under duress, or because "they're forced to". They're doing it happily and willingly... because they enjoy it more that way.

It's an awesome reminder of what the genre was like before it all started going toward "more solo", "less social", before it became more about "me", and less about "we".

The only downside is a small handful of annoying and very vocal players trying to troll the general chat. Unfortunately, others are getting dragged into it, rather than ignoring the person as they should so they'll just go away. Hopefully Turbine gets the friends/block list system sorted out and we can just squelch them. Or maybe we'll get lucky and a GM will simply ban them.

Is AC2 perfect? Nope. Is it buggy and quirky? Absolutely. Does it have more of a learning curve and some different ways of doing things? Absolutely. But, more importantly... AC2 is a game in the true spirit of a MMORPG, and it's an awesome, and quite fun, experience.

It's one of the only true MMORPG experiences - as they were intended to be - that you're going to see these days. And there's a lot of people who are thrilled to get to experience it again.

Great post there, and i think I agree with everything you said...I honestly couldn't have put it any better. I used to play AC2 back in the day, and like many I was stunned when it came back from out of nowhere...it's unheard of, but here we are. I always wondered whether I was looking back with too much nostalgia and rose tinted glasses when I remembered how great it felt to play AC2, how nice to have a game where like you say, people aren't in any hurry to smash through content to win some 'prize', a game where you actually interact and get to know the people on your server and form a real community. Like you said, a real blast from the past of how MMO's used to be, and makes it all the more clear as to where (for me at least) modern MMO's are failing. After playing over this weekend, it's like its never been away.

It has it's issues of course...what game doesn't, but in the last 2 days I've spent more time grouping and actually talking to players than what I have in perhaps the last 5 years playing other games. I did the Cragstone Excavation quest with a group of 7 of us before, and the game was being battered and crippled with lag with frequent 30 secs to 1min pauses, but I think as a testament as to how much the players truly loved the game not a one of us left or logged off etc...we just used the time to chat away. A totally different pace, and a totally different mindset....I can't believe I'm playing it again!