Lineage II Speculations and Rumors on the Oct 5th Delayed Announcement
Prior to Lineage II's highly-anticipated announcement that was to take place on October 5, 2011 (as advertised in their September 21st newsletter), players started posting their speculations and hopes on what the announcement will be in a thread on the L2 Official Forums. To fuel the fire of enthusiasm, L2 GM Sace even posted a teaser that the announcement was just going to be several more hours.
Many were hoping that the October 5th news was going to be an announcement of the GoD PTS launch date. After all, GoD was already live in Korea and even the Russian PTS was well underway -- with rumors that they were preparing to go live within the week. While waiting for the announcement to come, many players shared their speculations on what they thought the announcement would be other than the PTS. Some surmised that the announcement was the Aden Archives Contest. This theory was quickly shot down by reminders that: 1. it was not announced on the GoD site where the announcement was to be made; 2. the announcement was made on the 4th, not the 5th, as advertised on the September 21st newsletter.
Other guesses included mention of the EU/NA servers going F2P (free to play) and an item cash shop, which has already apparently been released in Korea and due to be released in Russia. I could be sketchy on some of this information as most of it was discussed without formal proof. There was some debate about whether or not the F2P would be beneficial to, or kill, the EU/NA servers.
Shortly after October 6th hit most European countries, followed by an outcry of players from that time zone, Sace announced that the announcement was going to be delayed. The news was not well-received by the majority of players, many of whom had stayed up late hoping to start the download process of the PTS. To add to the pandemonium, the resident critics and NCSoft/L2 bashers joined the fray, listing off the previous failings of the company and game.
After five days of further speculation, which now included why the announcement was delayed, Sace gave us this update on the non-announcement:
Considering the historically poor reception of any time frames offered (i.e. "soon", "October 5th"), Sace tactfully sidestepped queries regarding an ETA on the pending news with this:Originally Posted by Sace
Even given the vagueness of the replies, this attention from Sace seemed to soothe the savage beasts of the L2 community at large. Her sense of humor also helped lighten the mood.
The announcement, the delay of the announcement, and the clever lack of any real information have, for some, swayed their convictions towards previous rumors, and for others, voiced them to express concerns/predictions of what they were previously reluctant to utter.
There was one speculation, made by a couple of posters, that after the delay in the Oct 5th announcement, and in view of the hopes and frustrations posted on the forums, that the original announcement seemed lame in comparison; therefore NCSoft at the last minute decided to delay the announcement and change their plans to something bigger and better -- something which perhaps mirrored the expectations voiced by the community. There was some credence given to this conjecture as it seemed reasonable to offer some information as to what the announcement was about, if the plans had not changed, only the deadline.
Yet another speculation revolved around a possible deal between the NA and RU divisions of NCSoft whereby delaying the GoD PTS in NA could prove lucrative to increasing the Russian player-base. This hypothesis revolved around the presumption that this NA-RU competitive aspect would lure old players back and new players away from private servers.
An ominous shot was given at the theory that perhaps, much like Lineage (sometimes referred to as Lineage 1), the profit margin of L2 in the NA and/or Euro markets aren't enough to sustain NCSoft's goodwill at keeping the servers afloat. What if they were going to announce the launch date of the GoD patch, but after reading the slew of posts on the forums, decided to forego the announcement of the PTS and just prepare to shut down the NA/EU servers. Sace's follow-up to the non-announcement does little to dispel this omen. Confirmation on whether or not this kind of thinking was true, has not yet, as of the writing of this article, taken place.
A more encouraging opinion was expressed (and quickly shot down) by another player who hoped that the news was related to the release of the GoD PTS, but delayed with the intention of implementing the Harmony patch, the release of which was stated to have been announced in Korea. A more compelling argument as to why this could actually happen was later made, stating that it was a necessary inclusion.
In lieu of the announcement, requests for consolation "prizes" were suggested, which included another Double XP/SP week, cookies (which offer revitalization), etc. Instead, the only answer thus far was a blurb in today's maintenance announcement (for the Wednesday, October 12th scheduled maintenance) which stated:
Many would agree with the sentiment posted by one player that the eventual announcement would hopefully outweigh the mounting anticipation of the L2 community. This remains to be seen.
As I prepared to end this article, I checked the Goddess of Destruction page one last time and found the announcement below. Is this what we have been waiting for? More discussion on this can be found on the L2 official forums in the Partnership between NCWest & Innova thread.
Play Your Way
NCsoft Announces a New Way to Play Lineage® II Goddess of Destruction™
Players will experience a completely reimagined Lineage II, featuring revamped content and game experiences
Seattle, WA - October 11, 2011 – NCsoft®, the world's premier publisher and developer of massively multiplayer online games (MMOs), is proud to announce its partnership with Innova, a game publisher known for providing Lineage® II service in Russia, to service Lineage II Free to Play in Europe. Current Lineage II European players who already have NCsoft West accounts can continue to play on existing NCsoft West servers.
Meanwhile, NCsoft West is planning a new Hybrid business model tailored for its players. This new business model provides features an order of magnitude greater than those of a conventional subscription model, and creates a new way to play. Additional details will be announced soon.
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