[Update: 5/18] I’ve been seeing a lot of searches pointing to this page by players who want to know if their accounts will work on the Korean version when the North American servers shut down. Simple answer is no, your account will not work on the Korean version.]
Writing this article, I’m reminded of a few random comments placed on the last NCsoft article I wrote (about how NCsoft’s subscription games were performing better than their non-subscription games). Lineage entered the scene back in 1998, a year after Ultima Online, and with it brought the little game studio known as NCsoft to an eagerly awaiting pile of money, spawning a sequel as well as shuttling NCsoft into one of the major players nowadays in the MMO industry. Ironically, the designer of Lineage (Jake Song) had previously worked on NEXUS, for Nexon.
Lineage is still going strong in Korea, some unknown number under one million according to Wikipedia, but over here in the west the game just isn’t doing well. Not well enough to maintain profitability anyway. Today, NCsoft announced that the western service for Lineage will be shut off this June 29th. While there are no updates planned, the article does mention ruleset changes and in-game events planned.
Information on compensation is already available. Unused time will be refunded, and any player with an active subscription during 2011 will receive:
- Lineage II activation code and two months game time, as well as some free items.
- Aion activation code plus collector’s upgrade, and two months free game time, as well as free items.
- Guild Wars activation code.
- City of Heroes activation code and two booster packs.
MMO Fallout 
play private server, some of them have population as high as 150 people