Mail.ru – MMO Fallout

Lord of the Rings Online Says Dasvidaniya To Russia

Russian gamers will be sad to learn that the local Lord of the Rings Online servers will be shutting down on June 1st. Mail.ru, the publisher of Lord of the Rings in Russia, was either unable or unwilling to renew their license with Warner Bros. and as a result the service is coming to an end. To end the game on a high note, players will be able to visit a tavern where they can level up and obtain equipment, talents, and more.

In addition, everything in the cash shop has had its price reduced to one mark, although new player registration and adding money to accounts has already been disabled. Mail.ru is planning on offering bonuses for several of their other games: Allods Online, Perfect World, and Dragon Nest.

(Source: www.lotro-russia.com)

ArcheAge Says Dosvidanya To Non-Russian Players

ArcheAge is a long time coming to the west, so long in fact that dedicated players decided to forego the wait and jump on board the Russian servers hosted by Mail.ru. Hopefully none of them have spent a lot of money on the game, as Mail.ru has announced that access to the servers will be restricted to gamers in Russia and former Soviet states. The IP block was requested by XL Games and provides no details on whether or not players who have already invested money only to be blocked will be able to receive any sort of refund or compensation.

If only Mikhail Gorbachev were here to tear down this wall.

(Source: Announcement)

Mail.ru Takes Control of Allods Online

Players of Allods Online will soon have more friends to play with, as Mail.ru has announced that the firm is taking control of global hosting services for the MMO. Beginning March 18th, Mail.ru will take over hosting from gPotato and merge the European and American servers into one service. On the plus side, this means that players will no longer have to worry about regions carrying different game versions, except for the Russian server which will remain ahead by a small margin. On the down side, the Polish language is being dropped.

Having all European and North American players on the same servers will require the client versions to be synchronized; this puts additional pressure on the version preparation – especially on the localization of the new content. Considering all possible risks which may emerge and cause a delay with the upcoming version updates for all players, we had to make a hard decision of not supporting Polish localization starting from v.5.0.00.

Mail.ru is committed to closing the gap between the Russian and global servers, noting in the announcement that the aim is to only have one month difference in updates.

(Source: Mail.ru)

Two MMOs Moving Overseas, Just Not Your Seas

Who wants an extra helping of disappointment today? Two MMOs are progressing into new territories, but judging by MMO Fallout’s metrics, they still aren’t coming to your territories. Mail.ru has announced that the closed beta for ArcheAge is set to start in December. Some of you may recall that mail.ru caught some heat over their planned payment system. Players were able to successfully petition the company to change their plans and adopt the Korean model.

Meanwhile, Blade & Soul’s open beta is set to begin next week in China. The open beta client is already available for download and the servers reportedly will not have an IP block, allowing anyone in who feels like joining up.

(Source: Massively.com)

ArcheAge Russia’s Free To Play Borders Pay To Win

ArcheAge in Russia is making its way down free to play lane, and according to an announcement by Mail.ru, plans to offer even more for free than its Korean counterpart. Russian players will be able to level all the way up to end-game without paying a single ruble, and will have access to building houses and farms. Players who want to pony up some cash will be able to buy premium access which, at $10, features faster labor points recovery, 20% experience and 50% drop rate increases, and a stipend of Arc, the ArcheAge currency used on a mostly cosmetic cash shop. Arcs can be obtained in-game without spending anything.

Where ArcheAge is dipping its toes into alleged pay to win is in the ability to purchase labor points. Labor points are most easily compared to the energy from social games. Gathering and crafting costs labor points from your finite pool, which regenerates over time. The announcement has drawn ire from players who believe that the presence of labor points in the cash shop will unbalance the game’s economy.

(Source: MMO Cast)