After giving Head Start players a chance curbstomp every intro area creature in view, ArcheAge has become open to the general public. With quite a queue during head start, it makes sense for ArcheAge’s western handler Trion to open up two new servers.
Inoch for North America and Aier for Europe have already been thoroughly swamped, and in true MMO fashion the queue times have caused thrashing about and gnashing teeth by anyone who dared to plan a productive evening on a Day 1 online game event.
Waiting to Exhale: Starring Asuna Bassett and Kirito Houston.
ArcheAge is a Free to Play MMO. Freemium, if you will. For many gamers, the F2P world is a touchy subject that almost always has a catch. There has to be something, right?
Not always. Sometimes there’s the ability to pay to win through overpowered items and XP potions. Sometimes there’s items that must be purchased from the cash shop in order to get past a certain level (cough cough Allods launch cough).
For ArcheAge, it’s your standard temptation model. Free to play is perfectly fine while subscribers have a smoother ride. ArcheAge’s subscriptions grant Patron status, which gives you a few decent perks along with what should be a Patron-only queue (Patron queue detailed in the known issues thread).
The icon for this guy on the cash shop has a meepy mouth~
Players who were unable to secure Patron status have been enjoying about an hour to two hours of wait time as the first day of live churns on. If you were lucky enough to be patched for launch, there was about four hours of easy login access–if the login server didn’t scream about timeouts and kick you to the back of the line.
If you didn’t get Patron status, well…sorry. While the ArcheAge launch is certainly healthy when compared to many Freemium MMO titles, it isn’t without gateway hiccups. The store seems to be giving headaches to players who want to snag a Patron status and skip the line.
Interested in buying a starter pack? That’ll work, but the Patron status doesn’t always apply properly. Make sure to send an email with a nice note and not a flaming horse head to customer support. Do be nice on the forums, the floors are newly waxed.
Land Grab Shenanigans Ahoy
Let’s say you haven’t decided to get Patron status yet. Maybe the Founder’s Packs weren’t that great, or you don’t want to invest in a starter pack.
DOESN’T MATTER, PATRON STATUS ANYWAY
As another known bug in the ArcheAge launch issues list, some accounts have been flagged for Patron status without actually paying or otherwise legitimately acquiring Patron status.
So what? A few players accidentally get Patron status. What’s that, some perks? Bonus EXP, more labor points for doing stuff, land ownership…
Selling hot dates here. 16/F/Japan. Ignore my deep, grumbly sailor dialect. I’m from Hokkaido.
Stop right there. Land ownership. If you’re a player housing kind of person, ArcheAge may excite you by having buildings, farms and a slew of other private and public areas available.
These aren’t just cosmetics for playing an online version of The Sims that isn’t riddled with DRM and fail–you can make some serious money with farming.
Rice fields, pretend opium, cow sucki–milking and even some light gardening can give more than just a small advantage. Without Patron status, you can’t claim any of the special land.
You can farm land that you already own from previously subscribing, and there may be a few events aimed at giving land to free players. For now, there’s some public space being taken up by quite a few lucky people.
This is the Internet. Of course someone’s buttmad.
