There’s two MMOs out there you have probably not heard of. There’s HUNDREDS of those, right? Once you get out of the calm, safe, bathwater-warm surf of the current crowd of big budget MMOs, it’s a wild tide of MMOs with names you can’t remember and details you can’t recall.
None of them will challenge WoW, so you WoW-ians can get back in your chairs. I am not going to say anything negative about the current crop.
I’m just really fugging tired of the same old crap coming out year after year. And so my quest to find the next MMO that is different enough so a jaded MMO vet like myself can enjoy it. I think I may have found it in the Dutch MMO, Chronicles of Spellborn. They have a real-time, deck-based combat, full PvP and decent PvE, a unique graphic style, full character customization, an interesting and unique world and all that. I was so happy when I heard that they had signed a preliminary deal with a US publisher, though they were cagey about exactly who that would be.
A couple of months ago, their European publisher, Frogster, started talking about a Chinese MMO they had acquired — Runes of Magic. This had been written by (IIRC) some Chinese developers who played World of Warcraft in the US and when they returned to Shanghai, were determined to make an MMO inspired by WoW. Frogster got it a new, Western soundtrack and said they had done various other things to make it more acceptable to the west. (The soundtrack, btw, is very good).
So now Frogster has Spellborn and Runes of Magic. It has said it has a potential US publisher, but now it has two 3D MMOs to push into the US somehow.
While working on an article about Frogster’s new European releases, which include both Spellborn and Runes, I noticed they are also publishing StoneAge 2, a Pokemon-ish MMO, which is being published in the US by Aeria Games, who publish a LOT of free to play MMOs here.
If they are the potential US publisher for Spellborn, they may be hesitating to announce because all their games are based around RMT, and Spellborn was to be a subscription game. Runes of Magic, however, was always built to be free-to-play, and would fit very well into Aeria Games’ lineup.
So that’s the shaky stack of Jenga blocks I’m using to wonder: Is Spellborn being held back in the US so that Aeria Games can fasttrack a WoW-like into release? I dunno. I hope not, but I fear that is the case.
Just to re-iterate: 1) I don’t know if Aeria Games is the intended US publisher for Spellborn. 2) I have no idea if Aeria Games is considering publishing Runes of Magic in the US. 3) This is all based upon the one near-meaningless fact that Frogster is publishing SA2 in Europe and Aeria is publishing it in the US, implying, to me, a relationship.
So, actually, this is my heartfelt letter to Aeria Games. If my disjoint chain of reasoning has any reality to it, and you are now deciding between Spellborn and Runes of Magic — let it be Spellborn? Please?
6 thoughts on “Spellborn vs Runes of Magic CAGE MATCH”
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I agree, Spellborn would be a much more welcome addition to the US market than an admitted WoW clone, but my understanding (garnered from dark corners of the internets) is that Spellborn still requires a lot of work before its ready for release, while Runes of Magic does not. Runes of Magic could be U.S. ready in a few months, whereas Spellborn needs 6+ at least. Whether it gets those 6+, well, that’s another story entirely.
Spellborn interview: http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/34696
The first answer doesn’t really sound like they would’ve needed that much time (6 months starting from.. April?) for further development. Guess I’m glad for US folks since having your launch later than the other guys (US/EU player communities) sucks but this is the last out of 4 games that I’ve been following for a long while that could’ve still made it out this summer… Sigh.
Those 4 are Warhammer Online and Spellborn on the subscription side of the fence, and Mythos and Earth Eternal as free to play, by the way. Earth Eternal (haven’t seen you mention it Tipa?) is from the Ironrealms guys, although they’re publishing it under another name.
Runes of Magic looked like something that could amuse me for a while, maybe. I’ve signed up for the beta. I received some email from them in German and wasted some time looking for a way to change the language of my account (or any account settings at all) at the site… Also found some further pages/phrases that were in German. Odd. Also, why have US and EU buttons separately if both link to the same URL for English?
Earth Eternal — I keep FORGETTING about that game, though it sounds kooky enough to be fun. (quick overview, IIRC: years after humanity has vanished from the Earth, animals have evolved intelligence and are adventuring around — and we, humanity, are the mysterious elder race. The first 3D MMO by a world-renowned maker of MUDs).
Spellborn is going into European open beta in October, was it? And Runes of Magic was hitting EU open beta in December, if I remember Frogster’s release schedule correctly. So it sounds to me like Spellborn is more ready than Runes.
Whichever. I am signed up for both their betas. and I will be playing Spellborn if I have to (re)learn German to do it.
The Runes of Magic website is an amusing mishmash of English and German, isn’t it?
Spellborn’s issue is not one of functionality but content. They could release it sooner than Runes of Magic, but everything I’ve heard is that in its current state the game is very very boring. Combat is great, but there’s not much to do. They need a lot of time to revamp their content and actually make the game fun. Whether they take that time or not will determine whether the game is really worth playing or not.
Per their website, Runes of Magic goes into english beta in September. Its not clear to me, but I think the english beta is for localization testing more than anything, as the game has already been through a chinese beta.
We should hope Spellborn takes longer than Runes of Magic, as it (spellborn) has the potential to be the better game, but it needs more development love. Assuming they don’t run out of money . . .
Earth Eternal — I keep FORGETTING about that game, though it sounds kooky enough to be fun. (quick overview, IIRC: years after humanity has vanished from the Earth, animals have evolved intelligence and are adventuring around — and we, humanity, are the mysterious elder race. The first 3D MMO by a world-renowned maker of MUDs).
Yup, that’s it. Just keep in mind Matt Mihaly has several times said it’s NOT one of their MUDs made graphical but much closer to Runescape with upgraded graphics and lore… Although I think stuff like their Grove system of player housing will appeal to some many players via game mechanics alone. I’m also expecting a thoughtfully planned (opt-in) PvP system.
It’s no wonder you keep forgetting since whatever info there is generally only appears on the EE forum. I think their ambition (and funding) has grown a lot since the project started. 😉
P.S. Finally I may use my 4 years of German studies for something… Lederhosen! Sauerkraut!
Heh 🙂 I went back and took a look at Earth Eternal and wrote up a little article about it for Massively. I’ve never been big into the furry scene but I’ll be watching this game.
And BTW there’s a drop down selection menu for language which I apparently missed. And it even has English in it 🙂 I was wondering why nobody else was complaining about the language thing…