We don’t generally cover rogue servers for still-alive MMORPGs here on MOP, but this weekend’s messy launch for an unsanctioned player-run classic version of ArcheAge is worthy of a cautionary headline.
The so-called AA Classic is apparently a private server built on the 3.0 version of the sandbox MMORPG with the promise of higher labor regeneration, higher labor cap, and a free patron, among other features. It opened its doors this weekend before closing them once more for server improvements, leading some players to cry foul, given that the server was also selling preorder packages and running a cash-shop – all this for an emulator of a game that is still theoretically online under original developers.
The entire rocky release has been chronicled in the server’s Discord, as admins outline attempted fixes with lag, bottlenecks, server stability, and a host of other release day problems. Issue announcements wore on through the entire length of the weekend up until early Sunday morning, when the server went down two different times for some extended maintenance and some replacement hardware. As of this writing there hasn’t been an ETA on the server’s woes, but it looks like this particular rogue server is finding out that MMORPG releases are indeed extremely challenging.
The server launches as players fret over the future of ArcheAge despite Kakao’s partial assurance that it wouldn’t be shuttered in the west yet, but it remains unclear whether XLGAMES and Kakao mean to do anything about this new server, particularly given that other ArcheAge rogue servers have been running for years. Then again, the new server was apparently struggling largely because thousands of players were hungry to play it – which ought to be a reminder to the studios that there’s still plenty of demand for a version of the game.
