Lineage II

Lineage II: The Chaotic Throne (리니지 2) is a fantasy massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) for the PC, and a prequel set 150 years before Lineage. It has become very popular since its October 1, 2003 launch in South Korea, reporting 610,918 unique users during the month of March 2007.

Basic gameplay
To begin playing Lineage II, players create a character as their avatar in the game's medieval-style virtual world. Humans, Elves and Dark Elves start off in the Kingdom of Aden while Dwarves and Orcs start off in the Kingdom of Elmore. Players can choose from either fighter or mystic professions at the start, except for Dwarves and Kamael which are only able to select the fighter profession; this choice acts as an archetype for later profession options. Each race has its own set of classes, even if humans, elves and dark elves have a lot of classes that are very similar to their counterparts in the other two races.

As players kill non-player character (NPC) monsters, they accumulate experience points and skill points (SP). As experience points accumulate, the character's level increases, meaning various attributes of the character are augmented. Players purchase and then upgrade their character’s skills using SP. Players can play alone or as part of a group to fight monsters and complete quests for new skills, experience points, and items. Player versus player (PvP) is a significant portion of the game. The game provides many social, political, and economic aspects which are developed through the community and by the actions, in-game, of single players.Lineage II features siege warfare like the original. To make sure PvP stays under control, the design includes a Karma system that provides negative consequences for killing other players when they are not fighting back. When being in a chaotic state (karma number higher than zero), players have a high probability of dropping items after being killed.

Classes and subclasses
There are currently a large number of classes (36) for all races all together. Each race and subsequent class has a set amount of Stat Points already assigned to their class.

Upon completing the quests after reaching level 75, a player may add subclass to their character after completing one of the game's "epic" quests. This subclass starts at level 40. Limitations are put in place on which subclass one can choose (e.g. Dark Elves may not choose Elf subclasses). In addition, a player may not choose a class that matches their main class (a Dark Avenger may not become a Paladin, likewise a Treasure Hunter may not become a Plains Walker). Once a subclass has reached level 75, players may choose another. A character may hold a total of three subclasses in addition to their main class. Also, once any subclass has reached level 75, the player can embark on and complete four special "epic" quests; successfully completing all of these quests grants the character Noblesse status.

Heroes are Noblesse characters who have competed in and won the Grand Olympiad at least 1 out of 9 times. There is a limit of 35 Heroes at any time, and only the character's main class will receive the title. Heroes receive special weapons and abilities; in addition, they may speak globally to their entire server. They also receive a glowing aura so that they stand out against other characters.

Pets
In Lineage II, a player can obtain a monster that becomes his or her pet through the completion of quests. Unlike other summons or magic, as long as certain conditions are met, a pet will not be bound by time limitations, nor will it be dismissed by force. These pets can also hold most items in their inventories while they are called, including pet weapons and armor that can be equipped on the pet.

Plot
The game follows a fictional history through sets of plots called "Sagas". There are currently two sagas; "The Chaotic Chronicle" and "The Chaotic Throne". Large-scale updates/expansions known as "Chronicles" are done every six months, which introduce new story elements as well as new features and add-ons. Each chronicle also adds a great deal of new content to the game, including new skills, quests, areas and items; some chronicles also increased the level cap.

Setting
Lineage II is set in the world of its predecessor, Lineage, though the main storyline begins 150 years prior to the events in Lineage. The world of Lineage II is divided into three kingdoms, Aden, Elmore, and Gracia. Aden lies south of the Border Outposts its capital castle is Aden Castle. Elmore lies to the north of the Outposts and encompasses Goddard, Rune and Schuttgart. Its capital castle is Rune Castle. Gracia lies to the west of Aden and Elmore. Aden's geography ranges from deserts to tropical forests. Elmore is more rugged having mostly mountainous regions along with a frozen winter wastelands.

Characters
Characters act as a player’s avatar within the game. Players are afforded up to 7 characters per server. There are currently six races in the world of Lineage II: the Humans-similar to modern-day humans and who have all-around balanced characteristics; the Elves-with superior dexterity, movement, and casting speed, but weaker offense; Dark Elves-with higher magic and melee attack capabilities; Orcs-who have higher HP and MP but slower movement; Dwarves-powerful melee attackers and master craftsmen; and Kamael-humanoids with single wings and gender-specific job classes.

Development
Hyeong-Jin Kim, the Production team head for Lineage II, came up with basic concept for the game in early 2000, and development began in October to November of the same year. Kim and producer James Bae have stated that their reasons for developing a prequel for Lineage rather than a sequel is that "Lineage will continue to be updated as a game", and that "by working on its past, we will not be risking conflict with the direction of updates that Lineage will take in the future."

According to Kim and Bae, the game's initial subtitle, "The Chaotic Chronicle", was developed with the intention to "express the large-scale war, strategies, conflicts, and collaborations that we hope to encourage among players."

Lead Game Designer Raoul Kim said that the reason for rendering Lineage II in 3D was "simply because most games today are [also] using 3D graphics", and because they deemed it "more appropriate than 2D for the things that we were going to create." Developers chose to utilize the Unreal Engine 2 game engine because of its capacity to render outdoor scenes and its powerful editing features.

According to Game Design team head, Cheol-Woong Hwang, there were different concepts for each of the race's home villages. He described the concept for the human village in Talking Island as "ordinary", while the Elven Village was designed "so as not to lose the natural and royal high-class feeling." They designed the Dark Elven village based on a "grotesque and serious feeling in order to express the rough history of these who had been expelled from the Elves."

NCsoft & AsianMedia
Lineage II - South-East Asia or simply L2-SEA is NCsoft's first "Publishing License" grant for their flagship game to a completely independent company. NCsoft granted a distribution license to AsianMedia for ArenaNet's Guild Wars for the Philippines. AsianMedia has been licensed to distribute, publish, and operate Lineage II. NCsoft's licensing grant initially limits AsianMedia licensing to three countries namely, the Philippines, Singapore, and Malaysia.

Reception
The overall reception for Lineage II is mixed, receiving average review scores from various video game rating websites. Scott Stahl of the The Daily Orange praised the game's graphics and design, though he also mentioned that the game "quickly degrades into an incredibly tedious and monotonous process of killing the same monster a thousand different times", and that the character creation options are "incredibly shallow, with maybe two or three different faces and hair styles for each type of character." Andrew Park of Gamespot said that the game "offers either a repetitive grind or a stiff challenge", and is not suitable for casual gamers who can only play an hour or less per day. Allen 'Delsyn' Rausch called the Kamael "an interesting race in that, unlike other Lineage II races, they focus specifically on the warrior path with high-level class paths segregated by sex."

The Chronicle 5: Oath of Blood expansion won the Expansion of the Year award at Stratics Central Editor's Choice Awards 2006, and Lineage II earned an Honorable Mention for the Game of the Year award.

Private servers
In 2004, the official Lineage II server software was leaked and a significant number of private servers appeared. Some private servers have populations reaching into the thousands. Playing on private servers is free, although many are supported by donations from players.

NCsoft has taken some actions against private servers. One such server, L2Extreme, was shut down by the FBI, while its owner has been arrested for copyright violation. NCsoft issued an official press release four days later on their involvement with the FBI raid, verifying its validity. Additionally, the news was posted on the official Lineage II website, and a report was also posted on the FBI website in February 2007.