Lost Ark coming to NA/EU! Smilegate to pair with Amazon Game Studios as Publisher!

[Ballistic]

Short question:

are there helmets in this game... or just weird costume hats?
I'm having trouble to find armor sets for classes. Pretty sure you can hide the helmet etc. and I have seen helmets warriors in full armor.
But I wanted to see how the Paladin looks... and I can't even find pictures of it with a hood

Warriors have helmets rest of the classes have hats or some sort of crowns, HK has the sickest legendary skin and it is the most expensive costume set right now last time I checked in Korea, He looks like he came straight out from badass anime episode.

First picture https://imgur.com/a/NOsGbmw

[KrayZ33]

Uhh... the scouter looks sweet.

[Ophenia]

First picture https://imgur.com/a/NOsGbmw

Awesome sets. Blaster and Reaper are definitely lit!

[ParanoiD84]

Lost Ark is now the second most played game in south korea. Huge gap between lol and the rest wow is at 14th spot.

1.League of Legends(MOBA), 46.54%
2.Lost Ark(RPG), 7.4%
3.Sudden Attack(FPS), 6.69%
4.PUBG(FPS/TPS), 6.44%
5.FIFA online(Sports), 6.03%
6.Overwatch(FPS), 4.8%
7.Starcraft 1(RTS), 3%
8.Maple Story(RPG), 2.1%
9.Dungeons & Fighters(RPG), 1.59%
10.Aion(RPG), 1.21%
11.Valorant(FPS), 1.21%
12.Odin: Valhalra Rising(Mobile RPG on PC), 0.99%
13.Lineage2(RPG), 0.98%
14.World of Warcraft(RPG), 0.8%
15.Lineage(RPG), 0.67%
16.CartRider(Racing), 0.46%
17.Cyphers(MOBA), 0.41%
18.Warcraft 3(RTS), 0.41%
19.Eternal Return(MOBA), 0.4%
20.Starcraft 2(RTS), 0.4%
21.Diablo 3(RPG), 0.36%
22.Blade & Soul(RPG), 0.25%
23.Tales Runner(Sports), 0.25%
24.Path of Exile(RPG), 0.23%

[KrayZ33]

I'm not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing. But I take that information in either way.

[ParanoiD84]

I'm not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing. But I take that information in either way.

Its been climbing for a while so that's good, think its going to be damn popular here in eu/na too.

League of legends is almost all they play there though such a huge difference to the rest of games

[Coldkil]

Its been climbing for a while so that's good, think its going to be damn popular here in eu/na too.

League of legends is almost all they play there though such a huge difference to the rest of games

A lot will have to do with the monetization. Nowadays fair microtx are basically seen in a good way for a f2p game. Keyword fair. We'll see if in the november beta we'll have a glance of this.

[Ballistic]

A lot will have to do with the monetization. Nowadays fair microtx are basically seen in a good way for a f2p game. Keyword fair. We'll see if in the november beta we'll have a glance of this.

Smilegate set a new milestone of remodeling monetization and that is why Koreans are expecting different Korean companies to follow Smilegate or they never touch their game (Elyon for example), Their target is the longevity of their game and launching major updates every 2 months (they are faster than Blizzard releasing updates for WoW) meanwhile the content is fun and challenging at the same time. Smilegate never caters to whales for the content but more to free players that is why Season 1 toxic whales left the game for good.

Last mini LOA Festival (Similar to Blizzcon) when the game director got asked what are you aiming for to launch in the game in the west, his reply was I want Lost Ark and me to be recognized among the rest. This is a big reply from someone who wants to challenge the rest of the MMOs in the west and he will do whatever it takes to make LA is new norm MMO.

[Coldkil]

Smilegate set a new milestone of remodeling monetization and that is why Koreans are expecting different Korean companies to follow Smilegate or they never touch their game (Elyon for example), Their target is the longevity of their game and launching major updates every 2 months (they are faster than Blizzard releasing updates for WoW) meanwhile the content is fun and challenging at the same time. Smilegate never caters to whales for the content but more to free players that is why Season 1 toxic whales left the game for good.

Last mini LOA Festival (Similar to Blizzcon) when the game director got asked what are you aiming for to launch in the game in the west, his reply was I want Lost Ark and me to be recognized among the rest. This is a big reply from someone who wants to challenge the rest of the MMOs in the west and he will do whatever it takes to make LA is new norm MMO.

Yeah, i've followed the whole story from 2018, when the game launched and the p2w fiesta nearly killed it - so Smilegate changed gear and actually delivered. Reason why i'm still hyped for the game, the wait is killing me but at least i can play it a little in november.

[Edge-]

Idk if this is considered a necro or not, but why aren't more people talking about this game? It's coming out soon right? I cannot wait to get my hands on this personally.

Delayed until 2022 (looks like March 31 as a placeholder) so it doesn't compete with the other fall MMO's/launches. They have some closed beta's coming up that you can buy into with founders packs. I'm happy to wait for open beta tests, been waiting for this one long enough that a few more months doesn't much matter.

[ParanoiD84]

Beta is coming up soon, my most anticipated game by far just a shame Lance master, scouter and Arcana is not in at release but they will come soon enough.

But yeah like edge said that beta is only for people who bought any of the supporter packs. Open beta is later.

[Coldkil]

You can always buy the lower supporter pack for like 15 bucks playvthe beta amd ask for a refund if you don't like it.

I also expect open bet to not be a thing since the game is already fully fledged, and the tests are more about tech issues and testing the business model. Next closed beta (4th to 11th november) will have the cash shop in amd everyone will be given a load of currency to try stuff. Obviously everything will be wiped after it.

You can always try the game in RU woth a vpn but beware your experience will be different as you have lots of stuff in place who won't be available in EU/NA at release.

[Nyel]

AGS is already overwhelmed with New World and getting fixed anything in that game, I have no idea how they want to handle another MMORPG in the near future. They would have to double their manpower and get some actual skilled workers on board to get this work. Or they simply focus on Lost Ark while they forget about New World. Honestly, as a Lost Ark enthusiast I would be worried.

[ParanoiD84]

AGS is already overwhelmed with New World and getting fixed anything in that game, I have no idea how they want to handle another MMORPG in the near future. They would have to double their manpower and get some actual skilled workers on board to get this work. Or they simply focus on Lost Ark while they forget about New World. Honestly, as a Lost Ark enthusiast I would be worried.

Well i dont think they should need to do much with Lost Ark seeing as its been out for years already in South Korea and russia and what not so should be easier as its not a brand new game in that way. But im no expert and not sure how much work is need to be done on the eu/na release more then stable servers.

[Coldkil]

AGS is already overwhelmed with New World and getting fixed anything in that game, I have no idea how they want to handle another MMORPG in the near future. They would have to double their manpower and get some actual skilled workers on board to get this work. Or they simply focus on Lost Ark while they forget about New World. Honestly, as a Lost Ark enthusiast I would be worried.

AGS is only the publisher. The work on the game is done by Smilegate RPG. I assume AGS has the hands on tech and maybe translations, since they have to do 4 new languages all toghether. But the game itself isn't made by them.

One thing i'm sad about, is that we're getting Rohendahl already, and the new prologue. Vanilla prologue was cool. Though it's only the lvl 1-10 and then you actually choose your class.

[hattahat]

As a Korean gamer, I doubt Lost Ark will be well received by western people. It is highly p2w game, which i think they are not fond of. The popularity of Lost Ark in Korea is partly thanks to its easy monetization. Some of PvE contents (baltan, viakys? i don't know how they will be named in English but anyway) are better and most of you, especially wow players focusing on high-end PvE contents will like it. But after those raids you will need so much money and everything in the game may become work to earn money.

[potis]

As a Korean gamer, I doubt Lost Ark will be well received by western people. It is highly p2w game, which i think they are not fond of. The popularity of Lost Ark in Korea is partly thanks to its easy monetization. Some of PvE contents (baltan, viakys? i don't know how they will be named in English but anyway) are better and most of you, especially wow players focusing on high-end PvE contents will like it. But after those raids you will need so much money and everything in the game may become work to earn money.

Afaik the delay with the game is literally to change some of those things so it wont fail instantly if the P2W elements arent addressed, obviously not all of them, but some of them, Isnt russian lost ark different from korean cause of that reason also?

[hattahat]

Afaik the delay with the game is literally to change some of those things so it wont fail instantly if the P2W elements arent addressed, obviously not all of them, but some of them, Isnt russian lost ark different from korean cause of that reason also?

Yes i know it. Perhaps Amazon will intervene and fix some p2w elements. But lost ark (particularly after season 2) is totally designed around p2w system so just removing some p2w can make this game much worse. It kind of happened in Russian lost ark. Russian realm doesn't have boost events, coupon events, and gold drops are nerfed because there's less p2w. I wonder what amazon will do to solve this problem.

[Coldkil]

As a Korean gamer, I doubt Lost Ark will be well received by western people. It is highly p2w game, which i think they are not fond of. The popularity of Lost Ark in Korea is partly thanks to its easy monetization. Some of PvE contents (baltan, viakys? i don't know how they will be named in English but anyway) are better and most of you, especially wow players focusing on high-end PvE contents will like it. But after those raids you will need so much money and everything in the game may become work to earn money.

And then it's actually not true. The only thing you can spend money on is to speed up some of the processes, a thing that's not needed as reaching endgame level gear os perfectly doable as a f2p. Then you're right about the western market being less tolerant about this, but in the end we need to see of the gameplay loop os good enough to keep players hooked to the game.

[hattahat]

And then it's actually not true. The only thing you can spend money on is to speed up some of the processes, a thing that's not needed as reaching endgame level gear os perfectly doable as a f2p. Then you're right about the western market being less tolerant about this, but in the end we need to see of the gameplay loop os good enough to keep players hooked to the game.

I really can't get why you think like this. Actually I saw some LA reddit posts saying lost ark doesn't need spending money, but for Korean lost ark that's totally not true. If you wait for a year to play old contents, well then LA is not p2w. But i don't think that's how you play games nowadays. Koreans spend at least a few hundred dollars to play the third raid (kuk'saton), and thousands of dollars to play abrelshud raid. That's how we play LA. No one denies this in the Korean LA community.

And some fun facts. There are some players who don't play higher raids ofc. But people make a mockery of these people, calling them as Balbino (acronym of "Baltan Biakys normal") Balbino is a very popular word in LA communities. The reason they are mocked is people think they don't invest in their characters in order to earn money through monetization, which is actually true in almost every case.