Goodbye to Hellgate: London … MMORPG on 56K dialup! (Part 2 of a series)
THE GAME at 56K
First of all, anyone who has 56K dial-up had better choose a good one. I picked NetZero after years of trying and using many others. It is the best bang for buck I have found for less than $10 a month with unlimited usage. It also means that your ‘ping’ needs to be low. My Wildblue satellite connection is often well over 1000 ms; its very best is ~800 ms. On the other hand, my NetZero ping is usually below 100 ms (average) to just over 300 ms (worst case). So I do not get that horrible delay over 56K that I get with satellite. MMORPG is generally a better experience over 56K than with satellite. As with most other MMORPGs, you must wait for Hellgate: London to be completely patched before you can play it. And the game patches are huge even if you have the game DVD!! Worst of all, Hg:L does not appear to have a way to save partial downloads if you are disconnected. Plan to download the files at a location where broadband is available if you still want to play the game before the server closes at the end of January, 2009.
When I was a beta tester for Hellgate last year, I had wireless broadband and could play it although the game had plenty of server issues – even a month or so after the game launched and many many players complained on their forums about serious bugs online. After I gave up my broadband, I could no longer access it on 56K nor would my game update any longer. So I continued on in the Single Player, eventually reaching the cap at Level 50 Evoker. Even though I was playing the third time through on ‘Nightmare’, it was doable until the Demons continued to level past 50 and my character could not. So I finally gave it up. It was completely mindless fragging that I enjoyed against huge mobs as a way to relieve stress until I could make no further progress.
Last month, I got this email from Namco BANDAI Games America, Inc. that piqued my interest:
Dear $Account{AccountName},
Please be advised that NAMCO BANDAI Games America Inc. will continue to support
customers of Hellgate: London with online server support and play through January 31,
2009. In a further gesture of support, we will provide this server support free of charge
to all fans and players of the game up until the shut down date.
All of us at NAMCO BANDAI Games America Inc. appreciate your enthusiasm for Hellgate:
London and look forward to providing you with future entertainment products.
For questions regarding the shut down or additional information about Hellgate: London,
please visit the game’s official website at www.hellgatelondon.com.
Thanks you,
Namco Bandai Games America Inc.
So I visited, http://www.hellgatelondon.com/ and got much the same message. Since I already was at the place I was supposed to get information from and got nothing further, I decided to dig deeper. Fortunately the Hellgate forums are still up and running:
http://forums.hellgatelondon.com/
Hellgate London Closing – FAQs
Hello Everyone,
We put together this FAQ for our community members regarding the Hellgate: London NA and EU server closing.
What does this mean? This means on January 31, 2009 the NA and EU servers for Hellgate: London and the forums will shut down permanently. Players in these regions will no longer be able to play the online portion of Hellgate: London. The single player offline mode will remain available for everyone.
Can I play Hellgate: London on the SEA server? No, that server is only available for that region.
Who owns the IP for Hellgate: London? Hanbitsoft has the IP rights for Hellgate: London and has the rights to operate Hellgate: London in Asia excluding Japan. NAMCO BANDAI has the rights to operate Hellgate: London and its associated services in North America, Europe, and Japan.
Can I make my own Hellgate: London server? No, this is a violation of the Terms of Service to which you agreed.
Can you transfer my characters over to Single Player? No, sorry.
Will we get a patch, items, holiday, etc? No, sorry. We don’t have the resources to do this.
Why is NAMCO BANDAI ceasing the operation of the servers then? Unfortunately, there’s not a lot of clarity we can offer here except to say that the extremely unfortunate closure of Flagship Studios put obligations, responsibilities, authority, and rights in a bit of a mess. We wish there were some hope to offer here, but, after careful consultation with all the relevant parties, we feel that this is the only path left.
We appreciate the tremendous support that this community has provided to Hellgate: London and the patience that has been graciously extended to us as we’ve tried to figure out how we can support this great group of players, and now, to gracefully exit.
Thanks again.
Epic Self-Sacrifice & ... destiny
Comradeship against hopeless odds .. ironic
.. and demons! This Reaper is to be Feared!!
So on the surface, Hellgate, London had everything going for it. Set in a post-apocalyptic London in the year 2038, Hg:L (still at time of writing) features both single-player and multiplayer components. The multiplayer allows the player to team up with other players online to battle demons, or to fight alone in single player mode. The free online part features the originally released single-player content in cooperative play and and a type of player vs. player combat. Those who subscribed, payed $9.95 a month and there was also an offer to pay a one-time fee of $149.99 for a lifetime subscription for up to 100,000 people who pre-ordered the game. The subscribers received additional perks, such as an increased “stash”, the ability to form a guild, and access to special areas, loot and items. Only one expansion, The Stonehenge Chronicles, was later released for subscribers that moved refreshingly into a bright outdoor area for a real change. A Collector’s Edition of Hg:L was also released, featuring additional collectibles that were not available to people who purchased the regular version.
There were two types of multiplayer accounts when you purchased the DVD besides the single-player offline campaign (which I enjoyed best): there were free and subscription accounts; I choose the free account. Subscribers had access to ongoing content updates with more monsters, more weapons, additional item sets and special quests for ‘ultimate’ items. In addition, subscribers had access to a Hardcore mode, special PvP arenas and a means to bypass server queues, plus a shared storage space with room for 40 items instead of 20. Subscribers also had the ability to create guilds with the ability to achieve officer status in them, and promised 24-hour customer support. What was cool was that subscribers and non-subscribers could interact together in the game. Non-subscribers could join guilds, but not create them. The level cap was set to 50 and up to 24 character slots are available for all. However, all was not well and on March 26, 2008, it was announced that Comerica Bank would provide game funding assistance, using Hellgate: London as collateral, for Flagship Studios so that they would be able to support ongoing development of Hellgate and its expansions and other games. Sadly, as of July 2008, all subscriptions were suspended and players could neither subscribe nor unsubscribe. This followed news of significant layoffs at Flagship Studios. As someone who still has several characters and a free account from last year, I decided to investigate both the loss of Flagship and the current state of the game.
