9dragons posts

It's pretty rare that there is a free-to-play crossover event but that's what's happening with several of the games in the GamersFirst line-up of titles. In fact the GamersFirst web site has gotten a temporary revamp, turning it into the "ZombiesFirst" web site.

The zombie infection began with the first person shoote War Rock where a new map is being added to the game (Blind Bullet Map) that works in in the Zombie gameplay mode. The game has also added six new guns. Other GamersFirst games with zombie themes this week include Knight Online where players have to fight off the zombie horde. More zombie action can be found in 9Dragons and Sword 2. More info on the ZombiesFirst event can be found at the publisher's press release.

One of the better known publishing names in games is no more once again for the second time inside a decade. Acclaim, which restarted as a free-to-play MMO after its first incarnation as a PC-console game publisher went bankrupt, is now also no more. The official Acclaim web site is now a bare-bones affair, stating that the MMO games under its watch are no longer available.

The first version of Acclaim started in 1987 as a PC and console publisher. It grew to become one of the largest US game publishers in the 1990s with a string of successful titles such as the Turok first person shooter series. However the first years of the 2000 decade saw a number of Acclaim games become critical and sales bombs. In 2004 the company filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy and shut down entirely.

In 2006 the Acclaim name was used to launch an all new game publisher, this time with the theme of free-to-play MMO titles. The company managed to get well known game designer Dave Perry as its creative director for a while. In May 2010 the social networking game company Playdom acquired Acclaim and its games. However in July Disney acquired Playdom and apparently decided to shut down support for Acclaim's games. With the exception of the title 9Dragons, which will soon be published in the US by GamesFirst, none of Acclaim's games will apparently stay online.

[Via Massively]

European players of the free-to-play MMO 9Dragons can finally call a local server their home with Bardo Euro, the first European-based server recently brought to life by publisher Acclaim. "The 9Dragons European server is great news for our European players who can now get the best possible game service quality and lower latency," said Howard Marks, CEO of Acclaim. Everyone hates lag and apparently there are enough 9Dragons players from Europe for Acclaim to have made this move. We're happy for those players, as it means a higher level of quality for all everyone.

Acclaim plans on running plenty of special events between June 3rd and June 9th to celebrate the new server. Players can expect several days of bonus experience events, special monster events and PvP battles with the game masters playing along. Also, in-game fireworks are planned to commemorate the entire shebang. It sounds like players of 9Dragons will be having quite the party over the next several days.