Blue Hole Studio's - New MMO

[phusnikn]

The old NCSoft team that was working on Lineage 3 -- the one that left due to internal problems (their favorite StarCraft player lost? who knows), created a company called Bluehole Studios. The game they're working on in this new company is called Project S1, and it has many similarities with Lineage 3, naturally. Supposedly, NCSoft is backing them in the creation of this new game, but nothing's been said about any connection to Lineage 3.

So it's my opinion that S1 will be similar to Lineage 3 because of the history with it's staff, but I don't believe the games are connected outside of that. NCSoft's involvement with the project doesn't point to that either, only that they might think the team had potential and want to move beyond the dispute to make a future profit. Most likely, Lineage 3 will still be coming out though, just a lot, lot later than originally planned.

As far as this site goes, until my amazing Korean friends yell at me with updates or I stumble across something concrete, it will be non-operational.


Checkout the screens posted on their website for their upcoming MMO look's very promising.

http://www.bluehole.net/eng/eng.html

[Rofly]

It looks like generic Korean MMO #165834.

[phusnikn]

Originally Posted by Rofly

It looks like generic Korean MMO #165834.

I don't see why most American's dislike Asian art style. I personally can't stand looking at the cartoony american style WoW games which it seems every American game studio is doing these days. Seriously what's wrong with this type of art style?

[Lost Ranger]

Originally Posted by phusnikn

I don't see why most American's dislike Asian art style. I personally can't stand looking at the cartoony american style WoW games which it seems every American game studio is doing these days. Seriously what's wrong with this type of art style?

They dislike it for the same reason you can't stand the cartoony american style WoW games? People have different tastes imagine that.

[Toxxulian]

It's not the art style, it's the grind.

These graphics + wow = yes please

[Azrayne]

Originally Posted by phusnikn

I don't see why most American's dislike Asian art style. I personally can't stand looking at the cartoony american style WoW games which it seems every American game studio is doing these days. Seriously what's wrong with this type of art style?

It's not the art style that bothers me about asian MMO's, it's the godawful gameplay.

[column]

It's not the art style that bothers me about asian MMO's, it's the godawful Asians.

[Lost Ranger]

Yeah, I imagine most of the dislike for asian based games comes from the terrible game play. Korean culture is just different then NA culture (duh) and what they find enjoyable most NA folks wont. Archeiron made a good point in the Aion thread, the internet cafe atmosphere goes along MUCH better with insane grind fests instead of sitting at home alone. Internet cafes are not all that popular here in the US, most people just have their own setup and connection.

Those SS look beautiful though.

[gnomad]

Interesting SS's, but the hype oh my gawd it beats the hell out of Brad McQualude's hype.

They "will produce the world's best MMORPG"?? In whose mind the few hundred thousand grind fest Koreans.

Man I haven't heard any studio so stuck on themselves since oh lets say NPCube.

[Chanur]

Ill be interested if its not mouse movement or retarded level of grinds. Oh or L2's pvp system. Fuck that shit.

[Senen]

I'll concur with others its not the graphics of the Asian MMo Market its the gameplay/freeplaymodel/lackofcontrols that make there games unadaptable to the US market.

[Ukerric]

Originally Posted by gnomad

They "will produce the world's best MMORPG"??

Every MMO studio says the same. Witness Ngruk's posts. You don't start and say "we're going to produce an average so-so thing, which we hope will catch enough to be profitable".

[Azrayne]

The thing is I'm sure every single one of them believes it as well. It's just that somewhere along the way things get horribly fucked up and we end up with something like VG or AoC.

[Szlia]

The first question that comes to mind is: what makes this game different from others? For the lazy clickers, here is their answer:

S1 is clearly differentiated from World of Warcraft or Lineage II by ...
i. Dynamic battle system
ii. Next generation graphics
iii. Enhanced community experience

That's pretty abstract and not very engaging... ii. is pretty obvious, more about i.:

"1,2,3,1,2,3…"
Facing the mob and repeatedly pressing a skill button is no longer exciting.
[...]
S1 will introduce omni-directional attacks, where distance and direction must be coordinated for weapons and spells to work; moreover, healers must continuously take new battle positions to cast spells. Also, depending on body weight ratio between a mob and player, an enemy hit will register a fall-back reflect.
[...]
All users will seamlessly move throughout the world, sharing a singular combat experience.

More about iii.

The goal is to achieve the world's highest concurrent user load per server!
Players in Project S1 will not only experience battles with higher concurrent users, but also encounter a revolutionized interaction system for political and economic professions. Project S1 will offer a stable, non-disruptive in-game social life.

That's not a lot less abstract...

Next gen graphics + mass battles seems a little scary and also it always felt to me that past some kind of sweet spot in population, social interactions are less interesting. But maybe they will structure the game to have social circles of sort so that the 4 or 5 hundred politicians, the 4 or 5 hundred blacksmiths, etc have enough reasons to interact with each other to form micro societies... In a way it seems like "S1" is trying to be a med-fan version of EVE... or?

[flv]

It hasn't even been introduced in GStar or something so it seems like the development is still far away, screenies look good and art style (the town's design) is pretty good also, but that's about it.

BTW, isn't this the company that formed right after the L3 code was stolen? I don't think these guys have any relation with NCsoft anymore.