When most people mention "Lineage" in the United States they are generally referring to Lineage II. Just go to google and type in "Lineage" and see for yourself: most hits refer to Lineage II. It's pretty safe to say that Lineage II is the more popular between the two, at least on this side of the world. Because of this I generally refer to "Lineage" as "Lineage I" so people know what I'm talking about.

It's just strange how we have to differentiate "Lineage" from "Lineage II" (and not the other way around) because Lineage did, after all, come first. It's the game that started it all for NCsoft*, so we still have some bragging rights, even do this day :) Speaking of bragging - Lineage I is the only Mac compatible NCsoft game out there.

From my experience in the gaming industry (as a whole) a lot of people don't know much about Lineage. Although both games are a part of the Lineage franchise, you can bet they are two very different games. The two should not be confused!

Lineage launched in the US in October of 2001, roughly 3 years before I joined NCsoft Austin. Right around that time I had just left a competing MMO, and that means I was adamantly spending all my time looking for more work. So I must admit, I didn't have much time to play games back then. In 2001 there were like what, maybe 3 other major MMOs to really compete against? I guess it wouldn't talk much guesswork to figure out I was at UO, hehe. Perhaps it was just the timing of things, perhaps it was the explosion of all these new MMOs that followed suit...(which I both worked for and played). I just wasn't in the world of Lineage when it all began. But I am now.

Lineage has US 4 servers: Lands of Aden, Depardieu, and Ken Rauhel. Ken is a non-pvp server, while LoA and Dep are two pvp servers with different rulesets. Then last, but not least, we have the test server. The test server provides double XP to help ease leveling and testing (to a certain degree) and every few months we wipe it to start all over again.

Yes, the graphics and style are different from what many are acustomed to now. Lineage is an aging MMO, but they will all get that way. With all these new MMOs out there it will be interesting to see what they are like in 7 years or so. We don't get very many new accounts, but we do get some. There's a nostalgic and sentimental feel to Lineage that still runs very strong. We have people who play from all over the world (in particular, Europe) and most of them have been with us for years, sometimes off and on. I personally find the Lineage community quite endearing. They got a lot of spunk. For the most part, most Lineage players don't care about other NCsoft games. Ha. But it's true...they don't. You see that in all gaming communities to a degree, but this is a trait that I think distinctly fits Lineage players in particular. They don't care about what new game we may be coming out with.
They aren't always NCsoft fans, but they are Lineage fans. They never lose their focus, and I truly respect them for that.

Lineage players are not something to be feared, but sometimes they are. It's just because they are so hardcore. There's no doubt about that...you have to be hardcore to play Lineage. But it's good to have games like that. If all games were made to be easy, if all games were made without what are often severe consequences, then certain types of gamers would be left out of the market completely. Yes, you can lose levels in Lineage. You sometimes have to work REALLY hard to get what you want. And I mean really, really hard. Some people have been playing on a single character (at least) for over 7 years now and they are *still* have goals they want to achieve, including leveling. This may not appeal to everyone, but I completely understand why Lineage gamers are drawn to it. It's hard work, but it makes you feel good, reaching your goals. A level 65 character in some games is nothing. But if someone makes level 65 in Lineage the entire community becomes completely awestruck. Nothing is ever taken for granted in Lineage.

At last year's PlayNC Meet and Greet several Lineage players were able to make the pilgrimage, either driving for hours or by flying in. All of these players have been playing longer than I have, but it was nice to hear all the good stories (which were often funny) on all the things that I missed out on. Even the Lineage II players, from what I heard, took their hats off to them that night...just for being that hardcore.

How many people out there can say they have played any MMO for seven years? Probably not too many. But like I mentioned, all these newer of MMOs are going to become older as well. I'm sure that seven years from now all those newborn MMOs will have the technology to do things that we can't do today. You can always go back and re-work a game, this is true. But unless decide to start completely clean you are going to have coding limitations. And that doesn't mean that a game has to be passed upon and buried for good just because it happens to be a few years old. A game doesn't have to have the best graphics around today for it to be an amazing game, right?

Right now we're working on Episode 6 - yes, - new content - that we will release sometime this year for Lineage. Throughout the year we also run a variety of events; the Halloween event was a fun one in particular. For those of you who never have played Lineage, don't think you've passed up your opportunity just because you didn't play it when it was brand spanking new. Lineage is a small, tight nit group and they are always welcoming new players with OPEN arms. I know this personally, for when I was new someone would always come up to me and offer their help. For some reason, people sometimes get the impression that if they decided play they would be ganked instantly, but I have found that to not be the case. (Remember, we do have a non-pvp server.) Sometimes people just think that they would be so far behind all the experienced players that they could NEVER catch up to them. Nonsense. People start new characters all the time.

So do people lose their passion for older MMOs? Does it wear off with time? From my experience, no. The community (both on the official forums and on lineageone.com) are pretty dang fierce, even to this day. Lineage I players are very frank, I've found, perhaps more so than my other communities. They will tell you how it is, point blank. They don't mess around when it comes to telling you what they want by trying to dress it up.

Just don't write Lineage off because the game is, ahem, for the lack of a better word...old. Come and see what has kept so many others with us for so long, and see for yourself. Many within the Lineage community know each other (and have for quite some time) but they will always welcome a fresh face. I lived it myself (see above) and I assure you they had NO idea I happened to work for the company.

We certainly don't get a lot of media attention. Honestly, Lineage deserves more attention that it actually gets. We live in a society where "newer" sometimes gets confused with "better" and our aging games get brushed to the side. There's also so much to compete with right now. Just go to any multi-game like WarCry and you'll instnatly notice that the MMO market has become overwhelmed with so many choices.

*So what does the NC in NCsoft stand for, anyway? Apparently, it stands for "new company". Hey, it makes sense when you are trying to come up with a new name, right?