The Elven Prophecy went live around 3AM Pacific, with players flocking in droves to get their hands on the first new playable race for Runes of Magic, the pointy-eared Elves. Those who weren't giving the new Druid and Warden classes a spin were busy exploring the strange new lands added in the expansion.

As if all of this content weren't enough, Frogster is planning a week filled with launch activities for Chapter II, including a Level Competition with 3,000 in-game diamonds set aside as prizes.

Visit www.runesofmagic.com and sign up for a free account to give the new additions a go.

The Elven Legacy free expansion for Runes of Magic adds several new areas to the Taborean map, from the Northeast's Weeping Coast to the Savage Lands, a rainforest area that serves as the naga-infested home of the elves. Frogster is adding the obligatory lava area, in the form of the Aotulia Volcano region, its ash-filled skies a stark contrast to the peaceful tranquility of the Elven Island, which I assume was named after Bob Elven or something.

I've included the game's previous world map so you can see just how much is being added to the game come September. I kind of like what they're doing with the place.

Frogster has released a set of new Runes of Magic screenshots, showing off the elves and the green, leafy areas they will inhabit come September. They've been hidden away from the general population of Taborea up until now, but there's just something about your world becoming the setting for an online roleplaying game that makes you want to shimmy your highly intelligent and extremely agile bottom out of hiding.

I'm sure we can expect the usual sort of Elvish accoutrements to arrive with the expansion - elegant swords, powerful bows, and nearly-naked mailbox dancing. Finally.

Free-to-play massively multiplayer online games generally attract huge numbers, and with Runes of Magic's strong resemblance to World of Warcraft it comes as no surprise that their player base across North America and Europe has sprung up so quickly.

"We at Frogster have been looking for a real hit title for two years and are happy to have found one this last year with Runes of Magic." Summed up Andreas Weidenhaupt, Chief Licensing Officer of Frogster Interactive Pictures AG and CEO of Frogster Online Gaming GmbH.

Frogster also announced today that they've teamed up with BitRaider to stream the game in North America, making it easier than ever for new players to hop onboard without having to worry about long download times, playing within minutes instead of hours. Look for the BitRaider version to be available in the next few weeks at RunesofMagic.com.

The Wind-Runner Race is an 8-person horse race that players sign up for in the city of Varanas in the game world. Once the race card is full the race begins, with players avoiding magical traps on their way towards the finish line. Just like many popular kart racing titles, players can help themselves and hinder their foes by picking up any of 8 different horse powers, represented on the field by question mark icons. Boost your speed, slow down an opponent, or trap them in a web...all's fair when in game currency is on the line. You can see a brief video of a race in action at the game's official site.

It just amazes me how much stuff Frogster is tossing into Runes of Magic. I eagerly await the announcement of an in-game FPS archery mini-game in the near future.

Runes of Magic Chapter 1: Rise of the Demon King is now live, so using the excuse of still being in beta to excuse the smattering of text still left in its original Korean as of two days ago is no longer valid. Frogster Interactive has deemed the game fit for release, which makes it even more confusing whenever I use my Ranger's squiggly oriental lettering attack. Still, it's free to download and play, so it's not as if we can ask for our money back.

They've added a ton of new content for the game's release, including several new dungeons, an epic quest line, and level 35 elite skills, with more content planned in the coming weeks. I'm a bit bothered by the fact that one of the upcoming features is a "New combat formula allowing much easier balancing", as that seems like the sort of thing you'd want in place before launch, but once again...free is free.

Despite all of its flaws, Runes of Magic isn't a bad way to spend a few hours, especially if you've got enough of a sense of humor to laugh away some of the more serious problems. Head over to the game's official site to snag yourself a copy of the client and sign up for an account, and watch out for Ranger Kotaku's squiggly line attack.

Runes of Magic's Taiwanese developer Runewaker Entertainment would of course call it an homage, but the trailer celebrating the March 19th launch of the game in Europe and North America looks suspiciously like something Blizzard would release, only not quite as good...which pretty much accurately describes Runes of Magic as a whole. Sure the game does plenty of new things, or at least borrows ideas from multiple sources to try and keep things fresh, but it's quite obvious where they drew their main inspiration from.

You still have until March 18th to participate in the open beta, after which you can pretty much play as if you were in the open beta anyway.

While the servers are all up, the item store functions properly, and all character progression from here on out carries over, Runes of Magic isn't officially released until Frogster Interactive says so, and they'll be saying so come March 19th.

"Since the open beta test launch is December, the population of Taborea has soared and we have been working closely with our community to fine tune the Runes of Magic experience", said Daniel Ullrich, Director of Product Management at Frogster, "We look forward to welcoming thousands of new players to Taborea during the next few weeks, as we get ready to fully launch Runes of Magic".

Hooray! So come March 19th, players can officially continue playing the free-to-play titles as they were, content in the knowledge that they are out of beta.

The Runes of Magic Item Shop is just that - a shop that lets you spend real money in order to outfit your character with the latest weapons, armor, spells, and other bits and bobs neccessary to climb in rank at a faster rate.

“Runes of Magic is a free-to-play game, and we want to ensure we are creating a game that appeals to the widest possible audience,” said Sean Kauppinen, president and CEO of Frogster America, Inc. “Many players don’t have the time to wait for randomly dropped items that could enhance their overall gameplay experience. For those players, and players that have their heart set on a specific item, we have opened the item shop and are looking forward to delivering a fun, immersive, and social online game that appeals to the widest possible audience.”

Let me know how the shop is, because I am never, ever going into it. I know myself. I'd be the highest level homeless guy in the game in no time flat.

Frogster America Opens Runes of Magic Item Shop

– Micro-Transactions Enable Players to Achieve Their Goals in the Game World Faster –

SAN FRANCISCO – January 20, 2009 – Frogster America, Inc. today announced that the item shop for Runes of Magic, the Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG) that is redefining the standard for free-to-play titles, is now open and players have the option of purchasing items that will enable them to achieve their goals in the game world faster. With an exciting and engaging story, more than 1,000 quests at launch and 30 character class combinations, Runes of Magic is the most immersive, content-rich, free-to-play MMO game ever created. The item shop will allow players that are interested in a specific item, or too busy to wait for random item drops, to quickly upgrade their armor, weapons, spells and more.

“Runes of Magic is a free-to-play game, and we want to ensure we are creating a game that appeals to the widest possible audience,” said Sean Kauppinen, president and CEO of Frogster America, Inc. “Many players don’t have the time to wait for randomly dropped items that could enhance their overall gameplay experience. For those players, and players that have their heart set on a specific item, we have opened the item shop and are looking forward to delivering a fun, immersive, and social online game that appeals to the widest possible audience.”

Runes of Magic went into the open beta in December with English and German versions, and more than 300,000 players have already entered the world. Anyone interested can now download the game for free at: www.runesofmagic.com.

About Runes of Magic
Runes of Magic is the Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG) that is redefining the standard for free-to-play titles. With an exciting and engaging story, more than 1,000 quests at launch and 30 character class combinations, Runes of Magic is the most immersive, content-rich free-to-play MMO game ever created. More than 300,000 people have already signed up and entered the world with hundreds of thousands more expected as word of the game’s features and community spread each day. Already a winner of multiple awards for its content and overall gameplay, Runes of Magic is expected to be a major international hit in 2009 and beyond. For more information, please visit: www.runesofmagic.com

Runes of Magic features

· Free-to-play: no monthly fees, free download
· Extensive dual class system (six primary and secondary classes)
· Versatile spell- and attack-combinations
· Enthralling background story
· More than 1,000 quests and quest series on launch
· No zone boundaries thanks to seamless architecture
· Dungeons: Instanced and tile based as well as persistent
· Individually developable skills and spells
· Armor sets with special bonuses
· Dynamic item system with hundreds of runes for upgrading
· Optional PvP system with arena battles and guild wars
· Ranking system with player-ranking lists
· Multitude of unique mounts
· Epic crafting system with the chance to improve existing items
· Personalization of player houses through individual furnishing
· Reputation system
· Customizable user interface with the option to use Add-Ons
· Map and radar system to find dealers, resources and quests easily
· In-game auction houses for trading items
· Teleport-Runes for instant travel
· Mouse and keyboard controls for movement
· Regular updates with new content
· Cross-server fights in three-server-battle in development
· Guild houses in special zones in development

Registrations for the game have now surpassed 220,000, 20,000 of which were created on Monday morning when the open beta launched. The population of Taborea quickly shot past 100,000 characters, who combined have played for more than 200,000 hours, completing 2 million quests in the process. The company was forced to open an addition game world on Monday afternoon to deal with the influx, with the global population now spread across seven different servers.

I know some of you folks were included in those figures. What do you think so far? Yay or nay?

Population of Taborea rises to 100.000 characters at the first day

Runes of Magic started successfully into open beta

Berlin, Dec. 17th 2008: The start of Runes of Magic’s open beta phase exceeded all expectations of publisher Frogster significantly. Over 100,000 characters were created in the first hours and are now populating the world of Taborea. Technically the start went smooth despite the heavy rush of players. Due to the high number of players, Frogster opened an additional game world on Monday afternoon. The international community now is spread over seven servers – even though Runes of Magic is only in the early stages of the open beta phase.

In the past few hours Frogster also noted a significant increase in registration numbers. Out of the total number of 220,000 registrations, more than 20,000 Accounts were created on Monday alone and immediately entered the game world: more than 2 million quests were completed in over 200,000 hours of combined playing time in the game world of Taborea. These numbers underline the relevance of quests and immersive background story in the MMORPG developed by Runewaker Entertainment.

"We will systematically analyse the feedback of the high number of players in the coming weeks and use it to give Runes of Magic the final polish for the official release in the first quarter of 2009,” welcomed Daniel Ullrich, Director of Product Management, the active participation of the players. The beta is now open to all interested players and the game can be downloaded free of charge after a short registration on www.runesofmagic.com.

Interested players should head over to RunesofMagic.com to register and download the client, now available in both English and German flavors. All of the closed beta characters have been done away with in the last big character wipe, with open beta characters carrying on past the game's official launch, so if you were planning to play Runes of Magic, now is the time to start.

In the time-honored tradition of all MMORPGs, Rune of Magic will also be kicking off their Christmas celebration this Thursday, with special events, costumes, quests, and other surprises in store. If you start now you just might be able to download the client and get it updated by then.

RUNES OF MAGIC OPEN BETA BEGINS

Fantasy Online roleplay-Game now open for everybody

Berlin, Germany (December 15th, 2008) - Frogster Interactive today announced that the highly anticipated massively multiplayer online role-playing game Runes of Magic has now gone into open beta. With over 190,000 players already registered, the client is now available in English and for the first time in German language for download from the official site www.runesofmagic.com.

Players who have not registered yet can download the client for free and are able to create a game account on www.runesofmagic.com. With the start of the open beta, Frogster will activate all implemented content. Even the item-shop, where the players can buy supporting items, will be available in Runes of Magic. At the same time Frogster will remove the NDA so players can communicate their impressions from today on and media can publish their first previews. Since all characters have been deleted at the end of the closed beta event all players will start with level one – regardless of whether they are a novice or a seasoned adventurer. Upon first entering the world of Taborea, players need to decide on the server type: Players who prefer to fight against other players in the game world anywhere and at any time should choose a PvP server. Players, who want to quest in peace and only intend to fight against other players in a controlled surrounding should choose a PvE server. More information about the rules on the PvP and PvE servers can be found during the day on the official website.

On Thursday 19th December shortly after the start of the open beta, Christmas will arrive on Taborea. Special event costumes and quests as well as lots of small surprises will be waiting for all players. The official website www.runesofmagic.com will accompany the events with a competition. Everybody, who gets creative and sends something hand-crafted around Runes of Magic, has the chance to win a rare in game Christmas mount.

Runes of Magic – a world full of wizardry and adventure
With an extensive range of features Runes of Magic prepares to redefine the standard of free-to-play MMO games. Right from the launch Runes of Magic will convey its absorbing story through more than 1000 quests embedded in an atmospheric world. Players can choose between six main classes. Combined with a secondary class they dispose of 36 individual character classes over all. All characters possess unique skills with impressive
combo attacks and can use mounts. A particularly attractive feature for guilds and players is the possibility to arrange their own virtual homes with individual furnishings. Thanks to an extensive crafting and reputation system, thrilling PVP as well as demanding dungeons and boss-monsters, no wishes remain unsatisfied. The Taiwanese developer Runewaker has developed Runes of Magic according to western MMO standards within a time frame of three years. The studio will provide new challenges for players every three to four months with free add-ons and updates. MMO fans can find more information, pictures and videos on the official website www.runesofmagic.com.

Features
- Free2play: no monthly fees, free download
- Extensive dual class system (six primary and secondary classes)
- Versatile spell and attack combinations
- Enthralling background story
- More than 1.000 quests and quest series on launch
- No zone boundaries thanks to seamless architecture
- Dungeons: Instanced and tile based as well as persistent
- Individually developed skills and spells
- Armour sets with special bonuses
- Dynamic item system with hundreds of runes for upgrading
- Optional PvP system with arena battles and guild wars
- Ranking system with player-ranking lists
- Multitude of unique mounts
- Epic crafting system with the chance to improve existing items
- Personalisation of player houses through individual furnishings
- Reputation system
- Customisable user interface with the option to use Add-ons
- Map and radar system to find dealers, resources and quests easily
- Ingame auction houses for trading items
- Teleport-Runes for instant travel
- Mouse and keyboard controls for movement
- Regular updates with new content
- Cross-server fights in three-server-battle in development
- Guild houses in special zones in development

As in many other MMO titles, mounts are status symbols in the world of Runes of Magic, which means they will cost considerable amounts of cash, but there is a solution for low-level characters. Certain vendors will rent out mounts to the impoverished lowbie masses so they aren't always left hoofing it. I am hoping they eventually add a layaway program for especially disadvantaged players.

Frogster plans on introducing mounted combat in a future patch as part of their plan to have every possible MMO feature in one game.

Cosmetic pets, like the tiny grim reaper seen above, can be found either by sifting through the corpses of the monsters you kill or purchasing them in the item shop, so rabid pet collectors might just want to avoid the game altogether lest they find themselves completely penniless and surrounded by cute little animals.

Future hopes to introduce pets that can actually aid you in battle in the future, as well as special arenas where you can battle your pokemon pets against those of other players.

The move comes in anticipation of the North American release of Frogster's Runes of Magic, which aims to take the best of all MMO worlds and mash them up into one complete package. The new offices will house the servers for the game, which they hope to launch by year's end. The subsidiary will be run by industry veteran Sean Kauppinen, who will take on the role of interim CEO to oversee the game's launch. Kauppinen has previous worked with both Sony Online Entertainment and Ubisoft.

Welcome to the U.S., Frogster! May you find San Francisco every bit as warm and welcoming as your native Germany.

Frogster America Inc. Founded in San Francisco

Games Industry Veteran Sean Kauppinen to Fulfill Interim President and CEO Role

SAN FRANCISCO - (Dec. 10, 2008) Frogster Interactive Pictures AG today announced the founding of its North American subsidiary, Frogster America Inc., yesterday in San Francisco. Sean Kauppinen, a very well-connected US games industry veteran has joined to take an interim president and CEO role and lead the company through its early stage. Sean Kauppinen has been active in the US games industry for over 14 years and successfully arranged the market introductions of various blockbuster computer games in various positions with Sony Online Entertainment, Ubisoft, and other top gaming companies. Dirk Meyer zu Drewer, a German senior finance professional working in the US since 1998, takes the Secretary and interim CFO role. Andreas Weidenhaupt, CEO of Frogster Online Gaming GmbH, is joining the board as a (non-executive) VP. Christoph Gerlinger, CEO of Frogster Interactive Pictures AG, serves as (non-executive) chairman of the board.

The game servers of Frogster America Inc., designed for hosting, accounting and billing transactions of the highly anticipated massively multiplayer online game ‘Runes of Magic’ in the USA, were also set up yesterday. Frogster America is looking to launch the commercial service of ‘Runes of Magic’ before year-end.

"Frogster is making a strategic move into the US market with Runes of Magic, a title that sets the AAA standard for premium free-to-play, micro-transaction based games," said Sean Kauppinen, president and CEO of Frogster America Inc. "With a strong launch team in place, Frogster America is well positioned to grow the operation aggressively in the coming months."

Frogster Interactive Pictures AG considers its MMO game ‘Runes of Magic’ a keystone opportunity to move into the attractive North American market and quickly establish its own customer base. The Berlin based Frogster Group sees thousands of new players’ registrations from North America each week, even without Frogster focusing efforts there until now. ‘Runes of Magic’ was named the ‘Best Free-to-play-Game’ of the Games Convention 2008 by Ten Ton Hammer, an industry leading MMO media outlet, and is regularly listed among the Top 5 in the unofficial US MMO game charts of upcoming MMO games at MMORPG.com.

About Frogster Interactive Pictures AG
Frogster Interactive Pictures AG is a Berlin-based publisher of online computer games. Frogster focuses on the operation and the exploitation of virtual worlds, so-called Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) games. This is one of the strongest growing sectors in the entertainment industry. The Berlin-based Frogster Online Gaming GmbH which has arisen from the merger of OnlineWelten, the German MMO games and gaming network with the widest range, and Yusho, operator and service provider for virtual worlds on own hardware infrastructure, own billing systems for subscriptions and virtual items operates and exploits mmo games in Europe (Frogster share 71%). Frogster Co. Ltd. based in Seoul, Korea, develops mmo games and is planning the launch of the operation and the exploitation of virtual worlds in Asia for 2009 (stake 60%). Frogster America Inc. based in San Francisco, USA, will be taking up the operation and exploitation of mmo games in North America in 2009 (stake 90%). Amongst other titles the Frogster group owns several very promising mmo game licences with ‘The Chronicles of Spellborn’ and ‘Runes of Magic’. Currently the group employs more than 80 staff members. In 2008, Frogster was awarded as “Landmark in the Land of Ideas”, a competition under the patronage of the German President Dr. Horst Köhler. Internet: www.frogster-interactive.de

The game that isn't afraid to take the finer points of more established games and make them its own will be throwing open its doors in mid-December, giving PC gamers something to fiddle around with during the long, dark holidays. Players need only register at www.runesofmagic.com to enter. Characters played in beta will be carrying over to the love live game when it's finally released, so it's also an excellent opportunity to get a leg up.

Players already in closed beta will be treated to a special farewell event starting the 7th and ending the 10th, during which time evil demons will stream into the game world via some sort of dark portal or something. Come on, it's obviously not World of Warcraft - those exclamation points are purple!

Rather than focus on what's similar to WoW, let's take a look at where the game differs instead.

Character Advancement: Covered this about a week ago, but we'll cover it again. Characters choose one class. At level 10 they choose another. Both classes have primary and secondary abilities. You can switch freely between the two classes, but you can only use primary abilities from your primary class, along with secondary abilities from your secondary class. Want a warrior that casts a little healing who can transform into a priest that can take a beating? You can do that. Want a mage who can backstab and stealth when the mood strikes him? No problem. Whether inspired by Final Fantasy XI or D&D multi-classing, the system allows for many different combinations of classes, letting you create a character custom tailored to your play style.

The Update Schedule: The Runes of Magic team want this game to buck standard RPG conventions by offerring not only free updates every few months, but free updates that include big changes. New classes and new races, generally relegated to retail expansions for the big-name MMO games, free additions such as these should be plentiful on Runes of Magic.

The Rune System: Now this bit is very, very nifty. Say you've finally found the perfect matching set of armor, but then come across a more powerful piece of equipment that looks plain ugly. Instead of ruining your outfit, strip the powers from the new object into a rune and then attach it to your old hat. You can even combine two runes together to form a more powerful one, though the higher the powers the more chance you have to fail. Think of it as equipment gambling - do you destroy this high level piece when you could possibly fail, losing it all in the process?

Player Housing: Player housing as been done before, but the Runes of Magic team is doing some interesting things with the player-made space. You have all of the standards - places to hang trophies, display your weapons, or store your extra items. Your house starts of small, growing with you as you level to reflect your increasing power and status. You can even invite friends into your home to engage in steamy cyber discuss upcoming battles.

By far the neatest function of player housing in Runes of Magic is the dress dummy. Place it in your home, equip it with a set of armor, and then with the click of a button you can swap out your equipment with what the dummy is wearing. Perfect for those who consistently change primary classes, as well as anyone who has ever played a WoW druid. You can set up as many dummies as you need, and the same functionality works with wall-mounted weapon sets.

Dynamic Dungeons: Certain dungeons in Runes of Magic will be dynamically generated, meaning that you will go inside and gain treasures, come out, and the next time you enter the dungeon layout and treasures have completely changed.

Guild Wars: Guilds will be able to declare war on other guilds in Runes of Magic, allowing for conflict ranging from one-on-one fights in the city streets all the way up to massive instanced stronghold wars, where the rival guilds battle against each other for rank points and the treasures of each other's guild castles.

Server Wars: The developers are actively working on incorporating server PVP, where multiple servers fight over a neutral territory for the honor of their particular group of people who randomly chose that particular game world to call home.

Free-To-Play: It's free, so the price point is somewhat better than WoW's.

So yes, the game takes elements of World of Warcraft, but it also steals ideas from everyone else - Dark Age of Camelot, Final Fantasy Online, Everquest, Guild Wars, etc. It's the product of a couple of guys who just wanted to put everything the loved into one package. The strategy doesn't always work, but sometimes throwing everything you think tastes good into one pot can result in something that tastes even better.

The game also features a talent point system similar to World of Warcraft, allowing players to spend points as they level to focus on their powers and abilities. It sounds like an interesting system that will make for some nifty tactics in both PVP and PVE situations. I'll be checking out Runes of Magic at the Games Convention in Leipzig next week, so keep an eye peeled for more information on this rather intriguing little MMO. Hit the jump for the full document and some shiny new screenshots.

One Character – Thousands of Choices

Immense variety in the character development and skill system of Runes of Magic

Berlin, 2008/08/15: Runes of Magic offers a very interesting system for character development besides its dualclass system already explained. To equip a character in Frogster's upcoming fantasy MMOG with unique abilities, players may take skills and spells from three basic categories.

Amidst the general abilities and spells players will find callback spells, crafting skills, melee attacks and a PvP flag to enable or disable the player versus player mode. The second category in Runes of Magic, the so-called primary skills, may only be used by the primary class. Among these abilities special skills like the exceptional attack combinations of warriors, reanimation of priests or sneaking up of rogues can be found. Players can use the secondary skills with both their primary- and secondary class. If a player chooses to play a Rogue as his or her secondary class, he may for example apply "Training: Assassin's weapons" to throw daggers.

At any time, players can change their primary and secondary class. But a player will only receive experience and talent points for his active primary class, which means that only this class will level up. To upgrade the secondary class, players will have to switch between the classes first.

By defeating enemies and via regular level-up the player will receive talent points, which can be used in Runes of Magic to upgrade most skills and spells. The Mage's fireball for example will only reach its true destructive power, when it has been enhanced with talent points. The multifaceted crafting will be trained by regular practice just like the combat skills, e.g. one-handed swords, wands or bows.

Each class in Runes of Magic possesses a special ability, which is already available at level 1, but has a long cooldown time of one hour. Warriors for example increase their Fury by using „Rage", Scouts fire their arrows with an increased attack bonus by using the „ Arrow of Essence ", which does not consume physical arrows and Mages transform their spells into instant spells by applying „Elemental Catalysis". While a Rogue's normal attack changes into a murderous instrument by the use of „Assassinate" for 30 seconds, a Knight endows all of his companions with a protective shield for 15 seconds via the use of his „Holy Shield". Some skills in Runes of Magic may be used at any time, others need a certain conjuring time, a few have a cooldown period and for others the correct type of energy is needed (Warriors use fury, Rogues energy, Scouts focus and Knights, Mages and Priests use mana). Beside the active skills, players in Runes of Magic also have passive abilities that enable them to use certain equipment like a bow or armor.

Even skill combinations are possible when starting with the right opening attack. The correct sequence of each skill's assigned element - fire, water, wind, earth, light and darkness - can trigger mighty combination attacks that deal immense damage to an enemy or complement a skill or spell with a special effect. Thus, a normal spell can for example affect a whole area when applied within such a sequence. By using several skills in the right order, players trigger such a combo effect. The best way to figure out which combinations work best, is by playing together with other players fighting against the many creatures and monsters in the gaming world of Runes of Magic.

The first region of the ambitious online roleplaying game can be played in an early test version at the Games Convention at booth A10 of Publisher Frogster Interactive in hall 5. Further information, a registration form for beta-signup and a new action-trailer are available on the official website: www.runesofmagic.com.