So apparently this new MMORPG from Neowiz just launched called War of Angels. The game entered into open beta, which in today’s MMO world basically means full release, in late November. I forgot exactly when, but I wanted to give the game a try so I first downloaded the Gamigo version, but realized it was EU only. The Neowiz version is the global one. Unfortunately after downloading War of Angels and patching it, the game just wouldn’t launch. I tried like seven times and it still wouldn’t work. I read the game’s official forums and other Windows 7 users are having the same issue. I think it has to do with the fact that I’m using Windows 7 64 bit, but I’m not entirely sure right now. I decided not to play War of Angels because if the game’s developers were too lazy to make sure their game actually worked before releasing it, it probably isn’t worth playing. MMO Publishers like Neowiz, Aeria Games, OGPlanet and Ntreev should complain to the developers if their game doesn’t work properly on some platforms. The stupid thing is that the Gamigo version actually launched perfectly fine for me, so the problem is clearly with this new Neowiz version. Neowiz is a big Korean company who apparently developed S4 League, which Alaplaya publishes. They themselves publish Alliance of Valiant Arms and various other games in South Korea. This War of Angels game is the first game they’re publishing in North America though. It might be their first English game too, not sure though.
I really don’t understand why game developers can’t test their games before releasing them. I remember Trickster Online wouldn’t work on Windows 7 for YEARS after it first launched. Ntreev EVENTUALLY got around to fixing that little issue recently though. Ntreev’s other games – Pangya, Grand Chase and Project Blackout work perfectly fine on Windows 7 though. I think the problem with these games not launching has to do with their anti-hacking shields. I remember the anti-hack program in GunZ from ijji and Gunbound from Softnyx – which conflicted with my anti-virus program AVG. The thing is though, both of these games are 4+ years old. War of Angels on the other hand launchd in late November. There’s no reason a game launching in late November, 2010 shouldn’t work out of the box. I mean there’s no excuse for it. I think the reasons why MapleStory, Combat Arms and RuneScape are so popular is because they just work right out of the box. They also have fairly low system requirements. I think it’s CRITICAL for new MMORPGs to “work” right out of the box, otherwise they’ll lose a lot of players who get frustrated with the game.
War of Angels will likely be “fixed” in the coming weeks, but there’s no reason that it shouldn’t have worked day 1. That’s day 1 of open beta too. The closed beta phase for Forsaken World is likely as long as it is, because the company actually wants to iron out the bugs. Iris Online launched from gPotato sometime in late Nov too, but unlike War of Angels it launched nearly bug free. Little bugs aren’t the problem – the big ones where the game doesn’t even work are the terrible ones. So yeah. Game developers. Make sure your games actually work before launching them.