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When it comes to games, there are countless choices. But very few games manage to make a name for themselves in the modern world. Like those, you come back long after they come out. One of the games that has recently gained popularity among gamers is Lost Arc.
It is an MMORPG (Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games). But its characteristics have made it very popular, although the genre is familiar. But what sparked such interest among gamers?
In 2019, Lost Ark was released in Korea, but it entered the North American, South American, and European markets in February 2022. The game’s release in these countries led to an increase in its player base.
The best thing that happened to Tripod Studio and Smilegate’s game development subsidiary, Smilegate RPG, was that the game became the second most played game on Steam. The record was achieved within the first 24 hours of its release.
You might be surprised to know, but the game’s sudden surge in popularity has caused servers to become overloaded in some places. So what is this game? Which servers were at capacity? What is the company doing about it? All these questions will be answered later!
A brief overview of Lost Arc
Published by Amazon, Lost Ark contains many attractive elements that are suitable for enthusiastic gamers. Here are some features that have attracted more than 15 million players for the game.
2.5x isometric view
The key aspect that sets Lost Arc apart from other games is the 2.5x isometric view. The view allows players to better interact with the screen. Since they can view enemies from a top-down angle, the combat sequence becomes more enjoyable. It improves game control and allows players to better understand the situation on the screen.
Different classes
A great thing about Lost Arc is the classes. The new version for the US and Europe has five classes with various underlying subclasses. Each of these classes has its own powers and abilities. If you know the Korean version, many classes are not included in this version. Regardless, the inclusion of the Warrior, Gunner, Assassin, Mage, and Martial Arts classes has led to massive adoption by the gaming community.
Variety of quests
As Lost Ark is an open-world game, you can do many different in-game quests to entertain yourself, such as:
- Work on building your fortresses.
- Discover new islands on your boat.
- Spend your time improving your skills and play the auction house market.
- Complete daily and weekly quests.
PvP and PvE
The game supports both PvP and PvE modes. This means you can fight with other players and monsters in the same game.
Apart from these, there are countless other aspects such as getting pirate coins, awakening skills, power pass, etc. in the game. These will be in the storyline of game ends after the player reaches level 50.
Endgame Mode has three tiers: Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3. Once you’re in Endgame Mode, you can do a variety of additional things, such as Raids, World Events, PvP , collectibles and dungeons. .
Lost Ark and European servers
The Lost Ark saw a surge in user base when it hit the US and European markets. According to Steam, the number of concurrent players hit the 1.3 million player mark within hours. The number was more than expected as the game was packed with features that would appeal to the right audience.
But this massive adoption of the game has led to the overloading of European servers. As more and more users tried to access the game simultaneously, the server couldn’t handle it and players were queued up. The situation seems to have stabilized somewhat, but people will still have to wait their turn to get in the game.
The effect of this was visible in the game’s reviews. On Steam, user reviews were mixed, but others were on the positive side. Over 60% of the game’s Steam reviews were positive. The other reviews were negative and probably had nothing to do with the game’s flaws.
Almost all of the reviews pointed out that the game was unreachable, which was obvious.
Does Smilegate do anything for servers?
At this time, there are no plans for Smilegate to increase the capacity of its servers in the Central Europe region. The reason supporting this claim is the complexity of the systems involved. But Amazon has taken steps to compensate for this. They proposed to create another game region, Europe West.
Although the region has been created, it is not the permanent solution. Players still have to wait in queues because the server reduces the waiting time, not eliminating it. The Lost Ark pro team is busy fixing server and matchmaking errors.
Of course, you can try to escape the server madness in other ways. For example, you can get a VPN for PC and hide your IP address. What can this help achieve? Well, you will be spoofing your location, which has worked for many players wanting to connect to servers outside of their country. This is a classic trick, which can be useful for playing online games and finding the best server with the shortest queues.
Lost Ark is a free game on Steam. However, there are also options to purchase starter packs which will likely help you in the game.
