Asheron's Call is 10 years old

By Oli Welsh Published 3 November, 2009

Turbine MMO celebrates milestone.

Lord of the Rings Online developer Turbine spent yesterday celebrating the 10th anniversary of its first MMO, Asheron's Call.

The game launched on November 2nd, 1999, and has been in operation ever since. It joins EverQuest, which celebrated its 10th birthday this year, and 12-year veteran Ultima Online in the roll-call of decade survivors.

It has outlasted its own sequel, Asheron's Call 2, which launched in 2003 and shut down two years later. Asheron's Call was originally published by Microsoft, but Turbine bought the rights back and now runs the game itself, alongside LOTRO and Dungeons & Dragons Online.

Turbine marked the occasion by running a day of live events that brought back characters from the game's history.

"Asheron's Call has served as the foundation on which Turbine was built," said Turbine product development boss Craig Alexander. "For a decade, AC has represented one of the industry's most consistent and well-loved franchises, further demonstrating the longevity and quality of Turbine's persistent worlds."

Picture of Oli.

About Oli Welsh

Oli is Eurogamer's acting deputy editor and reviews editor and likes to take things one word at a time. He is among the best dressed people in South London.

Read more articles from Oli by visiting the Oli Welsh archive page.

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Comments (8) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • kangarootoo #1 2 years ago

    I won a copy of this not long after its release. I played it for 2 months (one free, and one 'cos I forgot to cancel the direct debit). It was quite fun I guess, though I've never really been into mmos.

    I was playing on dial-up mind, so my lag was terrible (with sometime amusing results, such as running the spot for 3 seconds and then suddenly shooting across the landscape like a train).

  • j-bo #2 2 years ago

    "Microsft"

    Can I haz job as a sub-editor please:)?

  • anomagnus #3 2 years ago

    can it really be ten years?

    Dear God, where did the time go?

  • wittynic #4 2 years ago

    i preferred AC2. was gutted when it closed.

  • AOFanboi #5 2 years ago

    There's always Asheron's Call 3, aka LotRO. :)

    Yeah, AC2 had some really great ideas: Playing races that were monsters in the first game, quest-giving objects, the social musical thingy that SW:G shamelessly copied, etc. But so utterly devoid of players...

    AC1 was also great though. Cool mobs, dodging ranged weapons, skill-based instead of class based, no level cap (but exp needs rose exponentially), monthly updates, ... ah, memories. Also it serves as a great example of "emergent gameplay" (is that the term I am looking for?) where, since at some point the money in the game became practically worthless because there was too much of it around, people started using an alternate currency in the form of Sturdy Iron Keys (SIKs) in barter instead when trading with each other...
    Edited by 1 at 03/11/09 @ 18:00

  • Hastur #6 2 years ago

    Still have fond memories of AC1, it was my first mmorpg.

  • Nephirion #7 2 years ago

    Celebrating something thats a dead idea, bizzare

  • Dizzy #8 2 years ago

    Played it for 3 years... one of the best MMOs, still doing some stuff than no modern MMO has done (streaming world for example)