9Dragons Beta Opens Its Doors To All

While this news that I just received in my email was exciting, it became considerably less so when I realized that it was not "2Moons," the title that Shiny founder Dave Perry is working on. But it's still free, which is important.

Here's a trailer, the letter is below (to save some time, you can download the client here:

Dear Player,

Acclaim Games is pleased to announce the start of Open Beta testing for 9Dragons, our martial arts MMORPG. After several months of Closed Beta testing, 9Dragons is now open to all players for Open Beta testing. Anyone can now become a clan disciple and train their mind, body, and spirit to become a great Kung Fu warrior of The Land.

Also, effective immediately, Acclaim will begin providing service for 9Dragons in Europe on a dedicated European server initially located in the US and soon to be moved to a location in Europe for improved access.

Acclaim’s service will also provide European players with a team of dedicated Game Masters available for shifts in all European time zones. So, it is recommended that all European players create their characters on the European server. The American server is called "Nirvana (US)" and the European sever is called "Bardo (EU)" and you will be required to choose one upon character creation. US Players will want to stay on the "Nirvana (US)" server since the US connection to "Bardo (EU)" will not be great once the data is physically moved to Europe, and can lead to big lag times. To
celebrate this announcement, Acclaim will be offering double experience points to all American and European players on Friday, Feb 9 from 12am to 11:59pm PST (GMT-8).

As promised, 9Dragons will remain free to play for all players, supported by in-game advertising and item purchasing. We feel that our advertising should be conducted with respect for the player, and should not delay your gaming experience. We were careful to insert ads only in locations where there was already a natural pause in the game. We realize that this is the only way to keep the game both free and enjoyable to our players without distraction. We hope you will agree with our implementation and look forward to hearing your feedback for future changes.

To play 9Dragons, you must first download and install the new Open Beta client available at http://9dragons.acclaim.com/downloads/9Dgame.htm. Please report any bugs and issues to the Report a Bug forum on the message boards at http://phpbb.acclaim.com/9dragons/viewforum.php?f=16. Thanks and see you in The Land of 9Dragons!

Acclaim