MMOABC: Can you tell us a little bit about Ashen Empires?

Ashen Empires is a top-down style (or “isometric”) MMORPG that has been around for several years. The creators of the game originally drew their inspiration from games like Ultima Online and Everquest, but you will find that there are several qualities about the game that set it apart from those and other MMOs. The game is set in the land of Dransik, a place once torn by war over various artifacts of power.  Now, just as the people and lands have started to recover, a revived evil threatens to send the world spiraling back into chaos and darkness.

MMOABC: How does Ashen Empires differentiate itself from other MMORPG games?

Many MMOs these days rely on cookie-cutter classes and builds. In Ashen Empires, however, we give players the option to train any skill that they’d like to make a completely unique character and actually role-play the game however they choose. How well they perform at certain skills just depends on their abilities such as Strength, Intelligence, Constitution, and Dexterity (which we call orbs). We also pride ourselves on the high level of community – developer interaction. We have known many of our players for years and it’s not unusual to see their ideas and suggestions become incorporated into the game.



MMOABC: Online hacking and spamming are widely evident in the MMORPG realm, how does Ashen Empires handle these disruptions?

Ashen Empires was released in 2005 but has actually been around longer than that; the code is very stable. With new content there are some bugs, that’s just how game development goes, but we are able to resolve any issues that arise in a timely manner. There will always be folks that hammer on your game and look for ways to break it and find loopholes. I don’t think any online game is completely free from that. Spamming happens occasionally, but it is not a problem. Players can create their own chat channels and talk with each other in peace and quiet. You can also ignore other players who are spamming.

MMOABC: Many MMORPG operators/publishers are currently hosting many games in different geographic regions. Some are "free to play" while others are "pay to play." What is your take on this?

Customers in different global markets have distinct buying patterns, behaviors, and preferences when it comes to what kind of games they want to play and how they want to pay for them, so it’s not too difficult to see why this is happening. However, we operate worldwide with one pricing policy. You can play the game for free as much as you want with very few restrictions. High end content, expansions, and other items such as chests to hold more items in your bank or character customization options are available to purchase through our token-based store.



MMOABC: Are you guys planning to do any Ashen Empires contest events in the next coming weeks or months?

We’ll be holding the annual Halloween Event in October. It’s a dungeon that only opens for this event; players transform randomly into spooky creatures as they adventure through the maze and slay monsters to collect candy. There’s a giant pumpkin boss at the end.

MMOABC: Will the Ashen Empires development team be attending any Video/MMORPG gaming events for 2008?

The Austin Game Developer’s Conference is coming up in August and you can bet to find some of the developers there.

MMOABC: Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedules to talk with us. We wish the best of luck to Ashen Empires!

You can check out and play Ashen Empires here:

http://www.ashenempires.com/