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Horizons: New Download System
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Artifact Entertainment announced today that they have released a new download system that will make it easier than ever to get into the world of Istaria. Their official press release is below:
| ARTIFACT ENTERTAINMENT ANNOUNCES NEW ACCESS POINT TO DOWNLOAD HORIZONS: EMPIRE OF ISTARIA 29 October 2004, Mesa, Arizona - Artifact Entertainment, the developers of the MMORPG Horizons: Empire of Istaria, announced today a new download system that allows new and returning subscribers to download the game with increased efficiency.  Artifact Entertainment's CEO and Creative Director, David Bowman, said, "As a company we are very committed to making our product accessible by anyone at any time. This new system allows those who have made a choice to play Horizons: Empire of Istaria, an easy, effective way to receive the basic game onto their machines at no cost to them."Artifact Entertainment's Director of Technology, Rick Simmons, said, "There are some very well defined benefits to our user base with this new system. Our new system supports a larger number of concurrent connections at higher speeds. We're using XCRC to ensure that all downloaded files are valid. Another feature we've added is much more effective bandwidth management so all users get the best download rate possible." David Bowman continued, "Maintaining our own download service allows our new subscribers the best, most efficient on-line method of retrieving Horizons: Empire of Istaria. It follows that the more access points we can provide to Horizons then the more individuals will become part of the Istarian family." The new product download can be accessed through: http://community.istaria.com/cdkeys.aspx . |
- MMORPG.COM Staff -
- MMORPG.COM Staff -
The dead know only one thing: it is better to be alive.
Comments
Far from new, I dl the trial over a month ago from there. I do think it is funny you can go back and forth and get multi. cdkeys. They should fix that. Also you still need to watch the whole payment thing. Funny how they don't talk about fixing the issues with getting billed before the 7 days are up. How it can bill you right away and again on 7th day. I would still say to be very careful if you do try it. That means keep a close eye on your cc account.
The updated finacials were put up today. All I can do is quote some others that put it in a logical way.
"Anyway Im not a financial wiz but the number that interested me was net profit or net loss since chapter 11 filing
Shows a net loss of $280,220.16 since filing which was July 19th.
Also to those that have downloaded the archive look at the disbursement detail. $34,000 transfered to Tulga Games LLC for hosting equipment and services ?? I found this sheet to be the most interesting. That and the payroll numbers for David Bowman, Stephen F. and Rick Simmons"
Then this,
"It is not hense the asset sale to tulga. Tulga seems to be reselling (probably at cost) the hosting costs to AE. 34k
Seems that 15k may have been a little under estimated.
They had an estimated 190k or so post petition break even proposal. There is no way AE can ever make it out of chapter 11. This is pretty much a given. The next big question is even with no debt burden and basically the same cost structure Tulga will be burning about 50k per month (and maybe more).
The business as it stands today is not remotely viable. This does not mean should AE bounce back and say get another 5k subscriptions they may make the break even point. The real question is how long can they operate with their employees at reduced wages. Promises of options and vestment start to fade real quick when you look at these numbers. I have no idea how some of those guys actually live on the income they make (1800 per month????) thats 11.25 an hour if they work 40 hour weeks. "
Just be cool when you play this game. They need the cash and will do anything to get it. Even double bill if they have too.
There is an art of which every man should be a master the art of reflection. If you are not a thinking man, to what purpose are you a man at all?
William Hart Coleridge
Take no thought of who is right or wrong or who is better than. Be not for or against.
Bruce Lee
Not only that but they continue to bill you for several months after you have already closed your account! I have called their billing company about this several times. They used to use a company named I-Bill for their billing purposes. I played this game for 4 months along with my wife. When I quit playing and unsubscribed from the game she kept playing. You actually have to talk to a person from I-bill to de-activate you account. I was told my account was closed and I would no longer be billed but we still continued to be billed for 2 accounts. This went on for several months. My wife called them again to close her account and to re-imburse us for the extra billing that was going on. They figured out that when I closed my account they mistakingly created a whole new account in the process....She was told that we would be re-imbursed but it may take 2 weeks. 3 weeks later she called again to find out where our money was and we were told that I-bill doesn't handle their billing anymore but we would have to contact I-pay who does their billing...sounds fishy and they continued to give us the run around about this and still have not given the money back that they unlawfully charged us.
I would WARN everyone who considers buying/playing this game to rethink that decision. This is a company that has no concern at all for their customer base, or ethical practices towards them. I would sooner give my credit card info to a complete stranger than to these people.
Ladro
I don't think giving this game out for FREE is going to save Horizons. I bought this game the day in came out and played it for a couple months. It was the buggiest game i've ever played. It was fun at first, but then got too tedious with the crafting and such.
A couple weeks ago I got bored and decided to re-activate my account and see if anything had improved. Well, the game was worse in my opinion. It wouldn't run correctly with my vid card and was virtually unplayable. Then I found out they merged all the shards onto one. I tried to go hunting and walked around for hours only finding a few mobs to kill. Wow what a disappointment! I had high hopes for Horizons at one time, but now I'm done with it. Thank god I'll have World of Warcraft to play soon.....
Sure they've implemented this easy to use download process after their Fileplanet trial download was mysteriously pulled! Nothing to do with a flood of user complaints over not being able to cancel trail subs before being billed I'm sure. Anyone considering trying this game should know AE are currently moving their billing providers and many people have received unauthorised charges, not been able to cancel before their 7 days are up or have been billed by both the former and current billing providers. Tryer beware.
Even if they could make the CD magicly appear on my desk, I would not reinstall this game...
This new company that is to buy Horzons was setup a few days before the filing, and the guy was a "contactor" for AE...
This sale is a scam, this game is a tangle of lies, and any developer that is still there is a a satist, and crazy, all of there good talent left long long ago...
Man, and to think I payed money for this game, I have the disk and box...
West (Ioo)
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West (Ioo)
Xander
Xander
If you used the EU 7 day trial then yeah they have no issues with that one. It is all with the NA side. Also a long time ago the trial use to be different than it is now. So maybe you used the old trial back then.
With 11k to 14k subs by the numbers we get off the latest finacial record AE just gave to court I can see why they would try stealing money from the trials. Soon we should see those numbers drop big time once the year end subs all expire. Really can't see HZ lasting much longer after that.
There is an art of which every man should be a master the art of reflection. If you are not a thinking man, to what purpose are you a man at all?
William Hart Coleridge
Take no thought of who is right or wrong or who is better than. Be not for or against.
Bruce Lee