Frogster America announced yesterday that their highly anticipated free-to-play MMO Runes of Magic has now entered its open beta phase and welcoming new players.  With 190,000 registered users already questing away, Runewalker Entertainment and Frogster want to run one more final round of ‘beta’ testing before unleashing the full product in an ‘official’ release.

Over the next few weeks, Frogster is planning on rolling out all the bells and whistles, including the microtransaction-based item-shop where users can purchase items to be used in their questing.  Since the move was made to reset all characters at the end of the closed beta, all players can now create new characters and start at level one.

“Runes of Magic is going through its final stress tests and polishing phase which will enable us to ensure a high level of quality and an entertaining and immersive experience for the players,” said Sean Kauppinen, president and CEO of Frogster America, Inc. “Since we’re allowing all characters created in the final beta phase as well as any items acquired or purchased to carry over into the live game, the servers are essentially open for business.”

As we initially reported back in August after playing a demo version at the Leipzig Games Convention, Runes of Magic is quite possibly the long awaited answer to the ‘free-to-play games are of poor quality’ stigma that has plagued the genre for so long.  The title takes the best elements from a number of successful MMO’s, and blends them altogether in an eye-popping collection of multicolored pixel goodness.  Over 1000 quests are available at the launch, and players may choose from six main classes and secondary classes, ultimately offering 36 individual character combos to suite almost every playing style.

One of the unique features available in Runes of Magic is the ability to arrange your own virtual home with various furnishings.  And these furnishings aren’t exactly of the Martha Stewart style.  Your home (or guild hall) serve as a place to keep all your gear, therefore you can decorate your home pad with shields, swords, armor, or any other various equipment you may have acquired.

Frogster is also taking a page from other popular MMO’s and introducing a Christmas theme in game over the next few weeks.  Special events and costumes will be featured, along with a number of other surprises beginning December 19th.  The Runes of Magic website is also holding a competition to run in parallel with the in-game events.  All users that create something Runes of Magic Christmas themed has a chance to win a rare in-game Christmas mount.

To sign up and enter the open beta, visit Runes of Magic at www.runesofmagic.com.

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Tags: Frogster, leipzig games convention, martha stewart, runes of magic, Runewalker, Sean Kauppinen

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