While the Leipzig Games Convention verged on a multimedia overload for yours truly at times, there were a number of outstanding exhibits and displays for every class of gamer.

Along with our sister site, MMOScene.de, we got a chance to sit down with the folks at Frogster, the German language publishers of Runes of Magic for a demo.

I’d already seen the display booth out on the floor, and noticed a number of folks giving Runes a first go.  There was no line to get a shot at the game, but I was hard pressed to find a free terminal even after looping around the hall a few times.  In other words: Runes accomplished exactly what they set out to do: put a number of opportunities out on the floor, and watch the masses flood in.  On a side note, I did notice that not all of the game text has been fully translated from Chinese, so unless you read/speak Mandarin, there’s still a few elements missing from gameplay.

Back at the Frogster camp, I got a much better view of the game, storylines, and concepts.  Upon logging into the test server, the Warcraft similarities aren’t hidden.  The game was first created in Taiwan, and the developers fully admit that they played WoW as a source of inspiration.  Clearly, a LOT of WoW.  That said, there are some noticeable differences that should plant Runes of Magic firmly on it’s own branch of the WoW concept based MMOs.  In fact, some of these differences have the ‘ooo…I liked that bit in WoW, and hey…that’s cool that I don’t have to do that to get that, etc.” factor.  Off to a good start, Runes of Magic combines the best of a number of various MMOs, and seeks to become the premier free-to-play MMO out there.

Some highlights of these differences include:

Updates!  Frogster was very proud (rightfully so) of their planned update rollout schedule.  In order to keep players constantly motivated and delving into new areas of the game, Runes of Magic plans on rolling out new content every 3 to 4 months.  And not just in the way of a patch upgrade that might fix some pixel shading.  These planned updates will include new classes and races, along with new areas to explore.

Tha roof, tha roof, tha roof is on fire!  Runes of Magic features player housing.  While this is nothing new to the MMO world, Runes of Magic again borrows the best elements from a number of other titles.  You’ve got your standard fair: store your extra items that you just can’t seem to part with, hang those hard won trophies, and display your bad@$$ weapons.  You house will grow in size according to your level, and you can invite friends over to ye old homestead for a frosty cold one, while discussing the next days battleplans.

Rune, rune moon.  Ok, runes aren’t actually dependant on the moon in any way, but it made for a nice rhyme.  The rune system is Runes of Magic’s standout feature.  We all battle long and hard fought hours to obtain ‘omg, that’s wicked awesome!’ looking gear, and rightfully so, like to flaunt it occasionally.  But what happens when you score a better piece of gear, but to be honest, just looks plain ugly with your current pimpage?  S’no problemo:  grab a rune and channel the powers of this gear into it.  You can then attach this powered rune to your current gear.  There’s also the possibility to combine more than one rune and attach it to your current gear.  The system is NOT however fool proof.  The system works in such a way that the higher ratings the stripped ‘runed’ gear has, the higher the likelihood of a failed channeling.  In other words…if you want to look mac daddy and keep your current gear but attach runes, you run the risk of actually losing the advantages obtained by this new gear if the channeling fails.  A roll of the dice if you will.

Wear me!  This one is clearly inspired by an add-on that I currently use, and it built into the cosmos add-on package for WoW.  Runes of Magic allows players to place dress forms in their house and equip them with specific armor sets.  This comes in might handy for those that are swapping classes or functions on a regular basis.  For example, you might play a secondary healer on a raid, while dpsing while playing solo.  Instead of digging through mountains of bags and storage slots to suit up in the right gear, a quick trip back home and a visit to your ‘healing’ dummy would allow you with one click to take off your current dps gear, and fully equip healing gear.  Neato!

Got a grudge?  My Guild can kick your Guild’s #&%!  Runes of Magic also allows players to declare guild wars, thereby allowing everything from your back alley skirmish right on up to full blown instanced stronghold wars, where warring guilds can fight for rank points and treasures stored in each others castles.

Serve this buddy!  A unique an interesting play concept, Runes of Magic developers are still ironing out the wrinkles on this one, but eventually we’ll see full server vs. server action.  PVP players on one server will battle PVP players on another server in a neutral battleground for honor.

All in all, Frogster and Runes of Magic had an excellent outing at the Games Convention, filling up play terminals and generating plenty of buzz.  While the comparisons to World of Warcraft are inevitable, the designers and developers have successfully managed to take bits and pieces of a number of successful MMO’s and toss them all into one pot.  Putting the entire package on a free-to-play, microtransaction based model, Runes of Magic has certainly set the stage for success.  Note to self: keep a keen eye on this one, as with a number of free-to-plays hitting the North American shores shortly, Runes of Magic could possibly be a strong player in gaining overall acceptance in the Western market.