ArcheAge is a free-to-play massive multiplayer online roleplaying game (MMORPG) that is advertised as an open-world sandbox. It is developed by XL Games and published/localized by Trion Worlds for the North American and European audience.
ArcheAge offers players a vast world to explore and conquer. The game does not have the linear progression common of other MMOs. Instead, players can choose to master combat by choosing between any 3 of 10 skillsets, build eloquent homes or massive castles, raise plants and livestock, master crafting in any or all 21 professions, or influence the economy through an advanced trade system whenever they want.
ArcheAge places a significant focus on open-world PvP. Players may band together and fight in massive open world battles, both on land and at sea. Players may even choose to abandon their initial faction and become a pirate.[1]
Patronage
Although the game is free to play, many players choose to become patrons, paying roughly US$15 a month for extended privileges within the world:
- The ability to own land - you might get a scarecrow farm from a quest, but unless you are a patron you can't place it.
- The ability to farm land that you own for free - farming unclaimed land costs labor points to plant plants, farming claimed land just costs labor to harvest them. Plants on your own land are also protected from other players.
- The ability to sell things on the Auction House (if you buy some credits you can get a certificate to allow a non-patron player to sell things through the Auction House).
- The ability to passively generate 60 labor points and hour regardless of whether or not you are logged in (you generate 60 per hour when you are logged in, patrons get a total of 120 an hour when they are logged in).
If you want to do any serious crafting you will need to purchase patronage, as it chews through labor points at a frightening rate.
Patronage is purchased for the player and covers all of your characters. By default you can have up to 6 characters, with no more than 4 on the same server.
The cheapest way to be a patron seems to be to buy a US$20 credit bundle (gets you 3,250 credits) and spend 2,400 of them on a patronage certificate that lasts a month.
If additional labor is desired, players can purchase a Labor Stipend from the in-game marketplace (roughly 1,200 credits). This provides the player one Labor Potion a day for thirty days and ten Labor Potions on use, equaling a total of 40,000 additional labor over the thirty days.