Sacred Seasons 2

《Sacred Seasons 2》是款多级大型多人在线角色扮演游戏（MMORPG）。玩家不要为游戏名称所误导，游戏只是复述了原始游戏的故事情节，并非《Sacred Seasons》续集。《Sacred Seasons 2》出自Emerald City Games之手。刚开始公司自己负责游戏在Facebook平台的发行工作，但随后即和Facebook游戏发行商6waves寻求合作，游戏的每月平均用户因此增长了4倍（游戏邦注：从2.7万增至19.35万） 。Emerald City Games首席执行官Derek Day称，《Sacred Seasons》是他们的首次尝试，他们之前从未发行过flash或MMO游戏。《Sacred Seasons 2》是进化版的《Sacred Seasons》，且其将完全取代后者。据了解，《Sacred Seasons》顶峰时期的MAU（月活跃用户）为1.6万。《Sacred Seasons》拥有一个小规模的忠实粉丝团，他们曾劝说Emerald City Games不要暂停游戏，通过更新少量内容让游戏继续运作。

《Sacred Seasons 2》玩家可以在普通紧凑战斗、等级战斗和困难重重的虚幻MMO魔法操作等级之间进行选择；游戏的春夏秋冬四季元素别有一番风味，玩家可以定制季节风景。这使得游戏拥有迷人的多级机制，玩家可以在各个等级和季节中自由穿梭，单独体验其中美景（游戏邦注：Square Enix的《Final Fantasy Tactics》及Trion World最近的MMO游戏《Rift》均采用类似机制）。

Sacred Seasons 2

《Sacred Seasons 2》是款功能齐全的MMORPG，其中包括故事情节推动的关卡、同步的多玩家机制、工会创建、跨国及本土聊天以及聚集于游戏官方论坛的大型社区。跨国聊天在Facebook页面就可以实现，但本土聊天只有通过游戏的聊天群才能实现。《Sacred Seasons 2》还提供针对游戏赢家的排行榜和公会，如今朋友可以互送化妆品。和其他MMO游戏一样，游戏主要通过出售金子创收，玩家可用金子购买XP药剂、武器和化妆品之类的消费品（游戏邦注：1000枚金子=100个Facebook credits，1便士=1枚金子，商品包括4枚金子药剂、颇受欢迎的150枚金子发型以及通过1500枚金子换取的150个武器）。

Sacred Seasons 2

所有《Sacred Seasons 2》玩家运行于同个服务器，也就是说玩家体验游戏的网站可能不同，但他们其实处在相同的世界。玩家可以通过《Sacred Seasons》网站、Facebook和Kongregate平台体验游戏。这就是现今的技术水平，玩家既可以通过Facebook，也可以选择开发商Junebud的网站体验MMO游戏《MilMo》。由于各个门户网站均有提供特约服务，因此玩家的付费帐户将会自动连接到各大门户中。

Emerald City Games自豪地表示，Kongregate的MAU已突破百万，公司计划未来在网站中添加手工艺、宠物及优化的工会功能。由于Emerald City Games已和6waves建立了稳固的合作关系，Facebook平台对于《Sacred Seasons 2》的宣传将会促使游戏持续发展。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，转载请注明来源：游戏邦）

Sacred Seasons 2 MMORPG – a Re-telling of the Tale

Sacred Seasons 2 is a massively multiplayer role playing game with a multi-class system that, despite the name, is not a sequel but a re-telling of the original story. Created by Emerald City Games and previously self-published on Facebook, Sacred Seasons 2 more than quadrupled its monthly average users from about 27,000 to 193,500 when they partnered with Facebook game publisher 6waves. Sacred Seasons was what Derek Day, CEO of Emerald City Games called their “first kick at the can” as they had never made a flash game or MMO before. Sacred Seasons 2 was to be an improved replacement of the original Sacred Seasons which enjoyed a peak of over 16,000 MAU according to AppData, our data tracking service. A small but loyal fan base (1,500 MAU and about 4% DAU/MAU) persuaded Emerald City Games to continue supporting it, although in a limited manner, through small content updates.

In Sacred Seasons 2, players choose between the usual close combat, ranged combat and magic wielding classes of a fantasy MMO with an added twist; the flavors that the seasons of spring, summer, autumn and winter bring, each with a custom look. This gives the game an engaging multi-class system where players can switch between classes and seasons, leveling each separately. This system is not uncommon in console games such as Square Enix’s Final Fantasy Tactics and most recently in Trion World’s MMO, Rift.

Sacred Seasons 2 is a full-featured MMORPG, with storyline driven quests, synchronous multiplayer gameplay, and formation of guilds, global as well as local chat, and a large community that congregate on the official forums. Global chat is available on the Facebook page itself while local chat is done in-game via a chat bar. Sacred Seasons2 also provides leader boards for top individual experience gainers as well as guilds and friends have the ability to send each other gifts of cosmetic items at this time. Like other free-to-play MMOs, it monetizes through the purchase of in-game gold which can be used to buy consumables such as XP potions, weapons and cosmetic items. At an exchange of 1,000 gold for 100 Facebook credits, or about a penny to a gold, items range from 4 gold potions to the popular 150 gold hairstyles, to 1,500 gold level 150 weapons.

All Sacred Seasons 2 players are served on the same server, which is to say, despite the different portals from which the game can be accessed, players all play in the same world. The game can be played through the Sacred Seasons website, Facebook and Kongregate. This seems to be the current state of technology and the MMO MilMo is also served through Facebook and developer Junebud’s own website. Player accounts are bound to portals due to contractual services provided by the different portals.

Emerald City Games was proud to report MAU in the millions on Kongregate and future plans to introduce crafting, pets and the improvement of guild functions in the game. With a strong partnership with 6waves, we can expect Sacred Seasons 2 to grow on Facebook as it gets publicized through the network. This growth can be tracked by interested readers on our data tracking service, Appdata.（Source：Inside Social Games）