Editing Asheron's Call (section)

== Development ==
''Asheron's Call'' was developed by [[Turbine Entertainment Software]] and published by [[Microsoft]]. It had a multimillion-dollar development budget<ref name="Grossman 2003, p. 300">Grossman 2003, p. 300</ref> of $4 million.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/edmonton-journal/133920659/|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20231023093225/https://www.newspapers.com/article/edmonton-journal/133920659/|title=Status, aggression, conflict, warmth and even romance are part of the virtual world of Asheron s Call|newspaper=[[Edmonton Journal]]|page=8|archivedate=October 23, 2023|date=May 12, 2001|accessdate=October 23, 2023|via=[[Newspapers.com]]}}</ref> It was designed by Toby Ragaini (lead designer), Chris Foster, Eri Izawa, and [[Chris Pierson]].<ref name="Bartle 2004, p. 27">Bartle 2004, p. 27</ref> The development team consisted of 30+ full-time developers, including 6 artists, 4 game designers, 15 software engineers and 5 QA testers.<ref name="Grossman 2003, p. 300"/> ''Asheron's Call'' was technically innovative for its time. It did not use zoning, a technique of partitioning the game world into zones that ran on different computers on a [[Cluster (computing)|cluster]]. This caused delay when moving between zones. Instead ''Asheron's Call'' had a single seamless world. It used [[Load balancing (computing)|dynamic load balancing]] to determine which computer in the cluster controlled location area. If one area became overpopulated, the sluggish control of part of that location would pass to another computer with a lighter load.<ref name="Bartle 2004, p. 28">Bartle 2004, p. 28</ref> Critical development software included Microsoft Visual C++ 5.0, Visual SourceSafe 5.0, Lightwave 5.5, and Photoshop 4.0<ref name="Grossman 2003, p. 300"/> ''Asheron's Call'' used Microsoft SQL Server for persistent game data. The original ''Asheron's Call'' client allowed computers to use either 3D or software graphics acceleration.<ref name="features">{{cite web | title = Features | work = Asheron's Call | publisher = Turbine | date = 2005–2008 | url = http://ac.turbine.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=34&Itemid=64&NavItemid=56 | access-date = April 10, 2010 | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100726103852/http://ac.turbine.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=34&Itemid=64&NavItemid=56 | archive-date = July 26, 2010}}</ref> The modern client required a DirectX 9.0 compatible video adapter w/ hardware T&L.{{Citation needed|date=January 2025}}

''Asheron's Call'' took 40 months plus 8 months of beta testing to complete.<ref name="Grossman 2003, p. 300"/> It was originally scheduled to ship during the fourth quarter of 1997.<ref name="Grossman 2003, p. 300"/> Production was delayed over a year because of the inexperience of the production team.<ref name="Bartle 2004, p. 27"/> The finished product contained approximately 2 million lines of code.<ref name="Grossman 2003, p. 300"/> There were six servers available at launch. ''Asheron's Call'' launched nine months after ''[[EverQuest]]''<ref name="Bartle 2004, p. 27"/> on November 2, 1999.<ref name="Bartle 2004, p. 28" /> In the United States, it sold 57,143 copies and earned revenues of $2.64 million by early 2000.<ref name=231k>{{cite web | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010112165200/http://www.gamecenter.com/News/Item/Textonly/0,78,0-3868,00.html | url=http://www.gamecenter.com/News/Item/Textonly/0,78,0-3868,00.html | title=Game Spin: Daika-X-Box | author=Asher, Mark | date=March 10, 2000 | work=[[CNET Gamecenter]] | archive-date=January 12, 2001 | url-status=dead}}</ref> ''Asheron's Call'' had 80,000 players by the end of its first year.<ref name="Bartle 2004, p. 28"/> By the end of 2000 its subscription rate was third behind ''[[Ultima Online]]'' and ''EverQuest'', with 90,000 subscribers from 200,000 box sales.<ref name="Bartle 2004, p. 28"/> While neither Turbine nor Microsoft have been forthcoming in releasing exact subscription counts, it is believed that ''Asheron's Call'' peaked in popularity in early 2002 at about 120,000 accounts and has since dropped to below 10,000.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.mmogchart.com/Chart3.html |title=Mmogchart.com |access-date=2005-02-13 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080430053031/http://www.mmogchart.com/Chart3.html |archive-date=2008-04-30 |url-status=dead}}</ref>  ''[[Dark Age of Camelot]]'' had 200,000 subscribers in May 2002, taking ''Asheron's Call''{{'}}s spot as third most popular virtual world.<ref>Bartle 2004, p. 29</ref>