The transition is still pending as of July 2011. It was announced on Augthat GamersFirst had acquired publishing rights to 9Dragons for distribution in North America.The game was released by GamersFirst on September 16 on new servers without any user accounts that existed on the Acclaim servers. On Augit was announced that Acclaim Games had ended their online massively multiplayer services, which included the immediate shutdown of its official forums and its gaming servers.The Acclaim shut down appears to have happened in haste, since apparently Acclaim failed to ensure an orderly transition of in-game characters and user accounts to the new publisher. The original In-game story for the Korean version was written by wuxia novelist Jwa Baek and then Steven-Elliot Altman was hired by Acclaim to rewrite the game in its entirety so that it would become accessible to Western audiences.Īcclaim released the game in 'Closed Beta' in 2006 and "Open Beta" to the public in January 2007. The game was developed by Indy21 of Korea. The famed Shaolin are associated with the praying mantis style. His students adapted a number of variants bearing picturesque names such as Plum Blossom, Seven Stars, Secret Door, Jade Ring, Six Harmony and Dragging Hand. Hoping to learn from the insect, the fighter took it back to his quarters and studied its movements, combining them with his previous training and footwork derived from the monkey style. While there, he happened to witness a battle in which a mantis defeated a far larger opponent, a cicada. Seeking to improve his skills, he had journeyed from his home in Shantung province to the Shaolin temple at Honan. It is generally thought to have originated around 1600 AD, founded by a boxer named Wang Lang. In ancient China, there were nine clans (nicknamed Dragons) that each developed a method of martial arts to defend themselves.ĭeveloped during the latter portion of the Ming Dynasty, Tang Lang Ch'uan, the Northern Praying Mantis style of kung fu, is relatively new by the standards of Chinese martial arts. 9Dragons is a martial arts-themed massively multiplayer online role-playing game set during a time when China's great clans had to rely upon their unique philosophies and fighting techniques for survival.The underlying premise of the game is for you to rise from a peasant to martial arts master by learning key martial arts moves from your clan (or Dragon).