''Dragon Oath'', also known as ''Tian Long Ba Bu'' in China, is a

free-to-play "Free-to-play" ("F2P" or "FtP") video games are games that give players access to a significant portion of their content for free. The term "free-to-play business model" or simply, "free-to-play model", refers collectively to business models tha ...

massively multiplayer online role-playing game A massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) is a video game that combines aspects of a role-playing video game and a massively multiplayer online game. As in role-playing games (RPGs), the player assumes the role of a Player charac ...

developed and published by Changyou.com and

Sohu Sohu, Inc. () is a Chinese Internet company headquartered in the Sohu Internet Plaza in Haidian District, Beijing. Sohu and its subsidiaries offer advertising, a search engine (Sogou.com), on-line multiplayer gaming (ChangYou.com) and other se ...

and launched in May 2007. The game's story is based on the novel ''

Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils ''Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils'' is a wuxia novel by Jin Yong (Louis Cha). It was first serialised concurrently from 3 September 1963 to 27 May 1966 in the newspapers ''Ming Pao'' in Hong Kong and '' Nanyang Siang Pau'' in Singapore. It has been ...

'' by Louis Cha. Since its initial launch in China, ChangYou.com has taken steps to sell ''Dragon Oath'' on an international stage. The game now (2012) has servers in Europe, Malaysia, Vietnam and the United States. Much like the servers in Europe, the servers in America are scheduled to close on July 25, 2016.

Gameplay

''Dragon Oath'' is a 2.5D martial arts-style fighting and community-building game designed to give players the freedom to "choose their own destiny" and play the game in any way they decide. The game features 9 playable classes based on Ancient Kung-fu disciplines.

Game setting

''Dragon Oath'' is set in a world based heavily on

Buddhist cosmology Buddhist cosmology is the description of the shape and evolution of the Universe according to Buddhist Tripitaka, scriptures and Atthakatha, commentaries. It consists of a temporal and a spatial cosmology. The temporal cosmology describes the ...

and the concept of the Eight Races of non-human entities. At the heart of the story are three heroes: Qiao Feng, Duan Yu and Xuzhu. Each has his own unique and important role to play, and is instrumental in shaping the game world players find themselves in when they spawn into the

Kingdom of Dali The Dali Kingdom, also known as the Dali State (; Bai language, Bai: Dablit Guaif), was a Bai people, Bai dynastic state situated in modern Yunnan province, China, from 937 to 1253. In 1253, it was Mongol conquest of China, conquered by the Mo ...

for the very first time.

Accolades

''Dragon Oath'' has been awarded the Most-liked Online Game by Game Players by ChinaJoy for five consecutive years from 2006 to 2010 and was ranked amongst the World's Top Five Most Profitable Game Franchises in 2009 by ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...

''. It was also ranked by the International Data Corporation as the third most popular game in China.

Further developments

As part of its continuous efforts to spread its flagship brand worldwide, ChangYou.com announced in 2011 that it will release a new, fully localised version of ''Dragon Oath'', designed specifically for the Turkish market. It should be also noted that many servers have been closed already. For example Europien server was closed. There are only 3 servers still running In CHina, USA and last one.
Dragon Oath Turkish Launch announcement

References

{{Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils 2007 video games Fantasy massively multiplayer online role-playing games Massively multiplayer online role-playing games Video games based on Chinese mythology Video games based on novels Video games developed in China Video games set in the Song dynasty Windows games Windows-only games Works based on Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils Wuxia video games