Why did you make this thread? All the manga/anime lovers will come and eat you alive, GEAT READY!
Funny how you catagorize everyone you think who would enjoy a non-western MMO a anime lover. Shows how small minded people can be these days. Why does everything have to be so one sided? Can't someone just like a game because it's fun? Do I have to be a certain type of person to enjoy a game? Apparently I do when it comes to people like you.
Stereotyping at it's finest, I guess.
Edit: I mean this in a general statement to all the people who tend to say this game is only meant for people that love anime or people that love L2. Not you in general, but you make a good point as to why I don't like most gamers nowadays. Whine whine whine.
~ ~
Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths, Enwrought with golden and silver light, The blue and the dim and the dark cloths Of night and light and the half light, I would spread the cloths under your feet: But I, being poor, have only my dreams; I have spread my dreams under your feet; Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.
All mmo's as of late are simplistic, and based off what I know I'd say Aion is the same. A game needs to create a "world" to get beyond this issue, frankly I don't see or feel a world in aion, just a game, though it is a good one.
And people wonder why WoW is so successful...look back at the major games in the past, Ultima, Everquest, DAoC, etc.
These games literally had a virtual world, everquest being the best example giving its sheer size. You could create 8< characters and have a completely different expirence each time in Everquest, given the number of zones their were to play through. Even WoW though I hate to give it credit was able to create a non linear world for players to expirence as they see fit.
Developers have yet to realize the importance of this, and i'd say some players unhappy with today's mmo market don't even realize this is what they're looking for.
Unfortunately I don't think Aion delievers us a world, though I would love to be proved wrong as I personally look forward to the game.
You're examining and complaining about Aion as it were a PvE game, which really isn't the case. A billion different zones if nice for a PvE game, but the population NEEDS to be stacked in an area for PvP. Heading through a rift to raid enemy territory and coming across a ghost town would be FAR more harmful to the game's long term survival than 'lack of replayability' from having only one starter zone.
In regards to the original post, you also have stigmas marked down wrong. Gems and talismans are the equivalent of mana stones, NOT stigmas. Stigmas provide the direct equivalent for the talent trees you claim are missing. Lack of racial bonuses isn't exactly a major issue since, of the games you named, the race has very little impact on your class or classes are locked to a specific race. That gives some diversity in appearance (which Aion's character generator more than makes up for), but doesn't genuinely increase tactical choices.
I know that this is a forum and you are supose to discuss things but why you had to make this thread, I mean did you really expected not to get flame?, not trying to be pointing fingers at anybody but you either a troll or stupid enough to make a thread to get flame.
I think the OP has some valid concerns and I have some of the same ones myself. At first glance this game doesn't look like its up to the lvl of some of the other games. I can't say if it does or doesn't since I've only played it for one weekend up to lvl 10 but I'd suggest holding off on pre-judging this one.
The whole asian anime style of the graphics and all the promo drawings tend to turn alot of people off, myself included. If the graphics style really bothers you then this might not be for you. If your like me and you are more concerned about gameplay and content and you can overlook the graphics style it's worth a serious look.
The fact that there are only 8 classes might seem sort of limited when you see games like warhammer that have almost 20 but when you boil it all down every game pretty much comes down to your trinity of tank dps and healer anyway. I've been playing MMO's since EQ1 came out with kunark. I've played about everything and lately MMO's have been long on hype and way short on everything else. One thing this game has going for it is that it seems to have the basics down. The game is very stable and runs well on almost any system. That doesn't sound like much but after playing vanguard, conan, and warhammer not crashing all the time or watching a slide show is a welcome change.
So many games couldn't even get the basics down it didn't matter how amazing the screen shots were or how many classes they had. I'm not jumping on the fanboi wagon just yet but if your looking for something new I'd suggest trying one of the beta events in the next couple of months.
Said it once and will say it again. Aion is currently in beta that doesn't apply some features yet. Plus a level cap on each beta make it hard to see further contents until later beta and launch. Forming an opinion on it now would be rather premature as there are not enough information for anyone to make a valid conclusion.
(How do you judge a game when the beta you played have features and contents locked out and you are at level 10 max. Anyone who read the release notes on the website will know this)
The exception being that if someone played the Korean or Chinese version of Aion, however, that is only for those that can read the language, and not those that decide to play as if trying to find a light switch in a dark room.
Another issue is why is anyone expecting Aion to be groundbreaking to be a good game? Look at WoW for a game of such average quality, it is very successful. WoW basically used Warcraft lore and combined it with with some old MMO systems and gave it a slight tweak. See, successful game doesn't always need to be groundbreaking nor original, it just have to entertain people in some way.
If giving up some personal customization means an overall better balanced game I'm all for it.
I think anyone that has been playing MMO's in the last few years knows that if you don't happen to pick out one of the stronger classes on release your overall experience suffers and then if you do pick out one of the strong classes about as soon as you make it to the level cap and get some gear some patch comes along and kills your character, then you go pick up one of the newly empowered classes, get that to the cap and get some gear and then some patch comes along and............
I mean 2 races, 4 classes, 8 jobs... They could have at least made 12 jobs.. You don't realy have to make any decisions about your skills.. you just end up buying all skillbooks. The stigma thing is cool tho but quite limited in 1.0. Whats left is the manastones to make your character the way you want to play him.
To me it feels a little simplistic. I mean 2 races, 4 classes, 8 jobs... They could have at least made 12 jobs.. You don't realy have to make any decisions about your skills.. you just end up buying all skillbooks. The stigma thing is cool tho but quite limited in 1.0. Whats left is the manastones to make your character the way you want to play him.
Lots of things that were originally planned to be in the game were temporarily removed for balance issues that are being sorted out. There is also a lot more content to come.
Originally posted by zymurgeist It's an obstacle but it's one that can be overcome. Diablo was an exceedingly shallow game. So much so that many refuse to call it an RPG at all. Yet it was very popular and had great replayability. It really depends on things like the community that develops in and around the game. Most people play to be with their friends. Simple games can be fun too.
There's a difference, Diablo didn't try to portray an elaborate story or environment, Diablo didn't come out and say "our story is awesome, bla bla bla....bull". NCsoft does, all the trailers NCWest brings out are about the "story" which is as shallow as Hello Kitty. All the movies from gametrailers which are used as promotional material also try to suggest the game is from the West and that somehow the West influenced the game or had Western designer, it didn't, it was a total Korean project, I think that's quite unfair and dishonest,..whatever.
If that were Aion's only problem, if only..the world is full of empty spaces and the cities are just empty everywhere, shallow, unfinished and missing life. It doesn't deserve to be an AAA title, because it isn't.
What's ironic is that this image looks exactly like Silvermoon... Which also begs the obvious, most MMORPGs have these empty aspects anyway.
Either way, WoW is so shallow now days that you can't even splash if you tried it out. All the old world stuff is still there and still quite deep, everything else however is made up of Commander Blizzard telling you where to go in a purely linear game. MMORPGs are all empty now days, there isn't any point in arguing whether or not Aion will be empty since empty is what defines the genre atm.
How do you define what shallow and what is not? Last time I checked the Lich King saying 'hey, adventure!' in half the easy-arsed instances and in most of the major questlines is shallow and you might as well reward me for moving two steps forward like Free Realms.
What makes Aion so much better then all the other rubbish out there? Meh, I'll save my judgement for the moment.
Originally posted by mackdawg19 Do you even realize the tech involved in making the classic EQ compared to games these days? Just take a glance at EQ's interface at launch day. EQ was a great game by far, but let's be real here. By the way, go play EQ now. It's rather refreshing, but it took a lot of work to get to where it is at. And going back to classic eq, interface and gameplay and all, would just be plain bad.
You are saying Aion has only 1 race (2 twins) because the technology is more advanced. Yes,you're making a lot of sense....zzz EQ had a much lower budget and most EQ designers had to work overtime next to their normal job to make EQ if you didn't know. So your "a lot of work or tech" is kind of not true, they just did it, NCsoft not really did much at all.
The mode the classes the more the testing needed, more animations, etc.. and all with today standards of quality and graphics resolution.
Old games where made by cheaper standards. Current games need XX million dollars to be made, but old games where XXX K dollars projects.
Is much more expensive to add 1 more class to AION, than it was the whole EQ.
The people stating Aion is F2P quality is hilarious, considering the releases of war and AoC, filled with glitches, bugs, annoyances, lack of content, lack of endgame, lack of advertised features, etc.
Now I will knock on Aion for being linear and WoW like during the beginning of the game in some aspects, and I may knock on their restrictive classes, but F2P? Simplistic? Aion is very professionally made MMO with plenty of features, crafting, skills, content, and it is ran by a very professional company which supports it's games with massive updates and constant development. They are making billions with which they can expand the game.
As restrictive as the game is, which is my main beef, I can't complain too much because it allows the game to be balanced very well for RvR, and they seem to constantly be taking the game in the right direction for some solid PvP/RvR and maintained class balance. In updates they expand on the RvR experience rather than continuously adding content to the end of the game that puts the end game players even farther away from new characters rolled on the server.
I have been looking for a new mmo the last two years. What I have found is just Wow clones with some minor vairations. Some focus on pvp more while others focus on pve more. Many seem to ignore crafting for the most part. What I see from all the reviews and forums is this game is no different then any other clone of the last few years except it seems to have more polish. But what do I know I have yet to play it. 0_0
in my opinion, Aion has a pretty robust crafting system and player market system. I would head over to aionsource and read up on it if you are interested. The crafted items at end game rival some of the abyss armors for certain builds, and crafting is not a given since there are chances to craft higher quality versions of the same armor.
Cheers!
MMO Vet since AOL Neverwinter Nights circa 1992. My MMO beat up your MMO. =S
We all love RPG's and need our fix. I personally have high hopes with Aion as it really does look like NCsoft is trying hard to improve the game and make it be as fun as they possibly can. Just look at the translated korean patchnotes, 1.1, 1.2 , now 1.3 with more PvE content as in instances and quests for people who don't wish to be in the abyss 24/7 resulting in more items of course, also more stigmas/slots, more manastones, crafting recipes etc. cant find the link for the 1.3 translation atm but you get the idea. Sure the game has already been out for a year in korea but thats a good thing, critical bugs, server stability, most major balance issues and all those tedious things are already worked out so now they can work on content as you can see with 1.3
As I recall it took blizzard sooo long for just 1 patch that actually had new content in WoW. Any early WoW player remember how long it took them for Maraudon? then Dire Maul a couple of months after that? Battlegrounds and MC followed and but it was very limited, laggy, loooong queue times for the BG's with no proper rewards or nothing. Dont get me wrong am not trying to compare the two games but if you think about it, you cant judge a MMORPG of this scale in a few short beta events.
Another point I'd like to make for the people saying this should be F2P, well with Aion you're not just paying for gameplay, you're also paying for art. For example it takes a great deal of creativity and developement time to come up with those giant Giraff Elephant things in the lvl 10 Asmodia town, the huge floating Stingrays, the character customization, animations, general world layout and small things like unique design of trees etc... those things are all top-notch and really do help to give you the feeling that you're playing something extraordinary. Now compare that to something like perfect world, Jade Dynasty or any of those F2P games with huge empty spaces and a thousand monsters that all look the same then think again
OK, I'm not going to lie. I'm far too lazy to read all 5 pages, but let me say this much: It's tiresome hearing people talk about choices and customization for a character via talent trees or starting zones.
What I mean by this is that only the illusion of choice is there. I'm going to use WoW as an example, because I have the most experience with it(4ish years). With WoW, you can quest in different areas, etc. But when it comes down to it, you are still going to kill a bunch of these and gather a bunch of those. The only difference is really what you kill, what you gather, and where you are(Forest vs barren land being a choice really does not make me feel any better about trying to level to cap again at all). Yes, there are a few random different break of the mold quests, but not many.
As for talent trees, yea you have infinite possibilities with customization...Oh wait, no you don't. If you aren't running a cookie-cutter spec, you are gimping yourself, and will most likely be spat on for it. Any form of hybrid specs formed with player creativity are generally nerfed into the ground very soon after they are created. While each class has 3 talent trees full of possibility, you still only have 2-3 actual VIABLE specs. So the choices aren't so deep and amazing as people like to think. It would be one thing if they perfectly balanced trees to be able to spend points in any way, but that is more or less impossible and people will always be pigeon-holed into certain specs. Not to mention, because of the talent trees and Blizzards newfound inability to make good balancing choices, there can never be any form of real class balance in that game.
This isn't a flame on WoW btw. I did enjoy playing it, but it got old. But seriously, people need to stop acting like 'infinite possibilities' exist in so many MMO's. In the end, the most optimal road will be the ONLY road most people take. On a final note, this game is also new. Better to see the developers start with little options and make said options very polished, instead of overwhelming themselves and ending up cutting and/or messing up half of the implemented game*Cough WAR cough* They can always build on the game as they go, taking it one step at a time. To be honest, I rather like that approach more then zerging badly done content.
Fair, if they can't make more than one race and don't have enough money then they should have made it F2P. Blizzard and Lotro, huge companies and IP can afford P2P and I think it's cool if they charge a monthly sub. Small Korean company which charges full price for a year old game in the West = ripoff sorry, has to be said. The game is 59 EURO here in the store..hello?..insane.
You don't know jack about MMOs, all your posts in this threads are completely ridiculous. Comparing a PvE game with a PvP one based on faction warfare..... Stating NCsoft is a SMALL company.
Originally posted by zymurgeist It's an obstacle but it's one that can be overcome. Diablo was an exceedingly shallow game. So much so that many refuse to call it an RPG at all. Yet it was very popular and had great replayability. It really depends on things like the community that develops in and around the game. Most people play to be with their friends. Simple games can be fun too.
There's a difference, Diablo didn't try to portray an elaborate story or environment, Diablo didn't come out and say "our story is awesome, bla bla bla....bull". NCsoft does, all the trailers NCWest brings out are about the "story" which is as shallow as Hello Kitty. All the movies from gametrailers which are used as promotional material also try to suggest the game is from the West and that somehow the West influenced the game or had Western designer, it didn't, it was a total Korean project, I think that's quite unfair and dishonest,..whatever.
If that were Aion's only problem, if only..the world is full of empty spaces and the cities are just empty everywhere, shallow, unfinished and missing life. It doesn't deserve to be an AAA title, because it isn't.
What's ironic is that this image looks exactly like Silvermoon... Which also begs the obvious, most MMORPGs have these empty aspects anyway.
Either way, WoW is so shallow now days that you can't even splash if you tried it out. All the old world stuff is still there and still quite deep, everything else however is made up of Commander Blizzard telling you where to go in a purely linear game. MMORPGs are all empty now days, there isn't any point in arguing whether or not Aion will be empty since empty is what defines the genre atm.
How do you define what shallow and what is not? Last time I checked the Lich King saying 'hey, adventure!' in half the easy-arsed instances and in most of the major questlines is shallow and you might as well reward me for moving two steps forward like Free Realms.
What makes Aion so much better then all the other rubbish out there? Meh, I'll save my judgement for the moment.
Actually very good points Wingma, just goes to prove that others are the "$oE" of post quality and critiques.
I forgot about Eve Online in my list...not sure how I did that. Thats a sandbox, and is a success...but it seems more of an exception than the rule. And Runescape is a sandbox browser game...free to do as you wish, and that is a really popular game too.
So yeah, guess sandbox games can be popular...a lot of themepark MMOs have failed as well (AoC/WAR etc).
I started playing MMOs when Ultima Online was released. Sandbox games can be a great success if done right, but they need to be quality games from the start.
As for your list:
- Auto Assault: never tried that. Just driving around in cars shooting each other didn't seem too exciting
- Saga of Ryzom: never tried it because I did not like the races. They looked too weird.
- Vanguard: did try it and it could have been a big success but SOE messed it up with a premature launch / bugs / bad performance and not giving it enough focus after launch. Games need to work flawlessly as much as possible when they are released to build a big playerbase right from the start and they need to run on a wide range of Computers..
SWG: tried it in beta but I don't remember why I never played the release version I think it was kind of boring and had some bugs.
Tabula Rasa: tried it, but boring again
EvE: I've played EvE for quite a few months over the years and I think it is a decent game, but in the end it was feeling too much like work and my Avatar being a ship wasn't so great either. Would probably be a much greater success if it would give you a human avatar that could walk around in stations and ships, plus it would be more exciting if it would be more simulation like. (Board your ship, go to the cockpit, press a lot of buttons, fly your ship). And yes, I know theres a story around the clones and being one with your ship. Still it just tries to cover whats missing.
I'm currently waiting for Mortal Online beta. Maybe StarVault can pull off a good sandbox game even though they are a indy developer.
Fair, if they can't make more than one race and don't have enough money then they should have made it F2P. Blizzard and Lotro, huge companies and IP can afford P2P and I think it's cool if they charge a monthly sub. Small Korean company which charges full price for a year old game in the West = ripoff sorry, has to be said. The game is 59 EURO here in the store..hello?..insane.
You don't know jack about MMOs, all your posts in this threads are completely ridiculous. Comparing a PvE game with a PvP one based on faction warfare..... Stating NCsoft is a SMALL company.
Just no. lol.
NCsoft is small compared to Blizzard, SoE (Sony) and Turbine. No need to throw a fit.
Fair, if they can't make more than one race and don't have enough money then they should have made it F2P. Blizzard and Lotro, huge companies and IP can afford P2P and I think it's cool if they charge a monthly sub. Small Korean company which charges full price for a year old game in the West = ripoff sorry, has to be said. The game is 59 EURO here in the store..hello?..insane.
You don't know jack about MMOs, all your posts in this threads are completely ridiculous. Comparing a PvE game with a PvP one based on faction warfare..... Stating NCsoft is a SMALL company.
Just no. lol.
NCsoft is small compared to Blizzard, SoE (Sony) and Turbine. No need to throw a fit.
Cant recall any game from SoE or Turbine getting more than 2M subscribers, like L2, L1 and Aion have been doing.
No, people want a fun and engaging gaming experience. You can have 10 starting areas, but if their all boring with the grinding of the same rats for 10 levels whats the point (e.g. EQ)?
Aion is fun and the complete gaming package, thats why it will be a massive success.
Fair, if they can't make more than one race and don't have enough money then they should have made it F2P. Blizzard and Lotro, huge companies and IP can afford P2P and I think it's cool if they charge a monthly sub. Small Korean company which charges full price for a year old game in the West = ripoff sorry, has to be said. The game is 59 EURO here in the store..hello?..insane.
You don't know jack about MMOs, all your posts in this threads are completely ridiculous. Comparing a PvE game with a PvP one based on faction warfare..... Stating NCsoft is a SMALL company.
Just no. lol.
NCsoft is small compared to Blizzard, SoE (Sony) and Turbine. No need to throw a fit.
I'd have to be angry to throw a fit, I'm having more of laugh really. What you've said is so way off it's a bit funny.lol
I don't see the big deal with race, considering you can create your character to look like pretty much anything you want. Unless you are talking about specific racial abilities, which once again brings you to the table of "Race X is the best for class Y." It's not a huge addition to gameplay because most good players will pick the statistically best race for the class they pick. Once again, you feel like you have choices, but in reality you don't unless you want to purposely gimp yourself. The only way to alleviate that is to homogenize the crap out of all of the races. Then you'd just have no purpose in even making variety in racial selection aside from looks(Which once again, character customization more then makes up for).
Fair, if they can't make more than one race and don't have enough money then they should have made it F2P. Blizzard and Lotro, huge companies and IP can afford P2P and I think it's cool if they charge a monthly sub. Small Korean company which charges full price for a year old game in the West = ripoff sorry, has to be said. The game is 59 EURO here in the store..hello?..insane.
You don't know jack about MMOs, all your posts in this threads are completely ridiculous. Comparing a PvE game with a PvP one based on faction warfare..... Stating NCsoft is a SMALL company.
Just no. lol.
NCsoft is small compared to Blizzard, SoE (Sony) and Turbine. No need to throw a fit.
You know... you are only enforcing and reinforcing what they said by saying that right...?
The only thing big about SOE is the stigma attached to them.
The only thing big about Blizzard is their brand name.
The only thing big about Turbine is the IP behind their games.
As for customization in the game, like many have said, the character customization covers it. You want a gnome/dwarf/kid? Make one. You want an Orc? Make one. You want to play as Arthas/Piccolo/<insert famous person or anime character>? Make them.
Comments
Funny how you catagorize everyone you think who would enjoy a non-western MMO a anime lover. Shows how small minded people can be these days. Why does everything have to be so one sided? Can't someone just like a game because it's fun? Do I have to be a certain type of person to enjoy a game? Apparently I do when it comes to people like you.
Stereotyping at it's finest, I guess.
Edit: I mean this in a general statement to all the people who tend to say this game is only meant for people that love anime or people that love L2. Not you in general, but you make a good point as to why I don't like most gamers nowadays. Whine whine whine.
~ ~
Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths, Enwrought with golden and silver light, The blue and the dim and the dark cloths Of night and light and the half light, I would spread the cloths under your feet: But I, being poor, have only my dreams; I have spread my dreams under your feet; Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.
All mmo's as of late are simplistic, and based off what I know I'd say Aion is the same. A game needs to create a "world" to get beyond this issue, frankly I don't see or feel a world in aion, just a game, though it is a good one.
And people wonder why WoW is so successful...look back at the major games in the past, Ultima, Everquest, DAoC, etc.
These games literally had a virtual world, everquest being the best example giving its sheer size. You could create 8< characters and have a completely different expirence each time in Everquest, given the number of zones their were to play through. Even WoW though I hate to give it credit was able to create a non linear world for players to expirence as they see fit.
Developers have yet to realize the importance of this, and i'd say some players unhappy with today's mmo market don't even realize this is what they're looking for.
Unfortunately I don't think Aion delievers us a world, though I would love to be proved wrong as I personally look forward to the game.
You're examining and complaining about Aion as it were a PvE game, which really isn't the case. A billion different zones if nice for a PvE game, but the population NEEDS to be stacked in an area for PvP. Heading through a rift to raid enemy territory and coming across a ghost town would be FAR more harmful to the game's long term survival than 'lack of replayability' from having only one starter zone.
In regards to the original post, you also have stigmas marked down wrong. Gems and talismans are the equivalent of mana stones, NOT stigmas. Stigmas provide the direct equivalent for the talent trees you claim are missing. Lack of racial bonuses isn't exactly a major issue since, of the games you named, the race has very little impact on your class or classes are locked to a specific race. That gives some diversity in appearance (which Aion's character generator more than makes up for), but doesn't genuinely increase tactical choices.
I know that this is a forum and you are supose to discuss things but why you had to make this thread, I mean did you really expected not to get flame?, not trying to be pointing fingers at anybody but you either a troll or stupid enough to make a thread to get flame.
I think the OP has some valid concerns and I have some of the same ones myself. At first glance this game doesn't look like its up to the lvl of some of the other games. I can't say if it does or doesn't since I've only played it for one weekend up to lvl 10 but I'd suggest holding off on pre-judging this one.
The whole asian anime style of the graphics and all the promo drawings tend to turn alot of people off, myself included. If the graphics style really bothers you then this might not be for you. If your like me and you are more concerned about gameplay and content and you can overlook the graphics style it's worth a serious look.
The fact that there are only 8 classes might seem sort of limited when you see games like warhammer that have almost 20 but when you boil it all down every game pretty much comes down to your trinity of tank dps and healer anyway. I've been playing MMO's since EQ1 came out with kunark. I've played about everything and lately MMO's have been long on hype and way short on everything else. One thing this game has going for it is that it seems to have the basics down. The game is very stable and runs well on almost any system. That doesn't sound like much but after playing vanguard, conan, and warhammer not crashing all the time or watching a slide show is a welcome change.
So many games couldn't even get the basics down it didn't matter how amazing the screen shots were or how many classes they had. I'm not jumping on the fanboi wagon just yet but if your looking for something new I'd suggest trying one of the beta events in the next couple of months.
Said it once and will say it again. Aion is currently in beta that doesn't apply some features yet. Plus a level cap on each beta make it hard to see further contents until later beta and launch. Forming an opinion on it now would be rather premature as there are not enough information for anyone to make a valid conclusion.
(How do you judge a game when the beta you played have features and contents locked out and you are at level 10 max. Anyone who read the release notes on the website will know this)
The exception being that if someone played the Korean or Chinese version of Aion, however, that is only for those that can read the language, and not those that decide to play as if trying to find a light switch in a dark room.
Another issue is why is anyone expecting Aion to be groundbreaking to be a good game? Look at WoW for a game of such average quality, it is very successful. WoW basically used Warcraft lore and combined it with with some old MMO systems and gave it a slight tweak. See, successful game doesn't always need to be groundbreaking nor original, it just have to entertain people in some way.
If giving up some personal customization means an overall better balanced game I'm all for it.
I think anyone that has been playing MMO's in the last few years knows that if you don't happen to pick out one of the stronger classes on release your overall experience suffers and then if you do pick out one of the strong classes about as soon as you make it to the level cap and get some gear some patch comes along and kills your character, then you go pick up one of the newly empowered classes, get that to the cap and get some gear and then some patch comes along and............
To me it feels a little simplistic.
I mean 2 races, 4 classes, 8 jobs... They could have at least made 12 jobs.. You don't realy have to make any decisions about your skills.. you just end up buying all skillbooks. The stigma thing is cool tho but quite limited in 1.0. Whats left is the manastones to make your character the way you want to play him.
Lots of things that were originally planned to be in the game were temporarily removed for balance issues that are being sorted out. There is also a lot more content to come.
------------------------------
There's a difference, Diablo didn't try to portray an elaborate story or environment, Diablo didn't come out and say "our story is awesome, bla bla bla....bull". NCsoft does, all the trailers NCWest brings out are about the "story" which is as shallow as Hello Kitty. All the movies from gametrailers which are used as promotional material also try to suggest the game is from the West and that somehow the West influenced the game or had Western designer, it didn't, it was a total Korean project, I think that's quite unfair and dishonest,..whatever.
If that were Aion's only problem, if only..the world is full of empty spaces and the cities are just empty everywhere, shallow, unfinished and missing life. It doesn't deserve to be an AAA title, because it isn't.
What's ironic is that this image looks exactly like Silvermoon... Which also begs the obvious, most MMORPGs have these empty aspects anyway.
Either way, WoW is so shallow now days that you can't even splash if you tried it out. All the old world stuff is still there and still quite deep, everything else however is made up of Commander Blizzard telling you where to go in a purely linear game. MMORPGs are all empty now days, there isn't any point in arguing whether or not Aion will be empty since empty is what defines the genre atm.
How do you define what shallow and what is not? Last time I checked the Lich King saying 'hey, adventure!' in half the easy-arsed instances and in most of the major questlines is shallow and you might as well reward me for moving two steps forward like Free Realms.
What makes Aion so much better then all the other rubbish out there? Meh, I'll save my judgement for the moment.
The mode the classes the more the testing needed, more animations, etc.. and all with today standards of quality and graphics resolution.
Old games where made by cheaper standards. Current games need XX million dollars to be made, but old games where XXX K dollars projects.
Is much more expensive to add 1 more class to AION, than it was the whole EQ.
The people stating Aion is F2P quality is hilarious, considering the releases of war and AoC, filled with glitches, bugs, annoyances, lack of content, lack of endgame, lack of advertised features, etc.
Now I will knock on Aion for being linear and WoW like during the beginning of the game in some aspects, and I may knock on their restrictive classes, but F2P? Simplistic? Aion is very professionally made MMO with plenty of features, crafting, skills, content, and it is ran by a very professional company which supports it's games with massive updates and constant development. They are making billions with which they can expand the game.
As restrictive as the game is, which is my main beef, I can't complain too much because it allows the game to be balanced very well for RvR, and they seem to constantly be taking the game in the right direction for some solid PvP/RvR and maintained class balance. In updates they expand on the RvR experience rather than continuously adding content to the end of the game that puts the end game players even farther away from new characters rolled on the server.
This is most definitely a AAA mmo.
in my opinion, Aion has a pretty robust crafting system and player market system. I would head over to aionsource and read up on it if you are interested. The crafted items at end game rival some of the abyss armors for certain builds, and crafting is not a given since there are chances to craft higher quality versions of the same armor.
Cheers!
MMO Vet since AOL Neverwinter Nights circa 1992. My MMO beat up your MMO. =S
Just be happy Aion even exists everybody! :P
We all love RPG's and need our fix. I personally have high hopes with Aion as it really does look like NCsoft is trying hard to improve the game and make it be as fun as they possibly can. Just look at the translated korean patchnotes, 1.1, 1.2 , now 1.3 with more PvE content as in instances and quests for people who don't wish to be in the abyss 24/7 resulting in more items of course, also more stigmas/slots, more manastones, crafting recipes etc. cant find the link for the 1.3 translation atm but you get the idea. Sure the game has already been out for a year in korea but thats a good thing, critical bugs, server stability, most major balance issues and all those tedious things are already worked out so now they can work on content as you can see with 1.3
As I recall it took blizzard sooo long for just 1 patch that actually had new content in WoW. Any early WoW player remember how long it took them for Maraudon? then Dire Maul a couple of months after that? Battlegrounds and MC followed and but it was very limited, laggy, loooong queue times for the BG's with no proper rewards or nothing. Dont get me wrong am not trying to compare the two games but if you think about it, you cant judge a MMORPG of this scale in a few short beta events.
Another point I'd like to make for the people saying this should be F2P, well with Aion you're not just paying for gameplay, you're also paying for art. For example it takes a great deal of creativity and developement time to come up with those giant Giraff Elephant things in the lvl 10 Asmodia town, the huge floating Stingrays, the character customization, animations, general world layout and small things like unique design of trees etc... those things are all top-notch and really do help to give you the feeling that you're playing something extraordinary. Now compare that to something like perfect world, Jade Dynasty or any of those F2P games with huge empty spaces and a thousand monsters that all look the same then think again
Thanks for reading.
OK, I'm not going to lie. I'm far too lazy to read all 5 pages, but let me say this much: It's tiresome hearing people talk about choices and customization for a character via talent trees or starting zones.
What I mean by this is that only the illusion of choice is there. I'm going to use WoW as an example, because I have the most experience with it(4ish years). With WoW, you can quest in different areas, etc. But when it comes down to it, you are still going to kill a bunch of these and gather a bunch of those. The only difference is really what you kill, what you gather, and where you are(Forest vs barren land being a choice really does not make me feel any better about trying to level to cap again at all). Yes, there are a few random different break of the mold quests, but not many.
As for talent trees, yea you have infinite possibilities with customization...Oh wait, no you don't. If you aren't running a cookie-cutter spec, you are gimping yourself, and will most likely be spat on for it. Any form of hybrid specs formed with player creativity are generally nerfed into the ground very soon after they are created. While each class has 3 talent trees full of possibility, you still only have 2-3 actual VIABLE specs. So the choices aren't so deep and amazing as people like to think. It would be one thing if they perfectly balanced trees to be able to spend points in any way, but that is more or less impossible and people will always be pigeon-holed into certain specs. Not to mention, because of the talent trees and Blizzards newfound inability to make good balancing choices, there can never be any form of real class balance in that game.
This isn't a flame on WoW btw. I did enjoy playing it, but it got old. But seriously, people need to stop acting like 'infinite possibilities' exist in so many MMO's. In the end, the most optimal road will be the ONLY road most people take. On a final note, this game is also new. Better to see the developers start with little options and make said options very polished, instead of overwhelming themselves and ending up cutting and/or messing up half of the implemented game*Cough WAR cough* They can always build on the game as they go, taking it one step at a time. To be honest, I rather like that approach more then zerging badly done content.
You don't know jack about MMOs, all your posts in this threads are completely ridiculous. Comparing a PvE game with a PvP one based on faction warfare..... Stating NCsoft is a SMALL company.
Just no. lol.
(,,,)=^__^=(,,,)
There's a difference, Diablo didn't try to portray an elaborate story or environment, Diablo didn't come out and say "our story is awesome, bla bla bla....bull". NCsoft does, all the trailers NCWest brings out are about the "story" which is as shallow as Hello Kitty. All the movies from gametrailers which are used as promotional material also try to suggest the game is from the West and that somehow the West influenced the game or had Western designer, it didn't, it was a total Korean project, I think that's quite unfair and dishonest,..whatever.
If that were Aion's only problem, if only..the world is full of empty spaces and the cities are just empty everywhere, shallow, unfinished and missing life. It doesn't deserve to be an AAA title, because it isn't.
What's ironic is that this image looks exactly like Silvermoon... Which also begs the obvious, most MMORPGs have these empty aspects anyway.
Either way, WoW is so shallow now days that you can't even splash if you tried it out. All the old world stuff is still there and still quite deep, everything else however is made up of Commander Blizzard telling you where to go in a purely linear game. MMORPGs are all empty now days, there isn't any point in arguing whether or not Aion will be empty since empty is what defines the genre atm.
How do you define what shallow and what is not? Last time I checked the Lich King saying 'hey, adventure!' in half the easy-arsed instances and in most of the major questlines is shallow and you might as well reward me for moving two steps forward like Free Realms.
What makes Aion so much better then all the other rubbish out there? Meh, I'll save my judgement for the moment.
Actually very good points Wingma, just goes to prove that others are the "$oE" of post quality and critiques.
I started playing MMOs when Ultima Online was released. Sandbox games can be a great success if done right, but they need to be quality games from the start.
As for your list:
- Auto Assault: never tried that. Just driving around in cars shooting each other didn't seem too exciting
- Saga of Ryzom: never tried it because I did not like the races. They looked too weird.
- Vanguard: did try it and it could have been a big success but SOE messed it up with a premature launch / bugs / bad performance and not giving it enough focus after launch. Games need to work flawlessly as much as possible when they are released to build a big playerbase right from the start and they need to run on a wide range of Computers..
SWG: tried it in beta but I don't remember why I never played the release version
I think it was kind of boring and had some bugs.
Tabula Rasa: tried it, but boring again
EvE: I've played EvE for quite a few months over the years and I think it is a decent game, but in the end it was feeling too much like work and my Avatar being a ship wasn't so great either. Would probably be a much greater success if it would give you a human avatar that could walk around in stations and ships, plus it would be more exciting if it would be more simulation like. (Board your ship, go to the cockpit, press a lot of buttons, fly your ship). And yes, I know theres a story around the clones and being one with your ship. Still it just tries to cover whats missing.
I'm currently waiting for Mortal Online beta. Maybe StarVault can pull off a good sandbox game even though they are a indy developer.
Nerver give up hope
You don't know jack about MMOs, all your posts in this threads are completely ridiculous. Comparing a PvE game with a PvP one based on faction warfare..... Stating NCsoft is a SMALL company.
Just no. lol.
NCsoft is small compared to Blizzard, SoE (Sony) and Turbine. No need to throw a fit.
You don't know jack about MMOs, all your posts in this threads are completely ridiculous. Comparing a PvE game with a PvP one based on faction warfare..... Stating NCsoft is a SMALL company.
Just no. lol.
NCsoft is small compared to Blizzard, SoE (Sony) and Turbine. No need to throw a fit.
Cant recall any game from SoE or Turbine getting more than 2M subscribers, like L2, L1 and Aion have been doing.
No, people want a fun and engaging gaming experience. You can have 10 starting areas, but if their all boring with the grinding of the same rats for 10 levels whats the point (e.g. EQ)?
Aion is fun and the complete gaming package, thats why it will be a massive success.
GW2 the future of MMO gaming
You don't know jack about MMOs, all your posts in this threads are completely ridiculous. Comparing a PvE game with a PvP one based on faction warfare..... Stating NCsoft is a SMALL company.
Just no. lol.
NCsoft is small compared to Blizzard, SoE (Sony) and Turbine. No need to throw a fit.
I'd have to be angry to throw a fit, I'm having more of laugh really. What you've said is so way off it's a bit funny.lol
XD
(,,,)=^__^=(,,,)
I don't see the big deal with race, considering you can create your character to look like pretty much anything you want. Unless you are talking about specific racial abilities, which once again brings you to the table of "Race X is the best for class Y." It's not a huge addition to gameplay because most good players will pick the statistically best race for the class they pick. Once again, you feel like you have choices, but in reality you don't unless you want to purposely gimp yourself. The only way to alleviate that is to homogenize the crap out of all of the races. Then you'd just have no purpose in even making variety in racial selection aside from looks(Which once again, character customization more then makes up for).
You don't know jack about MMOs, all your posts in this threads are completely ridiculous. Comparing a PvE game with a PvP one based on faction warfare..... Stating NCsoft is a SMALL company.
Just no. lol.
NCsoft is small compared to Blizzard, SoE (Sony) and Turbine. No need to throw a fit.
You know... you are only enforcing and reinforcing what they said by saying that right...?
The only thing big about SOE is the stigma attached to them.
The only thing big about Blizzard is their brand name.
The only thing big about Turbine is the IP behind their games.
As for customization in the game, like many have said, the character customization covers it. You want a gnome/dwarf/kid? Make one. You want an Orc? Make one. You want to play as Arthas/Piccolo/<insert famous person or anime character>? Make them.