I have played the game, as well and there is no real grind, people are going to stereotype it because of who the developer is and what region it was primarily developed in. The game is very comparable to western MMO's such as LOTRO, and WoW in terms of quests and progression. It is a gorgeous game, and a fun one at that.
So tired of WOW i hope this game would keep me entertained for a while. No game ever launch since WOW ever hold my interest for more than a 2-3 months.
"GRIND" ok no you have not had it at all. Because you never hit 28-30+ Thats when it kicks in. There is SO much that has not been talked about. Ask about DEATH. Ask about the cost of 5+ deaths. In some MMO's you dont have a rift that opens up and you get jumped by the other side "PVP". You cant run from it.. you cant just TURN OFF PVP.. lol so you stand there and just die EVERYTIME or you fight back.. jump through and go at it!
Two sides.. and BOTH are so much the same its unreal. You will ALWAYS have only ONE starting area so if you love to play more than one TOON its going to get very boring fast.
The maps are very small. You can never get lost. You just follow the road and it will ALWAYS take you to where you need to go.
AH, broker.. you will NOT find tons of different armor , weapons for each level.. you will be lucky if theres just two.
They dont tell you... QUESTS.. you need to kill this and that.. so does everyone else.. BUT.. both of you can attack the same target and who ever does the MOST DAMAGE gets the kill .. xp and loot. There is NO KILL STEALING.. this is the way the game is. So dont get upset if someone comes along and takes your kill.. thats part of the game and has not.. will not change.. lol they dont talk about that..
Find where people have PLAYED the kor, china all the way up and see what they say. The game is alot different after level 20. You cant just SOLO your way .. they leave out so much. And unless you grind here and there you will run out of quests at times. But thats like some mmos.
Its not a HARDCORE MMO.. its not harder than WOW.. is basicly a PVP game.
ive experienced some grind and ive noticed if you dont kill plenty you will start to struggle for quest xp, its not bothered me too much becouse we are playing a older version and the 1.5 is filled out a bit more.
But Baggs(a few posts up) makes some very good points, and id like to see a european dedicated team instead of playing second fiddle to korea and following there route, it would be great to see the western version be more a-tuned to western players.
Playing: FFXIV Future: wishing for SWG 2, World of Warcraft Classic Played: Most current and extinct MMO's - 18 Years in....
Shallow PvP? You have just completely discredited yourself. No one will take your post seriously now because your intentions or far too obvious.
Shallow. As in, "everything that doesn't look like me equals enemy". If you're not in a group, you're gank fodder. To me, that's shallow. Your mileage may vary. I'm not sure what intentions are "obvious" to you and I don't really care. You don't know me, nor do you know my intentions, if I really had any other than to offer my perspective after a couple of weekend events.
Have a nice day.
Funny, I consider the PvP and PvPvE concepts in this game to have been thought out very well. You actually have dynamic open world PvP resources to fight for and you call that shallow?
"The person who experiences greatness must have a feeling for the myth he is in."
I have played in the last 2 betas and have my game preordered. I come from the EQ1 Grinding days, and the easy mode WoW days. I have gotten to the Cap at 25 this weekend.
IMO the quests dont give enough exp to even bother doing them. I consider myself a hardcore gamer, by that i mean i can sit and play for well over 6+ hours at a time. The first 10 levels were cake, quests were easy and it basicly taught you the game. From 10 on it was a bit different. My friends and I just thought about the time we spent running around clicking rocks or picking herbs, killing mobs in some remote location all to give you a reward of 18k exp...... When you get 2-4k a KILL.
Why in the hell would i trek 20mins back and forth for 18k EXP!?!? I can get that in 4 kills that takes 2 minutes. What they NEED to do is BOOST the exp per quest turn in. The ONLY quests that give good exp are the main storyline quests. All of the side quests are almost completely worthless.
Im not calling this game grinding at all, Im just saying that if you were to level 1-25 purely questing vs 1-25 straight grind. The person that GRINDS will blow away the quester.
This IMO is the biggest issue i have with AION at the moment, and even so its not a big one b/c i dont mind killing the same spiders for 10 hours straight.
Oh and i forgot to mention many of the quests from about 15+ are repeatable quests. And you guessed it, give crap exp. BOOST EXP FOR QUESTS PLEASE
Grind has almost nothing to do with quests. Unless the mobs/world is interesting or different enough from the last one (i.e no boars that we can see in just about every other zone) then only an absolutely awesome storyline (Lotro) will reduce the grind. Making better stories for quests does not stop the grind, it's interesting use of ingame mechanics and interesting fights.
anyway the game sounds pretty good so far, though the world does not seem all that appealing to me. Still i shall await the player reviews in November before jumping into this one.
MMO wish list:
-Changeable worlds -Solid non level based game -Sharks with lasers attached to their heads
if your not into PVP dont bother. While the PVE aspect of this game is good and the character models are wonderful, as soon as you hit 25 you will be subjected to PVP whether you like it or not. Its sad too cause its a really beautiful game.
Meh, another theme park where your progression runs on rails in a very narrow world. The scenery is gorgeous until you realize that you can't actually go to a lot of those places that you can see. Nothing for explorers here. Replayability is minimal since every character you create is going to take the same dull ride as the one before. In fact, both factions have essentially the same quests with the only differences being names and the mobs involved. It's soloable until about level 18 when forced grouping hits you in the face like a bucket of ice water. From that point, you can either group or grind the same boring mobs over and over. However, you can make some very pretty characters. Still, if you love shallow PvP and forced grouping, you might be happy here, that is, if you can find enough like-mindeds to play with six months after release.
Wow, every post you make is dripping with so much douchebaggery it makes me sick. You don't like grouping? Go play a single player game. You don't like getting ganked? Go play a single player game. You have to come up with ridiculous arguments as to why you want to play a massively MULTIPLAYER game by yourself? Go play a single player game. You want to be an explorer? Go to a state park and walk around in the woods.
Single-player game? Now, why didn't I think of that? Oooh, he pulled out the D-Word, sort of. What are you, twelve? If you're sociopathic attitude extends into your gaming, you're a poster child for why a lot of people hate grouping and PvP. I'm sure you know allll the ways to play the game right.
I gunna play Dragon Age when it comes out. That okay with you, sport?
"Soloists and those who prefer small groups should never have to feel like they''re the ones getting the proverbial table scraps, as it were." - Scott Hartsman, Senior Producer, Everquest II "People love groups. Its a fallacy that people want to play solo all the time." - Scott Hartsman, Executive Producer, Rift
I'm hitting a slow spot on the Elyos side at 18-19. Most of the quests I have left are all involving 4 dot Tursin's and I can't kill a level 16 4-dot at 19 as a sorcerer atm. And trying to get a group for them seems rather hard when most people don't respond or don't speak the same language (hey Dana, another reason why regional servers are good...).
Yeah but for the love of god dont put us english(UK) with the french or rest of the EU.......
Why can't people just respect each others opinions and move on? There doesn't need to be a flame war everytime someone says they dislike the game. If they dislike it and don't play it, how does this affect anyone that is going to play it, other than having one less player to play with / fight against? We get it, you love Aion and want to see it succeed. So go out and advertise the game to different media sources instead of trying to persuade someone who has already made their decision?
Personally I found the game pretty fun. After getting out of the Elyos' starting zones (Poeta and Verteron) I was pretty impressed on how big Eltnen was, and later that night my legion decided to go exploring further into Eltnen just to see what the game looked like. There were so many cool touches and unique looking monsters that are waiting in the 25-50 range. If you're interested in seeing the videos (dont mind the quality our camera man is new to it I assume), go on You Tube and search for Remnant Legion. We got most of our exploring on file but eventually he couldn't record anymore.
I wish the questionaire would have had some better questions, but maybe another site will get a chance to ask some better questions.
1st - don't understand how ROM can be better than any of the games that i played and Aion
To be honest, ROM it's a good game but they want for you to pay (Like 1st time I played i saw a lvl 50 player with a realy nice mount, and he awnsered "i paid for it, oh but it's permanant !!!" [ LOL ], i was like every ppl saying that the game was awsome because it was free and then i saw that everithing cool to have in the game you have to pay for it, with real money ofc xD) I think he said that he paid like 15€ or 15$ don't know it rigth now... so finaly what i want to mean is that instead of you paying 15€ per month to play a well developed MMO you finishing paying 15€ for having a permanent mount and maybe you will pay for another itens OH and ofc IF YOU WANT TO BUY SOMETHING GOOD YOU MUST BUY DIAMONDS ... thats why i stopped....
So i dont think that Aion can EVEN be compare to ROM and, Like i said Aion he's like WOW in 09 a new and modern MMO
Alredy pre-ordered deluxe vs
lock up yo kids, lock up yo wife, even yo husband cuz they rapin everybody round here
Originally posted by Baggs 2. Why do they keep talking about that thing called PvPvE? They are intentionally misleading the fanbase. There is such a feature ingame, but its PvEvP and trust me there's a huge difference. PvPvE = proper PvP with the NPC faction interfering. PvEvP = You are leveling / questing and you suddenly get jumped by a 6 man group.(if not more) I kid you not, the Abyss is not for PvPing, its where mobs give the mobs exp per kill + rewards. Which makes it a leveling place.
The PVPVE They are refering to is the fact that the abyss' keeps are attacked by NPCs regularly.
That and the fact that the entire story is about the conflict of the THREE Sides.
I think some of your complaints are entirely valid but this one just seems a little far out.
Why can't people just respect each others opinions and move on? There doesn't need to be a flame war everytime someone says they dislike the game. If they dislike it and don't play it, how does this affect anyone that is going to play it, other than having one less player to play with / fight against? We get it, you love Aion and want to see it succeed. So go out and advertise the game to different media sources instead of trying to persuade someone who has already made their decision?
Simple, many times the dislike is motivated by fear of losing ones guild members from another MMO, or it's a case of Guerilla marketing from the competition. We have seen MMO suffer smear campaigns before, with forum members monitoring forums 24/7on this site to ridicule contradict or otherwise shoot down any positive remarks or press.
I for one am having a blast in Aion, it is going to be really tough for me to pick between Aion and Champions online as I only have time for one MMO. Aion is fun, and it's a breath of fresh air but it isn't for everyone...that doesn’t make it a failboat.
Why do you avoid asking them real, proper questions? Aren't they gonna sell AION for real money?
Here's a few for your next interview :
1. Will the European and American playbase have any power over what needs to be "fixed", "nerfed", "tweaked" and so on? Or is it like Lineage 2 where we got w/e update the Korean players wanted? (note : A year later from them as well)
2. Why do they keep talking about that thing called PvPvE? They are intentionally misleading the fanbase. There is such a feature ingame, but its PvEvP and trust me there's a huge difference. PvPvE = proper PvP with the NPC faction interfering. PvEvP = You are leveling / questing and you suddenly get jumped by a 6 man group.(if not more) I kid you not, the Abyss is not for PvPing, its where mobs give the mobs exp per kill + rewards. Which makes it a leveling place.
3. Will utterly stupid items like the potions which remove ALL your abnormal conditions (debuffs, slow, silence, etc...) be removed from the game? Or they will let them destroy the PvP experience like Blessed Scrolls of Escape did in Lineage 2.
4. Will Fortress Sieging stay as it is? I honestly don't see the point of defending a fortress when you'll get more Abyss Points and rewards if you just leave the other faction have it for a day. (Sieges happen every day if im not wrong) It's already an issue in Korea and China. Another question on sieges. Where exactly is the fun part in capturing a fortress by killing a raid boss? Where is the PvP part of Fortress sieging when nobody defends them?- because they have nothing to lose anyway, they will recapture them the next day and be rewarded for it as well....
Honestly i could go on and on and on and on with real questions that need real answers but i cannot be bothered. I played a Spirit Master to level 36 on Chinese retail and i don't feel like i have accomplished something. I reached the Abyss rank of Soldier rank 3 but that's mostly from mobs and enemy NPCs, not from killing people. And that's not just me, its what everyone does. Its just faster and more convenient. Mobs and NPCs will always give you the same amount of AP and they will always respawn, when a player will stop giving you points after you kill him a couple times.
Don't get me wrong here, i believe AION has the full potential of becoming a very successful MMORPG, even hit humongous numbers like World of Warcraft. But. That won't happen if the game stays as it is. Lots of tweaking is requiered and people like me want to know beforehand if the company has the resources, the guts and the will to make these changes happen. So far, even from official announcements they are not changing anything to the game but translating it to English, French and German. The core mechanics are staying the same, they are only adding new items and zones which doesn't really change things. It just recycles boredom and nothing more.
Thanks for reading my post, if you don't agree with me there's no need for flaming, just ignore me and move along.
Finally, an articulate mind on this board. You asked good questions and made good points that NO ONE has yet addressed. And this is very important; in life, I have come to take it, as a general rule of thumb, if someone makes a compelling argument that clearly reveals the filth of an object (in this case the poor quality of this game), then is ignored by the community that supports said object, there is truth to be found within that man's words.
Just by reading this forum I was turned off from AION. If its community is filled with people who actually ENJOY killing the same group of spiders for 10 hours, cannot express themselves intellectually, and have no reason behind why they like something then there is certainly no room in AION's game world for me.
I like games which require the players to think (chess, ??, MTG, some RTS games, puzzle games, etc). The only MMO that really offers this (that I am aware of) is Guild Wars (unless you count MTGOnline or other games that are like MTG). Guild Wars is a great game because of one very simple factor: the abundance of synergies amongst the skills. All of the skills are very synergistic in nature so it is fun and challenging to create builds for various situations (there are a ton of PvP and PvE options in the game). Because of this Guild Wars thrives on a very healthy and gorgeous meta game. It's nice to constantly see the meta game change every month or so; it really keeps the competition alive and prevents the game from getting repetitive (though if you lack competent players the game can get pretty stale if you aren't that big a fan of PvE). This one single factor pretty much indefinitely gives the players new content to work with (or until you've managed to formulate every build combination in the game).
But enough about Guild Wars. Many of you can probably infer by now that since I was a fan of Guild Wars I, naturally, had high hopes for this game; though I was aware of the garbage NCSoft could produce (L2, CoH/V); I did enjoy Dungeon Runners for a bit (which despite the fact that it was everything I hated in an MMO, it was able to keep me playing for a few weeks because of its undeniable charm by fusing humor into an online game; it did, however, get really old, really fast) and Exteel (however that is more of an FPS and a completely different subject). So because there were two games I really enjoyed and one that confirmed the fact that NCsoft could produce things outside of the ordinary I decided to give AION the benefit of the doubt.
When I found out that AION's combat system would be supporting a "combo" system, I thought it might be something like the assassin's combo system from GW and got prematurely excited. However, after reading a bit about it, I heard that the combat is pretty bland and takes little to no thought effort to string together combos (I guess you can hot key them to trigger from 1 command). Also from the videos I have watched the combat seems pretty sluggish.
The second point made by Baggs really disappointed me. I was hopping that PvPvE existed, but since it plays out like PvEvP, really, what is the difference between that and a PvP realm like in World of Warcraft (a game that I truly cannot fathom why it is liked by so many people)?
Baggs' 3rd point made me laugh. Adding in a potion that eliminates conditions is insanely stupid. Why would you add incentive to not play certain builds (degen builds and any healing build that prevents or focuses on preventing degen in this case)? Potions just helps lessen the amount of freedom one has for making good builds. It helps force everyone to play the same build (unless you are OK with playing a build that is mediocre and universally unaccepted by the community). Just look at WoW; there are quite a bit of skills in the game, however, there are only like a max of 4 [decent] builds per character (less really). You will find yourself playing the same build for pretty much the entirety of the game, leaving you with no ability to really mold yourself or evolve to different situations; and to make matters worse, in WoW you have to PAY every time you want to reset your talent tree; giving players an even greater incentive to not test out certain builds; this increases the incentive to look online and steal tried and true builds that other players have already figured out to be the best or use some calculators to figure out what builds are the best; however the game still suffer from an abundance of pointless skills/talents. I am not sure about AION and what kind of skill system it uses (I have just about lost all interest in this game so I rarely look stuff up about it anymore), but I wouldn't be surprised if it followed in the footsteps of other successful MMO's (like WoW) When the skill pool for a game is very small and the number of decent, usable skills is even smaller, it ensures cookie-cutter play style. Pretty much every game suffers from this, even games where the skill pool is rather big most devs have a problem with balancing skills and classes. However if you look at a game like chess, you can mimic play styles, but each opponent will react differently; it is very unlikely that a single chess match will be the same as a previous game. I would like to see an MMORPG that has this kind of variable; constantly having to evolve to match your opponents play style (this is very apparent in Fighting games and in FPS as well as RTS, but it could be accomplished as well in RPGs).
The quests in AION just seem so stupid: go kill mob X, go gather berry X, etc. Can't anyone create meaningful tasks? Why not have every quest actually FEEL like a QUEST. Quests are supposed to be long and epic. They aren't supposed to be over in a few minutes. You should feel like you accomplished something after you are done. It could be something as simple as, on your first visit into a new kingdom, the princess is kidnapped by some evil villain and it is up to you and your gang of heroes to go find and save her. On the way there you have to fight lackeys, deal with clues and hints as to the whereabouts of the princess, extorting information, etc. Then after you rescue her, you find out she has been poisoned and needs to be carried to a medical facility, and of course as you are carrying her out of this hell hole you are ambushed. She's dying and you and your gang are out-numbered; you need to make some immediate choices, do you risk sending one of your members to run past the mob that just ambushed you while you and the others hold them off, do you set her down and take on the mob risking her dying from the poison or being killed by one of the enemies, do you split your group into two parties, do you retreat and try to think about how to progress all while risking having the princess die, etc.
You could turn one task into a multitude of tasks constantly forcing the player(s) to use the wits to overcome great odds.
Anyways, I am not a story teller, but if I was getting paid to write quests I would make sure that each quest was long and worth it (worth it not only in physical rewards but emotional ones as well; you should actually value the lives of the people you are saving or value the item/skill you are questing for; there needs to be a serious reason behind why you are doing something and then the task performed to achieve that reward needs to provoke thought). After you finish a quest you should actually feel like you saved someone you knew or rescued a village from being torn asunder by a group of bandits. Like, if some guy says, "hey you need to save us from some pirates that are encroaching on our camp". Those pirates better come to that camp and start killing villagers. And you should lose some credibility/end rewards for every village you let die. These are simple game mechanics that could be achieved but are not implemented out of laziness and the fact that devs can get away with it. If some guy says go kill 8 boars and 8 wild cats, no one stops to question why. No one really cares, it's just a pre-requisite to get to the next level and get that much closer to the end game content everyone is raving about. Quests should take hours or days to complete (not to mention they should be void of any time limit... I am looking at you EVE); they should really get you involved in the story and introduce you to characters and allow you to interact with them; you and your group should FEEL like the main focus of the story, not just some random guys in the midst of a random setting.
Philosophically I think about games the way I think about my life. It's about the journey, not the end. I don't care about the supposed rewards I will receive at the end, I care about the here and now and enjoying this moment; if you are not enjoying every moment of the game you are playing, it’s time to switch to a new game. That's just wasted time you can never get back.
Anyways, these are just my opinions; if you share similar views or have VAILD responses please feel free to respond to me; if not, I will take Baggs stance and suggest you ignore me and move along.
Finally an articulate mind on this board. You asked good questions and made good points that NO ONE has yet addressed. And this is very important; in life, I have come to take it, as a general rule of thumb, if someone makes a compelling argument that clearly reveals the filth of an object (in this case the poor quality of this game), then is ignored by the community that supports said object, there is truth to be found within that man's words.
Just by reading this forum I was turned off from AION. If its community is filled with people who actually ENJOY killing the same group of spiders for 10 hours, cannot express themselves intellectually, and have no reason behind why they like something then there is certainly no room in AION's game world for me.
I like games which require the players to think (chess, ??, MTG, some RTS games, puzzle games, etc). The only MMO that really offers this (that I am aware of) is Guild Wars (unless you count MTGOnline or other games that are like MTG). Guild Wars is a great game because of one very simple factor: the abundance of synergies amoungst the skills. All of the skills are very synergistic in nature so it is fun and challenging to create builds for various situations (there are a ton of PvP and PvE options in the game). Because of this Guild Wars thrives on a very healthy and georgous meta game. It's nice to constantly see the meta game change every month or so; it really keeps the competition alive and prevents the game from getting repetitive (though if you lack compotent players the game can get pretty stale if you aren't that big a fan of PvE). This one single factor pretty much indefinitely gives the players new content to work with (or until you've managed to formulate every build combonation in the game).
But enough about Guild Wars. Many of you can probably infer by now that since I was a fan of Guild Wars I, naturally, had high hopes for this game; though I was aware of the garbage NCSoft could produce (L2, CoH/V); though I did enjoy Dungeon Runners for a bit (which despite the fact that it was every thing I hated in an MMO was able to keep me playing for a few weeks because of it's undeniable charm by fusing humour into an online game. Though it got really old really fast) and Exteel (however that is more of an FPS and a completely different subject).
When I found out that AION's combat system would be supporting a "combo" system, I thought I might be something like the assassin's combo system from GW and got prematuraly exceited. However, after reading a bit about I heard that the combat is pretty bland and takes little to no thought effort to string together combos (I guess you can hot key them to trigger from 1 command). Also from the videos I have watched the combat seems pretty sluggish.
The second point made by Baggs really disapointed me. I was hopping that PvPvE existed, but since it plays out like PvEvP, really what is the difference between that and a PvP realm like in World of Warcraft (a game that I turely cannot fathom why it is liked by so many people)?
Baggs' 3rd point made me laugh. Adding in a potion that elimites conditions is insanely stupid. Why would you add incentive to not play certain builds (degen builds and any healing build that prevents or focuses on preventing degen in this case)? Potions just helps lessen the amount of freedom one has for making good builds. It helps force everyone to play the same build (unless you are OK with playing a build that is mediocore and universally unaccepted by the community. Just look at WoW; there are quite a bit of skills in the game, however, there are only like a max of 4 [decent] builds per character. You will find yourself playing the same build for pretty much the entirtey of the game leaving you with no ability to really mold yourself or evolve to different situations; and to make matters worse, in WoW you have to PAY everytime you want to reset your talent tree; giving players an even greater incentive to not test out certain builds; this increases the incentive to look online and steal tried and true builds that other players have already figured out to be the best; though calculators are nice, there really is no point in using them since other people have already done the work for you; and since the skill pool for most games (not sure about AION, but wouldn't be surprised if it followed in the footsteps of other successful MMO's) are very small and the number of decent, usable skills is even smaller it ensures cooki-cutter play style (EVERY MMO suffers from this. Even GW. Once a new build changes the Meta, everyone is playing that build).
The quests in AION just seem so stupid: go kill mobX, go gather berryX, etc. Can't any create meaningful tasks? Why not have every quest actually feel like a quest. Quests are supposed to be long or epic. They aren't supposed to be over in a few minutes. They should feel like you accomplished something after you are done. It could be something as simple as, on your first visit into a new kingdom the princess is kidnapped by some evil villian and it is up to you and your gang of heroes to go find and save her. On the way there you have to fight lackys, deal with clues and hints as to the whereabouts of princess, extorting information, etc. Then after you rescue her you find out she has been poisoned and needs to be carried to a medical facility, and of course as you are carrying her out of this hell hole you are ambushed. She's dying and you and your gang are out-numbered; you need to make some immediate choices, do you risk sending one of your members to run past the mob that just ambushed you while you and the others hold them off, do you set her down and take on the mob, do you split your group into two parties, do you retrete and try and regroup to think about how best to progress and risk having the princess die on you while thinking the best course of action, etc.
Anyways, I am not a story teller, but if I was getting paid to write quests I would make sure that each quest was long and worth it (worth it not only in physical rewards but emotional ones as well). After you finish a quest you should actually feel like you saved someone you knew or rescued a village from being torn asunder by a group of bandits. Like, if some guy says, "hey you need to save us from some pirates that are encrouching on our camp". Those pirates better come to that camp and start killing villagers. And you should lose some credibility/end rewards for every village you let die. These are simple game mechanics that could be achieved but are not implemented out of laziness and the fact that they can get away with it. If some guy says go kill 8 boars and 8 wild cats, no one stops to question why. No one really cares, it's just a pre-requisite to get to the next level and get that much closer to the end game content which is what everyone is raving about. Quests should take hours or days to complete (not to mention they should be void of any time limit... I am looking at you EVE); they should really get you involved in the story and introduce you to characters and allow you to interact with them; you and your group should FEEL like the main focus of the story, not just some random guys in the midst of a random setting.
Philosophically I think about games the way I think about my life. It's about the journey, not the end. I don't care about the supposed rewards I will recieve at the end, I care about the here and now and enjoying this moment. If you are not enjoying every moment of the game you are playing, its time to switch to a new game. That's just wasted time you can never get back and never will get back.
Anyways, these are just my opinions; if you share similiar views or have VAILD responses please feel free to respond to me; if not, I will take Baggs stance and suggest you ignore me and move along.
I played the beta events as well, and while I don't believe Aion is going to reinvent the MMO, I think a lot of people aren't giving it a proper chance.
Coming from something like WoW, yes, Aion seems grindy (as the interview states, mostly by western gamers; the eastern audience is quite comfortable with games that require more time to level). The truth of that is that the experience will be what you make it. If you focus only on the task of solo leveling, and not of enjoying yourself in an online community with other players around the world, you will quickly tire of any MMORPG. Aion strikes a good balance, imo. It's not as arduous as past games in the genre (L2, FFXI), and there always quests. The quests are easy enough to solo but difficult enough that you'd probably find it more enjoyable to group. In my experience, gamers call a game linear when it offers quests; whereas games often referred to as sandboxes omit them in favor of unguided mob killing to level. Pre-CU SWG is a great example of a sandbox, and leveling any combat profession in that game ultimately boiled down to killing creatures en masse. Whether you chose to organize a group of friends and be social while doing so was up to you. The same is true for Aion; you could ignore the quests and explore freely (beyond a certain point), or you could do them.
I think really what a lot of the downtrodded MMO vets on this forum (and I'm one of them), need is a bit of a change in perspective. The leveling process in a game like Aion is merely meant to be something that goes on while you are hanging out with friends, exploring, meeting new people, etc. It's meant as a legitimate facet of the game, not something you rush past to get to the endgame (WoW). Sure, it would be great if more games allowed players to progress through things like crafting or more directly social activities, but until those games come out with the level of polish that Aion provides, it's not going to do much for the genre. Sitting around yearning for that mythical perfect MMO isn't going to lead to your satisfaction (unless you happen to be a brilliant game designer with a talented team and loads of cash - then by all means, keep dreaming).
It's a tad unfair to label every new MMO that launches a WoW clone, don't you think? Especially because WoW got most of it's ideas from previous entries to the genre, like EQ (yet no one calls MMOs EQ clones) and built upon them. That's what this genre does. Because MMOs are more costly to produce and maintain than console games, developers take the parts that worked from other games, innovate on a couple things, and ship. Some things will be familiar. It's unrealistic to expect developers to completely reinvent the genre with a new release. Aion is innovative in that way, perhaps moreso than games like AoC and WAR were, in fact. I'd say Aion is more remniscent of Lineage 2, anyway.
Btw, you hear a lot of people who come from WoW to play Aion say good things, because most of us who are tired of WoW have sat around complaining on vent or gchat or forums like these about the issues with the game (too easy to the point of being meaningless, oversimplified pvp, negative community, etc); they then go to Aion and find that a good deal of those issues are not present. It's a refreshing feeling, and I hope that it lasts (for myself too). It has it's own issues, but whether you choose to focus on them and let them hamper your experience is really about attitude rather than mechanics.
Good points were addressed for the QQs about Aion, but fail for comparing it to WoW.
WoW is full release, while Aion is still in beta testing. I enjoyed the interview, but Aion is Aion, and not WoW or another we wanna test our version of mmo on your dime.
I play Aion because I have fun where in other MMOs I don't, and its still a beta ha WTH. I'm only going to have more fun with the full release!
"Aion can have killer graphics, an interesting and well developed story, the most robust mmo character creator system ever seen, endless gameplay customization, and it's still going to come down to the most important question, "Is the game fun?"
No.
I really tried to like this game in the beta weekends, but it's just the same boring linear game play. Story is boring, and item customization is way too random. The game plays well however, and I had very few issues with lag or bugs, but when it comes down to it, I just didn't have fun.
Why does Lani insist on misleading people ? "If you want to focus on PvE only, you can." is a lie, it just isn't true, post lvl 20 you will be forced into non consensual PvP.
Why does Lani insist on misleading people ? "If you want to focus on PvE only, you can." is a lie, it just isn't true, post lvl 20 you will be forced into non consensual PvP.
I don't think that's what he means. Yes, you can level to max via PvE only in PvE "mostly" territories. You can't avoid PvP entirely, since rifts are random. You do get forewarning about a rift opening in you area though, so you should be able to plan accordingly.
Why does Lani insist on misleading people ? "If you want to focus on PvE only, you can." is a lie, it just isn't true, post lvl 20 you will be forced into non consensual PvP.
Why does Lani insist on misleading people ? "If you want to focus on PvE only, you can." is a lie, it just isn't true, post lvl 20 you will be forced into non consensual PvP.
No its not, you can reach 50 without PvP
You can not reach level 50 with out ever being subjected to PvP. You don't have to seek out PvP and can avoid it the best you can and still reach level 50. However, with the Rift "invasion" system, you can and will be ganked in PvE zones with no ability to opt out, other than to log out when you see trouble and hope no one is around next time you log in.
I plan on playing on a server with the current rule set. However, if the game is going to hope to not lose half their US customers after the first month, they need to offer PvE rule servers where PvP only occurs in the Abyss, or where PvP vulnerability can be turned off in PvE zones for those who don't want to deal with it while playing the PvE content in the game.
I don't think that's what he means. Yes, you can level to max via PvE only in PvE "mostly" territories. You can't avoid PvP entirely, since rifts are random. You do get forewarning about a rift opening in you area though, so you should be able to plan accordingly.
The problem is that the game world isn't that large and there is no redundant PvE content. If your zone is invaded, that's going to be the only zone for your level range. Your choice will be to log off.
Comments
I have played the game, as well and there is no real grind, people are going to stereotype it because of who the developer is and what region it was primarily developed in. The game is very comparable to western MMO's such as LOTRO, and WoW in terms of quests and progression. It is a gorgeous game, and a fun one at that.
So tired of WOW i hope this game would keep me entertained for a while. No game ever launch since WOW ever hold my interest for more than a 2-3 months.
"GRIND" ok no you have not had it at all. Because you never hit 28-30+ Thats when it kicks in. There is SO much that has not been talked about. Ask about DEATH. Ask about the cost of 5+ deaths. In some MMO's you dont have a rift that opens up and you get jumped by the other side "PVP". You cant run from it.. you cant just TURN OFF PVP.. lol so you stand there and just die EVERYTIME or you fight back.. jump through and go at it!
Two sides.. and BOTH are so much the same its unreal. You will ALWAYS have only ONE starting area so if you love to play more than one TOON its going to get very boring fast.
The maps are very small. You can never get lost. You just follow the road and it will ALWAYS take you to where you need to go.
AH, broker.. you will NOT find tons of different armor , weapons for each level.. you will be lucky if theres just two.
They dont tell you... QUESTS.. you need to kill this and that.. so does everyone else.. BUT.. both of you can attack the same target and who ever does the MOST DAMAGE gets the kill .. xp and loot. There is NO KILL STEALING.. this is the way the game is. So dont get upset if someone comes along and takes your kill.. thats part of the game and has not.. will not change.. lol they dont talk about that..
Find where people have PLAYED the kor, china all the way up and see what they say. The game is alot different after level 20. You cant just SOLO your way .. they leave out so much. And unless you grind here and there you will run out of quests at times. But thats like some mmos.
Its not a HARDCORE MMO.. its not harder than WOW.. is basicly a PVP game.
ive experienced some grind and ive noticed if you dont kill plenty you will start to struggle for quest xp, its not bothered me too much becouse we are playing a older version and the 1.5 is filled out a bit more.
But Baggs(a few posts up) makes some very good points, and id like to see a european dedicated team instead of playing second fiddle to korea and following there route, it would be great to see the western version be more a-tuned to western players.
Playing: FFXIV
Future: wishing for SWG 2, World of Warcraft Classic
Played: Most current and extinct MMO's - 18 Years in....
Interesting Fact - I own 27 Tarantula's
Shallow. As in, "everything that doesn't look like me equals enemy". If you're not in a group, you're gank fodder. To me, that's shallow. Your mileage may vary. I'm not sure what intentions are "obvious" to you and I don't really care. You don't know me, nor do you know my intentions, if I really had any other than to offer my perspective after a couple of weekend events.
Have a nice day.
Funny, I consider the PvP and PvPvE concepts in this game to have been thought out very well. You actually have dynamic open world PvP resources to fight for and you call that shallow?
"The person who experiences greatness must have a feeling for the myth he is in."
I have played in the last 2 betas and have my game preordered. I come from the EQ1 Grinding days, and the easy mode WoW days. I have gotten to the Cap at 25 this weekend.
IMO the quests dont give enough exp to even bother doing them. I consider myself a hardcore gamer, by that i mean i can sit and play for well over 6+ hours at a time. The first 10 levels were cake, quests were easy and it basicly taught you the game. From 10 on it was a bit different. My friends and I just thought about the time we spent running around clicking rocks or picking herbs, killing mobs in some remote location all to give you a reward of 18k exp...... When you get 2-4k a KILL.
Why in the hell would i trek 20mins back and forth for 18k EXP!?!? I can get that in 4 kills that takes 2 minutes. What they NEED to do is BOOST the exp per quest turn in. The ONLY quests that give good exp are the main storyline quests. All of the side quests are almost completely worthless.
Im not calling this game grinding at all, Im just saying that if you were to level 1-25 purely questing vs 1-25 straight grind. The person that GRINDS will blow away the quester.
This IMO is the biggest issue i have with AION at the moment, and even so its not a big one b/c i dont mind killing the same spiders for 10 hours straight.
Oh and i forgot to mention many of the quests from about 15+ are repeatable quests. And you guessed it, give crap exp. BOOST EXP FOR QUESTS PLEASE
Grind has almost nothing to do with quests. Unless the mobs/world is interesting or different enough from the last one (i.e no boars that we can see in just about every other zone) then only an absolutely awesome storyline (Lotro) will reduce the grind. Making better stories for quests does not stop the grind, it's interesting use of ingame mechanics and interesting fights.
anyway the game sounds pretty good so far, though the world does not seem all that appealing to me. Still i shall await the player reviews in November before jumping into this one.
MMO wish list:
-Changeable worlds
-Solid non level based game
-Sharks with lasers attached to their heads
if your not into PVP dont bother. While the PVE aspect of this game is good and the character models are wonderful, as soon as you hit 25 you will be subjected to PVP whether you like it or not. Its sad too cause its a really beautiful game.
Wow, every post you make is dripping with so much douchebaggery it makes me sick. You don't like grouping? Go play a single player game. You don't like getting ganked? Go play a single player game. You have to come up with ridiculous arguments as to why you want to play a massively MULTIPLAYER game by yourself? Go play a single player game. You want to be an explorer? Go to a state park and walk around in the woods.
Single-player game? Now, why didn't I think of that? Oooh, he pulled out the D-Word, sort of. What are you, twelve? If you're sociopathic attitude extends into your gaming, you're a poster child for why a lot of people hate grouping and PvP. I'm sure you know allll the ways to play the game right.
I gunna play Dragon Age when it comes out. That okay with you, sport?
"Soloists and those who prefer small groups should never have to feel like they''re the ones getting the proverbial table scraps, as it were." - Scott Hartsman, Senior Producer, Everquest II
"People love groups. Its a fallacy that people want to play solo all the time." - Scott Hartsman, Executive Producer, Rift
Yeah but for the love of god dont put us english(UK) with the french or rest of the EU.......
Why can't people just respect each others opinions and move on? There doesn't need to be a flame war everytime someone says they dislike the game. If they dislike it and don't play it, how does this affect anyone that is going to play it, other than having one less player to play with / fight against? We get it, you love Aion and want to see it succeed. So go out and advertise the game to different media sources instead of trying to persuade someone who has already made their decision?
Personally I found the game pretty fun. After getting out of the Elyos' starting zones (Poeta and Verteron) I was pretty impressed on how big Eltnen was, and later that night my legion decided to go exploring further into Eltnen just to see what the game looked like. There were so many cool touches and unique looking monsters that are waiting in the 25-50 range. If you're interested in seeing the videos (dont mind the quality our camera man is new to it I assume), go on You Tube and search for Remnant Legion. We got most of our exploring on file but eventually he couldn't record anymore.
I wish the questionaire would have had some better questions, but maybe another site will get a chance to ask some better questions.
See some of you guys in CB5!
Aion is a revolutionary game...
I alredy played LOTRO,WOW and ROM ....
1st - don't understand how ROM can be better than any of the games that i played and Aion
To be honest, ROM it's a good game but they want for you to pay (Like 1st time I played i saw a lvl 50 player with a realy nice mount, and he awnsered "i paid for it, oh but it's permanant !!!" [ LOL ], i was like every ppl saying that the game was awsome because it was free and then i saw that everithing cool to have in the game you have to pay for it, with real money ofc xD) I think he said that he paid like 15€ or 15$ don't know it rigth now... so finaly what i want to mean is that instead of you paying 15€ per month to play a well developed MMO you finishing paying 15€ for having a permanent mount and maybe you will pay for another itens OH and ofc IF YOU WANT TO BUY SOMETHING GOOD YOU MUST BUY DIAMONDS ... thats why i stopped....
So i dont think that Aion can EVEN be compare to ROM and, Like i said Aion he's like WOW in 09 a new and modern MMO
Alredy pre-ordered deluxe vs
lock up yo kids, lock up yo wife, even yo husband cuz they rapin everybody round here
The PVPVE They are refering to is the fact that the abyss' keeps are attacked by NPCs regularly.
That and the fact that the entire story is about the conflict of the THREE Sides.
I think some of your complaints are entirely valid but this one just seems a little far out.
Simple, many times the dislike is motivated by fear of losing ones guild members from another MMO, or it's a case of Guerilla marketing from the competition. We have seen MMO suffer smear campaigns before, with forum members monitoring forums 24/7on this site to ridicule contradict or otherwise shoot down any positive remarks or press.
I for one am having a blast in Aion, it is going to be really tough for me to pick between Aion and Champions online as I only have time for one MMO. Aion is fun, and it's a breath of fresh air but it isn't for everyone...that doesn’t make it a failboat.
Finally, an articulate mind on this board. You asked good questions and made good points that NO ONE has yet addressed. And this is very important; in life, I have come to take it, as a general rule of thumb, if someone makes a compelling argument that clearly reveals the filth of an object (in this case the poor quality of this game), then is ignored by the community that supports said object, there is truth to be found within that man's words.
Just by reading this forum I was turned off from AION. If its community is filled with people who actually ENJOY killing the same group of spiders for 10 hours, cannot express themselves intellectually, and have no reason behind why they like something then there is certainly no room in AION's game world for me.
I like games which require the players to think (chess, ??, MTG, some RTS games, puzzle games, etc). The only MMO that really offers this (that I am aware of) is Guild Wars (unless you count MTGOnline or other games that are like MTG). Guild Wars is a great game because of one very simple factor: the abundance of synergies amongst the skills. All of the skills are very synergistic in nature so it is fun and challenging to create builds for various situations (there are a ton of PvP and PvE options in the game). Because of this Guild Wars thrives on a very healthy and gorgeous meta game. It's nice to constantly see the meta game change every month or so; it really keeps the competition alive and prevents the game from getting repetitive (though if you lack competent players the game can get pretty stale if you aren't that big a fan of PvE). This one single factor pretty much indefinitely gives the players new content to work with (or until you've managed to formulate every build combination in the game).
But enough about Guild Wars. Many of you can probably infer by now that since I was a fan of Guild Wars I, naturally, had high hopes for this game; though I was aware of the garbage NCSoft could produce (L2, CoH/V); I did enjoy Dungeon Runners for a bit (which despite the fact that it was everything I hated in an MMO, it was able to keep me playing for a few weeks because of its undeniable charm by fusing humor into an online game; it did, however, get really old, really fast) and Exteel (however that is more of an FPS and a completely different subject). So because there were two games I really enjoyed and one that confirmed the fact that NCsoft could produce things outside of the ordinary I decided to give AION the benefit of the doubt.
When I found out that AION's combat system would be supporting a "combo" system, I thought it might be something like the assassin's combo system from GW and got prematurely excited. However, after reading a bit about it, I heard that the combat is pretty bland and takes little to no thought effort to string together combos (I guess you can hot key them to trigger from 1 command). Also from the videos I have watched the combat seems pretty sluggish.
The second point made by Baggs really disappointed me. I was hopping that PvPvE existed, but since it plays out like PvEvP, really, what is the difference between that and a PvP realm like in World of Warcraft (a game that I truly cannot fathom why it is liked by so many people)?
Baggs' 3rd point made me laugh. Adding in a potion that eliminates conditions is insanely stupid. Why would you add incentive to not play certain builds (degen builds and any healing build that prevents or focuses on preventing degen in this case)? Potions just helps lessen the amount of freedom one has for making good builds. It helps force everyone to play the same build (unless you are OK with playing a build that is mediocre and universally unaccepted by the community). Just look at WoW; there are quite a bit of skills in the game, however, there are only like a max of 4 [decent] builds per character (less really). You will find yourself playing the same build for pretty much the entirety of the game, leaving you with no ability to really mold yourself or evolve to different situations; and to make matters worse, in WoW you have to PAY every time you want to reset your talent tree; giving players an even greater incentive to not test out certain builds; this increases the incentive to look online and steal tried and true builds that other players have already figured out to be the best or use some calculators to figure out what builds are the best; however the game still suffer from an abundance of pointless skills/talents. I am not sure about AION and what kind of skill system it uses (I have just about lost all interest in this game so I rarely look stuff up about it anymore), but I wouldn't be surprised if it followed in the footsteps of other successful MMO's (like WoW) When the skill pool for a game is very small and the number of decent, usable skills is even smaller, it ensures cookie-cutter play style. Pretty much every game suffers from this, even games where the skill pool is rather big most devs have a problem with balancing skills and classes. However if you look at a game like chess, you can mimic play styles, but each opponent will react differently; it is very unlikely that a single chess match will be the same as a previous game. I would like to see an MMORPG that has this kind of variable; constantly having to evolve to match your opponents play style (this is very apparent in Fighting games and in FPS as well as RTS, but it could be accomplished as well in RPGs).
The quests in AION just seem so stupid: go kill mob X, go gather berry X, etc. Can't anyone create meaningful tasks? Why not have every quest actually FEEL like a QUEST. Quests are supposed to be long and epic. They aren't supposed to be over in a few minutes. You should feel like you accomplished something after you are done. It could be something as simple as, on your first visit into a new kingdom, the princess is kidnapped by some evil villain and it is up to you and your gang of heroes to go find and save her. On the way there you have to fight lackeys, deal with clues and hints as to the whereabouts of the princess, extorting information, etc. Then after you rescue her, you find out she has been poisoned and needs to be carried to a medical facility, and of course as you are carrying her out of this hell hole you are ambushed. She's dying and you and your gang are out-numbered; you need to make some immediate choices, do you risk sending one of your members to run past the mob that just ambushed you while you and the others hold them off, do you set her down and take on the mob risking her dying from the poison or being killed by one of the enemies, do you split your group into two parties, do you retreat and try to think about how to progress all while risking having the princess die, etc.
You could turn one task into a multitude of tasks constantly forcing the player(s) to use the wits to overcome great odds.
Anyways, I am not a story teller, but if I was getting paid to write quests I would make sure that each quest was long and worth it (worth it not only in physical rewards but emotional ones as well; you should actually value the lives of the people you are saving or value the item/skill you are questing for; there needs to be a serious reason behind why you are doing something and then the task performed to achieve that reward needs to provoke thought). After you finish a quest you should actually feel like you saved someone you knew or rescued a village from being torn asunder by a group of bandits. Like, if some guy says, "hey you need to save us from some pirates that are encroaching on our camp". Those pirates better come to that camp and start killing villagers. And you should lose some credibility/end rewards for every village you let die. These are simple game mechanics that could be achieved but are not implemented out of laziness and the fact that devs can get away with it. If some guy says go kill 8 boars and 8 wild cats, no one stops to question why. No one really cares, it's just a pre-requisite to get to the next level and get that much closer to the end game content everyone is raving about. Quests should take hours or days to complete (not to mention they should be void of any time limit... I am looking at you EVE); they should really get you involved in the story and introduce you to characters and allow you to interact with them; you and your group should FEEL like the main focus of the story, not just some random guys in the midst of a random setting.
Philosophically I think about games the way I think about my life. It's about the journey, not the end. I don't care about the supposed rewards I will receive at the end, I care about the here and now and enjoying this moment; if you are not enjoying every moment of the game you are playing, it’s time to switch to a new game. That's just wasted time you can never get back.
Anyways, these are just my opinions; if you share similar views or have VAILD responses please feel free to respond to me; if not, I will take Baggs stance and suggest you ignore me and move along.
Finally an articulate mind on this board. You asked good questions and made good points that NO ONE has yet addressed. And this is very important; in life, I have come to take it, as a general rule of thumb, if someone makes a compelling argument that clearly reveals the filth of an object (in this case the poor quality of this game), then is ignored by the community that supports said object, there is truth to be found within that man's words.
Just by reading this forum I was turned off from AION. If its community is filled with people who actually ENJOY killing the same group of spiders for 10 hours, cannot express themselves intellectually, and have no reason behind why they like something then there is certainly no room in AION's game world for me.
I like games which require the players to think (chess, ??, MTG, some RTS games, puzzle games, etc). The only MMO that really offers this (that I am aware of) is Guild Wars (unless you count MTGOnline or other games that are like MTG). Guild Wars is a great game because of one very simple factor: the abundance of synergies amoungst the skills. All of the skills are very synergistic in nature so it is fun and challenging to create builds for various situations (there are a ton of PvP and PvE options in the game). Because of this Guild Wars thrives on a very healthy and georgous meta game. It's nice to constantly see the meta game change every month or so; it really keeps the competition alive and prevents the game from getting repetitive (though if you lack compotent players the game can get pretty stale if you aren't that big a fan of PvE). This one single factor pretty much indefinitely gives the players new content to work with (or until you've managed to formulate every build combonation in the game).
But enough about Guild Wars. Many of you can probably infer by now that since I was a fan of Guild Wars I, naturally, had high hopes for this game; though I was aware of the garbage NCSoft could produce (L2, CoH/V); though I did enjoy Dungeon Runners for a bit (which despite the fact that it was every thing I hated in an MMO was able to keep me playing for a few weeks because of it's undeniable charm by fusing humour into an online game. Though it got really old really fast) and Exteel (however that is more of an FPS and a completely different subject).
When I found out that AION's combat system would be supporting a "combo" system, I thought I might be something like the assassin's combo system from GW and got prematuraly exceited. However, after reading a bit about I heard that the combat is pretty bland and takes little to no thought effort to string together combos (I guess you can hot key them to trigger from 1 command). Also from the videos I have watched the combat seems pretty sluggish.
The second point made by Baggs really disapointed me. I was hopping that PvPvE existed, but since it plays out like PvEvP, really what is the difference between that and a PvP realm like in World of Warcraft (a game that I turely cannot fathom why it is liked by so many people)?
Baggs' 3rd point made me laugh. Adding in a potion that elimites conditions is insanely stupid. Why would you add incentive to not play certain builds (degen builds and any healing build that prevents or focuses on preventing degen in this case)? Potions just helps lessen the amount of freedom one has for making good builds. It helps force everyone to play the same build (unless you are OK with playing a build that is mediocore and universally unaccepted by the community. Just look at WoW; there are quite a bit of skills in the game, however, there are only like a max of 4 [decent] builds per character. You will find yourself playing the same build for pretty much the entirtey of the game leaving you with no ability to really mold yourself or evolve to different situations; and to make matters worse, in WoW you have to PAY everytime you want to reset your talent tree; giving players an even greater incentive to not test out certain builds; this increases the incentive to look online and steal tried and true builds that other players have already figured out to be the best; though calculators are nice, there really is no point in using them since other people have already done the work for you; and since the skill pool for most games (not sure about AION, but wouldn't be surprised if it followed in the footsteps of other successful MMO's) are very small and the number of decent, usable skills is even smaller it ensures cooki-cutter play style (EVERY MMO suffers from this. Even GW. Once a new build changes the Meta, everyone is playing that build).
The quests in AION just seem so stupid: go kill mobX, go gather berryX, etc. Can't any create meaningful tasks? Why not have every quest actually feel like a quest. Quests are supposed to be long or epic. They aren't supposed to be over in a few minutes. They should feel like you accomplished something after you are done. It could be something as simple as, on your first visit into a new kingdom the princess is kidnapped by some evil villian and it is up to you and your gang of heroes to go find and save her. On the way there you have to fight lackys, deal with clues and hints as to the whereabouts of princess, extorting information, etc. Then after you rescue her you find out she has been poisoned and needs to be carried to a medical facility, and of course as you are carrying her out of this hell hole you are ambushed. She's dying and you and your gang are out-numbered; you need to make some immediate choices, do you risk sending one of your members to run past the mob that just ambushed you while you and the others hold them off, do you set her down and take on the mob, do you split your group into two parties, do you retrete and try and regroup to think about how best to progress and risk having the princess die on you while thinking the best course of action, etc.
Anyways, I am not a story teller, but if I was getting paid to write quests I would make sure that each quest was long and worth it (worth it not only in physical rewards but emotional ones as well). After you finish a quest you should actually feel like you saved someone you knew or rescued a village from being torn asunder by a group of bandits. Like, if some guy says, "hey you need to save us from some pirates that are encrouching on our camp". Those pirates better come to that camp and start killing villagers. And you should lose some credibility/end rewards for every village you let die. These are simple game mechanics that could be achieved but are not implemented out of laziness and the fact that they can get away with it. If some guy says go kill 8 boars and 8 wild cats, no one stops to question why. No one really cares, it's just a pre-requisite to get to the next level and get that much closer to the end game content which is what everyone is raving about. Quests should take hours or days to complete (not to mention they should be void of any time limit... I am looking at you EVE); they should really get you involved in the story and introduce you to characters and allow you to interact with them; you and your group should FEEL like the main focus of the story, not just some random guys in the midst of a random setting.
Philosophically I think about games the way I think about my life. It's about the journey, not the end. I don't care about the supposed rewards I will recieve at the end, I care about the here and now and enjoying this moment. If you are not enjoying every moment of the game you are playing, its time to switch to a new game. That's just wasted time you can never get back and never will get back.
Anyways, these are just my opinions; if you share similiar views or have VAILD responses please feel free to respond to me; if not, I will take Baggs stance and suggest you ignore me and move along.
Just going to throw my two cents in:
I played the beta events as well, and while I don't believe Aion is going to reinvent the MMO, I think a lot of people aren't giving it a proper chance.
Coming from something like WoW, yes, Aion seems grindy (as the interview states, mostly by western gamers; the eastern audience is quite comfortable with games that require more time to level). The truth of that is that the experience will be what you make it. If you focus only on the task of solo leveling, and not of enjoying yourself in an online community with other players around the world, you will quickly tire of any MMORPG. Aion strikes a good balance, imo. It's not as arduous as past games in the genre (L2, FFXI), and there always quests. The quests are easy enough to solo but difficult enough that you'd probably find it more enjoyable to group. In my experience, gamers call a game linear when it offers quests; whereas games often referred to as sandboxes omit them in favor of unguided mob killing to level. Pre-CU SWG is a great example of a sandbox, and leveling any combat profession in that game ultimately boiled down to killing creatures en masse. Whether you chose to organize a group of friends and be social while doing so was up to you. The same is true for Aion; you could ignore the quests and explore freely (beyond a certain point), or you could do them.
I think really what a lot of the downtrodded MMO vets on this forum (and I'm one of them), need is a bit of a change in perspective. The leveling process in a game like Aion is merely meant to be something that goes on while you are hanging out with friends, exploring, meeting new people, etc. It's meant as a legitimate facet of the game, not something you rush past to get to the endgame (WoW). Sure, it would be great if more games allowed players to progress through things like crafting or more directly social activities, but until those games come out with the level of polish that Aion provides, it's not going to do much for the genre. Sitting around yearning for that mythical perfect MMO isn't going to lead to your satisfaction (unless you happen to be a brilliant game designer with a talented team and loads of cash - then by all means, keep dreaming).
It's a tad unfair to label every new MMO that launches a WoW clone, don't you think? Especially because WoW got most of it's ideas from previous entries to the genre, like EQ (yet no one calls MMOs EQ clones) and built upon them. That's what this genre does. Because MMOs are more costly to produce and maintain than console games, developers take the parts that worked from other games, innovate on a couple things, and ship. Some things will be familiar. It's unrealistic to expect developers to completely reinvent the genre with a new release. Aion is innovative in that way, perhaps moreso than games like AoC and WAR were, in fact. I'd say Aion is more remniscent of Lineage 2, anyway.
Btw, you hear a lot of people who come from WoW to play Aion say good things, because most of us who are tired of WoW have sat around complaining on vent or gchat or forums like these about the issues with the game (too easy to the point of being meaningless, oversimplified pvp, negative community, etc); they then go to Aion and find that a good deal of those issues are not present. It's a refreshing feeling, and I hope that it lasts (for myself too). It has it's own issues, but whether you choose to focus on them and let them hamper your experience is really about attitude rather than mechanics.
Good points were addressed for the QQs about Aion, but fail for comparing it to WoW.
WoW is full release, while Aion is still in beta testing. I enjoyed the interview, but Aion is Aion, and not WoW or another we wanna test our version of mmo on your dime.
I play Aion because I have fun where in other MMOs I don't, and its still a beta ha WTH. I'm only going to have more fun with the full release!
Mhmmm
"Aion can have killer graphics, an interesting and well developed story, the most robust mmo character creator system ever seen, endless gameplay customization, and it's still going to come down to the most important question, "Is the game fun?"
No.
I really tried to like this game in the beta weekends, but it's just the same boring linear game play. Story is boring, and item customization is way too random. The game plays well however, and I had very few issues with lag or bugs, but when it comes down to it, I just didn't have fun.
Why does Lani insist on misleading people ? "If you want to focus on PvE only, you can." is a lie, it just isn't true, post lvl 20 you will be forced into non consensual PvP.
No its not, you can reach 50 without PvP
I don't think that's what he means. Yes, you can level to max via PvE only in PvE "mostly" territories. You can't avoid PvP entirely, since rifts are random. You do get forewarning about a rift opening in you area though, so you should be able to plan accordingly.
Sounds sexy.
Mhmmm
No its not, you can reach 50 without PvP
You can not reach level 50 with out ever being subjected to PvP. You don't have to seek out PvP and can avoid it the best you can and still reach level 50. However, with the Rift "invasion" system, you can and will be ganked in PvE zones with no ability to opt out, other than to log out when you see trouble and hope no one is around next time you log in.
I plan on playing on a server with the current rule set. However, if the game is going to hope to not lose half their US customers after the first month, they need to offer PvE rule servers where PvP only occurs in the Abyss, or where PvP vulnerability can be turned off in PvE zones for those who don't want to deal with it while playing the PvE content in the game.
Want to know more about GW2 and why there is so much buzz? Start here: Guild Wars 2 Mass Info for the Uninitiated
The problem is that the game world isn't that large and there is no redundant PvE content. If your zone is invaded, that's going to be the only zone for your level range. Your choice will be to log off.
Want to know more about GW2 and why there is so much buzz? Start here: Guild Wars 2 Mass Info for the Uninitiated
I still haven't read one single reason why someone should buy this over any other MMO, except for "I'm bored with my current one".
"It has wings" doesn't cut it.