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Aion needs to cut the grind....simple as that.
Now maybe this formula is working well in the Asian market considering how much those gamers love to grind....but I'm sorry it's just not going to work here and here's my explanation.
(Oh and I'm not an absolutist so I believe in reasonable arguments that could change my outlook...0o)
If you haven't noticed, Aion is a game without a PvE server so and so called "normal" server, so whether you hate PvP or not you will have to deal with it one shape or form to get anywhere in this game. Right there you're already cutting out a big chunk of gamers here on the west.
Now let's talk about players that enjoy PvP, the problem I see with this game right now is grind just doesn't work for this crowd.
Up until level 20 this game is actually enjoyable, but once that level comes and goes that's when the XP bar just about doubles in size and the quests begin to give just as much as a single mob encounter.
If you want to make a game that caters to PvP don't force them to grind much, this is a lesson that was well learned in WAR that is once again showing up here in the different way.
In WAR players found PvE the best means of leveling and gearing up for RvR, and since the RvR system in itself was flawed and badly thought out the game failed to impress PvPers.
In Aion players have to PvE if they want to compete with other players, there is no choice like what you'd see in WAR, and the grind is so enduring that the game is turning into a gankfest where players try to grind while in fear of being attacked by other players at all times.
Aion simply forces PvPers to PvE, and PvEers to PvP.....this is not a well thought out scheme to satisfy players. If you want to make a PvP game you're focus needs to stay away from grind as much as possible, and this game doesn't allow you to do it, it forces you not just to PvE but grind...and I don't see any bigger turn off for a PvPer than this!
Either cut the grind or alow players to gain xp from other players...either than this I don't see this game doing so well...0o
Comments
I'm level 30 right now and I admit the grind has gotten really bad. About 1 to 2% of your level is quests and about 98% is grinding grinding and more grinding. I think many people are going to quit at this point; Aion may have seemed like a great game in the beginning, but if you don't know Asian grinders by now, then you don't know Aion.
I'm lvl 31 1/4 right now.
QQ much, just don't play it then! Seriously once in a blue moon a AAA MMO from Asia gets a US/EU release and if it not super-easy-mode-can-get-to-the-cap-in-3-days OMG its a grind!
Just quit and go play whatever is not a grind to you...am so looking forward to the end of the free-month so the rest of the QQs will finally quit complaining in-game also!
wall of text, but at least you used sentances... unlike me.
anywho, yup its a grind, but Aion was never really marketed as a non grind game. I actually like that i have to put some effort into leveling up. It goes 100% faster with another person, tonight i cranked out a level without ever stopping to rest.
LoL, I'd expect a response like this in 2001 not anymore.
I don't QQ, but if I'm bored I'll leave simple as that, but don't get pissy if I'm not the only one.
Then you and the five other nutcase grinders can enjoy this game all you want...but to be honest I do believe playing in such small numbers would defeat the purpose of playing a massively multiplayer online game in itself.
Don't believe that will happen then I guess you're new to MMOs since just about every other MMO for the past 5 years has had to deal with this problem of mass exodus in players.
No, YOU just need to play a different game and stop trying to change a game because you disagree with how something is, regardless of how thousands of others who are also playing the game might feel, you egotistical toolbag.
Personally, I find the leveling curve to be just right, if not a bit fast.
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Warhammers failure had nothing to do with any so called grind and no grind lesson can be learned from it. Warhammers failure stemmed almost 100% from lack of any real depth to the game and the few areas that had potential for depth the mechanics just didnt work that well. In the end though Grind is simply game content that one has to do that one does not enjoy doing. Anything including quests can be grind. Anything that one considers grind another person can consider fun also. All games full of grind will fail because that means the game is full of stuff that is simply not fun to play. Who wants to play something that isnt fun? The real question is just how many people consider the game grindy and how much grind is the game population wiling to tolerate? That answer will only appear about one or two months from now.
Just about every game for the last 5 years has also tried to cater almost exclusively to the casual crowd too. I see this as a bigger reason games have a mass exodus after a month or two. Casual players rarely stick a game out for long as the next shiny object grabs their attention.
I find people who complain about "Grind" in a game where you start at lvl 1... and have to get exp to get stronger... to be silly... if you dont like getting exp... and what everything just handed to you on a silver platter... then go play a single player game.
Yeah cause the games really truly sucked and were not in a complete and stable condition to launch! Thus far besides a few hickups on the servers past 2 days and masses of ppl trying to play a new game {go figure} yeah some ppl had a queue or were DC'd.
The reason WoW is doing so well is because its accessible, even a PC thats from 2000 can run WoW....these newer MMOs cannot, thus ppl bitch cause they don't understand the technology!
Aion is actually doing something that most MMOs in the past 5 yrs havn't done...and thats present a strong leveling curve, and all these new players that started with WoW where its fricken easy to lvl and has no penalty complain cause its too hard or OMG, but the quest says I only have to kill 10 monsters....ahh no I have to kill a few more...its a grind, now I'm gonna go and complain like a little bitch all over the net!
Leveling up in Aion was quite painful for me, never have I completed such boring, mindless quests, I think I enjoyed leveling in WoW more TBH, the feeling of grind and repetition was so apparent in Aion and the theme park style walls killed it for me.
Currently Playing: Nothing
Have Played: UO, WoW, GW, FFXI, L2, LotRO, WAR, Aion
Looking Forward To: SW:TOR
Actually some of the quests are rather interesting. Which has been lacking in MMOs for some time. The game has some nice surprises. Earlier today I stepped into the Pandemonium library and was reading through some of the books in there, two of them surprise you with some good cinematics. Some of the quests give you the same thing, which is a nice change from "Hi I'm Bob, Go kill 10 rats over there".
"Hi I'm Jim, find my dog... I think I saw him by the barn last, please I miss him!" ... "Oh you found hi- wait a second. A sewer rat?! That's not my dog!"
"IRL is a pretty upstanding MMO with thousands of classes, a lot of PvP and even some pretty unique emotes and titles you can acquire. Explore that world first, then we'll talk about this virtual one."
Admittedly, the "cinematics" make a nice introduction for a task. But that still leaves the task itself uninspired.
Grind? More rubbish. Yeah gaining levels slows down as you advance but this is how it should be. It depends on if you think the purpose of the game is to get to the level cap as fast as possible and that everything before that is a grind.
The trip from level 1 to level XX should be a part of the game and should take some time and effort. WoW has turned levels into something irrelevant with the result that 80% of the WoW content is useless and ignored as most people have just rushed ahead.
Stop grinding and start playing.
I dunno this forces people to play together, wow alot of the time is a solo game and my server has hit the cess pit of player children who want their candy served on a platter. If your unhappy with the grind maybe take a break? I watch TV will grinding in groups.
I don't know if I will stick with aion but what I do know is you need people to play with in terms of a guild or freinds if your a lone wolf this game really isnt for you.
The problem is not the grind. The problem is that a portion of the current MMO crowd was introduced to a certain mentality that dictates that the pre-max cap game doesn't matter, only the post cap game does. So anything before that is pointless and a chore. Thus anything that slows things down, even to acceptable levels, only keeps people to the part of the game that doesn't matter.
Of course that's rubbish. The path to max level is equally important to the end game itself. Too bad the people I previously mention won't have the insight to enjoy themselves or to get rid of the end-level-is-what-matters misconception.
The problem comes from people that come from wow mostly( not all of course)
When I played wow I always wanted to get best gear possible at my current level and always gone in the low level dungeons, It's a good experience for later on in the game plus you get good gear and some gold :P.
But most don't care about the low dungeons and rush to cap and want instantly the best gear. This is the problem I had mostly with wow every time a new expansion was out the previous top dungeons were scraped away. What's the point on doing them when there is blues that are better then the epics in karazan,ecc (WOTLK) and that will keep on happening till they find out on how they can fix it.
In my opinion everyone that's saying this game is a grind are all the stupid players that don't know how to play the game, and are nothing but cry baby little kids whose mom needs to take them off the tit.
It's a start in the right direction though. I really don't expect a game like this to have amazing quests. As I said, these things were a surprise to me. I see something like quests becoming more involving and immersive in games like ToR or the new FF mmo.
Anyways, I know there's a lot of hardcore players that see a reduction in grind as destroying the challenge in an MMO.
But the fact is Aion is a PvP game mostly, so if you're looking for a challenge you should look into the PvP aspect not the grind.
The grind has nothing to do with PvP or RvR and it's quite frankly ruining the experience; it's only purpose is to satisfy the Asian market who likes these types of MMOs and here on the west they need to rethink what they're doing.
The "grind" is what you make of it. Currently I'm 19 (my signature lies). I have yet experienced a grind. From what I hear, all the complaints are coming from 25+ which is when PvP seems to take off. So the only reason I think people are complaining is because A. They suck at PvP, are getting their asses handed to them and are blaiming the "grind" (which every damn MMO has). Or B. This game is not for them, they should stop complaining and find another game.
There are players who, in all seriousness, just LOVE that kind of grindy gameplay. Almost unbelievable, but it's true. A gaming generation or two ago, you would have found people like this glued to their screen hour after hour trying to get that high score in Pac Man. Boredom doesn't matter, grind doesn't matter, the repetitive gameplay doesn't matter - in fact the more boredom, grind and repetition there is, the better they like it. It puts them right smack dab in the middle of their comfort zone.
Well, if Aion needs to cut the grind WoW needs to cut the grind as well :P
Every MMO has it's " Form " of grind, wether it be on a quest or leveling up your crafting skill, and some people don't mind the grind, if people complain constantly about grinding, well, they need to stop playing MMO's simple as that.
Personaly, there is'nt Much of a grind in Aion, although there is some yes, and there are alot of quests you can do to avoid the grind, you just need to look more, There is even repeatable quests you can do.
Aions grind is nothing less than that of WoW's, I personaly think that WoW has a more of a grind feeling then Aion, but as I said, some people don't mind grinding.
On a final note, Aion is a amazing game that is truly remarkable, and it's funny how people tend to find " Little " things to complain about, I guess you really can't please anyone.
I actually enjoy spending some time grinding. I'd prefer it to be in a dungeon setting as I've always found multiple groups moving through the same dungeon in which random/rare named can spawn to be some of the most dynamic and engaging content. When you have to either guess at respawn times to not get in too far over your head or possibly engage in some diplomacy with other groups.
There are so many games now with 'Run there, click 7 barrels and come back' masquerading as content. Really? Those pathetic attempts at time sinks actually fool some people into believing they're high-brow engaging content? Enough already. I'd rather spend my game time playing my character and using his/her abilities instead of running, running, and clicking 10 vases. Yawn. Oh hey, and let's give the ques-- sorry, 'mindless task' a not-so-clever popculture referance/pun for a name...again. Yeah, no, that's still really clever, thanks devs...
I love quests that are gripping, in-depth, important to the gameworld or my character and are well written. Obviously those are time consuming for developers to create or we'd see a lot more of them, I'm sure over the years most people here have 4-5 quests that really stand out from various games. I bet none of them involved running across the room and clicking on a bail of hay, then clicking on the npc to receive your inflated and undeserved fat xp reward. So, the games get packed with mundane tasks to fill the gaps. You'd really rather do those than actually play your character? I've had enough running around cities to deliver cheese to last me a lifetime, thanks.
I find those mundane tasks to be the biggest grind of all. I'd rather find an interesting area, set up camp with some friends and spend my time with some good conversation, coffee and lots of fighting.
I like a game that takes some time commitment to advance in, I don't need to be max level in a few weeks, what's the rush? There are SO many games out there that cater to this, in fact the vast majority do, why try and turn this into yet another? Can't those of us that enjoy the game for what it is just enjoy it for a little bit longer, please?
Personally, I don't find a traintrack grinder anything remarkable, even if it has lol wings.
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