Aion Made Me Love WoW Again

DuraheLL

Originally posted by sirchive


WoW is possibly the most boring MMO I've ever played. Nothing about it is interesting or compelling. The ONE good thing about playing WoW is that it made me appreciate Sandboxing again. I THOUGHT I was bored with Sandboxing. But a couple of hours with WoW and now Sandboxing seems like as wondrous and fascinating as it did three years ago.


I really give WoW low marks for the complete absence of creativity. I never would have believed that an MMO released in 2004 would merely recycle ALL the most boring elements of previous MMOs without trying to do one single thing that is different or creative. But WoW only offered up the same familiar class types, same familiar combat mechanics, same boring kill and fetch quests, same pointless PvP - all of which was getting old and stale.


I can honestly say that I have never been so relieved to un-install a game in my entire life.

IMO

Korhindi

Am I the only one who likes both games without hating on one or the other?

Xasapis

You're not. It's just that some people think that this is impossible.

wowfan1996

@DuraheLL

Yeah, we all know that World of Warcraft is usually called WoW and it was released in 2004. Other than that, what exactly was your point? More of the same ancient "only kids play WoW" fantasies? They've only become boooring (yeah, in Bart Simpson's way of pronouncing this word) over the years, my dear little Aion fanboy, nothing else.

DuraheLL

Originally posted by wowfan1996


@DuraheLL
Yeah, we all know that World of Warcraft is usually called WoW and it was released in 2004. Other than that, what exactly was your point? More of the same ancient "only kids play WoW" fantasies? They've only become boooring (yeah, in Bart Simpson's way of pronouncing this word) over the years, my dear little Aion fanboy, nothing else.

 

First of all, im not a Aion fanboy.

Second of all, you are a strange fellow are you not. What my point was? To reply to this stupid thread in an equal fashion of  course. How in the world did you make what I did into "only kids play WoW" material? Do you even read stuff on this site or jump to offend people right away perhaps?

GrumpyJester

Originally posted by sirchive


Aion is possibly the most boring MMO I've ever played. Nothing about it is interesting or compelling. The ONE good thing about playing Aion is that it made me appreciate WoW again. I THOUGHT I was bored with WoW. But a couple of weeks with Aion and now WoW seems like as wondrous and fascinating as it did three years ago.


I really give Aion low marks for the complete absence of creativity. I never would have believed that an MMO released in 2009 would merely recycle ALL the most boring elements of previous MMOs without trying to do one single thing that is different or creative. Other overly hyped games like Age of Conan or Warhammer at least tried to add in some unique elements. But Aion only offered up the same familiar class types, same familiar combat mechanics, same boring kill and fetch quests, same pointless PvP - all of which was getting old and stale five years ago.


My wife got hooked by the amazing character creation and it ended up costing us $120 dollars and two weeks of boredom. I can honestly say that I have never been so relieved to un-install a game in my entire life.

 

I agree with most of this. Aion looks good and runs well (most of the time). The ascension-to-daeva thing is pretty neat, though it wasn't quite as impressive as I thought it would be. Still, it's cool to be an "angel".

But the rest of the game: very basic. It's like taking ten steps back in MMO design. I'm sorry for those of you who like this game, but I really hope it fails miserably in the west: I do not want other MMO developers thinking of Aion's "back to basics" design as a success. Let them go forward.

wowfan1996

---

Originally posted by DuraheLL
First of all, im not a Aion fanboy.How in the world did you make what I did into "only kids play WoW" material?

---

Why do you post meaningless fanboy-style messages then? And what "sandbox" was supposed to mean? Make clearer statements and people will understand you better.

//\//\oo

Indeed. My main was level 30 and I just canceled my sub yesterday.

Aion was an MMO atavism: It removed the essential elements of role-playing games and reduced MMO's to something along the lines of an online competition.

It has a pathetic story that seems tacked on, LINEAR ZONES (no matter how high you get it's always some theme-park that is thinly walled in by mountains/lakes/you name it) and possibly the most uninspired quests I've ever done outside of a free to play game. There isn't even swimming and it's a 3d game...

How people can manage to role-play in this game is beyond me and how people can get past 30 and still enjoy the game is unfathomable:  PvP requires consumables, crafting is basically WoW's crafting with added quests (it still sucks, yet you're nearly required to do it for income) and gathering is a quintessential part of the game as well (and still as boring).

The most interesting classes (i.e. sorc, assassin, spirit master) are nearly carbon copies of their WoW equivalents and don't come with the kind of character customization you'd expect: You can only select 5 skills (advanced ones are nearly preset) and they don't affect how you play your character at all, unlike other games (i.e. EQ2, WoW, you name it). The rest of the classes are mindless and boring, giving you hardly any meaningful CC/twitch skills to manage.

Aion took the RP out of RP G: It is merely a way to level a pretty looking character from A to B without all of the stuff that made role-playing interesting in the genre. I'd call it more along the lines of MMO Action Game than RPG.

Guildwars is more of an RPG than Aion will ever be and I think that speaks volumes.

 

DuraheLL

Originally posted by wowfan1996


 

Originally posted by DuraheLL

First of all, im not a Aion fanboy.
 
How in the world did you make what I did into "only kids play WoW" material?

 

Why do you post meaningless fanboy-style messages then? And what "sandbox" was supposed to mean? Make clearer statements and people will understand you better.

 

Hah... I think describing myself to you will do little to nothing will it. And francly I don't give a damn so I won't. Take it for what it is, what I say or what I do, and make of it what you think.

And how do you not get what sandbox means? It's games where you "sandbox" = change the world in drastic ways or make your own towns or whatnot. It's a common therm used in MMORPG connections, maby you should read up more

colddog

Originally posted by DuraheLL

Originally posted by wowfan1996


 

Originally posted by DuraheLL

First of all, im not a Aion fanboy.
 
How in the world did you make what I did into "only kids play WoW" material?

 

Why do you post meaningless fanboy-style messages then? And what "sandbox" was supposed to mean? Make clearer statements and people will understand you better.

 

Hah... I think describing myself to you will do little to nothing will it. And francly I don't give a damn so I won't. Take it for what it is, what I say or what I do, and make of it what you think.

And how do you not get what sandbox means? It's games where you "sandbox" = change the world in drastic ways or make your own towns or whatnot. It's a common therm used in MMORPG connections, maby you should read up more

You don't know what sandbox means. 

DuraheLL

Originally posted by colddog


You don't know what sandbox means. 

 

I just said what it meant did I not. If you can make your own town IE SWG, it's a sandbox game. If there are no set linear paths of gameplay and you are free to roam and adventure in your own fashion, it's a sandbox game. If you have no set faction to rely on and can choose your own at any given time, it's a sandbox game. To hell what people have done with the expression today, but yeah I stand my ground.

colddog

Originally posted by DuraheLL

Originally posted by colddog


You don't know what sandbox means. 

 

I just said what it meant did I not. If you can make your own town IE SWG, it's a sandbox game. If there are no set linear paths of gameplay and you are free to roam and adventure in your own fashion, it's a sandbox game. If you have no set faction to rely on and can choose your own at any given time, it's a sandbox game. To hell what people have done with the expression today, but yeah I stand my ground.

Do you think Aion is a sandbox game?

Blazz

Originally posted by wowfan1996


 

Originally posted by DuraheLL

First of all, im not a Aion fanboy.
 
How in the world did you make what I did into "only kids play WoW" material?

 

Why do you post meaningless fanboy-style messages then? And what "sandbox" was supposed to mean? Make clearer statements and people will understand you better.

 

 

Sandbox is used to describe games where you make your own content mostly, much like, say, playing in a sandbox.

There is a big thing with 'sandbox' games against 'themepark' games. World of Warcraft is heavily a 'themepark' game, albeit a very good one, as it does have some very nice rides.

The problem that a lot of people have with themepark games, a la WoW and Aion, is that they only go in one direction, there is generally little use for exploring (i.e. no reward for doing so whatsoever, except that they will have slowed their leveling progress), crafting is usually an extra in these games, and players' choices mean little, if anything.

In world of warcraft, for example, a Horde guild could declare war on an Alliance guild and... so what? A Horde guild could choose to spend their time raiding cities and... so what?

Now, I'm just going to use EvE because, though I don't like to say it, I have very little experience in Sandbox games, but have heard enough about EvE to say things about it (soooo many fanboys, not that it's a bad thing)

In EvE, if a Corporation decides to declare war against another Corporation, well, shit, players in either Corp will be a lot more careful, they will likely start traveling in packs more often, simply because they paid in a lot of money and time for their current ship, and god forbid they get 'podded' and have to purchase another clone or whatever... There is a lot more risk in EvE, and player-made content means a lot more - hence it being a "sandbox" game, as the game is what the players make of it.

I'm going to finish this off by saying meh.

Meh.