[Column] ArcheAge: Aurorian Upheaval

SBFord

Trion Worlds dropped the ball this week. A triple-whammy of bad decisions has managed to push players away from the game just in time for the holidays. Let’s take a look at what went wrong.

Read more of Mark Wilhelm ArcheAge: Aurorian Upheaval.

Mensur

I would not go back to this game if they payed me to play it...its just useless now!

Celestian

"Fixing" the archeum drops by making it purchased on the market place is the last straw for me.

 

Later ArcheAge.

RemyVorender

Trion is dead to me for breaking and abusing the game and its playerbase. Rarely have I seen fail of such epic proportions. Well done, clowns.

Aywren

I was sad to leave my farmhouse and all I'd accomplished over the past months. However, with the mis-management of Auroria, I decided to cancel my sub. Shortly after came the 10% discount issue and Thunderstruck Tree cash shop grab - both confirming that I was making the right choice. 

Previous to this, when my sub renewed last month, the game didn't recognize I was still a paying Patron until I sat in the support call queue to get that fixed. I'm just seeing one mess after another here. I won't support a game with my cash when I feel it's this badly managed. 

TiamatRoar

Wow, this article was surprisingly up front about things.  It's not very often I read an MMO article and think "Ouch, burn!" multiple times throughout it.

 

It's definately well-deserved by either Trion and/or XLGames, though, IMHO.

toljar

I claimed our castle, got my pretty new mount and armor, land is getting distributed to my guild members, made a HUGE chunk off of collecting taxes (50%, welcome to Calm lands), ran Serpentis, continue to dominate the East faction and business is as usual.

 

I would have to say, it was a pretty good week. Now for all of the things you posted above? Yes a lot of it sucks, but what do you expect from a FTP cash grab game? People are use to having everything handed to them on a golden platter, and when it actually happens, they complain about it? I hate to break it to EVERYONE but you are the reason this happens. 

 

The average MMO players wants everything now, now, now and now and then when the devs finally give in, corners have been cut things overlooked and a piss poor product is released. Social media is everything now days, and when players blow up a companies social media demanding shit they are pressured to please them from shareholders and higher ups.

 

So, why the shitty release of Auroria? Why the terrible server stability? Because Trion has been rushed since Alpha/Beta to get people onto Auroria as soon as possible, and they have to get XL games to reverse engineer EVERYTHING to make this Korean MMO as Western as possible. Why the rush? Because  we Western players need everything now, and we aren't willing to wait, oh god no, if you make us wait even 5 minutes more than promised, we will blow up every media outlet you have, cry wolf and even charge back the money we gave you, even though it is our fault that we rushed you and it is a shitty release. 

 

The chests with the Tree's I'll admit ruined the economy pretty bad, that was something that should have never seen light. But, everything else, they did for the players to keep them happy and now it has blown up in their face, do I feel bad for the people quitting? No, honestly, a large chunk of them are the ones who wanted this to happen and now it was delivered poorly and they cannot handle it because they are your typical impatient Western MMO player.

Groot

I left/unsubbed as well.  Trion used to be a respectable company.  I don't know what happened.  This will be added to the "MMO Blunder" list for sure.

RemyVorender

Originally posted by toljar

I claimed our castle, got my pretty new mount and armor, land is getting distributed to my guild members, made a HUGE chunk off of collecting taxes (50%, welcome to Calm lands), ran Serpentis, continue to dominate the East faction and business is as usual.

 

I would have to say, it was a pretty good week. Now for all of the things you posted above? Yes a lot of it sucks, but what do you expect from a FTP cash grab game? People are use to having everything handed to them on a golden platter, and when it actually happens, they complain about it? I hate to break it to EVERYONE but you are the reason this happens. 

 

The average MMO players wants everything now, now, now and now and then when the devs finally give in, corners have been cut things overlooked and a piss poor product is released. Social media is everything now days, and when players blow up a companies social media demanding shit they are pressured to please them from shareholders and higher ups.

 

So, why the shitty release of Auroria? Why the terrible server stability? Because Trion has been rushed since Alpha/Beta to get people onto Auroria as soon as possible, and they have to get XL games to reverse engineer EVERYTHING to make this Korean MMO as Western as possible. Why the rush? Because  we Western players need everything now, and we aren't willing to wait, oh god no, if you make us wait even 5 minutes more than promised, we will blow up every media outlet you have, cry wolf and even charge back the money we gave you, even though it is our fault that we rushed you and it is a shitty release. 

 

The chests with the Tree's I'll admit ruined the economy pretty bad, that was something that should have never seen light. But, everything else, they did for the players to keep them happy and now it has blown up in their face, do I feel bad for the people quitting? No, honestly, a large chunk of them are the ones who wanted this to happen and now it was delivered poorly and they cannot handle it because they are your typical impatient Western MMO player.

Interesting take. While I agree today's MMO market has been created by people wanting everything now and for free, I would disagree with blaming the mismanagement of this game on people's inability to keep their credit cards in their wallets. Trion/XL made this game the ultimate cash grab. They wanted a pile of money up front. They got their wish. I hope they're happy.

refessati

Can we discuss the "accidental" bans, please? I love that Trion's willing to say I'm bright enough to mod things or hack or whatever but honestly I'm really not.  Nor do I have the time and energy to commit to wanting to mess about like that in a game when I've other things to do. I play for fun, not to compete obsessively with others by cheating. So ... Why was I banned?

Dauzqul

Wow. This game would've been great with the basic BUY THE GAME + MONTHLY FEE / NO CASH SHOP rule set.

 

The perfect example of the best/worst game ever.

jaxome

still cant launch this game... go go hack shield... set up my ticket 10/3 and trion said two weeks ago they would escalate the ticket wtf ever that means... 

bcbully

Originally posted by Dauzqul

Wow. This game would've been great with the basic BUY THE GAME + MONTHLY FEE / NO CASH SHOP rule set.

 

The perfect example of the best/worst game ever.

This here. I think what happened to AA is it was released during the backlash against subscriptions following SWToR. All sub games around that time were down A LOT. Eother XL didn't have the money to stay the course, or they had a kneejerk reactions to less than projected numbers which prompted the f2p conversion.

 

TiamatRoar

Originally posted by remyburke

Originally posted by toljar

I claimed our castle, got my pretty new mount and armor, land is getting distributed to my guild members, made a HUGE chunk off of collecting taxes (50%, welcome to Calm lands), ran Serpentis, continue to dominate the East faction and business is as usual.

 

I would have to say, it was a pretty good week. Now for all of the things you posted above? Yes a lot of it sucks, but what do you expect from a FTP cash grab game? People are use to having everything handed to them on a golden platter, and when it actually happens, they complain about it? I hate to break it to EVERYONE but you are the reason this happens. 

 

The average MMO players wants everything now, now, now and now and then when the devs finally give in, corners have been cut things overlooked and a piss poor product is released. Social media is everything now days, and when players blow up a companies social media demanding shit they are pressured to please them from shareholders and higher ups.

 

So, why the shitty release of Auroria? Why the terrible server stability? Because Trion has been rushed since Alpha/Beta to get people onto Auroria as soon as possible, and they have to get XL games to reverse engineer EVERYTHING to make this Korean MMO as Western as possible. Why the rush? Because  we Western players need everything now, and we aren't willing to wait, oh god no, if you make us wait even 5 minutes more than promised, we will blow up every media outlet you have, cry wolf and even charge back the money we gave you, even though it is our fault that we rushed you and it is a shitty release. 

 

The chests with the Tree's I'll admit ruined the economy pretty bad, that was something that should have never seen light. But, everything else, they did for the players to keep them happy and now it has blown up in their face, do I feel bad for the people quitting? No, honestly, a large chunk of them are the ones who wanted this to happen and now it was delivered poorly and they cannot handle it because they are your typical impatient Western MMO player.

Interesting take. While I agree today's MMO market has been created by people wanting everything now and for free, I would disagree with blaming the mismanagement of this game on people's inability to keep their credit cards in their wallets. Trion/XL made this game the ultimate cash grab. They wanted a pile of money up front. They got their wish. I hope they're happy.

Given that's the actual explicit intention of the business model (high up-front profits at the cost of the game's life span and player retention) as explicitly stated by R2Games' presentation on the subject, I imagine they are (unfortunately for the consumers).

alf2ooo

Can't login in game, will probably get my houses destroyed due to unpaid taxes, i obviously won't be back.

Rockard

And this is why I never do pre orders,and wait it out for a few months until I play a new MMO.

And then a MMO where players don't have a direct line to the devs and the handler can only

watch helpless the storm raging.

Not even F2P.My time is worth more than my money.

 

 

alf2ooo

Originally posted by DMKano
The Auroria fail only happened on NA servers - EU servers never got the bad Auroria patch so Trion waited to get the fix from XL before rolling Auroria out to EU.

 

I'm on EU and can't login in game, wtf are you babbling about?

Rockard

Originally posted by jaxome
still cant launch this game... go go hack shield... set up my ticket 10/3 and trion said two weeks ago they would escalate the ticket wtf ever that means... 

Escalation involves Chuck Norris and bacon.

You are lucky they are taking so long to report back to you.

Pepeq

Originally posted by TiamatRoar

Wow, this article was surprisingly up front about things.  It's not very often I read an MMO article and think "Ouch, burn!" multiple times throughout it.

 

It's definately well-deserved by either Trion and/or XLGames, though, IMHO.

LOL, like none of this hasn't been lighting up the forums...oh an article on MMORPG makes it real... come on folks, it's like saying after the fire, maybe we shouldn't have used lighter fluid.

 

Would be nice to see an article that hits the streets before it's plastered all over the internet twice over... news after the fact isn't news, it's a replay.

olepi

I normally wait for a month or two after a new MMO release to let it settle down. After watching AA for a couple months, I can skip it.

This also makes me leery of any XL Games or Trion products.

TiamatRoar

Originally posted by Pepeq

Originally posted by TiamatRoar

Wow, this article was surprisingly up front about things.  It's not very often I read an MMO article and think "Ouch, burn!" multiple times throughout it.

 

It's definately well-deserved by either Trion and/or XLGames, though, IMHO.

LOL, like none of this hasn't been lighting up the forums...oh an article on MMORPG makes it real... come on folks, it's like saying after the fire, maybe we shouldn't have used lighter fluid.

 

Would be nice to see an article that hits the streets before it's plastered all over the internet twice over... news after the fact isn't news, it's a replay.

Compared to the forums, it's very tame.

 

My point is, compared to most other articles on this site, however, it's surprisingly vicious.

 

IMHO this is one of those "Trion/XLGames screwed up so bad that even MMORPG.com is calling them out on it" cases.  It's not the first either (there was already a "Trion/XLGames screwed up so bad that even massively is calling them out on it" case, earlier.  ...two, IIRC.  Though I guess we did already have a "Trion/XLGames gave the MMORPG reviewer a free cash shop pack and he still gave them a negatively-worded review" case on this site, I suppose)

Ozmodan

The entire design of the game is really the problem.  Take housing, if you are going to have noninstanced housing, you must increase the landmass a lot more than current MMO's do.  That was the nice thing about SWG, there was always housing space in multiple areas.   Because of the way Korean accounts are run, there was not a lot of need to lock up the game from farmers, botters and cheaters.   Hence the ongoing disaster with these jerks.

Server technology seems to be very poorly designed due to the extreme lag at times.  

Trion got really really greedy and opened the servers to f2p far too early.  A month or two should have been the minimum.

Don't even have to go into the lame pve when the pvp lacks a lot of luster.

Oh well hopefully noone got burned too bad.  You can just chalk this up to one of those bad decisions and leave it at that.  Fortunately there are other MMO's out there that are much better.   I know, there are no decent sandboxes, but then again this game is really not a sandbox either, just has some of the elements of such.

yorkforce

My opinion of MMORPG has risen considerably for this article, usually its whoever paid the most gets the praise but this article is bang on correct.

One thing it didn't mention however, and I think this should be known by anyone who is thinking of giving any money to Trion/XLGames. They actually breached many countries consumer protection laws through blatant false advertising regarding the 10% discount.

They also lied, less than a few weeks ago they specifically stated that 'Founders' would get the retroactive 10% discount, and then posted a couple of days ago that Founders will be getting nothing.

Regardless of the game, a good question to ask yourself if you're considering buying ArcheAge: Can you really trust a company who frequently spout bare-faced lies to their customers with the aim of hoarding as much of your cash as possible?

 

I honest thought we were past this kind of behaviour, hell I never thought any company would be as bad as Sony since the SWG NGE farce but here we are, in 2014 and Trion just trumped Sony for being an absolutely awful, untrust-worthy organisation.

Beggars belief.

 

Mensur

If you ask me...steam should remove archeage from its list..due to fail to deliver a product!

Soandsoso

Originally posted by Ozmodan

The entire design of the game is really the problem.  Take housing, if you are going to have noninstanced housing, you must increase the landmass a lot more than current MMO's do.  That was the nice thing about SWG, there was always housing space in multiple areas.   Because of the way Korean accounts are run, there was not a lot of need to lock up the game from farmers, botters and cheaters.   Hence the ongoing disaster with these jerks.

Server technology seems to be very poorly designed due to the extreme lag at times.  

Trion got really really greedy and opened the servers to f2p far too early.  A month or two should have been the minimum.

Don't even have to go into the lame pve when the pvp lacks a lot of luster.

Oh well hopefully noone got burned too bad.  You can just chalk this up to one of those bad decisions and leave it at that.  Fortunately there are other MMO's out there that are much better.   I know, there are no decent sandboxes, but then again this game is really not a sandbox either, just has some of the elements of such.

I hated the fact that in SWG when I tried to build a camp on my character I kept getting too close to civilization, cant build here. Had to leave the planet for crying out loud.

 

Non instanced housing cool.

Urban sprawl...not so much.

Strizzy12

I simply quit the game after the auroria events and how they were handled.

As for mmorpg posting about this a week after the fact......