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The best mmo i already played has the worst management i already saw
maccarthur2004
Member UncommonPosts: 511
Archeage isn't "the best" mmo i already played (this title goes to UO), but is very close. There is very little in the game itself that can be considered bad. The most reprehensible things are at worst in the average on current market.
When we pass to the tecnical aspects of the thing, the scenario is completely different. I never saw in my life playing mmo a management so bad. There are thecnical issues, there are bad decisions, there are game-breaking changes one after another, there is a monetization model that destroys the things created and intended to occur in the game.
And this was hard to explain, since Archeage was the famous mmo that most delayed the launch date. It had plenty of time to be thoroughly tested. There wasn't excuse to this big amount of tecnical issues (disconects, hacks, crashes, etc) and bad-planned and implemented payment model.
My list of Trion mismanagents or tecnical issues:
- Created only 6 servers, and after so much delay in taking action,after monstruous big queues, they expanded to 11.
- Glyph was broken, download was interrupted with downloaded data erased and proccess restarting from zero.
- Constant disconects and crash issues with son many users.
- Reported hacks and exploits in a amount i have never seen before.
- So many bots and gold-sellers (here i give a discount, is a universal problem and Trion managed well).
- The Auroria Fiasco.
- The insertion of P2W itens in cash shop that damages the in-game economy and altered intended gameplay features(this ocurred in 2 ocasions, without previous warning or test, the first in the "last hour" before launch, after people purchased packs believing the cash shop was settled).
- Problems in the management of patron accounts and pack itens.
- The recent cash shop exploit.
- Wrong bans.
I dont understand why so poor management precisely with a so good mmo, that had a awesome experience in alpha and beta phases?
Comments
Agree and i dont see tecnical issues getting better, really dont understand what Trion/XLGames are doing.
Still have a little hope that things get better at any time.
Everyone is entitled to their own opinion.
But archeage trully has some of the best mmorpg featurs out to-date!
And if you had playd more mmos..you would not have written that delusional comment!
mmorpg junkie since 1999
A. Try to read the whole post. You don't even have to read very far, actually.
B. People are entitled to their own opinions and they don't need to be insulted for not sharing yours.
All that said, I have a similar feeling to OP. Trion really disappointed me and I won't have anything to do with them again because of how they handled AA pre-Auroria. In their desperation to survive, they gave up their integrity (the lack of the promised 10% for one small example). It's sad, but it happens every day. They are not the only company like that.
We players seek MMORPG's for the gameplay and AA is the best since many many years in it. We hope that the game is maintained as well since MMORPG's nature is the long relation affair.
This is my first MMO the developer isn't the publisher and it turns out XL gams should have published this in the west too.
Remember how peopl4e hyped Trion to be the publisher and i dint know Trion before now i have to ask those guys why hyping Trion and not wanted XL games to take over themselves and publish it here in the west too.
XL games the developer build the game with paying subscriptions in mind and not what publisher Trion made out of this.
Korea publisher: XLGames, F2P/P2P with CS
Japan publisher: GameON, went F2P/P2P with CS April this year
Russian publisher: Mail.ru, F2P/P2P with CS
China publisher: Tecent Games, dont know but must be the same
NA/EU: Trion Worlds, same as all above.
I beliave the bussiness model come from XLGames and Trion seems to like it. Maybe some itens difer from region to region in cash shop, that i dont know but i see a pattern with ArcheAge over the wolrd.
It started out P2P in Korea. It only became F2P/P2P with CS later.
The optimist would say the game was built with P2P in mind, but they had to switch to F2P and use the tried-and-true whaling strategy (it really works!) as an emergency saving throw after it bombed.
The pessimist would say that milking people for subscription money, then switching to F2P after that well ran dry to milk as much as possible via the tried-and-true whaling strategy was their plan all along.
I agree with OP. ArcheAge is a good game, to me. But I don't think Trion/XL have done a very good job of managing it either.
And since the prices of APEX went up to about 225 gold on my server and I've been playing WoW, I may have to let my sub lapse for a while. I don't see it getting much better though.
All I got is an 8x8 so I'm not worried about losing my land.
I am sure the whaling strategy works awesomely. I already spent $130 in AA since headstart (i am not a very spender guy). If AA was P2P, i would had spent only $30.
I think F2P is the future. Starting P2P to catch subs while the game is a novelty, and then changing to F2P seems to be the best strategy to grab money, having as only downside the impression that the game "failed" because turned F2P .
The whaling strategy works INSANELY well. That's why tons of companies are doing it. R2Games, the ones that made the presentation on the subject, makes shovelware games yet raked in 27 million a month (probably more, by now). Of note is that R2Games is late to the party and that many others before them in China have been raking in the dough, and they merely said "Hey, we should do that."
As shown by R2Games' presentation, they've studied it and have it down to a science. What's scary is that the science has been refined since then. R2Games' presentation didn't mention founders packs at all, and now F2P companies are starting to realize that's yet another greedy untapped well of revenue (not just AA. Aura Kingdom and many other games from its publisher are selling founders packs now, etc).
Eventually F2P games will find ways to make millions of dollars without producing an actual game at all at this wait.
....oh wait. *looks at Star Citizen*
(one thing you should also always keep in mind is that, per R2Games' presentation, they KNOW the whaling strategy hurts the game, but do it anyways for the insane profits. Consider that the next time someone argues "Developers need to eat! So we should accept these business practices!")
Of course, this unfortunately means XLGames and Trion likely made a big profit off of Archeage anyways despite their mismanagement, which will only encourage them to take things even farther for any future games. Hell, Trion's history in general is kinda a "story of how a business learned to whale*
Rift: P2P. Not enough money.
Rift: Went F2P. Now made more money in like, a month than it ever did the entirety of its P2P.
Defiance: Annoying RNG boxes. A few whaling strategies started showing. Hmm.... this game's making a lot of money despite the complaints. Maybe we should go even farther with this whole whaling thing.
Archeage: THAR SHE BLOWS!!!!!!!!
Rift: HEY, LET'S JOIN IN ON THE WHALING FUN! WOOHOO! DO YOU LIKE MY HAT MADE OF MONEY?
It does seem like Trion is all about it. But other companies are still having plenty of success with the whole "make an actually good game, run it well and then charge for that" kind of thing, like Blizzard and SquareEnix.
A game can get by without going F2P if it's like, GOOD and run and developed by competent people (...and possibly maybe backed up by a really loved franchise license, to be fair)
For everyone else, thar she blows! Again, as shown by R2Games, even the crappiest crap of crappy gaming crap imaginable can pull in tons of money with the whaling business strategy. Sadly, this only encourages more companies to go that route. Why bother being competent and making a good game (or at least, not have a business strategy that, you know, EXPLICITLY KNOWINGLY SHORTENS THE GAME LIFE AND REDUCES PLAYER RETENTION) when you make more money exploiting the addicted and/or rich? The Blizzards and Squares game companies of the world will only be more few and far between, at this rate
I am still on the fence about this game and that is mainly because of the lack of features. I heard, outside crafting, farming and housing, there isn't much to the game. I heard the PvE is pretty generic and PvP seem to lack any sense or purpose, beside the fore mentioned housing.
Did I hear wrong?
My gaming blog
No, you didnt ear wrong beacause is personal opinions, and been personal is a complete valid ones, the question is if that opinion meet yours or not.
AA is a diferent game imo with diferent things to do, some people found it fun others found it boring just like any other mmorpg where some sort of grind is allways there.
Example: One of 2 RL friends saw me, befor they start playing, doing a trade route and they just say "wow, that seems so fck boring, really??", but they start play anyway and now they do more trade runs then me: - What packs to craft and from where; leave the packs in our farms in strategic places; continues checking the % to decide when deliver and where; continues check AH prices; what to produce in farms to increase the profit; etc. My example is: if you look to trade routes is only goes from point A to point B is fck boring, but is much more then that, it envolves AH economy, farming producing, timming to deliver, risk in PvP zone or stay safe, etc.
Most of AA features is well list around, look to them individual way they dont seem big deal, but is the connect between them that i find very interesting and one of the reasons i really like this mmoprg.
All this is my personal opinon anyway
This is why although some games are not that inventive or have really good PvP they still capture a market because they are stable and offer players the security that their game will go on . One of the most frustrating things for me as a player is when the game cannot put down the hacks and cheating going on. This will turn me away as fast as they can because although I may indulge in PvE mostly and PvP quite seldom I do not like cheating as a rule it makes me very resistant to a game.
Of course I expect some form of cheating to go on at first but how a company handles it is the most important aspect for me along with the usual things people want in a game. I will not be surprised that even if people may enjoy a game for all the other features that they still leave for this reason and this reason alone. Also take note that a company that cannot curb this problem will ultimately also have problems with their billing and other security features and this genuinely alarms most players. Stability in a game is something only a handful of companies have managed to offer and that is why I rather pay to play or sub with those companies. They deserve it for that reason alone in my book. Although they may have occasional problems they always stay on top of it.
Sorry to hear that Trion a company I had faith in and even subbed to while playing Rift has not been able to bring this problem under control and I am truly sad that this game that showed so much promise is suffering from this problem as it will only mean even less competition in the MMORPG market and that is never good for us as players.