... Aion, unfourtanetely, sounds like any other WoW clone with flying combat (already done in CoX) and pretty gfx (already done in AoC) with end game about a faction type PvP (already done in DAoC, WAR and WoW). Not saying that Aion wont be fun, I am still enjoying WoW clone WAR, but it is nothing innovative or challenging about these games.
I have no idea if Aion will end up being a good game, since it's not released in the EU and my experience with it is limited. However, you just described a recipe for success, aka, taking all the good things that various games offer and presenting them in a single package. It is a hilarious, because experience has shown so far that one of the toughest things for game developers is incorporating the best points of other games into their own.
The toughest thing of course is innovation, but honestly, I don't expect MMO companies to do anything more than baby steps towards that direction.
And that is why we are pissed of. That all MMORPGs are based on WoW casual, dumbed down style with bits and pieces from other casual, dumbed down games and then presenting them in a new shiny package with the latest gfx engine is a recipe for success these days.
This is not what the pioneers of MMORPGs was like. Such as UO, pre trammel, EQ and AC. Even those three games were quite different from each other but these days everything seems more similar than different. And that, imo, is bad for the genre as a whole.
I think you're delving into the nostalgia land too much. Overall these games were horrible, but a)there was so much that could be done with the technology and b)there was no much of a competition. Don't you think that if there was an actual market for games like this, developers would be producing them?
I'm afraid that by answering this question we'd be derailing this thread, hehe ...
I think you're delving into the nostalgia land too much. Overall these games were horrible, but a)there was so much that could be done with the technology and b)there was no much of a competition. Don't you think that if there was an actual market for games like this, developers would be producing them? I'm afraid that by answering this question we'd be derailing this thread, hehe ...
There is a market for them and companies are developing games for us. Darkfail was one failed development but I have my hopes up for Mortal Online as next and Eve, ofcourse, is a successful such game that is still going strong and I am sure there are others. Recently passed 300k mark which is a respectable number these days.
But yeah you are right, they aren't mainstream and certainly not for everyone. As for AC/EQ/UO were horrible? I didn't much care for EQ but I had a blast in AC and UO and played them both for years.
Full loot Games always gonna be niche and MO wont be any different than this, Eve and MO gonna have many of the same people playing both games. Even tho they are 2 different games of the same genre they stil attract the same type of MMO players. I wont call it hardcore as no game ever will qualify as hardcore as gaming is fun and exciting and full loot Pvp just isne that big a market in the MMORPG world but stil big enough for a few medium succesfull games.
Personally its not my style but im hope MO will succed, so people that do like em have Eve and MO to enjoy as gamers we should always hope that there will be enough games to satisfy everyones gaming style, the bigger diversity we see in games the more on the shelf we get to pick from! Also this forces every combany to always have to try keep the subs they have, recent years in the MMO world have become somewhat stagnant and blizzard have become relatively lazy and cozy in there position on their market share as of no real competition on the market, so even if you love Wow and want it to succed you should hope Aion succed very well so Blizzard can start doing more for you in wow instead of coming out with very lazy expansions with only the exact same product in a new skin.
... Aion, unfourtanetely, sounds like any other WoW clone with flying combat (already done in CoX) and pretty gfx (already done in AoC) with end game about a faction type PvP (already done in DAoC, WAR and WoW). Not saying that Aion wont be fun, I am still enjoying WoW clone WAR, but it is nothing innovative or challenging about these games.
I have no idea if Aion will end up being a good game, since it's not released in the EU and my experience with it is limited. However, you just described a recipe for success, aka, taking all the good things that various games offer and presenting them in a single package. It is a hilarious, because experience has shown so far that one of the toughest things for game developers is incorporating the best points of other games into their own.
The toughest thing of course is innovation, but honestly, I don't expect MMO companies to do anything more than baby steps towards that direction.
And that is why we are pissed of. That all MMORPGs are based on WoW casual, dumbed down style with bits and pieces from other casual, dumbed down games and then presenting them in a new shiny package with the latest gfx engine is a recipe for success these days.
This is not what the pioneers of MMORPGs was like. Such as UO, pre trammel, EQ and AC. Even those three games were quite different from each other but these days everything seems more similar than different. And that, imo, is bad for the genre as a whole.
But you've got to remember, the people who played those games were sort of out of the norm already.
Heck, there were so many people who didn't even use the internet. Then comes these games made by people who were just more interested in making a game than fitting into some sort of demographic.
Yes, they wanted to make money because if one wants to have a business then one wants to make money. But there wasn't really any thought as to what was going to be successful or not successful.
And they just happened to be at the right place at the right time. Had someone thought of a more wow type game then that would have been the norm.
So here you have this small group of people who discover something unique in these online games. People who probably are seeking something different because they are a bit differe themselves. Not bad, jus different.
Now everyone and his uncle is interested in these games. However, they are not the types of people who might seek out something different. They just want to log on for a small bit, enjoy themselves with friends or family and then log off.
Games like WoW are perfect for this. Oh sure, because of "gamers" they have made concessions and the raiding end game was born, but not one person I know who plays WoW is an end game raider. They are just regular people who play with friends when the mood strikes. And it is very easy to play a game like WoW in this fashion. LOTRO as well.
I certainly hope Mortal Online does well. The problem with these games is that you get players who know something about making games "making games" but they don't really have much of a buinsess or customer service sense.
Part of what I admired about dark fall was that they weren't playing by other's rules. However, in order for that to work you really have to deliver a supreme product to show the world that it can be done your way.
Dark Fall has its issues. I'm not talking about the game play. I'm talking about issues that go from a very odd launch to rumors of hacks, bugs, sloppiness here and there. It has its supporters because it does cater to a group who really need a game like dark fall. But from a business perspective there are issues.
Because of this it is a bit hard to get investors really interested in a game like Dark Fall. If they had a great launch and great customer service then that might be different.
Otherwise, the larger games will set the tone for where the industry goes. but it's always been like this. Music, movies, books...
I mean seriously, how many of you frequent indie movies or solely frequent indie movies? Any of you die hard blues club patrons? What about micro-tonal music?
My guess is some but not a lot. And that makes sense given that they often cater to a more unique crowd. So in the end the big money is not going to things like micro-tonal music but toward more popular music. It's just the way things are. And it makes sense. Most people don't like niche products so not a lot of money is spent on those products.
Like Skyrim? Need more content? Try my Skyrim mod "Godfred's Tomb."
I can tell from Yamota's Bartles test that he is going to prefer a game with a PvP focus, but I think that in general we are wanting the same thing out of the genre. We want a reversal of this trend of dumbing down games. I think Aion is a dumbed down WoW and I never thought that was even possible in anything but a kids game. We want a game that encourages community.
Its interesting that people always refer to UO when talking about community. There was no global chat or zone chat in that game. It had full loot PvP, but at its time many people didn't play for the PvP at all. I had a whole non-PvP guild in that game with 80+ members. Mostly it was the threat of PvP that got us together. We would defend ourselves and even bring holy hell down on those who tried to grief us. We had the numbers and even the more notorious PK's showed respect for us.
Unlike Yamota, I see nothing wrong with quests. If implemented better they are a good thing, but right now they discourage exploring. Their structure is too rigid. Its a simple matter of making quest objectives completable without having the quest in your log. Then explorers can be completing objectives without being forced into the rigid structure of finding quest hubs and going on an objective route. Also, the group quests do help build community and that includes raids.
So open PvP and group quests help build community. A more open quest structure would encourage(or at least not punish) exploring. The other issue is the combat system. There needs to be some decision making in combat. During the first 16 levels Aion had none. All I did was repeat a sequence.
Games like DDO and TCoS have some amount of decision making in combat. Its still not enough. Eventually we will need a combat system that has meaningful choices. It doesn't necessarily have to be fast paced like DDO or TCoS. Even a well thought out auto-attack game might work, but Aion seems to be moving in the wrong direction.
This doesn't mean Aion is a bad game. Its fun and I enjoy playing it, but it doesn't move the genre forward in any way.
Boss Raids in open field is similar to what Everquest used to be. There are campers, especially of bigger and stronger legions waiting for Boss spawns. Although they camp, fighting the boss mobs are not limited to abusers. Sometimes different legions will gather for epic bosses and duke it out against each other. Whichever party or force does most dmg gets the rights to loot. One boss monster Menotios? (i have no clue what it's called in english) which spanws in the very core of the Abyss is open to both races, and becomes a very intense battleground for raiding and PvPing between the Asmodians and the Elyoss.
Please tell me I'm not the only one that this gave a giant hard on to? As an ex-EQ raider, nothing excites me more than going up against a rival guild to kill / claim / loot World Bosses.
Inc the Goddess Tunare! the CB orcs are raiding the noob zone!
I LOVED random scripted zone events like those in early EQ. People could choose to do what they wanted (there was a mostly female, all healer guild on my server that healed Tunare, as it was their goddess, while the rest of the zone tried to take her down).
I think the pvp portal idea and the competitive same and cross-faction boss fights are a nice change of pace. I am glad they are increasing the instanced battles as well, but mixing it up is good!
Good hunting,
Malikye Now Playing: WaW2 Played: EQ - 5.5 yrs, WoW - 4.5 yrs, Diablo, Myth2, Tried: AoC (played it about 3 times that month), WAR (fun for a month), RoM (sorta, Aion (for 2 months), Allods (bored at lvl 13). Waiting for: DC Universe, Diablo 3 Own: Atari 2600, NES, Game Boy, GBA SP, Dreamcast, PS2, Xbox, Modded Xbox, Wii, PS3, PSP, gaming PCs Sold like a dumb@$$: SNES Broke: PS1 Melted in a fire: Turbograhpx 16 w/ a ton of games Gave Away to a child: Nintendo 64
I like reviews that give a good feel for the products different aspects. I don’t care if the reviewer finds the product awesome or worthless, what’s important is if I can get a feel if I will like the product not.
so you fight for the chance to fight boss no wall like wg in wow dam and 16 hour cooldown ,that must be insanelly fun
Well, I guess for people with dedication like you can stick to the Instances...I never said there weren't any instances. PvEers can just stick to instances and get loot there.
Bosses such as Menotios spawns every 16 hours or so, because they drop the very finest gears in the game, only slightly better than some instance and craft gears, but that slight difference is noticeable to veteran players in PvP.
GRIND sucks? You wanna be max level in a month? Since when did society award easy-goers and lazy-fools? MAKES ME PHOBIC OF STUPIDITY!
If instance gears is slightly better than craft gear, what's the point in putting your time into crafting?
Incorrect, instanced gear is very good but it gives a different set of stat's compared to other sets. instanced gear is best for PVE content IMO. Most people will go abyss & crafted.
Velika: City of Wheels: Among the mortal races, the humans were the only one that never built cities or great empires; a curse laid upon them by their creator, Gidd, forced them to wander as nomads for twenty centuries...
great review! You talked about the pros and cons, still making the game seem appealling. And I know it's going to have it's downs becuase no new game out of the gate is going to be perfect. Then their would be no room for impovement, anyway, thanks again for the review.
With all due respect, I found your review weak in many areas, leaving this reader confused as to the game itself. I continue to try to understand the term “fanboi” as it is used on this site and feel your review fits the title well. That is, you appear to bash WoW by identifying the players who enjoy the game as “WoW carebears” placing the review in question. You provide facts without any support other than your personal bias against another game. While it is truly refreshing to see such enthusiasm in a game, I would recommend that you find a new way to endorse this one…or try taking some research classes.
So I'm an old MMORPG member who's been inactive for quite along time. Aside from that I've been playing Aion for the last 6months on the korean server (well, I am korean).
I am not sure what “being Korean” has to do with the review, are you trying to indicate that you are playing the game in Korea or that because you are Korean the game seems better?
My impressions of the game so far is that it is unfortunately a WoW clone working its way into refining more and more each day.
Lost me here, what is a WoW clone? The game does seem alittle unrefined compared to WoW, but considering the years WoW has gone retail and has had like 100,000x times of patches to amerliorate the game, Aion is pretty much going through the same process.
With recommendations from my friends, I pre-oredered the game and went back for the collectors edition after I enjoyed the refreshing changes I experienced. Yet, I am lost here too as I do not know what you are indicating, does this message sentence mean that any game that patches after retail is a WoW clone??? I would think that all games go through the patching process, at least that is what I have experienced.
There are alot of bashers of the game, because once again unfortunately, more than 90% of the bashers are WoW carebears. Ironic to this fact is also that alot of the bashers themselves have been playing Aion eventhough they say they hate it -_-;; (wdf? korean people are weird...or I just don't understand my country and its people)
You make a serious claim here, not what I expected from someone who enjoys the game. How do you know that 90% of all bashers are WoW carebears? Research? Furthermore, wtf is a carebear???? How do you know the FACT that a lot of those bashers themselves have been playing Aion and are saying they hate it???? Having spent 2 years in Pusan Korea I did not experience a great amount of “Weird” people and came to understand the people, alas, as a native, what are you trying to say.
People in EU/NA already have this perception the game is a grindfest, but that is a half-retarded assumption only 'fanbois' of other games can make. Let's make one thing clear, until a recent patch, there was even a way to grind your way to lvl40 in a single day ( of course, this was patched not too long ago).
Again, how do you know that the people in EU/NA already have anything???? Not to mention your research in perception of “grindfest.”
The korean version of Aion seems like it's almost a rip-off because we have to pay to play such an unrefined game full of glitches and bugs, that only the few find and take advantage of before being reported and patched. Fortunately for you guys in NA, it will be alot different. Rumor has it, all the koreans think NCsoft is taking the koreans like test subjects to make profit and refine the game for foreign launches. (I get this impression alot nowadays).
Surely you jest, your including rumors in a review? May as well through in all the rumors. Your paragraph reminds me of another conspiracy, “the shots came from the grassy knoll” kind of thing.
The game does not start at lvl25. I guess for the early birds, sure it can start at 25. But those will be the ones who start from day 1 of open beta. The problem with the Abyss is that, once there are established players (lvl50s) new players going to the Abyss starting from lvl25 will have a hard time trying to do quests that involve going to different places of the Abyss that is already a huge ass map in itself.
More confusion, you indicate previously that a player can get to lvl 40 in a single day yet here you share a different story regarding quests. Interesting.
They implemented the Abyss to spread the Mission Quests and Side Quests that you can do to lvl up, and at the same time involve every player in a never ending open PvP arena basically. Fields of both Elyoss and Asmodian sides are basically open to PvP as well, but portals are only open every 2 hours, and sometimes random depending on which portals on which parts of the maps. Raids through portals are about the most brilliant thing in this game in my opinion, and it is very fun and thrilling.
Looking forward to this part.
Overall there are three important aspects to the game. Those three are crafting, PvPing, and raiding for boss monsters.
Leveing up cratfing skills is a tedious process, but there is a merit in becoming a mastercraftsman. One thing the game prevents is having a single character become a master craftsman in every category. You are only allowed to become one mastercraftsman in whichever category you choose. Weapon crafting for example is a big gamble. If you successfully have a critical while crafting you can create something of very big value, but if you are unsuccessful at what you decide to craft, it can really hurt your economy. Alchemy on the other hand is a very profitable skill that brings in stable income. Whatever you decide to do, it's all discretionary to the player.
Not looking forward to this lol.
PvPing in this game is also in some aspects a big gamble. PvP in abyss has its benefit, but players are not enforced to PvP in the abyss. Usually, players live and die by PvP in the end game. Legions will gather and fight for forts in the abyss, and in the same process any player is welcomed to join players of other legions and fight against the opposing race. Taking down forts will allow you to gather silver and gold medals required to purchase Abyss gears, which are the best PvP gears you can acquire in the game (upper PvP gears have bonus % to attack and defense when PvPing). Having alot of abyss points also make you a target for the players of the other race either because they do not want you to gather more abyss points, or they can acquire more abyss points by killing you.
I like the structure of this concept regarding PvP, but how does having a lot of Abyss points effect a kill? Are you indicating that a kill from a player with High Abyss points grants the killer lots of Abyss points? If so, what if two players damage the same target? Will they split the points or is it a kill gets all sitrep?
The combat system is very different from WoW, you aren't constantly required to move around to get side and back bonuses. There are back hit bonuses for certain classes such as Assassins and their skills. Melee classes can take advantage of motion cancelling to chain skills faster, and in some cases do more dmg from behind an enemy. For example, archers using the right timing to jump cancel skill motions can do more skill attacks faster than just standing and running around while attacking. At first people were reporting this as a glitch in the game, but since NCsoft has claimed it is part of the combat system that players with better keyboard control can take advantage of. Only times when moving control would be effective is when you have weapons that stretch. If you use any skills that trap an enemy, you can run around from a distance to attack for back hit bounses and avoid attacks from the enemy because of reach. It is similar to Mage classes using mes to trap an opponent and attack from afar. They say moving attack is mostly useless because attacks auto-track anyways. But good players take advantage of moving attack given the situation. Micromanagement and tactics become very handy for the veteran players, and it is what separates the skilled and new players, as in any game. For mage classes PvP is totally different but similar to any game in that there are tons are counter skills and different mes skills for certain situations. A very good mage can be one annoying ass to deal with.
So is it better to be a Mage in PvP as compared to the other classes?
Stigmas are interesting in that you can equip and unequip them, but it's not anything new. Only thing new about them is that you can acquire certain abyss stigmas with large abyss points. These abyss stigmas...are really good, however require extreme dedication from hard-core players.
Here we go, define “hardcore player” is that one who plays by style? By time online? Or a combination of the two? Or some other behavior of the “hardcore player.”
Boss Raids in open field is similar to what Everquest used to be. There are campers, especially of bigger and stronger legions waiting for Boss spawns. Although they camp, fighting the boss mobs are not limited to abusers. Sometimes different legions will gather for epic bosses and duke it out against each other.(most legions let random high level players into their party or force, noone's really left out unlike Lineage series, in which half those alliances were asses) Whichever party or force does most dmg gets the rights to loot. One boss monster Menotios? (i have no clue what it's called in english) which spanws in the very core of the Abyss is open to both races, and becomes a very intense battleground for raiding and PvPing between the Asmodians and the Elyoss.
Are there a lot of fighting for the bosses?
Otherwise there are instant dungeons as well. At this point there aren't many instant dungeons compared to the likes of WoW, but with each new update NCsoft is adding different instant dungeons with different gear drops and related dungeon quests.
The game overall is unrefined at this point, but with each new update it is becoming more and more promising. Although NCsoft fails miserably when meeting customer satisfaction, only reason more and more korean players are still and will play Aion is because they are waiting for better news with each update. (It's partly why I still play...)
For someone who does not understand his own people, which you have indicated you do not, you sure have a feeling for them in this sentence.
It took me two months to reach lvl50 with a casual play time of maybe 2-4 hours a day. Of course, there were days when i played more than 8 hours, but as many days not playing at all.
People bashing about the grind is basically a misconception and probably an animosity they still have for NCsoft from the Lineage series.
You now know what the care bear bashers have on their PC at home, obviously your research indicates that these WoW carebear bashers play Lineage. Figure the odds.
I will admit, there are certain points in the game when you run out of quests and are forced to grind out killing the same monsters over and over again. But like I said, with each update more quests, more stuff to do, and patches to what needs be fixed.
Hopefully these patches will reach NA server prior to release.
I particularly didn't have too fun of time lvling in between 30 to 40, but heck...every game has its flaws...and Aion doesn't have as many as most of the other MMOs.
What is it at these levels that seem to take away from the fun factor? If you can get to lvl 50 in a single day, there must have not been a lot of “unfun” stuff here.
The 6 months I played this game and still continue to do so, I don't regret. Only, they (NCsoft) could have made things better if they consistently listen to the gamers' requests. They have been taking care of the botters (which are mostly chinese gold farmers) and eliminated over 100k accounts. But these chinese gold farmers...they're like pests....they just keep making new accounts and appearing not too long after. I don't know if there is anything NCsoft can do about this, since it really is up to the discretion of the gamers to decide for themselves if they want to enjoy a game honestly.
Good point here, the community should police its own.
When NA players think of bots they mostly think it's a program or script that runs within the computer hard disk and should be regulated through a hack shield. Honestly it's not simple like that. There are numerous sites that sell little USB cards with scripts on them that bypass hackshields. Just as NCsoft updates its hackshields, so do the programmers that create these little USB cards with auto-bot programming.
And now you have graduate to the Korean “mind reader” of the NA players by the use of bots.
All in all, I can't say you will love it...because you will hate it when you get backstabbed by assholes that cloack and run around hiding in the fields...or just the fact that certain fields are just infested with bots...even not long after 70k accounts were just banned....But hey, the game does have its merit. And it certainly has a character customization that is beyond anything out in the market. Did I mention? Character customization even got better with more option with the 1.1 update couple months ago...
No, I will not hate it when/if I get backstabbed by players cloacked, I will work with my team to figure out a counter measure to beat the “$%^&*(“” I did really enjoy the fact that customization is well implemented in Aion.
Great review, thanks for taking the time to write it!
I wouldnt have said you were being treated like lab rats. No matter when and where an MMOis released, any market that its released to is a 'lab rat' its the MMO stigma, its seems impossible to release a game which is just fine on release.
There are games released in the west, which later get released in asia...Most of the time however Koreans and asians all together are privelaged to have games released which never make it to the west, and vice versa! So we are all victims of this 'lab rat' feeling. Im in the CO Beta, and lts a classic example, anyone who buys that on release will be a lab rat.
Also, remember guildwars? That had a global release and we were all lab rats to that game.
This is actually one of the only reasons why I will buy Aion when it comes over here, because its already had this lengthy 'live' development of which you speak! But if Aion does explode in popularity then that can only be good for Aion, more funding will mean more resources, bigger better and faster content for all.
- Negatives regarding 'typical mmo style'
The problem with WoW players is that they refuse to entertain games which are slightly different from Wow, I have a teamspeak with Wow players on it... they CONSTANTLY moan about wow and how crap it is, but they still play.. and whenever I give them a trial key for another other mmo, they dont even get to lvl 5!
However I think the mid to late end game is where Aion's similarity with Wow (and most mmo's)will end.
With all due respect, I found your review weak in many areas, leaving this reader confused as to the game itself. I continue to try to understand the term “fanboi” as it is used on this site and feel your review fits the title well. That is, you appear to bash WoW by identifying the players who enjoy the game as “WoW carebears” placing the review in question. You provide facts without any support other than your personal bias against another game. While it is truly refreshing to see such enthusiasm in a game, I would recommend that you find a new way to endorse this one…or try taking some research classes. So I'm an old MMORPG member who's been inactive for quite along time. Aside from that I've been playing Aion for the last 6months on the korean server (well, I am korean).
I am not sure what “being Korean” has to do with the review, are you trying to indicate that you are playing the game in Korea or that because you are Korean the game seems better?
My impressions of the game so far is that it is unfortunately a WoW clone working its way into refining more and more each day.
Lost me here, what is a WoW clone? The game does seem alittle unrefined compared to WoW, but considering the years WoW has gone retail and has had like 100,000x times of patches to amerliorate the game, Aion is pretty much going through the same process.
With recommendations from my friends, I pre-oredered the game and went back for the collectors edition after I enjoyed the refreshing changes I experienced. Yet, I am lost here too as I do not know what you are indicating, does this message sentence mean that any game that patches after retail is a WoW clone??? I would think that all games go through the patching process, at least that is what I have experienced.
There are alot of bashers of the game, because once again unfortunately, more than 90% of the bashers are WoW carebears. Ironic to this fact is also that alot of the bashers themselves have been playing Aion eventhough they say they hate it -_-;; (wdf? korean people are weird...or I just don't understand my country and its people)
You make a serious claim here, not what I expected from someone who enjoys the game. How do you know that 90% of all bashers are WoW carebears? Research? Furthermore, wtf is a carebear???? How do you know the FACT that a lot of those bashers themselves have been playing Aion and are saying they hate it???? Having spent 2 years in Pusan Korea I did not experience a great amount of “Weird” people and came to understand the people, alas, as a native, what are you trying to say.
People in EU/NA already have this perception the game is a grindfest, but that is a half-retarded assumption only 'fanbois' of other games can make. Let's make one thing clear, until a recent patch, there was even a way to grind your way to lvl40 in a single day ( of course, this was patched not too long ago).
Again, how do you know that the people in EU/NA already have anything???? Not to mention your research in perception of “grindfest.”
The korean version of Aion seems like it's almost a rip-off because we have to pay to play such an unrefined game full of glitches and bugs, that only the few find and take advantage of before being reported and patched. Fortunately for you guys in NA, it will be alot different. Rumor has it, all the koreans think NCsoft is taking the koreans like test subjects to make profit and refine the game for foreign launches. (I get this impression alot nowadays).
Surely you jest, your including rumors in a review? May as well through in all the rumors. Your paragraph reminds me of another conspiracy, “the shots came from the grassy knoll” kind of thing.
The game does not start at lvl25. I guess for the early birds, sure it can start at 25. But those will be the ones who start from day 1 of open beta. The problem with the Abyss is that, once there are established players (lvl50s) new players going to the Abyss starting from lvl25 will have a hard time trying to do quests that involve going to different places of the Abyss that is already a huge ass map in itself.
More confusion, you indicate previously that a player can get to lvl 40 in a single day yet here you share a different story regarding quests. Interesting.
They implemented the Abyss to spread the Mission Quests and Side Quests that you can do to lvl up, and at the same time involve every player in a never ending open PvP arena basically. Fields of both Elyoss and Asmodian sides are basically open to PvP as well, but portals are only open every 2 hours, and sometimes random depending on which portals on which parts of the maps. Raids through portals are about the most brilliant thing in this game in my opinion, and it is very fun and thrilling.
Looking forward to this part. Overall there are three important aspects to the game. Those three are crafting, PvPing, and raiding for boss monsters.
Leveing up cratfing skills is a tedious process, but there is a merit in becoming a mastercraftsman. One thing the game prevents is having a single character become a master craftsman in every category. You are only allowed to become one mastercraftsman in whichever category you choose. Weapon crafting for example is a big gamble. If you successfully have a critical while crafting you can create something of very big value, but if you are unsuccessful at what you decide to craft, it can really hurt your economy. Alchemy on the other hand is a very profitable skill that brings in stable income. Whatever you decide to do, it's all discretionary to the player.
Not looking forward to this lol.
PvPing in this game is also in some aspects a big gamble. PvP in abyss has its benefit, but players are not enforced to PvP in the abyss. Usually, players live and die by PvP in the end game. Legions will gather and fight for forts in the abyss, and in the same process any player is welcomed to join players of other legions and fight against the opposing race. Taking down forts will allow you to gather silver and gold medals required to purchase Abyss gears, which are the best PvP gears you can acquire in the game (upper PvP gears have bonus % to attack and defense when PvPing). Having alot of abyss points also make you a target for the players of the other race either because they do not want you to gather more abyss points, or they can acquire more abyss points by killing you.
I like the structure of this concept regarding PvP, but how does having a lot of Abyss points effect a kill? Are you indicating that a kill from a player with High Abyss points grants the killer lots of Abyss points? If so, what if two players damage the same target? Will they split the points or is it a kill gets all sitrep?
The combat system is very different from WoW, you aren't constantly required to move around to get side and back bonuses. There are back hit bonuses for certain classes such as Assassins and their skills. Melee classes can take advantage of motion cancelling to chain skills faster, and in some cases do more dmg from behind an enemy. For example, archers using the right timing to jump cancel skill motions can do more skill attacks faster than just standing and running around while attacking. At first people were reporting this as a glitch in the game, but since NCsoft has claimed it is part of the combat system that players with better keyboard control can take advantage of. Only times when moving control would be effective is when you have weapons that stretch. If you use any skills that trap an enemy, you can run around from a distance to attack for back hit bounses and avoid attacks from the enemy because of reach. It is similar to Mage classes using mes to trap an opponent and attack from afar. They say moving attack is mostly useless because attacks auto-track anyways. But good players take advantage of moving attack given the situation. Micromanagement and tactics become very handy for the veteran players, and it is what separates the skilled and new players, as in any game. For mage classes PvP is totally different but similar to any game in that there are tons are counter skills and different mes skills for certain situations. A very good mage can be one annoying ass to deal with.
So is it better to be a Mage in PvP as compared to the other classes?
Stigmas are interesting in that you can equip and unequip them, but it's not anything new. Only thing new about them is that you can acquire certain abyss stigmas with large abyss points. These abyss stigmas...are really good, however require extreme dedication from hard-core players.
Here we go, define “hardcore player” is that one who plays by style? By time online? Or a combination of the two? Or some other behavior of the “hardcore player.”
Boss Raids in open field is similar to what Everquest used to be. There are campers, especially of bigger and stronger legions waiting for Boss spawns. Although they camp, fighting the boss mobs are not limited to abusers. Sometimes different legions will gather for epic bosses and duke it out against each other.(most legions let random high level players into their party or force, noone's really left out unlike Lineage series, in which half those alliances were asses) Whichever party or force does most dmg gets the rights to loot. One boss monster Menotios? (i have no clue what it's called in english) which spanws in the very core of the Abyss is open to both races, and becomes a very intense battleground for raiding and PvPing between the Asmodians and the Elyoss.
Are there a lot of fighting for the bosses?
Otherwise there are instant dungeons as well. At this point there aren't many instant dungeons compared to the likes of WoW, but with each new update NCsoft is adding different instant dungeons with different gear drops and related dungeon quests.
The game overall is unrefined at this point, but with each new update it is becoming more and more promising. Although NCsoft fails miserably when meeting customer satisfaction, only reason more and more korean players are still and will play Aion is because they are waiting for better news with each update. (It's partly why I still play...)
For someone who does not understand his own people, which you have indicated you do not, you sure have a feeling for them in this sentence.
It took me two months to reach lvl50 with a casual play time of maybe 2-4 hours a day. Of course, there were days when i played more than 8 hours, but as many days not playing at all. People bashing about the grind is basically a misconception and probably an animosity they still have for NCsoft from the Lineage series.
You now know what the care bear bashers have on their PC at home, obviously your research indicates that these WoW carebear bashers play Lineage. Figure the odds.
I will admit, there are certain points in the game when you run out of quests and are forced to grind out killing the same monsters over and over again. But like I said, with each update more quests, more stuff to do, and patches to what needs be fixed.
Hopefully these patches will reach NA server prior to release.
I particularly didn't have too fun of time lvling in between 30 to 40, but heck...every game has its flaws...and Aion doesn't have as many as most of the other MMOs.
What is it at these levels that seem to take away from the fun factor? If you can get to lvl 50 in a single day, there must have not been a lot of “unfun” stuff here.
The 6 months I played this game and still continue to do so, I don't regret. Only, they (NCsoft) could have made things better if they consistently listen to the gamers' requests. They have been taking care of the botters (which are mostly chinese gold farmers) and eliminated over 100k accounts. But these chinese gold farmers...they're like pests....they just keep making new accounts and appearing not too long after. I don't know if there is anything NCsoft can do about this, since it really is up to the discretion of the gamers to decide for themselves if they want to enjoy a game honestly.
Good point here, the community should police its own. When NA players think of bots they mostly think it's a program or script that runs within the computer hard disk and should be regulated through a hack shield. Honestly it's not simple like that. There are numerous sites that sell little USB cards with scripts on them that bypass hackshields. Just as NCsoft updates its hackshields, so do the programmers that create these little USB cards with auto-bot programming.
And now you have graduate to the Korean “mind reader” of the NA players by the use of bots.
All in all, I can't say you will love it...because you will hate it when you get backstabbed by assholes that cloack and run around hiding in the fields...or just the fact that certain fields are just infested with bots...even not long after 70k accounts were just banned....But hey, the game does have its merit. And it certainly has a character customization that is beyond anything out in the market. Did I mention? Character customization even got better with more option with the 1.1 update couple months ago...
No, I will not hate it when/if I get backstabbed by players cloacked, I will work with my team to figure out a counter measure to beat the “$%^&*(“” I did really enjoy the fact that customization is well implemented in Aion.
1. It was never meant to be a review. If you saw it that way I don't know what to tell you. Kudos for you to interpret it in your own imagination, since the title clearly states "experiences so far...".
2. Learn korean and go to AionInven, ThisIsGame/aion, or troll around any of the server and general forums on the official site. Most of the bashers state themselves to be WoW gamers, and also happens to be that those long-time members specifically bashing Aion in forums such as AionInven and ThisIsGame are WoW specific members. Maybe if in korea they had WAR or Conan or even Vanguard, all those korean Aion bashers could be from other western MMOs besides WoW. Unfortunately, in korea the only two western MMOs that I know that have popularity are WoW and LOTR, and LOTR doens't even come close second. If you don't know that AionInven and ThisIsGame have separate forum portals for all sorts of MMOs, then that's too bad for you, and another reason maybe why you should learn korean before criticizing someone who never even intended to type a REVIEW.
3. I'm sorry to tell you this, but in the Abyss rank No1 legion, which I was in on the Kashinelle server happens to have 89 members, and more than 70 of them are from WoW. Ironically they all say the same things, exactly as the WoW carebears that bash the game. "The game's instances are a joke compared to WoW", or "Controls in PvP are a joke compared to WoW" Honestly most of them say the same thing. They can't quit anymore because of the legion/relationships and the money they invested. Mind you, but koreans have a tendency to spend alot of money on games, and game-gold-item trading sites such as ItemMania and ItemBay are legally approved in Korea.
4. When I claimed I was korean, I was indicating the fact that I don't play the game from NA without understanding any korean texts at all. Unfortunately for you, if that seemed "way too off" to be offended, like I said, this was never meant to be a review. Why don't you read the title??? Maybe that will clear things up for you?
5. About the NA/EU people already having this misconception that the game is grind was in referrence to people who are claiming that the game is a grindfest, specifically on this very forum.
6. BTW, did I ever in any way say that the WoW carebears are even from NA/EU??? I was only mentioning WoW carebears in regards to korean WoW fanatics. If you don't know the psyche of korean WoW fanatics then you should go troll around after you fully learn korean, since you claim you lived in Pusan for 2 years. Korean WoW carebears have a real bad rep in korea, because all they do when they aren't playing is go around different game forums and bash when not asked.
7. When I say "rumor has it" I was only generalizing the fact that alot of people, including myself, when discussing issues with Aion on AionInven, ThisIsGame, or even official Aion forums, we have the same perception that the game they are providing us at this very moment seems like a bug-glitch-filled CBT client NCsoft is making us pay to play. If you still think this is only a "rumor" made by me and some urban myth, then I suggest once again, you learn korean and go to reporter threads on updates 1.1 and 1.2 discussions, or even threads made by players discussing releases news about NA/EU and JAP versions on either AionInven or ThisIsGame. Maybe if koreans weren't so concerned about the value of their accounts and the exchange rate of Aion Kina (gold) vs. real money, just maybe they can enjoy the game for what it is and not what NCsoft decides to do with the patches and updates. For one, when they updated the game to 1.1 people (mostly of dual-wielding Gladiators and Assassins) were outraged by it, because the value of Aion Kina dropped tremedously and those who spent hundreds of dollars to get legendary aspd (attack speed) daggers and swords lost the value of their weapons and money. Again, if koreans aren't so concerned with competition and learn to enjoy the game for what it is instead of spending real money, maybe they don't have to all go into rage mode. But that's how the people think there and the culture of gamers. Once someone brings up the opinion that the client we have is a CBT paid to play, everyone starts a chain reaction of the same opinion comments. I can't prove this unless you read the korean yourself, and see it with your own eyes, so let's leave the knowledge to your discretion and effort.
8. When I was mentioning the Abyss not being new-comer friendly, I didn't even think about the fact that some abusers found a way to lvl up to 40 in a single day or 24 hour span. Usually when someone starts abusing a glitch or a bug like this, news spreads fast, and the developers react farely fast. Once again, did I not metion that people who start on day 1 or people who start a month later? So you obviously think that in any game such as WoW the developers just watch abusers take advantage of the flaw in the game mechanics??? Or even better, you obviously think that in any MMO people just find glitches on day 1 of the OBT and everyone starts abusing it, right?
I thought it was common sense that when people find glitches and usually ones similar to abusing a way to level ackwardly, they keep it to themselves and pass the knowledge to people they are close with. Then once the news spreads, glitches or flaws in the games are patched. If my understanding of this concept is extremely inaccurate, I'm sorry man, I must be a R.E.T.A.R.D. and you must be a GENIUS.
BTW, the way to abusing powerleveling was only about couple weeks old and was patched like a week ago. KUDOS man you're a genius.
9. Lastly, did I say "every" western players think bots are programs run on the hard-drive? I said "mostly" and I think it refers to a majority if my english is correct, which is unfortunately a personal opinion and this is a REVIEW right? Damn, I must have gone to College all these years for nothing. Man, am I R.E.T.A.R.D.E.D. or what?
Go ahead and ridicule me if you must, but my understanding of a "critical opinion" taught from school must have been wrong all this time. I'm sure your way of replying with a critical opinion is the correct method of offending people.
Since you know so much more than I do (from what it seems) about this review, which I thought wasn't even a review when I stated on my title that it was my experiences so far from playing in the korean Aion server...I guess I don't need to answer any of the questions. Honestly I just don't know, because well, I'm stupid and you're so smart that you interpret things in your own way when it wasn't even asked.
Again, I'm so sorry to have offended you so much, because I should have known better to type in a different structure since this was a review, right?
GRIND sucks? You wanna be max level in a month? Since when did society award easy-goers and lazy-fools? MAKES ME PHOBIC OF STUPIDITY!
while aion might not be the best mmo out there i think it have certain potential to complete with other mmo.i will most certainly play it when NA version is out together with my clan for at least a few months.if i like it much i will stay longer,if not i will move and find another mmo.but i do not think i will regret playing this game
YES! World Bosses end-game, so we can either pure PvP, pure PvE (instances) AND PvPvE for world bosses. I feel happy to know this game gets even better than the 1-20 beta we played, and I really got this impression that they are improving what is an already very polished game in patches, took a look at 1.1 and 1.2 patch notes and I got impressed by the size of the patch.
I have no doubts that for me this is the most polished fantasy MMO in the market atm (maybe thanks to its release in the western market being delayed while they fixed things in korean servers), with an engine as expected for a today's game, thank you cryengine 1 (if they did it in cryengine 2 we would have our first Crysis-quality MMO, but, 1 is Far Cry-quality, which is an impressive graphical progress for the MMO genre). Just wish they had DX10, although DX9 is so beautiful in this game.
Basically clicking away text windows ruins every MMO, try to have fun instead of rushing things. Without story and lore all there is left is a bunch of mechanics. Reply Add Multi-Quote
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I have no idea if Aion will end up being a good game, since it's not released in the EU and my experience with it is limited. However, you just described a recipe for success, aka, taking all the good things that various games offer and presenting them in a single package. It is a hilarious, because experience has shown so far that one of the toughest things for game developers is incorporating the best points of other games into their own.
The toughest thing of course is innovation, but honestly, I don't expect MMO companies to do anything more than baby steps towards that direction.
And that is why we are pissed of. That all MMORPGs are based on WoW casual, dumbed down style with bits and pieces from other casual, dumbed down games and then presenting them in a new shiny package with the latest gfx engine is a recipe for success these days.
This is not what the pioneers of MMORPGs was like. Such as UO, pre trammel, EQ and AC. Even those three games were quite different from each other but these days everything seems more similar than different. And that, imo, is bad for the genre as a whole.
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I think you're delving into the nostalgia land too much. Overall these games were horrible, but a)there was so much that could be done with the technology and b)there was no much of a competition. Don't you think that if there was an actual market for games like this, developers would be producing them?
I'm afraid that by answering this question we'd be derailing this thread, hehe ...
There is a market for them and companies are developing games for us. Darkfail was one failed development but I have my hopes up for Mortal Online as next and Eve, ofcourse, is a successful such game that is still going strong and I am sure there are others. Recently passed 300k mark which is a respectable number these days.
But yeah you are right, they aren't mainstream and certainly not for everyone. As for AC/EQ/UO were horrible? I didn't much care for EQ but I had a blast in AC and UO and played them both for years.
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Full loot Games always gonna be niche and MO wont be any different than this, Eve and MO gonna have many of the same people playing both games. Even tho they are 2 different games of the same genre they stil attract the same type of MMO players. I wont call it hardcore as no game ever will qualify as hardcore as gaming is fun and exciting and full loot Pvp just isne that big a market in the MMORPG world but stil big enough for a few medium succesfull games.
Personally its not my style but im hope MO will succed, so people that do like em have Eve and MO to enjoy as gamers we should always hope that there will be enough games to satisfy everyones gaming style, the bigger diversity we see in games the more on the shelf we get to pick from! Also this forces every combany to always have to try keep the subs they have, recent years in the MMO world have become somewhat stagnant and blizzard have become relatively lazy and cozy in there position on their market share as of no real competition on the market, so even if you love Wow and want it to succed you should hope Aion succed very well so Blizzard can start doing more for you in wow instead of coming out with very lazy expansions with only the exact same product in a new skin.
I have no idea if Aion will end up being a good game, since it's not released in the EU and my experience with it is limited. However, you just described a recipe for success, aka, taking all the good things that various games offer and presenting them in a single package. It is a hilarious, because experience has shown so far that one of the toughest things for game developers is incorporating the best points of other games into their own.
The toughest thing of course is innovation, but honestly, I don't expect MMO companies to do anything more than baby steps towards that direction.
And that is why we are pissed of. That all MMORPGs are based on WoW casual, dumbed down style with bits and pieces from other casual, dumbed down games and then presenting them in a new shiny package with the latest gfx engine is a recipe for success these days.
This is not what the pioneers of MMORPGs was like. Such as UO, pre trammel, EQ and AC. Even those three games were quite different from each other but these days everything seems more similar than different. And that, imo, is bad for the genre as a whole.
But you've got to remember, the people who played those games were sort of out of the norm already.
Heck, there were so many people who didn't even use the internet. Then comes these games made by people who were just more interested in making a game than fitting into some sort of demographic.
Yes, they wanted to make money because if one wants to have a business then one wants to make money. But there wasn't really any thought as to what was going to be successful or not successful.
And they just happened to be at the right place at the right time. Had someone thought of a more wow type game then that would have been the norm.
So here you have this small group of people who discover something unique in these online games. People who probably are seeking something different because they are a bit differe themselves. Not bad, jus different.
Now everyone and his uncle is interested in these games. However, they are not the types of people who might seek out something different. They just want to log on for a small bit, enjoy themselves with friends or family and then log off.
Games like WoW are perfect for this. Oh sure, because of "gamers" they have made concessions and the raiding end game was born, but not one person I know who plays WoW is an end game raider. They are just regular people who play with friends when the mood strikes. And it is very easy to play a game like WoW in this fashion. LOTRO as well.
I certainly hope Mortal Online does well. The problem with these games is that you get players who know something about making games "making games" but they don't really have much of a buinsess or customer service sense.
Part of what I admired about dark fall was that they weren't playing by other's rules. However, in order for that to work you really have to deliver a supreme product to show the world that it can be done your way.
Dark Fall has its issues. I'm not talking about the game play. I'm talking about issues that go from a very odd launch to rumors of hacks, bugs, sloppiness here and there. It has its supporters because it does cater to a group who really need a game like dark fall. But from a business perspective there are issues.
Because of this it is a bit hard to get investors really interested in a game like Dark Fall. If they had a great launch and great customer service then that might be different.
Otherwise, the larger games will set the tone for where the industry goes. but it's always been like this. Music, movies, books...
I mean seriously, how many of you frequent indie movies or solely frequent indie movies? Any of you die hard blues club patrons? What about micro-tonal music?
My guess is some but not a lot. And that makes sense given that they often cater to a more unique crowd. So in the end the big money is not going to things like micro-tonal music but toward more popular music. It's just the way things are. And it makes sense. Most people don't like niche products so not a lot of money is spent on those products.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
Basically, until this game comes out: http://www.mmorpg.com/newsroom.cfm/loadNews/11838 , don't expect anything revolutionary in MMOs.
First it was "carebears" then I hit the "fanbois" and stopped reading. Seriously.
http://www.TheIronZ.com
To the OP, thank you. Excellent article/post. Thanks very much for all of the information.
I can tell from Yamota's Bartles test that he is going to prefer a game with a PvP focus, but I think that in general we are wanting the same thing out of the genre. We want a reversal of this trend of dumbing down games. I think Aion is a dumbed down WoW and I never thought that was even possible in anything but a kids game. We want a game that encourages community.
Its interesting that people always refer to UO when talking about community. There was no global chat or zone chat in that game. It had full loot PvP, but at its time many people didn't play for the PvP at all. I had a whole non-PvP guild in that game with 80+ members. Mostly it was the threat of PvP that got us together. We would defend ourselves and even bring holy hell down on those who tried to grief us. We had the numbers and even the more notorious PK's showed respect for us.
Unlike Yamota, I see nothing wrong with quests. If implemented better they are a good thing, but right now they discourage exploring. Their structure is too rigid. Its a simple matter of making quest objectives completable without having the quest in your log. Then explorers can be completing objectives without being forced into the rigid structure of finding quest hubs and going on an objective route. Also, the group quests do help build community and that includes raids.
So open PvP and group quests help build community. A more open quest structure would encourage(or at least not punish) exploring. The other issue is the combat system. There needs to be some decision making in combat. During the first 16 levels Aion had none. All I did was repeat a sequence.
Games like DDO and TCoS have some amount of decision making in combat. Its still not enough. Eventually we will need a combat system that has meaningful choices. It doesn't necessarily have to be fast paced like DDO or TCoS. Even a well thought out auto-attack game might work, but Aion seems to be moving in the wrong direction.
This doesn't mean Aion is a bad game. Its fun and I enjoy playing it, but it doesn't move the genre forward in any way.
so you fight for the chance to fight boss no wall like wg in wow
dam and 16 hour cooldown ,that must be insanelly fun
one prtoblem when you need a diploma from 2000 university ,the game is too complex lol
since there are a lot more people that didnt go to school for the company they ll make more money if people understand
Please tell me I'm not the only one that this gave a giant hard on to? As an ex-EQ raider, nothing excites me more than going up against a rival guild to kill / claim / loot World Bosses.
Inc the Goddess Tunare! the CB orcs are raiding the noob zone!
I LOVED random scripted zone events like those in early EQ. People could choose to do what they wanted (there was a mostly female, all healer guild on my server that healed Tunare, as it was their goddess, while the rest of the zone tried to take her down).
I think the pvp portal idea and the competitive same and cross-faction boss fights are a nice change of pace. I am glad they are increasing the instanced battles as well, but mixing it up is good!
Good hunting,
Malikye
Now Playing: WaW2
Played: EQ - 5.5 yrs, WoW - 4.5 yrs, Diablo, Myth2,
Tried: AoC (played it about 3 times that month), WAR (fun for a month), RoM (sorta, Aion (for 2 months), Allods (bored at lvl 13).
Waiting for: DC Universe, Diablo 3
Own: Atari 2600, NES, Game Boy, GBA SP, Dreamcast, PS2, Xbox, Modded Xbox, Wii, PS3, PSP, gaming PCs
Sold like a dumb@$$: SNES
Broke: PS1
Melted in a fire: Turbograhpx 16 w/ a ton of games
Gave Away to a child: Nintendo 64
Thanks for the nice review!
I like reviews that give a good feel for the products different aspects. I don’t care if the reviewer finds the product awesome or worthless, what’s important is if I can get a feel if I will like the product not.
Well, I guess for people with dedication like you can stick to the Instances...I never said there weren't any instances. PvEers can just stick to instances and get loot there.
Bosses such as Menotios spawns every 16 hours or so, because they drop the very finest gears in the game, only slightly better than some instance and craft gears, but that slight difference is noticeable to veteran players in PvP.
GRIND sucks? You wanna be max level in a month?
Since when did society award easy-goers and lazy-fools?
MAKES ME PHOBIC OF STUPIDITY!
How many instances are there now?I knew of only 3.
Fan sites:
AION-On-Line.com
aionicthoughts.wordpress.com/
www.aionarmory.com/
www.aionglobal.com/
www.aionsource.com/
www.areyouhellbound.com/forum/
www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/253
www.onrpg.com/
Official sites:
www.ncsoft.com/global/
www.aiononline.com/us/
eu.aiononline.com/en/
great review OP. Nice to hear from a high-leveled player
If instance gears is slightly better than craft gear, what's the point in putting your time into crafting?
Incorrect, instanced gear is very good but it gives a different set of stat's compared to other sets. instanced gear is best for PVE content IMO. Most people will go abyss & crafted.
Velika: City of Wheels: Among the mortal races, the humans were the only one that never built cities or great empires; a curse laid upon them by their creator, Gidd, forced them to wander as nomads for twenty centuries...
Mugengaia,
great review! You talked about the pros and cons, still making the game seem appealling. And I know it's going to have it's downs becuase no new game out of the gate is going to be perfect. Then their would be no room for impovement, anyway, thanks again for the review.
With all due respect, I found your review weak in many areas, leaving this reader confused as to the game itself. I continue to try to understand the term “fanboi” as it is used on this site and feel your review fits the title well. That is, you appear to bash WoW by identifying the players who enjoy the game as “WoW carebears” placing the review in question. You provide facts without any support other than your personal bias against another game. While it is truly refreshing to see such enthusiasm in a game, I would recommend that you find a new way to endorse this one…or try taking some research classes.
So I'm an old MMORPG member who's been inactive for quite along time. Aside from that I've been playing Aion for the last 6months on the korean server (well, I am korean).
I am not sure what “being Korean” has to do with the review, are you trying to indicate that you are playing the game in Korea or that because you are Korean the game seems better?
My impressions of the game so far is that it is unfortunately a WoW clone working its way into refining more and more each day.
Lost me here, what is a WoW clone? The game does seem alittle unrefined compared to WoW, but considering the years WoW has gone retail and has had like 100,000x times of patches to amerliorate the game, Aion is pretty much going through the same process.
With recommendations from my friends, I pre-oredered the game and went back for the collectors edition after I enjoyed the refreshing changes I experienced. Yet, I am lost here too as I do not know what you are indicating, does this message sentence mean that any game that patches after retail is a WoW clone??? I would think that all games go through the patching process, at least that is what I have experienced.
There are alot of bashers of the game, because once again unfortunately, more than 90% of the bashers are WoW carebears. Ironic to this fact is also that alot of the bashers themselves have been playing Aion eventhough they say they hate it -_-;; (wdf? korean people are weird...or I just don't understand my country and its people)
You make a serious claim here, not what I expected from someone who enjoys the game. How do you know that 90% of all bashers are WoW carebears? Research? Furthermore, wtf is a carebear???? How do you know the FACT that a lot of those bashers themselves have been playing Aion and are saying they hate it???? Having spent 2 years in Pusan Korea I did not experience a great amount of “Weird” people and came to understand the people, alas, as a native, what are you trying to say.
People in EU/NA already have this perception the game is a grindfest, but that is a half-retarded assumption only 'fanbois' of other games can make. Let's make one thing clear, until a recent patch, there was even a way to grind your way to lvl40 in a single day ( of course, this was patched not too long ago).
Again, how do you know that the people in EU/NA already have anything???? Not to mention your research in perception of “grindfest.”
The korean version of Aion seems like it's almost a rip-off because we have to pay to play such an unrefined game full of glitches and bugs, that only the few find and take advantage of before being reported and patched. Fortunately for you guys in NA, it will be alot different. Rumor has it, all the koreans think NCsoft is taking the koreans like test subjects to make profit and refine the game for foreign launches. (I get this impression alot nowadays).
Surely you jest, your including rumors in a review? May as well through in all the rumors. Your paragraph reminds me of another conspiracy, “the shots came from the grassy knoll” kind of thing.
The game does not start at lvl25. I guess for the early birds, sure it can start at 25. But those will be the ones who start from day 1 of open beta. The problem with the Abyss is that, once there are established players (lvl50s) new players going to the Abyss starting from lvl25 will have a hard time trying to do quests that involve going to different places of the Abyss that is already a huge ass map in itself.
More confusion, you indicate previously that a player can get to lvl 40 in a single day yet here you share a different story regarding quests. Interesting.
They implemented the Abyss to spread the Mission Quests and Side Quests that you can do to lvl up, and at the same time involve every player in a never ending open PvP arena basically. Fields of both Elyoss and Asmodian sides are basically open to PvP as well, but portals are only open every 2 hours, and sometimes random depending on which portals on which parts of the maps. Raids through portals are about the most brilliant thing in this game in my opinion, and it is very fun and thrilling.
Looking forward to this part.
Overall there are three important aspects to the game. Those three are crafting, PvPing, and raiding for boss monsters.
Leveing up cratfing skills is a tedious process, but there is a merit in becoming a mastercraftsman. One thing the game prevents is having a single character become a master craftsman in every category. You are only allowed to become one mastercraftsman in whichever category you choose. Weapon crafting for example is a big gamble. If you successfully have a critical while crafting you can create something of very big value, but if you are unsuccessful at what you decide to craft, it can really hurt your economy. Alchemy on the other hand is a very profitable skill that brings in stable income. Whatever you decide to do, it's all discretionary to the player.
Not looking forward to this lol.
PvPing in this game is also in some aspects a big gamble. PvP in abyss has its benefit, but players are not enforced to PvP in the abyss. Usually, players live and die by PvP in the end game. Legions will gather and fight for forts in the abyss, and in the same process any player is welcomed to join players of other legions and fight against the opposing race. Taking down forts will allow you to gather silver and gold medals required to purchase Abyss gears, which are the best PvP gears you can acquire in the game (upper PvP gears have bonus % to attack and defense when PvPing). Having alot of abyss points also make you a target for the players of the other race either because they do not want you to gather more abyss points, or they can acquire more abyss points by killing you.
I like the structure of this concept regarding PvP, but how does having a lot of Abyss points effect a kill? Are you indicating that a kill from a player with High Abyss points grants the killer lots of Abyss points? If so, what if two players damage the same target? Will they split the points or is it a kill gets all sitrep?
The combat system is very different from WoW, you aren't constantly required to move around to get side and back bonuses. There are back hit bonuses for certain classes such as Assassins and their skills. Melee classes can take advantage of motion cancelling to chain skills faster, and in some cases do more dmg from behind an enemy. For example, archers using the right timing to jump cancel skill motions can do more skill attacks faster than just standing and running around while attacking. At first people were reporting this as a glitch in the game, but since NCsoft has claimed it is part of the combat system that players with better keyboard control can take advantage of. Only times when moving control would be effective is when you have weapons that stretch. If you use any skills that trap an enemy, you can run around from a distance to attack for back hit bounses and avoid attacks from the enemy because of reach. It is similar to Mage classes using mes to trap an opponent and attack from afar. They say moving attack is mostly useless because attacks auto-track anyways. But good players take advantage of moving attack given the situation. Micromanagement and tactics become very handy for the veteran players, and it is what separates the skilled and new players, as in any game. For mage classes PvP is totally different but similar to any game in that there are tons are counter skills and different mes skills for certain situations. A very good mage can be one annoying ass to deal with.
So is it better to be a Mage in PvP as compared to the other classes?
Stigmas are interesting in that you can equip and unequip them, but it's not anything new. Only thing new about them is that you can acquire certain abyss stigmas with large abyss points. These abyss stigmas...are really good, however require extreme dedication from hard-core players.
Here we go, define “hardcore player” is that one who plays by style? By time online? Or a combination of the two? Or some other behavior of the “hardcore player.”
Boss Raids in open field is similar to what Everquest used to be. There are campers, especially of bigger and stronger legions waiting for Boss spawns. Although they camp, fighting the boss mobs are not limited to abusers. Sometimes different legions will gather for epic bosses and duke it out against each other.(most legions let random high level players into their party or force, noone's really left out unlike Lineage series, in which half those alliances were asses) Whichever party or force does most dmg gets the rights to loot. One boss monster Menotios? (i have no clue what it's called in english) which spanws in the very core of the Abyss is open to both races, and becomes a very intense battleground for raiding and PvPing between the Asmodians and the Elyoss.
Are there a lot of fighting for the bosses?
Otherwise there are instant dungeons as well. At this point there aren't many instant dungeons compared to the likes of WoW, but with each new update NCsoft is adding different instant dungeons with different gear drops and related dungeon quests.
The game overall is unrefined at this point, but with each new update it is becoming more and more promising. Although NCsoft fails miserably when meeting customer satisfaction, only reason more and more korean players are still and will play Aion is because they are waiting for better news with each update. (It's partly why I still play...)
For someone who does not understand his own people, which you have indicated you do not, you sure have a feeling for them in this sentence.
It took me two months to reach lvl50 with a casual play time of maybe 2-4 hours a day. Of course, there were days when i played more than 8 hours, but as many days not playing at all.
People bashing about the grind is basically a misconception and probably an animosity they still have for NCsoft from the Lineage series.
You now know what the care bear bashers have on their PC at home, obviously your research indicates that these WoW carebear bashers play Lineage. Figure the odds.
I will admit, there are certain points in the game when you run out of quests and are forced to grind out killing the same monsters over and over again. But like I said, with each update more quests, more stuff to do, and patches to what needs be fixed.
Hopefully these patches will reach NA server prior to release.
I particularly didn't have too fun of time lvling in between 30 to 40, but heck...every game has its flaws...and Aion doesn't have as many as most of the other MMOs.
What is it at these levels that seem to take away from the fun factor? If you can get to lvl 50 in a single day, there must have not been a lot of “unfun” stuff here.
The 6 months I played this game and still continue to do so, I don't regret. Only, they (NCsoft) could have made things better if they consistently listen to the gamers' requests. They have been taking care of the botters (which are mostly chinese gold farmers) and eliminated over 100k accounts. But these chinese gold farmers...they're like pests....they just keep making new accounts and appearing not too long after. I don't know if there is anything NCsoft can do about this, since it really is up to the discretion of the gamers to decide for themselves if they want to enjoy a game honestly.
Good point here, the community should police its own.
When NA players think of bots they mostly think it's a program or script that runs within the computer hard disk and should be regulated through a hack shield. Honestly it's not simple like that. There are numerous sites that sell little USB cards with scripts on them that bypass hackshields. Just as NCsoft updates its hackshields, so do the programmers that create these little USB cards with auto-bot programming.
And now you have graduate to the Korean “mind reader” of the NA players by the use of bots.
All in all, I can't say you will love it...because you will hate it when you get backstabbed by assholes that cloack and run around hiding in the fields...or just the fact that certain fields are just infested with bots...even not long after 70k accounts were just banned....But hey, the game does have its merit. And it certainly has a character customization that is beyond anything out in the market. Did I mention? Character customization even got better with more option with the 1.1 update couple months ago...
No, I will not hate it when/if I get backstabbed by players cloacked, I will work with my team to figure out a counter measure to beat the “$%^&*(“” I did really enjoy the fact that customization is well implemented in Aion.
Great review, thanks for taking the time to write it!
I wouldnt have said you were being treated like lab rats. No matter when and where an MMOis released, any market that its released to is a 'lab rat' its the MMO stigma, its seems impossible to release a game which is just fine on release.
There are games released in the west, which later get released in asia...Most of the time however Koreans and asians all together are privelaged to have games released which never make it to the west, and vice versa! So we are all victims of this 'lab rat' feeling. Im in the CO Beta, and lts a classic example, anyone who buys that on release will be a lab rat.
Also, remember guildwars? That had a global release and we were all lab rats to that game.
This is actually one of the only reasons why I will buy Aion when it comes over here, because its already had this lengthy 'live' development of which you speak! But if Aion does explode in popularity then that can only be good for Aion, more funding will mean more resources, bigger better and faster content for all.
- Negatives regarding 'typical mmo style'
The problem with WoW players is that they refuse to entertain games which are slightly different from Wow, I have a teamspeak with Wow players on it... they CONSTANTLY moan about wow and how crap it is, but they still play.. and whenever I give them a trial key for another other mmo, they dont even get to lvl 5!
However I think the mid to late end game is where Aion's similarity with Wow (and most mmo's)will end.
1. It was never meant to be a review. If you saw it that way I don't know what to tell you. Kudos for you to interpret it in your own imagination, since the title clearly states "experiences so far...".
2. Learn korean and go to AionInven, ThisIsGame/aion, or troll around any of the server and general forums on the official site. Most of the bashers state themselves to be WoW gamers, and also happens to be that those long-time members specifically bashing Aion in forums such as AionInven and ThisIsGame are WoW specific members. Maybe if in korea they had WAR or Conan or even Vanguard, all those korean Aion bashers could be from other western MMOs besides WoW. Unfortunately, in korea the only two western MMOs that I know that have popularity are WoW and LOTR, and LOTR doens't even come close second. If you don't know that AionInven and ThisIsGame have separate forum portals for all sorts of MMOs, then that's too bad for you, and another reason maybe why you should learn korean before criticizing someone who never even intended to type a REVIEW.
3. I'm sorry to tell you this, but in the Abyss rank No1 legion, which I was in on the Kashinelle server happens to have 89 members, and more than 70 of them are from WoW. Ironically they all say the same things, exactly as the WoW carebears that bash the game. "The game's instances are a joke compared to WoW", or "Controls in PvP are a joke compared to WoW" Honestly most of them say the same thing. They can't quit anymore because of the legion/relationships and the money they invested. Mind you, but koreans have a tendency to spend alot of money on games, and game-gold-item trading sites such as ItemMania and ItemBay are legally approved in Korea.
4. When I claimed I was korean, I was indicating the fact that I don't play the game from NA without understanding any korean texts at all. Unfortunately for you, if that seemed "way too off" to be offended, like I said, this was never meant to be a review. Why don't you read the title??? Maybe that will clear things up for you?
5. About the NA/EU people already having this misconception that the game is grind was in referrence to people who are claiming that the game is a grindfest, specifically on this very forum.
6. BTW, did I ever in any way say that the WoW carebears are even from NA/EU??? I was only mentioning WoW carebears in regards to korean WoW fanatics. If you don't know the psyche of korean WoW fanatics then you should go troll around after you fully learn korean, since you claim you lived in Pusan for 2 years. Korean WoW carebears have a real bad rep in korea, because all they do when they aren't playing is go around different game forums and bash when not asked.
7. When I say "rumor has it" I was only generalizing the fact that alot of people, including myself, when discussing issues with Aion on AionInven, ThisIsGame, or even official Aion forums, we have the same perception that the game they are providing us at this very moment seems like a bug-glitch-filled CBT client NCsoft is making us pay to play. If you still think this is only a "rumor" made by me and some urban myth, then I suggest once again, you learn korean and go to reporter threads on updates 1.1 and 1.2 discussions, or even threads made by players discussing releases news about NA/EU and JAP versions on either AionInven or ThisIsGame. Maybe if koreans weren't so concerned about the value of their accounts and the exchange rate of Aion Kina (gold) vs. real money, just maybe they can enjoy the game for what it is and not what NCsoft decides to do with the patches and updates. For one, when they updated the game to 1.1 people (mostly of dual-wielding Gladiators and Assassins) were outraged by it, because the value of Aion Kina dropped tremedously and those who spent hundreds of dollars to get legendary aspd (attack speed) daggers and swords lost the value of their weapons and money. Again, if koreans aren't so concerned with competition and learn to enjoy the game for what it is instead of spending real money, maybe they don't have to all go into rage mode. But that's how the people think there and the culture of gamers. Once someone brings up the opinion that the client we have is a CBT paid to play, everyone starts a chain reaction of the same opinion comments. I can't prove this unless you read the korean yourself, and see it with your own eyes, so let's leave the knowledge to your discretion and effort.
8. When I was mentioning the Abyss not being new-comer friendly, I didn't even think about the fact that some abusers found a way to lvl up to 40 in a single day or 24 hour span. Usually when someone starts abusing a glitch or a bug like this, news spreads fast, and the developers react farely fast. Once again, did I not metion that people who start on day 1 or people who start a month later? So you obviously think that in any game such as WoW the developers just watch abusers take advantage of the flaw in the game mechanics??? Or even better, you obviously think that in any MMO people just find glitches on day 1 of the OBT and everyone starts abusing it, right?
I thought it was common sense that when people find glitches and usually ones similar to abusing a way to level ackwardly, they keep it to themselves and pass the knowledge to people they are close with. Then once the news spreads, glitches or flaws in the games are patched. If my understanding of this concept is extremely inaccurate, I'm sorry man, I must be a R.E.T.A.R.D. and you must be a GENIUS.
BTW, the way to abusing powerleveling was only about couple weeks old and was patched like a week ago. KUDOS man you're a genius.
9. Lastly, did I say "every" western players think bots are programs run on the hard-drive? I said "mostly" and I think it refers to a majority if my english is correct, which is unfortunately a personal opinion and this is a REVIEW right? Damn, I must have gone to College all these years for nothing. Man, am I R.E.T.A.R.D.E.D. or what?
Go ahead and ridicule me if you must, but my understanding of a "critical opinion" taught from school must have been wrong all this time. I'm sure your way of replying with a critical opinion is the correct method of offending people.
Since you know so much more than I do (from what it seems) about this review, which I thought wasn't even a review when I stated on my title that it was my experiences so far from playing in the korean Aion server...I guess I don't need to answer any of the questions. Honestly I just don't know, because well, I'm stupid and you're so smart that you interpret things in your own way when it wasn't even asked.
Again, I'm so sorry to have offended you so much, because I should have known better to type in a different structure since this was a review, right?
GRIND sucks? You wanna be max level in a month?
Since when did society award easy-goers and lazy-fools?
MAKES ME PHOBIC OF STUPIDITY!
thanks.good reading
while aion might not be the best mmo out there i think it have certain potential to complete with other mmo.i will most certainly play it when NA version is out together with my clan for at least a few months.if i like it much i will stay longer,if not i will move and find another mmo.but i do not think i will regret playing this game
YES! World Bosses end-game, so we can either pure PvP, pure PvE (instances) AND PvPvE for world bosses. I feel happy to know this game gets even better than the 1-20 beta we played, and I really got this impression that they are improving what is an already very polished game in patches, took a look at 1.1 and 1.2 patch notes and I got impressed by the size of the patch.
I have no doubts that for me this is the most polished fantasy MMO in the market atm (maybe thanks to its release in the western market being delayed while they fixed things in korean servers), with an engine as expected for a today's game, thank you cryengine 1 (if they did it in cryengine 2 we would have our first Crysis-quality MMO, but, 1 is Far Cry-quality, which is an impressive graphical progress for the MMO genre). Just wish they had DX10, although DX9 is so beautiful in this game.
nice
Basically clicking away text windows ruins every MMO, try to have fun instead of rushing things. Without story and lore all there is left is a bunch of mechanics.
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