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Aion channels= Great idea
oskironmaide
Member Posts: 336
I think what Aion does with channels is an amazing idea.
If you feel the area you are at is full of people and you cant kill any mobs (Will happen on release day).. or you enjoy being alone, just move to another channel 
. If you are camping a mob you need for a quest and it is not spawning any time soon, just move to another channel. It also prevents chat spam a little bit
This is an amazing idea in my opinion as a game designer. It provides us the players with the option to choose, and we love this freedom.
What are your opinions?
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Comments
Well, first : they haven't reinvented the wheel. Channels appeared (as far as I know) with Guild Wars, though only in cities as all the other areas are instanced.
I already liked this system in Guild Wars, and I love it in Aion. As there aren't multiple starting regions, this will help getting your own kills at the beginning of the game (at least for those who haven't preordered
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"When all else fails, send a Templar."
Channels are only in the newb zone thank god. MMO's are for communities and having everyone in different channels/instances has killed the genre imo.
This is actually something used in MANY asian f2p mmo's.
I love the channels in Aion it makes the game have less lag for people.
so called "channels" go all the way back to CoH. I think that was the first time it was done. And to this day it still astonishes me that noone would copy such a system. It could have helped with the launch of so many mmos.
And I wouldnt even put GW in the same catagory as this. This is creating instances of entire zones. GW is just a lobby game.
The community aspect isn't impacted at all. Imagine going to an amusement park and everyone having to stand in one line then when it's their turn, they get to pick what ride to go on.
Since it's random what channel you go to, you will still meet new people.
EQ2 creates it's own instances of zones when they get to crowded also. I like the idea in Aion's smaller zones. I didn't like it in EQ2's huge zones. Left you all alone if you were one of the first in the new instance.
What is killing MMOs is the fact that society has given in to social ineptitude. You can pile everyone in the world into a small room and they will still text the person next to them and refuse to give eye contact when being spoken to.
Now that I am done venting, instances are not what is killing the genre, soloing is.
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You wouldn't understand
Couldn't agree more - I really think instances (or channels) F-ed up MMOs. I am ok with it in Aion since it's only the starting areas and almost everyone solos/two-mans through the first bit of levels anyways.
Channels or instances are stupid - they make a giant world into an empty co-op game of much smaller proportions. It's all the newbs that cry whaa whaa I don't want to interact with people when I am camping something.
in EQ you knew your community VERY well because of spawn camps, etc. no instances (until Luclin which killed the game...hmmm). EQ had a lot of things that I think are ideal for an MMO. Forcing people to interact, talk, etc. is a good thing. Luckily, Aion sees that and they only do it in the newb zones. Ahhh
I like the channel approach. I've gotten so used to 200 people chasing the same 4 plants in a zone in different games, it just became normal.
I quit playing EQ1 when I was spending something like $40 a month for a legends account, and at 3am one morning when there was only myself and one other guy in the entire zone, he didn't want to share an area of the zone that took up the entire coastline because he was killing mobs in A area, then B, on to C, and repeat. I left and haven't been back.
I like the idea of 'channel's to decrease population in areas. I first saw it used in Toontown. Twas a fun game many years back.
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