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Is Aion going the same way as AoC did?
Agricola1
Member UncommonPosts: 4,977
From what I've read people are leaving Aion due to whatever issues they have with the game/company and from what I can tell it sounds an awfull lot like the AoC debacle. By next year will NCsoft be doing the same damage control as Funcom was a year earlier? It seems there are alot of disgruntled people leaving from what I can tell after massive sales that outstripped even AoC, is this evident on the servers yet?
Some have said the game is growing but I find it hard to believe, not due to the game itself (I've never played it) but due to the fact that 9/10 times in this situation sales and subscription fall off a cliff within 6 months (usually 3). Wow is the only one to increase after high initial sales and LotRO is the only one to have leveled off at a decent playerbase and maintained it (in my opinion). So it's just the law of probability that Aion is going down the plug hole as we speak, am I in error or can someone playing this game in a large guild confirm it?
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience"
CS Lewis
Comments
Well it has the Asian market to fall back on, but I dont see it having the player base problems of AoC. It has the right mix of pappy content, the sort of fairy tale graphics girls like and enough pvp for the guys. I don't think the game is that bad really, I can think of nothing that is head and shoulders above it.
the main issue that is arising in this game is not similar to AOC, its more similar to Lineage2. In which there are a large turn out of bots, gold farmers, gold spamming to legit players. its annoying, frustrating and despite NCsoft so called stance little has been done, though NcSoft would like you to think they do ban, but considering I seen several groups of the same bots days later, despite autoreporthunting them nothing has been done. IM sure they ban some, but hardly enough to make a dent.
The same issue that is already taken a stranglehold on Lineage2 for the last 2-4 years is already occuring in the broker is incrreased prices in items within AION. miniscule lvl 7 items and weapons going for 25-50k lol despite barely having 10-20% of that by the time ur lvl 7, You literally couldn't make that much kinah by level 7 even if u wanted to. IF a hardline attempt to destroy the Bots, farmers and other various degenerates in the game that are making life in the game difficult for everyone isnt taken care of, Aion is going to be no different than Lineage2 , its going to be run by bots.
literally 2 hours ago a player was hocking a Godstone that caused a 2% chance to stun a player for 5 seconds, its a blue item but he was selling for 30 million kinah lol. or i've seen lvl 30 orange items for 20-40 million kinah. its absolutely retarded, i can already see where this game is heading.
3.4ghz Phenom II X4 965, 8GB PC12800 DDR3 GSKILL, EVGA 560GTX 2GB OC, 640GB HD SATA II, BFG 1000WATT PSU. MSI NF980-G65 TRI-SLI MOBO.
There is a fair amount of bots in the game and like you said, you can find the same ones grinding in the same spot everyday. The gold farmers on Lumiel actually set up private stores that advertise their websites, and I also see these same people everyday sitting in the same spots. The economy has gone to hell pretty quick. Everything you said was exactly right. Prices are ridiculous, and sadly, people keep buying it. Granted there are professions in the game that allow you to make your own gear and weapons, not to mention buff food and potions (and you can take 'em all) but I found from my time crafting that it was too much of a time sink and I'd get started crafting then say "Screw this" and go questing/grinding.
From what I can tell the population is still there. I think there will still be a lot of subscribers down the road. The game is a lot of fun but it could use some improvements. I think what will help NCsoft with subs is whether or not they start to crack down on these gold farmers/spammers, and whether or not they balance the serious disadvantage that melee have in PVP. From what I've heard other NCsoft fanbois say, NCsoft doesn't really balance classes much. My highest level character in the game was a level 25 Chanter. I love the diversity of the class, but one issue I noticed around level 18 from dueling was the disadvantage melee had against ranged. Maybe these classes balance out at a level 50 like the fanbois on their forums say, but I honestly don't think it will. Ranged have way too much CC that make it so easy to keep melee at a comfortable distance.
Other than that the game doesn't seem that bad, it has a lot of potential. I do question though if NCsoft will put the effort needed into this game to make it the behemoth it could be.
Aion is doing pretty well and it's nothing like Age of Conan's failure.
Keep in mind that forums do not represent the actual playerbase, especially not mmorpg.com forums which is filled with people who hate every new release.
Even though it looks like Aion is failing hard in the western market, it still has a decent playerbase to fall back on in Korea.
I do not think that is a huge problem for players in general, most players will complain about gold farmers, bots and all that crap, but people do not leave because of that in general.
Best example I can give you is WoW. WoW has probably more gold farmers and resellers than all other games combined, because that is where they make their money. Is Blizzard doing something about it? Nope, they say they are, but they aren't. And people are not leaving because of the gold farmers. Actually I wouldn't be surprised if statistics came out saying that 75% of WoW players have purchased gold at least once before.
The only problem I think Aion has on the long run would be the grinding feeling you get in the game and the lack of endgame content if it is not adressed in the future, but again, this is a new game, so people will give it some time.
It became too "grindy" too quickly. Lost my interest.
Aion is another WoW clone. This game doomed the market.
Our good old games are gone.
Over 1 million copies sold and 32 very active servers is not failing buddy.
yea but wow is alot bigger and doesnt have tons of ppl all in one spot fighting over a mob. there is at least 3 quests i cant do in theobomos atm 2 because bots have it hammered out and i cant find any mobs for the quests and one cuz asmos sit and wait for low lvls to come and try to do the quest . melee does have a extreme disadvantage especially the temp slow does little to no damage have to get new armor and weapons every lvl and the amount of items on the auction house only makes it moreso that i dont want to play .as i cant even afford to pay my soul heals let alone buy new armor. im lvl 30 temp still using lvl 27 equipment and its a definitely noticable .when one trash mob can almost kill me two trash mobs will obliterate me and there is really nothing i can do about it oh and to have a glad come up and gank my kill so im next to dead and have nothing to show for it
nope decided to cancel my sub for those reasons among others.
-Well imo game is nothing special, tho NC support in my case was really crapy so i quit playing.