So yes, the game is defintiely reaching a maturity model we've seen with almost all MMO's outside of WOW and EVE, a huge number of people give it a go, 75-80% quit and leave the game somewhere betwween 150-300K subs.
Which is about where it should be.
The people who play Aion at this point are people who, for the most part, enjoy the style of game that it is. I love the somewhat harder lvling curve though truth be told it's so easy compared to L2 that it is extremely hard for me to commiserate with those who come from easier games.
I love the game design and I know others that do as well. Players that come from easier games are just not going to warm up to Aion.
I'll have to agree, the leveling curve in Aion is nothing compared to L2, especially the first year or so it was out. (nor is the death penalty)
The game will appeal to a certain segment of the market (I still play regularly) and the rest will move on in search of a title that more suits their playstyle.
the problem is taht L2 was a group grind game and Aion is a solo grind game wich makes it feel sooo much worse when its slow leveling ontop og the fact you're doing most of it by yourself.
the problem is taht L2 was a group grind game and Aion is a solo grind game wich makes it feel sooo much worse when its slow leveling ontop og the fact you're doing most of it by yourself.
While it might be a bit more rewarding to solo grind, it doesn't mean that the game is a solo grind game.
I've never unwillingly grinded solo in this game and have been playing for 7months, and enjoying it at that. There are plenty of elite camps, instances, not to mention that most of the classes are mostly efficient in group PvP.
People who do everything solo have only got themselves to blame. I know I would have quit months ago were I doing it.
I stopped playing because I played for 4 days, went on a weekend trip and came back to find my account was "banned" due to a "ToS violation."
After contacting NCSoft and going back and forth with them for a week they finally admitted to me that my account was hacked. Then went on to tell me it was my fault. I explained I've never used a power leveling service, bought gold or shared my account with a friend. I live alone and my computer is password and biometric protected. I explained that the computer connects to the Internet only after jumping through many hoops and only for trusted applications. I explained that my hard drive was brand new purchased the same day I installed Aion and that regardless there are no key loggers or trojans on this computer at this time nor were there any present before the "hack".
Then I Googled "Aion Account Hacked" and found I was not alone.
A few days later and they finally activate my account.
My not active BETA account. Leaving my paid account in "banned" status.
Despite my clearly stating that there was a beta account with the same name as my master account and that this is not the account in question. Also, despite my giving them at their request my 20 digit serial key which is associated with the account I wanted reactivated. My beta account which was never "banned" to begin with is now waiting for me to pay full price.
That was about a week and a half ago and I'm no longer interested in playing.
It is losing subs cause P2P games are becoming a thing of the past.Look at a game with a low population,say vanguard,good game,but hardly anyone else to play with,to group with,or to raid for that matter.Now go play a F2P game.You got loads of people.Granted not all of them are of a mature age,but you got a booming population.
With all the F2P games out there WOW will eventually lose its firm grip on its subs as they move to f2p games.Yes,many of them do have a cash shop where you have to pay to stay ahead,but not all of them(Runes of magic)
I am about to cancel my Sony station access myself.
Sure you might argue that i'll end up paying more to play a f2p in the long run,but that hasn't been my experience so far.I've been playing a couple of them casually for the last month.Haven't spent a cent.
Originally posted by bosmer24 It is losing subs cause P2P games are becoming a thing of the past.Look at a game with a low population,say vanguard,good game,but hardly anyone else to play with,to group with,or to raid for that matter.Now go play a F2P game.You got loads of people.Granted not all of them are of a mature age,but you got a booming population. With all the F2P games out there WOW will eventually lose its firm grip on its subs as they move to f2p games.Yes,many of them do have a cash shop where you have to pay to stay ahead,but not all of them(Runes of magic) I am about to cancel my Sony station access myself. Sure you might argue that i'll end up paying more to play a f2p in the long run,but that hasn't been my experience so far.I've been playing a couple of them casually for the last month.Haven't spent a cent.
I wanna see that, i never played a F2P game where i can say wow this is so awesome, well maybe Battlefield Heroes was kind of fun for a while. In all honesty most F2P are absolute crap.
because the game sucks and there is nothing to do but grind ...
grind levels
grind guards for AP
grind for Miragent
grind grind grind.
You can straight quest up to 50. You get the CHOICE of grinding to 50 if you want to go and skip huge chunks of the content thrown at you.
You can grind guards for AP... up until Rank 1 or so. Maybe you could even manage 1 Star Officer if you somehow avoided being a giant bullseye and getting ganked every 5 minutes costing you thousands more AP than you could hope to gain from the pitiful amount guards give at that rank. (Yeah, the AP you get from guards decreases significantly as you get higher rank, as well as your penalty for dying!) But what then? Well, if you actually kill people you're looking around 1k+ AP from other high ranks, in way, way less time than you get from guards when they only give ~30 AP a kill. Or you could do Dredgion and get over 4k AP provided you win. Or if your server owns them, run upper fort instances. All of which you could already do before that rank, mind you, you just totally ignored it because you were given the OPTION of grinding it.
And maybe Miragent's different, but I'm full Fenris and that's really not a grind at all. A lot of the line actually even forces you into casual play by having 2 hour timers inbetween stuff... In fact, the step that gave me the most trouble was killing the Dredgion captain because I kept trying to PUG it and got some atrocious groups.
Such a grind, zomg.
What are you smoking and where can I get some? Given Aion isn't that big of grind, but you just made it sound plain easy, Fenris/Miragent's not a grind? Where have you been, besides for having to get at least 1 type or crafting to expert (Major grind, and shokingly you'll need to grind money to pay for the 10+ times you will fail the expert test) Fenris and Miragents are by far the worst grinds in the game, ask any 50 that has at least a few pieces. Killing8400 (average at about 1 drop every 7(might be more) kills= 8400 mobs) mobs for 1 piece isn't a grind, then what is?
Yeah PvP is cool if your good at it, and can get to lvl 47+ to be able to kill the 50s or higher rank people that no doubt out gear you and have much more experince if they were able to muster the ap for rank 2+ (shokingly at there ranks, most people have at least a thousand kills, even if they do go to forts) And in dreg, especially if its a PUG you most likely will not win, but if you do, will probably not be getting much over the automatic 3.5k awarded you unless your a sin that can ninja surks...
And your last point...IF they own upper forts, yes given 1 or 2 forts but last I checked unless you 2 or 3 man it and own most of the upper forts, its not that amazing of ap. Given you need the gear (or skill i guess) to be able to pull off a 2 or 3 man successfully (No wipes) which in some way you would have had to grind for.
For a hardcore player, like I'm assuming you are (nothing personal if you aren't) Aion isn't a grind, but to the average person with average gear and maybe 2-3 hours a day to play, Aion is indeed a grid. Such a grind, zomg.
qft
I'm in here talking about the grind because, well, because I don't feel like grinding atm. Working on shoulder 3/5 piece and am halfway with the 30 turn ins... I feel once I pump MR into the rest of the new slots griding for bloods should at least be fun?
Empty abyss? get your quests done before the server migration so you can actually enjoy some pvp when everyone moves to a select few serves for a last ditch effort.
The problem with Aion is that if you are not hard core, you will not have any fun. At about level 20, you are forced to group. Your campain quests all come to a grinding halt unless you waste lots of time trying to find a group.
Aion is lots of grind and not a lot of fun. It is a time sink in the worst possable way.
Koreans have a funny idea of what is fun. They also assume that US players have lots of time on our hands like they do.
I can tell you right now that its player base is dropping. You may not notice this as much if you are on a higher populated server but on the lower populated servers its easy to see. New players are dropping because the hype has dropped and more info about the game is in forums. Once you get to lvl 50 you hit a huge wall of nothing to do but bad design pvp. Pvp in this game takes very very little skill and is pure gear and class based. Most of the time the winner of a pvp battle is whoever attacks first. On my server the population is so low that inless you pvp at peak hours you can hunt from players rifting or in abyss for over a hour before you find someone to fight. Many people have quit for good and many more have quit till the release of 1.9 to see if the new weapon combine and counter skills help pvp. If 1.9 skills don't fix this most will find a new game to play and most likely wont come back for 2.0 which is what this game should of been at launch
I can tell you right now that its player base is dropping. You may not notice this as much if you are on a higher populated server but on the lower populated servers its easy to see. New players are dropping because the hype has dropped and more info about the game is in forums. Once you get to lvl 50 you hit a huge wall of nothing to do but bad design pvp. Pvp in this game takes very very little skill and is pure gear and class based. Most of the time the winner of a pvp battle is whoever attacks first. On my server the population is so low that inless you pvp at peak hours you can hunt from players rifting or in abyss for over a hour before you find someone to fight. Many people have quit for good and many more have quit till the release of 1.9 to see if the new weapon combine and counter skills help pvp. If 1.9 skills don't fix this most will find a new game to play and most likely wont come back for 2.0 which is what this game should of been at launch
QFT. I remember being attacked by the likes of Xred, and Wendi something or other, and even though I was 2-4 levels higher, they were twinked with all gold gear, I was not, and they got the first shot in, and it was ALWAYS a crippling blow that prevented me from getting more than one or two hits in before I was dead, and that was in addition to trying to pop a pot.
I played every beta event, and even proordered but finally let my sub go away because constantly dieing to twinked characters was not fun and made progression horrible.... Call me a carebear, I don't really care, I'll just call you an asshat.
Is it me or whenever a new MMO seems to go down the path of PVP primarily they just don't hold the subs. Maybe these companies should learn to cater to both crowds equally to get a better market share. Just something I've noticed.
OMG, I feel the same way. It's not you. I just can't believe this seems to elude all of those that are calling the shots at these companies. I can't help but wonder if the people that are getting the green light on some of these projects are doing "special favors" to get the funding or are just incredibly lucky.
I keep hearing about how every other MMO coming out is going to be the WoW killer. Well you know what, I can look at every MMO, no matter how much hype it has and tell you if it indeed is going to be the WoW killer, well before it's been determined and I have yet to see one! The secret WoW has, unlike any of these so called WoW killing imposters, is...are you ready for this? It's that while WoW may not be exceptional or perfect at any one thing, it excels at many, many things. And that is what has been the downfall for all of these potential WoW killers. They are focusing too much energy and/or resources either on one or a very few features! They need to diversify!
WoW pretty much has something for everybody and even though you may now just be tiring of those things, most people can admit that there was something that drew them in while having none of the severely limiting/lacking qualities that these other games have to push them away. WoW is the girl that you fall for that although there is no one quality about her that is absolutely amazing, the package as a whole has no glaring defects. While the relationship may eventually grow stale, there is no quality that is causing you to run for the nearest exit. Aion is this amazingly beautiful girl that is very nice to look at, but has these intolerable underlying issues like the Aunt Flo that seems to make your life a living hell or is high maintenance to the point she requires constant fixing, or the ex that still hasn't gotten over her or was just released from prison, etc, etc.
The point I'm trying to make is that the true WoW killer (if there ever is one) is going to have to be a game that is well-rounded, appealing to many while at the very same time having no extremely negative qualities. If one restaurant has one dish that is extremely good, but every other dish is downright awful, it won't be long before you tire of that one dish and want to take your money elsewhere.
Yeah i think that if a game comes out that can support the options for both types of players and has the quality graphically and depth wise we could see a MMO that will hold 1 mil subs easy. The companies that fail really don't get enough money to try and make a better game. Not only that, the people they fail really don't come back for the sequel. Players don't forget and their wallets talk.
Well the truth is, there exists a publisher that is currently developing one such MMO.
An MMO that like excalibur shall be drawn from the stone to vanquish the beast known as "WoW". This publisher has virtually unlimited resources, hordes of programmers, time - tested lore, and unparalled experience in MMO design.
This MMO is so top secret that it hath not a name, and shall be known hereto as...."The Destroyer".
At the hour of The Destroyer's coming, not only shall the towering WoW monster come crashing to the ground; the lands of Vana'diel and Eorzea will emplode, both Elyos and Asmodians shall fall from the sky, and during the second war of guilds there shall be a dynamic event in which The Destroyer comes to wtf pwn all in the face.
The coming of The Destroyer shall be depicted on cans of the sweet dew of the mountain. Thy glowing picture box of baseball games and reality TV shall be interrupted with images of The Destroyer in it's mighty glory. Stock markets shall bellow and cry under the crushing news of The Destroyer's coming.
The coming of The Destroyer shall be foretold by CNN, CNBC, and Fox News. They shall speak of it's creator...the source of The Destroyer...the publisher of The Destroyer known only as.........
Activision Blizzard.
Because if you think that when WoW peaks, which will take god-knows how long (New Hero class, anyone? That's what I tought); if you truly believe that they won't already have finished their next gen MMO that they have just been waiting to unleash, then you are dumber than a box of hair you stupid, stupid idiot.
Simple answer no reason to draw it out with well-thought-out reasons and theory's. It sucks, has little to no fun factor and the pve outright blew chunks. Thats the most important part for me anyway was the pve sucking. Many other reasons existed though lol.
Just my opinion and I could care less who disagrees or flames me for it.
A man or "gamer" should look for what is, and not for what he thinks should be.
Because the company lets gold sellers run rampant while your hacked account is left at the mercy of some douche who has access to your money? Or it could be the fact that the game is simply boring.
When did you start playing "old school" MMO's. World Of Warcraft?
After you're 50 for a month or 2, you realize how shallow the game is. The smart ones realize this sooner.
Aion was the most fun during beta when the cap was 30 and everyone was out PVP'ing non stop. It's also why everyone keeps twinks at that level, to actually PVP.
I'll try not to repeat what's been said "to death" in this thread.
This game has the look and general feel of games that would appeal to a casual player seeking a fantasy game.
There is no portion of the game information that actually states the game is faction based pvp in 90% of the zones, instead the abyss is the area touted as being pvp-centric... This is a bit of "bait and switch" for casual players attracted to the game, intentional or not.
Notable differences in melee vs ranged class balance.
Grief style gameplay is rewarded rather than discouraged.
The game's lacks the wealth of pve content needed for leveling and provides less than stellar drop rates of useful items from normal/uncommon mobs after lvl 20.
Additionally, the 1-20ish game is entirely different from the 20ish - 40ish game and not in a good way.
That said, I honestly can't say that the game was what I would call "hardcore". High levels had too much of an advantage and low levels have nothing to lose other than the time in travel to get back to where they were killed. Truly hardcore games I have played could have members of opposite factions playing next to each other for long periods without attack because there was too much to lose if they died by player attack or player retribution.
While not a bad game, it won't have widespread appeal given it's gameplay mechanics.
Its loosing subs because its at the core a pvp game with not much pve content at 50.
The masses like to play games which offer lots of pve content + the option to do pvp in some form. Games which enforce pvp are only interresting for a minority of gamers. At least thats my impression for the western audience.
Plus the pvp has some big flaws.
Plus they screwed up at launch by not opening new servers and after waiting for too long opened too many, w hich resulted in some half empty server fast.
Plus they threw the china payment model into the bin (paying for play time) which would have been awesome as additional payment method.
Plus mass pvp needs some solid and kinda new hardware.
Plus the random luck factor is simply too important. (People who failed creating the heart for x times arent willing to do everything AGAIN for just another luck shot).
Aion isnt a bad game, a lot of releases were in a much worse shape than Aion. But its not a game which was made for the mass audience like WoW.
Because everything in Aion has been done before, and better in many cases. Add to it the typical asian-style grind-factor and it's easy to see why it's slowly going bye-bye.
-Letting Derek Smart work on your game is like letting Osama bin Laden work in the White House. Something will burn.- -And on the 8th day, man created God.-
Disclaimer: Ok, its an assumption. If the game is growing please enlighten me.
I have been reading the Aion forums from time to time and read many oppinions on the game. However I have the impression that the playerbase is slowly being reduced.
When Aion launched it was hailed as one of the most polished MMO releases in a long long time and the fans were besides themselves over how good it ran and how much fun it was.
Nowadays there is not much positive feedback. From what I read Aion has a couple of problems
1) Grind - many enjoy it, while even more people hate it.
Will this decline stop? And if so, how can it be stopped?
Easy answer no the decline will not stop it will continue.ANY mmog who wants to have a chance in a western market plus be sucessful HAS to focus more on pve than pvp and not forced pvp.Pvp is a niche market in the west and always will be any game that ignores pve and focuses on making players pvp will never be a sucess its been proven for years.Pvpers can say oh no just no one has got it right its BS.
Smart mmog companies understand this look at WOW,Lord of the Rings Online,Everquest 2. All successful mmogs none of them pvp driven all of them have it but it's not there focus.Companys foolishly keep tryin to capture the pvp market probly is even if they could it's never gonna be very successful because most of the big mmogers are powered by the pve players.
I quit because when i got to endgame pvp i realized the pvp system, the only real reason i was playing the game, was full of bugs and exploits and glitches.
No real reason to keep playing then.
Grind? Aion has no real grind. Its not even a matter of likeing grind or disliking grind, people were at the cap a month after release. Even if they were account sharing and playing 24/7 (which they were not) if its even possible to hit the cap in 720 hours /played there was just not enough time for things like grind to even factor in.
aion is a pvp game with broken pvp. thats why people quit.
Don't be mistaken, this so called "PVPVE" game has one major flaw that made me quit after two months...a lack of decent PVP. I spent 99% of my time either ganking lowbies (my bad, had no idea of your level until after I 2 shot you) or getting ganked by 5 people 5-10 levels higher. The Abyss, although great in theory, panned out to be horrible in every way. Rifting was a pretty cool idea, but given the restrictions in how they worked didnt suite my fancy.
The grind was fine...I like a heavy grinding game.
The rarity of loot had it's pros and cons...kinda neutral on this stance.
The real question is why on earth this game had so many subs to lose in the first place, and why it took such a long time for some people to see past the thin veneer of glamor to the complete and utter lack of innovation, engaging gameplay and interesting content.
The only reason I can see for this game having lasted as long as it has in the western market is the lack of competition, there simply hasn't been any other serious releases. And considering how far away the competitors are even now I suspect Aion will tug along at a slow but steady decline for quite a while yet.
It is getting somewhat repetitive to see all these generic games march past, but it does make it easier to identify the rise and fall of all these would be saviors. We're now well past the initial phase of "This game is going to take over the world.", and well into the denial phase. The next four months the zealots will claim the game isn't really bleeding players, it is just that it's summer and nobody wants to play games in the summer. Then the same absent gamers will "obviously" be much to busy getting back to school and work after the summer, after which they will be temporarily busy playing some unusually successful single player game, and so on and so forth.
The phase of acceptance won't come until some half decent mmo comes along and forces another bout of server mergers. It's so predictable it's almost painful.
What was it they kept saying in Battlestar Galactica? Ah, oh yes "All this has happened before..."
The real question is why on earth this game had so many subs to lose in the first place, and why it took such a long time for some people to see past the thin veneer of glamor to the complete and utter lack of innovation, engaging gameplay and interesting content.
The only reason I can see for this game having lasted as long as it has in the western market is the lack of competition, there simply hasn't been any other serious releases. And considering how far away the competitors are even now I suspect Aion will tug along at a slow but steady decline for quite a while yet.
It is getting somewhat repetitive to see all these generic games march past, but it does make it easier to identify the rise and fall of all these would be saviors. We're now well past the initial phase of "This game is going to take over the world.", and well into the denial phase. The next four months the zealots will claim the game isn't really bleeding players, it is just that it's summer and nobody wants to play games in the summer. Then the same absent gamers will "obviously" be much to busy getting back to school and work after the summer, after which they will be temporarily busy playing some unusually successful single player game, and so on and so forth.
The phase of acceptance won't come until some half decent mmo comes along and forces another bout of server mergers. It's so predictable it's almost painful.
What was it they kept saying in Battlestar Galactica? Ah, oh yes "All this has happened before..."
heres my thing about aion. People play mmorpgs to feel powerful and like a champion a hero. Aion doesnt necesarrly give that. Grind is long and gruesome. And the cost for traveling and spirit healing are outrageous people bail out before anything begins if they dont think the group is good enough. If we die more then once they bail which i dont blame them cuz its costly so we get nowhere and dont learn the game which it is somewhat newer. U dont feel powerful until u hit cap which u might not even by then. Also how do people feel powerful before cap? killing noobs aka ganking boom one shot oooof i feel powerfull and thers alot of that. Feels like u can never win or be the powerfull hero u want to be in this game its not fun gets to be a job and takes alot of time. thats where they fail. Sorry about my bad english.
Comments
the problem is taht L2 was a group grind game and Aion is a solo grind game wich makes it feel sooo much worse when its slow leveling ontop og the fact you're doing most of it by yourself.
While it might be a bit more rewarding to solo grind, it doesn't mean that the game is a solo grind game.
I've never unwillingly grinded solo in this game and have been playing for 7months, and enjoying it at that. There are plenty of elite camps, instances, not to mention that most of the classes are mostly efficient in group PvP.
People who do everything solo have only got themselves to blame. I know I would have quit months ago were I doing it.
I stopped playing because I played for 4 days, went on a weekend trip and came back to find my account was "banned" due to a "ToS violation."
After contacting NCSoft and going back and forth with them for a week they finally admitted to me that my account was hacked. Then went on to tell me it was my fault. I explained I've never used a power leveling service, bought gold or shared my account with a friend. I live alone and my computer is password and biometric protected. I explained that the computer connects to the Internet only after jumping through many hoops and only for trusted applications. I explained that my hard drive was brand new purchased the same day I installed Aion and that regardless there are no key loggers or trojans on this computer at this time nor were there any present before the "hack".
Then I Googled "Aion Account Hacked" and found I was not alone.
A few days later and they finally activate my account.
My not active BETA account. Leaving my paid account in "banned" status.
Despite my clearly stating that there was a beta account with the same name as my master account and that this is not the account in question. Also, despite my giving them at their request my 20 digit serial key which is associated with the account I wanted reactivated. My beta account which was never "banned" to begin with is now waiting for me to pay full price.
That was about a week and a half ago and I'm no longer interested in playing.
The end!
"You ain't gotta be locked up to be in prison"
It is losing subs cause P2P games are becoming a thing of the past.Look at a game with a low population,say vanguard,good game,but hardly anyone else to play with,to group with,or to raid for that matter.Now go play a F2P game.You got loads of people.Granted not all of them are of a mature age,but you got a booming population.
With all the F2P games out there WOW will eventually lose its firm grip on its subs as they move to f2p games.Yes,many of them do have a cash shop where you have to pay to stay ahead,but not all of them(Runes of magic)
I am about to cancel my Sony station access myself.
Sure you might argue that i'll end up paying more to play a f2p in the long run,but that hasn't been my experience so far.I've been playing a couple of them casually for the last month.Haven't spent a cent.
I wanna see that, i never played a F2P game where i can say wow this is so awesome, well maybe Battlefield Heroes was kind of fun for a while. In all honesty most F2P are absolute crap.
qft
I'm in here talking about the grind because, well, because I don't feel like grinding atm. Working on shoulder 3/5 piece and am halfway with the 30 turn ins... I feel once I pump MR into the rest of the new slots griding for bloods should at least be fun?
Empty abyss? get your quests done before the server migration so you can actually enjoy some pvp when everyone moves to a select few serves for a last ditch effort.
back to grind...
The problem with Aion is that if you are not hard core, you will not have any fun. At about level 20, you are forced to group. Your campain quests all come to a grinding halt unless you waste lots of time trying to find a group.
Aion is lots of grind and not a lot of fun. It is a time sink in the worst possable way.
Koreans have a funny idea of what is fun. They also assume that US players have lots of time on our hands like they do.
The weather is getting nice.
No matter how good this game is or any other MMO, subs drop AUTOMATICALLY during Spring and then lower in Summer. They pick back up in Fall.
First mmo??
"TO MICHAEL!"
I can tell you right now that its player base is dropping. You may not notice this as much if you are on a higher populated server but on the lower populated servers its easy to see. New players are dropping because the hype has dropped and more info about the game is in forums. Once you get to lvl 50 you hit a huge wall of nothing to do but bad design pvp. Pvp in this game takes very very little skill and is pure gear and class based. Most of the time the winner of a pvp battle is whoever attacks first. On my server the population is so low that inless you pvp at peak hours you can hunt from players rifting or in abyss for over a hour before you find someone to fight. Many people have quit for good and many more have quit till the release of 1.9 to see if the new weapon combine and counter skills help pvp. If 1.9 skills don't fix this most will find a new game to play and most likely wont come back for 2.0 which is what this game should of been at launch
QFT. I remember being attacked by the likes of Xred, and Wendi something or other, and even though I was 2-4 levels higher, they were twinked with all gold gear, I was not, and they got the first shot in, and it was ALWAYS a crippling blow that prevented me from getting more than one or two hits in before I was dead, and that was in addition to trying to pop a pot.
I played every beta event, and even proordered but finally let my sub go away because constantly dieing to twinked characters was not fun and made progression horrible.... Call me a carebear, I don't really care, I'll just call you an asshat.
Haha, ahhh yes...the foretold coming of.....the WoW killer.
Well the truth is, there exists a publisher that is currently developing one such MMO.
An MMO that like excalibur shall be drawn from the stone to vanquish the beast known as "WoW". This publisher has virtually unlimited resources, hordes of programmers, time - tested lore, and unparalled experience in MMO design.
This MMO is so top secret that it hath not a name, and shall be known hereto as...."The Destroyer".
At the hour of The Destroyer's coming, not only shall the towering WoW monster come crashing to the ground; the lands of Vana'diel and Eorzea will emplode, both Elyos and Asmodians shall fall from the sky, and during the second war of guilds there shall be a dynamic event in which The Destroyer comes to wtf pwn all in the face.
The coming of The Destroyer shall be depicted on cans of the sweet dew of the mountain. Thy glowing picture box of baseball games and reality TV shall be interrupted with images of The Destroyer in it's mighty glory. Stock markets shall bellow and cry under the crushing news of The Destroyer's coming.
The coming of The Destroyer shall be foretold by CNN, CNBC, and Fox News. They shall speak of it's creator...the source of The Destroyer...the publisher of The Destroyer known only as.........
Activision Blizzard.
Because if you think that when WoW peaks, which will take god-knows how long (New Hero class, anyone? That's what I tought); if you truly believe that they won't already have finished their next gen MMO that they have just been waiting to unleash, then you are dumber than a box of hair you stupid, stupid idiot.
Why does Aion keep loosing subs?
Simple answer no reason to draw it out with well-thought-out reasons and theory's. It sucks, has little to no fun factor and the pve outright blew chunks. Thats the most important part for me anyway was the pve sucking. Many other reasons existed though lol.
Just my opinion and I could care less who disagrees or flames me for it.
A man or "gamer" should look for what is, and not for what he thinks should be.
Because the company lets gold sellers run rampant while your hacked account is left at the mercy of some douche who has access to your money? Or it could be the fact that the game is simply boring.
When did you start playing "old school" MMO's. World Of Warcraft?
After you're 50 for a month or 2, you realize how shallow the game is. The smart ones realize this sooner.
Aion was the most fun during beta when the cap was 30 and everyone was out PVP'ing non stop. It's also why everyone keeps twinks at that level, to actually PVP.
I'll try not to repeat what's been said "to death" in this thread.
This game has the look and general feel of games that would appeal to a casual player seeking a fantasy game.
There is no portion of the game information that actually states the game is faction based pvp in 90% of the zones, instead the abyss is the area touted as being pvp-centric... This is a bit of "bait and switch" for casual players attracted to the game, intentional or not.
Notable differences in melee vs ranged class balance.
Grief style gameplay is rewarded rather than discouraged.
The game's lacks the wealth of pve content needed for leveling and provides less than stellar drop rates of useful items from normal/uncommon mobs after lvl 20.
Additionally, the 1-20ish game is entirely different from the 20ish - 40ish game and not in a good way.
That said, I honestly can't say that the game was what I would call "hardcore". High levels had too much of an advantage and low levels have nothing to lose other than the time in travel to get back to where they were killed. Truly hardcore games I have played could have members of opposite factions playing next to each other for long periods without attack because there was too much to lose if they died by player attack or player retribution.
While not a bad game, it won't have widespread appeal given it's gameplay mechanics.
For that, wait for Tera.
Its loosing subs because its at the core a pvp game with not much pve content at 50.
The masses like to play games which offer lots of pve content + the option to do pvp in some form. Games which enforce pvp are only interresting for a minority of gamers. At least thats my impression for the western audience.
Plus the pvp has some big flaws.
Plus they screwed up at launch by not opening new servers and after waiting for too long opened too many, w hich resulted in some half empty server fast.
Plus they threw the china payment model into the bin (paying for play time) which would have been awesome as additional payment method.
Plus mass pvp needs some solid and kinda new hardware.
Plus the random luck factor is simply too important. (People who failed creating the heart for x times arent willing to do everything AGAIN for just another luck shot).
Aion isnt a bad game, a lot of releases were in a much worse shape than Aion. But its not a game which was made for the mass audience like WoW.
Because everything in Aion has been done before, and better in many cases. Add to it the typical asian-style grind-factor and it's easy to see why it's slowly going bye-bye.
Edit: by the way,
Aion 1.9 patch dated, server merges announced
-Letting Derek Smart work on your game is like letting Osama bin Laden work in the White House. Something will burn.-
-And on the 8th day, man created God.-
Easy answer no the decline will not stop it will continue.ANY mmog who wants to have a chance in a western market plus be sucessful HAS to focus more on pve than pvp and not forced pvp.Pvp is a niche market in the west and always will be any game that ignores pve and focuses on making players pvp will never be a sucess its been proven for years.Pvpers can say oh no just no one has got it right its BS.
Smart mmog companies understand this look at WOW,Lord of the Rings Online,Everquest 2. All successful mmogs none of them pvp driven all of them have it but it's not there focus.Companys foolishly keep tryin to capture the pvp market probly is even if they could it's never gonna be very successful because most of the big mmogers are powered by the pve players.
I quit because when i got to endgame pvp i realized the pvp system, the only real reason i was playing the game, was full of bugs and exploits and glitches.
No real reason to keep playing then.
Grind? Aion has no real grind. Its not even a matter of likeing grind or disliking grind, people were at the cap a month after release. Even if they were account sharing and playing 24/7 (which they were not) if its even possible to hit the cap in 720 hours /played there was just not enough time for things like grind to even factor in.
aion is a pvp game with broken pvp. thats why people quit.
Don't be mistaken, this so called "PVPVE" game has one major flaw that made me quit after two months...a lack of decent PVP. I spent 99% of my time either ganking lowbies (my bad, had no idea of your level until after I 2 shot you) or getting ganked by 5 people 5-10 levels higher. The Abyss, although great in theory, panned out to be horrible in every way. Rifting was a pretty cool idea, but given the restrictions in how they worked didnt suite my fancy.
The grind was fine...I like a heavy grinding game.
The rarity of loot had it's pros and cons...kinda neutral on this stance.
I'll keep it short and sweet.
The real question is why on earth this game had so many subs to lose in the first place, and why it took such a long time for some people to see past the thin veneer of glamor to the complete and utter lack of innovation, engaging gameplay and interesting content.
The only reason I can see for this game having lasted as long as it has in the western market is the lack of competition, there simply hasn't been any other serious releases. And considering how far away the competitors are even now I suspect Aion will tug along at a slow but steady decline for quite a while yet.
It is getting somewhat repetitive to see all these generic games march past, but it does make it easier to identify the rise and fall of all these would be saviors. We're now well past the initial phase of "This game is going to take over the world.", and well into the denial phase. The next four months the zealots will claim the game isn't really bleeding players, it is just that it's summer and nobody wants to play games in the summer. Then the same absent gamers will "obviously" be much to busy getting back to school and work after the summer, after which they will be temporarily busy playing some unusually successful single player game, and so on and so forth.
The phase of acceptance won't come until some half decent mmo comes along and forces another bout of server mergers. It's so predictable it's almost painful.
What was it they kept saying in Battlestar Galactica? Ah, oh yes "All this has happened before..."
Yep agree
heres my thing about aion. People play mmorpgs to feel powerful and like a champion a hero. Aion doesnt necesarrly give that. Grind is long and gruesome. And the cost for traveling and spirit healing are outrageous people bail out before anything begins if they dont think the group is good enough. If we die more then once they bail which i dont blame them cuz its costly so we get nowhere and dont learn the game which it is somewhat newer. U dont feel powerful until u hit cap which u might not even by then. Also how do people feel powerful before cap? killing noobs aka ganking boom one shot oooof i feel powerfull and thers alot of that. Feels like u can never win or be the powerfull hero u want to be in this game its not fun gets to be a job and takes alot of time. thats where they fail. Sorry about my bad english.
You'll understand why aion keep loosing subs because...
http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/279071/page/1
there's a poll too along with that topic about what made the game lose its "Fun Factor"
Unfortunately, I'd say this thread was a success