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Aion bombs: only 4 US servers left after massive server merge (EU 8 servers left)
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flash news, if you think aion is a grind game you are lazy, or think WoW is a game to last till the end of days and we don't need anymore games
and for teala
1) basic for all MMOs for this day, before and probally beyond, tell me one game who have quests its not like this? please just one?
2)you have a game with 2 races who fight each other, what you really want? they start in the same map? or be like in requiem 2 starter zone, you play only in one because the another is just redundant and have almost the same quest line just a little diferent history
3) if you read the history in the game they tell you why you can't fly over all map plus what is the point in swiming? just to say hey I can swin here? and this will be something will be used later with more content too. and with what it have now I like it.
4) contrary to what you believe anime style are more accepted then you think, better then any cartoon like and comic. also just hit the need and look for anime conventions, cosplays and the like its not small numbers my friend
5) you only think aion is grind if you started in the MMO with WoW pos blood crusade, no way aion is a grind fest, I had plenty of quests to do in all lvl ranges plus I still have some lvl 30+ quests still open,and I am already in lvl cap, now if you complain is a grind to get top equips, I will only tell you one word, RAID.
Back in early 2005, EQ1 lost half it's subscribers to WoW almost overnight. Like 250,000 subscribers.
Well shave my back and call me an elf! -- Oghren
That's it in a nutshell. Five of us bought the game, subbed for another month to see if it got any better, then dumped it. Without doubt, this is the shallowest, most linear, grind-fest of a game I have ever tried in the last 10 years.
1. The diversity of the quest is very important. Be that in flight form, swim form, stealth form, PvP form. The most challeging form is the PvP leveling form with or without quests: All 5 are complete absent in Aion.
2. More starter zones and more races = more varied gameplay, less grind feel.
3. More options is simply that: more options.
4. Anime accompanied with "Yahkhi" yelling in every battle cry is ...annoying to western ears. Bruce Lee is so passé.
5. Grind is only present if you need to do things that are not fun. Including different options (see above) can counter the grind. Faster mob kills can counter grind. Leveling through PvP can counter grind. Leveling by killing monsters is old and to be avoided these days.
In the end : US players spoke, coming from waiting times of 3 hours to enter in Sep. Merging 13 servers to 4 in the first 9 months of a game's existence surely tells you something.
^^This
I think many of us predicted that the game wouldn't do well in the Western market. It had good initial sales, but quickly dropped when people hit that grind level (about lvl 30). I think the game will stick around, but the prophecy that it will be the #2 game in the West, only behind WoW, was a fallacy.
1)have quest who require you to flight, stealth you can try to do that with spy quest line in the enemy territory, pvp have in form to kill 10 kinds of each rank of the enemy player plus daily quest to kill enemy players and latelly I don't know any game who have quests to kill other players if is not in win X BG, also what game let you lvl in pvp? you still get xp in pvp here
2) more races now would just be not good for the game, what is the point? you can't make another race in the same server
3) and for what reason? like in aika? you can jump but jump and walk is the same thing and no you can't jump over things so no reason to have that, and swimming will be a possible feature in the future with a reason(more maps you have to swin to get and possible fight too)
4)please tell me what war cry is that? maybe because i'm a martial artist I don't think anything they do is out of ordinary or like the kind "power ranger" thing. ps. say things are sopassé is so passé you know.
5)so now we came to taste? so I like the game and you don't? ok now so why you are here again? if you say the game as nothing really new and just a mix of ideas I would agree, but hey any MMO nowadays are like that, hell even in films are the same old mix and way to do things.
and good thing Aion is not only for US market right? only the us market is not important even if they let just one NA server we still have the EU servers there, and since the EU market is bigger plus you have central and south america on the mix I can bet and guess if they don't really care about the US market too much
ah, this is kinda sad news, i wonder why it is doing so much better in EU
March on! - Lets Invade Pekopon
2 things from a player actually playing the game since launch:
All servers are being merged, even though at least half of those didn't need it at all. I play on both Gorgos and Spatalos (the 2nd and 3rd most populated ENG servers) and they are really well populated. In fact, players on Gorgos never wanted their server merged with anyone because in addition to being well populated, it is balanced as well. I just hope this doesn't return us to the shitty queues and lag days and overpopulated areas.
The population is nearly the same as a few months ago. Sure 1.9 increased activity, but before that it had been pretty stable, from people's experiences and my own, for like 5-6months. Why are they merging servers just now? Because they were painfully late with them. They should have done it right after the inevitable exodus after the first 2 months, and it would have led us to the same number of servers as now.
2 things a player actually playing the game should fear:
Faction imbalances. NCwest made us aware that it took careful calculations and studied different criterias before choosing which servers to merge with which, but still if it goes wrong, then it would plainly suck.
Overpopulation, lag and queues. Personally it came as a surprise that the servers I play on are getting merged. Lets hope some of these servers don't implode!
But of course, a random, quite angry first time poster who doesn't even play the game rears his head when the word "merge" is mentioned and decides to create a thread titled "Aion BOMBS.." is not fishy at all.
What's that you say? created account to troll? LIES!!
Be careful what numbers you toss around. While its true that many veterans have multiple accounts (I have 3) the percentages quoted from more reliable sources is between 15-40%.
And I have to agree, one can't really count Asian sub numbers of "millions" of users due to the fact few pay a monthly fee and use a timecard/cafe model.
A more important figure is that EVE's number of concurrent users on line at any one time keeps increasing and recently went over 60K.
Aion is indeed is reeling, my son regularly plays on Trinnel (US) and I dabble there and for the past few months we've been in a ghost town where outside of the PVP zones, you can go all day without seeing a player run by. Hopefully by merging 3 other servers into ours we'll see a bit more activity. (been damn hard to find a MM group these days, SR not so bad)
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
That is true. The discovery of the unknown was a big part of it for me. Hell, I still remember running from Freeport to Qeynos at lvl 17 before they implemented ingame maps. It was a long and arduous journey, but one I will never forget.
Joined 2004 - I can't believe I've been a MMORPG.com member for 20 years! Get off my lawn!
You sure they aint "laughing out loud"?
It's common for MMOs to retain a relatively high population for a while after launch, then drop off. For some games this high may last 3 months, for others it may last 6, for good ones it may even last a year or more. But sooner or later, it's going to drop, for understandable reasons.
People get bored eventually, no matter what game they play.
I don't know how many servers Aion had at launch, but they generated massive hype during development and probably opened more than were necessary (even so, it sounds like they underestimated, since there were waiting queues to login and such). If that's the case, they simply merged the extra servers to eliminate unnecessary costs and facilitate players so they can group and so that population continues to appear to be high.
Then again, that's what I said about WAR. Then they merged again... and again... and again. It was becoming painfully obvious that the population was dropping too quickly. If this happens to Aion, then the OP's argument will hold more weight.
I am surprised this thread was not started by a Zorndorf...
,,, Oh snap!
Server merges is, of course, not a sign of expansive success but at least it is more honest towards the players instead of a game running servers with a 80/20% split between factions for years and in the end turning them into a pve server that is totally deserted within a few weeks. (My only experience with that -> WoW, EU, Mazrigos)
We dont need casuals in our games!!! Errm... Well we DO need casuals to fund and populate our games - But the games should be all about "hardcore" because: We dont need casuals in our games!!!
(repeat ad infinitum)
Bingo, alka.
That bit there is closer to the truth than many around here, it seems, ever realize.
To sum it up in a sentence: The Western market is not NCSoft's prime market.
No, really. It's not.
Here's another bit: The 'West' isn't the center of the gaming world around which all else revolves.
Yep... that's true, too. I swear.
I know it will likely annoy some of the more closed-minded types who share their myopic "world-views' on these forums, but the Western Market isn't the East's prime concern. The East is.
To illustrate the absurdity of it, let's put it in reverse as a hypothetical...
Let's say LoTRO is released overseas... LoTRO is decidedly a very Western-styled MMO, by design. Turbine's a Western developer, focusing primarily on their Western market. Regardless, the players over in Korea, or in Japan call it "another typical Western quest grind", and declare "Turbine just don't get the Eastern market at all".
Doesn't make much sense, does it?
Would seem kinda ridiculous, considering the Eastern market isn't Turbine's main focus, right? Well... the West isn't Korea or Japan's main focus either. Hence, the games they put out don't tend to cater to the playstyle typically preferred by Western gamers.
Really all kinda makes perfect sense when you think about it logically, don't it?
Make no mistake... Lineage 1, Lineage 2, Aion, Lineage 3 (when ever that comes out), TERA... all MMOs along that style are designed first and foremost with the Eastern market in mind. Not the Western market.
I think if more people would accept that, there'd be a lot less "outrage" when a new Eastern-style MMO is released that - gasp - doesn't cater specifically to us Western gamers.
and the cash shop selling asphalt..." - Mimzel on F2P/Cash Shops
Completely true. Although I heard LOTRO when released on the korean side had drastic changes, removing a lot of the story and adding a lot more grinding quests and things like that. Because they don't care about that kind of thing, they just want to play how they like playing.
The question yet remains, when will NCsoft get a clue about the differences in the eastern and western markets? I'm betting that the vast majority of their Aion players are outside of the western markets. Forced PvP is a niche market in the west. With the number of choices available, many, many people will simply not tolerate it.
I don't think it's a fast leveling curve most western players are looking for, but a wow-like controls and responsive skills. The idea of Aion is incredible, but using skills, collecting mats for crafting and a crafting itself are not as fast paced and fluid as f.ex in Wow.
I'm not a hardcore PvP'er, more like a PvP hater but I believe the modern MMO games need some sort of a PvP to keep it interesting enough for longer than a month. There are two vital points for these games to have:
1. Fluid and responsive controls and camera move + moving and skill using possible simultaneously.
2. Characters' PvP strength should always improve ONLY through PvE - no such things like 'PvP-gear' or 'Arena-gear'.
Otherwise, you could pretty much make it a FPS-game in a first place.
Aion and Perfect World are good examples of games that fail in a point 1, while WoW is a good example of a game that fails in a point 2.
Aion fails in point 1? In my experience Aion is only second to WoW in fluid, responsive controls and camera moves, and way ahead of any other game (themepark RPG games). A couple of skills for each class may require you to stand for like 1 or 2 seconds to execute a combo but that's how the combat system is set up, and the majority of abilities can be done while moving.
One of the really strong points of the game is that you really feel in total control of your character, and Aion is second only to WoW in that regard imo.
I think this is extremely subjective.
I have not experienced keyboard- or mouseclicks that did not register in either wow nor aion. None of these however, was even close to the responsiveness of Guild Wars.
That is MY opinion - I know full well from IRL friends that some people actually consider wow's global cooldowns a godlike feature and simply does not grasp the 1/4 sec activation of interrupt skills in place of booooooooring unbreakable CC's.
My list would be:
1. Guild Wars: Responsive, configurable (excluding/banning community made "mods") interface.
2. The Chronicles of Spellborn: Responsive, innovative and decent implementation of a UI.
3. Aion: Overall nice basic UI, a system above "global cooldowns" and having a somewhat interesting combo-system.
4. EQ2: Responsive, Easy to learn, configurable, nice chat interface.
5. WoW - Responsive but basic and boring interface, marred by outdated global cooldown design. (Modded/lua scripted to death!)
Sorry WoW is by no means (imo) a bad game - But age, lack of innovation and the inherent need for 3.rd party addons does not make this game even bronze-worthy to me.
ON topic: I like how the chat on the euro forums is basically: Ahh servermerge announcement is up: Hello new servermates - This will be a good thing for all of us!
I guess the official forums need some Zorndorf created 'quality' drama
We dont need casuals in our games!!! Errm... Well we DO need casuals to fund and populate our games - But the games should be all about "hardcore" because: We dont need casuals in our games!!!
(repeat ad infinitum)
It takes players that were actually bitten by NCSoft when this game launched to be able to understand your anger here and, unfortunately, I'm one of them. NCSoft tends to not publish it's numbers and I'm not sure if it has something to do with an aspect of Korean culture or simply really, really opaque business practices. It seems to me more likely that it's the latter, but Asian culture is strong so there may be a bit of that, too. In any case, not having enough servers in the beginning was a juge problem t hat led NCSoft to put in two more servers in the US and EU but if I recall correctly it was only two servers. This means that they are scalling back more, not just removing those two servers, and this really does seem to be indicative of a largely Western reaction to incredibly poor support (note: 12 business days, 16 total days, and no response from NCSoft on my open Guild Wars ticket).
It really is unfortunate for those, like me, who wanted to see the game succeed and fans of the game despite all that they weren't given in nearly Fable-esque fashion. Hopefully NCSoft won't damage what ArenaNet is doing with Guild Wars 2, hopefully. They really seem to be misers with their money and, as has been stated when Tabula Rasa and another one of their games ended, NCSoft seems to only be willing to support their products so far and see if they can succeed on that level of support. If they can then they will survive, if not then they will not, but they won't get more support. (A little careful Googling will be helpful here, but the articles that went to press at the time may not longer be up.)
(1)TL:DR must be your way of saying that thinking hurts. Then again, this may explain why it looks like you responded to the post without using your brain.
(2) It's not about community, is it? You just have nothing better to do.
It is really great news for the people who play the game, especially that there will also be free char transfers for 1month after the merges.
It's an improvement on NC's part as well, they released fixed dates and NEVER used the word Soon(tm) even once in the whole thing! xD
Granted, the OP is angry, but when you're horribly let down by something that is what tends to happen. Baiting the OP for something they did not say or even imply is really immature and the sign of a solipsist, don't be that person.
AION has disappointed far more people than it satisfied due to everything from the launch being terribly botched for an established game that was being localised, the whole 'we will take months to make our forums and site function but we'll do the hip thing and post on Twitter...and fansites because they actually work,' content that did not meet what was stated and bona fide problems with PvP balance and the Abyss. NCSoft really promised a lot with this game and simply did not deliver, but they went beyond that by demonstrating a genuine lack of care about AION's community and potential community.
It's great that some people can stick it out as NCSoft tries to make it better and if you're one of them you have my congratulations. While you're sticking it out, respect the fact that people will be angry when they find out something that they really enjoyed (or wanted to enjoy) was kept from them for reasons they just can't understand.
(1)TL:DR must be your way of saying that thinking hurts. Then again, this may explain why it looks like you responded to the post without using your brain.
(2) It's not about community, is it? You just have nothing better to do.
I am not surprised that the game tanked in the west. NCSoft should have westernized the game more. More quests...less grind. Abyss pvp was horrible. I wanted to like this game.....really and for the first 25 levels it was great. It's a shame that NCSoft just does not GET IT.
Its the only mainstream MMO that I haven't played.
Why? Its too Asian.
I don't like what Asian game characters look like. Sound like. Fight like. Its like flashy-colorful-throwup.
No story, no dirt or grime... just... colorful crap and annoying sound effects.
No thanks.