Pricing options might be playing a big role in this.
Aion doesn't offer as many things to do as does World of Warcraft. But oddly, both are offered at the same monthly fee.
Moreover, MMORPGs are Pay-as-you-go in Asia, except for Free to Play games of course. I believe it's the law. With such pricing model, I don't think players mind keeping active subscriptions for few games at the same time. No money is wasted here when you don't play a game.
To illustrate, if you'd rather play Aion for the next three week, in US you'd be forced to pay 15$ for Aion and 15$ for World of Warcraft for this month. But in Korea you'd only pay for the 3 weeks you played Aion and the 1 week you played World of Warcraft.
Disclaimer before you read this , this is about average this not apply to your case , just the OP ask whats the difference .
This has to do with culture differences , in the west people are more individualistic .
Look lets go a survey here , how many guild change , guild swapped for stupid reasons .
In the east they tend to be more group mentality then west .
Aion in the east is about some kind of fair play /honor acceptance .
West pftt fair play whats that ? honor i spit on that ...
Thats a total difference in mentality , why Aion works so well in the east , and not in the west .
Sorry here most mmo players play for themself first , and remember it aint fun for me , i aint playing it .
In the east its more about group effort , similar experience , best description is like Conventions .
Conventions almost everybody is so nice , like one big family .
You are part of a convention cause you have something in common , but thats Real Life .
Once the convention is over they turn on there pc , they just back to normal act like me meself and i .
WoW is made for me meself and I and carter to that the most of any other MMO i seen .
PvP PVE RP whatever you name it , its all gathered to me meself and I .
What a bleak and depressive outlook on the west. Might be true. I dunno. But I hope not. I still think you can encourage cooperation.
I still enjoy grouping much more than soloing, so maybe I am no typical Westerner. I prefer even not so heroic stuff done with online friends than even saving the world all alone. But that's just me. *shrug*
Sidenote: THE west is more a fiction. As a European I regard Americans as WAY more individualistic then us. It's this "let everyone fend for himself" mentality I do totally NOT share. No critique, just saying how it is. Compare any political topic in USA and Europe and you see vast differences. In many cases I often feel America is a more strange country to me as a German than, for example Japan or Korea, to which I have been several times. (Esp. recently when looking at America and whats going on, I think WTH is going on there, and Americans are so "easy" to understand as Aliens to me, teh. o.0)
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert
WoW is made for me meself and I and carter to that the most of any other MMO i seen .
PvP PVE RP whatever you name it , its all gathered to me meself and I .
The problem is, WoW and Aion are BOTH popular in the East. Infact last I knew, most of WoW's subscribers are Asain (Not Westerners). Also the question is why are they both popular in the East and why Aion don't appeal in the West.
That's because it doesn't go both ways. WoW doesn't require the Asian player base to play any differently than they would in Aion. But Aion requires western players to play in a more "common goal"oriented way, which has been shown time and again not to succeed in the west.
What sentry13 said. drake_hound hit it on the money, too. Western European cultures promote individuality above community. Eastern cultures do the opposite. When a westerner is confronted with a problem that requires community input, he chokes. "It's too hard!", "The developers hate soloers!", etc., etc. When an easterner is given a western game to play, he says, "How quaint.", and proceeds to beat it up.
Generalizations? Certainly. Doesn't make them any less valid.
That's because it doesn't go both ways. WoW doesn't require the Asian player base to play any differently than they would in Aion. But Aion requires western players to play in a more "common goal"oriented way, which has been shown time and again not to succeed in the west.
This.
Simple answer really.
In WoW you can choose if you wanna grind or not (and when)
In Aion you can't. And that's something that Western player don't like much, while Asians appreciate more.
What is it that WoW and AION have in common that appeals in the East, but makes them vastly different in the west?
Aion and WoW, must have some trait in common that makes these two games so appealing in the east, since both of them are very popular over there in the east.
but on the other hand. they seem to be the opposite over in the west. WoW is the top MMORPG in the west, but Aion, is a after thought in the west. What could this different between the two, that is making the West populations view of WoW being more interesting than its Aion counterpart,
but at the same time, makes both Aion and WoW popular to their East populations?
It's very simple why WoW is thriving in the East as well as Aion. First you have to understand that Blizzard has two other games that penetrated those markets well before WoW. Then you have to understand that playing a mmo in Korea and China are viewed differently than in the West. Do you really think WoW's sub numbers are impressive to the mmo playerbase in the East? I very much doubt it. Becasue WoW is not number one in those countries. This is probably why the "over 11 million players" sticker IS a sticker (it's a western promotional gimmick).
Have you heard of the World Cyber Games? It's the biggest esport event of the year that most mmo players don't even know about. Blizzard has 2 games that have been blessed with an official endorsement of the WCG for a mighty long time. Starcraft and Warcraft are both on that list. Starcraft has been part of the WCG since the begining of the games themselves and Warcraft joined the roster in 2003. And although many games have come and gone on that list of the games, Blizzard's two gems have never lost a spot.
So guess what happens when a company releases a mmo with a reputation built on having 2 games endorsed by the WCG and who's audience participation reaches over 60 countries worldwide? You guess it. Customer loyalty. But not customer loyalty buit on blind fanboisim. It's loyalty based on 2 products that up to that point had a very strong showing for 4 years from 2000 to 2004 that they are the epitome of quality when it comes to gameplay and graphics that stands the test of time and PC stability.
Aion on the other hand is easily explained. Just like brand loyalty played a role on Blizzard being able to penetrate other territories, it also plays a role in festering local support. And NCSoft is to Korea what Blizzard is to the US. It's a little bit of nationalisim mixed with familiarity as well though. Familiarity that includes among what others have stated playing styles, levels of progression acceptability, acceptable art styles and time consumption. But all of this is only my opinion at trying to figure out why certain games transcend the bounds of where they are created. I truely believe that a damn good game is a damn good game no matter what way you slice it. And if it's not made to appeal across all boundaries starting from napkin to gold then it just won't do so no matter how much you try to tack on later.
"Small minds talk about people, average minds talk about events, great minds talk about ideas."
Facts: read the financial reports of NCSoft : L1 + L2 are bigger than Aion in revenue.
50% of Aion's market lays in Korea.
It is a Korean company.
Only ... 5% of Aion's revenue comes from China.
So in the end; it is a Korean success, not so much an Asian success.
So even in China Aion is very small compared to WOW.
That's because MMORPGs are a lot cheaper to play in China. WoW also makes very little in China compared to the west, even though the player base is probably slightly bigger in China.
Also, Lineage 1 and Lineagse 2 both have around a milion subscribers each.
I think most of the money goes to the publishing company.
By law foreign mmorpg company have to partner with a chinese company if they want to release a mmorpg in china.
In China, you pay by the minutes/hour. I think there are a huge bunch of people who very small play time. I dont' think the price is actually that cheap.
And it's not that Aion is small. It's that Lineage is just too big in the East. It's the grand daddy of all MMORPG in the east.
Comments
Pricing options might be playing a big role in this.
Aion doesn't offer as many things to do as does World of Warcraft. But oddly, both are offered at the same monthly fee.
Moreover, MMORPGs are Pay-as-you-go in Asia, except for Free to Play games of course. I believe it's the law. With such pricing model, I don't think players mind keeping active subscriptions for few games at the same time. No money is wasted here when you don't play a game.
To illustrate, if you'd rather play Aion for the next three week, in US you'd be forced to pay 15$ for Aion and 15$ for World of Warcraft for this month. But in Korea you'd only pay for the 3 weeks you played Aion and the 1 week you played World of Warcraft.
What a bleak and depressive outlook on the west. Might be true. I dunno. But I hope not. I still think you can encourage cooperation.
I still enjoy grouping much more than soloing, so maybe I am no typical Westerner. I prefer even not so heroic stuff done with online friends than even saving the world all alone. But that's just me. *shrug*
Sidenote: THE west is more a fiction. As a European I regard Americans as WAY more individualistic then us. It's this "let everyone fend for himself" mentality I do totally NOT share. No critique, just saying how it is. Compare any political topic in USA and Europe and you see vast differences. In many cases I often feel America is a more strange country to me as a German than, for example Japan or Korea, to which I have been several times. (Esp. recently when looking at America and whats going on, I think WTH is going on there, and Americans are so "easy" to understand as Aliens to me, teh. o.0)
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert
What sentry13 said. drake_hound hit it on the money, too. Western European cultures promote individuality above community. Eastern cultures do the opposite. When a westerner is confronted with a problem that requires community input, he chokes. "It's too hard!", "The developers hate soloers!", etc., etc. When an easterner is given a western game to play, he says, "How quaint.", and proceeds to beat it up.
Generalizations? Certainly. Doesn't make them any less valid.
This.
Simple answer really.
In WoW you can choose if you wanna grind or not (and when)
In Aion you can't. And that's something that Western player don't like much, while Asians appreciate more.
It's very simple why WoW is thriving in the East as well as Aion. First you have to understand that Blizzard has two other games that penetrated those markets well before WoW. Then you have to understand that playing a mmo in Korea and China are viewed differently than in the West. Do you really think WoW's sub numbers are impressive to the mmo playerbase in the East? I very much doubt it. Becasue WoW is not number one in those countries. This is probably why the "over 11 million players" sticker IS a sticker (it's a western promotional gimmick).
Have you heard of the World Cyber Games? It's the biggest esport event of the year that most mmo players don't even know about. Blizzard has 2 games that have been blessed with an official endorsement of the WCG for a mighty long time. Starcraft and Warcraft are both on that list. Starcraft has been part of the WCG since the begining of the games themselves and Warcraft joined the roster in 2003. And although many games have come and gone on that list of the games, Blizzard's two gems have never lost a spot.
So guess what happens when a company releases a mmo with a reputation built on having 2 games endorsed by the WCG and who's audience participation reaches over 60 countries worldwide? You guess it. Customer loyalty. But not customer loyalty buit on blind fanboisim. It's loyalty based on 2 products that up to that point had a very strong showing for 4 years from 2000 to 2004 that they are the epitome of quality when it comes to gameplay and graphics that stands the test of time and PC stability.
Aion on the other hand is easily explained. Just like brand loyalty played a role on Blizzard being able to penetrate other territories, it also plays a role in festering local support. And NCSoft is to Korea what Blizzard is to the US. It's a little bit of nationalisim mixed with familiarity as well though. Familiarity that includes among what others have stated playing styles, levels of progression acceptability, acceptable art styles and time consumption. But all of this is only my opinion at trying to figure out why certain games transcend the bounds of where they are created. I truely believe that a damn good game is a damn good game no matter what way you slice it. And if it's not made to appeal across all boundaries starting from napkin to gold then it just won't do so no matter how much you try to tack on later.
"Small minds talk about people, average minds talk about events, great minds talk about ideas."
I think most of the money goes to the publishing company.
By law foreign mmorpg company have to partner with a chinese company if they want to release a mmorpg in china.
In China, you pay by the minutes/hour. I think there are a huge bunch of people who very small play time. I dont' think the price is actually that cheap.
And it's not that Aion is small. It's that Lineage is just too big in the East. It's the grand daddy of all MMORPG in the east.
Never tried Aion, know some who did. They all said it was real grindy. I'm not in the mood do to that again. Ever.
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