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ArcheAge: From Fanboy to Burnout
I can't say there is one thing exactly that caused me to reach this point. It's a mixture of everything in this game really that created this scenario.
There are obvious issues with the implementation of the game and it's NA release. There were issues launching the game. There are bugs everywhere you look. There are gold spammers around every corner (and one has even messaged me on this very site twice!). There are bots and macroers everywhere you look.
1. Trion's publishing/release/localization was a disaster for this game. Areas they should have known better by watching virtually every other MMO release in the past decade they replayed step by step. Nerfs, bugs, cash shops, faulty servers, you name it. They were supposed to get this ready for a NA audience, instead they made a safe haven for bots, spammers and a select few willing to spends hundreds of $$$ on the game.
2. Grinding for the sake of grinding for the sake of grinding. Grinding quests in a game hailed as being a sandbox is bad enough. Grinding gear that's as good or better than crafted gear in a small region of the map, is no great thrill. Once you get through with all that grinding, the real grind begins... grinding professions. It seems the only purpose of many of these is to simply waste time before you can do something better; there's no end result, like UO had with it's "Grandmaster" titled professions that let you stamp your name (and reputation) on anything that was made after that.
3. Economy vs. Bugs.... is a battle the bugs will win. People exploiting and finding ways to circumvent the rules to make money, claim land and raise skills spell doom for a game designed around its inter-server economy.
4. Land claims are a joke at best, a kick in the balls at worst. Tens of thousands of paying customers were waiting hours in queues the day the servers opened. Through no fault of their own, they got screwed out of 1/3 of the game. Since the world is persistent, opening more servers only creates a larger problem down the road when they can't be merged. What did Trion do? Open more servers. Nothing to actually fix the problem of land exploiting or a failed tax system that doesn't do its intended job.
5. Lack of any meaningful communication from the Trion team. "Yes we are aware of issues and yes we are working with XLGames to resolve many of them..." something, anything like that would be expected at the very least about now, but no. We get nothing but silence on issues that matter and only reports of minor bug fixes while every other bug, issue and complaint goes ignored.
6. When you combine all of the above, when you hit the level cap and find yourself in the "grind for the sake of the grind" you begin to wonder how much of your life you can actually waste on a game that shows no signs of thriving in the future. You can level a profession to 50k, sure... plenty of time on your hands. But will it ever compete with the bots who hoard every scrap of land you need to eventually buy for yourself to get anywhere with your skills? Will you make more money than the gold farmers or the ones buying gold off the farmers?
People pointing these things out ahead of time were give the Chicken Little attitude prior to launch. Now, weeks after launch and we see all the pessimists actually had a point; the fundamental game is broken. It can too easily be manipulated by a select few, whether they are gold farmers, bots, or just a large guild. If only a small percent of the population is enjoying themselves, where does that leave the others?
Simply look for yourselves.
In a F2P game that actually has life to it, people are online all the time, making new accounts, just starting, playing for months, etc. WoT and LoL have seen a huge number of players that are both long-time vets and newbies alike. Uncharted Waters Online still has people crowding the safe zones and starter areas trying the game out for the first time despite its age (and huge issues in the past).
ArcheAge has been out for all of two weeks and the population has stagnated. Even with new servers opening, many of the players are simply vets from other servers who started fresh. Some quests in the game are nearly impossible to do anymore because they require you to find a player under a certain level... and they're in very short supply.
I don't see this game as having the staying power that I (and many others) was hoping it would from watching previews over the past couple of years. It seems like a very diluted version of many other games that have all done the same things, better. If you want farming and crafting, play Minecraft, which at least has recipes and ingredients that make sense. If you want PvP, go open up a game of Chivalry, or Mount & Blade Warband, which both do the same things AA tries, but 100 times better. If you want survival and crafting, try a game of 7 Days to Die, or one of the many out there that combine those.
Since playing since CB2 and leveling 2 characters to 50 and trying several professions, claiming land and farming, I just don't see the appeal this game has given the above issues. If the launch was handled better, bugs were actually fixed, bots banned and gold spammers removed, then this game might at least be able to hold people's interest in a while since there is quite a bit to do! In its current state though, why bother? It's an uphill battle against bots, gold spammers and exploiters, only to be left in a game that you soon realize has/will become a wasteland of inactive accounts and barren housing.
Comments
a few good points, but as soon as you compared F2P MMOs with WoT and LoL you lost it.
Housing, got no patron and was stuck in queues the first days, owning around 7-8 spots with my guild.
Grind, im done with 3 slots T1 on Hasla, took me about 2-3 hours of gametime. Not even near a "grind"....
Lack of response from Trion, sure if you expect a response of the PUBLISHER, you would normaly get from the devs how made the game, you need to wait.
Every issue Trion can fix, i see a answer in the forums.
anyway, WoT and LoL are not MMOS no matter if they are F2P or not...
What part of Massive Multiplayer Online Game do LoL or WoT fail at being? Last I knew that had, what, a million or so subscribers each? They all save progress. They all put you in battles with other players. They all have levels and experience points. They both have skills to use and "grind". They might not be your cup of tea, but they're still MMO's like every other game on the list in this site.
You should also re-read Trion's role in it NA Publisher's role. They were to "localize" the game. This doesn't mean simple translations, it included cash shop items, tax payments, Labor system, etc. They are also in charge of the servers and run them form their physical location. Every exploit used, every account hacked and every spammer allowed through is entirely on Trion's shoulders. They have full control over the servers but choose to do nothing.
And if you want to talk about grinding? What trade professions do you have? Come back when they've reached 50,000 and then talk about the non-grindiness of the game.
i was loving the game at release..now i just "like" the game..
all the claims that the game picks up at lvl 30+ ..not so much imo..
i dont really know if every server has that "one" guild that has like 1000+ ppl that just roams around and zerg their own faction and lowbies just for kicks..i love pvp but this gets annoying more than fun,when you see a huge mob of people just steam roll 1 person beating on a quest mob..and then circle the map to come back around to do it again..kinda mindless
im on two servers now ..i dont know if its like this on every server but EVERYBODY / guild are PIRATES ..i mean everyone..
land is scarce and the /trial is a joke..i dont mind the bots so much as others do and you can tell the ppl that have played f2p games compared to p2p games or it could be theres just soo many whining people playing nowa days <speaking about chat>
if anyone has / knows of a server thats 1/2 goodies 1/2 baddies on one faction or server let me know..if everyone continues to be pirates this game is pretty much done..no reason to play imo
pls wot and lol are arena like games not mmos, where you play with thousand players on the same server at the same time in the same world...
Trion cant do much to the client, and that s where the most hacks/bots/glithces happen ...
Sure the queues etc. are on Trion, but they cant do much in an instant about flaws in the client, besides thats flaws that every version of the game had/has, a few min. of gooling would tell you that before you waste your time.
And how is a prof. a grind ? i mean what do you do for it, press 1 button and go semiafk...
its not like you need to actually play to watch something/plants/livestock grow or be around wile you craft stuff..
Spoken like a person that hasn't had to plant and harvest 12,000 mushrooms in order to get Alchemy to any useable level, or run trade packs 100 time (which them require planting 12,000 other ingredients for the packs) to buy enough mats off the AH to make 2 full Labor Pools (10,000 labor total) worth or potions. Or make 100+ runs to Freedich, half of which end in a loss, to farm enough Gilda to afford something worth building on Mirage Isle.
The only thing this game leaves you with at the end of the leveling is more grinding, topped with even more grinding. And again, why do any of this if the bots are just going to invade the AH and jack the prices up for everyone across the board?
Do they have a persistent world, or are they just lobby games......
A creative person is motivated by the desire to achieve, not the desire to beat others.
I completely agree with the OP 100%.
My biggest issue is the general PVE. Namely the fact that whoever hits an enemy first is the only one who gets credit. Some areas are so crowded, I've found myself waiting for several minutes before finally hitting it first or giving up.
The worst part of it is that the developers thought it was a good idea to compensate by increasing spawn rates. While this may sound like a good idea, it doesn't work so well in practice when enemies are spawning right on top of you, faster than you can clear a safe path.
There is almost no good reason to craft anything at all and with all the material gathering I did on my adventures, I didn't gather the correct items to craft anything at all.
Yet again, the Korean MMO industry astounds with it's complete idiocy.
Ohh i have believe me, but i knew where i get my self into before i started the game.
But, now the big suprise, i didnt do it alone ! Its an MMO for an reason, if i want to do somethign like that on my own, i would play Minecraft.
And still even if you do all that by yourself, its still no grind. A grind is doing the samething over and over and over. The Tradepack route to Freedich alone is the best example why an "sandbox" PVP PVP!!!!! game isnt a grind.
Or will the next response be, that every fight for your packs was the same, with and against the same ppl ?
Seems you were heavily invested with ArcheAge considering the length of your post as well as the fact that you leveled 2 characters to level 50 during beta. I noticed that your account was created in 2004. I am a little shocked by some of the points you made considering it is a Korean game. I'm just taking a wild guess that maybe you haven't played enough Korean games to notice a pattern? I'll touch on this further with the bullet points you made.
Point #1: I can't argue there, TRION should have done a better job (especially with the servers).
Point #2: Grinding and Korean go hand in hand. I do agree that quite a bit of ends up being grinding X Y Z over and over again and doesn't really translate well into it being a "sandbox" feature.
Point #3: Yeah the auction house/economy has been exploited (and we've seen only a few examples). The main culprit is the client. Almost everything can be manipulated one way or another and TRION can't really do a whole lot except to pass on any type of exploitation or bugs to XL Games.
Point #4: Almost falls in line with point #3.
Point #5: TRION has stated this, although probably not enough. In all honesty they are very limited as to what they can do. Remember that server populations were handled "manually" by resetting the servers on a daily basis. They have taken care of a few bots by "manually" searching for them. There are barely any tools that XL Games has (or has passed down to TRION) just by the absurd number of cases as well as the variety of exploitations found and recorded on the official forums.
Case in point, a couple of days ago they released an interview with Junkies Nation. Take a look at the following:
http://www.junkiesnation.com/2014/09/29/archeage-auroria-release-within-weeks/
Voss emphasized is the fact that Trion’s only the publisher of ArcheAge and does not have complete control over the game. All changes they want made have to be approved and done by XLGAMES, the developer of AA. Certain things may never be added or may take a very long time to be added due to the fact that XLGAMES is still in charge. This bears repeating to anyone who finds themselves frustrated with any of the game’s current features.
Point #6: It isn't so much that pessimists had a point, but rather they have enough experience with Korean games for years. 2 major issues as to why Korean games barely do well here in the West is #1. The way cash shop/monetization features are handled. Even if X Y Z feature isn't considered as P2W (especially by white knights) if X Y Z feature ends up making the forums explode or end up not being welcomed with open arms by the customer, then chances are those very same features can end up pushing them away (as we have seen with many Korean games).
#2 is content or the lack thereof. A few Korean games end up doing a decent job the first year with releasing content but that usually ends up falling off the deep end past the first year. This is usually tied with the exodus of players before the first year is up. Depending on how big an exodus will depend on how much future content is affected. If too many people leave a game and servers end up being the "typical” 2-4 servers with a low population status (like in almost every Korean game) then that will definitely hamper any future content since content costs quite bit of money to create/develop.
XL Games needs to step up their game now that they don't have to worry about any regional release. The question is do they have competent folks to work on that client and do they have the resources to do so in a timely manner?
Point is, this game is still an uphill battle against poorly implemented mechanics, easily exploited oversights and an un/under-prepared NA publisher.
This game has potential and could be fun, if issues are addressed. Lack of communication from Trion and XLGames, no clear-cut plan in place that's made public to the customers to show what plans on being done to fix the issues and no safeguards against any of this happening again and again, all make any effort spent in this game seem futile.
For instance: Great news that they're going to open up a new continent soon! Horrible lack of news about how they plan on doing it. The server launches were so abysmal and the land-grabbing exploiters so plentiful, I really have no desire to spend any more time hoping... and praying that these things get addressed first.
The fun of this game has been sapped out by the technical and mechanical issues it's been plagued with.