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Ncsoft in trouble, Auto assault under 10k subscribers!?
Gameloading
Member UncommonPosts: 14,182
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I think they'll be fine. Guild Wars and CoH/CoV are working out for them and Tabula Rasa should be coming soon. Aion also looks like it has potential but there's not much info released yet.
Also, I think they will be releasing a free game called Dungeon Runners which should bring some new people into the NCsoft experience, making them more likely to get into their other games.
I just hope that they release a multi-pass subscription for their games in the future. I'd definitely give Auto Assault a try if the multi-pass came with access to a couple other games (assuming they have subscriptions).
And I'm in Austin btw. While it sucks that they laid off some people here, at least there are decent opportunities elsewhere around town.
-- I need a nerf --
I know I just cancelled my Auto Assault account prior to renewal, though that was only partially due to the game issues. While the slow arrival of a critical patch was certainly an issue, as was the fact that the patch still didn't address some of the big issues, really I cancelled because I just picked up the Direct2Drive version of Oblivion, and I could tell immediately that it was going to be consuming all of my forseeable game time for the next month or two. I'll very likely resubscribe to Auto Assault once I've played my way through the latest Elder Scrolls game a few times, assuming the former title is still around at that time.
I think another three or four months of beta would have made a world of difference for Auto Assault. It's a fun game, it just launched with some fairly serious gaps (and an issue with the fundamental philosphy behind its endgame). The gaps can and will be repaired in short order, but they never should've been there in the first place. The endgame issue is an altogether different beast. Also, the game suffers from what I can only term chronic different-but-the-sameness. The differences between AA and the rest of the MMO genre are a turn-off to mainstream gamers, but the fact that it's still a level-up and equipment-based game is a turn-off to gamers who are looking for something really different. Damned if you do, damned if you don't, I guess. I like the basic gameplay, but I've always been odd, and the track record of products I've enjoyed doesn't speak well for NetDevil's future with Auto Assault. I certainly hope I'm wrong, though, because I really do like most of the game's core elements.
If AutoAssault did not cause my machine to complete crash and reboot (BSOD) I would liekly have bought it. Then again, the game really didn't have a great deal of depth. If it was a non-subscription based game like GuildWars it would definitely be in my library...BSOD or no.
NCSoft needs to figure out how they're going to address the marketplace. They're being exceptionally stubborn and foolish by not having an 'All Access Pack" arrangement. There is no question I would own one if they had one, since I have every game they've released (minus AA, which I would buy). But their games, in whole, don't interest me enough to pay for one of them with a subscription.
NCSoft in Austin is not nearly the same thing as NCSoft in Korea.
NCSoft in Austin is not nearly the same thing as NCSoft in Korea.
Does not matter still owned by same company meaning no matter what they can run down and get cash whenever they are in trouble as a back up .Same with SoE been able to run to sony .
Of course there is always risk of closing the austin ncsoft but i highly doubt it with L2 having quite a few nA customers,CoH and GW doing well.
Nah,if companies like horizons are still breathing i see no problem for ncsoft.
But as a footnote at least ncsoft are still holding on to the game if it was EA who had a game with 10k they would already be announcing the game closure without even trying to see how to attract new clients.
Why cant they bring us those really cool anime looking games you ccan see in their korean site?
Hell i would ove to have an nc soft like the one in korea...
They wouldn't announce it, they would post on the forum "Oh by the way, this is the last day you can play before we shut down the servers."
Not to hijack too much, what's with all these companies and Austin anyways?
That's now how things work in corporations, bud.
NCSoft in Austin is not nearly the same thing as NCSoft in Korea.
Does not matter still owned by same company meaning no matter what they can run down and get cash whenever they are in trouble as a back up .Same with SoE been able to run to sony .
"In Korea, where NCsoft shares are traded (and where its headquarters are based), the stock has lost roughly a third of its value since May 3. "
quote from the last line of the link posted by the OP. I don't care what company you name, a third of your value is a real kick in the face.
This is what I would think. AA may eventually make them money, not real sure. Its not marketed well, it has pretty bad hype from reviewers who seem to get alot of thigns about the game wrong, and it has a number of people like a previous poster who think that it really needed like 4 more months. However all in all its a pretty good game and had a decent release bug-wise. There certainly were bugs at release but certainly no worse than many MMO's. It may wind up slowly growing. But really MMO's need a certain ciritical mass of people. There are so many people I have heard say I woulda played AA but not enoough people. Seemed like a Catch-22.
Not sure what will happen with AA, it has some nice stuff in it. But either way I doubt AA will make or break NCsoft. Not with Lineage/lineage2 having about 3 million subs That would have to be the big money maker.
For the most part this just shows NCSoft has some trouble in wetern markets and has alot of games in development that are not making profit yet.
Personally I'd worried that they might seek employment elsewhere in your district, and start nerfing drinks in your local bar, or refusing to fix your car down at your local garage.
Run em all out of town fast as you can mate, before they breed.
I recently cancelled my Lineage 2 subscribtion. Why? Customer service. Here in the western markets, we want quality customer service and when that is not offered, we get mad just like me (you all probably know the situations in L2 right now).
I was going to try out Tabula Rasa but then I remember seeing a quote by the person in charge of Tabula Rasa talking about he doesn't care about buying things from ebay and other sites like that for in-game. That freaked me out.
I guess it is just marketing maybe. As for Auto Assault, that game was pretty nice in Beta, I may subscribe since I remember actually having fun. Would be cool to see an Open PvP server, that would get some increase.
~Greatness~
Currently Playing:
Nothing
1) Price. If we assume alot of poeple play a full time main game (WOW , EVE , EQ2) then many are not prepared to pay full price per month for a second one. Be nice to see an MMO with a $7.50 price tag per month , instead they all want the magical $15 a month. Somehow all the accountants at these companies forget price is one of the major factors in competition. If your game doesnt have the same depth or regular enough content then you shouldnt charge the full amount.
2) Items. I tried the COV trial , nice char creation but everything else is stale. Sorry to say i like Loot based games as part of the fun is in getting new gear. I understand that the whole concept for the game would suffer but badges and stuff just are not rewarding enough. The item model has worked well for many of the long time MMOs , if we didnt like items we would sleep on floors and our homes would be empty. Think about it. Long term no items means any new content wont have new gear as a compelling factor to keep doing it.
3) Grind. The grind in most COV games just dont appeal to the mass market. Part of WOWs sucess has been quick rise through the levels. Ok WOW ends up in a grind , but at least you can get there.
4) Tradeskills (COx) - no items mean no tradeskills. You lose out on a whole heap of poeple who love crafting (especially women that ive seen)
5) All access passes. This as many have said would make all of the titles more attractive. SOE do this and companies should be competiting ... the prolem for NCSOFt probably then comes down to:
6) GREED. Rather than releasing a cheaper priced expansion for COH they bring in a full priced copy in COV. So instead of expanding content for your existing max level players they basically released the same game , different names. COV should have always been an expansion at a cheaper price point with more high end content. (look after your existing subscribers rather than try to get those mythical new ones out there) All access pass should be in the game and perhaps its ignorance on the quality of their games that prevents them from doing it.
7) Stick with Elves - frankly most gamers (who are RPGers) love the fantasy setting. Look at the major MMos and most are all based in the fantasy setting. NCSoft recent titles AA , COx would appeal to a much smaller market. AA may be good but how many poeple see a car on the box and think , hmm i dont like racing games. If you want to pick up players from WOW you need something similiar that improves the gameplay in all respects.
Diablo/starcraft mmo is probably justa round the corner
I can live without the elves, though.
Say what you want about WoW but they made sure they had a ton of content when they released, plenty of quests and a number of instances. Of course they have good marketing and a huge/rabid fanbase so they could afford to take the time to have it.
Not suprised seeing how every one of their games sucks ass.
CoH/CoV-sucked
GW-Sucked
AA-broken beyond repair
L2-boring as hell
The problem with NCSoft is that they produce a new MMO every year, but they don't make good quailty games. They just push a new one out the door and let the others die.
ya auto assault kinda seemed like it coulda been sweet but like it got boring pretty fast and their is basically no other players in the game so it kinda sucked.
the people who made twisted metal shoulda made it the whole auto aim thing in AA kinda pissed me off
another thing, as mentioned before: there were almost no ads etc. less ppl know about the game, less ppl play it.
I think theres defintely an interest in AA, but maybe the ppl would only play it as their second mmorpg - cheaper fees or an all-access may be the solution (more ppl would then attract more ppl).
you DO know that CoX is only one monthly fee, don't you ? you can even use the second free month from the other game if you own both
CoV/H have great battle system, concept and character customization, but I agree that it is missing rewards and it have huge grind after level 25. Most of players seem to be stop playing their charcter after level 30. Then they create a new charcaters until they get bored and quit. Also releasing CoV as seperated full priced game was huge mistake, it should have been expansion.
Developers seem to have strange fantasy that they can solve all problems by creating PvP content to the game - that is orginally PvE game. Result from this is that they have wasted half of their development time to the arena system that no one doesn't use, 3 PvP zones that are totally empty and super group base PvP system that is not used, because most of super groups are too small and there is no real benefits from base PvP. Same time players are getting bored to repeative content between levels 25-50. Same old maps, same old enemies and no real mission content.
How to play CoV/H:
CoV/H is missing content that creates bonds between players. If you quit, no one doesn't ever notice that you are gone. Players have so many characters that they are not recogniced by their character, they are just anonymous team members X. Only hardcore players recognize each other. It is possible that in next year, CoV/H is taking it last breaths, because most of new players quit in 1-2 months.
Lineage I/II are just grind festivals. Why I would like to be car in Auto Assault? Who wants to play instanced Guild Wars? Tabul Rasa? Another FPS with no real reason to know each other.
PlayNCs games are very streamlined and action oriented. There is no wait time and gameplay is typically very simple. However, there is also no reasons to get to know each others. If there is no reason to know each other, then you don't create bonds between players. And these bonds between players are reason why players stick in same game years. PlayNC seem to think that bonds are created during enourmous grind - it might work in Korea, but it definately is not going to work in western words.
"I know I said this was my last post, but you my friend are a idiotic moron." -Shadow4482
Lineage 2 would be completely badass if they would deal with all the farmers and the adena selling issues. Once they delt with that to whatever extent, more REAL people would start playing the game, strengthing the community and grouping aspects of the game.
Auto Assault didnt spend enough time in beta, end of story.
CoH/V are good games, but the games being linked together means those 150k subscribers are split. What I mean is a person subscribed to both games cant play both at the same time, meaning at peak times there will only be 5k people on CoV and 11k people on CoH, instead of 16k people all together, making finding groups a sporatic issue. Btw the 5k and 11k are random numbers I picked, make sure you read this before commenting.
I like Guild Wars, always tons of people on, and always people willing to group to do quest. But the no monthly fee plan might have been a good idea when the game first released, these layoffs and the current state of Auto Assault (lack of funds/spent to much?) could be considered evidence of this catching up to them.
"There's no star system Slave I can't reach, and there's no planet I can't find. There's nowhere in the Galaxy for you to run. Might as well give up now."
Boba Fett
Another thing about CoH/V is that their are constant nerfs making characters weaker. With every issue released there is something changed that makes people have to respec the way they build their characters and this gets frustraiting after a while. They have done so many nerfs making the super heros not so super that it has slowed down the game making the grind even worse which is why alot of characters don't make it past 30 and some even stop playing. I know this is why I stopped playing.
When this game first came out and my character could go up against a hord of enemies and come out alive or not having to worry about my travel powers being supressed if I attack, it made you feel like you were playing a superhero. Now after all the nerfs I feel like generice hero #3456 and its just wasn't fun anymore.
The Brave Do Not Fear The Grave