Regardless of whether you're a fan of Aion or if you vehemently hate it. Try to be objective with your opinion here.

Do you think this game has what it takes to hold up long-term and actually be a Top-3 MMO (in terms of subscriber numbers in the west - US, EU, etc)?

Or will it be another game that a bunch of people buy and then leave and they end up doing server merges only a few months after launch?

We've seen plenty of MMO's come out over the last year that have ended up doing server MERGES only months after release... Will Aion finally be a game where they have to add new servers due to the ever-growing numbers? Or are a bunch of people about to just buy a box because of hype and marketing, only to cancel before the free month is up?

Once again, please, try to be objective, whether you hate the game or love it. How well do you think it will do in terms of subscribers and it's place in terms of the mmo popularity list long-term?

To be perfectly honest, AION is essentially World of Warcraft, they didn't really come out with anything so new and revolutionary that it will pull people who have a lot of time and energy vested in WoW away from WoW. Some people will leave for a change of pace, but they will most definatley come back - and then there are the variables, people whos friends go back, they'll go back to follow them, or they will make new friends who love AION. But in reality, I see people sticking with WoW untill something radically new comes out, like TOR or Blizzards "Next-gen MMO."  Either that, or the graphics will become so outdated without any updates from Blizzad it will be unbearable to play.

I think it will compete because I believe the game will retain most of the players it gets, there will be alot of people who leave after realease, but it won't be the mass exodus that other recent MMO's have seen. The Sub retention rate will be high mostly because the game is finished,  its not like NCSoft ran out of money so pushed the game out the door and plans on using our sub money to finish development.

Some people just won't like the games pvp element, and thats fine, they will leave and go find a game that is right for them but the PvP fans who want objectives and goals in world PvP have found a new home.

 aion itself isnt gona be enough 

it will do as good as aoc or war ,maybne even guildwars  for say 3 month

by then it depends on 1 thing .THEIR TRUMP CARD

if ncsoft have somekind of  interaction with player trough rp tournament,live even a la athene(worldofathene.com)

then yes it will probably pass wow very easy

but if they just let the game iteslf do the grunt of the work 

you will be putting this game along the very good game in your shelf 

title like age of conan or even better warhammer online 

Originally posted by Baseline

Do you think this game has what it takes to hold up long-term and actually be a Top-3 MMO (in terms of subscriber numbers in the west - US, EU, etc)?

Or will it be another game that a bunch of people buy and then leave and they end up doing server merges only a few months after launch?

You present only two options - compete with WOW or fail. Can you link to where they ever said their goal was to compete with WOW... in any market?

Yes it does have the possibility to have staying power for the long haul. Calling Aion a WOW clone is like calling WOW a EQ clone, they vary in differences, even though the both take parts of what's out there and claim it as its own.

Aion won't be for everyone but it will have a large subscriber base to sustain it.

Compete with WoW in the north american markets? No.

There are a lot, I mean a lot, of people who detest pvp.

 I think some of the wow player base are to afraid to hop off of the gear treadmill to try anything out. Step off for a couple months and your a couple tiers behind. Ive seen people say ''im gonna try it but i will play both so i dont miss raid nights in wow''. I had no plans at all of even trying it because to me it looked like wow 3.0. That opinion went right out th ewindow after i played it for a week. I played wow for probably 4 years and despite being a well developed game it has become a game i just dont feel like playing anymore. I played it for a year or 2 longer than intented because of friends. The sounds in the game are annoying. The type of people it is attracting are annoying. The elitist bullshit in that game with acheivements and gear tiers are annoying as well. What happened to playing games for fun. In the last year or so ive played wow i noticed people only do things related to gear.  ''what do i get for it'' , ''whats in it for me'' , ''how much honor?'' ,''what kind of tokens drop'' collectem all collectem all collectem all ,heh

Originally posted by LynxJSA

Originally posted by Baseline

Do you think this game has what it takes to hold up long-term and actually be a Top-3 MMO (in terms of subscriber numbers in the west - US, EU, etc)?

Or will it be another game that a bunch of people buy and then leave and they end up doing server merges only a few months after launch?

 

You present only two options - compete with WOW or fail. Can you link to where they ever said their goal was to compete with WOW... in any market?

 

 

Lynx, every MMORPG competes with WoW, and WAR, and AoC. It's all the same market, and if a product comes out and can't compete, it fails. Take for example Tabula Rasa (as awesome as it was), it was competeing against WoW, EVE, and some other pretty name MMORPGs. It just couldn't compete, it didn't have the marketing and end game content it needed. Although, they were really pumping out content.

In the end, those are the only two options, compete or fail. Be it against WoW, AoC, WAR, EVE, or any other MMORPG.

 It's hard to see any of the other games when your chasing that [Gear on a Stick].

No..It will not. Its not even because its a bad game. The reason is you have so many young people playing W.O.W who will drive W.O.W until the wheels fall off. World of Warcraft did an outstanding job of advertising its product. My two nephews have been playing W.O.W since it first came out and they still love it. I played it also when it launched and i loved it. Their friends love W.O.W, some of my fellow soldiers out here in Iraq even play W.O.W on super slow connections. W.O.W is a great game for people who dont know about other games and what those other games do better( or worse). As long as other games dont advertise in the mainstream media i dont think other games will be able to hang and be as famous. I'm just saying. BTW i dont play W.O.W anymore but i enjoyed it for a long while.

 Looking at this from a forum point of view, forum goers are generally the more serious MMO gamers which is a minority.

This forum alone it seems like more people are against the game than for it. Outside of this 'serious gamer crowd' or whatever you would like to call it a lot of people have no idea what Aion even is or that it even exists.

So no I don't think the game will do even as good as it is being predicted. I think it will do a little better than warhammer did but that is about it. The title Aion isn't a big enough franchise name to have a huge following.... say compared to games like Starwars, Final Fantasy, or Warcraft. You generally need to use a franchise that has a huge name that gamers and the mainstream are already familiar with in order to generate huge followings.

I think it will do well in the US/EU. Will it compete with WoW in the sense that it will also have millions and million of subscrubers in the US/EU? Probably not, but I do think it will have a healthy subscriber base that equals games like Lord of the rings online, if not surpass them.

The game already had 300k pre - orders. From what I have seen of the game thus far, unlike Warhammer and Age of Conan, this game will actually be able to keep players interested. It doesn't reinvent the wheel but what it does it does well. It's a well polished game.

So will it be in the top 3 or top 5? I think it will.

"the game already had 300k pre - orders"

Warhammer Online had 500k preorders, and after 30 days, the subscriptions dropped drastically.

Aion's success in my eyes depends on ease of leveling combined with PvP polish. If the pvp in the game is garbage or frustratingly unbalanced in anyway, I think people will give up quickly and head back to the WoW Juggernaught.

not being a troll, just stating my expected outcome.

Originally posted by Morgaren

Some people just won't like the games pvp element, and thats fine, they will leave and go find a game that is right for them but the PvP fans who want objectives and goals in world PvP have found a new home.

+1

PvP players going to stay long on Aion but I see many PvE players leaving soon after getting ganked over & over

I think the game will fade away, so no, I dont think it will compete with wow long term. It might have a chance short term for like 1-3 months tops. To be honoest I think the next big mmo will come from a unknown developer from a company trying to expand into the MMO market. Or maybe the old Lineage 2 team.... These days its best to wait until open beta before putting any money into a game... just my 2 cents.

Originally posted by FTYG

Originally posted by Morgaren

Some people just won't like the games pvp element, and thats fine, they will leave and go find a game that is right for them but the PvP fans who want objectives and goals in world PvP have found a new home.

+1

 

PvP players going to stay long on Aion but I see many PvE players leaving soon after getting ganked over & over

 

I love Pvp, and I cancelled my pre order. So no not all PvP players will stay long. I know alot that ditched their pre order, that all like PvP. We were all long time DAOC fans and think any comparison to that game is laughable. I can see some that have only read what the end game PvP offers can think it s like DAOC, but having played some of it, myself the all around concept , especially that stupid Balaur npc faction??????, it s not even close.

I don't think this game really has any hope of truly competing with WOW long-term. Aion basically took WoW's combat style and many other game mechanics, but forgot some of the most important elements.

1. Aion has a noticeably rougher level grind than WoW. Not surprising for an Asian MMORPG, but this will alienate the casual crowd who currently play WoW.
2. Aion has an Asian anime look and feel to the game. This is a good thing in my opinion, but many western gamers will be put off by it and will not invest in the game long-term as a result. The characters all have a bit of a feminine look to them which is a big negative to some gamers.
3. Aion has far fewer class/spec customization options. In WoW, you have your talent spec, enchantments, gems, and glyphs. All of these things can help you differentiate your character and allow you to play according to a preferred style. Aion's characters are all much more cookie-cutter in comparison.
4. Aion has only 2 starting areas. This will make people bored very quickly when rolling new characters and will prevent many from doing so long term. In comparison, WoW has different starting zones for every race and multiple zones to level in at every range.
5. WOW has massively more PvE content and all of it is more polished than Aion's.

For all of these reasons, I don't think Aion will contend with WoW in the long run. This is not to say that Aion will not be successful. I predict that it will see great success like Lineage 2 did. But I seriously doubt that it will be a true contender for the top spot.

No it won't last..

WHY? Because it's nothing special.

Same old same old..

No, it may land a big market in Asia, but don't think the hype will last past the 30-day trial in the EU or States.

I see it following Tabula Rasa imho.

Originally posted by Anubisan

I don't think this game really has any hope of truly competing with WOW long-term. Aion basically took WoW's combat style and many other game mechanics, but forgot some of the most important elements.

1. Aion has a noticeably rougher level grind than WoW. Not surprising for an Asian MMORPG, but this will alienate the casual crowd who currently play WoW.
2. Aion has an Asian anime look and feel to the game. This is a good thing in my opinion, but many western gamers will be put off by it and will not invest in the game long-term as a result. The characters all have a bit of a feminine look to them which is a big negative to some gamers.
3. Aion has far fewer class/spec customization options. In WoW, you have your talent spec, enchantments, gems, and glyphs. All of these things can help you differentiate your character and allow you to play according to a preferred style. Aion's characters are all much more cookie-cutter in comparison.
4. Aion has only 2 starting areas. This will make people bored very quickly when rolling new characters and will prevent many from doing so long term. In comparison, WoW has different starting zones for every race and multiple zones to level in at every range.
5. WOW has massively more PvE content and all of it is more polished than Aion's.

For all of these reasons, I don't think Aion will contend with WoW in the long run. This is not to say that Aion will not be successful. I predict that it will see great success like Lineage 2 did. But I seriously doubt that it will be a true contender for the top spot.

Yet for all these reasons, and this is by no means a flame, the fact is that WoW's players are bored.  It's the same old same old for an old and over used model.  Aion doesn't stand to gain so much because it's revolutionizing the MMO world with some sort of new model for combat, pvp, pve, etc., but instead stands to gain because WoW for a very large crowd which is getting larger by the month is too much of the same to continue to throw money at any longer.  At least Aion is a new and interactive story line in a new world with some unique aspects to it.  I don't care how polished WoW is (which took time btw),  the fact is that Aion is really polished as well because of the time taken in the asian market which means you're pitting one well polished game based in a setting that's become played out vs. another polished game which offers a new setting, story line, etc....the chance to explore something new will win every time.

I've preordered the Aion collectors edition a while ago and I'm really excited about it. I've tried both closed- and open beta and it sure does look promising. But I also played WAR at launch and saw how fast it died, I myself cancelled my account after the 30 day trial and I fear Aion will suffer the same fate. Something in my guts tells me this game won't last long on the western market, but we'll see. Hopefully I am wrong :)

Originally posted by nickelpat

Originally posted by LynxJSA

Originally posted by Baseline

Do you think this game has what it takes to hold up long-term and actually be a Top-3 MMO (in terms of subscriber numbers in the west - US, EU, etc)?

Or will it be another game that a bunch of people buy and then leave and they end up doing server merges only a few months after launch?

 

You present only two options - compete with WOW or fail. Can you link to where they ever said their goal was to compete with WOW... in any market?

 

 

Lynx, every MMORPG competes with WoW, and WAR, and AoC. It's all the same market, and if a product comes out and can't compete, it fails. Take for example Tabula Rasa (as awesome as it was), it was competeing against WoW, EVE, and some other pretty name MMORPGs. It just couldn't compete, it didn't have the marketing and end game content it needed. Although, they were really pumping out content.

In the end, those are the only two options, compete or fail. Be it against WoW, AoC, WAR, EVE, or any other MMORPG.

Tabula Rasa didn't close down because it couldn't directly compete with WoW(its not much like WoW anyway) but because of internal problems and it was inevitable after launch.

I honestly am pisssed off with bs threads like this and how WoW players expect to be blown away with a NEW MMO release when they are used to gobs of content with a seemingly endless number of things to do due to SEVERAL YEARS of development and THREE EXPANSIONS. Don't you see how retarded that sounds? How do you ever expect a new game to not "fail" by your standards?

Originally posted by AramilDK

I've preordered the Aion collectors edition a while ago and I'm really excited about it. I've tried both closed- and open beta and it sure does look promising. But I also played WAR at launch and saw how fast it died, I myself cancelled my account after the 30 day trial and I fear Aion will suffer the same fate. Something in my guts tells me this game won't last long on the western market, but we'll see. Hopefully I am wrong :)

I have the contrary gut-feeling. So I think you are wrong. I hope Aion will rise to the 500.000 mark by the end of the year, in NA+EU.

Hope everybody will have forgotten what I said here by then, just in case lol

Originally posted by nickelpat

Lynx, every MMORPG competes with WoW, and WAR, and AoC. It's all the same market, and if a product comes out and can't compete, it fails. Take for example Tabula Rasa (as awesome as it was), it was competeing against WoW, EVE, and some other pretty name MMORPGs. It just couldn't compete, it didn't have the marketing and end game content it needed. Although, they were really pumping out content.

In the end, those are the only two options, compete or fail. Be it against WoW, AoC, WAR, EVE, or any other MMORPG.

Aion will surely do well in competion with WAR, AOC, and EVE.  It'll have a few hundred thousand NA/EU subs, at least.  It doesn't even come close to having WoW's mass market appeal in the west, though.  On a number of levels, from mass market familiarity (e.g. from the makers of Warcraft, Starcraft, and Diablo!) to the degree and variety of content and polish WoW started with -  all the fluff that makes a game look like a decently fleshed out game to the average player who isn't really all that familiar with the MMORPG genre, and how normal it is for MMOs to be lacking in anything but barebones levelgrind material.