But really, how can you copy so much from WoW and then excepct a huge success? WoW is WoW and no copycat will topple it so devs better get their shit together and start being innovative.

You can't be innovative when there is so much $ at risk when developing an MMO.  The economy is horrible and investors who put up the millions of dollars would rather the game sell boxes well and collect the first few months of subs.  I don't think game design is limited by the imagination of those working on it, but instead by the budget they are allowed to work with.

So until dev companies aren't on the verge of bankruptcy you might as well stop hoping for anything ^_^/

Originally posted by junzo316

Yeah I'm going to have to agree with others in saying this game won't have a good retention rate.  I think we seen the peak of its population and its only going to keep falling.

Hehe retention rate, I thought you were referring to the ability of remembering how to play the game over time xD.

Damn you HCI course!

When is the first month over?

Originally posted by rav3n2

When is the first month over?

I thought it already been a month out.

Didn't aion launch on 16th for europe and 12th for us?

Originally posted by bloodaxes

Originally posted by rav3n2

When is the first month over?

 

I thought it already been a month out.

Didn't aion launch on 16th for europe and 12th for us?

You are probably right, well I can tell you Perento EU is still alive and kicking alot of ppl around, can barely move around in eltnen.

Originally posted by rav3n2

Originally posted by bloodaxes

Originally posted by rav3n2

When is the first month over?

 

I thought it already been a month out.

Didn't aion launch on 16th for europe and 12th for us?

 

You are probably right, well I can tell you Perento EU is still alive and kicking alot of ppl around, can barely move around in eltnen.

Yea now that I'm in the no channels part in aion the latency sure did go up, towns are flooded with people and let's not talk about the auction house lol

Unless NCSoft are doing things differently, server list capacity comments are usually a reflection on the numbers of characters created against the total envisaged capacity, regardless of who is logged on or off.  It is not usually a reflection on how many are playing at that very moment in time versus the server capacity.

A server is noted as "recommended" is in no way a guarantee that people are leaving.  Increased server capacity and people jumping servers can effect it as well.

Originally posted by Tarka

Unless NCSoft are doing things differently, server list capacity comments are usually a reflection on the numbers of characters created against the total envisaged capacity, regardless of who is logged on or off.  It is not usually a reflection on how many are playing at that very moment in time versus the server capacity.

A server is noted as "recommended" is in no way a guarantee that people are leaving.  Increased server capacity and people jumping servers can effect it as well.

I think the status of the server just changes as the current online population changes, I remember logging in at like 3 or 4am once and Perento was recommended. Dont quote me on this tho I might have been drunk.

Originally posted by bloodaxes

Originally posted by rav3n2

When is the first month over?

 

I thought it already been a month out.

Didn't aion launch on 16th for europe and 12th for us?

24th over here for oceanic players, not counting headstart.  So 2 more days till our first month is up...

Originally posted by arctarus

Originally posted by bloodaxes

Originally posted by rav3n2

When is the first month over?

 

I thought it already been a month out.

Didn't aion launch on 16th for europe and 12th for us?

 

24th over here for oceanic players, not counting headstart.  So 2 more days till our first month is up...

 

 

28th is the last day of the pre-orders free play month  for the US.
 

ncsoft mistakes the american audience as a whole when dealing with the playstyle of a MMO.  In general you are not going to keep our attention for that long of a window to grind the same mobs to death.  This type of success/failure has been proven time and time again with other MMO releases.  Major changes need to take place that will not due to NCSoft's previous history that have been documented in previous posts in this topic.  I myself made the mistake in drinking the Koolaid, I just wish I could get my 60$ back :-(

I've certainly noticed fewer players on my server.

Originally posted by scodavis

12:30am CST

When i logon on to Aion (EU) all servers showed full, i logged off and logged back in several hours later and i also got  the same screen as the one above, it's just a glitch thats all. I can assure you night times are far busyier than day time.

Take no notice of this crap that people write.

I bet my house that this game will continue to fluris, by christmas every dam spoilt little brat will be playing it and with any luck will piss off back to WoW within a week.

Originally posted by Yamota

 

Doubtful. Europeans rarely have this "we" and "them" mentality (atleast not on the internet). That is because Europe consists of so many different countries and nationalities.

And it is not about having an american equal, it is rather the notion that somehow "we" would be very different from koreans. They have a highly developed and civilized (and also west influenced) society and I dont see how "they" are much different from us. Certainly not from Europeans but for americans, I dont know.

Regardless, Aion has been released all over the world and not just US and Korea.

  Of course! Who am I to question your knowledge of Asian culture; you are, after all, a samurai.

Originally posted by Cognoman

I actually liked tabula rasa, and if given the choice, I would pay for TR instead of Aion.

The good thing with Ncsoft is that they gave me Aion ce edition free cause i subscribed to TR till the end. 

Get real. Even if Aion is bad, TR was just plain awful.

Originally posted by Yamota

Originally posted by junzo316

Yeah I'm going to have to agree with others in saying this game won't have a good retention rate.  I think we seen the peak of its population and its only going to keep falling.

But that is pretty normal these days. Apart from Eve very few MMORPGs have retained the subscribers that they had during the first month.

AoC, WAR and now Champions Online lost a massive number of subscribers after the first month (judging from XFire for CO but for actual subscriber numbers from AoC and WAR which had over 700k copies sold but then dwindled down to less than 300k).

The answer is simple. The games have nothing new and innovative so after the first honeymoon month people realise it is the same old stuff they have seen in other MMORPGs and get tired of it and moves on. I really haven't seen anything spectacular and innovative in Aion so it will follow the same pattern as the other games.

Mind you a game can still be succesful even though it shows a steep decline, WAR has reportedly 250k subscribers now, and that is in no way a failure, it is just not a success that they expected.

But really, how can you copy so much from WoW and then excepct a huge success? WoW is WoW and no copycat will topple it so devs better get their shit together and start being innovative.

I agree, I don't think it will be a failure.  In fact, it's doing extremely well in Asia.  I just don't think it will do as well as NCSoft West thought it would do.  I see it doing as well as L2 in the west, which is nothing to scoff at, but far less than they were expecting I'm sure.

Originally posted by Yamota

And it is not about having an american equal, it is rather the notion that somehow "we" would be very different from koreans. They have a highly developed and civilized (and also west influenced) society and I dont see how "they" are much different from us.

They have a different culture, different level of competitiveness and place importance on different aspects of gameplay.

Point and click movement in Asian MMOs isn't so much because of any type of optimization as it is to facilitate playing with one hand. Customization of the height of cheekbones and the furrow of a brow aren't in Asian MMOs because Asian players don't find that stuff important. I'll see if I can find the article about the Westernization of Granada espada. It was a great look into the diffrences in east and west gamers, with a lot of information on how much a game needs to be changed if it is to be ported to the NA/EU audience.

Originally posted by LynxJSA

Originally posted by Yamota

And it is not about having an american equal, it is rather the notion that somehow "we" would be very different from koreans. They have a highly developed and civilized (and also west influenced) society and I dont see how "they" are much different from us.

 

They have a different culture, different level of competitiveness and place importance on different aspects of gameplay.

Point and click movement in Asian MMOs isn't so much because of any type of optimization as it is to facilitate playing with one hand. Customization of the height of cheekbones and the furrow of a brow aren't in Asian MMOs because Asian players don't find that stuff important. I'll see if I can find the article about the Westernization of Granada espada. It was a great look into the diffrences in east and west gamers, with a lot of information on how much a game needs to be changed if it is to be ported to the NA/EU audience.

That's sounds like an interesting read.  I'm always fascinated by other cultures, and the way they view things compared to the west.  I have an friend from China who always pauses before he speaks (I found it quite annoying and finally asked him what the deal was)  He said that people in China usually like to think before they speak, to get their thoughts in order.  I found that fascinating.  We in the western world could learn a lot from our Asian counterparts.

Anyway, sorry for that off topic rant.  I look forward to reading the article.  =)

Originally posted by Yamota

Mind you a game can still be succesful even though it shows a steep decline, WAR has reportedly 250k subscribers now, and that is in no way a failure, it is just not a success that they expected.

Uh,  no. There is no way Warhammer has 250,000 subs now. Nothing even close to that. The 'official numebr at the end of December was 300,000.

If it has more than 100,000 now, I would be VERY surprised. I would not be surprised if it was less than 50, 000.

I wouldn't be surprised if it has over 100k, but even so that's an incredible drop from the 800k it started with.

Originally posted by junzo316

Originally posted by LynxJSA

Originally posted by Yamota

And it is not about having an american equal, it is rather the notion that somehow "we" would be very different from koreans. They have a highly developed and civilized (and also west influenced) society and I dont see how "they" are much different from us.

 

They have a different culture, different level of competitiveness and place importance on different aspects of gameplay.

Point and click movement in Asian MMOs isn't so much because of any type of optimization as it is to facilitate playing with one hand. Customization of the height of cheekbones and the furrow of a brow aren't in Asian MMOs because Asian players don't find that stuff important. I'll see if I can find the article about the Westernization of Granada espada. It was a great look into the diffrences in east and west gamers, with a lot of information on how much a game needs to be changed if it is to be ported to the NA/EU audience.

That's sounds like an interesting read.  I'm always fascinated by other cultures, and the way they view things compared to the west.  I have an friend from China who always pauses before he speaks (I found it quite annoying and finally asked him what the deal was)  He said that people in China usually like to think before they speak, to get their thoughts in order.  I found that fascinating.  We in the western world could learn a lot from our Asian counterparts.

 

Anyway, sorry for that off topic rant.  I look forward to reading the article.  =)

Thinking before you speak (that short pause) is a lack of social skills really. It subconsciously shows a person does not have the knowledge to express a thought without messing it up by using ideas that do not convey the thought properly, or perhaps using curse words when there is no need to.

You can spot this very easily when interacting with friends and the opposite sex generally. You can tell that a lot of immigrants from Asian countries have a hard time attracting Western women because they dont have the flow or swagger that Westernised Asians have (who can pick up any women).

Its related to the perception of natural  conversation,  making everyone socially comfortable around you, and have fun. This does not mean say whatever comes to mind - like stupid s**t - but be respectful and throw ideas out there naturally. 

I know these are generalizations and this is completely off-topic, just giving my opinion that certain Eastern traits should be left where they are.

I find the stereotyping quite offensive. It's not that asians are lacking any sort of social skills when they pause before speaking but rather they would order their thoughts first to avoid saying something that might offend you. That's the difference between westerners and asians. In western society speaking your mind is encouraged, in fact everyone can be as blunt as they are and people would say whatever crap that comes into their minds. But this is in fact the opposite in many asian/chinese cultures where courtesy (actions) and words can make or break your image. Traditionally in chinese culture a gentleman is someone who thinks first before speaking and only a wild or uncultured man would say/do whatever is the first thing that comes into their minds.

Originally posted by chaosngn

 

.And launching a World Event just the day before everyone's 30 days run out. Joke number 5.

 

Yes, you are correct. NCSoft created Halloween just to keep subs.

This made me LOL

Thanks

If people are leaving in droves, good on them.  That makes it much better for those that want to stay and play.  Less griefing in the PVP areas and more PVPVE which is what was intended with AION.  Each side is supposed to struggle against eachother which is PVP however, each faction is also supposed to gain control of strategic targets thereby bettering their faction's chance of gaining control of the parts of the world that aren't claimed by any side yet.

This should mean epic battles instead of the PvP most players are used to seeing which is fighting solo v solo, group v group, or guild/legion vs guild /legion.  I can't wait to see the epic battles that are basically RvR with NPC controlled PvE mobs thrown into the mix.  Yeah I know DAoC already did this but they didn't have flying! :)

Originally posted by RendRegen

Originally posted by Cognoman

I actually liked tabula rasa, and if given the choice, I would pay for TR instead of Aion.

The good thing with Ncsoft is that they gave me Aion ce edition free cause i subscribed to TR till the end. 

Get real. Even if Aion is bad, TR was just plain awful.

TR was great.  No gold spammers, no need to bot, better wpns and nicer powers.   The classes they have are similar to the classes Global Agenda is using and everyone I know wants to play Global Agenda.