Considering how little they had to chose from maybe AION was the best game of 2009, I cant think of another title that was better.  I rank Aion at 5 on a 10 scale, because it really isnt very good.

An apropriate award title would be; most hyped least retention able comparatively - award of 2009 goes to AION.

Taken from the article:

The game, which was a little bit rough around the edges at launch, is already showing signs of the improvement and growth that are so important for a game of its kind.

The first months have been spend trying to improve on the Spam/RMT/botting issues which they were totally unequipt for at the start. - If you rate that as improvement and retention failure as growth, then I guess in your Alice in Wonderland world, the article is correct in this aspect.

As far as I am concerned, Aion was the biggest dissapointment of 2009, and I based my expectation on NCsoft generated hype. Another good example of how hype can kick its own ass and the companys too in the process.

Played Aion to around lvl 42 the realized how bad the grind was going to be to get 50 and quite.

I dont feel it was the time it took to get to lvl 50 it was the way they expected us to get there, ie grind with next to no enjoyable content. This may be ok in Asia but as most logical people can see from various boards and most of the Aion population not being 50, we dont like it here!

Killing the same mobs over and over is a brain dead game play what ever way you spin it.

AION LOL !!!

I might be finding myself a new MMO site to read. How a EQ clone that adds nothing new to the MMO genre can win is beyond me. Seriously.

True, and fair.

Originally posted by Admin

Originally posted by xion12121

Originally posted by Admin

Originally posted by etikilam

Originally posted by Admin

b) While we did sell some Aion advertising in 2009 the campaign came out to 2.2% of our 2009 advertising sales, and believe it or not  - Fallen Earth did just a little bit more than that.

 

And how much money did you get for all the other ncsoft titles? How much do you expect to get for all their future ones? Your statement is very misleading.

 

The real heart of this is not what % of advertising we do with NCSoft (which is really small compared to other clients) but that it would be completely stupid and foolish to risk our/my reputation by influencing the editorial team as the owner and person who books advertising.  This site has been online for the better part of 8 years.  We have had many different editorial staff and had we practiced policies like this you would have heard about it with facts by now.  If we did this then somewhere, someplace there would be some staff member who would have leaked this about us.  I would not risk letting this website go down the drain to make a few bucks on an ad deal - purely from a business perspective this would be a idiotic practice.  And again, my team members have a long career to think about - getting caught up in something like this would ruin them, and they would not allow me to do it even if I were as evil as you think.

Again, if you find conspiracy theory fun, then go ahead and carry on - there is really nothing that I/we could do to convince anyone who is set on this mindset otherwise.  The fact remains that there is zero proof of what is claimed other than you disagree with our editorial team so therefore the results must have been paid for.  All fact and history points to this website being honest and ethical and I take pride in this fact and the way we have structured the business to prevent this.

 

                What leads people to believe it is a conspiracy theory is not that it one best of the year but the huge coincidence that this site gave Aion the highest rating out of any mmo. It's pretty ironic that WoW( yes i went there) which has so many subscribers has attained a score lower than Aion. You can call it a conspiracy theory. I can call it a huge coincidence in the end it doesn't add up and when something doesn't add up it is not believable to anyone.

                 Another thiing is that sure each person has different opinions on whats awsome and whats not a good game. But people know a game's faults when they see it. When other gaming companies give an honest review and all companies give Aion a C grade level review and miraculously one company gives it a high score does that make any sense? I believe it leads to people not believing the review to be thought out in an appropriate manner.

                   About the game its starts off fun at the beginning but in the end the content is thin. it reminds me of when Age of conan launched and at high levels didnt have much content. We need sites to stop giving awards to whats the most popular game out there and start giving awards to the games that are polished with content and deserve it.

 

The "site" does not review a game - a single writer that we assign to the article determines that score.  Because they are MMOs we require that person to play the game 20-40 hours before writing.  While the Editor does read over the review, the Editor did not play the game that duration and generally does not have the wisdom to second guess the writer assigned the review.

It is not uncommon that reviews might be higher or lower than the average player feels the game deserves.  This happens at all major gaming sites like ours...it is just the nature of the beast and more so with MMOs I think.  I think that is the great thing about looking at reviews from many sites to form an overall opinion and not just looking at a numerical score, but reading the review and listening to pros and cons.

Again, please stop to think what would be at stake if we "sold" reviews or other editorial content on this site.  If this ever got out (and it would I assure you) it would ruin our reputation with our readers and with all other game companies - which would in effect destroy this website, which would be a loss 1000 times greater than any shady deal could bring us. 

I have actually played Aion for what might amount to 30 or so hours since launch, I think it is an OK game and I don't think it is a far stretch to say it was the best overall game launched in 2009 (not game of the year note this is a seperate award yet to come) - but still this was not my decision to make - it was the editorial team that will decide all the site awards.

So editor's choice is based on reviews of ppl who are required to play a game, not necessary aion, for 20-40 hours?

If thats true, do you really think this is an objective point of view?

In my opinion, reading through forums over the year, and awarding based on this experience would be a lot more representative.

Meh, I guess it's the best of 2009 but that isn't really saying much.

NCwest had a huge advantage with the game already being out for a year in Korea. They knew the problems that would occur. They should have been hard on spammers and bots from day one. Not 3 months after launch. Everyone predicted it, NC knew full on what was going to happen. They even knew which bot programs would be used, since people had spent the last year perfecting them. They lost a massive pile of accounts due to that crap.

I actually agree with the decision, but I'm not sure that it's due to how good Aion is that it won.  It's mostly because everything else wasn't that good.  I mean every MMO that launched this year was no better than average, some worse than that.  I think if you looked objectively at the beginning of the year, I think alot of people expected Champion's Online to be a bigger deal than it was.  Heck, I'm sure alot of people expected Aion to be a bigger deal than it was. 

At least 2010 has some more potential.

i agree with it being the best in 2009....

its a sad sad day though, that the bot ridden wasteland of Aion is the best thing put out.

MMORPG did keep their reasons for this limited in a very short post. I would have to say they are really just voting in the game that sucked the least, maybe. We hope as i'm sure MMORPG does also that 2010 will be a much better year for MMO's, crossing fingers.

not sure what they mean by unmatched visuals.  AOC hands down runs circles around AION both art wise and graphically.  Champion onlines graphics are on par also.

It's a good/fair choice, Aion is a good game dismissed all the trash comments around certain issues.

Just hope 2010 will bring the next gen MMOrpg, its time for some fresh air !

What a bunch of nonsense. Aion is a terrible game, it's a blatant rip off of WoW with nothing different but wings. Theres no trouble to tell NC soft slipped over some money to MMORPG.com for this favour . Darkfall deserves this award as it's the most innovative and fun MMORPG to be released in the past 10 years. let alone just 2009, what is wrong with you people.

Originally posted by xevanon

It's a good/fair choice, Aion is a good game dismissed all the trash comments around certain issues.

 

Just hope 2010 will bring the next gen MMOrpg, its time for some fresh air !

Yeah, lets ignore all trash comments about issues...no issues to see here, or anywhere, lets all settle on playing pacman and drive smartcars :P

Originally posted by Admin

The "site" does not review a game - a single writer that we assign to the article determines that score.  Because they are MMOs we require that person to play the game 20-40 hours before writing.  While the Editor does read over the review, the Editor did not play the game that duration and generally does not have the wisdom to second guess the writer assigned the review.

It is not uncommon that reviews might be higher or lower than the average player feels the game deserves.  This happens at all major gaming sites like ours...it is just the nature of the beast and more so with MMOs I think.  I think that is the great thing about looking at reviews from many sites to form an overall opinion and not just looking at a numerical score, but reading the review and listening to pros and cons.

Again, please stop to think what would be at stake if we "sold" reviews or other editorial content on this site.  If this ever got out (and it would I assure you) it would ruin our reputation with our readers and with all other game companies - which would in effect destroy this website, which would be a loss 1000 times greater than any shady deal could bring us. 

I have actually played Aion for what might amount to 30 or so hours since launch, I think it is an OK game and I don't think it is a far stretch to say it was the best overall game launched in 2009 (not game of the year note this is a seperate award yet to come) - but still this was not my decision to make - it was the editorial team that will decide all the site awards.

I know I have beaten this horse to death, but you guys really need to drastically change this site's system for reviewing games.  This is coming from someone who loves this site and has a lot invested in it.   There are radical inconsistancies with the scores given to certain games and frankly the depth of many of the reviews are severely lacking.  Aion getting the highest score ever received on this site is a testament to that, and it is sad when a site like Gamespot is nailing MMO reviews better than this one because most of the time they don't know wtf they are talking about.

Playing Aion for 20-40 hours may seem like a long time, but it really is not enough time to find out the major issues the game has because the early stages of the game are well done.   I find most of the people who gush over the game do so before level 37 where the content drastically dries up, and the exp curve escalates at a rate that is beyond imagination.  This is the case with a lot of the modern MMOs, where the late game really shows the flaws (see AoC classic).

The reviews for this site are written by people who by far and large have almost no credibility with the members here.  With the exception of Stradden and maybe one or two others, I don't think most people take them seriously.  You have these reviews written by people whose MMO background is unknown, and write maybe 2 pages and slap a score on it. 

People want to know what type of MMOs a writer favors, and what their views are on other games.  Reviews should be written by multiple people so that readers can identify which writer they can best relate to.   These games are not cut and dry and different MMO gamers have different tastes.

As far as selling reviews, I agree that accusation is complete nonsense and doesn't hold any merit here.  But please consider an alternate review system for the sake of this sites credibility.

Aion.. bahahhahah.... best... bahhahahah... mmorpg of 2009 bahahahahha

omg... I can't stop laughing. Are we talking about that game that just had a major bug and players suddenly received trillions of kinah? And they had to take the server down? It's not even a matter of an exploit or item duping, a seemingly random bug just triggered that in certain accounts in just 1 server. Guess weird coincidences really happen in Aion.

And this is not from an angry WoW fanboy. I pre-ordered, closed beta tested, open beta tested, subbed 1 month in that game. It's not the worst game of the year, far from that... but it's not the best of 2009 imho, even though it was a crappy year for mmorpgs and the other candidates weren't that great it still doesn't deserve the title.

Now just between us mmorpg.com staff, how much "kinah" did NCSoft put in your christmas stocking?? ;) just kidding....
 

I derived no enjoyment whatsoever from Aion.  It was very apparent to me that the game was made on the cheap.  Low investment, a lot of marketing, sell a lot of boxes from the hype and reap the profits.  I didn't like any aspect of the game and thought the graphics were very poor.  And that is not just a style preference, models and landscapes were poorly done, with very little detial.  I think people confuse lots and lots and lots and lots of intense color with beauty.

Yea I'll agree that Aion is unique in that the early game gives the player (reviewer) a much different look of the game than say post level 35, which I think is impossible to achieve in only 30 hours played.  It is no accident that a large amount of the playerbase burned out past that level due to the way the game is designed (Aion's own website reflects this).

That being said, I don't know what game I'd put above Aion as far as the year is concerned.  Champion's Online could of been that game but it wasn't.

Originally posted by tanoril

Yea I'll agree that Aion is unique in that the early game gives the player (reviewer) a much different look of the game than say post level 35, which I think is impossible to achieve in only 30 hours played.  It is no accident that a large amount of the playerbase burned out past that level due to the way the game is designed (Aion's own website reflects this).

That being said, I don't know what game I'd put above Aion as far as the year is concerned.  Champion's Online could of been that game but it wasn't.

mm 3% of player at 50 says it all .most leave before reaching it

i dont mind grind ,wow had ton and have ton of grind.but its made by different quest.no 1 quest repetable 100 time lol

im at lvl 22 and the xp curve start to rise first instance and those can literally kill you gold making and your lvl in order to progress.i ll will try to do those only one time for quest .as long as didnt touch elite it was a fine game.aside from the grind of crafting.but now the grind is starting to show up .some item are better baught at ah then farm it.kroll food anybody?

i went at it all night 1 dropped lol.

and to top it all some player would rater grind in elite area then quest.let me tell you once a week its ok .but grinding for xp all day long in elite nope no ty i d rater wallk to the end of the map in verteron and search for the elusive quest then that even if there are no fp lol

I played Aion in beta, and Fallen Earth in Beta and for 2 months after. Fallen Earth is the better new game. Aion is just another WoW clone. Pretty but boring. Fallen Earth failed to entertain me as well after a couple months leveling up to 30 or 40. But it should win for uniqeness alone. Granted that is all I played in 2009, since EVE Online is still the best MMO out there.