Disclaimer: Ok, its an assumption. If the game is growing please enlighten me.

I have been reading the Aion forums from time to time and read many oppinions on the game. However I have the impression that the playerbase is slowly being reduced.

When Aion launched it was hailed as one of the most polished MMO releases in a long long time and the fans were besides themselves over how good it ran and how much fun it was.

Nowadays there is not much positive feedback. From what I read Aion has a couple of problems

1) Grind - many enjoy it, while even more people hate it.
2) Bots, hackers, goldspammers, etc aka - illegal activity.
3) Poor customer service
 

Now my question to the community is:

Will this decline stop? And if so, how can it be stopped?

Originally posted by Aceundor

Disclaimer: Ok, its an assumption. If the game is growing please enlighten me.

I have been reading the Aion forums from time to time and read many oppinions on the game. However I have the impression that the playerbase is slowly being reduced.

When Aion launched it was hailed as one of the most polished MMO releases in a long long time and the fans were besides themselves over how good it ran and how much fun it was.

Nowadays there is not much positive feedback. From what I read Aion has a couple of problems

1) Grind - many enjoy it, while even more people hate it.
2) Bots, hackers, goldspammers, etc aka - illegal activity.
3) Poor customer service
 

Now my question to the community is:

Will this decline stop? And if so, how can it be stopped?

2 - 3 months after a games release, most of the people who are going to leave will have done so, its entirely normal, people try a game, and they either like it, hate it.. or eventually get bored of it..   and if you find the secret of how to stop it... im sure there are game companies out there who are willing to pay for that information

The secret to keep people in this game are:

• No fly limits. I think a lot of people got angry over that. All the hype with wings etc. Can it be fixed? No,  don't think so.
• Less grind.
• Better system against farmers and other cheating people. Other games can stop it, so why not the asian games?

Based on Xfire - the game went from 90000 hours played daily to 18000, which is an 80% drop of activity.

Originally posted by Thillian

Based on Xfire - the game went from 90000 hours played daily to 18000, which is an 80% drop of activity.

Yep everyone uses xfire while playing especially when they are in the abyss and/or doing some siege...

Originally posted by Thillian

Based on Xfire - the game went from 90000 hours played daily to 18000, which is an 80% drop of activity.

Using Xfire as a source for subscription numbers = complete fail.  IMO Anyone who uses Xfire numbers to say how a game is doing, loses all credibility.  Now, if you were using the Xfire numbers simply as one aspect of user/player decline, that's cool, it is a form of data, just no where near properly accurate.

On a side note, I agree that the subscriptions are declining.  My sub was cancelled and ended just last week.  However, I'm not an Xfire user so my account would not have been considered in their numbers anyway!

A huge problem with Aion is the overall PvP design, combined with the very steep leveling curve.

In Aion, higher level players do have a real advantage in damage output, stats, skill sets and gear. That should be enough of an advantage. However, the game also has a hidden evade/resist roll for the higher level player that increases with every level of difference. When you have an automatic miss rate of  ~50% vs. an opponent six levels higher and they automatically resist 50% of your skills/spells (maybe higher depending on their actual Magic Resist stat), you aren't really going to have a chance unless your opponent is having some serious issues.

This isn't just a problem for the lower level player. It makes for very boring PvP for the higher level player as well. When most challenging fights occur with in a very, very narrow level range, most fights are going to be very lopsided to one side or another.

That alone may work in some games, but not really in Aion. Why? First, you can't see the level of your opponent, so even if you prefer to pick fights with someone who might provide a challenge, you can't. Second, the game forces wide level ranges into contact with each other. The PvE enabled zones are basically level 20-40 and 30-50, while the Abyss is open to levels 25-50 through out it's entire expanse.

In the past, the outcome of the overall design (many details I am skipping over), was open for real debate. However, we have now had time to see how things have actually panned out in practice.

Rift enabled PvP, (in opponent PvE zones) has actually turned out to be fairly balanced for the defending players. Sure, there is a chance you might get ganked from time to time, but it hasn't become a massive, continuous slaughter of lowbies that some predicted. However, there is still a lot of room for griefing, by those who wish to grief and balanced, challenging fights are still fairly rare. It is possible for smart players to efficiently grind Abyss Points (PvP currency) via rifting, but it becomes just that, a Grind, rather than a fun, challenging pursuit.

The Abyss is much worse. Even though full of PvE content for the entire level 25 to 50 level range, it has become fairly empty. Level 45+ characters once freely ganked lowbies here, even when the rewards were next to zero, with such enthusiasm that they basically have driven most players from the Abyss entirely. Most of the lower level prey being gone, most of the higher levels have left as well. Of course, the dedicated griefers remain, spending hours a day patrolling the Abyss for anyone who's PvE hunting habits indicate a griefable player.

What is supposed to be the nexus for cross faction conflict has become a ghost zone, with most activity relegated to the narrow time windows each day when Fortress sieges can take place.

Lower level and casual players were the first rank to see people leave en masse, due to the frustrations of the PvP system (and the leveling grind). Now, we are starting to see increasing numbers of higher level players leaving out of boredom.

Yes, the game design was more "hardcore", "we deserve to have one fantasy MMO that doesn't cater to casuals", etc... However, with many casuals gone due to frustration and many hardcore players leaving out of boredom, who did this design end up serving?

The sad thing is that PvP, when fairly matched, is very fun. If they had designed the world PvP system to limit cross faction contact to narrower level ranges, Aion might have been a complete blast.

It's not like it's a mass exodus. During the first free month (and perhaps the second month) it lost a lot of players, which is to be expected. Since 2 months however the population has stabilized somewhat. It's gaining subs and losing some (I think it's losing a bit more than gaining actually).

Nothing out of the ordinary has happened. Except that compared to most if not all MMO starts post-WoW, it has been the most successful and that IS out of the ordinary, even though that's not saying much.

Adding more content and making PvP more accessible are the main things they should be working on. I think just NEWS or some patch notes about this would go a long way to tip the curve so that it starts increasing.

The grind is too much for a lot of players apparently as well, seeing as server activity rises a lot (to a point where it's frankly annoying) on dble exp weekends.

We're gonna start having live events which might play a part in increasing activity as well, rumor says it's not that far off, at least that's what I'd like to think! xD

All in all most servers are still very healthy and population isn't really an issue. I just wish the devs would give us more info concerning... well anything, especially upcoming changes/patches/events etc.

Originally posted by Zyrena

Originally posted by Thillian

Based on Xfire - the game went from 90000 hours played daily to 18000, which is an 80% drop of activity.

 

Using Xfire as a source for subscription numbers = complete fail.  IMO Anyone who uses Xfire numbers to say how a game is doing, loses all credibility.  Now, if you were using the Xfire numbers simply as one aspect of user/player decline, that's cool, it is a form of data, just no where near properly accurate.

On a side note, I agree that the subscriptions are declining.  My sub was cancelled and ended just last week.  However, I'm not an Xfire user so my account would not have been considered in their numbers anyway!

Originally posted by Zyrena

Originally posted by Thillian

Based on Xfire - the game went from 90000 hours played daily to 18000, which is an 80% drop of activity.

 

Using Xfire as a source for subscription numbers = complete fail.  IMO Anyone who uses Xfire numbers to say how a game is doing, loses all credibility.  Now, if you were using the Xfire numbers simply as one aspect of user/player decline, that's cool, it is a form of data, just no where near properly accurate.

On a side note, I agree that the subscriptions are declining.  My sub was cancelled and ended just last week.  However, I'm not an Xfire user so my account would not have been considered in their numbers anyway!

Xfire numbers are a decent trend indicator, and certainly seem to indicate a declining subscription base.

Another indicator might be something I've observed on my server (US Trinel) just in the past week, the prices for lower level gear and materials if falling rapdily, so much so that items that I sold a few weeks ago for 700K I had to unload for 100K.  And this isn't just one thing, Adamantium used to sell easily for 950-1000 each, but now the price is down to 600. 

This isn't an isolated case, across the board it appears that there are far fewer new players to buy stuff up hence the rapid price drops.

On the other end of the spectrum, the price of 40-50 items is skyrocketing, with items up for bid routinely selling for 15-22 M in the chat channel.

Another thing, the number of gold farmers appears to be way down in the low level areas as well, and the price of gold on the major sellling sites has skyrocketed to well over 6.00 per 1000. (either due to NCSofts efforts to restrict it, so many players are buying it to pay for the very expensive items in game)

So yes, the game is defintiely reaching a maturity model we've seen with almost all MMO's outside of WOW and EVE, a huge number of people give it a go, 75-80% quit and leave the game somewhere betwween 150-300K subs.

 see my post here 

www.aionsource.com/forum/lumiel-east/97214-hot-heart-magic-miragent-fenril.html

That is why the majority of people I've known have quit, as well as myself.

There are people that have done that quest 10 times and failed.

Originally posted by Kyleran

 

So yes, the game is defintiely reaching a maturity model we've seen with almost all MMO's outside of WOW and EVE, a huge number of people give it a go, 75-80% quit and leave the game somewhere betwween 150-300K subs.

 

 

Which is about where it should be.

The people who play Aion at this point are people who, for the most part, enjoy the style of game that it is. I love the somewhat harder lvling curve though truth be told it's so easy compared to L2 that it is extremely hard for me to commiserate with those who come from easier games.

I love the game design and I know others that do as well. Players that come from easier games are just not going to warm up to Aion.

Originally posted by Pocahinha

Its another asian mmo disguised...it can fool the players for only a certain amount of time...

Originally posted by Sovrath

Originally posted by Kyleran

 

So yes, the game is defintiely reaching a maturity model we've seen with almost all MMO's outside of WOW and EVE, a huge number of people give it a go, 75-80% quit and leave the game somewhere betwween 150-300K subs.

 

 

 

Which is about where it should be.

The people who play Aion at this point are people who, for the most part, enjoy the style of game that it is. I love the somewhat harder lvling curve though truth be told it's so easy compared to L2 that it is extremely hard for me to commiserate with those who come from easier games.

I love the game design and I know others that do as well. Players that come from easier games are just not going to warm up to Aion.

hehehe.....

I say the exact same thing about Fallen Earth. :)

Really, I know there was an article here on MMORPG.com that cited saying this as only a dismissal of criticism, but.....some games really are NOT made for everyone. I wish people could just get over thinking that every single game needs to be made for them, personally, and that they have been somehow slighted by the gaming gods if they don't LIKE a game....lol.

I just found it very hard to get groups..

Had a legion, but that all fell apart after the first month...   Even with other legions Gladiator class was hard to get groups with.

I'll wait for an expansion or something and try this game again, I did love it.  But solo grinding was more than I could bare

Originally posted by fiontar

A huge problem with Aion is the overall PvP design, combined with the very steep leveling curve.

In Aion, higher level players do have a real advantage in damage output, stats, skill sets and gear. That should be enough of an advantage. However, the game also has a hidden evade/resist roll for the higher level player that increases with every level of difference. When you have an automatic miss rate of  ~50% vs. an opponent six levels higher and they automatically resist 50% of your skills/spells (maybe higher depending on their actual Magic Resist stat), you aren't really going to have a chance unless your opponent is having some serious issues.

This isn't just a problem for the lower level player. It makes for very boring PvP for the higher level player as well. When most challenging fights occur with in a very, very narrow level range, most fights are going to be very lopsided to one side or another.

That alone may work in some games, but not really in Aion. Why? First, you can't see the level of your opponent, so even if you prefer to pick fights with someone who might provide a challenge, you can't. Second, the game forces wide level ranges into contact with each other. The PvE enabled zones are basically level 20-40 and 30-50, while the Abyss is open to levels 25-50 through out it's entire expanse.

In the past, the outcome of the overall design (many details I am skipping over), was open for real debate. However, we have now had time to see how things have actually panned out in practice.

Rift enabled PvP, (in opponent PvE zones) has actually turned out to be fairly balanced for the defending players. Sure, there is a chance you might get ganked from time to time, but it hasn't become a massive, continuous slaughter of lowbies that some predicted. However, there is still a lot of room for griefing, by those who wish to grief and balanced, challenging fights are still fairly rare. It is possible for smart players to efficiently grind Abyss Points (PvP currency) via rifting, but it becomes just that, a Grind, rather than a fun, challenging pursuit.

The Abyss is much worse. Even though full of PvE content for the entire level 25 to 50 level range, it has become fairly empty. Level 45+ characters once freely ganked lowbies here, even when the rewards were next to zero, with such enthusiasm that they basically have driven most players from the Abyss entirely. Most of the lower level prey being gone, most of the higher levels have left as well. Of course, the dedicated griefers remain, spending hours a day patrolling the Abyss for anyone who's PvE hunting habits indicate a griefable player.

What is supposed to be the nexus for cross faction conflict has become a ghost zone, with most activity relegated to the narrow time windows each day when Fortress sieges can take place.

Lower level and casual players were the first rank to see people leave en masse, due to the frustrations of the PvP system (and the leveling grind). Now, we are starting to see increasing numbers of higher level players leaving out of boredom.

Yes, the game design was more "hardcore", "we deserve to have one fantasy MMO that doesn't cater to casuals", etc... However, with many casuals gone due to frustration and many hardcore players leaving out of boredom, who did this design end up serving?

The sad thing is that PvP, when fairly matched, is very fun. If they had designed the world PvP system to limit cross faction contact to narrower level ranges, Aion might have been a complete blast.

 

Great assessment of the problems of the game.   At the end it doesn't cater to anyone.   I would like to add the hatred between the 2 styles of players the hard-core PvE and PvP and how the disharmony at the end destroys a community and game.   When PvE crowd gripe about how PvPers grief kill them while harvesting, questing or even grinding.   Then in turn, some PvP-types start to call them namese like carebear and other things, tell them to stop crying or GTFO of the game.   So guess what, they actually do end up quitting the game.   The PvP crowd, end up with much less targets.    Then like you said, they too end up extremely boerd.   Kind of like cutting thier own throats, but some of these people (PvPers) unknowning destroy the game for themselves by the name calling and griefing in-game and in forums.

The game is just ... boring.  The repetitive grind design simply wears thin on most players.  Even the crafting is designed as a boring grind, time & kinah sink.  It is also very linear, killing the replay value.  Finally, the end-game is nothing to write home about which makes the leveling grind kinda pointless. 

I liked some parts of the game but overall it got very boring.

Originally posted by Aceundor

1) Grind - many enjoy it, while even more people hate it.
2) Bots, hackers, goldspammers, etc aka - illegal activity.
3) Poor customer service

     4) drop rate is very bad

     5) being full PVP all the time where ever you are at sucks

i played it for 2 months it was most boring MMO i've played in my life.. i had 4 friends who were going to buy it i talked them out of it or as i like to call it saved them from the worst MMO mistake of their life's....

Originally posted by Sovrath

Originally posted by Kyleran

 

So yes, the game is defintiely reaching a maturity model we've seen with almost all MMO's outside of WOW and EVE, a huge number of people give it a go, 75-80% quit and leave the game somewhere betwween 150-300K subs.

 

 

 

Which is about where it should be.

The people who play Aion at this point are people who, for the most part, enjoy the style of game that it is. I love the somewhat harder lvling curve though truth be told it's so easy compared to L2 that it is extremely hard for me to commiserate with those who come from easier games.

I love the game design and I know others that do as well. Players that come from easier games are just not going to warm up to Aion.

I'll have to agree, the leveling curve in Aion is nothing compared to L2, especially the first year or so it was out.  (nor is the death penalty)

The game will appeal to a certain segment of the market (I still play regularly) and the rest will move on in search of a title that more suits their playstyle.

Originally posted by Thillian

Based on Xfire - the game went from 90000 hours played daily to 18000, which is an 80% drop of activity.

Xfire has one of the worst reporting/rating systems ever. Also they represent an extremely small player base, so that also skews the info they put out. The player base for xfire is in the lower age ranges mostly under 25 and even 25 is a stretch