Originally posted by Josher

Why are the starter areas so small to need the channels in the first place?  WOW had different starter areas for almost every race which spread people out pretty well.  I was there on day 1 and never recalled waiting in line to kill anything.  WAR didn't have any channels either.  I was there on day 1 also.  Not a problem competing for anything.

If the channels are only needed in the begining, I can overlook it.  Instanced dungeon are expected.  But if the cities are channeled though like GuildWars, see ya.  Like plenty of others, it ruins immersion.  If its not persistent, its not immersive.  There should 1 city and thats it.  If you're by the front gate, then everyone should be by the front gate, not version 12 of it.  Luckily no one mentioned the cities being instanced=)

Not only did you have to wait to kill monsters, you also had to wait in line for 10-20 minutes on average before you could even get into the game.

Originally posted by pb1285n

Not only did you have to wait to kill monsters, you also had to wait in line for 10-20 minutes on average before you could even get into the game.

I've never had to wait, even on the Chinese servers.  Unless your playing on the free server, in which case... well duh, its free!

I'd much rather a queue than getting a "server busy, please try later" message.  Which btw you always get on an mmo thats just released.  (Fury server on AoC was a nightmare)

Originally posted by Locklain

Originally posted by Kordesh

 Urg, they're doing the whole instance/channel thing again? This is why I can never get into anything from NCsoft. Immersion is completely ruined and you end up with what amounts to "levels" as opposed to areas in a cohesive world. This is one of the (many) things that killed Tabula Rasa. To this day, I still refuse to acknoweldge Guild Wars as an MMO as the only thing persistant about its world is the character. Is it a solution to lag and server populations? Yes, but it's a cheap and half hearted one. We should be working toward reducing the number of servers, making worlds larger, and reducing the need for zones/instances (outside of times when instances are nessiary such as for dynamic story areas and the like). Instead, the industry seems to be taking a giant leap backwards with chunking up their tiny worlds into as many bits as they can. 

EDIT: And yes, it may be for the first few zones, but how much faith do you have that it won't be expanded on later on especially since this seems par for the course with NCsoft? Whatever, it's not like I planned on getting into this anyway with what it's become.

Complain because you can't see the other 10k people on your server sucking up your resources and complain that the game is laggy with so many people up in your face.  It is a never ending cycle of angry people that don't get their way, and for the first two zones!  Talk about drama queens.

Spot on conclusion.

Another thread created without thinking or knowing the full facts of an MMO the OP has admitted they haven't even played, reminds me when one of my children refuse to eat something they've never tried before, how the hell do you know  you won't like it if you haven't tried it?

Originally posted by qbangy32

Originally posted by Locklain

Originally posted by Kordesh

 Urg, they're doing the whole instance/channel thing again? This is why I can never get into anything from NCsoft. Immersion is completely ruined and you end up with what amounts to "levels" as opposed to areas in a cohesive world. This is one of the (many) things that killed Tabula Rasa. To this day, I still refuse to acknoweldge Guild Wars as an MMO as the only thing persistant about its world is the character. Is it a solution to lag and server populations? Yes, but it's a cheap and half hearted one. We should be working toward reducing the number of servers, making worlds larger, and reducing the need for zones/instances (outside of times when instances are nessiary such as for dynamic story areas and the like). Instead, the industry seems to be taking a giant leap backwards with chunking up their tiny worlds into as many bits as they can. 

EDIT: And yes, it may be for the first few zones, but how much faith do you have that it won't be expanded on later on especially since this seems par for the course with NCsoft? Whatever, it's not like I planned on getting into this anyway with what it's become.

Complain because you can't see the other 10k people on your server sucking up your resources and complain that the game is laggy with so many people up in your face.  It is a never ending cycle of angry people that don't get their way, and for the first two zones!  Talk about drama queens.

 

Spot on conclusion.

Another thread created without thinking or knowing the full facts of an MMO the OP has admitted they haven't even played, reminds me when one of my children refuse to eat something they've never tried before, how the hell do you know  you won't like it if you haven't tried it?

 

Uh, actually I have experienced both instancing and channel zoning in other MMO's before so I do know what it is like, and quite frankly I highly dislike it.

Originally posted by NeverLand7

Originally posted by qbangy32

Originally posted by Locklain

Originally posted by Kordesh

 Urg, they're doing the whole instance/channel thing again? This is why I can never get into anything from NCsoft. Immersion is completely ruined and you end up with what amounts to "levels" as opposed to areas in a cohesive world. This is one of the (many) things that killed Tabula Rasa. To this day, I still refuse to acknoweldge Guild Wars as an MMO as the only thing persistant about its world is the character. Is it a solution to lag and server populations? Yes, but it's a cheap and half hearted one. We should be working toward reducing the number of servers, making worlds larger, and reducing the need for zones/instances (outside of times when instances are nessiary such as for dynamic story areas and the like). Instead, the industry seems to be taking a giant leap backwards with chunking up their tiny worlds into as many bits as they can. 

EDIT: And yes, it may be for the first few zones, but how much faith do you have that it won't be expanded on later on especially since this seems par for the course with NCsoft? Whatever, it's not like I planned on getting into this anyway with what it's become.

Complain because you can't see the other 10k people on your server sucking up your resources and complain that the game is laggy with so many people up in your face.  It is a never ending cycle of angry people that don't get their way, and for the first two zones!  Talk about drama queens.

 

Spot on conclusion.

Another thread created without thinking or knowing the full facts of an MMO the OP has admitted they haven't even played, reminds me when one of my children refuse to eat something they've never tried before, how the hell do you know  you won't like it if you haven't tried it?

 

Uh, actually I have experienced both instancing and channel zoning in other MMO's before so I do know what it is like, and quite frankly I highly dislike it.

It's not exactly a bad thing, I can't see how it is. In the first two zones there is no World PvP, so theres no point for the instances to not be there. There won't even be channels a month after release, it's only there to ease people into the game. I joined a new server recently and you wouldn't have thought it was channelled, there just weren't enough mobs.

Now another way you could fix that is having more starting areas and more mobs. However why spend so much time developing areas where you spend only a week maximum in? Especially how much more it would suck when release is over, everyone is at the end game and the starter zone looks empty and barren?

Originally posted by NeverLand7

Uh, actually I have experienced both instancing and channel zoning in other MMO's before so I do know what it is like, and quite frankly I highly dislike it.

Id be interesting in knowing which MMO's you've experienced this in where you disliked it.

The only ones I can think of is Age of Conan, where I completly agree with you.  However, instancing wasnt the only reason AoC sucked, in fact the instancing for Conan was way down on the list of things I disliked about it.

And Guildwars... which, well, by their own admition isnt an MMO. (Competative online roleplaying game) its more likable to an online RPG like playing Diablo, dungeon siege or Titan quest.

So apart from these I cant think of any full-on mmo that was heavily using instance and channeling.

Originally posted by Martie

Originally posted by sadeyx

 

EQ2!!!! 

Yes it is heavily zoned, and instanced.  Loading screens galore.

But was it channeled?   I dont mind an instance so long as the game is good enough, but when its channeled and restricted to 50 people per channel.. that really sux!

And cmon, Everquest is ancient!  I think we can do them the courtesy and acknowledge them as ushering in the MMO genre from which most MMO's are based.  (even tho I didnt really play it much)

game is only channeled 1-20 zones, and you can change channel any time ,,

what would you rather have, ques and lag...or smooth gameplay..hmmmmmm

Originally posted by sadeyx

Originally posted by Martie

Originally posted by sadeyx

 

EQ2!!!! 

Yes it is heavily zoned, and instanced.  Loading screens galore.

 

But was it channeled?   I dont mind an instance so long as the game is good enough, but when its channeled and restricted to 50 people per channel.. that really sux!

And cmon, Everquest is ancient!  I think we can do them the courtesy and acknowledge them as ushering in the MMO genre from which most MMO's are based.  (even tho I didnt really play it much)

You can trust me it's not 50 people per channel here, when my korean server was released it was full, meaning 10k players, around 4600 asmodians rocking the first areas, and it had 12 channels, so...~383 people per channel if my calculations are right

Originally posted by Ephimero

so...~383 people per channel if my calculations are right

Which is *perfectly* acceptable!  In my opinion.

You still have the 'world' feeling, only very occasionally do will you need to change district and the lag is kept down.

Considering how beautifull Aion is, not to mention the awesome animations, this kind of channeling wont be effecting my gaming pleasure at all.

My main concern would be a lack of gameplay variety and content, which can be compensated with by addictive pvp :)

channels are only in the fisrt few starting zones l2r forums

Just think bout the 3 pairings in WAR, all pq's empty, seeing almost no other persons all your time pveing etcetc... I quess you like soloing more then the channels? ;)