As one of the person enjoy playing MMORPG in asia, I wonder that AION can gain popularity in U.S.

Do you think that AION will be succes in US?

As watching and estimating pre-video and screen shot so far, is it enough for gamer's to get attention and to enjoy?

Wating for your freely opinion and any comment.

I think it will be successful enough.  There are too many MMO players that hate the asian art style, and anything coming out of asia for that matter.  Still, I know there are many people that love the style, and others who will put up with it if the gameplay is good.  Personally, I love the style and prefer it.  I just hope I have fun in the game, which is what's the important.

It'll be successful enough in the U.S. Some hate the Asian art and sounds, while others are just looking for a new and fresh game. However, only time will tell how successful the game will be.

They will definatly make money in the US

Box sales yes, continued subscriptions no.

Originally posted by Elsabolts

Box sales yes, continued subscriptions no.

Any MMO can do decent in box sales in the US. It's a nation of gamers that preorder a game at the slightest hint of a trinket, won't touch a game unless it charges them monthly and starts begging for info on when they can buy the next expansion within a month of release.

I think what makes that the most entertaining is that they are the gamers most likely to say they won't play a Free-to-play MMO because they cost too much.

Is the game already released in US?

It will have a lot more success for NCsoft than any of the Richard Garriot games if that is what your wondering.

not yet, sept 22 is the US release date. The servers open on the 20th for pre-order head starts.

Originally posted by patrikd23

Is the game already released in US?

Nope, still has another beta event to go.

Originally posted by Mathrone

Originally posted by patrikd23

Is the game already released in US?

 

Nope, still has another beta event to go.

So what people are saying is pure speculations based on the fact what they think themselfs?

Originally posted by namelessbob

It will have a lot more success for NCsoft than any of the Richard Garriot games if that is what your wondering.

I think you need to single out WHAT games you mean by "Richard Garriot games", because if you mean the entirety of his work, that is clearly not true.

I'm assuming you are refering to Tabula Rasa.

Originally posted by patrikd23

Originally posted by Mathrone

Originally posted by patrikd23

Is the game already released in US?

 

Nope, still has another beta event to go.

 

So what people are saying is pure speculations based on the fact what they think themselfs?

No, it's because people have been playing on Korean and Chinese servers, and through the NA beta.

It should top games like WAR and AoC. Also should be NCSofts biggest P2P game in the US. WoW killer or any of that other crap its not going to happen. But I think it will do just fine and will for many years to come. People need to keep their expectations in check because I think thats partially why people are disappointed with other games.

Originally posted by Elsabolts

Box sales yes, continued subscriptions no.

Completely agree. I think it will sell a very large amount of boxes, but I dont think it will do well in the long run at all, for many different reasons. From my own perspective, Ive preordered the CE. I think it will give me 3-4 months playtime, max.  Im not unique in my playstyle or in my mmo track record. I think Im being pretty realistic as far as western gamers, their expectations and how Aion plays. /shrug

Originally posted by LynxJSA

Originally posted by Elsabolts

Box sales yes, continued subscriptions no.

 

Any MMO can do decent in box sales in the US. It's a nation of gamers that preorder a game at the slightest hint of a trinket, won't touch a game unless it charges them monthly and starts begging for info on when they can buy the next expansion within a month of release.

I think what makes that the most entertaining is that they are the gamers most likely to say they won't play a Free-to-play MMO because they cost too much.

 

one day you will realize you can swap out US for South Korea, China, Europe, etc. as what you said could easily apply to any commercial market worldwide with a heavy gaming population.  Nice try tho.

It will do better in the US than L2 did.  The timing of the release seems to be good so they might get some strong initial sales.

Is there  long term appeal, who can say.

---

Originally posted by Kyleran
It will do better in the US than L2 did.  The timing of the release seems to be good so they might get some strong initial sales.

---

To be fair, considering how terribly L2 did here, that really doesn't say much.

Personally, my projections pulled straight from the ether are 300k-500k tops. Which is a shame becuase while we all raise all this hooplah about massive eastern subs, there's little money there. The majority of MMOs cash in in USA/Europe, where they can charge for the box and sub fees are much higher.

WoW just lost more than half of its subs (China), yet it probably didn't effect their bottom line more than 5%.

There are less Americans than Europeans in L2

I think the Americans will prefer WoW cause it's an US game, they are patriotic. Plus, most of the racist comments I see about the asians are made by american posters, and there are [asians] in Aion.
 

[Mod Edit]

Originally posted by Nilenya

Originally posted by Elsabolts

Box sales yes, continued subscriptions no.

Completely agree. I think it will sell a very large amount of boxes, but I dont think it will do well in the long run at all, for many different reasons. From my own perspective, Ive preordered the CE. I think it will give me 3-4 months playtime, max.  Im not unique in my playstyle or in my mmo track record. I think Im being pretty realistic as far as western gamers, their expectations and how Aion plays. /shrug

I agree. The game will do well initially because of the hype and the fact it isn't WOW and also that games that have focused on PVP and promised a lot (AOC and WAR for example) are doing poorly.

Continued subs? I am not sure. I think the game will suffer from three major problems.

First, there is the issue that it is a NCSOft game. That is not a bad thing but historically, NCSoft games have been very grindy and repetitive. By this, I mean it involves doing the same task over and over and it becomes monotonous after a while. In Lineage 2, it was leveling which took a long time (compared to other games at that time).In COH/V, it was running missions for experience. I think it is just part of their design philosophy and while it does draw in a lot of initial subs (because its cool and different), it does grow old fast.

The second thing I think that will draw people away is that the game has much more of a focus on PVP than many realize. For example, read the FAQ on this very website. It says you can basically play the game like you want and avoid PVP totally. This is obviously not true with the Rift system unless when a Rift spawns you run away. For many, they will not understand this (its not entirely clear even on the Aion website) and it will drive them from the game.

The third and final issue will be a massive in-balance at the end-game. The reason I say this is because, historically, games with only two sides (like WAR) have a very hard time with balancing. The secret to DAOC's success was a playable 3rd faction. Now I know that Aion has the NPC 3rd faction but I do not think it will be the same. I still expect that each server will start fairly balanced but over time, the population on each server will be drawn to one side or another. Soon servers will become known as server for "that" side. People will naturally gravitate towards one side and then the server becomes poorly balanced and the problem only exacerbates itself.

I think another problem, on a smaller scale, that the economy will hurt the game as well. There are two games coming out (Aion is one of them) that I WANT to play. If I had a lot of money, I would try them. However, due to the economy, $50 is a lot right now and I am not going to run out and buy ANY game that I am not 110% sure about. The only game I have bought this year was Ghostbusters. So I think a lot of people, who are on the fence about any game (much less Aion) are going to be less likely to try it for this reason. Right now I am subbed to a couple of MMO's but even that will change soon and drop to one. I will most likely start playing a lot of old single player games that I have. I do not expect this to be a lot of people but I think some will choose not to subscribe for this reason.