One of the main draws for FFXI for a lot of the people I know is the fact that the game was harsh and challenging.   With great challenge comes great reward and sense of accomplishment.   The devs have stated that in many ways FFXIV will not be like FFXI, and may be a game that is very casual friendly.   If the game is overly casual and easy, then I think FFXI may still have a strong appeal for the type of MMO player looking for a more hardcore PvE experience.

A decent article, and I agree to an extent.   I feel the same should also be applied to MMORPG reviews.   As a blogger on this site I have written a lot of both, and I find the best thing you can do is try to give a fair presentation on what is good and bad about a game in the eyes of it's target audience.  If you read a review of an MMO, you have to factor in the reviewer's preferences.   If someone who prefers theme park games reviews a sandbox or reverse, you won't be getting a fair understanding on the game.

This is one of my beefs with the review system in place here on MMORPG.com.   I think instead of having one reviewer of unknown backround and bias write a review about a game, there should be a variety of reviews so that people can identify which reviewer best fits their MMO philosophy.  Then the players can rate the various reviews as being helpful or not so that people can understand if a game like Aion (highest scored MMO on this site) is deserving of its score.

As a blogger on this site, I have written extensively about many of the games I have played, some which fall on opposite ends of the MMO spectrum (Aion and Darkfall).   The good thing is any reader seeking information from me has a history of articles to read over to understand where I am coming from to reach my conclusion, but they lack that sort of information with the official reviewers on this and other sites.

As a blogger who has done extensive writing on Darkfall, and often had been accused of being a shill, I have to say that this may not be a good idea for the blogger.  Putting a banner like this on your page pretty much puts you on the take and sells out any objectivity you blog might have had for $10.  I weathered all kinds of accusations despite never receiving anything for any of my writings on any game, but then again I try to be fair.

A lot of blogs out there however do not try to market themselves as such, and may find this to be a good opportunity.  If you are a die hard fan of a game, and everyone knows it, then I suppose it's up to the blogger if they want to go down this road.   For me personally, I don't think I could do it.  At the same time I don't blog for money, just a hobby to me, but a lot of others out there do it for a financial incentive and already have various ads on their space.

For AV it's an interesting strategy that should be interesting to see how it plays out.   I think a lot of may end up interpreting this as desperation, while some others might find this to be a good way to viral market.  A lot of companies have "recruit a friend" programs that often times offer free play time, which is similar to financial incentive in a pay-to-play game.  It should be interesting to see how this plays out and see if it actually turns out to be an effective advertising tool or ends up burning bloggers for becoming shills or salesman for their game of choice.

The crashing makes the fortress fights unplayable to a large portion of the population.  If you can't participate or keep crashing, then you can't get medals, which means never being able to pursue the end game gear, which means little reason to keep playing.

It's amazing after all those beta weekends they didn't find this out before launch.   Maybe they should have given people Abyss level characters in beta to properly test the abyss performance at sieges instead of making people grind in beta before they could test, they might have found this out sooner.   That being said, this should have been or needs to be hot fixed immediately.  The fact that this is still happening for almost 2 months will cause the game great damage.

Boasting those box sales numbers are a joke when it comes to MMOs, and I would argue they are setting themselves up to shoot themselves in the foot like the other games did.   When happens when people find out that a game sold a million boxes but there isn't a lot of people playing hypothetically?   People will figure out retention rates and realize that the game did not live up to the hype.   The only reason I can see for boasting sales numbers is to present an image of being a successful game hoping to attract more people.   They are playing the same dangerous game that Mythic and Funcom played.  

Originally posted by Mrbloodworth

Originally posted by Paragus1

Regardless of the merits and flaws of Darkfall, I strongly feel the official MMORPG.com review system is extremely flawed and riddled with inconsistencies.  I think the staff should strongly reconsider a new system because the current one has pretty much zero credibility in the eyes of most of the people who visit the site.  It is sad when a site like this one can sum up any game, be it a theme park or a sandbox style in game in under 2 short pages.

 

Please learn to speak for yourself. You are not the community, the group, "most people", the viewers or any other plural version of a word.

Just a note, its is BECAUSE of darkfalls merits and flaws it has received the rating it has.

So fast to jump down my throat as usual, did you see me contesting the rating given to Darkfall?   I was simply saying that there a ton of inconsistencies if you look over the official reviews on this site, and there is good reason they aren't taken seriously.   Are you trying to tell me that most people put a lot of stock in the official reviews on this site?  Aion is the best MMORPG of all time according to this site's criteria.

Regardless of the merits and flaws of Darkfall, I strongly feel the official MMORPG.com review system is extremely flawed and riddled with inconsistencies.  I think the staff should strongly reconsider a new system because the current one has pretty much zero credibility in the eyes of most of the people who visit the site.  It is sad when a site like this one can sum up any game, be it a theme park or a sandbox style in game in under 2 short pages.

I really don't like item malls if the items purchased in them give advantages in the game.  If they want to charge real life money for fluff items that don't really do anything, I don't really think it's a cause for getting upset.  If they cross the line though down the road, I think people would be justified in being upset.

Increased quest exp is nice, but there frankly aren't enough quests in the 40+ range.    Why does only the fortress owning legion get rewarded for defending?

I just finished a write up the takes a constructive look at some of the issues in Aion that has led to much of my guild stepping back from the game.   I'd love to hear community thoughts and feedback on the topics. 

You can find it HERE.

Thanks!

Level 42 here, look right.   From what I have heard from someone who is 49, this chart seems to match what he told me as well I think.  Chances are these are accurate numbers.

Originally posted by Vinterkrig

it is a zerg fest, that is all

Only zerging I have seen so far is during a fortress fight, but what else would you expect in that situation?   The rest of the time, PvP seems to be small scale.

Originally posted by tanoril

I actually thought Paragus had a better/more detailed review of the game since he touched on post 25+ more.  By reading that review he'd probably rate it an 8 which is probably where the game falls.  I'm actually surprised that the game got reviewed so quickly, normally it takes much longer for this site to put a review for a game out.  I think the reviewer is correct that Aion becomes almost a different game post level 25.  Perhaps we can have a review that specifically focuses on that part of the game since everyone who plays Aion has developed the slogan 'Wait until level 25'.

Thanks for the kind words.  So far I have written 3 articles about Aion, one from 1-10, another from 10-25, and my most recent one covers 25-40ish, as I am currently a level 40 ranger.  I personally think a lot of the MMORPG.com official reviews are a little light in the loafers.   I wrote more about the level 1-10 game than the official reviews did in his entire review.   I still stand by my suggestion of having MMORPG.com completely redo its review system by having each game reviewed by multiple people so that readers can not only get a wider array of opinions, but have a better chance of finding a reviewer with similar MMO background as them.

Originally posted by tanoril

One of the more interesting things I've found out is as you get further in the game as far as abyss ranking goes, the penalty for death becomes much harsher the higher level rank you are.  One example I've seen (perhaps someone can verify) was if you were a high rank, you amount of AP per kill was fairly low but one death could potentially wipe out a whole day's worth of AP. 

The higher you go in Abyss rank, the harder the deaths hurt you.  The amount of points you gain from killing someone I think depends on their abyss rank as well as their characters level.  There is a chart somewhere that breaks down the points per kill and death at various ranks.

Originally posted by Dana

Remember everyone, 8.7 is the school equivalent to a B+.

A good score, but not epic.

I agree.   I'm not big on assigning numbers on games because I know a lot of people have different tastes when it comes to this genre.   The game is solid in terms of gameplay and polish, and it's probably the first time in a while NA has seen a game that didn't feel unfinished at release.  The grind will be turn off for a lot of people, and others won't mind it.   If I had to give it a number I'd probably have given it somewhere between an 8 to 8.5, but I can understand how some people would not rate it as high.  I don't think it deserves any higher though until they really get a grip on the gold spammer, bots, and some siege performance issues.

Originally posted by SgtFrog

had no idea you played Aion, always thought you where the darkfall guy.

I've done a few write ups on Aion if you click my sig.

Decent write up, but I think some of the game's short comings have been glossed over a bit too much in this review.    I agree for the most part with much of what was said, the game is solid and polished. I think people should be warned about a leveling curve that gets fairly steep in the 30's.  This makes me wonder what level the author reached before writing this.  The amount of exp needed to level ramps up dramatically and the number of quests available does not.  While not everyone thinks this is a bad thing, it is definitely worth mentioning considering the amount of debate in various communities about it.

My pros and cons.

I did a write up on Friday about some of the games strong and weak suits.  You might find it useful...

CLICKY

It's been a few weeks since the North American launch of Aion, so I put together a write up about my impressions of various aspects of the game so far. 

You can find it HERE.

Thanks.