Originally posted by Yizle

Originally posted by Jakard

My understanding is that it's completely free and will be on the regular servers with no restrictions. I'm not really sure how they plan on making a profit aside from players basically deciding they want to help support the company by purchasing the game. But yeah, it's kind of nice to see somebody do "free" the right way.

I highly doubt it will be completely be free to play. They will add limits to classes/zones/content/inventory/skills somehow to get you to pay.

Untrue, they are completely doing away with the subscription fee model. If you want to spend money on the game, it will be through the in-game cash shop which will offer items like XP boosts, vanity pets/costumes and possibly some gear too.

Originally posted by Blazer6992

1. When is Aion going free to play?

2. Will it be like what EQ2 did with how they made the free version a whole different server and kept the pay to play on the original servers?

3. Will everyone on the current servers be going free to play too?

4. What exactly WON'T I be able to do in the free version that others can do if they still pay?

 

1. The only timeframe they've given us for going "F2P" is spring of 2012.

2. There will be no restrictions on F2P Aion. You actually won't have the option of a monthly fee. Everyone gets the game for free. They will be making money through an in-game cash shop. If it's the same as the Lineage 2 Cash shop, people who spend their money on it won't really have an advantage in PvP. Don't get me wrong, there is gear that you can buy in the cash shop, but the gear is easily acquirable through other means and it's the same stuff everyone else would be using. Plus XP boost items to help you level more quickly and vanity items.

3. Yes, everyone will be going F2P

4. Nothing. Everyone will have the free version and there won't be the option of paying a monthly fee. As stated previously, you will have the option of buying in game items from the vanity shop.

Unfortunately, people with bad attitudes generally like to make themselves heard more than people with good attitudes.

Couple that with the way that humans as a whole seem to focus on the nagitive things and there ya go. For instance, you very rarely see stories on the news that are happy or cast things in a positive light. Negativity gernally garners all the focus in today's society.  Please don't take this offencively, but you are a perfect example yourself. You have focused in on the negative posters and have found that they cast all GW2 fans in a negative light.

Fortunately, there are a lot of decent people out there who just read the thread don't feel the need to attack someone based on their personal views. Just try to be positive. I know it's difficult when everyone else is throwing all that negativity around and when those who are positive, don't make themselves heard.

Originally posted by Uzleb

 

You hit the nail on the head Jelly.   =) 

1.  Keeping us informed.  [doesn't mean they have to tell all]

2.  More info would be nice [the simplest of things can go a long way]

3.  Win/Win if done properly. [they've done everything else right, im sure they could handle this]

 

Think at it this way, just like they don't want to release a half-assed game. They don't want to release information/screenshots about the game thats only going to get a luke-warm reception.

If I were the developers, I'd wait until I have something for people to salivate over.  Some screenshots they could see and information they could read that would blow their minds and leave them screaming for more. Much like you are now.

Your pleads for more will go unanswered until they have something worth showing you, that much I cam guarantee.

Originally posted by earthhawk

1. You posted that the servers would be down from 2am - 2pm... it's 9:30pm. You are 7 HOURS overdue.

2. Why the hell would you try to patch 1.2g?? Seems like someone is scrambling to compete with the success of  WAR (yeah, the game you ripped your ideas from).

3. Your website AND  forums are both inaccessible! So how do we find out what's wrong with the game??

With the 1.2 BILLION dollars you made last year, funny how none of that went into make the technology of the game better. Oh well, fortunately I have a WAR account. Guess I'll go play a game that's up AND running.

 

 

 

1. The servers are coming back up at 2pm PST. Thats on the west coast of the United States, so the time zones play a big factor there.

2. A 1.2gig patch is not that big of a deal. They don't need to compete with WAR, I'm sure the 10.5 million people who play WoW are enough of a user base for them to have no worries at all.

3. I have no problem accessing their website, but yes you are correct on the forums part. Whenever I have trouble logging onto their servers, I also cannot access the forums. That is a LONG standing problem that should have been addressed long ago. I do agree with you on that part.

Originally posted by kookcmoi

You do not understand or maybe you are those paid (for reacting so fast) to censor.

Don't you understand simply that anyone should be able to give his opinion? And no it will not spam forums. Have you ever had a statistic class at school to understand what is a representative list of voters ? never heard that in an election we say only the top whatever will vote otherwise it will create spam.

And i do not agree with your non factual, non measured idea of vocal minority. Best proof is that it is probably my first post in a forul since many years.

Anyhow this does not change the FACT that WAR is over rated because of COMMERCIAL reasons.

Well in the US we use an electoral college system for voting in the presidential elections. I would say thats a kin to saying only the "top whatever" are allowed to vote. Because in the end, its what the people with the electoral votes end up doing with their votes. The person with the popular vote can lose by a large margine.

All you in the US, I'm am NOT telling you not to vote. By all means get out there and cast your vote! It is very important. It lets the people who do have a say, know who you want in office. Usually the people with the electoral votes end up siding with the popular vote. So your votes DO count.

They won't do it because they cannot.

LA is pulling some of the strings here. Its not entirely SOE's call. Thats the problem when you use someone else's IP, they get to have final say on whats in the game.

It saddens me that everyone blames SOE for the downfall of this game when its not really all their fault.

Join a guild and do things with your guild maybe?  WAR is a game that really does promote being in a guild.

Maybe their servers have the ability to take care of 10k people online and doing battle in one spot. However our PCs are quite a ways away from being able to display all this information on our screens.  Even if their server clustering technology can handle it, our PCs can't.

So in short, who cares? Its not going to matter to us until several years down th line when our PCs can display this information in a timely manner.

So even IF, what they are claiming is true, there will still be lag, its not going to be their fault though. Its just that your machine or bandwidth can't handle the information needed to display 10k people at once.

This guy can't be serious.

First of all, you want these games to have a very high level of "realism"  Shooting guns and hitting targers 100s of yards a way may be accurate in real life. But its not fun or fair in an online game. Sitting on a hill and waiting for people to walk by in the distance and then shooting them while they can't even see you is not a mechanic that should exist in any game.

Perma-death... Where to begin...  Everyone has died in MMOs. People work hard on their characters and eventually develop a sort of a "bond" with them, then they make a mistake and die and lose everything they've spent months getting... No, this is not a good MMO mechanic on any level. People often play games to have fun and get away from reality. Not to similate it.

As your definitions of Alpha and Beta testing...

Alpha testing is testing the implamentation of the UI, you are correct in that statement. However the game concent is also being tested in alpha and by the time Beta comes around, the game is nearly finished and should not have any large additions or changes. (Of course things can always happen. I.E. A mechanic in the game does not work well or is not fun when being used by a large population.)

Beta testing is the testing of the game for bugs, glitches server stress and the like. There will not be a lot of new content added to the game.

As for saying that "Any Skills based character system that allows anyone to get good at everything - is a BAD system."   - That is purely your opinion.   These systems allow people who are less skilled or have less time to play the game to be competitive with the skilled players or people who have no jobs...  Sounds to me like you're someone who thinks you're better than everyone else and is tired of being killed by other players.

MUCH of your post is purely opinion, and many of your other statements are incorrect. Please don't pretend to be a game designer or tell others how to do their jobs. You clearly lack the necessary skills to do so.

You may be very knowledgeable about the internet, different computer languages and things to that nature. But these game companies are out to make a game that is most of all fun. Now I realise that people have different opinions on what is fun.(like you think permanent death is fun) However most people agree on a few things that are NOT fine.  Perma death in a video game being one of them. Unfair advantages being another.

I do agree with you on one very important point that you made though... And this is a very, very large point.

They are concerned about profit!  Yes, profit is what makes the world go round and the reason for just about EVERY business venture. The programmers themselves are not the ones so concerned about profit, its their bosses. The ones pulling the strings, and the investors most of all. The game HAS to make money, and to do that, It has to be fun.

Originally posted by Drennen

Skill is a I win when its put on someone running away from your group, run and die or....  stand still and die, which one?

Maybe you should try to not get yourself into a situation where you're running away from a whole group of people.

Well, sad to say... But WoW has all those things except for the "Not cartoony looking" part.

Yeah, and it had better have come a long way since then. It looks horrible.

I enjoyed this game for quite a while...

Even though I don't play it anymore I always hate to see an MMO shut down. Its bad for the business.

There needs to be as much competition as possible.

Originally posted by kit1986

Originally posted by bodypass

As for the WAR fanboys posting here:

Pity but on amazon Germany, UK and even US now, the new WotLK expansion outsells that other game by a wide margin already - 7 weeks before launch.

 

Probably because WoTLK is the EXPANSION of a game that already has 10,000,000 players and Warhammer is a brand new game? ? ? ? ? ?

Finally someone who understand...

So many people say "Oh WotLK is outselling WAR and its only an expansion!"  Well thats because WoW has a pre-existing 10 million + player base to sell WotLK to, WAR has no player base because its a brand new game, so naturally it will sell much more quickly than WAR.

People just don't seem to understand how this stuff works.

Originally posted by Magiclight

AoC would be a good game if it is a single player game but not a MMO.

 

As a MMO, it probably make lots of money already in the first month than a sinlge player game, right? So it accomplish its mission! It is a successful game

It may have made more money than a single player game, however it also costs MUCH more to make and then there are also the costs of upkeep.

So I personally would not consider it a successful game at all.

Originally posted by Brenelael

The only thing that will beat WoW is time. Eventually it will get old and fall out of popularity. This may be many years in the future however so don't expect it to happen any time soon.

 

Bren

I agree completely, the onlything that could "beat WoW" is time.

I'm looking for a good FFA PvP game.  I like WoW and am currently playing it, but I prefer open world FFA PvP.

*crosses fingers*

By the end of the post I was starting to wonder if the OP and I are even playing the same game... His experience is totally different from mine.

Originally posted by URNotMega

The slow leveling speed was the only reason my girlfriend and I stopped playing this a while ago... I don't think we ever got past 20 except for on the test server where leveling was increased a ton =P

I may resubscribe to check it out, question though... My box is from The Chaotic Chronicle... would I have to buy an expansion (or more?) to get up to date?  Or could I just resubscribe for a month and be able to jump right in after downloading the patches?  I haven't paid much attention to L2 since I quit... the grind was just too much for me back then.

Just re-sub and download the patches, then you'll be good to go.

All L2 expansions are free.  I wish every MMO would adopt this model.

Also, would someone please send me a recruite a friend invite for L2. I want to return to L2 and start a new character, and I figure someone may as well get credit for it.