World of Warcraft Forum » General Discussion » aion vs warcraft

AION will probably be a pretty good game, but I am not sure of the reception in the western world. In terms of mentality and  philosophical concepts there always great differences between west and east. Games that were huge hits in the east and solid in technical terms rarelly "made it" in the west.  There is just too much classical and medieval rooths pending on our subconscient.

Aion just got kicked in the nuts by FFXIV. It should still do fine but it looked alot better when people who would rather play FF didn't have any info or dates on it.

Competition is always good for the consumers. Monopoly or near monopoly is never.

I am not so sure that Aion will compete with Wow in sub numbers however but if it wont others will, like The old republic, World of darkness online and Guildwars 2.

Someone said: The future is like a baboons butt, colorful and filled with crap.

But I am an optimist and think the genre will evolve a lot in the next few years. That is however impossible as long as Wow is the only big western MMO.

First of all, nice trollbait title to the post, (even though its full of fail) it did its job and started really nice (and rather stupid) flame war, where two games, that have no real basis for comparison (having 5 years between them in a field where quantum leaps are made in just a few months) are debated upon.

Now if the arguments for/against were made in an objective manner, which i must admit a few of you have, it would make for a great read. But most of you just resort to the default, "XX million subs", "Carebare/Hardcore" "zomg gfx!" etc.

The op has been around the boards long enough to know that posting on another game's forum isnt gonna go well, specially when subject of leaving the said game is brought up. But i guess its par for the course these days, first it was AoC, then WAR, then for a brief period Darkfall and now its Aion's turn. 

Personally i really don't get why its so important to topple, kill or steal players from WoW when you think the game is bad. But i am not complaining. This rivalry is why i come here. If i wanted intelligent discussions on a particular game of interest, id rather go to a site dedicated to the said game.

Coz lets face it most of the discussions on these boards centre arround how many subs wow has lost since release, or how (insert new mmo here) will kill / be better / steal players from WoW. And this holds true for most of the other game boards here, specially the new ones coz when they do release, its payback time.

So thanks for filling the void left by Warhammer and Darkfall, Aion fans. Hope you guys stick around till its KOTRO's turn and the cycle is renewed....

I am NOT going to answer these "VS" Threads!!........... Wait!!! DAMMIT!

serious poll is serious

Originally posted by Loke666

Competition is always good for the consumers. Monopoly or near monopoly is never.

I am not so sure that Aion will compete with Wow in sub numbers however but if it wont others will, like The old republic, World of darkness online and Guildwars 2.

Someone said: The future is like a baboons butt, colorful and filled with crap.

But I am an optimist and think the genre will evolve a lot in the next few years. That is however impossible as long as Wow is the only big western MMO.

Isn't it odd that the supposed "WoW killers" or "competition" is/are more dangerous to each other than to global Wow subscriptions?

It's more War against Aion against FFXIV against XXX (just fill in the name).

In absolute numbers these games can take numbers from Wow, but in % this was certainly not the case in these last 3 years.

As for the evolution we ALL hope for ...

I didn't see mounted combat, nor destructable Keeps, nor phasing, nor open worlds (which should become big in future mmo projects) in those past competitors.

And you forget one thing: ---->

These "announced" products already push Blizzard to advance the techniques they use in Wow (just like Mark Jacobs said: the moment TBC was launched we knew we had to redo a lot of content in War - he better watched the evolutions of Wotlk too).

What most people tend to forget: Wow is evolving too and it sure is still in advance when using newer techniques (like the full 3D flying worlds in Northrend/Outland) and phasing content, riding tanks, dual classes etc.

So it is NOT by hoping Wow is losing its monoply that you will be getting BETTER mmorpg's.

As a matter of fact: the launch of dozens of mediocre mmorpg's will not lead to anything. They will only put the industry to shame for the "general gaming public" and they mostly cannibalize each other.

 I see alot of anti wow ranting but I have yet read a compeling reason for leaving wow to go play aion. Just beceause it isn't wow is not a real reason.

Burnout or boredom I suppose.

People don't generally go to try something else when they play a game they already enjoy. If however they are borderline about quitting, then it's more probable that they will take the extra step and purchase a new game. Whether that new game will hold their interest is another story.

It's liek comparing chalk and cheese.

Aion is a very asian game comapred with the western WoW counterpart.

 Does anyone here even know enough about aion to make a comparisson between wow and aion?

Closest game to aion would be lineage 2.

So it probaly be a lineage killer over a wow killer but each to their own tbh. I Personally hate asian style mmos, while some of my m8s love them

Originally posted by Loke666

Competition is always good for the consumers. Monopoly or near monopoly is never.

...

But I am an optimist and think the genre will evolve a lot in the next few years. That is however impossible as long as Wow is the only big western MMO.

I don't think that wow is holding back the evolution of MMO. Instead the success of wow forces many company to trying to beat wow, or at least take a part from the huge cake. Still, wow has evolved much more than any other MMO, even the very new one. I even cannot finish the current content, and the new is on my neck. I mean new. Blizz always suprises me with it's creativity.

You might say heh another wow troll. Well it's up to you. I have played Lineage2, Guild Wars, LotRO, Requiem, Silkroad, Priston Tale.. and I don't know how many others. Wow is the only game which really evolved, not only with new places but with new ideas like changing scene, argent tournament, the lot of places with different style of pvp, the hundreds of bosses with different tactics. The whole game is huge, how we in wow say: EPIC.

As I play more and more, and getting deeper into the content I feel that wow cannot be beaten. It's too late! It's content is so big, that cannot be made again. Even if another MMO is coming out, it will not be able to catch up the tempo with Blizz content creation.

Also the misunderstandig of why wow is cuccesful is huge. Most posters are hardcore kid players, you hear almost only their voice. But most wow players are adult casuals, workers, who sometimes just like to sit down for an hour and catch some fish, or run a battleground. WoW is more and more built for casual players and this is the real source of success. Aion might be better than wow technically. Can have better graphics, better pvp, better anything, but it cannot beat content, and cannot take over casuals.

Some says the penalty for dying is not much. Well, casuals don't like it = fail. You say the real PVP is open PVP. Well, casuals don't like to be forced into something they don't wanna do = fail.

I hope you see the "problems" with Aion. It's not a "New WoW". It's a new Lineage, for the western players.

Originally posted by SonofSeth

 Does anyone here even know enough about aion to make a comparisson between wow and aion?

ive played both and their totally different games.  its like trying to compare a sports car with a cake.. 2 completely different items.  Personally for me i couldnt stand wow.  but i really liked aion.  others probably will really like wow more than aion. its everyones own opinion why do we have to make comparisons so that you can feel like you should play it? its just a game, if you want to play it play it. if not then dont its alllllllllllll up to you

Why do I need to drop WoW to play Aion.  I can afford one more sub anytime.

Now would I play Aion?  I am not interested in playing the Chinese version, even though I read and speak Chinese.  I have reservations about security in servers in China.

Until I got to see Aion NA launch, I have no idea how that game will be then, the community, the ...  That is my only consideration for sub or skip.

From what I see while travelling in China, well

(1) Aion is popular

(2) A lot of people enjoyng it, and the spectrum of player varied.

(3) looks quest driven, not grindy

(4) I did not hear any news about major hacks or cheats, and given the incentive of the Chinese to go thru the backdoor, it might suggest a good game design that does discourge or resist hacking/cheating.

(5) I did not hear about rampant bots, which is what killed L2.  Gold sellers are everywhere in evrery game, you cannot kill them off.

But these are just indirect observations.  I never got around to download the free beta.  I never got around to think about playing it in China, so I have nothing solid to base on for decisions concerning sub.

 aion is so far a chinese game right, the main similarity to wow then would be that both games have a ton of chinese players trying to sell in game money to americans for real money then hehe.  god i hate people that buy and sell in game money, they spam and hack and bot camp to the point of ruining otherwise good games with their bad behavior.

Originally posted by SonofSeth

 I see alot of anti wow ranting but I have yet read a compeling reason for leaving wow to go play aion. Just beceause it isn't wow is not a real reason.

if playerr ever gets pvp questing game ,i can already say wow would loose player fast the problem with say doing =quality to wow but in a pvp quest style is very hard

imagine your a priest you got do x thing in pvp quest

it would be harder i think to make a pvp quest style game 

Originally posted by SonofSeth

 Does anyone here even know enough about aion to make a comparisson between wow and aion?

Nope of course not. All people are talking about is how it has so many subs and that along means it will dethrone WOW.

People should really look at Lineage and Lineage 2 numbers outside of the US and EU and see that previous game populations mean nothing when discussing games success or failure rate with a US/EU launch. Just because Aion has X number of subs in China or Korea means nothing about the potenital US sub numbers.

And what people fail to realize is that Aion has a major distracting feature that, in and of itself, will make it hard to compete with WOW and that is virtually required or mandated PVP; and from what I hear, that is its only end-game feature.

Sorry to say but there are not that many PVP'ers in Western markets. PVP'ers always make it seem like there are more of them running around than there really are. PVP is important but it is optionally important when you start talking millions of players. You look at the great PVP games of the past and in comparison to non-PVP focused games, they all had limited subscription bases.

Add to that, we are talking about required PVP and the numbers drop even less.

Aion has other things that will work against it as well. personally, and in my opinion, I find the art style hideous (art, not graphics). Flying will only appeal to so many and once its appeal wears off, its just another PVP game. We still have to talk about gameplay, character control, etc.... There are still many un-answered questions.

What does Aion have going for it though more than anything? It is launching at a good time because many are growing bored with WOW (as happens towards the end of one expansion pack and the start of the talk of the release of another).

It is still a long way to go for release (meaning months, not quality). Two major issues however will limit its appeal. First, it launches the SAME day as Champion's Online, a game many MMO players are looking forward too as the spiritual successor to COH/V. And it launches about 2 weeks after Blizzcon where Blizzard will, most likely announce the next WOW expansion and start discussing beta for it (and this will probably be on the heels of patch 3.2 which will be huge).

All things considered, Aion will do fine and have a great subscription base. However, I think many over-estimate its appeal for now. As always, wait for a game to release before we start making epic success or failure predicitions.

I have played Korean version of AION, I have played Chinese version of AION. It's a very polish game, but frankly, I don't see it going head to head with WoW in the western market. AION will directly compete with WAR but not WoW.

AION current contents layout is very similar to WAR. Major focus on faction PvP with fortress siege as its core. You siege and hold fortresses to open up portal to the next level of Abyss where you can siege more. The way you siege a fortress is also very similar to WAR, kill the fortress lord and it's yours.

PvE elements in AION end-game is very light. Much like WAR or Lineage 2. You do have some instances you can go and kill bosses to get lewts but these instances are light years behind WoW instances both in term of design, script, and difficulty. They are very primitive.

If you do a quick scan at WoW realm list, you will see there are more PvE servers than PvP. Even on PvP servers, most people only consider PvP as side events and not their primary focus. If there is a migration to AION, I would say only PvP guild will. PvE guild may be distracted abit by the new game release and all the flashy graphical flare for a little bit but they will be right back.

AION, at its current state, has nothing, absolutely nothing to offer to the WoW crowd in term of end-game PvE and raid contents. A few years down the road? It may has better PvE contents but right now, WoW has nothing to worry about.

Originally posted by templarga

Sorry to say but there are not that many PVP'ers in Western markets. PVP'ers always make it seem like there are more of them running around than there really are. PVP is important but it is optionally important when you start talking millions of players. You look at the great PVP games of the past and in comparison to non-PVP focused games, they all had limited subscription bases.

Add to that, we are talking about required PVP and the numbers drop even less.

This.

Not just required PvP, heheh, you are looking at required group PvP. Well, somewhat. There is nothing "required". You can always grind your way to the top in the solo PvP area, but if you want to get good stuffs, good contents, you are required to do group PvP. So now you are not just forced to group, you are forced to group PvP. Heheh

i m suprised people say aion is poorly scripted when it comes to quests i mean warcraft is hardly advanced really is it . i mean the quests in wow can be fun but if you read the descriptions they are total noncense . it ll be a shame if aion does nt deliver the goods because warcraft needs competition so badly . blizzard need strong competition so they fix the mess warcraft has become over the last two years . i think wow started to go downhill when they brought in faster leveling and since the wrath of the lich king came out the pvp side of the game is broken .

from what i ve been reading about aion after the beta weekend . when you get past people forgetting that warcraft itself is little more than an asian grinder in its first 20 levels ( ie most of the quest are go out and find this or kill x amount of mobs ) and that in a 48 hour time period your unlikly to see anything of any real interest at such early levels . most people say aion performs very well and is graphically quite stunning .

i m more interested in what people who have played the asian version of aion have to say . most of what i hear from that crowd of people seams to be possative and that bodes quite well .

then again what we in the west like may be totally different .

Aion has raid bosses for pve...did Wow at release?

Aion has meaningful PVP (ranking/seiging) did WoW at release?

Aion is as polished as a marble was WoW at release? (loot bug anyone?)

Aion is definately more drawn toward pvp crowd but raid mobs are in game now and more to be added as well as instanced dungeons.

Does WoW have Raid mobs that can be fought over by Alliance and Horde at same time?

Are there world spawn raid bosses in WoW?

Maybe some people dont want these things but I do. I have been playing on china servers for 3 weeks and plan to move to NA at release.

Originally posted by arthen999

i m suprised people say aion is poorly scripted when it comes to quests i mean warcraft is hardly advanced really is it . i mean the quests in wow can be fun but if you read the descriptions they are total noncense . it ll be a shame if aion does nt deliver the goods because warcraft needs competition so badly . blizzard need strong competition so they fix the mess warcraft has become over the last two years . i think wow started to go downhill when they brought in faster leveling and since the wrath of the lich king came out the pvp side of the game is broken .

 

from what i ve been reading about aion after the beta weekend . when you get past people forgetting that warcraft itself is little more than an asian grinder in its first 20 levels ( ie most of the quest are go out and find this or kill x amount of mobs ) and that in a 48 hour time period your unlikly to see anything of any real interest at such early levels . most people say aion performs very well and is graphically quite stunning .

i m more interested in what people who have played the asian version of aion have to say . most of what i hear from that crowd of people seams to be possative and that bodes quite well .

then again what we in the west like may be totally different .

I am from the west and I have played every major MMO since UO aside from the korean ones.

Aion wasnt even on my radar and a guildie talked me into playing it with him on china servers, at first I was like "this is nice and polished but nothing new here" after about lvl 15 I have been like a crack addict.

I cancel my EQ2 sub thats been active for 4 years even tho I have played others for a few months here and there and dont plan to look any where else for an MMO for some time to come. (after NA release that is)

I just dont see the grind people are talking about (lvl25 currently) (250 armorsmith) If i have alot of quests to turn in but I am a like a bub or 2 from leveling I will stay in that area to level before heading to turn in quests...maybe thats why IDK and I play on the 1.0 version which is basically the beta client because china hasnt got the past 2 big patches that upped quest exp and added alot of quests.

This game just has so much of what I want in  a game that I cant stop playing....most new games past few years get boring in 1-2 weeks and I go back too EQ2 or WoW..this one gets better daily...only here because my server is under maintainence :)

Originally posted by virox69

Aion has raid bosses for pve...did Wow at release?

Yes

Aion has meaningful PVP (ranking/seiging) did WoW at release?

I'll give you this one they didn't

Aion is as polished as a marble was WoW at release? (loot bug anyone?)

Umm well lets see that was a very minor bug.

Aion is definately more drawn toward pvp crowd but raid mobs are in game now and more to be added as well as instanced dungeons.

Does WoW have Raid mobs that can be fought over by Alliance and Horde at same time?

Yes

Are there world spawn raid bosses in WoW?

Yes

Maybe some people dont want these things but I do. I have been playing on china servers for 3 weeks and plan to move to NA at release.

Originally posted by Frostbite05

Originally posted by virox69

Aion has raid bosses for pve...did Wow at release?

Yes

Aion has meaningful PVP (ranking/seiging) did WoW at release?

I'll give you this one they didn't

Aion is as polished as a marble was WoW at release? (loot bug anyone?)

Umm well lets see that was a very minor bug.

Aion is definately more drawn toward pvp crowd but raid mobs are in game now and more to be added as well as instanced dungeons.

Does WoW have Raid mobs that can be fought over by Alliance and Horde at same time?

Yes

Are there world spawn raid bosses in WoW?

Yes

Maybe some people dont want these things but I do. I have been playing on china servers for 3 weeks and plan to move to NA at release.

 

there was no raid zone at release ...it got patched in like 3 weeks later