Yawnnn

Once again a boring patch, with nothing at all added to the game for players 1-100. AO has been doing this for the last 3-4 patches now. Adding nothing fresh to the game for causal, new, or mid-range players. With the usual micro-nerfs meant to force more item mall purchases, a new super high level dungeon and Indy  dungeon, a c-new merc (can't believe they made it low enough for even lvl 100 players to go for), a new armor set that only 1% of players will ever be able to use, rediculous pre-requisites for entrance to any of the new features. It's all the same old song, somehow AO thinks they can actually survive by adding uber challenges to those already lvl 120 while the game itself, levels 1-115 stagnates and goes SO very stale and boring. 

AO (Or more properly NDoors) has long been known as the most greedy parasitic manipulation company many of us have ever seen, taking AO further and further with each patch, nerf, and "addition" into a realm of item mall requirement to compete, than any other game I've ever seen. But even still, fact is, the thing is just so boring for casual or mid-range players it is no wonder that 60% of players quit before reaching lvl 50 and another  25% of players quit before reaching 100. They use to release game-wide patches, with new stuff for all levels...this stopped about 3-4 patches ago. No new d-mercs, mid range equiptment sets (like craft only perhaps), mid-range quests or dungeons...everything for the last 6 moths has been totally geared towards the top 3% of players.  

And the nerfs, my oh my, each patch has brough huge game inflation (to encourage gold sellers and item mall purchases), they nerf experience to slow player progress (and now have with this patch nerfed party experience as well), increase non-paying feature prices (like the travel agency which people without teleport licenses have to use) while increasing craft material requirements while decreasing the drop rates which were already abysmal. It just goes on and on and on. Atlantica became my favorite game the day the doors opened, i've watched it get better for 6 months, then for the last 8 just fall apart heading for oblivion. This patch will only do a couple of things...give bored lvl 120 players something new to do with their god-gear (for a month), drive even more under lvl 100 players into leaving for lack of belief they can progress into the upper 3%, and bore mid-range and casual players into finally giving up.

Now who am I? Well, before it looks like I am a sour-grapes freebie, I've been playing since day 1 of first server, I have spent 100 and 100's of dollars in the item mall, I am high level myself (108 to be exact), I pay for my tele license every month, have bought enough gambling boxes from item mall to have Mars rider, wings of light, full scarlet costume, and a half filled Mount book and enough scrolls and potions and vials to spam bosses for another year. So it's not sour grape jealously of paying players, it is sadness at watching a game I love become unaccessable to 90% of mmo players who don't have a thousand dollars to spend on a game, or 2 years to grind in boredom now to get to lvl 110.

You have been playing since day 1, and you're only level 108? Wow.. I started my second character about 2 months ago, and I hit 108 yesterday...

Originally posted by Pootio

You have been playing since day 1, and you're only level 108? Wow.. I started my second character about 2 months ago, and I hit 108 yesterday...

 

Not everyone runs to the end, there's too much to do. Also, if you started at day 1 that would have been on the 1st server, I moved several months later to Thebes where my 1 year anniversary arrives in a few days, Oct 1st. I also take care of my Alt Chainsaw.

I first started playing in Open Beta on Mycenae, then switched over to Macedon a couple months after it went Live.

My level 104 Musician is now just an Independent Mercenary feeder, while I leveled my Chainsaw to 108 after a couple month break.

Everyone complains when a new patch comes out, talking about all NDOORS does is worry about the high level dungeons etc... How long do people actually stay Under level 100? From 100 to 105 takes longer than it does to go from 1 - 90.

MMO's worry about the higher level members simply for the fact that they know once people get to a certain point, it takes alot more to keep thier attention, and to stray them from getting bored of the game.

Originally posted by Pootio

I first started playing in Open Beta on Mycenae, then switched over to Macedon a couple months after it went Live.

My level 104 Musician is now just an Independent Mercenary feeder, while I leveled my Chainsaw to 108 after a couple month break.

Everyone complains when a new patch comes out, talking about all NDOORS does is worry about the high level dungeons etc... How long do people actually stay Under level 100? From 100 to 105 takes longer than it does to go from 1 - 90.

MMO's worry about the higher level members simply for the fact that they know once people get to a certain point, it takes alot more to keep thier attention, and to stray them from getting bored of the game.

 

Good thing you don't run a MMO, it would be out of business in a heartbeat.  Anyone can tell you catering to the upper level players while ignoring the rest  is a death knell for any MMO.  It has happened time and time again.

But NDoors tauts AO as a "FTP" game. SInce you've been there this long, you have to have seen how after 6 months AO began a relentless campaign to nerf and "make more difficult" the ability of anyone to play, especially at higher levels, without extensive item mall items (whether they buy them personally or buy them from market, either way someone had to pay cash for them). So although I adore AO, I make no denial to the fact that I dispise the company behind it..lol. Their "spirit" is about greed, not about challenging gameplay. Other ftp mmos of course offer benefits for item mall purchases, astethics and even advantages. I have no problem with that..unlike the majoirty of other ftp mmos however, NDoors isn't satisfied with a "small regular" payment or micro payment from players.

With each patch they make mobs more difficult to handle without item mall scrolls, blessing potions/license, buying Atlas stones in effort to attempt to make +10 weapons and gear. They nerf mercs and the regular "free" ways of upgrading gear, increase material and crafting costs. triple and then quadruple the cost of using the free travel agency system and the list goes on and on. With this patch they've even nerfed the party system to stop your team from getting party experience, instead now only allowing 1 merc any exp from the post battle exp bonus. Of all the ftp games i've seen AO has become the most greed driven I've ever witnessed. Those players in the top 1% have admitted to spending 1000s of dollars while they brag about their prowess...none of which they could accomplish if they had to face those mobs as a regular geared player, without scrolls and blessing potions and item mall altered gear.

Again, I am fine with item mall advantages, but to this extent? To the extent where not even those who spend a reasonable amount of money to support the game can get anywhere. NDoors wants more and more and more. Sheer unadulterated greed drives the recent developement of AO, where-as in the first 6 months, gameplay expansion, challenging gameplay  and player pride and happiness were the driving forces of the patches.

Though they wont admit it, player resignation has steadily increased in AO, to the point where recently there was a push in the forums to combine some servers for lack of players on them...lol The "quit" rate of players who join Atlantica is no less than 50-60% within the first 50 lvls, and another 25-30% quit near 100, the higher they get, the more they see the "true" driving parameters of AO...not the game, but the Devs behind it, who do nothing now but come up with more ways to force players into the item mall. That has alot of elder/old time players pretty sad.

 Add all of this to the now push to try to hold on to the obsessive (and rich, personaly or in-game) players, to keep the item mall rolling in, by adding nothing of any consequence in months and months of patches for anyone under lvl 100, well, as the poster before says. Many mmos fold for this reason, and AO has decided to take that failing model with gusto. This would of course disturb any long time player who loves the game...after all, we don't want to see it fold.

Russaria sums up my feelings about AO perfectly.

By 68 I was truly bored to death, I felt the storyline was far too thinly stretched & there was too litle to keep me interested enough to see me through to the upper levels.