I played the Chinese beta and thought it was a very sharp looking game. Didnt make it to get my wings yet- but the stuff before that felt very WoWish in a way. Probably gets a lot better after you get your wings
Not surprised its doing well it seemed like a fun game and the Abyss concept sounds interesting
uh huh, a game which is quest orientated = suddenly a worse grind then Lineage 2. It simply isn't true, it took the most hardcore nearly a year to get the cap in Lineage 2. In Aion, there are already people at the cap level. If you classify this as a grind, then every mmorpg out there is a grind.
This is true, every mmorpg is a grind. You just gotta pick your bullet and stick with it
uh huh, a game which is quest orientated = suddenly a worse grind then Lineage 2. It simply isn't true, it took the most hardcore nearly a year to get the cap in Lineage 2. In Aion, there are already people at the cap level. If you classify this as a grind, then every mmorpg out there is a grind.
This is true, every mmorpg is a grind. You just gotta pick your bullet and stick with it
Your right every MMO is a grind.
Its just that asain MMO's happen to have x10000000000000000000 more grind than people would like. If anyone disagrees then you obviously have never played L2 or one of its 1000 clones.
Lots of posts in this thread make me LOL. This game is so NOT Lineage 2 it is a leap forward for Asian MMO's. I have played L2 and Aion Chinese OB this game has about 1 more thing in common with L2 than WOW does. That is the stylized asian themed character model. Thats it get over it. This game is really something. I was impressed with how the backstory is told in the game and the cinematic sequences that are lightly sprinkled into the game even in the early levels. IMO the are done in just the right way too much breaks immersion too little seems like a gimick. The character classes i tried seemed solid. The zones are beatifully done but the music needs a bit of work for my taste. The game was stable on my PC as others have said it is very polished almost WoW like in that respect. I think this game will do very well i can easilly see 5-7 mill world wide in about 1 year from its initial launch. Is it a wow killer i don't know (i doubt it). I still think the only thing that will kill WoW is Blizzard only time will tell.
-To the poster claiming it is MORE grindy than L2 if you don't like the game just say you don't like the game no need to miss inform the people who have not played the game. A statement like that makes many who have played it and L2 question if you have either : 1) Ever played Aion or 2) Ever played Lineage 2.
I played the game for the full duration of the Chinese Open Beta, so I actually have first hand experience with the game. Is the game more grindy than Lineage 2? Answer:Yes, it the state I played it in (Essentially the live chinese version) the game did enforce more grinding than lineage 2, there are very few aspects of the game which aren't grind-related. I played within a fully english speaking guild, and many agreed on this fact. Subscribers - Realistic figures? Answer: I'd actually believe that the game is indeed this popular, with WoW no longer being updated in China (for now) much of the CWoW player base (Around 11 million IIRC) would have swapped to Aion. I spoke to several english speaking chinese people when playing in the open beta, and they seemed to think that the game would do well, as many chinese players like grinding. Many people seem to be tunnel visioning good reviews. I personally won't be buying the game unless many of my friends want to give it a try. Some factors which put me off it while playing: ~Slow, unskilled combat. ~Very grind oriented (To the point where everything is a grind), gets worse as you get higher level. ~Class balance still non existant (OP classes etc) Not saying there's much better out there at the moment - there isn't, but keep in mind this game is nothing new. Not going to go in depth and write a review, but you get the general idea.
This game won't be a hit in NA because most casual gamers don't even know it exists yet. NCSoft needs to find a way to start advertising Aion. They did a good job with Guild Wars with the open E3 weekend event. They need something similar for Aion.
This game won't be a hit in NA because most casual gamers don't even know it exists yet. NCSoft needs to find a way to start advertising Aion. They did a good job with Guild Wars with the open E3 weekend event. They need something similar for Aion.
They advertise it on their primary website often. That's how I learned about it. So essentially most NCSoft loyalists already know the game exists. Basically NCSoft could make the game a hit just by drawing on the CoH/Lineage2 fanbase. True it's not the massive fanbase that Blizzard had already when they made WoW, but that was crossing genres.
If they are making a Star Trek MMO (I've only heard rumors so I don't know) that would probably murder WoW.
But a Korean grinder like Aion will never get more than 200K subs in the EU and NA combined! .... right?
Sorry, that was a joke. I've read too much of that kind of uninformed prejudice on Aion myself, really. I really hope they will do excellent here in the 'west' as well. The more success stories, the more likely that other mmorpg developers get their projects funded. And heck ... our societies are built on free market economies with loads of competition in about every niche you can imagine. Huzah! for competition between successfull mmorpgs! ... Huzah! ... Huzah!
The thing is, this game is built with an asian theme but more of a western feel for leveling. You can quest up to level cap if you want to, and this game has quite a lot of quests that are not only static, but dynamic also. Most of the fun will come out of the Abyss though, as it is very entertaining and almost DaoC RvR type feel. This is the one game I have to say, NCSoft could garner a lot of western subs with and could be a million+ hit here.
WoW with wings. Not interested. I hope they get 10 millions subscribers. Taht's great, and I hope all the players that get in the game really enjoy it.
But I'm looking for something besides WoW, even if it has wings.
But a Korean grinder like Aion will never get more than 200K subs in the EU and NA combined! .... right?
Sorry, that was a joke. I've read too much of that kind of uninformed prejudice on Aion myself, really. I really hope they will do excellent here in the 'west' as well. The more success stories, the more likely that other mmorpg developers get their projects funded. And heck ... our societies are built on free market economies with loads of competition in about every niche you can imagine. Huzah! for competition between successfull mmorpgs! ... Huzah! ... Huzah!
The thing is, this game is built with an asian theme but more of a western feel for leveling. You can quest up to level cap if you want to, and this game has quite a lot of quests that are not only static, but dynamic also. Most of the fun will come out of the Abyss though, as it is very entertaining and almost DaoC RvR type feel. This is the one game I have to say, NCSoft could garner a lot of western subs with and could be a million+ hit here.
WoW with wings. Not interested. I hope they get 10 millions subscribers. Taht's great, and I hope all the players that get in the game really enjoy it.
But I'm looking for something besides WoW, even if it has wings.
Have you played the game? Other than leveling, what's so WoW-like?
You should know better than leveling is just the beggining of MMORPGs nowadays.
Just wanna add that they count monthly access as subscription numbers, which is not very different from our monthly fee. ( if you are trying to find active paying players )
So if a person pays to play once a month in an internet cafe, he is counted every such month. He may not pay 15€, but perhaps 5€ or even 30€.
It is a solid way to compare imho.
If you are interested in subscription or PCU numbers for MMORPG's, check out my site : http://mmodata.blogspot.be/ Favorite MMORPG's : DAoC pre ToA-NF, SWG Pre CU-NGE, EVE Online
Figure looks roughly accurate I guess. NCSoft made $35mil from Aion subs in the South Korean version over the first quarter of the year. So whilst that doesn't add up to 3.5, there is also China to take into account where it is bigger and to date no figures have been published.
Still think there is plenty of room for growth. It is currently around 47% of NCSoft's Korean business and its currently the most played online game in South Korea. Pretty impressive getting into the top 10 played online games, which still include Lineage, Lineage 2, World of Warcraft and Starcraft, not like they seem to go for new things over there.
I wonder how many people just don't want to accept that a Korean company can do what everyone since Blizzard has failed to do?
I played the game for the full duration of the Chinese Open Beta, so I actually have first hand experience with the game. Is the game more grindy than Lineage 2? Answer:Yes, it the state I played it in (Essentially the live chinese version) the game did enforce more grinding than lineage 2, there are very few aspects of the game which aren't grind-related. I played within a fully english speaking guild, and many agreed on this fact. Subscribers - Realistic figures? Answer: I'd actually believe that the game is indeed this popular, with WoW no longer being updated in China (for now) much of the CWoW player base (Around 11 million IIRC) would have swapped to Aion. I spoke to several english speaking chinese people when playing in the open beta, and they seemed to think that the game would do well, as many chinese players like grinding. Many people seem to be tunnel visioning good reviews. I personally won't be buying the game unless many of my friends want to give it a try. Some factors which put me off it while playing: ~Slow, unskilled combat. ~Very grind oriented (To the point where everything is a grind), gets worse as you get higher level. ~Class balance still non existant (OP classes etc) Not saying there's much better out there at the moment - there isn't, but keep in mind this game is nothing new. Not going to go in depth and write a review, but you get the general idea.
And you created an account here just to say that... a troll i smell.
What makes Aion that much different than WoW that they will be able to make some of the 3.5-4 million NA subscribers leave to play it? Graphics don't count, because if the gameplay isn't there to back it up, it won't matter (see L2). There needs to be something unique to Aion (and only Aion) for it to be successfull here. If it's a carbon copy of WoW with prettier graphics, why leave WoW? If i'm going to play a game that's like WoW, I might as well play the best one out there, no?
NCsoft knows how to develop a successful game, as Aion has recently reached the 3.5 million subscribers milestone according to IGN. Interesting to note is that Aion is the 3rd NCsoft game to have over 1 million subscribers (and 2 million and 3 million....) uk.pc.ign.com/articles/985/985368p1.html
Aion is a massively multiplayer online role playing game developed by NCsoft, and since its launch in Asia in March, has built up 3.5 million subscribers. The game apparently has 1,500 story-driven quests, with players fighting in an "epic celestial war", with a choice between two divine factions: the Asmodians and the Elyos.
This game singularly won't be the 'WoW killer', but it will punch a massive hole in that pensioner of a game.
The question is: How many of those are accounts belonging to bots/gold sellers. Judging from other asian made games, like Lineage 2, I would say atleast half.
And that is one of the reasons why the game will not be successful in western market. We simply will not tolerate botting and other crap that seems to be accepted in asian markets.
I doubt the game will get more subs in the west than Lineage 2 did. Above reason is one factor but the Anime style that these games usually have does not cater to western markets. Femenine looking boys and overly femenine girls as player characters? No thanks, I much prefer something like the Chosen in WAR.
I played the game for the full duration of the Chinese Open Beta, so I actually have first hand experience with the game. Is the game more grindy than Lineage 2? Answer:Yes, ~Slow, unskilled combat. ~Very grind oriented (To the point where everything is a grind), gets worse as you get higher level. ~Class balance still non existant (OP classes etc)
And you created an account here just to say that... a troll i smell.
The 'Troll's' post is full of moar fail than Bruno's wire stunt at the MTV awards show. Although I wouldn't call it intentional, just uninformed.
The game is not more Grindy than L2. L2 was only a grind. You cannot exceede 100% no matter what your Highschool gym teacher tells you. Kombat is not unskilled beacause your fighting stats do change dynamically based upon the direction you're moving. Somone that can retreat while being attacked and charge while attacking will do better than someone standing in one spot spamming.
The overall 'grind' as termed at higher levels lasts (on average) less than 2 weeks! And that does not take into account that they've already release koran patches to fill that quest void. Class balance? Well I do not have enough info to comment here. I havn't played all the classes, but what MMO doesn't have people complaining about the classes?
LineageII | LoTRO | RFO | 9Dragons | Aion | Perfect World | Ether Saga | Dungeon Runners | GuildWars 1 and 2 | Hellgate London | tCoS | Warhammer | AoC | Tabula Rasa | SWTOR youtube.com/gcidogmeat
The question is: How many of those are accounts belonging to bots/gold sellers. Judging from other asian made games, like Lineage 2, I would say atleast half. And that is one of the reasons why the game will not be successful in western market. We simply will not tolerate botting and other crap that seems to be accepted in asian markets. I doubt the game will get more subs in the west than Lineage 2 did. Above reason is one factor but the Anime style that these games usually have does not cater to western markets. Femenine looking boys and overly femenine girls as player characters? No thanks, I much prefer something like the Chosen in WAR.
RMT isn't that big in Asia, though admittedly botting is.
People bot in Asia because they don't have time.
People bot in the West because they need to farm currency to sell to the people that don't have time.
So, I think most of those 3.5 million are genuine players, whether NCSoft are capable of stopping RMT from ruining the western version or not is a whole nother matter. I personally, think NCSoft are incompetent at handling RMT, but only time will tell.
I played the game for the full duration of the Chinese Open Beta, so I actually have first hand experience with the game. Is the game more grindy than Lineage 2? Answer:Yes, ~Slow, unskilled combat. ~Very grind oriented (To the point where everything is a grind), gets worse as you get higher level. ~Class balance still non existant (OP classes etc)
And you created an account here just to say that... a troll i smell.
The 'Troll's' post is full of moar fail than Bruno's wire stunt at the MTV awards show. Although I wouldn't call it intentional, just uninformed.
The game is not more Grindy than L2. L2 was only a grind. You cannot exceede 100% no matter what your Highschool gym teacher tells you. Kombat is not unskilled beacause your fighting stats do change dynamically based upon the direction you're moving. Somone that can retreat while being attacked and charge while attacking will do better than someone standing in one spot spamming.
The overall 'grind' as termed at higher levels lasts (on average) less than 2 weeks! And that does not take into account that they've already release koran patches to fill that quest void. Class balance? Well I do not have enough info to comment here. I havn't played all the classes, but what MMO doesn't have people complaining about the classes?
Trolls post are by definition intentional but it seems this word is very missused these days. Basically anyone having any negative views about anything are labeled "trolls" by some.
Trolling is the "technique" to post something with the intent of trying to provoce people and I don't see how that is the same as posting something negative.
As for his opinions. Well some people find Darkfall PvP to be challenging so I guess thats a matter of opinion, same with grinding. However class balance is something absolute, either the classes are balanced or not, ofcourse they can be something inbetween but balancing is usually not a subjective matter like the other two subjects usually are.
I've always wondered why people are under the impression that the chinese love grinding. Their excessive use of bots and RMT would suggest otherwise, yet grindy games seem to succeed over there. Mind boggling.
Comments
It won't be a hit over here. Lineage 1 had even more ridiculous Asian numbers and the US market never touched it.
My youtube MMO gaming channel
I played the Chinese beta and thought it was a very sharp looking game. Didnt make it to get my wings yet- but the stuff before that felt very WoWish in a way. Probably gets a lot better after you get your wings
Not surprised its doing well it seemed like a fun game and the Abyss concept sounds interesting
This is true, every mmorpg is a grind. You just gotta pick your bullet and stick with it
Hellgate London had more than a million users in Asia too and look where that game is now. I wouldn't call 3 million subs in Asia a feat
3.5 million asains.
Id love to see this asain grinder become a hit in the US.
This is true, every mmorpg is a grind. You just gotta pick your bullet and stick with it
Your right every MMO is a grind.
Its just that asain MMO's happen to have x10000000000000000000 more grind than people would like. If anyone disagrees then you obviously have never played L2 or one of its 1000 clones.
Lots of posts in this thread make me LOL. This game is so NOT Lineage 2 it is a leap forward for Asian MMO's. I have played L2 and Aion Chinese OB this game has about 1 more thing in common with L2 than WOW does. That is the stylized asian themed character model. Thats it get over it. This game is really something. I was impressed with how the backstory is told in the game and the cinematic sequences that are lightly sprinkled into the game even in the early levels. IMO the are done in just the right way too much breaks immersion too little seems like a gimick. The character classes i tried seemed solid. The zones are beatifully done but the music needs a bit of work for my taste. The game was stable on my PC as others have said it is very polished almost WoW like in that respect. I think this game will do very well i can easilly see 5-7 mill world wide in about 1 year from its initial launch. Is it a wow killer i don't know (i doubt it). I still think the only thing that will kill WoW is Blizzard only time will tell.
-To the poster claiming it is MORE grindy than L2 if you don't like the game just say you don't like the game no need to miss inform the people who have not played the game. A statement like that makes many who have played it and L2 question if you have either : 1) Ever played Aion or 2) Ever played Lineage 2.
/carry on
You are a very sad person.
This game won't be a hit in NA because most casual gamers don't even know it exists yet. NCSoft needs to find a way to start advertising Aion. They did a good job with Guild Wars with the open E3 weekend event. They need something similar for Aion.
They advertise it on their primary website often. That's how I learned about it. So essentially most NCSoft loyalists already know the game exists. Basically NCSoft could make the game a hit just by drawing on the CoH/Lineage2 fanbase. True it's not the massive fanbase that Blizzard had already when they made WoW, but that was crossing genres.
If they are making a Star Trek MMO (I've only heard rumors so I don't know) that would probably murder WoW.
The thing is, this game is built with an asian theme but more of a western feel for leveling. You can quest up to level cap if you want to, and this game has quite a lot of quests that are not only static, but dynamic also. Most of the fun will come out of the Abyss though, as it is very entertaining and almost DaoC RvR type feel. This is the one game I have to say, NCSoft could garner a lot of western subs with and could be a million+ hit here.
WoW with wings. Not interested. I hope they get 10 millions subscribers. Taht's great, and I hope all the players that get in the game really enjoy it.
But I'm looking for something besides WoW, even if it has wings.
Just as I thought, a bunch of Aion fanboys tunnel visioning good reviews.
The thing is, this game is built with an asian theme but more of a western feel for leveling. You can quest up to level cap if you want to, and this game has quite a lot of quests that are not only static, but dynamic also. Most of the fun will come out of the Abyss though, as it is very entertaining and almost DaoC RvR type feel. This is the one game I have to say, NCSoft could garner a lot of western subs with and could be a million+ hit here.
WoW with wings. Not interested. I hope they get 10 millions subscribers. Taht's great, and I hope all the players that get in the game really enjoy it.
But I'm looking for something besides WoW, even if it has wings.
Have you played the game? Other than leveling, what's so WoW-like?
You should know better than leveling is just the beggining of MMORPGs nowadays.
Just wanna add that they count monthly access as subscription numbers, which is not very different from our monthly fee. ( if you are trying to find active paying players )
So if a person pays to play once a month in an internet cafe, he is counted every such month. He may not pay 15€, but perhaps 5€ or even 30€.
It is a solid way to compare imho.
If you are interested in subscription or PCU numbers for MMORPG's, check out my site :
http://mmodata.blogspot.be/
Favorite MMORPG's : DAoC pre ToA-NF, SWG Pre CU-NGE, EVE Online
Figure looks roughly accurate I guess. NCSoft made $35mil from Aion subs in the South Korean version over the first quarter of the year. So whilst that doesn't add up to 3.5, there is also China to take into account where it is bigger and to date no figures have been published.
Still think there is plenty of room for growth. It is currently around 47% of NCSoft's Korean business and its currently the most played online game in South Korea. Pretty impressive getting into the top 10 played online games, which still include Lineage, Lineage 2, World of Warcraft and Starcraft, not like they seem to go for new things over there.
I wonder how many people just don't want to accept that a Korean company can do what everyone since Blizzard has failed to do?
And you created an account here just to say that... a troll i smell.
Here's a better question.
What makes Aion that much different than WoW that they will be able to make some of the 3.5-4 million NA subscribers leave to play it? Graphics don't count, because if the gameplay isn't there to back it up, it won't matter (see L2). There needs to be something unique to Aion (and only Aion) for it to be successfull here. If it's a carbon copy of WoW with prettier graphics, why leave WoW? If i'm going to play a game that's like WoW, I might as well play the best one out there, no?
I think you'll be able to answer that question for yourself once you get utterly bored of whatever game you're currently playing.
This game singularly won't be the 'WoW killer', but it will punch a massive hole in that pensioner of a game.
straight up wow players will just end of playing aion alongside WoW to get their pvp fix because unless your on the tourny realm pvp sucks in WoW.
The question is: How many of those are accounts belonging to bots/gold sellers. Judging from other asian made games, like Lineage 2, I would say atleast half.
And that is one of the reasons why the game will not be successful in western market. We simply will not tolerate botting and other crap that seems to be accepted in asian markets.
I doubt the game will get more subs in the west than Lineage 2 did. Above reason is one factor but the Anime style that these games usually have does not cater to western markets. Femenine looking boys and overly femenine girls as player characters? No thanks, I much prefer something like the Chosen in WAR.
My gaming blog
And you created an account here just to say that... a troll i smell.
The 'Troll's' post is full of moar fail than Bruno's wire stunt at the MTV awards show. Although I wouldn't call it intentional, just uninformed.
The game is not more Grindy than L2. L2 was only a grind. You cannot exceede 100% no matter what your Highschool gym teacher tells you. Kombat is not unskilled beacause your fighting stats do change dynamically based upon the direction you're moving. Somone that can retreat while being attacked and charge while attacking will do better than someone standing in one spot spamming.
The overall 'grind' as termed at higher levels lasts (on average) less than 2 weeks! And that does not take into account that they've already release koran patches to fill that quest void. Class balance? Well I do not have enough info to comment here. I havn't played all the classes, but what MMO doesn't have people complaining about the classes?
youtube.com/gcidogmeat
RMT isn't that big in Asia, though admittedly botting is.
People bot in Asia because they don't have time.
People bot in the West because they need to farm currency to sell to the people that don't have time.
So, I think most of those 3.5 million are genuine players, whether NCSoft are capable of stopping RMT from ruining the western version or not is a whole nother matter. I personally, think NCSoft are incompetent at handling RMT, but only time will tell.
And you created an account here just to say that... a troll i smell.
The 'Troll's' post is full of moar fail than Bruno's wire stunt at the MTV awards show. Although I wouldn't call it intentional, just uninformed.
The game is not more Grindy than L2. L2 was only a grind. You cannot exceede 100% no matter what your Highschool gym teacher tells you. Kombat is not unskilled beacause your fighting stats do change dynamically based upon the direction you're moving. Somone that can retreat while being attacked and charge while attacking will do better than someone standing in one spot spamming.
The overall 'grind' as termed at higher levels lasts (on average) less than 2 weeks! And that does not take into account that they've already release koran patches to fill that quest void. Class balance? Well I do not have enough info to comment here. I havn't played all the classes, but what MMO doesn't have people complaining about the classes?
Trolls post are by definition intentional but it seems this word is very missused these days. Basically anyone having any negative views about anything are labeled "trolls" by some.
Trolling is the "technique" to post something with the intent of trying to provoce people and I don't see how that is the same as posting something negative.
As for his opinions. Well some people find Darkfall PvP to be challenging so I guess thats a matter of opinion, same with grinding. However class balance is something absolute, either the classes are balanced or not, ofcourse they can be something inbetween but balancing is usually not a subjective matter like the other two subjects usually are.
My gaming blog
I've always wondered why people are under the impression that the chinese love grinding. Their excessive use of bots and RMT would suggest otherwise, yet grindy games seem to succeed over there. Mind boggling.