Why in the world do you feel the need to respond to people espousing these conspiracy theories. The reason you do is because the issue is close to your heart and you care about the integrity of this website. From my personal experience, EVERY SINGLE prominent website has its conspiracy theorists, regardless of what you say or do. Please, don't respond to their idiotic theories of reviews being "bought." I believe this is the best website for upcomming MMO's on the web. I check out the forums and articles on a daily basis. A vast vast majority of people who come to this site know the quality of work it produces.
There's no reason to feed the trolls. You're playing right into their hands.
Any articulate well constructed post that impinges upon the integrity of their website deserves a response. Silence would be far more damning than responding to posts that, even though they are well written, are ultimately without real substance.
And on topic, I would have also given this award to Fallen Earth over Aion. As a hardcore MMORPG'er of many years I am far more interested in rewarding developers for being original and daring (and providing a level of quality in their product that shows they are talented--so no, I would not consider Darkfall a contender). The Icarus developers are a rare group who deserve much praise.
Sorry but impressive graphics and hot , scantily clad female toons do not a winner make. With the exception of the generous amount of skin that is revealed, the gameplay and concept falls dead center in the middle of a pack of games that never exceed mediocre.
I swear the more I come to this site the more dissapointed I become. What is becoming blatantly clear is that MMORPG.com is aware of who pays the bills. A bad review always has the chance of alienating the game developers from the reviewers. Therefore there is little to no chance that a game released by a big, well known gaming company will ever hear a discouraging word from this site lest they sacrifice all the little perks that are sent their way. Too bad. This used to be a pretty cool place.
I tried both Aion and Fallen Earth and even though I quit both of them I played FE for much longer and enjoyed the expierence much more with the new aspects it brang to the table. Aion is a WoW clone with wings and has a horrible grinding exp in it that I just couldn't stand after two weeks of play. I just can't believe people are so in love with this game that brings nothing at all new, hell I like bountybay online better then Aion. MMORPG.com must be getting some kind of compensation because this is an extremely bias opinion and the scores for this game have to be rigged, it really can't be this popular.
Savinakis
Games played and/or playing UO, EVE, EQ, EQ2, Shadowbane, CoH, AoC, Rohan, Guild Wars, DAoC, SWG, Bountybay, Planet Side, Vanguard, POTBS, Runes of Magic, WoW, Aion, Fallen Earth, Wurm
Not since Vanilla WoW have I been as hyped as I was for Aion, after the betas. Never have I been so saddened by the realization of how shallow a game can be after being way to overhyped...on a personal level. I know its my fault, but Aion would get my vote for the biggest disappointment of 2009.
This game just didn't have the substance that is needed to sustain multiple months/years of playability.
Not to mention my biggest disappointment of 2008 was Warhammer, who also won the award for best new game of 2008.
I want to disagree that Aion was the best game to come out in 2009 because I played it and hated it, as well as playing most of the new mmo's that came out in '09.
Unfortunately when I look at the list of the other games that came out I found nothing great in that bin either. So I guess Aion is basically the best of a group of pretty repetitive unoriginal games.
I've been really dissapointed with the genre as a whole, you started with EQ and UO which were completely new and innovative and in the 13 years since that not much has changed.. the graphics got a little better and some nifty systems were added but thats about it. I could rattle off a long list of things that would make an extremely innovative new MMO but it's been done before and no developer will take the time to work on them anyway, it's much cheaper to use the existing systems, put them in a new world and make them shinier.
Congratulations Aion for winning the best game of the year in perhaps the worst year ever for mmorpg releases. I'd have respected the staff more if they'd have chosen "nothing" and listed aion and fallen earth as 'runner up'.
mm ton of player went back to other genre totally !did you check shooter on xfire.com
or real time strategy.never been so popular.mmo lost a lot of player wow included wow player number were cut by 30% in one year that a lot and all mmo have suffered similarly ,they havent gone to other mmo,oh they tried:but most went to other genre completetly.
I've been really dissapointed with the genre as a whole, you started with EQ and UO which were completely new and innovative and in the 13 years since that not much has changed.. the graphics got a little better and some nifty systems were added but thats about it.
Man, I can't wait 'til we get cubic wheels, it'll be sweet, so new and different!Won't that be fabulous?
Someone, a long time ago, probably made a stone wheel. Even more accurately, they probably found a rounded boulder that could roll. Since then we've made wooden wheels, metal wheels, and now, rubber wheels.... but we haven't really improved much on the concept of the wheel itself. Probably because it does what it does well, and reinventing it would be hard.
EQ and UO discovered the rounded boulders of Theme Park* and Sandbox, Aion is just the rubber coated equivalent of EQ, I suppose. But you can't possibly say you'd rather drive around on rounded boulders, can you? The difference between the wheel and MMORPGs is that one of them 'does' the physical effect of rolling, and the other 'does' bring in millions of users that are willing to pay per month for a video game.
Not too many First Person Shooters are bringing in $15 a month from each user - Team Fortress 2 is a one time payment that I made years ago, and I still enjoy it. If I were paying subscriptions for my FPSs and RTSs, I'd be broke from Warcraft 3/2 and Starcraft, Comand and Conquer/Tiberium Wars/3, Quake/2/3/4, Half-life 1/2, Counter-strike + Source, COD4, etc. etc. etc.
All of those don't charge money per month to play, so any new developer trying to milk players for money each month would have to really, really make a good game in that genre to make players want to pay for it. Enter: Global Agenda, which actually has the option to just buy the game without the subscription. Damn good idea.
</rant>
*It is to my understanding that EQ was generally the theme park initiator, at least when compared to UO.
I am playing EVE and it's alright... level V skills are a bit much.
Im at a loss here. Runes of Magic has been nominated for best New Game of 2009, but not for the best f2p of 2009 list. So, does this mean that overall the f2p games were better? After all, Runes of Magic is F2P and didnt even make the list of nominations for best f2p game of 2009
Im at a loss here. Runes of Magic has been nominated for best New Game of 2009, but not for the best f2p of 2009 list. So, does this mean that overall the f2p games were better? After all, Runes of Magic is F2P and didnt even make the list of nominations for best f2p game of 2009
Just pointing out that its a logical fallacy. Best New Game of 2009 category includes the F2P ones. So if a F2P game is on nominations list of overall category, it also needs to be on the f2p nominations list.
95% of the people who say "Aion sucks!!" have not even bothered putting a worthwhile investment of time into the game to experience it. That being said, there will always be trolls on forums and I've come to accept that. I agree with giving new best game to Aion, as it's definitely a great game worthy enough of winning this award regardless of it's budget.
95% of the people who say "Aion sucks!!" have not even bothered putting a worthwhile investment of time into the game to experience it. That being said, there will always be trolls on forums and I've come to accept that. I agree with giving new best game to Aion, as it's definitely a great game worthy enough of winning this award regardless of it's budget.
95% of statistics are made up by Aion fanbois. this statement is just as valid as yours because it's an opinion :P
Grouping in Old school mmo's: meeting someone at the bar and chatting, getting to know them before jumping into bed. Current mmo's grouping: tinder. swipe, hookup, hope you don't get herpes, never see them again.
With "quality" competition like Darkfall and Champions Online on the slate, Aion winning can't really be a surprise.
Fallen Earth taking second to a game with a bigger development budget and an extra year or so of tweaking overseas isn't bad by any means. We might be talking about it this time next year in the "Best Of" or "Most Improved" categories.
Im at a loss here. Runes of Magic has been nominated for best New Game of 2009, but not for the best f2p of 2009 list. So, does this mean that overall the f2p games were better? After all, Runes of Magic is F2P and didnt even make the list of nominations for best f2p game of 2009
Just pointing out that its a logical fallacy. Best New Game of 2009 category includes the F2P ones. So if a F2P game is on nominations list of overall category, it also needs to be on the f2p nominations list.
It’s terribly clear that no matter what game was chosen a bitch fest was inevitable. Gamers are without a doubt a very self riotous group of people. Every single game site I have ever been to relating to a game I am playing contains a mountain of complaints. Hell if you remove the bitching and complaining from the WoW site I really doubt there would be a significant amount left.
Grats: to Aion – Yes I am playing it and FYI the whole game changes after level 45 so all you folks who bailed you are missing some pretty cool content
Just a friendly reminder before this gets out of hand: If you disagree with our choice of Aion as Best New Game of 2009, that is fine. Negativity about Aion is more than welcome in this thread, but please make sure you back up your opinions with some substance and don't simply post what essentially amounts to "Aion sucks!" as this is considered trolling. Let's keep it civil and on topic guys, I'd appreciate it!
we as readers would appreciate reading articles written with at least a little common sense, that is in the end respect for readers who come here and make you site stay alive.
this is not really the case with lists like this where Fallen Earth (which i personally dislike) is missing or the pvp post where Darkfall is not even mentioned by the author: THAT is really trolling!:(
please have a look at what your writers do, you will save up much of what you call trolling and readers will respect this site much more
I really don't want to have to level to 46 before I start to find a MMO interesting, so Aion hardly wins an award there.
I do think people need to understand the difference between the Aion review, which was by one writer and this award which was an editorial choice. The review was outrageous, the over exuberance of the reviewer still not enough to justify the score. But the editors choice is more understandable, I don’t see there being many contenders in 2009.
As to taking control of their writers, I think the editors have a duty to pick writers who they think have integrity and professionalism as gaming journalists. But it is not their place to alter a staff writer’s review score, that said a review like that should make any editor wary of using that reviewer again.
I suppose I would have liked to see the staff say that no game in 2009 earned such an award - Aion may well be the best out of a bunch of 'under-performers', but has more than enough objective issues to render this award meaningless in the eyes of many.
Aion definatly deservs this award. Afterall just look at the competion.
Another great example of Moore's Law. Give people access to that much space (developers and users alike) and they'll find uses for it that you can never imagine. "640K ought to be enough for anybody" - Bill Gates 1981
Well from all the games that came out in year 2009, well its the only one i wanted to try out. So i did try it out. It had good graphic original story. Well it had lot of things that is needed for a good game. But i did had one other thing that made it terrible. While i was playing it, it seemed as it was a cheep chines game. By that i do not want to offend chines, but the special effects was overacted and it did killed the impression of the whole game. If we compare it with MU online (about which a lot of ppl know by now) i believe that MU is better game, because it isn't so overacted.
What i really wanted to say is that because the best game of the year is aion, we see that this year was poor year for gaming industry.
Aion deserve it more than the others titles released in 2009, so im agree with the choice, the other contendenders were just... very unpolished or flat games.
Comments
Any articulate well constructed post that impinges upon the integrity of their website deserves a response. Silence would be far more damning than responding to posts that, even though they are well written, are ultimately without real substance.
And on topic, I would have also given this award to Fallen Earth over Aion. As a hardcore MMORPG'er of many years I am far more interested in rewarding developers for being original and daring (and providing a level of quality in their product that shows they are talented--so no, I would not consider Darkfall a contender). The Icarus developers are a rare group who deserve much praise.
Sorry but impressive graphics and hot , scantily clad female toons do not a winner make. With the exception of the generous amount of skin that is revealed, the gameplay and concept falls dead center in the middle of a pack of games that never exceed mediocre.
I swear the more I come to this site the more dissapointed I become. What is becoming blatantly clear is that MMORPG.com is aware of who pays the bills. A bad review always has the chance of alienating the game developers from the reviewers. Therefore there is little to no chance that a game released by a big, well known gaming company will ever hear a discouraging word from this site lest they sacrifice all the little perks that are sent their way. Too bad. This used to be a pretty cool place.
I tried both Aion and Fallen Earth and even though I quit both of them I played FE for much longer and enjoyed the expierence much more with the new aspects it brang to the table. Aion is a WoW clone with wings and has a horrible grinding exp in it that I just couldn't stand after two weeks of play. I just can't believe people are so in love with this game that brings nothing at all new, hell I like bountybay online better then Aion. MMORPG.com must be getting some kind of compensation because this is an extremely bias opinion and the scores for this game have to be rigged, it really can't be this popular.
Savinakis
Games played and/or playing UO, EVE, EQ, EQ2, Shadowbane, CoH, AoC, Rohan, Guild Wars, DAoC, SWG, Bountybay, Planet Side, Vanguard, POTBS, Runes of Magic, WoW, Aion, Fallen Earth, Wurm
Not since Vanilla WoW have I been as hyped as I was for Aion, after the betas. Never have I been so saddened by the realization of how shallow a game can be after being way to overhyped...on a personal level. I know its my fault, but Aion would get my vote for the biggest disappointment of 2009.
This game just didn't have the substance that is needed to sustain multiple months/years of playability.
Not to mention my biggest disappointment of 2008 was Warhammer, who also won the award for best new game of 2008.
Ironic, don't cha think?
I think this brings home just how unexpectedly bad 2009 was in terms of MMO releases.
The Edge... there is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over.
I want to disagree that Aion was the best game to come out in 2009 because I played it and hated it, as well as playing most of the new mmo's that came out in '09.
Unfortunately when I look at the list of the other games that came out I found nothing great in that bin either. So I guess Aion is basically the best of a group of pretty repetitive unoriginal games.
I've been really dissapointed with the genre as a whole, you started with EQ and UO which were completely new and innovative and in the 13 years since that not much has changed.. the graphics got a little better and some nifty systems were added but thats about it. I could rattle off a long list of things that would make an extremely innovative new MMO but it's been done before and no developer will take the time to work on them anyway, it's much cheaper to use the existing systems, put them in a new world and make them shinier.
Congratulations Aion for winning the best game of the year in perhaps the worst year ever for mmorpg releases. I'd have respected the staff more if they'd have chosen "nothing" and listed aion and fallen earth as 'runner up'.
Shadus
You've got to be kidding me.
mm ton of player went back to other genre totally !did you check shooter on xfire.com
or real time strategy.never been so popular.mmo lost a lot of player wow included wow player number were cut by 30% in one year that a lot and all mmo have suffered similarly ,they havent gone to other mmo,oh they tried:but most went to other genre completetly.
Man, I can't wait 'til we get cubic wheels, it'll be sweet, so new and different! Won't that be fabulous?
Someone, a long time ago, probably made a stone wheel. Even more accurately, they probably found a rounded boulder that could roll. Since then we've made wooden wheels, metal wheels, and now, rubber wheels.... but we haven't really improved much on the concept of the wheel itself. Probably because it does what it does well, and reinventing it would be hard.
EQ and UO discovered the rounded boulders of Theme Park* and Sandbox, Aion is just the rubber coated equivalent of EQ, I suppose. But you can't possibly say you'd rather drive around on rounded boulders, can you? The difference between the wheel and MMORPGs is that one of them 'does' the physical effect of rolling, and the other 'does' bring in millions of users that are willing to pay per month for a video game.
Not too many First Person Shooters are bringing in $15 a month from each user - Team Fortress 2 is a one time payment that I made years ago, and I still enjoy it. If I were paying subscriptions for my FPSs and RTSs, I'd be broke from Warcraft 3/2 and Starcraft, Comand and Conquer/Tiberium Wars/3, Quake/2/3/4, Half-life 1/2, Counter-strike + Source, COD4, etc. etc. etc.
All of those don't charge money per month to play, so any new developer trying to milk players for money each month would have to really, really make a good game in that genre to make players want to pay for it. Enter: Global Agenda, which actually has the option to just buy the game without the subscription. Damn good idea.
</rant>
*It is to my understanding that EQ was generally the theme park initiator, at least when compared to UO.
I am playing EVE and it's alright... level V skills are a bit much.
You all need to learn to spell.
Runes of Magic makes the list of nominations for Best New Game of 2009. But cant even make it to the list of nominations of best F2P game of 2009.
How is this possible?
Just pointing out that its a logical fallacy. Best New Game of 2009 category includes the F2P ones. So if a F2P game is on nominations list of overall category, it also needs to be on the f2p nominations list.
95% of the people who say "Aion sucks!!" have not even bothered putting a worthwhile investment of time into the game to experience it. That being said, there will always be trolls on forums and I've come to accept that. I agree with giving new best game to Aion, as it's definitely a great game worthy enough of winning this award regardless of it's budget.
95% of statistics are made up by Aion fanbois. this statement is just as valid as yours because it's an opinion :P
With "quality" competition like Darkfall and Champions Online on the slate, Aion winning can't really be a surprise.
Fallen Earth taking second to a game with a bigger development budget and an extra year or so of tweaking overseas isn't bad by any means. We might be talking about it this time next year in the "Best Of" or "Most Improved" categories.
Just pointing out that its a logical fallacy. Best New Game of 2009 category includes the F2P ones. So if a F2P game is on nominations list of overall category, it also needs to be on the f2p nominations list.
You do have a point.
It’s terribly clear that no matter what game was chosen a bitch fest was inevitable. Gamers are without a doubt a very self riotous group of people. Every single game site I have ever been to relating to a game I am playing contains a mountain of complaints. Hell if you remove the bitching and complaining from the WoW site I really doubt there would be a significant amount left.
Grats: to Aion – Yes I am playing it and FYI the whole game changes after level 45 so all you folks who bailed you are missing some pretty cool content
we as readers would appreciate reading articles written with at least a little common sense, that is in the end respect for readers who come here and make you site stay alive.
this is not really the case with lists like this where Fallen Earth (which i personally dislike) is missing or the pvp post where Darkfall is not even mentioned by the author: THAT is really trolling!:(
please have a look at what your writers do, you will save up much of what you call trolling and readers will respect this site much more
I really don't want to have to level to 46 before I start to find a MMO interesting, so Aion hardly wins an award there.
I do think people need to understand the difference between the Aion review, which was by one writer and this award which was an editorial choice. The review was outrageous, the over exuberance of the reviewer still not enough to justify the score. But the editors choice is more understandable, I don’t see there being many contenders in 2009.
As to taking control of their writers, I think the editors have a duty to pick writers who they think have integrity and professionalism as gaming journalists. But it is not their place to alter a staff writer’s review score, that said a review like that should make any editor wary of using that reviewer again.
I suppose I would have liked to see the staff say that no game in 2009 earned such an award - Aion may well be the best out of a bunch of 'under-performers', but has more than enough objective issues to render this award meaningless in the eyes of many.
Aion definatly deservs this award. Afterall just look at the competion.
Another great example of Moore's Law. Give people access to that much space (developers and users alike) and they'll find uses for it that you can never imagine. "640K ought to be enough for anybody" - Bill Gates 1981
Out of all the MMO's released in 2009, Aion is probably the only one I would consider going back to, given a few more expansions etc.
What else is there?.. Champions Online?... I couldnt stand to play that after 2 days of the BETA, let alone release.
Well from all the games that came out in year 2009, well its the only one i wanted to try out. So i did try it out. It had good graphic original story. Well it had lot of things that is needed for a good game. But i did had one other thing that made it terrible. While i was playing it, it seemed as it was a cheep chines game. By that i do not want to offend chines, but the special effects was overacted and it did killed the impression of the whole game. If we compare it with MU online (about which a lot of ppl know by now) i believe that MU is better game, because it isn't so overacted.
What i really wanted to say is that because the best game of the year is aion, we see that this year was poor year for gaming industry.
Aion deserve it more than the others titles released in 2009, so im agree with the choice, the other contendenders were just... very unpolished or flat games.