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Thank you Archeage for reminding me of better days
Aliantha_Angel
Member UncommonPosts: 225
I'd like to say first that the point of this thread is not to proclaim AA the king of anything nor is it to flame AA for shortfalls. I'm merely sharing my experience and some enjoyment AA beta has brought me. Your experience may differ.
If you note my "join date" for MMORPG.com it's obvious I might be a tad older than the average gamer. I beta tested both UO and EQ and was north of 30 years old when I did that. I have played probably every major title anyone can name and some off the beaten path titles. I'm not bragging, nothing to boast about that I play a lot of games, rather, I have just seen a lot... A LOT over the years so I may have a different perspective.
No game is perfect nor pleases everyone. For every game you will find the "fanbois" and "haters" although the truth is that those titles are only given out by the opposing side and really have no meaning. If you like a game and defend anything it does right, those who hate it all you fanboi... etc etc etc. But this all has little to do with my post.
If I have to narrow down, after almost 20 years of gaming (pre-UO... Meridian... Sierra, BBS games) the most fun I ever had were the sandbox that original UO was, the deep and compelling Evercrack... errrr.... Everquest, the first PvP thata ctually mattered in Dark Age of Camelot, the go-where-you-want-do-what-you-want of Eve... those were the models from which I view all games that come out now and compare them to those originals. It's not about perfect, it's about having fun.... isn't that the point of playing a game?
Lots of games have huge deficiencies yet still provide enjoyment. I think of Fallen Earth, The Secret World, Earth and Beyond, and many more. Some are graphical wonders some have unique stories and some are just bizarre.
So anyway, AA has reminded me of a number of my favorites and , for me at least, that's a good thing. I spent much of today trying to cross a dangerous sea in a rowboat with a pack and with a knot in my stomach as ships passed by. Maybe they noticed me, maybe they didn't. There was that rush knowing that I had stepped somewhere I probably didn't belong and there was a feel of actual danger. I remembered feeling the same way back in UO when there was only one land and you just never knew if you were going to get that freshly mined ore back to the safety of the bank. Kudos for making me feel that trepidation.
Persistent housing... thank you... also flashbacks to another time and place.
For those who stick around beyond the first 30 levels and get out of the questing loop, I hear the world opens up to focus more on you playing how you want to play and doing what you want to do. I have been assured by many that the initial questing is really just to be a tutorial on how the mechanics work and that there is immense freedom in blazing your own path as gatherer, crafter, trader, adventurer, hunter, pirate... whatever.
Is the game perfect? Not even a worthwhile question since no game is. How about the payment model? Every game has one in one form or another so again, why bother with the question?
What matters to me, is I had fun, enough for me to support the game financially for awhile, until I stop having fun. I'm subscribed to other games and haven't missed them while I've been doing AA beta. Of course that may just be the new car smell, but it is what it is.
I'm sure some people (or a lot) will disagree with me, but that's ok because there are lots of games out there so everyone has a chance to move on if they don't like the game and if you disagree, you can only disagree for yourself. I had fun, what more matters?
Just my 2 cents, your experience may differ. Whatever you play, have fun!
Comments
I enjoyed your post, and I guess I lean on the 'fanboi' side of Archeage. I had done my research before playing the game, so I already knew about the questing, but it's what the game has to offer at the end, that interested me most. So I blew by the questing without even thinking about, and have had an awesome time in Alpha ever since. Glad to see you're enjoying the game. I'm also from the early UO days, and sailing has also given me that nice balance of willingness to adventure, yet nervous and scared to travel, as I know I am no longer safe.
What I found most interesting about this game is where I have ended up in alpha. I actually decided to become a farmer/trader over everything else. Previously, I had always been a hardcore pvp'er, and fighter/adventurer. Yet, for some reason I just love farming and running trade packs more than anything.
Sure, I'm glad to elaborate.
I like that there's an actual economy. Because labor points are scarce you won't have crafters who can do everything all the time as much as they want. Unlike games where you can craft an infinite amount of goods with your only limitation being time, this game builds an interdependency. I find it refreshing because I'm actually one of those people who tends to max out every craft and now I really can't and that forces me to actually give thought to what I want to do and look for others who can complement my skills.
I like the scarcity of resources so that things have value.
I like the seamless open world without continual loading screens.
I like the feeling of danger in contested zones without being forced to be in them.
I like the variety of travel from walking, your own mounts, boats, ships, airships, etc.
I have experienced all of this pre-level 30 and there's a lot more to come.
As I said, I'm not saying the game is perfect, but there is enough here that I'm enjoying that makes it a winner for me.
I respectfully disagree.
The major complaint that I am hearing about AA is the boring theme park grind from 1-50. That being the case, how can those fundamentally disliking the game be those who have been exposed to instanced heavy solo-cetric PvE games, when with the exception of being instanced, that is exactly what AA is from level 1 thru 50? It would appear to me that those fundamentally disliking the game are the impatient, instant gratification, PvP, FPS/MOBA, type players who can not fathom to do a lick of questing or engage in a bit of PvE in their game. Although I am certain solo-centric PvE types would have a problem with the group PvP features of the game beyond level 50, those are not the complaints being heard throughout the many forums. The PvE types have long ago conceded AA to the vociferous OWPvP crowd.
As it pertains to your "the many newer players associating instanced heavy solo-centric PvE games with an MMORPG," IMHO I really don't see this as the prevailing association at all. Although it is true that most MMORPG's are expected to be of the PvE variety, solo is not necessarily a requirement. In fact, many do prefer group content. The prevailing definition of an MMORPG is, and will always be, journey, progression, RP, and character development.
Nice post OP. Though I wouldn't quite post it in the same league as UO or EQ "in the old days", it's at least adequate and a step in the right direction for the genre and hopefully enough of a gateway to get players to understand and want some of that old school philosophy back, while retaining balance that isn't lop-sided, which is really all old school gamers had a problem with in the old days, but that complaint seemed to have snowballed into easy mode over the years...
There are many things about Archeage I don't care for "mainly immersion and pve issues", I can appreciate the OP and the general opinion that this game is one of the first steps back in the right direction for MMORPG's in general as far as player interaction and open world gaming is concerned in particular.
Not to mention the business model. I am reading more and more that people are absolutely turned off by it.
Does saying AA is for a more mature audience on multiple tread make you feel better about yourself or justify its downfall by any means? Seriously, i think everyone, even the newest generation of gamers envy and wish for a game that has a vast open world with housing such as AA. This has nothing to do with age, everyone would love to see huge open world like skyrim with housing features and large siege battles.
The reality is, the technology isnt there yet and until then, we need to prioritize what we want the most in our gaming experience. There is way more people playing games than 10 years ago, way more people playing mmorpgs then back then as well. Why? Because there is a bigger variety of mmorpg type, some are closer to a single player console game than others. Thankfully, these games brought console players and even non gamers at all into the mmorpg genre. You ve got to apreciate the diversity we have now and all the good things it brought to the genre.
With that said, i wish more games were open world, AA is not a complete open world to me, no where near as open as darkfall. You dont need to be 30 or 40 years old to appreciate open world housing neirborhood interaction, pirating on the open sea or building a castle. If you think people need a certain age to have the patience to learn and enjoy AA you are greatly underestimating our young gamers.
Its all about style and preferences, even mature gamers might have a family and job going on and they dont want to care about farming his stupid land before the crops go bad.... Some older folks have life and they maybe have very little time to play, maybe they need an esport like gw2 has, which i hate but i can see the appeal in this.
All im saying here is stop trying to be a hipster, blindly defend archeage and look down upon other games or gamers. In all of your post i see you praising AA like it has nothing negative to be said about it. Fanboy.
I had that kind of fun playing Darkfall at one point.
I still had low prowess ( low level ). I had to make it from my starting area across the vast landscape to my guild fortress. It was an adventure that would take over an hour or more. My guild offered to help but I felt I would do it on my own. The feeling of danger was like real life. my hirtrt was pounding as I hid and dodged players that would take my stuff.
Other than this adventure the game felt undone, the amount of prowess that was needed to be competitave was just too much to continue.
I think the idea that older gamers with more experience enjoy ship combat while the younger players do not is a bit silly.
I am 47 years old and have been playing video games since I was 13 and I am not a fan of AA.
For what AA is trying to bring to the table I very honesty prefer Wurm, Xyson and Darkfall. I think for those who are looking for things like in depth crafting, housing, farming and ship combat they really should try those games before deciding on AA.
When people say they really love AA the first thought that comes to my mind is 'the player doesnt have a lot of experience with a variety of games and is not aware of what is out there'
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Except that in real life (I mean the "real" real life), when you die, they don't just take your stuff and you can rez to play again... =P
Well quite honestly, when I die in real life my heirs will be taking all my stuff and I am planning on being resurrected. Max level too.Just saying.....
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Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
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"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
[mod edit]
All i am saying is, be real, ArcheAge is a game that i waited for quite sometimes, since the very first trailer of the stunning world itself few years ago when it wasnt even alpha/beta in its original country. I want it to succeed and i love many of its feature, sadly as much as i hate others. F2P model being one of the things that i hate along with trion.
Every problem that trion has in na/eu must first be communicated to xlgames, then understood, then troubleshooted, then the patch must be made and sent to us, tweaked for other language and then applied. There was a lot of bugs in the alpha and beta that are still unresolved... (bugs that shouldnt be in a 1 year old game such as an entire castle siege region bugged)
Just watch the archeage cbe3 livestream recap where one says that they noticed a bug with a mount that just had overpowered stats and they had to get in touch with xlgames to get this simple thing fixed... I facepalmed so damn hard, seriously. With that kind of system, you damn hope that xlgames does no mistake at all while sending us patch because one mistake will leave us in big trouble for weeks or at the very least, days.
AA is advertised as an OWPvP game. It therefore drew that type of gamer expecting that type of game play. Those are the types of gamers who are predominantly playing and complaining about the game now. I am quite confident that had AA been advertised as a PvE game with predominantly PvE features we would not be experiencing the hate for the game we are seeing on the many forums. With the exception of the OWPvP, AA has all of the features that PvE centric players enjoy in an MMORPG. As for the PvP crowd, not so much.
well said.
similar to ESO. There would be almost no ESO hate if they had released the game without the ES title.
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and neither perspective is wrong.
I am just saying that is my first reaction and often am surprised if someone says that like AA but do not like Darkfall.
Many of the escalated features in AA are exact copies of Darkfall.
Never the less..game on!
ADDED: Question for you. I have played both Wurm, Xyson, Darkfall and AA and the one I like the least is AA. Does this mean I inhertly like crap? or games to be unpoilished?
think on that a bit
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What doesnt make you wiser tho, is the fact that you forgot that this is YOUR opinion based on YOUR taste. I did not try wurm or xyson but from what ive seen, they are both from smaller indie compagny like darkfall. So of course it has poor production, you just cant compare darkfall to AA in terms of quality alone because Archeage had a MUCH bigger budget.
Still Darkfall is much more open world then AA and while AA feels much more polished and all that, much better feature and all, Darkfall still acomplished a lot of good things for when it first released. Especially for a first person mmorpg and open world at that.
That is some amazing generalisation and wishful thinking. My first MMO was Anarchy Online and then i spent many years in EVE online and i dislike AA because it is a generic confused themepark and sandbox hybrid which does none of it well.
If it wasn't published by trion i would have thought it is just another asian F2P generic MMO.
Here is the thing though..I must have some kind of personality defect or something
1. darkfall I played and instantly feel in love the first night and played for about 3 years
2. xyson I played for 4 months but server problems killed that game for me.
3. wurm I feel in love the first night and have been playing for a year now
4. AA I played for a weekend and uninstalled it.
what is wrong with me?
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Stop spreading false BS.
No one need to quest at all in AA, it is prefered that you lvl to 15 to pick up your scarecrow but you dont even need to. You cant level your way to 15, pick this one single quest and start owning lands or even completely avoid it if you dont want a farm and just want a normal house.
Well to be even more quite honest. The State will take a large % of my stuff. And my insurance will not pay for my resurrection.
And this is exactly how you should feel when you first enter a new world. You should be amazed, intregue and exited. Not bored to get thru another quest line... Maybe the game isnt for you or you got into it in the wrong state of mind.
Keep in mind that your experience is greatly affected by your expectation and how you even felt before entering the world.
I fell in love with DF1 but didnt for DF2, so much so that i couldnt keep playing past the second day... If you dont enjoy a game, that it is good at endgame or not, just stop playing it, not worth it.
I enjoy AAs world but i have issues with a lot of its features and other details.
naturally because I select a game like darkfall instead of a game like AA and I think that darkfall looks better it begs the question in my mind, what is wrong with me or is it just a matter of opnion?
It also begs me the quesiton 'what does 'polish' mean'. if it means graphics why not just say graphics? if it means bug free then Darkfall and Wurm are very bug free. So I am not sure what 'polish' means.
oh and animation? no fucks where given here...
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Erm, no!
Ok any game can only be a themepark if you follow its quests line until 50, such general statement. You word this like many other funny people on this forum saying that the first 30 lvls are tutorials and blah blah blah... BS.
By lvl one you can walk thru it all and go explore the world and lvl on your own. Sure its not the most efficient way, but doable. Its just not as open as darkfall, leveling wise.
I dont understand what 'polish' is exactly.
are we talking about graphics?
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Not unlike yourself, I also see no harm in a few hours of PvE questing. If anything, it allows me to learn the game and hone my skills. Sadly, that is not the prevailing opinion of the majority of FFPvP gamers, and especially the OWPvP variety. This is the FPS and MOBA crowd. It's woefully apparent, they hate everything having the slightest to do with questing and/or PvE. They can't even bare to do a few hours of PvE questing even when they are told that the game opens and becomes everything they want in a game after level 30. They revile it with a passion and make it known at every given opportunity.
When you think polish, think about every little details. Does game features works very well or were they simply poorly implemented for the sake of it.
Remember, DF1 first screen you would see while starting up the game and entering char creation. Good lord it was terrible. For me anyway, nobody can say that DF2 feels more polished than AA but you may overlook polish because of Darkfalls features and all.
Say you hate playing third person and you need an mmo that you will be able to actualy aim or shot as an archer. Than who cares about polish when none of the most polished games wont offer what you need.
Simple as that.