I fucking cannot stand how linear this game is. There is no other option.. you go from 1 walled area to another and it holds your hand the whole time. I really wish they gave us a better choice of places to go and more of a sandbox enviroment.
I'll play this game and im sure i'll enjoy it for the PvP but it's just annoying that they would make a game this amazing looking and make it so linear,you walk in a path everybody else walks in. Point A --> Point B ----> Point C.. no other choice.
Open the world UP to us! Make it large and vast, the game is gorgeous but walking into invisible walls is lame.
Zones...
Any game with zones makes it feel linear, BECAUSE IT IS.
Some games, like WoW, hide it better but still, how many paths are there to get from any of the starting zones to anywhere else? One. EQ/EQ2? Zoned. WaR? Zoned. FF? Zoned. CoX? Zoned. They are all the same. Until someone comes out with one big world, ie. no zones, and no artificial landscape limitations, it's always going to feel that way. Like you are on a guided tour through a collection of the devs latest, greatest attractions.
Starter zones should be right in the middle of big, central cities. With several paths out to other parts of the world instead of, ONE. Where you can go should be limited to your ability to a) survive once you get there, or b) navigate the terrain. And if you want to run from the east coast to the west, it should be a straight shot. I'm not saying there shouldn't be any obstacles, anywhere, ever. But, If you can see it, you should be able to get there.
Everyone would have to have a server as a computer to handle the game if it was as big and open as we would all want. It'll be laggy enough as it is in the Abyss with everyone fighting there.
1. Not looking for a WoW clone I played WoW 3-5 years includeding Beta. Now BC WoW looked very closed and dry compared to WOTLK.
2. Something different but games do get old after awhile, played FFXI 3-4, WoW 3-5, now going to try Aion. I did try AoC 6 months eww.
3. Played three different chars and had a different experience with each in Aion next beta finish my Mage. To me Aion reminds me of FFXI and Guildwars Oh yea played that on an off.
Need to add hope they fix that not being able to swim thing. I think FFXI was like that but of course didnt really see lakes.
Laslty
Give Aion a chance, like other games we gave WoW a chance just WoW been the mainstream after EQ and I remember the days in FFXI waiting for WoW to come out.
No game since has come even close to matching vanilla WoW in world design and world size. When WoW launched, I thought it would easily prove to be lacking in overall world design vs. the games we would be seeing in the later half of the decade. Needless to say, I'm disappointed that WoW has proved the pinnacle, rather than the minimum baseline; one that titles of the last five years haven't even approached.
Not sure where you live...but if I walk 30 minutes in any direction, I don't walk into some completely vertical mountain range coming out of nowhere. WoW is full of walls, no better or worse than any other MMO. They just hide it more effectively.
I haven't played WoW in maybe two years. For all it's pros and cons, I've been disappointed to find that no AAA titles I've tried or played since has come close to the openness and expansiveness of vanilla WoW. To say it's no better or worse than other MMORPGs in this regard is just false. Yes, like other games the technical limitations and design necessities require mountains and cliff faces, but with in any zone there are few such barriers. Also, I believe you can make a circuit following the main roads through the zones of Kalimdor on foot and probably be able to travel for an hour with out ever having to hit a portal. You just don't find this in other titles, which is a huge disappointment.
To the post on FFXI, I played it and liked it for a bit. I did like the overall world design. For some reason, I thought it pre-dated WoW, which is why I didn't mention it. It seems to me that a lot of the earlier generation of MMORPGs actually had larger, more open worlds than the crop of titles we've seen since the launch of WoW.
I've always thought that the expansive, open world and abundance of starting areas was one of the big reasons WoW was able to become so popular. It's ironic, to me, that most titles understandably look to WoW when putting their core game design together, but the ignore the world design lessons that WoW provides. (WAR offered an abundance of zones and a variety of starting areas, but the individual zone design is fairly poor and the linear, tier segregated, portal connected world falls flat).
Aion is flawed in world design in most of the same ways other recent titles have been. It is very frustrating to have so many games with fairly strong foundations fail so notably on world size and world design. Some of these titles have had huge budgets and staffs, so there is really no excuse for it. World design of late seems to be suffering from a lack of talent, creativity and productive work flow.
I haven't played WoW in maybe two years. For all it's pros and cons, I've been disappointed to find that no AAA titles I've tried or played since has come close to the openness and expansiveness of vanilla WoW. To say it's no better or worse than other MMORPGs in this regard is just false. Yes, like other games the technical limitations and design necessities require mountains and cliff faces, but with in any zone there are few such barriers. Also, I believe you can make a circuit following the main roads through the zones of Kalimdor on foot and probably be able to travel for an hour with out ever having to hit a portal. You just don't find this in other titles, which is a huge disappointment. To the post on FFXI, I played it and liked it for a bit. I did like the overall world design. For some reason, I thought it pre-dated WoW, which is why I didn't mention it. It seems to me that a lot of the earlier generation of MMORPGs actually had larger, more open worlds than the crop of titles we've seen since the launch of WoW. I've always thought that the expansive, open world and abundance of starting areas was one of the big reasons WoW was able to become so popular. It's ironic, to me, that most titles understandably look to WoW when putting their core game design together, but the ignore the world design lessons that WoW provides. (WAR offered an abundance of zones and a variety of starting areas, but the individual zone design is fairly poor and the linear, tier segregated, portal connected world falls flat). Aion is flawed in world design in most of the same ways other recent titles have been. It is very frustrating to have so many games with fairly strong foundations fail so notably on world size and world design. Some of these titles have had huge budgets and staffs, so there is really no excuse for it. World design of late seems to be suffering from a lack of talent, creativity and productive work flow.
Vanguard has even more open area and just as large land mass as Wow. With flying mounts you can even go over the mountains. Ships you can sail around the shores. There were unfortunately a lot of "zones" that weren't active. I don't know how many still are off.
I haven't played WoW in maybe two years. For all it's pros and cons, I've been disappointed to find that no AAA titles I've tried or played since has come close to the openness and expansiveness of vanilla WoW. To say it's no better or worse than other MMORPGs in this regard is just false. Yes, like other games the technical limitations and design necessities require mountains and cliff faces, but with in any zone there are few such barriers. Also, I believe you can make a circuit following the main roads through the zones of Kalimdor on foot and probably be able to travel for an hour with out ever having to hit a portal. You just don't find this in other titles, which is a huge disappointment. To the post on FFXI, I played it and liked it for a bit. I did like the overall world design. For some reason, I thought it pre-dated WoW, which is why I didn't mention it. It seems to me that a lot of the earlier generation of MMORPGs actually had larger, more open worlds than the crop of titles we've seen since the launch of WoW. I've always thought that the expansive, open world and abundance of starting areas was one of the big reasons WoW was able to become so popular. It's ironic, to me, that most titles understandably look to WoW when putting their core game design together, but the ignore the world design lessons that WoW provides. (WAR offered an abundance of zones and a variety of starting areas, but the individual zone design is fairly poor and the linear, tier segregated, portal connected world falls flat). Aion is flawed in world design in most of the same ways other recent titles have been. It is very frustrating to have so many games with fairly strong foundations fail so notably on world size and world design. Some of these titles have had huge budgets and staffs, so there is really no excuse for it. World design of late seems to be suffering from a lack of talent, creativity and productive work flow.
Vanguard has even more open area and just as large land mass as Wow. With flying mounts you can even go over the mountains. Ships you can sail around the shores. There were unfortunately a lot of "zones" that weren't active. I don't know how many still are off.
Yeah, but Vanguard didn't fail because of a small world. It had too many other problems.
A solid foundation with a small, poorly designed world hasn't worked. A shaky foundation with a large, open world didn't work. No one has put the whole package together since WoW.
My original point, in keeping with the OP's point, is that Aion, like a few other notable AAA titles over the recent years, have managed to build a good foundation for a successful MMORPG, but have had "small, closed world" as a major flaw. IMO, that flaw has severely limited the success of a number of games that otherwise where fun to play and had a solid core design to work with.
Aion has a good foundation. Character models and animations; core mechanics and class design; pretty good combat; sufficient crafting; a number of quests; excellent mob design, etc... The obvious flaw, in my eyes, is that the world is too small, too closed, too linear and of so-so design. I know I'll enjoy it for it's good points. I just don't think the world will keep me happy for more than a few months.
Look at WAR. I like many of the same things about WAR that I like about Aion, (although in some of the areas I mentioned in the previous paragraph, Aion is a notch up), but the world design is just seriously flawed. AoC was a little rougher than WAR at the core, but the too small world became an issue very quickly in that title. LotRO? I enjoyed the play. Hated the armor. I felt the character models and animations were a little lacking as well. However, it was the constant feeling that each zone was only a quarter of the size it should have been designed to be that ended my play time there. Tabula Rasa? It was fun to play, but in under twenty hours you could clearly see that the world was tiny, poorly designed, with the amount of content that you might expect from a single player RPG that you could finish in 50 hours.
I think many developers have been pretty successful at designing and coding the core elements. However, were is the title that marries the solid, fun, feature rich and attractive core with a large, well designed, fairly open, content rich world? I'm not talking about a complete sandbox, either, but the balance that Blizzard found with WoW?
I think I could settle for a game that doesn't give me a vast amount of space to run in. I would never know where the heck I'd have to go in games that would let me explore the whole world. It's kind of like a console game only better. I'm sure things will open up and they'll change stuff. Just need to get people into the game first you know?
Comments
Zones...
Any game with zones makes it feel linear, BECAUSE IT IS.
Some games, like WoW, hide it better but still, how many paths are there to get from any of the starting zones to anywhere else? One. EQ/EQ2? Zoned. WaR? Zoned. FF? Zoned. CoX? Zoned. They are all the same. Until someone comes out with one big world, ie. no zones, and no artificial landscape limitations, it's always going to feel that way. Like you are on a guided tour through a collection of the devs latest, greatest attractions.
Starter zones should be right in the middle of big, central cities. With several paths out to other parts of the world instead of, ONE. Where you can go should be limited to your ability to a) survive once you get there, or b) navigate the terrain. And if you want to run from the east coast to the west, it should be a straight shot. I'm not saying there shouldn't be any obstacles, anywhere, ever. But, If you can see it, you should be able to get there.
Everyone would have to have a server as a computer to handle the game if it was as big and open as we would all want. It'll be laggy enough as it is in the Abyss with everyone fighting there.
Aion to me seemed Open. Couple things for me
1. Not looking for a WoW clone I played WoW 3-5 years includeding Beta. Now BC WoW looked very closed and dry compared to WOTLK.
2. Something different but games do get old after awhile, played FFXI 3-4, WoW 3-5, now going to try Aion. I did try AoC 6 months eww.
3. Played three different chars and had a different experience with each in Aion next beta finish my Mage. To me Aion reminds me of FFXI and Guildwars Oh yea played that on an off.
Need to add hope they fix that not being able to swim thing. I think FFXI was like that but of course didnt really see lakes.
Laslty
Give Aion a chance, like other games we gave WoW a chance just WoW been the mainstream after EQ and I remember the days in FFXI waiting for WoW to come out.
My best advice to all is to play uintil lvl 25 and hit the abyss. Nothing linear out there.
Just be careful if you go solo!
Yeah i see your point but theyhave made the game visualy amazing! we shall all have to read more on what 1.5 brings to the game..?
Not sure where you live...but if I walk 30 minutes in any direction, I don't walk into some completely vertical mountain range coming out of nowhere. WoW is full of walls, no better or worse than any other MMO. They just hide it more effectively.
I haven't played WoW in maybe two years. For all it's pros and cons, I've been disappointed to find that no AAA titles I've tried or played since has come close to the openness and expansiveness of vanilla WoW. To say it's no better or worse than other MMORPGs in this regard is just false. Yes, like other games the technical limitations and design necessities require mountains and cliff faces, but with in any zone there are few such barriers. Also, I believe you can make a circuit following the main roads through the zones of Kalimdor on foot and probably be able to travel for an hour with out ever having to hit a portal. You just don't find this in other titles, which is a huge disappointment.
To the post on FFXI, I played it and liked it for a bit. I did like the overall world design. For some reason, I thought it pre-dated WoW, which is why I didn't mention it. It seems to me that a lot of the earlier generation of MMORPGs actually had larger, more open worlds than the crop of titles we've seen since the launch of WoW.
I've always thought that the expansive, open world and abundance of starting areas was one of the big reasons WoW was able to become so popular. It's ironic, to me, that most titles understandably look to WoW when putting their core game design together, but the ignore the world design lessons that WoW provides. (WAR offered an abundance of zones and a variety of starting areas, but the individual zone design is fairly poor and the linear, tier segregated, portal connected world falls flat).
Aion is flawed in world design in most of the same ways other recent titles have been. It is very frustrating to have so many games with fairly strong foundations fail so notably on world size and world design. Some of these titles have had huge budgets and staffs, so there is really no excuse for it. World design of late seems to be suffering from a lack of talent, creativity and productive work flow.
Want to know more about GW2 and why there is so much buzz? Start here: Guild Wars 2 Mass Info for the Uninitiated
Vanguard has even more open area and just as large land mass as Wow. With flying mounts you can even go over the mountains. Ships you can sail around the shores. There were unfortunately a lot of "zones" that weren't active. I don't know how many still are off.
Vanguard has even more open area and just as large land mass as Wow. With flying mounts you can even go over the mountains. Ships you can sail around the shores. There were unfortunately a lot of "zones" that weren't active. I don't know how many still are off.
Yeah, but Vanguard didn't fail because of a small world. It had too many other problems.
A solid foundation with a small, poorly designed world hasn't worked. A shaky foundation with a large, open world didn't work. No one has put the whole package together since WoW.
My original point, in keeping with the OP's point, is that Aion, like a few other notable AAA titles over the recent years, have managed to build a good foundation for a successful MMORPG, but have had "small, closed world" as a major flaw. IMO, that flaw has severely limited the success of a number of games that otherwise where fun to play and had a solid core design to work with.
Aion has a good foundation. Character models and animations; core mechanics and class design; pretty good combat; sufficient crafting; a number of quests; excellent mob design, etc... The obvious flaw, in my eyes, is that the world is too small, too closed, too linear and of so-so design. I know I'll enjoy it for it's good points. I just don't think the world will keep me happy for more than a few months.
Look at WAR. I like many of the same things about WAR that I like about Aion, (although in some of the areas I mentioned in the previous paragraph, Aion is a notch up), but the world design is just seriously flawed. AoC was a little rougher than WAR at the core, but the too small world became an issue very quickly in that title. LotRO? I enjoyed the play. Hated the armor. I felt the character models and animations were a little lacking as well. However, it was the constant feeling that each zone was only a quarter of the size it should have been designed to be that ended my play time there. Tabula Rasa? It was fun to play, but in under twenty hours you could clearly see that the world was tiny, poorly designed, with the amount of content that you might expect from a single player RPG that you could finish in 50 hours.
I think many developers have been pretty successful at designing and coding the core elements. However, were is the title that marries the solid, fun, feature rich and attractive core with a large, well designed, fairly open, content rich world? I'm not talking about a complete sandbox, either, but the balance that Blizzard found with WoW?
Want to know more about GW2 and why there is so much buzz? Start here: Guild Wars 2 Mass Info for the Uninitiated
I think I could settle for a game that doesn't give me a vast amount of space to run in. I would never know where the heck I'd have to go in games that would let me explore the whole world. It's kind of like a console game only better. I'm sure things will open up and they'll change stuff. Just need to get people into the game first you know?