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[Column] ArcheAge: Wish Fulfillment & Fantasy Comparisons
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
While news has been slowly coming out about the Westernized version of ArcheAge, we managed to dig up some intriguing nuggets of information about the game that you won't want to miss. Check out what we discovered and then head to the comments to discuss.
Voss is quoted as saying, “We don’t want to change the essence of the game, but we definitely want to give the Western audiences a game that is more … well .. Western.” She added, ”We’ve found out that XLGAMES had many of the same thoughts as us, so many of the changes will be game wide, not just for the West. We are also working with XLGAMES on some Western-specific changes, such as character creation options, which our players are expecting.”
Read more of Victor Barreiro Jr.'s ArcheAge: Wish Fulfillment & Fantasy Comparisons.
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Comments
Korea is weird. Korean games are weirder and Korean MMOs are flat out crazy. Korea is like Japan but on a serious acid trip. Their games mean so much to them, more so than any country on the earth. And if one Korean likes something, then they all like the same thing. It's very strange over there.
ArcheAge is a very Korean MMO. Just take a look at the videos, there are a ton of them. You will be doing something that looks and feels familiar then all of a sudden you walk right into something totally Korean. I am not sure you can take that part out of the game and not be left with something bland.
The game is a themepark leveling fest until you get to the highest level where it immediately turns into a PvP, sandbox type of game. So you have to slog through all that grind to get to the part where you can actually build and defend things. Well, I suppose you can try the PvP elements earlier but you will be dieing a lot.
Competition is one of the essences of this, and any other Korean, MMO. In this game it's the PvP/Build/Seige system where you can lose a lot of things if you are not careful. Western gamers do not want competition with loss. They want competition where one person wins and the loser also wins, but does not win as much. Everybody gets a trophy in western PvP games.
I don't think this game stands much of a chance being a long runnig MMO in America. Russians like it a lot though, that is for sure.
Yeah greater risk and having actual losers never works in more western MMOs... except EvE... I mean there is that.
I doubt I will be playing this particular game, could be amazing but seems niche, just like EvE is very niche. However it can work and might do very well but with only a few hundred thousand players as opposed to a few million.
Oh how I long for the day when some MMO developer finally abandons the misconception that players LIKE grinding through tons of stuff they don't want to do in order to get to the stuff they want to do.
Levels, skills (also a form of levels) to raise and grind through "content"...
Getting pretty old and stale.
The answer is in games like Neverwinter, GW2, Defiance etc where the gameplay is actually fun enough you don't feel like you're grinding. These games don't have me staring at my EXP bar, I get levels and don't even realize I was close!
Sad part is, people still treat it like a grind. Plow through it as fast as they can basically skipping 90% of the game then complain theres nothing to do. I'm not sure it's the devs who have a problem, its the gamers who are so used to rushing through everything in an MMO.
This is a completely incorrect statement. While it is fun to assume, there are many that have real world experience to base their facts on.
First you can level to max without questing at all, aside from personal story and crafting quests. In this game everything you do levels you. Cut down a tree, level, mine some ore, level, craft components, level, the list goes on and on. While you may not level as fast as you would in games like GW2, it is far, far from a grind.
Second, the end game activities can start as soon as you have the basic tools to do them (horse, donkey, ship) and you can choose to focus on getting those tools and have them all by your mid teens. At any point after that, you can build your house and start doing trade routes. There is nothing that is preventing you from doing end game activities as soon as you feel you are ready. Obviously at a higher risk since you will get pwned by higher players if they catch you. This can be avoided by taking more covert routes and extreme caution.
Also a side note about questing, I see a lot players keep bringing this up. While I understand why, you all need to realize that the activities that you do in this game are a lot different than other MMO's. Other MMO's questing was a big part of leveling and one of the core activities of the game. This is the not the case with Archeage, questing isn't something that I personally consider a core component of the game and isn't something many will be spending much time with. Getting to level cap is less important than building your empire and securing land to build resources on. Once you actually get into the game, many will find this quest arguement a null issue when they discover the numerous other ways that you can level, and far more effective ways to make gold.
My final thought regarding PvP, is that many may not realize that PvP in this game can equate to gold. I am not aware of many PvP focused games where killing players equates to gold. Take for instance trade runs, a player can spend hours growing crops for the route to turn in for gold, but if you gank them and take their pack you get to turn it in for your own profit without even having to spend any time growing crops. Most recent games PvP just equates to increasing rank or generating specialized currency. Here killing players can make you rich, how is that for risk vs. reward?!
You're assuming the game will be that way when it comes out here. As Victoria said, there are lot's of changes being made to make the game western-friendly, and many of them are changes XLgames wants to make to the Korean version. I would imagine that level-grinding will be minimalized, and sped up significantly if this is a problem in the Korean game, especially if the game doesn't really "start" until the max level. The top down approach many MMO's adopt, sucks. But I think there are a plethora of ways that they could restructure it so that isn't the case with AA. If you look at the Korean AA website, translating their patch notes...They have huge updates all the time that make adjustments and changes, adding content, fixing bugs, streamlining things etc. They appear to have been very, very quick to address any issues and keep the game going forward, and with Trion's trackrecord with RIFT in the past I think the game is in really good hands, because Trion was also really efficient with RIFT.
ArcheAge has a much, much, much bigger "niche" than EVE does. It is extremely popular in Korea right now, and it's a hybrid themepark/sandbox game, which is the direction MMO's are headed all around...So it's starting out ahead, and I think the potential is there for it to be really, really successful here.
That would be assuming games have something to do beyond grinds?I have seen little of this.
My personal opinion is that grinds are good for a game.If yo ujust waltz throguh a level liek it meant nothing,then guess what,it means nothing.
If you are proud of yoru drops,yoru items and gear,how fun does it make it when you ou tlevel your gear in less than an hour?
people miss the whole point of living out a roleplaying experience.it is NOT a race to anywhere or anything,it is suppose to be a world to enjoy.
Levels unless they are treated like aging numbers,really have absolutely no use in a game at all,they literally mean nothing.
I do love a sub class system, but i feel once you get into 3 it starts to diminish the actual class.I would have preferred only two class specific choices.
Even still ,i think this game will be playble and will as mentioned in the article be perhaps the most content rich game since FFXI.
I might also add that adding any kind of lame tatoo system to character customizaation is NOT what i want.if they want to spend extra time developing the Character customization,then do it in a meaningful way.EVERY single player eventually covers tatoos and 90% of the player with gear anyhow,so why waste time on that?
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
Only way this will be successful is if they address the dreadful combat system. Its slow and sluggish and I keep hearing that across the board.
Any MMO is still essentially 50% combat.
MMORPG Gamers/Developers need a reality check!
That is because video games are a NATIONAL PASSTIME there. They have video game channels, and no I dont mean like the joke that is G4...people make a living playing games there as an e-sport with major national competitions paying out $100k+
Anyway, I would play this game if they removed the FFA PvP aspect.
I hope we shall crush...in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations, which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength and bid defiance to the laws of our country." ~Thomes Jefferson
Look to the stars to know HE is with us. HE hung them as markers, of times and of seasons.
In reality this isn't necessarily the case. One thing to consider this the world size. The world is absolutely MASSIVE, so being low level you can greatly mitigate risk by taking covert routes, using cover and more indirect routes. So if you expose yourself and are careless as to how you get from point A to point B you will die. If you utilize the massive world take longer safer routes, you can achieve the same goals.
The biggest problem of this game is the dreadful levels.
Being forced to level up first is the one thing I hate most about MMOs and the reason why I've enjoyed EvE Online right from the start.
I remember my first week in EvE back in 2005. I joined a corp after a few days of mining solo semi-AFK to generate some ISK while watching my skillspoints grow.
My new corpmates told me a few things and I started taking part in low-sec piracy right away, instead of having to level up first.
This was the best experience I've ever had in any MMO.
Is this yet another promising korean-created game butchered for the generic playing main-stream mind-set for the west? Games that are supposedly good niches or were made as good to began with but changed to become main-stream as possible. If it is changed for main-stream taste, it is not a niche.
It's one to make adjustments(if they actually contribute an improvement to the game. Not a over-done free-for-all scaling back which happens more often than not recently. It's a trend to remove content than to actually add content into a game) for the gameplay to be fun. This is dependent on content updates and how the game is created in the first place. But it's another when the details or core of the game is taken out just to fit these so called "western specifics". There aren't really any specifics. Only the current fad and mindset of what MMO players are use to from old mmo's which is not a permanent fix and can always change as well as type of marketing. More games come out and more options are created is what is currently used for quick marketing.Majority of the times these games get published here they become uncultured and un-unique from their origins and become dulled down now sadly.
These mmos being published now do not carry a international vibe, despite being international in the first place. The ability to choose more for a player is then limited and in a very generic way. Hopefully they don't butcher the asian-features of one of the races in the game, just to fit so called "western standards" of whomever game-companies deem as their only audiences.
If only more developers would become international and customers able to play the games of their choice without these regional-lock hassles. The video-games have nearly been the same for the past years in the West now(same gameplay, and the market needs some changes and fresh-breath added to it. But as soon as something unique or different comes out it seems game companies go right back to the generic routine again. Super easified, less thought-provoking and babyified type gaming.
ArcheAge looks like a nice sandbox hybrid game to look forward too, but more than likely it fall into the generic trap like other Korean MMO's have gotten in. It's too early to tell(though it looks like that's the route this game is going) but nothing to hold breath on. Good for the generics, not so great for those that are international or are actually interested or tolerant of the cultures who are creating these games.