Unquestionably one of the best games I have ever played. So many things done so well, totally decimated by the cash shop and incompetence dealing with the cheats.
Everyone considered TRION the ideal distributor with a good record of how to effectively manage a F2P game. How wrong we were. Their total incompetence and disdain for a playerbase whose warnings fell on deaf ears time and time again, made me realize that TRION are, infact, utter shit.
It was kind of shocking how they went from Rift to Archeage with their F2P model. Archeage pretty much destroyed their reputation because of it.
There were plenty of missteps on both XLs and Trions part - true, but look at ArcheAge the game and its still quite good.
Over the last 2 major patches they have been making actual improvements for players and this next patch is another move in the right direction
- Patron offline labor regen is same as online = 10
- complete ship revamp including customization and combat
- major increase to archeum crystal drops from regular gameplay
Obsidian armor gear introduced
Obsidian version 2 weapons
Its getting better for sure - You can check out the upcoming patch on PTS right now - I got a blue library coin purse today on PTS that had 140 gold in it
And this completely missed the point of what the Op was saying
For those who knew nothing about ArcheAge:
1. Alpha in ArcheAge was NOT Alpha, it was the build that already on the market in other countries. Basically Trion being the Jackasses that they are didn't want to pay for the price to keep ArcheAge at this stage like the Russians did, though the Russian build has been changed its not the complete fuckfest that the NA/Euro build is. I've heard the Japanese build is also better than ours. We BEGGED Trion on the forums to not take out the intracontinental trading and they gave us about as much listen as a cat to a pleading mouse before it eats it.
2. The hacking, the hacking, the hacking. Having to work to get a house Sure! Having to deal with spamcheat bullshits who use programs to throw down houses down to the last minute? Hell No
3. Intracontinental Trading was facefucked due to the change in the dropping of Gilda stars for gold, this alone killed the immersion of the world seeing players on donkeys, trucks and the like on a constant basis because some moron thought it would be better to force everyone into the oceans to raise PVP. All this did was turn ports into gankfests because you ended up concentrating pvp enemy forces into certain areas only.
4. Their who gives a crap johnny come lately attitude when problems are brought up.
Honestly as sad as this is to say if an American company took the ArcheAge Alpha formula with better anti hack software and less of an intrusive cash shop, labor points and put in item decay instead of RNG they would have the license to print money. But since Western mmo companies are dumping the genre now we will prob have to wait some time for a Westernized Western made ArcheAge with Westernized Quality Control.
@DMKano nobody cares about the trinkets they are adding, what we care about is having a stable world with the systems that encourage intracontinental trading, exploration and the OPTION to have to go trade in the other ports around the world.
If we wanted trinkets that's what WoW and FFXIV are for!
Any mmo worth its salt should be like a good prostitute when it comes to its game world- One hell of a faker, and a damn good shaker!
I've stated what the OP posted countless times in several different threads. Ultimately, ArcheAge has gone from being a possible contender for the #1 mainstream MMO to a niche, P2W cash shop cow. No patch will ever fix what's wrong with the game outside of a complete reset / restart with a new P2P server. Maybe one day, when Trion finally admits to their giant !#@$ up and creates said server, they'll realize a lot of us were right.
Examples of great customer service in regards to game !@#% ups would be A) Mythic Entertainment creating a new server with the removal of the Trials of Atlantis expansion, called the Classic Server and FFXIV relaunching the game a year later after realizing the poor state the game was in at the original launch. In all honesty, I think the original FFXIV was better off than ArcheAge's launch and yet it was still taken down and relaunched. It's all about the game companies behind the games and I for one will always support companies that listen to a majority of their customers.
Trion doesn't listen for shit.
This...
The game was great in alpha simply because it was a new world to explore, a very great start for a sandbox until it got totally ruined by Trion.
DMKano ...
Cant believe this boi is still going on defending this game after all these months... Arent you tired yet? I mean, if you aint getting paid for all them posts, get on it.
No one cares about this game anymore, as soon as we stopped getting reports of their latest f*** ups, we stopped hearing anything about the game. I watched one of their latest stream about an upcoming update and the new dev spent an hour running around in a winter zone, not knowing where to go himself, showing about 2-3 new costume for the cash shop... Its pathetic.
There were plenty of missteps on both XLs and Trions part - true, but look at ArcheAge the game and its still quite good.
Over the last 2 major patches they have been making actual improvements for players and this next patch is another move in the right direction
- Patron offline labor regen is same as online = 10
- complete ship revamp including customization and combat
- major increase to archeum crystal drops from regular gameplay
Obsidian armor gear introduced
Obsidian version 2 weapons
Its getting better for sure - You can check out the upcoming patch on PTS right now - I got a blue library coin purse today on PTS that had 140 gold in it
And this completely missed the point of what the Op was saying
For those who knew nothing about ArcheAge:
1. Alpha in ArcheAge was NOT Alpha, it was the build that already on the market in other countries. Basically Trion being the Jackasses that they are didn't want to pay for the price to keep ArcheAge at this stage like the Russians did, though the Russian build has been changed its not the complete fuckfest that the NA/Euro build is. I've heard the Japanese build is also better than ours.
2. The hacking, the hacking, the hacking. Having to work to get a house Sure! Having to deal with spamcheat bullshits who use programs to throw down houses down to the last minute? Hell No
3. Intracontinental Trading was facefucked due to the change in the dropping of Gilda stars for gold, this alone killed the immersion of the world seeing players on donkeys, trucks and the like on a constant basis because some moron thought it would be better to force everyone into the oceans to raise PVP. All this did was turn ports into gankfests because you ended up concentrating pvp enemy forces into certain areas only.
4. Their who gives a crap johnny come lately attitude when problems are brought up.
Honestly as sad as this is to say if an American company took the ArcheAge Alpha formula with better anti hack software and less of an intrusive cash shop, labor points and put in item decay instead of RNG they would have the license to print money. But since Western mmo companies are dumping the genre now we will prob have to wait some time for a Westernized Western made ArcheAge with Westernized Quality Control.
You give Western game developers way too much credit, my friend. I guess I can understand your bias if you are from the west, but you need to get them off that pedestal. Like you said, they are dumping the genre. For more reasons than one, It is not deserved.
There were plenty of missteps on both XLs and Trions part - true, but look at ArcheAge the game and its still quite good.
Over the last 2 major patches they have been making actual improvements for players and this next patch is another move in the right direction
- Patron offline labor regen is same as online = 10
- complete ship revamp including customization and combat
- major increase to archeum crystal drops from regular gameplay
Obsidian armor gear introduced
Obsidian version 2 weapons
Its getting better for sure - You can check out the upcoming patch on PTS right now - I got a blue library coin purse today on PTS that had 140 gold in it
And this completely missed the point of what the Op was saying
For those who knew nothing about ArcheAge:
1. Alpha in ArcheAge was NOT Alpha, it was the build that already on the market in other countries. Basically Trion being the Jackasses that they are didn't want to pay for the price to keep ArcheAge at this stage like the Russians did, though the Russian build has been changed its not the complete fuckfest that the NA/Euro build is. I've heard the Japanese build is also better than ours.
2. The hacking, the hacking, the hacking. Having to work to get a house Sure! Having to deal with spamcheat bullshits who use programs to throw down houses down to the last minute? Hell No
3. Intracontinental Trading was facefucked due to the change in the dropping of Gilda stars for gold, this alone killed the immersion of the world seeing players on donkeys, trucks and the like on a constant basis because some moron thought it would be better to force everyone into the oceans to raise PVP. All this did was turn ports into gankfests because you ended up concentrating pvp enemy forces into certain areas only.
4. Their who gives a crap johnny come lately attitude when problems are brought up.
Honestly as sad as this is to say if an American company took the ArcheAge Alpha formula with better anti hack software and less of an intrusive cash shop, labor points and put in item decay instead of RNG they would have the license to print money. But since Western mmo companies are dumping the genre now we will prob have to wait some time for a Westernized Western made ArcheAge with Westernized Quality Control.
You give Western developers way too much credit, my friend. I guess I can understand your bias if you are from the west, but you need to get them off that pedestal. It is not deserved.
Please give an example of a non western company who would make the game I'm speaking about besides Squaresoft with that high of a quality control level. I'll wait...
Any mmo worth its salt should be like a good prostitute when it comes to its game world- One hell of a faker, and a damn good shaker!
There were plenty of missteps on both XLs and Trions part - true, but look at ArcheAge the game and its still quite good.
Over the last 2 major patches they have been making actual improvements for players and this next patch is another move in the right direction
- Patron offline labor regen is same as online = 10
- complete ship revamp including customization and combat
- major increase to archeum crystal drops from regular gameplay
Obsidian armor gear introduced
Obsidian version 2 weapons
Its getting better for sure - You can check out the upcoming patch on PTS right now - I got a blue library coin purse today on PTS that had 140 gold in it
And this completely missed the point of what the Op was saying
For those who knew nothing about ArcheAge:
1. Alpha in ArcheAge was NOT Alpha, it was the build that already on the market in other countries. Basically Trion being the Jackasses that they are didn't want to pay for the price to keep ArcheAge at this stage like the Russians did, though the Russian build has been changed its not the complete fuckfest that the NA/Euro build is. I've heard the Japanese build is also better than ours.
2. The hacking, the hacking, the hacking. Having to work to get a house Sure! Having to deal with spamcheat bullshits who use programs to throw down houses down to the last minute? Hell No
3. Intracontinental Trading was facefucked due to the change in the dropping of Gilda stars for gold, this alone killed the immersion of the world seeing players on donkeys, trucks and the like on a constant basis because some moron thought it would be better to force everyone into the oceans to raise PVP. All this did was turn ports into gankfests because you ended up concentrating pvp enemy forces into certain areas only.
4. Their who gives a crap johnny come lately attitude when problems are brought up.
Honestly as sad as this is to say if an American company took the ArcheAge Alpha formula with better anti hack software and less of an intrusive cash shop, labor points and put in item decay instead of RNG they would have the license to print money. But since Western mmo companies are dumping the genre now we will prob have to wait some time for a Westernized Western made ArcheAge with Westernized Quality Control.
You give Western developers way too much credit, my friend. I guess I can understand your bias if you are from the west, but you need to get them off that pedestal. It is not deserved.
Please give an example of a non western company who would make the game I'm speaking about besides Squaresoft?
Perhaps you should try to mention a Western company that would? And remember ... saying so does not make it so.
There were plenty of missteps on both XLs and Trions part - true, but look at ArcheAge the game and its still quite good.
Over the last 2 major patches they have been making actual improvements for players and this next patch is another move in the right direction
- Patron offline labor regen is same as online = 10
- complete ship revamp including customization and combat
- major increase to archeum crystal drops from regular gameplay
Obsidian armor gear introduced
Obsidian version 2 weapons
Its getting better for sure - You can check out the upcoming patch on PTS right now - I got a blue library coin purse today on PTS that had 140 gold in it
And this completely missed the point of what the Op was saying
For those who knew nothing about ArcheAge:
1. Alpha in ArcheAge was NOT Alpha, it was the build that already on the market in other countries. Basically Trion being the Jackasses that they are didn't want to pay for the price to keep ArcheAge at this stage like the Russians did, though the Russian build has been changed its not the complete fuckfest that the NA/Euro build is. I've heard the Japanese build is also better than ours.
2. The hacking, the hacking, the hacking. Having to work to get a house Sure! Having to deal with spamcheat bullshits who use programs to throw down houses down to the last minute? Hell No
3. Intracontinental Trading was facefucked due to the change in the dropping of Gilda stars for gold, this alone killed the immersion of the world seeing players on donkeys, trucks and the like on a constant basis because some moron thought it would be better to force everyone into the oceans to raise PVP. All this did was turn ports into gankfests because you ended up concentrating pvp enemy forces into certain areas only.
4. Their who gives a crap johnny come lately attitude when problems are brought up.
Honestly as sad as this is to say if an American company took the ArcheAge Alpha formula with better anti hack software and less of an intrusive cash shop, labor points and put in item decay instead of RNG they would have the license to print money. But since Western mmo companies are dumping the genre now we will prob have to wait some time for a Westernized Western made ArcheAge with Westernized Quality Control.
You give Western developers way too much credit, my friend. I guess I can understand your bias if you are from the west, but you need to get them off that pedestal. It is not deserved.
Please give an example of a non western company who would make the game I'm speaking about besides Squaresoft?
Perhaps you should try to mention a Western company that would? And remember ... saying so does not make it so.
Daybreak did it already with SWG and prob will halfway do it again with EQN if it ever gets fixed. I'm sure Shroud of the Avatar is going to be very close in depth with its world. Your turn.
Any mmo worth its salt should be like a good prostitute when it comes to its game world- One hell of a faker, and a damn good shaker!
There were plenty of missteps on both XLs and Trions part - true, but look at ArcheAge the game and its still quite good.
Over the last 2 major patches they have been making actual improvements for players and this next patch is another move in the right direction
- Patron offline labor regen is same as online = 10
- complete ship revamp including customization and combat
- major increase to archeum crystal drops from regular gameplay
Obsidian armor gear introduced
Obsidian version 2 weapons
Its getting better for sure - You can check out the upcoming patch on PTS right now - I got a blue library coin purse today on PTS that had 140 gold in it
And this completely missed the point of what the Op was saying
For those who knew nothing about ArcheAge:
1. Alpha in ArcheAge was NOT Alpha, it was the build that already on the market in other countries. Basically Trion being the Jackasses that they are didn't want to pay for the price to keep ArcheAge at this stage like the Russians did, though the Russian build has been changed its not the complete fuckfest that the NA/Euro build is. I've heard the Japanese build is also better than ours.
2. The hacking, the hacking, the hacking. Having to work to get a house Sure! Having to deal with spamcheat bullshits who use programs to throw down houses down to the last minute? Hell No
3. Intracontinental Trading was facefucked due to the change in the dropping of Gilda stars for gold, this alone killed the immersion of the world seeing players on donkeys, trucks and the like on a constant basis because some moron thought it would be better to force everyone into the oceans to raise PVP. All this did was turn ports into gankfests because you ended up concentrating pvp enemy forces into certain areas only.
4. Their who gives a crap johnny come lately attitude when problems are brought up.
Honestly as sad as this is to say if an American company took the ArcheAge Alpha formula with better anti hack software and less of an intrusive cash shop, labor points and put in item decay instead of RNG they would have the license to print money. But since Western mmo companies are dumping the genre now we will prob have to wait some time for a Westernized Western made ArcheAge with Westernized Quality Control.
You give Western developers way too much credit, my friend. I guess I can understand your bias if you are from the west, but you need to get them off that pedestal. It is not deserved.
Please give an example of a non western company who would make the game I'm speaking about besides Squaresoft?
Perhaps you should try to mention a Western company that would? And remember ... saying so does not make it so.
Daybreak did it already with SWG and prob will halfway do it again with EQN if it ever gets fixed. I'm sure Shroud of the Avatar is going to be very close in depth with its world. Your turn.
Really now. You need to come at me with something substantive before asking for my turn. Try harder.
Originally posted by Rhoklaw I've stated what the OP posted countless times in several different threads. Ultimately, ArcheAge has gone from being a possible contender for the #1 mainstream MMO to a niche, P2W cash shop cow. No patch will ever fix what's wrong with the game outside of a complete reset / restart with a new P2P server. Maybe one day, when Trion finally admits to their giant !#@$ up and creates said server, they'll realize a lot of us were right.Examples of great customer service in regards to game !@#% ups would be A) Mythic Entertainment creating a new server with the removal of the Trials of Atlantis expansion, called the Classic Server and FFXIV relaunching the game a year later after realizing the poor state the game was in at the original launch. In all honesty, I think the original FFXIV was better off than ArcheAge's launch and yet it was still taken down and relaunched. It's all about the game companies behind the games and I for one will always support companies that listen to a majority of their customers.Trion doesn't listen for shit.
This...
The game was great in alpha simply because it was a new world to explore, a very great start for a sandbox until it got totally ruined by Trion.
DMKano ...
Cant believe this boi is still going on defending this game after all these months... Arent you tired yet? I mean, if you aint getting paid for all them posts, get on it.
No one cares about this game anymore, as soon as we stopped getting reports of their latest f*** ups, we stopped hearing anything about the game. I watched one of their latest stream about an upcoming update and the new dev spent an hour running around in a winter zone, not knowing where to go himself, showing about 2-3 new costume for the cash shop... Its pathetic.
So you watch streams about games that you or how did you put it "nobody" cares about anymore? There are still over half a million active players in Archeage today fyi.
There were plenty of missteps on both XLs and Trions part - true, but look at ArcheAge the game and its still quite good.
Over the last 2 major patches they have been making actual improvements for players and this next patch is another move in the right direction
- Patron offline labor regen is same as online = 10
- complete ship revamp including customization and combat
- major increase to archeum crystal drops from regular gameplay
Obsidian armor gear introduced
Obsidian version 2 weapons
Its getting better for sure - You can check out the upcoming patch on PTS right now - I got a blue library coin purse today on PTS that had 140 gold in it
And this completely missed the point of what the Op was saying
For those who knew nothing about ArcheAge:
1. Alpha in ArcheAge was NOT Alpha, it was the build that already on the market in other countries. Basically Trion being the Jackasses that they are didn't want to pay for the price to keep ArcheAge at this stage like the Russians did, though the Russian build has been changed its not the complete fuckfest that the NA/Euro build is. I've heard the Japanese build is also better than ours.
2. The hacking, the hacking, the hacking. Having to work to get a house Sure! Having to deal with spamcheat bullshits who use programs to throw down houses down to the last minute? Hell No
3. Intracontinental Trading was facefucked due to the change in the dropping of Gilda stars for gold, this alone killed the immersion of the world seeing players on donkeys, trucks and the like on a constant basis because some moron thought it would be better to force everyone into the oceans to raise PVP. All this did was turn ports into gankfests because you ended up concentrating pvp enemy forces into certain areas only.
4. Their who gives a crap johnny come lately attitude when problems are brought up.
Honestly as sad as this is to say if an American company took the ArcheAge Alpha formula with better anti hack software and less of an intrusive cash shop, labor points and put in item decay instead of RNG they would have the license to print money. But since Western mmo companies are dumping the genre now we will prob have to wait some time for a Westernized Western made ArcheAge with Westernized Quality Control.
You give Western developers way too much credit, my friend. I guess I can understand your bias if you are from the west, but you need to get them off that pedestal. It is not deserved.
Please give an example of a non western company who would make the game I'm speaking about besides Squaresoft?
Perhaps you should try to mention a Western company that would? And remember ... saying so does not make it so.
Daybreak did it already with SWG and prob will halfway do it again with EQN if it ever gets fixed. I'm sure Shroud of the Avatar is going to be very close in depth with its world. Your turn.
Really now. You need to come at me with something substantive before asking for my turn. Try harder.
Why? Nobody outside of the west has made a sandbox as good as SWG or even UO so if you can name one plase do. And lastly I rather like Asian developers, I just think on average Korean devs aren't as good as Western ones. So, once again, please name one other than Squaresoft that has well managed good quality control that can make a sandbox mmo that's even as good as Ultima Online, Star Wars Galaxies or hell even The Saga of Ryzom? Something more substantial? You can't even name one as good as UO from Asia and just to reiterate, I don't hate Asian devs at all. I just think that Korean mmo devs have terrible quality control measures and make nothing but pandering cash shop garbage and ArcheAge was a brilliant game in its launch form in Korea but now is a botted mess filled with hackers. Black Desert Online was on the right track but look at it now, its nothing but a casualized easy mode mess now.
Any mmo worth its salt should be like a good prostitute when it comes to its game world- One hell of a faker, and a damn good shaker!
100% agree. In alpha I thought I found my home. Had not been that excited about an MMO in years, one where I thought about it at work, or got up extra early on a saturday because I couldn't wait to play again.
Alpha state is not a product and neither a relationship company to customer.
it is a relaion between software developer and software tester.
OP (and seemingly most other too) mismatched their software testing duties with "playing a game".
Regardless of, if someone thinks their business model is ok or not ok, at the time of release in which tester become customer the business plan someone had to subscribe to was clear. This is much better then changing business plan on a running and released product. In archeage case it was announced prior to release and people had the choice to not buy the product.
tldr; they announed the change of businness plan way before release the product, so everything is fine with it.
PS: i admit i never been a alpha tester and joined at release date, 1 month later i subscribed as patron and do so till this day.
Best MMORPG of the last decade. Best MMORPG since SWG 2003- 2005 (PRECU)
You would be correct if we were not charged $150 for the alpha. At that point you ARE a customer. The fact you admit to joining after alpha, and paying this company monthly since release tells me you have no credible opinion on this matter. You like AA as it is, good for you. Now move along and let us continue complaining about what happened to us.
Perhaps you should try to mention a Western company that would? And remember ... saying so does not make it so.
Daybreak did it already with SWG and prob will halfway do it again with EQN if it ever gets fixed. I'm sure Shroud of the Avatar is going to be very close in depth with its world. Your turn.
Really now. You need to come at me with something substantive before asking for my turn. Try harder.
Why? Nobody outside of the west has made a sandbox as good as SWG or even UO so if you can name one pelase do. And lastly I rather like Asian developers, I just think on average Korean devs aren't as good as Western ones. So, once again, please name one other than Squaresoft that has well managed good quality control that can make a sandbox mmo that's as good as Ultima Online, Star Wars Galaxies or hell even The Saga of Ryzom?
All of that is subjective and your opinion only. While I agree that SWG was a great game, not everyone even agrees with us in that respect. Nor does everyone agree that UO was a great game. I am American and, on the whole, I prefer Asian games. You, on the other hand, prefer Western games. It is all a matter of preference and opinion. Not even worth debating really.
There were plenty of missteps on both XLs and Trions part - true, but look at ArcheAge the game and its still quite good.
Over the last 2 major patches they have been making actual improvements for players and this next patch is another move in the right direction
- Patron offline labor regen is same as online = 10
- complete ship revamp including customization and combat
- major increase to archeum crystal drops from regular gameplay
Obsidian armor gear introduced
Obsidian version 2 weapons
Its getting better for sure - You can check out the upcoming patch on PTS right now - I got a blue library coin purse today on PTS that had 140 gold in it
Noone's really questioning the game's mechanics or patches. Seems like everyone here loves the game. It's the monetization model that has always been the problem. That and Trion's inability to firmly take care of cheating. I actually logged in the other day to what was previously an extremely popular server, and it felt like a ghost town. Noone was talking in chat, and even the players there said that most of the players left. Only a few dedicated players remained.
Edit - Server was Ollo / East
Lots of Ollo east went Pirate - just FYI - heck lots of Ollo west did too - - because everyone is in the library leveling to 55
Again - look at the land plots - full up - if the game was a ghost town - there would be plenty of land available - there's none on Ollo still
Also - you an ignore monetizationa and just play it like a sub game - pay $15 a month (I buy Apex with gold) and completely ingore cash shop - it totally works - that's what I do.
Trion has gotten $0 from me since September - and I am in full unique set and Hasla T3 weapons (working on obsidian T4 now)
I'm not going to disagree that Archeage is busy still because I have no idea, I quit as soon as I saw where it was headed. After playing in the Russian version I fell in love with it, but by the time it hit America it had been p2w too much for my tastes.
Now, that said. I will disagree with you on one point. Housing availability has nothing to do with active current players. I still have houses in multiple games that I haven't actually played in a couple of years because they are games I might one day decide to go back. Bots also will hold land. So while in Archeage it can be a better gauge due to the fact only subs get land, in the grand scheme of things it says nothing about concurrent active players on the server.
The people that are trying to make the world worse never take a day off , why should I. Light up the darkness Bob Marley
I've stated what the OP posted countless times in several different threads. Ultimately, ArcheAge has gone from being a possible contender for the #1 mainstream MMO to a niche, P2W cash shop cow. No patch will ever fix what's wrong with the game outside of a complete reset / restart with a new P2P server. Maybe one day, when Trion finally admits to their giant !#@$ up and creates said server, they'll realize a lot of us were right.
Examples of great customer service in regards to game !@#% ups would be A) Mythic Entertainment creating a new server with the removal of the Trials of Atlantis expansion, called the Classic Server and FFXIV relaunching the game a year later after realizing the poor state the game was in at the original launch. In all honesty, I think the original FFXIV was better off than ArcheAge's launch and yet it was still taken down and relaunched. It's all about the game companies behind the games and I for one will always support companies that listen to a majority of their customers.
Trion doesn't listen for shit.
This...
The game was great in alpha simply because it was a new world to explore, a very great start for a sandbox until it got totally ruined by Trion.
DMKano ...
Cant believe this boi is still going on defending this game after all these months... Arent you tired yet? I mean, if you aint getting paid for all them posts, get on it.
No one cares about this game anymore, as soon as we stopped getting reports of their latest f*** ups, we stopped hearing anything about the game. I watched one of their latest stream about an upcoming update and the new dev spent an hour running around in a winter zone, not knowing where to go himself, showing about 2-3 new costume for the cash shop... Its pathetic.
So you watch streams about games that you or how did you put it "nobody" cares about anymore? There are still over half a million active players in Archeage today fyi.
Thats all i had to say boi, you seem to love getting back and forth into pointless argument treads. The game isnt covered by anyone really. This entire tread prove what i am saying, along with what people been saying on this site since beta and i had no word in all this.
Game with potential, trashed by Trion, everybody knows it.
Cant blame me for giving trion a second, third.... Chance by watching their stream to see if they finally fixed where they went so wrong now can you? But even tho i tried to come back about 3-4 time, lasting about a day in, just watching them talking about "their" game makes me laugh at their incompetance.
I remember their first streams, even their audience knew more about the game then their own devs... Enough said.
I am right there with ya. Paid for Alpha and found an amazing game and played it all summer until launch.
Sadly the game is a victim of F2P and the nasty greed of the producers. It was more important to gouge the customers and bleed them dry instead of focusing on launching and supporting the game.
I have thought about heading back numerous times over the last year but then I remember that Trion did such an amazingly bad job supporting the game and abusing it with disgusting cash shop.
Rest in Peace Archeage, if only you could have found a producer that didn't suck.
If XL/Trion were smart they would create a "Alpha Classic" server that started from scratch, was subscription only, and no cash shop. I would join it in a heartbeat.
Never have i played an MMO so addictivly, and took my time leveling up also. The last time that happend to me it was SWG or the begging of WoW Vanillia. I thought i hit that sweet spot with Archeage again, but nope, the cash shop came in and changed how the game functioned forever.
I thought the game would be a good themepark sandbox mix. I was wrong, the themepark side of it was horrible. Mobs had horrible loot and the quest hubbing was criminally dull. Mob grinding didn't feel very viable. They wanted to force everyone to craft and pretty much require you to have land to do anything (which was all taken of course).
You have stated that game has over 500k active players but how many millions did they have at launch that they lost due a poorly thought out monitization model? Since you have the inside scoop and seem to know exactly how many people work in each department and exactly how much the company is making can you tell us how many active players they lost since launch? Do all games lose players at launch, YEP! Assuming AA launched with a measly 2 million accounts which is a light estimate given the amount of people waiting in queues, do all games lose an easy 75% of their customers? How many of those 500k active players are alt accounts or gold farmers or free players?
You have stated that Trion had their most profitable year but when you look at the big picture, that does not say much. They started with one MMO (Rift) then released one very disappointing and poorly performing game that nearly sunk the ship (Defiance) which when combined with their purchase/acquisition of End of Nations from Petroglyph resulted in epic layoffs. http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/05/18/the-price-of-defiance-trion-worlds-hit-by-big-layoffs/ At this point, Trion was at its lowest point in the companies history. They decided to stop development of End of Nations and really at this point they stopped being a game "developer" and instead became a publisher of a successful eastern game. A game that was eagerly anticipated here in the US and resulted in an incredible amount of pre-orders at $150 due in part to a lack of other quality games launching at the time and the anticipation from the sandbox folks. When you look at all this together, its easy to see they had their best year ever. It is not a result of Trion successfully handling AA but more a result of them getting lucky and picking a good game to publish and charging out the wazoo for it when they were on their last leg.
Trion has realized it sucks as a game developer and has moved their primary operation to publishing eastern games. This is why Trove received so little work ( a whopping 12 total staff worked on it over 2 years according to you) and is the only game they have developed since Defiance, almost 3 years ago. You wont be seeing any AAA MMO's from Trion in the future but you will be seeing more and more eastern imports and tiny niche projects like Trove. The actual "development" staff that made Rift the incredible game it was are long gone.
Just pushing out "facts" without context isnt good for either side. The bottom line is, good games launch, dip in players for a while and then grow (WoW, Eve and SWTOR) but that is not what is happening in AA. Having 500k active players in a F2P game is not a big feat and having record sales of a highly anticipated game then watching it all go down the drain a year later due to poor management isnt what I would call a success. 2015 wont be a "record" year for Trion and that is even with their launch of a new game (Trove).
I know you love it and I honestly like the game a lot but Trion has handled it poorly. They left a ton of money on the table when they went for the fast cash grab and now they cant make the changes that players want the most since that part is not up to them. They can only beg and plead with XLgames who doesnt give a rats spit about what western gamers want. RNG and crazy small percentage chances at drops will always be a part of the game and the reason most of us left.
"Sean (Murray) saying MP will be in the game is not remotely close to evidence that at the point of purchase people thought there was MP in the game." - SEANMCAD
Cash shop is the *most profitable* option - it's the best for XL and Trion.
90% didn't leave because of cash shop - that's a forum myth - the majority of playerbase leaves ANY mmo within the first 3-6 weeks because that's the current market. It happens with EVERY game nowdays - ArcheAge is no exception. Retention rates for the vast majority of MMOs after the 6 week mark are below 30% - after about 3-6months the game population stabilizes with dedicated core players.
If ArcheAge had no cash shop at all people would still have left and servers would have to be consolidated - again cash shop is not the reason for this - people just don't play a single MMO like they used to 10+ years ago - those days are OVER. Even WoW players don't stick around anymore - look how rapidly they've lost subs.
Boredom is the #1 reason players leave, and players are getting bored A LOT FASTER today than they did 10+ years ago.
Also what you are not considering is this - playerbase fragmentation - you have 1 server that has no cash shop - it would create a rift in the rest of the playerbase who play on cash-shop servers - as most active players already pay a subscription in Archeage on "cash shop" servers - so you'd piss off the entire playerbase with a single server like that.
ArcheAge would lose more players if they stood up that single "no cash shop" servers than they would win back (and that would be temporary - again after 6 weeks the vast majority of players on that serve would move on too).
It's a HORRIBLE idea to introduce a single "no-cash shop" server from a business perspective.
F2P + cash shop works because people come and go and come back as many times as they please - whenever they please - and people keep spending money - and a lot of it.
You're correct, 90% didn't leave just because of the cash shop, lack of land for those who bought patron to play farmer, inability to login without having to damnear reconfig your pc or at the least allow Hackshield free reign on it, asshats who only play games to try and break them(hacks/exploits), along with broken promises made all throughout Alpha/Beta also contributed to the freefall. That's not even considering the impact goldsellers have on a game.
As for servers needing to be consolidated, just think how different this could have gone had the suggestion during Alpha/Beta to limit land per account, for at least the first few weeks, been done. This would have allowed many more players to get land and get a foothold in the game and also become attached to it through land ownership.
As for your last statement... sure they come and go as many times as they please, however ... I'm betting most of them don't spend a single dime while doing so, just because they can.
The ones that spend a lot of money on the game are those that become attached to it, land, mansions, l33t mounts/gear, server firsts, while the rest who p2p just pay their monthly so they can play in the world and feel like they're part of it with the occasional splurge trying to win at some .000001 chance for some exclusive item, but mostly just for things they can resell for gold from those who control the economy through their largely illgotten gains.
As for the "HORRIBLE" idea... I know that is the only way I would ever consider coming back as a paying customer instead of just dabbling here and there as my casual f2p labour allows now, I don't think I'm alone.
If XL/Trion were smart they would create a "Alpha Classic" server that started from scratch, was subscription only, and no cash shop. I would join it in a heartbeat.
Archeage was a bad game period....I didnt even notice the cash shop to be honest.....I had no interest even playing it for free.
Comments
It was kind of shocking how they went from Rift to Archeage with their F2P model. Archeage pretty much destroyed their reputation because of it.
And this completely missed the point of what the Op was saying
For those who knew nothing about ArcheAge:
1. Alpha in ArcheAge was NOT Alpha, it was the build that already on the market in other countries. Basically Trion being the Jackasses that they are didn't want to pay for the price to keep ArcheAge at this stage like the Russians did, though the Russian build has been changed its not the complete fuckfest that the NA/Euro build is. I've heard the Japanese build is also better than ours. We BEGGED Trion on the forums to not take out the intracontinental trading and they gave us about as much listen as a cat to a pleading mouse before it eats it.
2. The hacking, the hacking, the hacking. Having to work to get a house Sure! Having to deal with spamcheat bullshits who use programs to throw down houses down to the last minute? Hell No
3. Intracontinental Trading was facefucked due to the change in the dropping of Gilda stars for gold, this alone killed the immersion of the world seeing players on donkeys, trucks and the like on a constant basis because some moron thought it would be better to force everyone into the oceans to raise PVP. All this did was turn ports into gankfests because you ended up concentrating pvp enemy forces into certain areas only.
4. Their who gives a crap johnny come lately attitude when problems are brought up.
Honestly as sad as this is to say if an American company took the ArcheAge Alpha formula with better anti hack software and less of an intrusive cash shop, labor points and put in item decay instead of RNG they would have the license to print money. But since Western mmo companies are dumping the genre now we will prob have to wait some time for a Westernized Western made ArcheAge with Westernized Quality Control.
@DMKano nobody cares about the trinkets they are adding, what we care about is having a stable world with the systems that encourage intracontinental trading, exploration and the OPTION to have to go trade in the other ports around the world.
If we wanted trinkets that's what WoW and FFXIV are for!
Any mmo worth its salt should be like a good prostitute when it comes to its game world- One hell of a faker, and a damn good shaker!
This...
The game was great in alpha simply because it was a new world to explore, a very great start for a sandbox until it got totally ruined by Trion.
DMKano ...
Cant believe this boi is still going on defending this game after all these months... Arent you tired yet? I mean, if you aint getting paid for all them posts, get on it.
No one cares about this game anymore, as soon as we stopped getting reports of their latest f*** ups, we stopped hearing anything about the game. I watched one of their latest stream about an upcoming update and the new dev spent an hour running around in a winter zone, not knowing where to go himself, showing about 2-3 new costume for the cash shop... Its pathetic.
You give Western game developers way too much credit, my friend. I guess I can understand your bias if you are from the west, but you need to get them off that pedestal. Like you said, they are dumping the genre. For more reasons than one, It is not deserved.
Please give an example of a non western company who would make the game I'm speaking about besides Squaresoft with that high of a quality control level. I'll wait...
Any mmo worth its salt should be like a good prostitute when it comes to its game world- One hell of a faker, and a damn good shaker!
Perhaps you should try to mention a Western company that would? And remember ... saying so does not make it so.
Daybreak did it already with SWG and prob will halfway do it again with EQN if it ever gets fixed. I'm sure Shroud of the Avatar is going to be very close in depth with its world. Your turn.
Any mmo worth its salt should be like a good prostitute when it comes to its game world- One hell of a faker, and a damn good shaker!
Really now. You need to come at me with something substantive before asking for my turn. Try harder.
This...
The game was great in alpha simply because it was a new world to explore, a very great start for a sandbox until it got totally ruined by Trion.
DMKano ...
Cant believe this boi is still going on defending this game after all these months... Arent you tired yet? I mean, if you aint getting paid for all them posts, get on it.
No one cares about this game anymore, as soon as we stopped getting reports of their latest f*** ups, we stopped hearing anything about the game. I watched one of their latest stream about an upcoming update and the new dev spent an hour running around in a winter zone, not knowing where to go himself, showing about 2-3 new costume for the cash shop... Its pathetic.
So you watch streams about games that you or how did you put it "nobody" cares about anymore? There are still over half a million active players in Archeage today fyi.
Bots or goldsellers?Why? Nobody outside of the west has made a sandbox as good as SWG or even UO so if you can name one plase do. And lastly I rather like Asian developers, I just think on average Korean devs aren't as good as Western ones. So, once again, please name one other than Squaresoft that has well managed good quality control that can make a sandbox mmo that's even as good as Ultima Online, Star Wars Galaxies or hell even The Saga of Ryzom? Something more substantial? You can't even name one as good as UO from Asia and just to reiterate, I don't hate Asian devs at all. I just think that Korean mmo devs have terrible quality control measures and make nothing but pandering cash shop garbage and ArcheAge was a brilliant game in its launch form in Korea but now is a botted mess filled with hackers. Black Desert Online was on the right track but look at it now, its nothing but a casualized easy mode mess now.
Any mmo worth its salt should be like a good prostitute when it comes to its game world- One hell of a faker, and a damn good shaker!
You would be correct if we were not charged $150 for the alpha. At that point you ARE a customer. The fact you admit to joining after alpha, and paying this company monthly since release tells me you have no credible opinion on this matter. You like AA as it is, good for you. Now move along and let us continue complaining about what happened to us.
All of that is subjective and your opinion only. While I agree that SWG was a great game, not everyone even agrees with us in that respect. Nor does everyone agree that UO was a great game. I am American and, on the whole, I prefer Asian games. You, on the other hand, prefer Western games. It is all a matter of preference and opinion. Not even worth debating really.
I agree OP.
Archeage will always be the game for me that could have been great. The one that got away.
I'm not going to disagree that Archeage is busy still because I have no idea, I quit as soon as I saw where it was headed. After playing in the Russian version I fell in love with it, but by the time it hit America it had been p2w too much for my tastes.
Now, that said. I will disagree with you on one point. Housing availability has nothing to do with active current players. I still have houses in multiple games that I haven't actually played in a couple of years because they are games I might one day decide to go back. Bots also will hold land. So while in Archeage it can be a better gauge due to the fact only subs get land, in the grand scheme of things it says nothing about concurrent active players on the server.
The people that are trying to make the world worse never take a day off , why should I. Light up the darkness Bob Marley
Thats all i had to say boi, you seem to love getting back and forth into pointless argument treads. The game isnt covered by anyone really. This entire tread prove what i am saying, along with what people been saying on this site since beta and i had no word in all this.
Game with potential, trashed by Trion, everybody knows it.
Cant blame me for giving trion a second, third.... Chance by watching their stream to see if they finally fixed where they went so wrong now can you? But even tho i tried to come back about 3-4 time, lasting about a day in, just watching them talking about "their" game makes me laugh at their incompetance.
I remember their first streams, even their audience knew more about the game then their own devs... Enough said.
I am right there with ya. Paid for Alpha and found an amazing game and played it all summer until launch.
Sadly the game is a victim of F2P and the nasty greed of the producers. It was more important to gouge the customers and bleed them dry instead of focusing on launching and supporting the game.
I have thought about heading back numerous times over the last year but then I remember that Trion did such an amazingly bad job supporting the game and abusing it with disgusting cash shop.
Rest in Peace Archeage, if only you could have found a producer that didn't suck.
You have stated that game has over 500k active players but how many millions did they have at launch that they lost due a poorly thought out monitization model? Since you have the inside scoop and seem to know exactly how many people work in each department and exactly how much the company is making can you tell us how many active players they lost since launch? Do all games lose players at launch, YEP! Assuming AA launched with a measly 2 million accounts which is a light estimate given the amount of people waiting in queues, do all games lose an easy 75% of their customers? How many of those 500k active players are alt accounts or gold farmers or free players?
You have stated that Trion had their most profitable year but when you look at the big picture, that does not say much. They started with one MMO (Rift) then released one very disappointing and poorly performing game that nearly sunk the ship (Defiance) which when combined with their purchase/acquisition of End of Nations from Petroglyph resulted in epic layoffs. http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/05/18/the-price-of-defiance-trion-worlds-hit-by-big-layoffs/ At this point, Trion was at its lowest point in the companies history. They decided to stop development of End of Nations and really at this point they stopped being a game "developer" and instead became a publisher of a successful eastern game. A game that was eagerly anticipated here in the US and resulted in an incredible amount of pre-orders at $150 due in part to a lack of other quality games launching at the time and the anticipation from the sandbox folks. When you look at all this together, its easy to see they had their best year ever. It is not a result of Trion successfully handling AA but more a result of them getting lucky and picking a good game to publish and charging out the wazoo for it when they were on their last leg.
Trion has realized it sucks as a game developer and has moved their primary operation to publishing eastern games. This is why Trove received so little work ( a whopping 12 total staff worked on it over 2 years according to you) and is the only game they have developed since Defiance, almost 3 years ago. You wont be seeing any AAA MMO's from Trion in the future but you will be seeing more and more eastern imports and tiny niche projects like Trove. The actual "development" staff that made Rift the incredible game it was are long gone.
Just pushing out "facts" without context isnt good for either side. The bottom line is, good games launch, dip in players for a while and then grow (WoW, Eve and SWTOR) but that is not what is happening in AA. Having 500k active players in a F2P game is not a big feat and having record sales of a highly anticipated game then watching it all go down the drain a year later due to poor management isnt what I would call a success. 2015 wont be a "record" year for Trion and that is even with their launch of a new game (Trove).
I know you love it and I honestly like the game a lot but Trion has handled it poorly. They left a ton of money on the table when they went for the fast cash grab and now they cant make the changes that players want the most since that part is not up to them. They can only beg and plead with XLgames who doesnt give a rats spit about what western gamers want. RNG and crazy small percentage chances at drops will always be a part of the game and the reason most of us left.
As for servers needing to be consolidated, just think how different this could have gone had the suggestion during Alpha/Beta to limit land per account, for at least the first few weeks, been done. This would have allowed many more players to get land and get a foothold in the game and also become attached to it through land ownership.
As for your last statement... sure they come and go as many times as they please, however ... I'm betting most of them don't spend a single dime while doing so, just because they can.
The ones that spend a lot of money on the game are those that become attached to it, land, mansions, l33t mounts/gear, server firsts, while the rest who p2p just pay their monthly so they can play in the world and feel like they're part of it with the occasional splurge trying to win at some .000001 chance for some exclusive item, but mostly just for things they can resell for gold from those who control the economy through their largely illgotten gains.
As for the "HORRIBLE" idea... I know that is the only way I would ever consider coming back as a paying customer instead of just dabbling here and there as my casual f2p labour allows now, I don't think I'm alone.