It comes up with nearly every major title launch but this could be the first time where it is actually a question. Aion is doing amazingly well in the overseas markets, already out-subbing many of the popular games and with a NA launch still a few months away, it is gathering steam here as well.
Andrew Brandt talks a little about what he learned about Aion at E3 and shares why he thinks Aion just might have a chance to topple the King of MMOGs.
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The game’s International Development Manager (international, that is, for South Korea-based NCsoft), Yong Taek Bae, explained that the game’s initial launch broke all kinds of records. On Aion’s Korean launch day, beginning at 6am local time, when the company switched on servers and began allowing paying customers to join the game, 11,000 players signed on each hour. By noon, the company had to turn on four additional servers — in addition to the 21 running at launch–to accommodate the crowd. Each server is capable of supporting 7000 simultaneous players.
But that was nothing compared to China, where the local company operating the service had to double the volume of servers after launch; They’re currently running around 70 servers continuously to handle the constant, heavy demand.
Read the full article and tell us what you think! Does Aion have a shot at making it big?
Its the only P2P MMOs since WoW that has broke 1 million consistent subscribers and held onto them and still gaining more everyday. Last I heard they had what; 3.5 million now, and with the Western launch looming where millions of eager gamers are pining for something new!
I'd guesstimate at least 7million subs shortly after Western launch, and at least a year to catch up to WoW numbers if Aion keeps steaming ahead as it is!
I dont want any game to kill wow personally. Blizzard made the perfect moron-trap with WoW. Not that Im saying every player is an idiot. But it sure does a good job of keeping the 12 year old mouthbreathers from infesting other games.
"This game sucks you cant do x or y like you can in Warcraft! Why cant I gank people 60 levels lower than me?! Im going back to Warcraft!"
So no, no wow-killers please. I want Aion to be a roaring success and suck away all the good players, the ones that can form coherent thoughts and not communicate like they were government educa... oh wait...
Anyway...
Aion success - yes.
Wow-killer - I hope not.
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Originally Posted by JenSweet
I get so excited I have typo's
Quote:
Coyote: “You currently have [114 Tom Cats] in storage. Also, your house smells like loneliness and pee. Have a nice day. Beeeeep.”
the ones that can form coherent thoughts and not communicate like they were government educa... oh wait...
Anyway...
hahahaha, one of these times I'll be drinking and spit my tea all over my PC desk!
Good point, I too hope WoW stays successful so the few that try this and FFXIV get confused cause they're required to think. Just like with FFXI, those that had no means of thought or patience got weeded out and left the game free of tards! Herd em up in World of Wacktards!
I played the Aion beta - not impressed at all in any way. I am not a fan of Asian MMOs and their infinite grind, and Aion does not seem to be much different. Sure it may grab a few players here and there, but seriously -3.5 mil players in Asia is nothing to count on when it comes to European and US markets.
Heck, look at all the F2P games that are popping up there and are played by hundreds of thousands of players EACH. It's a national pastime there and any game that can break the mold (a bit, more than a bit and it won't be considered) and still keep the Asian "feel" is bound to draw a fanatic following in the East.
Which Aion beta? And can you read Chinese, Japanese or Korean? Cause that will negatively impact your impressions if you cant... You cant do much in the game except grind if all the text looks like a bunch of stick figures in some primeval cave somewhere. >.>
__________________
Quote:
Originally Posted by JenSweet
I get so excited I have typo's
Quote:
Coyote: “You currently have [114 Tom Cats] in storage. Also, your house smells like loneliness and pee. Have a nice day. Beeeeep.”
I dont want any game to kill wow personally. Blizzard made the perfect moron-trap with WoW. Not that Im saying every player is an idiot. But it sure does a good job of keeping the 12 year old mouthbreathers from infesting other games.
"This game sucks you cant do x or y like you can in Warcraft! Why cant I gank people 60 levels lower than me?! Im going back to Warcraft!"
So no, no wow-killers please. I want Aion to be a roaring success and suck away all the good players, the ones that can form coherent thoughts and not communicate like they were government educa... oh wait...
Before you read any of the below please be aware that i have not played the game just yet (Will in a day or two), everything i have typed below is basically just a collection of information/opinion form the many sources out there about Aion, from live streams, video, translated discussions, screens & just about anything else i could get my hand on. So for the most part you should consider the majority of it with a large grain of salt. That said...
I'm pretty sure there was something you could do with the CN beta that actually switched you to the beta English (maybe just the UI) version, witch is why a lot of people seam to be trying that out. As for Aion i doubt it will be able to tackle WOW in its current state. Visually it's very impressive, but there's some large issues that could hold it back.
First, PVE content seams to be lacking all round, and while the first half of the game is said to be pretty decent it dose look like it starts to get grindy after that, most notably post 30's.
Secondly, everything i have seen "group" PVE wise has been rather lack luster. I have not found a huge amount of content to base this opinion on, witch is why i won't completely rule out being surprised come launch, but everything i have seen so far looks like boss = big + huge hp pool. Of course it's difficult to judge this kind of stuff from videos, so it may actually play a lot better then it looks.
There's still a good while before Aion get released so both of these problems could be patched over by the time it finally gets released in NA, and that would definitely help the game.
Sadly my third gripe is probably the biggest game play problem i have found, and that's the Abyss/PVP system. It plays a huge role in Aion & you can gain entry into the Abyss long before you reach cap. The problem here is that i fear it will just turn into a lowbie gank fest. Currently (i believe) there's only a point penalty for killing lowbies, and that just won't be enough. I think NPC quest givers are killable as well, but don't quote me on that.
Beyond that is the issue of PVP ranks, the huge effect armor/gear plays, limitations of the stigma system & the stacking of resistances that can effectively make certain classes almost invulnerable to certain types of damage.
*Pvp ranks offer transformations/abilitys that can give you certain benefits. Commander & chief is (i believe) currently the highest rank, at witch point you become a one man army. I have not heard too much about the low ranks, but one man army at the top sounds balanced.... or not.
*Armor from what i hear have slots (might just the better high end gear) for... stones ? that improve certain stats, witch also leads into the resistance issues, but from everything people are saying there's some huge gains from Abyss gear that pretty much make any non Abyss geared toon the equivalent of a free kill. Doesn't seam to be a lot of mix & match going on either, as most players just go one way or another based on class, AKA assassin = crit stones, Temp = HP etc.
At first the resistance issue sounds like just about any other game just after launch, but high level players have been able to demonstrate that if you have enough of it you can pretty much auto attack your enemy's to death, witch i feel is on a hole different level of "broken".
*The final issue with PVP is the limitation of the stigma system. Other games might have tree's, X stats, Traits, class ability's.. or in the case of Guild Wars, pretty much a fully customizable toon with a dual class system & hundreds of ability's/spells to fit into 8 little slots & finish with stats.... when compared to just about anything else the system in Aion seams very limiting.
Armor might help this a little, and combos are supposed to be decent, but i just can help but feel that stigmas are going to have be pretty dam powerful character shapers if Aion is to see any real class flexibility. That said, solid PVP mechanics might be able to make up for this, only time will tell.
My final issue is probably the one thing that will concern most western users the most, and that's the absolutely insane amount of botters that this game is attracting. Seriously speaking there are bot trains & in certain areas they are pretty much at plague proportions. Game guard is not up to snuff & if NC dose not deal with this issue very forcefully at launch it could be all that's needed to kill off the game.
Aion looks decent enough, certainly nothing any worse the some of the more recent MMO's have presented, but weather or not Aion will be able to capture western audiences just as well as it has in Asia is still to be seen.
Botters run rampant in just about any popular game, Asian based games are always hit the worst.
You makes some great points Cleron and I agree, I hope that Aion is tailored well enough to NA gamers that most of these points are a non-issue. It seems they are taking time and care to do so!
I really can't wait to read the preview weekend reviews. I hope ya all post what you think!
Can Aion Dethrone WoW?
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