Not when you can actually fight in the air. WoW limits flying to travel; Aion lets you do just about everything you can do on the ground midair. If I'm midfight, and I'm getting beat by random mob, I can fly up so they can't hit me (sometimes; alot of mobs have a ranged stun that hurts when you also take damage from plummeting to the ground), and pound on them from the air. I can also use 3 dimensions to my advantage in PvP.
Eh, I don't know. They can't even get back into your territory while they have the buff (longer than the rift would be open). It would definitely appease those who don't want to be ganked though. Also, from what I see, the main reason to gank is to gather abyss points which buy PvP armor (usually people who didn't do it early on making up for time). With these changes, you don't get these points, which makes ganking worthless to begin with for anyone who isn't a straight griefer.
People who gank can't do it for long because of changes implemented in version 1.2. It gives a buff to the 12 enemy players around the ganker when he's killed, making ganking in groups hard. Other than that, PvP is pretty much optional.
Really, that's the kind of feel I get from it. The same with every other MMO. Even if they don't start the conversation, or start making jokes, or contribute to strategy......say fucking something when someone else does. I don't mind having to break the ice. I do mind when you're helping to contribute to a frozen fucking world of cold. Don't ignore every last line of text that whizzes by your screen (they must whiz by, because nobody even sees when I say "MANA!", and everyone who doesn't use mana just chains mobs fucking endlessly).
Yeah, I can buy a much more in-depth, intriguing game (jsut about any game, in fact) that has non-MMO mechanics, and be much more entertained than with an MMO. The only thing about an MMO (currently) that sets them apart is the number of people playing. Hell, the genre is named because of the number of people playing.
I totally get that. What I'm saying is, nobody told me about wowhead. They just jumped straight to "fuck off", typically on the first question asked. I literally had one person who I could ask things about the game while ingame, when it comes to things that aren't quite easily researched for someone who doesn't know about the sites with massive amounts of info ("What's the distinction between a raid and an instance?").
What MMO, at all, isn't a monotonous grindfest? WoW doesn't count, because it doesn't matter if I'm gathering gold or Mithril, I'm still grinding the shit.
Exactly why I think it's all about the people and bonding, but nobody else seems to think that way. I know it's not that way, and people just do their own shit, but there's no reason not to group up with a couple peeps and have a ball. Honestly, what good is going to a party with shitty music if everyone stands in their own corner and doesn't say a word?
I'd definitely put grinding with guildmates above grinding solo, granted that they actually say shit. Part of my problem is the lack of people who are willing to talk at all. I'd risk some guy getting a roll on a epic item I want, if the dudes say SOMETHING over the course of the 3 hours we're grouped. I really an't think of anything much worse than that happening, other than a wipe (maybe). Grinding solo is absolutely the same thing as staring at your ceiling moving your fingers in a pattern. There's nothing special about having to kill 400 bears to collect 10 teeth. There's a potential for something special when you're out killing those 400 bears in a ragtag party of people who aren't so socially awkward and withdrawn that they just don't talk at all.
....whom then leave within a couple days. This is the problem I had playing WoW: There were really no guilds for me to join on my server that didn't have a bunch of people who have been playing for massive amounts of time. I couldn't find people who didn't play, so every time I asked a question, snyde response. I had no reason to stick to the game, just because there was nothing special about it, and (at least on the servers I tried) found 0 people to talk to regularly. MMO's are really, really shitty games. Wash, rinse, repeat times 80 million. Once you have the best formula, there is no improving on DPS. You can improve on CC, but once you're used to using a fear and a restraint and a stun on 3 different guys, you're done. Healing is just waiting for bars to go down and avoiding aggro. If I can describe exactly how to play a type of character in a (long) sentence, that's really not deep gameplay I can do for hours on end myself with nobody to talk to.
Like I said in another post, MMO's are about community. Any MMO can do it, if they're able to get and keep a crowd by getting them to talk to each other. It's somewhat like the (definitely not possible but great as an example) idea to take water in through a cell membrane, then link them so it can't get out. Aion literally forces you to do this around level 19, or suffer through a couple hours of grinding where you can't get good equipment.
Every MMO has been the same old shit, including before WoW. I'd attribute it's success more to being contagious and being able to attract a large crowd at the start due to known IP that I would nearly anything else. The contagious factor can be brought into any game, and so can the crowd. It's just a matter of marketing, and getting word out to every last person possible about the awesomeness of the game before launch. I don't think enough people will be fickle enough to go "oh damn, they don't have a stun at level 15 on my warrior-type, back to WoW". Oh, and one thing Aion has far above and beyond WoW: it forces you to meet people within 15 hours of starting. At lv. 18, you stop getting quests except for ones that are for elites. You don't get another till 20 (ok, so you get like 2. Not nearly enough to level up). It forces community building, which is one of the main reasons people turn to MMO's, and by far the main reason people stay in MMO's for so long. They're really shitty games in general in terms of raw fun level that's built-in. Do you think anyone would play an MMO if it were single player?
They usually let you use the keyboard alot too. I dunno what the mouse thing is about.
There really isn't much of a difference between Western and Eastern MMO's IMO. There's the difference in raw ridiculousness of the graphics, and sometimes the quality because if you target China, the shittiest MMO will bring in some players. Sometimes there's a difference in ridiculousness of story and various mechanics, such as Aion's flying vs. WoW's only-walking. I don't know what else is really different between the two. Maybe level of grind is one thing, and wether grinding PvP or PvE is better for equip at endgame.
The biggest difference wouldn't be in the game itself, but in the players, IMO. Chinese players on Aion don't give a fuck about killstealing or anything. Ganking is ubercommon. One time, I was gathering some oysters, and a guy running up to me says stop, so I go to type "Why?" (I was in Asmo territory, in an area where Elyos were common and there was a rift open for them to get there). As I hit enter, I get back to him gathering the last oyster right there, and he sends a message going X-P. That would definitely empitomize the difference in culture when it comes to playing MMO's.
Have you played the Chinese game? How about the Closed Beta? I have, so I'm going to comment from actually playing the past 2 months, both in beta and on Chinese servers.
Speculation on numbers is rubbish if you don't have any reason for them other than "it happened to every WoW-clone before it". This isn't quite a WoW clone. It's familiar, but no the same.
Aion is actually very well polished compared to AoC. It's at 1.0.12 in China, and it's supposed to be at 1.5 by the NA release. That will make it much better than it already is, which is on the level of good. AoC fucking BLEW at launch. Completely.
I never played warhammer, won't comment.
You negelct to realize that every day brings WoW closer to it's death. You know how many people jsut get so damn bored of it already? Do you think eternal life is possible, even for a given product?
Granted, reinvention is usually the winner during a change between generations. But you don't need to reinvent the Corvette to sell more; you need to give it a bigger engine. Then, when that doesn't catch people atttention anymore, change the body. Then, some large number of years later, scrap it for a new kind of car.
their popular culture lends itself to the cartoonish graphical descriptions of games.
Yeah, you'd definitely know this game is Asian based just on the style of all the armor and weapons past about 25. The equip for Templars/Gladiators looks straight out of RFO. Everything else looks totally unnecessary, highly colorful, and actually really cool.
You'd need a separate account, as in, if you roll an Asmo, you can't roll an Elyos on the same server. So, it's possible, but costly just for the buff. Plus, PKing is such a huge problem in the Chinese Aion, it's ludicrous. Capped chars (45) run into lv. 20 areas all the time. They needed to do something, and I hope it works out. I don't know, as they haven't rolled out the patch with this upgrade to all the Chinese regions yet.
National security concern *completely crazy, mind you*: Public knowing contractor > contractor getting hacked > employees being used to find security vulnerabilities
Slashdot Mirror
Not when you can actually fight in the air. WoW limits flying to travel; Aion lets you do just about everything you can do on the ground midair. If I'm midfight, and I'm getting beat by random mob, I can fly up so they can't hit me (sometimes; alot of mobs have a ranged stun that hurts when you also take damage from plummeting to the ground), and pound on them from the air. I can also use 3 dimensions to my advantage in PvP.
Sorry, I meant "While they have the DEbuff"
Eh, I don't know. They can't even get back into your territory while they have the buff (longer than the rift would be open). It would definitely appease those who don't want to be ganked though. Also, from what I see, the main reason to gank is to gather abyss points which buy PvP armor (usually people who didn't do it early on making up for time). With these changes, you don't get these points, which makes ganking worthless to begin with for anyone who isn't a straight griefer.
Even if most is 70% (which I doubt), you still have a bigger market at 400 million. Combined with their cultural differences, it really does matter.
People who gank can't do it for long because of changes implemented in version 1.2. It gives a buff to the 12 enemy players around the ganker when he's killed, making ganking in groups hard. Other than that, PvP is pretty much optional.
Really, that's the kind of feel I get from it. The same with every other MMO. Even if they don't start the conversation, or start making jokes, or contribute to strategy......say fucking something when someone else does. I don't mind having to break the ice. I do mind when you're helping to contribute to a frozen fucking world of cold. Don't ignore every last line of text that whizzes by your screen (they must whiz by, because nobody even sees when I say "MANA!", and everyone who doesn't use mana just chains mobs fucking endlessly).
Yeah, I can buy a much more in-depth, intriguing game (jsut about any game, in fact) that has non-MMO mechanics, and be much more entertained than with an MMO. The only thing about an MMO (currently) that sets them apart is the number of people playing. Hell, the genre is named because of the number of people playing.
If by "paid" you mean around $3 a day, for a 12 hour shift.
I totally get that. What I'm saying is, nobody told me about wowhead. They just jumped straight to "fuck off", typically on the first question asked. I literally had one person who I could ask things about the game while ingame, when it comes to things that aren't quite easily researched for someone who doesn't know about the sites with massive amounts of info ("What's the distinction between a raid and an instance?").
What MMO, at all, isn't a monotonous grindfest? WoW doesn't count, because it doesn't matter if I'm gathering gold or Mithril, I'm still grinding the shit.
The sheer number of players is even different. There's a much bigger potential market when there's 1.3 billion in a country compared to 300 million.
Exactly why I think it's all about the people and bonding, but nobody else seems to think that way. I know it's not that way, and people just do their own shit, but there's no reason not to group up with a couple peeps and have a ball. Honestly, what good is going to a party with shitty music if everyone stands in their own corner and doesn't say a word?
I'd definitely put grinding with guildmates above grinding solo, granted that they actually say shit. Part of my problem is the lack of people who are willing to talk at all. I'd risk some guy getting a roll on a epic item I want, if the dudes say SOMETHING over the course of the 3 hours we're grouped. I really an't think of anything much worse than that happening, other than a wipe (maybe). Grinding solo is absolutely the same thing as staring at your ceiling moving your fingers in a pattern. There's nothing special about having to kill 400 bears to collect 10 teeth. There's a potential for something special when you're out killing those 400 bears in a ragtag party of people who aren't so socially awkward and withdrawn that they just don't talk at all.
....whom then leave within a couple days. This is the problem I had playing WoW: There were really no guilds for me to join on my server that didn't have a bunch of people who have been playing for massive amounts of time. I couldn't find people who didn't play, so every time I asked a question, snyde response. I had no reason to stick to the game, just because there was nothing special about it, and (at least on the servers I tried) found 0 people to talk to regularly. MMO's are really, really shitty games. Wash, rinse, repeat times 80 million. Once you have the best formula, there is no improving on DPS. You can improve on CC, but once you're used to using a fear and a restraint and a stun on 3 different guys, you're done. Healing is just waiting for bars to go down and avoiding aggro. If I can describe exactly how to play a type of character in a (long) sentence, that's really not deep gameplay I can do for hours on end myself with nobody to talk to.
Like I said in another post, MMO's are about community. Any MMO can do it, if they're able to get and keep a crowd by getting them to talk to each other. It's somewhat like the (definitely not possible but great as an example) idea to take water in through a cell membrane, then link them so it can't get out. Aion literally forces you to do this around level 19, or suffer through a couple hours of grinding where you can't get good equipment.
Every MMO has been the same old shit, including before WoW. I'd attribute it's success more to being contagious and being able to attract a large crowd at the start due to known IP that I would nearly anything else. The contagious factor can be brought into any game, and so can the crowd. It's just a matter of marketing, and getting word out to every last person possible about the awesomeness of the game before launch. I don't think enough people will be fickle enough to go "oh damn, they don't have a stun at level 15 on my warrior-type, back to WoW". Oh, and one thing Aion has far above and beyond WoW: it forces you to meet people within 15 hours of starting. At lv. 18, you stop getting quests except for ones that are for elites. You don't get another till 20 (ok, so you get like 2. Not nearly enough to level up). It forces community building, which is one of the main reasons people turn to MMO's, and by far the main reason people stay in MMO's for so long. They're really shitty games in general in terms of raw fun level that's built-in. Do you think anyone would play an MMO if it were single player?
Or the Chinese model (at least for Aion): don't pay upfront, pay like 20 cents an hour for playtime.
They usually let you use the keyboard alot too. I dunno what the mouse thing is about.
There really isn't much of a difference between Western and Eastern MMO's IMO. There's the difference in raw ridiculousness of the graphics, and sometimes the quality because if you target China, the shittiest MMO will bring in some players. Sometimes there's a difference in ridiculousness of story and various mechanics, such as Aion's flying vs. WoW's only-walking. I don't know what else is really different between the two. Maybe level of grind is one thing, and wether grinding PvP or PvE is better for equip at endgame.
The biggest difference wouldn't be in the game itself, but in the players, IMO. Chinese players on Aion don't give a fuck about killstealing or anything. Ganking is ubercommon. One time, I was gathering some oysters, and a guy running up to me says stop, so I go to type "Why?" (I was in Asmo territory, in an area where Elyos were common and there was a rift open for them to get there). As I hit enter, I get back to him gathering the last oyster right there, and he sends a message going X-P. That would definitely empitomize the difference in culture when it comes to playing MMO's.
Have you played the Chinese game? How about the Closed Beta? I have, so I'm going to comment from actually playing the past 2 months, both in beta and on Chinese servers.
Speculation on numbers is rubbish if you don't have any reason for them other than "it happened to every WoW-clone before it". This isn't quite a WoW clone. It's familiar, but no the same.
Aion is actually very well polished compared to AoC. It's at 1.0.12 in China, and it's supposed to be at 1.5 by the NA release. That will make it much better than it already is, which is on the level of good. AoC fucking BLEW at launch. Completely.
I never played warhammer, won't comment.
You negelct to realize that every day brings WoW closer to it's death. You know how many people jsut get so damn bored of it already? Do you think eternal life is possible, even for a given product?
Granted, reinvention is usually the winner during a change between generations. But you don't need to reinvent the Corvette to sell more; you need to give it a bigger engine. Then, when that doesn't catch people atttention anymore, change the body. Then, some large number of years later, scrap it for a new kind of car.
Sweat shops are how companies gold farm in Asia.
their popular culture lends itself to the cartoonish graphical descriptions of games.
Yeah, you'd definitely know this game is Asian based just on the style of all the armor and weapons past about 25. The equip for Templars/Gladiators looks straight out of RFO. Everything else looks totally unnecessary, highly colorful, and actually really cool.
You'd need a separate account, as in, if you roll an Asmo, you can't roll an Elyos on the same server. So, it's possible, but costly just for the buff. Plus, PKing is such a huge problem in the Chinese Aion, it's ludicrous. Capped chars (45) run into lv. 20 areas all the time. They needed to do something, and I hope it works out. I don't know, as they haven't rolled out the patch with this upgrade to all the Chinese regions yet.
Probably also your lightbulb bill.
Yes, because interference in China is going to cause us to not be able to use HAM here.
National security concern *completely crazy, mind you*: Public knowing contractor > contractor getting hacked > employees being used to find security vulnerabilities