Aight, So I keep thinking to myself, whats the next big PvP game out there. Presently speaking of course.
I know for sure it’s not DDO, SWTOR (I maybe wrong here), STO(or here), Fallen Earth(??) but go-along with me for a sec. So that pretty much leaves out anything on the market right now… except Aion.
AION!!!!!!! (I am going out on a limb here, a very thin limb, but still.)
Yes, I’m talking about the PvPvE, semi-cool winged NCsoft game that has been getting more bad publicity then Lindsy Lohan.
But why do I say that, you ask? Well lets take a look.
1. World of Warcraft- has it’s niche PvP player base, you know those /afk’ing (away from keyboard) Battle ground clustering no-know-it-all’s that after 4 years of Alterc Vally(AV) still don’t know to cap Relief Hut(RF) and re-cap towers. 2 years of Eye of the Storm(EOTS) in-which the most if not all are the same AV players can’t understand to cap the towers first, then go for and hold down mid/flag.
(Joking here) Now we know no Wow PvPers will play Aion because they can’t roll Paladin’s or Warlocks, nuff said!
That leaves lots of room for a whole lot of new players that are open to Aion’s PVPVE idea, which is cool and different.
Albeit may not be that different or far from “open world” PvP, that’s mainly because they just gave it a fancy name.
Lastly it’s your “Arena” Pro-PvPers that swear Arena is the Holy Grail of anything and all pvp! nuff said again. Thx for playing, goodbye.
2. Warhammer Online- did some thing really cool and different things, and then failed to tweak it to keep that player base coming back for more. What it did was:
- It managed to take a good amount of PvP players from Wow, and put a sweet taste in their mouths, Combat not dependent on gear as much as skill, strategy, and grouping.
- Supposed open RvR areas that could hold enormous amounts of open world PvP. Too bad they weren’t “open” and couldn’t hold more then 1-2 warbands on either side without causing the world to LAG out and crash.
- Gave PvP oriented players actual gear we could use that was comparable to the gear any PvE player could get by questing or instancing, and not confining us to the “battle master’s”.
- Gave us *experience points so that we could level while doing what we loved to do! At the same time giving both sides of the playing field an opportunity to “feel free” to venture into the unknown. *with exception of latest patches from Wow, that grant a minimal amount of experience(xp) gain for BG’s.
- I’m sure there is more I could find, but I wanna finish this up and play some games.
- From the Warhammer Online forums (of which a lot of PvP’ers stated they are going to Aion) are still in dire straights about WAR’s eminent future, oh yeah and the lack thereof any real top end content to keep them or bring them back.
Miscellaneous Reasons
- Nothing new is coming out until late 2010, with the exception of STO in early Feb, I’m not sure of much else coming out so feel free to hate on me in the comments, no cursing plz!
- Huh? Cata-who? oh!, you said Cataclysm. Okay, let me respond. ” HAHAHAHAHAHAHA”
- LOTRO: Siege of Mirkwood? Uh, maybe.. I dunno.
Aion- Is beautiful, graphically speaking. Couple that along with the new features presented in the latest video released, showing all new rendering module and homes, and swimming(?? lol) and mounts… cha, its going to be a sleeper hit. All the way from Left field, I’d say. Check out these informative links from Taugrim’s MMORPG site. Where he discuss the future of gaming and how Aion may play a nice roll in that, or about the balance of player fractions and population in an MMO, and one of the worst things a lot of companies do wrong, or have no costumer support ability and or responsiveness.
Hype is one thing, so we learned from the beloved Paul Barnett. But I feel like, just maybe, Aion can pull through. If they go for the jugular… the PvP crowd.
Their not that far off -really.
Elements that Promote Player vs. Player combat
- Grinding for hours, Endless-grinding, and pretty much grinding period. Grinding has the innate ability to piss people off, and PVP is a great outlet for that. Even the 4 times I mentioned “grinding” (5 times now) in this sentence is pissing me off.
- PvE is another avenue you can take to promote PvP in your MMO, just make a a 3 tier world, have the middle one be contested and place all you quests and grinding-what ever- in there and PRESTO!! People will just naturally start killing each other.
- Sexy Animations! oh baby there’s nothing hotter in PvP then sick animations, other then huge numbers(CRITS) flying across your screen.
Well I think thats gonna wrap this up for now, all we can do is watch and see. Maybe I’m wrong, maybe I’m right… time will tell.
Game On!
~Kaldeem
I like how you bash WoW because you’re terribad at the game.
Thanks, I enjoyed reading your thought provoking comment. I’ll take all the “Wow fanboi’s” into consideration next time I post a comparative article on PvP or any game in general.
Have a great day!
lol poor shout from superawesome however after tasting a little bit of Aions pvp when I played I couldnt say I was impressed, sure its nice to look at but they seem to have missed the trick with response times.
If WoW had more open PvP on their ‘PvP’ realms then it would be great however there is just far too many carebears and the world is too big.
I think for where it is at, 2 months (give or take a couple of weeks)after launch (or a year+ if you count from the Korean release of Nov 2008), AION is an excellent MMO and the PvP in the game is some of the most fun I’ve had in the game. I mean, how long did it take EQ or WoW to get to the same place in regards of stability? Years and countless of patches! Give AION the same time and I predict that it will make your head spin, especially if they pull off what you see in their Future of Aion video. NOTHING currently out there is even close to what you saw in that video.
I’m not here to tell you that it’s the best MMO out there, or that it offers a lot of new or “revolutionary” features or what have you. But I will tell you, that it is an excellent example of a GREAT MMO. Maybe it’s not what a bunch of “entitled” WoW fanbois or jaded gamers expected, but it’s still one hell of a game.
As for the grind complaint… I’m still not getting it. I have a quest log that won’t accept any more quests because, despite what a bunch of “never played the game” critics tell you about a lack of quests, there are plenty of quests out there to do and the log is full. So full in fact, that I’ve had to start dropping some of my lower level quests so that I could make room for the new ones. And no, that doesn’t include the repeatable quests since I try to avoid those. So as to the grind… /shrug. Whatever.
Lets remember companys would have learned from past experiences here, NCSoft have other MMOs behind them, blizzard had none. Add to that games have to be polished on release (indie titles excluded) as the public wont accept them. If you tell people its an AAA product then thats what they should do. Aion whilst stable just didnt feel ‘finished’ which with the patch, added quests and added exp in the video they are using to promote the game shows.
We could argue all day about the grind involved in Aion.
As I’ve said before I dont have alot of hate for Aion and infact think its one of the better MMOs out there, but I do think they failed in their attempt to ‘westernise’ it.
I don’t buy that “learned from past experiences” stuff Pit. To be honest, it sounds more like typical fanboi (I’m not calling you one, mind you) talk making excuses for Blizzard. Look at this post over at Game by Night:
http://www.gamebynight.com/?p=879
WoW, who now has years behind them, has once again, FAILED monumentally to implement their latest patch. Personally, I don’t find it all that horrible nor did it come as a surprise because since it IS an MMO, this sort of stuff just happens and should be expected. Granted, epic fails like the one described in the link above shouldn’t be expected, but some problems should be. It just seems that people tend to gloss over Blizzards fails, and crucify other companies over way smaller problems than those described above.
However, if you take the problems listed in the above link, and apply your logic to it, it seems that Blizzard has learned absolutely NOTHING since it’s launch.
And, predictably of course, I couldn’t disagree more with the “failed to westernise it” comment. Had I been thrust into AION without knowing anything at all about it, I honestly don’t think that I would be able to tell you whether it was an eastern or western product. Like you said, we could argue all day about the grind in AION, but I’m just telling you, as I look at my “bursting at the seams quest log”, that I have plenty of other options to help me level than the endless grind you and a lot of other folks have complained about. The only thing I can come up with to try to see things from your points of view is that you guys came from WoW where everything is pretty much handed to you. I guess had I been used to that, I would also think that AION was one huge grind……
I cant comment Im an EU player and WoW worked fine for me today (which was eu patchday btw).
hmm but the difference is I recognise when there is problems in a game and it is you who is appearing to be a Aion fanboi by sweeping its short comings under a carpet.
Pit, if you re-read my post, you will see that I go out of my way to say that I’m not calling you a fanboi:
“To be honest, it sounds more like typical fanboi (I’m not calling you one, mind you) talk making excuses for Blizzard.”
.. just that some of your rhetoric SOUNDS like typical fanboi talk. If you want to take offense /shrug.
As for glossing over AION’s shortcomings, I’ve never glossed over the bad parts of AION or said that’s it’s the cat’s meow. Again, if you re-read the post I made above you’ll see this:
“I’m not here to tell you that it’s the best MMO out there, or that it offers a lot of new or “revolutionary” features or what have you. But I will tell you, that it is an excellent example of a GREAT MMO. Maybe it’s not what a bunch of “entitled” WoW fanbois or jaded gamers expected, but it’s still one hell of a game.”
here is some of my comments on wow and blizzards failure:
http://killthatcheerleader.wordpress.com/2009/11/20/well-well-well/
http://killthatcheerleader.wordpress.com/2009/09/04/ye-ol%e2%80%99-azeroth-ain%e2%80%99t-what-it-used-to-be%e2%80%a6/
http://killthatcheerleader.wordpress.com/2009/08/06/wow-but-now-even-easier/
http://killthatcheerleader.wordpress.com/2009/07/27/has-wow-lost-its-wow/
a wow fan boi i aint
Yes, yes, I’ve read your blog and know you’re NOT a WoW fanboi however you, like a lot of other folks sound like you’re making excuses for a game that’s been around for quite some time while pew pew’ing a game that’s barely been out for 1/5 the time. Give it time. Like Brannagar said, it has the potential to be the BEST mmo out there. Maybe not the one with the most subs, but subs don’t make a game the “best”.
Soz if it looked like I took offense I didnt and am reasonably thick skinned. As I’ve said in a recent post I am bias as is every blogger towards ‘their games’. Im not however making excuses for WoW I am from the EU so have never experienced patch issues because they are all ironed out as we recieve it after the US.
Agree the potential is there in Aion however for the paying customer they dont pay for potential they pay for the current product.
As I said on my blog when I left Aion I do not rule out a return to it…. if they sort out the rediculous grind and add more options for zones/starting areas.
Oh and read this review and tell me its wrong
http://uk.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/aion/review.html
There was quite a bit to enjoy in Aion and after a few patches it will be an excellent game, I think. If they get HALF the things in that video in the game and working it will be the best MMO of all time but, on that, I am not holding my breathe.
Right now, I am playing the most cut-throat of the PvP games, Darkfall, and it is loads of fun. Hopefully, they will continue to add cool content. The naval warfare that I am seeing after the last patch is just amazing and not to be found in any other MMO. Check it out:
http://corpserun.wordpress.com/2009/12/09/in-the-navy-yes-you-can-sail-the-seven-seas/
Can’t agree with you more Brannagar! I read your corpse run blog and will be adding it to my blogroll. I have to say that with that post, you’ve peaked my interest in Darkfall. Unfortunately I only have time in my life for one MMO at a time and AION is it at the moment.
Wow, I’m all excited and happy! This is my first post with a real “debate” going on! lol. Okay srsly tho. Lets agree to disagree.
Over the last 5 years now, Wow has proven that it “can” be successful in implementing patches and updating content as fast and as well as any major MMO designer has been able to! BUT given that they “still” have their “hick ups” and “fail” moments doesn’t mean they haven’t learned anything, nor does it mean Aion (in it’s year 1/2 of being on the Eastern market) has to be 100% polished like a game thats had millions of $ and 5 years behind it.
So really you both have valid points. Neither one being wrong, or right, to an ultimate “end all say all” of Aion vs. Wow so forth and so on.
The thought of the article is… That because Aion is new, and Wow is Five, I pre-sieve a LARGE amount of turn over once the “Aion” crowd matures to cap level, and NEW PvP videos start flooding youtube and other media sites.
I say this because “Wow’s” combat system is dated. Massive class imbalances (thx arenas)are overwhelmingly crippling and not to mention the GEAR gap that has, and will always decimate the world of PvP in Wow.
P.s If you remember pre-Burning Crusade, you will also note that Wow, was intensely “grind-full” in its Vanilla stage. And now you can be like me (or others) with five level 60s and four level 70+ and two level 80′s and a partridge in a pair-tree!
Great stuff guys and/or gals!
Kal, added you to my blog roll over at: http://yetanothergamingblog.wordpress.com/ (yes, I know, shameless plug
) It’s no-where near as insightful as yours – it’s more a journal of sorts with a little MMO commentary.
Back to the subject at hand though. I didn’t say that WoW hasn’t learned anything, I merely stated that IF we applied Pit’s logic to the issue, of how a company should learn from it’s own past mistakes and those of others and therefore put out flawless games, it would then seem that WoW hasn’t learned anything from it’s five years existence, since they can’t put out a patch without massive problems. Here’s what I said:
“However, if you take the problems listed in the above link, and apply your logic to it, it seems that Blizzard has learned absolutely NOTHING since it’s launch.”
I don’t ascribe to Pit’s logic since I know that just about every MMO out there (at least the one’s I’ve played) will more than likely experience some sort of problems during patch day to include AION. It’s just the nature of the beast.
yes but how many MMOs get two bites of the cherry that Aion has had?
Take WoW my point on EU recieving the patch after US and not having an issue proves they learn from it.
It differing opinions and I respect yours I think neither of us is right or wrong.
added you like-wise.
I think Aion is the first MMO that really has a chance to put a lasting dent into WoW’s population. To do it they are going to have to concentrate on lessening the grind, adding content and getting rid of the bots and spammers.
The game has great graphics, a good combat system and an interesting world. All the ingredients are there but only time will tell.
Love the blog by the way, I added you to my blog-roll.
Woot! Thank you! I just finished checking yours out too, I have heard of Dark Fall, but haven’t heard much. So I’ll be looking into it via your blog! lol. Thanks for the add, I returned the kindness.
Now I look like Im spoiling for a fight……. however I just dont buy into this Aion putting a dent in WoWs armour.
Yes I agree WoW is dated, thats why they are releasing Cataclysm to freshen up the graphics and gaming experience. I am thinking they are looking to streamline and even remove the feeling of grind from old azeroth and make it more cutting edge and interesting like WoTLK.
Thats the thing MMOs these days arent about grinding most have moved on to story lines and immersive content – if Aion had released back when WoW did then yeah it would have been a contender to the title but the mass market of gamers dont want to grind, they want to have fun. If things feel like a second job then people usually wont stick around.
On PvP I just cant agree with Aion being better – sure graphically and nice animations make it breath taking to watch however those animations etc make the pace alot slower and you can certainly tell with response times (similar to WARs 2 sec delay). They are different games and both will carve out their own place in the market however what happens if Blizzards new MMO is a PvP orientated game?
Again I’ll reiterate I dont have a ton of hate for Aion but I think we need to take a reality check on what it is at present and what is in store for the future.
Ok, at the risk of giving you the impression that I want to “fight” it out with you over something as silly as which game is better or what not, I have to say that “there you go again!”
Point 1 – AION may or may not put a dent in WoW’s armor. Only time will tell. However, like Bran said above, if they implement even HALF of what the AION video shows ~ watch out!
Point 2 – Again with the grind. Might as well ask for the equivalent of an “easy button” (it’s a reference to a commercial here in the states). Press here for instant max level. Wow is too easy as it is, don’t you think?
Point 3 – I don’t know if it’s an EU internet problem, pc problem or what, but I don’t experience a delay during PvP, nor did I during my time in WAR. So far, I have to say that I’m really enjoying the PvP in AION, but admittedly I can only compare it to WoW and WAR’s pvp so maybe I’m not the best person to comment on the PvP.
Last point – And I know you’re going to take this the wrong way, but please believe me when I say I don’t mean this to antagonize you. That’s twice that I’ve seen you post where you admit to having “some” hate for AION, not a “ton” as you say, but apparently some. It’s hard to imagine that you don’t have a bias here with comments like that.
haha not at all I like a good debate
I dont think you can state what is a better game I will say WoW you will say Aion there is no right or wrong.
Point 1 – Agree, remember when factoring in the Aion Video you must also factor in Cataclysm which little detail has been released.
Point 2 – We will never agree on the grind, hell my mate that still plays agrees it is a grind. If you dont then again a difference of opinion (altho the majority do believe it to be a grind
). Yes WoW is far too easy until end game, I have blogged about it. Again will Cataclysm change this? time will tell.
Point 3 – It isnt a ping rate problem it is a delay on the animations starting and finishing restricting movement. There is actually a video on u-tube which highlights it.
Lastly – I wont take it the wrong way at all I have admitted I do have a slight bias (look at my recent blog post), everyone does. The world would be a boring place if we all thought the same
Ack, I hit submit by accident. Now here is where you and I are in total agreement. AION’s lack of diversity in starting zones is it’s one major issue that I’ve seen so far. I hate that if you want to create another toon of the same faction, you basically have to run thru the exact same content. It makes for quick leveling, since you know where all the quests objectives are… but that makes for a very BORING 10 levels.
LOL, I bet Kaldeem is peeing his pants with glee at all the responses on his latest post.
haha yeah he will be loving the comment stats on his blog meter thats for sure.
Agree on WoW trying to eliminate the grind by making things easy – WoTLK is the only part of the game to remain a bit of a challenge (and to a lesser extent some of TBC content).
On my aion review I applauded the mob difficulty and the fact that you had to think about your situation before wading in. Aions problem remains quest Experience is pitiful compared to killing a mob. To put it into context if you get a quest to kill 20 mobs in aion and killing those mobs gave you 2 full bars of exp the exp from handing in the quest would not be comparible and would give you about a quarter of a bar, this in my opinion adds to the (possible illusion? i dont know) grind.