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Astellia Review In Progress - Part 2
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Astellia Review In Progress - Part 2
In last week’s Astellia Review in Progress, we touched on the first impressions of Astellia based on the gameplay of two different characters. With another week of playing behind us, the good and bad of Astellia has really begun to take shape. Has Barunson E&A Studio put in the work, and made the right moves to make this Korean game palatable to a western audience?
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“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?”
― CD PROJEKT RED
For a site that calls itself mmorpg.com, don't you think that it should review significant MMORPG launches? I'd argue that it should be a higher priority than a lot of the other games that this site covers that definitely aren't MMORPGs. Reviews that highlight quality games that are merely obscure are tremendously valuable, and they won't find out if a game is any good if they don't try it. Even if a game is terrible, a review that explains why the game is terrible also has considerable value.
EQ1, EQ2, SWG, SWTOR, GW, GW2 CoH, CoV, FFXI, WoW, CO, War,TSW and a slew of free trials and beta tests
It's not what is covered (although it's weird as hell that this title promoted by Bill's new company is getting a disproportionate amount of coverage here compared to anywhere else... but let's disregard that for the moment) but how it's covered that lends this site credibility or lack of it.
When every MMO is a 7+, none of hem are 7+.
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?”
― CD PROJEKT RED
https://www.mmorpg.com/league-of-angels/reviews/the-ultimate-evolution-of-minmaxing-1000000300
Is that far enough away from 7+ for your taste? From the same person writing this review, Bless got a 5.5, Warlords Awakening a 5.2, and Wild Terra a 4.5.
https://www.mmorpg.com/bless-online/reviews/bless-online-launch-review-1000000512
https://www.mmorpg.com/warlords-awakening/reviews/warlords-awakening-review-worth-waking-for-1000000515
https://www.mmorpg.com/wild-terra/reviews/lackadaisical-wilderness-1000000502
In fact, an outright majority of the reviews he has posted on this site landed somewhere below a 6/10. That sure doesn't strike me as saying that everything is a 7+.
Cheers all
Is there some other, more significant MMORPG launch this month that the site is ignoring? If not, then what is the problem?
This site does the best MMORPG reviews of any site I've found, so I wouldn't want them to only review one game per year and that's it. Importantly, they play the game for quite a bit before posting the final review, rather than rushing to post some first impressions of the launch day from someone who has no idea what he's talking about.
Must have been really, really bad or something.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
"classification of games into MMOs is not by rational reasoning" - nariusseldon
Love Minecraft. And check out my Youtube channel OhCanadaGamer
Try a MUD today at http://www.mudconnect.com/It's a 3/10 at best.
Perhaps in a year they'll shut it down due to it's next breakout hit: "Astellia Unchained"
Fishing on Gilgamesh since 2013
The devs are good bunch tho. They tried to change a p2w game into b2p without p2w elements. It's challenging because the game is bland one also.
So if you like the game and like to spend money on every game that appears no matter how bad is it. Go for it.
On point (2), see my example above. This site gave League of Angels a 4/10 while it was running a ton of ads on this site. Running ads here doesn't buy you a positive review. Making a game that the reviewer really likes does, however.
The game review process is always subjective down to the final number grade given. I personally give more weight to the pros and cons and I check several different sources if I’m on the fence about a product. MMORPG.com seems to do a good job with reviews in progress to give a reviewer enough time to access end game content.
Oh i don't know how many copies they sold. But from what i read the server is crowded sometimes. So there are some pe...ahem "bots" that sub to the game. Bots alone will make the game survive lol. Oh good ol silkroad. They sold at least 1k copies. The forum alone got 5k users so some of them must have the game brought or sub. And we know not many people register to forums. But I may be wrong who knows.
feel sorry for Steven
I think this staff member hit on the actual issue here, 'an MMO that people will spend money on'. The games that get heavily covered are paying for advertising and are typically Pay to Win/whale.
This game is a bit of a slog run in the beginning, but there's a limit to what people can spend real $ on in the cash shop. Barunson has done a great job of reducing the 'whale to win' aspect, there is some pay to convenience, but this could be seen as a monthly subscription fee.
Yes, the Public Relations company has done an absolutely disastrous job of advertising this game - as though they want it to fail - when in fact it's a decent game that IS exceptionally complex with all of the leveling/maximizing of different aspects (astels, gear, sub-classes, stats, etc.). I am NOT a theory crafter and get help from my guildies as much as possible, so yes I find all of the complexity a bit overmuch, but I'm still enjoying the game and really enjoying the gaming community.
Sure GW2 is a major title, but as with most older MMORPG's, you needed to be there in the beginning or near about to feel that 'excitement'. My partner and I bought Astellia because it's new energy, it's not P2W, and people are getting onto voice chat to enjoy the game together and form fun gaming communities. We tried getting into FFIV, EQ, and many others, but that excitement has long since disappeared and voice comms are hardly used for guilds, and new players are shunned, even GW2 - which I personally like :-)
Although I doubt this tile will last a decade or even 5 years, I bought it because there's nothing new in the MMORPG genre (been waiting for Pantheon:Rise of the Fallen, whenever that actually comes out) and have been pleasantly surprised. It has the great Korean graphics, is not open world pvp (they have separate maps for that), and players are getting together to figure out what's working best as it doesn't have the plethora of information that older titles have available.
As for spending/buying the game, I worked out the $10/month option: 2 hours a day = $0.17 per hour of entertainment. $30 for the game instead: depends on how much you play, but 3 months playing would equal the same as the $10 option and you can keep playing and NOT whaling in perpetuity. That's 17 cents per hour for entertainment and you get a vibrant community on discord where you can laugh and socialize, if you pick a good guild.
Sorry for the long rant, but I'm sad that people are judging on so few factors, when it's a much needed outlet on a broader scale.