Aion is nominated for 7 prizes at MMOsite Reader's Choice Awards 2010. However, the result of the current phase shows total failure of Aion. The votes Aion got is laughably few.
Not winning an award doesn't automatically consider one a failure, to my knowledge the game is up and running well and turning a profit for the company that made it. It doesn't seem to have much growth but *shrugs* still not sure that can classify a game a failure.
Now if the legions of people who tried Aion were put in a position to come back to mmorpg and speak about the game like was done with AOC,DF,STO,APB,FFXIV and quite a few other games I could see cause for concern.
but yeah, to call this game Fantastic is like calling Twilight the Godfather of vampire movies....
On the other hand, it's ridiculously popular on private servers. That's mostly due to the elimination of all the things that people don't enjoy from retail though.
While i enjoyed in 1000 times more than FFXIV, it still doesn't offer enough content to be worth a monthly fee.
Just as there is no denying Aion is an amazing success in the East.
Aion is nominated for 7 prizes at MMOsite Reader's Choice Awards 2010. However, the result of the current phase shows total failure of Aion. The votes Aion got is laughably few.
Not winning an award doesn't automatically consider one a failure, to my knowledge the game is up and running well and turning a profit for the company that made it. It doesn't seem to have much growth but *shrugs* still not sure that can classify a game a failure.
Now if the legions of people who tried Aion were put in a position to come back to mmorpg and speak about the game like was done with AOC,DF,STO,APB,FFXIV and quite a few other games I could see cause for concern.
yes , you are right!!!! As far as i know , many players feel this game really becomes sucks...
It is said that there are 4million players , but according to the votes ,can we judge that many players are going to play other games like World of Tank(with high votes) and give up this game which to be thought a nice one before , can we say that Aion is going to be a failure....
Wow! There's some gross overgeneralisation to be found in this thread! I wouldn't say it's racism, but it's certainly 'culturism' the way Asian people or players are depicted
Regarding the OP topic: meh, I think failure is a debatable and in this case highly subjective term.
I think it's all based upon expectations that (some) people have.
Aion is doing pretty great - still - in Asia even if it's doing less well in the US and Europe.
But even then I wouldn't say it's a 'failure': it released in a far better state than a lot of other MMORPG's launched, polished and smooth gameplay experience. Next to that, it has some of the best character customisation around, with some of the most detailed character models and animation that can be found in the MMORPG genre at the moment.
I think the most dominant gripe that a large number of people have isn't so much the gameplay in itself - combat is pretty ok, as well as the general progression via questing, crafting etc - but the grind that becomes perceptible in the mid to high levels.
Besides that, Aion was pretty ok and enjoyable as an MMORPG.
Of course, if you think that MMORPG's should reach the sub numbers of a WoW to be considered a success and not a failure, then as good as no MMORPG achieves that goal.
The ease with which predictions are made on these forums: Fratman: "I'm saying Spring 2012 at the earliest [for TOR release]. Anyone still clinging to 2011 is deluding themself at this point."
Anyone who thinks Aion has been a failure in the West is simply uneducated and / or small minded. With declining numbers it has done very well and even today the populations are far from dead. Remember that it cost them next to nothing to simply translate the game and launch it in NA/EU so they made a ton of money on it from those markets...thats money means not a failure because I guarantee their numbers are in the black.
so let me see here, a dude(not gonna write what I was thinking about his intelect), post a link to a vote(who from what I know gives nothing) from a site who his main games is F2P and launches from the east (with all the haters here missed), you can check all the aion site and forums have no mention on that site so any player in aion almost don't know a random site is making a "best of the year" thing, make pretty much this topic moot or even stupid.
and dynasty warrior are that high on votes for the simple case, since I play it (it dynasty warrior I can't miss it XD and if the CS start to be rediculous I will just leave) make a forum topic and said if they made to the top 3 1 day of 2X honor, if make it the first one weekend, so tell me why you really think dynasty warrior is on top?
FOR HONOR, FOR FREEDOM.... and for some money.
OmaliMMO Business CorrespondentMemberUncommonPosts: 1,177
Judging by Decess' Engrish, I'm guessing he's of the same mmosite.com ilk that immediately goes "What? It has a subscription? Must be a failure!"
Anyone who thinks Aion has been a failure in the West is simply uneducated and / or small minded. With declining numbers it has done very well and even today the populations are far from dead. Remember that it cost them next to nothing to simply translate the game and launch it in NA/EU so they made a ton of money on it from those markets...thats money means not a failure because I guarantee their numbers are in the black.
If we're talking box sales then you are correct. Unfortunately i don't consider box sales as being successful, unless you're ArenaNet. I'm talking retention and growth, which it has not done well in.
Aion has gotten progressively worse, minus the upped quests, since 1.2.
The west simply doesn't enjoy RNG, while the east eats it up. It's not small minded, it's just the way it is.
Lets say i agree with you guys that AION is a failure but it is still in a lot better position then games like Vanguard, Warhammer, AOC, FFXIV, STO etc. I wish all these games were failures like Aion.
Who could have thought that WOW could bring super power like USA to its knees?
Originally posted by Arcken
To put it in a nutshell, our society is about to hit the fan, grades are dropping, obesity is going up,childhood the USA is going to lose its super power status before too long, but hey, as long as we have a cheap method to babysit our kids, all will be well no? Im picking on WoW btw because its the beast that made all of this possible
Anyone who thinks Aion has been a failure in the West is simply uneducated and / or small minded. With declining numbers it has done very well and even today the populations are far from dead. Remember that it cost them next to nothing to simply translate the game and launch it in NA/EU so they made a ton of money on it from those markets...thats money means not a failure because I guarantee their numbers are in the black.
If we're talking box sales then you are correct. Unfortunately i don't consider box sales as being successful, unless you're ArenaNet. I'm talking retention and growth, which it has not done well in.
Aion has gotten progressively worse, minus the upped quests, since 1.2.
The west simply doesn't enjoy RNG, while the east eats it up. It's not small minded, it's just the way it is.
Failure compared to WOW...yes. Failure compared to AOC, WAR, VG, EQ2, STO, CO, FFXIV etc etc....no. Guess it depends on what you consider a failure but Aion today has more subs in NA then the above games I mentioned.
Aion is doing well in the west if you compare it to anything but WoW. That is enough isn't it ? I mean if it does better than Warhammer,Age of Conan what more do you guys want anyway. How much proof do you need ?
Originally posted by Shatter30 Failure compared to WOW...yes. Failure compared to AOC, WAR, VG, EQ2, STO, CO, FFXIV etc etc....no. Guess it depends on what you consider a failure but Aion today has more subs in NA then the above games I mentioned.
You're basically saying Aion is the best of the worst.
Im not going to say Aion is a failure but it has been in decline.
The past 2 quarters Aion has been steady at around $53 million a quarter which is good but the previous 2 quarters saw between $61 million to $77 million.
And if you do want to compare Aion to WoW, WoW by itself made $289 million for 3rd quarter 2010 which is more than double what NCSoft as a whole made.
Wow! There's some gross overgeneralisation to be found in this thread! I wouldn't say it's racism, but it's certainly 'culturism' the way Asian people or players are depicted
Regarding the OP topic: meh, I think failure is a debatable and in this case highly subjective term.
I think it's all based upon expectations that (some) people have.
Aion is doing pretty great - still - in Asia even if it's doing less well in the US and Europe.
But even then I wouldn't say it's a 'failure': it released in a far better state than a lot of other MMORPG's launched, polished and smooth gameplay experience. Next to that, it has some of the best character customisation around, with some of the most detailed character models and animation that can be found in the MMORPG genre at the moment.
I think the most dominant gripe that a large number of people have isn't so much the gameplay in itself - combat is pretty ok, as well as the general progression via questing, crafting etc - but the grind that becomes perceptible in the mid to high levels.
Besides that, Aion was pretty ok and enjoyable as an MMORPG.
Of course, if you think that MMORPG's should reach the sub numbers of a WoW to be considered a success and not a failure, then as good as no MMORPG achieves that goal.
I would assert that this game did fail to produce on it's promises before launch. Which is where it's current problems stem from...
False Expectations.
The game touted highly polished gameplay, rich environments, numerous and rewarding quest lines, incredible looking armor, and rewarding and engaging mass PVP (labeled PVPVE)
What they delivered was a highly polished gameplay for lvls 1-23, featureless environments for 23 and up, rediculously low armor/weapon drops, low numbers of quests after 35, and a bottlenecked open world PvP incentivised for high lvls and twinks to gank lower lvls.
In essence what they provided was a literal bait and switch (after lvl 23) from what was actually provided.
As a world PvP game it's a decent addition, but it didn't advertise itself as such so there is an enormous amount of enmity toward the game by casual and primarily pve players.
It's reasonable to assert given their own descriptions of the game that Aion-West published this game with the intent to capitalize on a market it had no intent of actually holding since it never actually announced it was an open world pvp game.
But they did it and players got mad... Now the game is dealing with the stigma it put on itself.
I'm sure the numbers will normalize in time as the company is a good one and the game isn't bad... But Open World PvP-only games don't historically do well as compared to PVE MMORPG's with consentual PvP.
So comparing Aion to a game like WoW really is like comparing apples to oranges.
Failure compared to WOW...yes. Failure compared to AOC, WAR, VG, EQ2, STO, CO, FFXIV etc etc....no. Guess it depends on what you consider a failure but Aion today has more subs in NA then the above games I mentioned.
You're basically saying Aion is the best of the worst.
Im not going to say Aion is a failure but it has been in decline.
The past 2 quarters Aion has been steady at around $53 million a quarter which is good but the previous 2 quarters saw between $61 million to $77 million.
And if you do want to compare Aion to WoW, WoW by itself made $289 million for 3rd quarter 2010 which is more than double what NCSoft as a whole made.
No one is saying AION is better of the worst but what else is there? WOW is the most successful MMO and if you want go just by sub numbers. AION easily beats any other MMO in P2P model.
Who could have thought that WOW could bring super power like USA to its knees?
Originally posted by Arcken
To put it in a nutshell, our society is about to hit the fan, grades are dropping, obesity is going up,childhood the USA is going to lose its super power status before too long, but hey, as long as we have a cheap method to babysit our kids, all will be well no? Im picking on WoW btw because its the beast that made all of this possible
Failure compared to WOW...yes. Failure compared to AOC, WAR, VG, EQ2, STO, CO, FFXIV etc etc....no. Guess it depends on what you consider a failure but Aion today has more subs in NA then the above games I mentioned.
You're basically saying Aion is the best of the worst.
Im not going to say Aion is a failure but it has been in decline.
The past 2 quarters Aion has been steady at around $53 million a quarter which is good but the previous 2 quarters saw between $61 million to $77 million.
And if you do want to compare Aion to WoW, WoW by itself made $289 million for 3rd quarter 2010 which is more than double what NCSoft as a whole made.
So because it's in decline it's a failure? If WoW starts declining will it be considered a failure? Amazing. Like it or not Aion was never a failure and definitely not financially wise.
I would assert that this game did fail to produce on it's promises before launch. Which is where it's current problems stem from...
False Expectations.
The game touted highly polished gameplay, rich environments, numerous and rewarding quest lines, incredible looking armor, and rewarding and engaging mass PVP (labeled PVPVE)
What they delivered was a highly polished gameplay for lvls 1-23, featureless environments for 23 and up, rediculously low armor/weapon drops, low numbers of quests after 35, and a bottlenecked open world PvP incentivised for high lvls and twinks to gank lower lvls.
In essence what they provided was a literal bait and switch (after lvl 23) from what was actually provided.
As a world PvP game it's a decent addition, but it didn't advertise itself as such so there is an enormous amount of enmity toward the game by casual and primarily pve players.
It's reasonable to assert given their own descriptions of the game that Aion-West published this game with the intent to capitalize on a market it had no intent of actually holding since it never actually announced it was an open world pvp game.
But they did it and players got mad... Now the game is dealing with the stigma it put on itself.
I'm sure the numbers will normalize in time as the company is a good one and the game isn't bad... But Open World PvP-only games don't historically do well as compared to PVE MMORPG's with consentual PvP.
So comparing Aion to a game like WoW really is like comparing apples to oranges.
?
WoW has open world PvP, a lot of MMO's have that. More importantly, anyone who felt 'betrayed' by the world PvP ingame in later levels wasn't paying attention to the information available beforehand, where things like rifts and the Abyss were prominent in them.
I'd say that to compare any MMO with another MMO is like comparing apples with oranges if you see it like that; and when it comes to expectations, still a large number of players have for some reason a very wrong image of what a game offers before they start playing it. I guess that will always be the case, no matter what.
Well, as others already mentioned, if Aion has been a failure then you might as well call all the other MMORPG's released the last 5-6 years failures, since none have been as good as the expectations of the MMO gamer community had wanted them to be. Heck, you might even put MMO's before that time on the list like an EQ2 or SWG, all failed to live up to the expectations of the main MMO player base.
The ease with which predictions are made on these forums: Fratman: "I'm saying Spring 2012 at the earliest [for TOR release]. Anyone still clinging to 2011 is deluding themself at this point."
MMO's always go up and down.. I wouldn't base everything because most of the time with the numbers it has to deal with a lot of different things... For instance if a new game comes out.. or an update/ expassion comes out the numbers will go up and then they will subside to the real numbers a little later just to keep things going and and those who like the system will re sub and stay and those who don't like it will either stay or leave... I personally think aion is not a failure.. Not every game is a failer if its been out a year and it has updated quite a bit but keep in mind that they are having different updates for different regions so that is a lot.
Originally posted by Rynne So because it's in decline it's a failure? If WoW starts declining will it be considered a failure? Amazing. Like it or not Aion was never a failure and definitely not financially wise.
Perhaps you should actually read my post before rage replying.
So because it's in decline it's a failure? If WoW starts declining will it be considered a failure? Amazing. Like it or not Aion was never a failure and definitely not financially wise.
Perhaps you should actually read my post before rage replying.
I said "Im not going to say Aion is a failure"
in case you are not aware, you normally say that when you think it is,
well fact is all the doomsayers here will hate anything who is not his game, with is normally WoW (since he is a lot older then some games and it catter the lazy bunch of people who hope to always win something and be a hero),
Fantastic game at launch, terrific reviews, decent graphics, good storyline, many people were talking about Aion being the first real WoW killer (lol).
As time has progressed however the small cracks (twinks, grind, lack of story, lack of content) started to appear and the problems only continued to get worse with the visions trailer, community lip service and complete lack of leadership and poor management of the game and community by the hands of NCSoft and co. The server transfer debacle was horrific for the game and is still being felt today, ever since the game has never been (and may never again be) the same.
I don't know where people get their sub numbers from (afaik NCSoft don't release them) but the last time I was on during prime time on my server there were 20 clerics (main healing class) from all levels. Good luck running an instance (Aion instances are not aoe and pray like WoW) with that..
Today I received some spam from NCSoft that Aion will soon be running a reactivation for both L2 and Aion soon. Might log on again and say hi to anyone I know who is still left playing and hasn't either quit already or sold their accounts.
Fantastic game at launch, terrific reviews, decent graphics, good storyline, many people were talking about Aion being the first real WoW killer (lol).
As time has progressed however the small cracks (twinks, grind, lack of story, lack of content) started to appear and the problems only continued to get worse with the visions trailer, community lip service and complete lack of leadership and poor management of the game and community by the hands of NCSoft and co. The server transfer debacle was horrific for the game and is still being felt today, ever since the game has never been (and may never again be) the same.
I don't know where people get their sub numbers from (afaik NCSoft don't release them) but the last time I was on during prime time on my server there were 20 clerics (main healing class) from all levels. Good luck running an instance (Aion instances are not aoe and pray like WoW) with that..
Today I received some spam from NCSoft that Aion will soon be running a reactivation for both L2 and Aion soon. Might log on again and say hi to anyone I know who is still left playing and hasn't either quit already or sold their accounts.
NCSoft's quarterly financial reports are public, so you can extrapolate the number of subs from those reports.
Also, there's probably not a more reliable way of counting people using the search tool. The vast majority of people /anonymous to avoid the occassional gold spam tell. This is doubly true for clerics, since it's rather annoying to get 10+ tells asking me to heal DP/Dredge/Tlabs/etc when I'm already in a group.
Given the sheer number of people I have to wade through in Sanctum, Ingg, and Verteron, your post is simply wrong.
Fantastic game at launch, terrific reviews, decent graphics, good storyline, many people were talking about Aion being the first real WoW killer (lol).
As time has progressed however the small cracks (twinks, grind, lack of story, lack of content) started to appear and the problems only continued to get worse with the visions trailer, community lip service and complete lack of leadership and poor management of the game and community by the hands of NCSoft and co. The server transfer debacle was horrific for the game and is still being felt today, ever since the game has never been (and may never again be) the same.
I don't know where people get their sub numbers from (afaik NCSoft don't release them) but the last time I was on during prime time on my server there were 20 clerics (main healing class) from all levels. Good luck running an instance (Aion instances are not aoe and pray like WoW) with that..
Today I received some spam from NCSoft that Aion will soon be running a reactivation for both L2 and Aion soon. Might log on again and say hi to anyone I know who is still left playing and hasn't either quit already or sold their accounts.
NCSoft's quarterly financial reports are public, so you can extrapolate the number of subs from those reports.
Also, there's probably not a more reliable way of counting people using the search tool. The vast majority of people /anonymous to avoid the occassional gold spam tell. This is doubly true for clerics, since it's rather annoying to get 10+ tells asking me to heal DP/Dredge/Tlabs/etc when I'm already in a group.
Given the sheer number of people I have to wade through in Sanctum, Ingg, and Verteron, your post is simply wrong.
I agree there are plenty of people playing and Aion is one most successful p2p MMO since WOW period. This is fact. So how is that a failure? If a game has to close up shop thats a fail. So the answer to the thread is no.
Fantastic game at launch, terrific reviews, decent graphics, good storyline, many people were talking about Aion being the first real WoW killer (lol).
As time has progressed however the small cracks (twinks, grind, lack of story, lack of content) started to appear and the problems only continued to get worse with the visions trailer, community lip service and complete lack of leadership and poor management of the game and community by the hands of NCSoft and co. The server transfer debacle was horrific for the game and is still being felt today, ever since the game has never been (and may never again be) the same.
I don't know where people get their sub numbers from (afaik NCSoft don't release them) but the last time I was on during prime time on my server there were 20 clerics (main healing class) from all levels. Good luck running an instance (Aion instances are not aoe and pray like WoW) with that..
Today I received some spam from NCSoft that Aion will soon be running a reactivation for both L2 and Aion soon. Might log on again and say hi to anyone I know who is still left playing and hasn't either quit already or sold their accounts.
NCSoft's quarterly financial reports are public, so you can extrapolate the number of subs from those reports.
Also, there's probably not a more reliable way of counting people using the search tool. The vast majority of people /anonymous to avoid the occassional gold spam tell. This is doubly true for clerics, since it's rather annoying to get 10+ tells asking me to heal DP/Dredge/Tlabs/etc when I'm already in a group.
Given the sheer number of people I have to wade through in Sanctum, Ingg, and Verteron, your post is simply wrong.
I agree there are plenty of people playing and Aion is one most successful p2p MMO since WOW period. This is fact. So how is that a failure? If a game has to close up shop thats a fail. So the answer to the thread is no.
Quarterly report financial figures != real world game numbers. Spend 5 minutes looking at some of the "how is this server going?" threads on the official forums and some recent comments look like (stripping out all the "you mad bah? comments..)
"Nez is pretty dead on the Elyos side for 50+."
"Most of the day there will be between 20-50 people in Inggison, so pretty much forget about getting a decent group to run anything unless you want to wait 3hrs. Evenings it picks up but still not amazing numbers. If all you want to do is FT, you're in luck as most of the pop sits on their alts and does runs non-stop."
"This server's stagnating for want of action. One half of the Abyss is zerged by our side, while they refuse to touch the other side. Please, I beg you... come here and relieve us of our boredom, maybe an inner fort or two. Wreak havoc for all our sakes"
"pvp is pretty hard to come by here now. I can't even finish my daily sometimes. this game is just dying, all the elyos that xfer'd here from other servers have quit/sold their chars in anticipation of tera."
I guess though if you are on the dominant side for your server (it varies but usually one side is completely dominating the other) not at end game 50+ and just like being a pve carebear then there is plenty of pointless grinding to be had for you. Enjoy that!
Originally posted by Shatter30 Failure compared to WOW...yes. Failure compared to AOC, WAR, VG, EQ2, STO, CO, FFXIV etc etc....no. Guess it depends on what you consider a failure but Aion today has more subs in NA then the above games I mentioned.
You're basically saying Aion is the best of the worst.
Im not going to say Aion is a failure but it has been in decline.
The past 2 quarters Aion has been steady at around $53 million a quarter which is good but the previous 2 quarters saw between $61 million to $77 million.
And if you do want to compare Aion to WoW, WoW by itself made $289 million for 3rd quarter 2010 which is more than double what NCSoft as a whole made.
With that being said, there aren't many other MMO games out there making as much as Aion is but yeah Aion is second by a hundred miles behind WoW, WoW is just dominant in MMO and will be for a long time.
I think the only thing that'll kill WoW is Blizzard themselves.
All I know is that I wouldn't mind developing an MMO as crappy as Aion. One could only hope to suck so hard. Second place in the P2P MMO market isn't something I would be cutting myself over.
Get a little perspective.
And Aion is not a grinder. Not even close. If you have ever played L2 or PWI you know what a grinder is. But come on, who wants to play a solo questing grinder like wow or eq2 anyway. Talk about isolating. Give me a game that rewards group effort any day of the week. And if we are going to say that the endgame for these solo quester games are not like that then why do we have the leveling period at all? Why not just start everyone at level 80, 85 or 90 and just be done with it. Besides, grinding gear tokens is not any more fun.
My only two complaints with Aion are 1) not enough map and content in general and 2) to much RNG, which is not the same problem as grinding but is often they are seen together.
Comments
Not winning an award doesn't automatically consider one a failure, to my knowledge the game is up and running well and turning a profit for the company that made it. It doesn't seem to have much growth but *shrugs* still not sure that can classify a game a failure.
Now if the legions of people who tried Aion were put in a position to come back to mmorpg and speak about the game like was done with AOC,DF,STO,APB,FFXIV and quite a few other games I could see cause for concern.
but yeah, to call this game Fantastic is like calling Twilight the Godfather of vampire movies....
Just as there is no denying Aion is an amazing success in the East.
yes , you are right!!!! As far as i know , many players feel this game really becomes sucks...
It is said that there are 4million players , but according to the votes ,can we judge that many players are going to play other games like World of Tank(with high votes) and give up this game which to be thought a nice one before , can we say that Aion is going to be a failure....
Wow! There's some gross overgeneralisation to be found in this thread! I wouldn't say it's racism, but it's certainly 'culturism' the way Asian people or players are depicted
Regarding the OP topic: meh, I think failure is a debatable and in this case highly subjective term.
I think it's all based upon expectations that (some) people have.
Aion is doing pretty great - still - in Asia even if it's doing less well in the US and Europe.
But even then I wouldn't say it's a 'failure': it released in a far better state than a lot of other MMORPG's launched, polished and smooth gameplay experience. Next to that, it has some of the best character customisation around, with some of the most detailed character models and animation that can be found in the MMORPG genre at the moment.
I think the most dominant gripe that a large number of people have isn't so much the gameplay in itself - combat is pretty ok, as well as the general progression via questing, crafting etc - but the grind that becomes perceptible in the mid to high levels.
Besides that, Aion was pretty ok and enjoyable as an MMORPG.
Of course, if you think that MMORPG's should reach the sub numbers of a WoW to be considered a success and not a failure, then as good as no MMORPG achieves that goal.
The ACTUAL size of MMORPG worlds: a comparison list between MMO's
The ease with which predictions are made on these forums:
Fratman: "I'm saying Spring 2012 at the earliest [for TOR release]. Anyone still clinging to 2011 is deluding themself at this point."
Anyone who thinks Aion has been a failure in the West is simply uneducated and / or small minded. With declining numbers it has done very well and even today the populations are far from dead. Remember that it cost them next to nothing to simply translate the game and launch it in NA/EU so they made a ton of money on it from those markets...thats money means not a failure because I guarantee their numbers are in the black.
so let me see here, a dude(not gonna write what I was thinking about his intelect), post a link to a vote(who from what I know gives nothing) from a site who his main games is F2P and launches from the east (with all the haters here missed), you can check all the aion site and forums have no mention on that site so any player in aion almost don't know a random site is making a "best of the year" thing, make pretty much this topic moot or even stupid.
and dynasty warrior are that high on votes for the simple case, since I play it (it dynasty warrior I can't miss it XD and if the CS start to be rediculous I will just leave) make a forum topic and said if they made to the top 3 1 day of 2X honor, if make it the first one weekend, so tell me why you really think dynasty warrior is on top?
Judging by Decess' Engrish, I'm guessing he's of the same mmosite.com ilk that immediately goes "What? It has a subscription? Must be a failure!"
If we're talking box sales then you are correct. Unfortunately i don't consider box sales as being successful, unless you're ArenaNet. I'm talking retention and growth, which it has not done well in.
Aion has gotten progressively worse, minus the upped quests, since 1.2.
The west simply doesn't enjoy RNG, while the east eats it up. It's not small minded, it's just the way it is.
Lets say i agree with you guys that AION is a failure but it is still in a lot better position then games like Vanguard, Warhammer, AOC, FFXIV, STO etc. I wish all these games were failures like Aion.
Who could have thought that WOW could bring super power like USA to its knees?
Originally posted by Arcken
To put it in a nutshell, our society is about to hit the fan, grades are dropping, obesity is going up,childhood the USA is going to lose its super power status before too long, but hey, as long as we have a cheap method to babysit our kids, all will be well no?
Im picking on WoW btw because its the beast that made all of this possible
Failure compared to WOW...yes. Failure compared to AOC, WAR, VG, EQ2, STO, CO, FFXIV etc etc....no. Guess it depends on what you consider a failure but Aion today has more subs in NA then the above games I mentioned.
Aion is doing well in the west if you compare it to anything but WoW. That is enough isn't it ? I mean if it does better than Warhammer,Age of Conan what more do you guys want anyway. How much proof do you need ?
Im not going to say Aion is a failure but it has been in decline.
The past 2 quarters Aion has been steady at around $53 million a quarter which is good but the previous 2 quarters saw between $61 million to $77 million.
And if you do want to compare Aion to WoW, WoW by itself made $289 million for 3rd quarter 2010 which is more than double what NCSoft as a whole made.
I would assert that this game did fail to produce on it's promises before launch. Which is where it's current problems stem from...
False Expectations.
The game touted highly polished gameplay, rich environments, numerous and rewarding quest lines, incredible looking armor, and rewarding and engaging mass PVP (labeled PVPVE)
What they delivered was a highly polished gameplay for lvls 1-23, featureless environments for 23 and up, rediculously low armor/weapon drops, low numbers of quests after 35, and a bottlenecked open world PvP incentivised for high lvls and twinks to gank lower lvls.
In essence what they provided was a literal bait and switch (after lvl 23) from what was actually provided.
As a world PvP game it's a decent addition, but it didn't advertise itself as such so there is an enormous amount of enmity toward the game by casual and primarily pve players.
It's reasonable to assert given their own descriptions of the game that Aion-West published this game with the intent to capitalize on a market it had no intent of actually holding since it never actually announced it was an open world pvp game.
But they did it and players got mad... Now the game is dealing with the stigma it put on itself.
I'm sure the numbers will normalize in time as the company is a good one and the game isn't bad... But Open World PvP-only games don't historically do well as compared to PVE MMORPG's with consentual PvP.
So comparing Aion to a game like WoW really is like comparing apples to oranges.
No one is saying AION is better of the worst but what else is there? WOW is the most successful MMO and if you want go just by sub numbers. AION easily beats any other MMO in P2P model.
Who could have thought that WOW could bring super power like USA to its knees?
Originally posted by Arcken
To put it in a nutshell, our society is about to hit the fan, grades are dropping, obesity is going up,childhood the USA is going to lose its super power status before too long, but hey, as long as we have a cheap method to babysit our kids, all will be well no?
Im picking on WoW btw because its the beast that made all of this possible
So because it's in decline it's a failure? If WoW starts declining will it be considered a failure? Amazing. Like it or not Aion was never a failure and definitely not financially wise.
?
WoW has open world PvP, a lot of MMO's have that. More importantly, anyone who felt 'betrayed' by the world PvP ingame in later levels wasn't paying attention to the information available beforehand, where things like rifts and the Abyss were prominent in them.
I'd say that to compare any MMO with another MMO is like comparing apples with oranges if you see it like that; and when it comes to expectations, still a large number of players have for some reason a very wrong image of what a game offers before they start playing it. I guess that will always be the case, no matter what.
Well, as others already mentioned, if Aion has been a failure then you might as well call all the other MMORPG's released the last 5-6 years failures, since none have been as good as the expectations of the MMO gamer community had wanted them to be. Heck, you might even put MMO's before that time on the list like an EQ2 or SWG, all failed to live up to the expectations of the main MMO player base.
The ACTUAL size of MMORPG worlds: a comparison list between MMO's
The ease with which predictions are made on these forums:
Fratman: "I'm saying Spring 2012 at the earliest [for TOR release]. Anyone still clinging to 2011 is deluding themself at this point."
MMO's always go up and down.. I wouldn't base everything because most of the time with the numbers it has to deal with a lot of different things... For instance if a new game comes out.. or an update/ expassion comes out the numbers will go up and then they will subside to the real numbers a little later just to keep things going and and those who like the system will re sub and stay and those who don't like it will either stay or leave... I personally think aion is not a failure.. Not every game is a failer if its been out a year and it has updated quite a bit but keep in mind that they are having different updates for different regions so that is a lot.
I said "Im not going to say Aion is a failure"
in case you are not aware, you normally say that when you think it is,
well fact is all the doomsayers here will hate anything who is not his game, with is normally WoW (since he is a lot older then some games and it catter the lazy bunch of people who hope to always win something and be a hero),
Was Aion a failure? No..
Is Aion a failure in 2010? Yes.
Fantastic game at launch, terrific reviews, decent graphics, good storyline, many people were talking about Aion being the first real WoW killer (lol).
As time has progressed however the small cracks (twinks, grind, lack of story, lack of content) started to appear and the problems only continued to get worse with the visions trailer, community lip service and complete lack of leadership and poor management of the game and community by the hands of NCSoft and co. The server transfer debacle was horrific for the game and is still being felt today, ever since the game has never been (and may never again be) the same.
I don't know where people get their sub numbers from (afaik NCSoft don't release them) but the last time I was on during prime time on my server there were 20 clerics (main healing class) from all levels. Good luck running an instance (Aion instances are not aoe and pray like WoW) with that..
Today I received some spam from NCSoft that Aion will soon be running a reactivation for both L2 and Aion soon. Might log on again and say hi to anyone I know who is still left playing and hasn't either quit already or sold their accounts.
NCSoft's quarterly financial reports are public, so you can extrapolate the number of subs from those reports.
Also, there's probably not a more reliable way of counting people using the search tool. The vast majority of people /anonymous to avoid the occassional gold spam tell. This is doubly true for clerics, since it's rather annoying to get 10+ tells asking me to heal DP/Dredge/Tlabs/etc when I'm already in a group.
Given the sheer number of people I have to wade through in Sanctum, Ingg, and Verteron, your post is simply wrong.
I agree there are plenty of people playing and Aion is one most successful p2p MMO since WOW period. This is fact. So how is that a failure? If a game has to close up shop thats a fail. So the answer to the thread is no.
Quarterly report financial figures != real world game numbers. Spend 5 minutes looking at some of the "how is this server going?" threads on the official forums and some recent comments look like (stripping out all the "you mad bah? comments..)
"Nez is pretty dead on the Elyos side for 50+."
"Most of the day there will be between 20-50 people in Inggison, so pretty much forget about getting a decent group to run anything unless you want to wait 3hrs. Evenings it picks up but still not amazing numbers. If all you want to do is FT, you're in luck as most of the pop sits on their alts and does runs non-stop."
"This server's stagnating for want of action. One half of the Abyss is zerged by our side, while they refuse to touch the other side. Please, I beg you... come here and relieve us of our boredom, maybe an inner fort or two. Wreak havoc for all our sakes"
"pvp is pretty hard to come by here now. I can't even finish my daily sometimes. this game is just dying, all the elyos that xfer'd here from other servers have quit/sold their chars in anticipation of tera."
I guess though if you are on the dominant side for your server (it varies but usually one side is completely dominating the other) not at end game 50+ and just like being a pve carebear then there is plenty of pointless grinding to be had for you. Enjoy that!
I think the only thing that'll kill WoW is Blizzard themselves.
All I know is that I wouldn't mind developing an MMO as crappy as Aion. One could only hope to suck so hard. Second place in the P2P MMO market isn't something I would be cutting myself over.
Get a little perspective.
And Aion is not a grinder. Not even close. If you have ever played L2 or PWI you know what a grinder is. But come on, who wants to play a solo questing grinder like wow or eq2 anyway. Talk about isolating. Give me a game that rewards group effort any day of the week. And if we are going to say that the endgame for these solo quester games are not like that then why do we have the leveling period at all? Why not just start everyone at level 80, 85 or 90 and just be done with it. Besides, grinding gear tokens is not any more fun.
My only two complaints with Aion are 1) not enough map and content in general and 2) to much RNG, which is not the same problem as grinding but is often they are seen together.
All die, so die well.