Aion 2

Flake said:

horizontal content, mini games

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This type of content is the sole reason I never returned to a game like Lost Ark. Horizontal content is a fucking MASSIVE barrier to entry for new players and returning players. I have no fucking idea why companies continue to do this shit. Even the dipshits at Sony were able to figure out "auto grant" AAs after a while, realizing the massive hurdles that this type of content presents to new/returning players.

Can we just limit South Korean games to Lost Ark? It is the only one that was somewhat okay until you really got tired of random.

Its just a Red Flag when South Korea does gaming.

Unfortunately, SK is about the only way we get MMORPGs at all anymore. They're dead in the West.

I actually really enjoy a lot of their design ideas. They almost universally have really cool concepts, amazing art, awesome combat systems, and shitloads of classes (providing a little bit of *something* for everyone). But their obsession with horizontal progress and constant mini-games, "busy" work, collection style logbooks, etc. has got to fucking go. It just creates this MASSIVE pile of things you have to do. Which is all well and good when you're first into the game, but god forbid you take a few month break, a year, etc. It makes "returning" to the game feel so daunting that most players just say "fuck it" and never return.

I've contemplated Lost Ark and similar games many times. But when I remember all the horizontal stuff I'd have to finish/work on? Fuck that.

The funny part is Lost Ark originally had less p2w, but the abused Korean fanbase demanded it

Our guild went to Aion after Warhammer Online (iirc - long time back). Was a great game in the beginning. The pvp aerial combat was a lot of fun and different. Some of those battles were epic.

But we only lasted a few months. Don't recall why people stopped logging in exactly. It just didn't have legs for us. I kept playing after most of the guild moved on, but the 2 faction thing eventually killed the pvp with everyone on the servers joining one side.

Separate servers for the factions might fix it. Will probably check it out. Aion was a fun game for a while.

My problem with most Korean mmos is that eventually you are at the complete mercy of rng with weapon/armor upgrades. Stupid upgrade systems typically having massive failure rates at a certain point unless you want to spend money for the guaranteed success. Super retarded.

That said, I really enjoyed the game but yeah the group of folks I was rolling with fell off super fast. I want to say most quit right around the time that (and this probably changed shortly after release; we were all day 1 players and I don't think most lasted to the first monthly credit card charge) that you fully unlock flight in the 2nd/3rd general zone and it opened up the tower PVP stuff. Half my crew tried to get into PVP but, and I forget what the issue was, something with the faction imbalance made it impossible to make progress at the time or something (we were all whatever the "evil" side was. Server we were on was apparently heavily the "good" side.) Only one guy kept at it and he got pretty good but he also basically completely stopped progressing the main story or something so couldn't join the rest of us that were in some way. I made it to cap but by then everyone else had stopped playing except the guy who was always in the tower PVPing, and he had no desire to do anything else. Granted this was like 15+ years ago so my memory may be combining issues with other korean mmos out around the time.

I think I also hit cap super early in the zone progression, because if you were doing all the tradeskill/etc side quests you were gaining way more xp than needed per zone. If I remember right, TERA had the same problem in that if you were actually doing all the stuff in each zone, you were going to outlevel the zone pretty quickly.

Why are Korean games all like this? Their players really want to P2W everything that these companies feel like they can be this brazen?

Flipmode said:

Why are Korean games all like this? Their players really want to P2W everything that these companies feel like they can be this brazen?

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They've been conditioned for decades to want punishment in games because of elements of their RL society - rather than being an escape from reality, it becomes an alternate version of their current reality where they have a chance to jump up on social standing (if only online)

1) Lineage 1 helped cement the mindset that if the game didn't have a soul crushing grind, it wasn't worth it. Parallels with RL with education and work - all work and little free time
2) It and subsequent games also cemented the "swipe to get powerful" mindset - flaunting riches helps show your social standing and success

China had/has the same issues with many of its games for similar reasons - I think the only reason it isn't worse now is because the government slaps the game companies around from time to time

I've read some on this. They have had a pretty horrible launch, at least where most of the non KR/asian people are playing, the TW servers. Constant DCs, crashes, login problems. I'd say this is good for the rest of the world, but I am a realist and these companies hardly ever learn. Korean servers seem fine, but you need a korean identification method(phone I think? They did away with the SSN iirc), or buy an account(which could get banned, or taken back at any time).

This one also supposedly has 2 different types of subscriptions(That are server specific not account bound) or pay for both for a slight discount. 2 different battle passes and then the usual cash shop. If you dont pay a sub, you cant access trade or the ah. Can only clear dungeons certain amount of times a day or something. Just so much greed.

Would all that come to the global launch, who knows, since usually eastern audiences are more accepting of p2w and such. But its NCsoft, so really who can trust anything. Aion 1 was fun, but I dont think i get serious in any of these korean games, because of their p2w. Also their gear upgrade systems are usually ass and very punishing if you dont just pay to bypass it.

It's a shame because usually their worlds, combat, character customization, cosmetic options(Both paid and regular) and side activities are done so well, but they always shoot themselves in the foot with horrible monetization methods. Like their mount system in this, is you can grind mobs for their souls(or via other means), and if you get enough you get it as a pet(mount). From animals, to mushrooms, to rock giants, etc. They are not full size but shrunk down to mount side, but still pretty cool.

I had fun in aion 1 for a while, so will have to check this as it gets closer to launch to see how bad it is. Another play at launch, level up, do some end game and quit, or actually play longer.

Nobody I know has been able to connect to TW servers yesterday or today.

jayrebb said:

Nobody I know has been able to connect to TW servers yesterday or today.

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Try a VPN? The stream I was watching had people saying it was required after the first day or something, otherwise you get cannot connect to login servers when you try to enter server list.

I read it's P2W so I will not never bother with it.

The first thing I always look up for any MMO is the combat, and I immediately get turned off 90+% of the time. It looks like every other action combat game, and I just have zero interest. The environments look great though.