Is Aion Dying...

[Cheesecake-DN]

My Top 3, in order:

Hostile playerbase,

increasing amount of hackers with nothing done against them (xigncode is going to stay in monitoring mode for a long time and our chances of seeing meaningful action taken against hackers is astronomically small),

and poor game design decisions.

[Aly-DN]

2 hours ago, Cheesecake-DN said:

My Top 3, in order:

Hostile playerbase,

increasing amount of hackers with nothing done against them (xigncode is going to stay in monitoring mode for a long time and our chances of seeing meaningful action taken against hackers is astronomically small),

and poor game design decisions.

^ So much this. 

I think people will put those three in a different order, but all three will be there.

For me it's..

1. Poor Game Design/Decisions
2. Hackers
3. Hostile Playerbase

Though I know some players that left because of hackers and others because the playerbase made it impossible to stay.

[Sofie-KT]

Aion is dying, no doubt. 5.x patch accelerated the dying, too many of the ppl left cuz of the ridicolous grind caused by breaking gear and levelling excesses. Refly patch (6.0) was a glimmer of hope, but ye...the live results on KR server made most of the hope go poof.

As for community, ever since 3.x there is an ever increasing amount of toxic people. Idk why *cough* f2p *cough* I kind of miss the times when ncsoft was actively monitoring /3 back in 1.x and there were actual GMs ingame

[Forgotten-DN]

Hostile player base and poor game design/decision making might be inseparable, at least in Aion's case. Incoming wall of text:

I'm starting to wonder how much bad game design causes nice players to become hostile over time. Aion has always had its share of elitists, but I personally never had a real problem with the player base being hostile until the game started gating the best gear behind unforgiving limited instance entries. I've heard the argument that F2P allows the worst to congregate onto the game with no consequences, but even then the bad elements were typically kept in check by people warning others or shaming poor behavior. From 3.0 through 4.5, I found people were still willing to be helpful and patient with others, and I attribute this to the fact that gear gaps were still relatively small. For instance, you could be competitive in Arena/BM/Rank 1 gear and the grind to get them was reasonable. PvE only required that you be in a Kahrun set which everyone had access to. IMO, cyncism and apathy kicked in once 4.7 arrived and it seems that a lot of people were disappointed with how limited gearing options really were. I feel like this is also when people started getting really selective about who they were taking with them to instances. Remember people complaining about needing IS gear to get into an IS group? Or people not being able to EB? This all ties in with the fact that new players were having a hard time with getting gear that the existing player base thought was "reasonable." Since then, the issue has only compounded itself, especially with how each new game update was designed. Fewer and fewer new players were joining the game, and old players were re-rolling tons of alts to take advantage of events and not telling others about their new toons. Worse, you had old players pretending to be new to try to get free stuff or trolls fostering distrust among the player base by making incendiary/vitriolic statements and then agreeing with themselves on alts or calling other people out on opposing factions. AFK events meant people were logging on and queuing into instances so that they kill two birds with one stone: rewards from the instance and from staying logged in for X amount of hours.

TLDR: I hope I'm not the only one in thinking that NC's corporate greed caused the player base to embrace the very worst aspects of human behavior in order to stay competitive in the game.

[Cheesecake-DN]

I dunno, man. Aion has always been pretty toxic since launch. It's just gotten worse since 4.8 and especially 5.0 as the playerbase grows smaller and the game punishes you more and more just for trying to play it. Aion has always been fairly masochistic to play too (sans maybe much of 3.X), but 5.X has exemplified that lol.

Hostile playerbase and game design definitely go hand in hand though. Lack of or inconsistent enforcement by Support haven't helped. I just found the hostile playerbase worse for new/returning, and even active, players over the other two. Though, bear in mind, in my opinion, the other two are practically kissing the first one's butt, especially for established players. 

 

Corporate greed has definitely contributed to this.

 

#JustAionThings

#IBlameCyan

#NeverNoBaned

[Bryos-DN]

I think the real culprit was 4.0, and its extremely costly requirements to even enter the instance (too few entries for instances that required practice, for example). The problem was there, but small, so few would notice it. This creates basically the "static-only" mentality that affects the entire player base in different ways.

The effects were only noticed after 4.8 because gear requirements got a little bit higher. By then, stuff like IS and DR were less important, but then DD came around with quite a learning curve... and only 1/2 entries PER WEEK. This just amplified the problem.

5.0 actually fixed this. Say whatever you want about the patch, but honestly, community-wise, it was the best attempt at solving it. Easier gearing up, more generous and rewarding instances. The issue though, the community is like a sponge. The 4.0 mentality stuck to the players. And this same community is the one we have now.

[Forgotten-DN]

1 hour ago, Cheesecake-DN said:

Aion has always been pretty toxic since launch.

Come to think of it, you're right. Too much reflecting through rose-tinted glasses. I completely forgot that people used to leave nasty messages on people's profile pages when gear viewing on the website was still a thing...

55 minutes ago, Bryos-DN said:

5.0 actually fixed this. Say whatever you want about the patch, but honestly, community-wise, it was the best attempt at solving it. Easier gearing up, more generous and rewarding instances. The issue though, the community is like a sponge. The 4.0 mentality stuck to the players. And this same community is the one we have now.

You might be onto something. Which patch was it that made the game more solo-centric? I get mixed up about what's bad vs what's good in 5.x because it all seems to blend together, but there was a point when players stopped grouping because it was more profitable and rewarding to do your own thing (exp and drops) vs being with others, then subsequent patches changed it back.

[Bryos-DN]

28 minutes ago, Forgotten-DN said:

Which patch was it that made the game more solo-centric? I get mixed up about what's bad vs what's good in 5.x because it all seems to blend together, but there was a point when players stopped grouping because it was more profitable and rewarding to do your own thing (exp and drops) vs being with others, then subsequent patches changed it back.

I suppose you could say 5.1, since it introduced FoO and its heaps of XP.

[GenericUser8887]

6 hours ago, Cheesecake-DN said:

My Top 3, in order:

Hostile playerbase,

increasing amount of hackers with nothing done against them (xigncode is going to stay in monitoring mode for a long time and our chances of seeing meaningful action taken against hackers is astronomically small),

and poor game design decisions.

Toxic playerbase never killed any game, in fact you can find ppl complaining about toxic players on pretty much every other game comunity on the interwebz (even the growing ones). People always hated each other in aion, its just that with everyone quitting you are more likely to run into the same ppl you dont like.

Point 2 and 3 are spot on tho, with the addition of not fixing any bugs. Seems crazy that other regions get something 2-3 months before us and they arrive here with the same stupid problems, hell mass dcs on evergale are still happening 5 months after we got 5.8 and what is causing the problem is literaly written on the screen....

RIP aion

 

[WinRawr]

Can't believe people are saying hackers killed this game, and bots and dropped the population. Far from the truth, and actually the least cause. The real cause is them deleting qualities of content like Katalam/Danaria.  Hackers have always been in this game from the beginning, even in 3.0, and 4.0, where the game was at it's biggest point in terms of population (especially 4.0) with tons of hackers. NO ONE QUIT because of that.

They all quit after they removed Katalam, and Danaria, and gave us the worst maps in Aion history, so linear, and boring to play on, and filled full of junk. That's why people quit. Also, they killed rifting which made this game fun but I digress cause 4.0 was big even with rifting a shell of its former self. So what to do on a boring map? Nothing. Nothing=boring=quit.

More people will be quitting in 6.0. The game already is only left with rank wh0re$ and house owners who want to keep their place in a video game.... That's pretty much the truth lol. 

And again, I came from Siel, the biggest server, those who played on any other server truly doesn't know what a population even is. I tried Tiamat back in like 2014, and it was so dead, can't imagine what it was like before the merge... So yeah, I see how alive this game really was, and how it died. BECAUSE OF CONTENT BEING REMOVED. FAVORITE PLACES BEING REMOVED.

[Cheesecake-DN]

1 hour ago, 17s48D51-KT said:

Toxic playerbase never killed any game, in fact you can find ppl complaining about toxic players on pretty much every other game comunity on the interwebz (even the growing ones). People always hated each other in aion, its just that with everyone quitting you are more likely to run into the same ppl you dont like.

Toxic players drive away new and returning players (on top of everything else that we've hashed out lol). Our playerbase has grown smaller and more concentrated, so the massive assholes of the game are louder and more influential than they used to be because there aren't enough loud and helpful people left. Players can't ask a question in LFG without being trolled to death, and there are fewer helpful people left to counter that.

Yes, we've always been toxic, but now the toxic is like the flavoring packet in a thing of ramen noodles. Concentrated, and there's not enough water left to dilute it; it's all been boiled off/drained away.  And it's a nasty flavor, too.

(oh, god, I played ArcheAge and talk about toxic + hacks and stuff LOL. I couldn't get into LoL/CoD because the toxicity was too much. Good lawd, people.)

1 hour ago, WinBoat-KT said:

Can't believe people are saying hackers killed this game, and bots and dropped the population. Far from the truth, and actually the least cause. The real cause is them deleting qualities of content like Katalam/Danaria.  Hackers have always been in this game from the beginning, even in 3.0, and 4.0, where the game was at it's biggest point in terms of population (especially 4.0) with tons of hackers. NO ONE QUIT because of that.

They all quit after they removed Katalam, and Danaria, and gave us the worst maps in Aion history, so linear, and boring to play on, and filled full of junk. That's why people quit. Also, they killed rifting which made this game fun but I digress cause 4.0 was big even with rifting a shell of its former self. So what to do on a boring map? Nothing. Nothing=boring=quit.

And again, I came from Siel, the biggest server, those who played on any other server truly doesn't know what a population even is. I tried Tiamat back in like 2014, and it was so dead, can't imagine what it was like before the merge... So yeah, I see how alive this game really was, and how it died. BECAUSE OF CONTENT BEING REMOVED. FAVORITE PLACES BEING REMOVED.

Dude, rifting has been dead enough since probably 2010/2011 with only little shocks of life applied to it during that era, so I'm really confused as to where your fondness for it is coming from. Especially if you started with f2p (3.0, 2012).

5.0 was their attempt to bring back launch with p2w features no one wanted. Including rifting. Yeah, 5.0 has rifting into maps you do not like, but it is the old-school rifting. You even get to kill undergeared and underleveled players while hoping the higher geared/leveled players will come out and one-shot you. We used to guardhump back in the day, too. It's all the same. You should be happy!

I came from Israphel (second largest population) AND Siel, and many of the rest of us here have played on either server as well. I've seen population on both sides.

Hackers have hugely contributed to the failings of this game. It is the second most complained about thing on this game, outside of bad game design decisions (KataDan+). Hackers and NCsoft's lack of action on the hackers. Have you even tried PvP'ing lately? Good luck. You're going to get Sheba'd and then promptly no-ani'd on because NCsoft refuses to do anything about the hackers because I guess $$$$$$.

 

 

And people quit back in 4.0 because of the hackers. You just didn't notice it because there were enough people left to mask that fact, especially on Siel. Even then, there weren't nearly as many hackers (there were bots) back then as there are now, where people do it with impunity because they know NCsoft isn't going to ban them.

Except hacking gunners back pre-4.8. Nyerk those guiz.

 

Edit:

Sorry for walls of text. I haven't gotten to post in a while.

[Calista-DN]

50 minutes ago, WinBoat-KT said:

Can't believe people are saying hackers killed this game, and bots and dropped the population. Far from the truth, and actually the least cause. The real cause is them deleting qualities of content like Katalam/Danaria.  Hackers have always been in this game from the beginning, even in 3.0, and 4.0, where the game was at it's biggest point in terms of population (especially 4.0) with tons of hackers. NO ONE QUIT because of that.

They all quit after they removed Katalam, and Danaria, and gave us the worst maps in Aion history, so linear, and boring to play on, and filled full of junk. That's why people quit. Also, they killed rifting which made this game fun but I digress cause 4.0 was big even with rifting a shell of its former self. So what to do on a boring map? Nothing. Nothing=boring=quit.

More people will be quitting in 6.0. The game already is only left with rank wh0re$ and house owners who want to keep their place in a video game.... That's pretty much the truth lol. 

And again, I came from Siel, the biggest server, those who played on any other server truly doesn't know what a population even is. I tried Tiamat back in like 2014, and it was so dead, can't imagine what it was like before the merge... So yeah, I see how alive this game really was, and how it died. BECAUSE OF CONTENT BEING REMOVED. FAVORITE PLACES BEING REMOVED.

Neither you nor I knows "the real cause", because there is more than one cause,. Some people have listed the deletion of content, others have complained about hackers, for others it's the grind, the cost to of gear progression, they don't like the game mechanics or class balance or their friends left .

 

[Cheesecake-DN]

12 minutes ago, Calista-DN said:

Neither you nor I knows "the real cause", because there is more than one cause,. Some people have listed the deletion of content, others have complained about hackers, for others it's the grind, the cost to of gear progression, they don't like the game mechanics or class balance or their friends left .

 

This. x_x

 

I miss the "Why are you unsubbing" survey from pre-F2P. It'd be super valuable to have now.  

[Neleth-KT]

There're many reasons why players left the game.

However that's not what I want to talking about.
People said playerbase are toxic right ? Are you one of them ? Are you the one that recruiting only lv 75 to Adma/TTC ? Are you the one that ignored lv 66 request to join the group ?
I'm not asking you to accept lv 66 all time but if you got a heal or you think you're powerful enough to carry lv 66.Please do because once a time I was lv 66 and no gears and no one willing to help me it sucks.Yes it will add time to your run 5-8 mins more but it's better than waste time try to find lv 75.

[Vantheria-DN]

10 hours ago, Neleth-KT said:

There're many reasons why players left the game.

However that's not what I want to talking about.
People said playerbase are toxic right ? Are you one of them ? Are you the one that recruiting only lv 75 to Adma/TTC ? Are you the one that ignored lv 66 request to join the group ?
I'm not asking you to accept lv 66 all time but if you got a heal or you think you're powerful enough to carry lv 66.Please do because once a time I was lv 66 and no gears and no one willing to help me it sucks.Yes it will add time to your run 5-8 mins more but it's better than waste time try to find lv 75.

To be fair, I see a ton of level 75s (including myself) who take level 66s to Adma/Theo all the time because we simply don't care. We just want to get the run done fast to get our disenchants. We can solo that stuff, so having a level 66 doesn't impact us in any way. As you said, by the time we wait for another 75, we could already be done. Also, there are lots of people willing to do the "drop the group" method in Fallen Poeta to help people get double or triple xp, depending on who is dropping for the relics/boss.

So really, it just boils down to the people with whom you associate yourself. And that is true for every game out there -- and everything in real life.

[Gwin-DN]

I'll tell you what I think about it all.

 

OK. Everything that exists one day will end. This is a natural law, but there are things that end before your time. A human can live 100, but eventually dies young. It all depends on choices. So this happens with games too. Wrong decisions can lead a game to its end prematurely. In the case of AION, I think it has never reached its full potential and its death (when this arrive) will be premature.

 

This is because AION has lost focus and inserted a lot of useless stuff. Missions are no longer interesting. The PVE and PVP of the AION were replaced by arenas. I think there is an intention to turn AION into another MMX (Yes. The one who went bankrupt.). It is possible that a group of people committed to the AION left and open the path to others with distorted and childish ideas. This is very common in jobs that were filled by people with no experience. May be... The people who came to a management by political means because they defend some social flags.

 

OK. I go further.

 

The AION has always been a fantasy game. AION was a serious story. There were Angels and Demons, Wizards and Dragons. His character had a human appearance and had a purpose, but now the AION is a game of small characters (children) who use animal skins.

 

The AION is full of "weak ideas" and children's resources that have nothing to do with the theme of the game. Now, the DAEVA must wear SKIN of teddy, sheep, mouse, bunny, penguin and etc. Even the spells have been turned into things strangers.

 

We have skills that have seen racing cars, basketball, flying saucer. In my opinion the game turned into a joke. Even the clothes are no longer serious. We have plush suits, school uniforms, skeletons, alligators and countless junk packages. There is no longer a definition of magician, archer, healer, or warrior. Everything is disconnected and lost.

 

I liked to look at my character. I liked to think I was a Daeva of Atreia. I had a story and a purpose. Now I feel that there is no more history and no purpose. The relationship with other players is over. There is no longer a cooperative system between factions or legions. There is no longer the need for strategy or leadership. The AION abandoned the importance when forming groups. SIEGES can not be more organized as before. We are not free to choose. No more... The game is no longer cooperative because the focus is on the arenas.

 

In the arena I'm forced to change my appearance to be something else, but I do not want to be anything else. I do not want to play with if I were an animal, I want to play as a DAEVA. I want to keep my appearance, but that means I will be less than my opponent, so I need to become an animal and I need to be changing my clothes. Nooooo!

 

The focus of AION is now this. Just childish things. The game has lost all maturity. NCS has forgotten who is the customer. Who has the money to spend. Then the NCS removes serious things to increase the game with children's things. Of course the trend is for the adult player to leave and no more money.

That's why AION 6.0 will not work. The new version continues to deconstruct the essence of the game.

If you did not understand all that I said. Think about this and answer ...

 

What are the bad wolf and the little red riding hood doing in AION?

 

Because there are Ninja clothes, Light saber (is AION or Star Wars?), Clown clothes, wings that are a little bird carrying you and etc?

 

In other words ... Have you ever seen a panda bear flying with a kitten in the back. What? Yes!!! Or ... Have you ever seen a Sheep riding a tiger with wings on Reshanta?

 

Did you find that funny? It may be funny, but for many players the AION has lost its essence. The programmers went crazy and the many players left.

 

There is no longer any intention of making a beautifull character. Just minions and small characters. The AION became an arena of senseless things.

 

Oh! Yes!! There is! Beyond all that. There are still hackers.

 

Yes, they are all here, all online. Hardly they are punished and this causes other players to learn a lesson. The use of hacker is good.

 

But... Hackers are a big problem, but they only exist because NCS has never really reacted. NCS prefers to focus its efforts to create rules that generate great frustration. Do you doubt this?

 

So what do you think of the items that break? Even NCS realized that destroying the items was a bad idea. Proof of this is that NCS always returns a broken item when you open a ticket and if NCS decides to deny this, then many would have already abandoned the game.

 

Apart from impunity against hackers, we still have a huge problem of balancing the classes. There are infinitely superior players. Even if you have the best equipment of the entire game, you will surely find players who will kill you in seconds. This is because of the excessive mechanics and cheating of the game.

 

Let me give you a simple example:

 

Why does a ranger get multiple attacks with paralyze Godstone (90% chance) while others do not go over 1% chance?

 

To conclude (unfortunately) NCS never knew how to exploit the potential of AION. Lets me show a example.

 

While they sell a mount that no one wants (chicken), they do not sell a mount they all want (lion). They make it just something temporary.

 

To finish:

 

Unfortunately I think NCS will never be able to reach the full potential (financial) of AION because the theme and history of the game has lost all sense a long time ago. They have (some times) focused on the wrong thing. A veteran player should take a bonus (eg 50 MA and 50 MB) on his character for each year he was in the game, but NCS never thought about preserving the old players. They have focus in the recycling while newer, more modern MMOs comes up every day.

So the game's population will continue to fall because the new player has other options far more interesting than the AION. Fact.

[BeMagnificentt-DN]

41 minutes ago, Gwin-DN said:

I'll tell you what I think about it all.

 

OK. Everything that exists one day will end. This is a natural law, but there are things that end before your time. A human can live 100, but eventually dies young. It all depends on choices. So this happens with games too. Wrong decisions can lead a game to its end prematurely. In the case of AION, I think it has never reached its full potential and its death (when this arrive) will be premature.

 

This is because AION has lost focus and inserted a lot of useless stuff. Missions are no longer interesting. The PVE and PVP of the AION were replaced by arenas. I think there is an intention to turn AION into another MMX (Yes. The one who went bankrupt.). It is possible that a group of people committed to the AION left and open the path to others with distorted and childish ideas. This is very common in jobs that were filled by people with no experience. May be... The people who came to a management by political means because they defend some social flags.

 

OK. I go further.

 

The AION has always been a fantasy game. AION was a serious story. There were Angels and Demons, Wizards and Dragons. His character had a human appearance and had a purpose, but now the AION is a game of small characters (children) who use animal skins.

 

The AION is full of "weak ideas" and children's resources that have nothing to do with the theme of the game. Now, the DAEVA must wear SKIN of teddy, sheep, mouse, bunny, penguin and etc. Even the spells have been turned into things strangers.

 

We have skills that have seen racing cars, basketball, flying saucer. In my opinion the game turned into a joke. Even the clothes are no longer serious. We have plush suits, school uniforms, skeletons, alligators and countless junk packages. There is no longer a definition of magician, archer, healer, or warrior. Everything is disconnected and lost.

 

I liked to look at my character. I liked to think I was a Daeva of Atreia. I had a story and a purpose. Now I feel that there is no more history and no purpose. The relationship with other players is over. There is no longer a cooperative system between factions or legions. There is no longer the need for strategy or leadership. The AION abandoned the importance when forming groups. SIEGES can not be more organized as before. We are not free to choose. No more... The game is no longer cooperative because the focus is on the arenas.

 

In the arena I'm forced to change my appearance to be something else, but I do not want to be anything else. I do not want to play with if I were an animal, I want to play as a DAEVA. I want to keep my appearance, but that means I will be less than my opponent, so I need to become an animal and I need to be changing my clothes. Nooooo!

 

The focus of AION is now this. Just childish things. The game has lost all maturity. NCS has forgotten who is the customer. Who has the money to spend. Then the NCS removes serious things to increase the game with children's things. Of course the trend is for the adult player to leave and no more money.

That's why AION 6.0 will not work. The new version continues to deconstruct the essence of the game.

If you did not understand all that I said. Think about this and answer ...

 

What are the bad wolf and the little red riding hood doing in AION?

 

Because there are Ninja clothes, Light saber (is AION or Star Wars?), Clown clothes, wings that are a little bird carrying you and etc?

 

In other words ... Have you ever seen a panda bear flying with a kitten in the back. What? Yes!!! Or ... Have you ever seen a Sheep riding a tiger with wings on Reshanta?

 

Did you find that funny? It may be funny, but for many players the AION has lost its essence. The programmers went crazy and the many players left.

 

There is no longer any intention of making a beautifull character. Just minions and small characters. The AION became an arena of senseless things.

 

Oh! Yes!! There is! Beyond all that. There are still hackers.

 

Yes, they are all here, all online. Hardly they are punished and this causes other players to learn a lesson. The use of hacker is good.

 

But... Hackers are a big problem, but they only exist because NCS has never really reacted. NCS prefers to focus its efforts to create rules that generate great frustration. Do you doubt this?

 

So what do you think of the items that break? Even NCS realized that destroying the items was a bad idea. Proof of this is that NCS always returns a broken item when you open a ticket and if NCS decides to deny this, then many would have already abandoned the game.

 

Apart from impunity against hackers, we still have a huge problem of balancing the classes. There are infinitely superior players. Even if you have the best equipment of the entire game, you will surely find players who will kill you in seconds. This is because of the excessive mechanics and cheating of the game.

 

Let me give you a simple example:

 

Why does a ranger get multiple attacks with paralyze Godstone (90% chance) while others do not go over 1% chance?

 

To conclude (unfortunately) NCS never knew how to exploit the potential of AION. Lets me show a example.

 

While they sell a mount that no one wants (chicken), they do not sell a mount they all want (lion). They make it just something temporary.

 

To finish:

 

Unfortunately I think NCS will never be able to reach the full potential (financial) of AION because the theme and history of the game has lost all sense a long time ago. They have (some times) focused on the wrong thing. A veteran player should take a bonus (eg 50 MA and 50 MB) on his character for each year he was in the game, but NCS never thought about preserving the old players. They have focus in the recycling while newer, more modern MMOs comes up every day.

So the game's population will continue to fall because the new player has other options far more interesting than the AION. Fact.

idk about every one else but i personally love the qurikniess of some of the stuff in this game

[KallSu-KT]

6 hours ago, Gwin-DN said:

In the case of AION, I think it has never reached its full potential and its death (when this arrive) will be premature.

[...]

The AION is full of "weak ideas" and children's resources that have nothing to do with the theme of the game. Now, the DAEVA must wear SKIN of teddy, sheep, mouse, bunny, penguin and etc. Even the spells have been turned into things strangers.

I remember when they introduced those horrible pink vending machines, everyone was wondering when they would have removed them. But they remained. We got casual skins, silly skins for the skills, flying scooters/cars, super-deformed minions. But hey "All designs will be judged based off originality, creativity, and how the design aesthetically fits into the world of Aion;". NCWest still pretends to care about the consistency of the Aion's world. But I bet that you could draw a costume of a soft giant pink dragon and it would be fine.

About the premature death... considering the very low investment (no staff taking care of the game full-time, few servers and used also for other NCWest games (thus the lag, even with 100 ppl online and less content than before, untrained employees for the Support), they are doing great. Less players play Aion (so more people could play other NCWest games, like BnS) but they pay more. That's perfect from their point of view. When the game dies, they will replace it with another one. Look at the mobile games: they die fast, but they generate a lot of money in the short period. That's perfect for developers. And that's how Aion 6.0 looks like.

Their producers are doing great, being able to make money with low effort. The only problem is... all the disappointed players that have been circumvented will never play another NCSoft game. But that's not a problem for the prod: they can move to another company, when the time comes.

[Squid]

Interesting fact if you go to https://www.reddit.com/r/MMORPG/ and check the right hand side you can see a general interest in an MMORPG. 

 

Aion: 3.3k subscribers

B&S: 29.2k subscribers

GW1: 10k

GW2: 173k

Linage2: 1.3k

Wildstar: 27.8k

 

This is not an indicator of how active X or Y game is but it does show the interest in the game its self. It just surprises me that Wildstar actually has quiet a big interest in it considering everyone says Aion will never shut down and Wildstar will be first.

[Cheesecake-DN]

I like the bawkbawk mount.

[Vantheria-DN]

1 hour ago, Cheesecake-DN said:

I like the bawkbawk mount.

Yeah, a lot of people do. That comment made me scratch my head in confusion lol.

[Cheesecake-DN]

44 minutes ago, Vantheria-DN said:

Yeah, a lot of people do. That comment made me scratch my head in confusion lol.

I also like where he complains about skins and stuff that have been in the game since 2.0. And chibis. And ranger's 90% chance to para proc.

[The Secret Cow Level]

5 hours ago, HealingSquid-KT said:

Interesting fact if you go to https://www.reddit.com/r/MMORPG/ and check the right hand side you can see a general interest in an MMORPG. 

 

Aion: 3.3k subscribers

B&S: 29.2k subscribers

GW1: 10k

GW2: 173k

Linage2: 1.3k

Wildstar: 27.8k

 

This is not an indicator of how active X or Y game is but it does show the interest in the game its self. It just surprises me that Wildstar actually has quiet a big interest in it considering everyone says Aion will never shut down and Wildstar will be first.

If you look at the timestamp of the newest post (sort by "New"), as of this booth, for both r/aion and r/Wildstar, the bottom (25th) post of the first page are 13 days old.

And if going by NCWest's General Discussion forums, Wildstar's one is much less active than the Aion one.

[Gwin-DN]

20 hours ago, Gwin-DN said:

I'll tell you what I think about it all.

 

OK. Everything that exists one day will end. This is a natural law, but there are things that end before your time. A human can live 100, but eventually dies young. It all depends on choices. So this happens with games too. Wrong decisions can lead a game to its end prematurely. In the case of AION, I think it has never reached its full potential and its death (when this arrive) will be premature.

 

This is because AION has lost focus and inserted a lot of useless stuff. Missions are no longer interesting. The PVE and PVP of the AION were replaced by arenas. I think there is an intention to turn AION into another MMX (Yes. The one who went bankrupt.). It is possible that a group of people committed to the AION left and open the path to others with distorted and childish ideas. This is very common in jobs that were filled by people with no experience. May be... The people who came to a management by political means because they defend some social flags.

 

OK. I go further.

 

The AION has always been a fantasy game. AION was a serious story. There were Angels and Demons, Wizards and Dragons. His character had a human appearance and had a purpose, but now the AION is a game of small characters (children) who use animal skins.

 

The AION is full of "weak ideas" and children's resources that have nothing to do with the theme of the game. Now, the DAEVA must wear SKIN of teddy, sheep, mouse, bunny, penguin and etc. Even the spells have been turned into things strangers.

 

We have skills that have seen racing cars, basketball, flying saucer. In my opinion the game turned into a joke. Even the clothes are no longer serious. We have plush suits, school uniforms, skeletons, alligators and countless junk packages. There is no longer a definition of magician, archer, healer, or warrior. Everything is disconnected and lost.

 

I liked to look at my character. I liked to think I was a Daeva of Atreia. I had a story and a purpose. Now I feel that there is no more history and no purpose. The relationship with other players is over. There is no longer a cooperative system between factions or legions. There is no longer the need for strategy or leadership. The AION abandoned the importance when forming groups. SIEGES can not be more organized as before. We are not free to choose. No more... The game is no longer cooperative because the focus is on the arenas.

 

In the arena I'm forced to change my appearance to be something else, but I do not want to be anything else. I do not want to play with if I were an animal, I want to play as a DAEVA. I want to keep my appearance, but that means I will be less than my opponent, so I need to become an animal and I need to be changing my clothes. Nooooo!

 

The focus of AION is now this. Just childish things. The game has lost all maturity. NCS has forgotten who is the customer. Who has the money to spend. Then the NCS removes serious things to increase the game with children's things. Of course the trend is for the adult player to leave and no more money.

That's why AION 6.0 will not work. The new version continues to deconstruct the essence of the game.

If you did not understand all that I said. Think about this and answer ...

 

What are the bad wolf and the little red riding hood doing in AION?

 

Because there are Ninja clothes, Light saber (is AION or Star Wars?), Clown clothes, wings that are a little bird carrying you and etc?

 

In other words ... Have you ever seen a panda bear flying with a kitten in the back. What? Yes!!! Or ... Have you ever seen a Sheep riding a tiger with wings on Reshanta?

 

Did you find that funny? It may be funny, but for many players the AION has lost its essence. The programmers went crazy and the many players left.

 

There is no longer any intention of making a beautifull character. Just minions and small characters. The AION became an arena of senseless things.

 

Oh! Yes!! There is! Beyond all that. There are still hackers.

 

Yes, they are all here, all online. Hardly they are punished and this causes other players to learn a lesson. The use of hacker is good.

 

But... Hackers are a big problem, but they only exist because NCS has never really reacted. NCS prefers to focus its efforts to create rules that generate great frustration. Do you doubt this?

 

So what do you think of the items that break? Even NCS realized that destroying the items was a bad idea. Proof of this is that NCS always returns a broken item when you open a ticket and if NCS decides to deny this, then many would have already abandoned the game.

 

Apart from impunity against hackers, we still have a huge problem of balancing the classes. There are infinitely superior players. Even if you have the best equipment of the entire game, you will surely find players who will kill you in seconds. This is because of the excessive mechanics and cheating of the game.

 

Let me give you a simple example:

 

Why does a ranger get multiple attacks with paralyze Godstone (90% chance) while others do not go over 1% chance?

 

To conclude (unfortunately) NCS never knew how to exploit the potential of AION. Lets me show a example.

 

While they sell a mount that no one wants (chicken), they do not sell a mount they all want (lion). They make it just something temporary.

 

To finish:

 

Unfortunately I think NCS will never be able to reach the full potential (financial) of AION because the theme and history of the game has lost all sense a long time ago. They have (some times) focused on the wrong thing. A veteran player should take a bonus (eg 50 MA and 50 MB) on his character for each year he was in the game, but NCS never thought about preserving the old players. They have focus in the recycling while newer, more modern MMOs comes up every day.

So the game's population will continue to fall because the new player has other options far more interesting than the AION. Fact.

Everything I wrote is a fact and I'm very sorry.

Sometimes I wonder. How can there be a building with several people. Marketing teams, creative teams, development, support, infrastructure, financial and etc. So many people and no one to say ... Stop it!

A few years ago I thought that AION could become a movie, but looking at the game now is simply impossible. 

Certainly an AION movie would be a big flop, because AION lost the ability to be anything serious.

There was a time when I thought of AION as the movie "The Lord of the Rings". Now with so many pets and cute things I can only think of: "Mars attacks".

[Forgotten-DN]

18 minutes ago, Gwin-DN said:

Everything I wrote is a fact and I'm very sorry.

Your personal opinion is NOT fact. There's a reason Aion shifted towards the cute, and it's because their demographic demanded it. If their domestic consumer base wants it, they're going to provide it. The reason the game is failing is because of other questionable decisions, not because they decided to include adorable emotes and costumes.