VukenTemplaro-DN Posted August 13, 2019 Share Posted August 13, 2019 On 8/9/2019 at 3:11 PM, Elsian-DN said: NC west is really bad at shutting games down. It is really sad that they have screwed this beautiful game up and practically destroyed the world, but it is no surprise to me... Wild Star, dead... COH, dead.... Tabula Raza, dead. Aion… in the process of being killed They really don't have a good standing of taking care of their clientele which is why EOS, BDO, SWTOR, STO, Tera, and a lot of others are doing much better than NCwest. Tabula Raza is dead long ago. I barely got to know the game. (sad). Is Wild Star gone too? Never liked that game... not sure why. I guess the same reason I didn't like WOW. Sorry Wow fan, I am not trying to offend anyone. I guess I didn't like them because of the graphic. I love game from NCsoft: lineage 2 and aion. Just didnt like the fact that they allow players customized too much and distorted the toons. Just look so weird and not fun any more. Just mine two cents. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kubei-DN Posted August 13, 2019 Share Posted August 13, 2019 Korean MMOs have a different aesthetic compared to western games, Aion has a specific half-realism with touch of anime style and the character customization is fairly vast. Actually, most Asian games have this similar aesthetic. I tried WoW but never could bring myself to play it much either. I spent many years grinding my butt on Korean MMOs, and currently leaning in towards FFXIV (even bought the game already). MXM failed because it was overpowered by titans such as LoL and Dota2, let's remember that. NCSOFT has a bad habit of shutting down games if it brings them no profit, and the issue stems with the free to play model and greed. A model like that only brings a burst of players for a while but numbers eventually drop, forcing the company to come up with a crazy idea as fast as possible that could bring them benefit. In case of Aion, it's the transformation system. Aion was a fantasy MMORPG and should have stayed that way, but right now it lost its title of "fantasy", it's a furry's paradise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MintyR-DN Posted August 13, 2019 Share Posted August 13, 2019 7 hours ago, Kubei-DN said: the issue stems with the free to play model and greed. If that’s the problem why not just go back to pay to play model or even a buy to play model like games like BDO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Forgotten-DN Posted August 13, 2019 Share Posted August 13, 2019 1 hour ago, MintyR-DN said: If that’s the problem why not just go back to pay to play model or even a buy to play model like games like BDO Can you point to ANY instance where a game that was subscription based transitioned to F2P and then in the face of a declining player-base (successfully) transition back to subscription or a buy-to-play model? If you can't, you've answered your own question. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kubei-DN Posted August 13, 2019 Share Posted August 13, 2019 2 hours ago, MintyR-DN said: If that’s the problem why not just go back to pay to play model or even a buy to play model like games like BDO Perfect example of a true free to play game: Path of Exile BDO is buy to play and holds itself fairly well although it's just another grind game. Remember Bless online? That was b2p and now the game is shutting down in September after being out in the western market for a year. Another factor you have decided to completely ignore: greed. Korea has a big competition when it comes to games, thus money is far important than player satisfaction. Both of these things are connected and very few are able to execute that f2p model. Aion was holding itself very well when it came out as f2p in the West, but it remained subscription based in Korea. Now that they went f2p in Korea as well, Aion is a different game. What gives? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aly-DN Posted August 13, 2019 Share Posted August 13, 2019 58 minutes ago, Kubei-DN said: Perfect example of a true free to play game: Path of Exile BDO is buy to play and holds itself fairly well although it's just another grind game. Remember Bless online? That was b2p and now the game is shutting down in September after being out in the western market for a year. Another factor you have decided to completely ignore: greed. Korea has a big competition when it comes to games, thus money is far important than player satisfaction. Both of these things are connected and very few are able to execute that f2p model. Aion was holding itself very well when it came out as f2p in the West, but it remained subscription based in Korea. Now that they went f2p in Korea as well, Aion is a different game. What gives? What we all need to keep in mind that f2p is now the norm for games. Though there are still some sub based games, they really are few and far between. Aion going ftp in the NA was 100% necessary to keep a NA audience happy. Keep in mind that Gameforge purchased the rights to put out Aion in the EU before NA went ftp and that Gameforge launched with Aion f2p. (I was in the beta for that.) Gameforge's original ftp model was horrible. Seriously horrible. It has evolved over time, though in my opinion it is still rather meh. Aion NA's ftp launch was much better and was actually the best ftp model I have seen in any MMO and I have played quite a few since then. The sub (Prestige Pack) here is truly optional. You can run everything and wear any armor and use all cosmetics and play any class and any race and attain any rank all without spending a dime. The game has become progressively more pay2win, but that didn't kick into overdrive -until- Aion KR went f2p. Those two things are totally connected. While the game was still sub-based in Korea, NA and EU had to twist a sub-game into a ftp game with varying degrees of success. Once Korea went ftp the game became -designed- to coax players into spending money. Bless Online was mismanaged from day 1. That had nothing to do with being buy2play. The best buy2play game I can think of is GW2, which dumped that model for f2p not long ago and isn't as healthy as it once was, though it's population is far higher than Aions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MintyR-DN Posted August 13, 2019 Share Posted August 13, 2019 What was the point of aion in korea going f2p in the first place? Did they not have enough players? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aly-DN Posted August 13, 2019 Share Posted August 13, 2019 I think they just felt the pressure of so many MMOs being ftp. That's the same thing that happened here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cheesecake-DN Posted August 13, 2019 Share Posted August 13, 2019 Iirc, they were having major population drops through the travesty that was 5.X, but I can't cite sources outside of what people brought up on the forums a few times. GW2 still has a decent pop, but they've taken a pretty big hit with FFXIV actually putting out a really good expansion. We'll see how that settles out again here in a few months + if GW2 can pull something amazing out of their butts with the Season 5 preview announcement stream thing at the end of the month right before/during PAX. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MintyR-DN Posted August 13, 2019 Share Posted August 13, 2019 5 hours ago, Cheesecake-DN said: Iirc, they were having major population drops through the travesty that was 5.X, but I can't cite sources outside of what people brought up on the forums a few times. well it seems like 5.x was horrible for both the east and the west I wonder what 4.x was like I started in 4.8 and didnt get the chance to reach endgame before 5.0 came so rip Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GenericUser25154 Posted August 13, 2019 Share Posted August 13, 2019 4.x was the best imho. 5.x was the worst. I stopped playing on 5.x and came back for 6.x. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neleth-KT Posted August 14, 2019 Share Posted August 14, 2019 7.x has nothing different than 6.x excepted we got a new class but the core stayed same. Aion wasn't a game that focus only endgame map it had choices but now it didn't. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Volten Posted August 14, 2019 Share Posted August 14, 2019 9 hours ago, MintyR-DN said: well it seems like 5.x was horrible for both the east and the west I wonder what 4.x was like I started in 4.8 and didnt get the chance to reach endgame before 5.0 came so rip Right in 4.8? You missed one of the great eras of this game 4.0-4.7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MintyR-DN Posted August 14, 2019 Share Posted August 14, 2019 6 hours ago, Shinryu-EK said: Right in 4.8? You missed one of the great eras of this game 4.0-4.7 Yea I came in like a week or two before 5.0 so most of what I know is 5.0 however I do miss the 4.8 login music it’s the best to me idk what 4.x or what came before was like but 6.x really messed this game up more than 5.x Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mukesh-DN Posted August 14, 2019 Share Posted August 14, 2019 I feel bad for anyone who still plays this steaming turd full of cheaters, RMT and bad bad RNG... Since I left AION and moved on to other games the depression has long since left me. Save yourselves! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aly-DN Posted August 14, 2019 Share Posted August 14, 2019 2 minutes ago, Mukesh-DN said: I feel bad for anyone who still plays this steaming turd full of cheaters, RMT and bad bad RNG... Since I left AION and moved on to other games the depression has long since left me. Save yourselves! I feel bad for players that have left Aion but can't let go and actually login to the forums to make sure that everyone knows they have quit which apparently means that everyone else should quit too. Aion! Why can't I quit you?! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Squid Posted August 15, 2019 Share Posted August 15, 2019 Hmm maybe NCsoft to the realization that the real wallet warriors are outside their own country and that they should start listening to them just like PA did . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Forgotten-DN Posted August 15, 2019 Share Posted August 15, 2019 2 hours ago, HealingSquid-KT said: Hmm maybe NCsoft to the realization that the real wallet warriors are outside their own country and that they should start listening to them just like PA did . Pearl Abyss's situation is different in that BDO is the only franchise in its portfolio and they therefore HAVE to focus on multiple markets to remain profitable. I'm not trying to take anything away from PA's success since they're clearly doing something right, but it's not an apples to apples comparison. NCSoft's relatively diverse portfolio allows them to pick and choose which games/regions they want to focus on, and they've come to the conclusion that Aion should be placed on the back-burner, at least in the West. To be fair, they made a lot of RIGHT decisions when Aion first launched, and Aion's success is what allowed them to funnel money into other projects. Their mistake was putting a lot of assets into unprofitable ventures, namely WildStar and subsequently MxM, which basically changed everything for them and continues to affect their decision-making to this day. They can be forgiven for gambling on WildStar since Carbine was headed by former WoW developers, but their gamble with MxM was downright stupid. Anyway, this is also why arguments to stop putting money into Aion to force NCSoft to change their ways isn't going to work. NC is already convinced that NA Aion has one foot in the grave, so by withholding money you're basically telling them that their assumptions are correct. Mind you, I'm not telling anyone to dump money in the game either; you do you, whatever floats your boat, etc.. The point is, to actually get NC to take notice, you have to go contrary to their expectations. This means that you need to start getting players, old and new, to come back to retail Aion. NC isn't expecting the game to be as profitable as it was in the past. If they see a sustained spike in players and people buying into the game, they might be convinced that they need to refocus on the West to take advantage of potential revenue streams. Otherwise they're just going to continue with their existing plan of letting NA Aion languish since most of their income is currently coming from other regions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MintyR-DN Posted August 16, 2019 Share Posted August 16, 2019 20 hours ago, Forgotten-DN said: Pearl Abyss's situation is different in that BDO is the only franchise in its portfolio and they therefore HAVE to focus on multiple markets to remain profitable. I'm not trying to take anything away from PA's success since they're clearly doing something right, but it's not an apples to apples comparison. NCSoft's relatively diverse portfolio allows them to pick and choose which games/regions they want to focus on, and they've come to the conclusion that Aion should be placed on the back-burner, at least in the West. To be fair, they made a lot of RIGHT decisions when Aion first launched, and Aion's success is what allowed them to funnel money into other projects. Their mistake was putting a lot of assets into unprofitable ventures, namely WildStar and subsequently MxM, which basically changed everything for them and continues to affect their decision-making to this day. They can be forgiven for gambling on WildStar since Carbine was headed by former WoW developers, but their gamble with MxM was downright stupid. Anyway, this is also why arguments to stop putting money into Aion to force NCSoft to change their ways isn't going to work. NC is already convinced that NA Aion has one foot in the grave, so by withholding money you're basically telling them that their assumptions are correct. Mind you, I'm not telling anyone to dump money in the game either; you do you, whatever floats your boat, etc.. The point is, to actually get NC to take notice, you have to go contrary to their expectations. This means that you need to start getting players, old and new, to come back to retail Aion. NC isn't expecting the game to be as profitable as it was in the past. If they see a sustained spike in players and people buying into the game, they might be convinced that they need to refocus on the West to take advantage of potential revenue streams. Otherwise they're just going to continue with their existing plan of letting NA Aion languish since most of their income is currently coming from other regions. You actually make a valid point here it’s kinda like supply and demand also that’s the only thing I can equate it to Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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