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Alganon developer roundtable answers player questions
Coming up on its first full month of being live, Alganon has had a bit of a rocky start thus far. Whatever one's opinions on the game might be, however, the amount of enthusiasm the development team has for their game is admirable, and any issues it has certainly can't be attributed to a lack of caring. The most recent communication has been the release of a new developer roundtable, with several questions from the game's community answered directly by the developers. One of the largest highlights in the discussion is the question of gear prerequisites. Rather than focusing exclusively on level-restricted items, Alganon also has equipment limited by the game's study system instead of experience. There's also talk of multiple instance sizes within the same map, with each "version" re-tuned for the differing number of players in the encounter. Or, if you prefer non-sequiturs, there's a reference to The Lonely Island in a discussion of the game's current and upcoming transport options. The full set of questions and answers can be found on the official site, and includes further discussion on instance unlocking and the upcoming in-game event "The Dawning." If you're interested in the game on any level, it's worth taking a look.
The Daily Grind: Do you believe MMOs have one month to make a positive impression?
This seems to be a divisive issue for many people... which makes it the perfect cannon fodder to use in a morning Daily Grind question! Readers of Massively, do you think that MMOs have a single month to make a gloriously positive impression on our player base?Is the first month really the sink or swim times that internet buzz makes it out to be? Or do you believe an MMO is something that grows and refines itself over time like a fine wine, or cheese? A product that gets distilled by its developers and eventually turned into something brilliant?Crash and burn or slow evolution, we want to hear your opinions loud and clear! Throw them into the white comment box below, and watch as our magical opinionating-opinionators whirr to life and print your wordymajigs on the Interwebz!
The perils of MMO tourism
MMOs are a big business these days. This hasn't always been the case -- Ultima Online might have been the first real game of the genre, but it didn't make everyone want to build a competitor. It was the success of World of Warcraft that really opened up the idea that there was a huge amount of money to be made from the genre, and that in turn has brought almost everyone to the table in a rush to build a game, find a method that works, and try to hook as many subscribers as possible. The only problem is that we might find ourselves with an industry drifting toward what MMOSH refers to, quite fairly, as The Bad Place. We've all found ourselves buying new games, playing them only until the trial is up, and then never picking them up again. Sometimes we don't even give them the full month. And some developers seem to be adopting this mentality as well -- there are rumors here and there about the future of Champions Online after its first month, and both publishers and players are treating it as if the first month is everything. (Their recent free trial seems to tie into this -- you could argue that where MMOs once got new players by word of mouth, they seem to be in love with constant trial offers to entice players now.) And that's just the tip of the problem, really -- the post goes into further detail about the cycle of hype, release, and abandonment. As it says, gone are the days when we should stick with the game that we had and wait for it to improve -- and that might ultimately be far more harmful than whatever holes in the game lead us to leave so quickly.
A retrospective of Aion's first month (part 2)
Please see this post by Kyle Horner and this one by Seraphina Brennan for their Aion impressions. Keep an eye out for future Aion content in their columns as well. I don't usually go for the style of graphics present in Aion but I've been pleasantly surprised so far.
A look back at Aion's first month and impressions
43,829 minutes. That's roughly how long Aion's been out in the West. Depending on your tolerance for grinding, it may or may not have felt like that amount of time passed. There's no doubt it's been a busy month full of ups and downs, so we'd like to take an extensive look back at the last 30-days and give our impressions on the game. Smooth criminal Aion experienced one of the most technically smooth launches in MMO history, which was the result of hard work, innovative design, tough decision-making, and of course nearly a year between the Eastern and Western releases. Anti-cheat software, GameGuard, was stripped from the client in the 11th hour. This no doubt eliminated most of the open-beta issues that would have sent a lot of potential players packing shortly after release. Players just aren't as forgiving as they used to be.
One month: Aion October community address
Aion has officially been out for one full month and NCsoft just released an October community address in response. The notice reads less like a giant pat on the back and more like a checklist of major issues they are working on, which is bound to churn up speculation about how well the title is doing. Oh, we're sure Aion is doing quite well even though we haven't heard the official numbers yet, but developers usually use these opportunities to shout about their accomplishments rather than their shortcomings.The top three issues mentioned in the letter are experience curves, client performance, and spammers/botters. Most players will agree that it can feel like a part-time job to level your character at times. Some players have had performance issues specifically related to "Cryssystem.dll." And finally, everyone has been forced to /ignore the odd spammer... or fifty. NCsoft is using this opportunity to yet again tell players they are aware of these issues and fixes are on the way. We're curious how this may relate to differences between eastern and western gaming cultures. Aion has been released for nearly a year in Asia and yet only the outcry from European and North American players against experience grinds and gold spamming specifically seems to be sparking a change.
