Trion to publish and operate ArcheAge

[Ashnazg]

Archeage seems to have half the things I want and half the things that are the boring standard.

+Housing, farming, variety in crafting, farms?!?! Omg it's like runescape when I was 10 years old.

-Boring combat, losing exp when you die, 3 class role with half the tree filled with +%, dungeons, gear grind? Yup here we go again...

Why do games stop half way and fill the rest with crap?

Because the "repetitive crap" you describe is a foundation of a solid MMO. Hard work and massive time investment in the character leads to longevity for MMO games.

Take a look at GW2 - a game that tried to be all fun and no grind. How quickly that went down the toilet.

[Kelimbror]

Take a look at GW2 - a game that tried to be all fun and no grind. How quickly that went down the toilet.

Oh yeah, selling millions of copies of a Buy To Play game sure is going down the toilet. Since they've completely stopped updating the game it's clearly failed...wait...what's that? They actually add new content and holiday events and all that jazz?

Huh. Who would have known that 'going down the toilet' is now a euphemism for being a great success?

[Ausr]

Oh yeah, selling millions of copies of a Buy To Play game sure is going down the toilet. Since they've completely stopped updating the game it's clearly failed...wait...what's that? They actually add new content and holiday events and all that jazz?

Huh. Who would have known that 'going down the toilet' is now a euphemism for being a great success?

CoD sells millions of copies as well but we see the crap it gets.

[PACOX]

Oh yeah, selling millions of copies of a Buy To Play game sure is going down the toilet. Since they've completely stopped updating the game it's clearly failed...wait...what's that? They actually add new content and holiday events and all that jazz?

Huh. Who would have known that 'going down the toilet' is now a euphemism for being a great success?

To be fair, Guild War 2's truly new content doesn't start until this year. Their holiday events were translations from GW1. But they seem like they are pumping out new content (Guild Missons/Living story stuff).

[-aiko-]

CoD sells millions of copies as well but we see the crap it gets.

And why does CoD sell so well? Oh, perhaps because millions of people enjoy it.
Personal feelings need to be put aside. CoD is a very successful franchise. GW2 is a successful game. Hell, D3 is a successful game.

[Ashnazg]

Oh yeah, selling millions of copies of a Buy To Play game sure is going down the toilet. Since they've completely stopped updating the game it's clearly failed...wait...what's that? They actually add new content and holiday events and all that jazz?

Huh. Who would have known that 'going down the toilet' is now a euphemism for being a great success?

Initial sales hardly mean much. GW2 was trumped up as the next great savior of the genre and it had a very limited public beta, leading to massively overinflated sales, banking on the fact that people would want to buy their way into the beta.

Even then, it fell short of expectations in terms of sales volume. I don't even know if GW2 has managed to lure away any people from the mainstream MMO genre, or merely retain GW1 clientele.

But this is not the thread to discuss GW2's failure or success.

[zito]

snip

Even then, it fell short of expectations in terms of sales volume.

Fell short? Anet openly stated they sold more then predicted. The game still changed the genre, it just comes down to the player base who likes the same old same old or someone who wants something differnt from the past 7 years of mmo's. MMO's are starting to follow in the dynamic event footsteps (firefall, rift, wildstar) that GW2 started.

Does archeage do some good sandbox things? Yea but most of it is covered up by the same boring standard which every other existing successful mmo already covers. A teaspoon of sugar for a pitcher of lemonade does not make good lemonade.

Take a look at GW2 - a game that tried to be all fun and no grind. How quickly that went down the toilet.

It went down the toilet for people who like the traditional like yourself. You have no proof and there is none that GW2 "went down the toilet". It's all personal preference.

[Kelimbror]

But this is not the thread to discuss GW2's failure or success.

Then you probably shouldn't have brought it up in the first place.

It's convenient when you are proven wrong that somehow it's now taboo to talk about...you know, even though you are the one who seemed to think it was relevant.

---------- Post added 2013-02-23 at 11:00 AM ----------

Fell short? Anet openly stated they sold more then predicted. The game still changed the genre, it just comes down to the player base who likes the same old same old or someone who wants something differnt from the past 7 years of mmo's. MMO's are starting to follow in the dynamic event footsteps (firefall, rift, wildstar) that GW2 started.

Does archeage do some good sandbox things? Yea but most of it is covered up by the same boring standard which every other existing successful mmo already covers. A teaspoon of sugar for a pitcher of lemonade does not make good lemonade.

Yup.

[Edge-]

Initial sales hardly mean much. GW2 was trumped up as the next great savior of the genre and it had a very limited public beta, leading to massively overinflated sales, banking on the fact that people would want to buy their way into the beta.

As a point of reference for the longish term success, the game is still making a huge chunk of money. It accounted for roughly 45% of NCsofts revenue last quarter (Fiscal quarter 4, it launched in fiscal quarter 3) not including the initial 2 million sales, but including the additional 1 million plus as it surpassed 3 million sales last quarter. It's now two quarters straight i beat out NCsofts other titles (something no other Western release they've had has done) in quarterly revenue, and it generated roughly $109M.

So not only did it actually not fall short in expected sales volume, but it's showing growth and significant profitability for them. B2P can be quite a successful model when paired with a decent (subjective) game.

Check out the Q3/4 reports if you like because your assertions are far from correct.

[Ashnazg]

As a point of reference for the longish term success, the game is still making a huge chunk of money. It accounted for roughly 45% of NCsofts revenue last quarter (Fiscal quarter 4, it launched in fiscal quarter 3) not including the initial 2 million sales, but including the additional 1 million plus as it surpassed 3 million sales last quarter. It's now two quarters straight i beat out NCsofts other titles (something no other Western release they've had has done) in quarterly revenue, and it generated roughly $109M.

So not only did it actually not fall short in expected sales volume, but it's showing growth and significant profitability for them. B2P can be quite a successful model when paired with a decent (subjective) game.

Check out the Q3/4 reports if you like because your assertions are far from correct.

I stand corrected then. Was going off some review sites rather than hard data.

MMO's are starting to follow in the dynamic event footsteps (firefall, rift, wildstar) that GW2 started.

Even though I am willing to concede I was wrong on the other point (re: GW2 profitability / financial success), GW2's dynamic events were merely a next step in the evolution of the PQ trend started by Warhammer, improved on by Rift, and later refined further by GW2. It didn't "start" it.

[Edge-]

Even though I am willing to concede I was wrong on the other point (re: GW2 profitability / financial success), GW2's dynamic events were merely a next step in the evolution of the PQ trend started by Warhammer, improved on by Rift, and later refined further by GW2. It didn't "start" it.

I think you can technically trace dynamic event style content back to EQ1 if I remember correctly >.>

[Ashnazg]

I think you can technically trace dynamic event style content back to EQ1 if I remember correctly >.>

I can't remember anything off the top of my head, but I quit before Luclin hit anyway.

I -think- WHO was the first major mmo that actually had multi-stage quests that you didn't have to be in a group for that would reward all participants.

[Kelimbror]

Even though I am willing to concede I was wrong on the other point (re: GW2 profitability / financial success), GW2's dynamic events were merely a next step in the evolution of the PQ trend started by Warhammer, improved on by Rift, and later refined further by GW2. It didn't "start" it.

Of course not. Tracing origins of concepts is a pretty vague 'science' at best. What isn't as vague, is being able to tell when certain features feel outdated. That was the original point Zito was getting at. I'm sure there's some way to implement older features in a new way, but what we can see so far with a lot of new games is kinda underwhelming.

I think another problem is that all of these games, by necessity, are aiming for a large market. No this doesn't mean they are aiming for WoW...that time is behind us. But they are aiming to reach as many people as possible. Unfortunately having older systems, player punishment, and no new facade over the same old thing is going to mean that it won't be played for very long.

I can see where you are coming from when you had the impression GW2 didn't accomplish something that was artificially created by forum people, because it did do something very important. It certainly wasn't the origin of dynamic content, or alternate questing, but it did present it very tactfully. It was innovative, though not inventive. And I think more than anything, it removed the smoke and mirrors that everyone was still holding on to.

This is why people might think it *failed*, because in the end we all can see it for what it is. It's still just questing. It takes features that we've had for a long time and presents it differently. It's like doing a makeover of an MMO. It didn't actually make something different, but it sure looks different. Unfortunately the whole group of us is more intelligent than any one of us wants to admit. None of us are really stupid (unless we're apologizing for companies nonstop while getting nothing back).

Now that we all know what's under the smoke and mirrors, the overall market is actually kinda ok with that. The problem is that companies need to come up with even better makeover styles in order to get us playing a game for more than a month. And this is also exactly why the B2P and F2P revolution is becoming so successful. We're willing to put up with a facade, as long as we can choose when to come and go from that facade.

I could rant about this for hours, so I'm honestly going to stop now.

[Bearshield]

I was very much interested in this game until I found out there will be no pve servers. I've been playing MMORPG's since Asheron's Call and have always almost avoided pvp whenever possible. Never enjoyed it and have no interest in being forced into it.

[Lusitan]

guys Archeage is not a true Sandbox MMO, its more like 50/50, even their dev's said before its a "sandpark"

[Armourboy]

I was very much interested in this game until I found out there will be no pve servers. I've been playing MMORPG's since Asheron's Call and have always almost avoided pvp whenever possible. Never enjoyed it and have no interest in being forced into it.

Yeah its my biggest issue with it as well.

While the death penalty may not be huge, I'm still not thrilled with it. Its a concept I got tired of really quickly due to leveling a Jedi in SWG and playing FF online. It made you not want to take risks and try the impossible, be that solo or with a group. I just look at it as something that doesn't really add anything to a game anymore other than annoyance. That's especially the case if you are talking about a game that are strictly PvP servers.

As others have mentioned, it seems to have a lot of the things I've been missing from games like SWG, but the full time PvP ( even if it has safe zones ) may pretty much destroy it for me. In my youth I enjoyed that kind of thing, now that I'm older I don't have the time nor the patience to deal with it anymore.

[Deleted]

Edit: Thought this was another thread.

[Armourboy]

I think the pvp zone (Cyrodil), is separated from the pve zones. (assuming Cyrodil is the only pvp zone.)

Just depends on how its set up. If its strictly a PvP zone with the only real reason to go there is for PvP ( like Wintergrasp or the area in Illum ) then basically turns into a non factor I think. However, if resources or content is pretty much required there outside of PvP it will still turn some players off.

[Deleted]

Just depends on how its set up. If its strictly a PvP zone with the only real reason to go there is for PvP ( like Wintergrasp or the area in Illum ) then basically turns into a non factor I think. However, if resources or content is pretty much required there outside of PvP it will still turn some players off.

You should ignore my comment, I thought this was the elder scrolls thread

[Gallahadd]

I think the pvp zone (Cyrodil), is separated from the pve zones. (assuming Cyrodil is the only pvp zone.)

The problem is, from what I've seen the main "Sandbox" Elements are all in the PvP zones. So basically you have a choice, play Archeage as the typical Themepark MMO, which is fine, but not really what most people who are interested in this game are after, OR do the Sandbox type stuff, but under the constant threat of PvP.

For instance I was watching a video, think it was Yoggscast, and they were saying when you build a house/boat etc you have to walk from the "Crafting Station" to wherever you're building with the prepared materials on your back and if you're attacked and killed during that time the person can steal the crafting materials.... Im sorry but to me that is bullshit. The thing I was most looking forward to in this game was the house/boat building etc. I don't really want to be set back 2/3 hours because some little shit who thinks he's cool decides to camp the crafting station and gank anyone carrying materials. Please feel free to tell me if I've got this wrong (seriously, please tell me I'm wrong), but from everything I've gathered if seems in Archeage you have a choice, PvE Themepark or PvP Sandbox, which tbh would stop me playing, as I'm looking for a Sandbox MMO, but hate PvP.