Glorious Alpha Two Testers!
Alpha Two Realms are now unlocked for Phase II testing!
For our initial launch, testing will begin on Friday, December 20, 2024, at 10 AM Pacific and continue uninterrupted until Monday, January 6, 2025, at 10 AM Pacific. After January 6th, we’ll transition to a schedule of five-day-per-week access for the remainder of Phase II.
You can download the game launcher here and we encourage you to join us on our for the most up to date testing news.
Alpha Two Realms are now unlocked for Phase II testing!
For our initial launch, testing will begin on Friday, December 20, 2024, at 10 AM Pacific and continue uninterrupted until Monday, January 6, 2025, at 10 AM Pacific. After January 6th, we’ll transition to a schedule of five-day-per-week access for the remainder of Phase II.
You can download the game launcher here and we encourage you to join us on our for the most up to date testing news.
Developer inspirations - BTS
ArchivedUser
Guest
Hello all!
After reading through the About & Blog sections and watching the Q&A, I got even more curious~
(Yep, that's me, unquenchable thirst for information and knowledge!)
I don't exactly know if this is the right section for this topic, but I came up with a couple questions I couldn't help but wonder about - maybe an idea for a <strong>future Q&A or blogpost</strong>? I was pleasantly surprised to read how AoC developers are so experienced and in love with gaming themselves, many of them being active gamers and already having previously worked for other gaming companies. Ofcourse, I'm most interested in the motivation of the Developers to start creating this game, in a time were new MMORPG's are announced every single year, and how they will further make it stand out from the rest. But other than that, I'd love hearing about player experiences too!
So here's the questions:
<ul>
<li>
1) What got you first into gaming - maybe MMORPG's specifically? What were your first impressions?
</li>
<li>
2) Which games did you play? And which of them you liked most?
</li>
<li>
3) What do you <em>personally</em> find most important in gaming, if you have to choose between:
- story, experience, 'lore'
- competition & PvP
- community, grouping up and playing together with friends
- world, exploration, life skills such as gathering & crafting
- game mechanics, combat, the 'look and feel'
</li>
<li>
4) What are your personal turn-offs (gaming related obviously!) - that would make a game generally "unplayable" for you?
</li>
<li>
5) What elements from having played or hosted other games are you taking with you to AoC, that you would like to bring in or enhance? And which features have you experienced that you would really not want to see in AoC?
</li>
</ul>
<em>(Please keep in mind these questions are not meant to either bash or promote other games - simply to share experiences and hopefully to get to know our developers a bit better from a gaming perspective!)</em>
After reading through the About & Blog sections and watching the Q&A, I got even more curious~
(Yep, that's me, unquenchable thirst for information and knowledge!)
I don't exactly know if this is the right section for this topic, but I came up with a couple questions I couldn't help but wonder about - maybe an idea for a <strong>future Q&A or blogpost</strong>? I was pleasantly surprised to read how AoC developers are so experienced and in love with gaming themselves, many of them being active gamers and already having previously worked for other gaming companies. Ofcourse, I'm most interested in the motivation of the Developers to start creating this game, in a time were new MMORPG's are announced every single year, and how they will further make it stand out from the rest. But other than that, I'd love hearing about player experiences too!
So here's the questions:
<ul>
<li>
1) What got you first into gaming - maybe MMORPG's specifically? What were your first impressions?
</li>
<li>
2) Which games did you play? And which of them you liked most?
</li>
<li>
3) What do you <em>personally</em> find most important in gaming, if you have to choose between:
- story, experience, 'lore'
- competition & PvP
- community, grouping up and playing together with friends
- world, exploration, life skills such as gathering & crafting
- game mechanics, combat, the 'look and feel'
</li>
<li>
4) What are your personal turn-offs (gaming related obviously!) - that would make a game generally "unplayable" for you?
</li>
<li>
5) What elements from having played or hosted other games are you taking with you to AoC, that you would like to bring in or enhance? And which features have you experienced that you would really not want to see in AoC?
</li>
</ul>
<em>(Please keep in mind these questions are not meant to either bash or promote other games - simply to share experiences and hopefully to get to know our developers a bit better from a gaming perspective!)</em>
0
Comments
While I enjoyed progressing with friends a lot and always wondered what was there left to discover,
eventually the leveling would be a drag if you had to grind a level or 2 to be able to survive the next higher area.
It had something called "kingdom quests" which I had most fun with.It was like a raid but much more social;with the whole town.
So yea my impressions were pretty mixed;loved exploring together,hated the grind.Still,the desire to play an mmo always lingered,
even though I do not longer have these lanparties with friends.
Now which ones have I played
Fiesta,Florensia,Allods,Lotro,world of warcraft,ragnorak,guildwars 1&2,dragon saga,rift,Dungeons and dragons,Elderscrolls online,everquest II,Final fantasy,Flyff,
Forsaken world,grand fantasia,tera and now wildstar.
(probably many more I tried at mmohut but uninstalled the same day)
The ones I played the longest are probably fiesta,wow,guildwars 1&2,rift,elderscrolls online.
Which ones I like the most? Wildstar offers some freedoms other mmo's dont offfer (like the housing options ,the personal wardrobe and the ability to hide any piece of armor you desire)and their system where the shop currency drops "omnibits" from mobs is the most generous i've seen so far.
Infact I think wildstar and elderscrolls online offer the best quality at this moment.Last month i've been playing wildstar only.But never being able to do content because even my
own guild won't allow me to join because they say i'm not ready with my gearscore.At the moment i'm pretty burned out doing the dailies just to get the currency to buy the required gear,
for a small chance I will get invited.Its like the gearscore thing has ruined it for me to have fun at all.Past few days I can't bring myself to play anymore and running an alt is just the same thing
all over.Maybe I'll return to elderscrolls online.But there they want you to dress a certain way and want you to carry a staff because it does the most damage.
Its like there is no freedom,because players will only accept the best build setups.
Wildstar is kinda fun,as long as you don't get to endgame where nobody wants you around with a gearscore below 120.
The state of mmo's is really sad.
But if I had to choose which ones I like the most i'd probably go with elderscrolls online and wildstar.
Choosing the most important in gaming is a hard one because they all have importance
personal top 3
1– community, grouping up and playing together with friends
2– world, exploration, life skills such as gathering & crafting
3– story, experience, ‘lore’
What makes it generally unplayable to me or discourages me from continuing is this strong focus on gear that trivializes all content in games.
I play to have fun ,not find a second job.So I don't want to get all tense and caught up in the gear progression like most.
For me it has the opposite effect;I just quite.
When I hear people on teamspeak about all this gear and max dmg I sometimes really think i'm getting too old for mmo's.
Its just so boring hearing them all whine about gear & not actually having fun with the game.Thats my biggest turn off
I believe there is a lot to improve when it comes to mmo's,but thats a question for them only..oh it were all questions for them :D
Later on the first MMO related game I play was probably Guild Wars (1) or Runescape, I'm not completely sure but I atleast know I played both.
For me gaming/MMO's is a way to burn time and get immerged ofc. So games like Runescape where you grind alot, are good for me since you just "get lost" in the game. Likewise I played way to much WoW (trying to keep of it right now, my wallet doesnt like it ;( ), all though I only started after BC, it is probably the MMO I played the most. Tbh I never really like most of the systems in WoW, they are just to liniar, but my friends played it and as Steven mentioned somewhere, community is basicly what makes MMO's pop.
The mmo I liked the most to this date is probably the beta of ESO, and its important to note that its the beta... Not that they changed alot, I just found the magical world you could experience in the beta, kinda got boring in the real launch. Its basicly the same grind, same quests etc. That and the fact that they experienced some major launch bugs. In fact I was one of the "frontrunners" in ESO, until about level 46 when I got on to the veteran part of the game, and the exp gain dropped massively due to the new area being flagged for veterans (people over 50). Long story short I kinda had to abandon that character, so I stopped playing all together ;(
In games I would definitely rank it this way:
1) World, exploration, life skills such as gathering & crafting.
2) Game mechanics, combat, the ‘look and feel’
3) Community, grouping up and playing together with friends
(wish I could put lore somewhere in there too :( )
I feel theres many turn offs in games, but I have to agree with @Tipsytoo, he explained it well:
[quote quote=2083]
What makes it generally unplayable to me or discourages me from continuing is this strong focus on gear that trivializes all content in games.
I play to have fun ,not find a second job.So I don’t want to get all tense and caught up in the gear progression like most.
For me it has the opposite effect;I just quite.
When I hear people on teamspeak about all this gear and max dmg I sometimes really think i’m getting too old for mmo’s.
Its just so boring hearing them all whine about gear & not actually having fun with the game.Thats my biggest turn off
[/quote]
Especially the part about people "not having fun in games", I know people have different kinds of fun. And naturally I want the best gear, but for me it comes when it comes, I'm not that competetive about it.
I don't really know about the first part of the last question, but I guess I've just played such a wide array of games/genres, that by now I learn really quickly. Most of the time I can guess every control (not that hard I know), and see through varies game mechanics quite quickly :)
<strong>I'll give you a quick "tour" of what I don't want:</strong>
<em>*Opens Google.com*
"Best AoC Spellsword dps build"
"hmm okay, okay, I see, okay" *writing down* "... Okay see you guys in 2 weeks, then I'll have proper gear."</em>
<em>*Opens Google.com*
"Coordinates on secrets and eastereggs in AoC"
*writing down...*</em>
It would be really decent as a single player game if it had more variety in quests and less "lifeless" feel to it,I think many of the systems and design in ESO failed to bring people together:
Thus it didn't really succeed well as a multiplayer (and neither as a single player I think)
Players all want to do their own thing and grouping can even be annoying in ESO:you feel like you want to do your own thing but cant if you quest with other players.
Maybe I played so much through the area's I thought to myself ;
"I still have all these things to finish in this area,gosh now i need to come back later if I stick to this player's side & yet I don't want to abandon them just like that"
A fixed story path might be a problem in mmo's,not only for replay value.
If players know the storypath it becomes a chore that you want to see done so badly that second/third time you leave no or little room for other players(nor take a moment to really recognize their presence)
Maybe that is why the handholding is bad;its not about playing with other players,players focus on getting their hand held by the designed path.
Also recall my guildies in eso constantly trying to tell me how to build my character .that might have been a reason why I gave up and don't know if it changed for the better while I've been gone.
like "switch the medium armor dual wielding nightblade to a robe and staff nightblade for max damage output" they said
They always asked me to change my build that I enjoyed most for reasons like "better rotations with more damage"
Maybe its best that I stick to wildstar for now.Even with some of the bad systems in place.In some areas it offers great freedom,like post-character creation_ character-restyling
Ignoring the endgame and a few of the bad game systems,you can find joy in the smaller aspects of the game.
No worries! I don't mind hearing about player experiences, on the contrary - I think it's as interesting!
@Shunex
Thanks for the invite! I will do that ^^
I started with learning about Runescape. There was alot of hype for it so I tried it out. The problem was that I didn't understand the english language to understand the mechanics of the game.
Therefore I didnt enjoy it asmuch as I would enjoy later MMO's. Later in my life I tried alot of MMORPG (Mostly free ones), and bounced from one to another. Finally I settled on Guild Wars 2.
2) Which games did you play? And which of them you liked most?
I've played alot of games within these genres:
-Mobas
-Fighting Games
-FPS's
-RPG's
Pokemon (has story I enjoyed alot, decent mechanics/combat)
-MMORPG's
Guid Wars 2 (decent mechanics, great combat)
Black Desert Online (decent mechanics, great combat)
3) What do you personally find most important in gaming, if you have to choose between: (1-5 with 1 being most importent)
1. game mechanics, combat, the ‘look and feel’
2. world, exploration, life skills such as gathering & crafting
3. competition & PvP
4. community, grouping up and playing together with friends
5. story, experience, ‘lore’
4) What are your personal turn-offs (gaming related obviously!) – that would make a game generally “unplayable” for you?
-Bad optimization. If battles (small and/or big) are massively dropping frames or crashing the game. Whenever this happens you will literally not be able to play.
-Combat that does not feel fluent. Whenever you are not able to move while casting (so whenever you use a skill, you stand still completely) it makes the combat feel bad.
Time that is unnecessarally wasted on startup and/or endlag in the combat makes me cringe and feel like the combat is bad.
Whenever the combat is bad (my #1 thing I look for in games) I tend to not enjoy playing that game.
5) What elements from having played or hosted other games are you taking with you to AoC, that you would like to bring in or enhance? And which features have you experienced that you would really not want to see in AoC?
Do's
-Make the combat feel fluent.
-Give us more then a handfull of skill one would use in a rotation.
-Make classes feel destinct from oneanother.
-Deliver on the systems you are implementing.
-Explain to the players how the systems work/function (either outside or within the game).
Don't's
-P2W. I never experienced this myself, but since most MMORPG's use growing level caps I do not want to see people that trow money at the game be rewarded because they are ahead that way.
I know you know of this problem (you even made this game because you were sick of it), but it would be shamefull if this game turned P2W.
1) What got you first into gaming – maybe MMORPG’s specifically? What were your first impressions?
First game that i remember was either Mario Kart or a drag racing game on the pc that i forget the name of. First mmorpg, whilst technically runescape i didn't really get into it that much, first serious mmo was Warhammer Online
2) Which games did you play? And which of them you liked most?
Over the years i have had a few mmorpgs that ive played; warhammer online, aion, final fantasy xiv, guild wars 2, elder scrolls online, archeage, blade and soul, black desert online, riders of icarus, im sure ive forgotten some in there and wished i had forgotten others...
3) What do you personally find most important in gaming, if you have to choose between:
naw do i have to choose? im a pvper at heart everything i do is to benefit me in pvp that being said i still love running dungeons and crafting and the story is as important as all hell.
4) What are your personal turn-offs (gaming related obviously!) – that would make a game generally “unplayable” for you?
a p2w game generally breeds a toxic environment so thats one of the biggest turn offs for me personally.
<ul>
<li> 1) What got you first into gaming – maybe MMORPG’s specifically? What were your first impressions?
Started off as your regular 12-yr old from not-overly priviliged parents, never having played a console or bought a game. 'Gaming' for me was about the freebie CD's that came with Kellog's cereals, or the ones my dad copied from his friends. I played a lot of garbage free games on the internet, as was the hype at school among the nerdier people (= me). One of those, was basically a chatbox for horny pre-teens (lmao). Bit like Club Penguin [Actually looked it up, it's called Club Marian]... So anyways, it had a link to the literal 'fantasy mmo' version of it, called Sherwood Dungeon. To call it an mmorpg is a joke, but it's what introduced me first to the genre and I was wild about it. Really liked slashing huge venomous spiders - and always will. From there on, I wandered from one fantasy world to another, no longer limiting myself to trashy browsergames.
</li>
<li> 2) Which games did you play? And which of them you liked most?
I played a ton of mmorpgs - Lineage 2, Rift, Guild Wars 2, Aion, Archeage (beta), ESO (beta), Blade & Soul, Tera, Perfect World, Neverwinter, Drakensang, Black Desert, Revelation... (in no particular order). The one I played the longest is without doubt Aion, and I still play it up to this day. But as with all MMO's, one day you get fed up and you start looking for something better, so that's why I went on a little side-action *winkwink* The ones that jumped out to me were BDO and GW2, but I never really got into them as much due to various reasons.
</li>
<li> 3) What do you personally find most important in gaming, if you have to choose between....
First of all, I'm definitely very RPG-aimed. Story-driven games I tend to like the most. On a good second place, I like venturing off and exploring a vast open world. It's only more recently I discovered the joy of playing together with other people. So, however not all games need to have multiplayer options for me, in mmo's I can simply no longer miss the feeling of having a community, a legion that supports me and that I can go on adventures with. Gameplay and mechanics are not my strongest focus, however, being so spoiled with fast-paced fluent combat in recent games, I feel like it's no longer something to exclude. I tend to go for agility type classes, being clunky and slow is a no-go for me. I like puzzles and strategies, button-spamming and tankspank bore me to death. Lastly, pvp would be the least important for me. However I like it, I feel like in most games I've played, it's rather fickle and leads to a lot of nastyness. Competition is important, but if it's badly structured it brings out the worst in people. I definitely think my priorities can change if one aspect of a game is done well, but overall this would be my order of importance.
</li>
<li>
4) What are your personal turn-offs (gaming related obviously!) – that would make a game generally “unplayable” for you?
As I briefly mentioned earlier, badly structured pvp would be a complete turn-off. I know how much people want ow pvp, but I really hate when it's an uncontrolled e-peen battle where people only go grief low-levels. Many of the people who say they love pvp, only pick on weaker opponents, running away when you could possibly beat them. Penalties are just stupid. People should feel encouraged to pvp, but only towards those wanting pvp as well. Quite liked Blade&Soul's system. Hated BDO's system. For arenas or instanced pvp, I like when they remove stats/gears so you can fight anyone on equal grounds. Still, class-balancing and other issues in mind, Pvp is a very difficult aspect of a game that needs constant revision.
Other turn-off: whore clothes. Do not like when outfits look significantly different (= sluttier) on female toons than male toons. I don't mind a little skin, but when it goes over the top I see it as a cheap attempt of the company to lure in a certain fanbase. This goes for other outfit-related things too. Do not like it when you are basically forced to play female because they have nice clothes, while males are like ridiculous buttler boys (looking at you, Aion). Do not like ****-fetishism, as in, I don't mind children in a game, I do mind dressing them up like strippers and making them moan ALL THE GODDAMN TIME /end rant.
</li>
</ul>
So yea, overall, however I've enjoyed the games I played most of the time... I'd love for AoC to be creative, and go beyond just fixing a couple failures from previous mmo's. I've come a long way from shitty browser games to high-end rpg's... I'm maybe a bit too old to be completely dumbfounded entering a new fantasy world, but I have good hopes it will happen again ;)
) What got you first into gaming – maybe MMORPG’s specifically? What were your first impressions?
My friends started playing a text based green screen MUD back in the late 1990's but it didn't really appeal to me. I had a go but it seemed to be based upon how fast you could type which was boring. I saw EQ1 in a computer magazine and persuaded a friend to buy it (LOL I was too tight to get it myself). When I tried it out I loved it and bought it for myself. I found it odd that because I had a female toon people assumed I was a shemale.
2) Which games did you play? And which of them you liked most?
EQ1, Asheron's call, EQ2, Vanguard, D&D online, SWG, Rift, Final Fantasy XIV, LOTRO, Elder scrolls. EQ1 was the biggest challenge, LOTRO was beautiful and fun.
3) What do you personally find most important in gaming, if you have to choose between:
I'm not sure I can choose between these because I think they are all vital in a good MMO.
I love exploration, grouping, raiding plus a bit of crafting when I'm in the mood. I like PVP least of all because of the griefing plus it can be so disorganised.
4) What are your personal turn-offs (gaming related obviously!) – that would make a game generally “unplayable” for you?
I totally agree with Ruby about the pvp and I find the slutty clothes of female toons a turn off. I know it puts some women off playing MMO's and if you've ever done any real life combat you know you cant wear this shit anyway. Either you'd have a major wardrobe malfunction in the middle of a fight or you'd get hit on a bare bit of flesh. Trust me even if you're wearing armour it still hurts! Plus you'd get cold.
I also agree with Shunex. I think P2W destroys the game.
Another thing which makes a game eventually unplayable is daily quest grinding, or static mob grinding. So boring, I play for fun at the end of the day.
2) I played MU, WoW, FFIVX, ESO, and currently giving Archeage a shot. I'd say the game I, to this day felt the most immersed into is still WoW. Got bored for the repetitivity of the game, make a class, gear up, find a rotation, stick to it. It became stale.
3)The most important in a game for me is the following i order of importance:
- Experience
- Lore
- Life Skills
- Immersiveness of the world so, look and Feel
- Community, Being able to RP with friends
4) I have a TON of Turnoffs but that which truly makes a game unplayable in my opinion is P2W, it allows the real world to seep into the world of the game and breaks immersion. After that, when I game lacks spirit of the community encouraged by game mechanics, if I as a DPS am more concerned for doing optimal damage to a boss instead of skipping my rotation for interrupting that spell to save my healer 1 healing cast, then to me the game has a problem. The game should discourage this kind of behavior.5) I bring an open mind, Will focus on the life skills and exploration part, I would love to go adventuring with friends and strangers I met on a tavern on this new crack on the wall that opened.
2)There was one game on android called toramonline. it's not really that great, but it was a bit easier to learn teamwork and such stuff. Later I started TERA, did try Guild wars 2, but dropped it because I never actually saw many people and really couldn't try. Archeage was just a bit too P2W for my liking.
3) My order of importance:
- community, grouping up and playing together with friends
- game mechanics, combat, the 'look and feel'
- competition & PvP
- world, exploration, life skills such as gathering & crafting
- story, experience, 'lore'
The story isn't too important but it can make grinding a less boring.
4) As mentioned about, my main hates are P2W, RNG and botting are my main turn off. Another turn off as having no community to chat with. something that kinda kills interest in me is oversexualising women. I don't mind an occasional guy running around in bikini armor.
5) I can't really think of anything I'd like to add. the game looks pretty solid to me.
Like I said, I got my start with Ultima Online. In college I bought EQ2 because everyone told me WoW was going to be terrible and cartoony, but I quickly made the switch to WoW. Which I played for over a decade. I met my husband in WoW. I liked the challenge of high end raiding, and my guild got many server firsts. I was proud of my accomplishments in that game and my ability to lead a successful raiding guild for many years.
But I've grown older, I've got a job, and priorities outside of gaming. So I don't have time for the high end raids. My husband and I quit WoW and have bounced around from game to game, occasionally returning to WoW but never able to dedicate the time to find the same success we did in the past, which leaves the experience hollow to us.
We grew frustrated with the lack of depth in every single MMO we played. So we turned to paper and pencil. We played D&D, sometimes with others but mostly between the two of us. We love the ability to create our own world and explore our own imaginations in D&D. We took what was already there in the Forgotten Realms setting and just expanded upon it, and now we have enough back story and lore to create a whole new setting if we wanted to. Notebook after notebook filled with maps, characters, drawings, ships and machinery, history. It was wonderfully liberating. But we missed the interaction and the larger community an MMO offered.
In gaming, the world and the lore behind it are by far the most important. Exploring, learning about the world, interacting with it, and working with others to create something bigger - be it just a guild, or in this game entire cities and trade empires. I want flexibility and immersion. This game promises to deliver just that.
A toxic community is a big turnoff for me. Every game will have some toxic players, but some games are better than others. I find subscription games to have somewhat better communities because hardly anyone wants to pay money just to be a jerk and ruin everyone else's enjoyment of a game.
Excessive need to rely on rare drops is another turnoff. The occasional rare drop is nice, but if I have to grind goblins for hours and hours to get a stupid trinket that's one of three parts of a sword that I need to progress - no way. I don't have the time or the drive to do that anymore. I'm happy to work towards something, even if it takes a long time to achieve, but I want to see progress. Not pray to the RNG gods for a lucky drop.
I am coming to AoC with an open mind and high expectations. I hope this game does everything it intends to do and brings back the sense of community that used to exist in MMOs. I look forward to seeing innovative game mechanics and ways of creating social interactions. I hope this will make the game less attractive to toxic players, or at least make them gravitate away from my sphere of influence and towards each other.