Glorious Alpha Two Testers!
Phase I of Alpha Two testing will occur on weekends. Each weekend is scheduled to start on Fridays at 10 AM PT and end on Sundays at 10 PM PT. Find out more here.
Check out Alpha Two Announcements here to see the latest Alpha Two news and update notes.
Our quickest Alpha Two updates are in Discord. Testers with Alpha Two access can chat in Alpha Two channels by connecting your Discord and Intrepid accounts here.
Phase I of Alpha Two testing will occur on weekends. Each weekend is scheduled to start on Fridays at 10 AM PT and end on Sundays at 10 PM PT. Find out more here.
Check out Alpha Two Announcements here to see the latest Alpha Two news and update notes.
Our quickest Alpha Two updates are in Discord. Testers with Alpha Two access can chat in Alpha Two channels by connecting your Discord and Intrepid accounts here.
Comments
I dont think one can do anything to a competitor except build a solid product, and then market it effectively.
Besides the obvious things like combat, dynamic gameplay(nodes are a right step) and graphics needing to be great and stylistic I think the two other major tactics one has is :
- AOC HAS to write in excellent world lore with EXCELLENT characters that are memorable and story lines and quests that really pull on the emotions of a player. I mean I want players crying laughing or filled with wonder due to excellent writing and story....without this i dont think it will be a memorable experience in the long run and also this provides basis for my next point........
- Marketing...Once the lore , story , touching and memorable characters are in place , expand the brilliant writing to books, comics and other marketing channels. For example like short animes exactly like what Overwatch has done. Or hell full blown animes based on a servers events .
but really what do I know.If experience is smooth, fast, and isn't "Korean light show" I think it will be fine.
2. Second most important thing is that combat is fluid and fun, without annoyances applied on players.
Combat should be liberating, fluid and allow player to fight only pressing the keys, being able to enjoy his surroundings while fighting. Combat should not require player to focus on his UI so much that he doesn't get to see "anything else".
3. Only after those 2 most important things mentioned above, comes the 3rd, the content. Housing, caravans, etc.
Content means nothing unless first 2 things are done well.
AoC looks like the real deal and as soon as it's out I'll be cancelling subscriptions for other games and never looking back!
I've never played WoW and don't intend to ever play WoW. I know people who are very interested in the game. But it's never been something that has interested me.
Love MMO games and really want this one to succeed. I've done my homework and yes, this could be a bust, however I think not. I've seen enough for AOC to catch my interest.
This could be the game I've been waiting for.
And I've put my money where my mouth is during the kickstarter. I look forward to many years of gaming with you all.
Until then. I'll be dreaming of Alpha 1 and crossing my fingers
This was not a great decision on their part and they are partially to blame. I'm simply pointing out that it is not just the WOW development team but also the community that has power enough to cripple a game.
The one thing that does give me immanse hope is this community. We seem like a mature bunch and I personally will do my best to prevent this mob behavior from poisoning another MMO I have hope in.
As for the post above me- WoW no longer releases its sub numbers, so we don't actually know who has more and who doesn't. All that we know is that the number has dropped from the peak, which was back in Wrath of the Lich King.
I will give you this- They have had an impact. But not in the way that people seem to think. Not every sub lost is because they found another game. Some subs leave because they don't like the game anymore. Some leave because of financial reasons. Some leave because of life. WoW is OLD, and the playerbase that was around since the beginning are getting older as it does. And yes, some leave because they found another MMO they'd rather play.
To say that the reason WoW's sub numbers dropped is purely because of competition is just not true.
Regardless, the main point I am making is that the playerbase of this game and the playerbase of WoW will have minimal impact on eachother. It's like comparing apples to oranges. WoW offers a different experience than this game, and vice versa. Nothing needs to be "done" about WoW, because WoW is doing its own thing, while Ashes is doing something vastly different.
I can't really see WoW causing any negative influence on AoC. It is too dated and stale to be a threat. I am hoping AoC brings the great awe that Vanilla WoW did but in its own and unique way.
You don't need to fear though, it's like 95% that the next wow expansion will be garbage too, so if aoe will end up being good (which have less than 10% chance so far), then it could easily outnumber wow.
But as long "I put minigame into combat cause why not" level devolopers does the work, blizzard doesn't need to worry about losing 1#...
What WOW is, was or will be is irrelevant. WOW isn't what's killing the industry. it's games worrying about wow is trying to emulate it, but mostly I think greed and lack of passion about the game, that's killing the industry. As well as Corporate Board Members > Developers when it comes to game decisions. These days even if a Developer Employees or sub companies owned by a Publisher wanted to do something that is good for the game a Publisher could vote against it and do whats good for the bank instead.
Thankfully, 1 less thing to worry about with AOC, Intrepid will be publishing their own game.
Best thing for AOC is to focus on AOC and not care about what other game companies are doing.
Customer service... in two forms really. And don't kid yourself a video game is a form of customer service especially one labeled as a multiplayer game.
One: When enough people complain about things, listen, discuss this with the developers and be as transparent as possible! Prioritize what seems to be causing the greatest amount of grumbling and fix it right then as fast as possible and tell people what is going on. I understand keeping stuff like lore features close to the chest but the community deserves carrots! Give them to the highest backers and shareholders, give them expert opinions (put the experts on NDA's if necessary but let them make the shareholders and early high-end backers know what is coming to a certain degree). Blizzard's dev base understands this and they have built a multiplatform marketing base for all their games by releasing solid gameplay systems that are fun above all else.
Two: Deliver on your promises! If you say one thing dont put it on the backburner for a secondary team to mull over for months with no information.
Three: Shareholders backing new ventures require something to be shown on investments. Unfortunately building a base that has even marginal returns requires the upfront understanding that something new like this is going to make the backers uneasy when they cannot expect large gains on something that will take months if not years to generate interest in the gaming market that is somewhat bipolar or disassociative in terms of what they want. But they need to know a solid set of gameplay systems will be what makes this game work and this takes time.
I really do not envy the marketing team here, they have their job cut out for them...
BUT PLEASE DO NOT RELEASE THIS GAME WITHOUT AT LEAST THREE SOLID SYSTEMS IN PLACE!
Lore is not needed that can be fleshed out as the game develops with expansions. Retconning can hurt some neckbeards but most people dont care as long as the game is fun.
Graphics can be placeholders (yes I know a lot of the footage up to this point is generic UE4 stuff,but its not important as long as its fun), look at wow for example and how many times they have revamped that system, its not important as long as its fun.
The three systems that need to be in place, solid, and above all else fun are:
the Node system, the Crafting/economy, and combat/movement. These need to be beyond solid, they need to be tested into the ground, resurrected, then tested back into the ground again.
Release that and it will succeed as long as there is that kind of foundation.
Even if they says otherwise, it onyl last as long they need the new players, but in the end you are only a rescource, a number in a excel sheet, nothing more...
Deal with it, in a profit orianted world, you always will be only a exploitable income source.
ROFL at you after reading your comment. You are really stupid if you think blizz gives the slighest about it's palyers. That blizzard gone long long long ago...
Ashes will not "compete" with wow. Wow screwed itself over and is just a shadow of itself
I dont see any game should worry about WoW anymore. It is going down slowly and steadily, even some spikes are seen up at time of expansions. Those spikes does not usually carry long and people quits quite fast after start hype. Next thing what WoW fans are waiting is Classic version, which is coming inside few years. Many people will try that out (like me too), but mostly for nostalgia and because time has golden memories how everything was so great back then. And if we examine WoW at over 10 years ago, it was a great game back then imo, but in that time. It wont be that good anymore and after that nostalgia feel is gone, people will move forward to play games, which actually have features what you expect to see at year 2020.