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.
Why do you want to see Ashes of Creation succeed?
I would like to see a game like Ashes of Creation succeed because conceptually at least, it's an amazing game. I believe we're all here excited but keeping our excitement on hold until we see these ideas brought to life in the game. I know I myself at least am waiting to invest in Ashes simply because I've backed quite a few games in the past and have been burned by too many titles in the past. I just as much as everyone had a choice as there are quite a few MMORPGs coming out around the same time Ashes of Creation does. But MMORPG market has become stagnant and I feel games like Ashes of Creation can revive it. Hopefully this game becomes hugely successful and has a long life!
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Jokes aside, I want AoC to succeed so I finally have a new long-lasting MMO that will keep me entertained for years, rather than months like those failed MMOs we had in the past 5-6 years.
I reckon the node system will help keep the game running for a very long time and keep things fresh, forge allies and enemies and just give the community a reason to keep improving and pushing forward in whatever aspect of the game they decide to invest in.
Understandably so for it to be an odd question hehe but not without its reasons! I ask this because there are numerous others out there that are trying to do the same thing and yet many of us are choosing to either support Ashes by backing it monetarily or through words of encouragement to the devs and our fellow members of the community hehe.
Honestly the second part in your post was my reasons for being excited about it as well. I think that in time when those who are skeptical about how the open world PvP will work come to see what it's like to depend on the community and work together to build up your node, or how your community has to work together to defend your node from invasion and help one another with getting resources transported without them being stolen it will give us back what many MMORPGs lack these days; a sense of belonging in the community.
Take a look at BDO for example. BDO was primarily a solo-grinder. Your exp was nerfed as a party member unless your entire party was doing their part efficiently to clear camps and everyone had to stay in range. The only reason players grouped together for things like shards, whale hunting, or scrolls was because doing so ensured they got a larger piece of the pie provided everyone in their group was once again doing their best. The only community aspect was guild missions, which if you were geared enough and were in a small/medi
As someone that is completely frustrated with the empty, soulless gear treadmill that WoW has become over the years, I'm definitely looking for something different and was definitely on the Classic bandwagon (never played classic, I started in Wrath of the Lich King, loved it, and thought WoW has been going downhill ever since). So I looked into both this title and Pantheon to see why people were interested in these over Classic at this point, and I was blown away by both games (though preferred this one in the end).
The reason I ended up preferring this game is that the premise is simple but seems to get to the heart of what the MMO genre should be, and that is "What is a good and natural way to get lots of players to NEED each other to facilitate their experience in a vast game world?" There are 4 ways to answer this question:
1. Force them to run dungeons together (and that's it) (WoW clones).
2. Make everything a super tedious slog that needs a party because... reasons (FFXI from what I've heard about it)
3. Make everything about the world a player driven Wild West (Eve Online)
4. Have a curated world that players build together (Ashes of Creation).
Now I didn't even know that 4 was conceivable before I heard of this game. When I think of a curated world, I think static theme park like WoW leveling. So the idea that players unlock procedurally generated events in the world in response to the way they act in the world just BLEW MY MIND! While Pantheon looks like it's trying to find a gimmick to get people out into the world with these spontaneous events, it looks to me like the meat of this game IS the world!
The reason that's so cool to me is that I'm tired of an endgame that pigeonholes you into a select few activities to do anything meaningful in the world.In WoW you can farm mats so raiders can basically solo craft their gear, you can do instanced PvP, or you can run dungeons. That's it. Your role in the community, everything about you is boiled down a simple number, your gold, your "PvP rating" or your item level. I'm sick of it.
What I want most in this game where I can carve a unique niche for myself as a member of a server community uniquely by my experiences. Not how much gear I have, not how fast or efficiently I can run a select funneled few dungeons, not my raid achievements. Maybe I want to be a healer / support player that joins a band of mercenaries whose sole job it is to escort supply caravans so people can trade with each other?
If this game has raiding and guild wars, maybe I won't be a high ranking general, maybe I won't be a great dragon slayer, but you know what those people should need in an MMO? Crafted gear. You know what crafters should need to make said gear? Materials. You know how they get those materials? The caravan I escorted last Thursday so player controlled bandits didn't take the ore. That means something. You can do something in game that is potentially meaningful to everyone that isn't a PvP competition or world first boss kill race. And that's what MMO's (and not single player or Esport games) should be all about.
Am I excited for that? You bet. It can't come soon enough
What OneWingedAngel said.
Elaboration: These ideas can be done right, they just haven't been done right, yet.
I'm excited for a game where anything I do at endgame matters. If I forego chasing the gear treadmill by raiding and instead escort caravans with crafting materials so people can trade, I do something meaningful for the server without having l337 ilvl over 9000. Basically I want my character and community contributions to matter over my mastery of twitch gameplay on dungeon / boss fights. Out of a wide variety of stuff that human beings can to for, or to, each other in an MMO, boiling it down to how well you mechanistically follow an optimal skill rotation while dodging bullet hell puddles on the ground sounds pretty antithetical to an MMO. I want this game to be not that.
Understandably so for it to be an odd question hehe but not without its reasons! I ask this because there are numerous others out there that are trying to do the same thing and yet many of us are choosing to either support Ashes by backing it monetarily or through words of encouragement to the devs and our fellow members of the community hehe.
Honestly the second part in your post was my reasons for being excited about it as well. I think that in time when those who are skeptical about how the open world PvP will work come to see what it's like to depend on the community and work together to build up your node, or how your community has to work together to defend your node from invasion and help one another with getting resources transported without them being stolen it will give us back what many MMORPGs lack these days; a sense of belonging in the community.
Take a look at BDO for example. BDO was primarily a solo-grinder. Your exp was nerfed as a party member unless your entire party was doing their part efficiently to clear camps and everyone had to stay in range. The only reason players grouped together for things like shards, whale hunting, or scrolls was because doing so ensured they got a larger piece of the pie provided everyone in their group was once again doing their best. The only community aspect was guild missions, which if you were geared enough and were in a small/medium guild you could solo just fine. And Node Wars which were practically a zerg fest from what I saw in my time there on the NA servers.
Understandably so for it to be an odd question hehe but not without its reasons! I ask this because there are numerous others out there that are trying to do the same thing and yet many of us are choosing to either support Ashes by backing it monetarily or through words of encouragement to the devs and our fellow members of the community hehe.
Honestly the second part in your post was my reasons for being excited about it as well. I think that in time when those who are skeptical about how the open world PvP will work come to see what it's like to depend on the community and work together to build up your node, or how your community has to work together to defend your node from invasion and help one another with getting resources transported without them being stolen it will give us back what many MMORPGs lack these days; a sense of belonging in the community.
Take a look at BDO for example. BDO was primarily a solo-grinder. Your exp was nerfed as a party member unless your entire party was doing their part efficiently to clear camps and everyone had to stay in range. The only reason players grouped together for things like shards, whale hunting, or scrolls was because doing so ensured they got a larger piece of the pie provided everyone in their group was once again doing their best. The only community aspect was guild missions, which if you were geared enough and were in a small/medium guild you could solo just fine. And Node Wars which were practically a zerg fest from what I saw in my time there on the NA servers.
WoW classes dont intrigue me anymore since legion and WolfET barely has players anymore.
BDO went downhill, p2w and gear2win.
Thinking of playing runescape while waiting but in rs I cant immerse to the character.
So this is the only game that can save my gamer status
Nothing else has content that gets my zeal up
But I think everyone here has the same basic reason... we want a world to play in where we have purpose.. and the people around us are part of that purpose and are required to make it happen..
Definitely need something like Ashes in our lives soon. Here's to hoping they can release before 2020 like they're trying to do!
Player involvement has always interested me in MMORPGs and nodes system was the big draw for me, but after spending time lurking here the other mechanics, lore etc started to speak volumes to me as well.
Oh and I have lot of money invested in it.
I want the SoE devs continuing to work on EQNext concepts, like Nodes, in order to make endgame obsolete. And I'm willing to support the work/employment of devs I respect, like Matt Broome.
https://www.reddit.com/r/MMORPG/comments/9cwtqa/the_heart_of_an_mmorpg/