Glorious Alpha Two Testers!
Alpha Two Phase II testing is currently taking place 5+ days each week. More information about testing schedule can be found here
If you have Alpha Two, you can download the game launcher here, and we encourage you to join us on our Official Discord Server for the most up to date testing news.
Alpha Two Phase II testing is currently taking place 5+ days each week. More information about testing schedule can be found here
If you have Alpha Two, you can download the game launcher here, and we encourage you to join us on our Official Discord Server for the most up to date testing news.
Comments
You take things to the extreme. You are the second person out of the many that I have disagreed to start labelling me. Chill
0dbea148-8cb8-4711-ba90-eb0864e93b5f
I've played several different MMORPG games over the years and what draws me in or pushes me away from each respective title is the game's world design, character creator and class fantasy. That is to say that my choice of who, what and how I play the game matters more than whether or not if I'm more like to get a spot in the raid or a guild.
For example, one of my favorite MMO games was Star Wars: The Old Republic. When the game launched I rolled a Smuggler, basically the game's rogue archetype for the uninitiated. My favorite part about the game was that it really made me feel like I was playing a lone wolf criminal with a heart gold, completely quests outside my class specific story arc using stealth, cunning and subterfuge rather than just killing everything and anything just for experience points.
Naturally I'm afraid that the immersion factor will take a backseat like it has in other modern titles where the focus is solely narrowed to fast-pace gameplay rotations; quests, leveling and combat that the game won't appeal to someone like me who just wants to be able to take in the world while at the same time, have the world take in me.
That is to say, have the world react to my choices, beyond nodes and world events triggering, but rather be able to solve quest objectives creatively based on my character choices. Like sneaking to an objective rather than fighting my way to it or something.
Going back to my SWtOR example, what turned me away from that game was a lack of immersion outside the combat and questing, earlier in its life cycle, you never felt more like a character than you did a player... if that makes sense.
But in reality I just found out about this game a couple days ago and more than anything I want them to finish so I can play.
Even if it is just cosmetic.
A large part of any RPG related videogames, is the visuals you can put on your character, to make them look cooler the more they grow.
A cosmetic shop is most likely going to hinder that for the sake of earning additional cash, more so in times of desperation when people start leaving the game for whatever reason. The gear you'll get in game will get continueously ugly, making you more inclined to pay additional money beyond what is reasonable for the sake of making your character look cool.
I'd much rather have a box price of 60 dollars, or less, whatever is needed to make up for the loss in developement plus a little extra, and a sub fee, although it seems to have been common courtesy to offer 1 month free sub with the box price. Rather than risk the very, very likely future that I described... and that is the best case scenario.
The more likely reality is that the game is going to turn Pw2; the cosmetic shop sets the stage for this likely result.
A better "cosmetic only" cash shop with a subscription fee... would be what Blizzard provide. Sell mounts and mini-pets, not cosmetics designed to be worn by your character.
the one thing when it comes to video games (other than p2w) that worries me, is that character movement will be overlooked and not polished enough. this is by far the one thing that can absolutely destroy any type of interest for me if not done correct.
by correct I mean nice, snappy, and precision movement. wow is a perfect exacmple of this where you have absolute control of your character, and moving around just feels so good and non-interruptive. the way a character moves and holds itself is also very important, and this is something that wow nailed perfectly with their older models. there isnt much exaggeration or unnecessary movement, instead I would say its pretty minimalistic, and has a natural feel to it.
another game that nails movement just right is Horizon Zero Dawn. its not a game I have played a tonne, I only played it a few times at a friends place, but the one thing I really loved and noticed straight away, was how good and fluent it felt moving around with the character, and I really wish more studios would put more time and effort into this very core mechanic of the game.
@Cankiie What I would suggest, if this is how you feel - is to just make the decision that Ashes has a box price on top of the subscription fee - and also that there are costs associated with DLC.
Then, instead of buying the box and buying the DLC, you can put that money towards embers. This will give you enough money in the cash shop to buy anything that really catches your eye.
In terms of the likelihood of the game turning P2W - I would say the chances of that are near zero.
Most games that do this are a result of pressure being put on the developer and/or publisher from shareholders. All they care about is the bottom line, and they are happy to destroy a product in order to get a bit more money out of it sooner.
Intrepid doesn't have shareholders. It is owned by one person, and that person happens to hate P2W games as much as we do.
Certainly... I might have enough, for the first few items that comes along. Evidently, there will be far more focus on fixing the game following actual release, rather than create and add new stuff to the cash shop, so the output in the beginning won't be there just yet.
I understand people on this site are excited for the game, all hyped up (I am too) and incredibly defensive about it (but never this). But, personally, I will never... ever... forget that the cash shop is in there, to earn additional money, it may even exist alongside the sub fee to cover wages, servers and continued developement of the game.
I don't really fail to understand their position as a business, rather, I would argue people fail to understand how such a business works. The risk of the cash shop going overboard, are high... very high, when it comes to cosmetics and pay2win items.
Which is why the route of selling only mounts and mini-pets is a far better option. People will still pay for those, and everything that is cosmetic can be added to the game to be earned by playing the game.
A mount is just transportation, nearly only visible whenever you have to traverse greater distances. A cosmetic item is your character's look, something that helps define your character, and you will always see it.
A cash shop exists to sell stuff... you and I are aware of this I hope. If it doesn't, the game will be designed to make the cash shop sell stuff. In case of cosmetics only cash shops, eh, give the players some ugly armours throughout the game, if they want their characters to look nice and awesome, have them give us money.
It is why a game such as Assassin's Creed: Odyssey was such a disgrace too. It did not have as terrible a cash shop as Assassin's Creed: Origins, but the cash shop was there for one specific goal... to sell items. It sold EXP buffs.
Guess what that resulted it... it resulted in a game that was level-gated, the exp gains hampered, it was slowed down to become an insane grind... why? Because the cash shop is added to sell stuff.
Now, mounts can be a problem if they are not at all obtainable in game, mind you, and only sold in a cash shop. Which is why I said that Blizzard's World of Warcraft cash shop example is the better. Disregarding the other services they offer, but if we are to talk strictly cosmetically; the mounts and mini-pets.
Some people value mounts a lot, but as I explained earlier, they are mostly just transportation, a A-B usable items. It is not something that will be on your character even 35% of the time... when you play the game, you can always AFK on a mount somewhere safe
No, I don't really care too much about what a person says in regards to his or her feelings about microtransactions. Your actions define you far more than your words, and I do have a very... very bad feeling about these cosmetic cash shops.
Remember... it was said that Fallout 76 would only have cosmetics in their cash shop.
For the record, I don't just dislike P2W cash shops, I dislike cash shops in general. Some I can tolerate to an extend, but most examples are atrocious. I see cash shops as the bane of video games. A game will be designed the cash shop in most cases, that makes for a poorer quality for the consumer, this have been historically correct so far. Cash shops are largely unnecessary; obviously if online servers are required to play and are provided by the owners, then they need to pay for that and need a steady income for this.
Probably streaming EverQuest...
One of my biggest worries is Intrepid sticking to their vision, I already see people coming in, trying to push an agenda to suit their playstyle. Its especially annoying when there are so many mmo's out there that have done just that, and these players get a game changed for the worst to hop on to the next game.
Classes- Just hoping that the class system offers alot of diversity and the augments truly change the base classes.
They even got the way Rifts worked completely nerfed. This happens in all MMOs when you pull players they come and they bring comments on what they want.
I was super hyped for rift but I ended up finding a game called darkfall and never looked back, but it doesnt surprise me in the least, its something I dont understand, you have a game already why change something that is trying to be different in a market that is desperate for some creativity.
Simple math which is more money 100% of your small audience or 60% of your small audiance plus 10% of a huge audiance so big it's hard to even put a # on how many people are in it? And that is why almost all games change once they start pulling in people from other games.
Short term Im sure you are right, but long term when all the game hoppers jump onto the next title to bring their ideas to another dev team to become failure and follow many other games to the mmo graveyard.
I at least have hope for ashes in this regard though just because of stevens background and the fact he funded the game himself with no suit overlords.
Fingers crossed I guess.
As long as he doesn't pull a star citizen I am content to see where he takes this
That's not really an issue anymore. Back when Rift started up, WoW was a monolith in the market and it seemed like everything Blizzard touched turned to gold. This made it very difficult to not at least try to emulate them. Now everything Blizzard touches turns into a flaming pile of garbage and the remaining players still clinging on to the sinking ship are desperately looking for any new MMO to save them from the wreckage.
Probably streaming EverQuest...
In early beta when the rifts grew and grew and took out whole towns and the only way to get your town back once that happened was to have an army come take it out...that was far far better then the super nerfed version we ended up with. Rifts would literally take out quest hubs for days if you didn't get a bunch of people to take it out.
Seeing that IS, but mainly Steven, isn't budging on the core design of AoC; I'm not really all that worried about this becoming another WoW. He's stated many times he's tired of how many of the MMOs we have on the market now are utter shit, and follow the same design WoW popularized. This is for the players who enjoyed games like SWG, Lineage 2, really any sandbox type MMO, but there are themepark elements in there as well for players that are fond of it.
They're their time with this game, and want it to be a ready as possible when it eventually launches. Listening to the community, and making decisions that will benefit the core design of the game. I'm sure more things will be fleshed out or even tweaked once Alpha-1 drops and people get their hands on it, and HOPEFULLY give GOOD feedback.
I will say this though, my biggest worry is they continue to work on this game when it's good to go for launch, keeping it still in a Beta state or such. I know they want to make it meet their needs, but I hope they don't end up getting that perfectionist mentality on it; we don't want another Star Citizen.
Very true.
Hence why I spoke in regards to cosmetic cash shops only, in which blizzard have the right idea. Mounts and mini-pets are cool enough to sell as a cosmetic option in cash shops. Armour, clothing and such are not; those should be 100% available through gameplay, be it dungeons, raids, crafting or whatever a MMORPG will include.
I generally disagree with the boosts, here is to hoping they'll remove it with Shadowlands when leveling is going to be faster than it is right now, thus marking the boosts completely unnecessary. One thing is for sure, blizzard is not using the cash shop or creating a game around it for it to sell; which I applaud them for.
As for selling gold. I do wish to see a solution that does not provide a double edged sword to dealing with gold sellers. Blizzard sells gold in the form of the WoW token, true, but they have also largely gotten rid of gold sellers. But I don't like this selling of gold either.
Mount sand mini-pets, I want a cosmetic cash shop to be left with those two things only. Granted, with mounts and mini-pets still also being available to be earned just by playing the game.
But at the end of the day, I will never truly trust a game that relies on it's cash shop to earn an income. It has been proven, and it will most certainly be, disastrous, and WoW will remain the top MMORPG due to it's game not revolving around the cash shop for income.
Game developers of a game that revolves around a cash shop for income, will not be incentivized to keep a game that'll be engaging and fun, the cash shop will need to sell.
Welcome, brother. Wallow with us in pain, and hype.
I'm in a similar boat. Ultima Online and Everquest were my jam, and once they changed(died, to me) I've been wandering the gaming world, lost and unsatisfied for about 15 years now.
The PvP of UO and Everquest is what I loved. On EQ I played Sullon Zek. No lvl restriction, good vs evil vs neutral, 1 item dropped on death if an honorable kill. Loved it.
I had some brief glimpse of happiness in ArcheAge.
But the p2w aspect disgusted me and the god awful lag made PvP unbearable (no OCE servers, yuck)
... Also wasn't a fan of the art-style but it sort of grew on me after I found some really nice costumes!
Also concerned about lack of damage meters.
That is not dead which can eternal lie. And with strange aeons even death may die.
I'm comforted by the fact that many of the devs on the team are veterans from respected studios. If they were a team of new devs, I would be concerned.
I'm also a bit worried about the combat because ApoC was mediocre at best.
Those people are in all games already. I think Asmongold is a very intelligent guy who has great insight on things. I'm pretty disheartened to see people acting like this.
If any large streamer joins this game they will bring with them a bunch of toxic people. It is what happens, trolls go to large targets to get the most attention. If someone becomes a big streamer from streaming this game... they will become a target as well. If he decides to play this offstream or on his alternate streaming channel it won't be that bad.
Just really want to emphasize how disappointed with how xenophobic people are being. Especially to people that are bringing a lot of positive attention to the game and helping with the funding.