Vhaeyne wrote: » I am hyped because it is entirely possible that AoC raises the bar for MMOs as a whole moving forward. I will say this though. There needs to tempered expectations as to in what areas of MMO systems the bar will be raised. Here is a small list of areas that I don't see AoC raising the bar in: -Difficult raid bosses (Just not possible in the open world.) -Cosmetics (They already blew it by having cosmetics full body instead of per slot.) -Competitive PvE (No DPS meters or difficult raid bosses makes this impossible.) -Combat (I personally thing action combat is superior to tab target, hybrid will not the best combat IMO.) -Character Customization (We will get more than wow or ffxiv, but less than poe or ddo.) For the game that AoC is aiming to be this is all fine. I also think it will be at least 7.5 out of 10 in all of the above areas. Here is a list of areas I do see AoC raising the bar in: -Community driven content (The wars and politics should be real and per server.) -Economy (Hard to beat Eve here, but AoC could do it.) -Risk vs Reward (The games that had this are mostly dead, easy area to win in.) -Crafting (Could actually be the life blood of the world.) -Rewarding leveling experience (I have not felt like capping was hard in over a decade.) -Bot and RMT deterrence (Steven mentioned some interesting strategy's to counter this.) -Actually commitment to no pay to win (They are doing everything right here IMO.) I am obviously a fanboy of AoC at this point. I also don't think that there should or could be one master MMO that is the best in every category. To me AoC is going to fill that hole that Korean MMOs like Lineage 2 and Archeage created and left in the American market. They sold us on some great ideas for MMOs, but through mismanagement and greed they have all seemed to fail. What I am seeing for AoC is a solid fusion of American and Korean MMO ideas. That is what has me hyped.
Wandering Mist wrote: » If Ashes of Creation is successful do I think it will influence the mmorpg genre? Yes Do I think it will make or break the genre? No If Ashes of Creation fails players will just go back to the themepark mmorpgs that they are accustomed to. Now, you could argue that games like WoW, FFXIV and ESO aren't true mmorpgs but from a technical standpoint they are mmorpgs. What I'm personally hoping for with Ashes the most is to succeed in the monetization. I want Intrepid to show the world that you don't need underhanded and aggressive anti-consumer monetization to make money and be successful.