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.
Setting the Bar high
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Member
As someone who has played MMO's for years, I honestly believe AOC will raise the Future bar for all past and future MMO's to compete to achieve. Honestly this game will revolutionize the Genera and bring life back into it. who all agrees
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Comments
The last decade or so, developers/companies have stopped making MMORPGs because they're such a huge risk in terms of time and money investment, so there's no reason to make them over other genres. If Ashes succeeds, then other developers/companies may look at it as "oh, MMORPGs are still popular and can still bring in players and money".
However on the flip side, if Ashes does fail (which it does have a massive chance at doing), it could be the final nail in the coffin for the genre. Companies will see it and think "hm, well Ashes tried to be ambitious and it failed spectacularly and lost millions."
I'm not gonna say if it will or will not be a good game, obviously, I'm hoping it will otherwise I wouldn't have spent $1000+ on it, but it can easily fail in numerous ways, whether it be through developer failings, or the concepts that seem so good on paper simply not working out in-game.
Just to clarify, we've had in depth mmo's like what AoC wants to achieve before, it all comes down to keeping on the promises and not doing a dumb financial move that removes its only playerbase. If anything, it might be a good game to state that hard work + time and communication to its community is how you do an MMO right... In that sense, I can see it letting other publishers and developers know they shouldn't be doing these "get cash quick" crap mmo's.
“The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him.”
― G.K. Chesterton
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.
This is my personal feedback, shared to help the game thrive in its niche.
1. Breeding/taming of mounts outside of a horse
2. extensive node progression IE dungeons etc being formed/unlocked/locked and or sealed
3. mayors, kings, queens literally creating a Government in a game.
4. players building towns homes etc
5. riding Dragons into massive wars
6. naval combat to the point that some node wars etc will or can be very influenced by a naval fleet etc
i mean there are so many new things they are doing and or implementing in such detail and in such ways that i have yet to see in any mmo game.
examples like BDO, ff14, ESO, and GW2 they are good games but in the terms of socialization, society aspects and sieges/Node wars these games haven't touched anywhere close to where this game is aiming to achieve.
sure we got eve etc but I'm talking about this particular fantasy mmo style game.
i agree how ever with the fact they are aiming to achieve this they have an extremely long way down if they fail but if they succeed which id put them at a 50/50 as long as they stay true to what they are doing and don't cave into pressure to make the mistakes all other mmos have done they will not fail thus exceeding well beyond the bar that is currently in place for mmos. like reinventing the genre.
yes this was a great example i do agree in almost all your points how ever we will see about the pve difficulty's in the raids etc. dungeons are supposed to be long and hard and mixing in open world ppl coming in and kicking you out man its gonna be cool to see. i agree on live action combat tho it is really good we will see how it feels in game.... i think if they execute the weaker parts flawlessly it wouldn't even matter like hybrid tab target etc
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.
THIS!
I want Ashes to succeed specifically to make a statement about the atrocious business models (and psychological manipulation) going around right now.
DESGOSTANG!
First - AoC has already succeeded by their unique node system, which will be a breath of fresh air in a stale market.
Second - Where AoC will fail is with players who are expecting a standard cookie cutter MMORPG. Unfortunately, there isn't much Intrepid can do about that. AoC will not be cookie cutter.