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.
Completely Irrelevant Feedback on the Artistic Vision
Ninja Kitty
Member, Alpha One, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
So, everything I am about to say is totally irrelevant to the Alpha-1 testing goals. Feel free to completely ignore this.
I just want to say this in the tiny hope that it's not too late to think about completely changing the artistic vision for this game. But also, maybe it's a waste of my time because this will be addressed later with more content when that content becomes available. Like the fact that I had the option between 3 'heads' that ... all looked the same.
The game is too realistic so it fails to create a fantasy world that appeals to the dreamers need to suspend their belief in reality. Based on the concept art updates that I saw with all the pets and landscapes, I was expecting a little more fantasy. But, maybe its just the limited content and map that we have for alpha one testing, so again, please feel free to just completely skip reading this feedback. And I apologize now if I'm jumping the gun and there will be more fantasy-style content and super cool looking character customizations and environments in the future that aren't quite so realistic.
IMO, for an mmorpg to survive, you have to appeal to the hard core gamers (which the game definitely does) but you also have to appeal to the dreamers. The casuals. The people who just want to escape their daily life, run around and play in a fantasy world.
The in game environments are breathtakingly beautiful, but they are too real. The crafting and profession system already seems way too complicated and intensely detailed. The faces and the player characters are all too realistic. I know it takes really strong artistic ability to create this world and the characters in it, however, its a little boring to look at. It doesn't provide the escape. And based on what I can see so far, I feel like the artistic vision seems to be a desire to create this hyper-realism. And the crafting system is even more work than I've experienced in other mmos. I play games to play, not to work. I hate 'professions' in games even more than I hate repetitive daily quests. I don't play a game to do boring work. I play a game to forget about boring work.
If the artistic direction continues the way it is now, it seems like this game will only appeal to the hardcore gamers. Hardcore gamers will play the game because the combat and content is engaging and well thought out. They don't even need to care about what color options are available for their characters hair, let alone the detailing on the style of belt buckle like a dreamer would. The dreamers will play for a little bit, sure, but, they will quit and move on to the next pretty new game that comes out. Or go back to WoW where they can now customize flowers in the hair of their night elves. There is nothing to hold them here. The escape from their mundane life isn't being provided. The game community will devolve into a handful of hard core gamers, become a little more toxic, and lack the balanced community of a game that holds the attention span of the casual gamer who just wants to come home and pretend to be an elf. A really cool, sexy looking elf. Or a really weird goofy looking dwarf. Running around in a world that doesn't remind them of the national geographic channel, because it's a fantasy landscape unlike anything they've seen before.
I feel this is important to say now because I think the casuals far out number the hardcore. Guilds requiring 40 hours a week of game play? That's insane. That's not a game, that's a job. I totally understand if its an e-sports style competitive world first record setting guild pushing for this. But the majority of the player base is coming home after work on a Friday night and they just want to forget about their mundane life. They don't want to run around staring at hyper-realistic NPCs and player characters reminding them of Linda from HR.
I just want to say this in the tiny hope that it's not too late to think about completely changing the artistic vision for this game. But also, maybe it's a waste of my time because this will be addressed later with more content when that content becomes available. Like the fact that I had the option between 3 'heads' that ... all looked the same.
The game is too realistic so it fails to create a fantasy world that appeals to the dreamers need to suspend their belief in reality. Based on the concept art updates that I saw with all the pets and landscapes, I was expecting a little more fantasy. But, maybe its just the limited content and map that we have for alpha one testing, so again, please feel free to just completely skip reading this feedback. And I apologize now if I'm jumping the gun and there will be more fantasy-style content and super cool looking character customizations and environments in the future that aren't quite so realistic.
IMO, for an mmorpg to survive, you have to appeal to the hard core gamers (which the game definitely does) but you also have to appeal to the dreamers. The casuals. The people who just want to escape their daily life, run around and play in a fantasy world.
The in game environments are breathtakingly beautiful, but they are too real. The crafting and profession system already seems way too complicated and intensely detailed. The faces and the player characters are all too realistic. I know it takes really strong artistic ability to create this world and the characters in it, however, its a little boring to look at. It doesn't provide the escape. And based on what I can see so far, I feel like the artistic vision seems to be a desire to create this hyper-realism. And the crafting system is even more work than I've experienced in other mmos. I play games to play, not to work. I hate 'professions' in games even more than I hate repetitive daily quests. I don't play a game to do boring work. I play a game to forget about boring work.
If the artistic direction continues the way it is now, it seems like this game will only appeal to the hardcore gamers. Hardcore gamers will play the game because the combat and content is engaging and well thought out. They don't even need to care about what color options are available for their characters hair, let alone the detailing on the style of belt buckle like a dreamer would. The dreamers will play for a little bit, sure, but, they will quit and move on to the next pretty new game that comes out. Or go back to WoW where they can now customize flowers in the hair of their night elves. There is nothing to hold them here. The escape from their mundane life isn't being provided. The game community will devolve into a handful of hard core gamers, become a little more toxic, and lack the balanced community of a game that holds the attention span of the casual gamer who just wants to come home and pretend to be an elf. A really cool, sexy looking elf. Or a really weird goofy looking dwarf. Running around in a world that doesn't remind them of the national geographic channel, because it's a fantasy landscape unlike anything they've seen before.
I feel this is important to say now because I think the casuals far out number the hardcore. Guilds requiring 40 hours a week of game play? That's insane. That's not a game, that's a job. I totally understand if its an e-sports style competitive world first record setting guild pushing for this. But the majority of the player base is coming home after work on a Friday night and they just want to forget about their mundane life. They don't want to run around staring at hyper-realistic NPCs and player characters reminding them of Linda from HR.
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Comments
There's already so many options out there for people who prefer high fantasy, anime, and cartoony kind of games, so I'm very pleased by both AoC & New World's art direction.
member of Gray Sentinels
For being what this test is.. a true technical alpha, the game is really pretty/polished in a visual sense. Just from reading your post I get the sense that you've never participated in a true alpha test. I would suggest waiting until beta comes out to get a better idea of what the game will actually be like.
If the devs can't accept criticism, when this whole game is encouraging player feedback; we probably have bigger problems.
The OP makes some valid points, I've also talked with people who are very skeptical about this game because of the art direction. Their general feedback is: "It looks like generic unreal models, and will not age well". I'm no artist, but I'm guessing there is a way to move the art style in a slightly different direction, while maintaining most of the realism.
AoC has a style, but if things stay as is, this game might just end up blending into the background with the rest of the games built on unreal (from a casual player perspective).
The hardcore players are going to play this game more for the systems/gameplay as opposed to the art style, but MMOs need the casuals to sustain the game. This type of feedback is not "bizarre" and should not be outright ignored.
saying stuff like this isn’t constructive feedback.
As I said before, OP and now you are being overly critical on the appearances in a technical alpha. They’ve said several times that a lot of the models are placeholders. Several of the systems available in the alpha are also placeholders, including the character creator, crafting and gathering.
Alpha one is to test the core engine and stability of the game and OP is lamenting about not being able to put flowers in your characters hair like in WoW and how limited the character creation is.
Just some info for the OP:
https://ashesofcreation.wiki/Alpha-1
https://ashesofcreation.wiki/Character_creator
https://ashesofcreation.wiki/Races
https://ashesofcreation.wiki/Crafting
https://ashesofcreation.wiki/Gathering
I appreciate your opinion, though. Respectfully, I disagree with you. I played FFXIV for a bit. Pretty fun, very flashy and fanciful...and skimpy outfits. Not my thing, but that may be a better option for you.
I personally hope they don't go that direction. But that's just my opinion.
We do agree on the "game is not a job" point. But that'll be ok if the content is relative on both levels...which it seems to be already.