I’ve played MMOs most of my life(over 30 years). I backed Ashes of Creation for £240 years ago. At this point I probably have thousands of testing hours logged.
Characters tested:
- Tank 25
- Bard 25
- Rogue 25
- Ranger 21
- Cleric 21 ……..etc
So no — this isn’t a drive-by rant from someone who logged in once and quit. As you can probably tell from the title, I’ve reached the end of my patience.
I used to be a fanboy too. I defended this game for years. But at some point, reality catches up, and that point is now.
The last post I wrote back in December 2025 is still relevant today — and that’s the problem. Almost nothing has meaningfully changed. I don’t know who Intrepid has working on core systems right now, but whatever they’re doing is not working.
In fact, in some areas, the game has actually gone backwards.
Getting on your mount used to be smooth as butter.
Now? What the hell happened to it?
Lag spikes when crossing server grids are worse, not better — and more frequent.
And I won’t even bother listing the mountain of bugs and systems that still haven’t been fixed.
I’m also not going to comment on performance once more than 20 players are on screen fighting at the same time…
You know — the same game that promised 250 vs 250 siege battles.
This is why Ashes will die.
Veteran AoC testers have watched the progress (or lack of it) over the last 3 years, and the bottom line is simple:
IT's Not Good Enough.
You can take that vague roadmap and stick it where the sun doesn’t shine. If you can’t get the game running smoothly at level 25 after all this time, how are you ever planning to ship level 50 characters, with augments, in 100 v 100 battles ?
You aren’t.
And deep down, a lot of us who’ve been here the longest already know it.
I'll be back in another 12 months to see what has been achieved or if the game is still in development.
By the end of February, ill have alook on Steam to see if my predictions are true.
