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.
Comments
Hopefully they'll just spawn a few crazy monster events, which will cause a new rush to level up another metropolis.
BC killed world PvP because of those stupid flying mounts. Everyone flew - hard to get world pvp and when you do - it's usually the one on the flying mount catching a unexpected player wins. But if you had some form of CC, apply it, mount n fly away.
I left due to the developers stating that their cash shop (that they implemented on to the live servers without warning or feedback) was not pay to win - when it most definitely was.
I played Archeage for about five years, I left because I realized the game was just a gear treadmill, but with no new content to use that gear on.
A gear treadmill is great if that new gear allows you access to new, interesting content. Archeage just didnt have interesting content, nor new content, but it did have a solid gear treadmill.
Tbis is the situation I expect Ashes to follow - you get gear to keep up with other players, as opposed to getting gear to unlock new content.
Since retiring I've been playing New World, waiting for this to launch.
What I liked about UO that I haven't really found since - open world/full loot PvP and the adrenaline attached to it. Placed and fully customizable player housing. Actual rare/limited edition items that were created naturally in the world vs being bought through cash. A balanced and simple crafting / magic system that didn't make crafting useless past the beginning. I also enjoyed the fact it didn't have levels, and instead used upgrading skills as the basis for growth.
I hope gear isnt like that. I want gear not to matter to much to a character strength.
EQ1 (uncertain on EQ2) - while gear was important - it was also rare to constantly upgrade. The stats were helpful but not overpowering. A Naked vs a geared does similar damage, just has reduce stamina/mana/hp pool/def/ac/atk
but the output is probably 10% less than the geared player.
I don't want to see AoC go the WoW route of gear.
I suspect my version to be true due to crafting gear is gonna be a tedious and long process ala EQ gear crafting. Epic Gear will be equivalent to WoW Thunderfurry questline or harder - an EQ Epic Questline to attain stronger / meaningful weapons.
Neither do I.
EQ is closer to what I would want to see. In EQ, you always had upgrades to work on, so the gear treadmill was a thing. The difference between EQ and WoW is that in WoW, you could expect an upgrade a week (or more), whereas on EQ, an upgrade a month wasnt unrealistic.
EQ2 fell between these two.
The thing these three games all had in common as well though, was that most players never ran out of content. Any gear upgrades you got now would make content you were working on easier (or even outright possible, in some cases), when meant there was always an actual reason to want upgrades.
Archeage had a rate of gear acquisition for most players that was similar to EQ2 - you could expect a new piece of gear every few weeks if you were working towards that goal, at least up to a point.
However, the hardest content in the game was able to be killed with mid tier gear. Then they added new, better gear, but no new, harder content.
Ince your gear is of a certain mid-tier quality,your only reason for getting gear that is any better is for PvP - yet strategy and tactics are what allow you to win in PvP in Archeage (at least PvP that matters).
When you realized this, and realized that 90%+ of your time in game was spent working towards gaining wealth, the only real use of which was gear improvement, you have to ask yourself why you are even playing the game at all.
This is why I have always advocated for an EQ/EQ2 style of content addition for Ashes. It keeps the game interesting, and gives people a reason to continue playing, gearing and participating in the games economy.
Those that dont want PvE content and are just here for the PvP also then get more PvP targets in the game, so it should be a win for everyone.
Or, you know, we could just have an Archeage situation where you are only getting gear to PvP, and only PvP'ing to get gear.
Quests didn't make you out to be some hero. You were a nobody! (One quest was basically "Go bring some hot cider to the men on the front line before it gets cold.") If you wandered into a high level zone, you'd aggro mobs from a half mile and generally die and learn to be more careful. You had to grind for months in battlegrounds to get high ranks/access officer's quarters.
Every class felt distinct and necessary (only druids could battle rez, only warlocks could summon, etc.) and you needed the "holy trinity" of tank, dps, and healers. PvP made it even more of a challenge to venture outside safe zones. The music in Stormwind and Elwynn Forest, etc. were iconic. Patches, the elite undead abomination wandering through Duskwood, would keep running after you for half the zone and one-shot you if he caught up with you. There was no group finder - you advertised in trade chat. You had to plan ahead for dungeons - food buffs, potions, quest items - you better bring it with you before you head out!
It took several months to reach max level, playing a few hours each night (especially on a PvP server) and when you finally hit max level, there were still dungeons to run and BG's that were fun! Alterac Valley battles could go on for hours!
The movement of the characters felt smooth and responsive. The spells effects were cutting edge for their day and the weapon attacks felt impactful. The ability to put spec points into different talent trees made the decisions really matter. Saving up for a basic mount took a long time. Saving up for an epic mount took forever. Gorgeous level designs like Winterspring and Dun Morogh and Westfall were everywhere. Epic fights over areas like Southshore and Booty Bay were epic and unforgettable.
The modern version of WoW makes me sad. There's tutorials everywhere, achievements for every damn thing. Every class can pretty much do everything, or at least enough to make grouping with others at best, unnecessary. Most classes can pull three, five, hell a dozen mobs and just AoE them down. You can buy a "boost" which instantly levels your character up - which means all the content in-between has been deemed basically worthless and a time sink. Purple gear is barfed out every few minutes as a "reward" for forgettable quests, making white, green and blue gear vendor trash. You can fly over the whole world in just a few minutes on a 300+ speed flying mount. Talent trees are gone. Every monster is somehow magically the same level as you; there are no zones you can go where it's "not safe". Mounts are a dime a dozen. Most zones are ghost towns, unless they are in the new expansion.
Gearscore is all that matters to most people. People treat each other as 100% replaceable because they can just call up the group finder and replace you in two seconds. I don't know about the new XPAC that just dropped pretty much since WotLK it's been a gearscore treadmill and you can't ever stop or you'll fall massively behind. The worst part is that literally everything that made people need each other is gone due to group finders, raid finders, dungeon finders, guild finders. It just feels utterly theme park and scripted and the sense of wonder is completely gone.
I still play, lol.
hand over your mod powers sir!
Reasons why I left is because I tried vanilla classic in 2019... It opened my eyes to look at things differently, I started understanding how to relax in a game and have patience, I started understanding what RPG really is and how it changes the way you play MMO... I was highly competitive player back in cata/MoP when I joined retail wow, although I started in TBC when it was Wotlk on original servers, I played on that private servers for few years until I joined original WoW in last patch of cataclysm expansion and I thought its a real thing, the way mobs die faster, the way leveling is easier and all that stuff and I kept playing until vanilla classic in 2019... I was still playing retail for a while, I even tried dragonflight and I quit yesterday after 3 days of game time... But the way I noticed how much classic vanilla has emphasis on realism and the way they designed RPG in a very mature way, I mean how characters were acting and the humor and everything was on really mature level, it was kind of funny because of childish cartoony graphics, but sense of realism was really there, I also liked economy and how you needed to farm for few hours if you wanted to be prepared for content that you wanted to do seriously, it was not hard, but I liked the process of preparing before doing ''core'' content, although economy was core content for me. I liked how professions were mandatory and gave a lot of comfort while leveling as well as earning gold in unique ways on end level.
When I realized all that and I understood what they done to retail WoW, I started hating it a lot... I did not play original WoW a lot since 2019, I was on for a month then off for 3-4 months, but I kept coming back because I believe in forgetting and having ignorance as a protection for bad emotions, basically I realized how ignorance can give you easy and nice life compared when you see the complete truth... I started seeing gaming on another level because now I started playing casually and to relax, and when you realize what people are doing to our internet web is beyond crazy to me...
At least in WoW, people started being full of themselves, instead of having a relaxing time as we once had when I was kid in TBC (I played casual BGs and I was killing specific kind of mobs because it was interesting to me to roleplay as a hunter that hunts bird-men in Terrokar forest and deliver feathers to NPC, until later in classic TBC I found out what reputation really means haha)
It could be a wonderful internet web of gamers if we all played in a more relaxing way, we could even have fun even in MOBAs instead what we have now, just poke and laugh at others...
Why Am I in BDO Still: Friends and it's the loveliest game out there. Can't do cartooney FF, Love the realism in BDO in the environment and the majestic heights of O'dylitta, and the beauty of Kamasylvia's forests, and Valencia's deserts.
Oh and the character Creator is second to none for making the avatar of your imagination though limited in scope it simply allows a depth of beauty you can't get in others and that.... is why I am interested in Ashes of Creation
The Secret World: 6 Years Both Iterations of the game (Original game was the best Reinvention of Spell casts that could have used a lot of love and care but was inventive and the Bosses were gear and Level appropriate)
Age of Conan: 2 YearsLoved my "Stygian" *itch Anna
Vanguard: year + Until it died an untimely death (One of the most inventive gear paths and RP Paths I have seen)
Lineage II: 1 Year
Everquest II: 1 year
WOW: 3 Years
Anarchy Online: 2 Year
annnnnnnnd sooooo many others.... Tera, Archage, The Skyrim Mmorpg, etc etc
I am currently actively talking to my BDO guild members about this game, as I am hoping it will pan out to be more RP friendly with great team content
EQ2 launch till EQ Next (Landmark beta)...what a mistake. But we held out hope, made some neat things, etc.
Next/Landmark died and we tried to go back to EQ2. Guild progressed too much and we were too far behind, so we gave up.
Played ARK with my family...the kids loved it. Then they got older and bored. It was boring pretty early on anyway, but the family bit was fun.
Don't hate on me, but my wife and I have been playing New World and having a fun time, mostly with the gathering/processing/crafting. Though crafting is very "meh". There's no real community there either (for our age group)...so we're holding out for AoC. Played A1 and eagerly awaiting A2 and beyond! AoC will be our last MMO most likely.
I abhor the End Game treadmill. Got burnt out of that with WoW: Cataclysm.
WoW: Shadowlands had a lot of appeal.
WoW: Dragonflight is the best MMORPG I've ever played. Been max level for a couple months - still plenty of quests for me to finish. I'm shocked by how much fishing I do. There are plenty of tasks for me to do that don't require me to kill stuff. I definitely feel like I am immersed in my race and class: Evoker.
just go to P99 - community still there
Why did you leave?
What might have kept you playing?
Guild Wars 2 for 9 years. Honestly I was just bored after so long, I stayed because of my friends but Discord helps because I can still talk to them and I moved onto other games.
What killed it for me can be generalized to this: incremental QoL features/efficiency that came at the expense of eroding the imagination and fun of the game + disgusting levels of P2W.
If I had to boil it down to 3 fatal bullets it would be (ignoring P2W):
What drove these mistakes?
Player complaints that trade inefficient loitering for efficient standardization:
"travelling from A to B is such a pain, can I just tp there?" "why does this area exist? nobody grinds here." "I don't want to rely on anyone else, let me solo it."
The solution? I think you need a mix of both standardized methods with inefficient alternatives:
Finally, I'm becoming increasingly convinced that:
the secret to adding meaning to a choice isn't in the benefits of the choice, but in the COST of the choice - the things that you forgo in pursuit of your objective.
(it explains why reversible choices are meaningless - there's no cost).
The longest you played a single MMO= about 10 years[
I haven't left it yet
New content would have been nice, better maintenance would have helped a bit also.
and PvE was to easy and lacked open world pvp to keep it interesting
instanced pvp became repetative too
I left the game because of class homogenisation and because of the many systems added over the years that destroyed a server's community.