Posted by Spooner | 79 Comments
NCsoft’s Aion Vision Trailer, unimpressed.
So they have a trailer out right now for a speculated expansion for Aion. Let me tell you how people will react to this.
Fanboys and players that still find the game enjoyable are going to hype it up and blow everything way the fuck out of proportion. They’re going to cum in their pants over mounts in the game which should have been there from the start. They’re going to shit their pants and love it over the graphics, which at this point don’t impress me in the least since the odds are you’re going to need to drop a lot of money in order to build a PC capable of running this game, fuck even their little machinima trailer is choppy and lagged. Finally they’re going to start foaming at the mouth over the prospect of in game housing.
Now let me talk to you like a sensible adult, let’s be honest here. Unless NCsoft is going to completely remake the game from the ground up, mechanics and all, this is still going to be garbage.
You probably won’t be able to own your own mount, by the looks of the footage you have to find a mount in the wild and beat it into submission but it’s not yours as much as it is a taxi sort of mechanic like the original Chocobo from Final Fantasy Online.
Player controlled airships just isn’t going to happen for the same reason that airplane vehicles in the Battlefield FPS games sucked, human error and griefing. You know some jackass is going to jihad an airship into the ground and it’s going to become the new rave for all the other children who get off on other people’s misery.
The larger than life summons of massive golems besieging Pandemonium at most will be part of some instanced event otherwise it’s going to be the single most overpowered ability in MMOs to date.
Last but not least is flight, NCsoft would have to completely redo their mechanics for flight in game and allow you to fly anywhere and then find a way to balance that with their whole missions statement and core value of flight having to be a choice for tactical PvP and not just a means to travel. And then they’d have to remove all the consumables and buffs and stones to flight time.
Ultimately if I had never played an NCsoft game before (like was the case when i first picked up Aion) I’d be pretty excited. But as it stands right now, I know NCsoft can’t pull this off. They’re a lackluster company that has an amazing talent for great game concepts and ideas but the most horrible and pathetic execution and design I’ve seen in any video game company. In other words, I’ll believe it when I see it.
I bash it because I’m a mean curmudgeonous bastard rawrowrah!
“I bash it because I’m a mean curmudgeonous bastard rawrowrah!”
I fucking love you, Spoon.
Spoon, I am very disappointed in you. Not that my opinion on you counts much given the fact that I have never met you. Being funny as fuck, and making some kickass Aion videos has made you renown enough to spread your QQing like a fucking disease. I get it, some games aren’t peoples cup of tea, so move on. I didn’t expect you to be the kind of person who would linger over the game just to spread the word on “This game sucks.” People read reviews like this and take those opinions for granted instead of trying out the game for themselves. If I would have payed attention to all this god damn wine fest over a game thats pretty damn awesome from release, I wouldn’t have been playing, and loving it. Call me a fanboy all you want.. everyones got their game. This isn’t yours. Like I said, move on and stop feeding people to the plague of massive QQ. All you did was make some Aion videos.. thats it.
Mr. Spooner: Feeding the masses since Fall 09′
I’m dissapointed that you resort to cencorship when tested against the truth. At this point, your site has become a mass cess-pool of spoon fanatics. Those who would rather visit a site which promotes the truth about the gaming industry and not one who would try to sway tha masses are beat to avoid this site. Sadly, the objective and non-biased articles are a thing of the past at this point. It’s a shame that the fanbase this site has managed to amass would do well to try educate themselves towards biased articles and postings. I think it goes without saying that I won’t be following your articles. Damned be the day when opinions are subject to journalistic bias from A legitimate writer himself. I hope your writing has not gone untested and uncensored.
I thought this website/blog was based on opinions, and a place to discuss opinions?
Why are people so melodramatic over the internet? Furthermore, why do people honestly think I could a flying fuck about converting others to my own positions? I don’t gain anything or lose anything if people agree or disagree with me, this site alone should be proof enough. Sometimes I give news and unbiased reports. Sometimes I give insight and advice. Sometimes I give opinionated editorials. Sometimes I post pretty pictures of attractive women in compromising poses.
Seriously “TheTruth” you might want to tone it down just a smidge and stop taking yourself so seriously. Hell, the moniker you’ve chosen “TheTruth” is about the most pretentious thing I’ve seen on this site in a while. The “censorship” by the way was caught probably because you’re listing your email as wowgold at hotmail. Yeah way to hustle there chief.
“Ultimately if I had never played an NCsoft game before (like was the case when i first picked up Aion) I’d be pretty excited. But as it stands right now, I know NCsoft can’t pull this off. They’re a lackluster company that has an amazing talent for great game concepts and ideas but the most horrible and pathetic execution and design I’ve seen in any video game company. In other words, I’ll believe it when I see it.”
Pretty much. I think one of the smart (sneaky?) little moves they did in the trailer was show you some nice pictures, but put nothing in plain wording. Meaning, everything you think you are getting is obviously implied by what you see, but not necessarily what you may be getting. If people get upset over not getting the features that were implied by the trailer, they can simply state something to the tune of “well, we never said we were going to do that”, and obviously gives them a lot of room for implementation in a feasible manner.
While it does look like someone who likes aion, or NCsoft themselves shat in your cheerios based off the first paragraph, you do bring up some perfectly valid points. Though from the intelligent design (in most regards) I’ve seen thus far, I’m fairly sure they would make a serious attempt at balance and other issues.
Want to avoid jihadists in airships? They can’t descend below (20? 30? )50 feet towards any surface, and move (or accelerate) relatively slow.
I doubt they will ever allow flying “everywhere” considering, as you said, they would have to rebuild it entirely. They will probably allow more zones to allow flight however.
To say that mounts must be taxi’s based off one instance of gaining a mount from the wild, as opposed to one of players riding said mount in a city zone is being pessimistic at best. It may be possible to buy them, capture them permanently, or as suggested, only use them as a taxi service. Though by implementing many popular and much asked for features, I doubt they would flop by making it a capture and control on a time limit feature.
One positive thing to take away from that golem(sp?) scene is that if they ever hope to have anything approaching that sort of complexity, they would have to fix the issues with people getting dropped in the abyss. I imagine making a such a siege engine would take a shitload of work and time from an entire (large) legion. And could probably be countered by relatively simpler defenses, much like the cannons we saw being put to use.
To be fair, I have only been playing the game for a few days now, maybe a week, but I’ve been playing MMO’s for years. From WoW, to AoC, to Eve, To SoG, to Auto assault in beta, Champions in beta, CoH and CoV…oh..and WaR I can honestly say that it almost seems like they dug through the suggestion forums of various MMO’s, and actually put said suggestions in game (or are attempting to in vision). The combat system is simplistic, yet engaging. The art style is pretty damn nice IMO, the graphics are top notch for most MMO’s on the market, and the music is amazing to boot. Crafting could use some help, but at least it’s got some nice bits (work orders) and is ultimately better than conan and War’s….
If this was written on paper, you’d probably wipe your hairy arse with it and flush it down the drain with anyone else disagreeing with you. And if you have a printer, hey, it’s still an option! But overall, it seems like ya have a very dim view of the game, and I can’t quite fathom why.
Oh yes, and anyone bashing the features as “They have been in games since …..” should try and recount exactly how many Mmo’s have all of these features in themselves….aside from perhaps WoW. And yes, WoW is probably the best on the market because they have 5 years of building content. Personally I don’t like to run around killing wolves to get a bigger hat so I can kill multi colored wolves of slight temperament so I can get a multicolored hat of slight temperament of which everyone else of my class has.
I loved the concept of WaR’s endgame pvp, though it was basically a WoW clone in gameplay with a Warhammer skin, like the vast majority of other MMO’s….save for having sensible drops. I did love that portion.
Yes, mounts are in WoW. Of varied designs and almost everyone will find at least one appealing. In most other MMO’s however there is only one per race, or simply just a few in general. With the ability to possibly tame various creatures to ride, it adds another aspect of customization in choosing the mount you want out of a stock of applicable beasts, assuming that’s how it works.
Yes, other games have had swimming and underwater content. Usually to the degree of “collect 20 clams, kill 30 orcas, have rabid kinky sex with a murloc!”. We can only hope Aion will raise the bar a bit.
Honestly, I don’t know why people are complaining so much about it being a grind. Aren’t all mmo’s a grind to reach the top? Asian MMO’s are notorious for it, and with a lack in content it’s going to be all the more obvious. If you didn’t want a grind, go play CoD. As for combat mechanics, every mmo is about “1…2….4…2…5″ so please don’t bitch about the mechanics sucking. No matter what class you are or what special abilities they have, it always comes down to pressing buttons in a certain order. At least Aion makes it very visually appealing.
But anywhoo. Seriously, the end of my rant. You can have your page back now…..
…unless I find myself bored again in a few minutes. Then expect a few more pages ;3
Wow. Jaeger, i like your points, pretty much if its not your game leave it the hell alone? I agree with you, im reading pretty much 50/50 views on Aion, i really would like to try it.
About the grind? I couldn;t care, i used to grind on wow all the time. i was a mage, and i would aoe constantly, anyone play Conquer Online? before they screwed it up? all you could do was grind.
If you can quest n lvl till about 30, then grind till 50? im perfectly happy with it. I dont mind it whatsoever. The game is really visually compelling and soft to look at, id love to give this game a great try! and not quit at 20+.
I would love to keep at it n get to the top, and see the future updates for this, especially the Vision trailer, they will most likely release this, they wouldnt have made the trailer if they had no intentions whatsoever of implementing it.
Thanks, a considering fan, eager to step into the world of Aion.
I watched it, and they’re still doing what they do best: Making great trailers.
So cool, you can swim now, instead of sinking like a rock. Anyways.
If the game played even 50% like any of their trailers, it would be an amazing game and the minor nuisances would be negligible. There just isn’t any rhyme or reason to the way the actual game is itself. Mechanics, controls, world, quest system, pvp system, flight, economy, professions, dungeons, etc. etc. Name it, it’s actually quite rudimentary and poorly implemented, just as the author says.
NCSoft itself is just another shady and poorly run game company, so I don’t really expect them to succeed, but I hope they continue to make improvements. At least their trailers give gamers something to dream about. The MMO of the future, that will be awesome, dynamic, creative, and amazingly intuitive as it is immersive and fun. The MMO that honestly should’ve already been upon us if it weren’t for the invasion of corporate culture and influence into the game design world. Stagnation in the interests of profit…
Blizzard has pretty much mastered the essence of a suitably mediocre MMO that keeps people running in circles without really knowing why. They’ll continue to use their clout to fine tune this, and our choices will remain Coke and Pepsi, maybe a Sprite, for a long time to come.
I doubt that another corporation with the same aims and goals are going to be the ones who sweep kick WoW and take them by surprise with a game made for gamers.
word of advise to NCsoft. FIX YOUR FUCKING AION BEFORE RELEASE ANYTHING NEW, you’ll just mess it up like you did with aion, the stupid rift ganking , stupid game mechenic, inbalance in classes, etc etc tons of problems. more importantly, listen to ppl who LEFT YOUR GAME due to these various reasons.
your aion original hype worked, but ppl won’t make the same mistake again. go fuck yourself NCsoft, I hope you bankrupt soon.
I think your blowing your CONTEMPT for this game way out of proportion. “Cumming in their pants”, “foaming at the mouth”???? Honestly, man. You sound like every World of Warcraft loving, hater of every other mmo in existence, that i’ve ever played with in a game.
Look at the game as a piece of artwork instead of a plaything. If you look at it as art you will see beauty. The story is fun and new, the graphics are almost unbeatable at this point in time for an mmorpg. The concepts are new, different, a breath of fresh air from the usual.
Example. Mounts that pop out of no where (WoW)???? Sounds kind of silly. Some people, like myself, enjoy the more realistic concepts of a game. Taming a mount and choosing one of many different kinds is unique. You won’t be riding the same gd tiger, wolf, or bird as everyone else.
Of course the giant robots are instanced. That doesn’t make them any less cool. I assume it’ll be a new pvp land like the abyss and may work similarly to the artifacts. Just a guess though.
In my humble opinion, if they knew (mind you as they are a professional, experienced, and popular creator of beautiful mmorpgs) that they weren’t going to be able to pull off all that new content, they would NEVER release a video to the public on their own website only to find that it will all explode in their face. That would be terrible advertising. They are not new to the mmo biz.
My last point: they would also not release this video if they had not tested it for months to be positive of the genuineness of it and the sureness that it will be the future of Aion.
I will lastly say that you are also entitled to your opinion on your own website and I will respect it.
I look forward to reading another post from you when the Aion content is released to the public and is an utter success.
I guess it may also be within the limits of this topic to say that Aion won the award for “Best MMORPG” of the year. This contest judges not just by the graphics of a game but by gameplay, popularity, and simply the entirety of a game.
It didn’t win this game for “poor mechanics” or for being a “lackluster company”.
Again, your opinion is respected.
would it also be fair to mention that in 2007 some employees of ncsoft attempted to sell the coding of Aion to a company in japan. because of this ncsoft had to redo all coding in the game. these employees tried to get a job with sony i hear (lol). anyway, if they can pull that off before release, they surely pull off the giant golem feature.
in my short lifetime so far i have seen games go from the old DOOM and NES to games like Aion and L4D and any other game with awesome grahics. the next years coming up i’m sure we can only imagine what changes are coming.
welcome to the future of gaming. it’s changing and getting better whether you are aware of it or not
Aion is definitely not the future of gaming. =) Aion appeals to a very small segment of the gaming community, people who enjoy endless grinding which IS the reward, instead of taking you TO a reward.
Aion is not fun after level 20.
Aion does have some brilliant graphics and man did they do a great job of spin-doctoring their ads so the game looked fresh and inviting. Personally I really wanted to love it, I was all set to cancel my WoW Subscription.
Then I played it.
For months.
Never again. =) I did a quick check of the NCSoft Aion forums — it really (did not) surprise me to see that the posts there were the same drivel I read there months ago. The same issues are unresolved. The herd of asshats treating each other like shit.
Hey Spoon, maybe you should just nuke all the links to AIon stuff here, not like it is or ever will be relevant to anything again. =)
It’s more amusing to see people still defending the game when it’s fallen so fucking deep into obscurity that it’s downright laughable. The saddest part is they’ll never “shut down servers” and finally kill that piece of shit game because of the nation of robots in Korea right now stuffing the coffers with money. Their community had promise, it failed. The game has great graphics, guest what, so does every other MMO out there yes including WoW with the new overhaul in Cataclysm.
I’ll never put investment at all into any Asian MMORPG again with the exception of Final Fantasy XIV because it’s a spiritual successor to FFXI which was my very first MMORPG ever; so it has a soft spot in my heart.
FFXI was my first MMO too, but I really can’t say I have any great feelings of nostalgia for it. It was pretty cool at the time until I clued into the endless grind and the roadblock mechanics in place to keep you slaving away. =)
I /did/ learn some good habits there though, like about being prepared with consumables, and those lessons serve me well to this day in WoW.
Tried LotRO — it might surprise you but I’m a big Tolkien buff, shocking I know. =) The gameplay was so lacklustre it just didn’t make up for the fanboi moments in between when I got to squee at Wethertop, or the Prancing Pony, or the Party Tree. =)
Well good ur opinion dosent matter for shit…
U rly think ppl care about u or what u THINK or LIKE..
Scarly, was that nigh illiterate attempt at a flame aimed at me, Spooner, or both of us?
If me, well, for one I’d bet Spooner cares (perhaps not much, but enough to at least reply — and bonus, he actually typed a coherent post with full on words) since we were having a discussion about things we had in common – IE having gotten started on MMOs in FFXI. =)
Spoon, you’re right, the Aion fanbois ARE funny! I withdraw my request to have you nuke the Aion stuff.
Ok I have nothing against you as a person but that review was pretty… well bad.
I agree completely about NCsoft’s competence level and think they dream way
too much but I don’t think your review was backed up by very much information
and you were relying entirely on your fan base to back you up.
This bit cracks me up
“Sometimes I give news and unbiased reports. Sometimes I give insight and advice. Sometimes I give opinionated editorials. Sometimes I post pretty pictures of attractive women in compromising poses.”
One thing I will say is you would beat Obama in an election with that statement any day, but what it wont do prove that your review wasn’t very good and hay, you couldn’t do any better than NCsoft making an MMO.
The only thing you really said with this entire reply was “Your review was bad.”
The rest is just fluff. I give it a C- because you beat out the bell curve of readers by using complete sentences, proper grammar, and good paragraph structure.
Alright, I’m gonna put in my argument here for the hell of it. I’ll mention both sides, try and remain as unbiased as I can. For those that don’t like lengthy rants/analaysis, I warn you: SKIP NOW!
First off, let’s start with the trailer itself, shall we? In my view, it seems rather blown out of proportion, being a nice idea but far too vague to truly satisfy. Then there’s the ‘upgraded graphics’ idea. Perhaps a fun notion, and has potential for those aesthetic-bound. In total, the preview for this Aion “Vision” has a great level of potential, but has been overdone, like a great preview for a movie that could be movie of the century, or could sink without a trace.
Second, the ‘lore’ that I’ve heard incidents of people complaining about. It’s a brand new game, new universe with a SHIT-ton of room to grow. Kinda like Starcraft before the books, or the beginning of the Warcraft Saga with Orcs and Humans to put a couple out there. Give that some slack and let it grow.
Third, the low amount of players in the game. Yes, it has been in Asian countries for a year, but unless they get a decent percentage of the population of say… China or India, you can’t really count. On top of that, how many games do you hear about that are exclusively in Asian countries? Little to none, word does not spread from there about gaming easily for some reason. Yes, the brand has games like City of Heroes/Villians or Lineage, but on the flipside, they’re trying for something rather new in the MMO industry, which is good looks and decent mechanics, which they haven’t done completely abysmal on the mechanics but need serious help if this is to take off good and even dream of competing against big established WoW with 11mil+ people. In the end on that part, I would say wait and see how they handle problems players have, and bugs they experience.
*takes a breather*
Fourth! The infamous grind. Dear christ people, it’s an MMO. Expect there to be a grind. Given, the grind is far too much growing at an exponential rate per level. However, you don’t see people bitching about their fifth or sixth top-level on WoW, now do you? That being said, reducing the XP requirement for levels will help the game’s stance that much more.
Fifth, the bugs. Dear christ on a motherfucking crutch. The main thing I seem to hear about is bugs in this game when I hear complaints. “This is too weak; I’m unable to finish so-and-so quest objective.” We get it. It has been out for a year in Asia, but you have to keep in mind, due to the huge revamp in code they did, things are going to be a lot more buggy for a game that’s supposed to be a year old. Dumb move for them to rewrite everything, but it’s their cross. Keeping that in mind, allow them some slack because of such.
Alright! I’ve gotten all I can think of. Anything you guys think I should mention, or would you prefer me to shut up now?
First off I think most of you fail to realize all MMO’s are a grind in one way or another. Either getting to max level or at max level the entire games are a time sink. Now for all of you bitching about the grind in aion, well for you people that like to compare it to wow go try vanilla. In vanilla getting to 60 wasn’t a seven day grind it actually took time and some skill. Now wow is a total joke making it so that you can obtain 80 and remain a noob. When a game is so easy ten year olds can play and get to max level in a week I think there is something very wrong. Which makes the pugs fail hardcore causing them to have to make the raids easier so that the fail pugs can actually complete it causing the game to get that much worse. Onto NCsoft for all of you crying about them, I would like to remind you they aren’t the creator of Aion they were just brought on to distribute the game in North America. And as for the flying pvp concept this is really the only MMO to implement it succesfully. wow tried on test realms but it failed miserably when they tried to move it onto the servers, the servers were unable to handle the content. As for the bugs issue, yea it does have some but so did wow when it was released along with every other MMO. Bugs and glitches are a constant issue for all MMO’s, not just aion. I think most of you should get off your soap boxes and actually notice what aion has done differently from other MMO’s for the better. I mean wow has had 5 years to better itself and in my oppinion I believe it has changed for the worse not the better and a lot of people agree with that asessment. But really people are to quick to jump ship without giving a game a chance. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but when your so hardcore biased against something, it deters people from trying a game. And that is a shame because some people really do enjoy aion, and I think a critical account of the game is much more helpful then a biased bitch fest.
I find it rather comical that ALL of the posts made on this that took a REALLY negative opinion of Aion were obviously WoW players. You people are addicted!!! Take out the himo, put down the syringe and try something else for once! The only way to do end game content in a game like WoW is to schedule 5 nights a week where you HAVE to play for 4 hours a nights for what? Some gear and a couple badges? Don’t forget you’re going to be repeating this SAME instance for the next month or two while you wait on blizzard to hook you up with your next rock. You people are truly narrow minded, and spoon, the fact the FFXI was your first mmo is pathetic. I’m only 21 and I’ve been playing mmo’s since the first NWN on DOS.
Uh oh, now spoon is gonna bash wizards of the coast and or try and say NWN isn’t an MMO. Either way you need to grow up and stop being so overcritical of the game cause you just dont like it. I imagine you though Dawn of War was a rip off of Starcraft as well right? Spoon your such a NOOB!
BTW- I would say I respected your opinion but you obviously dont respect others so i’ll just leave you with a nice solid “FUCK YOU!”
The reason you got that “fuck you” is because that’s what your saying to anyone who doesn’t agree with you and i’m just pointing out how biased your opinions are. Oh yeah, and FFXI blew nuts! Really bad! How can you call yourself a real gamer that has an opinion worth caring about when that was your first mmo! I know 15 year olds with more gaming experience than you!
How appropriate. Listen here “The Martyr” why don’t you come on down off that cross, use the wood to build a bridge, and GET THE FUCK OVER IT. Why do I bother? Probably just another butthurt little bitch waiting for the next organic protein shake to the face.
Spooner, you suck.
Wow is the worst game ever. U get gear it takes hundreds of years and then they release some new gear then u use hundreds of years to get it and then they release something new. I agree with JOhn.