Loading... Shadows and Sparks

Tags: in

Posted Wed, Oct 21, 2009 by Sardu

Welcome to the 1,191st edition of Loading...

Loading... is the premier daily MMORPG news, coverage, and commentary newsletter, only from Ten Ton Hammer.

Today caps the end of the first month for Aion here in the western market. Historically speaking tomorrow will be one of the most important landmark dates for the game, as players stop to analyze the question of whether or not to continue their subscriptions. Join Reuben “Sardu” Waters as he takes a closer look at what the future might hold for the newest MMOG on the block today in Loading… Shadows and Sparks.

The Pulse

You vote with what you view at Ten Ton Hammer, and the result is the Ten Ton Pulse (What is The Pulse?).

Here's today's top 5 Pulse results:

Biggest movers today:

Global Agenda (Up 28 to #12)
Runes of Magic (Up 5 to #11)
Star Trek Online (Up 13 to #14)

Recent MMO Releases

8/25 - CrimeCraft (release date)
9/1 - Champions Online (release date)
9/9 - Dungeons & Dragons Online Unlimited (release date)
9/15 - Runes of Magic "The Elven Prophecy" (expansion)
9/22 - Fallen Earth (release date)
9/22 - Aion (release date)
10/8 - Cities XL (release date)

Upcoming Releases

11/3 - Dragon Age: Origins (release date)
12/1 - LotRO: Siege of Mirkwood (release date)
12/2 - DOFUS 2.0 (release date)
Early 2010 - APB

Important Dates

10/23 - 10/24 - Hero-Con

Loading... Daily

My very first forays into this nutty world of games media saw me playing a fairly large amount of Age of Conan around the time of its release. Like many other gamers at the time, I’ll admit that I was swept up by some of the hype surrounding the launch, and genuinely hoped that the title would prove to live up to its full potential as the critical mass of players swiftly chewed through the content awaiting beyond the sunny shores of Tortage, marching headlong into the end game. All things considered, the critical mass was bumping its head against the level cap far quicker than I’d initially imagined. What they found there was an end game thrice removed from the solo friendly leveling experience, as players were thrust into large scale keep sieges that required a given guild to harvest thousands of components before they could even join in on the action.

Long story short, the keep sieges were a pretty broken and battered beast when the first few guilds took a crack at them which spiraled into the ensuing chaos of angry forum rants, splintered guilds and most importantly a sharp decline in subscribers heading into the second month. When all is said and done all we can do is speculate about what AoC could have been had there been a smoother sense of progression and a rock solid end game concept at launch.

Soon after the mass exodus from AoC, MMO gamers began hammering at the gates of WAR. While Mythic’s newest iteration of the RvR concept was a solid offering, again, many players felt the game lacked that certain spark that keeps them hooked and wanting to continue playing after their free month of game time ran out. As a result, 2008 became the year of strong initial box sales followed by the major MMOG releases quickly fading into the shadows.

In the months since, countless hours have no doubt been spent analyzing what went wrong with those two launches, or perhaps more specifically, what went wrong with player retention. Any publisher or developer hoping to overcome that hurdle with a new launch moving forward would be pretty crazy not to be concerned that their own title might suffer the same fate. Overzealous marketing and pre-launch hype can be an awesome way to insure a quick turnaround on investment as retailers snatch up mountains of box copies, but nothing spells doom for a new MMOG quite like seeing that same mountain collecting dust on the third month with a bright red Clearance tag slapped unceremoniously on the front.

We’re standing on the verge of seeing whether yet another MMOG will be consumed by the shadows of unfulfilled potential, or if it has enough of that magical spark to keep the critical mass of players entertained into the second month. For all of the vast westernization efforts that have gone into the North American and European launch of Aion, a few incomprehensible punch lines in quest dialogs will pale in comparison to the issues it will cause if players reach the end game and find the content lacking.

According to the most recent server statistics, we may still be another month or two out from seeing that critical mass begin bumping their heads on the level cap ceiling, but Aion also has a built in midlevel milestone that will play an equally important role in player retention moving into next month. Currently most servers are just now seeing a larger percentage of players hitting the 21-30 range, and smack in the middle is when they’ll first gain access to the Abyss. Not only does the robust PvE game get an extra vP tagged on the end at level 25, but suddenly aerial combat will also be thrown into the mix in a big way. With roughly a quarter of the game’s overall population hitting that important mark, it will be interesting to see what those same server numbers look like in a week’s time.

Will we see a shift in server numbers back down to the lower level ranges, or will that critical mass of players steamroll ahead into the still mostly uncharted waters of the end game? Are you an Aion player weighing the pros and cons of continuing your subscription into the second month?

Share your thoughts right here in our Loading… forums!

Shayalyn's Epic Thread of the Day

From our Tavern of the Ten Ton Hammer forum

Sometimes it IS the player

I always marvel at how most people think they're really good drivers, and yet they think most other drivers suck. I mean, we can't all be good drivers, right? If we were all good drivers, that jackass wouldn't have cut me off this morning, or that biatch wouldn't have raced me to the prime parking space at Walmart. As George Carlin once mused, "Have you ever noticed that anyone driving slower than you is an idiot, and anyone driving faster is a maniac?" There are plenty of idiots and maniacs on the road.

And there are plenty of idiots and maniacs in MMOGs, too. Let's face it--we can't all be good. And that's the topic of today's epic thread. Sometimes the problems people have with MMOGs are their own fault, or so this thread's creator, blehack33, suggests. "Why does everyone believe they're the best at, well, every game in existence?" he asks.

Do you think you're the best? How's your driving? Head over to our forums to talk about it.

==============================
Awesome Quotes from the Epic Thread

"The customer is never right, we just allow them to think so, because it saves time and energy."

- Kitsunegirl
==============================

Have you spotted an Epic Thread on our forums? Tell us!

4 new Ten Ton Hammer MMOG features today! 94 in October! 2,042 in 2009!

Today's New Features & Guides

Global Agenda: Conquest and Pricing Options Q&A with Todd Harris
Hi-Rez Studios performed a magic trick on Global Agenda late Tuesday, turning this highly anticipated 2010 title into two games: a subscription-free persistent world shooter and a fee-driven fully-featured MMO. The distinction is courtesy of Global Agenda: Conquest, the optional subscription plan that will transform the award-winning online shooter gameplay (yours for the price of the box) into a massively involved land grab. That, and add many of the features MMO players know and love. Intrigued? So were we, and Executive Producer Todd Harris was kind enough to answer a few of our questions about Global Agenda: Conquest and the new pricing info.

Champions Online: Crafting - Worthwhile or Worthless?
Crafting has become an integral part of MMOGs in the last few years. Hated and beloved, Crafting is here to stay. Some games do it better than others. Our question is how does crafting in Champions Online stack up? Is it worthwhile or worthless?

Aion Elyos Gathering: Skill Levels 1-99
Whether you are determined to keep up with your Aion gathering skills from the very beginning, or one of the many players who have found that gathering is essential to character progression further into your career, at some point you will need to know where and what to gather. This easy to read chart shows you exactly what you want to gather at each level range, and where the nodes can be found so you can blow through those skill levels quickly.

Torchlight Level Editor Tutorial with Patrick Blank
Have you ever wondered what it takes to create a level for an online game? Torchlight's Lead Level Designer Patrick Blank, has created a three part video series to show just what it takes to design a level for an online RPG using Torchlight's level editing tools. If you've been wondering what it takes to be a level designer, this video series will give you some insight into the creation process and tools involved in Torchlight's development.