Taugrim's MMO Blog

It’s been fascinating to watch the increasing level of real-time visibility of MMORPG content outside of the game.

One of the first advances made by game developers in this regard was to provide player and guild profiles on the web. Most of the major MMO’s (e.g. WoW, WAR, etc) provide profiles for each character, where you can see things such as their current gear.

Aion includes this; it’s “table stakes” in my opinion to have parity with competitors. E.g. here is a screenshot of my Chanter’s profile on aionline.com.

There are many reasons why this kind of information is very helpful, e.g.

• to figure out when forum posters can credibly back up their claims in terms of progression or gear
• to see how other experienced and skilled players enchant/socket their gear and which gear pieces they go after (crafted vs PVE)
• to share your character’s progression with your friends
• to find out how strong players of the other faction are
• etc

However, Aion has gone further than just player and guild profiles. When you login to aiononline.com, you can see the status of your current Auction House (AH) items and how many of your friends and guild mates are online:

Aion limits a character to 10 items on sale on the AH. However, I can tell at any time which, if any, of my AH items have sold with a web browser. Even when I don’t have much time to login and play, this visibility has enabled me to keep my AH “stocked.” I’ll login simply to post new sale items when I know some items have sold.

We’re in the nascent stages of increased MMORPG access across “channels.” The market is evolving, and the question becomes, where is it evolving to?

Let’s consider social games. For many popular social games, you have a flexibility of playing the same game on Facebook, on a game site, and on your handheld (e.g. iPhone app) or on your PC. Social games create a strong “pull” for players by enabling them to experience the game regardless of their location; you can play via a web browser at home, at the office, while traveling, etc. On top of this, social game developers have learned how to create a sense of urgency that makes players feel the need to login and play. We see this phenomenon with “time management” games, such as Mafia Wars, where players have energy that is expended on missions and regenerates even when a player is “offline.” So players have a sense of urgency to login and spend energy after they are full, so that they can maximize the progression of their character. I feel that same sense of urgency with Aion when my AH items have sold – I want to log in, collect the sale proceeds, and put more items up for action.

So how far will cross-channel integration affect MMORPGs? That is, what will the experience be when we are not logged in to the game client? That’s the big question.

Several years ago, the question was which platforms (PC, console, or Mac) a game would be supported on. But the rise of social media and social gaming, coupled with the evolution of mobile devices with high-speed wireless Internet access, is causing structural shifts in the gaming industry. The question is no longer which platforms a player can play on (PC, Mac, console), but rather how does a customer experience the game, regardless of their location. The MMORPG market must innovate, as it did earlier this decade when MMORPGs created new social meaning (playing games with other people in a rich environment), to remain relevant and attractive to consumers.

My hope is that MMORPG game developers will be creative and open-minded in terms of how they approach cross-channel integration. There are the obvious concerns for MMORPG players. E.g. increased out-of-game access (e.g. being able to buy/sell on the AH) could be vulnerable to exploitation by “gold farming” companies. However, at least in the short term, there are mechanics that companies can implement, as NCSoft has done, to allow players to still feel connected to and see what is happening with their characters, even with they are not logged in to the game client.

Yesterday, I was thinking about canceling my subscription to Aion. That would have been unusual for me, as I’ve leveled to end-game in the past 3 MMORPGs that I’ve played (WoW, LOTRO, WAR).

I leveled my Aion Sorceror to 33. While I found the class to be a fast leveler (relatively speaking), I wasn’t sure I’d love playing a Sorceror at end-game. In addition, the overall pace of leveling in Aion has been an anchor dragging on me for weeks.

I started thinking about picking up my Chanter again, for the 2nd time. The problem? I deleted my Chanter 6 weeks ago, due to concerns about Chanter PVP, so that I could use the name “Taugrim” for my Sorceror. But I’ve been thinking about it a lot, and with the level 42 ranged stun and level 45 HoT, Chanter PVP could be viable and challenging.

So I submitted a request on the NCSoft support site around 6pm PST. It was simply worded:

I deleted a 25 Chanter named Taugrim on October 5, 2009. I now play a 33 Sorceror with the same name.

Please restore the character. I am willing to pay for this service, however, I am unwilling to level a character to 25 again.

If you can not restore my character, I may cancel my subscription, as I simply don’t have the time (full-time employed) to re-level again.

Thank you very much.

I wasn’t expecting to get a positive response from NCSoft in this matter, because the character had been deleted so long ago.

And I remembered the experience I had with WoW’s GMs, when asking them to restore one item. I had to talk to several WoW GMs to convince them to even consider my petition. It wasn’t a positive customer experience. It went like this:

WoW GM: you understand that you only have a limited number of restores for your account?

me: yes, I understand

WoW GM: you understand that you only have a limited number of restores for your account?

me: …

I didn’t actually type that last line, but the conversation got rather repetitive, until finally the WoW GM fulfilled my request.

So I was pleasantly surprised to receive a response within 40 minutes from an Aion GM saying that they would restore my Chanter. They asked for 3 names for the character, which I gladly provided, and an Aion GM restored my Chanter as Taugrum, just over 3 hours from my initial request.

I was impressed! The Aion GMs were prompt, professional, and helpful. And they have given me “new legs” in terms of continuing to play Aion. Now I have a reason to play, to get to 42 and make some narrated videos of a NA Aion Chanter fighting opponents of near level (i.e. not a useless lowbie ganking video).

Will I actually make it to the 40s with my Chanter? Who knows. At least I have a reason to be motivated about playing. I gained 2 levels since yesterday, and it will be interesting to see whether I can gut out the next 15.

This morning while reading legion (guild) chat, I was struck by the different experiences our players were having.

One of our two level 50 guildees was expressing how bored he was; he couldn’t find people to run instances with. I responded in guild chat that people would eventually catch up, give it 4-6 weeks.

If you haven’t played Aion, let me provide some brief context. Relative to mass-market MMORPGs in the past several years, Aion requires a lot of time to level to end-game. My estimate, based on talking to the 1st player in our guild to reach 50 (a Sorceror named Loreilai), is that leveling to max level (50) will take roughly 500-600 hours. That is multiples of the past 2 games I’ve played (LOTRO and WAR), where I was able to reach max level in under 200 hours. Some folks would debate the 500+ hr number, but check the server censuses. Very few people have made max level in the first 2 months.

I made a comment in legion chat that went something like this:

The players of Aion who are having the most enjoyable experience are those in the “middle of the pack” in terms of their level. They are the ones who can find many near-level opponents they can fight in PVP and plenty of groups for PVE, and while they get occasionally get ganked by the hardcore player of much higher level, overall it’s enjoyable.

Several other guildees agreed, and a picture popped into my head to describe it:

In terms of PVE, the experience of folks who leveled ahead of the curve should improve as the population in the 40-50 range fills out, which it inevitably will. At that point, there will be a high supply of players to run end-game instances, which is good for the player base.

But let’s stop for a moment and consider Aion PVP. Here are 2 areas of concern:

• there is no system for preventing ganks in PVEVP zones. Once you level to 20+, many of your quests will be in zones that the other side can invade via rifts, and there is no “filter” for preventing high-level opponents from coming and ganking your low-level ass. That’s life in the big city, Aion style
• there is no system for ensuring same or near-level PVP against the other faction. Other games have implemented systems for this. E.g. WoW has battlegrounds (and arenas), WAR has level tiering and scenarios (1-11, 8-21, 18-31, 28-40) and a buff to adjust stats for the players at the lower end of a given tier

So what happens, in 2010 and on, when there is a high population of players at max level? There will be a lot of players who deliberately spend time (for fun or out of boredom) invading the other faction’s lands to gank lower-level players who don’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of fighting them.

I’ve listened to players in-game and on Vent express frustration at being ganked and then camped by griefers. I have a reasonably thick skin, and from a practical standpoint, I’ll simply move on to a different zone or take a break. But the bottom line is it’s not an enjoyable experience on the receiving end, and getting killed is a time setback, which matters in Aion, given how extremely time-intensive the game is for leveling.

When I look forward and think about what this means for Aion, I think there is a big risk of the PVP system creating a “vicious cycle”:

Simply put, new players in 2010 and on will have a rougher experience than players now, and it should get increasingly worse if NCSoft doesn’t implement mechanism(s) to address PVP level differentials.

I’m not saying Aion will fail or that Aion sucks. After all, I choose to spend my valuable free time playing  (and occasionally writing about) it. But I don’t foresee Aion having a strong “pull” based on the PVP mechanics; I expect the opposite to be the case. Most players simply won’t have the patience or willingness to hope that end-game PVP is actually fun, when the road is very long and full of getting ganked along the way. The people who rave about Aion PVP are players already in the game, whereas new players months from now are going to have a very different experience.

There is an inane sentiment from some players, esp the hardcore or old-school ones, that people just have to gut it out, the “uphill both ways” mentality. But that doesn’t fly from a customer or consumer experience standpoint for most products and services.

I can give an example from one of my hobbies: cycling. There is a leather saddle manufacturer called Brooks. They’ve made classic, beautiful saddles for decades. But the kicker is that it took several hundreds hours to “break in” a Brooks saddle, at which point it is very comfortable. But these days, the saddles that sell well are the ones that are comfortable out of the gate, such as the Terry saddles that sold like wildfire to women back in the 1990s, and then to my surprise, to men over the past decade. The game has changed, and even Brooks had to adapt by releasing saddles with a perineal channel to stay relevant.

Will NCSoft respond, if there are long-term issues with the PVP system? We shall see!

It’s been 6 weeks since I’ve posted anything. I’ve been waiting til I had good PVP footage to post on YouTube before I wrote more articles here, and on top of that I’ve been very busy in real life, but I wanted to stop and post my experience with Aion so far.

TLDR version: Aion is a mixed bag.

OK, that out of the way, the longer version.

First, let me establish what I look for in an MMORPG:

1. Challenging, reasonably balanced PVP between classes
2. “Polish” of the game in terms of a low number of game-impacting bugs, high server stability, and solid responsiveness by the game-maker on game issues
3. An interesting, non-grindy leveling experience

WAR, for example, met criteria #1 and #3 but failed miserably overall with #2. Aion definitely nails criteria #2, badly misses on #3, and is mixed in terms of #1.

There are several game design issues with Aion:

1. it takes a crapton of time to level to end-game, so the journey to the level cap is a huge part of the game. I leveled to max in LOTRO and WAR in under 200 hours, but Aion is looking to be multiples of that. That in itself wouldn’t be bad, but…
2. …the PVE is boring and tedious. At points in the leveling process (e.g. levels 22-25 Asmodian side), I ran out of quests except for the non-repeatable quests, so I had no recourse but to grind repeatable quests, which is about as interesting as pounding sand
3. the PVP seems badly imbalanced before end-game, which wouldn’t be an issue excerpt for the first point
4. the PVP system doesn’t create any mechanism for close-level fighting. Once you step foot in the Abyss, you can and will be ganked by players of much higher level. This isn’t an issue if you play 8 hours a day and can level faster than the curve. But if you are a more casual player, it’s something you have to factor in

Let me stop there and say there are positive aspects to Aion, which include:

• the game is incredibly stable and bug-free. There are bots which are annoying (and I detest gold farmers), but the game itself is rock solid
• the animations are pretty sweet
• the skill chains are cool
• the ability to “invade” the other faction’s PVE lands via gates called “rifts” creates some entertaining fighting
• most classes have a ton of different situational abilities with non-trivial cooldowns, so it is a challenge to figure out how to map all those abilities to your skill bars
• the basic 8 flavors of classes have clear roles and are fun to play (I tried a couple in Beta and leveled 3 to 20+ in Live)

Let me stop with the opinions and talk a bit about what classes I’ve actually played since the game went live in late September. Here’s what I did:

• leveled Chanter to 22. Right before the end of Open Beta, I had decided to roll an Assasin, but at the last minute, when the game servers were up, I went with my heart and rolled a Chanter. I’ve always enjoyed playing either tanks and / or classes with offhealing capability
• switched to Cleric due to long-term concerns about Chanter, and leveled Cleric to 20. Cleric is an incredibly strong class in Aion, as it has great healing tools, ranged magic damage, and good CC abilities. But playing whack-a-mole in groups is just not my thing, so I decided to dust off my Chanter
• leveled Chanter to 25. The main goal was to check out the Abyss. Chanter is a class that in my opinion has multiple design flaws, based on the class mechanics, and to a minor extent, gear mechanics. I’ve played “hybrid” classes in other games at times when those classes were considered “under-powered.” E.g. I played LOTRO Captain in Book 11-13 and was an active contributor to that class’s forums at a time when many veteran Captains were saying “don’t roll a Captain.” So I’m not new to hybrid classes and issues that they face. And I’ve played classes as my main when they were regarded as garbage; e.g. I rolled a WAR Swordmaster in November 2008, back when they were regarded as a crappy class. However, I think Chanter very much got the short end of the stick in Aion, moreso than hybrids and other under-powered classes I’ve played in other games. I didn’t want to risk investing hundreds of hours leveling a class to later regret the decision. So on a whim I decided to try a Sorceror
• leveled Sorceror to 31. Sorc has been a blast, it’s a well-designed RDPS class with a lot of abilities and CC. It’s also incredibly fast (compared to other classes) for soloing in terms of time-to-kill. While the class can’t heal, it’s has great DPS and CC so downtime due to HP is usually not an issue. And I can kill fast enough to more than justify chugging MP pots and HP pots as needed

There is definitely a part of me that wishes I had the interest and willingness to gut out the boring leveling ride from 25 to 42 for Chanter, at which point the class gets the first of several tools that should help in PVP.

I’ve been waiting to get to a high enough level to start making narrated PVP videos again. I’ve been more focused on leveling my Sorc than PVP’ing with him, because in the 30s Sorcs get some key abilities (e.g. I recently got the Wind Cut Down I stigma, plus Inferno at 31). So I’m almost there.

One other thing I should mention: the Aion forums community has been a disappointment, coming from WAR. Here’s how I’d rank the communities of the games I’ve played:

LOTRO (phenomenal) > WAR (good) > Aion (crappy) > WoW (cesspoolish)

The main issue with the Aion forums is that people tend to criticize instead of help other players, and if you’re not level xx your thoughts and concerns aren’t considered valid, which to me is pretty inane, as a lot of class mechanics you can easily find out about by playing the class and reading the tooltips.

So there you have it. My first detailed take on Aion since it went Live.

I’m going to try leveling my Sorc and will hopefully get some narrated PVP videos posted on YouTube before end-of-year, but it may be challenging as I am working hard during the week (I recently joined a consulting firm full-time) and will be traveling overseas for work.

Ciao!

P.S. check out my +10 level 25 blue weapon. Yea, it cost a lot to get to +10, but I’ll use this weapon at least to 35, possibly all the way to 40. It’s sweet to have over 1k magic boost by level 30. Rawr!