Looks good, wont be a wow killer, i reckon along with war and aoc it will die off soon after release, aswell as these being announced a new wow expansion announced for mid 2010.
I've done everything there is to do in GW already (discounting farming (yawn) and chasing PvP titles (too time consuming)) so I'm just killing time til GW2 comes out. I'll be spending some of that time in Aion, as it's a really fun and very good looking game.
How long I'll play Aion for will depend as much on the endgame/PvP of it as it will on when GW2 is finally released, but I think I'll be playing it long enough to have gotten my money's worth out of the purchase, even with the monthly fee.
Dungeons and Dragons unlimited is F2P and releasing on the 9th sept, but they never advertise the game and have a closed players only forum, so far only for subscribers and beta players, so word of the game never gets out like it has done for Aion and GW2.
My choice, and my advice is to completely forget Aion and any other P2P game from here on. Download DDO unlimited on the 9th Sept, unless it gets delayed, and play it for free. It is also following a model similar to GW where it has a cash shop, but the DDO cash shop allows you to purchase new areas of the game, like GW chapters, and also pay for in game unlockables such as the more powerful Drow race.
Optionally, you can also subscribe to DDO online, in which case all extra cash shop areas of the game become unlocked, and you recieve cash shop cash for free to spend on other unlockables like the Drow. But the drow, and anything else like it is also unlockable by playing the game and collecting favor by doing the quests, so you can play as a human first character with a normal class like I will be doing, and unlock the Drow and maybe the Favored Soul class which looks like it will be an unlockable through completing quests and earning favor.
What I would then hope, is that they continue to release new content for the game and new classes and races in the same way.
Pay a subscription to get it all right way (horde your free cash shop cash for purchase of ingame unlockables), or play for free and buy new areas like expansions as you become ready to play them, while unlocking bonus classes and races ingame using favor.
If it goes like I have explained here, it should be the best MMO model to date. Download of the game will also be free with no purchase required to play, current subscribers lose their current game and characters and items, but move onto the new one as VIP members with 999 free cash (release date reference), and continue getting free cash for the in game store every month if they keep their subscription.
To summarise, you can play for free and buy new areas like expansions, or pay a fee and get everything included plus free store cash .
No one knows what kind of content will be in the store other than extra
areas and the Drow, I would assume the new favored soul class should be an unlockable too as it qualifies as new content that they can sell in this way to make their money. This also gives them motivation to release new classes and races as mini cash shop expansions to make more money.
Thats all the info I have managed to gather on it so far, will be downloading it on the 9th. It is US only servers on launch, but I heard that they allow access for everyone outside the US on those servers too.
Stuff Aion, play DDO for free untill GW2 comes out.
I just described it as best as anyone possibly can at this point. The new version is only a beta right now, so no one knows what will be in the cash shop, but as I said, they have confirmed that it will be extra areas and in game unlockables so far.
If you have ever played D+D games, you should know that you cannot 'pay to win'. Even in max gear, you are still a lump of squishy poo in D+D . Playing easier lower level content in the game doesnt get you any benefit, you wont get EXP or suitable equipment for your current level. You have to play areas for your current level for usefull rewards. Max +5 equipment comes from random quest rewards, when I played the game for a month to the level 16 cap at the time as a cleric, someone gave me a free +4 full plate on my first day, and I managed to get a second +4 full plate and a +5 Mithril shield from quest rewards on level 16 quests, so it doesnt really look like gear or other items like wands and potions will be sold. They do know how not to break a D+D game. Regardless of how powerful you and your gear gets, the game is still hard and challenging unlike GW. They dont kill D+D games with cheesy GW crap like PVE skills and Shadowform, it is pretty much the only MMO which will be a challenge to play and require skill.
Also, there has been confirmation that many of the spells are not purchasable in scroll form, and only obtainable from rewards and drops. I doubt they are going to be putting any of them in the cash shop, just as much as GW doesnt sell items in its shop either.
People these days really need to stop being so judgemental about F2P with Cash Shop. Other than WoW, just about every other successful MMO follows B2P or F2P with cash shop models which are very successful and work very well.
P2P has been completely dead since WoW. If people want many games to play, the industry is not going to manage that anymore using P2P schemes because this spreads the players too thin between the games, and very few gamers actually want P2P games. Other than WoW, no other P2P game has been as successful as it and GW. Lotro, DDO, and AoC killed themselves by not offering enough content for the fee, being too expensive and the players still ended up flocking back to WoW or to other free games.
P2P is a dead business model, I do not see Aion doing any better than Lotro or AoC did. It might manage to gain around 100k subscribers like most other P2P games, but beyond this it wont get any further.
PS. I only stopped playing other MMOs as they were P2P and I didnt want to waste my money on them. Once they are F2P, you can download and play them whenever you like .
Last edited by bhavv; Aug 27, 2009 at 03:17 PM // 15:17..
my opinions and choices for both remain unchanged
Never planned on playing aion...one game for me is enough and as lots of others have said--I dont do p2p.
ty bhavv i actually read carefully your previous post right after i posted mine. Forgot to modify it.
ty for the ad though its offtopic, probably a good alternative before gw2
aion>gw2 p2p i hated until i played a good one like aion the team cares more abotu us then what gw1 does . a game you pay for is better then free one they have alot more money to give us things we like and want , and to do this faster
Dungeons and Dragons unlimited is F2P and releasing on the 9th sept, but they never advertise the game and have a closed players only forum, so far only for subscribers and beta players, so word of the game never gets out like it has done for Aion and GW2.
My choice, and my advice is to completely forget Aion and any other P2P game from here on. Download DDO unlimited on the 9th Sept, unless it gets delayed, and play it for free. It is also following a model similar to GW where it has a cash shop, but the DDO cash shop allows you to purchase new areas of the game, like GW chapters, and also pay for in game unlockables such as the more powerful Drow race.
Optionally, you can also subscribe to DDO online, in which case all extra cash shop areas of the game become unlocked, and you recieve cash shop cash for free to spend on other unlockables like the Drow. But the drow, and anything else like it is also unlockable by playing the game and collecting favor by doing the quests, so you can play as a human first character with a normal class like I will be doing, and unlock the Drow and maybe the Favored Soul class which looks like it will be an unlockable through completing quests and earning favor.
What I would then hope, is that they continue to release new content for the game and new classes and races in the same way.
Pay a subscription to get it all right way (horde your free cash shop cash for purchase of ingame unlockables), or play for free and buy new areas like expansions as you become ready to play them, while unlocking bonus classes and races ingame using favor.
If it goes like I have explained here, it should be the best MMO model to date. Download of the game will also be free with no purchase required to play, current subscribers lose their current game and characters and items, but move onto the new one as VIP members with 999 free cash (release date reference), and continue getting free cash for the in game store every month if they keep their subscription.
To summarise, you can play for free and buy new areas like expansions, or pay a fee and get everything included plus free store cash .
No one knows what kind of content will be in the store other than extra
areas and the Drow, I would assume the new favored soul class should be an unlockable too as it qualifies as new content that they can sell in this way to make their money. This also gives them motivation to release new classes and races as mini cash shop expansions to make more money.
Thats all the info I have managed to gather on it so far, will be downloading it on the 9th. It is US only servers on launch, but I heard that they allow access for everyone outside the US on those servers too.
Stuff Aion, play DDO for free untill GW2 comes out.
DDO IS JUNK LIKE DO NOT PLAY THIS GAME LOL AT ALL i rather play wow then ddo or runescape lol . and wow is killign itself