Or we can pretend the game is fine and there's no issues.
If I was in lelad of Gameforge, I would merge ALL servers into 1. Then open a (community votes 2.7/3.5/4.0) server.
That set "Classic" server will, guaranteed, have way more population than the current Aion version.
Anyway, 16% is about 880 people.
There wont be aion classic server, there is simply no money in it. Move on.
Is that why there's a certain parallel universe (not our real universe Gameforge so don't censor me) where you can actually play 3.5 and they have 4k+ players?
If you can't monetize off 3.5-4k playesr then you're doing a very bad job as a company, even in a free-to-play version you can make bank off skins and gold packs with no p2w vr.
The more time passes the more my point will be valid, as we speak now that server has a bigger population than Gameforge's top 3 servers combined.
Tell me again "Classic" servers are a bad idea please, oh yea.
Bonjovi was a specimen back in 3.* it's funny seeing him play again and be exactly the same person.
Well, I still had Aion installed, what for? I don't know, just in case. But after reading this thread you all convinced me to uninstall it.
This will also be my last post on this forum.
The only thing that can save Aion is a classic 3.5~ server (or earlier and progress to that) that's not p2w, no stupid events etc.
That, or Aion 8.0 the restart. That will never happen.
As such, I wish you all a Merry Christmas and see you if they ever add a 3.5 server if not then oh well.
Which will never happen because Gameforge has no idea what would be successful, they think if they just flood the game with events and give people free items, people will flood to the game.
Assuming that you know better than an company existing since 2003, with over 40m of estimated annual revenue (according to owler) which keep publishing more game every year...
Wish i had your lvl of self confidence.
You can complain all you wanna about how GF treat the players, how annoying they are, but saying that they have no idea what would be successful is kinda stiupid.
That's hilarious, cause I am looking at the population numbers and it's dropping extremely fast. Unless they do something and fast the trend will continue. The future aka 7.5 isn't looking good so I will expect even more of a drop.
Then tell me about revenue. Ofc they made bank by cashing out on whales, but when the normal players leave the whales leave also.
They built their house on straws, if their foundation was solid and not p2w they'd have double the numbers they do today.
Pretty sure plume system was introduced in 4.x but I'm unsure which exact version just correct you ;o
Aion sale reduced year by year from 70b won to 13b won now today.
That means 3.* is the best version to have a "Classic" server, the most pure version where the game made sense, had a lot of PVP and was relatively fair. Which will never happen because Gameforge has no idea what would be successful, they think if they just flood the game with events and give people free items, people will flood to the game. The game itself is rotten, this version.
Can we stop with the delusions of classic already?
It won't happen, it will be a colossal failure and waste of money, no one will play it longer than 1 week.
The people who play on private servers now do so out of personal reasons related to GF and/or hatred towards GF.
Funny that's what people were saying about Classic WoW and turns out it was their biggest success yet, so much so that when it launched they had the highest sub peak ever in Wow history.
I've a feeling you have no idea what you're saying. There's a lot of people like me who'd play a different version of Aion but would never play retail, at least not the current Aion.
And what we want isn't Classic, that would mean version 1.0 of the game which was bad. I already posted a cool system somewhere but any patch between 2.* and 4.* is good.
Anyway, this will never happen, as for the cost of running a Classic server that's laughable considering there's people already doing that at low cost. It's peanuts.
Xeon
the Korean "classic" wasn't classic nor what people wanted lol, you're so far off. It was a terrible version of what people want. It was it's totally different thing.
As for the direction Aion is heading, read 7.5 patch 
that will give you some direction! I would say what you're saying is borderline delusional, it will never happen and Aion will never have the direction it once had or what you want it to have.
Western player base = 0 to NcSoft Korea. You have no say, this thread is pointless, me typing this is pointless. They won't change the game to cater to you, they don't even do it for Koreans. Their goal is money, more RNG elements, more gacha elements, more money. Same thing X repeat.
Enjoy.
I don't understand what the point of that poll is? Also horrible wording..
All those systems are horrible for Aion except 2 = Gear Enchantment and Manastone Socketing.
It doesn't matter which one is the most "crucial" .. that wording, crucial as in "oh I can't play without this! this is so awesome" clearly not, if you meant as in impactful then it doesn't matter. What are you gonna do? Change them? Remove them? You can't.
Anything besides the core systems of the game are just gacha elements added to make money off cash shop, like a mobile game, like a Facebook game.
And clearly everything on that list is a must-have if you wanna play Aion. To which degree depends on the availability, some of those are locked behind huge paywalls.
What, are you gonna make the things that get the most votes more available in game? Everything on that list should be made more available thru actual gameplay / rewards in game
Makes no sense to create that poll.
Free to play? Make 40 alts and wait for an event that Gameforge forgot to nerf and maybe you'll get one, which will probably be wrong for your class.
So play all day for months to achieve the same thing someone can achieve with real life money and a few clicks.Or you play for 2 Months do your Lugbug weekly every time and get a Safe Legendary, but hey it´s only been over a Month now, since 7.2 came and that System with it
One that you can pick? Still too long imo.
Imagine if you were playing Aion back pre 6.0 and you didn't have scrolls till 2 months in the game, you only had the lesser versions.
1 month is around the acceptable time frame I'd be okay with.
Depends, how much money are you willing to pay to get Legendary? Because you can get it within a day of a "PROMO" event.
Free to play? Make 40 alts and wait for an event that Gameforge forgot to nerf and maybe you'll get one, which will probably be wrong for your class.
So play all day for months to achieve the same thing someone can achieve with real life money and a few clicks.
I feel like I traveled back in time when people were making the same threads about 10% silence godstone back in the days, haha
How much did you pay? You probably need a lot to get what you want, at least 5k$, if you can't afford it, too bad!
I dont see much in future of Aion, especially EU side.
They could;
1.) Fix Aion, make things way more available than they are and more accessible in cash shop, take the good suggestions in this thread, apply them. I personally wouldn't even know where to begin, this option seems overwhelming. Not to mention Korea changes to Aion are the opposite of what western people want in MMO's.
2.) Since you can't do what other games did, aka abandon current model and start fresh with a new monetization system, mostly due to the fact that Gameforge isn't the dev and also because I think the current game isn't the best version, how about make a poll asking which patch people want, 2.* / 3.* / 4.* and create a "Classic" server with that, or don't poll and make it progressive starting with 2.* or even earlier and every half a year upgrading the version, while allowing people the option of staying on old version?
Have it with 0 p2w, 0 pay power, only skins in cash shop, can have gold pack but no broken VR, maybe consumables at most.
I believe there is a market for 2. as seen clearly by how many people already play on those type of servers. You will bring back old players maybe. Gives you a chance to advertise it everywhere and make Aion known again, so maybe some new players might be interested.
Personally I'll be real, I will not rejoin in 7.2 or 7.5 because even if they fix the game, you're still left with a worse game than it was when I played it. It doesn't resemble the game that I liked.
I would however be interested in a Classic server, even if it's just 1 and even if only 1k ppl are playing. But I've a feeling such a server would gain quite a bit of traction, more so than retail ones.
Tired of waiting for available extend weapons for ages, so now I log 1-2 times per week. How cant you understand that melee CANT play properly without it.
Go and do open world boss
Think about the fact that even extendables were changed so that they can be monetized in RNG "events" a-la Shugo Coin style
If they'll ever make them more available, that is the way they will approach things. It happened in 5.6, it will happen this patch.
When Aion made sense, you would do PvE to get PvP gear, Adma/Theo lab for Lannok Extendable weapon or Draupnir Cave for Bakarma Pole. Your time and effort was rewarded. Making them drop in a world boss means that just certain people can have access to them/ have a monopoly on world bosses.
I assume the extendables in this patch are not tradable also, a very bad downgrade to Aion, making things not tradable, kinah, items etc.
Sad.
Permanent Marchutan Form contract as jackpot prize for (credit) cards event + legendary contract, yet nothing but crumbs for normal players. This is surely not what I wanted to see in the future of Aion. Shame on you guys at Gameforge. Close this topic already.
And nobody was surprised.
I remember back in the day this lottery event had 10% silence godstone, which probably isn't as bad as having Marchutan but it was the same back then also.
#JustGameforgeThings
The push was from Korea and Gameforge capitalized on the gacha elements that came with new patches. It all started with plumes in 3.*, people who paid a lot of $ had +10 and nicely enchanted accessories +7~. The difference in damage was very noticeable and to get serums as a free-to-play player was tricky. You'd have to either buy them from whales or wait for events, make dozens of alts.
That was the beginning. With each patch came more elements that were made unavailable to f2p or people who can just afford maybe 10-30$ a month. They were catered to whales, pay power, and p2w players.
Reading those promises makes me laugh, as they're totally the opposite of what Aion is today. They don't care about their reputation and if you want to know their reputation just ask about Gameforge in any MMO forum/community.
QuoteGameforge hopes to turn the perception against free-to-play around, but why was that negative perception there in the first place?
Gameforge only managed to scare people when they hear the word "Aion" or "Gameforge". People really avoid playing games that are unfair and have p2w elements, I wonder how many new players Aion has that stick around when they hit max level.
Quoteis to avoid adding microtransactions that mess with a game's core balancing
So like adding permanent Marchutan Form contract as jackpot prize for (credit) cards event + legendary contract, while a new player might play for 3 months without seeing a Legendary, and when they get one it's not for their class?
It's painful to read what their promises were and their initial ideology and take a look at Aion today. If they had stuck to that maybe Aion would be one of the best games to play.
There's a thread made by Vashiro of suggestions. All of those suggestions will not do anything for the game, unless they change Aion into the description they have on the page that OP linked. Which they won't, they will milk Aion for what is worth until there's almost nobody online.
The current state of microtranzations and monetization for this game should be nuked from orbit. Other game companies with smarter people have managed to do that, at the cost of abandoning their "p2w" version of the game and re-releasing a fair version.
But even that won't be enough for Aion, not with much much thought put into it.
Mobile games are a joke.
How about remove VR all together? As it's yet another pay power element that makes new players run away, we already have too many of those.
Hah, cute suggestions everyone, but remember Gameforge's mentality. Why things are the way they are now. Everything is profit, that includes every little gacha element that Aion has, from enchanting your armor, to transformations, to skill books, to minions. That's why there's always a scarcity of something, so that when they add a "PROMO" event they can make money by selling the important in game item thru RNG.
Making items character/account bound, limiting kinah trade, all these things were added in order to make you PAY for items.
This monetization model doesn't fare well in 2019 nor will it in 2020. Unless maybe you drop the "pay 5000 euro for your character" model and actually make things extremely accessible in cash shop.
Aion has been having issues since way back but they never listened. Unfortunate. I almost wanna say I told you so. But it's too late to change the model now, except making things less expensive, more accessible in game.
Also I don't think they will have trouble balancing the "rewards" so that people will still have goals and it won't feel like you get everything to easy (the least of my worries tho) or if they give you a bone and say "hey we did something about that".
An important thing nobody mentioned, it's extremely unlikely for people that quit to come back to the game. And it's also very very hard to attract new players without actually making the game fair first, without properly advertising it. Look at what older other MMO's did in order to see a little success, they had to completely reinvent themselves, abandon the old model of the game, and start a-new with a new monetization system.
My last post here since I seem to be repeating myself, best of luck and everyone.
Display MoreTo be honest the situation isn't as grim as some people make it out to be.
If people want to p2w smart with 500e they can get a decent char and with 1000e spent on the game they can get their maxed char pretty easily.
If people p2w but they are not smart they will indeed spend 3k-5k euro for the exact same result as the smart p2w.
However hearing that Lineage 2M failed is a joy to my ears, it means NC was hit right where it hurts, in their wallets. So some changes may arrive for Aion in a good direction.
This doesn't change the f2p player problem however.
GameForge must consider that the average f2p player is of...less than decent IQ level and will not understand how to efficiently farm resources using in-game means and means which do not violate the terms of service. To this end indeed enchantment stones, stigma enchantment stones, daevanion skill books must be made more available in order to promote player growth both in numbers and paying customers.
It's not that these players are stupid, but they have no idea how to properly utilize alts or other game mechanics towards their advantage, and even more so some of these players may not even have the time to do so even if they wanted to.
That's a nice generalization, but p2w players are the same if not worse when it comes to game knowledge. The f2p players have always been the better players in general.
And what you're saying again, is playing this game like a full time job, to not even get close to someone with money that pays, and can get what you farmed for months in one day. That is a big issue and a reason most people stay away from it, outside this Aion bubble of course, just go on other MMO communities and bring the topic of Aion and you'll see.
There was battle medal gear that was somewhat fast to get and made you atleast somewhat relevant in pvp
That's because even in 4.* the game was still good. Everything made sense, what you did in game. Besides the accessory enchanting, it still felt fair and rewarding. Your time was rewarded, there were goals. Items had more value, some items had actual rarity (not you get a dark dragon, you get a dark dragon, everyone gets a dark dragon weapon).
SWB was amazing, you had Runadium which was fun, you had Katalamize. There was a huge sense of community.
But the most important aspect, there were less, for lack of a better word, p2w elements. All you had to do is enchant your accessories to +5, get your armor/weapon to +10 and you could compete with anyone.
Having 2 Star set +15 vs +10 wasn't that big of a difference.
Today you have way too many elements that you need to cover before you can do anything. I still believe transformations are the biggest mistake in Aion, the crafting scrolls system was infinitely better. Not to mention the other 5+ gacha game type of elements that there are now, the kinah change etc.
2. So still imo, the best way is to try to invent ways to help ppl come back to the game, ways that doesn't feed too much of the old players that already have their gear, but ways that make new ppl catch up atleast a little bit.
That can easily be done, however at what cost? To Gameforge, at the cost of profit. As long as they keep resources low, they'll have high value when they add them to cash shop or "promo" events.
Wouldn't it be amazing if you could get somewhat to end game gear within let's say 2 months, get to pick your Legendary transformation? But then Gameforge can't sell you Legendary Transformation in p2w events.
Also to note, Gameforge does not care about their reputation, see what they did tot Metin 2 recently, just google it. So I am at maybe 1% hope that they will actually change things towards the better and make an effort, so far all the "change projects" they had have turned to nothing.
And if they change something it will most likely be from a Korea change, in a future patch.
Amd keep your personal Discord drama out of this topic, I don't wanna read that.
I don't think it's possible to "save" Aion. You cannot save a building that was built on straws. I'll give my opinion from an outside perspective, fundamentally the game does not work in 2019/2020. Not because the game isn't good, but because of how they monetize the game.
Back when Gameforge took over, "f2p" was a relatively new thing, there were less MMO options and the f2p model they promised wasn't as bad as it is today. This model they have today does not work in this day and age, period. There are too many fair, free games. Actually f2p and better designed. And Aion also degenerated, with Gameforge pushing the boundaries of pay power gradually. Korea is part of the blame also.
When you can use events or cash shop towards your advantage to progress insanely faster than a normal player, you're giving the advantage to people who are rich in real life.
If you live in Ukraine and you're playing Aion VS someone from Norway who can pay 1000$ a month to get max'ed out gear, you have no chance. You can play for months to years before you even get close to getting what they can get Maybe that Ukrainian player can afford a gold pack per month, a subscription fee, but paying thousands is out of the question.
If most games can run off a one time purchase or a 10/15$ monthly fee plan, and have zero pay power/p2w, why can't Aion? I understand money is great, wow, such profit, but at what cost? Well, you're seeing the repercussions of that today. It took a few years to get here, but here it is.
There's a lot of key, mandatory things a game needs to have in order to be enjoyable. The topic is too big to fit on this forum. But one of those things is progression, goals, the feeling of being rewarded, that your time was well spent. Aion doesn't have that.
I have played since 2.5 and what I'm about to say still stands today. The fastest/best way to progress is to create as many alts (max level these days) as possible. Make 3 accounts, full of alts. And wait, wait for an event.
Maybe you'll play for 6-7 months, and if you're lucky you can get a thing here or there that boosts you, a legendary transformation. But when a worth while event comes that's when you can progress in 2 weeks what you couldn't in months/years. You cannot play this game on a single character as a f2p/ maybe pay for gold pack and that's it user. If you're playing on one character, you're probably never going to catch up to end game players, unless you pay a lot.
This isn't fun, and it's borderline exploiting events. You'll play for 12 hours a day to do this, and you won't even catch up to someone who has money to throw in cash shop/events.
I know partly NcSoft is to blame, they've introduced and added too many systems purposefully to be monetized, every patch brought up a new type of grind/enchant that ey, coincidentally you can also get in cash shop or events.
Aion had a good simplicity that worked very well before. Things made sense, what you logged in to farm made sense. You felt rewarded, there was more PvP, there was better PvE (in 4.*).
To end this rant, only Korea can save Aion. Gameforge is so limited in what they can do, as you can see every patch it takes them 3-4 months to "fix" it for western people, during which many people usually leave. That's too long to make a game playable.
Disagree all you want, maybe I am wrong, but a 2.7/3.*/4.* server would be more popular than any server today, if done well, with proper monetization.
Or wait for Korea to fix Aion, maybe they can have Aion 0 - The Reset and push the button and re-create the game from 0 because that's what it needs.
