NCSoft Layoffs... or DOOOOMMMM

Here's hoping everyone at Paragon Studios is still safely employed.

So to put a greater focus on Western-developed games... they're moving positions back East?

Yeah, that's what has me really worried. :\

I've never seen layoff press releases that didn't rely on Insane Troll Logic, to be quite honest.

Aion does seem to have not lived up to their expectations, and been overtaken by Rift as the WoW alternative for a lot of people.

With good reason. Aion failed to address the hostile PvP reqyirement that prevented PvE players from feeling immersed. I know the "western" team had no control over that but truth be told, had NCsoft just introduced PvP optional servers, the game would still be thriving today.

Shame to hear anyone got laid off though. Hopefully that didn't extend to PS.

I alpha tested Aion. It was literally myself and my fiancee (as well as an internal test team that'd pop up) on the Ciel server, day 1, build .1, and I can tell you with honesty and confidence that Aion was ruined the moment they neglected to take any bug reports we sent in. A few of the things we pointed out:

No account security (this led to craptons of bots).
Easy XP farming by picking flowers (bots).
No chat spam countermeasure (tons of farmers and advertisers).
PvP made no sense.
Clerics couldn't PvP.
Templars were way too strong.
Flight handled like a drunken whirlygig.
Content progression was confusing.
No profanity filter for names.
Teaming was a pain to organize.

The list goes on. When Aion went live, NONE of that stuff was fixed and the game ate dirt because of it.

Great to hear! Thanks, Z.

Like me! (But my heart still belongs to COH... we have demoediting. Rift doesn't. Yet.)

If they took two pages from Rift's book (PvP-focused servers, and flag-option PvP), I might go back. Not until then.

Which was a pity because the game was gorgeous. I spent HOURS just staring at it thinking, "My God, the videos I could make in here... if I weren't CONSTANTLY BEING SHOT IN THE BACK BY RAIDING ELYOS TEAMS EVERY TEN SECONDS!"

A relief to know, Zwill, thanks for sharing. It's always hell when corporate pancakehattery has jobs under the Doom of Damocles.

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite

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Thanks for confirming that. The fact that this didn't touch Paragon says that CoH:Freedom is doing well.

Er... To be fair, sub-level-20 zones had no raiding in it, and there were PVE only (non-rifting, non-enemy-entrance) zones. Not enough content there by the time I left to make an alternate path, and some of the "core" content (Fragment of Memory) couldn't be done without dealing with PVP... I still don't know how FoM3 went.

I went in there knowing there would be PVP, expecting to PVP... and at times it was fun. When it WASN'T fun was being sent, at level 20, into an enemy camp to collect 5 of whatever. If you went via rift, within minutes there would be a horde of high level enemies there waiting. Via "spell" (for some missions,) you'd have to penetrate enemy territory ... where the high levels would inevitably be, and would tend to kill you (and destroy your kisk, or wait for you at it) in no time.

The PVP was, on occasion, fun - and I'll admit I enjoyed the *hunt* more than anything (my Ranger didn't have the best gear, but I'd gotten a good hundred some kills in fairly casual play) - but there was a lot that just broke it for me.

And I'd disagree with some of N_A's points - I had no problems with flight, for instance, and teaming (as I recall) was pretty quick. PVP made sense... it just quickly got out of balance. (And with higher levels getting into low level areas, it wasn't restricted enough.)

One of the things that really killed it for me, though, was the *cost* of everything. Try to get a little cash to get ahead, have it burned on a skill upgrade... but only one, your others get to suffer for a while. And don't forget the *required* purchases to finish some quests. Very annoying.

See my Guides and Tutorials

Now that is good news. Thank you.

Yipee. Long live COH.

Now do something with Perez park and Boomtown wouldya?

This is the best game ever. Ever.

OMG this most definately. I stayed subbed with Aion up until rift went live. Its a shame because I loved how beautiful aion was and it was the first fantasy mmo that I like. What I hated was all the pvp which made it impossible to level past 40 because the opposing faction camps the city exits and instance entrances. To for so many servers down to 4 is just sad. I hear its going to be shrinking even more with the new server system they are implimenting. Its gonna be like another server merger for them all over again. Aion could turn around if they just introduced flagging pvp that one thing alone would have saved that game.

Agreed... (Although it was those evil, evil Asmodians gunning for my poor, fluffy little Sorcerer. )

I started out with Aion during the first closed beta, and wanted so badly to like the game... I tried. I really did. I stuck with it for quite awhile after launch. I put up with the obnoxious PvPers, and the griefers, and the RMT spam. I tried to work around the forced teaming and the endless grind that was the crafting system. I took to gliding every chance I got just to have an excuse to use Kae's wings. (It really is unforgivable to make a game about winged, flying things and then deny them the ability to fly in 90% of the game. >_<)

In the end, though, I just... couldn't. Losing Kae's name when they did the server merge was the final straw. (I created him literally five minutes after the game went live on Day 1, and yet my appeal to get his name back was denied. I never have figured that one out.) I cancelled my subscription and haven't gone back.

I don't think NCSoft will ever make the same kind of mistakes with City that were made with Aion as far as playability goes... The starting point is too different, and unlike the US Aion crew, Paragon seems to have a fair bit of autonomy when it comes to their game... But that experience hasn't given me much confidence when it comes to any bits that NCSoft DOES handle. Like the billing and CS end of things...

I know I would probably still be there if there'd been PVP optional servers, with a tweak that allowed more soloing of content. And ye gods, fix those prices in the auction house!

I miss my crazy little Gladiator.

Wow you guys have a loooooot of patience. Some of the stuff you all listed that you put up with would have had me cancel on day one.

Perhaps I'm getting less patient about such mmo nonsense as I get older in age.