ArcheAge makes me uneasy

I have been willfully trying to remain silent when it comes to all things ArcheAge.  Since many of you are asking me what I think about what we’re seeing in videos, QA, and other releases, I’ll go ahead and comment but I’m not sure it’s going to please the diehard fans out there.

ArcheAge is promising a ton.  In my opinion, too much.  Why too much?  Because the promises and scope of the game have crossed over from “OMG AWESOME CAN’T WAIT” to “I just can’t believe it until I see it.”  Graev and I have a line that we always repeat to each other when things depart from the scope of believability.  It’s spoken in a Peter Molyneux accent: “You can literally live in the world, build a ship, have a house, feel the living breathing world…” yada yada you get the idea.

That’s my first issue with the game.  I just don’t believe they’re going to execute on their plan.  I don’t even know if they’ve already done it in Asia already or not and even if they have I still would not believe it until I see it.  That leads me to my second issue with the game.  It’s not being designed to target the Western market first.  It was designed for the Asian market and it’s being localized for the West.  That has always been a direct path to disappointment for me.  Games like Aion and FFXIV might have been amazing for some but they fell flat for me.  I don’t like the same things, some of the hallmarks, their market likes.   That worries me a TON.

Looking at the official website I see stuff like “Build a ship with your own hands” and building your own house and turning it into a home to relax or a shop to make things.  I should be drooling and freaking out like this kid but I’m too busy looking for the catch, the trick, or the source of inevitable disappointment.  It’s not from being jaded, either.  I just get a bad feeling about this one like something just isn’t right.  My suggestion to my readers would be to use caution when getting excited about this one.  I would rather be wrong and pleasantly surprised given these warnings signs rather than get excited and suffer the let down.

All of that said…. the game looks amazing and I want it to be good.

Tags:

  • You’re just simply jaded, this genre, with these development companies, will do that to you. We’ve all seen many a hyped MMOs come out, with big promises only to see them fall flat – you have every right to be skeptical, I would be worried if you weren’t.

  • I don’t think jaded is right in this situation, though. In this situation, there are actual warnings signs such as region of origin, outrageous (although awesome) features, and massive scope.

  • I totally agree with your take on “Eastern” mmorpgs. Different cultures mean different ideas of fun. It probably makes me narrow minded but I’ll stick to “Western” games unless it’s Zelda tyvm.

    And where the hell is my Zelda mmorpg? Get on the stick Moyo!

  • I agree it has nothing to do with being jaded. I am jaded on all things themepark and have recently decommited from ever buying or playing SWToR no matter how good or polished it is because im refusing to help fund themepark games.

    For me I am wary of AA for 1 simple reasons, its Asian. I agree with Keens assessment about this, I have never ever played an Asian game I thought was worth of being an MMO. Whether its the hunched over running animations, the flashy ‘street fighter’ esque combat or the Anime style art direction. Those 3 things are a deal breaker for me, besides I that I hate Anime with a passion.

    I do feel that AA may try and implement some or most of those things they promised but I doubt it will have the production quality of a WoW or a Rift but thats purely my opinion.

    Its sad that an Asian developer has to be the one to make a ‘sandbox’ type of game, its horrifying that the Western companies are sacless wonder and refuse to come out with anything similar to Asherons Call, Ultima Online or DAoC.

  • Having given up on my DAOC replacement, I think I’ve settled on Guild Wars 2 since Guild Wars is still in the top 10 on mmorpg.com after all these years. With that kind of rating how bad can it be even it if is nothing like DAOC. Perhaps that will be a good thing. I won’t get disappointed because I’ll be expecting something different.

    On the other hand, ArcheAge has my hopes up with housing and everything as having similar aspects and hopefully even better than DAOC (to the point of not caring that DAOCv2 will never come). Unfortunately, it has entered the too good to be true arena for me as well.

    If, however, after playing Guild Wars 2 for a few months and ArcheAge happens to be defying all other recent mmo’s in expectation and actually proves to be a great mmo then I’ll gladly give it a try. I might actually wait for the first expansion pack though if it lasts that long. Seems mmo’s these days don’t start getting the major bugs fixed that are presented at launch until the first expansion pack is released (or at least the first MAJOR patch is released 3-6 months after launch).

  • Archage sounds like vanguard.. Huge world, non instances player housing, boats etc.. But still the mmo tab targeting dungeon raiding stuff.

    Don’t say the features seem too good to be true, those features are already in vanguard.

  • Also darkfall is relauching as darkfall 2.0 if you haven’t read that yet, spose to be a completely new game with all new features etc..

    Sorry for double post.

  • Well, I’m jaded, lol. I just don’t get excited about MMOs anymore, and you would think that after 10+ years in the genre would have taken a couple of leaps forward, instead its stood pretty still.

  • I can easily get excited. That’s the problem Unless I check myself and analyze the facts, I end up pulling a WAR all over again. If my favorite company that made my favorite game could do a complete 180, nothing in life is certain.

  • Will this be a F2P model? Although CS models are still trying to evolve to a Western mindset, an Asian CS game is probably the best reason to remain skeptical. All of the Asian F2P games that I have tried don’t even try to hide how they purposely broke a good game, and allow one to half-assedly body cast it back together with dollar bills…

  • Heya, K&G.

    I was wondering if you have heard anything about Prime yet.
    primeonline.com

    I just recently stumbled upon this, and for such a modest MMO it’s doing a very good job at getting my engine running. I haven’t been this excited for an MMO to release since Warhammer Online.

    There is so little to say about this game in this stage that I’m not sure you’d even want to comment on it, but so far it really seems to contrast with games like Archage and other up-and-coming MMOs in that it is promising so little. What it is promising so far, however (and however little), it’s still right up the alley of certain types of PvPers. I’d love to hear what you think of the info so far.

  • If it’s an eastern MMORPG, you can be 99.9% sure that to make your house/boat/whatever, it’s gonna be an awful mindless grind of MONTHS before you get the first result.
    Only asking to be pleasantly surprised though.

  • @ Jostle,

    Thanks for mentioning prime online. I am so tired of fantasy MMO’s. A science fiction MMO will be a nice change.

  • Saw this article in my Google Alerts, thought I’d stop by to say hello and see if anyone had questions about this nifty game. I help run ArcheAge-Online.com and I know I’ve seen K&G on other forums talking about this game. 🙂

    It is kinda unfortunate that lots of folks outside of Korea can’t be beta testers, but that’s due to Korean anti-cybercrime laws. Also, some editor-type folks (such as Jef from Massively) have gotten invitations to and been asked for their honest opinions of ArcheAge’s recent Closed Beta 3.

  • Considering the stagnant and same-old crap (SW:TOR) we’re going to get from this genre, ArcheAge is among a short list of games worth paying attention to.

    Am I sold? No, but I have been paying a lot more attention to its development than most other MMOs currently in development. In a genre where knowing what you’re getting means knowing you’re getting shit, I’d rather not know all the details and leave the rest to expectations.

    Then again, this is a viewpoint from someone who doesn’t agonize over every dollar I spend on a video game, or every hour spent playing a game that I no longer enjoy.

  • I was replying your comment, yes. I don’t really trust someone named “ArcheAdmin” about a game named “ArcheAge”. I’m gonna wait for more unbiased “reviews” and rumors before I start to rejoice.
    Sorry – MMO oldtimer is suspicious want someone comes out of the blues on whatever media to praise an upcoming game 😉

  • I mean (damned lack of “edit” function) all I see for now is an advertisement for your website 😉

  • Oh, I just use the name ArcheAdmin because that’s what I use on ArcheAge-Online.com. I didn’t mean to appear self-indulgent.

    As for advertising/praising ArcheAge, I didn’t plan on doing that outright. I just felt the need to answer the question of “why no testers from the West?” If anyone else has any questions, I’ll try to handle them with as little bias as possible. 🙂

  • @ArcheAdmin – What is the estimated time for an open beta? October?

    I only ask not because I care to partake in the open beta but rather because right around the time you finally hold an open beta, we will most likely start to get to see game play posted on youtube and such that it will give us a better idea as to whether or not the game is attractive to us or not.

    Marketing videos are great and everything, but everyone knows they do NOT represent actual game play (usually anyway).

  • Its take Jake Song from Linage so at least we have a track record to go to.

    From the outset they were smart in how they setup the world. Most of the world is a vanguardesk like setup, while they set aside a separate sandbox pvp continent. Smart choice early on at least.

  • @Steel

    Open beta was originally forecasted to be in November. There’s been no word since the original estimate as to when it will actually occur. I know for a fact (unless something drastic happens) that there will be a CBT4.

    There’s lots of good gameplay vids from CBT3 already on Youtube. Search for “archeage cbt3” and then narrow down the results by “high quality” and you’ll get some 1080p videos. Of course, you’re right, these are only CBT3 vids and not everything is final, so it might be good to reserve judgement for a little longer.

  • I appreciate your input, sorry if some of us have latent anger over getting sold out after overhyped inaccurate promises; it is a horrible business model to promise more and provide less. As far as questions, there are many already discussed in Keen’s original post and the other that follow. Please feel free to address these. Again mine regards cash shop/F2P pricing; do you have an initial expectation as to the pricing model? Thanks!

  • Honestly, ArcheAge wasn’t made to be an itemshop and I doubt it will have one for years after release. XLGAMES is leaning heavily towards P2P because they believe that’s an indicator of a higher-quality game (especially in Korea, where MMOs are churned out monthly by well-meaning students trying to get job after college).

  • Asian RPGs always turn out to be a bit off for my taste. Generally technically they are very solid – no crashes , smooth performance, decent to good graphics. But Art style design while interesting just doesn’t click

    And yeah the grind… Lineage2, Aion and about half a dozen other f2p asians mmos – all had it. Combined with pay2win models it just kills it for me

  • What’s silly is that Vanguard has (most of) all this stuff that ArcheAge promises, yet Vanguard lies dying in the proverbial MMO graveyard. Sad.

    It’s even sadder Sony let this happen.

  • It’s the stigma associated with the name that keeps Vanguard down. If it relaunched today as the game it was supposed to launch as it would be a hit.

  • ArchAdmin- Could you kindly give me a short breakdown of what you think the Pros and Cons of ArchAges PvP will be, and a short description.

    Thanks 😉

  • [quote]What’s silly is that Vanguard has (most of) all this stuff that ArcheAge promises, yet Vanguard lies dying in the proverbial MMO graveyard. Sad.
    [/quote]

    Well Vanguard was reviewed as crashy , buggy, laggy with low content and all the worst of EQ grind. Diku mud at its worst. The only thing it was praised for was crafting system.

    So I never even started playing it -seen a few vids with empty landscapes of average ugliness. Game is almost dead now so I find it hard to believe it was good. Deader than darkfall – and god that is an awful “sandbox”

    Archeage in vids and reviews showed tons more than vanguard ever did.

  • @Joy

    Pros and cons of PvP all depend on where you do it and why you’re doing it.

    Just feel some bloodlust, wanna murder some dudes who dissed you on the forums? You can kill them in a bunch of ways in a bunch of places, some of them more perilous than others.

    Also depends on who you want to kill, and if they’re in any way related to you (guild, alliance, player-created faction, etc.).

    All of the above doesn’t matter when you’re a pirate. You can kill anyone if you’re a pirate, but anyone can also kill you with no penalty.

    So, what are some of the situations you think you might find yourself in? Or do you want me to list some common PvP situations?