I’m not quite at 180 with ArcheAge, but I’m close. It’s growing on me, rapidly, and I’m still just trying to plow through the early questing. I’ll post more once I get a little more time with it and really dig into some of the better features.
What I’m wondering today however is just how successful has this launch been overall, in terms of people trying the game and liking it. Clearly the launch hasn’t been great from a queues and server stability perspective, but again, is it possible that AA really has far exceeded expectations? I mean, when was the last time an MMO launch with a good level of hype, and actually lived up to that hype? 2004 WoW? Maybe FFXIV?
Trion isn’t new to the MMO genre, and out of all the studios out, they also aren’t the worst. They may have borked Rift with update 1.2, but Rift was still solid, and from reading others they did the F2P downgrade well for that title. Maybe they are actually being honest now when they say the player counts for AA are unexpectedly high? Maybe, like me, lots of other people are pleasantly surprised and enjoying what AA is? Again, an MMO coming out that has actually surprised people in a positive way has become a very rare thing, while the demand for a good MMO (I believe) has remained high.
Maybe AA is the next big thing? If FFXIV can hit and retain 2m+ subs just by doing themepark ‘right’, is it really that hard to imagine an MMO doing virtual world ‘right’ not snowballing into a massive success?
Hardcore Casual 
“is it possible that AA really has far exceeded expectations?”
Until level 30 the game is the typical linear themepark questing game along with amazing features like ships and sailing and also housing and farming. No one will dislike the game until the first 30 levels and when they have to move out from the safe zone of their faction area.
Then is where the “true game” begins. Once the majority of players realize the ffa pvp, 80% of them they will quit and archeage will be the next Darkfall. Give it 1-2 months and people will remember the days with que times as the best days of the game while sitting on empty servers.
Except if the f2p model will be enough to feed the small pvp community with the hippies that will jump in for the free experience.
This is stupid. You can play safely and do a million things without the fear of getting ganked. Even if you are, the penalty is trivial unless you are carrying a trade pack, which if you are carrying it overseas you already accepted that risk. The game is very very well designed. The very weird extreme fantasy with all kinds of nonsense added setting might turn off some people, but the PVP won’t turn many off.
It’s a shame I don’t have time to play it because by getting to know the game at max level in beta, I realized it was the WoW-as-base, sandbox, pvp, with a million different activities and a completely player driven economy game I waited for all these years.
It’s a sandbox PVP WoW with a million more and deeper things to do in every area, except raiding.
I meant, in Alpha.
That is the first time I have heard f2p players referred to as hippies. Interesting.
I wonder how many people actually go into Archeage without knowing there is ffa pvp. I’m sure there’s a number, but I can’t just accept that it’s large. Or small. Interesting though.
Darkfall had a lot more issues than ffa pvp. And the ffa pvp was there from the beginning, not after 30 levels — so that’s not a reason why people quit.
This is a wait and see for me, hard to predict. But I suspect it will be stable someday, not empty.
I had no idea AA had ffa pvp. I’m actually very excited to give it a try now.
>> is it possible that AA really has far exceeded expectations?
Yes. Yes it is.
Well played, good sir.
If the gold spam is any indication, the RMTers certainly think it will be successful enough to be worth supporting.
I’m so strongly reminded of “EvE in a fantasy setting” when playing ArcheAge, with the trade runs in particular. You can do trade runs in PvE areas and still make decent currency or you can choose to incur more risk into PvP zones for additional profit. Risk verses reward is very flexible and suits a wide range of gaming moods.
The feeling of doing a full guild trade run by boat to another continent is quite epic, having to dodge pirates and sea monsters for a clear and lucrative reward.
The crafting system is deep enough that there are many niches that one can choose to specialise in, even if its just processing a popular resource type for labour points.
I’m not hyped for this game, but I’m enjoying my time there and am hoping that the economy is deep enough to scratch my trading game itch for more than a month or two.
Oh, and I’m position 3400 in queue right now….