Aion going F2P in Europe starting February

[Franzer]

Aion goes free-to-play in February 2012
By Wesley Yin-Poole Published 14 December, 2011
"We want to reinvigorate the world."

Fantasy MMO Aion goes free-to-play in February 2012, NCsoft has announced.

From February you'll be able to download the full version of the game for free and play without any subscription costs.

NCsoft has partnered with Gameforge, which will be responsible for running the game across all of Europe.

The switch to free-to-play was made, NCsoft said, to boost player numbers in Europe.

"In the last few months the lands in Atreia have become more and more deserted," Gameforge wrote on the new Aionfreetoplay website.

"We want to reinvigorate the world of Aion and attract new adventurers to the towns to take to the skies as Daevas."

Gameforge has launched a new FAQ that details how the switch will work and how it affects existing players.

In May this year the huge Empyrean Calling update for Aion was released. The patch 2.5 added a high quality graphics option and new character faces.

We're now on update 2.7, which added a new PvP arena and a new raid.

"We have worked hard with NCsoft to develop a fair free-to-play model for new players as well as the current community," Gameforge's executive director Alexander Rösner said.

"In the future we will of course continue to develop new content and extend it, working in close cooperation with the players."

source: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...-february-2012

[Drex]

if I'm reading the website right, new players after the F2P changeover will be unable to trade, use the broker, or use private shops. they'll also have increased cooldowns, reduced fort awards, little/no chatting, not be allowed in legions, not be able to use the mailbox, not be able to extract or gather, and have limits on npc selling. the new pay subscription is identical to the current pay subscription, and the free versions are ridiculously limited.

fucking lol, it's like they don't want anyone to play their game

[Insanecyclone]

Wow. Those restrictions are like a "fuck you unless you're willing to pay"

[niwaar]

Pretty much seems stupid really. They are giving all but a few of the P2P options to all those who have ever had an active subscription. The only things you are limited with as a former subscriber are instance lockouts, pvp rewards and something they only refer to vaguely as "bonus". Reading more into the FAQ you come out with that the "bonus" is in fact bonus experience. So one is left to believe that they are either going to give all paying customers Double Experience, or they are going to cut the raid of experience gain for any f2p customer.

Really, their proposed model gives away the farm for free to current players who are 55. Cut rate Fortress Siege rewards will get some players to pay, mostly because the current Platinum Medal model is absolutely terrible. However, why would you pay if all you were doing is what I have done the last 2 months in game. ie Log In, Arena, AFK looking for group for BTHM or looking to buy loot, then playing some other game while looking up every 15 minutes to hit the spacebar.

Anyway you look at it, this keeps the existing players in the loop and may help entice players like me to come back to the game and pay for it for a little while when 3.0 hits next year. However, it does absolutely nothing to entice new players to join the game. Its basically a glorified extended free trial where you can't sell stuff, you can barely level, and you can not even chat with other players in an MMO. Good Game NCSoft!

[Pooky]

People still play this shit? Even I jumped ship a while ago lol.

[niwaar]

Dunno, I left after they turned the game into a "afk all day on different characters and we will give you free stuff" game. I think the game still has promise but NCKorea just doesn't want to allow the game to be viable outside of Asia. If it goes F2P it'll be worth a look when 3.0 comes out, but not for a day in and day out MMO. Doing 1 BTHM and 1 or 2 Esos a week does not make a compelling time.

[Elvis]

NCFail raped this game into oblivion.

[The Stig]

Question: It says in EU, but I was wondering if it's possible to join a US server?

or is it like Wow and everything is seperated.

Got someone I know in Canada that wants me to try the game but i don't want to pay/start a new MMORPG, but if it's F2P then messing around on it won't be too bad.

[Katlan]

Dunno, I left after they turned the game into a "afk all day on different characters and we will give you free stuff" game. I think the game still has promise but NCKorea just doesn't want to allow the game to be viable outside of Asia. If it goes F2P it'll be worth a look when 3.0 comes out, but not for a day in and day out MMO. Doing 1 BTHM and 1 or 2 Esos a week does not make a compelling time.

This. after 3 weks of basically afking in game for rewards because thats how they do shit. I realized that all i came back to do was to afk in game and do nothing and do a random BTHM and pvp which is really abyss pve w/ a side of pvp. Game is stupid and not worth it really. was fun though for the 2-3 months when I came back though

[Corwen]

Question: It says in EU, but I was wondering if it's possible to join a US server?

or is it like Wow and everything is seperated.

Got someone I know in Canada that wants me to try the game but i don't want to pay/start a new MMORPG, but if it's F2P then messing around on it won't be too bad.

EU accounts only work on EU servers. You'd have to buy the NA version to play on an NA server (which is not set to go free to play yet).

[The Stig]

Darn.

Thanks for the info. Might as well not bother then until that happens lol

[Syntex]

Darn.

Thanks for the info. Might as well not bother then until that happens lol

Even then I'm sure you could find one of the 2 dozen other games out there that offer better content.

[Corwen]

The free to play version in EU is going to be too restrictive to even be worth playing without paying for the premium sub.
-5 day cooldowns on eso and fort instances
-3 day cooldowns on besh, udas, EC, and dp
-2 day cooldowns on arenas
-1 day+ cooldowns on almost all other instances like SR, DC, theo/adma, dredgion
-1 medal max from fort sieges

And for new players, stuff like 50x essencetapping per day limit, unable to buy/sell on broker or trade on top of all this. Basically its just an extended free trial of the game since they cripple your ability to progress if you dont pay for the sub.

http://www.aionfreetoplay.com/website/featuresdetails/

[niwaar]

LOL, really? 3 days? I figured once a day for stuff like BT, Udas, and the rest of the non Eso instances and maybe 2-3 on Eso. I do not mind long cd's on worthwhile content. I mean we deal with Raid lockouts in WoW and the old 3 day Dynamis timers. Yet, the game is already an afk-fest. To put 3 days on instances is ridiculous. I do not mind the 1 medal max from forts. Yes it sucks, but at least you can get something for each fort period.

Multiple day cooldowns on PvP instances is ridiculous. Dredgion and Arena on a multi-day lock? Really? They just plain do not want new players to join the game and be able to have any fun.

[altwight]

I quit after they nerfed rifting. Was such a fun game then. Literally some of the best times I've had in a MMO.

[ⒻⓊⒸⓀⓎⒺⒶⒽ]

This game is pretty much dead now isn't it?
I really had hope it might come around eventually after seeing the Visions of Aion trailer.

[Tortalius]

game wasn't dead last time I was playing, but the population is a little thin sometimes. It's just that the game is designed to be fun with a lot of people because there just isn't a ton of unique stuff to do without a mob of players.

[Trichocyst]

The 3.0 content update will be pretty significant I'm told.

[Drex]

This game is pretty much dead now isn't it?
I really had hope it might come around eventually after seeing the Visions of Aion trailer.

a lot of people did, which is the whole reason they released the trailer. beautiful graphics and interesting ideas will always be trumped by poor management and implementation.

[Trichocyst]

That trailer is a total joke to the NC West office, probably Korea too.