When I recalled the stirring advertising campaigns of Aion(CN): The Tower of Eternity, I can't help feeling sorry for the ordinary response it received today since open beta. What's worse is that World of Warcraft, Aion developer swore to defeat, stole its thunder with a wet finger by putting on an operator-changing show. What on earth is the problem?
Description
This is what it looks like when using the flying teleporter in Aion. Also a graphics bug at the end,required a client restart.
From my point of view, we can skip discussing if Aion: The Tower of Eternity is worth playing or not or whether it is a kimchi game or not In fact, I can tell that there must be a lot of difficulties lying ahead Aion just by looking at the following three external factors. Wanna know what the three factors are? Read on to learn more.
The first CG of Aion: The Tower of Eternity released quite a few years ago
First: Demanding System Requirements.
Let's look at the official system requirements first:
Minimum System Requirements:
CPU: Pentium4 2.8G or above /AMD Sempron 2800 or above
RAM: 512MB or above
Graphic Card: GeForce 5700/Radeon9600 or above
Disk Space: 20GB or above
OS: Windows 2000, Windows XP, Vista Directx 9.0C
Recommended System Requirements: ¡¡¡¡
CPU: Pentium4 3.0G or above /AMD Athlon 64 3000 or above
RAM: 1G or above
Graphic Card: GeForce 6600/Radeon X1550 or above
Disk Space: 20GB or above
OS: Windows 2000, Windows XP, Vista¡¡¡¡Directx 9.0C
Some players might think the requirement is not off limits, saying that their computers are even good enough to run two accounts at the same time. However, we have to think about the average PC specs of players. In most cases, they are still using computers with Pentium4 CPU, 512M RAM and inferior graphic card. Few of them would upgrade their hardware just for a single online game and although the computers in some internet caf¨¦s can manage to run the game, the effect would also be miserable.
Aion: The Tow of Eternity with all special effects on [click to enlarge]
Honestly, even with all special effects on, I still think it just looks so-so.
What complicates the situation is that the claimed system requirement is far from practical. After a few tests, it was found out that it would be agonizing to play Aion if your computer only has 512M RAM, no matter how great the other components are. With one-digit FPS, the game would look like cartoon strips. You can imagine how suck it would be.
The system requirement will prevent approximately 25% of the players from playing Aion. Even if there are some players who manage to get in, they would probably find that Aion is not as perfect as they ever imagined.
Second: Poor System Compatibility.
I previously talked about the issue that players with low-end computers are kept out. Now, let's see what will happen to those with over-high-end computers.
Assume that you have bought an outstanding computer, the next thing you would do is probably to install a perfectly-matched OS for it. Apart from the commonly used WinXP, the only choice left, I think, is Win7. Why skip Win Vista? I would like to save my breath on this. You might as well try finding out the answer by yourself.
Although Win 7 is still in testing stage, it has already aroused fever on the internet. Many players can't wait to become one of the pioneering users. Last month, especially after the Win 7 RC version was released, the spread of Win 7 became even more uncontainable. I myself rapidly changed my OS on personal computer and work computer to Win 7.
Getting a blue-screen¡.
But unfortunately¡¡Aion: The Tower of Eternity does not support Win 7¡..
You might argue that it's Win 7 that doesn't support Aion. Why is Aion blamed? After all, Win 7 is still an OS in testing stage.
I have to admit that the compatibility of Win 7 was not very good at the time it was released. It didn't support Dungeon Fighter Online, KartRider, Aion, etc.
However, after 6 months passed, the problem has been solved for 99% of the games and programs after going through upgrade. While unfortunately, Aion is one of the remaining 1% that causes your computer to get blue screen and even worse there is no sign that the Aion developer is planning to solve the problem.
 Actually the reason why Aion is not compatible with Win 7 is rather simple. It's its nProtect anti-bots system that causes the problem. But don't forget that KartRider uses the same system and the KartRider developer has solved this problem a month ago. But what about Aion?
Besides, once the OS is re-installed, the Aion client will be unable to run again, with the following error message showing on the screen.
As a matter of fact, this problem can be easily solved by assigning a load item to the shortcut. But how could ordinary players have knowledge about this? The developer never said a word about the solution either, which results in 10% players simply quitting the game, because they thought they had to re-download the client.
Third: Expensive Charge
First of all, I have to make it clear that I totally agree to the time card charging model that Aion adopts. Yet I also think its pricing is a little irrational.
I can totally tolerate the fact that it doesn't offer weekly or monthly subscription model. But how could the developers be so sure that the players would still go for such a suck Korean game with overpriced hourly rate?
Gather and gather, then somehow you fail again.
There are a lot of gathering skills offered in the game, which can really drive you crazy. The resources will be renewed after quite a long time, and it normally takes you a few seconds to gather one kind of resource. Yet it doesn't guarantee success. And only one point will be given after numerous successful gatherings, and after gaining hundreds of points can you advance one level. What is more frustrating is that there are always levels after levels and there are many kinds of gathering skills. And after you complete gathering, you will have to spend a lot of time mastering living skills. In a word, time flies while you are doing all these nonsense, and it's in this way that your time cards are quickly consumed. Congratulations!
Maybe there are some players who are willing to spend a couple of bucks to explore the game for a few weeks. But how many of them will stick to the game for a long period of time? Students usually have plenty of time but they don't have money to burn, while office workers have money but they are probably not interested in such a ¡®sightseeing' Korean game. With such an overpriced rate, I don't really know how many players will stand outside Aion. But what I do know is that the number could never be small.
I can still vividly recall the time when I got a beginner's card. I got in game and exchanged it with joys filled in my heart, and then the system said: ¡®Congratulations! You've got 1-Yuan play time'. I was totally defeated. What a generous offer!
When I look back, I think I should have been more alert at the beginning when it turned out that the closed beta keys giveaway was so feverish. I mean, for a game that players are not familiar with, over-heated popularity usually implies bad outcome. A3 was a typical example.
Anyway, Aion is still on the rise for the time being. But according to the current situation, this could probably be the farthest it can go. With the new version World of Warcraft to be released and more games to rush into the market during summer holidays, Aion might fall into an even worse situation.
How far can Aion go? Let's wait and see. |
