For our next "Things You Would Change With..." feature we are checking out ArcheAge from Korean developers XL Games that has been published to the Western market by Trion (Rift, Trove, Defiance) and is a fantasy themed Korean style sandbox MMORPG. There was a lot of hype behind this game prior to its release, promising big things, never before seen epic content and for many it was going to be a genre defining title. What has been delivered has at times strayed from that original vision, the game is suffering badly with bugs, hackers and business models, at least in our opinion and according to a very large and vocal segment of the player base. The developers continue to make changes and it does constantly seem like the publishers are trying to put out fires (often making the situation worse), but here are a few things that we personally think are still major issues that ArcheAge is struggling with.
Steep Learning Curve
There is a lack of guidance for new players. Whilst it is not uncommon for some MMORPGs to have a much steeper learning curve than many of the handholding themepark MMORPGs out there (EVE Online) there does seem to be a complete lack of information for new players when they are starting out. This isn’t uncommon with sandbox MMORPGs, where players can choose what they wish to do instead of being guided/forced by mechanics, classes or the zone progression, but given that the majority of MMORPG players are used to a more transitional period into the game we do feel that new players are left to sink or swim. The game almost forces you into a Guild early on, not just to experience endgame content, but to simply learn the ropes as relying on it in game player Mentors has its own horror stories of them taking advantage of new players, even holding them hostage at the end of dungeon runs forcing them to pay gold for gear and unlocks. With a few official guides that can be accessed in the game or some deeper quest chains for the key areas players may wish to pursue, instead of forcing players to seek out information on third-party websites and wikis, then the game might not be quite so daunting and off-putting to players when they join.
Looooooooong Queues
Paying to queue isn’t fun. It can still take players hours to get into the game, sat in a queue waiting to jump into your server, there’s plenty of stories out there of there where players have thousands of players before them in the queue, where players have had to pre-empt when they want to play and log on hours in advance just to get into the game round about the time they want to play. Injury added to insult even players that paid the $150 for Patron accounts, or now sub, and get “priority access with shorter queueing times” still have to wait hours, just not as many hours. Whatever is causing the problem, whether it requires better handling of players we are unsure, reports are that many servers feel dead so we don’t even know what’s causing these long queue times, but something needs to be done about it.
Cash Shop
The Pay-to-Win is strong. Whilst a lot of players complain about F2P games being Pay-to-Win, ie. items and gear available by paying real world money as opposed to earning them in game, the truth is that there is generally a good balance struck for most MMORPGs and it’s more a pay for convenience. ArcheAge seems to be unabashedly public about just how easy it is to buy your way to the top, some of the items that you can purchase in the shop, such as Hasla weapons, are far stronger than even the weapons that players can craft... which given that the point of the game is to be a sandbox MMORPG with a player driven economy this completely destroys that as the purchased items are superior than those purchased with in-game currency. Other cash shop items such as Labor Point Potions, items that give players the resources they need for pretty much everything in the game, provide greater benefits than those given to even the subscribed Patron accounts. Everything feels like a money grab by Trion at the expense of the integrity of the game and the player economy. The moment you put anything in a cash shop that gives players an advantage over non-real world cash paying players, then you’ve got serious problems.
Lack of PvP Options
There’s not enough ways to actively PvP. Don’t get us wrong, the facility to have multiple PVP experiences are there, with open world PVP, sieges and arenas, the problem is that open world PVP isn’t as common anymore and the sieges only happen every three weeks (which is another issue altogether given that it is one of the major features that drew many players to the game); PVP, for the most part, is driven into the arena. The problem then becomes that those players actively fighting in the arena, as opposed to random players you might come across in game, are nine times out of ten the pay-2-win "Whales" we’ve already spoken about and so to stay competitive you have two pump cash into the game to go up against other players: no pay; no win. With more open world PVP options, events and mechanics, or some more engaging open war zones outside of the instanced based arena types, then things might be a little more interesting.
HackShield Installation
We don’t like installing things without our knowledge… So most probably won’t know, many will, but when you install ArcheAge you are also installing "HackShield", a third party software that does things such as prevent viruses but is also essentially spyware to help the developers catch hackers in the game. They don’t tell you that they’re installing this when you install the game, there’s no notification and it is a stealth install behind-the-scenes, it is extremely hard to remove for those players that aren’t overly tech savvy (and even those that are it can still be a challenge), so this spyware sits on your computer without most players knowing about it. Worst still is that when you uninstall both ArcheAge and even Glyph the actual HackShield program remains; there is no removing it from the control panel, no uninstall options anywhere to be found, and the program is buried deep in your system to try and ensure hackers can’t get rid of it (or anyone else). Whilst many might not care personally we are of the opinion that we don’t like this kind of thing being installed on our computer, giving surveillance on our system, and making it difficult to get rid of is a complete invasion of privacy and security. Most importantly... it doesn’t actually seem to do the job that it has been forced on our systems to do.
Hackers
Hackers have some pretty game breaking hacks. Look up an article on ArcheAge and we’d be surprised if it isn’t talking about hackers in the game, look even further and there is a wide variety of opinions on as to why exactly hacking is so rampant, everything from bad initial coding from the developers (to almost negligent levels) and apathy to try and curtail such a widespread issue. Teleporting is an example of the biggest game breaking issues, to understand why you need to know that one of them fundamental features of the game for making in game money/resources is the transportation of Travel Packs. Travel Packs are items that players must carry from one continent to the other (for the biggest payout) usually travelling by foot, by horse or by ship and dodging enemies along the way looking to steal them from you. It’s a great idea (albeit a little tedious sometimes) and is one of the major driving forces behind the economy; entire Guilds are built around helping players transport the goods or trying to rob players as bandits or Pirates, and each run can take hours to complete. Now throw in a hack that allows you to instantly teleport from one continent to the other... yeah. Add in other hacks that allow players to instantly teleport to any vacant housing/land that becomes vacant, as land is extremely limited, and you start to get an idea of just how bad and game breaking the issues are. The developers seem to be trying but not really doing enough and the publishers have been extremely heavy-handed with their blanket banning, often catching up far too many innocent people in the process. More diligence is needed and to stop using methods that have proven pretty fruitless.
These are some things that we would change about ArcheAge, but what do you think? What would you change about this game? Would you add anything else to the list? We await your opinions! Let us know!!!!!
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