That didn’t take long
I think I can safely say that my Allods Online experiment is done, and it seems like I was just getting started with the game. I stated previously that I thought Allods had alot of good things going for it, especially that it launched at a good time. However I knew the devil was in the details, particularly with the item shop. As it turns out, gPotato and Astrum Nival are as lost as a fart in the wind when it comes to bringing a game to the American market and will soon find themselves with little or no customers.

You’re doing it wrong
If you want a case study in how to do it wrong, look no further than this game. Exorbitant prices in the item shop are one thing, but when patches go into the game that basically require you to purchase these high priced items (thanks Keen for this insight) from the shop, it’s game over. Most US gamers are not idiots (note the word most there) and won’t support this kind of underhanded management of the game.

Нет, спасибо (No Thanks)
Most American gamers don’t trust our own game development companies, much less ones from China, Korea or Russia. This does nothing to instill confidence in me that these guys know what they are doing and that they will have a successful game in the future. Let’s face it, this was a nice diversion until Cataclysm comes out anyway. At least for me it was, and I feel that this may be the nail in the coffin for many others. I don’t care if they fix the problem and the item shop suddenly gets cheap, Astrum Nival and gPotato had one chance to gain trust and they blew it as far as I’m concerned. To me, Allods now gets filed in the free to play pile of fail that so many of these games wind up being.

~ br3ntbr0

© Posted by br3ntbr0 for Im Talkin Games with No comments on 02/22/2010.
Posted in: Featured, Opinion Tags: Allods Online, Cataclysm, Free to play

There has been allod alot of buzz about Allods Online recently. The game just launched after several weeks of closed and then open beta, and the game has plenty of promise. Many will put the game in the “WoW clone” category, and others will defend it’s twist on the proven themepark mmo formula.

This is not a review of the game per se, but so far my opinion is that it is solid and worth giving a shot. There is great value in the game, especially since it is free to download and play but also because it has a level of polish akin to Blizzard’s 800 pound gorilla. The main point of this article is to say that gPotato will likely see large numbers of players in the game early on. That is nothing new really, since the MMO crowd flocks to just about any new game when it launches (see Warhammer Online, Aion) only to retreat to safer worlds after a month or so has passed and the pain of a new MMO has set in.

I think the MMO crowd has also flocked to Allods online, but for different reasons apart from the shiny and new factors. For starters, Allods is launching at a great time. There are few (if any) other mmo titles launching right now, and the existing franchises (apart from Age of Conan) are releasing very little. The big kid on the block is also at a stagnant stage. Blizzard is famous for it’s long development cycles, leaving anxious regular players with daily quests and repetition until the next big patch or expansion comes out. Currently, the WoW player base finds itself in just that spot, as the Lich King is now dead on just about every server and the populous awaits Cataclysm expansion release. The time is right to lure players away to a new game, and Allods Online is a low risk alternative to that segment of the MMO player base.

I usually prefer buffet style MMO’s, I want all I can eat for one monthly fee. Let me pay 15 bucks and give me access to everything. Don’t nickel-and-dime me to death to be able to experience whatever part of your game is gated behind your item shop. However, if done right the free to play model shines. I can’t say if Allod Online’s model will be good or bad in that regard, but so far it seem to have no impact on how I can play the game. I’m sure at some point I’ll want to buy something from the item store, should I commit to the game, but I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it.

Combine the zero risk and great timing factors into Allod’s Online pretty smooth launch, and I think they have a good thing going. Agree? Disagree? What say you!

Check out the trailer below and come and join us on the Nezeb server, Empire side:

© Posted by br3ntbr0 for Im Talkin Games with 2 comments on 02/18/2010.
Posted in: Featured, Impressions, Opinion Tags: Allods Online, Blizzard, gPotato, World of Warcraft