Barton

Our Nation ended up losing the war, as only a few guilds in the Nation actually put up a fight, and ultimately we decided to leave the Nation after a members vote. It’s not that we want to avoid war, as most of us had a lot of fun even in defeat, but it was discouraging to see so many of our Nation members refuse to help each other out for fear of item loss. We are currently reviewing our options for other Nations, but hopefully we jump back into the city control scene soon.

 

Finally, I just wanted to make a quick note about the RMT aspect of AO. Simply put, its garbage. Since you can basically buy XP and Atlantica Gold in the item shop, anyone with money to blow can quickly boost themselves to the upper levels of the game. Granted this causes you to miss most of the game, but when you involve PvP, it gets a bit silly. It appears however that the vast majority of the players don’t use the shop (or even know about it), and since the game is mostly about grind, I have a feeling skipping said grind would leave you with far less dollars and very little to actually do. It seems many players in AO are just there to fill time, and don’t find the game good enough to justify spending money. The fact that the item shop is far from cheap also contributes to this, as making purchases in AO quickly goes far above a monthly cost even for a small boost.

 

I personally think Atlantica Online Gold would be worthwhile at $5-$10 a month, as its entertaining enough to justify the cost, but not exactly a AAA MMO title. The overall game imo is marred by its inclusion of RMT, and constantly reminds me that AO is ‘yet another Korean MMO’ rather than a solid stand-alone product. Again, still very worthwhile to try out and play around with for free, but not something to really settle down with.

 

The more I think about it, the more I view Atlantica Gold as a possible ‘dooms day’ for MMOs. It won’t happen, but if we assume subscriptions die out and everything is RMT, how long will players get tricked into paying for in-game items to stay competitive, before they realize the futility and quit? How many times will someone be duped by the RMT rat race before they abandon the MMO genre?

 

It took me once, Pox Nora, to fall into RMT and cast it off. Perhaps had I not spend so much money on Pox Nora, I would not be viewing the RMT shop in Atlantica Online Gold with the light I do now. Either way, no more money will be spent on RMT MMOs, and I’m sure I’m not the only one in that boat.

 

I would expect your page views to drop off over christmas. It’s not the you weren’t posting, it’s more likely to be people on holiday are more likely to be playing or doing other things, than sitting at a desk with a few minutes spare to read blogs. I know my blog reading goes up during work hours.

 

I always wondered if people moved from RMT to Sub MMORPGs or vice versa. Personally I have always viewed 6 month subs to an MMORPG as to be very good value, considering going to a pub/bar will easily cost more in one evening than the 6 month sub and doesn’t give a hangover. I know friends Atlantica Gold who manage 20 – 40 hours a week (if I was only that lucky) over 6 months which gives such a low average cost per hour, as to be trivial.

 

The reason I don’t go for the RMTs is I can envisage spending more than a 6 month sub, especially when I fall into the comfort zone of being happy to spend the money on RMTs, to maximise my progress. With a sub, I know my costs are defined.