Richard Aihoshi's Free Zone: A Tale of Two Allods

All the other Gpotato games cash shops are insanely overpriced. Its a mystery to me as why Allods is the one game who brings to light the epic greed that is aka Gala-net/Gpotato. Take Rappelz for instance.

Id play Allods if they werent associated with Gala-net. Cogent-co (The isp Gala/Gpotato use in Cali) is HORRIBLE not to mention Gala...

I heard about allods for the first time on this site.

I wasn't excited just in the mood to try out an another f2p game because several dissapointed me or didn't give me the satisfaction I was looking for.

And this game just crushes al the f2p games I have tried for the several years of gaming. 

And if the Astral ship pvp will work then they made a real piece of art.

Bravo !

The only downside is as mentioned above the item-mall, hopefully they'll follow the gamers advice.

I loved the Rage of Mages titles and still play them on occasion even today.

As for Allods, while I have not been in the beta test, I have many friends whom are and they actually have many positive things to say about the game.  The thing that soured them on the title was the astounding greed evident in the cash shop(standard practice for gpotato).  Because of such a blatant cash grab, they will not be involved with the game past release because they view it as an indicator of things to come.  Right or wrong, past and future, the perception has been founded and it will be hard for gpotato to shake it.

Lastly, don't be so quick to judge your audience Mr. Aihoshi.   I think you would be surprised how many people are familiar with the Charles Dickens you quoted, and not just the initial line of the story.  It's the same condescending tone that emanates from many of your articles that makes many here not take you seriously.  It clouds your message and makes your articles less interesting to read.

The play is primarily quest-driven, which is generally regarded

I read that first as "generally retarded", and had a good laugh.

Anyway, I was a fan of the Rage Of Mages games (and Nival in general) and was eager to try this game out. It's not altogether bad, but not new enough to keep me interested. I thought the opening tutorial set-piece was getting me ready for a great new take on the genre. This unfortunately ended (too soon I might add), and opened way to fields of pacing creatures waiting to fill your quota for a quest.

I'm not entirely against cash shops, but hopefully developers/publishers will realize that smaller price points amount to larger initial sales, and repeat customers. "A nickel today is better than a dime tomorrow", so they say.

 Oh, I played Rage of Mages! That's an interesting connection.

 I'm still trying to wrap my mind around the idea of a mmo having a working cashshop in Beta!

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Originally posted by nekollx
 I'm still trying to wrap my mind around the idea of a mmo having a working cashshop in Beta!

---

They only call it "Open Beta" as an excuse if they make any major changes.

Originally posted by Einherjar_LC

I loved the Rage of Mages titles and still play them on occasion even today.

 

As for Allods, while I have not been in the beta test, I have many friends whom are and they actually have many positive things to say about the game.  The thing that soured them on the title was the astounding greed evident in the cash shop(standard practice for gpotato).  Because of such a blatant cash grab, they will not be involved with the game past release because they view it as an indicator of things to come.  Right or wrong, past and future, the perception has been founded and it will be hard for gpotato to shake it.

 

Lastly, don't be so quick to judge your audience Mr. Aihoshi.   I think you would be surprised how many people are familiar with the Charles Dickens you quoted, and not just the initial line of the story.  It's the same condescending tone that emanates from many of your articles that makes many here not take you seriously.  It clouds your message and makes your articles less interesting to read.

 

 

Given the *reality* of wide spread ignorance of such basics as history, geography, ethics, government(hell, how many Americans have any clue what the Constitution, and Bill of Rights say, and mean?), mathematics and science I'd say that a condescending attitude is warranted.

Allods looks like a fun game, and one that I'll eventually get around to playing. But they seriously shot themselves in the foot with their cash shop antics.

All I've gotta say, is that everyone thought the game was amazing until FOD, the biggest cash shop scam ever, and one of the worst Death Penalties I've seen(besides character deletion).  For those of you who don't know, Fear of Death(abrev. FOD) is like rez sickness times a million.  It lasts an incredibly long time, and can only be healed by your typical soul healer, or a cash shop potion.  It costs quite a lot to heal, and you can't heal it in the middle of an instance without the CS potion, making instances nigh undoable after a wipe...

 I've been playing for a little bit and I think that Allods is one of the best F2P games out there. It's world is far more immersive than other free games, it has more class variety, and a good range of customizability within the class.

 Now I haven't dabbled in the cash shop but I rarely do (I mean, I'm poor thats why I play free games). Ideally the shop should be priced so that the average gamer can have  a good times spending $15 a month playing the game, with the options of playing free for a less than average experience and more if they are a real power gamer. 

Ok I would like to ask that MMORPG PROOF READ WHAT IS SENT OUT TO EMAILS....

First your title is completely misleading as to the subject matter, which in this case what this company and that company giving hand jobs to each other behind a out house for a bigger slice of crack. Second the topic only got what 1, 2 paragraphs. Not to mention you haven't even gotten to the "Space Combat." omfg. Did you like play this past the tutorial. Its not space battles. The world of Allods is based on a floating island world . The inbtween spaces are where the ships do battle. Which fyi has alot of pvp style to it. Think bf2142 titan mode.

I dont mean to be rude, wait yes I do...Next time please stick to your topic rather then go off on a 300 word journey that really matters little. K. thanks.

yep in case you didnt know this game is a galactic of some kind game

a la albator!your boat fly in some kind of space and battle for supremacy

its eve meet wow

that why i laugh a lot when player say its like wow,im like they didnt even left the ground lol!

http://allods.gpotato.com/?m=media&a=video

check the video called THE ASTRAL

that is also allods !

i thot thats what you meant by your title!

HERE IT IS IN ACTION

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXIBRu2Nddk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3wrKiFecJY

grin!

Allods looked so good... and then it promptly committed seppuku.  If they hadn't treated the players like idiots and walking wallets, people might stick around.

Originally posted by Wraithone

Originally posted by Einherjar_LC

I loved the Rage of Mages titles and still play them on occasion even today.

 

As for Allods, while I have not been in the beta test, I have many friends whom are and they actually have many positive things to say about the game.  The thing that soured them on the title was the astounding greed evident in the cash shop(standard practice for gpotato).  Because of such a blatant cash grab, they will not be involved with the game past release because they view it as an indicator of things to come.  Right or wrong, past and future, the perception has been founded and it will be hard for gpotato to shake it.

 

Lastly, don't be so quick to judge your audience Mr. Aihoshi.   I think you would be surprised how many people are familiar with the Charles Dickens you quoted, and not just the initial line of the story.  It's the same condescending tone that emanates from many of your articles that makes many here not take you seriously.  It clouds your message and makes your articles less interesting to read.

 

 

 

Given the *reality* of wide spread ignorance of such basics as history, geography, ethics, government(hell, how many Americans have any clue what the Constitution, and Bill of Rights say, and mean?), mathematics and science I'd say that a condescending attitude is warranted.

Allods looks like a fun game, and one that I'll eventually get around to playing. But they seriously shot themselves in the foot with their cash shop antics.

It is only warranted if the author legitimately possess more intelligence than the lowest percentile of the audience, which is not the case here.  This article was just another chance for Aihoshi to wax idiotic.  And like another poster mentioned, why ramble on for paragraphs about useless nonsense that has nothing to do with your title?  You could have reduced the whole thing down to "Cash shop make game go boom."  If you want to freestyle write, have it at.  Just learn to correctly title your work so those of us who wish to avoid such nonsense may do so.

Originally posted by Sensai

It is only warranted if the author legitimately possess more intelligence than the lowest percentile of the audience, which is not the case here.  This article was just another chance for Aihoshi to wax idiotic.  And like another poster mentioned, why ramble on for paragraphs about useless nonsense that has nothing to do with your title?  You could have reduced the whole thing down to "Cash shop make game go boom."  If you want to freestyle write, have it at.  Just learn to correctly title your work so those of us who wish to avoid such nonsense may do so.

If you don't enjoy his writing, then the logical thing to do would be to stop reading these articles. Unless you're a sadist. The nerdrage is cute though.

I enjoyed reading the article, almost more so than reading the instant flaming by anti-F2P fanbois. From reading the article's title, I did get the sense he would talk about how Allods is a quality game, they screwed up the cash shop, player base is angry, they're blowing it, bla bla bla.... frankly, almost everyone who's interested in MMORPGs has probably read or heard about that topic a million times already. I am glad he didn't write about an old topic at length.

I am glad he went into a brief history behind Nival Online / Astrum Nival. It's something new that I certainly had never heard about vs just saying, "Cash shop make game go boom." OH THAT'S GROUNDBREAKING!

The title could have been made more relevant than catchy, but whatever. Nice history of the company behind Allods.

The author, if he even deserves such a title, is consistently arrogant and prone to making references to the average reader's lack of intelligence, poise, and common sense. I can only ASSume that MMORPG.com likes to have him stir up the crowd with his annoying prose.

I found nothing of interest in this article; it is a shallow history lesson with minimal relevant information on the actual issues the North American launch has faced. If Richard (I think I'll just refer to him as Dick) decides to write another article on the topic, perhaps next time he can include some detail.

Allods is not a bad game in my opinion from a limited play experience. It doesn't revolutionize the genre, but it does provide a stable, somewhat generic fantasy MMO experience.

 You know, I'll play the devil's advocate and say I was actually interested in what Richard had to say about the pedigree and history behind Allods online.  Nival has been one of my favorite PC developers and I don't know that many people knew where the game came from.  I suppose if you've got a hate-on for the guy there's not much he could say that you'd approve of anyway.

Originally posted by Athcear

Allods looked so good... and then it promptly committed seppuku.  If they hadn't treated the players like idiots and walking wallets, people might stick around.

On topic:

Well, the story is the same in the NA and EU allods...

I'm not american (the Item Shop story was generated from NA server), but we got the same picture in EU. Plus, we were/are saying Fear of Death is ruining the game (more than 200 posts in the "no moderators here" EU forums) since CB 4. As you can imagine there were no damn answers.

For me Allods is  past, - after CB 1-4 and a plain FoD OB - just another "could have been" game. I am usually too lazy to defragment my drives, but I was so "excited" about uninstalling Allods that I did it.

You may have seen it before, but yet I gotta say I am pretty bored about gpotato economic "style", as a consequence I will avoid all offers - Aika and such... Fortunately, I'll be able to use single player RPGs until Gulid Wars 2 hits the market.

Added to Rune of Magic (Rune of Mages actually, they got the most OP mages I ever seen) and Alganon, i.e, Allods Online should give an opportunity for a new top 5: "What Lies Beneath", or "Zombie Games We Left Recently".

Originally posted by Talin

The author, if he even deserves such a title, is consistently arrogant and prone to making references to the average reader's lack of intelligence, poise, and common sense. I can only ASSume that MMORPG.com likes to have him stir up the crowd with his annoying prose.

I found nothing of interest in this article; it is a shallow history lesson with minimal relevant information on the actual issues the North American launch has faced. If Richard (I think I'll just refer to him as Dick) decides to write another article on the topic, perhaps next time he can include some detail.

Allods is not a bad game in my opinion from a limited play experience. It doesn't revolutionize the genre, but it does provide a stable, somewhat generic fantasy MMO experience.

The author, fully deserves the title - Author = the one who created the text!

I think the genre used here is referred to as "Informal Lecture" unless I identified it incorrectly, and as I gather from the rules of the genre, the whole purpose is to be superior, sarcastic, arrogant, and whatever else will convey to the readers that he is right, and they are wrong.

If you found nothing of interest in the article: What's the point of going on about it? It's a more in-depth history lesson than anyone else has bothered to give, and the purpose of the article, I believe, is not to give information upon the North-American release scandal, but to convey that simple message: "Game went boom, because these people did that, even though those people did this."

That Allods is not a bad game, was the whole point of the article. It's not a bad game. Yet it went boom.

I don't get why everybody is saying the title is irelvant... it's completely relevant: The text is mostly about Allods, the company and person which created it. The title also says just about everything you want said about the game: It's good but it's bad. Which, I presume, was the whole point of the text: Show people that this game is the symbol of the Russian gaming market, now being exploited by people who haven't realized they're already wealthy enough.

Now stop complaining about the authors writing style. He writes as he does, because he pleases to do so. Is it truly your place to comment upon it when you didn't have anything, what so ever, to do, at all, with the creation of the text, nor information conveyed in the text?

PS: I noticed one person commenting on it not being spacebattles. "Its not space battles. The world of Allods is based on a floating island world . The inbtween spaces are where the ships do battle." by Chivalry1978

Err, isn't that a space battle? A battle, that happens in space... (Yes, I just had to point that one out. NOW! back to topic."

I've been playing Allods Online a little bit and I've been impressed with it so far.   I agree is a far, far better than any other F2P game I've ever seen. 

It was interesting seeing a summary of the game's history in the article.   I had seen bits of pieces of what was covered but never all of it summarized in one place.    

 Well recently i was take some small interview with Nival Network customs (about operating Dragonica Online) and have some answers about allods online, yes, most of original developers now is uninvolved in project.

Originally posted by Wraithone

Originally posted by Einherjar_LC

I loved the Rage of Mages titles and still play them on occasion even today.

 

As for Allods, while I have not been in the beta test, I have many friends whom are and they actually have many positive things to say about the game.  The thing that soured them on the title was the astounding greed evident in the cash shop(standard practice for gpotato).  Because of such a blatant cash grab, they will not be involved with the game past release because they view it as an indicator of things to come.  Right or wrong, past and future, the perception has been founded and it will be hard for gpotato to shake it.

 

Lastly, don't be so quick to judge your audience Mr. Aihoshi.   I think you would be surprised how many people are familiar with the Charles Dickens you quoted, and not just the initial line of the story.  It's the same condescending tone that emanates from many of your articles that makes many here not take you seriously.  It clouds your message and makes your articles less interesting to read.

 

 

 

Given the *reality* of wide spread ignorance of such basics as history, geography, ethics, government(hell, how many Americans have any clue what the Constitution, and Bill of Rights say, and mean?), mathematics and science I'd say that a condescending attitude is warranted.

Allods looks like a fun game, and one that I'll eventually get around to playing. But they seriously shot themselves in the foot with their cash shop antics.

I shouldn't have to but I will remind you not everyone on these forums is American(by American I assume you mean from the United States since your reference is of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights because there are 2 continents of Americans and they entail multiple countries).  If you'd like to debate what Americans(USA) think they know and what they really know I'd be happy to debate that but this is not the thread.

As to address another poster that suggested not reading Mr. Aihoshi's articles.  Only the close minded read that which interests them.  A well rounded person will read that of all perspectives so as to make themselves a more informed person.

I have beta tested Allods for over 4 months. And I can clearly say that in arena of WOW/EQ like MMOs , Allods is clearly the runner up.

If the game was managed properly , i can say without a shadow of a doubt , it would reach WOW numbers.

Alas

There comes G-Potato

-

The game as it is now is completely miss managed :

Not only that prices are ridicilous (although they were reduced by 70% !?)

But even larger issue is that gameplay (and classes) were intentionally nerfed in order to make cash shop purchases a must.

(In dreaded upcomming patch - caster classes will basically need "perfumes" even from lvl 15)

Couple this with total lack of any GMs on european servers - making gold seller spam unberable.

....

With support like that. And evident "we wash our hands" attitude from developers (who probably given up)

Its question where this game is headed?

And again. Its a great great game.

Easily contender to WOW.

But its been driven to the early grave.

Originally posted by Einherjar_LC

Lastly, don't be so quick to judge your audience Mr. Aihoshi.   I think you would be surprised how many people are familiar with the Charles Dickens you quoted, and not just the initial line of the story.  It's the same condescending tone that emanates from many of your articles that makes many here not take you seriously.  It clouds your message and makes your articles less interesting to read.

 

 

I'm a very well read individual and even though I've read the book twice I couldn't recite anything beyond the first part from memory. Out of all the people I personally know there's only one other person that has read the book and is even familiar with its content. He's definitely correct that most people have no idea where that quote comes from much less that what the rest of the statement is. I personally take it as a positive in assuming that we are not so emotionally stunted as to have memorized such a line in its entirety. 

Originally posted by UNOCK

Originally posted by Talin

The author, if he even deserves such a title, is consistently arrogant and prone to making references to the average reader's lack of intelligence, poise, and common sense. I can only ASSume that MMORPG.com likes to have him stir up the crowd with his annoying prose.

I found nothing of interest in this article; it is a shallow history lesson with minimal relevant information on the actual issues the North American launch has faced. If Richard (I think I'll just refer to him as Dick) decides to write another article on the topic, perhaps next time he can include some detail.

Allods is not a bad game in my opinion from a limited play experience. It doesn't revolutionize the genre, but it does provide a stable, somewhat generic fantasy MMO experience.

 

Now stop complaining about the authors writing style. He writes as he does, because he pleases to do so. Is it truly your place to comment upon it when you didn't have anything, what so ever, to do, at all, with the creation of the text, nor information conveyed in the text?

Holy hypocrisy Batman.

Is it truly your place to tell people to "stop complaining"? Is it truly your place to presume to tell people what their place is.. in a message forum.. where the idea is to *discuss* things?

Hint: The answer starts with "n" ends with "o" and rhymes with "no".

In short.. Yes.. it is their place to discuss an article posted. That's why there's the link to *discuss the article*... since the author is the person who *wrote* the article, it's also relevant to discuss their approach/attitude toward the given topic.

Incidentally, if *you* don't like such "offending" posts, you have the option to not read them as well.

Now.. I will say that I didn't take away the same "arrogant" tone in this article that pervades Aioshi's other "works".  I didn't see it as condescending that people might not know the source of that particular Dickens passage... A lot of people don't know a lot of things. That's just reality. I didn't take offense to that.

I think the article remained pretty neutral, honestly. Seems like a purely informational piece - something certainly out of character for Aioshi given his penchant for drive-by pot-shots in past articles.

 

The major point again completely missed by the author, pvp and a cash shop just do not mix as long as the cash shop sells items that effect pvp.

If you notice the only really successful game in the category, DDO, is not really a pvp game.

So sorry if I silently laugh at anyone that attempts to laud this game. 

I played (Making emphasis in I played past tense) Allods from the beginning, what an awesome game, with so much possibilities, drama, interest, quests, etc, agree needs more extensive beginner tutorial quest, but one of the best F2P (??) game seen before, but then an ugly monster called GREED arrived in the scene and the game went KABOOM!!!, FOD and nerfing of the classes to force players to buy super exhorbitant pricey items forced me out of the game. I will not be part of a game where so much disregard for the value of money exists, the economy of the whole world is in pretty bad shape and abussing it to force players to spend way and above of what they can afford is just plain and simple very STUPID!!!. The owners whoever they are now screwed up an excellent game for just simple and pure GREED!!! Allods, Runes of Magic, rappelz, Atlantica Online and others are becoming the trend of F2P, it is sad like the author said "There is a time to play and there is a time to delete the game".

And Richard once again posts something that seems, to be perfectly honest, a waste of time to read.

Honestly, I had hopes for this article. I was thinking, "Hmm, maybe Dick's written something worthwhile for once. Maybe an apologist view on the disparity between what the Russians and the rest of the world pay. It'll probably be really hammy to read, but at least it'll give a balanced opinion to 'RARRGH DAMN GPOTATO CHARGING US MORE THAN THEM RUSHKIS!'"

I was, unfortunately, disappointed by an awful wikipedia article that has absolutely NO RELEVANCE to the quote at the top of the page.

God damn it, Aihoshi. I could've written this using your opinions and made a decent article. How can you consistently fail to deliver?

( I bet the accounts defending him are his alt accounts. He never posts here. )

This game is no runner-up to WoW. It has alot of polish but the progression feels exceedingly slow. The forumlas for damage and mitigation are much more of a crap-shoot than any MMO out there. I don't find it "fun" when it takes 20 seconds just to kill a mob 1 lvl lower than me. Of course, many might find this to be a part of the "challenge" that the game has over other MMOs. Enjoy your slow MMO I guess.

As to the heavy amount of bashing on this author, I really think people internalize too much. Seriously, this author, and many others that you may disagree with, are not trying to personally quash your egos. Projecting that much vitriol onto a freakin' VIDEO GAME blogger is pathetic to say the least.

Originally posted by bhima

This game is no runner-up to WoW. It has alot of polish but the progression feels exceedingly slow. The forumlas for damage and mitigation are much more of a crap-shoot than any MMO out there. I don't find it "fun" when it takes 20 seconds just to kill a mob 1 lvl lower than me. Of course, many might find this to be a part of the "challenge" that the game has over other MMOs. Enjoy your slow MMO I guess.

As to the heavy amount of bashing on this author, I really think people internalize too much. Seriously, this author, and many others that you may disagree with, are not trying to personally quash your egos. Projecting that much vitriol onto a freakin' VIDEO GAME blogger is pathetic to say the least.

Seeing as how your account was made today, I'm not sure how much of Mr. Aihoshi's articles you've read but he has a long history of bashing those not in agreement with his stance which is even more pathetic IMO.

Go back and read some of his ridiculous rants where he calls people not in agreement with him "liars", "in denial", and "snobs" just to name a few.

Mr. Aihoshi has earned the criticism he gets here.

It's ironic how most of the article is merely the writer flaunting his knowledge of literature; there is hardly any substance as far as Allods is concerned. More information could be gleaned from other threads made by "amateur" writers.

Simply bad.

Really?

We're going to blast a guy who is writing an article in his own little space ?

..Seriously..