Wings Over Atreia: TORn away

The topic for this week's Wings Over Atreia presented itself when I logged into Aion at prime-time on Thursday night and found the very odd occurrence of both an empty legion list and an empty friends list. Considering how full the latter is (plug for larger lists here), I've never seen both be completely empty simultaneously, even when I pop in during my odd super-late hours. While I saw some life over the rest of the weekend, overall numbers stayed pretty low, even during the hours of the new arena instances. To what do I attribute this? In some cases it was the usual attack of the Real Life (tm) that got ahold of people, but two extra factors contributed to the population insta-decline: the release of Skyrim and more weekend beta invites from Star Wars: The Old Republic.

Now in the case of Skyrim, it can't be helped (but maybe we can have a little spacing between the release of so many games?!). We know that once the game is played through, people will wander back to their MMOs. TOR, however, is another matter: Besides the shininess of of a new game and the fact that it is both Star Wars-based and made by BioWare, does Aion have a future of vast, empty lands to look forward to at the release of the latest OMG-it's-the-second-coming-of-games title? Some are certainly screaming doom-and-gloom, but we hear that from dissenters about nearly every little thing. Is it possible that there is room enough for both games to survive after the initial hype has passed?

Before we delve any further, please note that this article is not going to be a play-by-play comparison of game features. Go ahead and ignite those flamethrowers or burn me in effigy, but I cannot really comment on features of a game that hasn't been released yet. In my opinion, feature lists are all speculative until a game is out and proves it has what it claims. And no, checking it out beta pre-NDA lift (which I haven't done and wouldn't tell you if I did anyways!) doesn't count. I will offer a comparison at a later date, once I have actually stepped in and experienced the game myself.

Yes, I did just admit that I will be testing the waters of TOR; once the devs mentioned the combination of my two most favorite abilities, I knew I'd give it a whirl. Mmmmm... healing and stealth -- like chocolate and peanut butter, two great gaming tastes that taste great together! Not to mention that I game alongside someone who has an almost insatiable need to sample every possible game that comes by, just to see.

I fully admit that upon release of TOR, pretty much all games -- including Aion -- will see a drop in participation. It is the nature of many gamers to run off after the latest shiny and check out what's new. Many studios even make efforts to mitigate this phenomena by offering new content or their own expansions around the time of a major title's release. However, even among those who head out to try the latest game, there are many who always keep one foot planted firmly in their main game or soon return after the seductive newness wears off of the other. As for those who move on, many in that group tend to do that no matter what, always moving on to supposedly greener pixels. However, that drop in population is not necessarily permanent nor will it kill the game. In fact, I doubt it will.

Believe what you will, but I have heard from people (yes, more than a handful!) who have zero desire to try SWTOR. I have also heard plenty of others express some interest in checking it out yet have also declared that they will not let their Aion subs lapse because they plan to remain. Reasons for leaving are at times the same reasons for staying: friends, legion, aesthetics, and genre.

Another reason for heading on over to another galaxy far, far away is that friends or legions are trying it out. I know some legions have already made the declaration that they are moving en masse into the new game. If truth be told, I am not going to miss some of those legions and counter that the overall game experience in Aion will be better for their departure. Conversely, I know legions that are staying as well as players who are content to remain in Atreia with friends.

While both games have a strong focus on faction PvP, for those who are mild to extreme Star Wars fans (or even just prefer a science fiction setting), the decision to move on is natural. On the flip side, there are gaming geeks who are not Star Wars fans or who prefer a fantasy setting. For these gamers, TOR doesn't have any particular pull other than being new. Sure, those players may also test-run the game to check out the new features and compare the games. But some people just would rather play in a particular genre or setting, and those who prefer fantasy will be sticking with Aion in the long run.