NC’s AION 2 business director and lead developer held a livestream on YouTube covering the recent FGT (focus group test) for AION 2. As much as I am trying to no longer directly link to/directly embed YouTube videos, this one needs it for the auto-translated captions. Since most KR studios tend to eventually private these videos, I’ve downloaded a copy of it to mirror just in case.
FGT’s are a common part of the design/development of games in South Korea (usually with an NDA). Players are invited via random after they apply during a set period where they head to company headquarters for play testing very limited portions of the game, and provide their feedback during and after (there’s also some public relations in all of this including things like lunches and what not).
As the livestream also highlights, some participants feedback via video interviews was used. I tend to look at these as PR fluff (I don’t believe many who are selected are going to burn bridges by being less than diplomatic about the actual negatives of what they experienced while being recorded). And because these are highly targeted content and game play purposely prepared (the focus part), it is hard to gauge the actual state of anything except for what has been meticulously setup. Still, it’s the written Q&A where most of the sharper criticism will be seen by the developers (they tried touching on some of this during this livestream).
Here is how I look at this whole process. Look at how many KMMO’s that launched; each have gone through their own FGT’s on top of the numerous CBT’s with an even larger demographic to stress test larger portions of a nearly complete game. How many of these are still operating once they’ve been released? I guess it is easier to look at the list that has been shuttered. The issue with FGT’s are as noted; it’s limited where the bulk of the game isn’t even completed. Many ideas and designs are still being fleshed out. Similarly, the team has no idea what the actual business model will be at this point.
It’s similar to CBT’s… the games actual business model with its monetization isn’t really in operation at this point. When that system isn’t in place, of course it is a free-for-all fun. It’s also very misplaced nostalgia everytime someone mentions this (it’s a common refrain with ArcheAge for example). The whole point of CBT’s isn’t the “BETA TEST” part. It’s been diminished into part of the marketing and PR as a means to build hype. These companies know how easy it is to build unrealistic levels of hype for a title no matter how many times in the past there were issues and outright failures.
Similarly, FGT’s are early marketing/PR where yes, the design/dev team does get valuable input (like are the character designs interesting, does the combat feel visceral/impactful, how is the playable game world and the graphics, etc). At this early stage, any constructive feedback is good feedback. However, it still blows my mind that the same mistakes keep being made in this space (and this is taking into account the team having a vision for the game while keep certain elements of the IP intact while building upon it).
I think one of the most glaring ones is a game that is being designed/developed to also work on mobile. That ship should have long sailed. NC already had to deal with that with Throne & Liberty where they eventually decided to end the mobile part. PC MMO players do not want a watered down experience and any perceived notion that some of the game design reeks of mobile (like the UI as an example), deserves some critical feedback. For myself, I have no skin in this (I am sticking to my swearing off of any new KMMO; I will stick to my offline setups of ArcheAge and TERA; possibly setup an AION one since that stuff has also progressed along fairly far).
As I’ve learned from the past, commenting about what they actually talked about and showed off in this VOD, isn’t worthwhile because as time has often shown, lot of changes will end up being made (looking at Lineage Eternal -> Project TL -> Throne & Liberty or Ascent:Infinite Realm -> ELYON).
