The End…
or not?
As I explained here I am experiencing a certain grumpiness. This grumpy feeling is not so much targetted at the game itself (and especially not at the community of course) but at Nexon. I find the behavior of this company more and more disgusting.
The proverbial straw which broke the camel’s back (a dangerous metaphor, when I think about it – I don’t like to imagine myself as a camel, and especially not as a camel with a broken back) was the fishing event which is now active. This event is another building block in the chain of disrespectful and careless behaviour. With “disrespectful” I mean that Nexon does not respect their customers in terms of honesty and intelligence. The sale of these special baits is an obvious insult against all players who can calculate the costs for it and relate it to the items they would get ingame. While it is not a direct scam (the data is more or less there, except the random factor of how many coupons you get from the baits) it is a behavior which tries to abuse trust. Trust, as in “Whereever I invest Nx in the item mall, I will get a more or less fair value for it”. Now, I am mistrustful for a long time already. But this last offer is so out of the world, so expensive even if you measure it against the already expensive offer of – say – atlas ore, that it is raising my grumpiness to another notch. Add to the mix the subterranean customer service, and I am through with Nexon as a company. I may be able to suffer through its many faults longer but it is my leasure time. I don’t want to suffer, I want to enjoy it.
And angering me right now is a dangerous thing to do if Nexon is interested to keep me as customer (which I sincerely doubt by now). It is dangerous because there is a great game about to start: Guild Wars 2. And that game I will play now for a while. If it is as great as it was in beta testing, I will remain there for a very long time.
What does that mean for the blog? It is on hold. There will be no more updates or articles. I will from time to time weed out inappropriate comments, otherwise you have to take this blog as it is (or ignore it in the future).
It may be, though, that I do an article about my experience with Guild Wars 2.
Atlantica Online was fun, and the time in AO was not lost because I mostly enjoyed playing AO with other people . But for me it is time to try a new game now. I hope I see some of you in Guild Wars 2 – where my name will most certainly contain “Claudia” (planning to play a female Norn Warrior).
secretsofatlantica 
I totally agree with you on the part that they disrespect player’s intelligence… The clearest example is the IM merc summons that they added for 550 coupons which means they roughly cost 55-60k nx to get (only the summon) while it can be bought with crystals and stuff in IM outright for 50k… And they call this an event. “Rush and buy baits!” – No thanks… Also the rare items – braclets and earrings – when I first saw their prices I felt they had a typo and wrote an extra zero… 700 coupons??? For an earring? That is the cost of a full tarkan pack with essentials!! and you need 4 for a single merc? UP yours nexon!!! the xp buff from thejewels is great but even 100 coupons would be quite op for that thing not 700… Its so ridiculous I wasn’t even annoyed – I found it hilarious that they added event items at a higher cost than its usual going rate. Then despair followed as there are still people buying it and going to “fish a sheriff” and paying the extra for nothing… sometiems I feel that the playerbase’s average intelligence is not underestimated by them at all and its only feels like an insult for us …
I agree that they disrespect player’s intelligence! I think they do so cuz the few remaining ppl by now who didn’t quite the game yet; are mostely brainless IMers… I don’t blame you and I don’t blame nexon for treating us this way :/
See you in GW 2…
There are ppl that remain like myself that aren’t itemmalers, and are far away from being brainless, I still play it because I enjoy the game play and I told 1y ago when I returned from 1y break that I wouldn’t feed this company greed in anyway. I have several times complained about their service in the forums and ingame and the advice I give to ppl in my nation and guildies is not to pay for a bad service. Of course in the end it is their choice how they wish to spend their money. Btw for the notice Nexon is now the major stock holder of NCsoft , bought 15% of it. I was going to buy it by the end of the year (after reach 150) but now going to wait a bit more to see how things go. GW2 seams a great game I am not pleased that Nexon has their claws there.
One of the most annoying things about this activity is that they have the gall to call them events, they are simlpy not events, they are promotional money raising activities. I have played on a number of MMORPG’s, events for the most part were to engage players imagination and bring them some enjoyment, I can’t imagine any enjoyment to be gained from spending large amounts of money to buy bait then sit there for hours fishing. I look forward to your review of guild wars 2.
I hope you will leave this blog up, it’s an invaluable resource for everyone I know in-game. I use it daily since I came back to Atlantica 2 months ago after a year long hiatus. I never would have gotten up to speed without you so for what it’s worth… thanks.
i totally agree… being quiting for 2 month now.. cant blame those quiters…
ppl want fun yet their money are scam for other purpose…
now if u are a heavy IMer hear me out.. do some thing useful get a NGO / Rotary club / Lion club do donate those money to ppl who really need .. isn’t that will be more fun at least u help some one not fatten Nexon staff with those hard earning money?
“it is a behavior which tries to abuse trust. Trust, as in “Whereever I invest Nx in the item mall, I will get a more or less fair value for it””
well, buying a wings box and getting 10x 5m xp book isn’t fair walue and its been always like that… atm baits on market are for 2 times more expensive then atlas ore, and u can get same ammount of baits and atlas for 10k nx… so it isn’t some shitty value…
and @prozy… srsly… if you really want to convince ppl to give money elswhere, then it would be more sense to give it to animal shelters or WWF, not for some organisations that spend 95% of the donations on their cars/planes and entertainment…
and im afraid GW2 will fail thx to all the hype around it…
Nexon leans toward the darker side of marketing, and it’s all borderline dishonest. On top of not releasing the probabilities per item on every released IM gamble box, they use compelling language that make players think they’re going to get exactly what they want with what they buy, which is very rarely the case. Everything is also so very overpriced. What’s more frustrating is seeing so many people in-game fall for their ploy and just carelessly throw money at the game without a moment’s hesitation. And all this while suffering daily lag and in-game bugs.
Guild Wars 2 is shaping up to be almost everything I want in an MMO. So glad to be moving there and taking a looooong break from AO.
Looking at the forums, it’s always funny when people keep saying GW2 will suffer the same fate as D3, then equate it with the hype and fail around Diablo III. If they’d paid any sort of attention to how much the GW2 devs involve themselves in player feedback and how extensively the game was tested during beta, they’d realize how silly that comparison is. D3 already had warning bells way before official launch — GW2 has been promising from the very start. Am wary about one or two aspects of it (nervous about the microtransaction, but the playerbase seems confident that this game will NEVER be pay2win like AO so blatantly is), but overall, my money’s going to GW2 instead of AO.
Out of curiosity, what server will you be playing in, Claudia?
To Claudia: Thanks for all the work that you put into making this blog, it helped me alot with tbs (still hate it though). I hope Ndoors takes back this game like it did in Korea and it sees a brighter future, it is unique in its playstyle. Hope to see you around, don’t forget to visit and give news.
Heya man,here is Redegar Bloodstain,a charr.
I had the same feeling you are describing in your post,I only left atlantica even before the summer started. I loved that game,I enjoyed it in the most comfortable and friendly guild I’ve ever been in(they are my only regret),but the game for me was over. This could have been one of the best free to play game,because of his originality and complexity,but nexon ruined it. I don’t know how things have been ingame since may,but if you left it it means that the situation was incredibly hard to withstand.
My last words are:thank you,for all your work for the AO community,I enjoyed the game a lot more thanks to you,and I hope that the guide you left here will never be too much outdated,I hope that all the newbies lost in Atlantica can use this blog to improve their abilities. You work so hard for us,I’m sure that the AO community has lost one of the most important player,maybe not a PvP top one,I don’t know,but a player that became a mentor for all of us.
Thank you again,hope to see ya in GW2.
bye2 atlantica
I have just surfaced from an intense weekend playing GW2.My character there is Claudia Skullburn, a Norn elementalist. Stay tuned for a “first impression” post soon. Going back now, solving some more vista puzzles…
I love how Nexon is trying to lure people to their game with 300% bonuses on exp and WL and 50% on attack an defense for more than a week… It’s so pathetically obvious what they are trying to do, just shameless marketing right there…
just \bye\bye atlantica online..!! I have to finish my study
Claudia left AO? maybe i will leave too, Nexon annoyed me several times already
I haven’t been around AO for a while; I logged in briefly to giggle at how many indy mercs I got (poor things). I love the game and I miss playing it, but it’s going the way of being too expensive to play. I play another game that costs me and my fiance not even 50 bucks a month (we have 3 accounts between us, each 13 bucks). We spent twice that amount on AO monthly to try and keep up with gear (along with TBS) and still couldn’t keep up. Is the game I’m playing perfect? No, but the company doesn’t gouge the fuck outta its customers.
100 bucks a month fo atlantica? wtf it’s very expensive!
i was away few days and had the time to think about, un-influenced by any game.
i have only one question, (we blame nexon every day, i agree that they are greedy …) but as they are only publishers not developers, what’s the situation in kAO. Every IM stuff came out first there, and they are ahead od us. So, it’s totaly nexon’s fault? kAO have same prices? …
The events and rewards seem to be individual to the region, for instance KAO had an event based in Bran Castle to get Lucifer gun when it first came out, the only option we had was item mall. There are other events that KAO had that we never saw. Its not just different price, its the difference between guaranteed getting a lucifer gun for free (just play time to get your 1000 coupons) and paying large amounts of money just for the CHANCE of getting a Lucifer gun.
Thanks for all the advices u provided to the whale comunity including the french one.
I’m sad u leave us, but i’m sure this blog will stay one of the best references and ur little and pretty Claudia will stay alive by this blog for all of us
Thanks for all the advices u provided to the whole comunity including the french one.
I’m sad u leave us, but i’m sure this blog will stay one of the best references and ur little and pretty Claudia will stay alive by this blog for all of us
The game is still funny and I miss it from time to time. But I can’t stand playing it due to the widespread botting, the totally non-existant and arrogant support team and the 100% focus on content for IM’ers. Nexon is hereby invited to shove their IM up where the sun never shines.
I missed your TBS guide.
plz come back AO ><
I feel pretty disrespected as well.
I would not waste my time or theirs sending tickets, but sometimes I must. Like when I know for a fact I bet on the winning pair at arena and get nothing.
Response was something like “In arena, players bet on match-ups and are paid if they choose the winning match-up *blah blah blah odds, amounts bet etc.*”
Really? You don’t say! I had no idea I had to bet on the winners to win.
“I did bet on the winners..”
“Please send screenshot of your bets.”
Guys, really? Are we really expected to screen shot every activity we perform?
They really treated me like I was stupid, or a cheat. I lost good money twice on this situation.
Not to mention they refuse to refund upgrade/cata money from this tbs bug thing.
Hahaha, same shit happened me when I got back from a break. I got a message about the welcome back packages + rebirth tokens that I could pick up from the Item menu. Well, it was empty and I sent a ticket to support. They then wanted me to supply screenshots from before and after the message. I told them that unfortunately it never occured to me to take a screenshot of my inventory before I took my break and I really didn’t see what point it would make. They closed the ticket. Excellent service….
Hey,
Please would you come back and do guides for all the new Zulu missions!?! I am at a loss without you.
type atlantica into google followed by the zulu mission name and watch the video’s on youtube, they are all easy.
http://archatlantica.com/ – pretty correct
A bunch of us moved to Euro AO english server. Nexon management is better there. Boxes have better rewards and we have better events.
Server opened 1 mo ago!
Thanks for the tip. I am still fully immersed in Guild Wars 2, though. Currently I am playing world vs world most of the time (three servers battling against each other, fighting about camps, towers, keeps and a castle, with massive fights, siege engines and so on). It is still awesome. Logged in a while ago in AO, tried to dodge, logged out :)
I still remember my time in AO very fondly. It was a good game and I was lucky to meet a lot of nice people (including you). But I can’t see me playing AO again. GW2 is simply too good. No gear grind, no feeling that you HAVE to login – and my wife and my daughter play it also.
thanks for this blog and please keep this up!!! it’s very useful and informative for who r still playing AO
Hey! It’s time to BACK TO AO!) 3 new servers on steam!