I’ve got a cycle with Warcraft. I resubscribe for a while, get a bunch of things accomplished, like hit max level in a new expansion, or gear up to a point where it slows down; then I usually cancel my subscription. At what point does the average person cancel their subscription with Warcraft? Is it when you can’t progress any further? Is it when you almost have everything you want? Where is the breaking point?

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DIKU games have been in existence for a long time now and have reached it’s most mature and accessible form with World of Warcraft. Every DIKU game starts you off at level one where you begin your journey to Max Level. As the genre matures and expectations of games change, the leveling process has become more and more of a burden and hindrance than a fun game element. So why have levels at all?

In recent history we’ve seen a few games launch post World of Warcraft, but for the sake of this article lets take a look at Warhammer and Aion. Both games hit the scene with amazing initial sales, Warhammer had 800+ thousand boxes sold in the first month or so, and Aion has kicked off pretty well in the western market. Where do they stand now? Warhammer is all but canceled. Their retention rate was dreadful. Nothing official has been released about Aion, but if you take the pulse of a few online communities you’ll notice people quitting in large numbers. What was a huge complaint about these games?

The grind.
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The Chinese version of Aion just finished up their Open Beta testing period and Rerollz finally got their hands on the game to give it a good test drive. You may know that the game went live in Korea last Novemeber, now in China and Japan soon to come. Aion is not slated to release until later this year for the North American and European audience.

So how is the game? One word: Impressive.

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With the birth of any MMORPG you generally have two different types of players. The first of the two are the folks you race to the top, grinding out levels at insane speeds, sleeping little and working less. The game is their life for a few weeks making sure they get to the top as soon as possible. The other group of players are those who take their time getting to the maximum level. They types of players vary in play styles (see: Casual vs. Hardcore), some play test every class before committing to a class, some play two or three characters at once, others just level leisurely by enjoy the game and not playing for optimal experience per hour. Both types inhabit every MMORPG but the question is, does the game dictate your play style or is your play style consistent through every game?

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