Quote:
Originally Posted by Solaire
Well really, this is a very small sample size of the actual projected population. Statistically speaking, you couldn't even include this data because it's such a tiny fraction of the whole, and terribly biased.
Most people who are active participants of the forum seem to be asmodian, with a small number of vocal elyos. Then, the folks who tend to talk more often are the dps classes, which is why a lot of polls end up skewed.
In reality, the player base will be a ton more people. I'd wager a bet that all the fansites combined (at this point in time) don't even reach 5% of the end game population. When Aion gets closer to release, the ads will pop up, marketing will explode, and a ton more people will be drawn in. For example, most people who play WoW don't know anything about Aion until I tell them to go check it out. Even the F2P people (like my brothers) hadn't heard of it. THEN you also have to take into consideration that people, like myself, will be playing more than one. Some folks like to dedicate themselves to one alt... I have six level 70's in WoW, which are all decked out in tier or current season (not welfare) arena gear. I'll end up having a ranger to start, but bet you anything I have one of each by the time the game has hit its first anniversary after release. When the group needs a tank, log on the templar, when the group needs a healer, log on the cleric, when the group needs x, log on x.
In the end, polls like this are just for fun, and can't be used to extrapolate hard evidence to whether to buff/nerf certain things. The actual population will be more normal. There'll be maybe 30-35% of the population on both sides playing tanks, healers, and buffers, and the other 65-70% will be the dpsers. That's just how it goes.  lol |
I understand that this data isn't accurate. In fact, it hasn't even been 24 hours since I posted the poll so it only really represents a TINY fraction of a small population of people who will be playing Aion. I'm not saying that this will represent the in-game population at all. The poll itself is not supposed to be PROOF for an inbalance, but rather I'm looking for more evidence to prove my point. The point is that people who pick a certain race may be inclined to pick a certain class, and people who pick a certain class may be inclined to pick a certain race. In a game like Aion, where one side appears angelic and the other appears demonic, this is bound to happen. Sure, the hardcore gamers who look past the aesthetic differences and are looking for a specific gaming experience might not care, but the majority of players will be biased to pick one over another.
Even if the polls are skewed because of the reasons you stated, it does not change the fact that perhaps the selection of race has a direct correlation with the selection of class, and vice versa. Now, unless you can give me a more accurate method of proving whether or not this bias exists, then by all means speak up. For now, we can let the numbers and the responses from the Aionsource community show us if such a problem may or may not exist.
I understand what you are bringing up, but I'm not really being worried about inbalance, but rather trying to explore a possibility. Sure this poll is barely going to reach a small percentage of the Aion community, but guess what? If these people who will migrate over from other MMOs see this game, what will they say? Without the extensive knowledge of this game, and if they don't do the research, then the bias would affect them even more. Would they rather be a glowing, angelic person in a dress who heals people or a feral-looking, beast-like person in a dress who heals people? When someone who decided to play on a whim is faced with this kind of choice, they will probably look past the fact that both sides will be statistically the same, and instead use an inference to common sense that they've previously gathered from other forms of media and pick the one that makes the most sense to them. That is what I'm worried about. Not that the servers will be inbalanced, but perhaps that the theme of angels versus demons will affect people's judgement. As much as Aion devs try to erase the angel/demon concept and try to explain this from a fantastical perspective, inferencing will occur and many people will always end up seeing the Elyos like the classic "good" guys and the Asmodians as the "bad."
I hope the server balance will indeed become "normal" as you have stated, but I still want to hear people's response on any race preferences that one may have when choosing a certain class and also any class preferences when choosing a certain race.