I sense bias....since this is written on a FREAKING WORLD OF WARCRAFT COMMUNITY WEBSITE!!!! I won't make any judgement since I have not played this game, but I really want to :P

(continuation from previous post... got cut-off)

...rent? Nobody plays it.

@Yoshio

I was talking about it in terms of having to buy the game to play in the beta tests, NCSoft considering a downloadedable client with a key a valid reason to pay $49.99, and not giving players that HAVE the full client to start paying the $14.99 per month (like other games allow you to after your 'trial' period is over... instead of BUYING the client as though it was in a fully-loaded new release PC game box). Yes, other games ALLOW you to buy the game and then get the 30 days free with a box, manual, and a DVD, yet they don't FORCE you to. MOST games on the market that are P2P, in fact, allow players to EITHER buy the box OR download and start paying the monthly. Those games that did not give the players that choice (FFXI, City of Heroes, etc.) died pretty quickly, and on top of that ended-up producing huge over-stocks of their software that people would only purchase for LESS than one month's subscription fee. Was City of Heroes and FFXI popular at one point? Sure, just depends on what you call "popular"... expecially compared to a lot of random private servers for some other 'less popular' games.

On the topic of Aion being good or not, I really don't see how anybody could argue that this game is not quality. Somebody does not like ONE mechanic and the game is over-rated or bad? No. Everything from the tutorials, to the level of graphical detail, to the story, to the voice acted cut-scenes are all very well done. I just think that some people are expecting too much from the game, when it does the exact same thing that other games have done, just in a larger/better-crafted world with shiny new effects. Isn't that all we really want from our games, though? More of the same? What happens when a developer makes a game EXTREMELY original and diffe

I never understood what was the big deal with Aion? Visual appeal? Maybe its because people have such low standards for mmorpgs that they are willing to submit to an average game with an extrodinare advertising budget. Of course  I couldn't blame them. With the small selection of mmos released this year, Aion will probably get a "best mmo released in 2009" for being  a tard less crappier than its competition.

Having spent little time in Aion due to RL, I was trying to look for bad game design points in the game.

I mean, no game is perfect.

But the author of this article seemed very bent on bashing Aion. He didn't seem to explore his class much, and seem to expact it to perform like the class it visually ressembles to his, I assume, favorite game World of Warcraft (Since the article has been published under the WoW section after all).

His class has skills which combat the same exact problems he is having, and I am not sure why he is facing them.

Latency is an issue with Aion, but is still playable, like World of Warcraft, at high ping rates. I found the performance comparable to World of Warcraft.

I love it when people starts to think more about the games they play, and point out flaws. What I hate is when people pick the most contrived reasons to do so.

ReaperV, are you saying that no other MMORPG has you B2P and the P2P from day one? Or that none of them have you B2P and P2P ever? Because that'd be a very ignorant statement. There are a shit-ton of MMOs that do that.

Face facts, people. AION hyped itself a little bit with pretty graphics and "new" features, and the community fell for it completely. There were reviews and previews up for it before it even hit beta in the US, many of which bashed it for its poor implementation of core gameplay mechanics. AION is a F2P MMO which was tweaked and ported to be a B2P + P2P MMO, and is built in such a manner that they could easily insert a micro-transaction system for in-game items and such. Hell, even the grind stinks of F2P. Don't fool yourself in to thinking you bought a good game, because when it comes to MMOs, you can NEVER pre-order or buy a good game around its release (because all new MMOs are shite at launch, duh).

The smart gamer would cut losses and wait it out until AION shapes up (if it ever does). But be warned, if--in a year--the game's subscriber numbers start to tank too much, NCSoft will very likely scrap the game and take it down for good, meanwhile announcing their next big title or project (see Auto Assault and Tabula Rasa, neither one a bad game).

Find a way to stun or down flyers. There has to be a way to put flyers on the ground, otherwise why would Aion be thriving if flyers were "invincible"?

Search long and hard. Patience, my friend. Lol

I meant to say that "WoW shortly after starting, started to offer..." in the last post. Hope it makes more sense now ^_^.

As far as I could tell, WoW shortly after starting to offer players the choice to just subscribe and pay the monthly fee after their trial expired. With FFXI, well... I hate to say it, but it pretty much died u.u. When I decided to finally give the game a try was after I purchased a NEW copy of the full game + 2 expansions + 30 days of game-time for $5 USD on ebay (versus $20 USD at a local game distributor). Aion really is a great game, I just hope NCsoft does not get so greedy with thier current model that they potentially kill this franchise like they did City of Heroes u.u (which to this day they are trying to sell digital copies of, while clearly very few people are buying). Aion is a great game. I actually want it to stay around, regardless of who hosts it, or how much it might costs to play (which is high due to so many people pre-ordered thanks to the non-stop hype over the years). Sooner or later the hype-effect will wear of, and so will the bandwagoners... and what will happen to this game then? I guess I don't mind how they are doing it RIGHT now (supply/demand), but NCSoft is notorious for their general over-pricing of their titles... heck, I can even get a physical retail BOX on newegg for 46.99... why would I pay 49.99 to NCSoft for a digital copy? It just doesn't make sense to me >.<.

Its true that the PvP its a little harder to master but i dont think its bad , and there is lots of ways to bring down your flyng Prey down ^^ like the Stigma skills of the templars, and there is the skill that increase the speed when flyng, the secret is to be Fast and to know to control the character ^^ .... oh well everyone has their opinion. 

Practice makes better my friend.

no you see pvp is a must in game. and if you add a new function toward pvp it has to work.. otherwise it was a waste of time to put it.. who want to have a useless function in a game? beside grow up wheather it up to your expectation or not just shut up and play! only idiots buy thing without research.. cough* a lot of people!! cough*

Haning with ur wow,our game will better without u.

IF you FAIL at flying PvP its your fault, not the game's

B2P + P2P a lot of game did that wow did that ( and still do that by the way ) FFXI did that as well You buy the game and you pay monthly for the subscription so yes B2P + P2P is very common

 I must, respectfully, disagree.

Hyuk u need to learn to play.You need to use the rigfht skills to stop them from flying away.Also u need to use items that boost flight speed,and to prove i'm not a noob just talking bs my name is Nobody on Vaziel Asmo side.If you click on the rankings then hit weekly then total you'll see me a ranger in the top 3 as of right this second.however soon i'll be at the bottom cause i'm buying a gold boots.

ehh...for most people flying pvp isnt all that good but you know aion's not the only people with flying pvp Perfect world does it too. And its good there so i dont know what the difference is? TELL me please? Aion has better flying but bad pvp flying but perfect world has a kinda decent flying but great pvp?

???????????????

I read the you blog, and obviously the first MMORPG you ever played was WoW. You think the grind in Aion is bad? It is if you compare to WoW, but what you don't understand is that in WoW there is no grind. It's not "normal" to level up so fast in any MMO. Have you ever played Lineage 2 or Mu Online, or Cabal? In Lineage 2 to get to lvl 80 it would take you about 4-5 times longer than in WoW (Yes, one YEAR of casual gaming). The grind in Aion is not that bad and the quests are pretty good.

U PHAIL! l2playgames!

It's because you suck.

I think some of those listed problems (warping and such) are latency problems (a.k.a. lag). Is it because of bad code and mixing players from all over the world on the same server? Probably. My biggest problem with it is the fact that NCSoft is selling digital copies for the price of a box, game DVD, and THICK manual... and those people that already got the beta client (spent 2 days downloading) have to fork-over the money just to start paying the monthly $14.99? Wut? Sure, I would B2P Aion for 49.99. Sure, I would P2P Aion for 14.99. I would even pay a LITTLE more for the first 30 days... but I will NOT B2P AND P2P. No other MMORPG does it like that... not even other NCSoft titles. I have a feeling I'm going to start finding new and sealed copies of the boxed retail Aion game on eBay in a month (only purchased from a trusted seller with a NEW/SEALED key of course) for less than $20 USD... THEN I'll play again =_=.

Flying pvp is horrible for people who doesn't like it. The pvp system is okay but it's required too much skill and stuff. I'm just average player and all my pvp is focus on ground.

If you want to air pvp without any problem, You should roll for rangers or sorcerers. Those two classes are very efficient in air pvp and easy to control than most other classes.

learn some grammar .

Actually you are mistaken! I have stunned people many times in PvP while flying even the ones low to the ground i have stunned while i walked!. I even had a few rangers wail on people very well. Snares work great if done properly i dont quite know what your complaint is. My guild dont seem to have any problems with the PvP

Actually you are mistaken! I have stunned people many times in PvP while flying even the ones low to the ground i have stunned while i walked!. I even had a few rangers wail on people very well. Snares work great if done properly i dont quite know what your complaint is. My guild dont seem to have any problems with the PvP

Actually you are mistaken! I have stunned people many times in PvP while flying even the ones low to the ground i have stunned while i walked!. I even had a few rangers wail on people very well. Snares work great if done properly i dont quite know what your complaint is. My guild dont seem to have any problems with the PvP