Since Aion has been coming out and I've been playing my part in it, I decided to get my lazy self in gear and actually write again. I'm not going to say my Character name, what server I'm on, or even what side I'm playing, so get over that shit, but here are some of natural facts with Aion right now.

What is it: Aion is the latest from the great NCSoft in its attempt to corner a place in the Asian market of MMO's. While stateside, we more than likely don't really care and of course, we naturally compare it to the only MMO we really care about, World of Warcraft, but unlike here, WoW isn't as popular as the fan boys like to image it to be across the seas with our Asian Neighbors. The mmo's of Perfect World, FFXI, and other unnaturally hard grinders are more popular than our fun-loving WoW. As the same there, as here, there are many more references in Native Games to Native Players that we can understand. While we blow the whistle here saying that everything is a WoW clone, the wings, crafting, and character design model, in my own, unprofessional opinion, is more of a upgraded Copy of both Perfect World and NCSoft’s ending of Lineage II, where the added the one-winged race.

The heavy grinding and losing EXP system is much like FFXI, while there is no de-leveling, the point remains the same. Die and you don't get a friendly walk to your body, there are no mounts, and we have no reason to add a 'swimming system’, are all characteristic of FFXI. Even Perfect World has mounts, as you can Google and see giant tigers riding on bears.

This brings me to my first Aion Miss: Transporation and Travelling

I hope you like running everywhere, unless you're lucky enough to get a speed boost from your friendly, neighborhood Chanter. Get ready to walk just about everywhere, which the exception of a few paid-for traveling points in small towns or major fortresses.

It's not all bad, as I like to add a Hit: Flying

Lovely wings and traveling. It's damn pretty...

Miss: Flying

Flying is very limited in this game. While I'm first to agree that it gets better after you level up quite a bit, the awkward movements and very short time allow for only so much. Boost yourself with Manastones (that's gems for all of your WoW people), with rarities of extra time or be lucky to get some +flight time fitted items. There are also potions and magic, Sonic the Hedgehog like Power Rings you can fly though to get a bonus in the large PVP area known alone as the Abyss. While it was advertised as Flying around anywhere you please, the actually areas you can fly in are very limited, mostly to just inside your Fortresses (that's Capital Cities, again for you WoW people), or the Abyss. Good luck walking everywhere else.

Hit: Gliding

While, you can't fly everywhere, get a good jump on a downhill and you'll be able to glide until your flight timer is over or run on flat land again. You can only Glide, mind you. Not fly.

Miss: Walls and Ledges

Major issue I've been having and I'm not sure if it's only me. Aion did a wonderful job with the visuals of this game, but their proximity program is horrible. It takes you about 3 times to successfully jump off a ledge, as an invisible and usually unwanted bungee cord will pull you back up. It's the same for corners/close walking around objects or walls, and there is also a problem landing on a ledge, not really sure if you landed or not. Keep in mind, I tweaked my settings from all the way up to all the way down and the issue is still there. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Hit: Character Design

Thank you, Oh mighty Gods, for giving me the ability to make a character that’s face doesn't look like they smashed pixels together and called it a male. Yes, I'm happy that I got to make a male character that doesn't look like a Lego man. While most MMO's have the female models very well designed and leave the male models as boxes on top of sticks, I'm able to tweak and play with the design to make as ugly or pretty as I please on either side of the gender divider line. Course, the female characters armor still put them in miniskirts and bras, no matter what they are wearing.

Miss: Gold Farmers

This is for all those old MMO gamers out there. North American RO Server meets Vanilla WoW before the 'report/block' feature. Nuff' Said. No, seriously. Lineage II had more bots than players and NCSoft takes another passive stand at saving grace. Bots are still around and in great numbers. Not as much as the full on GROUPS of bots in Lineage II, but they are starting to get that way. There is an auto report feature that does not auto-block, the block pages are short and fills quickly, and while you can report and block players, they are not dealt with. It's getting to the point where it's a waste of time trying to block; only to unblock because your list is full and you see the same spammers for days.

At least WoW would erase names off your block list when they left the server/were banned.

Implementing silly tricks such as 'you have to be level 5+ to use this channel', does not help. Bots bot levels too. Duh. You'll see them standing in town, a handful at the first mailbox available in the game, the rest standing in town spamming, the others running around leveling...As with RO, I would like to ask...if the players know where the bots are, why don't you?

Tricks, shortcuts, and stupid glitchy programs AKA Game Guard, does not and will not make up for the lack of actual support. Higher a bunch of fucking interns and make then ban bots all day for college credit. It's not that fucking hard.

Well....ok. After that rant I will say that Aion is a game on the verge of being great, however, if the lack of updates, support, and effort to support your piggy bank on stateside continues, this game will not be around very long over here Not saying that it still won’t be big in Asia, but I’m not talking about the Korean Version, now am I? I swear, if you say yes, I will reach through this PC screen and punch you in your sensitive parts! It will have its short moment before crashing on the West side of the world.

That's all from me for now. Good Luck and Happy Elyos/Asmodian Hunting