There isn't much downtime in Aion, the mechanics are just different, ie you need to actively contribute to regen instead of just wait for the bars to refill. It's a different approach to the post combat regeneration.

Also the mobs not being paper thin is a subjective preference. Personally I like them that way, they felt really weak in other games.

Edit: To the poster above me. There is a day night circle, in fact certain quests can be completed only during the day or night, because that's the only time the relevant mob appear.

Originally posted by Oyjord

Honestly, the only people who are allowed to like Aion are 15 yr old girls.  It's so amazingly "Asian-trite" as I like to call it.  If you like it, and you're not a 15 yr old girl, well, sorry, you have issues.

I don't understand where you are coming from. How about elaborating on your as of so far, worthless point please.

 I'm curious, why do people have to write these types of things up about leaving WoW, do people do this in other games or is it just a WoW thing?

The guy sounds burnt out in WoW, that happens after doing something for years, but then again it depends on how much you play the game.  Some people over due things so they eventually burn themselves out.

While i'm sure Aion will be nice and all, but i see no reason to switch.   I love PVE and i know Aion has it, from what i read it makes me feel like PVE is just something tacked on and their main focus will always be PVP, thats the similar complaint about WoW, mainly PVE with PVP tacked on.  I'll stick with WoW and their main focus on PVE.

Originally posted by Xasapis

There isn't much downtime in Aion, the mechanics are just different, ie you need to actively contribute to regen instead of just wait for the bars to refill. It's a different approach to the post combat regeneration.

Also the mobs not being paper thin is a subjective preference. Personally I like them that way, they felt really weak in other games.

I agree it is a different approach, it just may not appeal to the masses which is both good and bad.

Whoaaa..couldn't disagree more. I've found nothing different or new in Aion save a nicer graphics engine. It's gorgeous, the music is wonderful, the character animation is smooth as butter. The game is fantastic to look at..wow!

At its core it has retained every single feature of WoW, including the annoying ones.

Flight....for all of one minute if so much.

Realm Vs Realm Vs Environment...that you're practically forced to do. There is no separation of the two, so if you don't like PVP, too bad. Some player is going to come along and gank you to ruin your day.

The storylines? The starting areas were rather childish in their stories, and in the dialogue.

The great Passion of Namus for the Nymph...I mean come on..please.Tuppy the little fungus mushroom that ran away, although the old man loved it and huggggeeddd it sooo much.

All the annoyances:

Run RUn Run Forest Run, even with Wings you have to run from one NPC to the next. Then you have to sit through minutes of watching a bird take you through the same landscape over and over and over again as you level in any one area. So out of an hour's play session you might spend 30 minutes traveling. Yup..just like World of Warcraft.

Then there is the downtime. Mana regenerates at an appallingly low rate, requiring you to sit and rest, or down potions after every fight or so. Yup...just like World of Warcraft, and just as annoying. I'm out of combat....boost my mana and health back to full and let me get on with it!?

You're fooling yourself if you think you are doing anything different playing Aion. You're still playing World of Warcraft, with all its flaws and decades old game mechanics. LOL! They even kept the artificial limits on flight. Remember after fighting to get your flying how you were prevented from flying in Northrend? Same rubbish with the 1 minute flight time limit in Aion!

You want something new? 

Try Champions Online, DC:UO, Star Wars The Old Republic....Secret World,Jumpgate Evolution even. Some games that are actually advertising different approaches to the Genre. Even Runes of Magic has more innovative features than Aion!

as far as the day/night cycle...

I KNOW there is a day and night, its just not NEARLY as pronounced as it is in other games, I was only trying to understand where the person that said it had a static sky was coming from. I've played all the beta events to date and realize these things.

I just was trying to understand where they were coming from.

Originally posted by SuperHans

I don't know what all the fuss is about. It's just another Korean MMOG. 

Yeah, everyday we get a new Korean P2P no item mall MMO in the west... oh, wait... Asia and P2P without item malls in the same phrase?

September is coming... =)

Those that dislike MMOs because they have experience bars, monsters, skills, and quests should take a break from the genre, or wait until some MMO promisses to do something new (though I'm sure you will try to find something repeated in these "next-gen MMOs", so take a damn break from the genre to see if you will enjoy it again someday). Aion never promissed anything new in these aspects, it is delivering what it promissed for many people - PvPvE, aerial combat and FUN.

Oh and one last thing, (sorry bout the double post) The person that said Aion had unrealistic armor. Have you PLAYED WoW at end game? LMAO Shoulder armor in WoW is absolutely the MOST unrealistic things ever created in an MMO and I LOL'd at your statement. =)

Excellent article with some very real situations, I actually felt almost everything that you describe there, and thats why i also left the game recently.

I like wow, i played it for over 3 years, but for now im out, and i actually feel Blizzard needs a big punch on the chin by loosing a good amount of people to make then go back to develop new content to this game and stop the damn copy pasting

I agree with him totally. WoW is dieng very VERY slowly but it is. Its just like germany. Germany was pumping money in to the banks pumping and pumping it all they were doing is post poning whats coming and they knew whats gonna happen sooner or later and u know what happened?! money was nothing people would rather eat and burn it bread cost millions of dollars. Thats whats going on with WoW there just slowing down whats gonna happen slowly and its might take years but its happening very slowly though. 

Oh Ya guys plz dont attack my gramar i know its sucks so u dont have to comment on how my grammar sucks im a Hungarian speaking English so just keep it to urself

Don't worry, we keep the grammar police in check when a non native English speaking person is trying to communicate.

Originally posted by aurick

Originally posted by Comnitus

I've seen the game, and it doesn't particularly impress me. That might be because I've seen it, but haven't played it. Many things look mediocre or lame when you're watching, but when you get to play, your opinion changes rather quickly. I'm not a huge fan of the art style (ballerina combat and having to asking whether that's a dude or a girl is how I see it... nevermind ridiculously unrealistic armor and weapons) but I can get over it if the game's good enough.

 

I'm sorry, but this part of your post really cracked me up.

Blood Elves, anyone?  Those are hands-down the most effeminate men ever to grace a gamer's screen.  And having played Aion and worked with its character creator it's clear to me that you really haven't seen anything other than the stock footage.  You can make the men girly, but you can also make them extremely masculine.  It's a matter of personal taste, rather than a game limitation. 

As for the armor - when has WoW's armor EVER been realistic?  Especially at the higher levels, when you get into the various raid sets? 

Blood Elves are stupid.

I never said WoW armor was realistic.

If you can make guys look more masculine, that's fine. I bet they still stand, walk, and fight like they're girls. Similar to Blood Elves, you're right. Again, it's just from my first impressions and once I play it I might either grow to accept that art style or realize I'm wrong.

I pretty much agree with the remarks about WoW. I've been in since late beta, and I'm just burned out on it.  I've not tried Aion yet, so I reserve judgement.  It certainly looks pretty from the screen shots and videos I've seen, and the combat sounds like fun. But these types of things can only be determined first hand, over a period of time. Spellborn also looked like fun, but its combat interface turned out to be clunky, and the quests just more of the same old, same old. The company has now gone bankrupt, much less than a year after launch.

But I'll tell you one thing for certain. I and many, many others that are currently out of WoW, will VERY likely be drawn back in when the next expansion comes out. At least for another four or five months any way.  I had four characters to 70 when Wrath launched. I managed to get two of them to 80 before burning out.  I may eventually go back and run the other two up, but not for months.   I'm looking forward to Alganon as well as Jumpgate Evolution. Not to mention Section 8(FPS).  I doubt any of them will grab me the way that WoW once did. But perhaps I've moved beyond that. Only time will tell.

So when Mr. Duckworth comes back to WOW after the "fresh new smell" period in Aion fades will we see a follow-up article? Sorry Aion I'm leaving you for my ex.....Nope because it's much cooler to be against WOW and write a meaningless "article" about how great a game is that has not even been released yet. This was just a I'm leaving post that made it to the front page for some reason.  

Originally posted by Doctor_Doom

 I'm curious, why do people have to write these types of things up about leaving WoW, do people do this in other games or is it just a WoW thing?

The guy sounds burnt out in WoW, that happens after doing something for years, but then again it depends on how much you play the game.  Some people over due things so they eventually burn themselves out.

While i'm sure Aion will be nice and all, but i see no reason to switch.   I love PVE and i know Aion has it, from what i read it makes me feel like PVE is just something tacked on and their main focus will always be PVP, thats the similar complaint about WoW, mainly PVE with PVP tacked on.  I'll stick with WoW and their main focus on PVE.

Even in writing post like this all the author is doing is saying...WoW is the king...no the god that is unlikely to be dethroned anytime soon.  it won't be until they stop comparing and stop talking about the 500 lb Gorilla will the Gorilla disappear .

I got out of this article the same thing I get out of all I’m leaving post…a lot of noise and a unspoken promise that they will be back in less than two months.
 

Originally posted by Doctor_Doom

 I'm curious, why do people have to write these types of things up about leaving WoW, do people do this in other games or is it just a WoW thing?

The guy sounds burnt out in WoW, that happens after doing something for years, but then again it depends on how much you play the game.  Some people over due things so they eventually burn themselves out.

While i'm sure Aion will be nice and all, but i see no reason to switch.   I love PVE and i know Aion has it, from what i read it makes me feel like PVE is just something tacked on and their main focus will always be PVP, thats the similar complaint about WoW, mainly PVE with PVP tacked on.  I'll stick with WoW and their main focus on PVE.

People used to do it in EQ1 as well - as you say people burn out eventually but sometimes they carry on playing past that point because they're addicted or because of friends. I think people who do that can sometimes end up really hating the game - it becomes their precious and they can't let it go, but they grow to hate it.

These games can have weird effects on people.

I've been playing aion on china's servers for the past 3 months and i still can't wait for NA.  I tried AoC, and i didn't last a month before my interest was lost.  I tried WAR and the same thing occured.  Aion, on the other hand, really seems to be getting it right.

I can make my character look however i want, every npc and mission has voice, there's multiple options for pvp, there's multiple options for pve, and the world seems large enough without dwarfing your character.  Too many games tried to make the largest world possible but that only spread the user base so thin you never really noticed anyone else was playing.  This was a huge mistake that Aion seems to have found a nice balance for.  Definately a must try for those who rightfully believe that wow is getting a bit stale.

"There is a not so hidden obligation that you have to be there. You have to show up, or else you will let everyone down. WoW has remained so large because of its community, but it feels more and more fractured as time goes on. Blizzard is in the process of tearing down one of the last walls of inherent community with their new faction change. At one point in WoW's history, you could feel a part of something. You were Horde or Alliance. You were in this guild or that guild. You were on this server and not that server and we do it better over here! All of the ties that made a player feel as if they were a part of something have been removed, and all that is left are the relationships players have made with each other. A guild is not even a great source of community anymore. So many of them collapse then regroup, only to fall apart again."

I Agree Completely, Well Said. I Have Played As long As You. From The Beginning. And I Don't Have Any Bad Feelings For My Time With WoW. But I Also Have Decided For Many of Your Reasons To Try Out Newer Waters After Such A Fantastic Series of Beta Testings Of  AION.  Global Agenda Looks Nice Maybe An Injection Of Sci-Fi Will Be Good.:)

I personally have played since wow's release as well and have been, since BC, finding myself wandering off in search of what was lost. I keep canceling only to reinstate my account again because of one person or another who wants me to play. ( I have a lot of family members who are wow addicts.) Also, I keep coming back because I can't really find a "home" in any of the newer games, or older for that matter as I had a stint in Guild Wars. I'm hoping to finally find something reminiscent of vanilla wow but better as there have been features of games like AoC that I really enjoyed but that weren't enough to keep me there. I have been following Aion for about a year and am really excited it will finally be released. I never got into any of the beta phases unfortunately so I can only go by what media has been released thus far but I'm still hell bent on getting the collector's edition. Hopefully this time I will finally be free of WoW.

I just hope the author of this article writes as long of an article when he comes crawling back to WOW.

The same thing happens with every game release, there are a few people who get enamored with the graphics (aoc), or get psyched because pvp is integrated with pve (warhammer) or get excited because it's a new, more open world (darkfall).

And the part about WOW pvp being all about 3v3 arena is crazy.  I'm on a fairly medium server, and our Wintergrasp battles are always 100v100 every 2 hours and they continally are adding more battlegrounds.  They added a very advanced seige battleground with WotLK ( Strands of the ancients) and they added another 40v40 battleground today with the 3.2 patch.

In any event, I'm glad the author is enjoying his little weekend fling, but I have no doubt he'll come back to wow, just like they all do.   Go back to the betas forums from AOC and Warhammer, and you'll see this is nothing new.

I don't see the point in this article.

The words "hopefully" and "maybe" were used frequently enough to know this is based on wishful thinking and should be confined to the writer's personal blog.  We all have MMO history and we don't need to know about yours.
Post something useful.
 

Originally posted by Oyjord

Honestly, the only people who are allowed to like Aion are 15 yr old girls.  It's so amazingly "Asian-trite" as I like to call it.  If you like it, and you're not a 15 yr old girl, well, sorry, you have issues.

Does that mean if one likes AoC (such as yourself) with all those big sweaty men hoisting their mighty axes then that implies something else?

Please.

Hi Folks, my first post ever? (or at least in a long time).   I left WoW after 3.5 years, many characters at the cap on both sides.  I dabbled with Age of Conan, liked it ...then some folks I met there moved to WAR, so I did too.  Honestly, I got completely hooked at Warhammer and cancelled WoW.   I've played WAR ever since.  Previously I've played SWG, EQ2, etc.  I'm not a kid; matter of fact, I'm probably the oldest person on this board.  I write gaming articles for a gaming magazine besides my 'real' job as a musician.  I've been in Aion beta since the first weekend.  I only go back to WAR when Aion beta is inactive.  It's pretty seductive, graphics lovely to look at and while some of the comments about it looking  'juvenile' are close to the truth, it's still a great game (so far).  I've yet to proceed to the pvp areas, but the Pve area is a lot of fun.  SO.....I agree with the writer.  It's time to look for the "new WoW".  I've been looking for a year, haven't exactly found it yet, but Aion might be what a lot of us are looking for.  (Star Trek Online and next year's SW game are still on my 'must try' list). 

 I don't know why so many ppl are looking for WoW killer. Maybe becouse they were disapointed in some point in WoW that they can't get their set or something. Or they were so attracted to the game that they lost their real life, lost some irl friends etc.  And, so, now they hate Blizzard and of course are desperatelly looking for someone who can kill it :)))

I, myself, am MMORPG player, and being this I am interested in every well done game and I try it. So far I've tried WoW, AoC, WAR, Lotro, DDO, EQ, Runes of Magic, GW... of all this when I want to raid I play WoW, when I want PvP I play WAR, when I want PvE I go Lotro and so on. Every one of these games has it own good stuff that is worth playing for.... including friends in every game :) Of course, u can't play all the games at the same time... but playing for two months (if u buy game cards) is more than enough to see and feel the game for yourself.

Now I'm looking forward to try on Earthrise, SW: ToR, Aion, Final Fantasy XIV, Mortal Online, Star Trek, ALB etc.

And I think there won't be WoW killer at all. But every game that is coming will get their own player base came from WoW.

-Hey all long time reader first time poster-
After playing wow since is early days I really have to agree with some of what the OP has to say. WOW is really suffering by trying to please too many players at the same time. The original driving force to get into end game guild was raiding, bragging rights and the armour and weapon rewards but now with new dungeons being made so frequently, the loss of end boss complexity and items becoming disposable (I am struggling to remember the last time I wore a full set of armour ...maybe BWL?). It seams that blizzard has decided to now cater for the ADD market and in doing so has chipped away at what originally made it so strong, the community. When a player can hit 80 and start getting t8.5 drops in the same week it really takes away the sense of accomplishment those armour pieces once stood for. As for AION, well I have been playing the beta and I do enjoy it but it has raised some concerns regarding its survivability. Any game that kick off with your very first quest being a grinding quest really feels like its ignored a lot of what the mmo community has been shouting out for the last year or so. For me, AION also has a big issues with quest repetition and it seems that despite your level or even what zone you are currently questing in your still asked to do the same very same quests you did in the starter zone... go to location that look the same, killing mobs that despite being 20 levels higher have the same name and attacks and even drop the same quest drops.
Perhaps for me the perfect mmo isn’t out yet but I can’t see WOW maintaining its monopoly for much longer as its player community becomes increasingly tired of watching blizzard beat the old milking cow over and over again.