I would have agreed completely with the reviewer pre lvl. 16-17, once I hit 20-25, it became gut wrenchingly painful to even log in. Pre 25, 8.5, post 25, Meh!  

Originally posted by mmaize

 

The point is completely relevant considering the fact that people keep mentioning innovation as a sticking point.  So if there's no contest to the questions of what Aion brings to the table then obviously it is innovative and therefore should contribute to the rating regardless if the reviewer that is being critiqued did so or not.  In otherwords if someone is going to use that against the reviewer then they better be able to answer to the things that are indeed innovative.

 

Psst... Post #115 

Also, these might be some relevant quotes from the actual Review:

"To be straight-forward about it, outside of the flying system, Aion doesn't do anything that you haven't seen before if you're an MMO veteran, but what it does, it does well."

"The actual mechanics of the sieges are similar to Dark Age of Camelot, or Warhammer Online."

"It may not do an awful lot new, but what it does, it does very well."

Cons

A Mostly Standard MMO

Just thought I would point out that you are technically arguing with the Reviewer (Sean Bulger); not those of us who are questioning the score of said review. 

Originally posted by xzyax

Originally posted by Dana

Remember everyone, 8.7 is the school equivalent to a B+.

A good score, but not epic.

 

True, an 8.7 might very well be the equivalent of a B+...

But I challenge anyone to find a higher rated game reviewed from MMORPG.COM

 

Just for point of reference; here is the score MMORPG.COM gave some other fairly popular MMOs:

MMORPG.COM Review Scores

Game Title	Review Score
Aion	8.7
EvE	8.5
LoTRo	8.5
DAoC	8.4
CoH	8.3
WoW	8.1
Guild Wars	8.1
EQ	8.0
UO	7.8
FFXI	6.5

 

From the review score at least... it would appear that MMORPG.COM is endorsing that Aion is the best MMO currently available.  I haven't tried it, so I can't say one way or the other. 

I just thought it fair to point out that for a MMORPG.COM review score; an 8.7 IS  Epic!

I play Aion as well, now granted, I haven't even hit level 25, but so far my experience in Aion (according to my style of gaming)

I am having fun, its getting repetitive, but whats mmorpg isn't these days when it comes to the level grind.

With all due respect, 8.7 is Pretty High Rating for Aion especially in its present company of games listed.

I won't give it a score until I play it a little more, but as of now, lets just say, I don't agree on that 8.7

But again, this score is just based from the staff of mmorpg.com and it they want to give it a 10, well so be it.

Originally posted by mmaize

Originally posted by Dragonalf

Originally posted by mmaize

Originally posted by mmaize

This question is to Jon Wood: Is the intent of this site to let every review stand on it's own? Or do you guys shoot for a score that compares the new games merits to those that have come before it ... i.e. a relative scoring approach?

Based on the data posted by xyzax, it appears you guys are using a "vacuum" approach to reviews. The reviewer fairly admits that the game does nothing new which screams "average", 7 out of 10, a 'C' grade to most people. He unabashedly admits he likes the art style and there is a general overly-enthusiastic tone to the whole piece. A neutral reader can't help but come away from the review thinking that the meat of the review does not match the tone and final score of the review.

I believe in order for reviews to mean something beyond being a fanboy or hater dissertation corroborating their point of view, there has to be meaning to the scale. A relational approach is more useful in that one can, at a glance, look at the rating of a new game and be able to compare it to the highest (and lowest) rated games to get a relative feel of it's place in the MMO universe.

From the body of evidence around the web and within the MMORPG review itself, the consensus is that Aion is a solid but generic MMO title but certainly not a trendsetter as the MMORPG rating portends.

 

Answer these questions.  And no I'm not being smart@ss.  What other major MMO title has done aerial combat/character flight (meaning no mount.)  What other major MMO has a combat system that allows for chains to be connected in such a way that you don't have to worry about putting them all into your tool bar?  What other MMO has a world that is comprised in layers and has an abyss that is also comprised of layers and a multiple artifact system that can turn the tide of a pvp raid?  Personal hand crafted guild icons?  The rift system? 

Again I'm not being smart I'm really asking what else is out there that does some of these things really?  Because if not then I'd call some of these things if not all in it's entire package trend setting for it's genre.

 

Still waiting on answers...

Not meaning to be flippant here but what you're asking is really irrelevant to the discussion about the validity of the rating as pertaining to the content of the MMORPG review and then comparing it to other MMO reviews on this site.

You may feel these are exceptional points to make but apparently the MMORPG reviewer did not feel the same way. I can only assume that if he personally felt these were worthy of mention, he would have. Yet, he does go out of his way to point out that, in general, Aion does nothing really new or spectacular ...

 

The point is completely relevant considering the fact that people keep mentioning innovation as a sticking point.  So if there's no contest to the questions of what Aion brings to the table then obviously it is innovative and therefore should contribute to the rating regardless if the reviewer that is being critiqued did so or not.  In otherwords if someone is going to use that against the reviewer then they better be able to answer to the things that are indeed innovative.

 

I disagree. Also, where did you get the impression that no one contests whether it is innovative or not. I hadn't got that impression from some other comments in this thread (as well as other sites). But that's not really the point under discussion ...

It seems your saying that one should have beforehand knowledge about Aion and apply that through the appropriate filter when reading a new review. That's a little dubious to assume. What if it's the first review that someone happens to read on the game? If the reviewer didn't mention these points then we can't necessarily assume he meant to or not. You have to take the review for what it is and not filter it through assumption-filtered glasses. 

In the end, you're arguing about whether Aion, in general, is innovative not on the relevancy of the review as written on this site. They're two different points ...

Originally posted by DevilXaphan

Originally posted by nate1980

Originally posted by DevilXaphan

Have to disagree with the statement about GM's they are actively monitoring the servers and killing the gold spam when they see it, as far as bots they have to go thru an investigation which can take a month but includes several other bots and bank toons when banned. So far the bot problem is not out of control but do agree that some in house security does need to be made to lessen the problem.

Yes general chat has it's problems but what MMO does not have that problem.So tell me what other MMO does not have a grind in it at a certain level huh?

 

Your choice in trying the different classes on the same day with the same spammers, but i don't expect them to be banned right away but after a few hours they are gone. There are other thing to do besides grind or quest grind in game. Considering this MMO is only 11 months out, things take time to flesh out properly, hell even WoW took it's time to from it's begining to get as far as it did. As far as mind numbing grind well that is also your opinion on that and it varies from person to person. Oh i do play on Lumiel so i have seen the GM's do their job when they are on.

... Wow. Did you even read what they said? Here, I'll quote it, and bold the relevant part.

"It doesn't matter if you disagree or not. I'm not exaggerating when I say I seen the same gold spammers and scammers there for 3 days straight. If you play only one character, you wouldn't notice it after you block them. But I was trying out all the classes and that took about a week. For several days I was blocking the same gold spammers and scammers, so you're disagreement is ignorance to me."

The relevant bits in your post and in nate's are both bold and in orange just to make sure they're not overlooked again. Nate clearly says he tried out different classes over the course of a *week*, and that for *several days* (that is, more than one day), he was blocking spammers/scammers. How in the hell do you get "trying classes on the same day" from that? 1 day = 24 hours. 1 week = 7 days. *Big* difference.

I swear... 80% of the nonsense on this site would be eradicated if people simply learned to *read* and *comprehend* others' posts.

I'm starting to lose respect for the folks on this site. Don't you think that rating is a bit high? 

Lets just hope other companies dont follow and create Aion clones. Might as well just stop playing these games if that happens.

Edit: Look at the list of ratings these guys give MMOs, Even Eve is rated too high.

Not one mmo released after SWG deserves more than a 8.0 and thats me being nice.

Originally posted by WSIMike

... Wow. Did you even read what they said? Here, I'll quote it, and bold the relevant part.

"It doesn't matter if you disagree or not. I'm not exaggerating when I say I seen the same gold spammers and scammers there for 3 days straight. If you play only one character, you wouldn't notice it after you block them. But I was trying out all the classes and that took about a week. For several days I was blocking the same gold spammers and scammers, so you're disagreement is ignorance to me."

The relevant bits in your post and in nate's are both bold and in orange just to make sure they're not overlooked again. Nate clearly says he tried out different classes over the course of a *week*, and that for *several days* (that is, more than one day), he was blocking spammers/scammers. How in the hell do you get "trying classes on the same day" from that? 1 day = 24 hours. 1 week = 7 days. *Big* difference.

I swear... 80% of the nonsense on this site would be eradicated if people simply learned to *read* and *comprehend* others' posts.

Yeah and on one of the servers in question (Lumiel) he is stating that the same gold spammers are up for several days as you so noted in orange which is not true on the server i play on. After i have blocked them i don't get any whispers or see their gold spam in trade or LFG chat.

Yes i have read it and playing all classes over a week means me at least played 2 or 3 classes a day for  week.

Originally posted by metalhead980

I'm starting to lose respect for the folks on this site. Don't you think that rating is a bit high? 

 

Lets just hope other companies dont follow and create Aion clones. Might as well just stop playing these games if that happens.

Edit: Look at the list of ratings these guys give MMOs, Even Eve is rated too high.

Not one mmo released after SWG deserves more than a 8.0 and thats me being nice.

 

Hey when a reviewer states their opinion about a MMO it's theirs to be made as you have your and others have their's. Be it right or wrong or whatever it is, taking a review as anything other than someone's opinion just nonsense. The only true review of a game that truely matters is your's.

Originally posted by mmaize

Originally posted by Dragonalf

Originally posted by mmaize

Originally posted by mmaize

This question is to Jon Wood: Is the intent of this site to let every review stand on it's own? Or do you guys shoot for a score that compares the new games merits to those that have come before it ... i.e. a relative scoring approach?

Based on the data posted by xyzax, it appears you guys are using a "vacuum" approach to reviews. The reviewer fairly admits that the game does nothing new which screams "average", 7 out of 10, a 'C' grade to most people. He unabashedly admits he likes the art style and there is a general overly-enthusiastic tone to the whole piece. A neutral reader can't help but come away from the review thinking that the meat of the review does not match the tone and final score of the review.

I believe in order for reviews to mean something beyond being a fanboy or hater dissertation corroborating their point of view, there has to be meaning to the scale. A relational approach is more useful in that one can, at a glance, look at the rating of a new game and be able to compare it to the highest (and lowest) rated games to get a relative feel of it's place in the MMO universe.

From the body of evidence around the web and within the MMORPG review itself, the consensus is that Aion is a solid but generic MMO title but certainly not a trendsetter as the MMORPG rating portends.

 

Answer these questions.  And no I'm not being smart@ss.  What other major MMO title has done aerial combat/character flight (meaning no mount.)  What other major MMO has a combat system that allows for chains to be connected in such a way that you don't have to worry about putting them all into your tool bar?  What other MMO has a world that is comprised in layers and has an abyss that is also comprised of layers and a multiple artifact system that can turn the tide of a pvp raid?  Personal hand crafted guild icons?  The rift system? 

Again I'm not being smart I'm really asking what else is out there that does some of these things really?  Because if not then I'd call some of these things if not all in it's entire package trend setting for it's genre.

 

Still waiting on answers...

Not meaning to be flippant here but what you're asking is really irrelevant to the discussion about the validity of the rating as pertaining to the content of the MMORPG review and then comparing it to other MMO reviews on this site.

You may feel these are exceptional points to make but apparently the MMORPG reviewer did not feel the same way. I can only assume that if he personally felt these were worthy of mention, he would have. Yet, he does go out of his way to point out that, in general, Aion does nothing really new or spectacular ...

 

The point is completely relevant considering the fact that people keep mentioning innovation as a sticking point.  So if there's no contest to the questions of what Aion brings to the table then obviously it is innovative and therefore should contribute to the rating regardless if the reviewer that is being critiqued did so or not.  In otherwords if someone is going to use that against the reviewer then they better be able to answer to the things that are indeed innovative.

 

It's not innovative.  Rifting actually is limiting since it's not true open world PvP.  I'm not sure what you mean by a layered gameworld but you can make the argument that the abyss is just one huge Battleground.  Wings are nice, but again innovative?  Hell, we can say WWIIOnline has aerial combat because it has planes. 

The reviewer himself says that Aion doesn't do anything new.  What it does do it does well.  I think that makes it a very straightfoward, vanilla game.  There's nothing wrong with that, but the review score doesn't indicate that. 

Originally posted by DevilXaphan

Originally posted by metalhead980

I'm starting to lose respect for the folks on this site. Don't you think that rating is a bit high? 

 

Lets just hope other companies dont follow and create Aion clones. Might as well just stop playing these games if that happens.

Edit: Look at the list of ratings these guys give MMOs, Even Eve is rated too high.

Not one mmo released after SWG deserves more than a 8.0 and thats me being nice.

 

Hey when a reviewer states their opinion about a MMO it's theirs to be made as you have your and others have their's. Be it right or wrong or whatever it is, taking a review as anything other than someone's opinion just nonsense. The only true review of a game that truely matters is your's.

Anyone that can review aion and make it the highest review on the site is clearly being paid off by the developers.

Honestly I hate WoW but anyone that thinks Aion ranks higher than WoW in anything is crazy. Being tired of WoW after years is one thing but head to head feature to feature WoW kicks this games ass all over the place.

 No way is this review correct in any way. Yes Aion is polished and good but it also has many glaring flaws which he seemed ot ignore. Its a 8.0 at best and 7.9 at worst. 8.7 is way way to high.

 Pretty poor review tbh,

Not just in the score(no way does it deserve so high) but even things like the chain attacks "That is, when you use one ability, it will unlock another ability, which might unlock another ability, etc... The further you go down a skill chain, the more powerful the abilities get" what is the "etc" bit about?

Also the bit about the rifts and pvp is just so wrong I doubt the reviewer even did a rift when the other side were flowing out of them.

It may sound like I like I think the game deserve's more credit but I dont think it does,I just think this is a very poor review.

For me I have been here and done it so many time's,I was hoping that the game had the best elements of all the recent mmo's into 1 and for some parts they do but just so many things about the game are just not fun,pure and simple.

Think this review is going to have to be pulled, if it stays up , it would be the official notice that ncsoft owns this website now,  umm if mmorpg,.com doesnt want to step up and admit this review is extremely biased and misleading, then I think mmorpg.com will lose a lot of credit with a lot of fans of the sight who have put in relentless years supporting  mmorpg.com.

Can we please get an official response for this review, and if it stays up, then I will most likely look for a new source for my mmo news since this is becoming complete bullshit.

AIon was fun until about level 29, then you hit the wall. I made it to 34.

3 things that really suck about the game:

1) The lack of quests to help you level, repeatables lol please having a reason to run around and explore zones is always good this game lacks it.

2) Killing boss mobs does not give you loot, thats right not even a green.Loot  is 100 percent RNG. When you enter fire temple your so excited and then you  get squat for you reward. Training grounds was the same way. Oh and it gets better this is the last dungeon until about level 40.

3) The epic pvp is not that epic. what happens when 400 people show up for a fortress siege? Massive lag and the guy with the most numbers wins.

I was all about Aion at first but if this is the kind of crap they are peddling out of NCSOFT I will pass on everything that is NCSOFT from now on. No thanks, I will wait for Star Wars. Lets hope it can deliver.

Originally posted by parrotpholk

 No way is this review correct in any way. Yes Aion is polished and good but it also has many glaring flaws which he seemed ot ignore. Its a 8.0 at best and 7.9 at worst. 8.7 is way way to high.

Agree with you there, 7.8 to 8.0 after a heated debate with my wife , she loves it, I don,t as not into that sort of game, but yeah I think its polished up to a point . I went 7.2, wife 8.0.  After rather one sided rant on mean score (I wasnt the one talking) settled on 7.8.

I say settled in the crash into a hillside sort of settled.

game is a 7.9 - 8.2 at best simply for the pperformance of the client.

Originally posted by Masoniclight

Aion is a beautifully done and excellent story driven world. I currently have an Eloysian Templar (Lvl 14) and an Asmodian Sorceress (Lvl 12) and both are an absolute hoot to play. The quests, the side quests, the richness of the world.. is awe inspiring to say the least. Is the game perfect? No.. no game is. There still needs to be a very widesweeping attention to the spammers and their ilk but I as a player am not going to let those types ruin my fun. As my characters have progressed and as I have gone back to read the finer details of the storyline, I can better my roleplaying skills when in character, and it is great that I can do this so that I can truly get the immersion I want from a high fantasy game such as this.

Aion may not be innovative or new when it comes to all thing MMO wise, but it is clearly a well thought out, finely crafted game that seems to hit on all the tried and true aspects of a fantasy MMO.

And yes, I beta-ed and played WoW when it came out and it really jaded me towards Fantasy MMOs, it was that sorry of a game as far as I was concerned. (And I still do not understand the attraction that people have towards WoW) Aion is the first fantasy MMO I have played since WoW left that bad taste in my mouth. I absolutely enjoy the game and will continue to play it for the near future.

My own grade is A- or to put into Metacritic style, I'd give it a 91.

my own .02 influence.

You've only made it as high as 14. I'm not saying your opinion isn't valid, but it's only valid up to 14. I think most, even those who left the game can say the game was fun at least until 14 if not 20. Give it another 10-15 levels and then come back and tell us what you think. If you still think the game is great and you stay subscribed, I'll be happy for you and take back what I'm about to say. However, I'd bet against you liking it at those levels.

 I noticed they didn't bring up the biggest current flaw with the game, namely the crytek.dll error. Basically, if you have over 2gigs of ram on your system. Be prepared to crash often and always during fortress raids. It's bad enough that you're basically forced out of them once they get large enough, which basically ruins the majority of the end game. NCsoft has made no statements as to a timely fix for what is only going to be a larger issue as time goes on. 

Sadly, this alone is marring what could be a fairly decent RvR MMO.

the abyss zerg fest is garbage

the game is over rated, i'm over it already

Originally posted by WSIMike

Originally posted by DevilXaphan

Originally posted by nate1980

Originally posted by DevilXaphan

Have to disagree with the statement about GM's they are actively monitoring the servers and killing the gold spam when they see it, as far as bots they have to go thru an investigation which can take a month but includes several other bots and bank toons when banned. So far the bot problem is not out of control but do agree that some in house security does need to be made to lessen the problem.

Yes general chat has it's problems but what MMO does not have that problem.So tell me what other MMO does not have a grind in it at a certain level huh?

 

Your choice in trying the different classes on the same day with the same spammers, but i don't expect them to be banned right away but after a few hours they are gone. There are other thing to do besides grind or quest grind in game. Considering this MMO is only 11 months out, things take time to flesh out properly, hell even WoW took it's time to from it's begining to get as far as it did. As far as mind numbing grind well that is also your opinion on that and it varies from person to person. Oh i do play on Lumiel so i have seen the GM's do their job when they are on.

... Wow. Did you even read what they said? Here, I'll quote it, and bold the relevant part.

"It doesn't matter if you disagree or not. I'm not exaggerating when I say I seen the same gold spammers and scammers there for 3 days straight. If you play only one character, you wouldn't notice it after you block them. But I was trying out all the classes and that took about a week. For several days I was blocking the same gold spammers and scammers, so you're disagreement is ignorance to me."

The relevant bits in your post and in nate's are both bold and in orange just to make sure they're not overlooked again. Nate clearly says he tried out different classes over the course of a *week*, and that for *several days* (that is, more than one day), he was blocking spammers/scammers. How in the hell do you get "trying classes on the same day" from that? 1 day = 24 hours. 1 week = 7 days. *Big* difference.

I swear... 80% of the nonsense on this site would be eradicated if people simply learned to *read* and *comprehend* others' posts.

 

 

 

I LOL'ed at this. I gave up on him as you can tell, I never replied. After he posted that, I knew he either didn't read my post or is just a dumbass. Either way, he wasn't worth my time anymore, but this post was too funny to pass up.

Originally posted by DevilXaphan

Originally posted by WSIMike

... Wow. Did you even read what they said? Here, I'll quote it, and bold the relevant part.

"It doesn't matter if you disagree or not. I'm not exaggerating when I say I seen the same gold spammers and scammers there for 3 days straight. If you play only one character, you wouldn't notice it after you block them. But I was trying out all the classes and that took about a week. For several days I was blocking the same gold spammers and scammers, so you're disagreement is ignorance to me."

The relevant bits in your post and in nate's are both bold and in orange just to make sure they're not overlooked again. Nate clearly says he tried out different classes over the course of a *week*, and that for *several days* (that is, more than one day), he was blocking spammers/scammers. How in the hell do you get "trying classes on the same day" from that? 1 day = 24 hours. 1 week = 7 days. *Big* difference.

I swear... 80% of the nonsense on this site would be eradicated if people simply learned to *read* and *comprehend* others' posts.

 

Yeah and on one of the servers in question (Lumiel) he is stating that the same gold spammers are up for several days as you so noted in orange which is not true on the server i play on. After i have blocked them i don't get any whispers or see their gold spam in trade or LFG chat.

Yes i have read it and playing all classes over a week means me at least played 2 or 3 classes a day for  week.

No, I created a new class almost every day after the first week. Lumiel was the server I started with, and I played on it from headstart until they released Meslamtaeda. Lumiel didn't have much gold spam problems at the time, but it was starting to pick up near the time I left. When I rerolled on Meslamtaeda, I rolled a new character every day, to every two days, because I wanted to try all the classes to see which one I'd like best. So I got real familiar with the names I had to block every day and while at first I was patient and paid not much mind to it, by the end of the week of doing this, I thought it was rediculose, because a company like NCsoft, who has plenty of past experience should have at least 1 GM per server catching these spammers. Before giving up on the game from boredom, I rolled a Cleric on Lumiel. I can't really say whether or not the gold spammers on that server lasted more than a day, but I don't see why that server would be any different.

Did you guys just rate this game 8.7? HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAH

Yeah ok.

Giving this game an 8 would be too much, 7.5 seems about accurate if you're going to try to blow it up like that.  But an 8.7 don't make me laugh.  How would any one rate this game so high when it has such a low amount of classes, small world and gathering/crafting that's a joke.  Timed flying, no mounts, huge grind. Anyway, long story short this game is no where close to an 8.7.

Originally posted by dscar23

mmorpg.com's review of wow they gave it an 8.0

aion gets an 8.7?

aion is wow with...less content...

 

make sense

WoW has been out for how long and had 2 pretty big expansions?

Makes sense.

"Crafting

Outside of combat and PvPvE, Aion provides you with the other standard gameplay system found in most MMOs: crafting. Crafting is a very straight forward affair in Aion. You have a recipe, you get the materials you need for the recipe, and you click "Craft". Or rather, you gather enough to make multiple versions of an item and click 'Craft All' which automatically queues up everything for you. There's nothing special about it, but it does work. However, I warn all future crafters: you'll take some serious losses while crafting. I've known people to make money with alchemy, but beyond that, unless you're very clever, crafting will be more of a time and money sink than a way to pay the bills."

Not for me then....tired of games where crafting is not only non-essential but boring and worthless.  I'll skip this and play Fallen Earth.  :-)

Originally posted by Demz2

 This site is a joke along with the idiots posting here.  No more posting here for me. 

Not a chance in hell that you're done. You fit in so well.