Originally posted by Krn_Assassin

Originally posted by t0nyd

 I bet this game fades in NA but stays strong in the Asian market. I just do not see much potential for Asian grinders in NA.

No offense, but you just proved the ignorance of some people in this country. Your forgetting Asia (Korea in particular) makes 20x the amount of MMOs for every single American MMO being produced. In Korea, there is no such thing as a popular 4 year old game. Games move much quicker over there then here. If Aion becomes obscure, it will be there before here.

Before you say L1 and L2, that's before they began mass producing MMOs and it stayed popular in other asian countries besides Korea.

  Last I read, in NA Aion had under 1 mil subs, where as in the Asian market they  topped L1 and L2 with around 4 mil subs. Under 1 mil or around 4 mil, which do you think will fall faster? Also, your saying to ignore L1 and L2, yet Aion is owned by the same company as them. Its like saying, oh blizzard is making a new game, but ignore WoW, WoWs success has no direct correlation to the fact that blizzard developed it....

Originally posted by Krn_Assassin

Originally posted by makerzyo

 For me personally smooth Gameplay/Combat > Graphics any day. 

Stating the obvious? duh. Aion has smooth gameplay/combat. If you actually played you would know this.

The ground pvp combat is good in Aion, and you're right Aion probably has the best gameplay post WoW. 

Originally posted by meltphaces

I've been playing WoW exclusively since WOTLK and saw a lot of people buzzing about the game and jumping ship for it a few months back, but now that it's here nobody talks about it anymore. I'm in a position where i'm growing more tired of WoW by the day and looking for something new at least until Cataclysm.. however, after being suckered into the massive failure known as Warhammer Online last year, I swore i'd never jump into another new game again before it proves itself.

People arnt talking about it?

I'm not sure why you would think that.. there is plenty of buzz for it still as far as I can see,e specially after the Vision trailer. This board alone is extremely active.

So, a few questions to people that play Aion:

1) Has NCSoft finally gotten their shit together and made a stable game for North America that isn't dominated by bots/farmers? Having played Lineage 2 a long time ago i'm suspect of them as a company because they didn't lift a finger to fight the bot/farmer problem back then and it ruined the gaming experience.

Bots were awful.

They arnt now

yes, there is illegal RMT in the game, but only as much now as any SUCCESSFUL game has.

2) Does Aion seem like a game that will stay strong and grow, or is it likely to dwindle down in population and become a small community or "niche game" like damn near every other non-Blizzard MMO is? My faith in gaming companies that aren't named Blizzard is diminished after being let down by several floundering games over the years..

There is nothing wrong with it having a smaller player base then WoW. There is nothing wrong in ANY game having a smaller player base then WoW.

This dosent mean they are 'floundering'.

The Aion player base is very healthy after the standard post 1st month exodus that ever new release sees.

3) Is there a worthwhile end-game to speak of (i.e. raiding, pvp, etc) or is this another "we rushed the game out the door unfinished, and will slowly try and develop content while you pay us to beta test it" type of deals? In other words, are people getting to max level then getting bored quickly or is there a lot to do?

End game is PvP, instances, nameds, forts, raids...

I am sure people will always get bored in what ever game they play, but is there content? Yes.

Could there be more? Ofc, every MMO could always do wit more as people blow through whats present.

4) Can the game be enjoyed without a high-end machine? I have a new alienware laptop that i'm sure can handle it but also a less powerful desktop PC I game on half the time, are there at least some graphic sliders that you can minimize to run it on older PC's?

Yes.

5)  If it didn't still have a $50 price tag and no trial I might not have as many questions.. before I even consider trying it are there any known plans to lower the box price or release a trial?

No, why should there be?

The game is selling just fine right now as is.

Bottom line: I'm a 10+ year MMO veteran looking for a new home, but i'm not going to suffer through another experience of blindly buying a new game, enjoying it, only to find out later that there's no end-game and/or no future for the game..  which will send  me running back to WoW because despite its flaws, at least you know it's going to be around in the long run.

This game isnt going anywhere.

Originally posted by t0nyd

Originally posted by Krn_Assassin

Originally posted by t0nyd

 I bet this game fades in NA but stays strong in the Asian market. I just do not see much potential for Asian grinders in NA.

No offense, but you just proved the ignorance of some people in this country. Your forgetting Asia (Korea in particular) makes 20x the amount of MMOs for every single American MMO being produced. In Korea, there is no such thing as a popular 4 year old game. Games move much quicker over there then here. If Aion becomes obscure, it will be there before here.

Before you say L1 and L2, that's before they began mass producing MMOs and it stayed popular in other asian countries besides Korea.

 

  Last I read, in NA Aion had under 1 mil subs, where as in the Asian market they  topped L1 and L2 with around 4 mil subs. Under 1 mil or around 4 mil, which do you think will fall faster? Also, your saying to ignore L1 and L2, yet Aion is owned by the same company as them. Its like saying, oh blizzard is making a new game, but ignore WoW, WoWs success has no direct correlation to the fact that blizzard developed it....

Do you really believe they have 4 million players in Asia? They are the second most popular MMO worldwide but 4 million? Yea right. There are no sources to back it up. Secondly, if there were 4 million players they would be in China, not Korea and is operated by another company.

The time when L1 and L2 were out and now are completely different. Korea produces MMOs rapidly and there is no way one game can maintain success in that country. Not just games, every single thing over there comes and goes quicker then here.

Originally posted by Krn_Assassin

Originally posted by t0nyd

Originally posted by Krn_Assassin

Originally posted by t0nyd

 I bet this game fades in NA but stays strong in the Asian market. I just do not see much potential for Asian grinders in NA.

No offense, but you just proved the ignorance of some people in this country. Your forgetting Asia (Korea in particular) makes 20x the amount of MMOs for every single American MMO being produced. In Korea, there is no such thing as a popular 4 year old game. Games move much quicker over there then here. If Aion becomes obscure, it will be there before here.

Before you say L1 and L2, that's before they began mass producing MMOs and it stayed popular in other asian countries besides Korea.

 

  Last I read, in NA Aion had under 1 mil subs, where as in the Asian market they  topped L1 and L2 with around 4 mil subs. Under 1 mil or around 4 mil, which do you think will fall faster? Also, your saying to ignore L1 and L2, yet Aion is owned by the same company as them. Its like saying, oh blizzard is making a new game, but ignore WoW, WoWs success has no direct correlation to the fact that blizzard developed it....

Do you really believe they have 4 million players in Asia? They are the second most popular MMO worldwide but 4 million? Yea right. There are no sources to back it up. Secondly, if there were 4 million players they would be in China, not Korea and is operated by another company.

The time when L1 and L2 were out and now are completely different. Korea produces MMOs rapidly and there is no way one game can maintain success in that country. Not just games, every single thing over there comes and goes quicker then here.

 I did not not specifically say " in Korea". I did say " in Asia ". Obviously, I can not prove NCsoft's numbers, nor do I care to. I do believe that even if they are padding the numbers a bit, 3-4 mil in the Asian market is still a big number when it comes to mmorpg's.

 I am not sure why you focus, specifically on Korea when and if any game has 3-4 mil subs in the Asian market, focusing on one country like Korea, isnt that important. NCsoft is the developer and publisher of AIon, L1, and L2, so I do not understand what you are trying to say when you say " Secondly, if there were 4 million players they would be in China, not Korea and is operated by another company. ". What are you trying to say, that 4 million subs does not matter because they are in china and that even tho NCsoft developed and published the game, that NCsoft is not getting paid and that some other company is? And you call me ignorant, heh.

Originally posted by t0nyd

Originally posted by Krn_Assassin

Originally posted by t0nyd

Originally posted by Krn_Assassin

Originally posted by t0nyd

 I bet this game fades in NA but stays strong in the Asian market. I just do not see much potential for Asian grinders in NA.

No offense, but you just proved the ignorance of some people in this country. Your forgetting Asia (Korea in particular) makes 20x the amount of MMOs for every single American MMO being produced. In Korea, there is no such thing as a popular 4 year old game. Games move much quicker over there then here. If Aion becomes obscure, it will be there before here.

Before you say L1 and L2, that's before they began mass producing MMOs and it stayed popular in other asian countries besides Korea.

 

  Last I read, in NA Aion had under 1 mil subs, where as in the Asian market they  topped L1 and L2 with around 4 mil subs. Under 1 mil or around 4 mil, which do you think will fall faster? Also, your saying to ignore L1 and L2, yet Aion is owned by the same company as them. Its like saying, oh blizzard is making a new game, but ignore WoW, WoWs success has no direct correlation to the fact that blizzard developed it....

Do you really believe they have 4 million players in Asia? They are the second most popular MMO worldwide but 4 million? Yea right. There are no sources to back it up. Secondly, if there were 4 million players they would be in China, not Korea and is operated by another company.

The time when L1 and L2 were out and now are completely different. Korea produces MMOs rapidly and there is no way one game can maintain success in that country. Not just games, every single thing over there comes and goes quicker then here.

 

 I did not not specifically say " in Korea". I did say " in Asia ". Obviously, I can not prove NCsoft's numbers, nor do I care to. I do believe that even if they are padding the numbers a bit, 3-4 mil in the Asian market is still a big number when it comes to mmorpg's.

 I am not sure why you focus, specifically on Korea when and if any game has 3-4 mil subs in the Asian market, focusing on one country like Korea, isnt that important. NCsoft is the developer and publisher of AIon, L1, and L2, so I do not understand what you are trying to say when you say " Secondly, if there were 4 million players they would be in China, not Korea and is operated by another company. ". What are you trying to say, that 4 million subs does not matter because they are in china and that even tho NCsoft developed and published the game, that NCsoft is not getting paid and that some other company is? And you call me ignorant, heh.

I specifically mention Korea as they are the mass producers of MMOs in Asia and most games that come out of there are the ones that are mostly played in China/SE Asian countries. This is something you have to understand. When the next gen of MMOs come out in 2010 by Korea, guaranteed Aion will have a massive decline in Asia as all Korean games release their first before America.

Originally posted by Krn_Assassin

Originally posted by LynxJSA

Originally posted by remyburke

My wife and I hit lvl 27 as a Temp/Cleric combo, and will not be resubbing. Killing mobs for no other reason than a tiny bit of xp and a chance for loot drops is so 1999...and that's a party I don't want to attend anymore.

 

I got a kick out of that comment, as my Wife said something similar a week ago. :) 

 

 

Well then your wife was lying as he's lying. There is no such glimpse of a grind in 27 unless your retarded.

I'm sorry. I mistook you for a civil human being with any interest in meaningful discourse. Won't happen again.

*files the Krn in the Zorndorf/Wizardry folder*

Sorry if I came off as rude, but I'm tired of people spewing bs facts and rumors about the game which isn't even remotely true.

Tbh you only find this game shit if you are more into easy games and you rush your ass to ending.

If you are that kind of person who wants to hit max level asap and get amazing armour wel then this game isnt for you. This game is more for enjoying. If youre tired of the quests and grinding then just go craft and try out the different things aion offers. AIon doesn't only offer grinding and quests it offers exploring and crafting and tons of more stuff. I was tired of questing and grinding i just went to explore the game to see what it really is like. The game is beautiful and after i did that i went back to leveling and today i am lvl 43 so i am enjoying the game. And i have rare taste in games but this game is perfectly fine for me.

I always quit games because i try to much to rush to ending ignoring everything the games offer. I just grind my ass off and that causes me to get really bored so i quit instantly. I learn you shouldn't be a lazy gamer and you should just enjoy the game.

Lazy gamers always ends up quitting all mmos cause they want everything to be easy and want everything handed to them. I keep saying this in all my posts but its true so many lazy gamers today thats why people love WoW it's easy too easy in fact. It was so difficultt in beginning but now quests offer you so much leveling even at high lvl so i cba with it it's to easy.

This game is easy mode in all aspects.

PvP is centrally based on zerging or being zerged.  This is easy mode.  Dredgion is the exception but 75% of the time you arent even pvping.

PvE is easy mode in both group and solo.  Solo is button smashing, grouping is tank and spank.  No exceptions.  None.  Every single character from ranger to cleric to templar.  Sure rangers kite and templars use close combat, but its all really the same bs over and over.

Crafting is not easy nor hard, just based on luck.  You need luck to get drops to get money to get crafting chances to get the uniques to craft. 

Getting your items to drop is neither hard nor easy, just a massive time sink.

Exploring?  Aion is beyond a doubt one of those most linear mmo's ive played.  Exploring is not something I'd credit to the games credentials.

You keep saying "lazy" gamers but I don't think you understand what that means.  Lazy because they work hard to level?  Lazy because they get unlucky with drops over and over and over?  You made zero points other than saying people are lazy because they don't do what you do.  You sir make no sense.

I love how you add the WoW insult into play like it has any relevance to the rest of your post.  I havent played WoW since vanilla, but I still played longer than I did Aion after I "rushed to 50" in 2 months.  Comparing WoW to Aion is foolish on so many levels.  I quit Aion because I did not enjoy it and I had nothing to do...since all you can do is one of a few things.  

My daily rant is over, good day to you.

Turned into a grind for me so I stopped playing.

Dont listen to Displiff

He is the #1 Aion hater/troll on these boards and more or less has nothing overally useful to contribute. Everything is "This game isn't WoW so it automatically sucks" replies....

I've even heard (and this is just a rumor) that he's actually being paid by Blizzard to go to every Aion fans'site in order to bash the game. As I said - this is just a rumor so Im not sure if its REALLY TRUE - but I wouldn't be surprised based on his posting history. Not to mention he STILL posts here almost everyday, yet... "hates" Aion. So Im confused why he's still here on these boards - which leads me to think that "rumor" has a lot of truth to it.

LOL

:)

I pay him to bash it I'll have you know!

---

Originally posted by Cammy
This game isn't WoW so it automatically sucks

---

QFT
 
P.S. Aion popularity is still in decline. After the last (anti-bot) patch the trend has slowed down but there's still a steady 10-15% drop every 2 weeks:
http://www.xfire.com/games/aion/Aion/

To OP

If you decide to play Aion roll sorcerer or ranger as they are the OP pvp class and they are the only class that can efficiently solo  kill elite mobs to help you level up faster.  Aion is grind period.  I have a lvl 40 cleric and I have run out of missions I can solo you have to group but basically group to do the same spots over and over and over again.  42 mil xp to go to lvl 41 and one regular mob is 28k xp.

Originally posted by meltphaces

1) Has NCSoft finally gotten their shit together and made a stable game for North America that isn't dominated by bots/farmers? Having played Lineage 2 a long time ago i'm suspect of them as a company because they didn't lift a finger to fight the bot/farmer problem back then and it ruined the gaming experience.

The game is very stable. When it comes to bots/farmers, they used to be alot more apparent, but they have been dwindling as of recent. The high level PvE zone used to be loaded to the brim, and not you dont seem them very often anymore.

2) Does Aion seem like a game that will stay strong and grow, or is it likely to dwindle down in population and become a small community or "niche game" like damn near every other non-Blizzard MMO is? My faith in gaming companies that aren't named Blizzard is diminished after being let down by several floundering games over the years..

As the earlier poster said, check out the "Future of Aion - Visions" video. There are loads of things that show the game should have a bright future.

I wont lie and say the game is perfectly accustomed for Western gaming at the moment, but it's likely going to get there. Reason being, the largest problem the game has now is leveling is quite hard. People are accustomed to games nowdays that level much faster then they did 3-5 years ago. The leveling is more similar to classic WoW mixed with FFXI kinda. It's nowhere near as harsh as FFXI, but somewhat comparable to classic WoW at release (when it took 12 days play time to reach 60 - thats approx how long this game takes if you level). Difference between WoW though is the death penalty in Aion is harsher - so if your in a crappy group then soloing will be far better XP.

But this will likely not be an issue long, because they have already increased XP a bit, and the devs have gave word that they have multiple other methods that they will be increasing XP as well.

Considering that has been the biggest issue since launch for most people, once the changes are in I'm willing to bet you will see a large influx of people coming back. Heck people are going back to Darkfall now, and loads went back to try AoC in the first half of 2009, and those games were in much, much worse states then Aion is at now.

Will it be a WoW killer? No. Will it be a step down? I'm pretty positive it will.

3) Is there a worthwhile end-game to speak of (i.e. raiding, pvp, etc) or is this another "we rushed the game out the door unfinished, and will slowly try and develop content while you pay us to beta test it" type of deals? In other words, are people getting to max level then getting bored quickly or is there a lot to do?

It's not a raiding game. It's definately a PvP game.

For PvE, the main thing is going to be various PvE instances. Unlike what someone earlier claimed, there is more than one instance worth doing at max level. ANY of the Fort instances are worth doing for the AP (abyss point) gain.

For PvP, that's what the end game is mainly focused upon, although you can begin it from around 25+ at a smaller version. Pretty much your main goal is AP. You gain AP from killing people, killing abyss NPC's, taking artifacts, and taking fortresses. The best gain is from killing people of course, but you have to find a fight you can win first, and the higher rank you are you actually lose AP when you die to another player - so its high stakes.

Fortress Guards/Artifacts give VERY good AP, and that's typically what you will do to kill time if you cant find any kill targets - especially if you take artifacts they usually come out to play pretty fast.

Once or twice a night (more on weekends) there is a fortress  raid, and assuming your race wins it, you get medals if you contibuted enough to it - and your race will be able to go to the fort dungeon (one unique dungeon per fort). These have an 18 hour cooldown so you can do them once a day, and they give you AP as well as have items that reward you AP or Medals (this and fort sieges are the only way to get medals which are needed for the best gear).

The abyss is only starting up still honestly - as more and more people hit 50 and start needing AP instead of XP, it's getting more and more active. It used to be pretty empty as most lower levels were scared to hang out there, but now it's getting lively - weekends have been much more active. Rifting has been quite a bit more active as well - which means taking a portal to travel to the enemy zone and kill them on their home turf.

Combat is also much better at end-game - with endgame gear your run speed, attack speed, flight speed, everything is far higher than it is for the first 40 or so levels. Which means much faster and furious action. There is no GCD in the game either - you can do a move as soon as the attack animations done - and attack speed gear increases your attack animations speed as well.

To sum it up, if you like World PvP with limited amounts of PvE, you will enjoy Aions endgame. Biggest problem is usually leveling to get there for most people.

4) Can the game be enjoyed without a high-end machine? I have a new alienware laptop that i'm sure can handle it but also a less powerful desktop PC I game on half the time, are there at least some graphic sliders that you can minimize to run it on older PC's?

Definately - as others said it surprisingly scales better than WoW. Except arguably fort sieges (which would be equivalent to Wintergrasp), except the battles in Aion can get much larger than WG, and the server doesnt die like WG does with a fraction of players.

5)  If it didn't still have a $50 price tag and no trial I might not have as many questions.. before I even consider trying it are there any known plans to lower the box price or release a trial?

Not sure honestly

Bottom line: I'm a 10+ year MMO veteran looking for a new home, but i'm not going to suffer through another experience of blindly buying a new game, enjoying it, only to find out later that there's no end-game and/or no future for the game..  which will send  me running back to WoW because despite its flaws, at least you know it's going to be around in the long run.

I feel you -  after seeing Aion VIsions movie I dont have any doubts about the future.

We dont have much to worry about either as the game is still super popular world-wide - that means it wont be going anywhere soon and they will have the money to afford the needed changes to make it appealing to the west as well.

But, before you make the decision, make sure you are a fan of World PvP. If your looking for a hardcore raiding game, it's not for you. If your looking for a quick run and having your hand holdedto max level, it's not for you. The road to max level IS long right now, and since its PvP focused you wont be able to enjoy yourself as much until you get there.

Make sure you are ready to stick with it thru the leveling and that way you should not be dissapointed. If your not ready for that, you might want to wait for the XP improvements.

Originally posted by Cognoman

To OP

If you decide to play Aion roll sorcerer or ranger as they are the OP pvp class and they are the only class that can efficiently solo  kill elite mobs to help you level up faster.  Aion is grind period.  I have a lvl 40 cleric and I have run out of missions I can solo you have to group but basically group to do the same spots over and over and over again.  42 mil xp to go to lvl 41 and one regular mob is 28k xp.

This is a blatant lie. Clerics geared properly are one of the best at soloing elites.

Killing elites isnt always the fastest XP either, its usually pretty even unless you have exceptional gear.

Also, running out of missions at your level is very hard if you do all zones including abyss quests. If you ran out that means you grouped up for solo quests, so you cut your mob XP in half of what you should have at that point.

Grouping is less XP then soloing typically, mainly because slower kills and it is more dangerous as one death can set you back quite a bit. Solo quests are worth quite a bit at that level which you didnt include.

Leveling is a grind, but dont mislead people. There are many games with just as bad grinds or worse. As I said in other posts, WoW at release was comparable - it just didnt have any competition and people were used to even longer grinds than that back then from DAoC/EQ/FF/etc.

Aions probly one of my favorite MMOs I've played to date (and I've played many). It will only get better with time if NCsoft keeps it up imo. Many don't enjoy it I guess because of the so called "grind" but for me I'm having the most fun I've had in a long time.

The upcoming bonus xp weekends should help for newcomers but I personally think Aion is fine the way it is now. I'm not looking for another easymode MMO otherwise I would have stuck with LOTRO or WoW

In my opition will be one of the top pvp MMOs in 2011-2012 next to maybe Guild Wars 2. NCsoft FTW!! :-)

All but I think 2 of my guild who played since Beta has all but quit for a multitude of reasons beyond just the "grind".

Aion does nothing new in terms of gameplay, its really the same go here, kill this,  collect me that with the same classes that are found in most other games. The zones themselves are about as linear as a single player game, and every character you make will have to play through the same zones and do the same quests each time.

PvP is fun at first, but you quickly realize there is no point to it. Abyss points can be earned just as quickly in pve and they can in pvp, and fortress sieging is on a timer, which removes any sort of random aspect to it. Abyss trading between factions/guilds is not a bannable offense or even against the rules, so you see level 40's running around in full gold pvp gear because they just made a deal with an opposing faction guild.

There is also no real end game. PvP was supposed to be the end game, but again has no point. Sure you can fly around the abyss and gank some people, but why? All of the rifts are geared for lower levels, so you basically find yourself tramping through a zone killing people 20 levels lower than you, this combined with only 1 end game raid instance, which again gives you pvp points for completing.

If you want a run of the mill mmo with pretty graphics and extremely limited flight, then give it a shot. If you are looking for something different than the norm, id say move along.

Originally posted by Ethian

Aions probly one of my favorite MMOs I've played to date (and I've played many). It will only get better with time if NCsoft keeps it up imo. Many don't enjoy it I guess because of the so called "grind" but for me I'm having the most fun I've had in a long time.

The upcoming bonus xp weekends should help for newcomers but I personally think Aion is fine the way it is now. I'm not looking for another easymode MMO otherwise I would have stuck with LOTRO or WoW

In my opition will be one of the top pvp MMOs in 2011-2012 next to maybe Guild Wars 2. NCsoft FTW!! :-)

Sorry but i dont understand how Aion is a hard game. You say your not looking for another easymode mmo. How is Aion hard in any way shape or from?