Sadly, I was looking forward to playing Aion at release but after I heard about the channel zoning and instancing I instantly became turned off. I find it just totally ruins immersion and the feeling of being in a world, it makes it feel too much like a ""game'' ( Now understand , I'm aware MMORPGS are games but the special thing about them is they make it feel like a world with the world masking the game inside. ) I find it just brings a cheapness and degrades the overall feel of being immersed in a fantasy world.

Those who don't mind, more power to you. I hope you immensely enjoy Aion and find it is the MMORPG for you. But for me, It's another that I'm going to have to cross off my list of future games to play.

Hmm can't say I saw to much of that in chinese OBT. But I would acctually perfer a game with channels like guild wars then a game that has 60+ servers like WoW. Don't get me wrong, WoW has it's fun moments... but having friends spread on 15 out of those 60+ servers is straining :P

Edit: fixed some typos.

Originally posted by NeverLand7

Sadly, I was looking forward to playing Aion at release but after I heard about the channel zoning and instancing I instantly became turned off. I find it just totally ruins immersion and the feeling of being in a world, it makes it feel too much like a ""game'' ( Now understand , I'm aware MMORPGS are games but the special thing about them is they make it feel like a world with the world masking the game inside. ) I find it just brings a cheapness and degrades the overall feel of being immersed in a fantasy world.

Those who don't mind, more power to you. I hope you immensely enjoy Aion and find it is the MMORPG for you. But for me, It's another that I'm going to have to cross off my list of future games to play.

You probably shouldn't play the game if you're so quick to cross it off, and come to the forums informing us you did so. But in the end, you just didn't take the time to bother researching what you read.

There's two zones that are channeled, there's no instances in the game other than a few dungeons. The starter areas are channeled to prevent overcrowding, and it was VERY much so needed. After that, hey, you're free to go wherever with one channel. Read the FAQ, or something. But don't come to the forums and put the game down false knowledge and spread it.

One good thing about the channels early in game is that you have friends that join later in game, you can switch from the channel your in to another and find your friends. As others have said after lvl20 there are no instances except for the dungeons.

Originally posted by Synthetick

Originally posted by NeverLand7

Sadly, I was looking forward to playing Aion at release but after I heard about the channel zoning and instancing I instantly became turned off. I find it just totally ruins immersion and the feeling of being in a world, it makes it feel too much like a ""game'' ( Now understand , I'm aware MMORPGS are games but the special thing about them is they make it feel like a world with the world masking the game inside. ) I find it just brings a cheapness and degrades the overall feel of being immersed in a fantasy world.

Those who don't mind, more power to you. I hope you immensely enjoy Aion and find it is the MMORPG for you. But for me, It's another that I'm going to have to cross off my list of future games to play.

You probably shouldn't play the game if you're so quick to cross it off, and come to the forums informing us you did so. But in the end, you just didn't take the time to bother researching what you read.

There's two zones that are channeled, there's no instances in the game other than a few dungeons. The starter areas are channeled to prevent overcrowding, and it was VERY much so needed. After that, hey, you're free to go wherever with one channel. Read the FAQ, or something. But don't come to the forums and put the game down false knowledge and spread it.

I knew it was the first 2 zones for channel zoning but I was not 100% sure how many zones were instanced.

Anyhow , You have fun with Aion. Enjoy it, I'm not trying to hate just saying that those implementations however big or small, kind of ruin the fun for me.

Yea, the channeling lasts for about 10 levels.  The instancing is for dungeons, if you don't like that then yea it's going to be a problem.

I personally would hate for dungeons to not be instanced, camping respawns for hours would be what ruined a game for me.

Originally posted by NeverLand7

Originally posted by Synthetick

Originally posted by NeverLand7

Sadly, I was looking forward to playing Aion at release but after I heard about the channel zoning and instancing I instantly became turned off. I find it just totally ruins immersion and the feeling of being in a world, it makes it feel too much like a ""game'' ( Now understand , I'm aware MMORPGS are games but the special thing about them is they make it feel like a world with the world masking the game inside. ) I find it just brings a cheapness and degrades the overall feel of being immersed in a fantasy world.

Those who don't mind, more power to you. I hope you immensely enjoy Aion and find it is the MMORPG for you. But for me, It's another that I'm going to have to cross off my list of future games to play.

You probably shouldn't play the game if you're so quick to cross it off, and come to the forums informing us you did so. But in the end, you just didn't take the time to bother researching what you read.

There's two zones that are channeled, there's no instances in the game other than a few dungeons. The starter areas are channeled to prevent overcrowding, and it was VERY much so needed. After that, hey, you're free to go wherever with one channel. Read the FAQ, or something. But don't come to the forums and put the game down false knowledge and spread it.

I knew it was the first 2 zones for channel zoning but I was not 100% sure how many zones were instanced.

Anyhow , You have fun with Aion. Enjoy it, I'm not trying to hate just saying that those implementations however big or small, kind of ruin the fun for me.

Hey man, more power to you. Exclude one of the better MMOs to be released because the zones you spend a few hours in, tops, are channeled. Hell, I didn't even notice it was channeled my first time in-game. And who knows, maybe the NA version won't have it, but it was needed in the Chinese version. You don't understand how the starter area is set up, you need it there.

Your post made it seem the entire game was channeled, and what wasn't was instanced. The instances work like WOW. Full, uninstanced world, unless you go into a dungeon. You make it seem completely the opposite with how the OP was worded.

Originally posted by NeverLand7

Originally posted by Synthetick

Originally posted by NeverLand7

Sadly, I was looking forward to playing Aion at release but after I heard about the channel zoning and instancing I instantly became turned off. I find it just totally ruins immersion and the feeling of being in a world, it makes it feel too much like a ""game'' ( Now understand , I'm aware MMORPGS are games but the special thing about them is they make it feel like a world with the world masking the game inside. ) I find it just brings a cheapness and degrades the overall feel of being immersed in a fantasy world.

Those who don't mind, more power to you. I hope you immensely enjoy Aion and find it is the MMORPG for you. But for me, It's another that I'm going to have to cross off my list of future games to play.

You probably shouldn't play the game if you're so quick to cross it off, and come to the forums informing us you did so. But in the end, you just didn't take the time to bother researching what you read.

There's two zones that are channeled, there's no instances in the game other than a few dungeons. The starter areas are channeled to prevent overcrowding, and it was VERY much so needed. After that, hey, you're free to go wherever with one channel. Read the FAQ, or something. But don't come to the forums and put the game down false knowledge and spread it.

I knew it was the first 2 zones for channel zoning but I was not 100% sure how many zones were instanced.

Anyhow , You have fun with Aion. Enjoy it, I'm not trying to hate just saying that those implementations however big or small, kind of ruin the fun for me.

But maybe, just maybe the game will be fun.

You should not be so quick to cross the game off your list, who knows, it might surprise you.

Don't worry, you don't have to admit it to us here..... 

Originally posted by Synthetick

You probably shouldn't play the game if you're so quick to cross it off, and come to the forums informing us you did so. But in the end, you just didn't take the time to bother researching what you read.

There's two zones that are channeled, there's no instances in the game other than a few dungeons. The starter areas are channeled to prevent overcrowding, and it was VERY much so needed. After that, hey, you're free to go wherever with one channel. Read the FAQ, or something. But don't come to the forums and put the game down false knowledge and spread it.

^-- THiS.

I really hate games that have several hundred players in one starting area trying to kill the same mob's.  They tend to ruine the experience of a new game for me.  I prefer the channel's in the starting area myself.  Besides I don't spend to much time in the starting area, lvl1 to lvl20 in a few days tops.

Really I liked to see other games copy this method of handling overcrowding for the starter areas... plus keeps the lag down too.

Earth and Beyond Online was one of the first MMOs to create channels for the starter areas. Been hoping more MMOs followed suit but very few have.

 Urg, they're doing the whole instance/channel thing again? This is why I can never get into anything from NCsoft. Immersion is completely ruined and you end up with what amounts to "levels" as opposed to areas in a cohesive world. This is one of the (many) things that killed Tabula Rasa. To this day, I still refuse to acknoweldge Guild Wars as an MMO as the only thing persistant about its world is the character. Is it a solution to lag and server populations? Yes, but it's a cheap and half hearted one. We should be working toward reducing the number of servers, making worlds larger, and reducing the need for zones/instances (outside of times when instances are nessiary such as for dynamic story areas and the like). Instead, the industry seems to be taking a giant leap backwards with chunking up their tiny worlds into as many bits as they can. 

EDIT: And yes, it may be for the first few zones, but how much faith do you have that it won't be expanded on later on especially since this seems par for the course with NCsoft? Whatever, it's not like I planned on getting into this anyway with what it's become.

Originally posted by Kordesh

EDIT: And yes, it may be for the first few zones, but how much faith do you have that it won't be expanded on later on especially since this seems par for the course with NCsoft? Whatever, it's not like I planned on getting into this anyway with what it's become.

Yes, lets write off one of the most polished and best looking (graphics and gameplay both) MMOs due to what the Devs "could do in the future".

I've heard a lot of arguments against Aion, but this one just seems a bit thin.  ;)

Originally posted by Kordesh

 Urg, they're doing the whole instance/channel thing again? This is why I can never get into anything from NCsoft. Immersion is completely ruined and you end up with what amounts to "levels" as opposed to areas in a cohesive world. This is one of the (many) things that killed Tabula Rasa. To this day, I still refuse to acknoweldge Guild Wars as an MMO as the only thing persistant about its world is the character. Is it a solution to lag and server populations? Yes, but it's a cheap and half hearted one. We should be working toward reducing the number of servers, making worlds larger, and reducing the need for zones/instances (outside of times when instances are nessiary such as for dynamic story areas and the like). Instead, the industry seems to be taking a giant leap backwards with chunking up their tiny worlds into as many bits as they can. 

EDIT: And yes, it may be for the first few zones, but how much faith do you have that it won't be expanded on later on especially since this seems par for the course with NCsoft? Whatever, it's not like I planned on getting into this anyway with what it's become.

Complain because you can't see the other 10k people on your server sucking up your resources and complain that the game is laggy with so many people up in your face.  It is a never ending cycle of angry people that don't get their way, and for the first two zones!  Talk about drama queens.

I think Aion's implementation of instancing is pretty spot on.  It's instanced in a way where it's usually unnoticeable unless your in a very crowded zone.  Even then they allow you to switch instances on the fly if you need to (ie for grouping).  You can talk to anyone across instances as well.  The zones all feel very busy.

This seems like a non issue to me.  I think the OP is looking for reasons to hate Aion.   I have a level 19 (almost 20) SpiritMaster and am loving the game.  It feels like the developers learned a lot about what worked/didn't work in previous games.  It's beyond beautiful, fun to play, and instancing is used smartly. 

Also, never judge a game by what the developers 'could do'.  Judge by what they have done.  Technically a developer could do anything they wanted too in a game.  Some games completely change direction despite the current technology implemented in the game. 

I think the developers of Aion wanted to make sure the game was playable by a large variety of people (same thing WoW does) and smart/targetted instancing is a necessity for this (again..something that WoW does).  Aion is definitely not instanced in the same way Guild Wars is (not even close).  So any instancing fears are unjustified.

Originally posted by Synthetick

Originally posted by NeverLand7

Originally posted by Synthetick

Originally posted by NeverLand7

Sadly, I was looking forward to playing Aion at release but after I heard about the channel zoning and instancing I instantly became turned off. I find it just totally ruins immersion and the feeling of being in a world, it makes it feel too much like a ""game'' ( Now understand , I'm aware MMORPGS are games but the special thing about them is they make it feel like a world with the world masking the game inside. ) I find it just brings a cheapness and degrades the overall feel of being immersed in a fantasy world.

Those who don't mind, more power to you. I hope you immensely enjoy Aion and find it is the MMORPG for you. But for me, It's another that I'm going to have to cross off my list of future games to play.

You probably shouldn't play the game if you're so quick to cross it off, and come to the forums informing us you did so. But in the end, you just didn't take the time to bother researching what you read.

There's two zones that are channeled, there's no instances in the game other than a few dungeons. The starter areas are channeled to prevent overcrowding, and it was VERY much so needed. After that, hey, you're free to go wherever with one channel. Read the FAQ, or something. But don't come to the forums and put the game down false knowledge and spread it.

I knew it was the first 2 zones for channel zoning but I was not 100% sure how many zones were instanced.

Anyhow , You have fun with Aion. Enjoy it, I'm not trying to hate just saying that those implementations however big or small, kind of ruin the fun for me.

Hey man, more power to you. Exclude one of the better MMOs to be released because the zones you spend a few hours in, tops, are channeled. Hell, I didn't even notice it was channeled my first time in-game. And who knows, maybe the NA version won't have it, but it was needed in the Chinese version. You don't understand how the starter area is set up, you need it there.

Your post made it seem the entire game was channeled, and what wasn't was instanced. The instances work like WOW. Full, uninstanced world, unless you go into a dungeon. You make it seem completely the opposite with how the OP was worded.

Simply put, I'm not going to support and give money to a game that is putting in features that I'm against. I know, I'll probably be stuck playing my JRPGS for the next 10 years before someone makes something that I like ( Thank God for Hironobu Sakaguchi and Tri-Ace. ), but I've accepted that and will patiently wait.

Now I'm not saying Aion is a bad game, on the contrary I think Aion looks like quite an excellent game, but because of these features I will not support it. I will not give my money away to something that I feel kills this genre, and the more money I give into it, the more of these features are going to keep on surviving and making there way into every new mmorpg. So for that reason, I will not be giving my money to support these features.

Originally posted by Ulrick28

  I think the OP is looking for reasons to hate Aion.  

No, that is not it at all. I was fully supporting this title until I heard about the aforesaid features that I simply will not support.

I think the game still looks good and will be a solid title but the aforesaid features, however big or small, I will not support it.

Ok so instancing of any kind is not your forte, understand and point  taken.

If you don't want channels, don't buy it on the first days. Or just level from 1 to 19 in around 15 hours and forget about them forever.

Problem solved.