MMORPG.com's Jon Wood had a recent opportunity to ask the Aion team a number of questions about their upcoming game.

MMORPG.com:

There are those who say that Aion has the potential to be the much-foretold WoW Killer. What are your opinions on this?

Aion Team:

World of Warcraft has certainly changed the face of the MMO industry and has brought a new audience of players into the genre. That said, with Aion, our focus from the very beginning has been to create a fun and unique MMO that appeals to a global audience. We're launching with an extremely polished game; with a ton of PvE content (over 1500 quests on day one); and we're launching with a more western style of combat and gameplay. Combine those elements with Aion's unique world and deep storyline, stunning visuals, and its innovative features such as flight and PvPvE, and I think you truly have an experience that will have broad global appeal. That being said, we're very happy with the momentum we've seen building behind the game as we look toward its l

Read the Associate Producer Interview

I'm not a pvp fan, but i think i'm going to pick this game up.

As for being "grindy" I havent noticed a grind that is worth mentioning. There are certain levels that are harder then others but its only because quests are more complicated, either because the mobs are harder or it requires a group. If they make the leveling any easier I believe there will be no challenge to it. Yes, western gamers are more casual gamers as a whole, but at times you have to work for what you want.

From 1-20 I haven't noticed any grind. There are always quests available as you level up.

I think Aion has the potential to be an MMO force to be reckoned with. It's not going to be perfect when it launches (no title ever is) but it is going to have enough going for it to make people want to at least try it.

My only real complaint is that there are a few too many invisible walls where there shouldn't (imo) be any. That can make the world seem more restrictive (smaller) than it really is, and it serves to discourage random exploration. That (again, imo) is a shame, since the world itself is gorgeous, and just begs to be discovered.

I'm looking forward to release. The dev team has done an awesome job with localization so far, and I think it's going to be a lot of fun when the first rush of gamers all reach the Abyss for their first PvPvE experience.

Peace. :)

TBH I wanted to like this but when I tried it it just wasn't that fun.  Painfully linear with no real storyline whatsoever.  Quests are boring and repetitive at best.  Runes of Magic is a better game, frankly, and it's free to play.

Having leveled from 1-20 in a day myself, I seriously don't see "The Grind" as people have speculated. Only WoW with it's x3 Buddy XP goes any quicker and thats only to level 60 of 80. Sure, theres more of a grind after level 20 in Aion, but that actually is a good thing. Getting to 20 should be easy so as to make you feel like your achieving massive goals. While after 20, it slows down to let you master your character for PvP.

Anyhow, I don't see much of a problem with Aion at the moment. It's solid, beautiful and immersive with PvP and PvE for both enthusiasts.

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Originally posted by Taram
TBH I wanted to like this but when I tried it it just wasn't that fun.  Painfully linear with no real storyline whatsoever.  Quests are boring and repetitive at best.  Runes of Magic is a better game, frankly, and it's free to play.
 

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Completely Agree. ^^^

Originally posted by Taram

TBH I wanted to like this but when I tried it it just wasn't that fun.  Painfully linear with no real storyline whatsoever.  Quests are boring and repetitive at best.  Runes of Magic is a better game, frankly, and it's free to play.

 

I respect your opinion, and admire the courage it took to express it in a public forum.

I've played both games, also. There is no comparison between the two, in my opinion.

Peace. :)

 What's pretty interesting in Aion is the fact that the ramification of the storyline is completely different from other games: instead of giving you in 10 different starting areas, but then at higher levels providing you only with one place to level/quest, it makes the inverse - you start with only one starting area, and then it branches out between many areas with areas for a similar level, be it in the Abyss or not.

Thanks for making the end game interesting and not the new character experience confusing.

This Q&A lacked a question regarding botting/RMT/hacking, which is a very serious worry that players have, including me, regarding the game experience.

Originally posted by EricDanie

This Q&A lacked a question regarding botting/RMT/hacking, which is a very serious worry that players have, including me, regarding the game experience.

QFE

I'm hitting a slow spot on the Elyos side at 18-19. Most of the quests I have left are all involving 4 dot Tursin's and I can't kill a level 16 4-dot at 19 as a sorcerer atm. And trying to get a group for them seems rather hard when most people don't respond or don't speak the same language (hey Dana, another reason why regional servers are good...).

I pre-ordered and have played for several of the beta weekends and I am pleased to say that I am enjoying the game quite a bit so far. It is very similar to other MMOs, but it seems very polished and I found the art style of the world to be very immersive. I also found the combat system to be more enjoyable than other recent titles I have played.

I can't wait to play the actual game and experience the higher-level PvPvE content.

First off Runes of magic is not better than Aion lmao, second keep in mind that this beta event is still using client 1.0 that was released a year ago and there is a 1.5 patch that adds more fixes and quest to help eliminate the so called grind. OVer all its a great game so far

This was a lame interview.

Why didn't you ask them some controversial questions so we can learn about the game. Everyone already knows what you asked, we don't need to hear it fluffed up again.

You should have asked about the botting/rmting/hacking, what's the deal with gameguard (gameguard is causing an extreme amount of errors that NCSoft doesn't give an answer how to fix), etc.

Jesus, why not just ask him "Do you like your own game?" because when it's boiled down that's what you asked over and over.

Meh, another theme park where your progression runs on rails in a very narrow world.  The scenery is gorgeous until you realize that you can't actually go to a lot of those places that you can see. Nothing for explorers here.

Replayability is minimal since every character you create is going to take the same dull ride as the one before. In fact, both factions have essentially  the same quests with the only differences being names and the mobs involved. It's soloable until about level 18 when forced grouping hits you in the face like a bucket of ice water. From that point, you can either group or grind the same boring mobs over and over.

However, you  can make some very pretty characters. Still, if you love shallow PvP and forced grouping, you might be happy here, that is, if you can find enough like-mindeds to play with six months after release.

Thanks for the effort, but the interview indeed is a bit superficial. The Aion team just gave their marketing speech.

I have pre-ordered, but do not expect miracles on the PvE front this game. The PvPvE concept is what sounds interesting to me.

Originally posted by LordDraekon

Meh, another theme park where your progression runs on rails in a very narrow world.  The scenery is gorgeous until you realize that you can't actually go to a lot of those places that you can see. Nothing for explorers here.

Replayability is minimal since every character you create is going to take the same dull ride as the one before. In fact, both factions have essentially  the same quests with the only differences being names and the mobs involved. It's soloable until about level 18 when forced grouping hits you in the face like a bucket of ice water. From that point, you can either group or grind the same boring mobs over and over.

However, you  can make some very pretty characters. Still, if you love shallow PvP and forced grouping, you might be happy here, that is, if you can find enough like-mindeds to play with six months after release.

 I don't understand it, if you don't want groups and want to play alone doing quests, then why not just play a single player game. Also about the shallow PvP, which game today has better PvP to offer? In my opinion, this game has huge potential, alright it might have some invisible walls but for it just being 1.0 beta it sure delivered.

I didn't see any grinding problems when going from 1-19 in 18 hours just from quests. Plus since I had friends that were playing with me, group quests where no problem but I am sure when the game comes out, more people will play it thus solving this problem.

Originally posted by Taram

TBH I wanted to like this but when I tried it it just wasn't that fun.  Painfully linear with no real storyline whatsoever.  Quests are boring and repetitive at best.  Runes of Magic is a better game, frankly, and it's free to play.

 

I think you have played some different Runes of magic than the rest of the people....
You say that aion quests are repetitive and boring and then say runes of magic is better? I want a taste of the drugs your smoking! :D

Originally posted by arrius2410

Originally posted by LordDraekon

Meh, another theme park where your progression runs on rails in a very narrow world.  The scenery is gorgeous until you realize that you can't actually go to a lot of those places that you can see. Nothing for explorers here.

Replayability is minimal since every character you create is going to take the same dull ride as the one before. In fact, both factions have essentially  the same quests with the only differences being names and the mobs involved. It's soloable until about level 18 when forced grouping hits you in the face like a bucket of ice water. From that point, you can either group or grind the same boring mobs over and over.

However, you  can make some very pretty characters. Still, if you love shallow PvP and forced grouping, you might be happy here, that is, if you can find enough like-mindeds to play with six months after release.

 I don't understand it, if you don't want groups and want to play alone doing quests, then why not just play a single player game. Also about the shallow PvP, which game today has better PvP to offer? In my opinion, this game has huge potential, alright it might have some invisible walls but for it just being 1.0 beta it sure delivered.

I didn't see any grinding problems when going from 1-19 in 18 hours just from quests. Plus since I had friends that were playing with me, group quests where no problem but I am sure when the game comes out, more people will play it thus solving this problem.

 

Gods, not that old saw again! The reasons why people may enjoy playing these games without grouping or PvP have been stated over and over in numerous forum posts on countless websites, yet some of you just can't factor it into your myopic view of how things should be.

I've also been around the block a few times and have heard the "it's beta" garbage until I'm ill. Beginning with my first beta, which was Horizons, people like you have been pointing to some unseen patch that will make everything better after release. These fixes never seem to materialize and the game you're playing on the last day of beta is essentially the same thing you'll play at release. So, if you're happy, then you'll be okay. But don't try to convince the undecided that there's some miracle patch around the corner. It's never happened.

Originally posted by eric_w66

I'm hitting a slow spot on the Elyos side at 18-19. Most of the quests I have left are all involving 4 dot Tursin's and I can't kill a level 16 4-dot at 19 as a sorcerer atm. And trying to get a group for them seems rather hard when most people don't respond or don't speak the same language (hey Dana, another reason why regional servers are good...).

you just need to get in a group to do those quests, and if you're 19 you're high enough lvl to do the quests in the next zone. and i play on the chinese servers and i had no problem getting groups, 1/2 the time i was grouping with people that spoke chinese. we didn't know what each other was saying but just linked the quests we was on and went from there.

and more than likely you missed some of the quests from out in the world from npcs out in the zones. frillneck area has a bunch of npcs in small camps of 2 or 3 that had a bunch of quests for me.but if you did find all those, then like i said the next zone is around 20+ you can go there an the other zone is around 23+