So I really got a chance to do some Playtesting Aion over the weekend. I have been in every closed beta event but have had limited time due to RL concerns which are more important than any game to me. However this weekend I got some solid play testing in.

I have to say that to date I am am very VERY impressed. To start off I game off a laptop hooked to a 25" monitor in the back of a semi truck.. Thats means I use Verizon Wireless to log in. If in a good tower area i get DSL speeds. Aion even in its beta phase performed AMAZINGLY well. I got very little to no video lag and even one night when my connection wasnt the greatest It was playable. Currently I cant say as much for WAR which is the game I have been playing as of late. Which gets laggier with every patch. Aion is smooth seems very well polished. I had earlier concerns about some of the translations into an American industry and it seems they are adjusting the texts of those quests.

Now onto the issue after playing all weekend one of the things that kept hitting me is this game feels akin to Everquest 1 not 2... sucked. But EQ1. XP comes at a slower rate than most Western Games so you actually feel you have to work a little to level. Some people call it a grind. I call it getting together with friends and having a good time. I actually like it that way. Also the way the characters advance where you can buy you scroll abilities ahead of time. Reminds me alot of EQ1. In most modern games  you have to wait to you advance to be able to buy the new abilities.

Another thing that struck me as more old school was the ROAMING MOBS! God did I love this. MMOS today are SOoooOOOOOooo organized that it takes any chance of a random encounter with some monstrous mob almost out of the game. In Aion you actually have to watch your back some because some Randoming behemoth might walk up behind you and your group and begin to open a can of whoop @$$ . Even in "safe" zones you can still have that happen. Most modern games are so dumbed down and predictable they get boring. The large roaming expanses of many of the bigger mobs in this game brings back one of the things I was missing in older days of games like EQ. I guess most gamers these days dont want anything thrown at them suddenly they are not aware of. I remember back when I first ventured out into the East commons of Norrath and was fighting Bear to have a Griffon catch me unaware and tear me a new one. It added a since of Immersion. Aion has succeeded in doing that as well.

I have read many of the posts here from people ripping the game to people defending it. I am sure the game will have its flaws. Like lack of Inverted mouse (which is to be fixed) however. As of this week I cancelled my Warhammer Account. And will be sitting back taking a break from MMOing for a bit while I anxiously await this AMAZING looking VERY immersive world.  I am more of an old school gamer and Aion has definately brought a fire back inside of me thats been missing as of late. Cant wait for my next chance to play and better yet even launch.

eq1 actually destroys WoW, the majority of wows players base is that of barrens chat caliber, if WoW is known for one thing its barrens chat and how patheticly easy it is

fact is WoW sucks and really is more like a daycare than a mmo, its child approved so all moms and dads run out to get little jimmy his can of stfu, ive never played a mmo before with so many immature people nor have i played a game that is so boring and braindead easy (why most people buy it), you cant even compare eq1 to WoW its just night and day the caliber of games they were, keep the trash in the trash can and dont let them in aion imo, aion will be for true gamers of the old school
 

well if you are 20-25 is a group of people that started with wow as their first mmo and just coming out of teenhood. So you can quote from any research still doesn't give the basic idea that we old gamers have.. WoW teaches you crap about playing mmo's the same goes for f2p games and I been to both. You can not compare what people who played ultima or eq from start or from early expansions to what WoW brought to people. WoW is a casual players dream as EQ and the others games even new like Vanguard are not the type of games that you can drop and pick up later.. I drop EQ on its 10th expansion and I am seen uneasy to go back now that it may be on its 20th same for eq2 this are games not easy to get back to even if they made eq2 with their Senior/apprentice style cant recall exact name still hard to catch up to x amount of xpansions and quest lines. You can colorize WoW in any number of things but people like me who played eq/eq2 for years just look back and see the kinda of crap WoW teaches about how to handle certain events suchs trains, out mana, gettinx 0.001% xp doing faction grind and a lot hard stuff that WoW just doesnt cut it or brings to its players. Fighting a mob in wow does not equivalence fighitng a mob in eq.. cause even grey/green mobs in eq as it was could kill you easily.

As the OP said AIon feels like old eq with a revamp of new stuff that are in newer mmo's such as journal book, hp/mana pots, npc quest locator and if you have a good pc the amazing scenary you could ever see on mmo's such Vanguard and not crash your pc or kill your vid cards lol.. I remember setting up VG to max settings only to crash the next second I start it to walk lol. I played Aion with all max settings and still sometimes a lag spike but nothing that would preventing me from having a good time. I have played most classes but my biggest surprise was till I played Warrior as I was heading to Timolin Mines the last mine to play the last quest in Poeta unknown to me I stumble to a famous and deadly train 3 sentinels and 2 or 3 other mobs as in other new mmos I pay no attention since the idea of a train was years back in eq1 and the new mmos prevent mobs from attacking you when others do this type of thing well I started to attack I suddenly notice I was surrounded by such train I said to my self FK I am dead but my Warrior proved faithfull and I kill the train if this had been eq I be the one dead but no I killed then all lol took several hp pots and using shout to over come the train. All I can think of afterwards  was wow this game is gonna be fun and the phrase "Train to Zone" can back to my head lol as well as the colorful "Train to Zone... Women, Rangers and children first" lol

I have read most complaints about Aion and all sumarize to people who are unwilling to put the time to play the mmo want everything easy suchs elite armor and other stuff.. In EQ I played with the same sword for over 16 levels my faithful Argent Protector 2h Everyone had better gear then me but I was able to defend my self using what I had to wear.. As many players in around that time told me is not the gear that helps in EQ is knowing your class, you can have best gear and all but you can still suck at it, My memories of EQ  are good lessons that I have applied to other mmo's and they still work. People now a days dont spent the time learning their class or their weakness rather shout obsenities over chat, insult or make fun of people that have work hard to be where they are now.. or making fun of idiotic things that happen long ago.. stuff like this makes me wonder how closer we are from becoming a like to the movie Idiocracy. I hope ncsoft had learn from their mistakes on GW and go old school with Aion and leave it that way.. The simplicity of games of now with the harsheness of eq rules makes the game worth playing. I like the idea of the soul healer even though take a plunge on the virtual wallet lol several death can make you broke just like several death in eq would cost your the level at least you dont loose your xp only your money :)

Choose live and learn or rather die and pay the soul healer  (just a fun quote that I made while in CB4)

You wanna play MMO's well make the time to pay the for crime or if not get out of the kitchen cause of a mad train is coming to whoop your butt. :D

What you don't realize about that survey is, most people in that survey are 25-54 years old sad lonely person who is in a middle of a mid life crisis.  WoW simply remedied it by providing online commmunication with millions of people, which gave a false sense of "connecting" with people.  I am sorry, MMO gamers these days are boiled down to 3 types

1.  Those that take their emotions into game, but will not admit.  The game is not what they interested in, it is to interact with people.  Either interaction is friendly or hostile is completely different with each person.

2.  Those that believe they are gamers, but have no logic or rational thoughts.  They want the game to be real life, thus complain when it doesn't reach real life standards.  Game also doesn't matter to them, they just want a place to feel their are important, and they are not going to do that in reali life.

3.  Those that play the MMORPG as a game and tries to enjoy it as much as possible.  However, sometimes they are surrounded by type 1 and 2.

No one will actively admit they are 1 and 2.  However, that is all I seen in game and on the forum the past decade.

Ya I got to experiance one of those trains myself as well. It amazes me that people are trying to compare to WOW... Aion is much more comparable to EQ1 players and EQ1 fans should really check it out.. I played WOW myself for almost 2 years. I enjoyed it But EQ1 followed by Vanguard to date have been the best games I have played.. Due to how in depth they were and the communities that played them.

Personally I hope I never read another comparason thread in my life, but I read one awhile back about EQ and Aion. The first time I beta tested Aion I felt like I was playing EQ again because of the community and how they gathered together to complete an objective. The idea that soon the other faction will be coming and gathering to complete the same objective gets us working together without a system designed to seperate those playing for fun and those playing for brownie points turning the game into a virtual job. No mmo kills another mmo. mmos kill themselves, but they never die. even the oldest ones are still around with susbcribers although not as many. Aion is Aion not the first massive mmo in the world nor the current holder of high subcriptions, but its second in the world, and about to release in three major countries. I play it because its so much fun, and I hope everyone continues to turn on and have fun... lets be real, for as long as it can last :)

Wow, well I pre-ordered Aion CE back in June and was debating about canceling it before it was released, until I read this thread. I have only played for like an hour in one of the beta events because my RL has been too busy during the weeks to play. What I saw I liked, but wasn't sure if it would be an MMO that I would love or if it would be another WoW game (I saw so many people comparing it to WoW I was getting a little worried).

But WOW, EQ1?? EQ 1 was and probably always will be my most favorite MMO of all time and to hear that the 'challenging factor' is back in an MMO is just a breath of fresh air.

I don't want some easy-peesy walk to max level. I want blood sweat and tears! Sound crazy? Maybe, but the challenge is half the fun. The other half is PvP... Combined the game is just more fun.

Some people may be sick of comparison threads, but you sir, just convinced me to keep my pre-order.

EQ1: Rallos Zek (full PvP server)

Shoami, 65 Shaman --- then gave to a friend lol.

ok so i'm not the only one that thouht Aion played like eq1, well i played eq1 a lil but played EQOA for years wich i was told played the same. the trains deffinitly took me back..lol the SM class itself rung with me being an updated Magician class from eqoa. would be awsome if they eventually added a Master Class system like EQOA. gave EVEREYONE something to do at max lvl besides raid. and brought raiders and nonraiders together in groups for exp was a great idea.

 Totally agree with you.

The game does bring me back to EQ, and gives me the old ... EQ feeling. From the fact that grouping ... is actually DONE .. to kill stuff, and to just grind, which is a shock because everything in most other games can be solo'd. This game is going to be more on the group orientated side, which is what i want. 

Its funny playing a cleric; it does feel like im playing a EQ1 cleric, just without Temp. Lol. 

I'm one of those over 50 players in WoW, and alot of what has been said about it is true. It is getting more vanilla by the day (or patch), and even the hardests stuff (Ulduaar, arena rankings, professions) can be mastered in a month. I've never been Uber, leet, or whatever else the new terms are. But I play for fun, not to be master of the universe. I find the barrens chat everywhere in Wow.

I started playing MMO with UO, then The EQ's, Asheron's (both), and many others I'll never remember. I do have to say that the worst of recent was Conan (no excuse for what that company had under it's belt). My daughter is an excellent hunter, rogue or whatever. She grew up trying to reach up to bang my keyboard while I was playing Doom and UO. And I have no doubt someday her kids will be doing the same to her and me. I don't think one will jump into any game anywhere and fine groups, guilds or chat that is to thier liking everytime, everyday. It took time in Wow and the others, it may take time in Aion.

I will say that the comments about "train to zone!" brought a smile to my face. Then I compared it to a wow train. In wow, if someone pulls a train past you, it not only doesn't attack you, you can't attack it (evade, evade). In EQ, you would have the mother of all deaths.

And I don't think there are any Wow killers.

When will people learn.  MMOs aren't killed.  They get the soul sucked out of them by the developers themselves and/or bad communities, until they are an empty husk of their former glory.  Then they live on in that pathetic state for several more years.

If that happens with Aion, it'll be because too many WoW kids switched to Aion and destroyed the community, botters/rmt are allowed to take over completely, or the devs fail to address various mechanic problems it has atm (though I haven't found much to complain about yet).

And to the OP: couldn't have said it better myself.

Originally posted by cybertrucker

Ya I got to experiance one of those trains myself as well. It amazes me that people are trying to compare to WOW... Aion is much more comparable to EQ1 players and EQ1 fans should really check it out.. I played WOW myself for almost 2 years. I enjoyed it But EQ1 followed by Vanguard to date have been the best games I have played.. Due to how in depth they were and the communities that played them.

From my new experience with this game this past weekend, this pretty much sums it up for me. It did indeed feel like EQ1 with the player base. People stopped and helped, offered assistance, got a few folks following me for a bit and healing me, and ever offered an item or two while I was grinding out a quest group of mobs. To see that in Beta vs what I saw in wow Beta was refreshing.

The game can be fantastic but the players make it worth staying, the epenis folks can suck the fun out of a room like no bodies business. I'm not saying this game will not have some, but from first impression (which counts in large amounts) it was enough to make me actually give this game some effort when it releases.

~V

END OF LINE_
 

Originally posted by Zorndorf

Originally posted by Xbuster231

eq1 actually destroys WoW, the majority of wows players base is that of barrens chat caliber, speaking of barrens chat does any other game have a whole zone known widely as having such a piss poor community? kinda easily proving my point here as you can see

fact is WoW sucks and really is more like a daycare than a mmo, its child approved so all moms and dads run out to get little jimmy his can of stfu, ive never played a mmo before with so many immature people, you cant even compare eq1 to WoW its just night and day the caliber of games they were, keep the trash in the trash can and dont let them in aion imo
 

 

A pity the Nielsen survey doesn't support your words.

A US survey showed most WOW players are between 24 and 54 years old and a LOT of women are playing that game.

:)))))

The survey was taken in the US only and related to the actual playing of the game.

http://www.wow.com/2009/04/09/nielsen-wow-is-most-played-core-game-by-25-54-females/

It shows your wet thumb "feeling" was countered with a social Nielsen study.

So how far one can be proven wrong actually :)))

I wonder just how immature those 25+ year olds really are... :))))

 

Because im sure 12 year olds fill out survey's

Originally posted by Voltlives

Originally posted by cybertrucker

Ya I got to experiance one of those trains myself as well. It amazes me that people are trying to compare to WOW... Aion is much more comparable to EQ1 players and EQ1 fans should really check it out.. I played WOW myself for almost 2 years. I enjoyed it But EQ1 followed by Vanguard to date have been the best games I have played.. Due to how in depth they were and the communities that played them.

From my new experience with this game this past weekend, this pretty much sums it up for me. It did indeed feel like EQ1 with the player base. People stopped and helped, offered assistance, got a few folks following me for a bit and healing me, and ever offered an item or two while I was grinding out a quest group of mobs. To see that in Beta vs what I saw in wow Beta was refreshing.

The game can be fantastic but the players make it worth staying, the epenis folks can suck the fun out of a room like no bodies business. I'm not saying this game will not have some, but from first impression (which counts in large amounts) it was enough to make me actually give this game some effort when it releases.

~V
 

Agreed.  Over the weekend, I spent about 2-3 hours in the newbie area just healing and buffing people on my priest, making people laugh with the silly emotes, and striking up conversations.  I put together a larger friend's list in that 3 day event than I did in over 2 years of WoW.  The whole time I found myself grouping very easily and naturally, far more than I soloed.  It was great.  I've met a couple strange people, but no one I would call unfriendly.  It's a breath of fresh air after coming from the WoW community.
 

I'm praying that this isn't just true for the beta community, but holds into launch.

Originally posted by twrule

Originally posted by Voltlives

Originally posted by cybertrucker

Ya I got to experiance one of those trains myself as well. It amazes me that people are trying to compare to WOW... Aion is much more comparable to EQ1 players and EQ1 fans should really check it out.. I played WOW myself for almost 2 years. I enjoyed it But EQ1 followed by Vanguard to date have been the best games I have played.. Due to how in depth they were and the communities that played them.

From my new experience with this game this past weekend, this pretty much sums it up for me. It did indeed feel like EQ1 with the player base. People stopped and helped, offered assistance, got a few folks following me for a bit and healing me, and ever offered an item or two while I was grinding out a quest group of mobs. To see that in Beta vs what I saw in wow Beta was refreshing.

The game can be fantastic but the players make it worth staying, the epenis folks can suck the fun out of a room like no bodies business. I'm not saying this game will not have some, but from first impression (which counts in large amounts) it was enough to make me actually give this game some effort when it releases.

~V
 

Agreed.  Over the weekend, I spent about 2-3 hours in the newbie area just healing and buffing people on my priest, making people laugh with the silly emotes, and striking up conversations.  I put together a larger friend's list in that 3 day event than I did in over 2 years of WoW.  The whole time I found myself grouping very easily and naturally, far more than I soloed.  It was great.  I've met a couple strange people, but no one I would call unfriendly.  It's a breath of fresh air after coming from the WoW community.
 

I'm praying that this isn't just true for the beta community, but holds into launch.

Found the same and had fun doing it just healing buffing people nad striking up conversations..

And then the one thing that really struck me that its a dynamite community was when I leveled and almost every random person around you would scream gratz or cheer emote you  something i only ever saw in EQ or EQ2

Originally posted by Zorndorf

Originally posted by Xbuster231

eq1 actually destroys WoW, the majority of wows players base is that of barrens chat caliber, speaking of barrens chat does any other game have a whole zone known widely as having such a piss poor community? kinda easily proving my point here as you can see

fact is WoW sucks and really is more like a daycare than a mmo, its child approved so all moms and dads run out to get little jimmy his can of stfu, ive never played a mmo before with so many immature people, you cant even compare eq1 to WoW its just night and day the caliber of games they were, keep the trash in the trash can and dont let them in aion imo
 

 

A pity the Nielsen survey doesn't support your words.

A US survey showed most WOW players are between 24 and 54 years old and a LOT of women are playing that game.

:)))))

The survey was taken in the US only and related to the actual playing of the game.

http://www.wow.com/2009/04/09/nielsen-wow-is-most-played-core-game-by-25-54-females/

It shows your wet thumb "feeling" was countered with a social Nielsen study.

So how far one can be proven wrong actually :)))

I wonder just how immature those 25+ year olds really are... :))))

 

Wow, those oldies must be really immature. and yes they are, i have met tons of oldies that are very immature especially to younger people.seems like they hate us(the younger) but the thing is, when they treat us like that they are just being stupid and childish.. nothing less expected from morons.
 

Originally posted by thamighty213 

Found the same and had fun doing it just healing buffing people nad striking up conversations..

And then the one thing that really struck me that its a dynamite community was when I leveled and almost every random person around you would scream gratz or cheer emote you  something i only ever saw in EQ or EQ2

Hah, yeah I saw that too, and did it to a few people.  Maybe it's also partially because it's a bigger deal to get a level in this game than it was in a lot of recent ones heh.

Forgot to mention, someone I randomly started doing quests with and talking to invited me to their vent just to keep running quests lol.  I've never had that happen from a stranger before, only real life friends or guildies.  We both ascended and explored Sanctum together for the first time, and the awe factor in vent from both of us was priceless heh.

Originally posted by Zorndorf

Originally posted by Xbuster231

eq1 actually destroys WoW, the majority of wows players base is that of barrens chat caliber, speaking of barrens chat does any other game have a whole zone known widely as having such a piss poor community? kinda easily proving my point here as you can see

fact is WoW sucks and really is more like a daycare than a mmo, its child approved so all moms and dads run out to get little jimmy his can of stfu, ive never played a mmo before with so many immature people, you cant even compare eq1 to WoW its just night and day the caliber of games they were, keep the trash in the trash can and dont let them in aion imo
 

 

A pity the Nielsen survey doesn't support your words.

A US survey showed most WOW players are between 24 and 54 years old and a LOT of women are playing that game.

:)))))

The survey was taken in the US only and related to the actual playing of the game.

http://www.wow.com/2009/04/09/nielsen-wow-is-most-played-core-game-by-25-54-females/

It shows your wet thumb "feeling" was countered with a social Nielsen study.

So how far one can be proven wrong actually :)))

I wonder just how immature those 25+ year olds really are... :))))

 

And while I love some of the Nielson data, they even say on their site that their data does have a bias toward certain people.  They admit that their numbers can get scewed due to the lack of response from males vs females and teenagers vs adults out of the house.  I could go into a bunch, but I don't want to bore anyone and my only real point was to say that:  the numbers are all fine and good, but opinions / perceptions count too when it comes to mmorpgs.

Nielsen and WoW arguments don't really matter because Aion is in fact three games in one, EQ1, DAOC, and WoW.

Some areas are essentially WoW quest areas.  Some areas harken back to EQ1 open dungeons/group areas.  And the Abyss is essentially RvR.

It is not more or less of any of these it just does it by area and purpose.  The Black Claw area in Asmodean Altgard is a open air group area.  Also the way Mobs get trained is similar to old style MMOs.

But the questing is clearly WoW based.  And many areas are clearly more of a quest focus.  The trick is you can't always tells where that begins or ends.

Did anyone else get that LotRO-vibe?  I never got a chance to get beyond 10, but the game really reminded me of LotRO primarily because it was highly stable, polished, and relied a lot on WoWinspired MMO mechanics (flagged quest npcs, etc...)

Personally, I really liked how the game gives you layers of information.  At one point I couldn't figure out where to find a certain quest objective.  Opened my quest journal and noticed these really cool hyperlinks the provide more information and lore.  Only as a last resort would anyone really need the exact location to be pinpointed on the map.  Hopefully this will make quests a little more interesting in the long run since it seems like players aren't given exact coordinates from the get go.

There was a lot of mystery and unkown to earlier MMOs due to primitive features (lack of quest journals for example) and the fact that earlier games were more or less experiments in an untapped market (therefore more creativity on designer and developer parts).  I doubt any future MMOs will really feel as robust as games like classic EQ, AC, and UO, at least not until features and activities become more organic and dynamic, reacting to players and their choices.

What has always boggled my mind is that in EQ, quests weren't necessarily tracked.  It was very information driven - think of the internet and how webpages are hyperlinked.  Because of the way the system worked, you could pracitcally get involved in a quest halfway through the story arc if you found the right item and knew which npc to give it to and what to say to that npc.  Most quest systems now are highly "scripted" and extremely linear - and not nearly as fun or intriguing (in EQ you might actually get caught into a story arc/quest of some sort without even knowing it). 

With all that said, if Aion does infact encourage player-player interaction in the vien of EQ, that is very encouraging.  I've already pre-ordered and going to give it a shot so <crosses fingers>  And while NCSoft does get a lot of flak, they do tend to provide their games with free expansion sized updates for free.