Ok, so im trying to figure out which game to get. Aion which some of my friends are going to play but i'm not sure that I will enjoy Aion. I played the chinese servers and it felt like I was playing WoW again to a certain extent. I also played in the champions online closed beta and I enjoyed it but some performance problems are sort of dissuading me from buying it.

So basically I wanted to get peoples opinions on why one game would be better over the other and please no posts without reasonings like Aion is better than CO because it just is, give reasons and facts to back up the reasons.

A lot of us at work at constantly asking the same question.

"Will we play Champions of Aion?"

Champions had its moments and I had some fun with it, I really enjoyed the customizable powers and the style was good however I couldn't get behind the graphics. They didn't appeal to me and I felt they were distracting. A lot of times I would get lost and the mini map felt untrustworthy.
However the cut scenes were nice and one mission I played I remember seeing the fight, talking to an NPC and joining that said fight and then having killed enough bad guys I was rewarded while the fight went on. This was very cool and I'm sure later they probably have better missions than that tiny example.

Aion felt easy to pick up right from the start. It's quest helping system felt like Wikipedia, with links to inside information about what I was about to do.
The example here would be, having a quest to kill 5 baddies and the quest tracker having a link to a small pop-up telling me they hang out in this area because they like fruit or something.
It was easy to get immersed in and quests felt like they took a logical path. 
I wont deny it has really great graphics that look like a Koren MMO, infact a customer at work quipped "Its lineage with wings" but its much more than that.

If it helps, my decision was Aion. I wanted a game that was familiar and easy to pick up that didn't try to be over ambitious.

 Aion is a way more communal experience, Champions Online has some PvP and 5 man instances are the extent of the cooperative play.  There are the public quests but those are hardly massive.  Champions Online was really easy when I played it in beta and that made me not get it.  Plus the fiasco with people being upset towards Cryptic due to the patches, etc.

The whole thing stinks of unappealing.

As for Aion, don't listen to some of the people on this site.  They criticize it for problems it doesn't have, and there are answers for everything that has been criticized.  It has 3.5 million subs in Asia, and that is no small number.  At first it is similar to WoW but once you get to the PvP areas it becomes a whole new world of keep sieging and taking, joining legions, etc.  There are around 15 dungeons already, which is very nice with 24-man raiding as a side-order to the Abyss Open World PvP.  Fantastic graphics, very in-depth crafting system, and lots of freedom at endgame make Aion the winner hands down.

I have played in both Betas and it is clear that Aion is much higher quality experience. Champions does have the ultimate character creator, but as soon as I made my hero and jumped into the game there was someone who looked a lot like me, and that was in a 20 something user newb zone.

With Aion it is much easier to get immerssed, the story telling is good, the combat/combo system is fun, and the world and monsters are original (not the usual kobolds etc. from other fantasy games)

Flight/gliding is really fun and I am not a huge PvPer but it did get my blood pumping...

I would say Aion. I've played the beta for both and

Aion currently runs more smoothly. A HUGE plus is that you will have friends also playing Aion. (Plus I think it's better to look at.) Also.. even though Aion might feel like WoW at times... so will Champions Online. Once the coolness of your spandex and superpowers wears off.. you'll realize you are doing more or less th same thing, except in a more instanced way.

You can't go from one map to another in CO.. instead you need to take a choppers.. it makes the world feel very small... and the quests are still in line with any other standard MMO. Plus Aion has been out in Asia and therefore is more balanced. Champions already had a major nerf on launch day and will continue to mess around with it's skill drastically. Plus PvP in Champions Online is crap at the moment.. even a lot of peopel who like the game will tell you that. Aion balances their skills too but it's already pretty balanced.

Even though I made it sound bad, Champions Online is not a bad game at all... Still I say go with Aion. The biggest reason is that your friends will be playing Aion and that will make it more fun by a long shot.

Originally posted by natuxatu

I would say Aion. I've played the beta for both and

Aion currently runs more smoothly. A HUGE plus is that you will have friends also playing Aion. (Plus I think it's better to look at.) Also.. even though Aion might feel like WoW at times... so will Champions Online. Once the coolness of your spandex and superpowers wears off.. you'll realize you are doing more or less th same thing, except in a more instanced way.

You can't go from one map to another in CO.. instead you need to take a choppers.. it makes the world feel very small... and the quests are still in line with any other standard MMO. Plus Aion has been out in Asia and therefore is more balanced. Champions already had a major nerf on launch day and will continue to mess around with it's skill drastically. Plus PvP in Champions Online is crap at the moment.. even a lot of peopel who like the game will tell you that. Aion balances their skills too but it's already pretty balanced.

Even though I made it sound bad, Champions Online is not a bad game at all... Still I say go with Aion. The biggest reason is that your friends will be playing Aion and that will make it more fun by a long shot.

I haven't had any experience with Champions Online, however, due to all the information I have gathered, I'd say his opinion expresses mine as well, considering that I have played Aion.

I think it really depends on what you are looking for, for more pvp based gameplay and endgame pick aion.  If you dont like pvp or just like minigames and battleground type instances for pvp pick champions.

Originally posted by lethys

  It has 3.5 million subs in Asia, and that is no small number. 

Where were you able to obtain the subscription numbers in Asia?  I've been doing a little research, and I have been finding various subsciption numbers varrying between 800k to 2.1m.

Aion is alot better product in my personal opinion.

more quality

better performance

less bugs

and alot more massive :)

Alright, thanks everyone. I did decide to go with Aion mainly because of the amount of friends that will be playing it. Also yes im more into PvP in an open world than battleground pvp, only thing I wish was different is Aion had FFA PvP for the assholes that steal resources from you.