There is  a pre-launch poll at 24-Aion asking your thoughts on Aion.

http://aion.24-hrgaming.net/index.php?showtopic=47&st=0

If you don't want to join the site to vote, please post your thoughts here. I will take what I find to be the most interesting comments and re-post them there.

Do you think Aion will be a success or will it flop? Why?

OFC it will, NCSoft is raking in the Dollars, re-evaluate this same after the monthend - a couple days into full gamelaunch will sort the issues.

I think Aion will Succeed, it's an overall Awesome game, i like it, the little OBT problem they had was fixed within 24 hours, idk why people were judging the game after the firstday obt came, it was quite annoying

As long as they keep that hentai tenticle monster Laggy under control, they've got it made.

I'm thinking it will follow a similar (albiet lesser) trend as WoW did.

It'll be popular, but a lot of people will hold back on it for a while, until they start hearing how good it is, and may come back out of curiosity. A lot of people are writing this game off for one reason or another, without really taking the time to get to know it.

I don't think all of these people will stay that way, though, especially as most of them quite before the first day of OB ended and the lag was fixed.

It'll be a success in the west for sure, but not on par w/ that of the east.

I Feel it will be a success here in the west. The game is just very well put together (except for the GG errors now and then)  and it will appeal to lots of people looking for a change of mmo. Most of the oppinions ingame are very positive. Theres a few naysayers that say its not as good as WoW so they won't play, but let them stay in WoW i say. I'd like for there to be 2 very successful mmos out there (in WoW terms). Will make for more investments into the genre from companies which will be great for us fans.

ps This won't be another WAR/AoC type flop.

Of course it will!

It offers enough to keep people interested and fills a niche open world,low risk pvp market that's been in desperate need of a game since AoC and WAR haven't delievered.

It won't have WoW numbers but who gives a shit.

Aion is allready a success.

It will, after a slow OB start. In less then  32 hours they find a way to bring back a non-laggy game. This is an awesome work. The game dynamic, the lore, the fighting, the PVP, the PVE everything in this game is fantastic. No, it might now bring something really new, but in fact, it takes a little part of every mmo that is good and put it in one MMO. This is something new, a MMO that take a lot of GOOD feature of others to create one very good MMO.

I will play that game for years to come. That's for sure!

Originally posted by resinapt

Aion is allready a success.

Bingo

A better question would be: will it be a success here in the west? Fortunately it doenst matter. Even if it doesnt meet NCsofts expectations here it will be fine. Its a AAA game that will continue to get AAA updates, regardless of how it does here. Because its already a big success.

It will certainly be a sucess in the sense that it will make a bit of money for NC-Soft. They will sell a few hundred thousand copies, people will play for a month or two after which subscriptions will drop down and stabilize until something better comes along.

Various anime-loving subgroups of the mmo-community will no doubt defend it to the bitter end, but there is no way this game will be a lasting success in the way WoW or even Lotro has been. It simply  has nothing that will hook the western audience for long, doll-like avatars and an annoying aviation mechanic isn't enough to make this baby fly.

Now that I've played it a bit, I'm going to have to say it'll only be another marginal success, the north american market.  Not as popular as LOTRO, maybe not even as popular as AOC, but a little better in terms of staying power.  It just isn't compelling enough to be a major success here in the west, but its well polished enough to grab a few hundred thousand subs from WoW for a little while.

Originally posted by metalhead980

Of course it will!

It offers enough to keep people interested and fills a niche open world,low risk pvp market that's been in desperate need of a game since AoC and WAR haven't delievered.

It won't have WoW numbers but who gives a shit.

Niche?  Seems like WoW already has the open world, low risk PvP market handled pretty well. I have very low expectations for Aion's success, personally.

edit: Ah, I misunderstood. You meant open-world-low-risk PvP, not open world and low risk PvP separately. I'm glad they are bringing PvP back to the open world instead of instancing it.

Originally posted by Palebane

Originally posted by metalhead980

Of course it will!

It offers enough to keep people interested and fills a niche open world,low risk pvp market that's been in desperate need of a game since AoC and WAR haven't delievered.

It won't have WoW numbers but who gives a shit.

 

Niche?  Seems like WoW already has the open world low risk PvP market handled pretty well. I have very low expectations for Aion's success, personally.

You hit the nail on the head. From what I've heard, it offers nothing new or special. I personally think it will go the way of AoC with initial launch success and then a fading community.

Eh... I see a lot of 1-2 month cancellations in it's future to be honest. It's a lot like free 2 plays and it's just not worth the money.

Originally posted by Palebane

Originally posted by metalhead980

Of course it will!

It offers enough to keep people interested and fills a niche open world,low risk pvp market that's been in desperate need of a game since AoC and WAR haven't delievered.

It won't have WoW numbers but who gives a shit.

 

Niche?  Seems like WoW already has the open world low risk PvP market handled pretty well. I have very low expectations for Aion's success, personally.

Not at all, WoWs world pvp system is quite limiting. Only one real pvp area isnt much for the crowd of Ex-DAoC and L2 players that were let down by WAR and AoC.

WoW is more of a Instanced pvp,Arena game now even WG feels like its just your average AV match.

Nothing wrong with that but it's not enough for that type of Open pvp crowd.

I think when comparing it to most other mmorpgs, it will be a success. First of all, the game has already been out for a year in China or Korea or wherever it was released. This is a really big deal. It means that it has the advantage of being fine tuned and getting massive player feedback for a year before it has even been introduced to the western audience, and it shows. I've been hearing that it has been a very smooth beta in the US. Being out for a year means that they've also been able to balance the characters and add more content. This new patch that came out apparently just added a lot more pve which is nice.

Obviously things like awesome graphics and great character customization will help in this game's success, but they're usually not the make or break. The things that truly count in the success of a game are the pvp quality, the pve quality, and the richness of everything else to do in the game's world. I've heard that pvp-wise, Aion is pretty balanced. That's excellent to hear. Games like Warhammer Online had unbalanced pvp, and that was a contributing part of the game's downfall. I don't know too much about the pve in Aion, but I hear that it's a nice challenge soloing, and not so much of a push one button over and over type of deal. I've heard that grouping in pve is kind of easy, but I could be wrong. Perhaps the higher level dungeons and new patches are bringing tough stuff. Lastly, this game has a pretty rich world with a good amount of lore behind it. People will most likely be able to become immersed in it.

In conclusion, Aion has what it takes to be a success. It's an extremely polished game which combines a lot of the good ideas many other mmo's have had. Many argue that the game is not unique since it is combining everything that other mmos have done, but I believe that its successful combination of all those intricate ideas and systems is what makes it unique. If there was anything that would halt this game's success, it is the relatively small world size. Expansions will have to dramatically increase the world size or else players will stop feeling immersed in the world.

I agree with the alot of 1-2 month cancellations. I seriously, and many people I know that couldn t wait to play the game all have decided no playing it now. It was boring, run of the mill ,same old same old. This is my opinion, so to some I m sure it was the greatest game to some. All I can say is after many years of MMO gaming and many games in those years, this game does nothing for me. FFXIV now that will IMO offer something different. Just can t take the been there done that that this game brings.

I think it will go the route of L2.  It will have a marginal success here in the west.  I don't see it being second to WoW in the west like they proclaimed it would be.  I think after the bots invade a lot of people will soon leave.  I could be wrong, this could be the "WoW killah", but I strongly doubt it. 

They need to get rid of GG.  That's for sure.  No one wants a rootkit on there system.  Even after you uninstall the game, parts of GG are left on your system.  I think its lazy devs using a third party system that's been proven not to work.  It's a hinderance to legitimate players, and doesn't keep out bots.

Judging by the pre-release hype amoung laymen (aka average joes), no, Aion will NOT be a successful game in the west.  I have a second part time job at an electronics store that sells games, and no one, I repeat, no one, gives a damn about Aion.  No one even knows how to pronounce the title for god's sake!

If pre-release hype is any indication, I can tell you with utter certainty Bioshock 2 and Modern Warfare 2 will be highly successful.  Aion isn't even a blip on the radar.  Perhaps Aion might be considered successful on this board, or among hardcore MMO fanatics, but the average player just isn't going to care.  Sorry guys, but I see this doing about as well as Vanguard or EQ2 in the long run.  At least it will have an actual boxed release, I will give it that.   :)