Well, I'm bored and I'm already done making my preselection characters, so I thought I would try and create an interesting thread.

This idea behind this thread is find out the pros and cons of the game via the perspective of the people who like/love the game, versus the perspective of people who dislike/hate the game. And of course, this requires effort from other people in this forum because I'm a person who really likes the game, so I can't answer the flip-side.  I'll try and update this as the posts come along.  I just figure it might be a good way to help improve the game, or to fix some things that might bring in new players. Obviously the people who like Aion will generally have more Pros than Cons, and vice-versa for the people who dislike it, but I think it still would be interesting to see. 

**Trying something different with how the Pros and Cons are setup based on a suggestion.  I'll keep the original just in case people don't like it.**

I'll start off with a couple pros and cons of my own.

(+) = This symbol represents the people who like Aion or are interested in the game.

(-) = This symbol rerpesents people who dislike Aion or don't think the game is worth the hype.

( ) = Items with no symbol represent shared opinions between both groups.

B = List items in bold represent the list items that have been agreed on quite a bit.

Pros:

• Flying adds a new third dimension that can make PvP and travel more entertaining and challenging. (+)
• Auctioning and Private Shops. (+)
• The game world is very beautiful, yet it runs very smoothly on older machines. (+)
• Lots of character customization! (+)
• Chain Skill system makes combat a bit more engaging. (+)
• The voices in the game are generally very good. (+)
• Lots of quests to do, so the game isn't just a "Kill monster, get exp" game. (+)
• Decent Story. (+)
• Extending Weapons
• The game is new, so it attracts a lot of attention. (-)
• Wings. (-)
• Macros. (-)
• Can choose between quests or grinding. (-)

Cons:

• Gameguard. Let's hope it doesn't come back!
• Leveling is too easy.
• The game looks very Asian or Anime-like, which people in the West generally aren't into it as much as people from the East.
• Leveling is extremely linear, especially at lower levels.
• After a disconnect, it can be difficult getting back in for the first 5~ish minutes.
• NCSoft has a problem with getting their act together when it comes to taking down RMTs, hackers, and powerlevelers.
• NCSoft support is definitely not up to par. (*)
• Not exactly "innovative". Can be considered a combination of other games such as L2 and WoW.
• Lack of Endgame content. (+)
• Bad Crafting System.  The Crafting System isn't on par with the gear that you can obtain from The Abyss. (Disputed)
• Getting crafting past 399 is incredibly expensive and may require other people to invest into your work (Legions, Friends, etc.)
• A small linear world, with little replayability. (-)
• The higher your Abyss Rank is, the more you are prone to hiding in fear of losing Abyss Points which will lower your rank and lower your ability to gain new items. (-)
• No reason at all for exploration. (-)
• Stigmas are a nice addition, but there will still be cookie cutter builds. (-)
• Content is somewhat limited at higher levels if you don't like the PvPvE aspect of The Abyss. (-)
• Flying is nice but also a novelty, especially at lower levels when there aren't that many places TO fly. (-)
• Automatically running after an enemy after it being double-clicked is like having auto-target in a FPS. (-)
• PvPvE (-)

If I missed anything while updating someone's answers, please let me know--especially if they're from the "Not so enthuised with Aion" side. We need some more constructive posts (not just "lulz, weeshnaw. you like a game that sux" posts) from that side. =P

Pros

• Not being able to see an enemy player's level makes it harder to determine if you should attempt to run/hide in PvP.

thats much better, why should your enemy have an advantage of knowing your level. They need to determine that through observations and make a quick decision on the battlefield. They can look at your skills, gear, wings to get an aprox. level.

Pros

Beautiful Graphics yet very stable under full load, compatible with older builds
Art Style
Auction and Private Shops
Chain Skill System
Numerous amounts of quests
Character Customization,Voices
Balanced Classes

Cons

Gameguard
Leveling is too easy/carebear

Originally posted by Kryptlin

Pros

• Not being able to see an enemy player's level makes it harder to determine if you should attempt to run/hide in PvP.

 

thats much better, why should your enemy have an advantage of knowing your level. They need to determine that through observations and make a quick decision on the battlefield. They can look at your skills, gear, wings to get an aprox. level.

 

Pros

Beautiful Graphics yet very stable under full load, compatible with older builds
Art Style
Auction and Private Shops
Chain Skill System
Numerous amounts of quests
Character Customization,Voices
Balanced Classes

Cons

Gameguard
Leveling is too easy/carebear

 

 

I'm guessing that by the amount of pros, that you're a fan of Aion?  I'm just curious as to which one i should put it under ;)

Aww, no haters or trolls wanted to take a stab at this.  I guess it's impossible for a troll to have constructive input, though. ;)  (I set the bait, will they come?!)

 I love this thread. 

I don't hate Aion. I just don't care about it!

Originally posted by Draccan

I don't hate Aion. I just don't care about it!

That works, too. :P Care to share the reason behind your apathy? ;)

I personally like Aion, but I've seen many complaints that the art style and character designs are too Asian or Anime-ish. I think that needs to go on the against/Con list.

Personally, I don't think its nearly as animated looking as many other games out there, but meh.

The list thing won't work.

What's pro for one is the con for another.

Originally posted by Gdemami

The list thing won't work.

What's pro for one is the con for another.

 

I'll just put asterisks next to things that more than one person likes, and a (-) negative sign next to things that have been crossed out.

I'll just make a key/legend for all the symbols and such!

Wanna make any input towards this thread? Such as, any idea how it could be better, or any Pros and Cons you'd like to add?

True the pros and cons can purely be subjective depending on how you view the game.

Personally I'm luke warm about Aion. I'll just list a pro and con in my opinion.

Pro: Character customization as far as how to make your character look a million different ways.

Con: The extreme linear leveling, especially at the early levels.

Extra con and annoyance: When you get disconnected you exit the game. This is the only game that has done this and on my computer it takes 5 minutes to load up the game again. Why can't you just exit to the login screen like every other game out there.

 I dont hate or love Aion but I lean toward thinking of it in a negative light. My reasons are

Small linear world with little replayability.

The higher rank you get the less incentive to pvp and hide instead.

No reason at all for exploration

Crafting past 399 is so prohibitively expensive you almost are required to have a guild fund you 

Leveling is simplistic at best

Stigmas are nice but all characters will fall into a cookie cutter type thing

Content is somewhat limited if you do not want to enter the abyss (I would not fall in this category)

Flying is nice but also a novelty.

Those are my reasons which are my opinion you can pick apart with your opinions if you like I suppose.

Originally posted by Gdemami

The list thing won't work.

What's pro for one is the con for another.

 

That's how you cross reference... but using categories. Notice how he(?) has two categories, people who like, or dislike. If there is a trend of people in the dislike, vs, like, you can see what exactly is a major gamebreaker for people.

I'm assuming thats the point of this thread. To help it along, here are what some of my friends that don't like the game have said, that have kept them going back to other games

People that Dislike the Game:

Pros

Very pretty environment
Very smooth, and polished
Enjoyable voice acting

Cons

Linear level style
Not enough zones to level in ( Not sure what they mean, most likely see the first con)
Basic Class System
Gameplay, even with chain skills is not different enough from other games.
Mana pot grinder
The Anime art style is too cutesey, would prefer a less shiny look on characters
PvP is going to be zerg based, even if Balur are fighting the stronger side, and die very quickly
Too many weird rules to PvP, just want to kill people, not worry about level, or getting some annoying curse.
PvE oriented people: Do not like being forced into the abyss to level, having to level with gank squads around and minimal backup, just slows down level progression, and is counterproductive.

That's about all I got out of them. Most of the consensus was "Oh I liked Aion a lot, I just already play [blank] and I don't want to play another MMO."  I am no troll that dislikes Aion, I love it, but I do know people that will not touch this game, or have played it and just will not continue.
 

right............

* Flying adds a new third dimension that can make PvP and travel more entertaining and challenging.

 More like flying gives me something to do while bored

* Auctioning and Private Shops.

 What you mean to say is, "Yay for ALL Korean games!"

* The game world is very beautiful, yet it runs very smoothly on older machines.

The game world is in no way stunning.  Some monsters are.  I don't know what your definition of "older" is, but if your pc is 4 years old you probably aren't playing aion.

* Lots of character customization!

 Sure there is... Go play CoH... "lots" is a bit of an overstatement

* Chain Skill system makes combat a bit more engaging.

 While I agree, it's not exactly a new MMO feature.

* The voices in the game are generally very good.

 What?  Who cares?  "Hey John, what MMO ya playin?" "Aion, because the voices are amazing"

* Lots of quests to do, so the game isn't just a "Kill monster, get exp" game.

 I have read countless posts and complaints on this forum and others that Aion has TOO FEW quests...

Cons:

* Gameguard. Let's hope it doesn't come back!

 Hmm, let me see if I can think about some negative stuff about the game I wank it to... Oh yeah, it used to have something that it doesn't now... that if it did still have I would defend as good... obviously ncsoft is brilliant and whatever they do is good

* Leveling can be too easy if you know what you're doing.

 Oh, and I just want everyone to know that I am even more amazing than ncsoft... this game is perfect, but easy for me!  Why?  Because I'm better than perfect!

Pro-good solid game with lots of quests-game becomes more interesting as you level.

       Flying-its just fun to be able to fly

      PvP-with flying in an area of the game designed for PvP, with lots of rewards

      The game has been around is Asia and is proven itself as a popular game.

      NcSoft wants this game to succeed and has corrected allot of player based complaints during beta.

      GameGuard is gone!

      Beautiful world to play in! Lots of quests not all needing groups to complete.

Cons-the game is linear and has levels that have to be achieved by going out and killing things.

Pro:

The Pro is the Cons wont be playing.

Although I'm going to play Aion... I will be going in with a very "realistic" view... so put this where you feel necessary.

Pros:

-CryEngine really is amazing. Good graphics, but playable on old machines.

-A nice mixture of group and solo content.

-Lots of Quests.

-Character Customization is very detailed.

-Flying introduces interesting aspects.

-Decent Story

Cons:

-Gameguard

-Gameguard

-Gameguard

-NCSoft Customer Support is terrible.

-Hacks/Bots/RMTers rampid in other versions

-NCSoft West known to be very lazy on cleaning up Hacks/Bots/RMTers

-Not innovative. Basically L2+WoW combined and you get Aion.

-Lack of Endgame Content

-Bad Crafting System (Crafted Gear < Abyss Gear... why even put crafting in the game then?)

-Let me emphasize this again, Gameguard... Had they not taken this out at launch, I would not be able to play the game that I payed for, the ncsoft west support basically gave up on me after I told them I still couldn't play, even after reinstalling Aion / removing my antivirus / turning off firewall.

Other (Good/Bad/Opinions/In Work):

-Classes are being changed heavily for balance issue.

-Art Work Too Animeish

-Game is too PvP oriented (good/bad depending on your playstyle, personally I love pvp so.. however hopefully they don't get lazy and expect people to PvP to no end.. you have to keep adding content for both pvp and pve to keep players interested)

Originally posted by robdog696

right............

 

* Flying adds a new third dimension that can make PvP and travel more entertaining and challenging.

 More like flying gives me something to do while bored

* Auctioning and Private Shops.

 What you mean to say is, "Yay for ALL Korean games!"

* The game world is very beautiful, yet it runs very smoothly on older machines.

The game world is in no way stunning.  Some monsters are.  I don't know what your definition of "older" is, but if your pc is 4 years old you probably aren't playing aion.

 

* Lots of character customization!

 Sure there is... Go play CoH... "lots" is a bit of an overstatement

* Chain Skill system makes combat a bit more engaging.

 While I agree, it's not exactly a new MMO feature.

* The voices in the game are generally very good.

 What?  Who cares?  "Hey John, what MMO ya playin?" "Aion, because the voices are amazing"

* Lots of quests to do, so the game isn't just a "Kill monster, get exp" game.

 I have read countless posts and complaints on this forum and others that Aion has TOO FEW quests...

Cons:

* Gameguard. Let's hope it doesn't come back!

 Hmm, let me see if I can think about some negative stuff about the game I wank it to... Oh yeah, it used to have something that it doesn't now... that if it did still have I would defend as good... obviously ncsoft is brilliant and whatever they do is good

 

* Leveling can be too easy if you know what you're doing.

 Oh, and I just want everyone to know that I am even more amazing than ncsoft... this game is perfect, but easy for me!  Why?  Because I'm better than perfect!

I'll just... get what I can from this post and put it under the "I don't get what the hype is all about" section of this thread. =P

I can see your point in some of these responses, too, like how certain things aren't "new" and certain things aren't "game changing", but I think that the combination of them all presents itself in a nice, clean manner. However, this is just my opinion, which probably doesn't match yours lol =)

Originally posted by daywalker27

-Bad Crafting System (Crafted Gear < Abyss Gear... why even put crafting in the game then?)

Not to attack your opinion or anything, I'm just confused.  I thought the Abyss Gear had more PvP stats on it, and generally the only thing it was really good for anything else was that it generally had more Manastone sockets on it.

I haven't gotten my crafting up very far, and apparently it's really hard to do at higher levels, so I guess I'll just have to wait and see what it's like.

Pros

wings

it's new

extending weapons

lead developer is hot

pvp

macros

choice of quest or grind

Cons

pvpvpvpvevevpve

WoW and L2 had a baby... and L2 wouldn't let WoW name it WoW2 cause it had L2s korean eyes so they named it after a Polish band instead... anyway, we've seen this new kid on the block before

Asmodian=cool, Ewhateveros=gay, and cool plus gay divided by two equals extreme faction imbalance

Run after enemy when attack is clicked= autotarget in an fps