Originally posted by Scalebane

Originally posted by Ozmodan

Most players won't realize the problems with this game until they get to the end game since it is heavily pvp based.  It has been proven time and time again that a two faction pvp system just does not work.  Eventually one side starts winning constantly and then the other side just gives up.  This was even evident in Beta somewhat.  The crafting system is nothing more than a basic one.  So what is going to occupy players at the end game? 

Just watch this game follow the same course as War has.  It is a lot harder to satisfy the masses on this side of the pond than on their side.

 

Yeah i'm thinking you will see that just like Destruction over powered Order in War,  Some stuff i have read  are showing that to be the case overseas already, on a lot of servers the Elyos is pretty much dead, giving up trying ot fight a hopeless one sided battle.

Some may like that challenge, but frustration pushes people away.  They are gonna need to do something to make the Elyos more appealing or the same thing will happen here.

 

 

 

 

 http://uk.aiononline.com/promotion/preselection/

Looks quite ballenced to me, there are things in place to stop once side getting a to big of edge in numbers.

Nice well rounded impression though the hyping of the graphics is odd.  Aion doesn't look WoW bad, but its not competitive with most newer MMOs for player or world graphics.  Be hard pressed to say Aion has more detail in poly count, texture, animation than say WAR, AoC, CO, LotRO, EQ2, TR(RiP)...  Its good looking but it is still limited by a 5 year old engine and the PvP focus.  Otherwise good write-up.

First of all, there is a third faction that will attack the dominate one to balance things out, second NCsoft has tried to keep servers as balanced as possible, you can see this on their website under servers. They even have locked a few to keep the balance. Clearly most of you don't actually look into the game and just came to this topic to bitch about a game you clearly know little about. I find it surprising how quickly this entire site went right to hell. I honestly will be trying AION out myself because you never know till you try. Also for those of you that are not looking forward to this game I have one question. Why the hell are you posting about it?

Originally posted by Lathander81

Originally posted by danison

Originally posted by smut

Originally posted by danison

For anyone that came here wanting to know about headstart, the game is indeed fun...when you can actually play it. A LOT of the server had queues that had players wait in excess of 3 hours, on some servers i hear the wait times were as high as 8 hours. So there were very many people that were promised early access that did not even get to play. NCSoft has not said anything to the people that were misled into paying early, nor have they said anything about situation other than acknowledging that there is a problem.  Also the bonus items that were promised for preorders to be available during headstart are not.

So not only did they fail to deliver on the headstart due to their own ineptitude, they also blatantly lied about the bonus item availability.

I have not given up on the game yet, but the article makes it sounds like it's all roses and this point with the current server status I would not consider the game anything but beta quality. Hopefully they will remedy this soon.

 

It is because so many people are trying to play. It happens with every "big" MMO launch.

 

That is not an excuse, they knew how many people preordered. I udnerstand there are certain growing pains with a new launch, which is why I am willing to give them a chance still, but there is valid excuse for the thorough lack and understanding scalability. It's like they did no capacity planning AT ALL.

 

Unfortunately you are wrong Smut.  The planning had nothing to do with it. If you check out the server status at the time you would have known that the issue was too many people trying to get on the same servers. There were plenty of servers that had low-meduim wait times to get  in.  I  like how everyone always has the perfect solution to how a company should be run or what they did or didn't do. If you don't have first hand knowlegde how can you assume that they didn't plan?  Think seem so easy when your on a forum gripping about something you have no experience with.  Think before you type.

Sorry man, you put my name in there when it wasn't even my post. You were quoting danison, not me.

Originally posted by danison

Originally posted by Lathander81

Originally posted by danison

Originally posted by smut

Originally posted by danison

For anyone that came here wanting to know about headstart, the game is indeed fun...when you can actually play it. A LOT of the server had queues that had players wait in excess of 3 hours, on some servers i hear the wait times were as high as 8 hours. So there were very many people that were promised early access that did not even get to play. NCSoft has not said anything to the people that were misled into paying early, nor have they said anything about situation other than acknowledging that there is a problem.  Also the bonus items that were promised for preorders to be available during headstart are not.

So not only did they fail to deliver on the headstart due to their own ineptitude, they also blatantly lied about the bonus item availability.

I have not given up on the game yet, but the article makes it sounds like it's all roses and this point with the current server status I would not consider the game anything but beta quality. Hopefully they will remedy this soon.

 

It is because so many people are trying to play. It happens with every "big" MMO launch.

 

That is not an excuse, they knew how many people preordered. I udnerstand there are certain growing pains with a new launch, which is why I am willing to give them a chance still, but there is valid excuse for the thorough lack and understanding scalability. It's like they did no capacity planning AT ALL.

 

Unfortunately you are wrong Smut.  The planning had nothing to do with it. If you check out the server status at the time you would have known that the issue was too many people trying to get on the same servers. There were plenty of servers that had low-meduim wait times to get  in.  I  like how everyone always has the perfect solution to how a company should be run or what they did or didn't do. If you don't have first hand knowlegde how can you assume that they didn't plan?  Think seem so easy when your on a forum gripping about something you have no experience with.  Think before you type.

 

Actually you have no clue what YOU are talking about. I write software that is massively scalable, there is no excuse. They knew  the preorder numbers, they could have prevented these terribly disruptive issues but they did not. I have over 10 years of experience in this problem domain, how about you? Think before you type.

I responded to your post much farther back in the thread. Your 10 years of writing software means nothing to me when we are talking about games. We are talking about servers, not scalable software. So your problem domain is NOT MMO GAMES LOL. Since you did not respond to my post, here it is again.

I never said it was an excuse. A lot of gamers do not pre order so just going by pre-orders isn't enough. It is clearly not easy to approximately figure out how many gamers are going to play on launch day. There is alot of variables to deal with. It is way better to start with less rather then too many in my opinion. I have come to this conclusion after watching other MMO launches in my 10 yr MMO history. It is much better PR to add more servers after knowing the exact demand rather then guess before launch and have too many. Over guessing can lead to closing some empty servers a few months later. This happened with WAR.

There was a lot of complaining for WAR to add more servers right before launch based on how popular WAR's Open Beta was. Mythic didn't want to as they already had a lot but they caved in. This ended up being a huge mistake for WAR as it backfired a few months later. There was too many servers which led to populations being spread thin and etc. This led to server merges and closures which, regardless of the reason, is always bad PR for MMO's. The same people who wanted more servers were now crying that some servers were dead!

AION THE MARMITE OF MMO WORLD!

Originally posted by Thunderpeel

Originally posted by neodavie

I agree with Streea, the game isn't out yet so this isn't a first impression of the game. That aside, this article sparked some intrest in Aion for me. It sounds like a pretty solid game. I'll be interested to see what happens when it goes live.

 

But it did go live. 2 days early for people that preordered the game.  

I am having fun with Aion!

Actually ... did not! In that 2 days early you was able ONLY to CREATE 2 alts and give them of course name. No playing.

Originally posted by Arshoon

I have to add my two cents and say that I played the open beta and wasn't impressed at all with Aion. Sure, its pretty, but its just the same old MMO that has been done a thousand times with a new face. There's nothing new or innovative or fresh with Aion at all. The quests are 'yawn' like WoW and all the other cookie-cutter "Go kill X number" or "Go collect X number" or "Go deliver this to so-and-so" games we have seen done to freaking death.

Its just another class-based, linear lead-you-by-the-nose MMO that seems to be the industry standard these days. Can't anyone come up with anything new?

Also, if you've played any Asian MMO (i.e. Perfect World, Runes of Magic, etc) then you have played Aion. It has the same feel, same layout of terrain and monsters, same quests, etc. You start out at the same starting area for each of the two factions with every new character (so much fun to raise yet another alt on the same quests), have the same level-based/gear-based design that other MMOs have and combat is also the same.

If you don't like pvp then Aion is a huge let down as they have open pvp past I believe 30, where you have to enter the zones where the other faction goes as well, so you will get ganked and attacked no matter what server you are on. Like role-play? Not on Aion, they have no designated RP server and won't enforce any RP rules at all. 

There are also player vendors and anyone who played SWG in the day knows that will lead to huge lag in town clustered with masses of spamming player vendors.

So why play Aion? If you're playing an MMO now, you're probably playing Aion with a different face so don't waste your money if your not impressed with your WoW/Conan/Warhammer/etc game already. You'll find nothing new here. So in short, don't.

Quite honestly its a huge disappointent.

I guess you are the visionary here, what do we know.... I love how people make these posts about how a game is basically "crap" or not worth a play because it has systems so similar to other games out on the market.  News flash if companies put out any old crap just to be different there aren't enough of you people screaming for different to even make a successful game not to mention you'll probably find something it's similar to and just trash it as a copy anyway.  For once I want to see one of you people who come with all the doom and gloom to enlighten us as to what is "new" and has never been tried before.  You guys always make it sound so easy you must have some insight into what it takes?  And if not why not just quit mmos until the industry has progressed enough to "seem" new to you.

friend of mine let me install his game on my PC so that I could play his account when he was at work (conveniently in the evenings) and after playing some of the open beta and now the pre release I don't think I'll be picking it up. It all feels too generic and has the "I've done this before" feel to it. I've played several mmo's in the past 10 years from SWG, WoW, EQ, AoC, WAR, etc and this one feels like just another notch, nothing really new, nothing different other than the flight gimmick. I guess most people are just super excited that its a new MMO coming out rather than a truly revolutionary mmo.

Disappointing review...there have been plenty of reviews about the beta all summer long.

That being said, I read most of the replies here, what surprises me is that no one made any mention of Lineage II.

If you had played that game you would recognise the Artistic Direction of the game, as well as many systems, such as the Class system the Vendor System, Siting down to regenerate, XP loss etc... there is really nothing "new" about it all, not even the flying, since as a concept existed since Lineage II.

Btw, L2 was a big disappointment in the western world it was the game that practically coined the description of "Korean Grind"...it has really nice looking graphics when it came out (about 6 months before WoW), and these were its main attraction but its gameplay made it so that the servers were populated by 50% Gold farmers.

NCSoft had made a game for RMT, and it is the reason I quit that game along with my guild and many others. So I somehow got my lesson with that game and am very skeptical about NcSoft games (I am glad Richard Garriot went on his marry way as well).

Long story short, NCSoft never liked the fact that WoW was so much more popular than L2, I remember massive exodus of people switching to WoW from L2 when it came out. And I believe AION is somewhat an attempt at a taking a peace of the pie from WoW (not something unique to NCSoft but in this case there is a small history behind it). It should come as no surprise that it contains many similar features, in essence it maybe a combination of Lineage2 and WoW...

Still I do not trust NCSoft's capacity to create good gameplay (they do create very nice and stable graphics) since Lineage II...it maybe unfortunate but it is how it is, and so I shall wait a couple of months and see how things go with AION before deciding to give it a try myself.

I'll wait for real reviews, not the ones like the past 10 of them starting with How awesome graphics look. I want to hear about the Leveling curves past lvl 20, want to hear about the game's economics and how grindy or not grindy it is, and you can be sure I am going to be monitoring sites for Kinah (in Lineage II it was Adena) offers..but most importantly I would like to hear about the community of players in two months from now.

In Lineage II, the players Community was the Greediest I have ever seen in my MMOG playing History which made for a very poor in game atmosphere.

Cheers! And don't get "too" mesmerised by sparkling dust, nice and good looking graphics are not only what makes up an MMOG.

Originally posted by pre_mar

Originally posted by Thunderpeel

Originally posted by neodavie

I agree with Streea, the game isn't out yet so this isn't a first impression of the game. That aside, this article sparked some intrest in Aion for me. It sounds like a pretty solid game. I'll be interested to see what happens when it goes live.

 

But it did go live. 2 days early for people that preordered the game.  

I am having fun with Aion!

 

Actually ... did not! In that 2 days early you was able ONLY to CREATE 2 alts and give them of course name. No playing.

No you are wrong! the 18th - 20th was for creating characters only, then the 20th - 22nd was headstart playing in the game! The game launch was on the 22nd. I know for a fact I was playing it when this article came out!!! Get it right!  

Here is a link to another article here that will tell you that you actualy play the game for headstart.  

http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/253/feature/3537/page/1
 

Ive been play the last few days I even got the CE addition and Ive read most of this.

The game has the same issues it did when the first closed beta of L2 was going on. Yes i said L2 beta. The game has some slight updated UI, but even then its not up to gaming standard.

The game is pretty that is about it. Nothing new nothing exciting. Same problems as before with no interaction that i have seen from NCSoft. If they are expecting this to compete with WoW they failed when they didnt not learn from there previous games or from Blizzards examples. But at least they didnt follow SOE example.. =P

Hopefully SWTOR, Stargate or Star Trek online will give WoW a run for its money.

Sorry but I didn't get anything from this article. I learned nothing new except ... well ... nothing.

This entire piece just seemed like it was written by someone who is a fanboi but doesn't have any real pros or cons except that you can logon and play but still wants to appear neutral.

Please play for a while, forget the entire beta experience and tells us details about the live game. To do that of course you must play fr more than a few days. Get back to us when you have done something but thanks for trying.

Hi, nice review, just wanted to say that since I started playing last monday I just cant stop playing.

Originally posted by Malkosha

Sorry but I didn't get anything from this article. I learned nothing new except ... well ... nothing.

This entire piece just seemed like it was written by someone who is a fanboi but doesn't have any real pros or cons except that you can logon and play but still wants to appear neutral.

Please play for a while, forget the entire beta experience and tells us details about the live game. To do that of course you must play fr more than a few days. Get back to us when you have done something but thanks for trying.
 

That was about the Live game. And nothing has changed from the final beta. So that would mean he has played it for more than a few days.

Originally posted by smut

Originally posted by Lathander81

Originally posted by danison

Originally posted by smut

Originally posted by danison

For anyone that came here wanting to know about headstart, the game is indeed fun...when you can actually play it. A LOT of the server had queues that had players wait in excess of 3 hours, on some servers i hear the wait times were as high as 8 hours. So there were very many people that were promised early access that did not even get to play. NCSoft has not said anything to the people that were misled into paying early, nor have they said anything about situation other than acknowledging that there is a problem.  Also the bonus items that were promised for preorders to be available during headstart are not.

So not only did they fail to deliver on the headstart due to their own ineptitude, they also blatantly lied about the bonus item availability.

I have not given up on the game yet, but the article makes it sounds like it's all roses and this point with the current server status I would not consider the game anything but beta quality. Hopefully they will remedy this soon.

 

It is because so many people are trying to play. It happens with every "big" MMO launch.

 

That is not an excuse, they knew how many people preordered. I udnerstand there are certain growing pains with a new launch, which is why I am willing to give them a chance still, but there is valid excuse for the thorough lack and understanding scalability. It's like they did no capacity planning AT ALL.

 

Unfortunately you are wrong Smut.  The planning had nothing to do with it. If you check out the server status at the time you would have known that the issue was too many people trying to get on the same servers. There were plenty of servers that had low-meduim wait times to get  in.  I  like how everyone always has the perfect solution to how a company should be run or what they did or didn't do. If you don't have first hand knowlegde how can you assume that they didn't plan?  Think seem so easy when your on a forum gripping about something you have no experience with.  Think before you type.

 

Sorry man, you put my name in there when it wasn't even my post. You were quoting danison, not me.

My bad man. I got carried away I guess.
 

Well like what others says, it is the most visually beautiful MMORPG. Graphics is Hax!

"Aion is a game that knows no cultural boundaries, and will provide an art style, story and game mechanics that will last through the ages and be appreciated by a global audience"

 Wow, there goes $59 down the drain. This article inspired me to try it out but the sad sad truth is that this game IS Lineage 2 with a pretty new face. The mechanics are identical and I'm sure the grind for xp and millions of gold is as well.

The gold sellers are already spamming. 

These games are just a ruse to profit off of gold sales. 

Good review.

I play Aion and love it. As you said its nothing new but its something done right, which is what many MMOs are lacking.

Personally im over the whole "wait for the next ground breaking MMO" thing. Its not gonna happen. Every MMO that has been announced already looks the same too, so its best people just choose a MMO and play it instead of believing something groundbreaking is going to be released.

 I didn't read all the posts, but I'm surprised the review didn't mention the great framerates on relativly low end cards....