The review score seems as over hyped as the game has been but you need to take into account that the score of any MMO is higher before launch then lower as the years go by. Still has any MMO achieved a 8.7 here at launch, from all accounts this is way too high?

I think this is a fault of the individual reviewer, I don’t see how you can lay this at MMORPG.com’s door. Yes they seem to have chosen a fanboy to do the articles, would people have thought it fair if they had chosen someone who hates Asian themed fantasy MMO’s?

Also, being in the same city does not warrent a conspiracy theory. :)

Originally posted by Zorndorf

Originally posted by solareus

Also good buddy Sean live right in the same city where NcSoft studio is located and our old buddy from Tabula Rasa Lives.  Really let get even more blantant about how mmorpg.com has just said fuck it and  giive us the money.

 

That made me laugh.... and the above post of course.

So this guy is writing 20+ reviews on the web as a fan boy.

.... And it is excepted as such by mmorpg.com.

 

WOW. And now compare the following on Xfire: Aion has 3X times the number of EVE Xfire with ... 400K players (even less these last few days).

What a joke this site and the complete mmorpg.com has become  !!!

What's your reaction editors of mmorpg.com ??? :))))))

 

400k players? you do realise that these were pre - order numbers and the game has been avaible for a month now, right?

EVE's subscriber base is about 200k subscribers. if Aion sold only 200k copies this last month, that would mean it has 3 times as many active accounts. It really isn't rocket science.

I absolutely love all the people going apeshit over this. MMORPG's score is pretty much the average review score Aion is getting. It's a good game people, get over it. 

you got be kidding? Who's website is this ? Sean  Imancsoftfanby or mmorpg.coms website ? 

He wrote this turd to get into the good graces of the Austin studio, and I think it is ignorant for a website to even post reviews without even reading them and actually weighing the scale of what  the website deems fit for publishing.

Is Sean Balgar wanted fame, he has got it with being one of the most unknowledgable writers to have ever had Anything published on this website in the last 3 years I've posted here. You have no idea how angry I am that mmorpg..com doesn't ccare anymore to proof shit and actually say, "you know what, this reviewer is full of fucking shit"

I appreciate the review and it was very informative in my opinion. Thx i was looking forward to a review from an optimistic point of view.

This review needs a disclaimer:

"brought to you by the

Originally posted by tanoril

Originally posted by mmaize

Originally posted by Dragonalf

Originally posted by mmaize

Originally posted by mmaize

This question is to Jon Wood: Is the intent of this site to let every review stand on it's own? Or do you guys shoot for a score that compares the new games merits to those that have come before it ... i.e. a relative scoring approach?

Based on the data posted by xyzax, it appears you guys are using a "vacuum" approach to reviews. The reviewer fairly admits that the game does nothing new which screams "average", 7 out of 10, a 'C' grade to most people. He unabashedly admits he likes the art style and there is a general overly-enthusiastic tone to the whole piece. A neutral reader can't help but come away from the review thinking that the meat of the review does not match the tone and final score of the review.

I believe in order for reviews to mean something beyond being a fanboy or hater dissertation corroborating their point of view, there has to be meaning to the scale. A relational approach is more useful in that one can, at a glance, look at the rating of a new game and be able to compare it to the highest (and lowest) rated games to get a relative feel of it's place in the MMO universe.

From the body of evidence around the web and within the MMORPG review itself, the consensus is that Aion is a solid but generic MMO title but certainly not a trendsetter as the MMORPG rating portends.

 

Answer these questions.  And no I'm not being smart@ss.  What other major MMO title has done aerial combat/character flight (meaning no mount.)  What other major MMO has a combat system that allows for chains to be connected in such a way that you don't have to worry about putting them all into your tool bar?  What other MMO has a world that is comprised in layers and has an abyss that is also comprised of layers and a multiple artifact system that can turn the tide of a pvp raid?  Personal hand crafted guild icons?  The rift system? 

Again I'm not being smart I'm really asking what else is out there that does some of these things really?  Because if not then I'd call some of these things if not all in it's entire package trend setting for it's genre.

 

Still waiting on answers...

Not meaning to be flippant here but what you're asking is really irrelevant to the discussion about the validity of the rating as pertaining to the content of the MMORPG review and then comparing it to other MMO reviews on this site.

You may feel these are exceptional points to make but apparently the MMORPG reviewer did not feel the same way. I can only assume that if he personally felt these were worthy of mention, he would have. Yet, he does go out of his way to point out that, in general, Aion does nothing really new or spectacular ...

 

The point is completely relevant considering the fact that people keep mentioning innovation as a sticking point.  So if there's no contest to the questions of what Aion brings to the table then obviously it is innovative and therefore should contribute to the rating regardless if the reviewer that is being critiqued did so or not.  In otherwords if someone is going to use that against the reviewer then they better be able to answer to the things that are indeed innovative.

 

It's not innovative.  Rifting actually is limiting since it's not true open world PvP.  I'm not sure what you mean by a layered gameworld but you can make the argument that the abyss is just one huge Battleground.  Wings are nice, but again innovative?  Hell, we can say WWIIOnline has aerial combat because it has planes. 

The reviewer himself says that Aion doesn't do anything new.  What it does do it does well.  I think that makes it a very straightfoward, vanilla game.  There's nothing wrong with that, but the review score doesn't indicate that. 

 

In the end a dildo with wings is innovative, that does not however mean it is a good idea, or good in practice. 

I am actually not a little disgusted in this review of Aion, sure it's polished and clean but ultimately it is far from deserving of a score of 8.7! I smell something fishy going on here...smells like...tuna. I suppose, in the end, the review is entirely subjective and should be treated as such but I expected more from mmorpg.com...

hmmm... 'plays just like any other mmo'.

thats right! but how the hell does it get 8.7 rating then? lol........

generic mmos should not get more than 5.

I woulda probably gone for a 8.0-8.5. Great polish and solid gameplay but ultimately and imo generic and somewhat boring. I quit before the first month was up, it's a pretty good game for what it is but can't hold my interest.

i can't believe people can be so ignorant to be upset by a review.... it's quite laughable really. some of you are irate that it has 0.6 to 0.9 to high..... are you serious??? your upset at less then a point??? feel free to disagree with the review, but come on, calm down about, mmorpg isn't owned by ncsoft, it's just a review, by someone who liked the damn game, why is that so hard to believe? all reviews are based on opinion, and no review can be neutral, because you will always be biased towards something. if i'd reviewed WoW, it'd be much lower then an 8, a lot to do with the my extreme dislike of the graphic art style.

then of course Zorndorf has to come in and make sure everyone knows it has less subscribers then WoW..... like the rating of the game contributes to the subscription numbers, or that for any reason, one could logically try to compare sub numbers between a game out less then one month in north america, to a game thats been out for five years, and has the only true mmo advertising campaign in history. who seems to think the only people playing it, are the pre-orders... even though it is selling on amazon, as he points out...

so please, stop complaining about mmorpg losing cred, if you want to threaten to leave, just leave, find a site that you feel isn't biased.

If a mod reads this thread wow how many pages will go back lol.

So many emotional people it's just a review /sigh

Great review, pretty much mirrors my own at

http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/255744/L30-Aion-Review-You-dont-order-beef-and-then-complain-it-tastes-like-beef-910.html

The problem I have is the reviewers lack of knowledge of mmo gaming in  general. Everything in Aion was "new " to "him" even though when you google his name he has played Vanguard, WoW , and many other mmo's which had flying combat in some way shape or form, so he is now a liar on that marrit. The second problem is his over  exented look at the "content" of the game. You are going to sit there and tell me Aion is a content rich game. When has NcSoft ever shipped a content rich game out of Korea ? Never.  3rdly , the Reviewer is in the industry and looking for cookies for good deeds done in his town of Austin Texas, damn the internet has so much information.

Given enough time I will bust this review to shreds with even more google searchers, public record searches as well as any other search I deem feasable to prove that this particular "writer" using the term very losely when it is just copy and past from NcSoft themselves is full of shit.  Seriously if Aion isa 8.7 , then LotrO, Vanguard, AoC, and  Warhammer are 9._ titles, because everyone who is an mmoplayer on this particular site knows the difference between comeplete rubbish m, and something that actually makes sense. This review is bull shit. Half this thread has called bullshit and half of the web sites around the world that arent affiliated with "mmorpg portals" are calling aion bull shit.

Makes me wonder now if this sight was not bought out by the same fuckers who bought Allakazam. If that is true that this site was bought,, make it official and let people have the dignity to cancel there accounts.

As your playing aion lol yet you keep on bashing it that tells me more then enough on you, even zondorf doesn't spam as much as you in aion threads/pictures.

8.7 is high yes but your exaggerating with your rage and feelings on a game your not playing.

When you review a game you review it's features and if they are done good, aion is polished and has few bugs bots and gold spams are not the huge part of a review.

Next patch will increase quests exp by 3x or 4x for those that mostly wanted to reach cap fast so this maybe will lower some people's whinings.

I;'m not playing Saga of Ryzom, Eve or Fallen Earth eithe rbut I can recognize that they are stellar game , stell concepts from content design, visual aesthectics .  If something is justifed, I will respect it. Aion is not justified, here is a question for you, how did the gold sellers have over 100billion in gold ready to ship in Aion in the first week ?

Nice honest review, of a great MMO.

Aion is the highest rated MMO on this site for a reason, i believe the polish and PvP components is far ahead of any current released game. Just look at xfire, people are loving the the game.

Originally posted by solareus

I;'m not playing Saga of Ryzom, Eve or Fallen Earth eithe rbut I can recognize that they are stellar game , stell concepts from content design, visual aesthectics .  If something is justifed, I will respect it. Aion is not justified, here is a question for you, how did the gold sellers have over 100billion in gold ready to ship in Aion in the first week ?

How do you know that sum were you involved? gold spam and bots are a problem YES I didn't deny it did I?

I'm giving ncsoft a chance to see if they will do something to reduce the spams and bots what about you? will you keep on writing on game's sections that you don't like? why do you need to hate a game so much? don't have anything else to do?

I heard you play or played eve or lotr why your not playing there instead of flaming and may give useless warnings and bans on people that are short tempered (not me of course I'm posting politely as far as I know)

LOTRO, one of the best games out there and the top ranked game on this site has an 8.5 review score. That's after 2 years of growth and (i assume) a re-review here at some point.

So now you are saying Aion less than a month in is overall 'better' than LOTRO?

I find it really hard to believe and I bet you that in a few months (especially after mirkwood) the numbers will speak for them selves.

All I'm trying to say is: however much the reviewer may have liked Aion, the score needs to be in some kind of context in the market otherwise it's more of a marketing effort than an objective review.

Originally posted by solareus

I;'m not playing Saga of Ryzom, Eve or Fallen Earth eithe rbut I can recognize that they are stellar game , stell concepts from content design, visual aesthectics .  If something is justifed, I will respect it. Aion is not justified, here is a question for you, how did the gold sellers have over 100billion in gold ready to ship in Aion in the first week ?

Thats a silly argument. So only sandboxes are allowed to get high scores?

We need a re-review.

I gave these guys credit for having the balls to give WoW a 8 score and they reinfocred that by going against a good number of sandbox fans by giving DF a 6.

This site for me atleast has been known for giving fair reviews with the exception of Eve (they seem to be catering to us a bit).

Now we get Aion the highest rated game on this site, honeslty can one of you guys chime in on this? Aion is nothing but a nice looking Lineage clone with random portal pvp.

Come on guys, the game needs a re-review.