Aion is already losing its population according to Xfire.

R.I.P., another would-be WoW-killer. ;-)

First of all, Aion has not been out long enough to determine whether it will be successful.  I felt the game was much more polished at launch than the other games I have played.  There are a multitude of problems that are game breaking to me.  I was part of Head Start and purchased a Collector's Edition so you'll have to discount my opinions for reasons OTHER than not owning the game.  I DO play the game on my own account.

Aion is beautiful.  I love the character creation.  I LOVE my characters and the graphics.  If this was all that it took to keep me interested that would be super.

I enjoy the crafting and think it is great that I actually get XP from both collecting and actual crafting.  However, I believe the cost sink involved with it is way over the top.  I believe the ratio of white procs to greens is too low and then trying to create a blue item is so costly and convoluted that  this PROMOTES the desire to buy gold from sellers rather than discourages it. 

I'm just about ready to let my subscription go.  Grinding is part of all games and I just deal with it.  I try to ignore the bots as much as possible, however, there are way too many (many more than in any game I have ever played).  You can say they are dealing with the problem and that's fine ... I'll come back after they've dealt with it.

In an effort to cut spam mail from gold sellers, the amount of mail you can send has been limited.  If your account works correctly that is fine and dandy by me.  However, my husband and I run a legion and his account toon that heads the legion will not let him mail more than 1 item for several hours at a time.  Trying to get customer support to deal with something like this is non-existent.

Legion controls are severely lacking.  There is no way to determine how long a player has not logged in.  There is no log to determine what is going in/out of the legion bank.  You can not create additional ranks with specific abilities or legion bank (or other) privileges.  For instance, you can't create a rank for someone you want to be able to recruit but not have the ability to remove players and in the same vein, you cannot create a rank for someone you want to have both privileges.  This makes trying to run a viable legion very difficult.  We're trying to determine who has left (as there has been a sharp decline in legion members logging in as of late) and who is just busy (as some of us are just casual players).  I know this can't be that big of a coding issue because many games have accomplished this and some on a very detailed level.

The crashes, lag spikes and server disconnects (which cost me money to heal if I happen to die because of them) are unbearable.  You can say they are working to fix the crashes, etc., and that's fine ... I'll come back after they've dealt with it.

Second, and this is my opinion as an MMO vet, so take it as just that.  Aion's PVP may or may not have depth at very high levels, but so far I have found it to be nothing but zerging and gank fests; neither of which I find fun.  If you do, more power to you.  You can't do any meaningful damage to anything 4 or more  levels higher than you ... so the free-for-all PVP is meaningless to me. 

A level 40 killing level 25 to 30's all day long is someone I consider lazy, a coward and someone who must not be able to play their class or they would be killing players at their own level.  Same thing with high level ganking groups raiding mid-level areas ... I would think high level players would want to spend their time doing something challenging; however, they are still rewarded for killing lowbies and this is the cheap and easy thing to do.  There are people who say ganking IS the game.  If this is the case, I'll let them keep it.

There are rewards for conquering fortresses but not for defending them.  The problems with this should be self-explanatory.  I understand that this will be changed in the upcoming patches, but come on ... is this the product of "polished" logic?  I also think the way rewards are distributed for success in fortress sieges leaves much to be desired.  

Right now, if you're a sub-40 melee class who wants to grind in the abyss just forget about it.  If you're a Ranger or a Sorcerer you're golden.  A high level melee might be fine out there, but I don't know.

I have not ended my subsription yet but I probably will soon.  I'll watch and see what NCSoft does to handle these types of issues in the future and if they are addressed quickly and in a fashion that suits my playstyle (which is what determines "fun" for most people  and is really all that matters) ... I'll be back.

Enjoyed the post, LordDevil. A lot of very good points.

Originally posted by auntisocial

First of all, Aion has not been out long enough to determine whether it will be successful.  I felt the game was much more polished at launch than the other games I have played.  There are a multitude of problems that are game breaking to me.  I was part of Head Start and purchased a Collector's Edition so you'll have to discount my opinions for reasons OTHER than not owning the game.  I DO play the game on my own account.

Aion is beautiful.  I love the character creation.  I LOVE my characters and the graphics.  If this was all that it took to keep me interested that would be super.

I enjoy the crafting and think it is great that I actually get XP from both collecting and actual crafting.  However, I believe the cost sink involved with it is way over the top.  I believe the ratio of white procs to greens is too low and then trying to create a blue item is so costly and convoluted that  this PROMOTES the desire to buy gold from sellers rather than discourages it. 

I'm just about ready to let my subscription go.  Grinding is part of all games and I just deal with it.  I try to ignore the bots as much as possible, however, there are way too many (many more than in any game I have ever played).  You can say they are dealing with the problem and that's fine ... I'll come back after they've dealt with it.

In an effort to cut spam mail from gold sellers, the amount of mail you can send has been limited.  If your account works correctly that is fine and dandy by me.  However, my husband and I run a legion and his account toon that heads the legion will not let him mail more than 1 item for several hours at a time.  Trying to get customer support to deal with something like this is non-existent.

Legion controls are severely lacking.  There is no way to determine how long a player has not logged in.  There is no log to determine what is going in/out of the legion bank.  You can not create additional ranks with specific abilities or legion bank (or other) privileges.  For instance, you can't create a rank for someone you want to be able to recruit but not have the ability to remove players and in the same vein, you cannot create a rank for someone you want to have both privileges.  This makes trying to run a viable legion very difficult.  We're trying to determine who has left (as there has been a sharp decline in legion members logging in as of late) and who is just busy (as some of us are just casual players).  I know this can't be that big of a coding issue because many games have accomplished this and some on a very detailed level.

The crashes, lag spikes and server disconnects (which cost me money to heal if I happen to die because of them) are unbearable.  You can say they are working to fix the crashes, etc., and that's fine ... I'll come back after they've dealt with it.

Second, and this is my opinion as an MMO vet, so take it as just that.  Aion's PVP may or may not have depth at very high levels, but so far I have found it to be nothing but zerging and gank fests; neither of which I find fun.  If you do, more power to you.  You can't do any meaningful damage to anything 4 or more  levels higher than you ... so the free-for-all PVP is meaningless to me. 

A level 40 killing level 25 to 30's all day long is someone I consider lazy, a coward and someone who must not be able to play their class or they would be killing players at their own level.  Same thing with high level ganking groups raiding mid-level areas ... I would think high level players would want to spend their time doing something challenging; however, they are still rewarded for killing lowbies and this is the cheap and easy thing to do.  There are people who say ganking IS the game.  If this is the case, I'll let them keep it.

There are rewards for conquering fortresses but not for defending them.  The problems with this should be self-explanatory.  I understand that this will be changed in the upcoming patches, but come on ... is this the product of "polished" logic?  I also think the way rewards are distributed for success in fortress sieges leaves much to be desired.  

Right now, if you're a sub-40 melee class who wants to grind in the abyss just forget about it.  If you're a Ranger or a Sorcerer you're golden.  A high level melee might be fine out there, but I don't know.

I have not ended my subsription yet but I probably will soon.  I'll watch and see what NCSoft does to handle these types of issues in the future and if they are addressed quickly and in a fashion that suits my playstyle (which is what determines "fun" for most people  and is really all that matters) ... I'll be back.

Great post, I agree with many of these points.  I have already cancelled my sub due to the same concerns.   One of my main reasons for leaving the game (and this is particularly true for many NA MMO gamers to be honest), the grind time-sink.  Between my job and other day-to-day tasks I really do not enjoy constantly killing koala bears and wasps, and handing in plants to various NPC's.  They all seem to be the same quests over and over.  The South-Eastern Asian market has always been a little more "hardcore" about the grinding bit, they don't seem to mind really, just have a look at all the Korean free-to-play MMO's out there.... 

Originally posted by auntisocial

F

...

Legion controls are severely lacking.  There is no way to determine how long a player has not logged in.  *Note:  This is an issue because there is a cap on the number of members you can have in your legion.*  

...

Hmm, dig deeper.

Open legion tab, press "more" arrow on the right side of the legion members box, "last login" column is the rightmost column.

And you can sort it by pressing the header. Facts straight, k?

Originally posted by Pelaaja

Originally posted by auntisocial

F

...

Legion controls are severely lacking.  There is no way to determine how long a player has not logged in.  *Note:  This is an issue because there is a cap on the number of members you can have in your legion.*  

...

Hmm, dig deeper.

Open legion tab, press "more" arrow on the right side of the legion members box, "last login" column is the rightmost column.

And you can sort it by pressing the header. Facts straight, k?

Thank you for the info.  Unfortunately, that one item does not make a dent in the legion control settings the game lacks, k?

How do you clasiffy someone elses opinion a lie and your own the truth?  It is your opinion that Aion is polished many have complained it is lacking in quests and some (myself included) would consider that "polished" or lacking in it.  That's my opinion just like it is yours Aion is polished and "perfect".

The worse part of your original post though is how people come on these boards to complain about people bashing there game and immediately within the same post bash another game, pot meet the kettle.  It seems you answer your own question because obviously millions think WOW is the be all end all does that mean you are lying about WOW or just that you have a differing opinion?

Originally posted by auntisocial

Originally posted by Pelaaja

Originally posted by auntisocial

F

...

Legion controls are severely lacking.  There is no way to determine how long a player has not logged in.  *Note:  This is an issue because there is a cap on the number of members you can have in your legion.*  

...

Hmm, dig deeper.

Open legion tab, press "more" arrow on the right side of the legion members box, "last login" column is the rightmost column.

And you can sort it by pressing the header. Facts straight, k?

Thank you for the info.  Unfortunately, that one item does not make a dent in the legion control settings the game lacks, k?

You're welcome and I don't know anything about running a legion. I'm just a mere legionnaire.

I bash it because it's NOT FUN.. It was a royal pain in the arse grind..   AION = epic fail

In response to Aion being a successful, fun game, The Dude says it best

 I wouldn't call Aion successful just yet.

AoC sold more copies than Aion in North America during it's launch, (700,000), and many stayed around for about 3-4 months before dwindling down to a fraction of that.

Aion was just released, and in MMO terms, it will be several months yet before anyone can truly call it a success for faliure.

I'm not disputing that the launch was successful, but so were a lot of other launches, some from MMOs that are no longer on the market.

Let's don't count the chicks before they hatch.

If you really want to know why so much hate, just read the 100's of posts about the game on these forums instead of starting a new thread.

I stopped playing Aion after a month as it got boring but in answer to your question about why so much hate: Too many pathetic people with too much time on their hands and very hollow lives with nothing better to do than whinge about a video game like it's somehow important.

Since I don't play aion I can't comment on why / why not it deserves the hate, but I will suggest it picks up some flack from the problems with mmorpg's in general due to a distinct lack of variety and originality in the genre.

All I would like to see as of now, is someone OTHER than Electriceye (nor anyone who is a chronic fanboy of the game) reply in defense of Aion. A simple check on his posting history reviews that all his posts can be concluded into one sentence "LOL I LOVE AION". Lay off, douche.

Originally posted by LordDevil

I really wonder why so many in the MMORPG community think they need to bash a game mostly based on wrong assumptions! I knew already this would happen... because yeah the game is from NCSoft, and its from Korea - and thus it will be viewed very sceptical.

Actually thats a good thing, because that reduced the amount of hype the game generated... and thats also why I think this game will grow even more over time, instead of the large initials drops we saw in many other overhyped MMOs.

We all know Korea will have a hard time successeding here... but its also the first time they made a totally polished, highly detailed new MMO with super smooth graphics... full of lovely details in every area (gestures, NPC idle animations, char creation, see steel rake instances, some of the areas backgrounds etc.....)... ! So many people were totally surprised on how well Aion runs. That leads us to one of the biggest problem in todays MMOs -> Bots

Yes the game has bots - which game doesnt have them? But its NCsoft, so we know from L2,  they will not ban them - even though Aion has nothing to do with L2.... Actually I dont know why people are telling lies about the game... but you dont need to buy Kinah for anything - this game is NOT l2 - we have bound items, we have quest rewards, we have abyss gear which you can only aquire via abyss points - there isnt more need for Kinah than you needed in WoW at the beginning....

Also if people would read the blogs of the devs, then you would see that they are working on GM 24/7 support and that they are already banning more and more bots . Surely they are still under staffed because of the underestimation of the games success. But I am very sure that it will getting better over time (at least be patient and give them time they need)... Most people like me rarely encounter bots anyway, because if you do instances, abyss, group quests in elite areas you will never encounter a bot.

The seconds thing I read is that some say its a grind in every place... which is so wrong again. Just because its not WoW where you get everything feeded into your mouth (bless god). In Aion crafting etc. actually means something. It needs dedication yes, but on the other side the items you can craft can be as valuable as the highest instance drops etc.  ! Oh and I for one never needed to grind 1 bit (I am 42 now) - there are so many group missions and quests especially in elite areas etc. - surely if you play solo and run out of quests you have to grind to get higher - well I dont mind that, the game is a MMO not a solo game. There is really enough to do to mostly avoid grinding. But yes if you want max level in a week and best gear in another week, then please go back where you came from, but dont bash the game for being a grinder,  just because there are so many things to work for.

So I really hope people's stop lying to potential customers who finally want to try another MMO, by telling them wrong informations. Give them a chance and let them try the game by themselves - nearly ALL of my friends didnt regret it and still love the game, so I really wonder why some people made it to their prime hobby to convince them not to play Aion? But I am pretty sure its just because they are afraid to see Aion succeeding... ridiculous...

You want to play this forum game smarter? Stop making post like this.  Don't try to defend your game as you just fuel the fires and justify the counter posts.  Silence is golden.

The gold sellers and bot's killed it for me. If the gold sellers are that active then people must be using them. So in addition to the level and gear grind, now you have to buy gold to keep up with everyone else.

Just like DAoC, and buff bots. The whole spirit of the game is ruined by people using resouces outside of the game to gain an advantage.

  Haters will be everywhere, just like people's opinions about the game. It is a beautiful game in graphics, but like another person before me, after a few weeks felt shallow to me as well. Thats why I hope with its success they can fix thier problems in Aion, and be better on thier up coming project Blade and Soul. Which I 'm looking forward to, and the haters will be out on it aswell. But the Koreans are getting better, wish they be quicker about it thou.

Originally posted by Simiel

All I would like to see as of now, is someone OTHER than Electriceye (nor anyone who is a chronic fanboy of the game) reply in defense of Aion. A simple check on his posting history reviews that all his posts can be concluded into one sentence "LOL I LOVE AION". Lay off, douche.

Wut? Insults? Nice, thanks for that.

I think you need reading lessons then pal. There are quite a few problems that piss me off with the game that I have stated time and time again, and there's a possibility I won't even renew my sub for this month. When someone such as Zorn comes to spew bull!@#$, you just gotta prove them wrong.

I'm not in love with the game, nor do I hate it, so don't compare me with you fanboi/hater type. Everything is either black or white huh? These forums have degenerated to a really low level me thinks.

Ah well, being called a fanboi by the hate squad and a hater by the fanbois sure is fun!

To all the AION fans/players as a WoW player I have just one thing to say.... GROW A THICKER SKIN.

Us WoW players have had to listen to much worse over the last 5 years.

I stopped playing aion because when I reached 25 (or 26 forgot) and wandered in the abyss a few hours I thought to myself "why should I keep on paying monthly when I don't lke pvping?" so I ended to cancel my sub.

Well at least I enjoyed the free month and hope more games make rogues/assassin/thief/whatever like in aion were you don't have to be 90% of the times in stealth to use best skills.