I dont know why people hate on Aion so. I came back and found it interesting and refreshing. Sure there are two obvious negative things, RNG and grind (not much anymore) still there but hey that what Koreans like. Honestly I dont mind them treating us like the second rate customer because hello, the games made for Koreans by Koreans. Honestly why cant a company make a game for there people and share it around the world like Aion has. I find their design of their game very interesting. Some things I like somethings I dont. It has four populated servers in the US so obviously not many westeners have taken to it on the scale we take more western MMOs like Rift. When I came back to Aion I have had these revelations. I dont think Aion was a fail at all. I like getting basically an imported game. It has a solid community now of people who like it.

Sorry if its a bit of a ramble but just getting my thoughts down.

Aion haves to much RNG but every game outside right now haves it, and Rift sucks hardballs, in my opinion,

right now AION its the best mmorpg out, till GW2 arrives

Will Aion die when GW2 comes? Cus im planning to play it a little now

I completely agree Mogcat. It's definitely my favorite MMO and I plan to stick with it for awhile, even beyond the upcoming big MMOs like GW2 & SWTOR on the horizon. I don't feel either of those will be anywhere near similar to Aion, so it's more of a matter of seeing if one of those two are worth the time to me to play a 2nd MMO. Otherwise, I'll just stick with Aion. It has a unique feel and art style that really makes it stand out for me. If Lineage 2 is any indication, I think NCSoft will keep Aion going and growing for quite awhile.

I think they have great timing on their new free trial. You have all these gamers right now that are waiting for other MMOs, tired of their current MMO, or just bored of MMOs like Rift being too easy, and they're all looking for something unique and a bit more challenging. I think Aion offers a pretty good alternative. Of course that's totally subjective opinion, but I think it will at least surprise more then a few that wouldn't sub without trying it first.

Originally posted by MikeJezZ

Will Aion die when GW2 comes? Cus im planning to play it a little now

Like I mentioned, I know it won't change things for me personally but I might be in the minority. I always see people running around at all hours on Israphel, so that's a decent pop server. I'm also not a huge fan of either guild wars or the star wars IP so Aion has the advantage regardless of how good GW2 or SWTOR might be.

Can you tell me what you find different from Aion to GW2?

The thing that put me off to Aion was the insane amount of botting, the forced pvp, and the rampant higher level ganking.

I don't mind pvp, in fact, I love pvp for the most part. But I want a fair and balanced pvp setting, not this...

"Forced to level up at lvl 30 in a lvl 30-50 zone and get ganked repeatedly for hours by the same level 50s"

Just not my cup of tea.

Edit:

I would come back to this game if they opened a non-forced pvp server.

I liked almost everything in Aion except.... flying. Ye I know, its a big deal. Never felt like a cool feature to me, instead it felt like an annoyance. Not flying itself, but the way it was implemented.

Originally posted by MikeJezZ

Can you tell me what you find different from Aion to GW2?

How can anyone compare Aion to a game that isn't even released yet, and only a select few out of millions played?

Originally posted by Karnage69

The thing that put me off to Aion was the insane amount of botting, the forced pvp, and the rampant higher level ganking.

 

I don't mind pvp, in fact, I love pvp for the most part. But I want a fair and balanced pvp setting, not this...

"Forced to level up at lvl 30 in a lvl 30-50 zone and get ganked repeatedly for hours by the same level 50s"

 

Just not my cup of tea.

 

Edit:

I would come back to this game if they opened a non-forced pvp server.

that's already over since 8 months, right now leveling caracters its easy pie, they introduce a penalty against invasor for 80%

on morhein/eltnen and 40% on heiron/beluslan that's make almost impossible for you to get ganked.

Anyway the awfull part of the game its endgame full of RNG and Ubbergeared nonlife nerds epeen winner only by 1 shot against bad geared people

I think they are starting to get the message that lots of people, especially in the west, just don't like the RNG. Even compared to grind it is the RNG that makes it absolutely soul crushing. But with setting up a token system for the crucible I think we may be seeing the begining of them toning down the RNG nature of the game.

as for ganking it has gotten much better since the debuff was put in place but it still only takes a small group to gank a solo grinder and it also makes life  harder for those legitimately doing the spy quests. I would still rather see the rift enabled zones given at least two channels one with rifts and the other without. If you don't want pvp at all then stay in the pve version of the zone. But give people an exp buff and increased kinah in drops for grinding in the pvp version of the zone. You cannot force people to pvp. If they want to avoid it bad enough they will simply leave the game.

One thing I do like is that people are still running around doing crap in the world. I'm glad leveling takes some time. I always see someone else when I'm leveling. The lfg channel is always being used 24/7 even for more things then just instances, mentors and mentees are the new rage. It's pretty cool. Also I just got my wild kitter from the daily tokens!

What I liked after coming back:

• The world often makes me stop and admire the surroundings. The graphics bump give the world that extra umph I felt it was missing in the past. 
• It's funny getting swamped by higher levels to run lower level places, with the new mentor system. A few turn out to be asses. They get what they want and leave. Nothing new there. Loads of really helpful, friendly folk though.
• Having 1 Elyos avatar (assassin) on one of the servers I have to admit it's a bit nice getting useful items in the survey pop up everytime I level up. I've gotten armor (3 piece sets sometimes), weapons, tons of potions, tons of scrolls and more.
• Kinah is copious. I remember having trouble making ends meet on a new toon, but not anymore. I'm close to 2 million kinah, on a fresh toon that just dinged level 23.
• Finishing campaign quests has improved by leaps and bounds...so far, from what I've experienced. No more hassling trying to get a group going for the open world elite areas. I was able to finish the elite campaign quests by simply going to the alternative mobs which were no more than 4 or 5 dots difficulty. Even so people were running around the elite areas in a normal group or with a mentor.
• Haramel, the 18-22 solo instance has a sweet short cooldown and is a great way to rake in xp and pimp out a bit before hitting Eltnen (Morheim, for asmos).
• Pet fluff content. If they've accompanied you long enough during your session, without dismissing them etc, they'll dig up a present for you which so far has contained coins. Bronze/iron so far.

• The world is still a bit of a fish tank. With areas being separated by teleportation. Like the new Academies locations and some zones too. 
• Quests are still nothing more than tasks. 
• The manastone system is still in place. 
• RNG is still everywhere in Aion. It's a cheap way to create content. I hate it.

• More expansions to the world so it opens up more and the invisible walls disappear.
• Meaningful, arduous quests. In the true meaning of the word QUEST.
• A manastone system where the Daeva researchers (ahem, RPing) have come up with a way to have your manastones not break on removal. When mounting a manastone to a slot it might break, clumsy daeva, but the other slots are secured of not breaking because they're already slotted in...grr.

10 days re-activation for old accounts starting later today, means i'll be giving it a whirl again.

Originally posted by Beachcomber

10 days re-activation for old accounts starting later today, means i'll be giving it a whirl again.

 

hell,why not, me too- lets see what they have done with this game in the time they have had.

Nothing lost in looking.

i hope everyone whoo tries the 10 days' trial finds it well, i'm having fun on zikel myself.

Originally posted by nblitz

• The manastone system is still in place. 
• RNG is still everywhere in Aion. It's a cheap way to create content. I hate it.

Yeh RNG, which is basically the manastone system too, is the the largest blemish on Aion really. I cant think of anything thats as major as this. Judging from the crucible instance they seem to be getting rid of that, slowly so thats good. Hope they continue to do so.

Originally posted by MikeJezZ

Will Aion die when GW2 comes? Cus im planning to play it a little now

 

really dont get how ppl may think this about any game.. so many old mmo's still going strong.

I actually just came back too. I am really liking it. I just hate the aether and essence tapping system. It's unbearably tedious.

Originally posted by WizGamer

I actually just came back too. I am really liking it. I just hate the aether and essence tapping system. It's unbearably tedious.

Yeah, it aint too excirting I agree.

Saying that though, I am L20 now after going back for the reactivate and I am really enjoying it.

The mentor system is great, the character customisation is even better then before, the pop on my server seems vibrant and even friendly, the world looks amazing, and i have quests overflowing, and even the faction balance on Perento (where I play) seems pretty right based on what vets tell me.

It's not perfect, I won't craft again ever in this game, and the RNG based systems are annoying (though I am mentally prepared for it all this time at least and can accept it), but taken for what it is Aion is now imo a cracking game.

If it had launched as it is now (with maybe better drop rates and toned down RNG) this game could easily have been a long term major prospect in the West with stable subs in the millions, but thats a lost opportunity now. NCS only have themselves to blame tbh.