To start off, I am a college student and hold a job. During the summer I have more free time than usual which gives me freedom to explore new games and spend more time online; reading, blogging and chatting. However, once September hits, school begins and starts a whole new cycle of essay writing, studying and running around from A to B for classes and work schedule. Needless to say, it’s a very hectic lifestyle and time is at a premium. I intend to play 1, count it, 1 game in my spare time and still continue my writing in the MMO BLOG-O-SPHERE (insert echo machine here) for MMOCRUNCH.COM. Unfortunately, neither Aion or Champions Online will be in the running for #1.
During the summer I was lucky (not really lucky, I paid for it in a way) to get into the Aion Beta. But disappointingly enough, not the Champions Online closed beta, which brings me to one of my many motto’s: ”No beta, seeya later!” I never play a subscription based game off of launch because I feel the need to let other people be “guinea pigs” for my money is also at a premium. I need to be careful, I’ve been burned by a few games in the past.
I had both games on reserve and one was possibly going to be my one and only this coming fall. Now before the flaming and opinions begin, I’ll tell you my side of the story, it may help.
Aion in two words: Pretty Grind.
Aion is a beautiful, polished, well made and shallow game. I am just being honest about words that come to mind while I was rolling through Closed Beta IV. Paragus wrote a stellar article about Aion, both early stage and later stages of beta. For a full review of the game, see those. My opinion is that Aion doesn’t have the deep immersive lore that Lord of the Rings has. And doesn’t hold my interest when it came to leveling because one thing I can agree on with Paragus, that grinding in certain areas on specific mobs gave you more experience points than questing.
The whole setup for endgame was one big pvp area called the abyss. Aion says, “Ok, and now you will pvp”. Instead, just make battlefields then like (gasp) World of Warcraft. Wow, for lack of a better word, gave me pvp risks and excitement, sometimes by choice and often by force. I played on a hardcore PvP server named Dethecus, which earned its nickname: “Death 2 U cuz” completely. Aion was too scripted in a certain sense that it didn’t offer me the excitement of contested areas. I like the risk of a possible ganking and the occasional fighting off of the newbie rogue or two. I was a terrific “rogue” hunter, I would literally hunt rogues.
Enough of memory lane! I also tested the crafting of Aion, which I felt that the work order quest system was pretty innovative. It wasn’t the regular moneysink as other crafting systems I experienced in other games and gave you all choices of crafting classes. That was cool; I had my armor and weapon crafting over 100 in no time flat. I was working with titanium before I ended beta IV. However, the collection skills needed to gather for crafting was also a horrible grind.
Having to grind Aether to get enough skill points for level 100 Aether crystal that was needed for my 23+ armor was a severe timesink. To top it all off it had to be done between 10 seconds of flight time in flight zones which made it worse. As I first stated, I don’t have a lot of time coming to me in the future. Could I play Aion in the future, if I had the time to grind of course I would.
Aion: cancelled until further notice.
Onto my next order of business, I was super confused by…
Champions Online in two words: Cashshop Confusion.
To start, I am a Hellgate: London veteran and have had mixed feelings about Bill Roper being executive producer from the start. From my experience in HGL I can tell you that Mr. Roper is a terrific designer, powerful visionary with absolutely no business sense. And when my friend Ivan, who writes My 2 coppers worth found out about “Cryptic Bucks”, I started to get tense immediately.
The first thing that I did was going to the forums and makes a post asking what they were. I was met with silence until one lonely soul wrote on the mmorpg.com forums admitting that it was going to be for an in game cash shop. OK! Let me get this straight: I have to buy a box, pay a monthly subscription (that according to Amazon.com that are selling $30 two month playtime cards) of $15 dollars AND you are going to implement an Item (cash) shop into the game?
First off, honesty is the first law of business. If I cannot trust you, I am not doing business with you, it’s that simple. Second, to neither confirm nor deny something means you have something to hide. And I felt they had something to hide, I do realize that RMT is going to slowly but surely taking over the MMORPG market. With recent studies showing that 12% of Americans buy virtual goods and over half of them through virtual worlds tell you something. BUT SOMETHING HAS TO GIVE! Cash shop or subscribe, pick your poison please.
For your information: Game developers that design virtual worlds that are dependent on revenue from Real Money Trade design the game so you need to use the RMT somewhere, somehow. I have played too many to see otherwise, along the line you are forced into the cash shop or have a very uncomfortable playing experience. It is also one of my motto’s to: “Tip the house you’re in.” Meaning, I always spend some money while I am there, at least $10 – $15 a month, I’m not that much of a cheapo.
Once I buy a box, I am committed to the game, which is $50 – $60 for an experiment. If I was able to get into the beta and get hooked, or decide I that it wasn’t for me, I’d feel more comfortable plunking down that money come September 1st. Yes, they are having an open beta, and it’s going to be on a first come, first server basis for only 20,000 players. GameStop told me I was guaranteed access to the new beta, when you tell me I am guaranteed something, you better follow through. That was the one and only word I never used in my whole career as a stockbroker, you can never guarantee anything in life.
As I first stated, my time and money is at a premium. I cannot say I will never play Champions Online, but for now I am going to save my money and use the guinea pig system. If the game offered a FREE two week trial, even one week, I would try it with no commitment. If Cryptic Studios were going to embrace the RMT market totally and give away the client free and offer an item shop, I would definitely give it a go in some downtime.
Bottom line: No beta, Seeya later!
Champions Online: cancelled until further notice.
Like any good MMORPG addict I put my money in both games first day you could reserve them at GameStop; which is a whopping 3 blocks away from my house. On the other hand, like any shrewd investor I watch the company’s like a hawk. If I feel as if I will lose money or it simply is better spent elsewhere, I pull it out and keep it moving.
These are my honest feelings about why I pulled my reservations from both AAA rated and highly anticipated games. I feel that they will both create a big splash in the MMORPG market, but I will not be on the first ship leaving the shore, I will be on the shore cheering you on and telling you to have fun.
For now, I am enjoying the heck out of creeping around in lowsec space in EVE Online. I like the thrill of escaping the slow pirate and the passive skillset system. During the school year I don’t have to keep pushing W to advance and $15 a month for EVE is worth it for me. All I have to do is log on and switch some skills around in the queue … and maybe creep into some pvp or squeeze in a mission … or two.
As I might have mentioned I am a very good mmorpg addict.
Play safe,
Ink
Honestly, I stopped after you wrote “Hardcore PvP server in WoW” and “risks”. There’s no risks in WoW. You see a dude, and you try to kill him. If you don’t, then you just rez and try again. There’s NO RISK INVOLVED. You want risk? Try stepping into the Abyss at a higher rank, when you don’t only lose a few abyss points per death, you lose 5k+ Abyss points at higher ranks.
I don’t wanna be “that guy” who tell you that you wrote a terrible article, but honestly you did. It wasn’t opinions, it’s fiction.
Fair enough. It’s tough to balance life and MMORPGs. I loved university because I had loads of free time but I’m now working full time and married and run a blog so there just never seem to be enough hours in the day :)
Ahh yes, Aion. We came, we saw, we….fell asleep at the computer. (insert sad face here) Such a highly anticipated game for me, I was shaking in my chair with excitement when I heard Aion was coming to the states. And then, it came. And then, the boredom ensued. I have never played a game thus far that I literally started falling asleep after level 10. The game is great as far as the graphics, character customization, and vast world of both Elyos and Asmodian. And, well, sadly to say, that’s about it. The quests aren’t even worth it, the leveling process after 15 is incredibly grindy, and for what? PvP arena goodness? No thanks, I took my money elsewhere. Take care, Kataline
Very sensible article. Planning on giving EVE another shot whenever they get ambulation out the door. Plenty of other MMO’s out there in the meantime.
I can relate when it comes to school and work come September.
Being a full time student in a university and working on the weekends can most certainly be a handful. Free time is extremely limited and valued. If you are anything like me, you dont settle for B’s and library becomes your second home.
Last year i didnt play any MMO’s at all. It was not something i planned it just happened.
When it comes to aion, i personally will be playing the game come retail. This time around i will play very casually and mostly solo due to other priorities. One of the major reasons why i will play it is because i love my “MMO buddies”. They are what make these games a lot more fun and less boring than they usually are. Just sitting on vent and chatting up while grinding the same mobs over and over can be a nice break from grinding books.
I understand why you say what you say about the progression in the game, but every MMO has grind. None of them come out as good as they sound in the beginning. Some are more grind friendly some are not. I think our personalities, MMO background and expectations play a big part in us liking or disliking a particular game.
My MMO career started with Korean grinders F2P P2P you name it… I have also played many Western releases starting with DAOC all the way up to AOC. Like most games, Aion will not be for everyone thats for sure.
In the end, reading all the positive and negative views about Aion, i come to one conclusion. This game is just another MMO that has been hyped up out of proportion and in the end will satisfy a demographic which it is mainly targeted at. Many will try it and move on, waiting and hyping another MMO on the horizon.
Good luck in school!
Avsok
I also wanted to add a comment about WoW since you mentioned it. I try to stay away from mentioning WoW since many people always thro that into everyone’s face.
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Unlike Aion, WoW is a PVE game with PVP as an afterthought, that is a fact. I mean, there has to be a good reason why they are eliminating 2v2 in wow ( not giving points for playing 2v2). Its obvious that imbalance is the issue.
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Aion after 20, you always level in areas which have rifts opening up every # hours. Enemy comes in waves and takes over key check points. You have options, stay away and try to avoid. Go battle the enemy in your zone, or enter a rift and take the fight to them. You can also take another route and go to the Abyss which presents a more risky environment. I have a hard time seeing how WoW battlegrounds or contested areas differ or are better. At level 20 you get a potion that sends you straight to enemy area and you are introduced to pvp.
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In Abyss you have to battle over key objectives to gain access to gear, dungeons, etc… Its a whole different idea than WoW. I never enjoyed the PVP side of WoW having played mostly PVP games in my MMO carrier, it always felt weak and imbalanced. Ofcourse that is my opinion, but the people who i play with have the same opinion that i do, so i am not alone.
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The whole game is centered around 2 factions battling over exp, abyss points, bosses/loot. I simply am unable to see how that is not exciting and in any way scripted.
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Anyhow, just wanted to respond and present another perspective is all. I enjoy reading MMOcruch alot. Keep up the good work!
Avsok
I really appreciate the comments and wanted to respond to my readers on my experience.
I don’t write from a “you should do this because this is how I feel.” I work on this is the facts, the way I felt and how I respond. It all comes down to choice.
I feel that not mentioning wow would be ignoring part of my history and gaming experience in mmo’s. I’m not about to forget wow because basically it IS AN MMO. Ignoring wow because the community doesn’t want to hear about it would be trying to throw a towel over the elephant sitting in the living room and saying, “nothing to see here.” I’m not going to do that, I look at comparisons and contrasts, fairly. I will never adjust how I feel and write for anyones particular point of view, ever.
I was in abyss and felt like I was in Alterac Valley, this is just my personal experiences. No one has to identify with it, it is what it is.
Avsok, you described Aion as a gear based game, isn’t WoW a gear based game as well?
No matter how you slice it, your working toward the same thing, a nicely geared out avatar with good stats to outpwn your opponent.
Same thing, different name. IMO
Thanks for the comments, please keep coming back.
Have you tried Granado Espada? AFK leveling is one of it’s best features. While the story lines aren’t consistent, the content is deep.
Warning: a personally think that the company that manages the Singapore version of Granado Espada needs to brush up on it’s business ethics, and I’ve started to blog to that effect. However, the game itself is excellent for (pseudo) Free-to-Play. There are two choices for English-speaking servers: Singapore and US. Singapore servers are a couple of patches ahead of the US servers (called Sword of the New World). The US servers win on bot-control and in-game GMs, but apparently fail in negotiating contracts.
@Inktomi
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Aion and WoW are both gear based games. There is no denying. However, we all know that Aion is nothing new… It is still the same type of MMO formula we have been seeing over and over, especially from NCsoft and other Korean MMO’s.
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The difference between Aion and WoW is that Aion is geared towards PVP with PVE as an after thought. Sure group pvp feels similar… in which game does it not? But what matters in the end is balance, risk vs reward, and depth (would it be pvp, pve or anything along those lines).
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When WoW came out, a fully epic’d out Warrior could WW 15 people and own them… i highly doubt that a gladiator would be able to pull anything close to that… or ever could… even in beta (but i may be wrong).
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After being released 5+ years Blizzard decided to no longer reward people for doing 2v2s… I hope you see where i am going.
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I understand why many people dislike Aion. It is nothing new and it offers very little when compared to some other MMO’s, but if it does the job well at what it is supposed to be, a PvPvE game that is balanced around group play and RvR, then i am totally content and i assure you many others will be too.
2 Iahed: I’ve heard of SotNW but never tried it. I’m willing to give it a go. I haven’t ran a new F2P in a few weeks now. I’ve ignored my Requiem account. And please leave me a link to your blogbost. I often cameo blogs in my posts and am always up for a new pov. Which leads me to…
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Avsok: I don’t disrepute what your saying and this conversation is not about “why aion is good”, because Aion is good, I never said I disliked Aion, I didn’t like some of the aspects of Aion and that goes with any game. And I said I WOULD play it if time constraints lightened up. And I meant that not in a sarcastic way.
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I’ve spoken to a few chinese and korean server veterans and they don’t feel that some aspects are totally balanced. Thats is what they told me, don’t shoot the messanger.
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I played alot of pvp centered games, I’m playing one right now. But I feel that if you are going to center on pvp, do it off the get go, trial by fire like JR Ewing (Darkfal) and EVE. That’s just my style of gaming, did you play wow on a pvp server?
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2 my readers: Lastly, I know some friends that will be playing Aion, and some that won’t. That is a matter of choice and preference, I just merely stated my POV. I know alot of people will like Aion, I did. But it’s not something I am going to pursue, “right now”, I know players will enjoy AIon at release; it is a good mmo.
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In my experience,not every game is going to appeal to every player. And when devs change certain aspects and/or mechanics in a game its beyond our control. We all have a choice in what game we are going to play. And those choices are increasing day by day, many indie studios are forming to create new IP’s. Meawhile larger studios are joining the fray with big names hoping to capture market share from “established franchises”. It’s just my goal to find out (for myself) where my gaming budget is best spent, and share that information.
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Again thank you for the comments.
@Inktomi
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I understand. By no means i am trying to defend Aion, i hope i didnt come across that way.
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What the veterans told you is true. A few of my friend who are going to play have told me about the imbalance that is present in 1.0 and about the nerf bats that hit in later patches. We will see how that pans out down the road.
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Course i played WoW on pvp server ^^
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Anyhow, enjoy the rest of the summer.
Cheers
I honestly believe that microtransactions are a bad business model for any subscription based game. Not only that but I believe they are based in the realm of fraud.
Buy a 50$ game and then pay 15$ a month and then have a large portion of the available content only available through microtransactions? What exactly are you paying the subscription for again? Cryptic is taking a huge risk as they start up there service. I really do not care how polished the game is, I just flat out hope their game fails. Just so other companies do not attempt to continue on their model.
Aion on the other hand, I am hoping this game is a success. If it is not a launch success in the NA community, I can only blame the fact that they are still using what the original beta client that was used in the Korean beta last year. The game will soon see its third major content patch in the asian market, yet NCSoft is still showing off the 1.0 content.
The biggest additions in the subsequent patches have been adding and improving the leveling process by raising quest reward xp, adding quests as well as adding a “rest” system not too unlike WoW’s. As well as attempting to make some needed class balance changes. The English speaking beta community is unable to see this. Thus, there are a great deal of authors such as yourself writing content based on it.
Not that I completely disagree with your issues of why you have chosen not to make either game your MMO of choice. (Aion on a limited time schedule especially would relegate you into the low to mid levels for a good long time.)
I for one, just do not see a better alternative out there at this time. With Tigole gone and Activision more in charge than we were initially led to believe, WoW has become less and less the stellar game it once was. While a games like Warhammer, AoC, and Lotro have all sought to improve themselves, none of them have done a good enough job to get me back. What is left? FFXI or Aion… for now I will choose Aion.
So, you cancelled your CO preorder because you didn’t get into closed beta? LOL
Also, why do people care about cosmetic microtransactions? WoW does the same thing with paid name changes and stuff.
@Jericho
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Very well put. I agree completely.
now before i start i will say i havent played aion yet, but how can open world pvp be more scripted than a battleground thats basically the same thing over and over? i played WoW for a long time and the reason i decided to quit was the pvp.
im not now or will i ever be a big fan of PvE and pvp in WoW was just boring. endless battlegrounds doing the same things over and over and over fighting enemies doing the same things over and over and over. i was also on a pvp server but my experience was totally different than yours. i couldnt get a open world fight started if my life depended on it. at most 2-3 people would come and fight for a few minuted then leave.
i hate the instanced pvp with , in my opinion, to many “rules” to it. go here get the flag. protect the flag…. wheres the randomness that pvp should be? knowing you can be hit from anywhere by anyone at any time is what makes pvp exciting im my opinion and from everything i’ve read and heard that is what aion can offer. make pvp exciting again. Warhammer tried but population issues on servers messed with that and it became just more instanced battle
Ppl dnt seem to realise tht other games/platforms have micro-transactions such as xbox and even WoW,
ppl just go crazy when they see micro-transactions called that instead of other terms that wow/xbox use.
With Champ Online it offers standard players the chance to use more items etc than a pure micro transaction style and offers the other players who wish to own all the chance to do so without infringing the whole player base.
Another point which i saw on Massively was that the micro trans are optional you dont have to use it which means that normal players are not having to spend extra money on small upgrades etc, the whole Mirco trans style is not that great when applied to some games yet the most well known and well played uses them but noone seems to mind the almighty WoW charging people for transfers etc.
I have the Collectors Edition of Aion on Pre-Order. This has allowed me to play the CBT4 and CBT5 and try as I might I get to around L12/L13 after a days play and never bother logging back in on day 2. I am pretty sure I am going to cancel my pre-order as well. The ‘hook’ of flight is pretty bland and poorly implemented. The quests are uninteresting, the two opposite starting zones are not only near mirror images but also pretty uninteresting. Combat is a lot slower than WoW/LOTRO/WAR and is basically the same monotonous clickfest. Levelling is a grinding snorefest and that was at L11….I shudder to think what it would be like at higher levels. I keep giving it away when I have a quest log full of Kill X of these, Kill X of those, Kill X of these others ones, Kill X of those ones over there and then Kill X of these ones. Added to gather X of these, Farm X of those. And then you do all that for a few hours, cash in and the bastards get you to kill some more of them…….. *snooze* and that was just at the first post ascension quest hub….
I did like the premise but was disappointed with the whole having wings ‘hook’. I just felt it was poorly implemented and kind of farcical getting blocked by invisible barriers and having your own capital city a no fly zone.
I did like the option for Private Stores. The graphics were OK without being LOTRO great. Would have liked to see more character class archetypes. Guess its back to waiting for Jumpgate I think.
Hi! Just found your article and want to say that I am very thankful for your insight into the two different games.
Sad that Aion seems to be lazy-development grindfest, but that’s either the result of poor design or a symptom of the native player base (many Asia-based games are very grindy).
Champs looks to be pretty cool, but they have to get over the CoH stigma if they want to compete. So far it looks like CoH with better graphics.
The RMT aspect is also a minus, especially when coupled with a subscription fee. I can here the QQ now as people complain about someone being able to buy epics with RMT while they pay a fee each month and have to grind for it.
Good article all around though!
@NSFGA – The reason people are against “cosmetic microtransactions” is that we are and we are not.
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WoW’s microtransactions are purely cosmetic, but they are limited to paying to change the “permanent” options that you were given when you started the game. Transfering servers, changing your race/faction, or face/hair/skin color do not give anyone anything in game that others do not have access to.
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Other game’s microtransactions create a “have” and “have-not” situation. These RMT range from character creation options (Race, Clothing, Stats) to having a special companion, mount, etc. Some games even are selling leveling content (ie DDO).
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@Dread – I would agree that the game is extremely limited in “areas”. If I had one big issue with the game, it is the fact that there is basically 1 area to level in each level range. Around 25 this expands to 3 areas with the “repeatable” hub in Theobomos and the addition of the Abyss.
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As for combat being longer and less fun than a game like War, I just do not agree. Especially if you got to the 35-40 range in Warhammer, you can remember spending 5 minutes on a single mob to solo it. Aion may not be a matter of the 10-25 second kills that you get now in WoW, but the combat is actually interesting with branching combo moves and cooldowns that prevent spamming.
“Aion in two words: Pretty Grind.”
DUDE! What MMO doesn’t involve grind? WoW? I don’t think so.
Just to drop a note of information, the only microtransactions in Champions Online are for purely cosmetic things (fancy cape, etc.) Or for items that can be found in game. This will not create a situation of inequality. The actual items from this system will not be ultra rare, or ultimately significant in changing gameplay. The cryptic forums have information on the topic.
..WoW gave u excitement and risk…omg are u kidding me????….WoW has no risk u (edited).
as the guy before me said You want risk? Try stepping into the Abyss at a higher rank, when you don’t only lose a few abyss points per death, you lose 5k+ Abyss points at higher ranks.he’s right.
and i don’t get why u morons and this writer complain abt the questing being dull and borin just after an hour and nt wrothwhile. i hate to point it out buh quest are “always nt wrothwhile” in mmorpgS!!! dickheadS!!! they alwys provide less expericnce than actual grinding in the same time frame.and this is more evident as u become higher and higher levels.
and wtf is this “Levelling is a grinding snorefest and that was at L11….I shudder to think what it would be like at higher levels. I keep giving it away when I have a quest log full of Kill X of these, Kill X of those, Kill X of these others ones, Kill X of those ones over there and then Kill X of these ones. Added to gather X of these, Farm X of those. And then you do all that for a few hours, cash in and the bastards get you to kill some more of them…….. *snooze*”……..
are u kiddin me??
WoW quest are also “kill x of these,gather X of these blah blah rewards”…and i don’t hear u morons complain abt it. it had same questing system as all mmorpg.
and i don’t hear those wow-baies crying abt it whie they do for other mmorpgs.
so if this writer n other ppl are gonna cancel thier subcripstion just coz of this reason….i think a lot of WoW shd hv been cancel a long tym ago sinc it seems these morons hate this kind of questing system.
I don’t have a problem with Champions i have already purchased the lifetime subscription. I have control over my purchasing habits and if i do not see a value in their microtransactions i will just not by them they have already stated many times that if you can get it on the store you can get it in the game.
lololo: Ok first off. If you want me to take your comment seriously don’t start by calling me names. It’s immature and irrational, not what I’m about.
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Aion is a good game, hands down. I said I would revisit it and I meant it. I really don’t know if everyone really reads the whole story, it sounds like you read the parts you want to rant about and forget some key words here and there. No biggie, I do it too.
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No, I didn’t can CO because I didn’t get into the beta, it was becuase of the way they handled the cryptic buck scenario and bill roper gives me the willies. And I want to “wait and see” how the status quo reacts. Read the post please.
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If anyone was here for HGL, can see how the latest subscription rates mirror something of the scheme they tried back then? Same “lifetime”membership scenario. Burn me once shame on you, burn me twice and THEN I am a moron.
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Yes, I understand what a grind is and that it’s a mechanic in every MMO. I wasn’t happy with the channel jumping boss grind. That was a failed mechanic in my opinion. Did you think channel jumping and grinding for loot is really what I want in an MMO, your mistaken. Maybe I just don’t fill like grinding, ever think of that?
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There are way too many games out there to subject yourself to something you don’t or can’t play just because everyone else is doing it. “All the cool kids do it”, doesn’t work for me anymore.
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Thanks for all the comments and feel free to rag on me all you want. I will answer back if you don’t act like a total boob. If anyone has an idea or want to discuss something I wrote, I am always up for suggestion. Send me an email.
Ink
PS: I have zero tolerance for any type of name calling, flaming or general put downs on my post. If you want to talk to me, talk to me; I have an open door policy.
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But if you try to rank me out to get your point across, I’m either going to A) edit your post or B) delete your post.
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I have and will exercise my right for clean content on this website.
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Thank you for your support. =)
They are changing the grind in Aion to better fit US style mmos. How are the quests not interesting? CUTSCENES IN AN MMO = WIN. Sure some are really short but it helps towards the feel of things. Flying is so polished and you cant fly in most places but gliding is an awesome habit! You can customize the crap out of your gear and even take the look of an item and mesh the stats of another! how many times have you wanted to keep something equipped because of the look but upgraded due to better stats? I love the gameplay and the main focus on pvp is right up my alley.
oh ya, forgot to say that beta u tried is version 1.0
u havent try v1.5 (skipped 1.1 and 1.2) on the official launch date, alot of changes, adjustment and many new things in that patch.
Doesn’t matter dad, the game didn’t make the cut. Nothing to see here move along…
All MMO’s are the same, Slice it up, Nuke it up, heal it up, Exp it up, quest it up, pvp it up, gear it up. They are all the same, only thing changes is how they do it and how it gets done. I’ve played the last open beta for Aion, and honestly i loved it, from the Cutscene’s to the combat innovations, character creation system (which is the greatest customization tool added to a MMO), the manastones is a great addition on adding certain stats to gear. My feel on the grind system is that its good, i played WoW, It seems that 90 percent of the population is level 80, know why? Cause it doesn’t take that long to get that level, the grind isn’t really that serious. I started off Playing FFXI when it came out on PS2 i got the hard drive for it and all that good stuff, I remember grinding out days to months to a year to hit lvl 74, i remember being like i’ll just get 10k of exp today and that’ll be it, farming for money just so i could get some expensive armor, to me thats hard grinding, and a pretty good grinding system, keeps all the noobs and bootylicious people from being a high level with some pimped out gear. I like grind, no offense but people who don’t like grind are people who usually buy imaginary money or buffed up accounts with real life money, maybe because they don’t have the time or are just to lazy to grind for it, which is understandable, but don’t knock Aion and slaughter it and saying its just another hyped up game thats gonna fall off with the quickness. My friend just got me into WoW and honestly i don’t like it, it feels like i’m playing “Sims: The RPG” i can’t get into the story line cause it feels like i’m just doing mindless quests, i can’t tell whats what really, the pvp system seems pretty broken. Aion to me is starting some new system’s thats really interesting me, moving side to side improves your dodge, moving backwards improves your defense, moving forward improves your offense?! Need i say more?! Capabilities of fighting in the AIR!? Do you know how long i’ve waited for a game like that?! @ That An RPG!? Come on you got to give Aion the benefit of the doubt they did thier homework…not only that thier not being lazy with creating an MMORPG, they are putting alot of imagination to the computer screen,….I will be playing Aion as my main and probably only MMORPG i will be playing.
rofl….in the future there will be someone create an article complaining Blade&Soul, C9 and TERA about grind stuff. Hey if u dont like any grind feel in game, quit all MMORPG. Go to play flash game in facebook…lmao! Perhaps do u know what is grind? It means u need to work harder to obtain something. U wanna be top lvl, be rich, with imba items u need grind. Just like in real life u want higher position in ur job and better pay, u need grind too. It’s all same. Please dont go to work or study and just sit at home =)
Aion has something wow lost long time ago: Objective based pvp, pile a gold in the middle now fight for it you noobs!
( PS: it works and more than that it is VERY fun )
After reading this review and whole lot others, as well as participating in CBT6 on EU servers I can pretty much deny all the grindfest ‘accusations’ that keep being shot at Aion. It took me roughly 2 days of less-than-hardcore playing to reach level 20 provided grinding about 20-30mobs total outside quest requirements, which turned out to be unnecessary since after completing the lvl 10-20 area I was lvl 21. Considering they have been listening to the complaints from people used to easy quest-lvling and will add more quests and increase quest xp rewards, I doubt that grinding outside the storyline will be needed at all.
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Now that I mentioned the word storyline, I have to say that having a linear story provided by the campaign quest chain to walk you through all the leveling makes it a whole lot more meaningful than, for example WoW (yes I did play that for a long time), where you’d basically run all over the place looking for quests with no well-defined guidance. Obviously the linear questing will pose problems when raising an alt, as monotony will surely kick in, but until you get to actually be bored of what your main can offer in terms of fun and content progression, you may as well forget and want to “re-live” all that story, if you like a story at all.
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I’ve noticed a lot of complaints here and everywhere else about the limitations of flight in leveling areas. I’ll ignore the complaints about not flying in your capital city, that simply doesn’t affect anything. At all. First off it’d make the game a whole lot noob-friendly if you could just fly all over the place and land directly on the mob you’re aiming to kill, or escape in flight when the ‘situation’ becomes dire. Need I mention that a ranged player could just simply nuke the heck out of melee mobs from mid-air without even worrying that the mob might actually touch them? Honestly, if anyone beats down on the flight limitations then they are the limited ones. Most maps come with well-implemented ledges where you can run off and glide for fast transportation around, provided you actually spend a few minutes to get accommodated with the gliding system, which is bend-able enough to allow prolonging a glide fairly long enough (I had my flight time expire on a couple glides, nearly died lol).
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@Inktomi: I’m not beating down on your review, as a matter of fact I think it’s pretty well-built and objective, provided the information you had. And I do agree that this game will not be a good experience for people that have VERY limited time resources. I personally have a job and a life but still can afford some daily playtime. However I strongly disagree with you labeling the game ‘pretty grind’; it’s true you can’t lvl all the way up by just doing fed-ex-like tasks and skipping content or pure pvp from the beginning, but the storyline pretty much covers the leveling and the cutscenes make the campaign chain worth paying some attention to while running through. TBH, WoW was a lot more grindfest than Aion when it first came out. Sure there are other MMOs out there with more in-depth lore but then again, Aion tends to focus more on PvPvE and uses the lore-based questing to introduce the player to the environment, skills and potential of the class they are playing.
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In the end it’s just a matter of taste; I’m guessing if you’re more into lore, endgame content additions and PvE overall you’d go for LOTRO or WoW if you aren’t already extremely bored and disappointed of it; if you’re more into PvP you’d probably turn your eyes to EvE (which I haven’t actually played, but appears to be the most PvP-oriented MMO worth mentioning). Finally, if you like a combination of the two sides of MMORPGs where you eventually get a choice between PvEing all the way to maxlvl or skipping half of that in favor of lvling up in a strongly PvP-oriented area, to end up playing PvE and PvP at the same time end-game, Aion is probably your best bet at this time.
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I’d probably have a lot more to write about this but the scroll bar is getting puny and I don’t want to ramble too much :)
Wow… did you even do any research about Champs Online before you wrote this article?
The RMT piece of Champs Online is only for COSMETIC items, for things like CHANGING YOUR NAME, and so on. You can’t do anything more than that.
You <3 WOW… but in WOW, they make you pay for a name change too. What’s the difference?
I’m hardly a CO fanboy, but I do find people making factual errors about games — and then slamming the game for it — disturbing.
@Inktomi, I read your article and you have valid reasons, life comes first and you don’t have a lot of time to spend with these games at the moment.
I’m sorry if this response is blunt but to be honest, I came across this site because I to was wanting to cancel my Aion reservation, but Gamestop.com isn’t allowing me to do so cause of its beta code they sent out. I don’t understand it at all other than the in game items. But, i’m still wondering how can i cancel my order when Gamestop is denying me that?
I won’t have enough time as well to spend with the game, that is my reason of canceling. How did you go about doing this? Is there another way I can cancel my order, I really don’t want to pay for it at the moment and I even resported to possibly re-selling it through e-bay.
Any thoughts or feedback?
Raaj, try returning it after you pick the game up at the store. Unopened games should be valid for a full refund right?
i feel sorry for all wow players.They have played this funny cartoon game and it became their lives.There is no such a thing like exiting pvp server in wow,no way to manipulate the environment in any way through your game.I am waiting 2 hours quene for Aion and it is worth the waiting.Sorry for my bad english but i could not pass by your mediocre article without writing something.
First off I don’t understand why anyone would want to play Champions, it looks like some college kids project and not worth time at all. Secondly, if you want a game that reminds you of WoW then well stick with WoW. Aion is a PVP game and that is their end game focus. People should really do research on things before they jump into them. To be completely honest, there is no challenge in WoW anymore the pvp was killed in it looong ago I mean don’t get me wrong I still play and raid with my bf/friends but the game is getting kind of sad =/ Everything in Aion feels like an accomplishment and it’s such enjoyable game play.
I get the feeling that most of these posts are biased towards one game, I really want to submit my opinion as it is alot more neutral, although, I do beleive that some posters aren’t biased either. I have played WoW for a good 3 months, I find it quite a grind based game to, alot of it is Kill X ammount of these, or, kill this monster, or, gather these items. In my opinion, remember this is my opinion, I find WoW boring, I looked forward to getting to level 80 in Dragonmaw, joining my friends in there Raids and obtaining the awesome gear, using them in battlegrounds and PvP. It never happened, I got so bored with all of the grinding and the quests all looked the same to me, true that the game was brilliant when it was first released, no doubt about that, I think the main reason was because there was no other game like it, but now it’s just lost it’s spark, other MMO’s are gaining there way onto WoW, so I decided to stop playing. I am now currently waiting to get my own copy of Aion, it looks quite exciting and the graphic detail looks amazing, I beleive it’s the game I have been looking for, the classes and races suite me and I love this idea of Raid on Raid and PvPvE. I am not trying to change your opinion or argue with you in ANY way, I beleive your right when you say Aion is a grind fest, but I could probobly put up with it due to the amazing graphics and gameplay. [I also played Maple Story for about 2 years, I think I could put up with grinding, WoW just bored me.]. It also seemed to me that WoW PvP was really not an option unless you had a high level character to get you the right gear, whereas, Aion is brand new, not many people will be twinked to kill all the low levels and it’s possible to get the best out of your PvP expirience before you reach the high levels. Conclusion, get what you want, this is my opinion on the war between WoW and Aion. [I do reccomend Requiem though, not so hard to level, quests give decent EXP, graphics are pretty amazing and there is lots of gore, [Horror MMO]]
Wow… Do you ever reread your stuff and think on how stupid you were when you were writing it? While I can’t say I like CO, the “Cash Shop” is has.. nothing but vanity item “action figures”. By hell even WoW now has a cash shop. There’s a difference between a Cash Shop that lets you buy elite gear at level 1 and one that gives you nothing more than vanity items. Any game that offers an ingame item or service for real money has a cash shop. Including server transfers and character renames.
In addition, you previewed a year old version of Aion, that the game didn’t even release with. Grind? Yeah, but if your grinding at level 15 – you did something wrong. I played to Level 32 and barely felt a grind. After their 1.5 release and the several patches since then. If it’s not for you that’s one thing but you sound really stupid having written reviews that were nothing but talking out your ass.