Why Aion?

[ringthree]

I have been thinking about testing Aion out, but I really haven't come up with a reason to even try it yet because I don't really know/understand what the good aspects are about it.

I mostly play FFXI and occassionally dabble in WoW. From the reviews and posts here I can't really find the compelling thing about Aion.

It may sound like I am just bashing the game but I am not. I am more wondering why I am missing the boat. I understand that the game is gorgeous and that it has flying, which to some people will be a deal-maker no matter what. For me though, game play and content is what gets me involved in the game. I prefer to have an investment in the game to motivate me.

I guess I have a couple of questions. Is this just another Korean MMO? Meaning is it a little bit of content with a whole lot of PvP (no interest in open world PvP at all) and then a lot of RMT and botting tossed in? The game interface looks pretty much exactly like a WoW clone, and I have heard that the gameplay is the same. Is there any difference in game play? Is there a reason I should play this WoW clone when I am fine dabbling in the real thing which has a whole lot more polish?

Again, I am not trying to bash the game at all. If I like the answers to my skeptical questions I will probably pick it up. I even tried LotRO because I liked the idea of the story behind it (horrible gameplay made me quit within hours), so it's not like I am opposed to trying new things.

So what makes this game good?

(I know that some people will just turn this into an interspecies fight, but again, that is not what I am looking for and I have no intention of debating the quality of the game, I just want to listen.)

[Grey Jorildyn]

Damn I was going to post this exact thing after class tonight. I am wondering all the same things but also also had questions about races and grinding. For example, why choose one over of the other and such? Are you ever forced to start grouping? Common questions like that. Also, I played the beta and nothing really drew me to it, but willing to give it another go with some new hardware options to ease my transition from my PS2 pad.

[Demisses]

To be honest I havnt played it in two weeks. It's nice and all but it kinda got old quick...probably all the back and forth running and everyone is in such a huge rush constantly.

[Purrrfect]

Probably best to wait until there is a free trial, no one can tell you what you will like. Some like it, some don't.

[ringthree]

Probably best to wait until there is a free trial, no one can tell you what you will like. Some like it, some don't.

That's the silliest thing that I have ever heard. Pretty much everyone tells me what I should like. I am not saying I don't like it, I am just kind of confused I guess. I guess I am looking for a sell on it being good or telling me about important aspects for the game that I am sure I am missing.

[Correction]

Skip ahead to part 3 if you want the gameplay stuff.

[ringthree]

Skip ahead to part 3 if you want the gameplay stuff.

Hate to say it but that video didn't tell me much besides that the first couple of levels in all MMO's are exactly the same. XD

I am more interested in hearing why you like the game yourself. I already get the fact that the game is super pretty.

[Correction]

I initially liked the game because it was a prettier version of FFXI, but then I realized I was playing FFXI again, minus chocobos to speed me to areas conveniently and plus wings that at best give a shoddy sensation of freedom of flight.

I didn't renew my subscription past the first month, and the 3 videos pretty much illustrate why. I guess that about sums up the 'Why Aion?' part of my answer.

[Valin]

You should play it because Riddaraan and I are playing it, come join us lol. We're on the Vaizel[West] Elyos side.

[Katlan]

Game is fun because of the PvPvE to me. I'll be honest, most quests are pretty much grinding mob but that doesn't particularly bother me because I am playing the game w/ friends. If you were to come into the game purely solo then it will be much harder.

Why I like the game is because I have a lot of fun doing the PvP stuff. Running around w/ a few friends killing ppl is a blast... and then ppl get smart and you end up running away (lol) or getting killed. I mean.. me (rng) and my friend (assassin) would go stealth as our cleric buddy would dance in the middle of an asmo quest spot, and we would pick ppl off one-at-a-time as they came thinking he is an easy kill. Stuff like that is a lot of fun. And trying to take (or defend) a fortress when a massive amount of asmo are trying to stop you is great fun and ppl need to work together and can't just zerg stuff like this or they will get picked off. Well yeah, their are zerg's, but even then if you don't devote ppl to trying to stop the other side you will lose.

There was another instance when I joined a bunch of ppl trying to take back an artifact against 30+ asmo camping it. It originally just started out w/ a bunch of asmo picking off fortress guards, but when enough elyos gathered we were able to fight them. It took over an hr of going back and fourth in a game of tug-of-war as they would push us back, we push them back, ect... until we finally decided to risk it and rush em (and their kisks). It was a blast.

In the PvE zones there are "rifts" w/ the other side can take to enter the opposing sized equal PvE zone. And their are quests (w/great rewards) w/entice you do so also. So if you go in w/ a few friends you can have fun slaughtering groups of ppl lving (or get slaughtered yourself). And it does make you watch ur back a little bit as you can be questing and then get ganked before you know what stopped u. Or you can see somebody from the other side running around and chase after em :D

Flying is fun, but unless your going to be spamming flight pots (w/isn't that hard if you know an alchy you can make you pots if you farm the mats), w/will be either expensive or time consuming (if your farming), it is limited. In abyss you will be flying a lot, but flight, in PvP, is more used as a strategy as 90% chance you won't be fighting long-drawn out fights solely in the air.

Strict PvE is fun, but it's also grindy at times. If your coming from WoW then Aion will be much much harder then what your used to. If from FFXI, then you will be more accustomed to the difficulty. Imagine fighting FFXI mobs to lv, just that you can solo 90% of them. Even w/ 2 ppl beating on stuff, an equal lv quest mob most likely won't be dieing in 5-10 seconds lol.

I like to craft, and crafting is more rewarding in this game (then WoW) and has more similarities to FFXI. You can HQ stuff and some can be HQ2... and as in FFXI, your real profit comes from the HQs unless your profession is in consumables. Lving a craft (for the most part) is much much easier then in FFXI since you pretty much do crafting quests (that require npc bought items) to lv a craft and then do recipe synths for gear/ect...

phew, done!

[vagus]

People play it cuz AV can't be killed and to kill time till FF14. Lol.

[Katlan]

People play it to kill time till FF14. Lol.

this also lol...

[Ksandra]

People play it cuz AV can't be killed and to kill time till FF14. Lol.

This is the truth of the matter. I tried aion in beta and didn't like it. It isn't a bad game, just there is nothing new or unique. Lvling is basically grinding quests like wow but at a slower speed. crafting is like ffxi. And endgame is similar to warhammer.

I feel most stay because at least it isn't war, ffxi, or wow. And they want something new to do. My fiance got us into trying it again once it went live. We haven't logged in it for 3 days, and I have no desire to (except to play with some peeps I haven't played with in awhile).

There's nothing wrong with liking the game, and I'm not bashing it, just if you're looking for something fresh and new, you might wanna wait for 14 lol

[Falisa]

I can't give much of an opinion because I don't give a shit about mid-game and I haven't gotten to endgame, which is the part of MMOs that I really care about. There's potentially a lot of solo grinding in the game, but the worst I have ran into is the 21-25 stretch before the abyss. At level 33, I am still able get about 80% of my level off of campaigns and quests. At the moment though, the abyss is not the most fun place to be unless you are very experienced with PvP. If you don't keep an eye out 100% of the time, you are guaranteed to get rolled over by 3 people of the opposing faction within a short amount of time. Someone on Hydra Corps vent likes to say "gank or be ganked" is the way Aion is right now. I'm not sure how it will pan out over time.

Personally, I am sticking to the "PvE" areas just because I'm not too PvP savvy at the moment and constantly get ganked when I'm not paying attention for elyos. But its not that bad. I still find the game fun, but a lot of it has to do with doing things with my legion. Like someone said before, if you come into this game completely solo, it would probably be a drag.

[arus2001]

At this point, I'm kind of treating Aion as my Anti-FFXI drug. Haven't been on XI in like 3-4 weeks and can't really say I want to be with how much SE's been putting into it the past year. Was doing scheduled events 4 nights a week on top of random camps where sometimes my play time simply wasn't in my own in numbers far greater than one could consider pleasurable, but this isn't about FFXI, is it?

As implied, the introductory levels aren't much. You've got a couple skills, you have a couple quests that more or less introduce you to gathering, and the rest are pretty much Kill X or Fetch Y affairs. This isn't a revolutionary standard to MMOs, but I personally don't see too many alternatives given current tech and interface options.

As far as PvP is concerned, it's not even possible by the enemy faction until 20+ (or for some reason you wind up in the 20+ area, I guess). Outside of the Abyss, enemy infiltration into friendly territory is limited by the presence of rift gates that have both level restrictions and restrictions on the number of people who can pass through. To a degree, this curbs high level gank squads popping out next to the lowest people in a region, but it's only really a temporary thing if they come from a harder section of the zone where their level cap may not be an issue for that rift. If you are in the Abyss, however, it's pretty much safe to say very few areas without NPC guards are 100% safe. If you're alone, expect for a group to find you eventually. If you're in a group, you'll probably scratch your head when you can never find anyone. I'm not really a PvP nut, either, and I've probably chosen the wrong class for PvP with Gladiator being heavily equipment dependent, lacking in key PvP abilities, and a potion guzzler in both PvP and PvE. Then again, maybe I'm one of the few who thinks something is wrong when I go through a round of attack abilities on a Sorcerer and their Stoneskin still hasn't broken while they've done 1000+ to me and have probably done something else to me, too. I'll never beat a cleric 1v1, either.

Back to general gameplay, though. Leveling is usually pretty straightforward. I did have a quest drought in a couple ranges, but eventually you're usually left with enough to keep you busy for the level, but it might require hopping between a few zones just to get all the quests you have. Some quests you can solo. Some quests require groups. There's also a "Campaign" set of quests which usually wind up being more rewarding (Equipment, Titles, more EXP, etc.), but can also require groups.

When talking on grouping, you can probably anticipate the typical pitfalls you'd find in MMO. Some people are just plain dumb. If you're a DD, you can probably watch people pass you up as things like Templars and Clerics get insta-passes into groups forming on the LFG channel. When you try to play can probably factor in your success here, too.

Far as UI goes, I'd put it somewhere between FFXI and WoW. There aren't add-ons (that I'm aware of), but you can customize your chat boxes and the UI size a little. I'd like the UI and text sizes to be independent, as tweaking UI shrinks even the "Big" setting in text to barely readable on a 1440x900 monitor. I guess the lack of add-ons is a bit of a blessing compared to WoW where your screen could look like a control panel for a space shuttle or something.

Part of my leniency comes with the fact the game's still young. Yes, there's RMT spam. Yes, you'll see keyboard mash names or bots like "Happylove" just repeating obvious behaviors in a small area. Right Click+Block functions were added recently. You can opt out of certain channels. There's a /autoreporthunting command you could use to report the bots you see fighting (though I don't know the precise mechanics on how the accused get looked over).

Being brutally honest, if you're content with another game and don't have other friends to play with, I'd just stay away. It's clicking with me only because I wanted away from XI and had a friend to jump ship with. I probably chose "hard mode" going Gladiator with my first class, but I also feel leveling later characters will be much easier through both knowledge of the game and hand-me-downs you can acquire. There's lots of little touches NCS still needs to do with the UI. Flight's interesting, but it's either locked in a number of areas or the timer can be pretty restrictive. I have noticed mobs have had slightly different AIs than just beat you until your HP's gone like FFXI, but at its simplest, that just kinda teaches you which to stay away from if you find yourself wanting to grind for money or EXP.

If you have any more specific questions, I try to field them, but I wouldn't call myself an expert in the game.

[Chun Liroy]

Gladiator isn't hard mode, Ranger is, fo siris <_<

[arus2001]

Probably for PvE, but my PvP skirmishes with rangers have usually put them ahead over time. I kinda feel like Gladiator abilities in flight are bugged, too. Had one guy who just kept flying backwards and my stuff wouldn't go off even though I was catching up to him. With Cleave my only ranged ability and on a crappy timer, killing people who can keep their distance is a bitch.

[OzzofAsura]

I honestly can't believe anyone that played FFXI is even considering FFXI-2.

Anyway, I don't have quite a long answer for you as I only have 2 level 20 characters, which don't qualify for the Abyss yet (major PVP zone).

The graphics are amazing and it makes me enjoy the game more. Sometimes I just sit there and look at people and the detail on their armors. Got that out of the way...

I really like that I don't need a group to do things, 90% of the time. I can't stress this enough. I do enjoy there being some things that require a group, and also some things that are kinda my choice. I could sneak in and get these items, but if I get caught, I'm dead. On the other hand, I could get a group and kill everything.

I think the game is put together really well. Coming from 4 years of FFXI, it just becomes more obvious what a flaming pile of shit that game is. I can't even tell you how many times I expected something shitty and aggravating that I got used to from XI, that just isn't there anymore. "Your "xxxx item sold on broker" awesome. An overlay map so I don't have to keep pressing map, awesome. Some actual direction when you give me a fucking quest, AWESOME. That was the MOST retarded part of XI. You could not play through the game without some alternate source of information from people who stumbled on it, by chance, before you. I could go on and on with the little things that became big things for me in XI, and how they're so much better now... and also how I'm sure WoW has done some of it.

I think it is a solid, fun, (soon to be) challenging game that is just what I was looking for. It does have its problems mind you (bots, gold-spam, etc), but those problems are being addressed with 2 weeks of launch not 5 years, so I won't complain.

[Saxon]

Really? REALLY? Someone telling you to wait and try something for yourself is the silliest thing you've ever heard. Not like, religious debates or people caught in lies backpedaling or a clown having an orgasm. You're gonna stick with someone telling you to think for yourself.

I was gonna say this, but then I remembered it was R3 posting.

[arus2001]

I guess I should also point out I'm somewhat interested in endgame life, as well. Whether or not it happens with the legion I'm in now, I dunno, but the aspect of going back and forth in conquering areas has some appeal. I'm just hoping it isn't a terribly one-sided affair since it seems like Asmodians have at least a population advantage on most servers. Quality in numbers is another story, I guess.