Aion - The Tower of Eternity

[JWIV]

Why would someone let Kotaku play an MMORPG?

To get a breathless fanboi to post something masquerading as journalism?

[Signe]

I don't know, either.  It is kind of strange.  And bad.  Bad.

[Falconeer]

I am officially excited about Aion.

[NiX]

What just happened? Did you visit Korea?

[Falconeer]

Uhnn, no. I just watched their HQ videos over at the official website, especially the 5 minutes long one, and felt so sad for the lack of new MMOs coming in 2009.

So.... Aion!

[NiX]

I thought I recall hearing they were canning this. Maybe I'm just being hopeful

[Signe]

I think that was a rumour that went around when NCsoft was sacking people.  People were getting their sacks confused with their cans.  Could happen, though.  You never know. 

[Venkman]

Aion certainly looks awesome. And there are sparks of combat in the third dimension that WoW should rip off. But the few snippets of actual combat shown feature typical swing-through target locking stat stuff. And worse, all of the combat was on a ground plane. It'd be better if the z-axis was more than just so they can feature floating islands that require you fly to fight while standing upon.

And no sign of the XP bar nor the pace at which it fills 

[Hindenburg]

There was a report in a beta leak forum saying that xp amounts per level are massive, there are nowhere near enough quests to get from level to level, and you lose huge gobs of xp on death. Including pvp death.

Just like Lineage.

[Falconeer]

But I like Lineage 2!

[UnSub]

But I like Lineage 2!

I don't like to judge, but seek help. Now.

[Hawkbit]

The game looks about a chocobo away from getting a lawsuit from S/E.

[Falconeer]

But I like Lineage 2!

I don't like to judge, but seek help. Now.

I'll quote myself.

Lineage 2, no matter what, isn't by no means a great MMORPG.

But I think that beyond its merits and demerits there's some kind of bizarre originality in L2 that makes it quite unique and hypnotic.
The ridicolous speed at which you mow through mobs, the flashing lights of clashing swords and soulshots, the incredible characters graphics and the amazing weapons and clothing arts, the robotic, metallic, essential interface, the unearthly background and animal sounds, the enigmatically smiling and beautifully painted NPCs, the looping bits of music...

I'd say L2 is the coldest and more subtly original online world I've ever touched, it can make you feel lonely like nothing else while you mechanically whack for hours in the dangerous (xp loss) deeps of a dungeon, and there's something unsettling and addictive in it that keeps vibrating in your bowels like a subsonic bassline on a frequency too low to be clearly perceived.

Don't get me wrong. It's not healthy and most people are luckily and totally immune to it, but I can't stop to find L2 totally fascinating in a morbid way.

/selfquote


Hence.... AION!

[UnSub]

unsettling and addictive in it that keeps vibrating in your bowels like a subsonic bassline

You really didn't change my opinion of "seek help" with lines like this. 

Actually, I don't care whether you like L2 or not. L2 is a title I mean to take a look at sometime, but I'm fully aware of its rep.

[DLRiley]

I don't know lineage 2 may be a good game...on a private server  .

[Falconeer]

The one thing killing Lineage 2 for good is the amount of times you have to repeat the same action in the same place for hours/days to progress. Mindnumbing, it's not just grind.. it's grindCORE. You have no idea. Take your longest grinding MMO you can think of, multiply it by 100, and you are close to what's the grind of L2.

Still, I am fascinated, love so many things of it and I enjoy a couple of weeks of L2 every 6 months. I hope Aion can do the same for me. Short, intense bursts of visual and sub-visual delight for a tenday every few months.

[Draegan]

From a few people I've talked to the game doesn't have a massive learning curve, in Korea.  The game is extremely popular over there right now.  Pretty decent opening.

From a few people on other forums they said that quests have got them up through level 17 or so with quests left over.  Leveling from 33-34 took 8-9 hours of playtime roughly.  This was a guy who doesn't speak/read korean so that may of dampened things.

As far as combat, I've watched a few streams of people playing.  You fight on the ground as any normal DIKU but then combat looks like WOW Mount controls but fighting.  Seems pretty cool.

The game looks fun, I've been kinda following it for a while now.  The graphics and animations look neat, but I'm scared because it's NCSoft and Korean.

[Signe]

The one thing killing Lineage 2 for good is the amount of times you have to repeat the same action in the same place for hours/days to progress. Mindnumbing, it's not just grind.. it's grindCORE. You have no idea. Take your longest grinding MMO you can think of, multiply it by 100, and you are close to what's the grind of L2.

Still, I am fascinated, love so many things of it and I enjoy a couple of weeks of L2 every 6 months. I hope Aion can do the same for me. Short, intense bursts of visual and sub-visual delight for a tenday every few months.

I agree with this and really enjoyed my brief time in L2 - but then, of course, I played a year of L1.  Don't tell anyone!  My problem with L2 was that there weren't enough people I knew playing and I couldn't find a guild I wanted to be in.  Without a good guild, L2 is useless.  I don't know about Aion, though.  I'm not even convinced it'll ever release in the US. 

[Falconeer]

Cmon. It will. I would take bets but it would be stealing.

[Signe]

How can you be so trusting?  You live in Rome!   

[Nonentity]

Hi guys! What's going on in here?

I haven't seen Aion in a while. I'm still dubious of games that do both click to move, as well as WASD controls.

[Hindenburg]

If that wasn't sarcasm, WoW allows click to move.

[Falconeer]

How can you be so trusting?  You live in Rome!   

That's why. I live in the future. I get all the valuable info 6 to 9 hours before you.

More seriously, the game is done, finished, complete, paid with Korean money, and doing pretty fine in Asia. It's NC just translating its own game. Doesn't matter how (in)expensive it can be to run the service in the EU and NA, it'll get enough revenue to pay for it and get a few hats with money in it. They aren't paying for a license, let alone development. Box sales alone would justify the investment. And once it shipped, it's all good. Isn't that what kept UO, EQ, DAOC and even Lineage 2 not just alive these days but with a subscription fee too?

Am I wrong? Like how?

Even if NCsoft US went bankrupt, someone would pick Aion's license up anyway. There's always someone with a few dollars left, or borrowed, itching to spend them on a MMO. It'll just get released. You read it here 6 to 9 hours before everywhere else (but Helsinki, Tallin and Leningrad).

[rk47]

Cmon. It will. I would take bets but it would be stealing.

if you really want to play L2 without paying, you can always try its somewhat 'questy' cousin: Rohan Online.
Yes it gives quest drops and money. At least you can go back after 30 kills to claim the reward then get other quests picked up. Then sell stuff at auction, followed with fishing. It's quite unique.   no Lie.

[Nonentity]

If that wasn't sarcasm, WoW allows click to move.

I don't count that, because it started life as a WASD game, and then when it came out in Asian territories, they added click to move. I remember the patch when that was added.

I just get the idea that these Korean games start as a click-to-move game, then tack on WASD controls. You can totally tell the difference.

[Draegan]

Click to move and WASD were implemented from the get go in this game.  Flying was specifically made with WASD in mind.

[Nonentity]

Yeah, I'm assuming most MMOGs these days with any intention of being released in either market will include both.

I guess a better argument would be over the quality of player motion in an MMO, namely the fluidity. But that's a whole other quality control issue.

[DLRiley]

Korea, well they don't mind grindy shit. When you spend 30 minutes to 2 hour in an internet cafe with a couple of buddies ANY game feels casual. For the rest of us, we actually have to be home to play Aion, and though we westerns are willing to grind, were not as likely to pay to do it. To say you have less grind than lineage 2 isn't saying much, hell even if you say "we have less grind than WoW" doesn't tell me anything. The best grind is ultimately no grind and unless Aion boxes comes with weed, I don't think Aion will do too well in the states. Though I might be wrong, I've wanted to play a korean f2p grinder because you could fly. What I didn't know is that you could fly at level 30 something, guess how many hours you spend getting to level 7?

(I played the game for 10 hours and uninstalled...damn Koreans.)

[Falconeer]

Unless you are on a full pvp server, MMORPG are all shitty grinders. It's up to you to choose colours and shapes. Not much else to do.

My shapes and colours for 2009 are Aion's.

[Nonentity]

Though I might be wrong, I've wanted to play a korean f2p grinder because you could fly.

Flyff! GO FLYFF!

WoW is still doing its best to entertain me in the muhmorpug space, though I'm getting bored of it. I've been playing Sacred 2, while logging on one day a week to raid.

[Yoru]

Though I might be wrong, I've wanted to play a korean f2p grinder because you could fly.

Flyff! GO FLYFF!

WoW is still doing its best to entertain me in the muhmorpug space, though I'm getting bored of it. I've been playing Sacred 2, while logging on one day a week to raid.

There's also Perfect World Online if you want F2P Chinese Grindy shit. At level 30 (of, I think, 90) you can fly on all kinds of wacky shit. I saw a dude flying on a sword when I tried it out over my Christmas/New Year's vacation.

Bonus points for the amazingly bad machine translation. Nice graphics and music too.

That said, it's still a grindy piece of shit and I quit after a few hours.

[DLRiley]

Unless you are on a full pvp server, MMORPG are all shitty grinders. It's up to you to choose colours and shapes. Not much else to do.

My shapes and colours for 2009 are Aion's.

Obviously you have never played Conquer Online.

[Nonentity]

Runes of Magic is pretty fun - apparently it was a KMMO that some Euro dev house liked so much that they bought it? I dunno.

It's like WoW, plus the dual-classing of Guild Wars, minus the polish, plus the grind. I've farted around with it for a bit, it has some interesting trappings.

[Venkman]

L2 is ok looking, can be fun, but the grind sucks. You don't advance fast enough which means you don't get new abilities fast enough which means you're not only grinding in the same area for too long, you're doing it with far too few abilities. Some people like that, or at least don't notice it there for other reasons. But it continues to not do well in the U.S. probably for this reason chief among all of them.

Seriously, I don't care what the justification for it, and don't care if one or two markets are replete with people who wear time investment itself as a badge of honor. Any game with more of a grind than contemporary WoW (with the BC and the WotLK leveling buffs) will tank hard in same market launches. If Aion is NC's serious stab into the west, they either already know this or will be finding out in beta.

Being 3D with at-level-0 flight isn't going to be enough of a differentiation by far. Not with the interesting experiments Blizzard has made in some of the Northrend content.

[Draegan]

What is the acceptable time to max level in a DIKU these days.  5 days played?  Originally wow was around 7-10.