The second Aion closed beta event kicks off this weekend Friday, June 19th (12:00 PM PT, 9:00 PM CEST, 8:00 PM BST) and ends Monday, June 22nd (12:00 PM PT, 9:00 PM CEST, 8:00 PM BST).

For this event, enthusiastic testers will focus on the beginning player experience for the Asmodians as well as testing server stability and live launch simulation. Take the time to read the story of your quests, pay close attention to the words of the NPCs sharing their knowledge with you, and explore the first ten levels in the shadowy world of Asmodae during this weekend’s exciting beta event.

If you’re a part of this weekend’s closed beta event, drop by the official beta forums beginning on June 18 to share your reports and experiences.

Thanks to the diligence and reporting from the first closed beta event, this weekend’s event also features several updates and changes in the game content:

- Updated with culturalized content for Asmodian levels 1-10
- Updated UI at login screen
- Localization fixes for various in game maps
- Fixed various NPC messages
- Initial zone channels increased from 4 to 10
- Server queue added

Coming Soon!

- Localized voice overs for cut scenes
- Localized tutorial videos
- In game pre-rendered movies
- More culturalized content for Asmodae
- Culturalized content for Elyos
- Community Events

Participants in the closed beta events will also be excited to hear that the NDA has been lifted. Chat, blog, post, and tweet about your experiences in Aion!

Wondering about even more upcoming beta events? Check out the current closed beta schedule below and plan now for your fun-filled summer in Atreia.

Upcoming Closed Beta Events

Closed Beta Event #3 - July 2-July 6
Focus: Asmodian levels 1-20

Closed Beta Event #4 - July 17-July 20
Focus: Elyos and Asmodian levels 1-25

Closed Beta Event #5 - July 31-August 3
Focus: TBD

Closed Beta Event #6 - August 14-August 17
Focus: TBD

As always, stay tuned to the official web site and the Aion team Twitters (@aion_ayase, @aion_amboss, @aion_liv, and @aion_xaen) for more news and your chance to be a part of the closed beta.

It’s almost time to spread your wings and take to the skies! Get an early start to your adventures in Atreia by pre-ordering Aion, now available at participating retailers, including GameStop, Amazon, Best Buy and EB Canada.

Pre-order Aion to receive:

- Guaranteed entry to all scheduled beta events
- Early access to the servers at launch
- Special game benefits including character and server pre-selection privileges
- Exclusive in-game digital items

Your character will enter the world of Aion in style with an exclusive Black Cloud Hat and Lodas’ Amulet, as well as one of five different Ancient Rings of Power.

In addition to these extraordinary in-game items and early access, North America pre-order participants also have a chance to win an Alienware Area-51® m15x gaming notebook and other fantastic prizes! In order to qualify to win, players must pre-order and participate in Aion beta events. Visit the official pre-order page for more information and contest terms and conditions.

Check out this video interview with Associate Producer Lani “Liv” Blazier on the Electric Playground! Lani gives you the rundown on the story of Aion, shares the scoop on why you should play, and more in this electrifying interview.

Visit Electric Playground now to watch the video showcasing the “hot-looking-game” coming this fall!

The first closed beta event for Aion took flight from June 5-7, 2009. Thousands of players logged in and pounded on the server, NPCs, and quests to give the game its first big test of server stability and infrastructure - and Aion ran smoothly all weekend long.

Legions of eager testers created characters to venture into the lands of the Elyos for the first time. A number of players were in high spirits and provided fantastic feedback on their initial encounter with the world of Atreia.

“The game itself…I am in love with it.”

“It’s the best first day of a closed beta I’ve seen.”

“Looks really impressive. Looks like we could spend a weekend on character creation alone.”

Ten Ton Hammer also shared their favorite impressions of Aion, providing an in-depth look at the first closed beta event.

“Aion could quite possible be the first Korean MMO to make a major impact on the North American market.”

Thank you to all participants for sharing your view! The Aion quality assurance and customer service teams are busy catching up on all of the comments, reports, and constructive feedback from this first event to provide an even better experience for upcoming beta events and beyond.

Stay tuned to the official Aion web site and Twitter for announcements on the next closed beta event (June 19, 2009), including the focus of testing and your chance to be a part of it!

In the spring of 2005, a little game called Guild Wars came roaring into existence hot on the heels of a series of highly successful beta weekend events. For a game that ultimately took traditional MMO conventions and turned them on their ear, offering capsulated experiences leading up to launch rather than a full-blown open beta served to build up a critical mass of hype. Four years and over six million units later the Guild Wars franchise is still going strong, even after launching during a window of time when the World of Warcraft snowball effect was picking up speed and showing no signs of slowing down.  

A major contributing factor to the success of those weekend events was the fact that players were being exposed to a game that was extremely polished and ultimately fun to play on many different levels. Between events communities and guilds were formed as players contemplated not only what they wanted to achieve with their characters during the next event, but after the launch of GW as well.

When I first learned that NCSoft would be following a similar approach by hosting a series of beta events for Aion leading up to launch, I couldn’t help but consider this a smart move. Only time will tell whether Aion will become another MMO success story in the pages of the NCSoft history books, but if this weekend was any indication, Aion has certainly set the stage for what I’d consider to be the first true blending of an eastern approach to game design delivered in a distinctly western wrapper.

For the kickoff event, players were allowed to create characters from the Elyos and advance them up to level 20, with the Asmodians and higher level content presumably earmarked for future weekend events. The character creation process itself is fairly straight forward, though ended up being far more robust than I’d originally envisioned thanks to a slick interface revealed after making your core class selection; Warrior, Scout, Mage or Priest. On the cosmetic side, dozens of preset combinations and hairstyles are available as is the option to fine-tune specific facial features and body parts.

One thing that stood out for me is that players are able to create believably young or even outwardly haggard characters rather than simply sticking to the realm of unearthly beauty that’s typical especially of female characters in MMOs. The most dramatic shifts can be seen on the male end of the spectrum, though expect to wade through a high volume of overly androgynous preset options in the process of tweaking a character to your liking. Another nice touch is allowing players to toggle starting and more advanced armors to give you an idea what your character might look like decked out in high end gear. So for example if you wanted to create a crazy hobo assassin and are curious to see what they might look like with a giant unicorn head placed squarely on their shoulder, you’re certainly able to do so!
Your first steps into Aion as an Elyos will land you on the island of Poeta after having woken from an odd slumber that has left you searching for answers and a desire to recover lost memories of a former life as a Daeva. This will be the main storyline that will sweep you through roughly the first nine levels and ultimately drives you to recall having been the leader of a great legion in the Abyss who fell in battle, which is a clever way of guiding players towards their subclass selection, but I’ll get into that a bit more later on.

The first thing that struck me which I feel deserves special mention here, is that Aion is not only an incredibly beautiful game, but that I suffered only the most minimal of performance hits when I first logged in to see the starting area flooded with literally hundreds of other players. With all graphical settings turned up to their max I never fell below 30 fps, most often seeing closer to 100+ which is no mean feat considering how visually stunning both environments and combat animations are. It’s also worth noting that I was playing on a somewhat middle of the road PC, with a 2.60 GHz dual-core processor, 4gigs of RAM and a 9800gtx GPU; so not a powerhouse machine by any means. The graphics also scale incredibly well, so that even with everything turned down to the lowest settings Aion still carries that otherworldly glow of a believable and visually appealing game world. Throughout the weekend I had an entirely stable, lag-free experience which just goes to show that once the localization efforts for Aion have been completed, the game is certainly ready for prime time and will hopefully offer an equally solid experience for a broad spectrum of PC users.

Another thing I took an immediate liking to is the slick, one-piece UI. While there is the option to toggle the placement of your character’s status window and the mini-map at the top of the screen which has become somewhat of an industry norm, I’m one of those players who will typically opt for a less cluttered screen in exchange for a better view of my surroundings. Many of the other bells and whistles you’d come to expect from a newer western MMO are also present such as the option to add more hotbars at the click of a mouse or even being able to preview armors before attuning them to your character. During my exploration I also discovered such perks as being able to retain the visual appearance of a particular piece of armor while gaining the benefits from a newer equipped piece by paying a simple fee (which is currently only available at level 30).

While I’m on the subject of fees, many gameplay elements eventually will end up costing you Kinah, the main currency in Aion. Examples here would include travel or teleportation between areas, removing the XP debt obtained upon death or even some of the advanced work orders you’ll likely end up doing as a means of advancing your crafting skills. Thankfully Kinah is also generously handed out as quest rewards and even the most basic dropped items sell to vendors for a decent price, so I never really encountered an instance of feeling a pinch in my coin purse even when teleporting back and forth from the crafting workshop and the bank numerous times or paying the fee to bind my recall point to a new area.

Your first steps into Aion as an Elyos will land you on the island of Poeta after having woken from an odd slumber that has left you searching for answers and a desire to recover lost memories of a former life as a Daeva. This will be the main storyline that will sweep you through roughly the first nine levels and ultimately drives you to recall having been the leader of a great legion in the Abyss who fell in battle, which is a clever way of guiding players towards their subclass selection, but I’ll get into that a bit more later on.

The first thing that struck me which I feel deserves special mention here, is that Aion is not only an incredibly beautiful game, but that I suffered only the most minimal of performance hits when I first logged in to see the starting area flooded with literally hundreds of other players. With all graphical settings turned up to their max I never fell below 30 fps, most often seeing closer to 100+ which is no mean feat considering how visually stunning both environments and combat animations are. It’s also worth noting that I was playing on a somewhat middle of the road PC, with a 2.60 GHz dual-core processor, 4gigs of RAM and a 9800gtx GPU; so not a powerhouse machine by any means. The graphics also scale incredibly well, so that even with everything turned down to the lowest settings Aion still carries that otherworldly glow of a believable and visually appealing game world. Throughout the weekend I had an entirely stable, lag-free experience which just goes to show that once the localization efforts for Aion have been completed, the game is certainly ready for prime time and will hopefully offer an equally solid experience for a broad spectrum of PC users.

Another thing I took an immediate liking to is the slick, one-piece UI. While there is the option to toggle the placement of your character’s status window and the mini-map at the top of the screen which has become somewhat of an industry norm, I’m one of those players who will typically opt for a less cluttered screen in exchange for a better view of my surroundings. Many of the other bells and whistles you’d come to expect from a newer western MMO are also present such as the option to add more hotbars at the click of a mouse or even being able to preview armors before attuning them to your character. During my exploration I also discovered such perks as being able to retain the visual appearance of a particular piece of armor while gaining the benefits from a newer equipped piece by paying a simple fee (which is currently only available at level 30).

While I’m on the subject of fees, many gameplay elements eventually will end up costing you Kinah, the main currency in Aion. Examples here would include travel or teleportation between areas, removing the XP debt obtained upon death or even some of the advanced work orders you’ll likely end up doing as a means of advancing your crafting skills. Thankfully Kinah is also generously handed out as quest rewards and even the most basic dropped items sell to vendors for a decent price, so I never really encountered an instance of feeling a pinch in my coin purse even when teleporting back and forth from the crafting workshop and the bank numerous times or paying the fee to bind my recall point to a new area.

The early levels are spent questing and getting a general feel for both your archetype and how combat differs ever so slightly from what you might have experienced in previous MMOs. One example here would be the combo system that, on the surface, appears somewhat complex but has been seamlessly integrated into the combat experience much better than previous iterations on the concept such as the Heroic Opportunities in EverQuest 2 or whack-a-mole combos in Age of Conan. Hitting the combo starter will temporarily swap out the same keybinding with the next skill in the chain which makes pulling off some of the longer chains you’ll experience later on a breeze.

Combat does tend to feel a bit slow at first, but ultimately hits a point in the early teens where it not only becomes more involved, but has a distinct visual flair as well. Though I did spend some time with each of the core archetypes during the event, I quickly took a liking to the Gladiator subclass. The interface is comfortable and familiar when playing the class, while combat itself felt extremely fluid and graceful. Gladiators attack in a series of grandiose, sweeping movements that instantly brought fighting games such as Soul Calibur IV to mind much more so than anything I’ve experienced in an MMO previously. I’m definitely looking forward to seeing how the class fares in aerial combat in the Abyss should the option become available in future weekend events, but for now I was quite content to scamper around and beat the living snot out of everything that stood in my path; all the while looking the part of a badass warrior with some seriously mean moves.

Flight itself becomes available upon completion of a quest you automatically gain at level nine that allows you to select which of the eight unique subclasses to advance your character into. One minor sticking point here is that, for such a hefty decision, the subclasses themselves are only briefly described in a few simple lines of text with many offering a completely different playstyle than what you might have experienced in the first nine levels. For example, Scouts can become either an Assassin or Ranger; with the first nine levels dedicated to melee attacks and more assassin-oriented combat it would be hard to really understand how vastly different the Ranger subclass would pan out since you haven’t seen any of its skills in action at that point. This reminded me of certain aspects of EQ2’s long-gone archetype system where you’d spend 20 levels essentially playing a Conjuror only to have an entirely different experience with your Necromancer later on.

Abrupt, non-descript “here’s your future” decision-making aside, at level 10 characters finally become Daeva and earn their wings. Most combat areas were designated as no-fly zones, but there were enough areas where flight was an option to get a decent feel for how much it will impact gameplay later on. Even in the no-fly zones your wings can still come in handy, as a quick double tap of the spacebar allows you to glide for short, 10 second bursts which can dramatically speed up travel in areas with terrain of varied elevations or even in Sanctum, the main city hub you’ll also gain access to upon becoming a Daeva as an Elyos. In certain areas crafting components can only be harvested while in flight as well, which certainly adds new a new layer of depth to such an otherwise commonplace activity.
Crafting itself takes place within Sanctum, and is somewhat easy to learn thanks to the above mentioned work orders you can obtain from various NPCs related to the specific trade you’d like to advance. This weekend I opted to explore Armorsmithing to see if I could craft myself a new set of armor for my Gladiator, which I was able to achieve though it did involve a fair amount of travel to obtain all the necessary components. Most recipes involved a mix of crafted, dropped and harvested subcomponents, adding a layer of complexity to an otherwise straight forward process. Basic recipes could either be purchased from a vendor or granted as work order rewards, with some rare recipes dropped randomly as loot.

As a means of circumventing all the component gathering involved in crafting it was also exceedingly easy to hop on over to the local trade broker, or Aion also allows players to whip out a stool and set up a personal shop anyplace they’d like. These personal shops also allow players to advertise their wares with a small floating text box, or in some cases I saw them being used as recruitment tools for legions, Aion’s version of guilds. While I like the concept and can see the potential for centralized, player-driven swap meets ala the early days of EQ in the East Commonlands tunnel, I can also see the potential means for gold farmers to get some cheap (OK, free) in-game advertising if the system isn’t kept in check. Hopefully towns and outposts won’t become flooded with this kind of thing come launch, but the system itself is a nice way of allowing players to buy and sell items without having to constantly run back to the city to do so.

Overall, based on my experiences this weekend I’d say Aion is coming along exceptionally well, and could quite possibly be the first Korean MMO to make a major impact on the North American market. The extra time spent with localization is paying off, even if some elements haven’t quite fallen into place as of yet. Still, many of the rumors that Aion is simply a grindfest or lacks the flair necessary to appeal to a western audience can finally be put to rest, as the game is already incredibly polished and packed with potential. This is one game to keep your eye on in the coming months, and in the meantime I’m looking forward to getting some hands-on time both with the Asmodians and some of the higher level PvP in the Abyss.

Editor’s words: Recently, I know a Chinese player who used to play Aion. He told me his Aion experiences. It’s sad to hear the story. Like to share with you and hope those games we like can keep going forever. Here is the story:

Usually many things may have a good beginning, but not necessarily a good ending (sigh~). Similarly, at the first sight of Aion, I was really amazed at its great charm, but I’ve never thought I’ll feel so frustrated now.

I’m a lazy bone and don’t like typing, so I chose Ranger since I only want to fight against weak monsters and enjoy the surrounding scenes. However, after one month’s play, Aion has been so different. I’ve advanced to lv 35, but only lv 35, and I’m extremely tired.

Everyone in the game looks so hurried, hurriedly being killed, hurriedly resurrecting and hurriedly leveling up (f**k P2P). And gradually I began to realize that many players are using bots. My teammates, however, still love this game. They still do quests with great passion and pleasure. Once, it was kind of fun to watch them chatting. But now, I can only see bots around and cheaters peddling in the chat channel. I managed to ignore them, but in vain. Can you imagine the feeling when your monster kill was stolen by botting players? Yes, I’m a lazy man and have no interest in making more friends. I just want to play the game relaxedly. But I just don’t know what I can do and where I can go…

I still remember that when I finally found the NPC on the central island at the lower layer of the Abyss when doing the “Prophecy” mission, I laughed heartily. But not long later, a group of Elyos players with red names appeared and I ran away immediately coz’ I feared of being killed. Later, I got to know that they were grinding up Abyss Points there…

The last time when I logged out, I curiously took a look at the AP ranking. I noticed that the top 1 player, with a Japanese name, was one of the players I spotted on the island when I did the “Prophecy” mission…

I feel just so frustrated. When I finally finished crafting my lv 35 weapon and equipped it, I had no idea where to go. I can’t find any happiness or excitement in Aion. What I’m feeling is but only tiresome and hopeless!  

Dear GM, you do reply my every report, and I want to thank you for what you did. However, your reply was always like: the technical department is handling the issue. You know, it really frustrated me and I can’t see any hope, any future.

Although I’m not a hardcore player like boys, I used to think I could go a long way in Aion coz’ I just want to do what I like and have fun in game. Hehe, you may say I’m a fool and it is a waste of time. But this is just what I want in Aion. Anyways, I still have another choice, quit, right?

After entering open beta in South Korea and China, NCsoft finallly announced Aion’s closed beta in South America and Europe. Here arises a question: what costs NCsoft so much time to set an English version? After such long time of waiting, will players receive a MMORPG that deserves it? Do the screenshots and videos NC revealed tell lies? Let’s keep watching!

Player’s Comments on Aion CBT(June. 6th, 2009)

Quote:
Second Closed Beta Event Dates: June 19, 2009 - June 21, 2009 Features: Asmodian race, levels 1 - 10 The second Aion closed beta event begins on June 19, 2009.

I really was going to be content with beta this weekend, but wow. This just makes me nerdrage.

Are you serious? June 19? and lvl 1 - 10? not even opening abyss? Are NA NCsoft really that incompetent or are you getting some kind of sick euphoria from making us wait even longer with this pointless beta crap?

You already had beta in Korea to test gameplay. To be honest there is very little need to do it here. ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS TRANSLATE KOREAN TO ENGLISH. In other words the whole point of any NA beta should be to check for typos(which btw, is everywhere). What happened to that one time when you were talking about worldwide release?

I log on today and translation in 1 ~ 20 Elyos area isn’t even complete! Who the hell are you hiring to do your translations. Divine Stones being called ‘GODSTONES’? SPELL BOOSTING POWER? when you can just say Spell power? No wonder item names don’t even fit in auction house frames. ‘ Bob’s HP was healed by 123 because you used Healing light II?’ …. how about ‘You healed Bob for 123?’ or ‘Your Healing light II healed Bob for 123′? LOOK. I have better English grammar than you and I’m not even getting paid for this!

Don’t get me wrong. I waited so long for this game. And I even endured the beginning zone zerg rush-waiting 1 hr to get 1kill for mission quest. The game looks gorgeous and the stability is just incredible. Aion runs better than WoW with superior graphics.

It just kills me to look at these half assed efforts by NA NCsoft. You didn’t even make this game. All you have to do is translate an already made game and deliver it here. By the look of these beta dates Aion is going retail by Christmas. Jesus christ. Every single person here in Aionsource will tell you that you had more than plenty of time. Seriously, you can do better.

Then again I guess you have no reason to listen to me now. I already coughed up 70 for your pre-order.

I was fortunate enough to spend the weekend playing Aion, and the developers are so confident they’ve got a winner that they’ve allowed beta testers to share their thoughts and impressions… and screenshots! An MMO can’t be judged in one weekend, but here are a few of my first thoughts on this baby:

The Good

Beautiful graphics.The screenshots don’t do this world justice at all. It’s true epic fantasy. And the graphics aren’t just lovely, they’re functional. With dozens, even hundreds of finely rendered characters cramming the newb area, with shining weapons and elaborate animations whacking bipedal rats, I experienced zero lag. No stuttering, no rubber banding, no casting delays, not a single problem.

My machine is Dell with a dual core (1.86 Ghz) running XP with two GB of RAM and an NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GTS. It’s two years old, and loaded up with every MMO in existence, half a dozen RPGs, and a crapload of my secret vice, puzzle adventures. Oh, and while I was playing Aion, I had my email and IM running, as well as an image editing program open to crop screenshots on the fly.

Animations.Speaking of beautiful, someone had fun with these, and the fun is contagious. My warrior was a little too “Asian schoolgirl” for my blood, but these look like they were done with motion capture technology. I’m going to say hands down, best jump animation (or really the best landing from a jump animation) in an MMO, ever. I also wonder where the heck my character keeps her pom poms when the /cheer isn’t in effect.

A great, intuitive interface.I was asked to post no pictures of the interface, but I don’t know why. It’s in better shape than the interface of a number of launched MMOs. In the quest journal, every noun is highlighted, and clicking gives you more information, waypoint marking options, and more. I did no research, checked no beta boards, nothing, and I figured out everything I needed to know about upgrading my armor, collecting crafting ingredients, looting, and special attacks in less than five minutes. I’m usually not that competent.

Lots of “cool” factor.At level one, I have nifty looking gear, awesome animations, special effects, and personality. My only concern here is how on earth can I get more cool looking as I grow in power?

The Bad

No bug reporting.Wha? Excuse me? Big beta weekend, heap big deal, but finishing the bug report tool wasn’t a priority? Sorry, but I don’t report bugs via a forum, and in 2009 I definitely don’t read multiple pages of a thread with no visible dev involvement to see if it’s been reported. This screams “we don’t care about what you say,” to me.

Backstory? What backstory?They must be assuming that all of us have read every released word online, or the wiki entry, because there was zero effort at explaining anything story-wise to my character at level one. Or two. I’d been playing for hours before the game informed me that I’d lost my memory at some point in the past.

Same old MMO starter levels.Despite being awesome looking, despite lots of nifty innovations in gear and strategy, and despite a number of indicators that (to the experienced eye) suggest that a really solid PVP team built this thing, the first five levels are exactly like every game you ever played. The early quests are by and large mediocre, with the added benefit of all of the NPCs insulting you.

The insulting a level one character is very Asian, in my experience - those on the bottom level of society, the newbs if you will, are not entitled to respect up front. You have to prove yourself. And indeed, the NPCs grow more courteous as you level, which tells me it’s an intentional element of the storytelling. I still wonder how willing a Western audience will be to tolerate this. The very first thing I got upon logging in was accused of sleeping on the job, and ten minutes later I was told I had no honor. Quite a cold shower after years of being the hero come to save us all.

The Unknown

I have yet to try flying or PVP - possibly the major attractions for this particular title.

The Full Metal Awesome

Okay, so, there’s this quest, and when you complete it, you get a glimpse of the world you’ve forgotten, and I cannot describe it to you. I can’t describe it because it will ruin the wow factor for you when you get to it, and I couldn’t possibly do it justice. It’s just a cut scene, but it is the most awesome thing in the universe. My jaw dropped. First of all, it’s visually stunning. Second, I have never before seen a cut scene that made me want to play this game for the next year just to do the things the scene implied I could eventually do.

In fact, the completion of this quest marked a real turning point. I started getting quests that were much more interesting and engaging, and I found it very difficult to stop playing.

The Short Version

Despite a tedious beginning, story wise, this title has a lot of potential. The tremendous stability, the outstanding visuals, the wonderful little interface innovations, and the now-intriguing plotline have me psyched for more.

Now it’s the beginning of a new anticipated game Aion. NCSoft recently invited the Ensidia, top-of-the line WOW guild to enter Aion(EU)’s Beta which will be launched the upcoming weekend.
http://www.ensidia.com/community/post/1196/

Description of the contest

All you have to do to win one of the 50 keys is post a comment with the words “I want to play the Aion EU beta” until Thursday, June 4th 2009, 14:00 CET.

So we have seen the same reply on follow-up comment - “I want to play the Aion EU beta“.

A topic named 1st WOW Guild Went over to Aion from Chinese online gaming interactive site named 178.com, report the event. But unexpectedly we found a very opposed phenomenon there. Most of players there left same words as “I don’t want to play the Aion EU beta“.

Why?

Months ago most of Chinese players were wishing that they had the chance to play Aion. One of the reason is that people was tormented with an everlasting itch for World of the Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King remote, on the other they were very excited to see a new MMORPG which got nice screens and details. People treat it a big project as “WOW Killer“, like everything that we are doing now.

But after the beta test of the Aion(CN), more and more Aion fans quit the game and delete the client. “There are full of bots and disgusting quest, it’s another grind MMORPG with DELUXE APPEARANCE, just a new WOW Clone.” Can Aion Dethrone The King of MMOs? It seems that the answer is clear.

Aion vs WoW

When we checked out the voting result and player comments relating to Recommended MMOs in November，it’s crystal clear that Aion and WoW are becoming the focus of MMO players’ discussions, due to the upcoming of Aion’s OBT and the recent release of Wotlk. Some players said they hope Aion or some other MMO will pose a challenge to WoW’s throne, “If a game comes out that poses a serious future threat, maybe the developers will get their heads out of their nether regions and start innovating some.”

Scenery in Aion is seductive and depicted to a nicety, and it’s eastern style. We can easily find the decided difference of water effect between Aion and WoW. Putting aside your system, Aion is more beautiful than WoW, but WoW is still a cost-effective MMO. The graphics of Aion actually look nice, but it should first make promises with its quest system, class and gameplay balance.

It is said that “WoW + wings = Aion”. Everyone is trying to imitate WoW in seeking success, but Aion also owns lots of unique things you may not notice. Here are some differences between Aion and WoW. You can explore the Aion world personally when its OBT starts. Plus, don’t forget to tell us your discovery.

1.Characters in Aion can fly, cause’ they get wings. Are you interested to see how aerial combat breaks out in an MMO, especially for melee/special classes. Is the assassin going to have to chase someone in 3D just to hit them? Are the spiritualist’s pets all going to fly with him’her? A system like this would seem to favor ranged combatants unless there’s some kind of lockon feature or speed advantage for melee classes.

2.There’s no Mount System in Aion but a Transformation System.

3. PvP system in Aion is larger than WoW, Aereschuranta.

The Abyss(Aion’s PVPVE area) is divided into three layers: Top, centre, and bottom. There are five fortresses and eight artifacts in the top layer, one fortress and seven artifacts in the centre, three fortresses and seven artifacts in the bottom layer with two strategic points.

4. Characters can’t swim in water. They will get a cumulative injury in water.

5. When the characters die, they will be sent back to the place where you bind. You won’t see the Spirit mode in Aion.

6. DYE system, just DIY your suits. There are more detail setting in character creating interface in Aion.
7. Players will get kinds of titles by sloving quests or collecting items, these titles affect characters’ attribute. This achievement system is added into Wotlk now.

8. Guild need to level up for enlarging its scale.

The combat system is indeed innovative as it is based off combos more like a fighting game but with the traditional MMORPG abilities. Think of every class as having an activated combat playstyle similar to the “Rogues”.

9. Skill CD prompt in Aion is innate but in WoW you need a related Plug-ins.

Is Aion a Killer to WoW?

Let’s just read players’ opinions we have gathered. A game requiring more than what people’s graphics card can deliver might decrease its supporters who just have an ordinary graphics card. People are hoping NCsoft will retain the same great character models and world graphics while not alienating those who have older systems.

Aion, despite some simalarities, is a completely different game. this world is nonlinear, whereas, I saw
some places that looked familiar, such as Dark Shire and GoldShire. In the world of building, no house is
gonna look the same as the last, there’s always gonna be something like a higher chimney, maybe an
extra chimney, but most of all, the SHAPE will be different. (Excluding the redundant townhouses.)

Now, when I see an inn, it looks the same on the outside. And the inside, which makes it even WORSE,
because this means that no effort was put into towns, this is severely disappointing and takes you out of
the experience and reminds you that you are playing a video game.

Aion will not only have better graphics, but the combat will actually be FUN.
Guild Wars, Lord of the Rings Online, Hellgate: London, Age of Conan and Warhammer Online. All of
these MMO’s were touted as ‘WoW killers’, but none have delivered. The Warhammer Online beta was so
bad they had to pull it back into active development.

Aion looks interesting, but is it a WoW killer? No. It doesn’t add anything substantially new to
the genre, but that’s not the reason why people won’t flock to it.

WoW runs quite well on many, many machines, including those 2-3 years out of date. I can already
tell, just by looking at the screenshots, that Aion will require more than my processor/graphics
card can deliver. That holds true for many of the WoW playerbase. I tried LotRO, but it wouldn’t
play on my laptop at anything more than the most basic settings, and that just made it look like
crap.

That is, IMO, one area that Blizzard has yet to be outmatched on: graphics. Wow’s graphics are
stunning considering that they’ve got low polygon counts and primitive textures.

Why can’t other MMO’s take a page from Blizzard’s book, and offer stylistic, simple and well-done
graphics that are easy on video cards? At a stroke, you’d have access to a much wider audience.

Edit: Don’t get me wrong, I hope Aion rises as a serious threat to WoW, as they sorely need the
competition. But I’m not holding my breath.
So whatever you consider with Aion and WoW, their developers are still doing their best for their own features. Don’t be too punctilious in your attention to the question if any game is a killer to another one.

from http://news.mmosite.com/content/2009-06-04/20090604051826498,1.shtml

《永恒之塔》在欧服的BETA测试即将开始，NCSoft特别邀请了在《魔兽世界》创下了无数功绩的妖孽公会Ensidia进行推广。只要你在相关新闻后面回帖“I want to play the Aion EU beta”（我想参加《永恒之塔》的欧服BETA测试），就有机会获得账号一枚，限量50。

　在欧美游戏市场，那些号称“WOW杀手”的MMO全部死得很惨，所以NCSoft的借花献佛实为明智之举。拒绝高调的口号，让另一个领域的王者为我们的产品宣传，很有绵里藏针的效果。

　　至于Ensidia为什么愿意帮忙，其实主页下面的介绍写得很清楚：Ensidia.com is an online community for MMO Gamers from around the world.（Ensidia.com是属于全世界MMO玩家的在线社区）——人家胃口大着呢……

　　截稿之时回帖已达658之多，99%都是“I want to play the Aion EU beta”，蔚为壮观……

　　当然，不愿意“保持队形”的也有，比如这句：I don’t want to play the Aion EU beta…