Lint

PP's opinions on video games are all formed based on what she has read on forums - which given that the majority of posts on all MMO forums are crying about something isn't exactly the best thing to do.

In the time I've been playing Aion (and I am far behind the leveling curve here due to a 3 vaction) I've run across 1 person displaying bot like behaviour and have to block ~ 3 people a day due to spamming /3.

In the hayday of EQ2 there always used to be bot teams farming gold somewhere - i.e. sandcrawlers/Living tombs in DoF, Barren Sky in KoS and spam tells used to happen a lot more frequently. I'll hand it to SOE that they managed to implement an effective spam filter, but then that didn't come in until 3 years after release. I'd say NCSoft were no worse than SOE - ultimately you would want better, but given the state of all MMO makers (with the possible exception of Blizzard) they're not too bad.

Pink Poodle

I'm not playing Aion because I don't want to waste 60 bucks on another AOC. But do what you like, I suppose. So no mean ^_^ wingy sorcerers are stealing my ^_^ flamingos (oh wait that's FFXI, oops!)

Also lol NCSoft. I'm not the only one that thinks this way though, see the comments on the Massively articles?

My opinions on Aion stemmed from people claiming it to be the next WOWkiller and OMG IT'S THE BEST EVER WINGS YAY FAPFAP. Frankly it isn't. Kind of how I've never read Twilight but the fans are already fucktards and I don't want to associate myself with those books (heard they're terrible anyway.)

All MMO companies suck, NPCube sucks the most though (if you don't know who they are, Google them, fuckers were sued.)

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Rave Ghost says: "EQ2Flames on ED: Click here! And Part two! Some NSFW content present."

Aralas

if you really believed that any game would kill WOW that's your own fault....i mean think about it what's their subscriber numbers at now millions? too many people are going to feel A they put too much time to switch B. like shit given on a gold plate C. Aion is Pvpve that alone is gona turn some people away. However out of all the MMO's i have played this is the least buggy at release due to the fact they released in asia first....if you haven't tried it and can't afford to go drop $60 when a new mmo comes out then don't write about it, unless you try it your opinion is weightless without playing and that goes for any mmo good review or bad.

As far as grinding goes how long have you played eq2, it was a bit grindy back in the day bc kill xp used to be better then quest and they broke that shit....and aion is nothing compared to eq1 and im sure other games but as far as the most grindy game i have played was eq1

Xede

If you really think this game is another AoC you are DEAD wrong....I played AoC for the 1 free month and that was it...didnt want to resub at all. This game I am actually resubbing each month til i get bored of it or a better (IMO) game comes out, which tbh i dont see that happening anytime soon.

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Daekan

It's just a game. People will rave about what they like and naturally rant about what they don't like. It's kind of like what you're doing but with facts and personal experience.

EQ2 is classic MMO gameplay: quests, loot, and group/raid content. The one thing that it lacks for me is a real story. Don't get me wrong; the EverQuest franchise has more lore and history than any game to date, but it doesn't deliver MOST or ANY of that to the player in any interactive way. I never played WoW, but I think it pulled this off.

Aion involves your character in its story and cutscenes. Along the way, you learn more about its history, your character's history, and the effects you have in the battle against the opposing factions (Elyos/Asmodian and Balaur). FFXI did a MUCH much better job in this aspect, but what ties you more into the story is the PvP. After diving more into the story, you actually want to defeat your opposing faction AND the Balaur.

Although the later is perpetual, it does have a deep-seeded purpose. I'm a PvE player (and always have been), and I'm really enjoying the PvP/PvPvE. Never thought I would, but then again, I never found EQ2 PvP (and other PvPs) to make sense. I think WoW probably made the most sense, naturally, due to its Horde vs. eh... the other guys.

I've played EQ and EQ2 for a total of 10 years (consecutively). Your world of EQ2 is much different than how EQ and EQ2 got started, so your perception of Aion is valid in that sense. However, those who have played as long as I have find your statements hilarious. During those 10 years, I've switched to playing other games (DAoC, EVE, E&B, AO, WoW, FFXI, GW, and some others that hit beta but not shelves). Of all those games, FFXI and GW were the only MMOs that I enjoyed as much as I did EQ and EQ2. FFXI remains the best in my biased opinion (having done everything under the sun in that game), but man, did that game suck if you couldn't get a group... it sucked hard.

So now I'm playing Aion because it's filling a void that EQ2 isn't offering me. I look forward to EQ2s upcoming expansion and giving it a try when it comes out. Until then, I'll be making more use of my time playing Aion.

Edit: changed my 2nd paragraph from "EQ2 has more lore..." to "the EverQuest franchise has more lore..."

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Pink Poodle

I played FFXI not EQ1, hated the grind because it was BLUE CRABS BLUE CRABS. Sure there were other mobs to fight but it seemed like blue crabs were choice.

The amount of whining I see about the game on Massively appears to be otherwise. It might end up niche but what game aside from WOW isn't?

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Rave Ghost says: "EQ2Flames on ED: Click here! And Part two! Some NSFW content present."

Daekan

I'm suddenly realizing that Guild Wars really isn't an MMORPG, is it? LOL well, I still had fun playing it. Cool story and great PvP mechanics when I felt like doing an instance. Very easy to play solo with the henchmen.

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arieste

Well, i've no had any issues with bots and i've not had any issues with spam that weren't easy to solve with 15 seconds of blocking.

That being said, this doesn't change the fact that the game is boring as fuck.

The first instance you can do is at 25 and you then you can no longer do it once you're 28. Wtf? Not to mention that you need to be 25 and over to do it, while the loot drops in it are 25 and under.

The quests are easy to do but give negligible xp. (The know this and are planning to update them to give like six times the xp, which gives you an indicator of how little they give now - usually, you can literally kill two or three solo mobs and get more xp than a quest gives you)

Next instance after the 25 one is at 30. It can be run by 3 monkeys tied together with spit. It has no lockout, so people basically do it over and over and over and over because soloing is boring as fuck (see above) and really there is nothing better to do. After my about 40th run through the dungeon, we finally got the "rare" version of the boss mob (there are two versions) that proceeded to drop....wait for it....nothing. And i don't mean that it didn't drop anything useful, i mean it dropped not a single thing. This is quite common, in about 50 runs, I've seen 1 good drop (gold) in the dungeon and 2 decent drops (blue).

The PvP is actually kinda fun. Except if you're a melee class, then you're fucked or need to only PvP in a group. I'm still playing (slowly, because I can't take tedium in large quantities, i just end up falling asleep or watching TV instead)...

I seriously hope that the sieges and raids - neither of which I'm able to partake in at my 33 - are more fun.

AoC, LoTRO, EQ2 and even Vanguard were all much better than this game at PvE - at least through the leveling stages. I don't know about endgame quite yet - hoping for the best.

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Daekan

Sounds like Najena's Hollow Tower, hey?

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Naie

Not a QQSource doomcaller, but the game is not perfect.
If you expected it to be, you're not smart. It hasn't been on the NA Market long enough to adapt to that playerbase.

The game is not a WoW killer, if you expected it to be, you're not smart.
The game has a lot of grinding, if you expected it not to, you're not smart.

It's a Korean based MMO which is being westernized. Don't expect it to magically mesh with the western playerbase. As people hit max level and the whole game starts getting experienced, it may flush out for people looking for a western style.

When it started, it had a ton of gold spam, they have been actively addressing that for a while now. To the point where I haven't seen any other than personal stores in main cities with advertisements. The channels seem completely clean and I haven't received an RMT whisper in a long time.

I love the grind, I find it no more tedious than killing boars for 40 tusks to return to <npcname> 3 towns over to complete a quest.

The dungeons are rewarding, a lot of people say differently. The greens that drop out of the level 25 dungeon often scale up to 28 or higher such as "Reddened" gear, the blues/golds are not 100% chance off the named but it's still a good chunk of xp and there are usually several quests with decent rewards to accompany the dungeon.

The pvp at low level is imbalanced favoring ranged - if you expected it to be perfectly balanced you were expecting too much. This balances out when the use of Godstones and Extendable weapons come into play later on as rdps begins to plateau out slightly and melee gain slightly more CC and ability to break down defensive spells and cover the range distance more efficiently.

It isn't instantly gratifying, it makes you work for things which can be tedious. If that isn't what you're after - there are tons of other MMOs on the market, but I think this one is far from failing at this point, if anything it's just getting off the ground for the westerners. To pass judgement based strictly on the QQ presented in most of the major forum outlets for it is silly but it will happen. A lot of people are enjoying it, and I'm one of them.

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