Aion

[Elvy]

I truly miss the grind sometimes, only reason i seem to prefer the asian mmo's

[Azurai]

I miss grindy areas with groups where its so thick with death dealing mobs that it takes a group to actually get to interesting places further in. I don't think I miss solo grinding at all because that's essentially what WoW is with the short jaunt back to town to turn in quests in between.

[Elvy]

i totally agree with the grind as a group idea. I recall spending the summers of undergrad grinding away at certain areas in L2 with anywhere from 5-10 people, taking turns to afk leech experience, drink breaks, etc. Understanding that you could only enter certain areas with a semi put together group was rewarding in itself.

[Ryuuk]

I just pre-ordered this on steam, which gets me in the beta and some in-game perks, hopefully i didn't waste my money; I'll know soon enough

[Xyrm]

So who is still interested in this? I know leica changed his mind... what about webin/rael? I think I remember both mentioning they'd give it a shot.

[Ryuuk]

Well the beta has been keeping me occupied, but that might be because i have literally nothing else to do. I just started today and got to level 8, i hope it gets more interesting, from what i hear level 20+ is better. Playing an assassin at the moment, the combat is okay i guess, i use all my abilities in a short window of time then have to wait a little while till I can do anything again(i think my shortest CD is 7 seconds but all the others are 30+). I'll probably stick to WoW, maybe play Aion when i'm bored, but with another WoW expansion, starcraft II, and diablo 3 on the horizon it doesn't seem like Aion will get much attention. When i get to a higher level i'll have to see if my opinion of the game is still the same.

[Ermad]

I just played a bit of the beta, leveled a Chanter (starts out as a Priest) to 10. I enjoyed the leveling. The interface and controls are different from WoW, and they take a little bit of getting to used to, but they aren't that bad. Combat was fine, really not that much different then WoW, but it could get interesting at later levels with the skill combos. The graphics were amazing especially the close up models/textures, and I was still getting the similar FPS to what I get with WoW. I enjoyed the actual quests themselves also, I like having a main campaign quest to do in a zone that is progressing the story, while having the standard throw away MMORPG quest on top of it. It also has nice cut scenes occasionally on quests that really add to the experience, very similar to the ones in FFX. The death penalty totally sucks though, you are brought back alive at where your hearthstone equivalent is set. There also seems to be an XP penalty, but you can pay some dude in town to restore the lost XP.

I just got the ability to Fly, but haven't done much with it yet. The default keybindings for it are awful, Page Up/Down are the most inconvenient keys they could think of. You can fly for a minute at a time until it recharges (I guess it would take 5mins for a full recharge). Should get a better sense of how well it works after I play more with it.

Ultimately I don't think it will ever replace WoW, but it seems like it can be a fun game to play in the off times while content is on farm. I want to try to do a dungeon as soon as I can to see how that part of it compares.

[Azurai]

So I DLed the beta and tried it out. First off, casting (at least as a priest) = no turning allowed. That's right, forget about hitting players at melee range. The story for the first 12 levels isn't terrible so far, but it is a bit generic. Doesn't move me to read the quest prompts. The locate system for finding everything is really useful, don't feel like you'd ever need aionhead to play this game. The flying is somewhat awkward like Ermad said, but the controls aren't really the worst of it. First off there's no real in-game limits like 'oh I shouldn't fly into that volcano' there's just a ton of invisible barriers that yell at you. Additionally, there are a ton of zones which are just not flyable for no particular reason. Picture WotLK beta with a courtesy message before tossing your ass to the ground.

Overall its alright, a bit less than I expected for a game that's been live in Asia for over a year. The world seems very small as well. We'll see I guess.

[Ermad]

So I DLed the beta and tried it out. First off, casting (at least as a priest) = no turning allowed. That's right, forget about hitting players at melee range.

I believe it auto turns you though if they go out of your frontal cone. Its kind of annoying though, mainly because I am so used to doing it in WoW.

Also supposedly you can only fly where like Aether fragments are from the destroyed tower of eternity. Which is mainly near cities. The main point of flying is really seen when you get to the abyss, where you can fly everywhere.

[Aurun]

Anyone have more insight to it after this last beta test? Debating if its worth picking up a preorder after my sidejob finishes this weekend.

*edit*
Probably more concerned with the melee play/balance than the casting issues i keep hearing about.

[Ermad]

I didn't get a chance to play much over last beta weekend, was busy with other stuff.

The closed beta is using version 1.0 that was used for the Asian release. The most current version is 1.2 in Asia, and it when it gets released here it will be 1.5 (the 3rd major patch). So there is a bunch of balancing and new contet that was done and will be different once it goes live.

[Empyrea]

Months behind but this is now free to play huzzuh

[Aus]

Fuck ya guys let's get the gang back together!

[Priz]

game was fuckin sick for a while, let's go

[Webin]

I have a level 49 warrior dude thing with no gear. But I spent like 10 million buying Aus an awesome spear.