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What makes Aion different?
I've been hearing buzz about Aion for some time now but I've never seen anything that specifically addresses what makes it so different than the myriad of other MMO's on the market. Would someone explain to me how this differs from something like World of Warcraft?
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Honestly, I'm expecting it to be very similar to World Of Warcraft. Aion will certainly have better graphics, which is a plus. I think the atmosphere will be different, easier to get lost in, more immersive. The lore will be different, based more in Chinese mythology, rather than a medieval setting.
It isn't that much different. It's basically WoW with anime characters and more PvP.
Now, don't get me wrong. I like Aion. Except for the Asmodian running animation, it's a pretty cool game. If you liked WoW, you'll love Aion... provided that you like anime and don't mind your male character looking like a matrosexual douche bag. I mean, you really need to go out of your way to make your character look less "alternative lifestyle" in this game.
On the other hand, the game looks and plays spectacular. The combat animations are fun, varied and fluid. The character creator tool is also very good. There is a slider for everything which provides a lot of options. However, from what I've seen, a lot of people make really tiny characters.
My suggestion, is try the game for yourself. There are free servers for the Chinese client and there are tutorials out there which tell you how to create an account. There is also a patch which will make all of the skill, quest and options text into English.
Edit: One thing I forgot to mention is that there are a lot and I mean A LOT of gold farmers and bots around. Hopefully this will get fixed for the US/EU version.
These are things you will have to find out for yourself. Let you be your own judge of things because what I like or think is different may not be for you.
"WoW is like an old faded T-Shirt" It's your fav shirt that is so old you would never be caugth dead wearing it outside but you wear it around the house all the time, You know you should just throw it in the trash and be done with it...BUT DAMMIT you love that shirt !!!
Stick with what you love to play. Don't go looking for something else because its new or different.
As for me I will be playing Aion
Velika: City of Wheels: Among the mortal races, the humans were the only one that never built cities or great empires; a curse laid upon them by their creator, Gidd, forced them to wander as nomads for twenty centuries...
It doesn't. It's essentially a prettier WoW with more flaws.
Nothing.
Different from WOW? Better graphics, Way better.... But in all honesty. Aion will have cut scenes to tell the stories of the game which if you like the actual lore of a game world will help to immerse you in it. (Me personally I love this). Combat it will have fast action paced FLYING combat. Something that WOW does not have.
Also something that will be completely new is the PVERVR...Where 2 sides are at war but a 3rd side controlled by the AI will actually interrupt battles and take a side..This can lead to some very interesting and dynamic battles that you never know what truly to expect.
I will say graphically this game is going to set a new bar. Something WOW never did. However in also setting that bar it also runs VERY smooth. Something games like Vanguard and AoC which were supposed to be the graphically superior games had issues with (the running smooth part that is)
Another thing is when it comes to fantasy this game is not going with the same old same old Elves and Dwarves and goblins and Orcs. It will be an entirely new genre of fantasy that breaks the molds.
I say Aion will have alot of differences going for it. However when a game recieves alot of hype you always have the naysayers out there that want to bash and flame the game for one reason or another. Maybe they are afraid that all their friends are going to up an leave them in the game they are playing alone and want to create negativity towards the game.
Polish
Its Player versus Environment versus player. You can play against mobs or other players or both. Most of the general mobs have Artificial Intelligence just like in WoW but the ones in the abyss are much different. They have a mind of their own and they may help one side or the other, neither or both.
Graphics and sound are way better as you'd expect from a game that is many years newer. It's not just the looks of the graphics though, its the feel and you only can get the idea from playing it. This game has a lot more lore in it. Quests are very descriptive and there are tons of quests. The game is 3D all the way. At level 10 you learn to fly and combat is in the air as much as on the ground. Flight is built into the combat system.
As for all the bots eople talk about. It really doesn't matter as gold is not an issue in the game. Its not a collect tons of gear and gold type of game. Not sure why anyone would even buy gold to play AION.
Crafting is very extensive for those who enjoy that. You can learn every profession by the way but you can't take all of them up to max simultaniously (Not sure if that is spelled right).
Player customization is extensive. You can pretty much make your toon look like just about anything you want. The video of the person who made their toon look like Obama was funny as hell.
I guess it's hard to describe. If you play WoW you'll feel right at home. It's pretty much an upgraded WoW. The game is very well done and polished. No real glitches etc.
On the Korean servers they are playing 1.2. On the Chinese servers they are playing 1.0 so we have not seen the later versions yet. 1.3 is in the works of course.
Fan sites:
AION-On-Line.com
aionicthoughts.wordpress.com/
www.aionarmory.com/
www.aionglobal.com/
www.aionsource.com/
www.areyouhellbound.com/forum/
www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/253
www.onrpg.com/
Official sites:
www.ncsoft.com/global/
www.aiononline.com/us/
eu.aiononline.com/en/
Question for you: What are the differences that you are looking for? I see a lot of people postthat they don't care about another copy of an older game, but it's not clear what it is they are looking for. Sometimes you just need a break from mmos period and it's not about finding something totally new and different.
(,,,)=^__^=(,,,)
People seem to say it's very similar to WoW. Yet, I tried WoW and couldn't really get into it. However on the Chinese version of Aion I was able to try each first class up to level 10+ and Wizard to level 23 before I would be forced to pay. The only reason I stopped was because I'm waiting for the NA version. I've already pre-ordered the game from EB Games.
The only downside I have with it is I have always been highly against RvR or Faction pvp. I like clan based open world PvP like Lineage 2 has but everything else makes up for more than that.
It isn't that much different. It's basically WoW with anime characters and more PvP.
Now, don't get me wrong. I like Aion. Except for the Asmodian running animation, it's a pretty cool game. If you liked WoW, you'll love Aion... provided that you like anime and don't mind your male character looking like a matrosexual douche bag. I mean, you really need to go out of your way to make your character look less "alternative lifestyle" in this game.
On the other hand, the game looks and plays spectacular. The combat animations are fun, varied and fluid. The character creator tool is also very good. There is a slider for everything which provides a lot of options. However, from what I've seen, a lot of people make really tiny characters.
My suggestion, is try the game for yourself. There are free servers for the Chinese client and there are tutorials out there which tell you how to create an account. There is also a patch which will make all of the skill, quest and options text into English.
Edit: One thing I forgot to mention is that there are a lot and I mean A LOT of gold farmers and bots around. Hopefully this will get fixed for the US/EU version.
Your average aion character's facial features are actually sculpted STRAIGHT after a real asian. Saw some of the cosplay for aion and the korean girls dressing up looked EXACTLY like the character art behind them. If you mean anime by the flamboint hairstyles/colors ect. Then that is asian pop culture, because asian hair is generally very dark/black, they like to explore that area alot.
http://photo.mmosite.com/aion/2008-10-29/5164y3i4o5if5p3.shtml Take alook at that asian cosplayer to the right and the artwork directly to the right of her, you cannot deny the direction is from the actually humans and not an anime.
Also it only takes maybe 20 seconds to turn your character from some "sissy" to someone who looks like he would chew your face off, or atleast kick your ass as a bouncer in some nightclub.
Oh yea and tiny characters are pretty stupid, I hope they put a limit on the size a little more. I mean I don't mind tiny, but THAT small should not have a Z cup with a extremely small head... The people seriosuly dont know how to many a child like character. When I toyed with the creater a bit, Instead of having the slider on all the way short, you put it maybe 20-25% of the ways up. Make the head bigger, chest small, maybe tad big larger legs, little bigger eyes, and wala, you have a child... Too bad 99% of the playerbase does not know how to make a believable short character.
It isn't that much different. It's basically WoW with anime characters and more PvP.
Now, don't get me wrong. I like Aion. Except for the Asmodian running animation, it's a pretty cool game. If you liked WoW, you'll love Aion... provided that you like anime and don't mind your male character looking like a matrosexual douche bag. I mean, you really need to go out of your way to make your character look less "alternative lifestyle" in this game.
On the other hand, the game looks and plays spectacular. The combat animations are fun, varied and fluid. The character creator tool is also very good. There is a slider for everything which provides a lot of options. However, from what I've seen, a lot of people make really tiny characters.
My suggestion, is try the game for yourself. There are free servers for the Chinese client and there are tutorials out there which tell you how to create an account. There is also a patch which will make all of the skill, quest and options text into English.
Edit: One thing I forgot to mention is that there are a lot and I mean A LOT of gold farmers and bots around. Hopefully this will get fixed for the US/EU version.
Your average aion character's facial features are actually sculpted STRAIGHT after a real asian. Saw some of the cosplay for aion and the korean girls dressing up looked EXACTLY like the character art behind them. If you mean anime by the flamboint hairstyles/colors ect. Then that is asian pop culture, because asian hair is generally very dark/black, they like to explore that area alot.
http://photo.mmosite.com/aion/2008-10-29/5164y3i4o5if5p3.shtml Take alook at that asian cosplayer to the right and the artwork directly to the right of her, you cannot deny the direction is from the actually humans and not an anime.
Also it only takes maybe 20 seconds to turn your character from some "sissy" to someone who looks like he would chew your face off, or atleast kick your ass as a bouncer in some nightclub.
Oh yea and tiny characters are pretty stupid, I hope they put a limit on the size a little more. I mean I don't mind tiny, but THAT small should not have a Z cup with a extremely small head... The people seriosuly dont know how to many a child like character. When I toyed with the creater a bit, Instead of having the slider on all the way short, you put it maybe 20-25% of the ways up. Make the head bigger, chest small, maybe tad big larger legs, little bigger eyes, and wala, you have a child... Too bad 99% of the playerbase does not know how to make a believable short character.
I was talking mainly about male characters looking girly. I know a lot of Asian folks in real life, I'm married to one, and the males do not look like girls with delicate facial features. Most of the male faces in this game do have delicate female features.
As for making the male characters less "sissy" looking, yes it does take about 20 seconds once you know what you're doing. First time around, it may take a while and that is what I meant. Of course once you know how to get to the less flamboyant features, it's a snap.
My whole point was that for a game which is suposed to be geared more towards the western market, the character creator is anything but.
I was talking mainly about male characters looking girly. I know a lot of Asian folks in real life, I'm married to one, and the males do not look like girls with delicate facial features. Most of the male faces in this game do have delicate female features.
As for making the male characters less "sissy" looking, yes it does take about 20 seconds once you know what you're doing. First time around, it may take a while and that is what I meant. Of course once you know how to get to the less flamboyant features, it's a snap.
My whole point was that for a game which is suposed to be geared more towards the western market, the character creator is anything but.
Really, I find it to be one the strongest features....Oh well, everyone has there own taste in what they like.
Velika: City of Wheels: Among the mortal races, the humans were the only one that never built cities or great empires; a curse laid upon them by their creator, Gidd, forced them to wander as nomads for twenty centuries...
I was talking mainly about male characters looking girly. I know a lot of Asian folks in real life, I'm married to one, and the males do not look like girls with delicate facial features. Most of the male faces in this game do have delicate female features.
As for making the male characters less "sissy" looking, yes it does take about 20 seconds once you know what you're doing. First time around, it may take a while and that is what I meant. Of course once you know how to get to the less flamboyant features, it's a snap.
My whole point was that for a game which is suposed to be geared more towards the western market, the character creator is anything but.
Really, I find it to be one the strongest features....Oh well, everyone has there own taste in what they like.
We're talking about different things, I think. The character creator is Aion is pretty robust and has a lot of different options. However, most of the options are geared towards the Asian market with funny looking hair and feminine facial features for male characters. That is my point.
On the other hand, if you're a huge anime fan, I guess that you'll love it.
Aaa icic. the art direction and not the creator tool itself. Yea they do tend to lean towards the Emo or punkish and at times the pretty boy look.
I was way off the topic
Velika: City of Wheels: Among the mortal races, the humans were the only one that never built cities or great empires; a curse laid upon them by their creator, Gidd, forced them to wander as nomads for twenty centuries...
I hope they will change some of the character creation parameters as well. And that they will atleast limit the differences in size somewhat. The smallest characters only reaching the biggest one's kneecaps and having all these little sprites zipping around everywhere isn't my idea of a realistic / immersive player population. This is one of the few minor drawbacks I see in this game.
My brand new bloggity blog.
ZOMFG<no WAY !
I love tiny little fast chars lol. They are cute as hell
I have a tiny char and I love using that char to zoom arround in hyper mode - so much fun zooming arround lol. I am glad i have the choice to customise my chars - half of my fun is using a funny little turbo charged char
It's not a drawback at all ! It's a personal prefrence ! I love zooming arround fast with a tiny char. Just make your char as big as they let you and leave my TINY zoomers ALONE !!
Pfft ...
Every mob must look like a giant raid boss to your point of view !
Velika: City of Wheels: Among the mortal races, the humans were the only one that never built cities or great empires; a curse laid upon them by their creator, Gidd, forced them to wander as nomads for twenty centuries...
It's yet another mmorpg with good graphics, it has classes, quest, and everything you get in any other mmorpg. What makes it diferent? It's not diferent, its just NEW.
It's not a drawback at all ! It's a personal prefrence ! I love zooming arround fast with a tiny char. Just make your char as big as they let you and leave my TINY zoomers ALONE !!
Pfft ...
It's a drawback to me as well. I don't like seeing small unrealistic models. It's not because people want to see their character run fast, it is because people want to be less of a target in PvP. It's obvious they don't want to draw attention to themselves.
to my char? maybe ! but your camera doesn't change position, so everything looks the same except it feels like you are running with turbo on
(assuming you are playing a tiny little char)
I love it xD
It's not a drawback at all ! It's a personal prefrence ! I love zooming arround fast with a tiny char. Just make your char as big as they let you and leave my TINY zoomers ALONE !!
Pfft ...
It's a drawback to me as well. I don't like seeing small unrealistic models. It's not because people want to see their character run fast, it is because people want to be less of a target in PvP. It's obvious they don't want to draw attention to themselves.
I use TAB button to cycle through the targets, it works pretty well. I just got obsessed after seeing a lightning fast tiny chanter. I thought to myself "ZOMFG<that is so cute. I want 1!" - 2 days later I made a tiny little char - never thought about PVP target when making char.
Im not sure if the clickable area of a char changes as you adjust the char size or not. I never had problems clicking on chars (yet) - be it tiny or huge.
I see Asian, especially Chinese hairstyles, and males that are simply not required to be disgusting. The latter is appreciated and the former is not unwelcome. Yet I am most certainly not an anime fan.
For those to whom aestheticism is exclusively feminine while masculinity is to celebrate ugliness, I extend my pity.
As for all the bots eople talk about. It really doesn't matter as gold is not an issue in the game. Its not a collect tons of gear and gold type of game. Not sure why anyone would even buy gold to play AION.
What role do gear and gold play in the game then if they aren't that important from what I can gather from your post?