I enjoy Aion because unlike other people, I didn't go in thinking you should run to fifty by grinding and doing quests. I'm currently lvl 45 Templar. I leveled my aether and vitality gathering. I crafted and have 434 Armorsmithing. Approximately 10 of my 45 levels were from crafting.
From 1 - 45, My quest log has been full. I started playing a Zone with 10 new quests and I couldn't pick up a single one because my quest log was 30/30.
Last night, 10 of us took down a lvl 42 boss that dropped two blue caster items, and the lowest level chanter got both. He was very happy to say the least. After killing the world boss, we protrected the Beluslan fortress from 40 Elyos who had no idea what they were doing. They dove into our auction house after a failed attempt at killing the Fortress Raid leader.
After that, 12 of us Rifted and went to the Elyos zone were we proceeded to World pvp for the next two hours.
I know a lot of people don't like Aion because it's grindy. Yeah, there are grinding aspects to the game but not as much as people who CHOSE to only grind. It's like ordering a steak dinner, and eating only the veggies, and then saying... "this dinner sucks."
Many people played Aion like they played WoW. Hence, the disapointment and resentment. I for one, am enjoying Aion immensely. To each his own.
PS - Xfire shows Aion has the second highest MMO on the list. My server, Ariel is going strong with parties doing instances, raids, etc all the time.
If you didn't enjoy Aion, move on. There's no reason to continually come back to the boards and berate a game you don't like. It's subjective and people shouldn't get flamed for having different tastes.
am still paying and i plan on doing so for a few years probally forever depends on how amazing the major update is .
I am very happy with this game it's the best mmo i had yet and i absolutely dont mind grinding and i played games that has worse grinding and still sticking with them.
Reason people quit aion is because they want a goal such as getting to the end of the game as fast as possible but they realise it's not as easy as in WoW and they quit cause it's not easy enough.
It is possible to get to max lvl in WoW in just a few days there is proof of that and besides in this game impossible to get to lvl 50 in a week no matter what you do. People want mmos to be as easy as single player games. They want everything handed to them. Hardcore gamers stick with games no matter how difficult it is.
Seriously quit whining on that this game is to grindy. All mmos are grindy at start and then they fix it by adding more quests. You cant expect a game to be perfect after just 3 months of play. Suck me and grow up and start having patience for games.
You're kidding right? Don't generalize "hardcore" gamers based on how easy it is or not to level in an MMO. You seem quick to judge others when your own abstaining realization of Aion is that it's "hardcore" because it takes 2389893438 months to get to max level. I'm sorry to break it to you, but many of us (including myself) have played EQ, FFXI, WoW, etc.. and have leveled to max after several months, been in guilds which have raided 3-4 times a week minimum, or have had to camp a mob spawn for 8 hours to get a rare item, etc, etc.
What makes these MMO games "hardcore" is not any one specific aspect (i.e. leveling), it's many. People are not playing Aion because it's too "hardcore" for them, they are not playing it because it's missing so much functionality and originality found in prior games (as mentioned above). I played Aion for the first 30 days, got to lvl 25. To me, Aion felt very linear and unfulfilling without any sense of immersion into the storyline.
Played FFXI for 2 years. Wow for 4 years. Aoc 1 week. War 1 Month. Playing Aion Since September.
I enjoy Aion because unlike other people, I didn't go in thinking you should run to fifty by grinding and doing quests. I'm currently lvl 45 Templar. I leveled my aether and vitality gathering. I crafted and have 434 Armorsmithing. Approximately 10 of my 45 levels were from crafting. From 1 - 45, My quest log has been full. I started playing a Zone with 10 new quests and I couldn't pick up a single one because my quest log was 30/30. Last night, 10 of us took down a lvl 42 boss that dropped two blue caster items, and the lowest level chanter got both. He was very happy to say the least. After killing the world boss, we protrected the Beluslan fortress from 40 Elyos who had no idea what they were doing. They dove into our auction house after a failed attempt at killing the Fortress Raid leader. After that, 12 of us Rifted and went to the Elyos zone were we proceeded to World pvp for the next two hours. I know a lot of people don't like Aion because it's grindy. Yeah, there are grinding aspects to the game but not as much as people who CHOSE to only grind. It's like ordering a steak dinner, and eating only the veggies, and then saying... "this dinner sucks." Many people played Aion like they played WoW. Hence, the disapointment and resentment. I for one, am enjoying Aion immensely. To each his own. PS - Xfire shows Aion has the second highest MMO on the list. My server, Ariel is going strong with parties doing instances, raids, etc all the time. If you didn't enjoy Aion, move on. There's no reason to continually come back to the boards and berate a game you don't like. It's subjective and people shouldn't get flamed for having different tastes.
i got to say i enjoyed your post immensly !simple and to the point !and your ARE right one one thing for me !dont know about other player!but for me i went in full of wow idea and game play and it wasnt even close to it !so i went out of it.did i give it a fair
chance?honestly ?hell no!
since i got a time card sitting here anyway !I WILL TRY IT AND GIVE IT A FAIR CHANCE!like you pointed out
going in without expectation is probably the best and also i will probably have to work on patience
as you point out its number 2 on xfire MMO list!its not there by luck!
Played FFXI for 2 years. Wow for 4 years. Aoc 1 week. War 1 Month. Playing Aion Since September.
I enjoy Aion because unlike other people, I didn't go in thinking you should run to fifty by grinding and doing quests. I'm currently lvl 45 Templar. I leveled my aether and vitality gathering. I crafted and have 434 Armorsmithing. Approximately 10 of my 45 levels were from crafting. From 1 - 45, My quest log has been full. I started playing a Zone with 10 new quests and I couldn't pick up a single one because my quest log was 30/30. Last night, 10 of us took down a lvl 42 boss that dropped two blue caster items, and the lowest level chanter got both. He was very happy to say the least. After killing the world boss, we protrected the Beluslan fortress from 40 Elyos who had no idea what they were doing. They dove into our auction house after a failed attempt at killing the Fortress Raid leader. After that, 12 of us Rifted and went to the Elyos zone were we proceeded to World pvp for the next two hours. I know a lot of people don't like Aion because it's grindy. Yeah, there are grinding aspects to the game but not as much as people who CHOSE to only grind. It's like ordering a steak dinner, and eating only the veggies, and then saying... "this dinner sucks." Many people played Aion like they played WoW. Hence, the disapointment and resentment. I for one, am enjoying Aion immensely. To each his own. PS - Xfire shows Aion has the second highest MMO on the list. My server, Ariel is going strong with parties doing instances, raids, etc all the time. If you didn't enjoy Aion, move on. There's no reason to continually come back to the boards and berate a game you don't like. It's subjective and people shouldn't get flamed for having different tastes.
This is the best post I've read here in a really long time... possibly ever.
I am willing to bet no one will even reply to it. No one ever replies to anything logical or well written....
playing since October and still enjoy it a lot. Strange thing is, I really wish I were playing Fallen Earth. I feel like it is objectively a deeper, more interesting game. I just have one problem with it, relevant to this post, the lack of grouping.
Playing on two Aion servers in the East I have never lacked for friend or foe to team or PvP with. Although there are always a ton of people on in Fallen Earth, they mostly don't group and there is little incentive to PvP.
"Never met a pack of humans that were any different. Look at the idiots that get elected every couple of years. You really consider those guys more mature than us? The only difference between us and them is, when they gank some noobs and take their stuff, the noobs actually die." - Madimorga
Haha, I wouldn't normally say polls are necessarily bad even on these types of forums but a RETENTION poll on a third party forum, and *especially* one that caters to players of countless MMO's ... that's just wrong xD
Played FFXI for 2 years. Wow for 4 years. Aoc 1 week. War 1 Month. Playing Aion Since September.
I enjoy Aion because unlike other people, I didn't go in thinking you should run to fifty by grinding and doing quests. I'm currently lvl 45 Templar. I leveled my aether and vitality gathering. I crafted and have 434 Armorsmithing. Approximately 10 of my 45 levels were from crafting. From 1 - 45, My quest log has been full. I started playing a Zone with 10 new quests and I couldn't pick up a single one because my quest log was 30/30. Last night, 10 of us took down a lvl 42 boss that dropped two blue caster items, and the lowest level chanter got both. He was very happy to say the least. After killing the world boss, we protrected the Beluslan fortress from 40 Elyos who had no idea what they were doing. They dove into our auction house after a failed attempt at killing the Fortress Raid leader. After that, 12 of us Rifted and went to the Elyos zone were we proceeded to World pvp for the next two hours. I know a lot of people don't like Aion because it's grindy. Yeah, there are grinding aspects to the game but not as much as people who CHOSE to only grind. It's like ordering a steak dinner, and eating only the veggies, and then saying... "this dinner sucks." Many people played Aion like they played WoW. Hence, the disapointment and resentment. I for one, am enjoying Aion immensely. To each his own. PS - Xfire shows Aion has the second highest MMO on the list. My server, Ariel is going strong with parties doing instances, raids, etc all the time. If you didn't enjoy Aion, move on. There's no reason to continually come back to the boards and berate a game you don't like. It's subjective and people shouldn't get flamed for having different tastes.
This is the best post I've read here in a really long time... possibly ever.
I am willing to bet no one will even reply to it. No one ever replies to anything logical or well written....
There's nothing wrong with liking the game if that's his cup of tea. There are also two sides to every story (even you admit that Aion has flaws, some of which are very glaring). He mentioned that most play Aion like they do WoW, which I do not disagree with. I think though that players in general just do not have the time commitment anymore to devote to a game like this. They are conditioned to play in short bursts, like an hour or two.
Also, don't bring Xfire numbers up. When the game launched, according the Xfire, there were 14,000 players. Now according to Xfire there is an average about 4500. That's a 68% dropoff just of Xfire users.
Played FFXI for 2 years. Wow for 4 years. Aoc 1 week. War 1 Month. Playing Aion Since September.
I enjoy Aion because unlike other people, I didn't go in thinking you should run to fifty by grinding and doing quests. I'm currently lvl 45 Templar. I leveled my aether and vitality gathering. I crafted and have 434 Armorsmithing. Approximately 10 of my 45 levels were from crafting. From 1 - 45, My quest log has been full. I started playing a Zone with 10 new quests and I couldn't pick up a single one because my quest log was 30/30. Last night, 10 of us took down a lvl 42 boss that dropped two blue caster items, and the lowest level chanter got both. He was very happy to say the least. After killing the world boss, we protrected the Beluslan fortress from 40 Elyos who had no idea what they were doing. They dove into our auction house after a failed attempt at killing the Fortress Raid leader. After that, 12 of us Rifted and went to the Elyos zone were we proceeded to World pvp for the next two hours. I know a lot of people don't like Aion because it's grindy. Yeah, there are grinding aspects to the game but not as much as people who CHOSE to only grind. It's like ordering a steak dinner, and eating only the veggies, and then saying... "this dinner sucks." Many people played Aion like they played WoW. Hence, the disapointment and resentment. I for one, am enjoying Aion immensely. To each his own. PS - Xfire shows Aion has the second highest MMO on the list. My server, Ariel is going strong with parties doing instances, raids, etc all the time. If you didn't enjoy Aion, move on. There's no reason to continually come back to the boards and berate a game you don't like. It's subjective and people shouldn't get flamed for having different tastes.
This is the best post I've read here in a really long time... possibly ever.
I am willing to bet no one will even reply to it. No one ever replies to anything logical or well written....
OK, i'll bite. Notice this poster said he got 10 levels from crafting (and his gathering).
Both are extremely tediious, grinding type activities in Aion and although I've done a bit of gathering, I despise these activities (especially crafting) therefore my gaming experience in Aion has been a bit different.
I duo with my son, and we routinely run out of quests at various points and have to grind out a half a level here and there sometimes. We're both level 32 now, but the same phenomenon has occurred on my solo alt (27 Templar).
Fortunately, we enjoy grinding by combat so it works for us, but I can understand where some people might dislike the game because they have to engage in activities they don't care for. (such as crafting, mob grinding etc) to continue their character advancement.
I haven't even had a decent clan experience yet because my original one completely broke up and folded, and every time we seem to get close to the level the major clans want to recruit (was 25 but now seems to be 35) the bar raises on us.
But that's OK, we're casual players and patient, one day we'll catch up and find something that suits us.
The game is doing pretty well, but there's no doubt there's been a big drop off in new players, my server at one time had 5 new player channels, jumped up to 7 for a bit, and now is back at 3.
So sure, Aion's a decent game depending on a persons individual play style (but then again, isn't that true of all games) but don't assume people who don't care for Aion are deficient in some manner, they just have different tastes.
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
Played FFXI for 2 years. Wow for 4 years. Aoc 1 week. War 1 Month. Playing Aion Since September.
I enjoy Aion because unlike other people, I didn't go in thinking you should run to fifty by grinding and doing quests. I'm currently lvl 45 Templar. I leveled my aether and vitality gathering. I crafted and have 434 Armorsmithing. Approximately 10 of my 45 levels were from crafting. From 1 - 45, My quest log has been full. I started playing a Zone with 10 new quests and I couldn't pick up a single one because my quest log was 30/30. Last night, 10 of us took down a lvl 42 boss that dropped two blue caster items, and the lowest level chanter got both. He was very happy to say the least. After killing the world boss, we protrected the Beluslan fortress from 40 Elyos who had no idea what they were doing. They dove into our auction house after a failed attempt at killing the Fortress Raid leader. After that, 12 of us Rifted and went to the Elyos zone were we proceeded to World pvp for the next two hours. I know a lot of people don't like Aion because it's grindy. Yeah, there are grinding aspects to the game but not as much as people who CHOSE to only grind. It's like ordering a steak dinner, and eating only the veggies, and then saying... "this dinner sucks." Many people played Aion like they played WoW. Hence, the disapointment and resentment. I for one, am enjoying Aion immensely. To each his own. PS - Xfire shows Aion has the second highest MMO on the list. My server, Ariel is going strong with parties doing instances, raids, etc all the time. If you didn't enjoy Aion, move on. There's no reason to continually come back to the boards and berate a game you don't like. It's subjective and people shouldn't get flamed for having different tastes.
This is the best post I've read here in a really long time... possibly ever.
I am willing to bet no one will even reply to it. No one ever replies to anything logical or well written....
OK, i'll bite. Notice this poster said he got 10 levels from crafting (and his gathering).
Both are extremely tediious, grinding type activities in Aion and although I've done a bit of gathering, I despise these activities (especially crafting) therefore my gaming experience in Aion has been a bit different.
I duo with my son, and we routinely run out of quests at various points and have to grind out a half a level here and there sometimes. We're both level 32 now, but the same phenomenon has occurred on my solo alt (27 Templar).
Fortunately, we enjoy grinding by combat so it works for us, but I can understand where some people might dislike the game because they have to engage in activities they don't care for. (such as crafting, mob grinding etc) to continue their character advancement.
I haven't even had a decent clan experience yet because my original one completely broke up and folded, and every time we seem to get close to the level the major clans want to recruit (was 25 but now seems to be 35) the bar raises on us.
But that's OK, we're casual players and patient, one day we'll catch up and find something that suits us.
The game is doing pretty well, but there's no doubt there's been a big drop off in new players, my server at one time had 5 new player channels, jumped up to 7 for a bit, and now is back at 3.
So sure, Aion's a decent game depending on a persons individual play style (but then again, isn't that true of all games) but don't assume people who don't care for Aion are deficient in some manner, they just have different tastes.
To address some of your points, since your post was in response to mine:
Crafting is tedious but there's no reason to stare at your computer screen while you craft, especially when you're converting 1000s of ores to ingots. I usually just catch a movie or watch tv, or do some chores in the background.
Running out of quests? It's because you duoed. You effectively cut the xp you would have recieved in half. The benefit to duoing is that you finish faster, but the drawback is not getting enough xp. You could have easily done the quests with your son, next ot each other, but not in the same group. I only grouped for the quests that were marked [Group].
This game is different in that regard because people didn't realize the bulk of your xp is from killing mobs, not quest turn ins. In WoW, the bulk of your XP, in vanilla wow especially was the turn in.
I've been lucky to be a part of a legion where 10-15 of us are usually on. We are all adults, 25+, most of us with family, career, and children. We only have 2-3 hours a night. This means you just pick an activity for that night and roll with it. Whether it be doing Steel Rake, the group quests in Hoarfrost stronghold, Fortress raids, rifting, campaign quests, etc.
Overall, my time in Aion has been very refreshing, contrary to most people's perception of the game. I think it has to do with the fact that I quit WoW four months before starting Aion. I was all WoW'ed out. I wanted something different and a change of pace, with combat that I enjoyed. I didn't enjoy the combat animations in WoW nor the gameplay for that matter. So I guess, Aion plugged the void I was experiencing. Also, 99% of my legion are old wow players who just wanted to move on into something different. Our biggest gripe has been people who have no intention leaving WoW, coming to Aion, and demanding that the developers make Aion more like WoW.
I have nothing against WoW, heck I played it for 4 years, but please WoW gods, save me from your followers.
Numbers so far kind of what I expected. Still If It did get over 1 million people to buy the game and lets say it keeps 20% of that 1 million. 200,000 players is still a very successful mmorpg. In the same playing field as EQ2 FFXI & LoTRO.
Comments
Played FFXI for 2 years.
Wow for 4 years.
Aoc 1 week.
War 1 Month.
Playing Aion Since September.
I enjoy Aion because unlike other people, I didn't go in thinking you should run to fifty by grinding and doing quests. I'm currently lvl 45 Templar. I leveled my aether and vitality gathering. I crafted and have 434 Armorsmithing. Approximately 10 of my 45 levels were from crafting.
From 1 - 45, My quest log has been full. I started playing a Zone with 10 new quests and I couldn't pick up a single one because my quest log was 30/30.
Last night, 10 of us took down a lvl 42 boss that dropped two blue caster items, and the lowest level chanter got both. He was very happy to say the least. After killing the world boss, we protrected the Beluslan fortress from 40 Elyos who had no idea what they were doing. They dove into our auction house after a failed attempt at killing the Fortress Raid leader.
After that, 12 of us Rifted and went to the Elyos zone were we proceeded to World pvp for the next two hours.
I know a lot of people don't like Aion because it's grindy. Yeah, there are grinding aspects to the game but not as much as people who CHOSE to only grind. It's like ordering a steak dinner, and eating only the veggies, and then saying... "this dinner sucks."
Many people played Aion like they played WoW. Hence, the disapointment and resentment. I for one, am enjoying Aion immensely. To each his own.
PS - Xfire shows Aion has the second highest MMO on the list. My server, Ariel is going strong with parties doing instances, raids, etc all the time.
If you didn't enjoy Aion, move on. There's no reason to continually come back to the boards and berate a game you don't like. It's subjective and people shouldn't get flamed for having different tastes.
Ya... cause a vote on this site = the entire player base for Aion
Seriously I wish some posters would get a clue
Get a clue and go back to school and learn statistics and poll. If xfire shows Aion is close to Eve population then Aion has lost 70% sub.
You're kidding right? Don't generalize "hardcore" gamers based on how easy it is or not to level in an MMO. You seem quick to judge others when your own abstaining realization of Aion is that it's "hardcore" because it takes 2389893438 months to get to max level. I'm sorry to break it to you, but many of us (including myself) have played EQ, FFXI, WoW, etc.. and have leveled to max after several months, been in guilds which have raided 3-4 times a week minimum, or have had to camp a mob spawn for 8 hours to get a rare item, etc, etc.
What makes these MMO games "hardcore" is not any one specific aspect (i.e. leveling), it's many. People are not playing Aion because it's too "hardcore" for them, they are not playing it because it's missing so much functionality and originality found in prior games (as mentioned above). I played Aion for the first 30 days, got to lvl 25. To me, Aion felt very linear and unfulfilling without any sense of immersion into the storyline.
i got to say i enjoyed your post immensly !simple and to the point !and your ARE right one one thing for me !dont know about other player!but for me i went in full of wow idea and game play and it wasnt even close to it !so i went out of it.did i give it a fair
chance?honestly ?hell no!
since i got a time card sitting here anyway !I WILL TRY IT AND GIVE IT A FAIR CHANCE!like you pointed out
going in without expectation is probably the best and also i will probably have to work on patience
as you point out its number 2 on xfire MMO list!its not there by luck!
It's 3rd week since playing AION. I have 8 characters, 1x lv30ish, 3x lv23ish, 3x 17ish, and one still lv4.
The game follows exactly the path of any F2P on the market.
It is definitely not a long game for me.
This is the best post I've read here in a really long time... possibly ever.
I am willing to bet no one will even reply to it. No one ever replies to anything logical or well written....
playing since October and still enjoy it a lot. Strange thing is, I really wish I were playing Fallen Earth. I feel like it is objectively a deeper, more interesting game. I just have one problem with it, relevant to this post, the lack of grouping.
Playing on two Aion servers in the East I have never lacked for friend or foe to team or PvP with. Although there are always a ton of people on in Fallen Earth, they mostly don't group and there is little incentive to PvP.
"Never met a pack of humans that were any different. Look at the idiots that get elected every couple of years. You really consider those guys more mature than us? The only difference between us and them is, when they gank some noobs and take their stuff, the noobs actually die." - Madimorga
Haha, I wouldn't normally say polls are necessarily bad even on these types of forums but a RETENTION poll on a third party forum, and *especially* one that caters to players of countless MMO's ... that's just wrong xD
This is the best post I've read here in a really long time... possibly ever.
I am willing to bet no one will even reply to it. No one ever replies to anything logical or well written....
There's nothing wrong with liking the game if that's his cup of tea. There are also two sides to every story (even you admit that Aion has flaws, some of which are very glaring). He mentioned that most play Aion like they do WoW, which I do not disagree with. I think though that players in general just do not have the time commitment anymore to devote to a game like this. They are conditioned to play in short bursts, like an hour or two.
Also, don't bring Xfire numbers up. When the game launched, according the Xfire, there were 14,000 players. Now according to Xfire there is an average about 4500. That's a 68% dropoff just of Xfire users.
This is the best post I've read here in a really long time... possibly ever.
I am willing to bet no one will even reply to it. No one ever replies to anything logical or well written....
OK, i'll bite. Notice this poster said he got 10 levels from crafting (and his gathering).
Both are extremely tediious, grinding type activities in Aion and although I've done a bit of gathering, I despise these activities (especially crafting) therefore my gaming experience in Aion has been a bit different.
I duo with my son, and we routinely run out of quests at various points and have to grind out a half a level here and there sometimes. We're both level 32 now, but the same phenomenon has occurred on my solo alt (27 Templar).
Fortunately, we enjoy grinding by combat so it works for us, but I can understand where some people might dislike the game because they have to engage in activities they don't care for. (such as crafting, mob grinding etc) to continue their character advancement.
I haven't even had a decent clan experience yet because my original one completely broke up and folded, and every time we seem to get close to the level the major clans want to recruit (was 25 but now seems to be 35) the bar raises on us.
But that's OK, we're casual players and patient, one day we'll catch up and find something that suits us.
The game is doing pretty well, but there's no doubt there's been a big drop off in new players, my server at one time had 5 new player channels, jumped up to 7 for a bit, and now is back at 3.
So sure, Aion's a decent game depending on a persons individual play style (but then again, isn't that true of all games) but don't assume people who don't care for Aion are deficient in some manner, they just have different tastes.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
This is the best post I've read here in a really long time... possibly ever.
I am willing to bet no one will even reply to it. No one ever replies to anything logical or well written....
OK, i'll bite. Notice this poster said he got 10 levels from crafting (and his gathering).
Both are extremely tediious, grinding type activities in Aion and although I've done a bit of gathering, I despise these activities (especially crafting) therefore my gaming experience in Aion has been a bit different.
I duo with my son, and we routinely run out of quests at various points and have to grind out a half a level here and there sometimes. We're both level 32 now, but the same phenomenon has occurred on my solo alt (27 Templar).
Fortunately, we enjoy grinding by combat so it works for us, but I can understand where some people might dislike the game because they have to engage in activities they don't care for. (such as crafting, mob grinding etc) to continue their character advancement.
I haven't even had a decent clan experience yet because my original one completely broke up and folded, and every time we seem to get close to the level the major clans want to recruit (was 25 but now seems to be 35) the bar raises on us.
But that's OK, we're casual players and patient, one day we'll catch up and find something that suits us.
The game is doing pretty well, but there's no doubt there's been a big drop off in new players, my server at one time had 5 new player channels, jumped up to 7 for a bit, and now is back at 3.
So sure, Aion's a decent game depending on a persons individual play style (but then again, isn't that true of all games) but don't assume people who don't care for Aion are deficient in some manner, they just have different tastes.
To address some of your points, since your post was in response to mine:
Crafting is tedious but there's no reason to stare at your computer screen while you craft, especially when you're converting 1000s of ores to ingots. I usually just catch a movie or watch tv, or do some chores in the background.
Running out of quests? It's because you duoed. You effectively cut the xp you would have recieved in half. The benefit to duoing is that you finish faster, but the drawback is not getting enough xp. You could have easily done the quests with your son, next ot each other, but not in the same group. I only grouped for the quests that were marked [Group].
This game is different in that regard because people didn't realize the bulk of your xp is from killing mobs, not quest turn ins. In WoW, the bulk of your XP, in vanilla wow especially was the turn in.
I've been lucky to be a part of a legion where 10-15 of us are usually on. We are all adults, 25+, most of us with family, career, and children. We only have 2-3 hours a night. This means you just pick an activity for that night and roll with it. Whether it be doing Steel Rake, the group quests in Hoarfrost stronghold, Fortress raids, rifting, campaign quests, etc.
Overall, my time in Aion has been very refreshing, contrary to most people's perception of the game. I think it has to do with the fact that I quit WoW four months before starting Aion. I was all WoW'ed out. I wanted something different and a change of pace, with combat that I enjoyed. I didn't enjoy the combat animations in WoW nor the gameplay for that matter. So I guess, Aion plugged the void I was experiencing. Also, 99% of my legion are old wow players who just wanted to move on into something different. Our biggest gripe has been people who have no intention leaving WoW, coming to Aion, and demanding that the developers make Aion more like WoW.
I have nothing against WoW, heck I played it for 4 years, but please WoW gods, save me from your followers.
Numbers so far kind of what I expected. Still If It did get over 1 million people to buy the game and lets say it keeps 20% of that 1 million. 200,000 players is still a very successful mmorpg. In the same playing field as EQ2 FFXI & LoTRO.