Aion is the next game in line to try and snoop some subscribers out of World of WarCraft’s uncontested grip on the fantasy MMORPG genre. Closed beta testing is over, an open beta will arrive next week, and launch is less than a month away (September 25th in Europe). The general consensus appears to be that Aion will do well, but not be any real threat to WoW, supposedly due to a lack of innovation.
Yet I’ve been noticing some odd similarities between Aion and WoW as of late. Having participated in beta testing for both games, it’s hard not to notice the overlap between their launch conditions. Indeed, Aion looks to be the first MMORPG to launch with nigh identical conditions to WoW’s. Might this mean that a new giant has arrived?
The development process for Aion and World of WarCraft was very similar: messy and disappointing. Both games saw a lot of major features get dropped during development and occasional major changes in gameplay focus.
Early World of WarCraft previews indicated a much more PvP-oriented product than the end result (at launch). Likewise, early Aion previews focused heavily on server-specific storytelling and environmental changes based on player actions, which were dropped long ago.
Innovative Products
As a result of their messy development processes, both Aion and World of WarCraft ended up as rather generic titles.
Aion merely has its heavily flight-oriented gameplay, including extensive support for aerial combat, to distinguish itself from other games in the genre.
World of WarCraft didn’t even have that much; the only truly unique aspects that it had going for it was the setting and a never-before-seen level of accessibility.
And yet no one really cared. World of WarCraft added nothing new to the genre, but it grew into the most popular game of its kind in a matter of months. This was because of a number of other factors that influenced the influx of both new and veteran MMOG players.
The environments look overwhelming. The gameplay is not...
Hype
One of those factors that World of WarCraft had going for it was hype. There were plenty of detractors who, rightfully, claimed that the game was slightly buggy and the servers suffered from incredible bouts of lag. Not to mention the seriously lacking communication on Blizzard’s end, with horrible patch notes and a nearly complete lack of support for any issues of any kind. All of this continued for months into launch.
This didn’t prevent the game from being perceived very positively in gamer communities across the internet. For every detractor there were a dozen people speaking for the game’s qualities, and there were even more looking forward to trying out the game’s mechanics and immersing themselves in the unique setting.
Aion is no different. There are a fair few detractors, whose primary argument is a lack of true innovation – forgetting that this was true of WoW as well. Yet there are no horror-stories about lag or bugs to be found, and the only other common complaint I’ve seen is a ridiculous complaint against the supposed grind. Otherwise the news seems to be universally positive.
The Grind
World of WarCraft did manage to distinguish itself from most (but not all, remember Guild Wars?) of its competitors, with its heavily quest-oriented approach to levelling. Most MMOGs at the time forced you to mindlessly slaughter monsters in order to gain skills or levels. As a result it was seen as a very grind-free game, which attracted a large portion of the less hardcore elements of the MMOG community.
Now Aion is set to launch shortly and some people, mostly those who haven’t played it, are proclaiming it to be an Asian grindfest. But when you look closely, Aion looks set to become one of the least grind-oriented MMOGs in today’s market.
PvE aficionados will be able to enjoy more than 1500 quests at launch, which should be plenty to make it to level 50. Better yet, Aion comes with a story-oriented presentation that is very similar to Guild Wars. This means cutscenes and storyline quests and missions. And more inventive quests that change objectives during the course of the quest, very much like a singleplayer RPG.
You might occasionally need to resort to straight out monster slaying in order to advance in levels, but based on my experiences in the closed beta (version 1.0) this rarely happens. Nothing worse than the level of grind present in WoW at launch (which occasionally forced you into grinding for levels). And the release version of Aion promises further improvement, because version 1.5 packs a load of extra quests and instances that weren’t featured in the beta tests.
PvP is similarly devoid of grind-oriented gameplay. No simple arena matches for mere favour points and equipment. Instead you have genuine wars over property the likes of which Dark Age of Camelot, Age of Conan, Warhammer Online and Lineage players will be familiar with. It does feature favour points and equipment, but does so in a much less static and much more challenging PvP environment, which prevents it from ever feeling like a grind.
So on the whole, Aion looks to be just about on-par with the current World of WarCraft in terms of grinding. It’s marginally more grind-oriented in PvE (WoW has in excess of 7000 quests now and just doesn’t require any straight out grinding at all anymore) and a lot less in PvP (WoW is still mostly just static arena-based and world PvP is practically dead). It actually has a major step up on WoW-at-launch in this regard.
Slaying monsters purely for experience (grinding)? Unlikely...
Accessibility
What was likely the main reason for World of WarCraft’s popularity was its incredible accessibility. Most MMOGs at the time were quite complex, like Mankind or 10SIX, or had a presentation that was simply unappealing, like NCSoft’s own Lineage. But not World of WarCraft, the game that featured easy skill progression, incredibly swift leveling mechanics and the most solid and simple interface ever seen in a MMORPG.
Aion is equally accessible, with a solid presentation and easy introduction to every gameplay mechanic. Aion even pushes things a little beyond World of WarCraft with its linked quest item, monster and NPC names in quest descriptions. These help a lot when you’re trying to find the location of the next step in your current quest. NCSoft had even added video tutorials for new gameplay elements. Aion truly appears to be second only to Free Realms in terms of accessibility.
Aion and WoW are extraordinarily newbie-friendly. Contrary to The Lord of the Rings Online and Warhammer Online with their abstract classes and skills, or Age of Conan with its unusual control scheme and harsher-than-carebear PvP rules, Aion and WoW both work exactly as you’d expect them to. The classes are obvious, the controls are simple, the interface is clear and the game mechanics are explained properly and thoroughly.
Polish
Another significant reason for World of WarCraft’s popularity was its level of polish. It certainly wasn’t the prettiest – or most well-optimized – MMOG around (those titles both went to Guild Wars), but it had a level of polish that other MMOGs just couldn’t match.
Quests were well-designed and NPCs felt like they belonged in the world. The interface performed as expected, but wasn’t overly flashy (Shattered Galaxy), overly complex (EVE Online) or plain absent (10SIX). Character creation offered just enough choice to be interesting, without forcing you to make choices (skills, attribute levels, etc.) you didn’t want to make until later in the game.
Aion takes it a step further by providing not just a well-polished game, but a big well-polished game. The amount of content for a launch title is mind-boggling, which is in part because its already been out in South Korea for a while. This is also the reason why the game is relatively bug free and the servers are very stable even under heavy loads. Lag was generally minimal during beta weekends, even at peak hours.
NCsoft has also taken a good look at their own games for inspiration, which has resulted in much more engaging PvE content than you’ll find in most MMORPGs. Implementing cutscenes and storydriven missions as in Guild Wars (or Wrath of the Lich King) is another level of polish that most modern MMOGs just lack. Not to mention the extensive character creation system that is right up there with City of Heroes, EVE Online and Age of Conan.
Also take a look at the Aion 1.5 (Western launch version) overview I wrote up last week, for more indications of the effort NCSoft is putting into translating this title for the Western market.
Many people will be facing this choice come September 25th...
And yet, in spite of the relatively similar launch conditions, I doubt that Aion will perform quite as well as World of WarCraft did back in the day.
World of WarCraft was one of those genre-firsts, like Wolfenstein 3D, Command & Conquer or Counter Strike. It may not have been the absolute first of its kind, but the first popular thing in its genre. You can make something in the same genre later on, but only a rare gem might do better than that original game that had no true competition, a gem like StarCraft or Quake.
Aion might be a good game, and it will almost certainly grow to be one of the top three MMO games in the near future, but a gem it is not…
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been playing open beta for 3 days,goto lvl 10.totally pollished,graphically beautiful,chr amins top notch.looking forward to all the crafting combinations.
played wow for 4 years off and on,the game is now top heavy with all the additions and tweaks, too many layers of customization and buffs.
got a nuber of chrs to lvls 50,60,70 and got bored .
i was killing bears at lvl 5 and still killing them at lvl 75, only now they were super lvl 75 bears.
all the reviews of AION that ive read fail or forget to mention one thing….FUN……..AION is fun and a delight on the eye.
one final thing,,,anyone who uses the words…………………..eye candy or closer,not sure how you spell closer as in closing the episode,,shoulld have been strangled at birth.
Actually people like you deserve to be strangled, why did you play a game for four years if you didn’t have fun? Go pick up a dictionary and read what the word game means. People like you make me laugh, they are so ready to move on to the next grindtastic piece of shit.
Its not a grindfest, and it is actually pretty fun, lots of new features like chain combos, and other game mechanics that make it more enjoyable, along with each toon having Animations for their attacks,
Animation for Attacks?
FUCKING REVOLUTION
Blizzard should be quivering in their pants.
Tim, I think what leslie meant to say is that WoW was fun at first, but got boring after several level 70s. So that wouldn’t be 4 years of boredom, but maybe a few months.
As for the grind. Well, these kinds of games are what you make of them. It’s curious how most people who call Aion an Asian grindfest are those who play every MMORPG like it’s a hack&slash game with annoying bits of text strapped on. I’d imagine that when you play like that, every MMO would be a grindfest.
lol I know that the WoW players are quivering in their pants. But the thing about this review that doesn’t make much sense to me is that whoever wrote it just finished explaining in the review that Aion matches and surpasses WoW on every topic he talked about, yet he says “… but a gem it’s not.” How the hell does that make any sense?
Well, it’s not really a review. It’s a comparison of launch conditions. Graphics, gameplay, atmosphere – none of these topics were covered, at all.
Basically what’s being said is that the conditions at launch are similar (if slightly more favorable) for Aion. Now more-so than at the time of writing, because Aion is even experiencing similar (albeit less serious) server issues.
I didn’t cover the actual gameplay and lore (amongst other things), which are very solid indeed, but just a bit too generic to be truly noteworthy. Hence ‘a gem it is not’.
HEY TIM do us all a favor STFU!!!! Maybe you didnt play the game or have your own opinions this is about AION not WOW for your info the whole latest patch for WOW has been a real slap on the face for players grinding badges nonstop for tier gear instead of making a decent raid for drops comon i was so displeased with that Blizz should be ashamed of thereselves all i can say is Blizz needs to keep an eye on AION it will become popular but not a killer
Yeah, tim, you’re a FUCKING RETARD. You call AION a grindfest, yet im playing it currently, and im level 30. I’ve had to grind out ONE level. Call that a grindfest?
That’s amazing.
I’m really happy for you and all, but I promise you this will die (Hopefully) quietly in a grave, right next to Warhammer and AOC.
Also, your childish mannerisms make me chuckle.
I’m leaving this thread to die now, come back in six months and you can suck me or something for being right.
Also, so far the Aion community seems like even more of a joke than the Heroes of Newerth community.
Jokers.
I sincerely doubt that Aion will crash and burn like WAR and AoC. It might lose some subs a few months in, but even that’s not guaranteed.
If it was going to do that poorly then we’d be seeing the first signs of mass exodus right now (three weeks in). Yet all of the first-batch servers are still queued up every night. And all of the community polls and player feedback seem to indicate that the subscriber retention rate will be… oh… 85% or so.
It may not become WoW 2 at millions of subscribers, but it does seem like Aion will do well for some time to come.
As for the community: Aion’s (in-game) community has been surprisingly friendly, helpful and mature. There have been the inevitable immature discussions in general chat, especially on Gorgos, but overall it’s a lot better than most MMORPGs (WoW definitely included).
As a result, it comes nowhere near HoN’s terrible community. This is not a game where newbies will get kicked out of Noob Only servers for … being Noob. It’s too bad that Heroes of Newerth is a great game to play, because the community is just appalling.
well ive been wondering how aion is compared to wow also , Ive been playing wow now for 3 years longest time I ever played a game at first and even till lately the game was great.but I do feel i need a change , plus not to mention nerfs and buffs classes get now plus that dam faction switching i think just ruined the idea of the game pvp wise , and i know its a mmo relaying on others to do almost anything now at lvl 80 , guess im looking for more solo driven game now and i know im probably never gonna find that from a online mmo .lol I did like the idea of guildwars were u could hire a npc if u were down 1-2 players and im not sure if aion has something like that ??
basically from what this guy wrote in this website sums up i think of how alot of wow players thats been playing for a while are feeling
http://elliotinaion.wordpress.com/2009/06/04/aion-vs-wow-a-conclusion/
I would like to say .. aion.. combines games like cabal, last chaos , rappelz, and world of warcraft into one. The simpleness of world of warcrcraft and the pretty nice community and organized raids and pvp is what i like the most. Aion is just like all games like cabal, last chaos and stuff, and zomg huge combat animation!! Big fucking deal.. WAY to many games had that way before this and its way to flashy. Also.. too many free games basically exactly like this.. and thats why i think this is extremely retarded.. i played rappelz for about two weeks.. got bored.. then this gives me that same feeling.. since is almost the same. (the feel not the gameplay) Don’t get me wrong seems to be a decent game, but still is missing that certain feel that wow is able to give me. Maybe with further patches they can make me switch to Aion.. even though ive been bored of wow since i hit lvl 60.. ALL other mmo’s bore me more
What I’m liking about Aion right now (level 20 sorc) is that the game feels a lot like how WoW felt when it was new. People leveling up their first toons. No one “knows it all” yet. And much like WoW when it first started, no damage meters or mods that tell you what to do and how to beat things. Basicly no addons. No one demanding to see a list of achievements or demanding you do X dps. You just play it and have fun. That’s how I remember WoW being back in 2004.
I’d recommend this game to anyone who liked what WoW once was, but don’t really care for what it has become (too easy). And before people reply with “wow was never hard”… play WoW with no addons, and only raid in group that don’t use any addons, then tell me it’s easy. All that modding really ruined the game imo.
Interesting article. Other then the fact that something can become boring, dull, or not very surprising anymore (always happens with pretty much anything) WOW has added much to the genre of MMOs. It also put a very interesting standard that (sadly sometimes) many companies feel they have to follow to “grab” subscribers from the monster WOW.
When I say added much….this is what I am referring too:
1. A very Solo friendly MMO
2. Accessibility without the need for large numbers (anymore)
3. Not having to worry that your lack of being able to play (some people do have busy llives) will make you fall too far behind.
4. Many fights that are more then a Tank and Spank (Very well done instances)
5. Fast paced pvp (very console style).
6. Not alot of time is needed to get something out of it.
Those are some of the things that WOW added to the MMO genre. One thing blizzard does well is create games that are fun, and that many seem to enjoy (the primary point to a game most of the time).
Any new game will of course draw attention. Its new…that is why. The thing about WOW ….that i feel draws people is what many also call it flaws. It is “easy” for lack of a better statement. The things I stated that WOW added to the MMO genre are also somethings that many feel make it too easy…or no challenge. I feel this is mis-understood. Yes, gaining nice gear is easy…but it is not the best. I do not have to spend tons of time just to gain one small piece of something “epic” in a patch time frame before it is worthless come next patch. Sadly…many who did have time to dedicate would get much of such rare item and feel higher. Blizzard “fixed” this….thus many can get epics…sad thing is…many do not feel higher or unique in the venture.
The game itself (instances, fights and such) have not gotten easier…in fact they require much more tactics then a the game used too. Many more have to have an idea of what is going on to win. What has gotten easier is the time needed to actually win. What used to take hours (for many) to just start (40 mans) and many hours to complete (due to length and trying to keep 40 in the same place) now does not.
Sadly…many feel that game is too easy because it is more accessible. I do not feel that the actual game play is easy…just that ALOT ot time is not needed to feel a sense of acomplishment (or get gear to even allow you to attempt ing instances). Because not much time is needed…people are able to check out new games..knowing that they can pretty much jump right back into WOW without falling far behind the “top” player (end game re say) curve.
Many get the wrong sense of a fight (or challenge)…because they require people in gear that is better then the gear of the instance to be in thier group; thus being carried. When they run into a group that is about right in gear and skill to just start an encounter….a wipe is more or less about to happen (has nothing to do with the fact that those players are good at thier class or will be great in the encounter once learned). When it does…the person that never really got the challenge in the first place feels he is ellite and leaves….looking for that group that can carry him. Thus making the game “easier” for that player. The game still is challenging (if you get into something with others that have not done it)…but many can and will following the shadow of those that have done the challenge and are helping gear up the rest. This is a problem with any MMO…..normally used with Power lvling, giving high lvl items to low lvls, high lvl follow around, etc.
Aion is just a different game that brings its own taste to the genre. It is fun in it own right. Time can only tell if it will pull the customer base it needs to remain alive. The question is not really….,”will it kill WOW”. WoW will end some day. :)
WOW does one thing I really like to the genre…..it opened it up….now many need to come up with something to really grab you. :)
Yea…I typed alot about wow…but wanted to get my point out lol.
My friends and I been playing WoW since the day it came out and have been on the edge of our seats ever since. It brings us all together and the positive social atmosphere is what makes this so popular.
I played WOW since launch, the game lost its touch long time ago at the launch of WOTLK, some could say it got horrible when TBC launched as well. I think its because before the expansion, Classic WOW got it right after a long time which became unbalanced quickly when TBC came out.
right now WOW is in the shitter, you could throw around subscription numbers, but most of the 12 million subs are people with multiple accounts and China/Chinese gold sellers, which if you look at the MMO numbers recently, their was a huge drop off in Subscriptions back in July-Sept of last year where that 12 million dropped down to 6 million, then shot back up to 12 million all of a sudden, this was the China markets influence.
When compared to Aion which has put out more subscribers of any other MMO not named WOW, Aion aint far away from being the MMO choice if NCSoft plays its cards right, and all NCSoft has to do is put down a pair of 2′s, because the problem with WOW is it went into the 10 year olds hands and became the MMO for dummies, little to accomplish in WOW anymore without going through the politics the guilds play and the highly exploitable PVP system it has, especially for arena play.