If you could picture a board room meeting from say, Robocop or Office
Space, imagine a man in a business suit with a line graph of the last
six months.  Aion has had a turbulent launch, even if it was
relatively
technically sound compared to other launches.   In
the last 3 months,
we've seen great change and the first steps towards further
westernization for our audience.  Keep your own personal
thoughts in
mind as we begin our Ten Ton Hammer review of Aion over the course of
2009.



GET HYPE - The beta times



When
everyone heard the idea of ANGELS FLYING THROUGH THE AIR IN OPEN PVP,
we responded with great enthusiasm.  When is the beta?! Where
is the
North American release!?  And is there a ranger class I can
name
XxLeGoLaSxX ?!  NCSoft was rather stingy though.  A
closed beta with
relatively few participants barely whet our desires and provided little
real information for the masses of us looking for a real alternative to
the standard that is World of Warcraft.



When the beta actually
went live, what did we get?  Weekends.  Weekends of
limited content,
limited race selection, and of course limited play time.  Of
course,
when most people think 'beta' what they actually are looking for is a
try-before-you-buy trial of sorts.  We more or less got that
in short
bursts.  Perhaps those short bursts were strategic, as most
players
barely touched the 20's and beyond and were in awe of the visceral
combat and ever so shiny graphics.  Of course, then the real
open beta
happened and who was it for?  Fileplanet subscribers and those
of us
who preordered the game.  Nothing more.  If you
wanted in on the
action, better head to your local video game store and drop that ten
bucks for the reservation.  Incentive to reserve was
definitely there
though, since GameGuard, the anti-cheat shell for the game was being
removed at launch.



How trusting, NCSoft!  We're all legit players in North
America, right?



IT'S AION BABY!  -
Launch



Hell
yes, it was time.  We preloaded our characters, set up the
names, and
forgot to change our voices (Or at least I know I did).  And
then we
logged in to...... 12,000 people spread across 10 channels, or 1200
people sitting in the newbie zone, most within 100 feet of
starting. 
So many just crashed outright.  If you wanted to loot a quest
item, you
had to stand on top of 20 other people furiously right clicking and
hoping to be that lucky #1 who actually got the loot credit on
it. 
Holy crap, this was true pain. 



Did you want to log in at
prime time?  Enjoy your 2 hour wait.  Queues are a
true sign of a
shortsighted launch, and the fact that if you crashed or logged out for
any time above 5 minutes, you had to reenter the queue from 
scratch. 
Of course, as we all know Aion takes a good chunk of time to launch to
begin with so the period for being exempt from the queue is mighty
small.  Of course, the discovery that running a private store
kept you
logged into the game led to many 99 million kinah Thin Rawhides being
put up as people slept or went to work to preserve their spot on Aion's
soil.  NCSoft was swift in putting a stop to that loophole
however...
but just what loopholes did they leave open besides this?



LFG replaces Barrens Chat - 1-2
months in



As
we barreled through the initial grouping of the Black Claw and its
Elyos equivalent, we reached a lovely lovely point known as the NTC, or
training camp.  It was a 5 man instance of legendary
experience, over
20,000 a kill.  It was restricted to levels 25-28 and was your
first
real taste of grouping.  And what a fantastic taste it
was.  Drops be
damned (we all know nothing drops there), it was paradise. 
With a
Lodas Amulet you could get 1 level a day in less than an hour of play
time.



And it spoiled us all.



30-34 is a barren land of
weak skill upgrades, terrible group content, and even the group content
you can access (Fire Temple)  has level 35 drops and awful
drop rates. 
A lot of subscriptions were lost here.  I myself lost my best
friend to
the fact that there was no incentive to group for another 10 levels
until Mistmane.  Quests had turned into the same experience as
5-6
kills of the same monsters, so they had become relatively pointless to
some and little more than a distraction to others. 
Repeatables barely
existed.  Whatever the case may be, our legion of 32 turned
into a
legion of two after the second month.  I'm sure your guild or
your
friend's legion experienced the same turnover.



Of course, we can't ignore the fact that Fijfijlkj <money
legion>
ran up to half of your mobs and tried to cleave them before you
could. 
Thankfully the botting community has been being smacked around for the
last 2 months and we're up to over 100,000 accounts banned for
it. 
Unfortunately between 100,000 accounts being banned, and probably a
million quitting, it's not exactly a good time to be rolling new
characters.  Times you had to compete for single monsters for
10
minutes on end are now complete in 2.  You might even have to
wait for
a black claw or NTC group to form up, and templars/clerics are in high
demand and rare cases can lead to parties filling up on 5 and forcing a
gladiator or chanter to man up and fill the role.



NCSoft
Takes Charge (Kinda) - Current



We're going to make this game a
better place!  So the following stuff has been put into play
or is about to be



- Repeatable quests have received a massive experience and kinah boost
for the most part to encourage grinding with rewards.

- Queues are toast!

- Energy of Repose (rest experience) has been boosted for the majority
of us.

- Soul Healing no longer causes you to punch things with how much it
costs you.

- Flying Spiritmaster Pets!



There's still a few things wrong, but NCSoft is proving they are
looking to make this game a winner.   Veteran awards
are going to be
giving us the best non-dropped wings in the game in a few
months! 
Don't even get me started on that Vision trailer though, that's another
story entirely.  Where Aion is going though, will it keep you
for the
long haul?  Or did the last few months break your soul
(healing) ?