GDC: Aion: The Tower of Eternity Comments by Oli Welsh

I can't wait for this! I'm been holding out on MMO's just for this one.

Good article, hopefully this game will be a whirlwind success and show the world that challenging PvP, pretty graphics and the style of a Korean MMO isn't that bad.

Aion is basically a westernised Lineage running on a prettier engine with a few subtle differences.

The big question that stands over NCSoft's head is not whether they can produce the content or an enjoyable game that can last years. The question is can they stop the sophisticated and game dominating bot programs from taking over as they did in Lineage II. The level of sophistication and detection avoidance from some of the bot programs on L2 were on a level I've never known before for cheat software. As a result of this (and poor GM behaviour) the game was plagued with automated players to the point where literally half the player base was involved in it.

NCSoft even allowed these programs to login and run characters without even running the game client, merely running a small GUI program on the users desktop, this meant people could run a massive amount of accounts from one PC with little to no resources consumed. Any game maker that allows such a program to access their servers throughout the life of their game without stopping it has some serious issues about anti-cheat I think.

If NC can stop this for Aion then it will be second only to WoW in popularity I think (assuming the game is actually good of course).

Sounds really good!

Really looking forward to this. Only hope this "westernizing" does the trick to make it appeal to the western mmo crowd. Me? I’m a guild wars vet and mmo addict – I’m sure it will tick all the right boxes. I can only hope that it will hold my interest, esp. since I’ve been waiting years for it! :)

Here’s hoping!

Furries make God wince.

Also really looking forward to Aion ^^ News from the Korean release is that it is excellent and provides pretty much everything I want from an mmo (WoW has completely lost its WOW factor for me now...nothing in the game is exotic or mysterious or dangerous anymore)

For a "Hands-On" the article mentions none of the combat's intricacies. The combos, the chaining, the combat tree with its individual cool downs you have to manage in order to get the most damage out of your toon.

Aside from mentioning the exhaustive "culturalisation" process, there was not a single example given where and how something was "culturalized".

4th variety - I didn't have long enough with the game to investigate those areas hands-on, I'm afraid. However, you will find more detail on them in the previous preview article from last year, linked in this piece.

Culturalisation includes UI things like the way hotkeys work as well as text translation. They're not going into it in too much detail.

Would like to play an MMO again. But both WotLK and LOTRO seems more interesting than Aion. Atleast for now.

Really looking forward to this game..
This game is going to be a combination of L2, WoW and FF.(in a way)
I've was playing L2 for a couple of years, endgame was a blast to play - the reason? world pvp/sieges, but was a pain to hit endlvl(the grind was literally unbearable)
WoW.. i'm playing this game since its launch, it was fun to begin with, ok with TBC and sucked real bad with WoTLK.
One of its biggest downsides was that the PvP content was absent compared to the continuously updated PvE content.. plus i disliked the whole Battleground/Arena system to begin with.

I personally feel its wrong saying that LOTR and WoW(in its current state) still look more insteresting than Aion.. but that's just me.
I say - let's just wait and see what NC will bring us this time.

By the way, what about the whole "lack of environmental variation"?I always thought that Aion is gonna have plenty o' areas with different flora etc but then again.. i haven't played the game yet -- so our hands-on team must know better....

Edit: Forgot to mention another huge downside that L2 had: bots, biggest plague ever - an area that NCsoft failed.
Let's hope that it doesn't happen in Aion..

Well I have been bouncing around looking for a decent MMo to play since SWG (when SWG was great) back in the day I've played many and a few deffo had there moments LOTRO had GREAT PVE content but there just wasn't enough of it,another that stuck out and had its moments too was WAR shame GOA couldn't handle the pressure and the supposed 'Huge pitch battles' fizzled out into an error404 lag fest and DC. AOC pfft enough said I pin my hops on NCSoft and Aion have pre-ordered it and it looks great all the elements are there for a great MMo worth spending some time in!! lets hope it gets the player base and peeps dont get put off by the 'fairy' wings personally I'm well into flight the wings look cool to me perhaps NCSoft should try a more gritty dark looking advertising campaign for the EU and America,to hook all us 'Well ard' Brits and Yanks:)

Good article,good game Aion