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Encouraging opinion from a beta tester
Zyuu, a writer in www.curse.com is playing Aion's beta actively (seems like someone he knows had an account for him) and he has posted his personal opinion about the game.
This opinion is based on a game with texts he can't read, and a second closed beta, being only level ~9ish.
Since I'm actively playing in the Aion beta right now, I can tell you that Aion is already at least as polished as WoW was in Closed Beta. Aion also have many new features that WoW does not have. It is incredibly fun, detailed (not just graphic-wise, but oh so many other things) and it seem to have a lot of content polished and ready already. Yet... it's still in a closed beta phase with an NDA that is not enforced. Basically, the Aion development team also realise what a good game Aion already is, so that is why they don't bother enforcing the NDA is my guess.
I'm so impressed by how well designed Aion is. Everything meshes up nicely. There will always be concerns and issues, however, Aion is the only MMO I've seen come close to the polish and creativity + not to mention FUN that World of Warcraft seem to give so many players. While games such as Lineage 2 had fun aspects, it also had many flaws. Aion is a "next-gen" MMO in my eyes due to how they really have improved, learned and adapted from previous mistakes and successes and polished it even further + added new groundbreaking features.
World of Warcraft took from many other games and polished and improved upon it. Aion takes it a step further.
If Aion was to be released right now - it would do damn good. But since it won't be out for awhile, they have even more time to further enhance the game. So when it's ready to be released, it won't be damn good. It'll be superb. Excellent, better then sliced bread. You name it.
I've played many MMO's and I am picky. It's very easy for me to notice if the developers of a MMO title have that 'little extra' and Aion's development team does have just that. Comparing development teams is like comparing mushrooms with oranges. I hate mushrooms but oranges are great. 
. Or how about comparing a new car with an old one. Or aliens with Swedish girls? Exactly.
My point is (and it's backed up with facts and personal experience and experience from others too, no rumors or assumptions) is that Aion is incredibly well polished, well designed and it only keep on improving.
It sure encourages me, and Im sure many other people will take these words with enthusiasm.
Comments
I'm allready pretty sure that Aion will be the Only game that will make me and my mates happy playing it (we are very picky in games, and after 3 years of WoW we need something like this).
But indeed, the words from that beta tester, make me wanna play it even more, or test it!
i would love to be a tester in Aion Europe Beta (if it's gonna exist)
.
Kind Regards
Katzu
The part I don't get is if the game is so fantabulous, then why is their web page such crap? You'd think that with all the time and effort they're putting into a "next-gen" MMO they'd put at least a *little* effort into promoting it through their web site. Definitely not the case here. I get skeptical when I see something like this because it usually means they either don't care about the community and they just want our $$, or the game is a 2nd rate version of some other game that they bought the rights & engine from (a-la Archlord).
Compare this to a game like Warhammer Online where they spend a good bit of resources on their web site to promote and inform the community about the game and you see the difference between a company that's serious and one that's not so serious.
The current website (www.aiononline.com, for any present landlubbers) is just a teaser website that's online until we're ready to start promoting the game with all our engines. Our web guys are currently working on a new site that should be online in the not too distant future.
We really couldn't be more serious about the community and about our game. Just stay tuned.
---
Sebastian Streiffert
Community Representative - Aion
Follow my twitter! aion_ayase
* In order to cover my back, things I write are of course subject to change.
And lol , they are the "1st hand" , they are making it , creating it .
It seems we have a War funboy here , what do we saw from the War devs in the past .. uhm .. 2 years ? Only artworks , SOME poor screen and also SOME poor vids and alot of talking on their website. Oh , and I remember that "funny" guy who appears in 90% from the videos explaining us how cool is War and he's showing us some .. artwork?
What do we see in Aion so far? Well, there are ALOT of IN game vids , screens and ALOT of infos from korean players/websites/tv's. Plus they have a "cool" NDA , which let players to post their vids and screens with their character , while in War they don't let you to post even an .. axe?! Oh and .. how many times have War funboy's cried when they announced 2-3 times that the game will be delayed.
So why do u boder posting in Aion forum IF you are to "lazy" to google it or watch some vids on youtube or other websites.
AT least read the thread's from this forum!
Reporter: What's behind Blizzard success, and how do you make your gamers happy?
Blizzard Boss: Making gamers happy is not my concern, making money.. yes!
The current website (www.aiononline.com, for any present landlubbers) is just a teaser website that's online until we're ready to start promoting the game with all our engines. Our web guys are currently working on a new site that should be online in the not too distant future.
We really couldn't be more serious about the community and about our game. Just stay tuned.
Ah , because of this job you need to be so gentile
Well , that guy is just not so intrested in Aion if he's lazy to do some searches 
Reporter: What's behind Blizzard success, and how do you make your gamers happy?
Blizzard Boss: Making gamers happy is not my concern, making money.. yes!
The current website (www.aiononline.com, for any present landlubbers) is just a teaser website that's online until we're ready to start promoting the game with all our engines. Our web guys are currently working on a new site that should be online in the not too distant future.
We really couldn't be more serious about the community and about our game. Just stay tuned.
Woah, nice to have some feedback from Aion Staff!
)) Really glad u guys have a open dialogue with your future costumers!
Ayase, can u inform me if there's gonna be any European beta, or are we goint straight to final version?
Regards
Katzu
The current website (www.aiononline.com, for any present landlubbers) is just a teaser website that's online until we're ready to start promoting the game with all our engines. Our web guys are currently working on a new site that should be online in the not too distant future.
We really couldn't be more serious about the community and about our game. Just stay tuned.
Woah, nice to have some feedback from Aion Staff!
)) Really glad u guys have a open dialogue with your future costumers!
Ayase, can u inform me if there's gonna be any European beta, or are we goint straight to final version?
Regards
Katzu
We try our best.
Yes, we're currently planning to hold a beta for EU/US. Unfortunately I can't give you any dates or specifics yet.
---
Sebastian Streiffert
Community Representative - Aion
Follow my twitter! aion_ayase
* In order to cover my back, things I write are of course subject to change.
Arghh I cant wait for this game. Guild wars is getting boring, WoW is stupid and pointless as hell, and EVE is just...abstract... Not to mention Aion keeps on looking better and better by the day. Awsome info here, looking forward to playing this myself.
Asia has about 3x the internet traffic NA does, that is their primary market.
About the only thing the US has to look foward to is AoC (Age of Conan) next month and War (Warhammer) next year.
You can always play L2 (Lineage 2,) TR (Tabula Rasa) and LotRO meanwhile.
Any word how big the Aion beta client is, these 40 and 50GB seem to be the norm. Also will it be broadband and vista only?
Minimum hard drives requirement is 20 GB of free space, the client was around 12 gb non optimized iirc, dunno what do you mean with broadband, but Aion will have servers in north america and in Europe, and it won't be vista only, is there any "vista only" game?
Arghh I cant wait for this game. Guild wars is getting boring, WoW is stupid and pointless as hell, and EVE is just...abstract... Not to mention Aion keeps on looking better and better by the day. Awsome info here, looking forward to playing this myself.
I just hope that Aion wont be so pointless as wow since players seem to play wow cause they are addicted to it and not cause its fun.
I see more and more people every day that want to quit wow looking for a new game, but since there is no other good game except wow around, they stick to it.
Lets hope Aion will be the next great mmorpg and will have a large community as wow has too.
Ok ok , chill out. First google it then you`ll find alot of fansites with alot of infos. Second, NCsoft said that they don't want YET to promote the game in EU/NA because they want to be sure that game it's polished , with no major bugs and stuff like that.And lol , they are the "1st hand" , they are making it , creating it .
It seems we have a War funboy here , what do we saw from the War devs in the past .. uhm .. 2 years ? Only artworks , SOME poor screen and also SOME poor vids and alot of talking on their website. Oh , and I remember that "funny" guy who appears in 90% from the videos explaining us how cool is War and he's showing us some .. artwork?
What do we see in Aion so far? Well, there are ALOT of IN game vids , screens and ALOT of infos from korean players/websites/tv's. Plus they have a "cool" NDA , which let players to post their vids and screens with their character , while in War they don't let you to post even an .. axe?! Oh and .. how many times have War funboy's cried when they announced 2-3 times that the game will be delayed.
So why do u boder posting in Aion forum IF you are to "lazy" to google it or watch some vids on youtube or other websites.
AT least read the thread's from this forum!
Hate to burst your bubble, but I'm not a War fanboi at all. In fact, if anyone sounds like a fanboi it would be you sir. I was just using that as an example of a company that's taking a serious stand on promoting their game in the US. The Chronicles of Spellborn is another example... go check out their website. Your game doesn't have to be polished and ready for release to put out some decent info on how the gameplay will be, that's a weak excuse.
I appreciate the feedback from the Aion Community Coordinator, but I remain skeptical. What do you expect the guy to say? "Our game is crap but we can't really tell you that". How many titles have we seen now that said their game was the best thing since sliced bread yet put next to nothing into promoting the game and totally relied on mmorpg.com and fan sites for their free advertising, and when the game finally did come out it's just another regurgitated copy of the same tired asian theme. All flashy graphics and no substance.
I'd love nothing better than to be completely wrong on this and Aion be the WoW killer, but darn'd if you can tell it from their advertising. Seriously, think about it, if this were your game and you were excited about it, wouldn't you put up the most fantastic web site you could to tell eveyone how great it is?
Sorry to jump in, but I had to reply. The thing that is diffrent about aion is the "Light-enforced" NDA. This means that even though the Aion Development team doesn't release alot of info, we get a TON of info from the games actual testers. The thing that makes this great is that the things we hear aren't really that biased. I mean for example, look at dark and light. The developers released alot of info about it, but what was the plus side of that? Almost everything released was a lie/bent to benifit the developers. With Aion we get to know what real people feel about the game.
Not that this answers your question, I agree that a good website is the least we can expect, but I'd much rather have it the way it is then to just hear what the developers want to tell us. Though a mix of both would be the best.
Edit: I also love how active ayase is on this forum, from what I've seen he's much more active then the people over at AOC or WAR.
Yep, NCsoft could set a heavy NDA and make you see only what they want you to see. I don't buy hype, don't tell me how it will work, show me how does it work, let me see what someone who isn't being paid for hyping thinks about Aion.
There are around 300 different player made videos about Aion in youtube, I could probably count WAR's ones with my left hand, I sure know more about Aion than what WAR fans know about WAR, you must be interested, though, and that's filtering a lot of trolls and rumors.
Our site will come to whenever NC EU/US feels ready for a beta release, so they don't have us waiting there like retards making assumptions and getting dessperate all over the place.
man the site where im taking to if i copy and paste taht adres is in spanish
That's my sig lol, it's not part of the post.
Good saying my friend. This is what I was trying to say to that guy. The part where NCsoft let players to post their vids ,screen's and everything .. since in War we only see what they want to show us.
He's right about the games that currently were opened and they faild us , where you knew that they will be so good. But in this category Aion doesn't need to be , because of the simple way that they let us to see how Aion it realy looks and not only some vids/screens from the devs.
Reporter: What's behind Blizzard success, and how do you make your gamers happy?
Blizzard Boss: Making gamers happy is not my concern, making money.. yes!
I can't really say how I know this but let me just tell you there's a good reason why WAR has a strict NDA and why the game was postponed, figure out how I know it :P
Aion on the other hand really looks like it's polished and I do believe it will be the next game I'll seriously play.
World of Warcraft is a proof that MMORPG quality should affect schedule/budget and not the other way around.
Im very jealous that u got to test out the game so early
. I cant wait for the game to come out. One thing that appeals to me is the fact that its made by NCSoft, i mean, theyre the korean MMO Giant arent they? Great successes like L2, Guild Wars, and now tabula rasa (not really a great success, but o well),
Not to mention the game looks superb. graphic wise looks amazing, classses look fun to play, with the giant axe wielding warriors and the winged aspect of the game.
Bad part is is that its gonna come out in like 8 months or soomething, so its gonna be really hard to wait for the game.
Good to hear/see. You already see how big the Aion community is currently and I am excited to see it grow larger the closer we get to release. I have no reason not to believe Aion being the biggest MMO to hit 2008, even 2009.
Big thanks to everyone working with/for Aion, also big thanks to the current Aion community - You guys are great.
Well Aion needs a lot more publishing , warhammer and aoc have published their games for about a year now but Aion not....It really needs this if NCsoft want to hit the "big games".
And ofc it has to come out be4 warhammer and wotlk so that players wont be lead to those games imo.
tbh I think it's pretty much BS. I think that next game to be WoW's replacer (I mean not by the publicity if has , I mean it will actually be good) people will hear from other people the game is great and start joining it.. in the end if the game doesn't deliver it will fail and people won't quit wow for it..
World of Warcraft is a proof that MMORPG quality should affect schedule/budget and not the other way around.
tbh I think it's pretty much BS. I think that next game to be WoW's replacer (I mean not by the publicity if has , I mean it will actually be good) people will hear from other people the game is great and start joining it.. in the end if the game doesn't deliver it will fail and people won't quit wow for it..
Couldn't agree more!
I also think that more publishin is totally unecessary, there are alot of starters for aion, why more? will the game get better because it has better publishing? hell no.
Aion seems very very polished, as long as it has a good base of initial costumers, and i reckon it will have some dozens of thousands. From there it can expand, will give the Aion Team a chance to get it even better as it is exponencially growing.
And well.. too many pusblishing makes the games just TOO MUCH comercial (see wow). as where comercial games normally are like boring novels for me.
Let aion be free of stupidity, before its infested with the whine, and the envy that a huge community normally brings :P !
Mabye NCSoft is a bit embarassed after the unbelievable amount of hype richard garriot put out. I know I was... Each time he put out something new, it was like one of those movies where you know a character is going to do something really stupid and you just can't watch...