I also think this was a poor decision on best game of 09. If you end up loosing a chunk of your population in the first month of release then i highly doubt you deserve to be called the best MMO.
Graphics where good, gameplay was at times fun and somewhat original (flying was nice) but overall this game did not deliver for most people. The only way i could ever concieve giving this best MMO of 09 is if this site represented the Asian markets too...and this site is about as Western as they get.
MMO wish list:
-Changeable worlds -Solid non level based game -Sharks with lasers attached to their heads
... I hope the message that the industry takes from Aion's win isn't "deliver us more EQ-clones" but "please finish your product before expecting us to pay for them".
QFT!
This more than anything else is what helped Aion win for 2009.
This game started with huge issues for a game running already for 1 year in Asia, but ok, the other games tryed to be WORSE than this, wich is not that big of a surprise.
Good luck aion, and hope the "dream" trailer become true
Guild Wars 2 for 2010
now: GW2 (11 80s). Dark Souls 2. future: Mount&Blade 2 BannerLord. "Bro, do your even fractal?" Recommends: Guild Wars 2, Dark Souls, Mount&Blade: Warband, Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning.
Had no doubt you'll choose Aion over FE. I dont agree with this but well, this is close one. Hopefully NCSoft adds some depth and high end content to Aion soon and it becomes something more then shiny shallow
Disagree with the editorial teams choice if you wish (heck, I am not sure I agree 100%), but please understand that the argument that they spent tons of money on advertising so they won the prize is the reason.
a) The editorial team (Jon, Dana, Garrett, Mike) have zero idea what advertising I am selling. They make these decisions on their own opinions, and I can assure you that if I ever told one of them to give game xyz a great review or award because of ad sales they would likely seek employment elsewhere since I know these guys have a lot of integrity.
b) While we did sell some Aion advertising in 2009 the campaign came out to 2.2% of our 2009 advertising sales, and believe it or not - Fallen Earth did just a little bit more than that.
c) We don't need to do shady deals to sell advertising. Most of the time we sell all of our ad space and while I would never make a unethical advertising deal, I also have no motive to do so - the ad space will sell regardless - so why risk ruining the reputation of this website and staff?
I know it does not make for conspiracy theory fun, but the fact remains that ad sales do not get a game developer/publisher any favor at MMORPG.com - the way our business is structured it cannot happen.
Here is to a great 2010 and hopefully some truely groundbreaking games for this year! ;-)
- MMORPG.COM Staff -
The dead know only one thing: it is better to be alive.
Marketing is not only related with the conspiracy theories. It is perfectly normal that these sort of awards will be usually given to games that are much more popular - in selling numbers or amount of subscribers.
Every gaming website or gaming magazine favors games that are popular among players over games that people barely know or never heared about. Giving this award to Fallen Earth that has maybe around 10-40k subscribers instead of Aion, which might be anywhere around one million, would be illogical, and in a way against the website community. In the end there is no difference between the quality of the game and the quality/amount of the marketing.
Thanks for being honest unlike Massively.com, that is probably way too afraid to give a best game title to a Korean company (the only reason I see for it to Aion gain that award instead of games like Alganon and the 40 and something other MMOs released this year). Yes, a Korean title wins it here this year, but it by no means offers you the generic 100+ multi-year cap level grind and $100+/mo item mall cost to keep competitive, it is not your generic Korean grinder, it is not forcing you to buy the stuff in the item mall to increase your leveling speed... because there's no damn item mall. Apparently it just missed the leveling speed people are used to, in the West if you don't hit the level cap and enter a gearing grind in two weeks the game is a grinder.
This game is way polished, even if you are burned out of the fantasy setting and the level-based setting it is a fact to admit. I'm not going to review the game here but there is enough to do for those that seek what to do instead of waiting to be given what to do, an interesting low amount of rails in this kind of game.
Fallen Earth looks to be also good, but it is much less polished (one of the unfortunate aspects of indy companies, a lower budget), even though it tries to dive more on the sandbox side (thus getting part of the infinite potential that is a game taking the sandbox route) and proves to feature a much more important crafting system. And this category isn't about potential, it's about what is currently on the table, day #1, year #1.
Just a thought: When I played Everquest, and then DAoC, SWG and CoH, I made long term friends to group with. In Horizons I met players I'm still friends with. We occasionally play the same online games or try them based on the opinions of other friends. We even played WoW together for a few months. We don't seem to meet those kinds of online friends anymore,
A couple of us tried Aion and agreed it was the typical Asian grindfest with too many botters, so we didn't last long. We tried it because of all the hype that the game had such a smooth release. A smooth release doesn't guarantee a good game, and otherwise good games are ruined because of botched releases with too many bugs and not enough content. Content is released later, but too late to bring back players who were soured because of the poor release.
We tend to keep hoping the next games will learn from other's past mistakes. It's rare to see developers take chances on other kinds of games besides WoW or the Korean grindfests. When they do, they usually become niche games, which is fine since many players are looking for those niches. Games talk about being next generation, but I don't see it, yet.
But back to my thought about meeting players in games who become long term friends, it doesn't happen anymore. It seems players now already have set groups or are loners preferring spontaneous groups as needed for certain quests. Are you other players experiencing this?
I have to agree with this 100%. Only game so far that has held me for more than 2 months is Aion. Haven't tried FE, but from what I heard it's decent besides some bugs. That's not surprising since it's a new game.
To the person who's complaing to the admin about why we don't have to give reason why we like the game is because we are agreeing with the post. You are disagreeing, so obviously you need your reasons why. If you want reasons for why were like the game........read what Stradden wrote. Pretty much spot on for why I like the game. Then again, that's my point of view.
Last year wasn't a great year, but not every year can be great.
I have to agree with this 100%. Only game so far that has held me for more than 2 months is Aion. Haven't tried FE, but from what I heard it's decent besides some bugs. That's not surprising since it's a new game. To the person who's complaing to the admin about why we don't have to give reason why we like the game is because we are agreeing with the post. You are disagreeing, so obviously you need your reasons why. If you want reasons for why were like the game........read what Stradden wrote. Pretty much spot on for why I like the game. Then again, that's my point of view. Last year wasn't a great year, but not every year can be great.
Actually I believe 2009 was far better than most of the years before. Apart from Aion, which for many is a good game, we got two real independent and niche MMO's with lots of unique features and full of potential (Darkfall, Fallen Earth). Shame that for most, these games are like they never existed.
We can do better than this, even in 2009. Aion did have the best graphics and sound, but the game launched with major technically problems at the core of its major gameplay feature, the fortress system (despite being out for months overseas). It is a sad that in a year where so many new and innovative titles are released, that we try to hoist up mediocrity that copy and pastes the same worn out generic nonsense that has eroded this genre into the depths of stupidity. Hell even Gamespot gave this game a 6.5 / 10 realizing it was a bot infested grindfest being run by a company unable to police its own servers.
Wow, just wow. Amazing how often MMORPG.com has it's nose up Aion's @#$%. The game is bland at best, and horribly trite, unoriginal, uncreative, and "unfun" at worst. Sure there are some folks that might enjoy playing it (I haven't met any), but to call it the single best new game of 2009 is a travesty.
I do admit Aion was probably the best pick from the nominees.
Nonetheless, 2009 was a very dissapointing year for MMOs. None of the nominees listed were even that astounding. Champions Online was an absolute flop as a game and was only a cash cow for Cryptic's Star Trek Online. Darkfall, though very hyped for by the PvP community, was littered with bugs and indecent balancing. Fallen Earth was a nice concept, but lacks in combat and a realistic "Open" world (It just seemed too empty for the little time I played). Runes of Magic was ok, but it's just the same old song and dance for the MMO industry.
Aion was at least worth a month or two of play. It was a longer enjoyment period than the others had to offer. *Sigh* Maybe 2010 won't be so much of a letdown......
Currently playing: Star Wars: The Old Republic, World of Warcraft, Dota 2, League of Legends
Waiting on: Blade & Soul, Guild Wars 2, Tera, Kingdoms of Amular, Firefall
from a person that has a active sub on both games.... Aion should win.. FE wasnt finished... ai sucks to bad.... but still one of the best fuking games out
-Well i played 1 week after launch....had meny issues with game but thats ok since it's new but i had a problem where Aion CTD and reboot my PC (all other games works fine) and NC did not help much....i dont want to quote what they said but lets leave it at that, so i quit it, and no i dont thing Aion deserve any rewards since it have meny issues still <_<
I do admit Aion was probably the best pick from the nominees..... ....Fallen Earth was a nice concept, but lacks in combat and a realistic "Open" world (It just seemed too empty for the little time I played). ...
That's a contradiction. Fallen Earth has one of the most realistic worlds with very little scaling. While in other games, you run from jungle through snowy hills to desert all in 5 minutes beating giant frogs and dire bears on every step, In FE the world is more realistically empty, with quite distances between small towns and camps.
fallen earth cant win because its been done before, called tabula rasa. graphically and mechanically, pretty much the same. zero improvement, no innovation, launched with more bugs than tolerable.
darkfall is close but its also been done before maybe alittle better, nothing it offers stands out. (when i say nothing stands out i mean nothing new or at the very least no improvements to game mechanics worth mentioning.) it feels very much like wow.
aion its also been done before. the "long grind" isnt that long considering that most asian based mmos will take u more than 2 months to reach max lvl (for example, ff11 would take 4-12 months casual, lineage2 would take a year+). wow was the easist but before blizzard made it more easy it wouldve taken u a 1-2 months of casual play to hit max lvl.
bottom line is
between all the other games that went live in 2009, aion was indeed the best candidate due to the fact that it was graphically innovative. (never has an mmo looked so pretty lol) raising the bar for future mmos. aion did indeed have its own errors and bugs. in my opinion it had the least amount of faults.
based on my gaming experience overall, i hope this clears up some disputes
When nothing in the contest is any good the least bad wins i guess. While usually an optimist in most things I think the worm has turned for MMO games. Overhyped mainstream flash seems to be the order of the day and I really do not see anything changing in the near future. Devs have discovered that people will buy anything if promoted correctly and no matter the color of lipstick, the pig is still a pig.
allow me to be blunt. fallen earth cant win because its been done before, called tabula rasa. graphically and mechanically, pretty much the same. zero improvement, no innovation, launched with more bugs than tolerable. bottom line is between all the other games that went live in 2009, aion was indeed the best candidate due to the fact that it was graphically innovative. (never has an mmo looked so pretty lol) raising the bar for future mmos. aion did indeed have its own errors and bugs. in my opinion it had the least amount of faults.
1) I've played both FE and Tabula Rasa and the two have absolutely zero in common.
2) I'm a bit puzzled that people keep making statements that Aion has super fantastic graphics that surpass any mmo to date. LotRO and AoC both have far superior graphics.
allow me to be blunt. fallen earth cant win because its been done before, called tabula rasa. graphically and mechanically, pretty much the same. zero improvement, no innovation, launched with more bugs than tolerable. bottom line is between all the other games that went live in 2009, aion was indeed the best candidate due to the fact that it was graphically innovative. (never has an mmo looked so pretty lol) raising the bar for future mmos. aion did indeed have its own errors and bugs. in my opinion it had the least amount of faults.
1) I've played both FE and Tabula Rasa and the two have absolutely zero in common.
2) I'm a bit puzzled that people keep making statements that Aion has super fantastic graphics that surpass any mmo to date. LotRO and AoC both have far superior graphics.
Cant speak for your 1st point as I havnt played either. I do regret missing the chance to play TR.
Your second point I do agree with LOTRO and AOC do have superior graphics and while I currently play LOTRO I have played enough of AOC to think that it has the edge in graphics. Having said that, I do think Aion has some gorgeous graphics. Different style that does not appeal to everyone but I liked them. But the graphics alone were not enough to get me to lay down the cash for the game.
Just a thought: When I played Everquest, and then DAoC, SWG and CoH, I made long term friends to group with. In Horizons I met players I'm still friends with. We occasionally play the same online games or try them based on the opinions of other friends. We even played WoW together for a few months. We don't seem to meet those kinds of online friends anymore, A couple of us tried Aion and agreed it was the typical Asian grindfest with too many botters, so we didn't last long. We tried it because of all the hype that the game had such a smooth release. A smooth release doesn't guarantee a good game, and otherwise good games are ruined because of botched releases with too many bugs and not enough content. Content is released later, but too late to bring back players who were soured because of the poor release. We tend to keep hoping the next games will learn from other's past mistakes. It's rare to see developers take chances on other kinds of games besides WoW or the Korean grindfests. When they do, they usually become niche games, which is fine since many players are looking for those niches. Games talk about being next generation, but I don't see it, yet. But back to my thought about meeting players in games who become long term friends, it doesn't happen anymore. It seems players now already have set groups or are loners preferring spontaneous groups as needed for certain quests. Are you other players experiencing this?
Yes, and many of us feel its due to game play mechanics that are designed to keep the players so busy in game that there's no forced downtime or grouping encouragements that get players together to start socializing.
However, there are numerous threads on these thoughts and it would be really off topic to discuss it further here.
Aion is cut from the current MMO mold, and its social aspects are found wanting which is true of almost all games today.
Never the less, I play it now on a casual basis and its a pretty good game in a very mediocre year.
As someone else posted, delivering your game relatively stable (keep battles not withstanding) goes a long way and the other contenders such as FE and DF might have faired better with higher quality launches.
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
Sorta like saying Aion is the least-foul-smelling turd in the toilet. Picking the top new MMO of the year just became like most political elections; you don't vote for who you like, you vote for the one you despise the least. Sad.
Comments
I also think this was a poor decision on best game of 09. If you end up loosing a chunk of your population in the first month of release then i highly doubt you deserve to be called the best MMO.
Graphics where good, gameplay was at times fun and somewhat original (flying was nice) but overall this game did not deliver for most people. The only way i could ever concieve giving this best MMO of 09 is if this site represented the Asian markets too...and this site is about as Western as they get.
MMO wish list:
-Changeable worlds
-Solid non level based game
-Sharks with lasers attached to their heads
QFT!
This more than anything else is what helped Aion win for 2009.
Just to prove how BAD 2009 was =p
This game started with huge issues for a game running already for 1 year in Asia, but ok, the other games tryed to be WORSE than this, wich is not that big of a surprise.
Good luck aion, and hope the "dream" trailer become true
Guild Wars 2 for 2010
now: GW2 (11 80s).
Dark Souls 2.
future: Mount&Blade 2 BannerLord.
"Bro, do your even fractal?"
Recommends: Guild Wars 2, Dark Souls, Mount&Blade: Warband, Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning.
Had no doubt you'll choose Aion over FE. I dont agree with this but well, this is close one. Hopefully NCSoft adds some depth and high end content to Aion soon and it becomes something more then shiny shallow
Disagree with the editorial teams choice if you wish (heck, I am not sure I agree 100%), but please understand that the argument that they spent tons of money on advertising so they won the prize is the reason.
a) The editorial team (Jon, Dana, Garrett, Mike) have zero idea what advertising I am selling. They make these decisions on their own opinions, and I can assure you that if I ever told one of them to give game xyz a great review or award because of ad sales they would likely seek employment elsewhere since I know these guys have a lot of integrity.
b) While we did sell some Aion advertising in 2009 the campaign came out to 2.2% of our 2009 advertising sales, and believe it or not - Fallen Earth did just a little bit more than that.
c) We don't need to do shady deals to sell advertising. Most of the time we sell all of our ad space and while I would never make a unethical advertising deal, I also have no motive to do so - the ad space will sell regardless - so why risk ruining the reputation of this website and staff?
I know it does not make for conspiracy theory fun, but the fact remains that ad sales do not get a game developer/publisher any favor at MMORPG.com - the way our business is structured it cannot happen.
Here is to a great 2010 and hopefully some truely groundbreaking games for this year! ;-)
- MMORPG.COM Staff -
The dead know only one thing: it is better to be alive.
Marketing is not only related with the conspiracy theories. It is perfectly normal that these sort of awards will be usually given to games that are much more popular - in selling numbers or amount of subscribers.
Every gaming website or gaming magazine favors games that are popular among players over games that people barely know or never heared about. Giving this award to Fallen Earth that has maybe around 10-40k subscribers instead of Aion, which might be anywhere around one million, would be illogical, and in a way against the website community. In the end there is no difference between the quality of the game and the quality/amount of the marketing.
REALITY CHECK
Thanks for being honest unlike Massively.com, that is probably way too afraid to give a best game title to a Korean company (the only reason I see for it to Aion gain that award instead of games like Alganon and the 40 and something other MMOs released this year). Yes, a Korean title wins it here this year, but it by no means offers you the generic 100+ multi-year cap level grind and $100+/mo item mall cost to keep competitive, it is not your generic Korean grinder, it is not forcing you to buy the stuff in the item mall to increase your leveling speed... because there's no damn item mall. Apparently it just missed the leveling speed people are used to, in the West if you don't hit the level cap and enter a gearing grind in two weeks the game is a grinder.
This game is way polished, even if you are burned out of the fantasy setting and the level-based setting it is a fact to admit. I'm not going to review the game here but there is enough to do for those that seek what to do instead of waiting to be given what to do, an interesting low amount of rails in this kind of game.
Fallen Earth looks to be also good, but it is much less polished (one of the unfortunate aspects of indy companies, a lower budget), even though it tries to dive more on the sandbox side (thus getting part of the infinite potential that is a game taking the sandbox route) and proves to feature a much more important crafting system. And this category isn't about potential, it's about what is currently on the table, day #1, year #1.
Just a thought: When I played Everquest, and then DAoC, SWG and CoH, I made long term friends to group with. In Horizons I met players I'm still friends with. We occasionally play the same online games or try them based on the opinions of other friends. We even played WoW together for a few months. We don't seem to meet those kinds of online friends anymore,
A couple of us tried Aion and agreed it was the typical Asian grindfest with too many botters, so we didn't last long. We tried it because of all the hype that the game had such a smooth release. A smooth release doesn't guarantee a good game, and otherwise good games are ruined because of botched releases with too many bugs and not enough content. Content is released later, but too late to bring back players who were soured because of the poor release.
We tend to keep hoping the next games will learn from other's past mistakes. It's rare to see developers take chances on other kinds of games besides WoW or the Korean grindfests. When they do, they usually become niche games, which is fine since many players are looking for those niches. Games talk about being next generation, but I don't see it, yet.
But back to my thought about meeting players in games who become long term friends, it doesn't happen anymore. It seems players now already have set groups or are loners preferring spontaneous groups as needed for certain quests. Are you other players experiencing this?
I have to agree with this 100%. Only game so far that has held me for more than 2 months is Aion. Haven't tried FE, but from what I heard it's decent besides some bugs. That's not surprising since it's a new game.
To the person who's complaing to the admin about why we don't have to give reason why we like the game is because we are agreeing with the post. You are disagreeing, so obviously you need your reasons why. If you want reasons for why were like the game........read what Stradden wrote. Pretty much spot on for why I like the game. Then again, that's my point of view.
Last year wasn't a great year, but not every year can be great.
Everyone has opinions, but does that make them the universal truth??? NO!
Actually I believe 2009 was far better than most of the years before. Apart from Aion, which for many is a good game, we got two real independent and niche MMO's with lots of unique features and full of potential (Darkfall, Fallen Earth). Shame that for most, these games are like they never existed.
REALITY CHECK
We can do better than this, even in 2009. Aion did have the best graphics and sound, but the game launched with major technically problems at the core of its major gameplay feature, the fortress system (despite being out for months overseas). It is a sad that in a year where so many new and innovative titles are released, that we try to hoist up mediocrity that copy and pastes the same worn out generic nonsense that has eroded this genre into the depths of stupidity. Hell even Gamespot gave this game a 6.5 / 10 realizing it was a bot infested grindfest being run by a company unable to police its own servers.
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MMORPG.com Spotlight Blog Writer
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Wow, just wow. Amazing how often MMORPG.com has it's nose up Aion's @#$%. The game is bland at best, and horribly trite, unoriginal, uncreative, and "unfun" at worst. Sure there are some folks that might enjoy playing it (I haven't met any), but to call it the single best new game of 2009 is a travesty.
NCSOFT's advertising dept 1, MMORPG.com 0
*sigh*
I do admit Aion was probably the best pick from the nominees.
Nonetheless, 2009 was a very dissapointing year for MMOs. None of the nominees listed were even that astounding. Champions Online was an absolute flop as a game and was only a cash cow for Cryptic's Star Trek Online. Darkfall, though very hyped for by the PvP community, was littered with bugs and indecent balancing. Fallen Earth was a nice concept, but lacks in combat and a realistic "Open" world (It just seemed too empty for the little time I played). Runes of Magic was ok, but it's just the same old song and dance for the MMO industry.
Aion was at least worth a month or two of play. It was a longer enjoyment period than the others had to offer. *Sigh* Maybe 2010 won't be so much of a letdown......
Currently playing: Star Wars: The Old Republic, World of Warcraft, Dota 2, League of Legends
Waiting on: Blade & Soul, Guild Wars 2, Tera, Kingdoms of Amular, Firefall
from a person that has a active sub on both games.... Aion should win.. FE wasnt finished... ai sucks to bad.... but still one of the best fuking games out
-Well i played 1 week after launch....had meny issues with game but thats ok since it's new but i had a problem where Aion CTD and reboot my PC (all other games works fine) and NC did not help much....i dont want to quote what they said but lets leave it at that, so i quit it, and no i dont thing Aion deserve any rewards since it have meny issues still <_<
That's a contradiction. Fallen Earth has one of the most realistic worlds with very little scaling. While in other games, you run from jungle through snowy hills to desert all in 5 minutes beating giant frogs and dire bears on every step, In FE the world is more realistically empty, with quite distances between small towns and camps.
REALITY CHECK
allow me to be blunt.
fallen earth cant win because its been done before, called tabula rasa. graphically and mechanically, pretty much the same. zero improvement, no innovation, launched with more bugs than tolerable.
darkfall is close but its also been done before maybe alittle better, nothing it offers stands out. (when i say nothing stands out i mean nothing new or at the very least no improvements to game mechanics worth mentioning.) it feels very much like wow.
aion its also been done before. the "long grind" isnt that long considering that most asian based mmos will take u more than 2 months to reach max lvl (for example, ff11 would take 4-12 months casual, lineage2 would take a year+). wow was the easist but before blizzard made it more easy it wouldve taken u a 1-2 months of casual play to hit max lvl.
bottom line is
between all the other games that went live in 2009, aion was indeed the best candidate due to the fact that it was graphically innovative. (never has an mmo looked so pretty lol) raising the bar for future mmos. aion did indeed have its own errors and bugs. in my opinion it had the least amount of faults.
based on my gaming experience overall, i hope this clears up some disputes
games i played
tabula rasa - beta +2 months
darkfall - beta
aion - chinese beta - american beta - 1 month
fallen earth - beta - 1 month
EQ - 6 months
lineage2 - 2 months
wow - 4 years
ff11 - 6 months
+others - beta
When nothing in the contest is any good the least bad wins i guess. While usually an optimist in most things I think the worm has turned for MMO games. Overhyped mainstream flash seems to be the order of the day and I really do not see anything changing in the near future. Devs have discovered that people will buy anything if promoted correctly and no matter the color of lipstick, the pig is still a pig.
Nothing shocking here, everything else was either a major dud or just really average. Aion did the same thing this year that Lotro did in 2007.
1) I've played both FE and Tabula Rasa and the two have absolutely zero in common.
2) I'm a bit puzzled that people keep making statements that Aion has super fantastic graphics that surpass any mmo to date. LotRO and AoC both have far superior graphics.
FE and TR same game mechanics
LOTR graphics = decent at best
AoC graphics = unstable
1) I've played both FE and Tabula Rasa and the two have absolutely zero in common.
2) I'm a bit puzzled that people keep making statements that Aion has super fantastic graphics that surpass any mmo to date. LotRO and AoC both have far superior graphics.
Cant speak for your 1st point as I havnt played either. I do regret missing the chance to play TR.
Your second point I do agree with LOTRO and AOC do have superior graphics and while I currently play LOTRO I have played enough of AOC to think that it has the edge in graphics. Having said that, I do think Aion has some gorgeous graphics. Different style that does not appeal to everyone but I liked them. But the graphics alone were not enough to get me to lay down the cash for the game.
Yes, and many of us feel its due to game play mechanics that are designed to keep the players so busy in game that there's no forced downtime or grouping encouragements that get players together to start socializing.
However, there are numerous threads on these thoughts and it would be really off topic to discuss it further here.
Aion is cut from the current MMO mold, and its social aspects are found wanting which is true of almost all games today.
Never the less, I play it now on a casual basis and its a pretty good game in a very mediocre year.
As someone else posted, delivering your game relatively stable (keep battles not withstanding) goes a long way and the other contenders such as FE and DF might have faired better with higher quality launches.
"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
I find it extremely hard to believe you've played any of those 4 games.
What mechanics do FE and TR have in common?
I play AoC in dx10 and the graphics are fine. What sort of system do you have?
Sorta like saying Aion is the least-foul-smelling turd in the toilet. Picking the top new MMO of the year just became like most political elections; you don't vote for who you like, you vote for the one you despise the least. Sad.