Aion…

I’m sure some of my long standing and loyal readers are asking, “Smaken, why aren’t you playing Aion? The blogosphere is abuzz with talk about it but you haven’t said anything about it yet. What gives?”

Okay, I’m kidding myself here. No one is asking that and if I did have loyal readers they probably would have phrased it differently.

The short of the matter is; I have not tried Aion yet. I have not been in the beta, I didn’t apply for the beta, I didn’t borrow any keys for the beta, I didn’t pre-order and cancel to get into an open beta and I didn’t buy the game.

I simply have no interest in it at the moment.

None.

From the pictures others have posted, it looks pretty. Even the GUI looks nice, almost edible like chocolate. Hey Turbine? Take note. That’s how you do a nice UI, none of that crap you have in DDO or LOTRO.

You can move along now, nothing to see here.

Aion Thoughts…

.. coming to you based on what I see in videos and  have read. Let me know if this is correct or if it is just my mind hyping it up for me.

It looks pretty. It seems to have a content filled world, although everything seems to be out there in the open – no dungeons from what I’ve seen. I believe I read something briefly about dungeons, but the focus appears to be PVP – not really PVE or dungeon delving.

The models remind me of Lineage II and the screenshot (and video) imply you can create your character look with a lot of options, including the gear? This means you don’t get to change your appearence by getting more gear? The site keeps saying you can create your own unique look and craft unique weapons… is that really true? Are there boundaries on what you can create and how cool you can make it? From the videos I’ve seen from players, they didn’t have good (elaborate and cool) looking gear. Does Hudson just suck at making armor appearances?

Combat looks to be active with everything seeming to be fun, sort of like the Warrior’s Charge ability in WoW. From viewing the videos on the site, I’m given the impression everyone gets those really neat combat moves or some spells/powers that have an impact. From viewing some of the videos on other sites, it looks like you work your way up to some of those cooler, more intenst powers.

If I were to play, should I play on the side of good or evil? (I’ll go with what the bulk of the posters say)