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Aion Open Beta Starts September 6th
NCSoft announced today that the open beta for upcoming fantasy MMO Aion will begin on September 6th, extending through to the 13th. The client is available now. The game launches on September 22nd in the US, with a two-day head-start given to players who pre-order. NCSoft has also said they'll be showing off Aion in more detail at the Penny Arcade Expo, expanding on the information they provided at Gamescom (video).
A word of warning - Aion uses GameGuard which for all intents and purposes, is a rootkit. The article is a bit outdated w/ regards to incompatibility issues with other apps, as the Steam incompatibility was fixed a month or two ago iirc. Either way, it's a terrible and invasive bit of software that I won't allow anywhere near my PC.
Due to circumstances beyond my control, I am master of my fate and captain of my soul.
It looks like the open beta will only be available to Fileplanet Subscribers (about $5/month)...
There may be more beta keys available from other websites, but currently Fileplanet is claiming to have exclusivity on the beta.
So, I'm not really sure in what way this is "open", it sounds like it will be exactly the same as all the other Aion beta events with a limited number of keys for select (lucky) players.
Maybe, someone with more info can prove me wrong.
Where's the download for Mac?
This is a RvR game. To avoid the problems with PoTBS:
Don't join AION, if you can't handle ganking. Ganking in Darkfall could be much more fair than in AION, the "resistences" of a high level may make imposible to kill a players that is a few levels higher than you.
-Woof woof woof!
I played the closed beta. It's not terribly impressive. People have been excited about the graphics, but they're kind of outdated... maybe top of the line stuff for 2004 or so. There are a few impressive areas in the game, though.
Gameplay and questing is not terribly fun. If you've ever done a Kill 30 Wasps or Gather 10 Herbs quest, you've done them all, and AION has a lot of this kind of stuff. I guess there's a story or whatever to read, and IIRC some quests have different options, but by and large I was completely bored while leveling up my character.
While I would like someone to knock WoW off its high horse (because the game really isn't designed as well as they think it is), I doubt AION is going to be it.
Yeah, pretty much. I wasn't impressed and cancelled my order. Blizzard doesn't have much to worry about here. It gets really good when you get into the forced PvP part. Once people learned that, every single person in my WoW guild who had been interested decided not to bother.
It seems that being ganked isn't exactly a feature people look for in games.
-- "So they told me that using the download page to download something was not something they anticipated." - Bill Gates
Really, I was really excited about Aion, but all that excitement vanished once I learnt from the official web site the game cost $50 PLUS monthly fees. Sorry, nowadays I just don't spend that much time gaming to justify paying monthly fees, no matter how awesome the game is (otherwise I'd be another WoW addict).
If you look at it in terms of entertainment per hour per dollar spent, MMORPGs are actually quite cheap. Let's say you play WoW quite casually -- you occasionally hop on for just a little bit during the weekdays and then put in a few solid hours on the weekend. Maybe 5 hours per week, total. The Battle Chest (original + BC expansion) will cost you $40, then $13 per month. You don't need the WotLK expansion right away; if you're only playing a few hours a week, the original + BC will last you for quite a while. After six months, that'll be a total of about $118 for 120 hours of entertainment, so less than a dollar per hour.
Compare that to going to see a movie, where you can expect to spend $8 - $10 for maybe an hour and a half or two hours of entertainment. Also compare it to buying non-online games, where a new game will cost you maybe $50 and last for maybe 20 hours (it varies, of course, since different games have wildly different lengths -- that's a rough estimate). You could also compare it to spending an evening barhopping, and going anywhere good will cost you way more per hour than that...
So, MMORPGs with a monthly fee are really a pretty cheap form of entertainment compared to many alternatives. The best part, though, is that the presence of a monthly fee keeps away kids who can't convince their parents to pay for their subscriptions! It doesn't keep all the kids away, of course, but it definitely makes a difference. Heck, I'd be willing to pay $20 a month for a WoW-quality game that only allowed you to play if you were over 21 and had a full-time job...
Karma: Terrifying (mostly affected by atrocities you've committed)
What's the point of pwning people in MMOs when that usually amounts to "my level is higher than yours, I win"? It's not a demonstration of skill, it's just a demonstration of how long you have played before that battle.
Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
If you want a mature-ish WoW experience. Join a mature guild and turn off all of the public channels.
If you don't consider MMOs entertaining, why would you even want to play a free one?
Heck, why would you have clicked on this article?
Karma: Terrifying (mostly affected by atrocities you've committed)
PvE mmorpg servers seem to be missing a huge element of the game. Like most people, I hate getting killed... especially to a much higher level or when I was involved in some other task. But I can't imagine playing an online game with hundreds/thousands of other people without getting to "interact" with them. I'm on a very low pop PvP server.. so low population that there's practically no PvP going on except at meeting stones and of course the battle grounds. It's boring.. I can't remember the last time someone tried to gank me. Part of the thrill is killing someone who got the jump on you.
Sure pvp isn't for everyone, if you want protection travel in small groups. These games aren't designed for solo play.
"Action without philosophy is a lethal weapon; philosophy without action is worthless."
Champions Online has a 5-star system. You die, you lose all your stars. They start building up the longer you fight and stay alive. The more you have, the more goose your powers get. Something like that.
Anyway, back in the day, we didn't have no steenking slap on the wrist death penalties. No, your character died and you lost three levels of XP and had to go rescue your body within 30 minutes or it vaporized with all your stuff, and you liked it! >:-(
That it was impossible for your now-naked group to fight its way back into the dungeon to the body area was part of the challenge! So you went and got a high level guy to wade in there and /drag your corpses out and hope he didn't /drag 'em deeper to the king's throne room.
And if worse came to worse, your magnificent, tarnished two-hander, the first upgrade from rusty, and looted from a zombie in the desert, was gone. And you liked it!
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
It does get really good when you get into the forced PvP part, none of that casual carebear blueshield / pveonly server bullshit in this game. I was impressed, kept my Aion preorder and cancelled my WOW subscription. Different strokes for different folks.
I always thought that's what fps games were for. MMORPG pvp tends to be of the "I-can't-beat-you-fairly-so-I'll-outgear-you-or-out-level-you-or-get-12-of-my-friends-to-kill-you" variety. It's seldom challenging.