I'm surprised more people don't play this game.Follow

Before I bought it anyway, I had heard a lot of negative press about AION and how the spammers ruled the servers, lag issues, etc.

But it's really not that way at all. I see maybe one spammer a day (which is less than both WoW and FFXI). The leveling, while time-consuming is also a great avenue for money because unusable drops and items sell quite well to vendors and there's tons of gathering materials everywhere. Almost all equipment is customizable in some form or another, either appearance through dyes or stats wise. Even the players seem to be a lot more friendly.

I have rarely experienced some weird lag spikes, where I'll be walking or flying and it'll "snap" back like 2-3 feet while I'm in a busy city, but I just figured that's comcast giving me hell for being late with the bill last month. Plus lag issues will always exist in some form.

Granted I'm only nearing level 20, so I can't comment on endgame activities or the middle exp "grinds" but all in all, I'm enjoying the whole experience.

Other people should too.

Yeah the spam was bad when it started but with NCsoft listening to us they fixed it quicker then I thought they would have. Its a really nice planned game that I enjoy. The ppl that quit because of the spam should really come back and give it a second try.

I'm enjoying the game too. This is the first one I've really enjoyed since FFXI. I got WoW to 40 before getting bored of the grind. Age of Conan was good for the first 20 levels, then I hated it. I went back to FFXI and bored quickly. It's just not the same anymore. I gave up on MMOs for about a year but was compelled to try this one.

I have to admit it's very pretty and so far has been a great deal of fun. I do have some minor lag issues, but nothing that has really affected my ability to play in the field. I play on a laptop and had to buy extra fans to handle the heat it generates. My graphic card locks up once in a while. I'm starting to regret updating my driver because I think the driver I had worked better. I could be wrong though.

The gold sellers can be annoying for certain, but the spam doesn't bother me too much. It's the lag I get when trying to get past where they like to sit and advertise and all of those annoying little smiley faces filling my screen that drive me crazy. They annoy me in camps too, but so far I've been able to work around them to complete what I'm working on.

Most of the negative factors have been blown way out of proportion. Which is not to say that there aren't some problems with the game. But right now it is a lot of fun and if you understand what the game is and what it is not then you will continue to enjoy it.

One thing to keep in mind as you get to higher levels is that this IS a PvPvE game and that at some point you are going to be exposed to opposing players that want to kill you. How you handle this and feel about it will be the main factor in you deciding if you enjoy it or not. PvP in Aion is not like what PvP is in some other games where it is very formal and designed to be a contest of skills against equal opponents. It is more like Eve Online where the goal is control territory and anyone and everyone who is not on your side is to be killed even if they are 20 or more levels below you. Some people call this ganking but that implies a lot more to it than there really is. When you enter the Abyss you know you are going into a warzone and it is up to you to make sure that you either go in as part of group to protect yourself or you take the consequences if you are caught by a roaming gang. But, death in the Abyss by the opponents is not a very big deal. You get transported back to your bind point and don't lose any experience or money and you can decide if you want to travel back or go do something else. It's not that big of a deal.

You will start to run out of quests as you level up but it won't be terrible. If you do the campaign and other group quests and do a bit of gathering and crafting you can level along pretty well into the mid 30s. If you are part of a legion then that is a great help in leveling so joining a legion is something to consider plus it makes the game more fun to have others to chat with.

All in all most people seem to be having fun except for the few posters who seem to be very unhappy and constantly posting about how bad the game is even though they aren't playing it. Not sure what their problems are to be honest.