WoW is dieing and Blizzard knows this.
WoW is following the other big ones like Everquest and UO to its death.
Content is too easy for 'gamers' and to hard for non-gamers.
Stats are shooting through the roof (the trend seems to be stats double with each expansion so far).
There is alot of work to get very little and as for the competition aspect, WoW PVP is so unbalanced that the only people who take it as a serious concept are the 12 year olds who play unbalanced classes.
Blizzard announced plans for a new expansion (WotLK) shortly after BC came out yet they havent even hinted at another yet and we are many months into WotLK.
They are also working on D3, SC2, a new MMO, and another game that has no info released about it yet other than its existence.
Now, for Aion, I have played in the betas and it is amazing. Playing it is adicting and more fun than WoW. One thing I enjoyed is that it seems like if your not careful, you can die. I remember leveling in WoW (I have multiple 80s), I could go afk and come back to two-three mobs beating on me and kill them before moving on to the next like they weren't even there. In Aion, mobs hit hard; casters can't tank, plain and simple.
Leveling is fun. I do believe there is SOME grind aspect but that is mainly because you get quests that say go kill X monsters. As for pure grinding to get to the next batch of quests? Non existent. The classes are nice and there is alot of diversity between even two players of the same class.
The character creation system is amazing. Are you a pedofile? Make a character that looks like an 8 year old. You into old ladies? Well have no trouble creating an 80 year old woman. Everything in between of course as well.
As others have said, the art style is strictly Korean but don't let that deter you. Aion runs on a modified version of Cryengine 1. Incase you did not play Farcry at all, the visuals the engine can produce are amazing (if your computer can handle them
). You will not even notice the Korean style visuals once you get playing because in all honesty, you will be too awed to care.
My main problem with the game so far is that sometimes the UI (which is very elegant and streamlined) can be a bit slow at times (problem with my comp maybe?). Also some of the quests seem to have bad translations from Korean to English which results in some quests having the NPCs mixed up. IE NPC A gives you a quest to bring NPC B items. The quest log however says that you got the items from NPC B and to bring them to NPC A.
I have not tried PVP yet so I can't comment on that but from what I have heard its fun and balanced (on a whole).
The game is still being heavily worked on according to NCSoft in prep for release in the English speaking market. We will be getting voiceovers and the 'cut-scenes' that people have been mentioning will get them as well.
Overall I would rate the game a 4/5. The game needs a bit more polishing (hopefully will happen before launch). Even if it was a 5/5 it is my belief it wouldnt come close to denting WoW (in the American/European market anyways) however it is a solid MMO that deserves a shot if you are bored of WoW (who isn't?).
Sorry for the huge post but I felt I havent typed up anything on the site in such a long time and felt Aion deserved something semi-lengthy.
