September 22nd 2009 marked the official North American launch of Aion, a MMO that claimed to be the WoW killer. However, for those who had preordered the game, it really started on Sunday, September 20 at noon Pacific time, when the servers opened up for the preorder headstart. Anyway, Aion is live!
Having sold out of its Limited Collector's Edition version and tallying more preorders than any other massively multiplayer online game this year (which is very few, to be fair), Aion's release does mark the biggest MMO launch of this year so far. Aion also released today in Australia, New Zealand and Singapore and launches this Friday, September 25, in Europe.
The game has been running in Korea for almost a year now and its success there has ironically caused some people here to dismiss it as just another Korean "grind-fest", in reference to the fact that games which feature repetitive mind-numbing tasks in order to advance (ie. "grinding") seem to be popular there. But it looks like the developers have taken pains to adapt the game to local preferences. Whatever they did, it seems to have worked because those who managed to get their hands on the game through their beta weekend events and at tradeshows gave glowing accounts of it, thus building up the hype.
The first time you ever get into the game, you can view a cinematic introduction that shows you what happened to the world of Atreia and why it was split in half. After that, you get to choose which side you want to align yourself with: the Elyos, inhabitants of the lower half of the world, or the Asmodians, who reside in the darker upper half of it. Regardless of your chosen faction, you can then choose from four base classes: Warrior, Scout, Mage or Priest. Eventually, each class branches out into two specialized classes and you will be asked to choose one after you "ascend", but that comes only when you reach level 10.
Any MMO requires players to devote their time and effort if you want to play it well. But if you don't have time on grinding Aion Gold or do power leveling, contact us for Aion service. Enjoy your gaming!