At this time the MMORPG market is saturated with great and not so great games to select from. I recall the days over a decade ago when only a handful of MMOs were available, and the choice between the cream of the crop were Everquest and Ultima. Today the MMO segment is flooded with dozens of selections to choose from. Eye candy galore: Aion does not disappoint the demanding visual fiends like me! It is no secret that for many, this will be at the top of their criterion on choosing a game. Excuse my metaphor ladies; gentlemen, I am sure you will agree with me that most guys will still settle for the stereotypical ‘hot blond’ even if they happen to be an ‘air head’. I will admit that I played MMOs that really weren’t that fun; but visually they were so appealing, I just had to come back for more as shallow as it may sound.

Lineage 2 is guilty of this. When the game initially came out, it was by far one of the most if not the most gorgeous MMO in the market. Unfortunately it was notorious for the worse grind to hit the western shore. You can honestly spend hours tweaking your character until it is just right and you are 100% satisfied. The amount of modification available is incredible. By all means, nothing stops a player in Aion to reach level 50 being a lone wolf; there are more than adequate amount of quests and hunting spots. But the rewards of being in groups and hunting together have powerful incentives. Not only will you be safe from being ‘ganked’ in the Abyss, your party will be able to take on monstrous foes too difficult to fell by just an individual for great loots and experience. In some games we find that questing alone was the fastest way to level, this made it less likely for people to form parties. While other games like Final Fantasy 11 made it impossible to level alone, and forced players into parties. Aion caters to both, but encourages more towards co-operative play I find. In the end of the day, this IS a MMORPG! So get in parties, raid some dungeons, and destroy rival guilds because this is what it’s all about!