The Daily Grind: Will you be playing Aion open beta this weekend?

With Aion's open beta set to launch this weekend (September 6-13), we're curious: Do you plan on giving it a shot? The game has gone through several closed beta phases dating back to early June. All closed beta phases leading up until the very last one were using an older version of the game client (1.1). They've recently upgraded to 1.5, so we highly suggest giving it a try before making any final judgments based on early testing experiences. We also hear the open beta version will be the version Aion launches with in North America and Europe. Be sure to read up on Shadow of the Balaur.

Open beta characters will be capped at level 30, which is high enough to test a good mix of what the game has to offer including Rifts and the Abyss. Rifts are portals that will take you into your enemy's PvE lands and the Abyss is a giant PvPvE zone where the game's three factions battle for supremacy. I'm personally going to play a bit next week as an Elyos Gladiator named Snafzg on the NA servers, so make sure to say "Hi!" if you see me putzing around. Settling on a class has been challenging thus far.

Want to know more about Aion? NCsoft invites you into the world of Atreia where the Elyos and the Asmodians fight each other and the evil Balaur for control of the shattered planet. Check out out all our coverage of this must-play MMO!

Reader Comments (71)

I might be playing as an Elyos Chanter named Mirari, but thats if i can get it patched, I've been having some problems with the NC Launcher...

I would love to be in the OB but NCSoft didn't send me an invite. First time that I'm not in CB for NCSoft so a little miffed but guess I'll have to wait until launch reviews pour in to form an opinion. My interest level is pretty low because concrete information is so hard to nail down and CO is out so...

My god no. The lore is good, but the whole game structure shouts crappy asian MMO to me, with boring Kill 10 x quests and epic grinding in the Lineage fashion. Generally, I like to enjoy MMOs, not just want the xp bar go slowly up.

My sentiments also.

Golly gee, I guess you better go back to WOW. We all know there's absolutely NO Kill 10 x quests and grinding in THAT game.

how's that different than just about any other MMO on the market? Anywho, I'm on the fence about the open beta. I have zero interest in Aion, it's too PVP centric for my liking *however* if beta'ing Aion gives me even a 5% greater chance to be in the GuildWars2 Beta, then sign me up.

I agree to a point, but it looks more like a Korean grinder than it actually is, its no different than WoW, WAR, GW, or any mmo in terms of quests, in fact I have found the questing in Aion to be more fun than most mmos because a lot of the quests have little stories to go with them. The PvPvE aspect is pretty interesting too.

Overall don't complain about mmos having a lot of quests... if you don't want to quest or grind to level, don't play an mmo.

Don't get me wrong, WAR and WoW also have those type of quests (although WoW isn't quite as bad in my experience), which is why I mainly play EVE and RPGs.

I am probably going to but still haven't figured out if I can continue to use my closed beta client or not. Will launch the launcher today and see if it starts to download the updated beta client. it was actually a pretty decent game I thought.

No, I won't because my computer can't run Aion.

You must have a really crappy computer, then. If you can run WoW on low settings, you can run Aion on medium.

If you were in closed beta, then you are in open beta. New open beta keys are now at Fileplanet, but I think you may need to be a subscriber to grab one. Also some people will not just be able to just run the launcher from old beta. They need to download the 3.5 gig 1.5 patch install that and then run the launcher.

Bet your ass I will! I can't wait for this to drop on the 22nd. Champions is nice and all, but it doesn't have that "classic MMO" feel that I've been craving ever since I left WOW while it was circling the drain. And the new expansion's going to make it even worse. Oh well. And nothing of value was lost, as they say.

Yes. I actually really really love Aion...I wish it would finally release so the crafting would be worth the time...I actually really enjoy all their crafting and the graphics just add sweetness to it all. I don't understand why everyone is so bitter about games...we should embrace new games..esp. MMO's...the more success we have in the MMO world the more MMO's we'll see being funded and released.

Can't wait. Aion is beautiful and a blast to play. If you understand that you will have to do some grinding then it dulls that pain a little. But with ever changing combat and such it really makes it one of the most (possibly above WoW) interesting and inviting MMO. Now the question is what server/shard will Snafgz be playing so we can woop him silly.

The next "new" game I try will be DDO:U in a week or so. If that doesn't hold my attention, I'll probably go back to LotRO or WoW for a bit till "Dragon Age: Origins" in November (?).

Aion just doesn't cut it for me. Maybe it's the silly-looking wings?

I'm really just biding my time till STO hits the shelves. :/

I've left the NCsoft Launcher running for the last week, and have had two big patches installed -- one of them being the huge 3.5 GB patch to get up to client 1.5. The launcher did it all automatically. I'm surprised other folks are having trouble.

Anyway, I am not going to play during open beta. I want to have some surprises still once the game goes live, so would rather not see what 1.5 has done to the early content until it's with my permanent character. I also really don't want to burn out on the game before launch. Playing through the early content, only to have to turn around and do it all over again at launch is a path I just took with CO. I'm not keen to repeat it with another game so soon.

I'd really like to give it a try. It looks amazing! I've got the client bit torrent trickling away, but I need to aquire an OB key.

I will try to play but I've broken my right hand, wrist and arm :(

Oh, you mean the open beta where you have to be a CB tester or a FP subscriber? The one that's not really open? No, because I refuse to pay money for a beta. Especially one that is falsely marketed as open.

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The Daily Grind: Will you be playing Aion open beta this weekend?

Reader Comments (71)

Posted: Sep 4th 2009 8:16AM Joshua Przygocki said

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Posted: Sep 4th 2009 9:17AM Arkanaloth said

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Posted: Sep 4th 2009 8:43AM Halldorr said

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