A year that saw several fixes, balance fixes, bug fixes and some new content (1.9 still added stuff). Secondly, a year for the amount of content we'll be getting is pretty sweet. 6 new instances, 2 new zones, 2 new fort, revamp of several systems. WoW's first expansion took 2 years, and the content in between was rather present at first but eventually lacked(it was content that was supposed to be released at first, but they pulled it out and released it as content patch.).

The first 12 months are always the longest ones, because that's when you have to fix and iron out the major flaws THEN you can start working on new content. Not only that, but our version requires additional work (retesting to see if our systems are stable, translating, etc..).

If you don't do that, you end up with a Warhammer online, where they force released untested content and before fixing major issues that they had been having since release day. It took a change in dev team(to Bioware) to start fixing the game good, and subscription are rising right now thanks to the quality of the game improving.

@Butts

Sorry but you can try and spin this game any way you want but it doesn't make it any less of a trash heap. The game itself is bad and you can add anything you want to it but the system is still crap.

So they add 6 instances that are about as hard as wailing caverns in WoW. Huzzah! The reason WoW instances take so long is making new and interesting encounters, except when they recycle places like Naxx... Bottom line is instances in Aion are 99% tank & spank, easy if you have the gear, encounters. On second thought WC & RFC might be leagues ahead of AION.

New quests! Yay more filler quests of kill 60 XXXXX for no apparent reason, repeat for every mob in the game. They left the story and decent quests back at level 10.

New content! Or they will just reuse Mobs and models they already have copy & Pasted all over the game and call it new. I wouldn't be surprised to see yet another Muumuu farm with mau...maybe purple shaded this time?

2 NEW forts! Great now if only forts weren't snore fests and PvP actually meant something. Unless they overhauled the PvP system the new forts are meaningless. Not to mention realm imbalance, even after transfers, that makes it near impossible for one side to take anything.

I'll assume this adds the ground only abyss that was needed due the abysmal(pun!) failure that is their current abyss? Sounds like they're great at PvP design if they need to scrap their current PvP zone. Did they overhaul the basic stat mechanics so armor meant something? Did they finally revamp the crafting system so it was actually decent instead of a grocery list? Did they balance ranged classes?

So lets put this all together, in 2.0- Leveling will still be a grind due to lack of quest variation/content, PvE will be tank&spank and unimaginative, PvP will still be worthless and if you want to achieve anything you farm abyss points and avoid actual PvP at all costs, realms will still be grossly imbalanced, the abyss will still be a place one side dominates and roving gank squads make unusable.

yep sounds like they changed A LOT and this patch took a year?

GM's will be introduced soon and require $5 micro transaction payments per ticket