Skolia

Always a good sign when all the screenshots 3 months before release are concept art.

Very good points in the article, and I agree 100%.

While it is true that some people don't mind having their real name known or feel that it's a security risk, at the end of the day that doesn't matter. What matters is Blizzard is forcing this upon it's customers. They are taking the right to choose what information a person wishes to share or not share away. Sure one could provide a false name for RealID, or never post on a Blizzard forum or otherwise avoid the disclosure of their name. That's not the point.

It should always be up the individual to decide what personal/private information he/she wants to make public. Period.

My shortest was World of Warcraft. 3 days of a 10 day trial.

Aion failed for me on two levels.

1. The story arcs abruptly vanished at around level 20, replaced with endless grindy "kill X" "gather X" missions.

2. I'm not much of a PvP person these days so the "second half" the game being PvP-centric holds little to no appeal.

I feel like I'm the victim of a "bait-and-switch" scam with Aion. It's like they made one third of a RPG, threw in PvP for levels 25-50 and called it a day.

In retrospect, I should've realized it during the beta when NCSoft did all of this mission localization testing and capped the levels to 20.

All in all it was a very disappointing experience, I made it to level 27 and gave up.

kriscolumbus, yup. The mind boggles.

I love BioWare. I love Science Fiction. I love the idea of tons of story in an MMO. I just wish it wasn't Star Wars :(