I understand the irony of one critic calling another critic a fanboy. Up until recently I believed that most bloggers I read and critics on website like www.Massively.com tried to be as impartial as possible to new games with regards to our reigning MMO champion, World of Warcraft (aka WoW). After playing Aion for 10 levels I can already see how mistaken I was.
Over the past 3 months two things has been said about Aion. One is that it is polished, and another is that it is a WoW clone. Let start with polish; Aion is most defiantly polished. The game runs better than any MMO at launch I have ever played and rivals the current build of WoW in stability. Coming from 6 months of Warhammer directly into Aion is like night and day. Aion had been developed with A+ quality control. Enough about what we already knew though.
Is Aion a WoW clone? Maybe if the only MMO you have ever played is World of Warcraft. On the surface Aion feels a lot like WoW, but then one could say it feels like every contemporary MMO. (EQ2, DAoC, WAR, LotR and yes WoW) However I’ve always prided myself on trying as many MMO’s as possible, I am a MMO fanboy after all.
I can say with all my heart, Aion is not a WoW clone. If you believe Aion is a WoW clone then every MMO that has been made including the ones before WoW’s release are WoW clones. Personally that seems absurd. I don’t want to compare Aion to any game, but for every feature that looks like it has come from WoW I have found 10 that came from EverQuest 2.
I think World of Warcraft's impact on MMO gaming has surpassed what any expected. Along with its great success come great downfalls. Every game from here on out will be compared directly to WoW… even if another MMO would be a better comparison
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