Third: Expensive Charge

First of all, I have to make it clear that I totally agree to the time card charging model that Aion adopts. Yet I also think its pricing is a little irrational.    

I can totally tolerate the fact that it doesn't offer weekly or monthly subscription model. But how could the developers be so sure that the players would still go for such a suck Korean game with overpriced hourly rate?

Gather and gather, then somehow you fail again.

There are a lot of gathering skills offered in the game, which can really drive you crazy. The resources will be renewed after quite a long time, and it normally takes you a few seconds to gather one kind of resource. Yet it doesn't guarantee success. And only one point will be given after numerous successful gatherings, and after gaining hundreds of points can you advance one level. What is more frustrating is that there are always levels after levels and there are many kinds of gathering skills. And after you complete gathering, you will have to spend a lot of time mastering living skills. In a word, time flies while you are doing all these nonsense, and it's in this way that your time cards are quickly consumed. Congratulations!

Maybe there are some players who are willing to spend a couple of bucks to explore the game for a few weeks. But how many of them will stick to the game for a long period of time? Students usually have plenty of time but they don't have money to burn, while office workers have money but they are probably not interested in such a ‘sightseeing' Korean game. With such an overpriced rate, I don't really know how many players will stand outside Aion. But what I do know is that the number could never be small.

I can still vividly recall the time when I got a beginner's card. I got in game and exchanged it with joys filled in my heart, and then the system said: ‘Congratulations! You've got 1-Yuan play time'. I was totally defeated. What a generous offer!

When I look back, I think I should have been more alert at the beginning when it turned out that the closed beta keys giveaway was so feverish. I mean, for a game that players are not familiar with, over-heated popularity usually implies bad outcome. A3 was a typical example.

Anyway, Aion is still on the rise for the time being. But according to the current situation, this could probably be the farthest it can go. With the new version World of Warcraft to be released and more games to rush into the market during summer holidays, Aion might fall into an even worse situation.

How far can Aion go? Let's wait and see.