Ok, my initial impressions of Aion:
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When interacting with NPCs or dealing with things like inventory and character profile there is WAY too much clicking. Really bad UI design in areas that should be pretty simple. Lots of targeting little tiny things with the mouse. Multiple options to accomplish the same thing (e.g., after you accept a quest you can click the final line of text, click the "close" button, or just click the "x" in the corner of the window. All of them do the same thing, but it's not obvious this is true.
- In general I like WoW's "cartoon" like graphics more than the ones that try to be more photorealistic. In my opinion the photorealism ends up looking worse because it's fake-ness is more obvious. Also, I tend to have a harder time distinguishing depth or picking out features with Aion-like graphics.
- Combat feels less fluid than WoW, but that may just be that I'm used to WoW. Still (to make a car comparison) WoW feels more like driving a stick, and Aion feels more like an automatic transmission. Somehow whacking mobs (at least at low level) just isn't as satisfying.
- I really like the "Private Store" feature of Aion. In fact I've been envisioning/wishing for something like it for WoW. Basically if you have items you want to sell to other players you can put them in your private store and give them a price. Whenever you're afk you can turn your store on, and you basically sit there with a sign out. Passing players can click on you and look at your store, and if they want to buy something they can do so without you having to come back to the keyboard.
- Dialog is REALLY corny/lame. Worse than wow.
- Gold spammers are out of control
The main reason to play Aion, in my opinion, is simply to try something new, and maybe explore some new zones. Certainly I haven't yet had an epiphany that "this is what WoW has been missing" or anything.
Looking forward to Diablo III.