We flutter back into Atreia, the world of NCsoft's Aion, and revisit some of the elder game content to see what's changed and what's stayed the same.

It's been about five months since NCsoft's Aion was launched in North America and, while this beautiful MMORPG has yet to achieve the popularity that it commands in Korea, you can't deny that Aion has taken a sizeable portion of the MMO gaming community under its big, downy wings. Of course, no MMO has, to date, ever launched without its fair share of opening day problems, and Aion is no exception.

Many MMO gamers, however, are quite forgiving of launch day problems, and these days it's customary to give at least a few months for a development team to settle itself and start building on its vision. Some were a bit too shaken up out the door, like Mythic Entertainment's Warhammer Online, and some MMOs just took too long to settle down, like Funcom's Age of Conan (although they're certainly working hard to get back up!). Either way, we've decided to revisit Atreia to see if NCsoft has managed to settle their post-launch jitters and if Aion is destined for something great.

During our first run-through, in the open beta of Aion, we were able to touch only the early leveling zones and couldn't participate in the Abyss, which is where Aion pulls its famous "PvPvE" system from. This time around, eager to get check out the level 25+ content, we rocketed through the Asmodian tutorial zones. It should be noted, however, that NCsoft has revamped their tutorial since the open beta, with some video-based in-game tutorials to run players through the basics.

After we gained our wings and set foot in Pandaemonium, the hometown of the Asmodians, one thing we immediately noticed was just how sparse the town's population of players had  become. This has a lot to do with NCsoft's anti-AFK policy that they put in place a few months back in order to alleviate server queues; after a certain amount of inactivity from a player, the server automatically boots you in order to let others hop on. Unfortunately, while this anti-AFK system does help with server latency, it also has the unfortunate side-effect of destroying the game's vendor system - the act of putting items up in your own personal 'store,' complete with a little sign above your head, so that you can sell items without using the Broker.

When we were in the Aion open beta, the game didn't have such an anti-AFK system, and many players will remember the great fun there was to be had in running around a bustling city, eagerly browsing through player shops to see if they could snag a bargain item. These days, there are perhaps three stores total in the city of Pandaemonium, and this includes the occasional gold selling website that likes to set up in front of the Temple of Gold.

Setting foot in the abyss, however, was a great experience and, while the permanently gloomy atmosphere can be somewhat depressing for some players, especially Asmodians, who don't get to return to the beautiful Elyos hometown, Sanctum, when they're feeling down, the Abyss's unique incorporation of floating islands and scattered ruins can make for some incredible PvP fights, no matter the number of players involved. Of course, the gaming world is already well aware of Aion's unique Abyss system, but after spending hours upon hours running around the lower Abyss (which is where most level 25-35 players level, if they don't stay in their own lands), the fatal flaw of Aion's PvPvE system quickly becomes apparent.