Problem with AoC right now is after lvl 40-50 there's nothing. Instance content, Quest content and such as severely lacking once you hit those levels.
AoC is alot of fun in the beginning, the leveling itself is new and interesting. Great graphics, interesting combat system and all that. First 20 levels is basically a pretty well polished single player campaign [that alone is worth the R300 for the game, even if you stop there] .
Now that said, WoW , we all know the "act of leveling" is basically a forgotten part of the game. People who level in WoW is powerleveling alts, they're not figuring out areas and quests or sight seeing, they go straight for lvl 70. WoW at this stage has ALOT of content for lvl 70 , even though it's all mindless farming and grinding, but getting to Black Temple in terms of raid content will keep you busy for months -> years.
AoC got nothing on WoW with the high level content. So i don't know how it will pan out, as they will need to throw in CRAPloads of -content- on top of the bug fixes/balance fixes....and i can tell you now, if this has not happened in the next 3-6 months [before WoTlk]..the game will be just another LOTRO...
Up to lvl 40 , the bugs are relatively "ok" and negligible. After lvl 40 you can see, not only are you running out of content, but the bugs are getting alot more serious and game breaking. There's nothing more frustrating than to clear an entire instance, only to have the final boss bug out on you , resulting in a quest you can't finish......even worse when you find the the thread on the forum where people have been -screaming- for a fix since the game launched....
That fact that i see constant "looking for grind group main system lvl 60+" in the public channels, is very discouraging...i most certainly will NOT be -grinding- an instance to lvl 80.
I have no idea what the Siege PvP stuff is delivering in terms of end game content, i am yet to read or hear from anyone saying how awesome it is. So far i guess there's not alot of guilds capable to do Siege Wars [need to build alot of buildings/resources] as there's not enough players + bugs and the performance problems etc.
Class balance is afaik , pretty much a mess in PvP. In PvE i think it's actually pretty good..the fact that all healing is AOE means healer classes are alot more fun to play [no more healbotting click on single targets to heal them etc].
In PvP however, the combat system is broken when you throw casters vs. melee , and alot of classes can -consistently- one-shot people...dunno that to me is pretty broken.
Anyway, AoC got alot of potential. I believe if they get the high level content in and polish it properly, it can be a better game than WoW is right now. I love the combat system, you actually feel like you need to -practice- to get certain combos right . You can also actually SEE people who are good [as opposed to their class being good], just being able to get the combos off and the right ones off etc.
