AION 2 has only been live for a short time, but some veteran players are already questioning whether its long-term systems are giving them enough reasons to stay.
One particularly striking complaint comes from a player whose Legion reportedly started at around 160 members and has since fallen below 100. According to the player, many of those members had played together for years, with some sharing a history stretching back 15 to 20 years.
The interesting part is that the complaint is not really about AION 2's combat.
The player says the combat feels good. The world looks great. The problem is what happens around those systems: trying to get into Siege, finding meaningful reasons for a Legion to stay together, dealing with timers and resets, and repeatedly pushing through layers of RNG-heavy progression.
That does not prove that AION 2's wider player base is leaving. It is one Legion's experience, and it should be treated that way. But it is an unusually useful example of a problem that matters in an MMO: a game can be enjoyable moment to moment while still making organized players question whether they want to keep playing it every day.

AION 2 Siege: When Getting Into the Content Becomes the Problem
For the Legion player behind the complaint, the biggest frustration is Siege.
The player describes arriving early with a large group, only to find that access can effectively become a waiting game before the actual fighting begins. When several groups are competing for limited access, simply having a large Legion does not guarantee that everyone who wants to participate can actually get in.
That creates a strange situation for a game built around large-scale PvP.
A Legion can spend days preparing characters, organizing players and building a schedule around Siege, only to discover that the most important part of the night is waiting for an opening.
The player also reported seeing AFK players and suspected Odyle bots in the Abyss. Those specific observations are anecdotal and should not be treated as proof that every Siege queue is being filled by bots. However, the broader bot problem in AION 2 is not merely a Reddit theory.
NCSoft has repeatedly taken action against accounts involved in botting, gold farming, unauthorized programs, RMT and abnormal economic activity. On October 23 PDT / October 24 CEST, the official AION 2 team announced restrictions on 12,586 accounts following its latest review. The announcement specifically listed botting, gold farming, unauthorized programs, RMT and economy abuse among the reasons for enforcement.
That followed another large wave of enforcement earlier in October, showing that botting and illicit economic activity remain an active issue for the live service rather than a problem limited to launch week.
The distinction matters. The official numbers do not tell us how many bots are currently active in the Abyss, and they do not prove that bots are responsible for any particular Siege queue. What they do establish is that AION 2's developers are dealing with a substantial enough enforcement problem to keep issuing large-scale account restrictions.
For players trying to compete for limited PvP opportunities, that is understandably frustrating.
The Bigger Legion Problem Isn't Simply "No Server Content"
Another criticism from the Legion player is that AION 2 does not create enough opportunities for players on the same server to develop the kind of community identity that older MMORPG systems encouraged.
This point needs some clarification.
It would be inaccurate to say that AION 2 has no server-based structure or that everything happens across a completely anonymous matchmaking pool. NCSoft has established server pairings for large-scale content and has said those pairings can change over time to keep factions balanced.
The game also supports cross-server access for parts of its instanced content.
So the issue is more subtle.
The question is not whether AION 2 has servers.
It is whether players feel that their server actually matters enough to make staying together worthwhile.
That distinction is important for Legions.
In a traditional MMORPG community, your server can become part of your identity. You know which guilds are strong. You recognize regular players. Rivalries develop naturally. Players remember who helped them during a difficult fight and who showed up when a major objective was contested.
Cross-server systems solve a different problem: they make it easier to find enough players to run content.
Both approaches have value, but they can pull in opposite directions.
If matchmaking is too fragmented, players struggle to build relationships outside their existing friend groups. If server identity is too weak, there may be less reason for a large Legion to keep recruiting, organizing and defending its own community.
AION 2's current server-transfer system makes that issue even more relevant.
Server Transfers Are Already Reshaping AION 2 Communities
NCSoft introduced launch-server transfers during October, with the current launch transfer period running from the October 20/21 maintenance until the October 27/28 maintenance, depending on region. Transfer capacity is also managed on a server-by-server basis, with the available number of transfers updated during the transfer period.
That gives Legions an important option if their current server is no longer a good fit.
It can also expose another MMO problem: population concentration.
A healthy server needs enough players to make its social and competitive systems feel alive. Too few players can make recruitment and PvP less interesting. Too many can create competition for access to limited activities.
Server transfers can help correct that imbalance, but they cannot completely solve a design problem if players still feel that the most important activities happen through matchmaking rather than through the communities they built.
For AION 2, this is something worth watching as the launch population settles.
Too Many Timers Can Make AION 2 Feel Like a Second Job
The Legion complaint goes beyond Siege.
The player also points to a long list of timers and restrictions: Odyle limits, entry timers, Rift windows, field-boss schedules, daily and weekly resets, and limited shop availability.
None of these systems is necessarily bad by itself.
MMORPGs need pacing.
The problem appears when enough of them stack together that a player's schedule starts being determined by the game rather than the other way around.
Miss a window and you may have to wait.
Run out of an entry attempt and you may have to wait.
Miss a daily reset and you may lose a day's progress.
A field boss spawns while you are working or sleeping? Wait again.
For a highly committed player, this can create a strange psychological shift. Instead of logging in because friends are online and something sounds fun, the player starts checking the clock because there is a limited activity that needs to be completed.
That is where the "second job" comparison comes from.
It is not necessarily about how many hours AION 2 requires. It is about how much of that time feels mandatory.
RNG Adds Another Layer to the Progression Problem
The same player also complains about multiple layers of randomness throughout progression, including enhancement and amplification failures, Soul Binding rolls, Pet Genus outcomes and Arcana-related systems.
Again, RNG is not unusual in an MMORPG.
Random upgrades can create excitement. A lucky enhancement can feel great precisely because failure was possible.
The problem appears when several independent progression systems all depend on random outcomes.
Imagine spending a long session collecting resources, earning currency and completing content, only to have the final improvement depend on another roll. Then repeat the process tomorrow.
At some point, progression stops feeling like a clear path toward a goal and starts feeling like a series of attempts.
That can be especially exhausting for Legion players because organized groups often need their members to maintain a certain level of progression. The pressure is no longer purely personal. Players may feel that falling behind affects the group.
This is where AION 2's progression design intersects with its social design.
Where AION 2 Kina Fits Into the Problem
Kina is another part of that progression loop.
Players earn and spend Kina throughout the game, while the broader economy, Market systems and progression costs create additional reasons to keep farming resources and completing activities.
That makes the term AION 2 Kina increasingly relevant to players looking for ways to keep up with progression, especially as the game's economy develops after launch.
But the important point is not simply that players need more Kina.
It is what the currency represents.
If a player already has to manage daily activities, weekly limits, upgrade attempts, random rolls and time-gated content, another resource grind can make the overall progression loop feel heavier.
In other words, the problem is not that AION 2 has an in-game currency. Almost every MMORPG does.
The concern is whether the combined system gives players enough meaningful choices about how they spend their time.
A player who wants to farm Kina for several hours should feel that the time was productive.
A player who wants to spend the night with their Legion should not feel that they are sacrificing too much progression by doing so.
That balance is difficult, but it is one of the things that determines whether an MMO remains enjoyable after the launch excitement fades.
The Bot Problem Makes the Economy Question More Important
The recent enforcement numbers also make the economy side of the discussion harder to ignore.
NCSoft's official operation policy explicitly treats gold farming and bot operations, unauthorized programs and certain forms of abnormal economic activity as violations that can lead to account bans.
That means AION 2's developers clearly recognize the damage automated farming and illicit trading can cause.
For legitimate players, the concern is straightforward.
If bots can efficiently generate resources or currency, they do more than create visual clutter in farming areas. They can affect the value of items, competition for resources and the overall feeling that legitimate play is being rewarded fairly.
That is particularly important in an MMORPG where players are already spending large amounts of time trying to improve their characters.
The official enforcement actions are therefore relevant to this Legion story, but they should not be overstated. There is no evidence that the Legion's decline from 160 to fewer than 100 members was directly caused by bots.
The connection is broader: both issues point toward the same question of whether the game's systems are rewarding the kind of long-term play its most committed players want.
Paying for AION 2 Does Not Guarantee Long-Term Retention
The Reddit player also says they purchased the highest Founder’s Pack and maintained their subscription before eventually uninstalling after spending more than 20 hours playing over a weekend.
That detail is interesting, but it should not be interpreted as evidence that paid players generally want to quit.
What it demonstrates is something simpler.
Spending money can increase a player's investment in a game, but it cannot compensate for systems they no longer enjoy.
A player can tolerate a bad day in an MMO.
They can tolerate a failed upgrade.
They can tolerate waiting for a boss.
They can tolerate a queue.
What becomes difficult is when those frustrations start stacking together and the player no longer feels that logging in is worth the effort.
For a Legion leader or long-time group member, the calculation can become even more complicated.
If half of your friends have already stopped logging in, the social reason to stay disappears at the same time as the gameplay reason.
That is how a 160-player community can potentially become a sub-100 community without every individual player deciding that AION 2 is a bad game.
People simply stop finding enough reasons to return.
What AION 2 Needs to Get Right Next
AION 2 does not need to abandon its current design and become the original AION.
But the concerns raised by this Legion point toward several areas where the game could become more accommodating to long-term players.
First, Siege access needs to feel reliable.
Large groups should not spend the most important part of their PvP schedule fighting the access system itself.
Second, server identity needs to remain meaningful.
Cross-server matchmaking is useful, but it should complement server communities rather than make them feel interchangeable.
Third, progression needs more room for player choice.
Daily and weekly systems can provide structure, but players should still feel that playing longer or playing differently has value.
Fourth, RNG needs protection against bad streaks.
Random systems work much better when players can see a reliable path forward, even after repeated failures.
Finally, Legions need reasons to play together that are not always tied to efficiency.
This may be the most important point.
An MMO survives because people form relationships inside it.
Players remember the Siege where their group won against the odds. They remember the guildmate who helped them get an item. They remember staying online late because everyone was having fun.
Those moments cannot be replaced entirely by matchmaking, timers or another progression bar.
AION 2's Real Test Is What Happens After the Launch Rush
AION 2 is still young, and its developers are actively changing the live service.
The game has already introduced new servers and matchmaking adjustments, server transfers, repeated anti-bot enforcement and new progression-focused content. NCSoft's official site continues to describe AION 2 as an MMO built around everything from solo instances to large-scale raids, so the game's long-term direction is clearly still being shaped.
That makes the Legion's complaint worth watching rather than dismissing.
One player's experience does not prove that AION 2 is dying.
It does, however, highlight a genuine MMO design problem.
A game can have great combat, a beautiful world and plenty of content, yet still lose players if the systems surrounding that content make playing together feel like work.
For AION 2, the next stage will be less about proving that players have enough things to do.
It will be about making sure they still have reasons to do those things together.
Because if a Legion that once had 160 players gradually falls below 100, the most important question is not simply where those players went.
It is why they stopped finding AION 2 worth organizing their time around in the first place.