18 days still... until it goes free2play in europe.
And yeah... Aion is still getting updates, and its bound to be better now than then.
Yes its grinde fest, but so was FFXI, and I loved that game

Aion isnt nearly as bad as FFXI was with its grinding though (its tougher than WoW though, where in a few days you can hit max cap).
I mean in ffxi.... 2months time to level a character to 75, if you where lucky with parties. Suffer a death, spend 30-45mins getting the exp back (solo) that you lost, or joing a group and do it in 10mins.
It was not socially acceptable, not to show up with decent gear, and use food (which was expensive). So before you could even start to grind, you would need to farm a hour or so to pay for the food costs.
that said, no other MMO has had PVE content anywhere near as challengeing/rewarding when you accomplish it.