the way the pay system is set up now (at least in the chinese version, i cant imagine why theyd change it) is by hourly payment. this makes more sense to me because you can pay for time you're actually logged in rather than pay 15 for a month and lets say you dont get to play for half a month, then you've wasted money. its relatively cheap - i payed 10 bucks and got 148 hours of in-game time

i'm playing the chinese version right now (with an english crack for it), and although it *is* a good game, it's not nearly as good as the OP says it is. ive played quite a few MMOs (except for WoW), and I was a GuildWars fan for awhile. although the same people that made GW made Aion, I felt more hype and excitement while playing GW than I did with Aion. Aion kind of starts out really boring until you hit lvl 10 or so, and even then its the same cookie cutter type quests.
here's a few points for those interested:

1) you get wings, allowing you to glide in most areas and fly through bigger parts
2) quests are stereotypical MMO (i like to call them fed-ex quests). deliver 1 thing, talk to someone, etc.
3) graphics are decent for an MMO standard, especially if you have a decent computer
4) you can almost solo most things in the game with the right timing and mental capacity, the group (party) system feels unnecessary.
5) did i say you can fly already?