AoC was a joke? I didn't get to laugh, I never downloaded it.
Only in the first zones are instances of a zone made when the servers are being flooded with new players. After that first zone or two instancing is not employed, and instancing will probably be disabled after the initial rush.
Otherwise, there is only dungeon and mission instancing, like in WoW, you know? AION isn't GuildWars. You walk out of town in AION and the all the other players are still there. However, if you go to the Abyss, or otherwise use a portal to go somewhere, you will encounter a loading screen. Zones aren't completely seamless, but it's not a huge deal. Faster harddrives = faster loading.
