The Aion Experience

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After much procrastinating, I did it. I cancelled Aion. Not through any particular fault of the games. More a combination of a lot of factors.

-> Our lag. Until we move house, which we are currently working on, we will always have incredibly bad lag. Being in Australia our lag is bad enough, but this is unplayable lag. Especially for a game based around PvP.

->My friends have all left me. Including hubby. Being completely alone in the game after having them to chat to is making it really hard to log in.

->Dragon Age. And for that matter, Torchlight and even to a very slight degree… The Sims 3. But mostly Dragon Age. Single player games are really grabbing me what with their ability to stop when ever you need, no requirements to have friends playing, and in the case of Dragon Age, the in-depth story line. And Alistair. Who can stay away from that handsome man?

->Summer. It’s coming. It’s already here some days. This means weekends down the beach, not sitting inside hiding from the cold on our computers. Summer always means less game time.

->Work. I’ve been working on a project for months now, and it’s all about to go live. Complete with support forum requirements plus more, my time is going to diminish dramatically once that’s going.

As you can see, it’s not anything wrong with the game as much as it’s just a bunch of other things. The game hasn’t grabbed me, not enough to make me choose it over another, nor is it that “omg is the end of the day I want to play” draw that WoW or EQ had over me. Like DAoC, Eve Online, and the few other MMORPG’s I have tried outside of the two major ones, it was a great little time waster that I enjoyed while I played it. Unfortunately for Aion, once the ‘newness’ of the game wore off, there wasn’t enough to keep me going.

My subscription runs until the 22nd of January, which still gives me two months. That’s how much hope I had for this game, I purchased a 3 month subscription right from the get go. I don’t think I ever did that with WoW…

Will I play it before that runs out? I’m not sure. I can’t see myself playing it any time soon, not with the hustle and bustle that is Christmas fast approaching. I’ve got no idea what I’ll do with my characters, probably just leave them there to rot, poor things. I know there’s at least two fellow Nezekan bloggers out there, so maybe I’ll track them down and give them my measly amount of Kinah lol.

For now, I’ll continue playing Dragon Age, The Sims and occasionally Torchlight. I’m obviously not going to be worrying too much about this blog any more as it is only about Aion. I’m going to miss my devoted readers terribly, but urge you to update your bookmarks to http://ozgirlgamer.com which is my ‘general’ blog about anything and everything… mostly gaming, but occasionally other random drivel that’s usually entertaining. I really should have started this one as a generic blog, I don’t learn my lessons first time around (I also have a sims only blog lol). I LOVE the comments from everyone, love hearing what you’re all up to and really do hope you’ll follow my ramblings over at OGG.

And of course, I’m always on Twitter and up for a chat any time!

I wish everyone still playing Aion a prosperous future with much Kinah and Elyos killing! As I said, absolutely nothing wrong with the game for me, just a case off too many other things going on, plus not enough grab to keep me going.

P.S. This blog won’t be going anywhere for the time being, so all content, guides and did you know posts will remain in tact.

With the transition to Morheim on Alexan, it was a shock to be killed by an Elyos while hunting. I knew this was a PvP orientated game going in, but after 21 levels of nothing but friendlies around, it was a quick reminder than not all players will see my cute and adorable side.

The one thing I wasn’t really aware of, was that Brusthonin, the zone I am now in and went to completely out of fluke as I was struggling with the mob levels in Morheim (I wasn’t escaping PvP) was that it was in fact, a PvE only zone. Nice. In my search for potentially more PvE only areas to level in, I found a handy little guide titled Avoiding Unwanted PvP in Aion and thought I would share it with everyone else in case there are others out there that had not yet read it.

Guide: Avoiding Unwanted PvP in Aion

Welcome to this week’s screenshot Sunday!  Kicking off this weeks show is the cool sky above Impetusium and as always, click to enlarge.

Have you ever noticed the flying fish above Altguard’s center? More like Flying whales because of their size, but still pretty cool…

The entrance to Morheim…

And just some cool scenery shots…

Enough of what I look at, let’s get to some reader submitted shots!!

Valnark from [GER] Balder read a previous screenshot Sunday post and wanted to share the following image:

Captured last evening just before Dreadgion turned its nose over to me and killed me instantly (3 hits for 2-3k, everything parried and blocked, I’m a Templar ). Anyway I guess that pretty closeup was worth the Exp-penalty afterwards. For a while… almost every fighting stopped. Elyos and Asmodians just stared up and died afterwards. An impressive moment.

Next is from Weeble on the Gorgos EU server, and I do have to say, it’s rather revolting lol. It’s of an NPC they found in Heiron, wonderfully called “Deshirung the Blimp”

And last, but by no means least, we have a couple of submissions Melkun, on the European server Perento.

A nice view from Elysia, Poeta, during a thunderstorm…

Something we miss badly on asmodea: Porgus!

Seen a really cool scene or mob in your travels? Feel free to email it through to me along with your characters name and server to have it included in a Screenshot Sunday post!

Just a quick post to let you all know I’m going to be a bit lacking in the post department over the next few days. We’re off to see 2012 tonight (SO excited) and then Tuesday we’re off to see Nickelback. So between that, getting Xmas layby’s paid, having my puppy’s first puppy-school class, getting a Verandah installed on Thursday, etc… we’re going to be a little busy lol.

I am hoping to get some Aion time so I can jump back on my Assassin however, I’m missing her a bit. I do have a screenshot Sunday post lined up though, thankyou everyone who’s sent images in, you’ll see them tomorrow (my tomorrow, coz it’s Sat here)… will be general images tomorrow. More bad names next week! Stay tuned!

Oh yes, if you’re interested in Torchlight, feel free to jump over to my other blog (OzGirlGamer.com) as I’m about to post my first play thoughts on that. Dragon Age Origins is already up there if you haven’t read it yet…

I’ve finally figured it out! The difference between the Aion grind and the EQ grind – the only other game I’ve ever really experienced what is labelled a “grind”. I was reading back through The Dark Knights blog and read the following comment:

I figured I’d give the game another shot, I mean… Aion was fun, but I haven’t seen a grind like that since EQ1, and I didn’t like it then, still not a big fan.

BAM! Like someone elses palm to my forehead, it hit me. Yes Aion is a grind, although I haven’t experienced even the worst of it (apparently) at level 22, but so was EQ. And I loved EQ right? I played it for 5 years straight. It cost me all my sick days, nearly a job or two and certainly inhibited my ability to look for said jobs when I was out of work. Evercrack was certainly a correct rename when it came to me.

So what’s the difference?

I don’t know what it was about that comment that made me remember it, but the EQ grind was done in… are you ready for it?… a group!! OMG that’s the difference? A GROUP!

For the longest time I was guild-less and fancy free. I had my sights firmly set on joining Talisman, the biggest raiding guild there was on my server at the time and was not going to join anything less. Which meant I didn’t have any friends or guild mates to help me along as I leveled. Yet level I did. How? In GROUPS!

You couldn’t solo in EQ, what are you, nuts? Oh no no, you zoned into which ever area was suitable for you at the time, sat your ass down at the zone entrance and proceeded to beg, grovel and plead for a spot in an existing group. You always wanted the group with the best spot, the area that had a never ending stream of mobs at your disposal. You’d settle for a group in a lesser spot, all the while still keeping your eye on the groups in the prime locations in case one of their members dropped off unexpectedly.

Hell, every now and then there’d be a few nut balls at the entrance that would be all like, “Hey, we don’t need them man, we can start our own group” and you’d group up (usually after at least an hour of waiting) and try to find a spot where you could pick off stragglers from another groups area without incurring too much of said other groups wrath for kill stealing.

Your group ‘camped’ an area. And like you would expect with the word camping, you found the ideal spot, you pitched your tents, or in the case of EQ, you’re casters sat down with a book open in their face, while the leader or most agile member of the group went out hunting to return with your dinner.

It was… awesome!

You didn’t have to know anyone. Groups weren’t consistent. Guilds didn’t run together all the time, some did, most didn’t at the beginning. I’m thinking back to the days of Overthere. I’m talking about the zone Overthere, not just randomly pointing around my living room expecting you to know where I mean. The wide, open, grassy zone with those awesome birds that were easy to kill and gave nice XP. The Sarnaks that always dropped more coin…

For some reason when I think of grinding, I see there and “DC” I think the zone was called. I can’t remember what DC stood for, I just remember you all camped a section of the wall that was the dungeon in the middle. Big zone, had to have levitate to make it to the middle? Tunnels with Spiders and big Giants all around? @Moochew will reply in the comments with the name of the zone I’m sure…

Anyway, this epiphany that was the realisation of the differences between the two games is also part of my answer as to what hasn’t grabbed me with Aion. There’s no real grouping! Sure there is for certain sections or hard quests, but over all, the majority of your time is spent solo leveling until you reach a point in which you are forced to skip or swallow your pride and ask for help. That’s the difference. After WoW, everyone is so used to being able to solo, the thought of grouping just because, well, doesn’t exist anymore.

I actually miss that aspect of EQ. The requirement to group was a pain at the time. I mean we all secretly despised the Bars and Druids who could solo effectively right? But even I, as one of those Druids, chose to level my entire life in a group over solo. Why? Because I enjoy the people. I hated the hours on end waiting to be with the people, but once I was with the people, I was oh so happy.

*pauses and thinks* Then again, going back to the days of EQ, there were less tools playing the game, hell there were less people overall playing MMO’s. It wasn’t as mainstream as it is today courtesy of WoW. You might get one bad group member, which really, only united other members of the group as they sat there bitching and whispering to one another about how sucky he was. Then, when he’d leave, you’d all rejoice and the bond only grew. And replacing group members wasn’t like it is today – there was an endless stream of wall flowers just anxiously waiting for you to pick them over everyone else.

If you spent any length of time in a particular zone, you got to know the regulars and chat would be filled with “Oh hi xxxx, how are you?”. If you were really well known, a simple LFG announcement from you would result in a wave of “zomg it’s xxx hihihi” responses from the zone over. Then of course you had the morons who thought they were that someone special and annoyed us all with their refusal to stop speaking.

All in all, the leveling experience in EQ brings back some of my fondest memories in game. And that is the difference (for me) between the grind that was EQ, and the grind that is Aion. I don’t know anyone in game outside of my WoW friends and of course Moochew. After the torture that was WoW pugs, I’m scarred for life (or at least for the next few years) so don’t really venture out of that familiar circle of sane and pleasant people. And thus, my time in Aion is lonely.

Lonely because my friends have all abandoned me. And lonely because there’s not as much grouping, or grouping is limited to the time you need them, so you don’t really meet any new friends.

Will this get any different as I level up? I hope so. But even it does, how willing will I be to stick my head up and say hello. After 5+ years of solo/friendship only play, I’m all rusty when it comes to just “/1 Ranger LFG”….

I want to start this post by thanking everyone for their replies to my post yesterday. Obviously all bloggers love getting comments, but in particular for yesterdays post, your replies gave me the exact feedback I was looking for.

I also want to clarify one point that didn’t sit well with me – I was in no way bashing Aion in yesterday’s post. And I’m a little surprised (and offended) it was labelled that. It’s a sad day when people can’t see past someones opinions and personal experiences in a game they are clearly a fanboi of and label you nothing more than one of the many who waste their readers times by bashing a game they clearly don’t like.

Well, they were wrong. Never did I say I didn’t like the game, in fact I clearly stated I did, I just wasn’t sure if it was for the right reasons. After chatting to my twitter friends (I’m so addicted to Twitter btw, especially with none of my friends playing the same game as me) and I think we worked out what my issue with Aion really is, and that’s a lack of playmates. Some readers confused my loneliness of having a completely barren guild with an unpopulated server. Never did I say that Nezekan was unpopulated.

After narrowing down the major problem to a lack of friends online – and I’m talking about the friends I’ve just spent the past few YEARS with in WoW, not just any random player that is happy to talk to me, I decided to log on last night and spend some time looking at my characters. Of course, being in Australia and 3am PST server maintenance don’t mix to well and I remembered I wouldn’t have any play time last night anyway. Ironic.

The other main problem, which I had to laugh as it hit me the second I logged in, is my lag. I’ve bitched about this before. Telstra can do die in a fire of dog crap for all I care. We are on a proxy now, but a lot of good that did me at 924ms last night /sigh. The lag is going to be a factor for me for as long as we live in this house. Telstra won’t upgrade the lines to the fastest growing area in the state, and as such, the situation is only going to get worse. This is also a contributing factor to my non-enjoyment playing ANY online game at the moment – hubby had to quit raiding in WoW because of it, and he loves raiding in WoW.

This morning, I decided to tidy up my screenshots folder and clean out any old ones. In doing so, I found some that I took of my characters and did get a glimmer of hope that it was actually the reasons listed above I am not having as much fun as I could be, and not the game itself. Visually speaking, the game is very pretty. We all know that. But there’s something about finding your characters quite… well… hot that makes it even better.

And yes, shock horror I am a female gamer who loves looking at the hot chickies in game. O.o

My little cleric. Interesting playing a healing class that can wear chain lol.

I love my Ranger’s face. I don’t know why, but I just find her so pretty. Sadly, I’m not that keen on the rest of her lol. Not sure if it’s the fairly take bow designs or just a general “meh” feeling about her looks.

The character I love everything about though – face and body – is my Assassin! She’s just cool in every way.

In no way have I given up on Aion. I don’t hate the game, I am not bashing it and anyone who got that from my post needs to read it again… slowly. I can only assume going forward that I will be doing it alone, if I do it at all. Yes I could try to find another guild and/or new friends, but I’m not the sort to put myself out there to random people easily. For one, it can be more trouble than it’s worth and pugs make my skin crawl. And two, for me personally, I can’t guarantee my time availability with a toddler that likes to fight sleep. It’s the reason I only ever did friend/guild groups in WoW – the understood. Random pick ups are not so understanding… or forgiving.

And I definitely don’t want to venture into any PvP areas on my own… I want my back covered!

As I scan though my Google reader to see what new blog posts have been added, I notice a few themes:

1. There’s the people dinging level 50 in Aion. A lot of them. I really do feel like a slacker at level 22…
2. There’s the posts of people who dinged (dung?) level 50 a few days or weeks ago and are now bored. The PvP scene isn’t what they had hoped, there’s no real WoW style raiding or dungeon crawls and all their friends have already abandoned them.
3. The post Aion player – the players who have already left Aion but can’t seem to leave the game alone long enough to stop bashing it, stating how bad it was for them or generally, how the people left playing it are idiots. /clicks un-follow on that blog.
4. Then, there’s the people, like me, who are just too distracted playing other games. Torchlight, Dragon Age Origins and Fallen Earth seem to be the most popular.

This leads me to ask myself, is Aion dying already? I only have to look at my gaming experience to somewhat answer that – all my fellow WoW guildmates are no longer logging in, even my partner doesn’t really play anymore (granted that’s more to do with out lag frustrations). And even I, who just last week loved the game dearly, have found myself groaning the familiar “urg, not more of this” grinding complaint.

I can’t figure out what the difference between WoW and Aion really is in the earlier levels. Sure Aion has a higher gold sink, more xp required per level etc. But really, aren’t all MMORPG’s pretty similar? Both Aion and WoW give you quests to complete and help you level, both give you loot, money, crafting options etc. What was it about WoW that had me hooked by level 3, yet Aion is still 50/50 at level 22?

I still like the game, I think. I dunno. I can’t decide if I’m clinging to it because it’s the online MMORPG style I’m familiar with, or if because I genuinely do enjoy the game. I wasn’t having much fun when I transitioned from Altguard to Morheim, the jump in mob difficulty was painfully noticeable. No longer was I taking mobs with ease, in fact the very first mobs right after you zone through were dropping me to half health each time. (I was 21, they were 23)

The other night I decided to go and have a look at Brusthonin because it’s apparently meant to be slightly easier. And it was, remarkably so. That is, when I could actually get to a mob. The fact that there is no mob tagging in Aion is one of my biggest leveling frustrations at the moment. I know, over the grind and everything! With my lag, buffing takes me a good 5 seconds, and then there’s the slight delay while Alexan aligns the arrow in her bow and fires it. Most times someone has jumped in and taken my mob by this point, regardless if my arrow lands or not.

I’m a nice player, even though I saw it first, and technically I started attacking first – it’s not my fault my arrows have to travel – I leave the mob to who ever jumped in. The same courtesies are not repaid. Even when I do manage to get the first damaging attack in, if there was a spell caster mid-cast, they keep attacking. Hell, some even go as far as to start attacking a mob I’m already on if they think they can out-damage me! Spending 10 minutes fighting to get a single quest mob is not fun. This didn’t happen in WoW, once you got that first point of damage in, the mob was yours.

During my frustration that was the ridiculous lag, impolite fellow hunters and general Aion loneliness (anyone want to my be friend?), I started to question my time in Aion. How long would I stick around? After retiring from WoW quite a few months ago no, I am desperate for that next big MMORPG that everyone flocks to. Desperate to raid dungeons, kill bosses and generally hang out with my friends online. I miss that feeling of wanting nothing more than to log online right that second. The hating being at work/school/where ever and instead of concentrating, you spend all your time thinking about what you did the night before, and what you might do that night. The complete and utter mind capture that is an awesome game.

Aion… is not that. Not for me. I look forward to playing each night because it means my daughter is asleep and it’s my (attempted) relaxation time. But that’s all. No wanting to log on during the day, no “omg just go to sleep so I can play already” desperation. It’s just… a game. I think the biggest problem for me is that none of my friends continued to play. Everyone I know abandoned the game like it had koodies. The biggest draw to an online game for me is the people. With Aion disappointing so many, I’m left all alone to quest and level. No familiar group members, and no back-up in PvP.

Finding another guild/group is a possibility, but I don’t want another guild. I want my friends, who all went back to/stayed in WoW. A game I’m very much over. For me, for now, I’ll experience the world that is single player games and expand my gaming CV. So if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to play Dragon Age!

Did you know you can teleport from one end of the city to the other in Pandaemonium?

I see so many comments from Aion players stating they want a mount lol. We’ve all been spoiled in WoW and not don’t want to use our legs for anything other the bare necessities. And in Aion, there’s a lot more running than there is flying, especially for a game supposedly all about flying…

Pandaemonium is a big city. And if you have to run to the far end to hand in a quest, come back and find out you have then go back again, it can be very tiresome. Well now, you don’t have to run all that way! At the entrance to the city (near the teleported) and the far end of the city (near the hoity toity ‘oh you’re a Daeva‘ snobs), there are teleport statues. These do, funny enough, just what their name states – teleport.

I’ve run past them countless times without even paying attention. Then one day, I moused over them to see that they glowed and had the name ‘teleport’. Naturally, if something says it can teleport you, even an innate object like a big stone statue, you’re going to have to test it out. It’s Human, I mean Daeva nature.

Sadly, it doesn’t take you anywhere really cool, just saves you a run.

The cost is only a few hundred Kinah – 237 to get from the back end of the city back to the bridge at the front. Not bad considering it can save you, like, at least 1 minute =p

Another one of my blogs actually. Those who follow me on twitter (brave souls that you are) might have seen me trying to resist Torchlight and Dragon Age. Well, I can resist no longer and last night installed DA. Faithful readers of this blog however may not care about what I do outside of Aion, so it wouldn’t be fair to post about other games here. Instead, I’ve kicked off another “all gaming” blog – OzGirlGamer.com

As shared on the into post over there, OzGirlGamer (OGG) will house all my comments on, well, what ever I like really. Mostly other games, but occasionally I might throw in a funny link, share an amusing email or post a cool video I found. My Aion posts will still go here of course, OGG will just house everything else.

If you’re curious about what I have to say (doubt it will be anything too thought provoking), want to read about the other gamers or just have the need to fill a few minutes more in your day, feel free to read.

Now… back to finishing my next Aion post!

After doing the “And the stupid name award goes too…” blog post two weeks ago, I’ve been passing so many more stupid names that I quickly came to realise it was not going to be a once off.  I swear every time I turn around I’m reaching for the Print Screen button. How many morons make it past log in to create a character?!

This week we’re kicking it off with a real winner.

…

…

The epitome of intelligence, this guy is just pure win. Yes please, serve them up…

And spicyball’s brother. Ooooh, he means bow as in what he’s shooting with? Erm… firing arrows with? Well still, shouldn’t it be “feel my ARROW?” Or, is he that Ranger that goes around whacking people with his bow and complaining that Rangers are just TOO HARD!

Another relative of the yokel family. I can’t decide what I want more – for this to be a stupid teenager thinking he’s the funniest thing since South Park, or … a spelling error. Because sadly, I’d be LESS surprised if it was a spelling error given the drivel I see being used in the chat channels.

I can only assume this is the grumpy relative… I wonder if he gets a lot of groups?

The adopted child who wishes nothing more than to return to the orphanage each night before Uncle Upyours and Feelmybow come in for their nightly visit.

Aaaand, moving on.

Another family I ran past through out this week was the Hooters.

Bon Bon’s from hell? Big Brother from hell? The Bed and Breakfast from hell overnight stay? Ooooh, is it maybe Boobies from hell? Because of course THAT’s what ever man dreams off when he pictures a woman’s chest. Boobies risen from the hell below to bite off your face.

Aaaand I’m going to assume that is boobies from hell’s boyfriend.

There must be a lot of families play, because here’s BBfromhell’s sister. Or would that be Bigdumdude’s sister? Or maybe both…? /shudder

I hardly doubt she (he?) is either of those words – or the guild name for that matter. Common theme amongst the female characters of this family. I’m pretty sure the men’s names are actual descriptions however.

This is either another brother, or someone that just likes the boobie sisters.

I’m REALLY hoping this isn’t a family member lol. I realise there’s a myriad of porno’s out there based around that style of name, hopefully this is more the case of a deeply disturbed depressed Emo child. Original I will give her that. Oh so slightly thought provoking for the split second between “what does that say” and “what a stupid name”…

WARNING: The following images may offend.

Moving on to another family, we have this first member. Either they really like the cheese, or it could be taken as an insult to Aboriginies which, given we’re on the Oceanic server, I’m thinking it’s not a morning treat.

And here is his dipshit brother. Again, I can only assume it’s meant in a nasty way and I hope that someone from Aion reads this and addresses the issue.

I ummed and aahed about posting this one as I’m sorry, but that’s just not right at all. My only reason for posting is that I hope someone from Aion see it and will force a name change.



All characters reside on the Nezekan realm, unofficial Aussie server which makes it automatic bogan central. No characters were harmed in the making of this post. Stay tuned for following weeks where you might find yourself posted for the world to see. If you have a stupid name on your server, please feel free to capture a screenshot and email it through to me along with your characters name and the server the tard resides on!