As I scan though my Google reader to see what new blog posts have been added, I notice a few themes:
- There’s the people dinging level 50 in Aion. A lot of them. I really do feel like a slacker at level 22…
- 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.
- 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.
- 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!
@Velcro_Monkey It’s not, but i can sympathize. Quite a portion off mmo is friends. Get around and get some new ones
via Twitoaster
because of the bots/players stealing my kills, the grind to level, the ridiculous/mindless grind that is crafting, and the miniscule amount of time you can actually fly (isn’t that a big reson we got this game??), i canceled my account on sunday.
i still play in the hopes it’ll get better, but instead, i find myself going into more regions that have more bots just grinding away. i really want this game to grab my attention more than it has. i mean, it looks gorgeous and i like the abilities of my character, but somehow i get bored after hitting the same set of keys for the hundredth time trying to complete my 5th repeat quest so i can level to 30. ugh.
@Ganesh – I keep forgetting about the bots, perhaps that’s the players that were attacking my mobs regardless? I’m not used to bots being so prolific in a game. I mean, I know WoW had them, but only twice do I remember seeing one of them. Aion has them all over and even I can spot them a mile away. That says something…
Like you, I was really hoping Aion would grab my attention more. In the early days of WoW (or even EQ), there’s no way I would have abandoned the game to play something else. Not that I ever expected Aion to be the WoW killer, but I was hoping to be hooked at least until my first character made level 50…
I still think Aion is a fantastic game, and one I’d like to spend more time with.
2 problems I’m having:
1: NCSoft has really dropped the ball. I gave them a pass at launch, but it’s just getting worse. Bad decisions and lack of communication abound.
2: Like you said, just too much BETTER out there to play. I’m taking time away from all MMOs to play Borderlands, Torchlight, Modern Warfare 2 and Dragon Age: Origins.
Hrm. I must be doing it wrong.. I don’t fit 1-4… I’m 40, still playing, and I’m not playing anything else…
Still having a blast though, and most of the core I play with are still playing.
*shrugs* I just renewed for 3 months heh. IDK, I still think it has promise, I hope it’s not dying
I still love Aion, we’ve just sealed the abyss gate in our Elyos guild and are moving up into our twenties. On Ariel where we play asmodaen, we’re at that point where you start heading over to Morheim and the bots are just terrible. We could barely complete the timed quest at the Altguard gates to get the pollen due to the bots there. But we haven’t lost interest, although we have gotten back onto our television schedule so the urge to play over everything else has disapated. Hang in there!
Curious enough, I had just started wondering that too. However, I did pay for 3 months in advance, given how much i liked the game in the beta. But i guess that was just a part of the game
What I feel it’s the problem, probably it’s my own fault. Everyone seems to be at least level 40, and only second-chars and few other match my level. That brings out what I feel is the most important part of a MMO: discovery. Hell, I mean, in WoW you could gather a group to do for the first time scarlet monastery for example (i think it was), noone knew what was inside, then you reach the boss and he start spinning around! I mean, first time it was “WTF!?”, second time you start doing a strategy, and then it’s just “ok every caster up there, tank here and healer there”, and it becomes rather atumated. But WoW had this amazingly enormous world, thatm sadly, Aion doesn’t have, so you could always find something new (talking with a casual WoW player experience, never really reached 60).
Aion bosses, for the most, is tank and spank. That could be done even from a bot, and it’s not cool.
Surely, there’s the abyss, but when you start doing pvp and everyone is 10 or more level higher than you, or just you have noone to group with exception of casual do-and-forget-next-time-group (heck I really don’t care being raped as long as I do it with friends), it gets really less interesting.
As I said, probably it’s my own fault, I missed to level that fast to enjoy everything with the majority of the players. Still, after a little Aion does become repetitive. And not just the combat, but also the scenery. Repetitive because you are phisically hanging around in the same places over and over and over again.
that’s what Aion hasn’t achevied, from my humble opinion
For much the same reason WoW failed me, I think I’ve moved on from MMOs… it just got… boring.
I’m 35, almost 36 with Howler and well… I still have fun flying around and trying to pick fights with Elyos, but PvP is very lacking and the rift system is messed up. I’ve only gotten into two rifts, and one was probably the worst experience with an Alliance ever.
We spent 30 minutes getting the group together… just to be killed by Elites on the other side in literally the first 5 minutes.
And don’t get me started on the fact that every class can keep me rooted or slowed, and me PvPing turns into hoping I resist the roots or can kill them before Ankle Snare or Aerial Lockdown is over. Even with all that, I still try to PvP and have fun with it, but in the end, I’m just as lonely as you are.
No one ever wants to quest with me, no one ever wants to PvP, no one wants to do anything… there is no sense of fun. At least in WoW, I remember grabbing some people and hitting up Darnussus (sp?) and PvPing all night, or defending Crossroads, or what have you. I don’t want to quit Aion… but as I start to see more and more console games I can play, and since I have a friend who wants to play Old Republic when it comes out… I may end up quitting soon, which is so sad because I saw so many redeeming qualities in Aion, and so much potential…
Dunno what to tell you, we shall see I suppose.
I like the game a great deal, and would like to see lvl 50 pvp. However, I am waiting for three games (TOR, FFIV, Earthrise) and when either of the three releases you can bet Aion will be hard pressed to keep my subscription. That coupled with the fact that it seems to take forever to get NCSoft to push out even relatively minor convenience options and stability tweak, I just don’t see them able to keep fresh content in the game.
For the time being I am enjoying my Ranger a great deal, and my Chanter, and hope to get one of them to 50 to at least enjoy the end game a bit. However, if I reach that point and there is no clearer sky on the horizon, I doubt my interest will last more than a month or two beyond that point.
there’s probably no way that my character will make it to 50, given how boring i’m finding leveling to be. i got on last night, played for about 15min and then did something i should have done awhile ago: i turned my computer off! ha! until they fix the leveling grind, the boring crafting grind, the bot situation, aion just isn’t the game for me. personally, i’m looking forward to the new star wars MMO or even starcraft 2.
@alexan: yes, they were probably bots
Ok, I’m glad to see that there are a few of you that are actually ENJOYING AION. You can add me to that list. I hate feeling like I’m the only “cheerleader” that this game has. I know I’m not, but it feels like that sometimes. For me, AION really is the first game since the original EQ that has captivated me in the same way. Well, I loved Vanguard too… but Vanguard was just too buggy and soooo not ready for release, that when they did release it, it died a quick and ugly death… but anyhooo..
As for the problems that I see a lot of folks complaining about – I just don’t see them on Meslamtaeda. Maybe it’s because I’m a little biased and am currently looking at things through rose colored glasses, or maybe it’s because it was one of the last servers to be stood up and the riff-raff had already made their homes on the earlier servers, but I don’t see that many bots in my travels (I am currently in the same areas as Alexan, Morheim and Brusthonin). That’s not saying that I haven’t seen ANY bots, I’ve seen a few here and there, but not to the extent to which some of you have reported. And certainly not enough to affect my playing. As for people leaving in droves, I really haven’t seen a lot of that happening either, as most of the zones that I’ve been hanging out in always have plenty of players in it. I’m also a little confused by the contradiction in your post… you complain that you couldn’t even finish a quest because a lot of your mobs were contested. That would suggest a crowded area/server, not one losing players left and right. And yeah, bot this bot that.. but as far as I can tell, bots don’t tend to congregate in one area. It just wouldn’t be productive for them to have to compete with other folks/bots for the same mobs.
I read a lot of AION blogs on the internet (a few less now that folks are jumping ship) and have noticed the same negative themes that Alexan has, so much so that I even wrote a post on my own blog about all the negativity surrounding the game right now (Another Aion Blog) in which I took exception with both Syp’s and Syncaine’s posts bascially bashing the game without ever having played it! I mean, if you’re gonna bash it, at least try it or bash it and be done with it and move on.
Anyway, I hope that the game continues to be fun for those of you who enjoy it and for those of you that don’t… well, I hope you find your game too!
@Mojeaux Please point out where in my post I am “bashing” Aion?!
@Mojeaux : what I said is not bahing. Do not take me for a wow fanatic (never actually truly enjoyed it fully), trying to make impossible comparisons. When i first saw the beta of Aion, i was amazed. The game got me so much in, I was really fascinated by it’s lore and sceneries, graphics (of course) and combat system. But this game has been born for eastern players, and you can really see that. Mindless grind, repetitive tasks, massive zerging. And a pretty straightforward world, with little places “off” the leveling just to hang around with friends, for example. Maybe I’m not really that much of a MMORPG person, but while I do like seeing my character evolve, I do not like to have to do the same task, with same killing or gathering or whatever over and over. But do not take me wrong, I still love the game. All of the above are problems that can be fixed, and I truly belive they will be fixed.
(sorry for the long posts guys)
Actually I think both Opositivo and Alexan got me wrong. If you look closely at my post, the only folks that I complained about bashing the game are Syp and Syncaine, and I really don’t even mind the bashing ~ everyone has an opinion, I just think they should at least play it to bash it and if they don’t play it, then bash it / critique it (whatever word you want to use) and then leave it alone. Sorry if I came across as hostile to you Alexan, that was certainly not my intention. As proof, here’s the last paragraph of my post:
“I read a lot of AION blogs on the internet (a few less now that folks are jumping ship) and have noticed the same negative themes that Alexan has, so much so that I even wrote a post on my own blog about all the negativity surrounding the game right now (Another Aion Blog) in which I took exception with both Syp’s and Syncaine’s posts bascially bashing the game without ever having played it! I mean, if you’re gonna bash it, at least try it or bash it and be done with it and move on.”
I must admit I am having very similar questions about whether I love Aion or not. I did ding 25 this week and finally made it to the great abyss, but I have the same sort of struggle just to log in and grind some more. Maybe this just comes from doing “another” grind and perhaps I shouldn’t have leveled 5 toons to 70 in Wow before that game wore me down… I dunno.
Anyways, I wanted to drop a note and mention that I love reading your thoughts on the game and to keep posting when you can. It’s cool to see others out there enjoying the game and leveling along while balancing life and stuff.
This game sucked so bad at level 30. I’d rather not play than play. Game will die because of bad design.
Reading all of this really does point out that Aion needs work. No matter which side you choose(I played both) everything is the same. The two areas look the same. No sense in creativity. It’s like they spent all their time trying to make the game look pretty, that they forgot to add creativity. I mean, each starting level has you go get grain. Or gather the same plant for a potion. The next area you go, is surrounded by a lake.
I switched to Asmo’s and played a Glad. I loved it because I did a lot of damage and could take a lot of damage. I started to get frustrated when Elyos would come through the rifts and gank everyone. So here I’m thinking I can own everyone with my amazing gladiator. Next thing I know, I’m rooted to the ground. That gives who ever is attacking me, plenty of time to cause serious damage. By the time the root is over with(I think it lasts 15 or so seconds) I get rooted again. Rangers are the worst, they kite you non-stop because their cool-down is short. If anyone that played as a Gladiator, I think you all can relate.
I spent a good three months playing and only got to 34…hours of grinding made things worse. If they were to add more quests and limit how much people can stun you…the game would be way better. And like what everyone is saying…my friends have already left the game so I get to be there alone. Maybe when the new add-on comes out, more people will join? They are adding mounts now! And you can swim now in the new add-on…..
I completely agree how i managed to lvl a SM and a Chanter up to the high 30’s is beyond me as i had friends who hit 50 and told me there really wasnt much for a lover of pve content and that there really wasnt even much for pvpers i lost faith in it and felt no desire to keep grinding away hours at a time to just ding once, in my opinion this game had a chance NC blew it with to much hype now by the end of the year i see this game becoming like warhammer and conan cuz when cata comes out and ff14 those 2 tyrants are going to just kick aion off its little high horse it doesnt deserve to be on in the first place.
I loved aion. Though the recently banned one of my account i have two (one for each fraction
). I have two level 50’s one full miragent. But alot of alts 30. I think in the beginning the game was great because no matter what there was 100 people doing same quest as you and you could find a group. And Everyoe was loving the game ect. But with aion crap suppport team :l taken me 2 weeks to get a reply. And throwing double exp weekends every month at the end 
hoping to re-new sub’s if they put a little effort into bring patches faster and there support team. Aion could be great. And as for the bots they have cracked down on them. They are not as bad as these people make out.
I have recently started play wow (1st time. no joke) and wont be going back to aion untill the make some changes.
I don’t know when Starcraft2 is ever going to come out. If it does happen I know I’m gonna Zerg Rush my way through the ethernetz to get me a a cd.