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.

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!

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!

If the “AFK Shops” needed another reason to log off other than being annoying, blocking the path and being like, so yesterday (C’mon guys, get with the times, no queues anymore!) I have another one. For all those over level 20, you earn rested XP! Also known as “Repose” in Aion…

I had heard about it from Mr Won’t-stop-out-leveling-me over there, but am finally able to experience it (har har) for myself!

The Open Beta Patch Notes state:

Repose
When a character higher than level 20 is logged out of the game, they gain the energy of Repose – and earn an extra 20-30% experience when killing monsters and enemy faction members! It takes two days to rest up to 100%.

Repose is applied when killing monsters or defeating characters of the opposite faction. An icon in the top right corner of the screen shows when your character has this energy stored.

This is AWESOME news for me!! Why? Because I get so little game time I’m ALWAYS going to have this buff!! So not only will I level quicker for my time invested, it will also (hopefully) help curb some of the need to grind as much. Sweeeet!

From doing a little investigating, it also appears that the higher you are in level, the better the buff you receive. While a level 20 receives a 20% buff, level 40’s are commenting they not only receive 30%, but that it also lasts longer. Makes sense thought, I can’t even begin to imagine how much xp you need to make a level once you get that high. And no, no one tell me please, let’s leave the deaded feelings until I actually get there lol.

Now, one important thing you need to know is that Repost DOES NOT STACK with any Lodas Amulets you might have – be they from collectors edition or what was given out to all players recently for being such wonderful people. The Lodas Amulet will over-right Repose. *

So they you go! Now, when you have to log off for that annoying family dinner, or your partner wants to watch a movie or god forbid spend any other personal time together away from the XP, you can power through it knowing that it’s only helping you to level faster when you get back on. =p



* Some players comment that they do stack, but then state “I got 20% increase as stated” as their evidence. Since Repose and the Amulet both give 20%, I would expect to see a 40% increase. If anyone can futher confirm if they do or don’t stack, it would be much appreciated.

Aion is a visually stunning game, a treat for the eyes. Unfortunately, there are tards the world over who derive much pleasure from defecating all over it. We’re all extremely familiar with the gold selling scum that not only infested our chat channels but also shared their bad breath and spittle in our ears with their constant invasion of whispers. I think most of us will agree that we should be allowed to line them along the top of a high cliff and take turns punting them off – furthest wins all their loot.

But it’s not just the RMT scum that can momentarily destroy your pleasant gaming experience – other gamers can be just as bad, and no, now with the dribble they mess up out chat channels with. Oh no no, these prepubescent midgets can annoy us just by BEING there. For this weeks Screenshot Sunday, I’m going to share my recent captures of the “can’t believeoccurrence their not a rare ” moronically named players.

And the stupid name award goes too…

Going against all countdown rules, I’m going to showcase the biggest twat first because I want his image off my open tabs…

It takes less brain molecules to work out what the name is than it took this idiot to think of it, chuckle at how zomg funny he was and then type it in. Which I can almost guarantee he misspelt at least once as he would have had to think and type at the same time. With a name like that, you just know that’s not possible.

Moving on we have foubich’s girlfriend, who apparently has an issue with being called babe. Probably because the name is tacked onto the end of foubich’s statement when used. I apologize for the small image, she was running away as I was trying to capture it and as I didn’t know her real name, the momentary brain fart of trying to think of anything other than Babe to call out meant she got pretty far away…

Still in the same family, we have sister Tinytits here – at least she not only has a name, but it’s also fitting given she was small enough to mistake for a mouse on speed -  she zipped across my screen and at that size, it’s an easy mistake to make. Good for PvP I understand that, but I’ll be amazed if she makes it to level 50 without someone screaming mouse and kicking her halfway across the continent. If you’re ever fighting and hear a teeny tiny squeal, remember this post and look up to see if there’s a pair of tiny tits being punted overhead.

What’s worse than thinking of a stupid name? Not being able to think of any name and then thinking THAT’s a good name to use. Ironic guild name, I can only assume that they’re certainly not big where it counts – brain capacity.

While not much better, at least some thought has gone into it… I think. I have to at least give some kudos for this one as I did half smirk. HALF smirk….

Of course, I understand how hard it can be to think of a name. I do, I get it. I had a bit of trouble coming up with both Alexan and Dewinters name. A very tempting thought is to add extra letters, double letters or misspellings of the name you really want in order to get it. But… you can go too far.

Boom. I get it. Cool name. But really? You didn’t stop and think that maybe, just maybe that might be one too many o’s in there?

And no, cracking the shits and smashing your fingers in a fit of nerd rage to result with Bobobobobobobobo is not the answer either. Although it was kinda fun for a split second to experience what you must have felt to give the example.

The next character could possible have a wooden stick shoved up her patootie and used as a sign by Bobo…bobobobo in response to my criticism…

Hrm, that’s a good idea… I’m sure I could use a Byteme character on a stick in quite a few situations. I know I have at least one BC run coming up on my characters. That said, I do like that it’s Byteme… on a computer game… clever.

Inducing nothing more than a groan and a roll of the eyes is “Getinmybelly”. Um… no thanks.

And last (for this week), but by no means last is this guy:

Is he the winner? No, they’re all winners in my book. But this guy gets a special mention because no only do I believe his name is a fun game of opposites and I’m sure grouping with him would be an experience of over pulling, aggro inducing, lack of healing fun fest, but also because of the stance. That’s just pure win right there. Doesn’t it just make you want to whisper…”I take of my robes and wizard hat…” 100% Cyber worthy. I’m going to practice that stance in the grocery store queues…

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!