The Aion Experience

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”….