The Aion Experience

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!

Squirrel Mafia! Strikes fear into the hearts of beefy men the world over!

And it’s also the name of my new legion! Actually it’s not really new as the members are some of the best people from my favourite guild I ever joined back in WoW. Some of the affectionately known “Nubs” were lured over to Aion by reading all the super fantastic stuff I was doing in game here on this very blog. And perhaps a bit just caving to my constant nagging of “When are you cooooooming ooooooover?” =p

Nothing takes a game to the next level of enjoyment better than playing it with your friends. Raiding is fantastic, PvP can be awesome, but if you can combine those activities with having friends by your side, you just can beat it. I’m so very happy to see that familiar green text, even if I do try to type in group every time due to years of /g for guild in WoW lol.

Squirrel Mafia

There you go Itkovian… no longer can you doubt my loyalties to the guild. Here’s your announcement post. Please put the whip down…