Well I have been absent from posting because my wife delivered our second son and it is a little time consuming. But I am back!
Now, on to the first post.
Something strange happened over the week. Aion, a game that I really did not have any interest in playing caught my attention. I think it was due to the fact that Champions Online has really disappointed me since launch. There is not enough to do. If I run out of quest at all for any reason in the first 20 levels there is something really wrong with the game and it is a game breaker for me.
So I preordered Aion to get into the headstart. I knew nothing about this game besides the fact that you could get wings. I really did not care to play a game where one of the main selling points was you could fly. But I read something on massively about how the pvp was kind of like DAoC and I was bored enough that I decided to try it.
I am glad that I did. I have not experience this much polish in a just released game in a long time. It is nothing different from what I have experience before but it is very well done. It has done to WoW what WoW did to EQ, taken some of the best features polished them and tweaked them to make them better. It has been out in Korea for a year so they have had time to smooth it up.
I have only gotten to level 8 but it has been a fun experience. They have returned to a few of the things I like about older games. It is not instanced and so far it has been a zone free world, I like to explore, and this is nice. While the quests do guide you from area to area you don’t feel like you are being guided and it lets you think you are doing the driving.
It is possible to grind mobs to get items and exp. This is a nice change. I like to grind sometimes it is nice mindless play that I enjoy. The mobs are very tough and sometimes an equal level mob will kill you. While on paper this would seem like a bad design, it gives you a sense of accomplishment for killing something and really works well.
The servers have been very stable and the frame rates are great. The game looks absolutely stunning.
Those are my preliminary thoughts on Aion. If you have been on the fence about it I would not hesitate to try it.
Why I am enjoying Aion!
November 19, 2009 Leave a comment
After my last post I started to think about why I was enjoying Aion. It is everything that I should dislike about MMOs, but I was still enjoying it. I have narrowed it down to a few key elements that have mixed to create the “Aion Perfect Storm”.
I believe the main reason is my real life job is currently really stressful with a project that is quickly spinning out of my control and stressing me out. On top of work being stressful I am just finishing building a house. When work/life is really stressful I feel and extra need to get lost in a game.
Aion’s main mode of game play is grinding. This is mindless and totally not stressful so I am drawn to this type of game play. There is really nothing better than getting a go kill 20 of these and return to me for your reward type of quests. I think it is a throwback to some old school camping that I enjoyed in DAoC and EQ and it just pulls my nostalgia strings.
Aion also offers me a completely new and beautiful world for me to explore. Exploration is a huge motivator for me in games. I love visiting new worlds and discovering cool new things. Exploration is why I was first attracted to MMOs, at that time there was no other game that had an open world to explore.
I think all of this coming together at this point in my life is making me like Aion. I do not pretend that this game is anything other than an grind fest. But right now that is what I want in a game. I feel that there are a lot of other people who feel the same way, considering the sales numbers for the game. I know that eventually I will grow tired of this grind and move on to different game. I doubt it will take that long. But until then I will enjoy Aion.
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