I decided to blog about the games I play on a more personal level. This is partially because it sometimes gets a little repetitive reviewing games all the time and going along to game previews and beta’s etc. Whilst I love that aspect of what I do, I’m a writer first and foremost and becoming a better writer is what drives me.

So this is my first blog post about gaming life in Aion on the Yustiel server. It’s a US based server so I am consistently playing with lag. That is not an excuse for any poor gameplay on my part, everyone has off days but try playing with 300 odd people at a fort raid with upward of a 700ms ping EVERY day. You’ll soon understand what it means to laaaaagggg.

And there is no such thing as an Oceanic server, NCSoft!!!!

To try and combat the situation with lag, I tried playing on Nezekan which is touted as the Aion Oceanic server for people like me living in well, oceania. The ping was exactly the same. Now before anyone starts pointing at my network, my hardware or my crappy ISP connection, I have no issues connecting to any other game I play online without lag. I often playon XBL on my 360 and don’t experience anywhere near the same amount of lag as I do when playing Aion. I also play many other games online on my PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 and don’t get lag. Aussie ping times are about 36ms. So if it was my internet connection or anything related to my hardware, I am sure I’d be getting lag everywhere, not just in Aion. Right? Feel free to prove me wrong

So when will NCsoft actually create a proper Oceanic server that doesn’t lag for Aussie or New Zealand gamers? Nobody knows… and that’s the truth.

Colma, Level 49 Spiritmaster, b1tches!

This is the character that I play as she currently is at level 49. I am one level away from the cap now which means I’ve pretty much grinded as far as I can go in the game. I’m not too happy with my gear though because obtaining good gear in Aion in my opinion is far more difficult than it should be. To compare this game to EverQuest for example, the Epic quest in EQ seemed almost easy compared to some of the loot quests you can do in Aion. The quests to do them are extremely tedious, long and boring grindfests that require you to spend copious amounts of your time killing the same mob over and over or dying to the same mob because it takes an entire guild to kill it. Some people do this because they are used to the Korean gamestyle of play which is pretty much grind, grind, grind and consistently kill mobs over and over. I however am not really used to this type of gameplay. Having come from various other MMOs that did not require you to grind so much for so little, I guess I’m just not attuned to it.

I was in the top guild on the server until the medals that I earned in fort sieges were stolen from me and never recovered. I left that guild and I am now running around guildless and loving it. It just goes to show you don’t have to be in a guild to enjoy yourself in a game. As for fort raids, you can attend those without being guilded AND STILL get medals for raids! If I had known that from the beginning, I would never have joined a guild.

PvE versus PvP

The PvE content is OK but again way too repetitive. I haven’t even started an alt yet which is rare for me having played so many mmos before. This is the first game where I have never been tempted to start an alt to play. The thought of having to grind through all those levels just kills that idea dead.

As for PvP – wow seriously lacking. I consider myself a huge PvP gamer and in fact, it’s all I really want to do. If I could PvP all day, I would. That is one thing that Warhammer Online had over Aion in spades – their PvP content was a whole lot better organised and focused on giving players the opportunity to pvp all day if that’s what they wanted and on an even footing – none of this level 50′s ganking the crap outta level 30′s. Sorry but no, that’s NOT fun. That’s stupid. I don’t buy the ‘Oh but it’s more realistic’ either. The thing with Aion is that it’s black or white. You’re either really hardcore or you’re not. If you’re not hardcore enough your gear will suffer and your gameplay, especially in pvp will suffer. There is NO middle ground. Either you grind all day and do your Fenris gear at 50 or you get totally dominated in PvP by all the gamers who botted their way to 50 Fenris gear or just dedicated all their time to the game without living for four months.

The other thing about Aion that gets up my nose is that the Koreans have had this game for months. On my server, Team Korea go around ganking everyone because they’ve been playing for about a year which is about eight months longer than me and most western players. I don’t think that’s balanced or fair. I understand the need for beta testing but why give one country such a huge monopoly over the game content? Beats me…

To continue or not, that is the question…

I don’t want to quit because I do get some enjoyment out of Aion. But unless the gameplay seriously changes from a PvP perspective and they make it easier to get better gear rather than only offering grindfest quests that will suck the life outta you, I won’t be playing Aion for much longer.

If you’re looking for more information on Aion, here is the official website.

Here is my character link: Colma