So, now that I’ve had the opportunity to experience Aion for many gameplay hours and with it running as a true MMORPG (one that is officially live and open to all paying customers), my opinions about the game have changed a bit, since last I wrote on it. And yes, it changed for the worse. So, let’s get this pretty much all “con’s” review out of the way.
Con #1: Server Queues
Honestly, starting up the Aion application just to get kicked off the app when there’s no server space available and have to reload the whole app, again, would suck, so the fact that there’s a queue system at all is nice. Another nice thing is that NCSoft were able to predict just how much data transfer and stress their servers could handle before any national or international launch dates, so the only actual crash that happened was very short lived (less than 30 minutes and it just happened to be my server). All of this, however, does not explain away the fact that waiting between 2 to 8 hours in a queue of thousands to play a game that is paid for on a schedule of time is pretty ridiculous. In fact, it’s beyond ridiculous. It’s annoying at first, then irritating, next unbearable, until finally it’s forgettable. What I mean is, no one is going to sit around and wait for hours to play a game when most casual players don’t even have more than two hours to devote to a single playing session. There were even queue times in “headstart”, which persons like myself were required to pay extra for if they wanted to play before thousands of others. It’ll probably get better, though…
Con #2: Lack of Trainers, Inventory Space & Kinah
Running around all over Atreia, being forced to fight overt mobs and leveling through quests you happen to pass by all equal experience points (and an ass-load of items clogging up your inventory). What would be nice is to have some trainers in these cities you travel to, so that you can learn new talents as you level, but, instead, Aion has skills in the form of inventory items that can only be bought from one place. If you feel like having even less inventory space, you could carry some with you, but with the serious lack of NPCs around to sell items to, you’ll be waisting time sorting your inventory after almost every kill. Also, that method will leave you with less kinah (the in-game currency) since you have fewer items to sell to NPCs. The other option is to run around questing & collecting items as you like, but with severely reduced survivability because of your lack of skills on par with your current level, and then to run back to the one and only location where you can get new skills (way the f*ck away), in the hopes that you can save up enough kinah to afford to buy more inventory space to carry around skill books with you in later levels.
The whole way it’s set just makes it annoying and even more time consuming to grind through levels early in the game, when it could have been designed differently, so that new players could focus more on quests, lore & environments rather than logistics of inventory and kinah management that they won’t need later.
Con #3: Character and Environment Mapping
If you read my previous post and first impressions of Aion, then you’ll know without me saying so, that I think the game, overall, is beautiful. Though it could be argued that Aion is seriously lacking in the graphics department for a PC game, it is an MMO with PvP, so loading times are an issue. Anyway, my problem is not the textures, colors or shading. My problem is the base wire-frame that everything in the game are built out of, specifically, for the objects protruding from the landscape. The dislike I have with the way these environmental objects are designed is purely aesthetic. Since I’ve seen an incredibly similar landscape design in an F2P (free to play) game, I consider Aion’s design cheap; too cheap to pay for. Similarly, about the characters, I think their movements are not complex enough, since their waists seem to always glide parallel to the ground, while their legs and torso bump and move. I’m familiar with this type of character movement in other, older games, that are also F2P, now. Yet another reason for me to not pay for Aion, one of the newest and most anticipated MMORPGs, ever.
Con #4: The Players
The part of an MMO that really makes or breaks it, especially one that you spend as much time playing as an MMORPG, are the other players. The way most MMORPGs are designed, it’s impossible to experience all of the in-game content without having other friends to help you. Whether that help is needed getting into difficult to reach areas, going into instances that actually require more than one player to even enter, or to get items killing mobs you could not ever, ever kill solo. The players I have had the displeasure of interacting with in Aion, so far, have been very unhelpful and very rude. My character’s level was higher than the common MMORPG player, meaning that the only other players doing the same quests and leveling in the same areas as me were also experienced MMORPG players. These are the players that will establish the MMO and define it from a player standpoint. From creating terms other players (and maybe a culture, like WoW) will use, to setting the pace of the in-game economy, to defining the parameters of player-to-player interactions that all players will eventually assimilate to, these few at the top are the ones who make the game. These experienced players were almost constantly rude with text, almost constantly spamming every possible chat channel, and did not follow MMORPG etiquette that has been set over many years. The one etiquette rule broken the most which is a personal pet peeve (and probably is for you, too) was steeling gather-able resource nodes as another player who is trying to reach that node distracts the mob guarding it.
It’s a far cry from the helpful player base fans of FFXI may be familiar with, but it is a change that has been progressing over a long time, can probably be measured best from interactions in games like, WoW, and is most likely due to the decreasing age of the common MMORPG player. This pattern of general player behavior may be a trend that will not ever change and will be an irrevocable part of all MMO’s in the present and future. Most likely, the only way to get a more mature gaming experience would be to find other players out of game, on forums and the like, and hope that you have a schedule that matches theirs so that you can get the full enjoyment out of a game, and it’s updating content, for which you pay over, and over, and over.
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