Aion – Wait, wasn’t I just talking about DDO?

I haven’t played Aion yet, but like a fool, I’ve downloaded the OST. It is very much like stealing a magic ring, only to find yourself completely addicted to its presence. Often music is left as a secondary addition with MMOs, especially with raids working oh-so-perfectly with ventrillo, but Aion’s soundtrack is very appealing to my ears. Many a day have I spent listening to it while transporting myself from one place to another. Given the grindy nature of MMOs, people probably are more comfortable with their own anthems. Still, music’s important. I’m getting totaled by my own personal hyping.

Yeah. It sucks.

This is an extremely problematic issue I have. A couple weeks ago, I was preaching about how Aion isn’t anything new, and now I’m considering cashing gift cards into measly heaps of bills to purchase Aion on a whim. How could such a metamorphisis happen? Starts with A.

1. A friend mentioned it favorably – Roll a will save for me, DM. I play MMOs for friends, but the last endeavor the whole crew was interested in was Granado Espada. The mere concept of playing with the old team would make something as lame as Hello Kitty Online. Also, I leave MMOs once the friend-core is gone, simple as that.
2. Already invested in it – Secretly, I have been hoarding two-year-old Lineage 2 game card from when Bandit, a name you might hear often, and I were considering playing it when it launched. Turns out, neither of us had the time or the patience. However, old Lineage 2 cards act as a universal time currency for all of NCsoft’s P2P MMOs as far as I know. I had full intentions on using the key on Aion two years ago, it hasn’t changed.
3. Anime isn’t that bad – Some people seem to link triple-digit episode anime to Aion, when it should be linked to the solid sub-genre of Asian-interpreted European Fantasy, which is more colorful, more idyllic and far more fantastic than the grim western interpretation. More often than not, the asian interpretation  is vapid, but dark western versions also have a tendency to be flaccid. It’s a matter of preference more than an intrinsic flaw with the game’s art direction. I happen to enjoy the genre with a more vibrant spectrum of colors and the copious use of pretty magic. No, scratch that, I freaking love it.
4. An engine I can run – I use a semi-unconventional budget midrange rig of two years ago. An E2140 OCed to 3.2 Ghz, 4 gigs of PC-3200 and a 8800GT. Most games are playable, but not exceptional. AoC taught me that I need to seek out games that function very well at my range, instead of risking complete inadequacy during huge raids. Aion is very, very kind to my range.
5. Alluding to safety – The game seems pretty solid given its base over in the east. Unlike, say RF Online, Aion is probably the spiritual successor of L2 and will continue to have plenty support down the years. Even if I don’t like the game now, it’ll most likely still be solid and stable down the line when I pick it up a year or so later.

Damn you, NCsoft. I was going straight to DDO, guns blazing, but Aion is really weakening my resolve.

 

DDO – Pioneering for Real.

I consider myself to be in a place of privileged. Now that DDO free trials do not exist anymore, I feel lucky that I redeemed a classic demo disk with a working 10-day trial code printed neatly on the back. A fresh, optimistic perspective is rare these days, especially since the old DDO client is going to be phased out very soon. This is a good thing, because I like DDO as is with the old, presumably crustier client.

It seems very clear that good games make me complain less. Considering the level of zen I’ve been experiencing, DDO’s been pretty good to me. In truth, my game play has been limited to a handful of meaningful skirmishes and discoveries about DDO’s primary differences between Neverwinter Nights 1 & 2 (Difference is near night and day, mind you.) What really makes me tick is listening to the community, particularly DDOcast, the primary podcast devoted to the game and is pretty damn good at roping me into a positive mindset.

Good vibes inevitably turn into bad ones. Once I rip myself free of exhaustion, I’ll return to my good ol’ petulant self. Until then, remember the 6th.

 

Twilight MMO – No, I’m not kidding.

http://www.twilightthevideogame.com/

But seriously, web-dev, have an option to turn off the music. Please. No, seriously, I can’t turn off that accursed piano, and that twilight title keeps looping me into an eternal click fest. OH GOD, THE MUSIC OVERLAYS ITSELF EVERY TIME YOU CLICK ON IT!

Okay, rage over. Smart use of IP, BrainJunk. Kudos. I personally think Twilight is godawful as a setting for anything, but it is different and fresh. Hurry up before the sun rises on that franchise. +Moan.+

On a side note, this game is going to have an excellent 2-week launch because every troll is going to be there, forming a catastrophic voltron that runs off the virtues of blind hatred. Imagine an internet united, the frenzied mashing of a trillion fingers, thirsting to uncork an aged bottle of fury, mashed by warted troll’s toes and made from the finest grapes of wrath.

Luckily the Esenthel engine has made an MMO before. I don’t know if it’s any good, but hey, it’s better than nothing.

 

Burnout Parad- Oh wait, DDO.

I activated an ancient trial key from an old DDO disk from times back and leaped right into the game. A few dungeons later, I jumped into a zerg group and realized how you can murder your experience. DDOs zerg is a basic strategy that resembles your standard MMO grind. The problem is that DDO is a detailed and beautiful game that seems a touch naive towards the aggressive-progressive nature of the most casual of MMO players. As a result, you don’t get the right sensation when you zerg. While I like to believe that all MMO companies are complete jerks, there’s a sense of understanding the newbie needs to take inside of DDO before calling it suck.

Refrain from zerging content you haven’t explored. That’s it.

DDO is designed nicely, but ignoring content is extremely destructive the overall experience. Take a chill-pill, enjoy the game lest you fry yourself on first blush. I’m two days old and, really, I feel like I hurt my experience because I hopped into a zerg group. Awesome people, helpful people actually, but sit back and smell those roses… Or rot, whatever dungeon you’re prowling through.

 

Oh wait, GE. Sorry.

For lack of a better way to say this, I’ve left GE. Not because it’s crap at first blush, but that I feel completely robbed by this new-fangled “Easy Frogfish” garbage. That and I really, really liked Windows 7. So much that I was willing to trash my primary MMO (Think of it, I said ‘fuckit’ to a good two years of my progress over an OS.)

So, where am I now? I picked up Guild Wars again. Well, sorta’, the thunder got robbed by Street Fighter IV for PC. After my mashing got too noisy, I randomly stumbled upon DDO, which is going free-to-pray in a week or so. (See what I did there? Yeah. Genius.)

Needless to say, I’ll get to reporting on the game that I wanted to play, but clearly didn’t consider them worth fifteen dollars a month for a near-GW experience. When you instance your primary content, people are always going to reference Guild Wars. They started it first in the generation and are probably equipped with the best damn business model, period.

That being said, adios Granado. I’ll probably AFK you when I can switch affinities.