Aiee, I’m burning out.

I’m burning out a bit on MMOs in general. Aion 1.9 is taking too long to get here and the process for preparing for it has been a task filled with subtle dissapointments. I want to run forts, but my gear isn’t good enough for hard-mode. I want to run DP, but it takes too damn long to get a group together. At the same time, I know every other MMO, realistically, has the same tactile feel. If I go to WoW, I’m still going to be looking for gear. If I go to Guild Wars, I’ll probably be running with heroes exclusively. If I venture to X game, I will still be using the same button layout.

I blame Street Fighter IV and Super Street Fighter IV hype for this burnout. I was reminded of how fun fighters were in the last week and subsequently damaged my hunger for MMOs.

That being said, I stumbled upon the new Going Rogue expansion for City of Heroes/Villains. Upon gazing at it, I recalled that I actually own one CoV account and one CoH/CoV hybrid. To be fair, my infatuation for that game was strong, but I remember trying to play it on Linux a while back and failing in the process because a new issue had just come out. How desperate I was to see if Linux to render the game faster than it would on Windows. A year later or so, I’m considering playing the game again just to prep up for the expansion, which finally does factions the right way by making them changeable structures rather than grave character choices. The more I think about it, the more exciting it seems. At long last, the player-pool converges, and I want to be in the middle of that.

Okay, maybe I’m not so burnt out. Really, Aion is kicking my ass again. Not necessarily blaming the game, because it’s designed to be arduous and specifically challenging to those of harder stuff, but it’s difficult to write about something that doesn’t have a tremendous amount of accessibility. On a side note, like the new forums, but they were a long time coming.

 

When the 1.9 patchnotes got spoiled, I didn’t have time to blog. Very rarely does Aion get a rise in enthusiasm, and like a huge, gnarly wave, I had to ride it and neglect the blog.

Now, we’re back to normal. People are sobering from the wild, maddened frenzy of excitement and returning to their old, sour ways.  Myself included.

Brigadier Indratu is an ass, mostly because it creates two separate groups if you fail it the first time: those who have the free teleport and those who don’t. Most people are under the impression that you can do Indratu Legion and Brigadier in one stroke, and yes, you can, but not if you have people who failed Brig with another party. Bad design? God, it’s horrible. but when my group beats it, it’ll be a great victory. I would prefer it to be easier, but it’s not game breaking. The entire campaign quest system is a big monster of really strange inconveniences.

So, what do you do now in Aion? As stupid as this might sound, grinding more would be a good idea. Money is going to be worth more in the future, and the immediate need for various stigmas and items still trumps the expectations of the future. If you have a lot of money, definitely be on the lookout for deals on good AS-less shells for the combine system.

Anyway, I did a few short… image… comic… crap things. They’re pretty terrible, but eh, better than nothing.

OMG NCSOFT SUCKS

"Plans for Sanctum." - Remember when that map was upside down? XD

 

Yesterday’s Rollercoaster – Aion Official Magazine/Eye on the Community

Before we go dip down too far, I am very, very pleased with Tamat right now. My overall excitement towards Aion has increased because of yesterday.

Thursday was a very hype-intensive day. Tamat had posted on Aion Source, which ultimately translated into “watch Friday.” I woke up yesterday at 12:30 AM to check out the news. Naturally, nothing was there so I drifted back to sleep. When I woke up again, the announcement for the magazine had stared at me. Hateful, loathing and cruel. Was this what Tamat was alluding to? Normally, I don’t rage, but this was the straw that broke the camel’s back.

The Magazine is effectively what Eye on the Community SHOULD be with a price tag. Normally, I think Massively’s community is wrong (Mostly because they’re always alluding to how Aion is the grindiest of grinders when it clearly isn’t), but they really hit the nail on the head this time around. Without having to read the post, here are perfectly good reasons not to have a magazine,

1. Information about your game should not be a commodity. Behind-the-Scenes stuff translates to, “information about the next updates.” Whether they contain them or not, I’d be willing to wager that people jumped the gun just to get some hints. We’re already paying our monthly fee, thank you.
2. There’s nothing they can tell me about being a Gladiator, or any class for that matter. I’ll eat my words when I’m proven wrong, but Aion is a relatively simple game.
3. The magazine has the appearance of a money-grab. It’s hard enough to get friends into the game, and this magazine’s presence just made it that much harder.
4. Again, Eye of the Community should handle all the players/guilds of the month deals.

That being said, I want that Kerubian hat and dyes are a good incentive for pre-ordering. To some degree, this magazine is demonstrating a curious transition from the obviously stupid $10 Valentine’s day package to a more palatable $4 per grab. Additionally, I better be named Player of the Month if I buy that bloody thing. As far as I can tell, I’m the last damn Aion blogger and I want my day in the sun.

For the next couple hours, I slapped on my QQ-glasses, raged to my legion mates and posted the link of the magazine just to gauge reactions from others. Before I deleted everything on my account, this happened.

If you followed those obvious underlined and bolded letters, you found this.

Good god.

Really, it speaks for itself. Without resorting to blatant fanboyism, that link establishes that they were probably dealing with a really quiet NCsoft Korea. My theory is that NCsoft’s CM team was struggling to get something to sate the masses, but probably had to endure the tight-lipped overseas dev team.

The question is, where is Divinity’s reach?

 

Phishing on its face.

You thought that guy ganking you was an asshole?

I knew about phishing a while back, but the email finally snuck into my main box. Frankly, I fucked up on this one. I actually clicked on the link. Chrome TOTALLY saved my ass with a last minute reminder that I wasn’t going where I thought I was. So now I’m here, password intact and a phishing scam wiser.

Now, I know what you’re thinking, why doesn’t NCsoft find these guys and put them into the ground? They probably are, but remember, the law on the internet moves slow. You wonder why they started that stupid safety campaign a while back? It’s because preventative measures save support from having to hound down your account because you forgot to apply internet-common sense.

So yeah, if you see this, don’t do what I did and check your Aion login first, then if its changed, go to support directly through their site and submit a ticket. Yeah, yeah, I know, “NCsoft doesn’t care, bawwwww,” but seriously, my legionmate got hacked and he got everything back. Just takes a week and a half for them to sift through their protocol and whatnot.

 

This is pretty much I do all day.

"YEAAAAAAAARRGGHHH" - Tough Voice.

I’m trying to adjust to my new wacom setup. Basically, have my drawing area mapped to be equal to the amount of the real estate on my screen to have more controlled strokes, but I can’t touch my pen to the edges of my monitor. To compensate, I mapped one of my pen buttons to “switch to mouse mode” which allows me to move across the screen at MACH 10. It’s a bit frustrating switching between the two modes as of right now, but it definitely is an alternative to buying a bigger pad.

Depending on how much time I have, I might be able to get a style down. For now, this blog will probably have random splurges of poorly drawn animu.

 

My response to Elyos of Gorgos.

If the community is THAT hungry for a webcomic, maybe it's time I get serious about making one.

 

Aion, the Community

Okay, so I said two posts ago that I wouldn’t read comments any more. Of course, then I turned around and read today’s Eye on the Community and subsequently scrolled down. What’s there? I simplified it.

You never have to read Aiononline ever again.

On a serious note, I understand where the rage is coming from. I would like changes and fixes no matter what the cost, and I’m sure there are plenty of people with legitimate gripes about how this game is being handled. There are very few times where I have enjoyed a Community Address, because I have no need to change my gender, name or legion title. The list goes on and on, and as a result I did quit for a month without making a stupid racket on the comments.

Eye on the Community is an article that searches out the sub-community and displays it. It is not an article that expresses the views of the players, nor should it. Whether the vocal comment quitting crowd likes it or not, it’s there for those who do appreciate research being done for them. I can guarantee that nobody will be satisfied with,

“In this week’s Eye on the Community, NCSoft sucks dick yet again for not fixing (insert issues here).”

Still, Tamat’s use of a fictional Shugo as today’s letter was a pretty hilarious troll. No doubt that was the final straw for many-a-Aion-Subscriber. If I was in such a position, I would’ve at least included a real letter.

On a side note, I’m considering finding a way to get on that page, but the content on this site is not ‘fun’ enough (See lack of drawings). I should probably get back to doodling.

 

Paksigue – Lobster Love Edition!

Upon my return to Aion, Paksigue, which is arguably the smallest surviving guild in Zikel, finally got around to forking the money out for level 3. I know, long time coming, but it finally got done. The triumph of establishing our visual presence has lead to a stream of amazing feats, completed by our awkward 4-man teams. This is our first capture of an upper artifact, which was performed with a rag-tag team of myself, Ayame and Bandette with an unpartied Excelica from Korosu. Admittedly, I was a douche for not inviting her, but it was 1:30 and we were too busy, ahem, dealing with exploding tentacle-rape traps and the occasional furback, so maybe she can forgive me for not being an outreaching citizen. Either way, thanks. You helped us achieve a goal that we couldn’t do without you.

Olly Moss is personally responsible for that amazing Lobster-Man art, which is an entry in the 2009 series of “Make Something Cool Everyday.” (Highly recommend you browse through it.) It is truly an amazing piece of work, and although I feel a tinge of remorse for introducing it to Aion without permission,  the shrieking laughter of my legion-mates blankets the oncoming march of a scornful email, if he ever discovers this blog. You might not think it’s funny, but just imagine that awesome image exploding onto your cape without any warning.

We’re on Zikel and we are always accepting people.  By nature, we don’t like spamming and we’re very crummy recruiters because of it, so that’s why you never hear about us. Still, you can just ask to join through here and we’ll probably accept you with open arms. Short of me complaining about how terrible my DW build is, we’re probably the most tolerant and awesome legion ever spawned on Zikel. No joke. Bubble bubble. Really, we need more people, because there’s very few amazing things you can do with two-man teams that are geared with lower-tier 50 equivalents.

Our first upper abyss artifact.

 

It was opposite day yesterday.

When I left Aion, I did it for school. Upon realizing that I am capable of memorizing my workload in reasonable amounts of time, I decided to reward myself without subjecting my being to the anguish of subscriber’s remorse. In doing so, I started playing different games (as all, what, 2 of you readers noticed?) and enjoyed them for a little bit. However, there was always something missing and nagging at me, and for the most part, I made all my comparisons to Aion.

Let’s be honest here, when I left, I hated myself for being attracted to Aion, especially when I burnt out. I figured that I was duped into believing that Aion was a good game, and the only reason I contributed my brain cycles to defending it was simply out of spite towards Blizzard, which isn’t particularly justified either. In the meantime, I took the advice of Massively.com and tried their favorites, then went to Biobreak and tried everything but WoW. (I have vanilla WoW, I’m not buying two expansions just to demo again.) In doing so, I realized with utter terror that my perception of a good game is vastly different than the status quo. Before you freak out and switch tabs, there is no arguing that WoW has the largest MMO base on the planet, thus its subscribers may be labeled as the norm.

To be frank, I cannot rely on MMO reviews anymore. When they say a game has a good experience, I never see it through their same viewpoint. This goes beyond perceptions of grind but descends deep into their analysis of game mechanics, which is arguably the most rudimentary piece of the review. If someone says it’s a terrible game, I’ll find good nuggets in them and cry out that this title has stupid amounts of potential. Mortal Online is probably the most egregious example of this reverse-favoritism.

Just to give you a perspective on how disconnected I am with the MMO world, this is my list of MMOs I am willing to return to if I were put at gunpoint to do so in the following order:

1. Aion
2. Age of Conan.
3. City of Heroes/Villains
4. Dark Ages (Not DAOC, Dark Ages that was originally run by Nexon.)

My choices are out-right contrary to what most of my peers would consider a worthy MMO. Instead of arguing my face off, I have to admit that I am no longer a reliable source of recommendations for the normal individual. However, I am not making the statement, “I am entitled to my opinion and you to yours.” I believe this list of games is better than my other friends’ lists and I still think you’re a tool for believing the offerings of Blizzard are the best out there.

That being said, Aion’s community on its face is horrible. Absolutely horrible. Every. Single. Post. On. Their- Okay, I’ll stop the dramatics and the erroneous punctuation.

People who hate Aion and still play it are hard to read, because most people can’t rationalize that they’re hopeful and dependent on the success of Aion in the scope of entire MMO universe, but are antagonized by the fact that NCsoft is still setting up shop rather than fixing what the player’s believe to be a primary issue. The rage ultimately harms the subscriber base, which means I wish there was a study on negative community output on subscriber bases so I wouldn’t be talking out of my ass right now. I will make active steps to avoid reading the comments on “Eye on Community”. Their experience is no longer mine, but because I have feelings and I react easily to open-faced stupidity, I must avoid the poorly expressed criticism.

Reading those comments is good if you’re trying to chastise your penis for having a dirty erection, especially when some psycho bitch is threatening to cut it off if you decide to have some rogue moment with your fantasies. Otherwise, it’s the hairy man in the closet (That same dude that’s on Chat Roulette) when you’re trying to have a good time with your sane, but decidedly kinky and harsh, Aion.

Oh hey, guess what, I forgot to put this in the published section. Go figure.

I resubbed yesterday, which in itself is probably contrary to every other blog out there. Why? I’m very picky about how my game ‘feels’, rather than the content. After giving several other MMOs a really, really good chance, none of them proved to be satisfying. It leads me to believe, once again, that ingenuity in the MMO format is overinflated and overhyped. This works against Aion as well, naturally, and is the same reason many abandoned the title for other games. Also, I’m over the whole, “You’re stupid if you play Aion” phase. I do not feel like my personal credibility is tethered to the success of Aion to the masses, and after considering the roadmap that Lineage II took, Aion has the suspicious markings of being a stirring giant.

However, I do agree that Aion is deficient in many aspects, but my timeline for changes are across years rather than months. However, with Aion 2.0 being mentioned here and there, I feel now is a good time to revive my economic base and really get to testing dual-wielding again. Rockin’.

P.S. Today’s fort raids were awesome.

 

Aika Online – Granado Aion Espada Online Wut.

I hate Massively sometimes (Allods did not impress my friends nor myself), but sometimes I love them. They introduced me to Aika Online, which is Aion + Granado Espada meshed together to create a dated loli-fest on first blush. Granted, I haven’t played it yet, but I’ve spent the last hour or so looking up images and laughing hysterically.

It really looks like Granado Espada. The same hair textures, gun models and some very familiar animations leave me to conclude that Aika is not only using GE’s engine, but they salvaged it and created something monstrously hilarious from the wreckage. There must be a reason this Japanese blogger is playing both at the moment. On a serious note, browse that blog to get an easy side-by-side view of both games and confirm your diagnosis of double-vision. It’s humorous at least.

Petulant Pioneering is back to exploring the new world, literally. Unlike Allods, which I went into with some brighter outlooks, I am going into Aika expecting the worst game ever with nothing but nostalgia to hold it up. Of course, I’m not sure whether or not the game currently has a Non-disclosure Agreement, which would prohibit ranting, or in PP’s case, borderline libel. I’ll have to go look for it at some point, mostly because ignorance is no excuse for disobeying the law.

Regardless, the experience will be fun and possibly exciting. Who knows, maybe Aika won’t be as crappy as it looks, but I won’t hold my breath.

P.S. Go get Mass Effect 2 if you played the first installation. It is definitely worth your money. 24 hours on normal without rushing, but I do recommend veteran to outline the characteristics of your opposition in a genuine manner. They’ll feel more like a menace rather than what normal-fodder, overall conveying the intention of the designers with greater clarity. For instance, normal doesn’t really let you grasp Vorcha regeneration because they die too quickly to everything in your arsenal. Krogan aren’t really terrifying monsters in combat. The list of negative attributes to normal difficulty goes on. Make your first run through epic and fitting for your return to the universe, instead of (unintentionally) watering it down by making it easy.