I resubbed to Aion yesterday for a month. I’m stuck in the “I don’t want to raid but don’t feel like levelling another character to 85” feeling in Warcraft, and am waiting for the next Rift beta for a new-game fix. Aion is the game that I most regret no longer playing. I read everything I could about it for probably a year before it finally released, I started a legion and levelled a Templar tank that I absolutely loved. The grind, the bots and the goldspammers finally did me in. Mainly the grind, to be honest – I hit the grind wall that existed at the time between 35-40 (and probably up from there) and couldn’t face it. But I missed it so much.
So, this weekend I went back. The game still runs like a pig on my very nice computer, although it does install more easily than it did with the crippling GameGuard software included. It’s still beautiful, and I love the new character selection screen. Supposedly a lot of the mindless grind has been removed by increasing XP and adding content and more repeatable quests, but I haven’t had a chance to see for myself yet.
I logged my templar in in Beluslan Fortress, where she had been languishing for months and months. I didn’t have very much kinah on her, but I have a vague memory of giving everything of value that I could away before I cancelled my subscription. Darn. There are some adorable companion pets available now. I quite liked the little monkey-lemur thing, and the little Shugo in the Scream costume that would posture menacingly until his mask fell off was quite funny.
Excited to be back, I went outside, picked on some innocent wildlife to try to remember what all of her skills and abilities were…and immediately got ganked by one of those stupid bobble-headed tiny characters that pvp dickheads build, which appeared out of nowhere and one-shotted me. I really hate non-consensual pvp. I hate being ganked by high-level characters. I hate that whole tard and asshat mentality.
Does that mean that I am probably not very well suited to Aion, which has a famously nasty teabag-happy playerbase? Yep, you bet. :)
I’ll mooch around for a bit, and revist old areas that I used to love. If I can’t go anywhere alone and quest without gankage, then that will be that.
But it sure is beautiful…