Waiting for Aion

So yet again I find myself in a position with which I’ve become quite familiar–waiting on a new MMO.  As you can guess from my most recent (yes, I know, not that recent, but hey–I’m trying) entries, that MMO is Aion.  Release date is September 22 (Sept. 20 for those of us who’ve preordered), and I’ll admit, I’m a bit excited.  It’s shiny, it’s new, and the beta experiences have whetted my appetite for more.  I keep hoping that I’m going to find a game I can play long term. At this point, long term for me would be anything over 9 months or so.  I keep asking myself–will Aion do the trick?  Will it have enough to keep me there after the shininess has worn off somewhat.  And the answer is….

I honestly don’t know.

I can confidently say this game has at least six months play in it for me.  It will probably take me at least that long to get  a character to level cap.  I can cautiously say that I think it will last quite a bit past that, simply based on how much I enjoy the extras of harvesting and crafting, as well as the fact that I am an altoholic and will very much enjoy trying several classes at some point.  I hope Aion will scratch that itch I’ve had for a couple of years now for an MMO that can keep my attention and hold me there for more than 6 months.

I’ve read blog after blog, forum after forum, and people are talking about stats and grind, gear and crafting, botting problems and ganking–the typical issues that seem to occupy the interest of most MMO gamers.  But you know what?  I’ve come to the conclusion that those things are secondary.  There is one simple question, that if answered in the positive, will ensure a success for Aion, and for me as a subscriber.

Is the game fun?

If a game’s not fun, it doesn’t matter how uber the gear is.  It doesn’t matter how involved the crafting.  It doesn’t matter how hardcore the pvp.  If it’s not fun, people will eventually stop playing it.  Now, I realize that people have different versions of fun–and I think that’s why we see so many differing opinions on game forums.  That’s ok.  A solid, successful game can provide fun to a variety of gamers with varying tastes.  All MMOs are similar.  You can box them in different packages, you can give them different looks and feels–but at the core, they are substantially similar in the way they work and what they provide their players.

I can say after my beta experiences that I’ve had a lot of fun in Aion.  There are things in it that make me smile.  There are things in it that make me go “wow, that’s neat.”  There are things in it that make me want to keep on playing and make me eager for release to get here.  I think that bodes well, and I’m cautiously optimistic.  Now, I’m sure that down the road, I’m going to see things that I don’t like so much.  There is no such thing as a “perfect” game.  At this point, I’d be satisfied with a game that gives me most of my wishes as a gamer.  Will Aion give me that?  I hope so.

Aion–the next big thing?

So I preordered Aion.  I’ll confess, I really had no expectation of wanting to play this game, but my gaming buddy, Cal (*waves at Cal*), had expressed an interest in Aion some time ago and seemed intent on trying it, so I figured what the heck.  I had some reservations, simply because I’d heard things like “grindfest,” “bots and farmers,” “anime graphics,” etc.  The company who is producing Aion, NCSoft, has a mixed track record.  I always associated them with Lineage II, which I tried for a grand total of about 4 hours–I just couldn’t get past the graphics style.  They also produced the failed Tabula Rasa, which was shut down not too long ago.  Suffice it to say, I wasn’t expecting much from Aion.

Part of the joy of a preorder is you can test the game in some of the betas.  It’s a good way to get a feel for the game, to offer feedback on any issues that you see, and best of all–if you hate the game, you’re only out $5 for the pre-order deposit from Best Buy.  My expectations weren’t very high.  I knew the graphics were going to have an Asian feel to them, more anime-ish than I enjoy.  I’m not one of these folks who love anime.  At all.  I don’t get it, but that’s a topic for another day.  And graphics whore that I am, if graphics don’t appeal to me, I’m probably not going to play the game (see my reference to Lineage II).  I installed the client with some trepidation, and when it was time to create that first character, I held my breath.

And, quite simply, I was blown away. 

The character create was one of the most detailed and in-depth that I’ve ever seen.  The variety was unbelievable–44 choices for hairstyles, over 15 choices for “basic” face shapes, body styles, etc.  And every bit of the faces and bodies are customizeable by numerous sliders.  You can truly make an individual, unique character in Aion–from the beautiful to the grotesque or the bizarre.   The two races, Elyos (light side) and Asmodeans (dark side), have distinct characteristics–most notably, the Asmodeans have glowing red eyes, clawed hands and feet, and manes down their spine, while the Elyos look like they stepped out of a swimwear commercial for Old Navy.  I rolled an Elyos Warrior (more on classes later), and I was able to make EXACTLY what I wanted.  That hasn’t happend for me in a game since EQ2, and even then, there were limits.  I could literally have spent hours in the character create, just twinking and playing with the various looks and options.

After a great first impression in character create, I logged into the starter zone.  Graphically, the world is lovely.  It’s a “surreal” feeling world–very fantasy-oriented.  If you’re looking for gritty realism, then head to Age of Conan because you’re not going to get it here.  However, it truly is well done for the style, and I found it appealing.  The starting zone is, in a word, HUGE.  It’s expansive and has enormous variety in terrain.  I liked what I saw very much.  The music is….what it is.  I’m not a fan of Asian-sounding music, and that is definately what this sounded like.  It’s “pretty,” I guess, but I have a feeling I’ll be listening to iTunes when I play–unlike Age of Conan, where the music is so spectacular that it’s deserving of being on iTunes.

The starter quests were typical.  FedEx, kill 10 snarkdoodles, gather ten flowers, find ten widgets.  I’m ok with that.  For some reason “traditional” has become synonymous with “boring” in the MMO community.  Personally, I don’t mind traditional, as long as it’s well done, and Aion has done the quests fairly well.  You get tastes of the lore, and the stories are acceptable.  If you are one of the folks who just clicks through the quests to get to the “accept” button, then these are going to be nothing special to you.  Another thing I noticed is that Aion doesn’t spoonfeed you.  In some games, you get little x’s and circled areas to show you just where to go to find what you need.  You don’t get that in Aion.  You can opt to find a quest giver or NPC by hitting “locate” if you want to, but those folks who enjoy a challenge can certainly head out on their own to find their adventure.  Some of the quests simply tell you “in a hard-to-find location,” so you actually have to work at it.  I can see this being either fun and challenging–or maddeningly frustrating, depending on what mood I’m in.  You also get a series of quests called “campaign” quests, which you are required to complete before moving on to the next set.   The rewards are decent, and they are designed in such a way as to let you experience all of the zone you are in.

The UI is vanilla, but it’s well-thought-out.  They’ve opted for a traditional look and feel, and it works for this game.  One thing that’s annoying me greatly is that I can’t change the opacity of my chat box.  I like for my chat box to have a black background all the time, because I find it hard to read text when it’s just shown against the terrain/background.  I’ve not been able to find an option to do that, so consequently, chat isn’t easy for me to read.  You get typical hotkeys, “K” for your skills, “P” for your persona, “I” for inventory–nothing groundbreaking here, but as I said, it is functional and easy to use.

Combat didn’t impress me at all at first.  For the first ten levels, I felt very much like all I was doing was mashing a button and waiting for auto-attack–and I was.  The animations are alright, but coming from Age of Conan, where the combat is very interactive from the get-go, and has an incredibly realistic feel, the combat in Aion seemed a bit flat to me.  However, I will say that there was great improvement as I passed level 10 and got more skills to use.  Aion uses a combat-chain, which is quite fun and simple to use.  It reminded me very much of EQ2’s heroic opportunities, except this is for a single player, not a group.  You hit a combat art, and then it chains to the next one in the series, allowing you to land a more powerful attack.  There is also variety, and you can choose on the fly which skill you want to use for the fight you’re in.  For example, do I want to knockback and build hate, or do I want to just whale hell out of it?  I think the combat will be involved enough to keep me interested–especially at higher levels with more skills.

Flying.  Yes, that’s the thing that supposedly sets Aion apart.  And you know what?  It kinda does.  It was freaking cool to complete the quest and get my wings–complete with a nifty cut-scene of my character flying into battle, looking badass.  And although it would be wonderful to fly everywhere, you’re not allowed.  Some zones don’t allow flight at all, and your flight time in others is very limited–if you don’t land, your wings disappear and you fall to your death.  Not that this ever happened to me. *shifty eyes*  However, I understand that flight time is limitless in PvP, though I’ve not experienced that myself yet.  Having flight makes questing pretty interesting in some zones–the thing you’re looking for might just be above you.  There are also nodes that you must harvest–in the sky.  It adds a nice twist to things, and I’m looking forward to seeing this in action in PvP.

Harvesting and crafting.  Well, I’m going to have to do an entire post just about this topic, but the short version is that I’m VERY happy with what I’ve seen so far.  I’ve been missing “filler” in some games.  WAR’s crafting was a joke and an afterthought with no real function.  Age of Conan’s has improved somewhat since the 1.05 patch, but it’s still limited.  Aion’s crafting system reminds me of the old EQ2 system–where you have to build components in order to make a finished product.  It’s extremely involved and fun–and they’ve made it simple enough that it’s not overwhelming.  This beta weekend, I think I spent half my time crafting–and having fun doing it–and that says something, to me at least.

I’ll definately be writing more about Aion as the new betas come out.  Oh, that’s another thing they are doing the smart way.  The betas and “open” betas are being done on weekends, and they are spread out.  I think this is a very smart decision, as it will keep folks hungry for more.  I know I”m going to be sad when this beta weekend is over!

Overall, my impression of Aion is that it’s pretty, it’s polished, and it looks to have gotten a helluva lot of things right.  I’m eager for more.

My name is Keiry, and I’m an altoholic.

I’ve always had a tendency to want to create and re-create characters. I can sit and entertain myself in a good character creation screen for an hour, easily (which is really funny because my 7 year old son likes to do the same thing–genetics r funnee.). When I played EQ2, I had a station access account because I wanted the extra character slots–and I put them to good use. I played a host of characters over level 50, and eventually got my two “mains” up to the level cap of 80.

In my first flirtation with Age of Conan, I didn’t delve as heavily into alts as I normally would. I simply wasn’t there long enough to fully flesh out and explore the various classes. I had a bear shaman, a barbarian and a demonologist all over level 30, but I spent most of my time on my barbarian before I quit.

In Warhammer, I thought I was cured of my altoholicism. There was only one class that remotely interested me, and that was my Witch Elf. I tried playing other classes–sorceress, disciple of Khaine and squig-herder, but none of them held any appeal for me. As a result, once I reached level 40 on my Witch Elf, I was sort of stuck. I had no desire to “repeat” the game with a new class. Couple that with a crippling class nerf, and the icing was on my “gotta blow this popsicle stand” cake.

Now I’m back in Age of Conan, and find myself spending a lot of time in that character create screen again. By the way–the character customization in AoC is outstanding. You can get some truly unique looking characters and the models are very realistic and fun to look at when playing. And yes, there’s boobies. But I digress.

My new “main” is a conqueror named Keiry, who I dinged 57 with last night. I’m enjoying the hell out of that class, and I foresee her staying my main character for the coming future. However, I’ve also got a barbarian–a new one, as I’d deleted my old one–that I am enjoying thoroughly, and a Priest of Mitra for a change of pace. Thanks to Dyones for providing a better description of a PoM than I could.

Another positive that Age of Conan has had this time around is a vast improvement of the amount of content available to explore while leveling. Even thought I’m working on 3 classes at the same time, I’m finding some new quests, etc. to do as I level them up. Sure, there’s a certain amount of repetition–quests I’ve already done, areas I’ve already explored–but I’m not finding it boring to repeat them because the classes play differently and require different tactics to succeed. And there -is- something to be said for being familiar with a zone or a quest line, as you spend less time wandering around helplessly.

EQ2 held my interest for a long time, not only because of the playability of the game itself, but because it provided me with a number of classes that were enjoyable when I was “repeating” content. Age of Conan looks to be headed in the same direction.

Age of Crafting

I’ve never focused on crafting as a priority in any game I’ve played, though I do consider it a vital part of any well-rounded MMO.  In the past 4 years of gaming, I’ve only ever gotten one character to max crafting level (an 80 tailor in EQ2), though I’ve dabbled frequently.  Age of Conan is no different for me; I’ve decided to explore the crafting aspect in a more casual fashion.  Already I’ve spotted pluses and minuses.

On the plus side, I like that AoC allows you to choose two professions instead of limiting the player to only one.  You can choose to be an armorer, alchemist, weaponsmith, gemcutter or architect.  The least useful of these (in my opinion) is the architect, although that profession is vital if you are building a guild city.  Armorsmith and weaponsmith are self-explanatory.  Gemcutters produce gems that can adorn both armor and weapons that provide stats bonuses of various types.  Alchemists produce food, drink and potions that increase health, mana and stamina.  I chose alchemist and weaponsmith for my two professions.

One large positive that I have found is that the items produced by the crafters are by and large better than common quest rewards or loot drops.   For example, an armorsmith can produce a set of armor that a player actually would want to wear as opposed to a commonly dropped armor item.  This gives players a reason to purchase crafted goods, and keeps crafting relevant to the game.  It is feasble for a crafter to make a small profit on most items he or she makes, again keeping the incentive to craft there.

As an alchemist, I produce consumable items: food, drink and potions.  There seems to be a good demand for these items, as they are always needing to be replaced.  It costs me approximately 25-50 copper to craft a stack of 100 stamina potions (my biggest seller), and I can sell that same stack for 4 silver–a tidy profit.  The biggest expense for me has been purchasing the appropriate components from the crafting merchant, as well as purchasing the “dropped” components off the trader.  The common ones aren’t overly expensive, but the demand for them provides another nice market for the economy of the game.

I like that I can craft anywhere in the world as long as I have the components with me.  However, not requiring a crafting station of some sort does take away from the “mini-game” feel for me.  In EQ2, you had to go to a tradeskill instance to craft; in that instance there were crafting quests that you could do that earned you tradeskill experience.  Although there are crafting quests in AoC, they are received at the start of learning a new tier of crafting, and you can only do them once; ie, craft one of everything and return it to me.  I was able to earn a nice chunk of experience for these quests, but again–you can only do them once, and there is no independent crafting level.

This brings me to one of the biggest drawbacks of the crafting system in AoC.  Crafting is irrevocably tied to adventure level in this game.  You must be level 20 before you can learn to harvest materials.  You must be level 40 to learn your first crafting recipes, and then you don’t learn new recipes unless you hit the next tier–50, 60, and so on.  I would much prefer a system where I could craft independently from my adventure level;  I would enjoy being able to have a character whose sole purpose was crafting.  Of course, the crafting system in AoC is not in-depth enough at this time to support an independent crafting “game.”

Another drawback for me is the previously-mentioned lack of depth to the crafting.  As a weaponsmith, I believe I have somewhere around 10 recipes for my level 40 tier.  That’s it.  Once I’ve done these recipes, there’s nothing for me to look forward to until I hit 50, and receive another 10 or so recipes.  EQ2’s system spread the recipes out over each crafting level.  You would purchase a new recipe book for each level, and each book had a certain number of recipes in it.  Some of the books were rarer to come by than others.  There was more immediate gratification in crafting, knowing I’d receive new recipes each level, rather than doing it all at 40 then having to adventure up to 50 before I can take the next step.

Although I like that AoC provides a choice of professions, I wish that there were even more.  I would love to see things like carpentry (furniture) and tailoring (for cloth armor, appearance clothing).  If FunCom puts in some of the “fluff” like player housing, appearance slots, etc, there would be a great opportunity to enhance crafting as well. 

It’s my understanding that crafting will be getting some love in the near future.  I’m eager to see what comes of it.

Merge-tastic

So I read yesterday that Mythic completed “a final transfer of characters from several of the servers that have been, in the past, a source server (ie. we have offered transfers off of).”    I found it while skimming a couple of other gaming blogs that I’ve been reading, and I paused for a moment and contemplated what the merge will mean for WAR as well as what merges in general mean to MMO’s in today’s market.

I think it’s a pretty common assumption that when a game is forced to close servers or merge them, that the game is struggling.  I’m not convinced that this is a “fair” assumption, since I believe most new games anticipate high demand at launch and try to provide more servers for an influx of new and excited subscribers.  Whether this is arrogance or ambition tends to come out in the wash a few months down the road when we see if those dozens of server are able to maintain a healthy population.

Obviously, WAR had a great many “dead” servers.  For the people remaining on those servers, I think the merges are a very good thing.  A higher population on a server generally ensures a more active and more fun gaming experience.  Why play an MMO if you don’t want to see other people, right?

I returned to Age of Conan after they completed massive server merges, and I think it’s been a big positive for that game.  The world feels “full” when I am out and about, and I imagine that as a result of the merges in WAR that there will be some re-invigoration for those who previously were struggling in under-populated servers.

However, no amount of population increase is going to improve the game feel unless that population increase helps bring the factions into balance.  When I left Phoenix Throne, Destro was outnumbered by Order 1.6:1.  That didn’t make for a fun night most nights if you were on the Destruction side.  I will be curious to see how this plays out, though not curious enough to want to return to the game.

Patches and Updates: Pluses or Minuses?

Today was patch-day for Age of Conan, and on the menu for change were some relatively small fixes to the massive PvP (ie, keep seiges), raids and PvP minigames.  As I’m not delving into the content yet, I won’t notice any real changes with this patch, other than the downtime the updates caused.  However, it did make me consider all of the recent patches that FunCom is putting into AoC with the goal of improving the game.

The last major update was the big February 18 patch that introduced new content, massive fixes and class tweaks.  However, since then, there have been three “little” patches to make further fixes in both gameplay and stability.

I consider these frequent updates and patches a positive sign for the game, although I do believe it is reflective of the fact that FunCom released a game that wasn’t ready.  Although I’d much rather FunCom have released a stable, content-packed game from Day One (if they had, I doubt I, like many others, would ever have left AoC), I’d much rather see many fixes going in on a fairly frequent basis than irregular, gigantic updates spaced months apart.  I think that this is a sign that FunCom is dedicated to the long-term future of Age of Conan.  It’s a “good” game as it stands, but it has the potential to be a “great” game down the road.

It’s possible to look at the frequent fixes and say “See how broken this game is?!”  And there is no doubt that there are things that must be improved if AoC is going to continue to enjoy its small resurgance.  For example, there are some very basic bugs that still crop up, crafting still leaves a great deal to be desired, and then there is still some lacking in the “fluff,” such as  player housing or more options for social clothes.

However, overall, I think the patches and updates are big steps (or small, as the case may be) in the right direction.  I’m eager to see what comes next.

Age of Conan: Dungeon Crawls

I’ve written before about how much I’ve missed good, old-fashioned dungeon crawls, and I’m happy to say that I’ve found them again in Age of Conan.  I’ve played several types of games now in my MMO career, and I’ve come to the conclusion that I am a traditional kind of girl.  I like a six-man, instanced dungeon with lots of creatures to fight, bosses to overcome, and a sense of accomplishment when you finish it.  Thusfar, Age of Conan has not disappointed me.

In my first attempt at AoC, I never experienced much dungeon content.  I solo’d most of the time, and rarely attempted to join a group to explore any of the content.  And to be fair, I think that the content was a bit more…lacking…at the time.  There definately weren’t as many quests, but that’s another topic for another day.  When it came to dungeons, I was a true AoC noob upon my return a few weeks ago.  Since then, I’ve explored several dungeons with a group of friends–our core group consists of a conqueror, a priest of mitra, a barbarian and a tempest of set.  We’ve been able to fill out the extra spaces with no problem, usually with dps classes.

My first experience was the Black Castle.  I can’t tell you how much fun I found this dungeon.  Located in Kophsef Province in Stygia, it is quite extensive, requiring a full evening of gaming to complete–at least 3 hours if you are slightly below the level of the mobs inside (the mobs are 30-32).  There are entire wings to explore, each culminating in one or several boss fights, some of which aren’t overly straightforward and which yield a nice bit of loot, usually the expected armor or weapons.  The fights are challenging, and there are several rooms that require you to solve a puzzle of some sort in order to proceed.  I’ll happily point you to Cal’s Blog on this, as he goes into quite a bit of detail on the dungeon.  Needless to say, my first impression of dungeons in AoC was a good one.

The next one I ventured into was the Pyramid of the Ancients, also located in Kopshef Province in Stygia.  It’s a faster dungeon, if you do it in a group, but unlike Black Castle, it would be do-able solo.  It is split into floors as well, with the traditional boss fight set-up and appropriate trash mobs to clear.  There are traps to avoid, including poison gas clouds, spikes in the floor, a confusing maze of hallways–all in all an enjoyable way to pass an evening.

A solo instance that I tried that is located next to the Pyramid of the Ancients is the Treasury of the Ancients.  This is a neat little instance that is set up like a ring event, with a series of statues coming to life.  There are several quests that are tied to this instance, and it is easily soloed at the appropriate level.  The loot was unimpressive, but the experience was fun.  It isn’t something I’d care to do more than once or twice, however.

Sanctum of the Burning Souls is a fun group instance located in the Wild Lands in Aquilonia.  There are quite a few group quests tied to this dungeon, so it’s possible to come out with a nice chunk of adventure experience if you complete them while you are there.  This dungeon, like Black Castle, has fantastic ambiance.  It is dark, dreary, crawling with spiders, fanatics and has quite a few pools of blood through which you must wade. It also houses the biggest staircase I’ve ever seen in any MMO ever!  The boss fights are very straightforward–spank & tank–but the loot was very good-enough to tempt me to go back several times to try to get a piece or two.

Next on my list is Cradle of Decay, which is one of the new instances that FunCom added in this last big update.  I’m very much looking forward to trying out this low-40’s instance with my group.  I’ll be sure to report how it goes!

Roleplay in Age of Conan vs. WAR: A comparison

As a roleplayer, a certain portion of my gametime goes to..well..you guessed it.  Roleplay.  There are a lot of misconceptions out there about what roleplay is.  The most common I think is that roleplayers walk around talking in bad old English and enacting bad melodrama.  Alright, so there -are- some folks who engage in the bad melodrama, but the whole old English thing is right out.  In short, roleplay means acting “in character” in whatever game you are happen to be playing in.  You react and speak as you imagine your character would in any given situation.  Think of it as acting in a play–sort of an ongoing improvisation as you go along.

There are some folks whose whole purpose in playing MMORPG’s is solely roleplaying.  That is their priority and their gaming tends to be an aside to the enjoyment they get out of enacting a character.  I’m the type of roleplayer, however, who uses roleplay to enhance my gaming.  I enjoy the game aspect–the mechanics, quests, combat, dungeons, etc—first and foremost, but I use roleplay to make it more fun.  Sure, there are some nights that I just want to do nothing but roleplay, but they are fairly infrequent.  However, as a roleplayer, I pay attention to the things that make roleplay enjoyable for me in any game I’m playing.

In my recent switch to Age of Conan from Warhammer Online, I’ve noticed a few major differences.  First and foremost, the physical game environment in AoC is more conducive to roleplay.  There are a host of workable emotes, such as sit, walk, crossed arms, combing hair–litereally DOZENS of emotes to use to make your character come alive.  WAR didn’t even allow me to sit or walk.  I had to type any emotes, rather than watch my character actually perform them.  AoC also provides some very nice roleplay environments for its players.  There are plenty of taverns, where players can congregate.  There are also many open communal areas that lend themselves to a roleplay atmosphere.  WAR did not provide these things.  The Inevitable City, which was obviously the hub for Destro activity did not have many places to meet and socialize.  Of course, players did the best they could, but standing in an empty room in a dark, gloomy city doesn’t compare with sitting in an opulent tavern in Khemi with courtesans walking buy, cushions that you can sit on, music playing in the background that is so appealing you can stand up and dance if you wish.

One major difference that I have seen since my return to AoC is the prevalence of roleplay as it compares to what I just left in WAR.  In AoC, if you want to find roleplay on the Wiccana server (which is an “unofficial” roleplay server, PVE), you generally can.  I often see people walking through the streets in Khemi or Conarch Village.  The Serpent’s Head tavern remains a hub for roleplay, and you will generally find a few roleplayers in there no matter what night you go in.  There are quite a few dedicated roleplay guilds, including the one that I have joined.  I do not think the roleplay community has decreased at all since my departure from the game over 6 months ago, and in fact, I think it’s gotten stronger. 

This is quite a change from WAR, where random roleplay is almost never to be found, even on a dedicated RP server.  When the game first launched, you would occasionally see roleplay happening in player hubs such as the Inevitable City or warcamps.  However, as the server merges happened, transfers inundated Phoenix Throne with non-roleplayers, roleplay became something that you only found if you belonged to a guild.  Although many of us rp’d publicly, it wasn’t enough to make it noticeable and keep the flavor of an rp server.

From a lore perspective, I’m finding AoC to be “easier” and more enjoyable.  WAR’s strength and weakness is its in depth  and fully developed lore.  While it gives a wealth of information for players to pull from, it also limits their choices with regards to the class they choose to play, the race they choose to play, etc.  I wish I had a dollar for every time I heard people correcting other players and saying “That’s not in keeping with the lore!”  I could pay for the rest of my gaming for the year.  Cal and I led a Druchii (dark elf) themed guild, and it turns out that was one of the most restrictive races we could have chosen with regards to lore.  Although we always espoused a rule of “reasonableness” when it came to lore, we had our fair share of  lore nazis in our guild.  I found it tiresome, and it really detracted from my enjoyment of roleplay in that game.  I don’t necessarily fault the people who want to stay true to the lore; I think that it is very important to respect the lore.  However, when the lore by nature is restrictive, it limits creativity to some extent, and no one enjoys being corrected all the time.

In Age of Conan, which is based on the works of Robert E. Howard, there is a framework that is provided for the players to use, but the vast majority of the lore is very vague.  For example, we know that Cimmerians, by nature, tend to be humorless and serious because the land they come from is so harsh and unforgiving.  We know that they are suspicious of magic, so it makes sense that there are no caster classes for Cimmerians.  But that’s about it.  There is a whole array of classes for me to choose as a player if I want to play a Cimmerian that allows for me to flesh out my character in a variety of ways.   The lore is “loose” enough that it’s easy to respect it and yet find a way to truly express what I want from my character.

I am not backed into a corner by the class I wish to play, as opposed to WAR, where the idea of a married or non-celibate Witch Elf or Sorceress is absolutely against the lore.  I played my Witch Elf character in WAR as married, and again, if I had a dollar for every time I heard “You can’t do that” I could pay for a big chunk of my gametime.  Another thing that I noticed in WAR is the prevalence of those who took it upon themselves to instruct those who weren’t experts in the lore.  I can certainly understand why someone who loves the WAR universe would want to play that game.  But the majority of the players know little or nothing about it, and are there to have fun.  I don’t mind a little “help” in learning some things, but constant correction wears on the nerves of even the most patient gamer.

One thing that has surprised me pleasantly since my return to AoC is the lack of “selfish” roleplay I’ve encountered. I see lots of cooperative roleplay going on among players and guilds.  There isn’t as much sense of “ME ME ME” from the roleplayers I’ve encountered.  In WAR, my experience of the roleplay community was that there were quite a few folks like me, who wanted to develop a story and learn and grow WITH other players who got completely run over by a vocal few who seemed to think that every action or story must revolve around their character or their story.  As a result, if you didn’t stamp and scream and force your way into the spotlight, it was very difficult to feel as if you were contributing much.  There was a sense of strong personalities overwhelming the majority of other players.  It was very tiring, and I found it frustrating. 

That’s not been the case in AoC.  I’m seeing a better dynamic among players.  There is more of a sense of low-key, friendly fun.  Not every story is a melodrama.  Not every character has to be the center of attention.  It’s possible to have a conversation with another character and feel as if you both walk away having learned something of the other.  There aren’t a lot of “stars” but more of an “ensemble” feel to the roleplay, where the group working together produces something enjoyable, as opposed to watching one character lecture and posture.

I have a theory about why this is:  I think it’s because AoC has been around almost a year now.  The volatile drama queens tend to have shorter, intense careers before leaving–usually in a mushroom cloud.  I think AoC’s been out long enough that the drama queens have moved on to other games, leaving behind a corps of roleplayers who just want to do what most of us want to: have fun and tell a story.  WAR is still going through growing pains.  However, WAR’s lack of game-related, roleplay, social features is against it.  Will the roleplayers of any kind stick around long enough to get to that “comfortable” stage?

Time will tell.

Conquering Age of Conan

So with this second time around, I rolled a conqueror, which falls into the soldier archtype of classes for Age of Conan.  My previous characters included a demonologist, a barbarian and a bear shaman, all of which were mid- to high-thirties in level range.    I must say that I am truly enjoying the class;  it brings a nice blend of support and melee damage, coupled with durability and survivability.

There are two ways to go as a conqueror–dual weild or two-handed.  I started as dual-weild, which yields significantly higher dps (and yes, I’ll confess, the combat is “prettier”), but changed to two-handed when I took on the role of tank for our standing group.  I’m enjoying it so far, though there are challenges to it.

As the tank in our standing group of 3-4, comprised of Dyones (Priest of Mitra–”pure” healer), Daccus (barbarian–mdps) and Delphiae (Tempest of Set–healer, ranged caster).  The conqueror is more of an “off-tank” class, probably better-suited to backing up a guardian.  However, I’ve found that I’m managing ably and can hold the aggro or get it back if the dps’s burst damage rips it.  One thing that makes it a challenge for me is that there is only one “taunt” ability that is a pure taunt, and you have to spend a feat point to get it.  The other taunt abilities come from combat arts, and you must hit the target and complete the combo to get the full effect.  I’ve been stacking taunt-enhanced gear, but I can’t tell if that has made a significant difference.  This bears further investigation.

One thing that I find really neat about my abilities are my temporary group buffs (battle orders) that can provide anything from mana and stamina regneration, de-aggro for the group, or increase damage.  Only one can be active at a time, and it adds a nice layer to combat to decide on the fly which buff will best suit the fight the group is in.  These don’t stop with one set:  there are also buffs called commands which do similar things, but are more positional in nature, affecting the group members to the side or behind the conqueror.  You have to think on your feet to make the most effective use of these buffs, and I must confess it’s a challenge and keeps me on my toes.  Very entertaining to play.

The conqueror also is able to wear heavy armor, which is one step below the full plate that guardians wear.  However, I do have a couple of medium-armor pieces as well to get their taunt bonuses.  With a dedicated healer in the group (who is a very talented healer), I don’t find myself running out of health too often or taking too much damage.  My one disappointment with armor is a common one, which I hope will be fixed with the next patch, where they are paying attention to itemization, stats and armor class.  As it stands now, there aren’t significant differences between varying level gear, etc.  Also, I can’t wear cloth armor, which cuts down on my choices for “pretty” social clothes.  I keep hoping that FunCom will give us some appearance goodies.

All in all, I’m very satisfied with the class and enjoying it very much.  It’s just the right blend for me, a girl who loves her dps, but doesn’t mind taking charge of a battle.

Movin’ on.

I finally had enough of Warhammer, and have cancelled my subscription.  The reasons for doing so are many: lack of PvE content, unbalanced RvR, lack of social/rp features and a lack of viable crafting and a working economy.  Couple that with the upcoming nerf to my main character’s class, and I was left with no desire to play.

 

The hardest part of the decision wasn’t deciding to cancel the subscription, but rather what to do with the guild Caliga and I started.  We put a lot of thought into it and went over every possibility that we could think of, from turning it over to someone else to run, modifying it in some way, or shutting it down.  After many hours (yes, hours) of discussion about it, we decided to disband the guild and shut it down.

 

Guilds close for a multitude of reasons, and ours is no different.  Although outward appearances may seem that we took this drastic step with no consideration for anyone else, that’s just not true.  We spent as much time in making this decision as we did in coming up with the idea of the guild in the first place.

 

I’m sure that many folks are angry, and I don’t blame them.  I would probably be angry too, were I in their position.  However, after getting angry, I’d simply move on, find another guild or start one of my own and continue playing.  (No, scratch that.  I will NEVER lead another guild again, and if I do, I’m going to ask Cal & Daccus to clobber me over the head.) The sum total of inconvenience on anyone’s part is about the same—writing a one-sentence addendum to the roleplay backstory (if desired), finding another guild and putting in an application.  No more work than cancelling subscriptions to vent servers and websites, deleting material, reading irate mails, etc, and in some ways a lot more pleasant.

 

I’ve learned in my many years of gaming, after experiencing many heartbreaks related to guilds and other players, that it is, in fact, just a game.  It’s not life or death.  It’s a hobby.  It’s a past-time we play with virtual strangers for our amusement.  For me personally, Warhammer and the guild had become a hobby that wasn’t fun anymore.  I wouldn’t expect my guildmates to stick around in a game where they weren’t having fun; we’ve had folks leave the guild before for many reasons.  I’ve always cut people slack and said “Do what’s right for you.”  I expect the same courtesy in return, though I’m quite sure I won’t get it.

 

On my part, there’s no hard feelings.  Instead, I leave Warhammer with more good memories than bad of my guild, a lot of disappointment in the game itself, and nothing but well-wishes for those folks continuing to play.

 

Time to move on.