Massively Disappointing Online Role Playing Game.

If you've been wondering where I've been for the past few days, I've been playing the Aion open-beta which ran from the 6th-13th September. Aion is the newest MMORPG by NC Soft, makers of Guild Wars, City of Heroes/Villains, and others.

Aion boasts the some of best graphics in any MMO to date, because it's the first to use the CryEngine 1. In the particular, the character models look amazing, and I almost regret trying it, since I feel like I've been ruined for other MMO's graphics. In comparison, WoW characters look like pixellated pink blobs with eyes. The surrounding scenery is lovely, too, but it's the characters that really do it for me, particularly as Aion has the best, most comprehensive character creation process I've ever seen.

Customisation Galore.

The advanced panel on the facial character creation -
just one of 4 similar panels.

There's no choosing between 5 set faces, or 10, or 20 or a 100 with Aion. Not only can you pick a basic face to customise, but you can change the size, width, angle and separation of the eyes, as well as their exact colour using a gradient map. You can specify the shape, angle and height of eyebrows, the sharpness of cheekbones, and chin, jawline, bone structure, any facial roundness, the shape, width and point of the nose, the fullness of lips, smile, expression, and so on. In addition, you can then go on to control the body's exact parameters, too, from individual limb dimensions, neck height, shoulder width, torso, hips, chest, etc. There's no danger of having your character run into an identical twin in Aion unless you are extremely unimaginitive.

Character models are something I really look for in an MMO, I feel a great affection for my characters, I painstakingly design them to make their look fit their class and the personality they have in my head. I like the thin, sharp-featured tomboy-ish elf for scouts and rangers, more delicate, willowy figures for mages, and the tiniest, cutest adorable little characters for healers, which are my pet class. I had a ton of fun just making character after character, and exploring all the customisation options. You can pick a voice, too, and although there's only a choice of 4, it's still a lot more than most games give you.

Look At The Pretties!

There's no doubt that Aion is visually stunning, especially when it comes to the character models. Check out some of my screenshots - and definitely click to view them full-size.

The character selection screen, they do a little animation when you select them.


Big...fluffy...wings.


I can see my house from here.


One of the little cutscenes, flying about.

Same scene, different character.

The other huge selling point Aion has in my book is probably what it's most hyped for, the flight system. Now, I know you can fly in other games, but in Aion you can really fly. You earn yourself a gorgeous pair of big, fluffy white angel wings and can fly around to heart's content (or, until your flight timer runs out in 60 seconds), swoop, dive and glide around. You can land on virtually anything and there's a great deal of fun to be had for the first couple of hours seeing exactly what you can stand on, taking running leaps off very tall things, and gliding to safety before you go splat.

In Aion, flight isn't just for transportation - which is handy, since the majority of the game doesn't allow you to fly in places - but it's also used for aerial combat. This is what's got everyone talking, although it doesn't excite me that much. Why? For the same reason that I won't be buying Aion, even though watching my little priest swooping about makes me feel ridiculously warm and fuzzy.

PvErs Are Gamers, Too.

Aion is a PvPvE game. Even their own website doesn't do a great job of explaining what this is, and considering it's a fairly new concept, I feel it's irresponsible for the company not to make it more obvious that, after level 25, PvP is unavoidable. Call me crazy, but that's the kind of little tidbit I'd really like to know before I spent £35-45 pre-ordering a game. To understand what I mean about not being clear, go and read what Aion says about their PvPvE system before I tell you what it is.

I am a strict PvE player, I don't like PvP, I don't care how great the system is, whether you can fight flying, or underwater, or riding a unicycle, if there's a real person behind the avatar I'm not going to hit it. I have nothing against PvP, or people who enjoy it - Alex loves it - but it's not my thing, and I simply won't play a game which has mandatory PvP in its latter half. Every quest and location after that level is susceptible to rifts which open to allow the opposing faction (usually of a much higher level) to enter the map and PK you at will as you're trying to play the game PvE, and you have no say in the matter. This is in addition to the optional area the Abyss, which is also PvP enabled and contains, as far as I can tell, the vast majority of the endgame content. Were this contained to just the Abyss, I would be happy to forgo the weapons and armour and nice treats and extra content and great things you get from PvP in this game, but the fact that you cannot complete more than half of the game without being forced into PvP is definitely a deal-breaker.

I've seen it argued that this is in-keeping with the game's storyline, but that doesn't fly with me. This little video explains the lore and story behind the game.



So, the Elyos and the Asmodians (both player-controlled factions) started to hate one another after the Balaur (NPCs) destroyed the Tower of Eternity and made the world all crappy, after the Balaur terrorised both sides. And yet, in the Abyss, you can ally with the Balaur against the opposing faction, but not the other way around. Why, precisely, would both daeva factions hate one another more than the evil race which turned against them and destroyed their world, and started fostering the hatred between them to begin with? When they have a worse, more dangerous enemy in common, why would they ally with said enemy to destroy the lesser threat? That doesn't make any sense to me, but it is the backbone of the entire PvPvE system - the Balaur being the vE.

So, in response to "you can't PvE because the point of the game is you hate the other side" the point of the game is you hate the Balaur, too, who are vE part of PvPvE. Surely it would be just as valid storyline-wise to allow an option with endgame content relating to killing the Balaur, as it is to make it revolve around killing the opposing daeva faction, if not more so. The storyline certainly does not preclude a PvE option.

But still, Aion is definitely not PvE friendly, and there is, it seems, absolutely no PvE content after level 25. You can level cap (50) providing you grind in PvE areas, all of which have monsters level 25 or under. All quests, campaigns, instances and content past that include PvP.

I don't see their reasoning. Every new MMO's biggest rival is WoW, which allows for both PvP and PvE - both large gamer markets. By disregarding PvE players they're isolating half of their customers and receiving no benefit in return - what would NC Soft lose by adding a PvE server to Aion, without the rifts? Yet it's been announced they have no intention of ever making it more accessible to strict PvErs. Of course, this doesn't just stop people like me from playing, but it stops people like Alex, who loves PvP, from playing. MMOs are social games, and PvP-participants who are friends with someone who's a strict PvEr aren't going to join, if they know that their PvE friend(s) won't.

The Second M in MMO.

The only benefit I can see for NC Soft is that this attracts one kind of player - the hardcore PvPer. Not that that's a benefit in my book, the community in the European Aion beta was terrible, and will probably only get worse. Any questions regarding the extent of PvP in the game (given that it is so difficult to find the information out from Aion's website) were met with derision and insults by people who, for some reason unfathomable to me, hate anyone who doesn't enjoy the same pastime that they do. I say again, questions, not complaints, not demands, just questions asking about how it works and whether or not it was possible to play the game as is, PvE. I was insulted, ridiculed and in one instance threatened in a sexually explicit manner. The stellar Aion moderating team (official Aion beta forums, for feedback about the open beta) did absolutely bugger all about any of it, or any of the worse behaviour in other threads, which makes me wonder if they'll bother reading anyone's feedback at all.

I don't see the sense in the hate - I don't hate people who PvP, I don't insult them, why do I not deserve the same courtesy? A PvP lover hating someone who only plays PvE has as much justification and mileage as hating someone for liking interior decorating over wrestling. Insulting someone because they enjoy something other than the thing you enjoy is completely and utterly baseless. I don't like gardening, but neither am I going to graffiti people's greenhouses.

The Conclusion Bit.
(Impatient People Can Skip To)

So, I could buy Aion for the sake of creating wonderful characters, admiring amazing graphics and very enjoyable (although limited) flight, but I'd very quickly run out of things to do. The game is non-stop-identical-quest-grind from level 1 until 25, and out of all the safe PvE-only areas, only one town and its surrounding field allows you to fly, which is kinda the whole point of playing Aion. I realise that flying in other fields might be too much of an advantage, but you can't even fly in other towns - including Sanctum, the Daeva capital, where you ascend and actually get your wings for the first time. Yes, you get your wings there, but you can't use them. Oh, did I mention it's also a flying city? A flying city you can't fly in.

In 3 days of playing the open-beta, I feel like I've already exhausted the PvE content, and as Aion have announced no intention whatsoever of ever supporting more PvE play, I can't see that I'd get my money's worth, as much as I really want to play Aion.

Sadly, however, I'm now jonesing for a new MMO. I enjoyed Guild Wars but playing Aion, which is more WoW-like in its larger world, has left me wanting something that feels a lot bigger, but obviously with more PvE content than Aion has. I gave LOTRO a quick try, but the graphics were so bad that I got bored a few minutes in.

I'm desperate for recommendations, right now the only thing really keeping me from WoW is the poor character models and customisation. I looked at Everquest 2 because I heard the character models were much better, but that style of animation is definitely not my preference, they're hideous! It feels like I'll be waiting a long, long time before anything as pretty as Aion but more me-friendly is released, and I want something to play in the mean time.

Recommendations, anyone?

EDIT: I think we can all give a hand to commenter, Edward, for confirming my assertion that a lot of the Aion community are dicks. Thanks for that, Ed.
Some of his more offensive comments relating to my readers have been removed.
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Terminology for the non-geek-inclined:

• MMORPG - Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game
• PvP - Player versus Player
• PvE - Player versus Environment (AI monsters, etc)
• NPC - Non-playable character
• WoW - World of Warcraft
• LOTRO - Lord of the Rings Online