“Ugh I hate Thunder Bluff! You can’t find a good burger anywhere.” ~ Blood Elf Female

My chronic boredom with WOW and the bitter disappointment that was Aion has led me to ponder exactly what *I* want from an MMORPG and how that measures up against what the market can offer.

(Disclaimer: Much of this is WOW-centric. It’s not my fault they currently define the market.)

What I want:
1. RP. First and foremost, I want to RP. Although many MMORPGS claim to offer RP, I’ve never realized it in the same way online as I did in my teens sitting around a table with a bunch of friends fondling geometrical dice, calculating ThAC0s and arguing over how much the light of the torches in the tunnels would affect my drow fighter/priest’s vision. In theory, online play should get rid of all the stupid calculation stuff and just let us RP, but RP is little and far between.
2. Pee Vee Pee. I want to pew pew against other *thinking* beings in a way that isn’t held hostage by who has the better gear, who can hack macros better or who has the OP class this week. I don’t mind a little bit of luck, but it shouldn’t be the deciding factor. Real PVP should be mentally challenging as well as battle strategic. I want Warsong Gulch meets Risk meets Stratego. I want to stand the same chance going up against the worst player in the game as I do going up against the best. I want a pvp system that doesn’t reward losers who sit in BGs all day or OP classes with one-two-three-dead macros more than players with actual gaming skills. I don’t want to have to respec for 1-on-1 and group pvp. I want anyone that afks in a BG to get a 2 hour no-more-bg-for-you debuff. I want a pvp system in the same game as the rest of the content I want to play everything else in (Sorry, Warhammer you just suck so much for EVERYTHING else).
3. PvE on My Own Terms. If I’m in the mood to pve I don’t want to spend all my time getting griefed and annoyed by every thirteen year old asshat that just jerked off to the latest 4chan uploads. I want to have the freedom to play the game I’m paying for the way I want to play it without being shuffled off to the Hello Kitty Island Adventure servers. I want a fuck-off mode that tells campers to go find something else to do with their time. I want non-combat NPCs to be alive when I need them to be alive. I don’t mind competing for mobs, but I don’t want to be at the mercy of stupid farmers when I need mobs for mats and quests. I want any character that kills a character 10 levels below theirs to get a “stupid chicken” buff that turns them into a level 1 critter and doesn’t wear off for an hour. I don’t care if you’re on a pvp server, killing lowbies is lame.
4. No. Fucking. Grinding. Yes, I know that technically questing is grinding, but I need that illusion to maintain my false sense of achievement. So I’d rather have quests disguised as grinding rather than just mindless “kill 100 boars” grinding.
5. Original Approaches to Questing. While I’m at it, I want quests that aren’t always the same variations on the same things or thinly veiled grinding in the guise of lore.
6. Minimize Mini-Games. I picked my character and class for a reason, stop taking away all my skills and abilities in favor of a new set of stupid buttons that don’t interest me. I’m glad you got that Atari emulator running and all, but that doesn’t mean you need to inflict your retrofix onto my gameplay.
7. Interesting Crafting. Skill up, farm mats. Skill up, farm mats. Skill up, farm mats, wait for cooldowns. There has got to be a better way to build this mousetrap. I actually *like* crafting when the game isn’t making me hate it.
8. Privacy. I don’t want that creepy guy from that last pug to know when I’m signing on, but I also don’t want to ignore him because he’s in that guild with those other people I sometimes group with and that leads to uncomfortable situations. I want to control my own privacy in any social format; appear offline when I want. How is this not basic?
9. To See Content. Your designers just spent a year and a half on the latest dungeon so that 1% of the game population can see it. Does that sound logical to you? Allow passive modes for dungeons and high-end content so that guilds can bring non-combat observers to educate the newbies, or even just so I can go in and have a look without 40 other screaming idiots.
10. Non-Guild Progression Options. Would it kill you to have non-dungeon progression that would allow us to get access to high-level gear without guilds, banging our heads in the same BGs over and over and over, or farming until our eyes bleed? Make it challenging. Make it something we have to work for. Just don’t make it boring and stupid. Oh, and if you’re worried that gear is the only reason anyone will run dungeons…well maybe you should THINK ABOUT THAT.
11. Avatar Customization. Aion got this right. I want dozes of sliders and vanity options. I want to dye my robes to match my shoes.
12. Priests That Don’t Scream “Please Rape Me.” Okay, I’m going to be specific. This is about the priest class in WOW more than anything else. I want a healing class that isn’t useless in 1-on-1 pvp. I don’t want to choose between being a target or being effective. I don’t want to be a watered down warlock or a very pretty corpse. Let me heal effectively and by all means make it challenging, but then give me tools to protect my ass and don’t take them away a week later. Make it so that coming after the priest is at least KIND OF a challenge. Druids shapeshift. Pallys stun IN PLATE. One fear every 30 seconds and shields that disappear after 1 high-level hit aren’t cutting it. I don’t want to have to rely on other people for my dps or my defense — especially when other healing classes are just as healing effective with better dps/defense tools. Have you TRIED to kill a restro druid? WTF.

Realistically:
1. This is likely something game developers cannot influence, although they could put some effort into creating formats that encourage and/or allow this for those of us who want it. Navigating through strangers who are too creepy or too mental or too bad at RP is an individual issue that no amount of game filters can help with. I can also see the challenges this presents for communities that mingle adults and teen populations.
2. This just shouldn’t be that hard. Do this already.
3. See above.
4. Skill up ur cre8iviT dudz.
5. See above.
6. Just cut this crap out entirely.
7. I don’t see why this isn’t a reasonable expectation.
8 - 11. See above.
12. See above, only louder. WHY is this a dream that never comes true?

“We live immersed in narrative, recounting and reassessing the meaning of our past actions, anticipating the outcome of our future projects, situating ourselves at the intersection of several stories not yet completed.” ~ Peter Brooks

In writing up entries about Aion, I’ve begun to realize that I didn’t take near enough screen caps to show my work on all the stuff I want to blog. Still, I think I’ve got enough to provide little samples here and there. In this entry I’d like to talk about an aspect of play that has generally underwhelmed me in the MMO genre and that’s game immersion.

One of the things about Aion that impressed me during my brief tour was the relationship your character has with the environment. There are lots of details both subtle and deliberate that I believe will make this an MMO that actually encourages role play for those who seek it. But, even if you’re not looking to RP, NC Soft is doing a lot of things right to immerse you in your character. They seem to have hit a golden ticket combination of SL vanity appeasement, WOW easy mode interface, EQ2 ability sophistication, and FF graphics and detail all merged in with a new, but traditional-style lore. You quickly feel tethered to your character and it helps a player to settle into enjoying play (remember enjoyment — it’s that stuff we used to do before rep grinds and fighting over mats).

One small, but charming example of this immersion is the fact that your character takes cues from the weather.

Aion - Bad Weater Solved By Leaf Umbrella

Above, you’ll notice my girl is holding a little leaf umbrella to keep the rain off her. How. Cute. Is. That.

Another such detail is that fact that I encountered quests that were actually realm time-of-day dependent. In one such quest, a soldier that had fallen hopelessly in love with a wood nymph asked me to steal her dress so that he could have a token of her to keep for himself (boys). He explained that she bathed by the light of the moon in a nearby pond. When I sought her during a day cycle, the nymph wasn’t there, but after returning in night cycle — sure enough she was there and her dress was laying across a rock near the pond. While too many of these style quests could get annoying and prohibitive to leveling, I thought it was a very nice touch.

Of course, the nymph was a ?? level mob who spotted me stealing her dress after I’d snagged it into my inventory and promptly fired a nymph cap into my priestly ass, resulting in the first of my two deaths (both of which took place at level 6).

Aion - Fewer Deaths

This brings me to the next interesting thing about Aion — death is inconvenient and kinda traumatic. One of my biggest meh’s about WOW is the frequency and ease with which your character dies. There really isn’t any value placed on surviving because dying is easy (a little costly at high levels, but still not that bad) and doesn’t really incur much hardship beyond the occasional longish corpse run.

In Aion, death incurs a fairly distressing spirit defeat sequence (as seen above) which I had to shake my head after because I was so immersed in play when it happened. Both times I died were unexpected and they taught me valuable lessons; I didn’t repeat the mistakes that led to me being all dead-like. The first lesson was that fucking with higher level mobs is going to get your butt kicked a lot faster than in WOW, and the second was that you’d better not get into managing multiple mobs unless you know exactly what you’re doing. After taking those two wisdoms to heart, I didn’t die again on my way to 14. I’m pretty sure my first character in WOW died once a level at least, if not multiple times per level.

Additionally, unless you’ve got a rezzer with you, you do not ghost from a graveyard back to your body: you rez at the last place you bound your soul to — and that could be way back in Monkey’s Eyebrow, Kentucky even though you’re currently questing in Alaska. Then you’re going to have to pay a soul healer to restore your XP. It’s a pain in the posterior. However, it does two things right. First, it encourages good play and skill advancement by motivating you not to die. Second, it again encourages the immersion bond between you and your character.

Even though I could go on and on about this, I’ll end with just one more example of the immersion techniques the game uses. This one is simple, but powerful considering the level of character customization offered by the platform. The cinematic sequences and cut scenes mostly feature your character in the action. First in flashbacks and later in ceremonies. On my way to level 14, I encountered about a half-dozen of these, including some that didn’t feature my character, but were merely instructive to show me glimpses of quest areas I would soon be encountering. This frequent use of cut sequences feels like a luxury in itself, but seeing my own character as part of many of them was an unexpected (and very effective) treat.

Just a few yummy samples:

Aion - Cinematic Sample 1

Aion - Cinematic Sample 2

Aion - Cinematic Sample 3

Aion - Cinematic Sample 4

Aion - Cinematic Sample 5

“At rest in the temple of its body, Desire, who would be darkly amused to hear itself described as an angel, floats in an eyeball larger than a cathedral, and remembers its lost brother in its own way. Desire’s thoughts are private. It holds a small red flower, very tightly.” ~ Neil Gaiman, Sandman #49: “Brief Lives:9″

I have been listless and bored lately in an online sense. Summer doldrums, I suppose. This past week, however, I knew I had to scoot my priest bottom into Azeroth to get the Midsummer achievements on my main. While in the process of a lot of useless running around (although stealing the flames from the four opposing faction cities is always a *little* fun), fire juggling, and Ahune-slaying, I casually mentioned to a friend that I honestly don’t understand why I keep my WOW account active these days. At which point he *may* have mentioned that he was in the Aion Online beta following which I *may* have pressured him mercilessly into letting me sneak in on his account for a test drive. If you’re a developer I would like to state for the record none of that actually happened.

…anyway…

After downloading and installing the NCSoft launcher (they made me install the .net framework — I feel dirty) I had two days (less, actually) to run around and play.

I. So. Likey.

It’s hard to say if Aion will be a contender. They get a lot right. At first blush the geek girl gamer in me is all tingly. But, I didn’t get my hands dirty with any endgame or PVP content, so that leaves a gaping chasm of gray area.

I can tell you that from what I’ve seen, Aion has the potential to kick Everquest2, Conan, and Warhammer off the map (and in my opinion deliver long-overdue fatal blows to all three). Whether or not it will bite into WOW depends on many elements yet to be seen. They are clearly targeting EQ2 players and, it must be said, the girl gamer market — which I will get into more detail by delving into the mouth watering character generation options that compose the focus of the rest of this entry.

Aion Character Generation - Overview

Finally, a game developer has grasped the notion that people like to customize their avatars beyond a handful of stock options. While this might seem like a useless vanity feature that players roll their eyes at on message boards, the proof is in the playing. As SLers all know, the majority of in-world business is based on pixel vanity. Sure, SL is a social platform and not a gaming platform, but the theory is still the same: avatar customization invests the real person into the image of their avatar. What this means for gaming is that the player will be better able to identify with their character and, thus feel connected to it enough to endure the growing pains of the interface meet and greet stages. If I spend 2 minutes creating a character, I’m not invested; I don’t care about it and I might get easily frustrated and walk away. If, however, I spend 20 minutes (or more) generating a virtual being, this increases my motivation to stay interested through the bumpy ride that is the learning curve phase.

A focus on character generation and customization is also, in my opinion, crucial in capturing the girl gamer market. We want pretty. We like pretty. And, not for nuthin’ but the guys want and like pretty, too. One of my ex-guildies who was in all other ways annoyingly macho frequented gender-bent with his avatars. He blamed Lara Croft and explained in his oh-so-charming way: “if I have to look at an ass running around down imaginary forests all day, it might as well be a nice ass.” Okay, so he wasn’t Shakespeare, but the lesson is no less true for its lack of poetry.

The Aion beta promises top of the line avatar customization that is leaps and bounds above any gaming standard.

Let’s begin with one of the default samples you see when you enter the character generation phase:

Aion Character Generation - A Default Option Sample

Yeah, I know. I nearly wet my panties, too. But it gets so much better. In the facial customization alone there are seven basic custom fields and twenty-five advanced slider options.

Aion - Character Generation - Lotsa Facial Options

Of the basic options, you get to tailor your look from a list of thirty hairstyles, twenty faces, a half-dozen “decoration” options, and ten tattoos. Those numbers are approximate as I didn’t count. I should have been more diligent, but I was too busy squeeing over real hair styles that include long styles, braids, flips, and even piggy buns.

Aion Character Generation - Full Rotatation Previews

Aion Character Generation: Facial Customization Options

Basic

As mentioned above, you start your facial customization in basic mode where you choose your hairstyle and color. The styles are varied, ranging from classic to modern, conservative to sassy, childish to sexy, simple to elaborate (you get the idea). The hair color can be selected from eighteen default palette options, or from the spectrum palette below those. Lip color and skin color can also be selected from presets or adjusted in the provided palettes. Eye color and brow options are selected from the somewhat oddly named “Face Shape” presets. The “Decoration” field allows you to choose the placement/selection of beauty marks, freckles, or scars, and the “Tattoo” field cycles through facial art that ranges from edgy “runny mascara” tattoos to candy-colored cheek hearts.

Aion - Character Generation - Basic Facial Options

Advanced

The advanced facial customization tab is a series of sliders that allows for the tweaking of twenty-five (yes! twenty-frickin’-five!) facial aspects, shapes and sizes. The defaults are set to realistic appearances (and most of the beta testers I encountered chose more realistic avatars), but there is also the possibility for highly distorted cartoon-type forms.

Aion - Character Generation - Advanced Facial Options

Aion Character Generation: Body Customization Options

By relative comparison, there isn’t as much customization for character body type, although it should be noted that having *any* body customization at all is relatively rare in gaming. Even though there are only thirteen body sliders (only thirteen — I’m already spoiled), the combination of options quickly begins to add up. You can move the sliders toward muscular amazon woman:

Aion - Character Generation Body Options (Amazon)

Or drag them back toward elfin waif:

Aion - Character Generation - Body Options (The Waif)

…and pretty much everything in between.

Aion Character Generation: My Girls

As I tend toward pale, elfin waifs, the characters I settled on were pretty predictable.

Elyos:

Aion - Salome's Elyos

Asmodian:

Aion - Salome's Asmodian

I’ll address actual game play in future entries, but I think it’s sufficient to say if you’re a gamer girl with pixel vanity, you should have Aion on your radar. I’m hoping the developers take a page from Spore and put their customization tools on the web for free for people to play with — once girls get a taste of how nummy you can make your pew-pew they’ll be as hungry for it as I was.

You’ll want to note, all the options I’ve shown you here are only a scattering of a scattering. These are all female priests. There are also boys and other classes, some of which have their own custom selections.

So. Much. Squee.