Where in the world have I been? Well, a lot has happened in the past 3 months. For one, I finished up another school year in Canada and over the summer, my husband and I decided to move back to the U.S. to be near family. After an adventure of epic proportions involving us and our two dogs in a Neon pulling all of our belongings in a 4′x8′ trailer from Calgary to Indiana, we’ve finally gotten settled in.
During the move period I cancelled my WoW account until we got things figured out. Now that I’ve been without it for a month, I’ve not really missed it. This has happened many times over the course of the past four years with WoW for me: I get sucked in for awhile but then things get stagnant. There’s only so many heroics I can run over and over again, so many dailies I can keep doing repetitively, so many things I can craft or so many fish I can fish up when I’m bored. I was really blown away with the announcement of the Cataclysm expansion and all that it will entail. It sounds fantastic and I’m really impressed with a lot of the changes and updates coming to the game, but it’s not going to make the game exciting for me right now. Right now, when I’m bored out of my tree. So now what?
Last week I re-installed Guild Wars and have been kicking around with some old Ultimate Genesis guildmates on the forums and messing around with all of the changes over the past three years since I played Guild Wars regularly. Most of my guildmates have left GW and its expansion packs for the same reason I’ve let my WoW account expire: stagnation. The funny thing is that a lot of them left GW and went to WoW. But even in WoW, it seems pretty quiet. This is that dull period that I hate when it comes to games; what to do next. Thankfully, I have a plan.
I’ve been reading up on the upcoming MMORPG by NCsoft, Aion. I remember reading about it awhile back, but it’s been a long time since I’ve heard anything more about it, and quite frankly, I had forgotten all about it. A former WoW guildmate of mine mentioned that she was playing in the beta, and I went to check it out again. Talk about exciting. And impressive. Something that I find fresh with Aion is the ability to sprout wings and fly in-game… which is possible in WoW, but Aion takes it one step further and gives players the ability to participate in arial combat. Some of the Aion YouTube videos I’ve checked out have really gotten me pumped; I hope it’s as fun when playing as it appears.
To find out whether Aion was as fun as it looked, I figured the logical thing to do was to get into the beta and experience it for myself. I went over and pre-ordered the game from my local GameStop. The $5 pre-order gives me a beta key for the upcoming open (open to closed beta members) beta period next week and I’ll be able to see in person whether Aion is my next gaming fix or not. I’m rather excited though, and have been doing a lot of reading up on the game and its lore. I’m also tossing around hypothetical class choices that I think I would enjoy; from previous experiences with my Druid and Warlock, I know I love healing and dishing out damage. I’ve never really been one to be a warrior or toe-to-toe meatshield/damage dealer, but more of a stand-back-and-unleash-epic-damage person, so most likely I’ll start with a Priest->Cleric and then also create a mage. I haven’t decided between Sorcerer or Spiritmaster for my mage, but the Spiritmaster sounds more my style. I’ll get a chance to play around and make those decisions once the next beta period starts, so we’ll see!
Another important decision to take into consideration is which faction to play in Aion. There are three main factions, two of which are playable. First, there are the Balaur –the faction that players are always up against. They are your typical faction created by the gods of the game world, who instead of protecting the world as they were created to do, fell, due to their desire and hunger for more power and world domination. The Balaur were cast into the prison Abyss, but have recently escaped and are wreaking havoc on the land, needing to be kept in check. That’s where the two playable factions come in.
The two playable factions are the Elyos and the Asmodians. I liken these to Alliance and Horde, respectively. The Elyos tend to be the “prettier, good guys” faction, while the Asmodians appear to be more of the “uglier, bad guys” faction, even though neither one is truly good or evil. Together they fight the Balaur but they are also in battle against each other. While according to lore, neither side is good or evil… you know that perception is everything, and this is how people view it all over the Aion forums. Both the Elyos and Asmodians feel they are the good side and that the other is the bad side. (Sound familiar?) But you know that most people will view them as good vs. evil just based on looks.
It didn’t take me long to decide that I will be going Asmodian; not only is the Asmodian lore more interesting, but I’m done with choosing the “pretty” faction. I found more maturity on the Horde side, and I suspect it will be similar when Aion comes out. While it is horrible to make blanket, generalized, and stereotypical assumptions before playing, I have found in all of the previous games I’ve played for extended periods of time, such as WoW and Star Wars Galaxies, that most people will choose the “heroes” vs. the perceived “bad guys.” This was true in Star Wars Galaxies when you could choose to be rebel or imperial, and it was true for me in WoW with Alliance vs. Horde. Anyway, I think this time around I’ll try the darker Asmodian side first, and then maybe try Elyos for a change of pace later. I like playing the less popular side anyway. Coming from playing a female Tauren, the Asmodian back hair and claws don’t bother me one bit.
So there you have it; finally an update and a look into what’s going on behind the scenes around here and in my future gaming plans. I’m not dead, just been busy moving countries. And oh, did I also mention I’m teaching 2nd grade this year? Here’s to another great school year and hopefully a new gaming fix for my free time. ;) See you in Aion!
