Looking back it has been a year since Vanguard… and about 6 months since LOTRO (which I seemed to have forgotten to post any pictures for). Before Vanguard I think it was WoW for a couple weeks. I don’t know why… but I can’t seem to escape MMORPGs. Time to get back on the treadmill…
Every 6 months or so I read about a new one… and get the urge to try it out. This time it was Aion. What usually happens is I sign up for the new game… play it every waking moment for about 2 weeks… the decide “I’m done”, and walk away. I spent so much time in my first MMORPG that I think I’ve burned my brain out of the genre… the addiction doesn’t stick (to the chagrin of the companies charging the monthly fee)… making it easy to see when the real ‘grind’ begins so you can get out while you’re ahead 🙂
Aion is still in beta in North America (it has been out in Asia since November 2008)… and this weekend they opened up “beta 6″… the last beta to shake the bugs out before launch in September. So I rolled a Sorcerer and pushed through what content I could on Friday night and Saturday. Not enough time to do a detailed review… but initial impressions are that it’s “WoW-like” in how easy it is to get started in the world (Vanguard didn’t do much hand holding) but with some nicer graphics and early access to flight. PvP can be a big part of the game in later levels, but it’s not something I made it far enough to see.
I’ll be traveling for business the next month, but should be back before Aion opens up “for real”. I’m looking forward to trying some other classes and seeing other parts of this new world… in fact I wish I could play tomorrow as well… but I have to get ready for my flight.
(Actually… maybe I can sneak in an hour or two before heading to the airport 🙂 )