The Lazy MMO Review – Aion

The next exciting episode of The Lazy MMO Review. This time, myself and Blue take a crack at Aion and I manage to keep quiet about GameGuard. I actually had a whole bit about my hatred for the program, but it had too much swearing. Anyway! Regardless if you think Aion is just an Asian WoW clone (it’s really not), if you enjoy big open worlds and being able to fly (but NOT perform a 360 horizontal roll), or just need something fresh to play and have fun with, you might want to check out Aion.

Near-End Week Notes, I’m Sorta But Not Really Busy

Okay, so a quick little update about some stuff, so I can say I don’t doddle on my blog.

First, I’m back into Guild Wars for God-only-knows what reason, but whatever, I’m back and playing on a usual basis, or rather, would be playing on a regular basis if not for the Aion open beta, in which I am partaking, FINALLY!

Second, something NOT about gaming, I got a new mid-tower case for my mid-range PC, so I can not wait to move all the crap from one crappy case to a slighty bigger crappy case. Actually that’s not true, my current case only has one 80mm fan for cooling. That’s the kind of stuff that makes me cry at night in between wondering if it’ll blow up and/or start a fire. Hopefully this new case will provide more room (it does) and better cooling (does that too) so I’m happy, until I start to take everything out and put it back in.

Finally, and so we’re clear on this, I, Connor, The Lazy Geek (maybe the laziest) F***ING. HATE. GAMEGUARD. Here, let me bold that so we can all be on the same page. Ahhhh, much better. i’m glad I got that off my chest! Well, time to go play some more Aion, until the next post.

End of Weekend Notes, Lazy Is But A Word

And lazy is what I yam, and I yam what I yam. or something like that…anyway, while I’ve been out doing website things and other projects and being dragged back into Guild Wars kicking and screaming like a spoiled brat not wanting to go to the doctor’s office, I’ve been keeping an ear or three to the ground waiting for more news of Guild Wars 2 and other praise-worthy geeky-ness.

I read and watched some good Q&A with Anet Heads and designers about Guild Wars 2 which you can check out over at theGuild Wars 2 site which has everything from talking about underwater combat to new pvp systems to what was learned from the original Guild Wars. Still talking about GW2…

New concept art and two wallpapers have made there way to the public and to my harddrives amirite which range from “Oh, that looks neat,” to “Oh, that looks bitchin’!” in terms of awesomeness. Check ‘em all out on the Guild Wars 2 site. Yeah I’m too lazy to link for you.

Let’s see, what else to talk about, I guess I could bitch about Comcast sucking, but that’s too easy. Oh oh, Aion using GameGuard as their “hacker free-for-all prevention” program instead of…anything else, but again, too easy. Well I’ll just leave it at that and wait to find something truly god-awful to complain about before…complaining…again. Or I’ll just post more GW2 news in hopes that ArenaNet will forgive me.

Jeff Strain Strains My Relationship With ArenaNet, Leaves NCSoft West

So, aside from my day without the internet (that day being yesterday), and a doctor’s appointment that took an hour longer than it should have, I had a somewhat a-okay day. Upon my return to the virtual world, however, I find that all is not well in the land of MMOs. According to an article at MMORPG.com, Jeff Strain and David Reid are done with NCSoft.

NCsoft West Public Relations Director Ryan James had the following to say about the departure of Strain:

“With a successful history creating MMORPG games, NCsoft has made an indelible mark on the games industry. Last year, the South Korea-based NCsoft created a division to follow a vision of bringing AAA MMOs to the West called NCsoft West. This organization was formed as part of NCsoft’s ongoing vision to be the premier global MMO publisher in the world. With that vision, change in a growth industry is inevitable. NCsoft West announces the departure of Jeff Strain, President of Product Development, who has chosen to leave NCsoft under amicable terms and NCsoft wishes him the best in his new endeavor. This does not change our plans or negatively impact our upcoming launch of Aion, and NCsoft remains very excited about the game’s launch on September 22nd in the U.S. and September 25th in Europe. These changes do not influence any other teams, development schedules or other launches.”

Bullshit! This is yelling to me that ArenaNet is slowly dying out, and Guild Wars 2 will soon fall into a “Duke Nukem coma”, while the original Guild Wars withers away in a painful death that has been shared by Tabula Rasa and Auto Assault. With Aion soon to be released in a little over a month, NCSoft had better get its proverbial shit together before it hits the proverbial fan if they want to become a global MMO juggernaut, but, as for me, NCSoft is dying, Aion will not do as well as they need it to over here in North America, and with all the player-hype it has, it only has room to plummet to its death…only to has its heart replaced by a battery and kept alive by shocking itself with jolts of fanboys.

Jeff Strain and David Reid Out At NCsoft @ MMORPG.com [via Massively]