Choose my Adventure: Thank you, Basfelt Village

Join me as I brave my way through lands unknown in an adventure dictated entirely by you, the Massively readers! Vote for everything from game played to character creation to ultimate goal and watch it unfold in a series of journals and galleries here on the site. Then, as our two months is up, we'll do it all over again in a new game!

My adventures in Aion continued ever-so slowly this week as I crawled through two more levels to hit 14. Last week's vote chose my crafting profession, and adventuring through further areas of Altgard showed me that there's so much more out there to kill than walking lizards and rainbow storks.

So this week, instead of having a definitive poll, I'm going to ask you to give suggestions in the comments for next week's adventure. What would you like to see me do with my Spiritmaster? C'mon you 500+ people who voted for me to play Aion, make your voice heard! Keep reading below to share your opinion as well as hear my impressions of the journey so far.

You may remember me complaining last week about the severe lack of variety in the first 12 levels of enemies. Well, things didn't change for quite a long time. Hey look! I enter a new area and there are more of those little pudgy farmer dudes with big ears. And more Mau. And more tiger thingies. Seriously? Will this ever change?

Besides that complaint, my other major observation at this point in the game is it seems to be harder to solo quests at my level. Am I arguing on the side of soloing in an MMO? No, not at all, but the change seems oddly drastic. I'm also not arguing against challenge, because I did thoroughly enjoy the challenge presented. Is it the fact that I simply can't solo these mobs anymore, or is it the fact that I needed to actually sit down, look at my assortment of skills and figure out a new strategy? I chose option B.

It's with this aspect of the game that made me really respect Aion a bit more. Not that I didn't before -- the beauty and originality of the world is simply unmatched -- but now they're making me use my brain a bit more.

I headed back to the capital city of Pandaemonium for my new Alchemy crafting profession and to clear out some of the easier quests in that enormous city. Anyone familiar with crafting in most major MMOs will be familiar with this system at its core. Grab a recipe, grab the ingredients, stand near the crafting station and craft.

Following the advice of a few commenters in last week's article, I'm going to focus on one profession for now, building up the second one later. The main reasons I'm doing this are cost and inventory space. I love some good crafting as much as the next guy, but a small piece of me dies every time I see something about my bags being full. I'm a packrat, what can I say?

Crafting revolves around more than just mindlessly clicking "Craft All". There are crafting-related quests and work order to fill if you need a bit more spice in your crafting life. I opted to turn my focus back on leveling and exploring though, as that's my main goal with this game and this series.

So I headed back to Altgard, flew around the city a few more times before saying goodbye to my wings for a while (seriously, what's up with all the no-fly zones?) and headed west through the Mumu Farmland.

But it wasn't until I finished up the quests in that area to reach Basfelt Village that I saw the most glorious site I could have imagined: A Mosbear. Not only a Mosbear, but a Lake Ksellid and Lake Spirits. And a Wild Tog. Ok, so there were a few familiar Spriggs there too, but I'm just too excited to see new monsters at this point.

Basfelt Village also reminded me of Jef Reahard's recent Aion column about who the good guys or bad guys are in Aion. When you see children skipping through the dirt roads and a flock of QooQoos carelessly pecking at the ground near a local farmer, you can't help but alleviate all stereotypes about the Asmodians being this dark, sinister race of cruel hatemongers. They're just a little bitter about that whole apocalypse thing. Blood for blood, as they say.

So onward I look past the Mosbears towards Gribade Canyon and the rest of Altgard's western side. I realize that Aion is a fairly linear game at this point, but I want to hear your opinions on what I should do next. Let me clarify that: What I should do next in Aion.

Leave a comment below and feel free to join me any time in-game with the star of the CmA show, Sargyen. He's not as mean as he looks, but you might want to stay away from his Fire Spirit.