Wings Over Atreia: Let's get personal, personal...

Come on let's get personaaaaaaaal. Let me hear your...

OK, maybe that song is a bit beyond some of you folks, but for others, you simply won't be able to get it out of your head all day! I cannot help it if 98% of my thoughts are all in music: old, new, classical, show tunes, or Disney ballads. Even MMO theme music and scores. It doesn't matter -- they all swirl around my head. So you will just have to suffer along with me once in a while.

But I digress -- let's get back to the topic at hand. What? I haven't shared the topic yet? Sure I have! This week, Wings Over Atreia is all about getting personal. Or rather, making it personal. Even though our favorite MMOs host a multitude of players and have to lay out a general canvas for all, who doesn't long for a more personalized experience? We express it through names, character customization, fashion, and even roleplay. We buy cash shop items to achieve it. Another way is by customizing our UI. After all, even moreso than your characters, the UI is the one piece of Aion that you have to look at constantly (unless you play with the UI off, which must be an interesting feat!). Mods pepper the net for many games, giving a more unique touch to the games we love to play. So why not for Atreia?

Load on past the cut to explore this aspect of personalizing your Aion experience. Or more accurately, the way you can't.

Warning! Danger, Will Robinson!

While I am no Surgeon General, I care about the health of your computer. So before reading any further, realize that while the mods created for most games are benign, some could actually be malicious, and some might get you banned. This article is not endorsing breaking any Terms of Service Agreements and encourages readers to weigh their decisions carefully. If you get banned, it's on your own head, not mine. I am officially absolved! That said, let's press on.

To be or not to be... like everyone else

You have to admit, as a culture, we put a lot of stock (and cash) into personalizing our stuff. We decorate our living space. There are vanity plates for cars and a myriad of bling options for everything from car accessories to cell phones. Some customization is not just for looks, either, but for comfort, ease, and accessibility.

This need to make our space our own extends into our virtual worlds. What is one way players personalize their games? With mods. Clunky UI? No problem -- someone out there has put the time into creating different UI skins that are user friendly. Want to ignore the Jedi in Star Wars Galaxies? There's a mod to remove the lightsaber skin from game, showing them only as blades. Is there some visual aspect of the game you'd like to see tweaked to make it a better experience for you? Chances are someone has done just that.

Most games embrace this philosophy and allow, support, and even encourage the making of customized mods. NCsoft, however, does not. Why not? Aion doesn't even allow for any choice beyond putting your HUD at the top or the bottom or messing with the size a bit. Aww come on, not even an option of any variety? A different color or anything? It's not like the possibility isn't there; if you look under Options > Sound Options > UI Theme, you can plainly see a tease of choice for the UI themes, yet after a year and a half, the only choice remains the default.

Personally, I would even be happy if the default UI were a bit more customizable. I want to move things around so that they are comfortable for me to see and to use. This makes for a better -- and more effective -- gaming experience. Currently, you can only move the two floating hotbars (but none of the originals), the chat box, and any windows you can actually open and close. Otherwise, the HUD is pretty set. I truly feel for those who play with larger monitors than mine; I recently tried to game on a 30-inch monitor and found whiplash to be in my future as I tried to see all of the necessary elements to play effectively. Honestly, I couldn't do it, chat was nearly impossible to see and keep up with, and if my eyes moved to one part of the screen, I missed something on another part.

Let's get this (third) party started!

So if NCsoft doesn't want to put the time or energy into any UI tweaks (yes, yes, we have all heard the argument "OMZ all dev resources need to go into content and fixing bugs and giving me moar pee vee pees," but frankly, this is my column and I can express what I want in it!), why not allow for third-party mods?

Scouring the internet, I see people wanting more customization, so I know I am not alone. I have even seen clips and blurbs of mods that people were excitedly making. However, nothing seemed to come of any of them. In my research, so far the only real mod that I have come across is the nudity patch, probably the most notorious of mods throughout all games, such that even Aion has one floating around. And although it received praise on the forum it was posted, I am not sure you will hear too many admitting to using such an add-on.

Ironically, I did find mods taking the Aion interface and putting it into World of Warcraft! Crazy, isn't it? One comment was literally about bringing the Aion experience to your game! Forgive me if this makes me chuckle, since the best way to have the Aion experience would be to, ya know, play Aion!

So come on NCsoft! Give us something to dress up our window! If we are going to be putting in more hours a day than we care to admit logged into the beautiful world of Atreia, let us make it our own space. Let us put things where they make sense for us, the player, instead of where some random developer thought they would be best! Only you can help prevent UI injuries! You will find we will feel more at home and possibly come more often. And who doesn't want the customer-base even more addicted?

Soaring through the Aionosphere, MJ Guthrie touches down weekly to bring you Wings Over Atreia. Featuring tips, guides, and general snippets of life in Aion, the column is better than Tutty-on-a-stick, ackackackackackack! Have a suggestion to share? No need to bribe a Shugo -- just send mail to mj@massively.com.