So I recently started Aion (Elyos-Kahrun) to while away the awkward time between pre-orders and, as typical of me, I rolled a tank archetype. Everything felt pretty standard and I was enjoying the graphics, blahblahblah... until I encountered a player engaged in battle.
During the GW2 BWE, I didn't think twice before jumping in and help take down the enemy. We'd brofist across the internet and carry on our separate ways.
In Aion, and my past MMORPGs, I would either a) request the encumbered player to join a party, b) jump in anyway and risk a kill-steal report (or similar) or c) walk on by. More often than not the battle would have been over by the time I make my decision or my party request goes through, or on occasions when I decide on option (b), the other player would voice his/her displeasure or just walk away and leave me to die instead.
How in the world have we put up with this for so long? I just don't get why so many MMORPGs spent all that effort to prevent people from helping each other, even in settings without multiple opposing factions. In WoW, helping somebody take down a (grey) mob while not in the same party got you absolutely nothing; in Aion you'd get some EXP but no loot; in Ragnarok Online the person dealing the final blow got the EXP, but the loot goes to whoever got to it first. GW2 and Diablo 3 are my first experiences with instanced or personal loot, which naturally created a system where you're actually rewarded in-game for helping others.
That's a paraphrase of a random player on the Aion /LFG channel over the weekend. I smiled and muttered, "This isn't Guild Wars 2.""It's a such a great sign of the community when people walk by while you're getting owned by two Tursin."