Gamer Monkey » Aion

Aion: Assault on Balaurea Release Date

Lifebane — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 02:07:10 +0000

NCsoft has recently announced the “official” release date for the next chapter in their Title, Aion: Assault on Balaurea. This content expansion will be released digitally to existing/paying customers in the North America market and Europe on September 7th. There will also be retail boxes for sale so look for them and grab yourself one of the exclusive in-game pets. The European release date is set for September 10th, shortly after the North American market.

In Aion: Assault on Balaurea your characters will have the ability to work together and launch large-scale counter assaults against the invading Balaur in defense of their homeland. As expected there will of course be updated instances as well as the ever popular new zones/content. No true expansion would be complete without the inevitable GRIND so to this end the level cap will also be increased. Toss in a mix of new weapons, armor and gear with some new skills and a pinch of new/improved flight mechanics and you have the Aion recipe for expansion content.

Aion goes Iphone!

Lifebane — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 22:52:54 +0000

Aion decided to hop on the iphone bandwagon and created an app that lets you access your character stats, inventory, and information from your iphone! They promise to build in additional functionality as time goes on so expect more from this little gizmo.

“December 4th, NCsoft revealed an important message to Korean media that NCsoft has built a partnership with iPhone so that players can connect to the live AION server and interact with the game remotely via AIONTEM which canbe purchased from AppStore.

Through the AppStore service, AION players can view their in-game character stats, mutations and trade skills as well as provide access to equipped and stored items whenever they want and wherever they want. What’s more, AppStore will summarize the hot items’ trade information every week so that users can learn it timely.

The mobile manager from NCsoft said that AIONTEM is not only a platform to learn real-time game information, but also an application program for extended game experience. NCsoft will push out more creative service through various platform.”

Another 26,000+ accounts banned in Aion

Lifebane — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 23:20:24 +0000

NCsoft has swung the ban stick on another 26,000+ “bot” accounts in Aion this morning. This brings the ban total to over 53,000 account! There have been obvious cheers of rejoice from players yet more and more reports are appearing of players claiming to have not been in violation in any way. Is it the truth or them simply covering up for their infractions? One has to imagine with that quantity of drastic banning there will be collateral damages but how much and will it have a long term impact on the player base?

Time will tell…

Aion bans 16,000 accounts!

Lifebane — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 03:21:29 +0000

The Aion population was greeted with an interesting return to the game after the unplanned server reboot today. Apparently the devs had been doing some snooping around and they identified a bunch of accounts as bging cheaters and EULA abusers, and I do mean a bunch. The 16,000 accounts they flagged as guilty were banned! Merry Christmas! Below is the post that appeared on the forums announcing this banfest that took place.

“Good morning Daevas!

As you probably noticed, we’ve completed a server wide reboot without much notice on a day that we typically don’t perform maintenance. It’s only fair that we keep you in the loop and make sure you know what’s going on. Over the last week we’ve been working on a list, we’ve been checking it twice, and today we found out who was naughty or nice. Ban Hammer Claus just came to town. When the servers come back online, nearly 16,000 accounts will have been removed from the game. If your account was banned, please read the following FAQ.

***

1. Why was I banned?

There could be many reasons your account was closed. If you did not receive notification of your violation via e-mail please create a support ticket and the violation will be explained to you. Please note that if your account was closed for the use of 3^rd party software (botting) or participating in RMT (gold buying/selling) the evidence for the account closure was gathered over several weeks. It may be completely unrelated to what your character was doing right when your account was closed.

2. … but I wasn’t botting, buying Kinah or spamming advertisements! I’m innocent!

Any action that modifies the client or automates the same way a bot does could potentially flag an account as a violator. We do not use one specific instance to “flag” an account for botting or RMT. We use many instances to strengthen our conclusions. Please understand that it is not what “you” have done on your account, but what the account has done. If your account is shared, purchased, borrowed, or power leveled, it could be the actions of anyone who’s ever used the account.

3. I’m aware of all of the above, but I have never done any of it. Who do I contact?

To request a review, please create a support ticket.

We are taking a very firm stance on this issue and do have sophisticated processes and procedures in place that help us keep unwarranted banning to a minimum. If you believe you’ve been wrongfully banned, you can email us at support@ncsoft.com, and we will review your account. Our goal is to ensure our legitimate players are having the best game experience possible. Please note that you don’t need to submit multiple tickets, as we will review a specific case only once. We obviously take these violations seriously, but also want to make sure that legitimate players aren’t banned unnecessarily.

***

We’d like to reiterate that we’ve been listening to your concerns. We’ve been constantly adding to our Customer Service and Game Surveillance Unit. As we continue to move forward, you’ll see more and more of these efforts. Thanks for your patience everyone, and have fun playing Aion!

__________________
Fly High Daevas,
Tamat ~ Andrew Beegle
Community Manager”

Aion Patch Notes 1.5.1.0

Lifebane — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 14:39:57 +0000

NPC

1. Added a new function to prevent abnormal game play as a result of specific terrains in the Instanced Dungeons.
-When a player moves where a monster cannot follow, the monster will now correctly continue to attack the player.

2. You no longer receive a reward when you defeat a field boss using a specific NPC.

3. Assigned additional guard NPCs that can detect Stealth to protect allies in the main villages of Heiron (in Elysea) and Beluslan (in Asmodae).

4. Increased the eyesight and Stealth detection ability of Mau Warriors and Mau Hunters—the NPC guards assigned to the Silver Mane Village in Morheim.

5. Changed the name of the guards near the Dredgion entrance in both Elysea and Asmodae.
- Changed the name of the guard in the Teminon Bind Point to Garrison Senior Soldier .
- Changed the name of the guard in the Primum Bind Point to Garrison Senior Soldier

6. Corrected the spelling errors in the dialog with Stigma Master Nobus in Teminon Fortress.

Instanced Dungeons

1. There is now a high chance of obtaining class Stigma crystals from defeating the boss in the Fire Temple, Raged Judge Kromede.

2. Changed the drop rate of class Skill Books in the Aetherogenetics Lab and Alquimia Research Center.
- Slightly increased the drop rate from monsters in the Instanced Dungeons.
- Greatly increased the drop rate from the final bosses in the Instanced Dungeons.

3. Changed the movement speed of certain bosses in Dark Poeta.
- Increased movement speed of Vengeful Spirit of Forest Protector Noah
- Increased movement speed of Vengeful Spirit of Elim Elder.
- Increased movement speed of Spaller Insect Echtra.

4. Lowered the difficulty of Steel Rake Hutkin, the final boss of the Steel Rake.
- Lengthened the summoning cycle of minion monsters.
- Lowered the level and stats of minion monsters.

5. Changed the system message that displays when the food/water supply unit inside Hutkin’s Safe in the Steel Rake fails to activate.
- Displays system message, “It will be difficult to do this alone. I need one more person to help me push it!” when a character tries to activate the food/water supply unit alone.

6. Stats of all monsters stationed in Dark Poeta have been changed.
- By decreasing Elemental Defense, Magical Attacks will deal more damage.
- Physical Defense has been slightly increased.
- HP of all monsters except for some boss monsters has been decreased.

7. Damage from Tahabata Pyrelord, the ultimate boss monster of Dark Poeta, has been decreased.

8. The difficulty in attacking the Steel Rake Ship has been decreased.
- Some monsters’ levels have been decreased.
- Some monsters have been repositioned for an easier battle in a dungeon and the battle behaviors have been changed as well.
- Food and Drink acquired in Hutkin’s Safe area appear only around the door, and two people can acquire it, rather than three.

9. When defeating the boss monster of the Steel Rake Ship, Golden Eye Mantutu, Engineer Lahulahu, or Captain Hutkin, there’s a high probability of acquiring a Stigma Stone.

10. Madame Bovariki, who is at the bar in the middle layer of the Steel Rake Ship, can drop the Loot Depository Key at any time.
- When you defeat Madame Bovariki, you acquire the key to the second floor of the bar.

11. In the second floor of the Sea Song Tavern in the middle layer of the Steel Rake Ship, there is now an additional treasure chest.

12. You can go between the lower and middle layers of the Steel Rake Ship using the elevator.
- Elevator activation equipment is now available to move from the lower layer to the middle layer.

13. The price of the “Captain’s Treasure Chest Key”has been decreased. You can purchase it from the general goods merchant Pegureronerk in the lower layer of the Steel Rake Ship.

14. For safety around the Dredgion exit, quard NPCs have been rearranged.

15. The stats of monsters in the Abyss Fortresses have been adjusted.
- Monsters’ maximum HP has been increased, but Physical Defense has been increased.

Items

1. Changed the options of some items.

2. Changed the full set effect of some set items.

3. Changed the properties of some items.

4. Resolved the problem where the weapon effect of Miragent’s Jewel/Fenril’s Jewel could not be seen.

5. Slightly increased the EXP gained from gathering and crafting.
- Skill level increases at the same rate as before.

6. Added description “A hidden effect(s) is activated when you equip the complete set” at the bottom of the tooltip of the item that has a hidden set effect.

7. The maximum number of contribution decorations that can be stacked in a slot is now 1000.

8. Corrected the spelling errors in the tooltip description of some items.

9. When you extract Aether, there’s a chance that Aether Poison Gas will infiltrate your body. The poison blocks gathering for a certain period of time unless you detoxify the poison.

10. Once you are poisoned the only way to detoxify yourself is to utter the “Cleansing Word.”

11. To utter the Cleansing Word, type the randomly given letters and numbers within the designated time.

12. When you utter the Word, you get three chances to enter the correct letter/number sequence. If you fail three times, Vitality Extracting and Aether Extracting are prohibited.

13. The “/ExtractStatus” command provides your extraction status.

14. When you have Aether Poison Gas in your body, you can still move and activate other abilities, so move to a safe place before you utter the Cleansing Word.

15. To address various issues during the extraction process, items’ alignment, icons, and function have been changed.

16. The icon for the Extraction Tool item has been changed.

17. When using the Auto-Arrange Cube function, Extraction Tools now move to the first space of the cube.

18. The gauge that shows during extraction is now red.

19. An item that is currently being worn cannot be extracted.

20. The problem that color could not be applied when dyeing Fu-Rin-Ka-Zan’s Shield and Shining Fu-Rin-Ka-Zan’s Shield has been addressed.

21. Abnormalities in the item levels of Gold Medals and Silver Medals have been addressed.

22. Abnormal appearances when some items are equipped have been corrected.

23. Tooltip formatting issues with some items have been addressed.

Quests

1. New repeat quests have been added to supplement the difficulty of ‘Craft Skills Test’ [Elyos] and ‘Proving the Proficiency of Crafting Skill’ [Asmodians] quests of Level 50 Daevanion quests.
- You can obtain ‘Boiling Balaur Blood Stain’ as reward from the new repeat quests, which are the craft material items required to complete the Daevanion quest.
- Elyos can obtain the new repeat quests in Sanctum, and Asmodians can get theirs in Pandaemonium.

2. Increased the EXP reward of some quests.
- These quests include many quests in the regions of Eltnen, Theobomos and Interdikah, and the regions of Morheim, Brusthonin and Beluslan, and also the quests in Reshanta.

3. Increased the Kinah and item reward of some quests.
- These quests include many Elyos and Asmodian quests with the recommended level of 20 or higher.

4. Increased the chance of gaining contribution decorations as reward from Elyos and Asmodian repeatable quests that require defeating the elite guards in the upper layer of Reshanta.

5. Increased the drop rate of quest items for Elyos and Asmodian repeatable quests inside the instanced dungeon Steel Rake.

6. The number of Repeat Quests available inside the Steel Rake Ship has been changed.

7. Corrected the spelling errors in the description of reward items and NPC dialogs of some quests.

8. The drop rates for “[Group] How to use Stigma” and “[Group] Stop the Shulacks!” have been increased.

9. Some title effects have been increased.

10. NPCs subject to conversation are now indicated on the map while executing Abyss quests.

11. When you get special rewards upon completion of a quest such as Greater Stigma Slot Expansion, Abyss Points, titles, cube expansion, or personal storage expansion, an explanation regarding the rewards no longer appears in the explanation window.

12. To prevent situations where you cannot proceed with a quest due to an NPC’s death, some NPCs’ HP have been increased.

- The Elyos NPC Pater and Asmodian NPC Needham will not attack any characters, and characters cannot attack them.

13. Typos and omissions in some quests and reward items have been addressed.

Abyss

1. You now receive contribution decorations as reward for successfully defending a fortress under the control of your Legion.
- Gold and silver contribution decorations are issued as a reward.
- The number of contribution decorations you receive for defending a fortress increases as you move from lower layer to upper layer to the deepest layer. (Lower < Upper< Deepest)

- Contribution decorations issued as rewards are delivered to the mailbox of the Brigade General of the Legion occupying the fortress.

2. Extended the time it takes for the Guardian Deity General to appear after a fortress enters the Capturable state.

Skills

1. Increased the amount of enmity increased by Templar’s ‘Incite Rage’ skill.

2. Changed the cool time of Assassin’s ‘Contract of Evasion’ skill from 30 seconds to 1 minute.

3. Increased the damage inflicted by Assassin’s ‘Counterattack’ skill.

4. Increased the damage inflicted by Assassin’s ‘Apply Poison’ skill.

5. Increased the amount of enmity reduced by Assassin’s ‘Calming Whisper’ skill.

6. Reduced the MP cost of Sorcerer’s ‘Flame Harpoon’ skill.

7. Increased the damage inflicted by Cleric’s ‘Thunderbolts’ skill.

8. Resolved the issue of the cooldown time not being seen clearly when using Cleric’s ‘Ripple of Purification’ skill.

9. Resolved the problem of abnormal mental conditions not being removed by using Cleric’s ‘Splendor of Purification’ skill.

10. Resolved the problem of the range of Spiritmaster’s Command skills not being modified in PvP.

11. In the Chain Skill window, a function has been added to set up basic Chain Skills to be more convenient.
- In the Chain Skill window, you can click and drag the Chain Skill icon onto skills that have the same condition for use.

12. During PvP, if the distance from the opposing character becomes farther than the distance required to use a skill, it is possible to use the skill by adjusting the shooting distance.

13. Elyos Templars cannot use the “Shield Retribution” skill unless they first equip a shield.

14. Issues with the Ranger’s “Hunter’s Might” skill and using an attack skill after the Hunter’s Resolution effect disappears have been addressed.

15. The Assassin’s “Apply Poison” skill icon has been changed.

16. The damage number in the tool tip explanation of the Spiritmaster’s “Ignite Aether” and “Magic Implosion” now displays properly.

Character

1. Slightly reduced the EXP penalty due to the difference in the levels of group members when in a Group or Force.

2. Elemental Defense has been slightly decreased.

3. Possible casting distances of some skills appear correctly in the tool tip when changing weapons to equip a Polearm or Greatsword.

4. Auto Transfer is no longer removed even when one attacks during the Auto Transfer.

5. The number of Stigma Shards required for equipping a Stigma Stone has been decreased.

6. Maximum Abyss points available for a character above 1-star officer have been increased.

Combat
1. A character transformed into a Guardian Deity General can no longer be pulled in by using Templar’s ‘Inescapable Judgment’ skill.

Level

1. Resolved the problem of the Primum Bind Point in Reshanta where you could enter inside by going through the wall of the lower part of the base.

2. Characters can no longer penetrate into a building in certain areas of Teminon Landing.

3. Characters can no longer stand in the middle of the sky in some areas of Sanctum’s Outer Port.

4. Characters can no longer get stuck in the topography in some areas of Dark Poeta’s Timolia Mine.

1. An Instance Info window has been added to display information before entry into an instanced dungeon.
- You can open the window by using the “/CheckEntry” command or by clicking on Instance Info in the Menu.
- Not only can you check your own standby information, but also that of group members and alliance members.

2. Number buttons have been added to some windows.
- By clicking on the mouse, one can enter prices and volume.
- The colors of numbers change as the prices go up for clearer verification of the volume entered.

3. The search system of the Broker window is now more convenient.
- When searching for an item in the list tab, you can set options such as “Include Keyword” and “Match Keyword.”
- When you select Include Keyword, the system searches for items that include the keyword. Match Keyword searches for the item that directly corresponds to the keyword.
- The item name automatically appears in the search window when you right-click while opening the list tab, or left-click while holding down the key.
- The item is registered when you right-click on the desired item while opening the Quantity tab.

4. Auto-Arrange Cube is available for each cube when you have many cubes.
- By right-clicking on the cube’s name, you can use the “Change Tab Name” and “Auto-Arrange Cube” functions.

5. You can now check your appearance after applying “Color Spray” and “Hair Dye” by using the Preview function before purchasing them.

6. When using the Plastic Surgery Ticket to change your appearance, a preview function has been added to check your appearance with a hat on.
- When changing your appearance, you can see how you look with a hat on by clicking on the Hat button.

7. Resolved the problem of the right mouse click not working when purchasing items from the list in the Sales Agency window.

8. On the Sales Agency window, items listed under the categories ‘Weapons’, ‘Armor’, and ’Accessories’ tabs are now displayed correctly.

9. Resolved the problem of group members in different channels not being displayed correctly on the map.

10. Characters under Level 5 can no longer use the Search function on the Find Buddy window.

Aion’s great start?

Lifebane — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 23:20:53 +0000

Aion’s great start and the tentative nose dive?!?

Well it seems as if Aion, the highly anticipated MMO from NCsoft, had a great start. The initial western launch went well enough if you can forgive the horrible server waiting lines which were annoyingly common during the first few weeks. The graphics are great, the game play is great, the lore and classes themselves are also fairly good and well thought out. Based on these comments you’d think this was set to be a contender in the MMO market, it was heralded as being the one to dethrone World of Warcraft even during its development period. Bold claims which would prove difficult to live up to and as time passes quickly by we begin to see the telltale signs of the direction it will take and the heights it will achieve.

The free month of game play is up and the player base has shrunk considerably. Exact numbers are not given and if they had been I’d likely not trust the data to be accurate based on their need to spin it for pR purposes. Now based solely on the nature of forum posts, independent polls, and player comments it is fairly obvious that players are not all that thrilled about what Aion turned out to be. The biggest reason currently being given for the frustration with the game seems to be the ridiculous amount of grinding needed once you get into the 25+ level range in order to continue advancing. All veterans of MMO’s are aware of grinding being a part of the whole “personal achievement and promise of reward = motivated ongoing MMO customer”strategy employed by the MMO developers in today’s MMO market. The problem here is that Aion seems to have taken the “GRIND” to the extreme and turned off a solid chunk of their fledgling player base.

Some people quote missing features or a lack of mid-level game content options, which curiously enough seems to tie in with that critical mass grind point post level 25. Add more content and quests and lessen the grind perhaps? Obviously the BIGGEST issue previously was the lines to get onto the servers which NCsoft of course claims credit for resolving fully. One has to wonder though, how much of that was from their efforts and how much of it was simply a thinning of the masses trying to login?!?

We’ll keep watching Aion to see how they ride the storm they seem to be currently drifting around in with eager eyes. I think that in today’s MMO landscape many of us circle around like vultures waiting to get a good view on yet another MMO carcass, Aion may be the next if they don’t overcome their issues quickly and find a way to retain their subscribers. They are truly fortunate that there are no other high budget MMO’s releasing around this time frame, if that was the case they’d be in far more dire straits than they currently are in.

Harvest Revel comes to Aion

Lifebane — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 01:53:31 +0000

NCsoft joins the rest of the MMO developer crowd and announces their first Halloween event for Aion, the Harvest Revel. Since there is on prior Aion holiday event to compare it to we can’t begin to guess how successful this might or might not be. It’s a good sign that they are doing something for the event though, the player base have grown to expect that type of switch-up around the holidays based on their experiences in prior MMO’s. Read below for the official announcement:

“During the fall harvest, from time immemorial, the people of Atreia have celebrated the bounty of the land. Years ago, the joy of the annual revels was troubled by an eclipse – a peculiar and magical eclipse that brought darkness to Asmodae and Elysea. Ever since, for days during Harvest Revel, the sky goes dark and the peoples of Atreia join the hunt.

Asmodians find soothing peace during the dark days of the Harvest Revel. They celebrate by racing after the Wild Kurthanir hunt leader during the Wild Hunt and cooking special traditional dishes.

Elyos endure the dark days because during them the dead of Elysea are restless. Undead creatures rise from the grave every few hours, pulled back into a semblance of life by the power of the eclipse. Elyos must join roving Dark Night bands to hunt and destroy the undead before they invade Elyos villages.

Log in each day during Harvest Revel. Celebrate with us and every day rewards your investment with new Aion lore and tasty treats!

Harvest Revel
Begin: October 25, 2009
End: October 31, 2009

May your wings be strong and swift! We’ll see you in Atreia!”

Aion Max level reached in 17 days!!

Lifebane — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 13:30:50 +0000

It took basically two-and-a-half weeks for the first Western Aion server players of NCsoft’s new MMO Aion to reach the Maximum level of 50.

A pair of Elysian characters, Almisaela the Chanter and Drno the Ranger, both from the European Votan server, reached level 50 “within moments of each other”. The entire ordeal took them 17 days since early access began on 20th September. Curiously they are both members of the “For The Harmony” legion/guild and they worked together throughout this race.

That is an accomplishment really since Aion’s is clearly has one of the most painful leveling curves of any recent MMO on the market.

We Congratulate you both, you won! Now it’s time to quit the game and go play something new Or at the very least go see your friends, family, the sun?!?

Aion congestion problems solved!

Lifebane — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 04:33:09 +0000

Well it seems that NCsoft has come up with an ingenious method of dealing with congestion problems that have been plaguing them since launch… disable character creation! less congestion when you have no more players coming in To be fair, this was only limited to 10 specific servers but still, imposing that type of rule on the player base and causing friends to be unable to join friends is a sure way to get some angry people quick. Of course the devs had a solution to that as well, allow character transfers.

So the choice becomes… change servers to play with BOB over on the other server and abandon the friends you already have on your current server OR stay on your current server and tell BOB to take a hike and find new friends. fun fun.

Read below for the list of servers that were impacted by this:

“Character Creation Disabled on Ten Servers

We are temporarily disabling the creation of new characters on the following servers:

[Oceanic] Nezekan

[East] Marchutan

[West] Ariel

[East] Israphel

[East] Lumiel

[West] Siel

[East] Zikel

[East] Azphel

[East] Triniel

[West] Vaizel

This is intended to provide a population distribution to some of our newer servers and to allow us to ban certain accounts engaged in prohibited activities. We expect to re-enable character creation within the next 24 hours and hope this will improve your overall game experience.

Please note that this adjustment will have no negative impact or extended interruption of service to the logged-in communities of these servers. The servers may disconnect you very briefly, but you should be able to log in again right away.”

Aion – State of the Game

Lifebane — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 11:43:45 +0000

Lance Stites recently posted a State of the Game address on the official Aion website. Based on his post you’d assume that this was he second coming and that Aion was going to be huge. PR is a great thing :Below is the post that he made, give it a read and see what the devs consider to be the current state of the game.

“Greetings,

A lot has happened since I last addressed our community. We’ve launched our long awaited product Aion and have been pleased and challenged with keeping up with the massive player demand.

There’s no doubt that we’ve done some things very well with Aion: the product is polished and incredibly fun. We managed to deploy to North America and Europe within the same week and have experienced strong demand. As most of you are aware, this has come at a cost in the form of queue times. This is by far our biggest challenge and has led to some frustration as players wait to enter their server of choice.

In preparation for Aion’s launch, we ran calculations of our presale numbers with historical conversion ratios and expected concurrency numbers, which led to our determination of launch day server needs. In addition, we had a 25 percent additional capacity in hardware reserve and the ability to increase server population. We’ve further responded to the overwhelming demand by adding additional server worlds in all languages, and still we are working around the clock to address the incredible demand. For example, we’re seeing timeframes where 60 percent or more of our players are playing at any given time. This is a significant event by any MMO standard. Another surprising development is how long players are staying in game—I think that’s a testament to the enjoyable nature of the product.

I’m sure many of you are thinking, “That’s all fine-but how does that help me get in and play the game? What is NCsoft doing for me?” Fair question. First, we have already and will continue to increase server capacity to ensure that we have server space for every user. The reality of the situation is that some servers quickly become very popular servers, with lines queued up to enter, but other servers have plenty of space to accommodate players. Obviously, adding servers won’t help in this case. If you’re waiting to enter a full server, 100 extra servers won’t help.

So the next question may be “What about my character I’ve already spent time on?” Another good question. I’m excited to confirm that we are currently working on implementing a server transfer service beginning next month. Specifically, we will offer every player a free one-time server transfer for a limited time to select servers. You can rest assured that addressing the demand for Aion is our biggest priority. And I know a big question is “Why did you not deploy more servers?” Most of you are savvy enough to realize that a healthy MMO server needs a robust population. We have to calculate our reasonable concurrency numbers in a week and in a month and beyond. The last thing we want to do to our players is spread them out so that the “massively” in “massively multiplayer” gets lost..

I read an interesting conversation about a safari hunter, and the question was posed to him: “Why don’t you take an Olympic sharpshooter that could hit a bulls-eye at 300 meters?” His response was: “I don’t care what he can do at 300 meters, what can he do at two meters?” And that’s definitely where we are now: the rhino is upon us. We’ve spent months planning and have researched multiple MMO launches, hoping to learn from previous success and failures. It is imperative to your long term enjoyment of Aion that we carefully manage the health of the servers. We’re looking at making sure the Abyss is alive with conflict and legions fighting for control in an EPIC war.

At this point,I would like to stress that you, our players, are our number one priority and that we are doing everything we can to ensure that Aion exceeds your expectations.

The community team and I will continue to provide you with progress updates as we receive them, and you can always continue to monitor issues, check on server status, etc. at http://www.aiononline.com.

In closing I’d like to say thank you to the worldwide Aion community. I am really excited about the response to Aion and I look forward to providing you with the best possible play experience for years to come.

Best regards,

Lance Stites

Executive Producer, Game Production Studio”

Aion is the single most pre-ordered MMO so far this year

Lifebane — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 04:35:21 +0000

In a piece of news that we’re betting surprises precisely nobody at all, Aion has just broken the 400,000 pre-order mark. What’s notable about this number is that it’s enough to make Aion the largest number of pre-orders on an MMO for 2009. As Aion is also holding strong in the Steam and Direct2Drive sales charts, we wonder how many more we’ll see added to that number before the official launch next Tuesday.

With highly polished graphics, over two million words of quest text, and a series of tweaks to make Aion more Western-friendly, NCsoft seems to have finally hit the right stride with Western MMO gamers. That said, as we’ve learned from all the other games that have come before it, the real numbers that count are the retention numbers after the initial launch. Whether or not Aion is the goose that lays the golden egg – at least in terms of the Western markets – we’ll have to wait and see.-Massively

Aion’s preselection details

Lifebane — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 22:27:44 +0000

Aion’s release is right around the corner, and our anticipation is running high! The beards and hairstyles of the character creator are groomed and lined up, jostling against each other in eagerness to be picked for your characters in this coming weekend’s Preselection and Head Start Programs.

Preselection is a benefit available to anyone who preordered Aion. If you are not sure whether or not you are eligible, simply log in to your NCsoft Master Account to verify that your game account is listed and your account type is not designated as “Beta”.

Starting 12:00 p.m. PDT (more) on September 18, 2009, eligible players will be able to start their game clients and log in to create a total of two characters ahead of everyone else. You can name and create these two characters through the standard character creator and be ready to play with these characters right when the game Head Start Program begins (but not beforehand). Preselection will end 9:00 a.m. PDT on September 20, 2009 (more).

Don’t miss this great opportunity to claim your character’s name before anyone else does. It isn’t too late to preorder, even if you have been holding out.