Exclusive interview with Aion Producer Brian Knox

We submitted a few questions to NCsoft back when players were taking their first baby steps into the strange and lush world of Atreia. Things have obviously been a bit hectic these past couple weeks but Aion Producer Brian Knox took some time out today to answer them for us. Thanks Brian!

We've heard a lot about "westernizing" or "culturalizing" Aion for North American and European audiences. Can you please explain the full breadth of this term? Are we talking about language translation, story rewrites, and lowered experience curves here?

Westernizing Aion is about making the game culturally relevant to our market. This includes going above and beyond basic translation and delving into the story behind the text and making sure that it is presented in a way our players will understand. For us it isn't so much about changing things with Aion but shining the spotlight on the area that is most appealing to our audience. Aion is a huge game with a ton choices and features for users all over the world to enjoy; making sure we point those parts out is a huge part of the culturalization

As for actual changes to the game, we try to take an addition approach, rather than a subtraction approach. For example, we provided more character creation options for the Western audience, but at the same time we were able to provide those same options to the Eastern market. We had a much larger focus on PvE and ensured we had enough content for our users to enjoy. Everyone always brings up the lowered experience curve but the fact is Aion was built with a western curve in mind. An average user will spend about 300 hours to get to the max level, in fact in the 2 weeks since we have launched we have a good amount of players already in their 40s and we expect a few to hit 50 in the next day or so.

You've gone with two player factions and an NPC faction for your PvP setting in the Abyss. Why did you decide to make that third faction NPC instead of player? Just how intuitive is the AI for the Balaur?

The third faction is used for a variety of reasons. It provides an alternate challenge for players and helps in the balancing of the server. The AI for the Balaur will make choices based on the game environment, specifically in regards to the balance between Asmodian and Elyos players. For example if the Asmodians control the majority percentage of the fortresses in the Abyss than the Balaur will be more apt to attack the Asmodians.

Because players can gain Abyss Points (AP) from killing both players and NPCs in the Abyss, there seems to be some concern that they will take the safer path of least resistance and focus more on PvE to avoid risk of death. Afterall, you lose AP upon death to another player, right? How does Aion address these concerns?

The majority of Abyss Points will be earned in, well, the Abyss. This means a player is putting themselves out there for PvP. They could find a segregated part of the Abyss and hope to avoid conflict but they are still vulnerable. It all goes back to risk vs reward. A player can choose a lower risk path as you mentioned but it will take longer than the player who takes the larger risks.

To go a bit further with the theme of "taking the path of least resistance," how have Korean players been reacting in PvP so far? Are they forming up larger PvP groups to reduce the chance of death (school of fish tactics)? Are they attacking undefended fortresses instead of defended ones for a better risk to reward ratio? Do you think westerners will react differently?

Play styles between East and West can be different, but we try to provide a grounds in which players can choose their style and are not forced down one path. Traveling in groups is certainly a safer way to travel but it also draws more attention to yourself and leaves you open to more mistakes. While you may attack a Balaur controlled fortress thinking it is unguarded the other faction may just be waiting for you to clear it out and swoop in for the glory in the end. We are really excited to see how the Abyss plays out in this market, our players are starting to pour in so it is something we are going to watch develop over the coming months.

So far, the biggest compliment we seem to hear about Aion is that it is extremely polished and relatively bug-free. We realize that this is partially due to all the improvements made in Korea before releasing to the western audience, but just how important is polish and performance to you? Do you think MMOs will ever achieve a gold standard in terms of quality upon release and after patches or are they simply too complex?

I believe there is a point of diminishing returns. We classify bugs with different priority. Two of these differentiators are 1) How many people will it affect, 2) Is there a work around. For example, if the class change quest was unable to be completed at level 10, this is a large issue because it affects almost every player and there is no work around. We had a large decision ahead of us with Aion. Do we release as close to possible to the Korean release or do we wait until we feel the game is polished completely for our market? We were very concerned that delaying our release would hinder our community and the growth of Aion in the West, but we felt that releasing an unpolished product would be even worse. Our growth since our betas have started have been beyond our expectations so I really feel we made the right choice in ensuring the game was ready for our market versus working towards a more synced release with Korea.

You have experienced a great amount of success with Aion in the East. What are your aspirations for the West? How would you define success?"

For me, success with Aion will be measured with the excitement and growth of the community. I have said all along we don't have to sell 10 million boxes to be successful. We want to launch a polished product and give gamers a high quality choice in the MMO market. Our initial sales are above our expectations which is a great accomplishment but it doesn't stop here. We need to improve every day and work towards providing a good customer experience so that our users continue to play Aion and spread the good word about the game.

Thanks for taking the time to answer our questions, Brian! And to you, our loyal readers: stay tuned for an Aion community Q&A session later this month. Our plan is to gather Massively reader questions and propose them to NCsoft on your behalf.