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Black Prophecy community letter addresses known issues, item shop, and the future
Hold up just a minute there, space cowboy. Gamigo's Patrick Streppel has released a new community letter, which addresses a few questions and grievances that have been raised by Black Prophecy players. The letter first takes time to address some known issues with the game. Foremost of said issues is the acknowledgement that with the game's first major content update, many users began to experience large performance issues. Streppel states that fixing these issues is numero uno on the team's priority list but that it "cannot promise immediate improvement" due to the fact that the source of the issue is "spread across several internal game systems." Next up is the touchy subject of the item shop. Players have long decried the game's cash shop for being too expensive while simultaneously failing to give players an adequate description of what exactly they're spending their money on. In response, the team has lowered item prices and will proceed to alter item descriptions "in order to give [players] a clearer picture of what [they] are actually buying." The letter then gives players a brief glimpse into the game's future. The next episode of the game features warzones, which are "a brand new PvP experience" allowing players to duke it out with the opposing faction for control of key territories. Conquering these warzones will grant players XP, rewards in the form of exclusive upgrade blueprints, and "greater individual and group powers" for the victorious faction. For the full letter, which includes further details about the warzone system and more detailed discussions of the game's known issues, click on through the link below to the official forums.
Final Fantasy XI gets a new director
With Final Fantasy XIV launching later this month and a major version update coming in the very near future, Final Fantasy XI is facing some very interesting times. So it's probably fitting that the game has acquired a new director, Akihiko Matsui, the former battle director for the game. Matsui has posted a short letter to the community, talking both about his experience with the game and his continued commitment to the development of Vana'diel. While Square-Enix has clearly allocated a great many resources to the development of Final Fantasy XIV, there's no sign that support for the older game is stopping. As a 10-year veteran of the project, Matsui recognizes the challenges facing the continued operation and states that he hopes to keep the game up and running for many years to come. Coupled with the encouragement to play both games at once, this announcement should come as welcome news to all players of Final Fantasy XI, both past and present. [Thanks to FusionX for the tip!]
Aion 1.9 patch dated, server merges announced
Aion producer Chris 'Kinslon' Hager has dropped a bomb of a community letter on the game's players, packing it full of information including the North American release dates for the highly anticipated 1.9 patch. The letter also mentions an upcoming character transfer service (free for a limited time), as well as server merges. "I don't relish the idea of mergers," Hager says. "However, once it is complete you should notice improvements in each of the new server economies, an abundance of players to group and run instances with, a number of great Legions to join or people to form new ones with, and a more tightly knit community.When all is said and done, Aion will be a better game because of the server merge. We're in the planning stages, and will have more information on the timing and execution in the coming weeks." As for 1.9, players can expect to see it on the test server on May 25th, with a June 2nd release date on the live servers. Finally, Hager mentions that work has already started on the huge task of bringing the 2.0 content update from Korea to North America, and hints at a Fall 2010 timetable. Check out the full letter over at the official Aion website.
