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The Daily Grind: Your thoughts on Jeff Strain's NCsoft departure?
As we've reported on for the past two days, ArenaNet co-founder Jeff Strain has left his position at NCsoft and is moving on to new pastures. While his former co-founding partner, Mike O'Brien, has said pretty affirmatively that his departure won't affect the development of Guild Wars 2, we're still interested in what you think of all of this.It's certainly a very sudden and unexpected move, especially when you take into account the departure of David Reid as well, even if they both left for unrelated reasons. With Aion coming closer and closer to a launch in the United States, and NCsoft pushing to be #2 in the realm of subscription numbers, the timing for these departures seems to be odd.But, we're not going to waste this space with our thoughts, we want yours! Drop what you think of all of this into the comment box below, and let your voices ring across the internet!
ArenaNet's co-founder comments on Jeff Strain's departure from NCsoft
As we reported on yesterday, Jeff Strain, the co-founder of ArenaNet, has parted ways with NCsoft. Jeff's visions were certainly a driving factor behind ArenaNet's growth and Guild Wars production, but it's important to note that his leaving will not directly impact ArenaNet, as he has been away from the company and paired with NCsoft West since 2008.On the tails of his departure comes a comment from Mike O'Brien, ArenaNet's other founder and Jeff's long time friend. Mike not only sends well wishes to his former founding partner, but also reaffirms that Guild Wars 2 production will not be affected by Jeff's departure. Mike has even gone as far to say that we're getting close to finally getting tangible news on their new masterpiece.Mike's full statement can be found after the break.[Thanks Goonja!]
Aion prologue videos to serve as character intro sequences?
Update: These prologue videos WERE enabled this past beta weekend. I guess our assumption was correct! Thanks Zhiril!As you might have gathered from our past Aion closed beta coverage, your first steps into the world of Atreia are a bit confusing. Currently, new characters are unceremoniously dumped into the world with a nasty bout of amnesia, with no idea of who they are or why they are there. The first ten levels of the game are all about regaining your memories and getting your destiny back on track.NCsoft just released two new prologue videos and it seems like they would make perfect game introduction sequences. The Elyos prologue introduces players to the nasty Balaur creature featured later on in their destiny quests. The Asmodian prologue shows off the gray-haired Elyos warrior players do battle with in their destiny quests.It appears that both videos take place in the Abyss and culminate in a severe bump to your character's noggin, which sends him or her crashing back down to either Elysea or Asmodae (depending on your faction). When you awaken, you no longer remember your past nor do you possess the powers of a full-fledged daeva.Check out the videos after the cut!
SDCC 09: Aion demo and interview
Our very own Editor in Chief, Elizabeth Harper attended San Diego Comic Con this week and had a number of interesting interviews. One in particular was with the NC West Aion community team. Many things were covered, some of which you probably already know. Here's the stuff you may not have been aware of.Aion will be launching with a maximum level of 50 -- and there was a bit of vocal inflection on the word "launching." Does this mean NCsoft plans on increasing the level cap at some point in the future? Speaking of launching, the North American and European community feedback has been extremely positive about Aion launching at version 1.5 -- the same version Korea is currently at.As for Korea, they may be leading the development of Aion, but NA/EU feedback will affect the game's direction. NCsoft feels it is important for players all over the world to enjoy Aion. One example of western influence on the game is that it will be launching with many more instances than originally intended because apparently we're big fans of dungeons in this neck of the woods.
Aion launch party contest details revealed
Do you plan on participating in the Aion beta this weekend? If not, you may want to reconsider, because NCsoft is offering a pretty amazing contest for those of you who decide to play. Here's the rub: North American players who log into the Aion closed beta this weekend (July 2nd to July 6th) and obtain level 3 are entered to win a trip to Seattle for themselves and a friend. This trip culminates at the Aion launch party at the Seattle Space Needle, where they'll also get to attend the PAX 2009 expo.Pretty cool, right? We're sure that many of you would kill to get a chance to play Aion at all, let alone be entered into this contest. So make sure you get to at least level 3 if you're playing this weekend. You may as well if you're already going to play at all, right? And if you really want that beta key now -- but haven't had the luck to nab one -- preorder customers are given access to every beta event. You can find the page for preordering yourself a copy right here.
Aion: Picking your class by personality, not numbers
MMO players come in all shapes and sizes and boast a variety of personality traits. Picking a race, class, and faction combination in your favorite MMO can sometimes give an insightful look at the player behind the keyboard. At least, Paul Barnett thinks so: "Most of the people I've met who like Dwarfs basically look like Dwarfs."That may be true because I'm a pretty tall and lean person and I hate playing Dwarves. Then again, my MMO history includes playing a number of Kobolds in Dark Age of Camelot and Goblins in Warhammer Online, so I could just be really strange.While browsing the Aion community forums, we came across an interesting post. One of the board members has written up a quick and quirky guide for choosing one of the game's eight classes based on one's personality. Obviously, numbers and stats play a huge factor in making class decisions for many players, but this could be a more healthy approach. At the very least, you will gain a better understanding of the kinds of people playing these classes, which could give you a strategic advantage when you run into them on the battlefield.
Aion's first video podcast is packing lore and stunning visuals
Just a couple months ago a friend told me that Aion was the biggest and baddest upcoming MMORPG that no-one in North America knew about. It broke records and won awards when it launched in Korea last year, yet hardly anyone over here was talking about it. Well, things can change quickly.As the September launch date approaches, NCsoft has been kicking Aion promotion into high gear. Their latest marketing effort is a four-part series of video podcasts hosted by IGN. The first part came out on Friday and serves as a crash course on the lore behind Aion, Atreia, and the three main factions called the Asmodians, Elyos, and Balaur (the NPC dragon race that sets up the PvPvE system).The video really gives you a good look at Aion's very own fourth pillar (sorry BioWare, you might have some competition here) and is full of stunning in-game footage, cinematics, and staff interviews. Closed beta is currently in full swing and we're keeping tabs on it for you.
NCsoft aims to bridge the East-West divide with Aion
Stereotypes and ingrained perceptions can be frustrating to deal with, but let's face it -- some stereotypes do exist for a reason, and this can certainly apply to games as much as to anything else. There have been no small amount of Asian import MMOs that have been localized poorly for the western market, and this has certainly left a bad taste in gamers' mouths. Localization is a major challenge for any developer, and there's a rather wide chasm between what makes a game popular in an Asian market like Korea and what players embrace in the west. The westward-bound MMO that many people are focusing on right now is Aion, from NCsoft. The westernization of Aion is the subject of another solid interview at The MMO Gamer by Steven Crews, who sat down with Aion producer Brian "Xaen" Knox, the person largely responsible for NC West's localization of this title. Knox talks about what he sees as being the best aspects of both East and West in terms of game development, and how some western influences on Aion's design have actually proven to be successful in Korea. It's a fairly in-depth interview and hits on a number of Knox's ideas about how a game can begin to bridge the game culture divide between East and West, seen in the context of Aion. Check it out over at The MMO Gamer.
Choose my Adventure: Conquering Kryta
Join me as I brave my way through lands unknown in an adventure dictated entirely by you, the Massively readers! Vote for everything from game played to character creation to ultimate goal and watch it unfold in a series of journals and galleries here on the site. Then, as the ultimate goal is reached, we'll do it all over again in a new game!You voted and I listened, as this week's adventure took me through every town and outpost in the entire Krytan area. Eight cities later, I'm here to beg for more!I found it very interesting that the readers wanted me to stay in Kryta and finish out the exploration of this area. It either means that you want me to take my time and do things the right way (although I did run down to Sanctum Cay and Riverside Province from Temple of the Ages), or you simply want my time in Guild Wars to last a bit longer. Either way, I'm here to do your bidding! Speaking of that, it's time to vote for next week's goal! Click through after the jump and let me know what will be next for our beloved Moira Zonk. Also be sure to check out her ongoing in-character journal and gallery, starting this week as she leaves Lion's Arch. %Gallery-64234%
Aion NDA drop and first database revealed
We just received the official word from NC West and can confirm that the North American NDA has dropped for Aion. This is great news for the 5% of testers who exhibited enough self-control to uphold the NDA, while the other 95% spoke freely as if it didn't exist at all. Some bloggers even took the loophole approach and downloaded the Chinese client so they could share their early impressions without breaking the NDA.We can expect to see all sorts of new goodies release now that the NDA is no more. One such tool is called the Aion Armory, which is a database project partnership between AionSource and Curse. Anyone familiar with WARDB or WOWDB will find themselves quite at home on this site. AionSource also opened a new free guide subforum you may want to check out before participating in the Asmodian beta event taking place this weekend.An early September release is looking more and more likely every day.
Jaeho Lee moving to Seattle, not running NC West from Korea
When the news came out last week that Jaeho Lee, former chief financial officer for NCsoft, would be taking over as CEO of NCsoft West, a lot of people (including press) assumed that he would be calling the shots from Korea -- after all, NCsoft had said that the change was about "global management" and working together across business units. However, we are now being told that Lee will make the journey to Seattle to join the NCsoft West team. In response to the earlier reports of NCsoft shifting leadership of its Western division to Korea, a rep had this to say to Gamasutra:"Jaeho Lee is moving to Seattle, so nothing has shifted except him. A similar change of personnel happened in our Japan office, so this was a strategic move on the part of our headquarters in Seoul to streamline global management."The rep also mentioned that Lee ran other departments such as marketing and production while in his position as chief financial officer.
NCsoft West gets a new CEO
There's been another shift in the staffing over at NCsoft West. This time, former CEO Chris Chung will be moving aside to let Jaeho Lee take his place. Lee was the chief financial officer of NCsoft, and his appointment at NC West was made with the intention of improving the subsidiary's communication with home base in Korea. NCsoft's corporate PR director Jae Sung Lee gave a comment to Kotaku regarding the move:"As part of the corporation's global strategy, global management grows increasingly important, and the need to work together across business units becomes paramount to our success. This personnel change increases our ability in each market to remain competitive."Chris Chung hasn't been turfed out on to the front doorstep as a result of the move and will remain where he is at NCsoft West, albeit with a lesser job title.
Secondary class balance is the focus of this month's Guild Wars dev blog
This month's skill balance for Guild Wars provides a refocus to a few aspects of the game: namely Guild vs Guild battles and the importance of secondary professions. For GvG, ArenaNet has decided to ditch the additional health bonus given to Guild Lords during a morale boost. They've also tweaked the Amulet of Protection to reach maximum damage at around 12 minutes instead of 22 minutes. These changes were put in place to steer GvG gameplay away from rushing the Guild Lord immediately and balance the action throughout the match.The secondary profession balance is mostly set up with skill usage in mind. Since there are literally hundreds of thousands of skill combination choices available in the game, the developers thought it necessary to take measures to enforce primary profession choice. This is certain to change the way energy pools are managed and Elite skills are used. You can view the detailed developer diary for February to get more details on this month's changes.
Official details on the NCsoft Europe layoffs
As the news and confirmations are trickling in from this morning's layoffs at NCsoft Europe, we're happy to report that we were contacted by NCsoft regarding complete information and an official word on the situation. Apparently, according to the press release after the jump, this is more of a restructuring within the company as the NCsoft Europe studio is transitioned into more of a marketing hub for the company.We also had a brief chat with a former NCsoft employee who confirmed the layoffs. This un-named source says that the Community Team, the Creative Services team, the Web Development team, Localization and a handful of others from various teams have been let go. But as confirmed in the official statement, these employees were offered other positions within the company, which is certainly a silver lining to this story. This person also stated that neither Aion nor Guild Wars 2 are in any trouble, as they're actually the largest focus of the company now. Read below the jump for the official word from NCsoft and let us know your opinion in the comments below.
NCsoft Europe cuts 70 jobs at Brighton office
In the continuing saga of NCsoft, we get word that their European office in Brighton, UK has just laid off around 70 employees this morning. This new comes straight out of the offices themselves, and a short write-up over at GamesIndustry.biz. While the details have yet to be confirmed by NCsoft officials, it is said that only a handful of employees remain at the office.All of this news rides on the heels of last year's news regarding NCsoft's first round of layoffs and the closing of Tabula Rasa later this month. Does this mean an eventual closing of the office completely? Will this affect the development of future NCsoft products such as Aion or Guild Wars 2? None of this is known at this time, but be sure to keep your eye on Massively for any breaking new developments in this story.[Update: The original GamesIndustry.biz story has been removed and replaced.]
Guild Wars announces plans for 2009
The team at Guild Wars has just released their newest developer update, which explains ArenaNet's plans with the game throughout 2009. This was something that was alluded to in community manager Regina Buenaobra's wiki journal last week, and speculated upon in the major Guild Wars forums. Now the word is out, and it seems promising for the majority of Guild Wars fans.First off, the team plans to restructure their content updates and be more open about what they're working on. Their Live Team is expanding and their new goal is to release new content in "fewer yet more substantial updates". So what can we expect in the coming months? In April, a few new features will be implemented for players, including increases to account-based storage, improvements to character-based storage and account-based changes to the Hall of Monuments.Be sure to read the entire dev update for complete information on the new direction of Guild Wars in 2009.
The Daily Grind: Is no news really good news?
Now that the holiday season is winding down and it's almost back to business in the new year, we're starting to seriously consider our MMO options. I understand that games, especially MMOs, take several years to develop from concept to launch. I understand that the game's entire premise can change dramatically throughout the development process, so revealing early details could prove damaging. I also understand how over-hype can kill a game when it doesn't live up to expectations. Yet, does a complete lack of information and veil of secrecy hurt more than it helps?The most glaring example of this is Guild Wars 2. The sequel was first mentioned in March of 2007, and little else was said about it since then. Human nature takes over and fans who genuinely care about the direction of the game can do nothing but speculate from there.
Guild Wars skill balance targets Elites
If you've noticed a change in your Guild Wars Elite skills since yesterday, there's a good reason. The folks at ArenaNet are in the midst of a pretty hefty overhaul to the Elite skills, and yesterday kicked off the first update in the process. As an accompaniment to this update, an extensive dev diary has been released, detailing the entire process for a skill balance of this magnitude. There are three main factors that need to be taken into consideration when looking at which Elites to change: The skill has to be generally unused across all formats, all professions should have about the same number of updates and the skill has to be weak regardless of trends in the game. A skill that's strong as a counter to certain PvP builds but not others would not generally qualify, according to the dev diary.Be sure to check out this complete dev diary for more information on the process and which skills in each class were changed exactly.
Guild Wars Wintersday 2008 event goes live December 19th
ArenaNet has announced today that its fourth annual Wintersday Event will officially launch on Friday, December 19th, 2008 at noon Pacific Time (-8 GMT). It will continue until noon Pacific Time on January 5th, 2009 and feature a finale event every three hours on Wintersday itself, which is January 1st.Here's a basic run-down of the Wintersday 2008 features: The Eye of the North expansion area will be decorated for the first time ever. The festivities will take place in the Ebon Vanguard's Tower, Lion's Arch, Kamadan, Droknar's Forge and Ascalon City. Several PvE and PvP snowball fights including arenas, tournaments and an all-new 8v8 ATS-style Snowball Tournament. Brand new chain of quests in Eye of the North, in addition to the quests from previous Wintersdays. Choose to kindly give away presents to children for Dwayna or destroy them in the name of Grenth. In addition to the usual party favors, candy canes, tonics and other buff-enhancing items, this year presents some all-new tonics and summoning stones for all to enjoy. The return of the Candysmiths and the Polar Bear mini-pet. New special holiday-themed headgear will make a traditional appearance, as well as a special surprise awaiting those who complete all four Eye of the North quests. So mark your calendars for December 19th and get ready to choose your side. Will you fight for Dwayna or Grenth?
ArenaNet's Linsey Murdock speaks out on recent Guild Wars update
The large, now-infamous balance update for Guild Wars two weeks ago is still causing a buzz among players, so Ravious at Kill Ten Rats took this opportunity to interview ArenaNet's Linsey Murdock to discuss the process and effect that these changes have had so far.Murdock explains the importance of this update and some of her favorite or most-anticipated aspects. Of special note is the mention of the Luxon and Kurzick Challenge Mission reward changes, and how she hopes that it will actually get players back into those areas introduced with Guild Wars' first chapter, Factions. Check out the entire interview for a walkthrough of the update process and more from one of ArenaNet's most important Live Team game designers.
