Why it takes a while for Aion to patch

With the recent announcement of an ETA for Aion's anticipated 1.9 patch, the players are excited... but, on another level, just a wee bit frustrated. After all, it's not like the game's home country has just received the patch -- it's been extensively documented and fairly well-known to the community for some time. So there's the obvious question: what's the holdup? In the most recent Eye On Community, the team does their best to answer the question and give some insight into the process.

Almost everyone knows, of course, that translating text from one language to another is rarely as easy as just feeding in words and pressing a button. (Well, not if you want an intelligible translation.) But not only do names have to be translated, scripts have to be rewritten -- and then translated again into French and German, at which point the actual stress testing of the patch can start. Of course, since this is the Eye On Community feature, the article also includes a few highlights from the game's forums. It's an interesting look at how Aion handles their patching system, especially in comparison to games that launch patches worldwide more-or-less simultaneously (such as Final Fantasy XI).