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Aion gets a post-launch discussion in Game Developer magazine
With a couple months under its belt and a more stable playerbase, Aion is no longer in the state of just-launched new hotness any longer. You might be one of the game's still-numerous fans, or maybe you stepped away from the game because of the grind. Either way, there were a number of innovative and interesting features in the game, which was designed from the ground up to appeal to gamers on both sides of the pond. The latest issue of Game Developer magazine has a lengthy feature on what went right and what went wrong from the Aion team's point of view. The CryEngine and the game's overall level of polish are both cited as decisive positives for the game, helping the game feel more vital and engaging. The limited amount of flight early in the game is also pointed out as helping to simplify the learning curve, as navigating combat in three-dimensional space can get overwhelming for first-time players. On the flip side, the developers also talk about the amount of pressure on the frequently-changing team, as well as the technical and conceptual troubles with working on the Abyss. If you're interested in reading the full article, you should pick up a copy of the magazine, which is only around $4 for a digital copy.
Chasing carrots, and why we do it
A while ago, Kill Ten Rats advocated a rather interesting approach to solving the problem of any tedious grind: cheat. More viable in a single-player game (but still possible if you're willing to use methods of dubious legality), the reasoning was to cut away the reward portion and see if you were enjoying what you were doing on its own merits. Two follow-up posts have been made since then, further extrapolating the question and getting into the way our brains fire in response to anticipation of reward. Grind, of course, is both a dirty word and a quintessential part of any current MMO, which means that we generally aim at games with the most enjoyable grind. But are we focusing on an enjoyable grind, or just one that's not too painful as we head toward the end goal? Is the problem with Aion (to pick a game routinely raked over the coals for its grind) the basic structure, or could the grind become irrelevant if it were just a hair more enjoyable? The very structure of MMOs encourages a certain amount of grinding, and it's interesting to take a look at whether we're doing it because the grind is fun, or just because we've tricked ourselves into thinking it's not all that bad.
One Shots: Cross-faction fashion
When it comes to glorious visuals, very few would say that Aion wasn't breathtaking. That said, there seems to be some strangeness going on with clothing: the Asmodians like the Elysean clothing, and the Elyseans are quite fond of the Asmodian gear. Today's Aion One Shots comes in to us from Janis T. who explains more about this lovely shot and the mixed fashions herein.With a game like Aion, whose hype can largely be credited to its graphics, it was only a matter of time (and money) before I started obsessing over my character's armour. As if I hadn't spent enough time on the character creation screen! Despite rolling Asmodian, I have an extreme fondness for Elysean armour and scenery. This is my character Soul (Asmodian Ranger, Marchutan) in Brusthonin, wearing a full set of Elyos armour. There has recently been another picture posted of an Elyos wearing Asmodian armour -- but let me tell you this, obtaining armour of the opposing faction is much, much harder as an Asmodian.One Shots is all about you, but we need your screenshots to show that off! Just send those in to us here at oneshots AT massively DOT com along with your name, the name of the game, and a quick description of what's going on. We'll post it out here and give you the credit for sending it in. %Gallery-9798%
Aion's December community address looks to the future
NCsoft had a big year on the Aion front: the months leading up to launch are just as crazy as the months immediately following launch, so the community team is more than ready for a little vacation. Not without one final community address, however. The Aion community team is leaving us until January fourth, taking a well-earned rest while we enjoy the Solorius festival. Good things are promised when they return in 2010, and this final address for the year gave us a hint of things to come. The first item on the 2010 agenda is the addition of "paid account services" -- a cash shop for vanity items. The list includes character and Legion name changes, plastic surgery, and gender changes. Further details are pretty limited at this point, but more information is promised in February, along with a pricing plan. The other item on the table is new content. The community address promised to "introduce a great deal of new content into Aion in 2010," but any more details are going to have to wait until the new year. Our assumption (and hope) is that the promise is related to Aion's Visions of the Future. The full community address can be read here.
Aion's first Eye On Community for December
The Aion team had plenty to say in the latest Eye on Community segment, released on Friday. The question of the week, unsurprisingly, centered around the nine-minute "Visions of the Future" trailer released recently. Fans have had a million questions, mostly different versions of "What is this, and when will I get to play it?" Since it's a work in progress, specific answers are unfortunately few. "Some of the features highlighted in the trailer are further along in the development process than others. Because of this, we aren't ready to share or speculate on timeframes." While it was exciting, the trailer wasn't the only recent news. The Aion team returned from DreamHack with photos and stories galore last Monday, the same day that they banned 26,000+ bot accounts. It looks like they had a bit of fun with the bot accounts, to which we say "more power to you!" The Aion community was active recently too, creating quite a few things that are worth looking into if you're an Aion player. The full Eye on Community entry can be read here.
See an Aion GM in action blowing up spammers
NCsoft has always been fairly vocal about about their assault on Aion's goldspammer and bot epidemic. They bolstered the game's spam filter a while ago and their Game Surveillance Unit reportedly banned over 27,000 botting accounts just last week. It's great to hear about these positive statistics, but if your game experience has been ruined in the past by some of these unsavory characters, you might be looking for something more visceral -- and thankfully, we've got that for you. Enter Youtube user MidoriPeanut, who managed to catch an Aion GM in the throes of a banning spree and recorded it all for the rest of us to enjoy. The movie features the GM blowing up a number of goldspammer ad stores, all set to the dramatic Syringe by Emilie Autumn. Sure, this could all take place behind the scenes and the offenders would quietly disappear from the world, but isn't it a lot more fun seeing them cast off to hell by a cutesy animal? Get out the popcorn and head past the break to see the banishing in action.
NCSoft reveals "Visions of the Future" for Aion
"As the Daevas dream, they see Atreia's future." Just in case there was one person left out there who didn't find Aion to be a visually stunning game, NCSoft released a nine minute gameplay trailer last night entitled "Visions of the Future". The trailer was presented on the official forums and greeted with a storm of "OMG". Upgraded graphics improved the appearance of an already beautiful game, but that wasn't the thing that caused the excitement among Aion fans. An extensive look at player housing offered samples of available exteriors and interiors, as well as furnishings. And for the remaining fans who hadn't begun salivating? Mounts. In fact, seen here and there were what appeared to be flying mounts, as well as a dinosaur. The first half of the video was rounded out with clever aerial camera work designed to highlight changing seasons over gorgeous landscapes, and promises of swimming. The video rounded out with an aptly named segment of "Pulse-pounding battles", both aerial and ground-based. Fire-breathing dragons, huge allies summoned from beneath the ground, and what one fan described as "awesome nuking" completed the picture. A "never ending challenge", promises the end of the trailer. Take a look for yourself after the jump and see if you agree.
Patch 1.5.1 goes live for Aion
A new patch for an MMO is a bit like a present. At best, it can provide a number of new opportunities for fun and enjoyment. At worst, it can break several things you already liked and now have to replace. Aion has recently deployed the new patch 1.5.1 and, as could be expected, fan reaction is somewhat split on whether it's a nice present or the immortal pairing of socks and underwear. Certainly there isn't a major content influx, and the often-requested reduction of the game's grind has yet to be implemented, but there are still a number of nice updates and additions. Leaving aside the bugfixes and optimization with only a mention that they should help the game play more smoothly all around, several instanced dungeons have been adjusted somewhat. Nearly all of these changes look beneficial to players -- reductions in difficulty and increases in reward, as well as added UI displays for important objectives. They've also added stealth-detecting NPCs to starter areas and increased several NPC health totals in an effort to curb destructive PvP tendencies. Quest experience at mid-to-high levels has been adjusted upward, rewards have been slightly improved on several quests, and level-difference experience penalties have been reduced. Last but not least, there's now more incentive to hold a fortress in the Abyss and work to defend it, as rewards are offered for defending players. Aion's fans aren't all happy about the changes, but it's best if you take a look at the changes yourself. Just remember that even if you don't like it, this present is unreturnable.
NCSoft asks Aion players to fly their fan flags in public
NCsoft and the Aion staff have been spending a lot of time lately working to get the Aion community involved and engaged in ways beyond just playing the game. They began with the Eye on Community feature, brought out Aion apparel, and now NCsoft gives you Aion Around the World. The Aion team is enjoying the international popularity of their game and want to see it in action. Community Manager Andrew "Tamat" Beegle explains "to highlight the global phenomenon that Aion has become, we want to see pictures of our community members in public locations. We're looking for pictures of our players participating in exciting activities or showcasing Aion-themed merchandise, art, or cosplay." Tamat and two other Aion team members Ayase and Amboss illustrated the idea by cleverly getting themselves into one photo while 5,000 miles apart. (We anticipate someone taking the idea a step farther by doing the same thing with their entire guild.) Aion will be featuring the pictures on their site for the next few months, so get to work on those wings, grab your camera, and send your photos to the Aion Community email. Have fun!
The perils of railroading in MMOs
If your gaming origins consist of old-school tabletop gaming, you most likely know and fear the term railroading. It's used to describe an innocent-enough formulation that begins in a large number of games, usually run by younger players, wherein players are more or less forced along a preset path no matter what they might choose to do. That's a Terrible Idea recently took certain parts of the MMO world to task for this as well, as offering precisely that -- a game streamlined so effectively that you have no choices to be made. In particular it cites Aion as an example of a game offering a straight-line, no-thought approach to the genre. Certainly one of the common criticisms of some newer games, such as Aion and Champions Online, is that you find yourself pushed along on a narrow set of tracksw toward an inevitable conclusion, without many choices to be made in terms of gameplay. On the flip side, of course, it's hard to argue that a certain amount of streamlining is a good thing -- we might miss the sensation of wondering what we should do next, but not the sensation of having no idea what comes next. But there's an argument to be made that streamlining too far removes the whole reason we play the game, and it certainly destroys any hope of meaningful immersion when all your choices have already been made.
NCsoft responds to City of Heroes speculation
A couple days ago, we had a post detailing some speculation on what City of Heroes: Going Rogue meant for NCsoft West, City of Heroes, and the future of the entire branch of the company. Ryan James, director of corporate communications for NCsoft, took the time to issue a direct response to us regarding that post. We also got an opportunity to ask him a few questions regarding NCsoft's current and future direction, which helps provide some context and some behind-the-scenes information to offset the speculative nature of the aforementioned post. The official response is as follows: "We wanted to respond to your post from November 2 on City of Heroes and clarify a few points for you and your readers. In short, the piece offers a rather sensationalist view of NCsoft West and our success thus far. We're very proud of what we've accomplished here in the West – we have several major MMO franchises, including City of Heroes, Lineage and Guild Wars. And our newest addition to the NCsoft portfolio, Aion, has just seen a very successful launch here in the West. As you point out, we have had to make some tough portfolio decisions, but this is very much par for the course for any major game publisher today. That being said, we remain extremely proud of the Paragon team's accomplishments with the City of Heroes franchise. City of Heroes is still the world's most popular super-powered hero MMO. Even with an increasingly crowded landscape, City of Heroes remains the gold standard for comic book-inspired MMOs – it has stood the test of time and we're excited to be bringing Going Rogue to players next year. As you note, the author of Vicarious Existence is indeed 'alarmist' in his assessment of NCsoft West and our future. We couldn't agree more. On the contrary, we're optimistic about our future." Following the statement, Mr. James took the opportunity to answer a few questions about the company's game portfolio and future plans. Take a look at the questions and responses after the break.
Why You Should Be Playing Aion: Chain combat
"Why you should be playing ..." is a freeform column from Massively.com intended to inform you about our favorite parts of our favorite games. We want you to know why we're playing them, so you can know what to play. I didn't give Aion the world's most glowing set of remarks last time I visited it, so I thought I should at least stop by and spend some time on a part of the game that I do actually like -- chain attacks. Chain attacks do many things to help Aion's combat move smoothly and efficiently. They clean up the UI, they offer flexible choices, they keep the combat looking fluid, and they're a lot of fun to pull off.
NCsoft extends a thank you to Aion players for their patience
Remember those server queues? Yeah you do. How could you forget the glorious two-hour-plus waits to get in to play NCsoft's Aion?Well, those times are in the past now. The Aion servers have settled down, leading to most people being able to log in immediately, even during peak hours. Queues have all but vanished, and the game is settling in for its long haul.However, NCsoft did want to give the Aion devoted a little gift for putting up with all of the hassle. While it may not entirely make up for the time spent waiting in line, it will certainly help speed your progression -- Lodas Amulets.These amulets, when used, will provide 20% bonus experience from monster kills for one hour. Every character has been given five of these unique items, meaning that pre-order customers will now have 10 of them, as they have already received five from their pre-order. Enjoy the weekend of adventuring!
Aion patches, denies whispers
In an attempt to shut up some of those annoying gold spammers, Aion has placed a temporary restriction on whispering in today's patch. Anyone below level 5 will find themselves unable to whisper their friends until they reach the magical level, when they can once again make use of the function. In practice, this makes whispering very much like the general channel, which is also restricted to only those characters above level 5.This is only a temporary restriction while the Aion team works out a solution to keeping the gold spammers off of their channels once and for all. However, in the meantime, looks like we're going to have to suffer a bit.Today's patch also fixed a few things for the French and German language version of the game -- mostly localization issues, along with spelling, punctuation, and grammar. Pretty basic things, and nothing to write home about. If you're interested in the breakdown, check out the patch notes on Aion's PowerWiki.
Aion's first fortress falls to the Origine legion
So for those of you who have been counting the days, Aion has been out for about a week in the North American / Europe regions. And, in this short, short, week, we've already got a legion who has gotten into the Abyss and accomplished one of the main objectives -- capturing a fortress.Origine, a legion making its home on the [FRA] Suthran server in Europe, has taken a level 25 raid to a level 35 objective and has laid claim to the fortress. The entire siege took over 1 hour and 15 minutes from the door of the fortress to the downing of the boss inside. Control of the fortress gives Origine access to a special dungeon, which the legion has already cleared as well.Sebastian "Ayase" Streiffert, the community manager of Aion, managed to catch up with Gwarf, Origine's leader, for a short interview regarding the event. You can check out Ayase's full interview over at Aion's main site. If you're interested in seeing the siege for yourself, you can see Origine's stream of the event at their website.
Aion announces new North American server to be available soon [Updated]
Lani Blazier, associate producer on NCsoft's Aion, has announced today via Twitter that the game will be opening its arms to a new North American server very shortly.This announcement most likely comes to many cheers from the community, as server queues have continued all this week on many of the NA servers. While we announced earlier that private shop changes will be coming to the game in order to reduce AFK spot holders, the new server will be one of the best ways to help spread out the population.The new server is currently unnamed and the time frame is still not set in stone, but Lani has assured everyone that the server will be available sometime this weekend. This post will be updated as more information becomes available.A new European server will follow as well, but as of this posting, the time frame for that server is still up in the air.Update: Fregion [West] has been added to the server list and is now taking players. An East Coast American server and the new European server are also on their way.
NCsoft responds to Aion's server queues
The long Aion server queues are a sticking point for many players who have been looking forward to playing these past few days. We even made a guide to help the Aion folks survive the long waits.However, the calls against the server queues have not gone unheard. NCsoft has taken note of everyone's feelings, and they've sent us the following response to the issue of the server queues.At NCsoft our commitment is to making the MMO player experience the best it can be. And while Aion has seen a very successful launch that has exceeded our expectations in many ways, we are aware of the longer than usual queue times that players have experienced on some of the servers. This is due to the initial rush of players that we've seen in the early days of the game's launch in Europe and North America.
Anti-Aionsed: This time, I put the joke of the title before the colon
The people who follow my personal blog or follow me on Twitter or listen to the Massively Speaking podcast probably saw this column coming from a mile away. Aion and I... we have some business to take care of.This week is Aion's launch week and I do believe that I need to put my thoughts down on the game, like so many other journalists are doing this week. Now, please, even before we start, I need to make it clear that this isn't a review. This is my collected thoughts about the game as I've played it through closed beta, open beta, the head start, and now the live game. I've made alts on all of the classes, I've gotten past level 10 as the templar, I've done grouping, and I'm actually going to continue playing after this column is done. I delayed these thoughts because I wanted to make sure I was confident in what I was about to say.So what are my collected thoughts on the game? Well let's start off with the good, and go on to the bad, and then finally hit our synopsis. Hit continue reading, because I can assure you that this is going to be daevafinitely interesting. (And, most likely, full of bad, bad Aion puns.)
The Aion server queue survival guide
So you pre-ordered Aion and you're super excited to jump into the game during the headstart release that's going on right now. You've set aside a whole block of time for your game play, you have your snacks at your side and your DVR ready to play some great entertainment while you grind your night away. You type in your username and password, accept the EULA, select the server that you made your character on during the pre-selection annnndd........you get slapped in the face with a 2 hour wait time.Don't worry, we've been there. Trust us on that. But here at Massively, we're not going to let you down in your moment of need. We've compiled a great list of fun things to do while you wait for that server queue to drop. Follow along after the break, and we'll be happy to show you the golden road to boredom elimination.
Aion is the single most pre-ordered MMO this year
digg_url = 'http://digg.com/pc_games/Aion_is_the_single_most_pre_ordered_MMO_this_year'; 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.
