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Aion developers acting to correct server imbalances
Aion's July community address mentions the upcoming 2.0 patch, of course, but that's not what grabbed the attention of the fans. The recent server merge created some predictable imbalances, and the Aion team has made a few decisions on how to begin rectifying them. NCsoft's Lance Stites, who penned this month's address, tells fans that server transfers have been temporarily disabled while the devs sort things out: "All the associated Aion teams are working on a solution to allow character transfers to resume with appropriate limits in place to prevent radically unbalanced servers." Furthermore, race creation is "selectively" limited on each server, in the hopes that it will help balance things out. "For instance, if you're playing on a predominantly Elyos server, Asmodian creation will be the only race available for new characters," says Stites. The situation is only temporary, and hopefully only a first step in sorting things out on the newly-consolidated Aion servers. Take a look at the Aion site for the full July community address.
Aion's community address for January
Approaching the end of the month means it's time for another Aion community address. It's reliable enough to set your watch by, assuming your watch runs in one-month increments of time. This address promises an increased number of double experience weekends, with one currently running to help players accelerate their leveling. It also promises that character re-customization and gender changing services are on the horizon for players who would like said services, and briefly discusses the need for ongoing improvement in the website. There's a scarcity of hard facts, however, beyond a promise that some of these features should be available in early February. If you were guessing that the community seems a bit... unhappy about this, you'd be guessing right. The comments for this particular entry already stretch into the triple digits, with several players calling for server merges and additional content. It also has no mention about the recent security issues that NCsoft has been contending with, a somewhat sore point for several players. Coupled with the January Eye On Community, the natives seem to be getting a tad restless, especially with no news on the many features previewed in the Visions trailer. We're sure that Aion's team is hard at work, but the fan community seems a bit less docile than before.
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 community address for November
The November community address for Aion is out, and it's mostly good news. The good news, of course, includes the stunning nine-minute trailer depicting the future of Aion. Player response was overwhelmingly positive, and netted NCsoft more than a few immediate resubs. The Community Team has also been doing a good amount of work that, while not quite as fun to look at as the trailer, brings results that players can't help but be just as happy about. The Aion team has set up a dedicated Game Surveillance Unit focused solely on taking out bots, gold spammers, and the like. (It seems to be working so far, a recent Tweet reports over 27,000 botting accounts banned this week.) The community address also mentioned the ubiquitous grind complaints. Some short-term changes to grind, loot, and risk vs. reward are on the way, and a more long-term solution seems to be in the works. On the downside, the server transfer system has been delayed until the Community Team can be sure of releasing a solid finished product. It's a frustrating issue for players, but hopefully the delay will be worth it. The full community address can be read here.
One month: Aion October community address
Aion has officially been out for one full month and NCsoft just released an October community address in response. The notice reads less like a giant pat on the back and more like a checklist of major issues they are working on, which is bound to churn up speculation about how well the title is doing. Oh, we're sure Aion is doing quite well even though we haven't heard the official numbers yet, but developers usually use these opportunities to shout about their accomplishments rather than their shortcomings.The top three issues mentioned in the letter are experience curves, client performance, and spammers/botters. Most players will agree that it can feel like a part-time job to level your character at times. Some players have had performance issues specifically related to "Cryssystem.dll." And finally, everyone has been forced to /ignore the odd spammer... or fifty. NCsoft is using this opportunity to yet again tell players they are aware of these issues and fixes are on the way. We're curious how this may relate to differences between eastern and western gaming cultures. Aion has been released for nearly a year in Asia and yet only the outcry from European and North American players against experience grinds and gold spamming specifically seems to be sparking a change.
SOE's 3rd annual Community Address to be broadcast live this Friday night
Not being able to attend this year's SOE Fan Faire doesn't mean that you'll miss out entirely. Aside from the biggest news that we'll undoubtedly bring to your attention right here on Massively, you will actually be able to watch SOE CEO John Smedley's community address streaming live on Friday the 26th of June, at 7:00PM PDT. Although visiting the link for the event right now seems to prompt us to register, Amnerys' post on the EverQuest forums says that this isn't necessary: "You don't need to register or have a password! Just visit the page and view!"This will be the third year of SOE's annual community addresses. To get an idea of what to expect this Friday, you can check out the presentation from Fan Faire 2007 on Youtube. The link to keep bookmarked for the live event is this one right here.
