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NCsoft West confirms layoffs
NCsoft has gone through some "restructuring," leading to the termination of several employee and contract positions. Aion Community Manager Felicia Johnson stated on Twitter that she no longer works for NCsoft. When asked for comment and confirmation, NCsoft PR responded with the following statement: "In an effort to put a greater focus on the success of the Western-developed games from NCSOFT, and the long-term services MMOs require, the company announced further restructuring allowing for focused support from the studio's internal publishing services. As a result of the realignment, several employees and contract positions were affected. This was a very tough decision to make and wish the best for all NCSOFT employees in their next ventures." Our best wishes, as ever, go out to those affected. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in.]
Choose My Adventure: So long, Lineage II
I'm here at the end of the line. Six weeks and 48 levels brings me to the close of my time on Choose My Adventure with Lineage II. It became a little grindy toward the end, but that's due to my inability to find a group, something that's important in order to experience some of the content. When I began this little adventure, I knew nothing of Lineage II. I'm walking away a regular player who's looking forward to trying out the numerous PvP options. I wanted to finish this ride with a bang, and I was lucky enough to be ending after a siege weekend. Lineage II has some rather involved sieges and other PvP content that should please many players at mid- to high-level. I was a litle confused at first, but I was able to use the broadcast crystal to watch some siege gameplay. This final farewell covers a lot of PvP in the game, so buckle up!%Gallery-141708%
Choose My Adventure: How Lineage II feels to a Western newcomer
We're down to the wire for Lineage II's Choose My Adventure, with one more week to go. My Abyss Walker quickly rushed to the 40s, at which point leveling has slowed down considerably. I've talked about pets, explored (only a fraction of) the countryside, and touched on crafting and other features. What else could we possibly talk about? I haven't really shared a lot of my experiences with my character class or how the class-transfers and skills affect my overall enjoyment of Lineage II. My third class-transfer is set in stone thanks to your poll choices and the game mechanics; now that I'm an Abyss Walker, I'm locked-in to become a Ghost Hunter, which makes sense. Ghost Hunter is melee, like my Abyss Walker. I can't really jump ship at this point and go ranged. So let's look a little more at my character, what the future could hold for him in terms of more class-transfers, and my opinions on non-situational combat and how that makes the game feel to me.%Gallery-141708%
Choose My Adventure: Post-Christmas update
A turkey and ham coma, family soiree, and the biggest calendar holiday of the year have left my Lineage II escapades a wee bit smaller this week, but not without some fun happenings. Speaking of holidays, I hope everyone had a terrific one! Random events, miraculously revived dead pets, more amazing scenery, and lots of killing are on deck in today's Choose My Adventure. It turns out that I am terrible at raising my pet wolf and even got into an accidental scuffle with another player that left her pet dead and me even deader. I returned to the Path to Awakening because that's what you voted for last week. I've also neared the end of the uber-fast leveling cycle via quests and am turning to grinding for the majority of my experience gain. The fun-level has yet to dip for me; there's higher level gameplay I'm really hoping to dip my dagger into, and I'm curious to see what level I can reach by the end of this trip. As always, check out the extensive gallery and livestreams, and tune in to MV Guide to see when my next livestream will be.%Gallery-141708%
Choose My Adventure: Exploration week
From desert wastelands and salty shorelines to plateaus and ocean floors, I've been busy traveling in Aden, and I've seen but a glimpse of the entire continent. Last week, you voted for me to stray from the Path to Awakening and explore the world in Lineage II, and I've been having a blast doing just that. I discovered a monster racetrack, ran into raid bosses in the middle of nowhere, discovered a vast undersea temple, and so much more. I've also added 47 more screenshots to the gallery, uploaded a walkabout video, and have another livestream this week. We still aren't done yet. There are more chances for you to decide my fate in this week's Choose My Adventure.%Gallery-141708%
Layoffs hit NCsoft's North American offices
Earlier this morning Massively received an anonymous tip that NCsoft terminated an undisclosed number of employees at its Austin, Brighton, and Seattle offices earlier this month. According to our tipster, "many operations jobs are leaving Austin and being contracted back to Seoul," and there were further layoffs in the quality assurance and billing departments, with "with many more put on 60-day notice." We contacted NCsoft for an official comment and received the following reply: "In an effort to put a greater focus on the success of the Western-developed games from NCsoft, and the long-term services MMOs require, we announced a global restructuring to our Western publishing team. To optimize the streamlining efforts, limited functionality is moving to our headquarters in Seoul, and some publishing support has been reduced. As a result, there has been a reduction in force that has impacted less than 2 percent of our global workforce. We remain committed to fully support the development of games from ArenaNet, Carbine Studios and Paragon Studios." We'll keep you up to date on the situation as it develops and as we learn more.
NCsoft's Gaffney: Subscriptions more profitable than microtransactions
Jeremy Gaffney may not be a household name to MMO fans, but the Carbine Studios head honcho has been involved in some of the industry's biggest titles as both a developer and an executive. Gaffney helped found Turbine in the Asheron's Call days and also worked on both City of Heroes and Tabula Rasa at NCsoft. In a new interview at GamesIndustry.biz, Gaffney talks at length about his industry experiences as well as several hot-button issues including mobile MMOs, mega-launches, and the free-to-play vs. subscription debate. "There's still a lot of money being made in subscriptions right now. Worldwide there's a lot of money being made in [micro]transactions, but there's probably a bit more money really being made in subscriptions worldwide," he explains. Gaffney also weighs in on the market segmentation brought about by F2P models and whether MMO mega-launches can still be profitable in a post-World of Warcraft world. Read all about it at GamesIndustry.biz.
Aion kicks off 2.1.0.5, Artisan's Expo event
Early bird Daevas looking to get a head start on their Wednesday were thwarted by the patch gods this morning as Aion servers were briefly offline. The good news is that the downtime was in service of the new 2.1 patch (or more accurately, the second portion of it). Today's update shines the spotlight on crafting, and citizens of Atreia will be enjoying bonus crafting, essence-tapping, and aether-tapping gains courtesy of the Artisan Expo event that runs through February 2nd. As for the patch itself, it features a bevy of tradeskilling tweaks, chief among them reduced material requirements for high level recipes, increased drop rates on some rare Balic materials, and an increased chance at rare gathering drops. The patch also addresses the long-standing issue of the Balaur taking over Kysis Fortress during normal siege times. Check out NCsoft's announcement post as well as the full patch notes for all the details.
Aion 2.1.0.5 update tweaks crafting difficulty
Part two of the Aion 2.1 update is on the way to servers across Atreia, and the dev team has posted the official 2.1.0.5 patch notes to the game's website. The build debuted on the public test servers yesterday and is scheduled to take a bow on the live servers next Wednesday, January 26th. The second half of the 2.1 patch focuses on Aion's crafting, and many new recipes are included in the mix. NCsoft has also upped the drop rates for many crafting materials (including desirable Balaur components like hearts and balic items). Your chances of snagging a "greater" version of the resources farmed from harvesting nodes have also been increased, and many crafting quests will see reduced difficulty (including the wince-inducing expert crafting quests as well as the Miragent Holy Templar and Fenris Fangs quests). The 2.1.0.5 patch also brings a number of tweaks to instances, NPCs, and items, and you can see the full list of updates via the official website.
NCsoft planning more Aion rifting tweaks
The month-long rifting experiment begun by NCsoft in early December has apparently given the Aion devs enough data to continue with a trial aimed at revisiting the decision to nerf the PvP mechanic with last fall's 2.0 update. Players were recently asked to complete in-game surveys relating to the new changes (which boiled to down a removal of Heiron/Beluslan protections and changes to the large protective defender buffs), and NCsoft reports that the majority of survey participants responded favorably to the change. In a post on the official Aion website, NCsoft says it will continue the rifting trial "a few more weeks," and the devs will also tweak lower level player protection in Morheim and Eltnen. Finally, a new player survey will be sent out and the rifting protections will be "restored to their previous levels" while feedback is collected and analyzed.
Aion Myth Breakers examines crafting DP and manastones
After failing to proc master crafting and miragent armor recipes on multiple occasions, Aion players naturally gravitate towards superstition, luck, and the equivalent of in-game urban legends in order to deal with the nightmare that is high-level crafting in the world of Atreia. One of those legends concerns the supposed effects of a full Divine Power (DP) bar on crafting success. This particular myth is thoroughly debunked in the second installment of Victor Shugo's Aion Lab: Myth Breakers, an ongoing series that provides statistical data regarding some of Aion's mechanics. In addition to laying the crafting DP myth to rest, this edition examines the loot drop rates for Draupnir Cave and Commander Bakarma and also provides a success rate table for level 50 and 60 manastones. So the next time you shake a fist at the Seraphim lords over a failed socketing attempt, rest assured that statistically speaking, you're bound to do better next time.
Community Detective Issue #16: Lineage II
Welcome to a new year of Community Detective. To kick things off, I'm going back in time -- way back in time, to 2004 to be exact -- as this was the year NCsoft's Lineage II debuted in America. Why profile the community and customer service of a game that's almost seven years old? Well, Lineage II is still going strong and drawing players from all over the world. NCsoft also continues to pour money and developer resources into the game (the latest example being the new Goddess of Destruction expansion) despite the existence of newer, similarly themed fantasy projects like Aion and Blade & Soul. Clearly, then, Lineage II is still relevant in some quarters, and in light of that fact, I've spent the past couple of weeks toodling around the kingdom of Aden.
Aion experimenting with temporary rifting changes
Rifting is a sore spot for many Aion players. On the one hand, some folks no doubt felt that the mechanic was intrusive and forced PvP on people who simply wanted to quest, gather, and otherwise PvE. On the other hand, the drastic changes introduced in the Assault on Balaurea expansion all but killed most of the rifting in the game, causing some to question NCsoft's all-or-nothing approach. Starting today, the devs are experimenting with a month-long trial designed to bring an element of risk back to Atreia and also strike a balance between rifting and PvE. The protective buffs placed on homeland defenders will remain in place for the low-level Morheim and Eltnen zones but will be significantly reduced. Protection buffs for defenders in the higher-level Heiron and Beluslan zones are going away entirely. What does this mean for you? In a nutshell, you'll have an easier time completing those spy quests that have been clogging your journal for weeks, and you'd also best keep an eye on your radar for incoming reds.
Aion surveys feature in-game presents
Looking for some free loot to welcome you back to Aion? Look no further than the new Solorius festival and the 10-day account reactivation promotion recently begun by NCsoft. Whether you're a loyal veteran or you've just returned to the fight, be sure to fill out the random in-game surveys that the Aion team will be sending your way at various times throughout the day. In addition to doing your civic duty and providing valuable game feedback, you'll receive a present with your survey. Possible presents include boxes of enchantment stones, colored dyes (including rare blacks and whites), candies and food, a Watchful Ailu pet egg, swimwear, and more. Check out the full announcement on the official website for all the details.
NCsoft reactivating Aion accounts, doubling XP
Time to dust off your wings, former Daevas, as you're invited back to the world of Atreia on NCsoft's dime. If your account was inactive as of December 1st (and you've got a retail code applied and haven't been banned), you're eligible to play Aion for free through 8:00 a.m. PST on December 13th. NCsoft has also extended the double XP period for the entire duration of the reactivation event (as opposed to two weekend periods). Soul healing discounts of 99% will still happen on the weekend as originally announced. Finally, instance timers have been considerably reduced. For example, Kromede's Trial now features a four-hour lockout timer (in place of the usual 22). Check your timers with the /checkentry command for more details.
Aion producer letter talks account security, transfers
Aion's been getting a decent amount of press this fall, first for September's Assault on Balaurea expansion and lately due to the uproar surrounding the 2.1 patch. Among other things, 2.1 substantially increased the game's loot drop rates, leading to huzzahs on one side of the aisle and raised eyebrows on the other. Not to be outdone, NCsoft producer Chris Hager recently posted an open letter on the official Aion website, summarizing both the aforementioned changes and hinting at a few things to come for the world of Atreia. Hager gives a heads up regarding the final day for the free character transfers that have been ongoing since the summer. January 5th is last call, so make sure you've got your Elyos or Asmo where you want him. Hager also mentions the fact that NCsoft is taking steps to increase account security, an issue that has plagued Aion since its launch in 2009. "We are stepping up our efforts and introducing a new secondary PIN system to Aion that will provide an additional layer of security to our players. This service will go live on December 1, 2010, and we will post a full FAQ in the coming days explaining exactly how it will work," he writes.
NCsoft explains Aion siege timer changes
Amidst all the G-Star news coming out this week, as well as Aion's own upcoming double XP bonanza, you might have missed a fairly significant gameplay change that NCsoft has slipped onto the live servers. In a very brief news blurb on the official site (which links to an image graphic hosted on Flickr), the Korean MMO developer answers the question that many Daevas have been asking of late, namely, what are the new siege times. As it turns out, they're quite different and will no doubt affect Abyss PvP in numerous ways. For example, prime time fortress sieges used to happen in a three-hour window, which pretty much meant that if you committed to attacking or defending, you missed out on Dredgion groups and basically any other content going on for that particular night. Now, the siege timers are staggered. In addition to the timers being reduced to two hours, there's also an hour block in between, which should give players time to do things other than siege on any given night. Additionally, the previous fortress vulnerabilities were a convoluted mess, with a mixture of upper and lower forts going on at once. Now, the vulnerable forts will be on a single layer, and there will also be five vulnerable forts simultaneously as opposed to three. This should lead to new strategies, as the zerg will no longer be able to bum-rush three locations at once, and there will theoretically be more sustained fighting going throughout the Abyss.
Double your pleasure with Aion double XP
Thinking of dusting off one of your Daevas? If you've got a long-neglected alt, if your main has stalled on the cusp of level 55, or if you've just been away from the world of Atreia altogether, you'll probably want to take advantage of Aion's upcoming double experience weekends. From December 3rd through December 6th (beginning and ending at 12:00 p.m. PST on both days), you can double your pleasure with double XP on both mobs and quests. If that's not enough, you can also enjoy 99% off soul healing costs from December 4th to December 5th (12:00 a.m. PST - 11:59 p.m. PST) as well as December 11th to December 12th (at the same time slot). Check out the official Aion site for all the details.
NCsoft reveals juicy details on Aion 2.1, item drop rates substantially increased
Aion is the lucky recipient of "the single biggest change ever implemented by NCsoft across its entire portfolio of games." Version 2.1 is hitting the Public Test Server (PTS) today, with a launch date for the live shards currently scheduled for November 17th. What's so special about 2.1, you're probably asking? In a nutshell, loot, and lots of it. More specifically, significantly increased drop rates are the order of the day. Now, we've heard the jokes as well. "Significant" means an increase from .01 to .02 percent, right? Wrong, as this time NCsoft means business. Aion's devs have offered up some specific statistics via press release, and you'll want to check out the tables after the cut for all the details. If you've spent much time in the lands of Atreia, you're probably familiar with Beshmundir's Temple and the named bosses contained therein that players often farm for loot. Over a period of 20 Perilous Path Temple runs, testers collected 138 total loot items. Of these, 121 were fabled quality (including wings), and 17 were eternal. Similarly, NCsoft testers cataloged 20 runs through the famed Dark Poeta dungeon, recording all loot items acquired from Spiritmaster Atmach to Brigade General Anuhart. A total of 68 fabled items dropped, which averages out to 3.4 per run. This was also sans the final boss, so the actual numbers will likely be higher. Finally, NCsoft is also gifting players with the new Aion Adventure Guide. According to the press release, the guide will "give players advice on where to find level-appropriate in-game content that will help with progression and reward them with items along the way. Crafted in-game messages and guides let players know where to go to find game content (quests, instances) that help progress them to the next level and give them hints on how to use new areas, such as the Abyss, and systems, such as Stigma Stones to their advantage." Don't forget to fly past the cut for a detailed breakdown of the Beshmundir Temple runs in table format.
NCsoft releases Aion Exchange app for iOS
NCsoft has taken the wraps off another portion of its mobile platform offensive as today marked the unveiling of the new Aion Exchange app for Apple's iPhone, iPad, and iOS devices. The app provides live access to the fantasy MMO's broker system, as well as options for viewing your character info, statistics, and equipment. The broker feature includes an item search as well as price lists, a wish list, and push notifications that will alert you to sales without the need to log into the game or open the app. Finally, Aion Exchange features a comprehensive item listing that boasts info about each piece of equipment available in game. Chris Hager, NCsoft West producer, sees the app as the first step in extending the world of Atreia beyond the desktop. "We see this application as an extension of the game and we will continually support and update the service offering with future feature updates," he said.
