In an interview over at Gamasutra, NCsoft's corporate relations director Jaesung Lee discusses Aion within the context of the Korean market, as well as the notion that NCsoft intends seriously tackle the Western market, starting with Aion.

Truthfully, most of the interview discusses Aion's success in the Korean market, as well as the finer details of that market itself, and touches very little on the Western market. In general, it's still an insightful read, with one question standing out in particular to me:

There are a lot of users playing MMOs and things like that, but it seems like they're not too willing to experiment with new titles. It seems user expectations for new games are the same as a game that's been running for many years and has already built up a huge feature set. How do you tackle that problem?

JL: That is why our company is currently undergoing a period of choice and concentration. For example, we have chosen the market of MMORPGs - we thought that the MMORPG market was the part that we should really concentrate on, and we thought that the US market was one of the most important markets.

According to an internal discussion, we decided that we had quite some competency in the United States game styles. That is why Aion and all the titles to come are mostly MMORPGs, and all of them are being prepared to be launched not only in Korea but also in the United States.

As you already heard, we have broken quite some records here in Korea with Aion’s open beta and we're going to the United States market with this record in mind. So, our expectations are really high. At least in the triple-A MMORPG genre NCsoft expects to compete in the North American market.

Read the full interview over at Gamasutra.

Do you think Aion will be as successful in the West as it has been in Korea? More? Less? Let us know in the comments below!

Originally posted by MikeB

Do you think Aion will be as successful in the West as it has been in Korea? More? Less? Let us know in the comments below!

Not at all. I predict an initial large number of box sales and subs, however it will rapidly fall off, I'd be suprised if the game had any more than 250,000 subs in Europe and ditto for the US.

The problem as I see it is that the game is still too Asian, i hate using that phrase because it sounds racist or something and I really don't mean it that way. But the truth is that despite claims by NCSoft to have really gone the extra mile in 'Westernising' Aion, I think that unfortunately they have failed. Heck, we've had what, like 5 beta's now and they still haven't implemented an option to invert the mouse. The difference in control style should be No 1 on any list with regards to 'Westernisation', and anyone could have told them that many many more people play with an inverted mouse in the West.

Secondly, the art style and overall gameplay is still too Asian. Sure the graphics are sweet as, but the game is still just a typical asian grinder. It might as well be Archlord but with decent graphics. I usually have a checklist I keep for filtering out the F2P Asian Rubbish:

1). Naff control scheme with inability to invert mouse.

2). Weird graphics, sexy school girl looking characters and at least 1 NPC that is infact an animal.

3). Limited race options, no more than 3 races and no understanding about racial benefits that a large race selection would allow.

4). Grind.

Unfortunately Aion meets all these points. So I think 3 - 6 months from now the forums will be full of 'Why is Aion so crap' and 'Where did Aion go wrong' posts. Just my humble opinion mind :)

I give Aion 6 months in the NA/EU market then I think players will be wanting something else because Aion brings nothing new to the mmo genre other than the flying aspect and a new shiny coat of paint. I may give it a go but it certainly will not be for the long term.

Originally posted by markt50

Originally posted by MikeB

Do you think Aion will be as successful in the West as it has been in Korea? More? Less? Let us know in the comments below!

  people play with an inverted mouse in the West.

I honestly didn't pay attention when I played the beta, but I didn't notice anything different from other MMO's.
Then again, it's not hard to adapt to something that's barely different.

Since when did good graphics become weird? They look quite good actually. Better rig maybe?

I won't continue with the rest because it's a waste of time.

Back to the topic, the game could flop or do good, no one will honestly know til release. The only thing I'm worried about is people playing Open Beta and being put off by the ridiculous lag that will ensue because of the stress test of the servers.

Originally posted by markt50

Originally posted by MikeB

Do you think Aion will be as successful in the West as it has been in Korea? More? Less? Let us know in the comments below!

 

Not at all. I predict an initial large number of box sales and subs, however it will rapidly fall off, I'd be suprised if the game had any more than 250,000 subs in Europe and ditto for the US.

The problem as I see it is that the game is still to Asian, i hate using that phrase because it sounds racist or something and I really don't mean it that way. But the truth is that despite claims by NCSoft to have really gone the extra mile in 'Westernising' Aion, I think that unfortunately they have failed. Heck, we've had what, like 5 beta's now and they still haven't implemented an option to invert the mouse. The difference in control style should be No 1 on any list with regards to 'Westernisation', and anyone could have told them that many many more people play with an inverted mouse in the West.

Secondly, the art style and overall gamplay is still to Asian. Sure the graphics are sweet as, but the game is still just a typical asian grinder. It might as well be Archlord but with decent graphics. I usually have a checklist I keep for filtering out the F2P Asian Rubbish:

1). Naff control scheme with inability to invert mouse.

2). Weird graphics, sexy school girl looking characters and at least 1 NPC that is infact an animal.

3). Limited race options, no more than 3 races and no understanding about racial benefits that a large race selection would allow.

4). Grind.

Unfortunately Aion meets all these points. So I think 3 - 6 months from now the forums will be full of 'Why is Aion so crap' and 'Where did Aion go wrong' posts. Just my humble opinion mind :)

I think you're right but I also think you're very wrong.

I agree that it will hav quite a few box sales and will fall off a bit. however,  I think taht this will be due to fact that all players will have to deal with the pvp aspect. Not necessarily take part but it will always be something they will have to deal with.

I think it will actually level off between 500k and 800k. My gut says 500k. This game will capture a lot of people who are looking for a different setting, maybe even from wow as we seem to have quite a few of them in the betas and on Aionsource.

parts I disagree?

control scheme. control scheme is fine but I do believe they are adding the invert mouse feature in 1.5

weird graphics? nah, I don't buy this one This is a game and outlandish characters fall hand in hand with games. Also, with other types of games having "sexy" characters I don't really think it will be a surprise. Heck, when lineage 2 launched there were a lot of people who started it for the sexy characters. Also I assume you mean art design.

limited race. nonsense. sorry but it's nonsense.  One can make one's character quite diverse looking and in the end I don't think the lack of a fox character is going to hurt the game. A game doesn't have to have the "everything but the kitchen sink" mode of thought with regard to races. I do think that one point will be an issue and that is only one starter area per side.

Initially that won't be an issue for for people who like to make alts, that could get tiresome. However, I also assume that a lot of people who like to make alts also like to make alts of the same race so they could be used to redoing content.

grind. realy? I don't see any more grind than any other game out there. And I've played a grinder. Also, with 1.5 adding quite a bit of content including some neat pvpve instances I think players will have quite a bit to do.

Inverted mouse?

For what? Flying is the only thing where it might make a difference, and since I play all kinds of games, I'm used to flight sims and non-flight sims being different, so it the mouse controls while flying in Aion took me 0.3 seconds to get used to.

Despite their attempts to try and market it to you otherwise, Aion is still an Asian game.

The graphics, the playstyle, the grind, the story, the animations, the sound effects...everything about it is the same old same old Asian MMO.  It's not racist to point out cultural differences.  Hell, I AM Asian-American.  But sorry, Aion is just, as they say, "the same old !@#$, different day."

Pass.

it quite hard to tell what will happen with Aion yet . All i can say is tha majority of people i ve got to know over the years via warcraft conan lortro and others are going to give it a try . Having said that I ve always played on PvP servers when i can so the people i know are biased towards it in general . Aion also comes at a time when a huge amount of people are fed up with changes made to WoW  so really its all there for the taking now more than any other time ( and it comes in a year when theres no wow expansion planned ) . I think it may retain around 1-2 million subs in its first few months . depending on what the contents like at the endgame it could raise even further . The one thing i can say is this is no Warhammer or Age of Conan its not misconcieved or unready . The buzz surrounding Aion is very simiar to the buzz that surrounded Warcraft prior to its release . If anything its even more so given the huge amount of people now interested in playing mmos because of WoW .

Aion has no more grind than WoW does.  I played to 22 in the Chinese retail (which is 1.0) and I always had quests.  They even had a few quests that were required to be done at night or during the day (Aion's day cycle is much shorter than WoW's).  I didn't grind once the entire time I was playing.

People assume it has grind because it's a Korean MMO.   The quest Journal is actually better than WoW's because it has hyperlinked text.  If you want more detail about a character, place, or item you can just click on their name in the quest.

NCSoft does realize that the inverted mouse controls are an issue and are apparently working on it.  It's the first thing my roommate commented about when he played the beta.  However, after playing it for a while he now thinks that WoW's mouse controls are backwards (go figure). 

I think Aion will do ok.  It is fortunate to be the only major fantasy MMO released this fall/winter.  Champions Online will likely attract a different crowd than Aion is aiming for. 

As a comparison.  I loved the effects/art in Lineage 2 but hated the gameplay with a passion.  L2 was a game that required lots of grind.  Aion is leagues away from L2 in the gameplay department.  It's a lot more refined/polished.  It allows for multiple playstyles, has much better refined mechanics, and does not require grinding (unless you consider quests a grind..which some players do).

You can choose to grind/kill monsters all day long if you wish.   You can choose to quest all day if you wish.  You could choose to tradeskill (Aion has a VERY robust tradeskill/harvest system).  Oh, you also get xp for harvesting (which is nice).  After level 25 you could choose to just pvp if you wanted.  Most people will do a combination of the above.

What is wrong with these journalists who ask the questions?  Do they have to get all their questions preapproved because if so they should note that the respondents did not want to answer some of the questions posed.

The reason I note that is the first question out of anyone who has played a previous NCSoft title is how are you intending to control the bots because they have shown a failure to address that issue in prior games.

So what we end up with is a mediocre article with little useful information.

Originally posted by Ozmodan

What is wrong with these journalists who ask the questions?  Do they have to get all their questions preapproved because if so they should note that the respondents did not want to answer some of the questions posed.

The reason I note that is the first question out of anyone who has played a previous NCSoft title is how are you intending to control the bots because they have shown a failure to address that issue in prior games.

So what we end up with is a mediocre article with little useful information.

Journalists? At Gamasutra? Hahahahahahaha!!!

You people need to learn the difference between journalists and the no-talent schmucks they get to write articles for these gaming sites.

All these sites take money from them, what do you expect?  I have never seen a hard hitting interview from any "gaming" site, they are to worried about banner ad money to do that.  And they are most certainly not journalist. 

I'm amused by the notion "NCsoft is going to tackle the USA market" . They sacked just about everyone ( the latest to "depart " are Strain and Reid ) )  and have been closing offices left,right and center . Hardly an indication of embarking on a solid "attack on western markets " .

Entire NCsoft West is now being run by Koreans .There's nothing "west " about it anymore .

Meh, I think it'll be popular for quite a while simply because there is nothing else out that is "new". People are looking for something to play, and regardless of it feeling too asian or not, I'm certain a good amount of people will play it for a while till something better comes along.

Gaming journalism is a lot like sports journalism, not really journalism at all, but just an extension of Public Relations. Even in politcs, these days you have a lot of journalists drifting in and out of politic posts (especially democrats, but even some republicans)

I honestly think that the game will do great lol but thats just me....and to be even more honest anyone who thinks that this game will flop, are obviusly WoW players, i too am a wow player but u cna be sure as hell that wen this game comes out im guna quit wow and go to this do to the fact that i have been wait for this game for a looooooooooooooooooong time haha and i am very VERY bord of wow sooo bord that it pisses me off lol i cant even play it anymore, i dont care how well this game goes i am still going to be playing it,

ps and who the hell cares if its to quote "Aisian" i hapen to love that  and if u dont like it dont get the game.....

I myself have tried many games and I found a majority of them to either get boring eventually or turn our to be utter shit e.

I never found WoW too entertaining. Though I am dissappointed in lower level regions' linear shape and constriction and I wish it had a more impressive, freeroaming effect to it like WoW with little load time. But I suppose even though that would be a wonderful to have, i suppose it makes people more susceptable to major lag from time to time, and make it nearly impossible for Aion's awesome ability to run on low end machine bite the dust.

Even with it's flaws I've decided to make this my final MMO and thus established my PvP Legion Knights of Apocalypse already. Even with it's flaws, it has done alot of things right in retrospect, and as devs go on adding content they'll probably add some decent content and features. Not saying they're going ot do everything right, but they will at least be on top of things initially.

I can see a couple million people playing Aion at release, and most MMOs, especially monsters like WoW, witness a major drop in population as people give Aion a go. Now, unless they make some changes and add some things, I can see the numbers dropping dramatically as many people will either not be impressed or satisfied, and some will even go back to games like WoW, doomed to roam the earth feeding upon cheetos and other junk food.

I'm going to stay unbias and keep my hopes up with expectations of possible if not probable fail, but I'm going to enjoy it any way it is dished out. Also, true it doesn't have the grind Koreans seem to pump out usually, but quests still give less rewards then going out and hunting items aside from the occasional flight pot and whatnot, and even those can be obtained through alchemy or some sort of craft. If they really intend to woo Westerners more, take WoW, find it's weak points or strong points, and improve upon them all. I don't really give two turds about WoW myself, but they've got one of the biggest playerbases of any games from what I've seen and heard so they're doing stuff right. Oh, and, they need to get some hot actresses and singers advertise Aion. Oh, and Having Chuck Norris threaten to roundhouse you if you don't give it a try is also effective, do that and NCSoft will be scrambling to buy new servers lol

Overall though. This game could either do amazingly well or just be good, I don't see it sucking ass enough to have a super low population. I also think it has alot of potential to, and compared to all of the other games out there, for me will go no lower than a 7/10, at least not for a long time....and they forget they need to add content or simply $%&* up trying to fix either fix something that's not broken (like adding new classes and doing balancing which will %^&* the game, or add content that won't have too many positive effects.

Bit like Kavaskous myself, on one side I completely disagree on the 'lol asian mmo' thing. Asians make good games, just because they haven't hit it big in the MMORPG department doesn't mean they aren't taking hints from Western gaming and the like. It is a bit like the generalisations that Blizzard is the only ones that can ever ever make a major MMORPG again, their just moronic assumptions and anyone who states it is just showing me their lunacy... Or rather their racism, yes Markt50, complete lack of faith in another group of people to do a job well IS RACISM. Am I calling you racist? Yes, yes I am. And I call anyone who spams 'lol asian mmo insta-fail' a racist as well. Racism is based on vast generalisation about a group of people, and that is what people like Markt50 are doing. He can try to make it look like he isn't racist, but in essence he is, even I would take a second look at Korean or Asian MMORPGs because of their history... But I'm not going to moronically say out-right 'ASIANS CAN NEVER MAKE GOOD MMORPGS '. Assuming certain aspects about certain games before having a real good look at them is generalising (since it is obvious that you don't know much about the game), and generalising = racism.

Otherwise, Aion is far from original or perfect. I think only the fanboys think otherwise. The style that it is exists because of WoW's success as a game.

Of course that doesn't mean its a bad game. I hope that from what I've heard of it that it does end up being an experience that I'd want to get into (even though TBH I'd prefer a hardcore PVE one, atm that isn't going to happen within the next few years).

Either way, like Kav this may be the last MMORPG I play for some time considering where the genre is atm.

It will do okay.  There will be some onoesforumbattelz as people play the game and realize that it's not The Holy Light of MMOs that some have made it out to be and then those people will defend it as such.  From there, most (I hope) will eventually move on and simply play the game.

There will be much QQing on the forums - both here and on official forums - demanding that PvP be removed or otherwise be restricted more than it already is, then there will be the predictable responses.  People are already demanding special PvP-free servers (that is to say, "rift free") while stubbornly refusing to accept the fact that 100% PvP-free zones already exist for their level on the existing servers.  They do not want to be educated, they simply want to change the entire game.  This will continue after release, only in larger numbers.

Aion itself does not offer much that's new.  The flight mechanic is heavily restricted - gliding is not flying - and the rest of the game plays like your standard MMO.  You kill 10 woozits, you collect 15 nose hairs and you deliver mailz to the peoplez.  If anything is different it's that it's written better in Aion than in most MMOs, but most people won't bother to read it and therefore will not realize this.

Before I forget, there will be much demand for ground mounts, with the predictable response that the game has flying, and that, in turn, will receive the predictable response that much of the game is a no fly zone and running is pretty slow. This argument will never go away.

Aion is a standard but solid MMO with a really nice art direction.  Once the dust settles it will be no more nor no less successful than your average MMO because that's what it ultimately is.  Only really pretty, and with wings that you can occasionally use.

Originally posted by Wingma

Bit like Kavaskous myself, on one side I completely disagree on the 'lol asian mmo' thing. Asians make good games, just because they haven't hit it big in the MMORPG department doesn't mean they aren't taking hints from Western gaming and the like. It is a bit like the generalisations that Blizzard is the only ones that can ever ever make a major MMORPG again, their just moronic assumptions and anyone who states it is just showing me their lunacy... Or rather their racism, yes Markt50, complete lack of faith in another group of people to do a job well IS RACISM. Am I calling you racist? Yes, yes I am. And I call anyone who spams 'lol asian mmo insta-fail' a racist as well. Racism is based on vast generalisation about a group of people, and that is what people like Markt50 are doing. He can try to make it look like he isn't racist, but in essence he is, even I would take a second look at Korean or Asian MMORPGs because of their history... But I'm not going to moronically say out-right 'ASIANS CAN NEVER MAKE GOOD MMORPGS '. Assuming certain aspects about certain games before having a real good look at them is generalising (since it is obvious that you don't know much about the game), and generalising = racism.

Otherwise, Aion is far from original or perfect. I think only the fanboys think otherwise. The style that it is exists because of WoW's success as a game.

Of course that doesn't mean its a bad game. I hope that from what I've heard of it that it does end up being an experience that I'd want to get into (even though TBH I'd prefer a hardcore PVE one, atm that isn't going to happen within the next few years).

 

Either way, like Kav this may be the last MMORPG I play for some time considering where the genre is atm.

Woo there dude, easy on the Racism card, nowhere did I state that Asians couldn't make a decent MMO or game, nowhere did I generalise a race of people etc, etc, I did state that in my opinion Aian is too Asian in nature to be a WoW like success in the West, that is not racist, it is just an opinion and it is based upon my own experience in Beta and the attitude of many of my friends who currently play WoW (I left WoW a long time ago and play Lotro, WAR and a couple of beta's). Sure it might not be a popular opinion amongst the Diehard Aion fans, but it doesn't make me a fully paid up member of the Nazi party, lol.

I may have mentioned that I have a checklist I use for filtering out the F2P Asian crap, emphasis on the 'F2P'. And imho Aion feels like a really well polished F2P grinder. I have nothing against the game, and I'm sure there will be plenty of people to get enjoyment from it, I just don't think those numbers will be that high amongst western consumers. I myself will be trying the first month mainly because I get the game free being a TR subscriber when that went to MMO heaven, but from what I've played of Aion so far, Tabula Rasa > Aion.

But hey, if that makes me a racist for having an opinion on whether Aion will be a success or not in the West, then so be it. Now where did I leave my copy of 'Mein Kampf'...... ;)