Originally posted by Kaocan

I'm just happy I don't frequent the OP's fansite. It appears thier forum administrators and trolls are one in the same.

QFT!

I'll for surely avoid that site in the future.

Sheesh... if they're that upset at  NCSoft West... they should FIND ANOTHER GAME.

Originally posted by VoIgore

From what i saw so far, NC adressed problems quite contemporary in general and the flow of information was quite steady.

On the other hand, I played through some gamebreakers which remained unfixed for month by Blizzard or SOE. Some major crap wasn't even adressed in the first patch after and i had to wait some more month. There are TONS of examples.

At least NCSoft is working on loginproblems and lag while Blizzard often insisted on the player's providers being the reason for the bad connections that made the game unplayable at times and for weeks.

Or other companies which do not even talk to their playerbase to let them know that they have recognised a problem at all.

Some things weren't all straight with the NA/EU beta, so what? Talking about which company is clueless or totally muzzled, many others come to my mind way before i'd think of NCSoft.

I haven't found NcSoft "clueless" as the OP says. Anything but as with OB there were problems, NcSoft listened to its client base, found the problems, fixed the problems, and gave everyone an extra day of OB because there were problems initially!
 

That represents a company that wants to have a game launch that is successful and wants to have the game fun for all, by listening to its player base. Can't say that about many companies.

Good discussions. When I wrote that little piece, I knew it was going to spur some interesting discussions here. Glad to see people defending NCSoft-West.

I had the opportunity to speak briefly with GMSpam last week. He is the head GM for Aion (as he was for Lineage 2). One thing that really impressed me is that he had no qualms posting publicly about the policies of NCSoft -West on the beta forums. That is extremely unusual. 

If you missed it, the discussion on the beta forums revolved around the rampant racism and profanity in region chat. Many people were upset about it, and a 13 page discussion ensued.

Here is what GMSpam had to say about it: (paraphrasing)

During Open Beta, we've been focusing our energies on getting the game right for release. We do have GM's on-duty, but only for 12 hours a day during Open Beta.

We will not tolerate profanity and racism in the LIVE game. As this is a PVP game, we understand that people may use profanity in the heat of the moment. So, we'll take that into consideration. 

The first offense for profanity will result in a warning, with all subsequent offenses resulting in a 3-day ban. If there are multiple offenses and bans, we will consider a lengthier ban and/or termination. We will not tolerate racism at all. The first offense for racism, we skip the warning stage, and go right into a 3-day ban.

As I said, I was really impressed by GMSpam taking the time to explain this to everyone. It was obviously an important topic, because there were a number of threads on the beta boards about it.

Now, as far as my original post . . . I do feel somewhat shocked that Twitter and Facebook are always updated before the Official Aion Site is. My solution to this is very simple - join the Aion Facebook page and the follow the Devs on Twitter!

It was through Facebook and Twitter this past Open Beta weekend that I discovered that servers were being taken down to fix the lag. They never stated it on the official site. Also, when they transposed some of the servers on their "server list", they announced the error on Twitter well before changing it on the official site. 

So, if you're an Aion fan . . it is well worth your while to join their Facebook/Twitter pages. That's where you will get the best information. (These pages are listed on the official site). 

I personally think the main website should be for major announcement and news that are happening in the future. In emergency response to correct an issue, having to take the time to get the update to the web team, have the web team update the page, and give the fanbase time to read it.

Twitter provides a fast way to communicate to the fans. Personally, I think a twitter feed should be on the main page, but since I already follow the devs, to me it isnt a big deal.

Originally posted by Mordrid

I personally think the main website should be for major announcement and news that are happening in the future. In emergency response to correct an issue, having to take the time to get the update to the web team, have the web team update the page, and give the fanbase time to read it.

Twitter provides a fast way to communicate to the fans. Personally, I think a twitter feed should be on the main page, but since I already follow the devs, to me it isnt a big deal.

I actually like that they update on Twitter and Facebook. When they do, I get alerts right on my desktop . . so I don't miss a single thing! However, I do wish (in the event of a announcement of major importance), that they would update the official website within a decent time-frame. As of now, it takes one to two hours after a Tweet before the official site is updated. 

The comments that NCSoft is clueless though are completely without base. As long as they quickly fix minor errors (such as the listing of what servers are for what region), I am fine. While I agree updates should be faster on the main page, due to me working in IT, I can understand the delay. Nothing ranted about to me shows NCSoft as clueless.

Originally posted by Kelsonmac

This just goes to show you all the mistakes NCSoft has made in the last week or so . . . and it has nothing to do with the game client!

aion.24-hrgaming.net/index.php 

Seriously?  That link showed some serious QQ IMO.  So if they are a minute off of their headstart time are you going to tell us all the game is doomed?

Originally posted by mmaize

Originally posted by Kelsonmac

This just goes to show you all the mistakes NCSoft has made in the last week or so . . . and it has nothing to do with the game client!

aion.24-hrgaming.net/index.php 

 

Seriously?  That link showed some serious QQ IMO.  So if they are a minute off of their headstart time are you going to tell us all the game is doomed?

No, the game will not be doomed if they are a minute off their headstart time. That's preposterous!

Now, if they were . . say . . 90 seconds off, the death tolls might just start ringing for sure!

Originally posted by Kelsonmac

This just goes to show you all the mistakes NCSoft has made in the last week or so . . . and it has nothing to do with the game client!

aion.24-hrgaming.net/index.php 

Well it could be worse. Human error it happens...