Now this is my kind of thread. ;)

Don't stop.

Originally posted by Synthetick

Originally posted by stayontarget

you could be right, but I hope not because I hate those dam shops.

Seriously. I hope they're cut entirely from the NA version. I see them serving no purpose with an AH.

An aspect that player shops offer that an AH does not is the ability for players to be a bit entrepreneurial. As an example, one could do some research and set up a private store with potions at a hub location next to a heavily trafficked PvE or PvP area.

There will be online events (similar to beta) to try the game before we launch it here in EU/NA (this fall, as Cynthe said), and rest assured that the quality will be high as we're working hard to polish localization (putting a lot of energy into this aspect) and making sure that other features are launched top-notch and perhaps tweaked a bit for our market where necessary. Anyone who choses to wait for our preview events here will get a great experience, no doubt, as we are then able to present the game to you the way it's meant to. :)

We haven't begun sending out official Aion newsletters at all yet ("rarely" is not the right word, hehe). The one above is in fact not official, but a member mail that was sent out by a fansite.

2009 has been our aim for quite a while now and I'm very confident that we'll get Aion out for you this year. While we have decided to not specify a date until a little bit closer up, the game has greatly superseded any competition in Korea and is definitely coming to the EU/US.

End of story. ;)

Good luck in getting this together! :)

I'm going to Copenhagen tomorrow and will be giving demos to Danish press. Hopefully you'll get some Aion coverage around where you live in a while.

We've made the decision that an official forum is not needed right now. What we're doing instead is to monitor and participate in discussions on our most ambitious fansites. Basically, someone posting something on one of those boards will get the same attention from our side (the Community Team) as a posting on any official forum would. :)

Stay tuned for updates on the matter.

No demo application for character creation has been released by us at this point, I'm afraid.

Interesting observation.

Tabula Rasa and Aion have however very little in common other than NCsoft as a publisher, much like Guild Wars and Aion, or City of Heroes and Lineage II. :)

Just to clarify, AznKenshin is a moderator on the fansite Aionsource and not an official NCsoft representative.

The message is still accurate, however! :)

Originally posted by Blaad

Originally posted by Ayase

2. See question (4) at http://www.aionsource.com/forum/61489-post35.html . I can't go into exact methods (and I hope you have understanding for that), but we will be doing everything that is within our power to make sure that people won't be bothered by such EULA-breaking things.

 

Since NCsoft uses selective enforcement of the L2 EULA as a technique for maintaining subscriber numbers as high as possible how can your customers be confident that NCsoft will make an honest effort to enforce the EULA in Aion? In other words,  if NCsoft won't enforce the rules in L2 when it doesn't benefit the bottom line why should anyone expect you to enforce the EULA in Aion if it doesn't benefit the bottom line?

I have never worked on Linage II and neither has anyone on my team, so I am unable to give you an answer that pertains to to it. Aion is my focus and you can be sure that it gets my full attention. I know that there are sceptics enough to fill a football stadium out there, however, and many of those won't take my word for it. To that end we can't prove that we will do a serious effort in 'keeping Aion clean' until the show-down comes, but you better count on that we will. :)

Originally posted by Fihtheninja

The only thing I am worried about is not if you will make a fun game, but rather will it be supported. If you could Ayase, could you help me out with a few questions real quick.

 

1. Will 'the west' receive patches later then Korea
2. How will NCsoft prevent bots
3. Any idea what the GM to player ratio will be
4. Will gold farmers and gold buyers be banned.

Thats all I can really think of as concerns and for an MMORPG and if thats all I can think of then you are doing an amazing job. Heck if we can just have some solid answers (Or the willingness to change to a better solution) on those questions you might end up making 30% of your income in the states rather then 13%.

1. I can of course not see into the future, so it's hard to tell what exactly it will look like, but our aim in the long run is to get it as close as possible, if not eventually at the same time.

2. See question (4) at http://www.aionsource.com/forum/61489-post35.html . I can't go into exact methods (and I hope you have understanding for that), but we will be doing everything that is within our power to make sure that people won't be bothered by such EULA-breaking things.

3. Afraid not. We'll make sure it's enough, though.

4. Yes, to the extent we can. See my answer to question 2. Gold sellers/buyers are impossible to eliminate completely, but we will put resources into making sure that we've done everything we can at the end of the day. As with number #2, I can't go into much more detail. Ultimately, we'll need to prove ourselves capable of handling this, and we will. :)

Originally posted by Datcyde

Originally posted by Ayase

Originally posted by Cynthe

Originally posted by Ayase

I think and hope that the very fact that I'm here right now, replying to this thread, is an indicator of what attention you can expect from us in the future.

 

Honestly I hope so, will the NA and EU website now merge? Since there's no NC Austin anymore.

Afraid I don't have an answer on that right now... We're working on sorting it out.

 

Ayese I think its awsome that that you respond to us!  but   to really care for us then we need to have the Korean version for the game and the NA version of the game to release at the same time or close to that it would be like a "Giant Hand Shake".

Trust me - If we could give it to you sooner, we would. We're not holding on to a finished copy of Aion in English/French/German for the heck of it. ;)

The simplest answer is that there's a lot of work involved in bringing this game to Europe/NA, and we're not willing to make any compromises.

Originally posted by Cynthe

Originally posted by Ayase

I think and hope that the very fact that I'm here right now, replying to this thread, is an indicator of what attention you can expect from us in the future.

 

Honestly I hope so, will the NA and EU website now merge? Since there's no NC Austin anymore.

Afraid I don't have an answer on that right now... We're working on sorting it out.

Originally posted by tastethegold

the fact that you even care about this game is what is bothersome, nc soft sucks! move along and stop trying to push it, they dont give a fff what you want. they will continue to push generic games day in and day out DUH!

the fact that you think this will be something other than a weeabo infested crapfest blows my mind.

Thank you for your interest! :)

Now, for the rest of you. Of course we care. We care a whole lot actually. The development team has a vision with Aion - be that to your liking or not - and that means that not everything will be changeable. It's meant to be a certain way. There is however a plethora of things that can be either changed or further developed. Even if an individual's voice easily gets lost in the crowd, we will be doing what we can to scan and relay the community frequencies for opinions and ideas. Saying that we don't care about our players is like saying that a chef doesn't care about the ones he cooks for. The Seoul office is focusing on and gathering feedback from the audience in Korea while we will be doing the same thing once we reach a comparable stage over here.

I think and hope that the very fact that I'm here right now, replying to this thread, is an indicator of what attention you can expect from us in the future.

Originally posted by Renessa

 

Originally posted by Aeroangel

Originally posted by Tekkaman

It's good that they stole Perfect World's character creation considering this is basically Perfect World 2 on crack.

 

The game isn't going to be like PW, but I'd say PW's character creation is better since you can make black people actually black and not silver-grey or whatever they are in those screens

The Obama one amused me though

 

Hmm - hasn't the skin colour something to do with the lore? I think, there are only pinkish and blueish hues.

I think the Obama one is really cool. At least Americans now have a President, who is handsome enough to be an avatar in a PC game!  We Germans have got Angela Merkel....

Yep indeed, the skin shades that can be chosen depend on your faction. The Elyos have more human-like hues while the Asmodians (as the Obama above was made as) have paler and colder hues. :)
 

Visit http://aion.plaync.co.kr and follow the instructions. ;)

Originally posted by Datcyde

 Hey do they really need to make a Aion NA  Beta testing just like the Korean one ? I mean  once they tweak the game just the right way on Korean version cant they just make a duplicate English version for NA ?

I'm asking this because 1st Ide love to get this game at christmas time 2nd it would be great to  get the patches at the same time or close to the Korean version this time :).

I think you're underestimate the work involved in localizing a game and preparing for its release! ;)

We have no intention of releasing Aion in anything but brilliant shape. That means that we're taking our time to ensure localization is properly done (including cultural adaptions), that server infrastructure is reliable and working, and not to forget -- that people know about the game. It's been a good ride so far, and we're still not up for an entirely clear lane. Release is 2009, and we'll get back with a date or more precise time span as soon as we can.

No final decision has been made in regards to the structure of the events yet, but we'll an announcement when we know. :)

Aion is much more than the lower level PvE experience, which I incidentally think is really well made. Just past level 10 begins the post-learning gameplay, when you get your wings and start to learn more about the world outside the protected valley you start out in.  I dare to say that the gameplay is very solid, polished and enjoyable all the way through, but Aion truly shines when flying comes into the picture, when you begin to pursue crafting, when you enter The Abyss... These key elements happen after what Ephimero above described as the tutorial (I would call it a hybrid introduction/immersion area) and I think it's a shame that you didn't get to try them out at our hands-on in PAX -- well, all in due time,  right?

We will be launching Preview Events next year and will try to display as many aspects of the game as we can at that time. If you give it another chance then hopefully Aion will change your mind. :)