Check out this video interview with Associate Producer Lani “Liv” Blazier on the Electric Playground! Lani gives you the rundown on the story of Aion, shares the scoop on why you should play, and more in this electrifying interview.

Visit Electric Playground now to watch the video showcasing the “hot-looking-game” coming this fall!

The first closed beta event for Aion took flight from June 5-7, 2009. Thousands of players logged in and pounded on the server, NPCs, and quests to give the game its first big test of server stability and infrastructure - and Aion ran smoothly all weekend long.

Legions of eager testers created characters to venture into the lands of the Elyos for the first time. A number of players were in high spirits and provided fantastic feedback on their initial encounter with the world of Atreia.

“The game itself…I am in love with it.”

“It’s the best first day of a closed beta I’ve seen.”

“Looks really impressive. Looks like we could spend a weekend on character creation alone.”

Ten Ton Hammer also shared their favorite impressions of Aion, providing an in-depth look at the first closed beta event.

“Aion could quite possible be the first Korean MMO to make a major impact on the North American market.”

Thank you to all participants for sharing your view! The Aion quality assurance and customer service teams are busy catching up on all of the comments, reports, and constructive feedback from this first event to provide an even better experience for upcoming beta events and beyond.

Stay tuned to the official Aion web site and Twitter for announcements on the next closed beta event (June 19, 2009), including the focus of testing and your chance to be a part of it!

In the spring of 2005, a little game called Guild Wars came roaring into existence hot on the heels of a series of highly successful beta weekend events. For a game that ultimately took traditional MMO conventions and turned them on their ear, offering capsulated experiences leading up to launch rather than a full-blown open beta served to build up a critical mass of hype. Four years and over six million units later the Guild Wars franchise is still going strong, even after launching during a window of time when the World of Warcraft snowball effect was picking up speed and showing no signs of slowing down.  

A major contributing factor to the success of those weekend events was the fact that players were being exposed to a game that was extremely polished and ultimately fun to play on many different levels. Between events communities and guilds were formed as players contemplated not only what they wanted to achieve with their characters during the next event, but after the launch of GW as well.

When I first learned that NCSoft would be following a similar approach by hosting a series of beta events for Aion leading up to launch, I couldn’t help but consider this a smart move. Only time will tell whether Aion will become another MMO success story in the pages of the NCSoft history books, but if this weekend was any indication, Aion has certainly set the stage for what I’d consider to be the first true blending of an eastern approach to game design delivered in a distinctly western wrapper.

For the kickoff event, players were allowed to create characters from the Elyos and advance them up to level 20, with the Asmodians and higher level content presumably earmarked for future weekend events. The character creation process itself is fairly straight forward, though ended up being far more robust than I’d originally envisioned thanks to a slick interface revealed after making your core class selection; Warrior, Scout, Mage or Priest. On the cosmetic side, dozens of preset combinations and hairstyles are available as is the option to fine-tune specific facial features and body parts.

One thing that stood out for me is that players are able to create believably young or even outwardly haggard characters rather than simply sticking to the realm of unearthly beauty that’s typical especially of female characters in MMOs. The most dramatic shifts can be seen on the male end of the spectrum, though expect to wade through a high volume of overly androgynous preset options in the process of tweaking a character to your liking. Another nice touch is allowing players to toggle starting and more advanced armors to give you an idea what your character might look like decked out in high end gear. So for example if you wanted to create a crazy hobo assassin and are curious to see what they might look like with a giant unicorn head placed squarely on their shoulder, you’re certainly able to do so!
Your first steps into Aion as an Elyos will land you on the island of Poeta after having woken from an odd slumber that has left you searching for answers and a desire to recover lost memories of a former life as a Daeva. This will be the main storyline that will sweep you through roughly the first nine levels and ultimately drives you to recall having been the leader of a great legion in the Abyss who fell in battle, which is a clever way of guiding players towards their subclass selection, but I’ll get into that a bit more later on.

The first thing that struck me which I feel deserves special mention here, is that Aion is not only an incredibly beautiful game, but that I suffered only the most minimal of performance hits when I first logged in to see the starting area flooded with literally hundreds of other players. With all graphical settings turned up to their max I never fell below 30 fps, most often seeing closer to 100+ which is no mean feat considering how visually stunning both environments and combat animations are. It’s also worth noting that I was playing on a somewhat middle of the road PC, with a 2.60 GHz dual-core processor, 4gigs of RAM and a 9800gtx GPU; so not a powerhouse machine by any means. The graphics also scale incredibly well, so that even with everything turned down to the lowest settings Aion still carries that otherworldly glow of a believable and visually appealing game world. Throughout the weekend I had an entirely stable, lag-free experience which just goes to show that once the localization efforts for Aion have been completed, the game is certainly ready for prime time and will hopefully offer an equally solid experience for a broad spectrum of PC users.

Another thing I took an immediate liking to is the slick, one-piece UI. While there is the option to toggle the placement of your character’s status window and the mini-map at the top of the screen which has become somewhat of an industry norm, I’m one of those players who will typically opt for a less cluttered screen in exchange for a better view of my surroundings. Many of the other bells and whistles you’d come to expect from a newer western MMO are also present such as the option to add more hotbars at the click of a mouse or even being able to preview armors before attuning them to your character. During my exploration I also discovered such perks as being able to retain the visual appearance of a particular piece of armor while gaining the benefits from a newer equipped piece by paying a simple fee (which is currently only available at level 30).

While I’m on the subject of fees, many gameplay elements eventually will end up costing you Kinah, the main currency in Aion. Examples here would include travel or teleportation between areas, removing the XP debt obtained upon death or even some of the advanced work orders you’ll likely end up doing as a means of advancing your crafting skills. Thankfully Kinah is also generously handed out as quest rewards and even the most basic dropped items sell to vendors for a decent price, so I never really encountered an instance of feeling a pinch in my coin purse even when teleporting back and forth from the crafting workshop and the bank numerous times or paying the fee to bind my recall point to a new area.

Your first steps into Aion as an Elyos will land you on the island of Poeta after having woken from an odd slumber that has left you searching for answers and a desire to recover lost memories of a former life as a Daeva. This will be the main storyline that will sweep you through roughly the first nine levels and ultimately drives you to recall having been the leader of a great legion in the Abyss who fell in battle, which is a clever way of guiding players towards their subclass selection, but I’ll get into that a bit more later on.

The first thing that struck me which I feel deserves special mention here, is that Aion is not only an incredibly beautiful game, but that I suffered only the most minimal of performance hits when I first logged in to see the starting area flooded with literally hundreds of other players. With all graphical settings turned up to their max I never fell below 30 fps, most often seeing closer to 100+ which is no mean feat considering how visually stunning both environments and combat animations are. It’s also worth noting that I was playing on a somewhat middle of the road PC, with a 2.60 GHz dual-core processor, 4gigs of RAM and a 9800gtx GPU; so not a powerhouse machine by any means. The graphics also scale incredibly well, so that even with everything turned down to the lowest settings Aion still carries that otherworldly glow of a believable and visually appealing game world. Throughout the weekend I had an entirely stable, lag-free experience which just goes to show that once the localization efforts for Aion have been completed, the game is certainly ready for prime time and will hopefully offer an equally solid experience for a broad spectrum of PC users.

Another thing I took an immediate liking to is the slick, one-piece UI. While there is the option to toggle the placement of your character’s status window and the mini-map at the top of the screen which has become somewhat of an industry norm, I’m one of those players who will typically opt for a less cluttered screen in exchange for a better view of my surroundings. Many of the other bells and whistles you’d come to expect from a newer western MMO are also present such as the option to add more hotbars at the click of a mouse or even being able to preview armors before attuning them to your character. During my exploration I also discovered such perks as being able to retain the visual appearance of a particular piece of armor while gaining the benefits from a newer equipped piece by paying a simple fee (which is currently only available at level 30).

While I’m on the subject of fees, many gameplay elements eventually will end up costing you Kinah, the main currency in Aion. Examples here would include travel or teleportation between areas, removing the XP debt obtained upon death or even some of the advanced work orders you’ll likely end up doing as a means of advancing your crafting skills. Thankfully Kinah is also generously handed out as quest rewards and even the most basic dropped items sell to vendors for a decent price, so I never really encountered an instance of feeling a pinch in my coin purse even when teleporting back and forth from the crafting workshop and the bank numerous times or paying the fee to bind my recall point to a new area.

The early levels are spent questing and getting a general feel for both your archetype and how combat differs ever so slightly from what you might have experienced in previous MMOs. One example here would be the combo system that, on the surface, appears somewhat complex but has been seamlessly integrated into the combat experience much better than previous iterations on the concept such as the Heroic Opportunities in EverQuest 2 or whack-a-mole combos in Age of Conan. Hitting the combo starter will temporarily swap out the same keybinding with the next skill in the chain which makes pulling off some of the longer chains you’ll experience later on a breeze.

Combat does tend to feel a bit slow at first, but ultimately hits a point in the early teens where it not only becomes more involved, but has a distinct visual flair as well. Though I did spend some time with each of the core archetypes during the event, I quickly took a liking to the Gladiator subclass. The interface is comfortable and familiar when playing the class, while combat itself felt extremely fluid and graceful. Gladiators attack in a series of grandiose, sweeping movements that instantly brought fighting games such as Soul Calibur IV to mind much more so than anything I’ve experienced in an MMO previously. I’m definitely looking forward to seeing how the class fares in aerial combat in the Abyss should the option become available in future weekend events, but for now I was quite content to scamper around and beat the living snot out of everything that stood in my path; all the while looking the part of a badass warrior with some seriously mean moves.

Flight itself becomes available upon completion of a quest you automatically gain at level nine that allows you to select which of the eight unique subclasses to advance your character into. One minor sticking point here is that, for such a hefty decision, the subclasses themselves are only briefly described in a few simple lines of text with many offering a completely different playstyle than what you might have experienced in the first nine levels. For example, Scouts can become either an Assassin or Ranger; with the first nine levels dedicated to melee attacks and more assassin-oriented combat it would be hard to really understand how vastly different the Ranger subclass would pan out since you haven’t seen any of its skills in action at that point. This reminded me of certain aspects of EQ2’s long-gone archetype system where you’d spend 20 levels essentially playing a Conjuror only to have an entirely different experience with your Necromancer later on.

Abrupt, non-descript “here’s your future” decision-making aside, at level 10 characters finally become Daeva and earn their wings. Most combat areas were designated as no-fly zones, but there were enough areas where flight was an option to get a decent feel for how much it will impact gameplay later on. Even in the no-fly zones your wings can still come in handy, as a quick double tap of the spacebar allows you to glide for short, 10 second bursts which can dramatically speed up travel in areas with terrain of varied elevations or even in Sanctum, the main city hub you’ll also gain access to upon becoming a Daeva as an Elyos. In certain areas crafting components can only be harvested while in flight as well, which certainly adds new a new layer of depth to such an otherwise commonplace activity.
Crafting itself takes place within Sanctum, and is somewhat easy to learn thanks to the above mentioned work orders you can obtain from various NPCs related to the specific trade you’d like to advance. This weekend I opted to explore Armorsmithing to see if I could craft myself a new set of armor for my Gladiator, which I was able to achieve though it did involve a fair amount of travel to obtain all the necessary components. Most recipes involved a mix of crafted, dropped and harvested subcomponents, adding a layer of complexity to an otherwise straight forward process. Basic recipes could either be purchased from a vendor or granted as work order rewards, with some rare recipes dropped randomly as loot.

As a means of circumventing all the component gathering involved in crafting it was also exceedingly easy to hop on over to the local trade broker, or Aion also allows players to whip out a stool and set up a personal shop anyplace they’d like. These personal shops also allow players to advertise their wares with a small floating text box, or in some cases I saw them being used as recruitment tools for legions, Aion’s version of guilds. While I like the concept and can see the potential for centralized, player-driven swap meets ala the early days of EQ in the East Commonlands tunnel, I can also see the potential means for gold farmers to get some cheap (OK, free) in-game advertising if the system isn’t kept in check. Hopefully towns and outposts won’t become flooded with this kind of thing come launch, but the system itself is a nice way of allowing players to buy and sell items without having to constantly run back to the city to do so.

Overall, based on my experiences this weekend I’d say Aion is coming along exceptionally well, and could quite possibly be the first Korean MMO to make a major impact on the North American market. The extra time spent with localization is paying off, even if some elements haven’t quite fallen into place as of yet. Still, many of the rumors that Aion is simply a grindfest or lacks the flair necessary to appeal to a western audience can finally be put to rest, as the game is already incredibly polished and packed with potential. This is one game to keep your eye on in the coming months, and in the meantime I’m looking forward to getting some hands-on time both with the Asmodians and some of the higher level PvP in the Abyss.

I was fortunate enough to spend the weekend playing Aion, and the developers are so confident they’ve got a winner that they’ve allowed beta testers to share their thoughts and impressions… and screenshots! An MMO can’t be judged in one weekend, but here are a few of my first thoughts on this baby:

The Good

Beautiful graphics.The screenshots don’t do this world justice at all. It’s true epic fantasy. And the graphics aren’t just lovely, they’re functional. With dozens, even hundreds of finely rendered characters cramming the newb area, with shining weapons and elaborate animations whacking bipedal rats, I experienced zero lag. No stuttering, no rubber banding, no casting delays, not a single problem.

My machine is Dell with a dual core (1.86 Ghz) running XP with two GB of RAM and an NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GTS. It’s two years old, and loaded up with every MMO in existence, half a dozen RPGs, and a crapload of my secret vice, puzzle adventures. Oh, and while I was playing Aion, I had my email and IM running, as well as an image editing program open to crop screenshots on the fly.

Animations.Speaking of beautiful, someone had fun with these, and the fun is contagious. My warrior was a little too “Asian schoolgirl” for my blood, but these look like they were done with motion capture technology. I’m going to say hands down, best jump animation (or really the best landing from a jump animation) in an MMO, ever. I also wonder where the heck my character keeps her pom poms when the /cheer isn’t in effect.

A great, intuitive interface.I was asked to post no pictures of the interface, but I don’t know why. It’s in better shape than the interface of a number of launched MMOs. In the quest journal, every noun is highlighted, and clicking gives you more information, waypoint marking options, and more. I did no research, checked no beta boards, nothing, and I figured out everything I needed to know about upgrading my armor, collecting crafting ingredients, looting, and special attacks in less than five minutes. I’m usually not that competent.

Lots of “cool” factor.At level one, I have nifty looking gear, awesome animations, special effects, and personality. My only concern here is how on earth can I get more cool looking as I grow in power?

The Bad

No bug reporting.Wha? Excuse me? Big beta weekend, heap big deal, but finishing the bug report tool wasn’t a priority? Sorry, but I don’t report bugs via a forum, and in 2009 I definitely don’t read multiple pages of a thread with no visible dev involvement to see if it’s been reported. This screams “we don’t care about what you say,” to me.

Backstory? What backstory?They must be assuming that all of us have read every released word online, or the wiki entry, because there was zero effort at explaining anything story-wise to my character at level one. Or two. I’d been playing for hours before the game informed me that I’d lost my memory at some point in the past.

Same old MMO starter levels.Despite being awesome looking, despite lots of nifty innovations in gear and strategy, and despite a number of indicators that (to the experienced eye) suggest that a really solid PVP team built this thing, the first five levels are exactly like every game you ever played. The early quests are by and large mediocre, with the added benefit of all of the NPCs insulting you.

The insulting a level one character is very Asian, in my experience - those on the bottom level of society, the newbs if you will, are not entitled to respect up front. You have to prove yourself. And indeed, the NPCs grow more courteous as you level, which tells me it’s an intentional element of the storytelling. I still wonder how willing a Western audience will be to tolerate this. The very first thing I got upon logging in was accused of sleeping on the job, and ten minutes later I was told I had no honor. Quite a cold shower after years of being the hero come to save us all.

The Unknown

I have yet to try flying or PVP - possibly the major attractions for this particular title.

The Full Metal Awesome

Okay, so, there’s this quest, and when you complete it, you get a glimpse of the world you’ve forgotten, and I cannot describe it to you. I can’t describe it because it will ruin the wow factor for you when you get to it, and I couldn’t possibly do it justice. It’s just a cut scene, but it is the most awesome thing in the universe. My jaw dropped. First of all, it’s visually stunning. Second, I have never before seen a cut scene that made me want to play this game for the next year just to do the things the scene implied I could eventually do.

In fact, the completion of this quest marked a real turning point. I started getting quests that were much more interesting and engaging, and I found it very difficult to stop playing.

The Short Version

Despite a tedious beginning, story wise, this title has a lot of potential. The tremendous stability, the outstanding visuals, the wonderful little interface innovations, and the now-intriguing plotline have me psyched for more.

《永恒之塔》在欧服的BETA测试即将开始，NCSoft特别邀请了在《魔兽世界》创下了无数功绩的妖孽公会Ensidia进行推广。只要你在相关新闻后面回帖“I want to play the Aion EU beta”（我想参加《永恒之塔》的欧服BETA测试），就有机会获得账号一枚，限量50。

　在欧美游戏市场，那些号称“WOW杀手”的MMO全部死得很惨，所以NCSoft的借花献佛实为明智之举。拒绝高调的口号，让另一个领域的王者为我们的产品宣传，很有绵里藏针的效果。

　　至于Ensidia为什么愿意帮忙，其实主页下面的介绍写得很清楚：Ensidia.com is an online community for MMO Gamers from around the world.（Ensidia.com是属于全世界MMO玩家的在线社区）——人家胃口大着呢……

　　截稿之时回帖已达658之多，99%都是“I want to play the Aion EU beta”，蔚为壮观……

　　当然，不愿意“保持队形”的也有，比如这句：I don’t want to play the Aion EU beta…

When NCsoft showed me a demo of their soon-to-launch, massively multiplayer fantasy game, Aion, at the E3 show, I saw a lot of reworked themes common to this fairly mature genre: A pair of at-odds races, each vying to wipe the other from their common home planet; user interface elements familiar to anyone who’s played any of NCsoft’s titles; and a persistent world that’s as dangerous as it is beautiful.

But what I didn’t expect was a discussion about the game’s launch in Asia, which happened some months ago, and how rapidly the game has caught on and expanded in China.

The game’s International Development Manager (international, that is, for South Korea-based NCsoft), Yong Taek Bae, explained that the game’s initial launch broke all kinds of records. On Aion’s Korean launch day, beginning at 6am local time, when the company switched on servers and began allowing paying customers to join the game, 11,000 players signed on each hour. By noon, the company had to turn on four additional servers — in addition to the 21 running at launch–to accommodate the crowd. Each server is capable of supporting 7000 simultaneous players.

But that was nothing compared to China, where the local company operating the service had to double the volume of servers after launch; They’re currently running around 70 servers continuously to handle the constant, heavy demand.

So the big question in my mind is, could Aion pose a significant challenge to the 800 lb. gorilla that is Blizzard’s World of Warcraft? If the draw in Asia is any indication, it’s certainly possible. One big question remains: Can the company  appropriately and accurately “re-culturize” the game — not just translate the text from Korean to English, but modify the storyline to accommodate English euphemisms, and American cultural references and themes. NCsoft says it’s hired a team of seasoned fantasy and sci-fi writers to do just that. It remains to be seen whether six months of tweaking and balancing gameplay based on player feedback, and good writing, will be able to help the game overcome the out-of-the-gate second class status afforded to any new, non-Blizzard MMO.

MMORPG.com is giving away 5,000 Aion closed beta keys. The first Aion beta event is this weekend. It begins Friday, June 5, 2009 at noon PT and ends at midnight PT on Sunday, June 7, 2009.

Click on the link that corresponds with your territory and get your key. Don’t miss out!

Aion Beta Event Key Giveaway! (NORTH AMERICA)

Aion Beta Event Key Giveaway! (EUROPE)

So the biggest letdown and good news for today is that Aion has just announced that it’s finally going beta this coming June 5 right after E3.

So to settle things first before people start looking idiotic and duh, duh-ing me and say “WTF is wrong with you?” I’m going to clear things up with the biggest letdown first to appease those itching for a debate.

As most of the people I see hanging around the site, the biggest issue they have with Aion is that it’s P2P.  As most people who are either too much of a cheapskate to waste their buck paying for a game or that they have other financial troubles, this would be the game’s biggest let-down. Let’s forget that the game looks good, that the screens do show something that is (maybe) worth playing and even spending some of those cash you have in reserve for, no, it’s P2P so it’s automatically a BOO game.

On the other hand, the game’s other merits include, a nice storyline, good looking characters and sprites, it would seem that the world is huge and you could just lose yourself inside the game, though of course one major drawback that Aion has is that it has a meager amount character job class found in an P2P MMO.

However, there’s a saying that goes that looks can be deceiving and maybe this is one of those instances where an MMO may be just that, looks. I still wouldn’t bet all my chips on that thought though till we enter the world of Aion. The game may be just eye candy and full of fan service or it may be worth your money spending on it.
We have to wait till the game opens to find out.

On a side note: to those who are going for private servers please do stop being parasites cause you are the ones who are killing MMOs, kthanxbai.