Greetings Daevas,

First off, I want to share that I am very excited to serve you—all of the Aion players—as Aion producer for NCsoft West. Having worked on Aion for the better part of two years, I’ve seen it grow from PAX 2007 and the first demo area in Poeta to prelaunch mayhem and now post-launch live operations. As a fellow Aion player myself, I have a vested interest in making it the best game possible, and helping you feel as excited about it as I am. Aion has huge potential, and we have only tapped the surface. We are working on a lot of exciting things set to release in both the near-term and long-term timeframe.

As the producer, one of my focus areas is to communicate frequently and honestly with you. Global coordination of a game as large as Aion takes a lot of planning. We know that at times you may feel like you’re wringing water out of a rock in regard to getting information from us, but we want to be cautious with telling you the correct information to not mislead the community. We are in constant communication with our development and production staff, and we really want to share with you more information on a regular basis, but due to scheduled release timing, localization efforts and Western development schedules, we aren’t always able to share what we’d really like to.

I know you have all been waiting with bated breath for information on the next game update. While I can’t give you a lot of details, I can tell you a couple of things that we are addressing in upcoming game updates. We’ve listened to your feedback and have been working diligently with the Korean development team, and we are proud to say that over the next few updates (the first of which will be coming in Q2 this year) we will address some of your major concerns: a desire for more content at lower levels, increased rewards for quests, and improved drop rates. Even though we aren’t always talking publicly about the next update, we are always listening and integrating feedback into the next update. As part of that, we’re trying to coordinate and deliver on what we say even before we say something. Our goal with update communications is to not only be transparent with you, but also give you a reason to trust us when we talk about updates so that you know we will deliver on what we share with you.

If you’ve been reading the news lately, you know that MMOs are under attack by RMTers (“gold sellers”) and hackers—not just Aion, but several other MMOs as well. Even Google has been the target of recent attacks. To combat this, NCsoft has been communicating with several other MMO companies about ways we can fight back as an industry. At NCsoft, you already know that we regularly review our account security processes and implement changes on an ongoing basis to ensure your Aion accounts, in addition to your other NCsoft game accounts are secure. These complex systems take time, require rigorous procedures, and need a very steady hand to balance additions and not disrupt the security measures currently in place. We sincerely appreciate the patience you have shown as we take time to make sure we are setting up and implementing the appropriate systems to best protect you.

This year in Aion, you will notice that we are implementing a lot of the suggestions you’ve sent us about the game services we offer. We’re also planning on providing you more services and increased interaction with our team. We recently introduced exciting paid services (name change, Legion name change, character customization, and gender change), and we will be adding more services throughout the year aimed at improving your experience. (Yes, server transfers are coming!)

We also recognize that our in-game events have been disappointing to you, and we aim to fix that. Along with the introduction of double XP weekends (as experienced during the Christmas holiday), we started offering scheduled server-wide events players could enjoy on a more regular basis. In the future, look for us to add new events like reduced Kinah soul-healing weekends. (Yes, that’s what you think it is—cheap soul healing for everyone!)

To go hand-in-hand with the additional server-wide events, our community team is hard at work planning and prepping both in-game and out-of-game events for you. The first event of this nature we ran recently in game, and it featured two Shugos who were in love but constantly separated. Many adventurers of Atreia aided in reuniting this couple, and the overall response from this event was extremely positive. It is this level of service that we will hold ourselves to going forward. Events like this will let you talk to and play with our community staff, and they help foster and grow our relationship with you as the year goes on.

To close, I want to reiterate that Aion has phenomenal potential, as I’ve personally seen glimpses of it myself. And as the producer of Aion, I will lead our hard-working, effective, creative production and community teams to increase the level of our service in and out of the game, taking Aion to a new level with you by our side.

Chris “Kinslon” Hager

Greetings Daevas!

Now that the Solorius Festival has officially begun, we’d like to see how you’re celebrating! From Tuesday, December 22, 2009 until January 5, 2010, we’re giving you the chance to win prizes from AMD and SteelSeries simply by creating a video that highlights the Solorius Festival.

To enter, post a video response to this video on our YouTube channel. You must then send an email to Aion_Community@ncsoft.com with all the information required in section “1. Entry” of the (Official Rules and Conditions). Every eligible video entry must contain in-game footage that promotes the Solorius Festival and cannot contain any vulgar references or profanity.

If we select your video as a winner, you will be handsomely rewarded with prizes from our sponsors, and we will highlight your video within the Aion community.

For more information that includes a sample video entry, watch the Solorius Festival Contest Introduction Video at the Aion US YouTube page. Have fun with the contest, and enjoy the Solorius Festival!

—The Aion Community Team

Aion™ Solorius Festival Contest Full Prize List
All listed estimate retail values are in US dollars.

Official Rules and Conditions | Contract of Assignment and Release

First Prize (1)
ATI Radeon™ HD 5770 Graphics Card $179.99
SteelSeries Siberia v2 Full-size USB Headset $109.99
SteelSeries Xai Laser Mouse $79.99
SteelSeries QcK Limited Edition Aion Asmodian Mousepad $14.99
SteelSeries Zboard Limited Edition Aion Keyset $24.99
SteelSeries Zboard $49.99

Aion Themed Backpack $24.99

Second Prize (1)
SteelSeries Siberia v2 Full-size Headset $89.99
SteelSeries Kinzu Optical Mouse $34.99
SteelSeries QcK Limited Edition Aion Asmodian Mousepad $14.99

Aion Themed Backpack $24.99

Third Prize (1)
SteelSeries Kinzu Optical Mouse $34.99
SteelSeries QcK Limited Edition Aion Asmodian Mousepad $14.99

Aion Themed Backpack $24.99

WATCH VIDEO!

includes:

* A serial code for account creation.
* Access to the full Aion™ game via downloadable client.
* 30 days of game time. Activation with a valid credit card or game time card is required.

Seven (7) Days of Additional Free Game Time: One extra week of free game time
* Black Cloud Hat (gives boosts to HP, MP, magical resistance, and evasion)
* Lodas’ Amulet (gives a +20% experience boost)
* Ancient Ring of Wind

The Aion Collector’s Edition gives you these additional in-game items:
* Black Cloud Wings (+40 seconds of additional flight time; available at level 30)
* Black Cloud Earring (+72 HP and +72 MP; available at level 20)
* Special character title (”Settler of Aion™ “) with stat boost
* Color dye (Rich Purple) to tint ten in-game items
* Two additional character emotes (Aion™ Boogie and Hip Hop)

Digital purchase only. No physical box will be shipped.
Supported languages: English, French, German

Monthly fee required to play: £8.99* / EUR 12,99*

On September 22 and 25 Aion was launched in Europe and North America.
The game is more then some expected. Developers have listened to beta testers and incorporated even many heavy-weight suggestions.
Many improvements with UI, connections latency game mechanics are already in place!

It’s time to try the game yourselves!

Headstart time is over and many claimed their Special Edition wings and other bonus items.
If you haven’t picked up your own pair of wings it’s not too late.
You can still grab Limited Collectors Edition version now! [EU]

Aion headstart schedule for EU and US is as follows:

September 18 - Pre-selection

September 20 - Preorder Headstart (NA + EU)

September 22 - Release North America

September 25 - Release Europe

See more info on forums about Aion and not too late to preorder Aion from our EU affiliates.

DOWNLOAD COLLECTORS EDITION NOW!

The maximum level will be level 30 for Elyos and Asmodians alike, encouraging you to spend some time to catch up with your friends or explore the vast lands of Atreia.

We want to conclude closed beta testing on a high note, so we are arranging a series of story-driven in-game events, in part hinting at some of the much-anticipated content forthcoming in our massive launch and pre-launch updates. Keep that F5 key handy, since more information on these live events is headed your way later this week!

Closed beta 6 is primed to rocket onto the servers on Friday, August 14, 2009, noon PT (8 p.m. BST, 9 p.m. CEST). Our beta forums open their gates two hours earlier, and access to them will be ongoing throughout the weekend until Monday.

Keep in mind that you will need either an exclusive Aion closed beta 6 access key, a full-access key acquired through fansite program competitions, or have preordered the game in order to partake in the event. A limited number of closed beta 6 access keys will be given away by a few selected gaming web sites over the coming week, so keep those eagle eyes open if you are looking to grab one.

Closed Beta event #5 (CB5) is incoming, ladies and gentlemen, and it’s coming with a respectable shipment of fixes, improvements and fine additions which we have worked hard to complete since the previous event. To give you an overview, please find below a pure list of things to expect for this coming weekend:

New Sound files have been added
NPCs should now have a greet and farewell voice
Cutscenes will now have voice
Race Prologues are now available when you create a new character for Elyos and Asmodian
Tutorial videos are now available in game via the help menu
Player voices are now available at character creation
System voices are now available
New NPC Dialogue/Quest text for Theobomos and Brusthonin
Various Localization fixes
Broken HTMLs have been fixed
Various grammatical errors have been fixed
Various Glossary term fixed
2 New servers added for each territory
Especially exciting for us is to introduce a first round of English audio, allowing you all to have a small taste of a more completely localized version of Aion. As we have announced before we are committed to releasing Aion with all its content adjusted and culturalized into top-notch English, including character voices and voice-overs. Keep in mind that these are currently implemented as a beta feature and that they will contain minor irregularities and bugs. Bear with us as we work to polish this and extend the volume of content even more in the foreseeable future. You will be able to log in to the game no later than on Friday noon PDT (8 PM BST, 9 PM CEST), marking the exciting dawn for two entirely new game servers for each territory. In order to promote newcomers to join these new servers, character creation will be disabled on all other servers during the beginning of the event.

Meanwhile, the much asked for beta forums will open for responsible posting again on Thursday 30th noon PDT (8 PM BST, 9 PM CEST). Don’t miss it, as constructive feedback means a lot to us and allows us to make even more accurate improvements to the game before launch.

Let us thereupon extend a hopefully helpful recommendation as conclusion to this announcement. The audio-rich patch for CB5 is definitely a big one, and it’s advisable for you to boot up your patcher as soon as possible in order to get the game ready for the weekend. Waiting until the last minute to download all the new content we’re pushing out for this event could mean that you miss out on a good amount of enjoyable playtime!

That’s all for now, see you in Atreia!

Good news is the Beta Keys given out to our members (aionthegame.com) do work.

Visit our forums to find out how to obtain an Exclusive Beta Tester Key!

Not only can you find the game at your favorite retail store, Aion will also be available as a digital download at NCsoft.com, Direct2Drive, and also through Steam this September.

Don’t forget to take advantage of the special preorder promotion at participating retailers now to receive access to the Closed Beta events as well as a head start to your journeys in Atreia.

Take to the skies and become a part of a stunning world brimming with otherworldly inhabitants, mysterious enemies and ancient secrets. There is no reason hesitate - Become a part of Aion this fall!

You can view and pre-order the game with exclusive bonuses  HERE