NCsoft aims to bridge the East-West divide with Aion

by James Egan Jun 18th 2009 at 7:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Aion, Game mechanics, Interviews, MMO industry, New titles

Stereotypes and ingrained perceptions can be frustrating to deal with, but let's face it -- some stereotypes do exist for a reason, and this can certainly apply to games as much as to anything else. There have been no small amount of Asian import MMOs that have been localized poorly for the western market, and this has certainly left a bad taste in gamers' mouths. Localization is a major challenge for any developer, and there's a rather wide chasm between what makes a game popular in an Asian market like Korea and what players embrace in the west. The westward-bound MMO that many people are focusing on right now is Aion, from NCsoft.

The westernization of Aion is the subject of another solid interview at The MMO Gamer by Steven Crews, who sat down with Aion producer Brian "Xaen" Knox, the person largely responsible for NC West's localization of this title. Knox talks about what he sees as being the best aspects of both East and West in terms of game development, and how some western influences on Aion's design have actually proven to be successful in Korea. It's a fairly in-depth interview and hits on a number of Knox's ideas about how a game can begin to bridge the game culture divide between East and West, seen in the context of Aion. Check it out over at The MMO Gamer.

What's your view of Aion from what you've read and seen thus far? Do you think this title will revitalize NCsoft's presence in the western markets after the closure of Tabula Rasa (and with the impending launch of new games like Champions Online that will compete with NCsoft's current titles)?

Tags: aion, asia, brian-knox, east, fantasy, game-design, game-mechanics, interviews, korea, localization, nc-west, ncsoft, steven-crews, the-mmo-gamer, west, xaen

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

cielo said on 7:42PM 6-18-2009

A great deal of western MMO players will bash anything that isnt easy or cater to casual players like WoW.

wolfsterne said on 8:02PM 6-18-2009

Some Western players will scream casual at anything that isn't a stab your eyes out grind fest. They fail at life so they must cling to their pixels. Also WoW like all other Blizzard game is phenomenally popular in Asia. The fact that NCsoft is taking many aspect from WoW should prove that even to the most dense basement dweller.

cielo said on 8:02PM 6-18-2009

Couldnt the same be said about any MMO player wolfsterne or is that a failed attempt to insult me?

Poxus said on 7:54PM 6-18-2009

Honestly...the only thing I can see from the screen-shots of the game that turns me off is how "oriental" all the characters look. It just doesn't "fit" right in my view for some reason...

i will still try it out in OB and reserve a real judgment on the game then...this is just my observations from the screen-shots so far.

devilsei said on 8:45PM 6-18-2009

You can change that though. I've seen people remake Arthas, Hie-hachi, Gollum (from LotR), and I've even seen Mr. Bean. The creation system is pretty robust. If anything, its like the CoX for fantasy games in terms of character customization.

starzzareblind said on 8:50PM 6-18-2009

Aion takes the best of both worlds, but is heavily lore and quest based progression. Aion has voice overs, and the western edition of the game was written from the ground up by western writers. There was no true translation to be had, except an english version of the games story and lore itself, and the writers worked from that to create the content for us. This game is not a grind-fest in the sense that you don't run around and kill 1,000 or more monsters to level. There are various types of quests, and the game-world has aspects of it that change due to what is going on. This game has its similarities to WoW, as well as other games but it takes what blizzard did with WoW, and takes it to the next level, while having its own unique mechanics and systems. Character development, and story is much more a part of Aion than it has been in any game previously.

Between Korea, and China, Aion already has grown, and maintained a 3.5 million subscriber rate since it was released. It mostly receives praise and very positive reviews by not only players, but also by critics which is not something thats all too typical in this industry. One major pitfall recent MMORPG's have had the past couple of years is they don't have enough content at launch to sustain the playerbase, and that being the primary problem. Aion will launch in the U.S. as version 1.3. It will have 3 major content updates right away, already a part of our game which will include several additional zones full with their own quests and functions, as well as dozens of additional quests, character customization options, itemization, and PvP/PvPvE zones. Also in 1.3 there will be new content to fill in the middle part of the game even further so that there is absolutely no shortage in progression content.

I would say this NCsoft is playing all of their cards right with this game, it was developed to merge both unique player bases into one large melting pot of a game. I am looking forward to playing it both in beta, and at launch. Also, do not judge a game entirely by it's beta. Especially a game like this. The beta version will not be 1.3, or even 1.2. It is 1.0 the very basic game that will not be what we are playing at the launch.

Weile said on 9:10PM 6-18-2009

FINALLY! Someone with some sense, man. I couldn't have said it better myself!

Kenniston said on 10:25PM 6-18-2009

Don't forget... there is also a possibility of playing Obama in Aion-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-2BzE4fqsU

Myria said on 1:47AM 6-19-2009

Funny, GW, ostensibly an NCSoft product (albeit more Anet's baby) did reasonable well in the West and was, for a while, hugely popular in Korea.

So, what, it's only a "bridge" if it's a Korean game brought to the West and not vice-versa?

(Leaving aside, of course, pesky things like WoW's huge success in China or FFXI doing reasonably well in the US, which begs the question of whether the divide being bridged is, as intimated, really cultural or just that the vast, vast bulk of the games brought over were so terribad no sane person would touch them with a ten foot pole)

That aside, it is interesting to note how NCSoft seems to be suffering from GW amnesia in its push to make Aion seem new and unique. Not a good sign for Anet, at least not if Aion does at all well.

wolfsterne said on 7:47AM 6-19-2009

This, This, a million times This^.

a couple MMO's have done very well in Asia. WoW, Guild Wars. and from what I read last Week War of all things. Yet none of that counts because it's not East to West...what is it with western Journalist and the game industry that has this Lower Caste mentality when they speak on Western products...it's like the Evil America syndrome has bled over in a most inappropriate and dare I say ridiculous manner.

Abriael said on 11:00AM 6-19-2009

you ain't bridging any divide when you throw players in getto regional servers (asians with asians, europeans with europeans, americans with americans). The only ones that are doing the right thing in this field are Square-Enix with Final Fantasy XIV. Release at the same time, in all regions, with all the players from all over the world playing on the same servers.
That's what i call "bridging divides". A lil less grind (and it's "a lil" don't expect miracles) doesn't make an "international" game.

Tom said on 4:03PM 6-19-2009

I will probably try Aion out, but I have to admit the wings are a major turnoff, as are the armors and character models I've seen so far. I'm interested in this game, yes, but also very wary of it. As to whether it'll "bridge any divides" with me, I'm doubtful.

The game looks like a weird amalgam of World of Barbie, My Little Pony Land, and WoW, with a very frou-frou Asian-style patina splashed liberally over everything.

What intrigues me is the Aion world I've seen; I am also curious as to whether the PvE of this game (i.e., the quests) is handled well and is genuinely fun. If so, I may be able to stomach all the "prettiness" (gag).

I do keep hoping GW2 comes along soon, but I have a sick feeling it's been pushed into the shadows by the current darling of NCSoft's eye, Aion. :-(

arcady said on 1:22AM 6-21-2009

Probably on to something there. GW2 sounded amazing when announced. Too amazing. I'm worried they over promised on it.

Every Asian import MMO I've tried has had too stale of standing animations (looking stiff when you're just "hanging around" the local chat hub), standing poses that look 'odd' to a western eye, too anime-angled toons (this from an anime fan btw), and unfriendly controls (maybe you like WASD, but maybe I don't - every western MMO I have lets me re-map).

The translation doesn't just fail on culture, it can fail on critical game / UI expectations that differ across the ocean. And yes, even Asian Americans fluent in an Asian language (Korean in my case) who have lived in Asia can "fail to relate" to an import from Asia. I've grown up on Western made games, I have a western expectation to my UI - even if I have somewhat Eastern/Western hybrid cultural expectations.

Western games are also not as successful in the East as some westerners suppose. WoW may have sold well in Korea and China; but asks friends living there if they play it, and its rarely a top-end choice.

Jumping out of MMOs for a second, a lot of game designers trying to bridge here would do well to hop into Second Life for a few months. Its not an MMO, but it does offer something VERY valuable here: The content is player made, and it is popular in the US, Europe, AND Asia.

- You can jump into Second Life and by porting around learn very quickly just how "players" from these different regions expect different things. If you know your stuff, you could translate that into MMO terms.
- What do Asian / US players like in their UI?
In their animations?
In the look of their toons?
In the layout of the zones they prefer to inhabit?
- etc...

That's probably the best '3D environment' for learning that - since its customer made. You just have to be savy enough to translate '3D barbie world' into 'gamer expectation.' Its there, if you know how to read between the lines.

Will Aion succeed? I won't bet on it. It might, but probably not for the reasons its designers expect. I suspect it will be like all the other attempts before it that all claimed they would be the breakthrough.