Do you plan on participating in the Aion beta this weekend? If not, you may want to reconsider, because NCsoft is offering a pretty amazing contest for those of you who decide to play. Here's the rub: North American players who log into the Aion closed beta this weekend (July 2nd to July 6th) and obtain level 3 are entered to win a trip to Seattle for themselves and a friend. This trip culminates at the Aion launch party at the Seattle Space Needle, where they'll also get to attend the PAX 2009 expo.

Pretty cool, right? We're sure that many of you would kill to get a chance to play Aion at all, let alone be entered into this contest. So make sure you get to at least level 3 if you're playing this weekend. You may as well if you're already going to play at all, right? And if you really want that beta key now -- but haven't had the luck to nab one -- preorder customers are given access to every beta event. You can find the page for preordering yourself a copy right here.

NCsoft is hoping that the pairing of flight and fantasy in Aion will prove to be a hit in both North America and Europe. Gamers who were accepted into the betas have been asking the Aion team about which version of the title the Western markets will see at launch. NCsoft has announced: "Aion is planned to release with version 1.5, the third major game update, bringing the content as up to date as possible. The Aion team strives to keep the game content consistent between territories, and releasing with this game version brings us one step closer to this goal."

Our own Lesley Smith has been writing about her experiences with the game through Aion's various beta test phases, particularly the experience of becoming a Daeva as an Elyos or as an Asmodian; we recommend reading her hands-on series if you're interested in this title. Massively will continue to cover Aion leading right up to the game's September launch.

MMO players come in all shapes and sizes and boast a variety of personality traits. Picking a race, class, and faction combination in your favorite MMO can sometimes give an insightful look at the player behind the keyboard. At least, Paul Barnett thinks so: "Most of the people I've met who like Dwarfs basically look like Dwarfs."

That may be true because I'm a pretty tall and lean person and I hate playing Dwarves. Then again, my MMO history includes playing a number of Kobolds in Dark Age of Camelot and Goblins in Warhammer Online, so I could just be really strange.

While browsing the Aion community forums, we came across an interesting post. One of the board members has written up a quick and quirky guide for choosing one of the game's eight classes based on one's personality. Obviously, numbers and stats play a huge factor in making class decisions for many players, but this could be a more healthy approach.

At the very least, you will gain a better understanding of the kinds of people playing these classes, which could give you a strategic advantage when you run into them on the battlefield.

The folks over at Ten Ton Hammer have been cranking out a number of features that examine the various class archetypes and specialty classes of Aion. So far, they've produced two game guides showcasing the Priest and Mage archetypes and had four interviews with NCsoft discussing the Gladiator, Templar, Ranger, and Assassin specialty classes.

When creating a character in Aion, you must initially choose one of four available archetypes. Anyone who has played a fantasy MMO or RPG in the past decade or so will find them quite familiar. They are the Warrior, Scout, Priest, and Mage.

Once you reach level 9, you're sent on a quest to discover your true identity and ascend to daevahood. The quest is like Red Bull - it gives you wings. At this point you must choose a specialty class defined by your original archetype. Warriors become Gladiators or Templars. Scouts become Rangers or Assassins. Priests become Clerics or Chanters. Mages become Sorcerers(esses) or Spiritmasters.

By our count, TTH has covered half the archetypes and specialty classes so far, so keep your eyes peeled for the second half coming soon. We'll also bring you our own impressions of these classes when beta permits. So far, we've been limited to testing some pretty low level characters.

It's not everyday that we find a letter addressed to an entire company's audience when it's posted on a specific game site, but that's what NCsoft West's executive producer, Lance Stites has done with his recent letter to the Aion community.

To sum up his letter, it's been a busy series of restructuring the company and preparing for their next big release: Aion. While much of the focusing has been on Aion, the company isn't looking away from Lineage, Lineage II or Exteel. Those are still high on the company's priority list, according to Stites.

But things are going along smoothly for Aion, as more voice overs are currently being recorded, the localization is continuing smoothly, and tutorial videos are in production. It sounds like Aion really is the golden game of the studio, but it's also nice to hear about all of the staffing changes going on with the other games.

For the full letter and all of the nitty gritty of what's going on with the studio, head on over to Aion's website and check out Stites's report.

There might be another week until the next stage of the Aion beta but NCsoft are ramping up the excitement surrounding their next big MMO. Today they released a video showcasing yet another part of the rich world of Atreia. Profiling the Asmodian zone of Beluslan, the short video offers an eagle's eye view of what we can expect when the game goes on sale in September.

Join us after the jump for NCsoft's take on the zone as well as the video itself.

The hype surrounding Aion has certainly increased in the last month or two, particularly due to the hands-on time the public has had with recent beta events (you can see all of our coverage of the ongoing beta here). Whether the game has won you over or if you're just watching pessimistically from the sidelines, you're probably interested to know when it will officially launch in the western world. IGN is reporting that Aion will launch on the 22nd of September in North America, and the European launch won't be far behind on the 25th of September.

Other notable MMO launches in September include Champions Online, and Cities XL (for some European countries). Even with its recently pushed back release date, Champions will still be out well before Aion if its 1st of September goal is reached. Seeing as all three of these games aren't really very similar, their close proximity probably isn't too much of a big deal, but it does mean that some of the largest MMO launches of the year will be right next to each other.

When I first heard about Aion: Tower of Eternity, my first thought aside from "wow" was "I'm so going to play Elyos". It was the wings, you see, and I always seem to play on the 'good side'. However, having now played both sides, I'm torn. I love the look of the Elyos and their angelic society, but I also appreciate the struggles of the Asmodians. Plus they do that groovy glowing-eyes-in-combat thing which just looks awesome. I might just roll one of each. I was curious to see a lot of people loitering in Pandaemonium over the weekend advertising their Elyos guilds and the same thing happened during CBT1 but with Elyos advertising their Asmodian ones.

So now you've had a chance to play both factions from Aion: Tower of Eternity I'm curious to know whether you will still roll (insert your faction here) or whether you've had a change of heart. Does a particular faction's lore or locale grab you more or have you just bonded with your avatar so much that you can't dream of defecting to the other side? If you've not changed your mind, are you going to stick with your avatar during CBT3? Were you glad the Aion devs allowed you to play Elyos this weekend or were you glad you could finally roll that Asmodian? Speak up, readers, and let us know what you think.

As the Aion: Tower of Eternity Closed Beta Test 2 continues, it's time to go deeper into Asmodae. You've explored Tunapre Lake, passed through Sap Farm, explored the Odella Plantation, braved the ghost-filled Ishalgen Prison Camp and you've even discovered the Forgotten Place of Exile. As you level, the Raiders and other NPCs start to mention Daevahood and an old man called Munin. Are you ready to meet destiny? Join us after the jump to find out what the future holds.

Just a couple months ago a friend told me that Aion was the biggest and baddest upcoming MMORPG that no-one in North America knew about. It broke records and won awards when it launched in Korea last year, yet hardly anyone over here was talking about it. Well, things can change quickly.

As the September launch date approaches, NCsoft has been kicking Aion promotion into high gear. Their latest marketing effort is a four-part series of video podcasts hosted by IGN. The first part came out on Friday and serves as a crash course on the lore behind Aion, Atreia, and the three main factions called the Asmodians, Elyos, and Balaur (the NPC dragon race that sets up the PvPvE system).

The video really gives you a good look at Aion's very own fourth pillar (sorry BioWare, you might have some competition here) and is full of stunning in-game footage, cinematics, and staff interviews. Closed beta is currently in full swing and we're keeping tabs on it for you.

Welcome back to Aion. Yes it's Closed Beta Test 2 weekend and this time round I'm rolling Asmodian to explore a very different side of the shattered planet of Atreia. During CBT1 we showed you the lower half of the planet, a land known as Elysea and home of the angelic Elyos. I walked you through the character creation process, the first ten levels as a frail mortal, the Elyos ascension quest and those first steps into Sanctum and Verteron. Now it's time to visit the upper half and home of the Asmodians, the continent of Asmodae.

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.

With only two days to go before the next leg of the Aion beta (aka CBT2), CM Ayase has posted more information on this weekend's event but also gone into a little more detail (much of which we already knew) about the on-going beta. However he also mentions what amount to the briefest of build notes letting us know about changes such as sever queues, NPCs fixes and 'culturalized content' (I chose to read that as 'lore') specifically for Asmodians.

Ayase also reveals the subject matter of CBT3 which will focus on leveling an Asmodian from 1-20 while CBT4 will allow players to pick a side and level their avatar to 25. Perhaps the most interesting thing about the post is not what we're getting now but what is promised on the horizon including localized voice overs for cut scenes, localized tutorial video, in game pre-rendered movies (of which we saw a little in the first beta event) and more culturalized content for Asmodians and the Elyos. I'm excited already.