Massively^™

Once again, NCsoft and ArenaNet will be making an appearance at Seattle's Penny Arcade Expo this year. The NCsoft booth (#642) will be packed full goodies during the weekend of August 29th through the 31st, and they will be showing off some of their new and old favorites, including Exteel, Dungeon Runners, Guild Wars, City of Heroes, Tabula Rasa and the brand new Aion.

As they did last year, ArenaNet will be holding contests where participants can win valuable prizes. Developers will also be on hand to meet and greet with the players. Possibly the most exciting news is the fact that ArenaNet will hold another after-party at the Game Works across the street from the Washington State Convention & Trade Center, as they did last year. This is your chance to meet the folks at ArenaNet in a more casual setting and even challenge a few to an arcade game or two!

LivePvP is a website devoted to player-created, in-game video. They offer a place for players to upload their work for the world to see, whether it's from Aion, EVE Online, Everquest 2, or others. However, they feel it's time to get some content up there related to Age of Conan. To that end, they've created a channel for AoC video and offer some tips to fledgling video makers.

Among the advice on hand is possible content ideas, like showing off the landscape or tips and tricks for new players; and help on figuring out the crazy world of video compression. If you think you have something to share with the community, now's your chance!

[Thanks, Ian!]

It's been tough times recently for NCsoft. Sales of their big-budget sci-fi MMO Tabula Rasa have been less than spectacular and their numbers for the first fiscal quarter of 2008 were disappointing, to say the least. In a recent report by GI.biz however, NCsoft CEO Geoff Heath expressed optimism about his company's prospects for the remainder of the year. Despite having no new titles in the cooker (Aion is still beyond the horizon at this point), Heath is of the belief that his company's portfolio is strong enough to simply grow their way back to profitability, saying, "This is a pretty robust business - if you get it right - you've only got to look at World of Warcraft."

Far be it from us to doubt the sincerity of Heath's statements, but that's a heavier dose of optimism than we're accustomed to seeing from an executive. To be sure, NCsoft's portfolio of games is probably the most robust that exists within a single company, and if Lineage II continues growing as strongly in Korea as it as has been, his comments may very well come to fruition. One simply wonders if their aging stable of games is going to continue to see growth in a marketplace that grows more crowded by the day. To be put it nicely, we're less confident than Heath.

The second closed beta for Aion is over, and all eyes are now on Korean Closed Beta Test 3. But recently, some members of the Aion Source forums were able to answer some questions on the game from fans of the upcoming NCsoft MMO.

Overall, the beta testers were much happier about Closed Beta Test 2 than Closed Beta Test 1. There were many complaints about class balance and respawn timers in CBT1, but that all seems to be fixed currently, showing that NCsoft is listening. These testers also cite some of their favorite parts of the game, namely the gorgeous graphics and flowing animations, which tend to be focus points on many of these Korean-based MMOs. Be sure to check out the complete Q&A as well as some exciting videos of Aion so far.

The Korean closed beta of Aion has silently moved along to its second stage, and AionSource has been able to share a great wealth of new screenshots with those of us on the outside. The game has always managed to impress with its visual style, and the new screens show off various locations in the sci-fi/fantasy MMO (which runs on Crytek's CryEngine 1, the game engine from the Far Cry series, for those that are interested in that sort of thing).

Looking at the pictures, we can't help but be reminded of the previously discussed aerial aspect of the game, with player characters frequently shown well above ground level thanks to their trusty wings -- well, we hope that they're trusty, as we don't want to live in fear of deadly plummeting carcasses. Even still, we're anxious to find out when the rest of the world will get to give Aion a try.

Over at Curse there's an interesting video preview of NCsoft's upcoming Aion as well as a couple of screenshots showing off the game's flexible user interface. The entire interface can be adjusted to however a player would prefer and in the screenshot above you can see that Aion is well aware of the popularized WoW-style layout. We're always in favor of letting players easily organize their interface in the way they see fit.

Ladies and gentlemen (both of you) and all the rest of you hooligans out there, it is time, once again, to probe into the mind of the all-seeing, all-knowing, all-too-willing-to-make-it-up -as-he-goes-along Swami of MMO arcana in this week's "Ask Massively." In this column, you will not find the words "World of Warcraft" or "Second Life" outside of the confines of this paragraph. By the way, to those of you, and there were many, who asked "Why does Massively talk about Second Life so much when it isn't an MMO?" I have three words for you: Twelve million users. Any game that has so many accounts attached to it, whether or not it fits the standard mold of an MMO, qualifies as "Massive" and I daresay that there is more roleplaying going on in SL than there is in WoW.

Now that we have that out of the way, I promise that there will be no further mention of those games after the jump.

As always, if you would like to have your question answered for all the online world to see, feel free to post a comment at the end of this article, or stop by our tipline and let us know what's on your mind.

Chris Chung, the new president over at NCsoft North America, has been a busy man since taking up the position a few weeks ago. Between his interviews with IGN and 1Up, Massively, and other sundry blurbs here and there, he still felt it necessary to address the masses directly - blog style. And it's a fantastic read.

His latest statement doesn't give us any additional earth shattering news about what the company is going to do under his rein - that's been covered ad nauseam, but it does give us a much better perspective on who Chris Chung the person is. I found his honestly particularly comforting because NCsoft is "my" gaming company. While I don't much care for Guild Wars or Lineage II (even though they are absolutely breathtaking in their graphical beauty), I play every one of their other games (Exteel, CoX, Tabula Rasa, Dungeon Runners), played Auto Assault from beta until it ran out of gas, and I can't wait to get my hands on Aion.

It humanizes him in a manner that we don't see too often -- in any industry. He talks openly about how it can be a burden taking over for someone as experienced and respected as Robert Garriott. He believes that he got the job as president not because of some special talent, but the lack thereof. Perhaps the most insightful thing Chris talked about was his managerial style. I can relate because I too am a manager. What, you think I do this full time? While I'm not a manager for a company as large as NCsoft, the tenants stay the same: it's all about taking care of the people. And because I understand that, the thing that will stick with me the most is this quote: my job is to make sure that the employees here at NCsoft do what they do best and that the management team takes care of their needs so we can continue to produce great products for this industry.

If you've been leery of all the changes at NCsoft... don't be. They're in good hands.

Earlier today we discussed interviews held by Mr. Chris Chung, the new president of NCsoft, with 1up and Game Informer. Massively also had the pleasure of talking to Mr. Chung about NCsoft as a company, and we came away with a few interesting tidbits about the future of the world's most diverse MMO publisher.

In our discussion with Mr. Chung, we primarily focused on the future of the MMO business. We talked about where the future products like Exsteel and Aion fit into the company's stable of games, and examined a bit why NCsoft has been historically so open to alternative business models. Mr. Chung also hints at future plans for the company aimed at younger players.

I particularly found his discussion of possible future ideas for their well-known superhero title City of Heroes intriguing:

Massively: You said that you don't forsee bringing newer business models to subscription games; there's no interest in applying that to a game like City of Heroes?

Mr. Chung: In terms of games like that, the issue is finding out what the players actually want. We need to make sure the players have ways to access the game the way they want. Instead of saying "here's a half-finished product and you're going to pay for the other half" ... if we do offer microtransaction items for City of Heroes we need to ask the fanbase directly what they want that isn't already in the game. We need to figure out what they want, what they'll pay for, before we offer it to them. As we explore this we need to carefully tread this water.

Read on for more of our conversation with NCsoft's new president.

NCsoft's upcoming MMO Aion sure looks nice, doesn't it? Wired has posted a mini-preview of two of its character classes, the Assassin and Sorcerer. There's nothing revolutionary about these videos, but it's amazing how the right soundtrack can add so much to a simple video. Try watching them for the first time without sound enabled, and see if they're still interesting.

Aion is scheduled to be released this year on an unannounced date.

Earlier this month Aion senior designer Kyoung Won Choi laid out the big picture elements of the game, giving us a general sense of what to expect from this uniquely beautiful title. Now the fan site Aion Source is carrying a press release detailing the entire list of character classes we'll be able to choose from at launch. They also describe the 'advanced class system', through which they plan to allow players to customize their play experience:

No two journeys through Atreia will ever be the same. At the beginning of every adventure, players are given the choice of four distinct character classes; Warrior, Scout, Mage or Priest. Each class offers its own strengths and abilities, weapons or a spells, and a unique set of skills for use in combat, whether to deal damage to enemies or heal and protect allies. As the player gains experience and masters their chosen class, they are given the option to advance to a higher level class. These advanced classes present even greater possibilities, and ensure that the path players take is truly their own.

The folks at NCsoft, as with many publishers nowadays, occasionally put together pre-packaged 'Q&A' pieces for sites like ours. They pass them around to get the word out about specific aspects of released or in-development titles. Today, they've given us one to clarify a few things about their angelic fantasy title Aion. They posed a few questions to the game's senior designer Kyoung Won Choi, running down everything from character customization and casual play to the broad details of their ambitious 'PvPvE' design.

One concept he puts a bit of detail into is the siege system, something you're likely to recognize if you've ever played Lineage II.

The main PvP area in Aion is the Abyss. There are several castles in Aion, all which can be captured by player guilds on behalf of their faction. A siege is in its very fundament a raid. Initially, each castle is controlled by the Balaur, who will not gladly give it up. A guild leader would gather his or her troops and initiate an attack on the castle and its defenders. After defeating the NPC defenders, the castle changes ownership. Since the battles take place in the Abyss, it's always possible that the other PC faction might interfere to either defend or attack. Once the castle has a new owner, there are a few hours during which no PvP can take place on the island. After this period, however, the castle is again open to attacks from the opposing faction.

I don't know about you, but I haven't had a lot of exposure to this game as of yet. If you're interested, the Aion Source site seems to have quite a bit of background on the clearly beautiful title. That beauty is hard to understand just from the screenshots. I suggest checking out one of the gameplay videos NCsoft has released to date. Their most recent highlights some of the playable races, and ... again ... the beautiful scenery.

Check out the interview here, and then speak up in the comments; while we won't be able to follow up directly with Mr. Kyoung, we'll get in touch with the US producers for the game to see if we can get you some more details. What do you want to know about this game? What makes sense about it, what doesn't? Let's use what NCsoft wants to tell us to figure out what we need to ask about.

I have some good news for the non-Korean speaking foozles interested in NCsoft's upcoming Aion: The Tower of Eternity, due out late next year in NA/UK. Over the weekend new details emerged on the elusive Spiritmaster, one of the eight classes planned at release. The Spiritmaster will indeed be a summoning based magic class, but what makes it stand-out is it will derive its prowess from the elements of nature by summoning and controlling fierce creatures based on the elements of Earth, Fire, Wind, and Water. (A little cliché if you ask me, but isn't most Fantasy? What really matters is that the class is fun to play...)

As for what roles are best suited for each elemental: Fire spirits specialize in ranged attacks; Earth spirits will master various defensive measures; Water spirits focus on healing and limiting damage; Wind spirits will focus on melee and slaying their opponents quick. For balance purposes, only one elemental may be actively summoned. It is said that certain encounters will call for a specific elemental to be used as to provide more reactionary and visceral gameplay. Aion: The Tower of Eternity is set to begin closed NA/UK beta-testing in early 2008.

I embedded three Aion videos after the break that show the Spiritmaster's summoned Fire, Earth, and Water elementals. (In that order).

To North American and European MMO players, China is more than just a different country; it's a different universe. But it's important to keep an at least one eye on the Chinese market. Gamasutra ran its latest "China Angle" column today. Here's what we learned this time.

The9, the Chinese publisher of World of Warcraft, will be responsible for the Chinese version of EA's FIFA Online 2. The9 already operates the original FIFA Online in the PRC, and EA owns a 15% share in the company, so that's no surprise.

Newer company Giant Interactive -- who are behind the highly profitable Zhengtu Online -- saw a $38.7 million profit in Q3 2007, and all 800 employees of the company were given actual, real-life gold coins in celebration. The company is also actually awarding stocks to some of its customers.

Finally, Korean MMO supercompany NCsoft has selected a new partner company called Shandra to distribute their new title AION. NCsoft opted not to work with their old partner Sina this time. The decision to change may have been influenced by disappointing Chinese numbers for Lineage and Lineage II, two NCsoft titles which were brought to the Chinese market by Sina.