AionSource.com - Articles - Mark's Articles

AionSource@ GC & PAX 2008

Mark — Wed, 1 Oct 2008 17:30:21

58,500 total PAX attendees.
203,000 total GC visitors.
1 AionSource.com

I'd like to begin this article by thanking a bunch of people. First, forty-two generous guests and members of AionSource.com. Thanks to them I was able to purchase a ticket to Games Convention 2008 in Leipzig, Germany. I already had purchased a ticket to Penny Arcade Expo 2008 in Seattle, Washington with my own personal funds, but was unable to afford airfare to Germany. Without these forty-two individuals' contributions, AionSource.com would not have had a palpable presence at Games Convention 2008 at all. Thank you, all of you.

Second, I'd like to thank Cori, Lyana, and Szab from Aion Hungary (AionHun.hu), and Fleiva (AionSource.com, Aion-ESP.com, Reign-Gaming.com). Lyana was unable to get to GC08, but she helped me get in contact with Cori. Cori organized lodging, translated German to English, and was a huge help to all of us non-German speaking noobs. Szeb was fun to hang around with; he explored the other halls of GC08 for us while we camped NCsoft's booth. Fleiva made kickin' sweet tshirts that I didn't order enough of and was also fun to chill with. I didn't feel like too much of a stupid American tourist when I stuck with these guys. Thank you, fellow Aion-bag-wearing doods! That was just for GC08. knite16 (AionSource.com, Knights of the Divine Order) organized lodging for PAX08 and offered it to me. I hadn't planned out where I was to sleep at PAX08, due to complications with friends in Portland, OR and a business associate, so knite's timely offer was one I just couldn't refuse. Also, Zinrae (AionSource.com, Noble Phantasm) let me crash in his and his bro's suite the night before I flew out (knite flew out a day earlier than I). Thanks dude! I drooled on the couch, hope housekeeping didn't mind. Worse things have probably been on that couch... ;) Also, thanks to all other Aion fansites (and clans) and their staff, German, Swedish, French, Korean, and all the rest that showed up and shook my hand at both events. It was great to meet you guys and I wish you luck in the future!

Third, and finally, a round of applause for NCsoft itself is in order. Everyone who contributed time and effort to AION's presentation at Games Convention and Penny Arcade Expo deserves a well-earned vacation. I actually asked a few of them if they were planning on taking some time off after the events they attended. All responded: "This was vacation! Now it's back to work." (Or something along those lines.) That's dedication. :) Unfortunately, due to NCsoft's recent move to unify many of their branch offices into one single entity (NCsoft West), a few of the people I met at GC and PAX are no longer with the company. The most obvious loss is Stephen "Rockjaw" Reid (NCsoft Europe Creative Concepts Manager), who helped me massively at GC. Other losses include Charles "kieron" Dane (NCsoft NA Aion Community Coordinator) and Mike Crouch (NCsoft NA PR Manager), whom I met at PAX. I wish them all luck. Thanks guys!

NCsoft Europe riding the bus (+15 speed, -10 cool). Can you spot Rockjaw? Alma and Namiya?
Which guy is Christian-Peter Heimbach (Aion and Lineage 2's Product Manager)?
Who is Jen Bolton (Moxie on the forums, NCsoft EU's Community Manager, Atreid's boss)? Answers later.
I think even David Blundell is visible (PR manager), lol.

Anyhow, the game, the game... What can I say? It's much better in English than in Korean, that's for sure (at least for me, someone who can't actually read Korean).

Between GC and PAX I must have played Aion for a total of around six or seven hours. At GC my time was spent in higher-level areas, level 10 and upwards a bit. At PAX I spent my time in both races' starting areas, realizing that the quests I had been doing during Aion's Korean CBT3 actually were pretty interesting. Indeed, quickly I learned that the storyline differed between the two factions in very specific ways. As an Elyos you're trying to remember your past, remember who you were, and regain your status as a divine being. As an Asmodian you're trying to change the future, to prevent an incredible calamity, and rise through the ranks from being a lowly mercenary human to a Daeva. Both storylines are compelling, however I connected more with the Asmodian storyline.

The Elyos's half of Atriea is exquisite, bright, beautiful. The Asmodian's half is dark but not dreary. No, it's more dreamlike, trancelike, glowing with subtle charm. While Elysea blinds you with light, Asmodae may put you to sleep (I almost did just that during one of the PAX playsessions, I was so tired). The music of both sides matches the areas quite well, enchanting most of the time, powerful and epic when needed, and eerie when called for. The mobs* are the most original things I've ever seen in an MMO since GuildWars. You won't find any generic "slime" monsters here. Think of the mobs as a possible evolutionary twist on everything in our Earthly world, yet imbued with a whimsical atypical Korean fancy. It's quite refreshing, actually.

*Mob stands for "mobile" or "mobile object", pretty much anything that moves in the world. However, I use it to mean NPCs and other server controlled creatures.

There's one specific thing I experienced during a PAX playsession I'd like to relate to you all, a special quest. I didn't receive the quest from an NPC. No, I received the quest after reading a scroll dropped by a mob. The scroll talked about an axe stuck in a tree near a spring in a certain area of Asmodae, the area right after the huge glowing tree: the forest area. The quest didn't point you to the exact location of the axe, it just said the spring was located deep in the forest. After a bit of searching I finally found the spring. I'm actually glad I wasn't given specific coordinates to find the spring, since it's much more...intimate to find it yourself, all alone in a corner of an area where no one would otherwise visit. It felt great, I felt like I was being let in on a secret.

Anyhow, after reaching the spring the axe wasn't immediately visible. I had to turn around and look around the trees surrounding the spring a bit to find it, but it didn't take long. The axe was huge, made of iron. I double clicked it, figuring it would appear in my "cube" or something (your inventory isn't a backpack in Aion, it's a "cube" that Shugo merchants can expand if you pay them enough). Needless to say, the axe didn't appear in my cube. A cutscene began instead; my heart skipped a beat. My character began to tug on the axe in the cutscene, finally dislodging it with such force that it fell into the spring! Suddenly, an old man appeared floating above the stream. He asked me:

"Is this Silver Axe yours?"

"No", I answered. (You can choose yes.)

"Well then, is this Gold Axe yours?"

Again, I answered "no". (Again, you have the option of saying yes.)

"Alright, then this Iron Axe is yours."

For some stupid reason I answered "no" instead of yes like I think was supposed to. But hey, it's not my fault, it really wasn't my axe at all! Some other guy got it stuck in the tree! I was just being honest! Anyhow, the river guy got angry, called me a liar or something, did that thing that the merchant in The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening does when you steal from him three times, and gave me the iron axe anyhow.

I can only assume that if I had answered "yes" he would have given me all three axes.

Just remember not to be completely truthful in Aion, it'll get you insulted by a river spirit guy. :(

EDIT: The yes/no questions are in your control! It's not part of the cutscene, you determine the outcome of the quest!

Answers to the picture:

Mark's Journal, Entry 0.5

Mark — Sun, 6 Jul 2008 18:50:36

Okay, I lied, I didn't delete my Asmodian female and make an Elyos character like I said I would in my last journal entry. Instead I chose to level her up and become a Daeva. Let me tell 'ya, that was interesting even if I didn't know what exactly I was doing.

Imagine this: you've never watched Lord of the Rings trilogy before, since you live in Antarctica. One day you miraculously find a copy in the frozen remains of a dead penguin except it's in a language you can't understand. You watch it anyway and are astounded by the visuals, the action, and the music! How could you not be? They filmed it in New Zealand, one of the most pristine and unique inhabited environments in the whole world, the had top-notch actors and stuntmen, and the visual effects team were pros!

That's pretty much how I feel when playing Aion's Korean CBT3. I'm sorely missing out on the story, but Aion's "everything else" is so polished I can forgive it. The landscapes and soundtrack are amazing, the monster design too. Little details are everywhere and I don't miss a single one, though some of you more "hardcore" people probably will overlook them all. Let me make a little list...

First, this gigantic tree right after the first outpost, it's amazingly beautiful and the music that accompanies it is also. At night it glows. During the short "daytime" the water around it glows too. Judging by the incredible amount of life surrounding it, flora and fauna, I'd say it may be sustaining the local ecosystem all by itself. Detail? This is it, folks. Pay close attention to everything you see and you'll notice these things.

Second, the next zone's (forest) music will inspire you to pick up a banjo or flute and learn how to play it. It sports kangaroo/mountain-goat hybrids and lots of randomly spawned vegetation for you to practice your gathering skills on. Also, more details: ladders leaning up against trees, the same trees oozing fluorescent green sap you see in buckets in other areas (it must serve some purpose), lights hanging from trees, a sign with no names pointing the way on the path over a bridges, a tree growing out of the remains of a ruin, et cetera, et cetera.

The zone after that is more eerie and home to the second bindpoint (or third, if you count the newbie spawn as a bind point) but not a full-fledged town. Here you get more quests and even take on some Asmodian pirates who've made their home on a deathly beautiful "ghost ship". Now you have a choice to make: explore the Mau area (and run into a dead end, like I did) or go to the graveyard area and become a Daeva.

The Mau area reminds me of a oddly spread-out American Indian village (IRL such villages were normally very packed-together, the Mau like open spaces it seems), and contains a "Boss" mob guarding an Abyss gate deep inside a cave. I got all the way to the Abyss gate at level 8 by tagging along with a party I wasn't part of and blasting through a tunnel full of mobs I probably couldn't handle alone in such rapid succession. At the end I watched them take down the big bad mob (he didn't look too hard) but I couldn't follow them through the Abyss gate. I clicked it as hard as I could to no avail, the damn gate wouldn't let a noob like me through. So the Mau area is explorer's dead end at level eight, but there's still quests to complete in there so you shouldn't skip over it if you're going for completion. I recommend giving it a once-over before you head off to the graveyard, since the two areas are connected in a very subtle way that I thought was amazingly well-orchestrated. I'll show you later.

On to the graveyard area to meet my destiny! Just gotta trek past some panther-like cats first and...viola! Blood-red trees! Or are they blood-covered? Either way, remember this vista. It's the entrance to the graveyard area. You'll be seeing something very similar soon. Past this entrance lies a zone full of the most "different" zombies I've ever seen in my life. Most of us have a preconceived notion of what a zombie should look like. NCsoft pretty much threw that all out except for the general "living dead" part. You've gotta see it. Also, I figured out a quest wants you to read the gravestones and fight the ghosts of dead Asmodians that you summon by doing so, which was interesting to say the least.

There's two paths to follow in the graveyard zone. One leads to the Asmodian dude in a crystal who gives you your Daeva quest. The other leads back to the Mau area. If you follow that path until the end you're treated to this sight. See? An identical back door with a white tree instead of red. What are the developers trying to say? This is attention to details.

The second path, like I said, leads you to your past. You've gotta do some chores back in other zones before you can travel back in time, and the chores aren't as cool as gathering water from a pond and bringing it to a talking tree like the Elyos, but it's nothing bad. Just a little trek back (if you don't use your "teleport to bind point" skill) and forth, no big deal. Then the fun starts.

If you're not listening to the music when you enter the Abyss, you're missing the best techno-battle-rock-whatever I've heard in my life. Walk past your NPC comrads cheering your name, "Felicia! Felicia is here!", talk to one of them to activate the scripted flight sequence, and let yourself go to the guitar riff. Land on the rocky explosive fireball excuse for a floating island and kill four Elyos NPCs. That's simple as your past, stronger, self. Wait for the "Boss" Elyos commander to appear and then whip his ***! It's easy at level nine. All to a rockin' tune that's nowhere near the level of annoying the battle music is. If this is anything like the real Abyss I like it already!

But wait, what's this? In a cutscene the Elyos dude whips out a nasty electric combo and sends me sailing! No! This can't be true! Is this really my past? Lame! I was totally winning that battle, NCsoft! Oh well, the dude from the crystal shows up and asks me what I want to be: a Gladiator or a Templar. I pick Templar, because Felicia from Darkstalkers is a good girl who ends up being a nun in some endings (yeah, wtf catgirl-nuns, I know).

Now I'm given the option to go back to the old areas or go to Pandaemonium. Wow, this is a really hard decision...not. Pandaemonium, here I come!

...Alright, loading screen....

And...finished. Here I am! Oh, nice. Waterfall behind me, entrance to the city before me, steep mountains on every side with more waterfalls. Already someone with a cutscene to talk to. Wonder what it's about.

Cutscene starts, guy starts talking to me like he knows me, two guards run up and whip out their blades to attack me but he calls them off and explains who I am. Oops, they bow and go back to their positions. Guess I've got a reputation in this town. :cool:

Let's see, he tells me where to go to find the ringleader of this circus. Down and to the right about one block. A little ball of light with wings, a fairy perhaps, guides the way there just for me. That's cool. Ah, there's the main underground administration chamber. Let's just walk in and...what's this? Different music? Oh my. I'm getting goosebumps. That's some powerful stuff, like Daeva's Oratorio but for Asmodians and set to 11 on the scale of awesome. You've gotta hear it.

Now to talk to the leader. Cutscene starts, people are talking to each other about Felicia while she walks by and up to the leader. He says a few words, blesses and "knights" Felicia after she displays the ability to summon wings, and then the cutscene ends. My class skill-trainer/seller now has something for me, a choice between a one-handed sword, two-handed sword, or two-handed spear (I think). I grab the one-hander, I found a magic-infused sheild on the ground way back in level seven and I don't plan on dropping it until I find a better one (and there's skills that use it). The trainer offers me something else, a choice between two free skillbooks. Hmm, I pick the one with a level requirement that I already match. Who knows what skill it'll actually give me?

Alright, I'm in a hurry, business here is done. I'll come back later and check the city out more thoroughly, but for now I want to try out my wings. Let's head somewhere more appropriate to try them out. Back to the teleporter! He askes if I want to go back to my old haunts or new ones. New ones, please! He opens up a person-sized portal in the air and I jump through it. Ah, another loading screen. LONG DISTANCE TELEPORTATION will always do that, but walking from zone to zone is a seamless affair.

Now a new outpost, this one, appears as I jump out of a portal that spontaneously appeared in the air near the ground. A NPC directs me to the town's leader and his assistant who both combined have a total of ten or so quests for me! Yikes! Better get to work! But first I have to fly up and talk to the NPC standing on the gigantic floating rock that threatens to flatten the town if gravity actually meant something in this world. He tells me to fly around and kill the blobs of magic goo that are just floating in the air. I think it's magic floating goo-cruelty and it's 4:40am and I need sleep, so I take one last screenshot before I log out.

Here it is.

Alright, any questions kiddos?

Mark's Journal, Entry 0

Mark — Sat, 5 Jul 2008 20:51:15

You have questions, all of you do. "Will Aion kick ***? Will it be fun to play? Were they not lying about the grind? Where is my animatronic set of wings? How do I get from Florida to Germany by walking?" Those are all going to be answered in due time, friends, but now you see this article and the associated video and some other questions pop into your mind. The first question making its way to your lips may be "Mark, you liar, what the hell? Geif key nao!" I'm going to brush that one off and just say a very nice member of these forums who types very broken English came to me in a dream (private message) and gave me an account because he wanted someone to play with. The account's username is 14 characters long, the password 11. We Aion fans are insane.

Perhaps what comes to your mind next is "Why 'Entry 0'?" My answer: I chose to play as an Asmodian for 30 minutes to show the world what (part of) the newbie zone looks like. "Entry 1" will deal with the Elyos, since Zyuu is already playing one and I plan on questing with him (at least in this Korean beta). Don't count me out from trying the Asmodians more thoroughly in the future, you'll see why later. ;)

Let's start off where the video does: right after character customization. I was stupid not to record that, but perhaps I will for my Elyos character. I double click on my new creation, Felicia. An homage to the character Felicia in the Darkstalkers series of games (and my main GuildWars character, a W/Mo), my Felicia has blue hair, bluish-gray eyes, mid-length hair, and a big-boned body. Thin girls, take heed: the Warrior class is not for you. If I see tiny anemic people running around trying to play one, well...don't blame me for what happens. Asmodians eyes glow red for a reason.

The game switches to a loading screen for a few moments and then the newbie area pops up for half a second before being replaced by a cinematic. Looks like I fell from the sky and bumped my head, just like my Elyos counterpart. Huh, why hasn't anyone invented parachutes yet? Disgustingly cute mobs lean over me, giving odd, then astonished, looks before running away. Let's hope they did nothing funny to my body while I was...goddamnit! Where's my epic armor?! Weapon?! No! This can't be! All I've got is a pathetic little sword and this skimpy armor to protect my beatiful legs?

Oh well. After plugging in my ancient Logitech MX510 (I'm playing on my laptop) I start looking around for the first NPC I'm supposed to talk to. Ah, there he is. Just gotta click on him and...ah hell. I can't read any of this! Let's see, click on the quest, look at rewards and click accept...now what? Hmm, my radar has new dots on it. Maybe I'm supposed to run around and kill things at those dots? I have no idea, anything sounds good right about now.

After a bit of running around and killin' doods I gain a level. Instant heal and MP recharge, that's good. I'd be having fun if I knew what I was doing really. If I had some more skills to use then I'd be much more entertained. One regular attack and one power attack isn't enough for me! The other skill next to power attack on my skillbar is a self-heal, and there's buttons for sheathing my noob sword and teleporting back to my bind point. I learn this the hard way, as you'll see. Then I'm off to kill more mobs.

Hey, what's that? Why is an NPC chasing a mob in circles? That's...kinda funny. Maybe I'll just help him out (help myself) and get a cheap kill. Hah! Killstole from a NPC, that makes me instantly feel bad. Like I colored a kid's coloring book for him because it didn't look right. I'm a horrible person...but that's a given seeing as I'm an Asmodian! OH HO! Another cheap shot, I'm good at this. :p

Let's cash in some quests and click some buttons. You'll see all the menu screens I felt safe to click and some of those help bubbles too. One or two of them had surveys in them, probably about the newbie quests or zone. I have no idea what I'm doing but I get free stuff if I fill them out! Click, click, "I <3 Aion", click, click, click, "I <3 AionSource.com", click, cha-ching! The idea of "tabula rasa" is bunk on the Internet, everyone is born again inherently evil online. Asmodians seem to bring out the best in people and I'm no exception, heheh. Enjoy, NCsoft Seoul! Maybe we'll get a few more hits from them now.

Alright, time to head out and explore some more. Check the map a couple times, seems like I need to head...thataway. Girls don't need to ask for directions! Screw the road, I can jump over anything that gets in the way of my beeline path straight to the next quest-giving NPC. This guy's quests, though, are more complicated for some reason. I understand my objective even less somehow. Here's to hoping I don't slam my head and yell "oh, DUH" when we finally get to read these quests in English. I hope I'm not that stupid. ;)

A wierd noise plays after I leave the NPC's general area. It's eery. Was it a portal opening? Let's hope not, I'm too young and pretty to die! Anyhow, screw quests, I'm going to get to the other side of this zone. The land of the Asmodians isn't so bad. It's kinda pretty, actually. Purple and stuff, I kinda like it. At least my eyes aren't being assaulted by bright lights everywhere. Too many dead trees for my delicate, plant-loving tastes, though. Ah, there's a bridge! Have I seen it before? What does it cross? Water? Oh, nice, a river. Let's take a closer look.

Damn, I'm good at jumping! Now to test my climbing skills!

...****.

...****.

...oh ****.

Ohgodohgodohgod, I can't swim! ****! HELP!

*Blargh. I am ded.*

"You are dead."

No, really?

Thus ends my breif stint as a air-headed Asmodian girl who never learned how to swim at the local YMCA. Felicia, true to the instincts of the catgirl she was designed after, does not like water. Better luck next time? Perhaps. Too bad she's getting deleted so I can make a replica of my beautiful self as an Elyos. :p

Now, opinions: Aion looks awesome. Aion feels awesome. Mobs and NPCs are interesting and behave in interesting ways (slightly scripted, I guess, like GuildWars). I have no idea what I'm doing but I'm still enjoying myself. It's almost as if I'm playing a much more crowded GuildWars, with less sunlight and more skill slots but no skills to fill them. GuildWars threw skills at you from level 1, but that was it's main game mechanic. I guess I'm just spoiled. I really wish I knew what I was doing and reading and looking at, but moreso I wish swimming worked already. As long as they have it in by release it'll be okay, but drowning is annoying.

Alright, back to questions. Now you probably have a few more of them than when you started reading this pathetic monologue. Let 'em rip, I don't think I'll be able to answer many of them at all! :o

Aion CBT2 First Impression / TIG

Mark — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 06:37:09

http://www.thisisgame.com/board/view.php?id=164054&category=711
Translated by jameinkaiser

2008.04.10 04:34

한낮의 아이온 시즌 2 초반 체험기

Hannat’s First Impression of Aion Season 2 Beta

한낮

아이온의 시즌 2 클로즈 베타테스트가 시작된 지 이틀이 지났다. 시즌 1 테스트에서 무려 넉 달 이상의 재충전 기간을 가진 아이온은 과연 어떤 모습으로 돌아왔을까? 슬슬 지난 테스트의 최고레벨에 근접한 유저들이 나오고 있는 이 때에 아이온의 시즌 2 테스트를 살펴봤다. /디스이즈게임 한낮

It’s already been a couple of days since the second phase of the closed beta had begun. Having taken a four-month long vacation, what do you suppose Aion looks like now? As players begin to approach the former level cap, we look into the visible changes made in CBT2.

The graphics no longer rely on blur for spiff

이번 테스트에서 눈에 띄게 달라진 부분이 바로 그래픽이다. 일단 기본 그래픽 설정에서 안티앨리어싱이 빠지고 일반적인 그래픽이 매우 선명해졌다. 때문에 전처럼 몽환적인 분위기를 크게 느낄 수는 없지만 화면 자체는 매우 깔끔해진 느낌이다.

The most noticeable change is the graphics. Anti-aliasing has been taken out of the default settings, and the graphics now look very crisp. As a result, it no longer feels as dreamlike, but overall looks much more clean-cut.

일단 '깔끔해졌다' Looks more clean-cut

더불어 캐릭터의 동작도 확실히 부드러워졌다. 전처럼 팔과 다리가 기형적으로 꺾이는 현상도 없었고 이미지 파일을 연속으로 넘기듯 툭툭 끊어지는 동작들도 완벽히 수정됐다. 조금 과장을 보태자면 마치 ‘하나의 애니메이션을 빨리 감기로 보는 듯한’ 착각을 느꼈을 정도.

Character animations have been smoothened out as well. The limbs no longer twist the way they’re not supposed to, and the choppy animations have all been fixed completely. If I were to exaggerate a little, it was as if I were watching a movie clip on x2 speed.

다만, 아직까지도 각 동작과 동작이 완벽히 분리돼 있는 탓에 이동 중인 캐릭터가 손을 흔들거나 물약을 마시기 위해 제자리에 멈추는 등 어색하기 이를 데 없는 장면들을 왕왕 찾아볼 수 있었다.

Still, awkwardness in the sudden change of animations when drinking potions or executing a character emote was still commonplace.

도망가는 몬스터를 직접 쫓아가 본 유저만 이 기분을 알 수 있다 ㄱ-
You can only feel the excitement of hunting down a running mob if you’ve tried it yourself

실제로 필자 역시 도망가는 몬스터를 쫓으며 공격과 이동을 따로 진행하느라 가다 서다를 반복하는 캐릭터를 보고 당황했을 정도다.

I myself have observed the awkwardness in animations when chasing down a running mob, where the animation seemed schizophrenic as the character tried to display the running animation in conjunction with the attack animation.

이는 이미 지난 테스트에서도 몇 번씩이나 문제가 됐던 부분. 게다가 실제 게임진행에 큰 영향을 끼치는 요소인데도 불구하고 이번 테스트에서도 수정되지 않았다는 것은 다소 아쉽다.

This problem had been pointed out in the earlier test as well—it’s a bit of a disappointment that it still hasn’t been fixed.

Combo system returned to its rightful place

운칠기삼의 플레이를 요구하던 연속기 역시 대폭 수정됐다. 대부분의 주력 연속기가 모두 ‘무조건 발동’으로 변경됐으며 애매한 효과의 특수연속기가 삭제됐다.

The combo system has largely been revamped as well. Most chain-combo skills no longer rely on chance (luck) but now come with 100% chance of success. Many special combos with obscure effects have been removed as well.

때문에 이전처럼 ‘순간순간 뜨는 연속기만 눌러대던’ 안이한 플레이가 아닌 직접 자신만의 연속기 패턴을 만드는 전술적인 플레이가 가능해졌다. 게다가 기절이나 넘어뜨리기, 날려버리기와 방어막 등 각 연속기의 부가효과를 100% 활용할 수 있는 탓에 상황에 따라 다양한 방식의 플레이를 할 수 있게 된 것 또한 장점.

Thanks to the new changes, the system is no longer ‘press the buttons that light up whenever possible’ but one that actually allows strategic gameplay by allowing the players to experiment with their own combo patterns. Knockdown, knockback, and block can now be used effectively thanks to the change in the system.

더 이상 ‘버튼만 연타하면 레벨 높고 운 좋은 유저가 이기는 게임’은 아니다.
The game no longer guarantees win to the player with luck and level

개인적으로 아이온 이제야 비로소 ‘컨트롤’이라는 것을 입에 담을 수 있는 환경이 됐다고 본다. 이왕이면 몇몇 남은 ‘랜덤방식의 연속기’ 또한 ‘특정상황에서 100% 발동’으로 바뀌었으면 하는 바람이다.

I believe that Aion is finally able to call itself a game with ‘control’ as a gameplay element. It’d be nice for the few remaining ‘random chance combos’ to be changed into ‘100% success rate under special conditions’ as well.

Nontheless ‘linear’ gameplay. But with creativity!

반면 게임의 진행방식은 여전히 단순했다. 레벨 업은 ‘일직선으로 구성된 길’만 따라가면 충분히 가능했으며 아이템 역시 극소수의 미션과 상점, 가뭄에 콩 나듯이 나오는 드랍 아이템을 통해서만 입수할 수 있는 탓에 뭔가를 고른다는 것 자체가 불가능했다.

The gameplay still seemed fairly simple and linear. Leveling up was easily done by following the linear path that was provided for you, and choice of equipment was narrow as well, for most needed items were obtainable through the small number of missions, merchants, and rare drops.

게다가 제작퀘스트가 추가되고 채집/제작 속도와 확률이 오르는 등 ‘매우 바람직하게’ 바뀐 제작 역시 ‘빠듯한 스킬 습득 비용’ 때문에 소외되기 일쑤였다.

The improved crafting system featured an increased success rate, but the high cost of acquiring new skills made it seem like the system was going to be neglected easily.

결국 아직까지 유저에게 주어진 선택이라고는 퀘스트를 할 것이냐, 그냥 몬스터만을 잡아서 레벨을 올릴 것이냐 하는 원초적인 것밖에 없는 셈이다.

Basically, the only choices given to a player at the moment are whether to grind mobs or to do quests to level up.

네임드 몬스터를 잡아 장비를 맞출 수도 있지만 아직 '선택'이라고 부르기에는 볼륨이 많이 부족하다.
Players can try to get their equipments by killing special mobs, but this can hardly be called a ‘choice’

그나마 캐릭터의 개성부분은 마석을 통해 상당히 보완됐다. 대부분의 아이템 1~3개씩 뚫린 소켓에 각종 효과를 지닌 마석을 끼워 넣음으로써 자신만의 특화된 캐릭터(혹은 장비)를 만들 수 있게 된 것이다. 게다가 마석의 드랍률이 ‘매우’ 높기 때문에 조금만 노력한다면 쉽게 원하는 방식의 장비를 맞출 수 있다.

The creativity on the characters’ part, however, was improved significantly. Most items feature 1-3 sockets that can be decorated with various stones, which allows the player to have his/her own customized equipment. Plus the drop rate of manastones is very high, so with a little bit of effort, a player can easily get the equipment of his desire.

아직까지는 ‘일반등급’의 마석이 주가 되는 탓에 큰 효과를 느끼기는 어렵지만 희귀 이상 등급의 마석이 일반화된다면 아이온의 부족한 캐릭터 개성을 상당부분 메워줄 수 있을 듯하다.

The effectiveness of the stones are not yet well-pronounced since the availability is only limited to ‘normal grade’ manastones, but once the rarer stones become standardized, it seems like it may be able to fill the holes in customization.

'쏟아지는' 마석은 괜찮은 시도였다.

The interface

유저편의성이라고는 눈을 씻고 찾아봐도 찾을 수 없는 불편한 인터페이스 역시 문제다. 연관성이 없는 각 인터페이스 창들은 여전히 한 단축키에 묶여있으며 원하는 항목을 찾기 위해서는 몇 번씩 단축키를 누르고 마우스를 클릭해야 한다. 그리고 이번 테스트에서 도입된 몬스터/NPC의 성향표시 아이콘은 직관성은커녕 어떤 내용을 담고 있는 지 이해하기조차 하기 어렵다.

The interface which features not a grain of user-friendliness is also a problem. Unrelated panels are still tied to a single hotkey, and in order to find the desired panel, one must go through several hotkeys and clicks to find it. The newly implemented monster alignment display is anything but helpful, it is indecipherable.

빨간 색이 선공, 하얀색이 비선공인 건 알겠다. 그런데 점 하나는 뭐고 날개 대신 마크가 달린 녀석은 또 뭔지… Red is aggressive, white is neutral. But what could a single dot or a symbol instead of the wings mean?

이걸로 끝이 아니다. 마석 장착방법부터 공중에 있는 NPC를 찾아가는 법, 비행방법과 고도조절, 키벨리스크의 부활포인트 지정부터 아이템의 추출과 강화방법까지. 아이온 컨텐츠의 대부분은 ‘기본적인 설명조차 없이’ 만들어져 있다.

That’s not all. How to equip manastones, find a flying NPC, control flight and altitude, setting Kibelisk resurrection point, disenchantment of items, enchantment—most contents in Aion provide not even the most basic instructions.

이는 마석을 보상으로 주는 퀘스트에서 실제로 마석을 장착하는 목표를 주고, 데바가 되는 것과 동시에 비행에 관한 영상 하나만 보여줘도 아주 간단히 해결될 수 있는 부분이다.

This should be easily fixed by giving a quest objective of socketing an item for the quest that gives manastones as a reward, or showing a brief cutscene about flight upon becoming a daeva.

아직까지 아이온에는 이런 ‘배려’가 없다. ‘모든 것을 아는 개발자의 입장’이 아닌 ‘아무 것도 모르는 초보유저의 입장’에서 다시 한 번 생각해줬으면 하는 바람이다.

Aion still retains these ‘worrisome features’. I wish they’d consider the game from a newbie’s perspective rather than from a developer’s.

물론 우측 하단에 해당항목에 대한 도움말이 나오기는 하지만 이걸로는 부족하다.

The help messages do pop up in the bottom-right section of the screen, but this is insufficient

Half change, half disappointment

새로이 테스트를 시작한 지 아직 이틀밖에 지나지 않은 게임을 갖고 왈가왈부하기에는 조금 이른 감이 있지만 일단 지금까지 체험한 아이온의 시즌 2 테스트는 ‘만족스러운 변화’를 보여줬다. 안티앨리어싱이라는 잔재주가 아닌 솔직한 아이온만의 그래픽을 선보였으며 천편일률적인 캐릭터를 벗어나기 위한 노력도 있었다.

It may be a bit too early to criticize a game that’s only been two days into its test, but changes so far seem ‘satisfactory’. The game showed newly improved graphics as well as attempts at avoiding a static character development.

연속기의 변화로 인해 이제야 비로소 컨트롤을 논할 수 있게 됐다는 것 역시 큰 변화 중 하나다.

One of the biggest changes of course, should be the revamped combo system.

완벽하다고까지는 할 수 없어도 많이 좋아졌다는 말은 충분히 해줄 수 있는 수준이다.

It’s not perfect but it’s an improvement

다만 아직까지 아이온은 지나치게 ‘불친절하다’. 아무리 PVP가 중심인 게임이라고 해도 레벨 업 구간에는 기본적인 선택지조차 없었으며 인터페이스는 도통 이해하기 어려운 것 투성이였다. 개발사에서는 조금만 더 유저들의 목소리를 경청해줬으면 하는 바람이다.
So far, Aion is ‘unfriendly’ at the least. Despite being a PvP-centric game, the game doesn’t provide even the most basic choices in climbing the level ladder and the interface is full of indecipherable features.

이제 곧 있으면 인스턴트 던전부터 시공의 균열(다이렉트 포탈)까지 시즌 2 테스트의 본격적인 신규 컨텐츠들이 등장한다. 이것이 공개됐을 때 필자의 입에서, 그리고 유저들의 입에서 놀라움과 즐거움의 탄성만이 나올 수 있기를 바라며 이만 시즌 2의 간단체험기를 마친다.

The game will soon feature instanced dungeons as well as Crevices in Time and Space (rifts). I hope the upcoming releases will be able to make the players exclaim in surprise and joy, and hereby conclude this brief first-impression.