Aion opens two new European servers

By Oli Welsh Published 29 September, 2009

Queues so long you can't join them.

NCsoft has made its first move towards addressing the overcrowding on its freshly-launch MMO Aion in Europe: opening two new servers.

One, Deltras, is for French-language players and the second, Kahrun, is an English server. NCsoft said it would open up character transfers between servers in "a couple of months".

In scenes reminiscent of World of Warcraft's launch five years ago, Aion's debut has been beset by long waits to get online as hundreds of thousands of players try to squeeze onto the limited number of servers set up by NCsoft.

The situation has been worst in Europe, where Kotaku reports that some players can't even join the hours-long queues, and Gamers Daily News reckons that NCsoft's servers can only handle some 10 per cent of players who pre-ordered the game, never mind those picking it up on spec now.

NCsoft put the situation down to an initial rush to play the game, said the problem wouldn't last, and argued that it was trying to avoid opening too many servers which would then be underpopulated.

The company is presumably trying to avoid a repeat of Warhammer Online's boom-and-bust launch last year, where large numbers of players leaving the game after its first months left ghost-town servers that had to be merged, and remain underpopulated to this day.

NCsoft has a delicate balancing act ahead of it between satisfying frustrated new customers in the short term, and providing subscribers with healthy player populations in the long term - but it would probably argue that too many players is a good problem to have.

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About Oli Welsh

Oli is Eurogamer's acting deputy editor and reviews editor and likes to take things one word at a time. He is among the best dressed people in South London.

Read more articles from Oli by visiting the Oli Welsh archive page.

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Comments (27) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • actionfitz #1 2 years ago

    "Gamers Daily News reckons that NCsoft's servers can only handle some 10 per cent of players who pre-ordered the game, never mind those picking it up on spec now. "

    for fuck sake.
    Doesn't somebody at NCSOFT get paid a wage to plan these things?
    considering how many MMO's they've published its rather surprising they'd be caught unawares...
    /boggled mind.

  • Hypercube #2 2 years ago

    I created a new char on the new English server last night.

    I think it's acting like some sort of 'tard magnet. General chat is both offensive and childish, players are having great fun trying to piss each other off - I think I'll either try and play when the kids have gone to sleep or just brave the queues on the server I started on head start.

  • TriggerHippie #3 2 years ago

    Fumble!

  • ZuluHero #4 2 years ago

    I think i'll stay in the queue of my server then. I have to admit, Its been better since they slapped an AFK timer on Private Store abusers. At least now i can get in without a queue at off-peak times...

  • glottis0 #5 2 years ago

    If they're worried about people leaving the game, I would've thought inability to play is a bigger reason to leave than low server population. I rarely have two hours in a row to play, let alone to wait in a queue.

  • TruSmiles #6 2 years ago

    Since the stopped the AFK shoppers, it's been much easier for me. I was waiting four hours before, now the maximum I've waited is just under two hours. The last few nights it has been about an hour, which isn't so bad, considering night is the busiest time. I even got straight on the other night!

  • kestral #7 2 years ago

    If the queues stay the way they are, then I will be asking NcSoft for compensation, especially if it wil take them a few months to get character transfers going. In extreme cases when a person has 1.5 hours to play the game and effectively ends up with 15minutes of gametime then they've been missold 30 days of free gametime.

    While i appreciate that many people will log on around 6pm, when coming home from work I have other things to do then just play Aion and as a game is about the lowest priority i shouldn't have to arrange my night around it.
    Edited by 1 at 29/09/09 @ 09:34

  • Hypercube #8 2 years ago

    I just wish I could have been there at the planning meeting...

    "We've sold 400,000 copies on pre-order!"
    "Great! Get enough servers for 40,000."
    "Eh? Why so few?"
    "Because at least 90% of the people who were enthusiastic enough to pre-order the game will get so pissed off at the massive queues caused by our incompetence and lack of planning that they'll leave after the first month, and we don't want empty servers!"

  • glottis0 #9 2 years ago

    I also don't really understand the apologists either. There should be no queue - at all. If a monthly subscription is being paid, you should be able to play... They should make it free to play, or make it work.
    Not saying it in a throwing-toys-out-the-pram way, but for their sake - the first weeks are important and they're just pissing everyone off.

  • Hypercube #10 2 years ago

    I can understand that they didn't want a repeat of WAR's huge launch and rapid decline - but why didn't anyone in NCSoft twig that giving your players a pleasant experience at the launch of the game would go a long way to keeping them playing?

    Even then, merging unpopulated servers if/when they become too empty is better than simply pissing off approximately 90% of your playerbase...

  • Hypercube #11 2 years ago

    Even more satisfying, their 'official' site now gives me an internal server error whenever I try and post on their forums.

  • Tyranix #12 2 years ago

    It's nice to see a company actually care about the state of the game, instead of just money. If this were World of Warcraft they'd do everything possible to snag, reel in and trap as many subscribers as possible. 'Wh-what? You don't level fast enough? HAVE A FREE LEVEL 80!' 'Hmm? You can't do everything you want to at end game little boy, and you're only able to play two hours a week? HAVE FREE EPICS!'

    Aion is a lovely balance between what is necessary in a game, ie difficulty in order to remain challenging and immersive, and ease of use. These queues are annoying yes but certainly nothing irregular for an AAA mmo release. And as for that only being able to hold 10% of subscribers? XD orly? I've got a statistic too. 99.9% of statistics are false.

    And no i'm not an Aion fanboy, in fact I don't intend on playing it past the first month as it's not really the game for me. However, that doesn't make it any less a masterpiece.

  • Shikasama #13 2 years ago

    Kestral - Good luck with that.

    *sigh*

  • Hypercube #14 2 years ago

    It's nice to see a company actually care about the state of the game, instead of just money.

    lol. You think selling 400,000 copies and then opening the servers in this state shows they care more about players than money?

    If that's the case, I've got a fantastic game for you. It costs you £50 up front, and you won't be able to play it when you want to, but rest assured that's only because I care about you.

  • hiddenranbir #15 2 years ago

    So aside from wings, does it play differently?

  • ZuluHero #16 2 years ago

    Its pretty much standard MMO fare, so if MMOs aren't your thing this won't be the one to change your mind. It is very nice though. I like the cutscene stuff :)
    Edited by 1 at 29/09/09 @ 09:55

  • Hypercube #17 2 years ago

    So aside from wings, does it play differently?

    It's pretty much a traditional MMO at heart, with quests, crafting, grouping and retards in general chat.

    It does have some great touches - the way that quest information is all hyperlinked means I've never been lost when working out what to do next, and the combat animations are first class (the reason I went melee). The creature models are generally excellent as well.

    Graphically it's fantastic, I'm a real fan of the art style and in Aion it all looks great. The first time I saw the faction cities was the moment I decided to upgrade my monitor!

    Oh, and the queueing screen is simply fabulous.

  • kestral #18 2 years ago

    In a generous mood, perhaps they can addd a percentage in front of each server that shows u how full the queue is so I can join the shortest. As a result all long queues should get shorter.

    Yeah great game, interface is top notch so very enjoyable to play, the combat won't keep me entertained for much longer (especially not as warrior) and the crafting system is fun but very expensive.
    Edited by 1 at 29/09/09 @ 10:03

  • Benno #19 2 years ago

    Those who are worried about the player bade being retarded and immature - dont worry. Thats just the wow kids, who will go back to wow within a month. Should get better after that, its the same with al newly released MMOs.

  • Hypercube #20 2 years ago

    Those who are worried about the player bade being retarded and immature - dont worry. Thats just the wow kids, who will go back to wow within a month. Should get better after that, its the same with al newly released MMOs.

    Yeah, you're right. Although the head start servers were pretty good to start with, with the pre-order customers.

  • Eikinskialdi #21 2 years ago

    I don't really believe the 10% statistic on the pre-orders either. The queues were only exceptionally bad on 2 English language servers, Perento and Spatalos (Perento player myself). Castor was underpopulated, and Telemachus and Gorgos had minimal problems. I agree with the above poster though (glottis), there shouldn't be any queue. I pay to play, not to wait and have someone else decide my game time.

    The game doesn't really come into its own til level 25. The first 25 levels are just grind and quest to level, standard MMO, if not actually more tedious than most. The Abyss is a little more challenging with the PVE rewards being much higher for the chance of being ganked in PvP. Flying between the islands in the Abyss and making sure you have enough flight time to catch the fleeing enemy becomes as important a factor as health and mana. You also want to keep an eye on your minimap to see that enemy thats about 70 feet above your head and swooping down to attack you. I'm enjoying the experience so far.

    Major quarrels with the game is that until level 25...its almost a waste of time to group. You can solo faster as a DPS class than join a group. Some of the commands aren't intuitive, and to be honest the chat system is a bit of a mess and takes some getting used to. The ingame macro system is rather complicated (assist macro's in particular, the in game example doesn't work!), although I'm no expert on those sorts of things anyway, but may actually be more configurable for that.

    It's nothing new, or massively innovative. It IS grindy, and client stability can still be an issue although the NA/EU client is still relatively new. It is fun though.
    Edited by 3 at 29/09/09 @ 12:07

  • Rubarack #22 2 years ago

    Assuming they don't lose more thn the standard 90% of players after the first month they'll be in a good place.

    But that's a pretty shaky assumption.

  • sesskie #23 2 years ago

    I wish they lsot 50% of their playerbase already so I dint ahve to queue to play. Ohwell, patience, I guess. :p

  • NorfolkNClue #24 2 years ago

    NCsoft put the situation down to an initial rush to play the game, said the problem wouldn't last. Like the game.

  • MaxiSleep #25 2 years ago

    For those that say "well you should expect it" , I really think you are way off the deep end.

    The servers were initially dimensioned for 40,000 simultaneous logins. These is clearly way under what is required. To argue otherwise is frankly bizarre.

    And I note the usual patronising attitude to WoW players above - WoW has plenty of mature players, and other MMO's have there share of leet kids.

  • Kerome #26 2 years ago

    "Castor was underpopulated, and Telemachus and Gorgos had minimal problems."

    Depends whether you're talking EU or NA. At prime time all three of those servers on the EU side have queue lengths in excess of 2500 players which take about two and a half hours to process. But they have now put in the private stores fix, so hopefully that will help reduce congestion.
    Edited by 1 at 30/09/09 @ 11:56

  • actionfitz #27 2 years ago

    my queue last night for Gorgos took just under 2 hours.
    is this progress?
    at least last night I had stuff to do while waiting - workout, prepare dinner, watch sons of anarchy.
    ta this rate any time playing Aion needs to be planned like a summer holiday.
    :/