Server mergers planned for Aion

By Oli Welsh Published 19 May, 2010

Patch 1.9, character transfers live in June.

NCsoft has revealed that it will be merging servers for its MMO Aion: The Tower of Eternity in North America and Europe, due to falling server populations.

A timetable and plan for the mergers will be revealed "in the coming weeks," producer Chris Hager said in his latest letter to the community (via Massively).

"Some of the specific concerns you've told us about deal with difficulty finding groups in game, having resources to contribute to the overall server economy, and being able to gather strong enough forces to enjoy the end game content," Hager said.

"After reviewing all of the game, character, and server data we found that certain level ranges or classes had healthy numbers, but across ALL level ranges and professions most of our servers didn't have ideal populations.

"I don't relish the idea of mergers... However, once it is complete you should notice improvements in each of the new server economies, an abundance of players to group and run instances with, a number of great Legions to join or people to form new ones with, and a more tightly knit community.  When all is said and done, Aion will be a better game because of the server merge," he finished.

Hager also revealed that the game's next patch, update 1.9, will go live on 2nd June. The patch grants new skills to every character class, overhauls questing and speeds up levelling.

A character transfer service, which NCsoft first announced shortly after the game's launch in September last year, will go live in mid-June and be free for a limited period, he said.

Finally, the 2.0 patch, which adds a large amount of new content to Aion, is headed for a fall release in North America and Europe, according to Hager.

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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 (23) Latest comment 2 years ago

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  • darkmorgado #1 2 years ago

    Hi to all the people that said Aion would overthrow WoW.

  • darkmorgado #2 2 years ago

    Negging me? Seriously?

    I am sure that Aion is a good game (though what I've read says its very grind-intense), but come on - it was never going to beat WoW. I think the only thing with half a chance of toppling Blizzard is The Old Republic, and even then that's a niche game.

  • Hypercube #3 2 years ago

    @darkmorgado - I don't recall anyone saying Aion would overthrow WoW, so you come off as a bit of an asshole, which would seem to be your intention.

    As far as the game goes, I really enjoyed the first 20 or so levels, but although it still looks fantastic, there's not enough 'worldiness' in it to really keep my attention. In the end, it just seems to be more PvP than actually having an online world to explore and interact with.

  • Spekingur #4 2 years ago

    @Hybercube: Did it feel somewhat like Guild Wars then?

  • Hypercube #5 2 years ago

    @Spekingur - I can see what you mean, but while there were some similarities, I'd say Aion is much more like WoW than GW, but while WoW has a huge, open explorable world that simply seems to get bigger as you level, the area progression in Aion felt very linear to me - almost in the way that Warhammer Online had it.

    The other problem with Aion is that all playing an alt is incredibly dull - you do the exact same quests in the exact same areas as any other char on the same faction. So when I got to lvl 20 on my Templar and realised I didn't like it, levelling up an alt on the same server was so dull after a while that I switched servers to level on the opposite faction.

    One thing about this news though - they said they were going to offer free server transfers after the debacle of their Western launch (god, that was a cluster-fuck). And now they're only going to offer these transfers because they're losing population... That seems to be very much the NCSoft way.

  • MasterNameless #6 2 years ago

    I agree with Hypercube, the game had such good potential, but NCSoft did a pretty terrible job of supporting the game and sorting out any issues - especially with the launch of the game. Not only did I eventually run out of patience with the game, but I doubt I'll play another NCSoft game until they have a serious overall.

    And darkmorgado, it's pretty obvious why you got negged, and very funny you took offense by it. It's very clear why such an obviously juvenile and snarky comment, celebrating the demise of what could have been a very good game, got negged.

  • darkmorgado #7 2 years ago

    I don't recall anyone saying Aion would overthrow WoW, so you come off as a bit of an asshole, which would seem to be your intention.

    A) No, I am not trying to come across as an asshole at all.

    B) I've seen a lot of people, both on here and on other sites, claiming that Aion was going to overthrow WoW.

  • darkmorgado #8 2 years ago

    It's very clear why such an obviously juvenile and snarky comment, celebrating the demise of what could have been a very good game, got negged.

    What the fuck? I'm not celebrating anything. It's a shame when any MMO goes under (well, maybe not Tabula Rasa). I was simply pointing out that the people who said that Aion would be the "next big thing" were rather short-sighted.

    Copying WoW will not topple WoW. Thankfully many MMO devs are now learning this, and we are getting some genuinely interesting looking MMOs that are daring to do different things. I would rather have a lot of less-successful but original MMOs than have to choose from a raft of less-successful WoW clones.

  • dnd #9 2 years ago

    Leaving aside alleged snarkiness, I too recall various ppl proclaiming it as a WoW killer.

  • darkmorgado #10 2 years ago

    Leaving aside alleged snarkiness, I too recall various ppl proclaiming it as a WoW killer.

    Thank you, which was the point of my comment.

    Jesus.

  • optimusprym8 #11 2 years ago

    I'm surprised anyone expected any different considering NCsoft's track record with Korean games in the West and the whole half-arsed, balls-up of a re-organisation into NCwest. What goes around comes around.

  • darkmorgado #12 2 years ago

    I'm personally waiting for more details on WH40K.

    I am *hoping* that you will be able to play as a member of the Inquisition, visit multiple planets, and engage in space and ground combat.

    And with Joe Mad at the helm, we know the character designs will be purdy.

  • Macross #13 2 years ago

    Really enjoyed this game for the time I played it. Stopped because it just got a little bit too grindy for my liking. Id be happy to give it a punt again when the game looks and plays a bit more like those awesome Aion vision movies that came out.

    Really really nice idea for a game, let down by an over-instanced gameworld ala TR, Maybe im spoiled by wow and EVE but i want to actualy be in the same overall world that all the other buggers online on my server are in. If this is made impossible by the size of levels, or bot farming then thats a problem they should have considered and fixed at the concept stage.

  • darkmorgado #14 2 years ago

    i want to actualy be in the same overall world that all the other buggers online on my server are in.

    I agree. This is why I never really got into DDO or Guild Wars as well - the world just felt too instanced, with the hubs feeling little more like a Lobby than a living world. A shame, because (particularly in the case of Guild Wars) they are both excellent games in their own right. They just didn't feel MMO enough, if that makes sense.

    Guild Wars 2 looks very interesting, though.

    Hmmm. I might need to dip back into EVE as well. It's been ages since I last played it.

  • levitate #15 2 years ago

    This seems inevitable for most MMOs these days. They are too optimistic and open up too many servers and then, 6-12 months down the line, they need to merge. It's a sad state of affairs.

  • optimusprym8 #16 2 years ago

    @levitate MMOs will always be between a rock and a hard place though when it comes to servers.

    Launch with too few and people moan about queues to get in (like Aion had), open with too many and a few months down the line when free periods pass and populations dwindle, people complain about not being able to find other ppl to play with (like Aion has).

    The main trouble is a lot of companies then use the server migration as a tool to further rinse players with charges to transfer characters etc

  • anomagnus #17 2 years ago

    We all know the problem with MMO launches these days, they all fall into three basic catagories:-

    1) The WoW clone. People try it out, then go back to WoW. People very rarely switch like for like
    2) The PVP game. It never works, because a)the technology isnt there to support epic battles as promised (looking at you Warhammer) or b) you get massive pop imbalances as people switch sides depending on whos winning
    3) The wild outsider, some estoric game that would never work, like that car MMO, or a niche mmo

    There are very few MMO's being made that have a clear vision. Most of them, to my mind, are MMO's for the sake of being an MMO. Heres a big world, go level and explore.

    The Old Republic looks like it could work, because Bioware have a clear vision of the game, and your character, but it will still not be as big as WoW.

    As for the 40k MMO, i'm a MASSIVE 40k fan. I'm enough of a fan to know, there simply no way to fit the 40k universe into a MMO. How are the seriosuly going to handle the space marines? These are warriors that are maybe, MAYBE given 15 minutes of free time per day, to relax, and even then, many chapters frown on it. THey are a monastic order, ruled by strict guidelines on all their activities.

    How will that mesh with a space marine caller XXXMoMPawnerXXX, bleating in the trade channel?

    As for Aion, looked good, played poorly, but still sorry to see another MMO suffer.

    And darkmorgado, just accept you'll get negged, it happens, chill out

  • Spekingur #18 2 years ago

    @anomagnus: Are you saying that an IKEA MMO would never work out? :/

  • actionfitz #19 2 years ago

    @Hypercube

    "they said they were going to offer free server transfers after the debacle of their Western launch (god, that was a cluster-fuck). And now they're only going to offer these transfers because they're losing population... That seems to be very much the NCSoft way."

    I agree with the clusterfuck comment.
    The implementation of the game at EU launch was a fucking joke.
    They launched without enough servers to cater for the amount of game copies sold. Queing for 3hours+ each night probably killed off allot of the initial player base imo.
    Then refused to implement 'FREE' character transfers so that people could join friends in the newer less populated servers instead of rerolling... which I did... only to be faced with queues again when everyone else had the same idea.
    Totally pathetic.
    Ill leave out the epic rant i'd like to have about the Bots and the none existent community feedback/support (at least back when I was still playing).

  • dingo75 #20 2 years ago

    Negging me? Seriously?

    Sure-fire way to get more negs...

  • George-Roper #21 2 years ago

    @anomagnus

    As for the 40k MMO, i'm a MASSIVE 40k fan. I'm enough of a fan to know, there simply no way to fit the 40k universe into a MMO. How are the seriosuly going to handle the space marines? These are warriors that are maybe, MAYBE given 15 minutes of free time per day, to relax, and even then, many chapters frown on it. THey are a monastic order, ruled by strict guidelines on all their activities.

    How will that mesh with a space marine caller XXXMoMPawnerXXX, bleating in the trade channel?

    Same thing was said about Warhammer and before that Star Wars Galaxies.

    If you can't see by now that MMOs based on existing franchises barely offer the same 'experience' then you need to wake up. WH40k Space Marines stood on the steps of the Emperors Auction House for 5 hours, broadcasting "WTS lvl 10 bolter, 20 imp creds!"? Yep!

  • 5h1nj1 #22 2 years ago

    I wanted to try Aion, but there was no demo. Did they fix that already? I'd like to try for my own.

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