info z
http://aionsource.com/forum/showthread.php?t=237
Cytuj:
Hello everybody!
Apologies - big, massive, huge apologies the size of supertankers - for being absent from AionSource for a while. It's nothing personal, honest! Between the 'Great Database Crash of Aught-Six' here that vaped everything I said already, and me catching up on lots of holiday time I should have taken earlier in the year, there's been precious little time to get in here to post (or re-post).
Anyway I thought it was worthwhile saying 'Hello' again so people know who I am. My name's Stephen 'Rockjaw' Reid, and I'm Game Services Manager here at NCsoft Europe (who are based - you may have guessed - in Europe). We're responsible for publishing, and then servicing, NCsoft titles here in Europe; so far we've released Lineage II, City of Heroes, Guild Wars, City of Villains, Auto Assault, Guild Wars Factions and Guild Wars Nightfall - pretty much in that order.
My job's pretty big, but basically I run five departments, including Customer Support, Billing Support, Design & Web Development, Content & Community and Live Operations. Between those departments we're reponsible for just about every interaction between you (the customer) and the game(s) you're playing.
As part of that, the Content & Community team create the cool stuff you see on our websites, as well as work directly with the community (again, that'll be you). Heading up that team is the lovely Moxie, who's also registered on these boards and hopefully will stick her head above the barricades sometime soon.
Okay, so what does all that have to do with Aion? Plenty. Apart from the Community side my guys will also be building the European websites for Aion; managing the Beta process; and also handling your issues when the game finally goes live. So I expect you'll either be praising or cursing my name a lot in the months to come.
Before you all nod off to sleep I thought I'd close with a few Aion tidbits. Mark has passed on some questions from all of you (a lot of 'em!) which I am working my way through as best I can. In advance of that though, here's a few things it's fair enough that you know of right now.
One. There is currently no Beta happening for Aion in Korea (that I am aware of!). I know this was rumoured for a long time. The game's in a good state, but they're not ready for anyone to get their paws on it yet (sadly, including me!!). As we say in community management, that should hopefully happen 'Soon'.
Two. If we all cross our fingers, hold hands and believe in fairies hopefully Aion will be out in 2007. That's what we're shooting for. If in exactly one year's time (18th December 2007!) the game isn't released though, please don't all rise up and kill me. A more precise date than '2007' I won't give out, either... even if you torture me.
Three. We are aiming for a worldwide, global release of the game, simultaneously in all major territories (Korea, US, Europe). Again, this might change, but that's the current plan. So no, we haven't cancelled the game's release in any territory, and don't plan to!
Four. The official website(s) for Aion should go live in the first half of 2007... again, assuming everything goes to plan! (Wish us luck...!)
Five, and last. We're going to be staffing up for Aion's European community team (who'll be multi-lingual) in early 2007. When they're onboard, there will be many more people to talk to you and answer questions.
That'll do for now. Those are the 'big ticket' items. I know you're all anxious to play the game (just like me!) but please bear with us a bit longer. We're all very excited about Aion and want to do it justice; that means we're working really hard to make sure the game is the best it can be, and everything else about it, from websites to community to marketing and customer service, is the best it can be, too.
I'll see you on the Forums. And if I don't say it beforehand - have a great Christmas, and we'll see you in 2007.