NCsoft is leading a charge. After establishing itself as one of the strongest forces in the Korean gaming industry, the company is forcefully taking its talent abroad. The spearhead for the charge is the company's latest game, Aion: Tower of Eternity. NCsoft CEO Kim Taek-jin has long been at the center of the progress made by gaming in Korea. While he is proud of what the industry has accomplished in a competitive market, he feels that there is still much room for growth. He is determined to expand the Korean industry's reach and bring it the world wide success and recognition it deserves. According to Kim, "The success in exports of Korean online games is only a half success. Now, it is time to see Korean games find success not only in the Asian countries, but also in America and Europe." The large markets of Europe and North American are yet to be penetrated by Korean firms.
The competition for NCsoft will be stiff, but Kim has faith that Korea's outstanding technology will allow them to win out. He explains, "These days, Korean game publishers have to compete with global game companies which invest billions of won in just one game, such as EA and Blizzard. However, with respect to PC based on-line games, the technology of Korea is still the best." Kim announced that NCsoft will start beta tests of Aion, the company's newest, highly anticipated game. It has invested 23 billion won the new project and it is already being hailed as a masterpiece. Following the success of NCsoft's renowned game Lineage, Kim explains his company's creative process and their passionate approach to every aspect of design. "We have gone through a thorough post-verification of our new game, in major game markets such as America, Europe, China and Japan.
We are trying not to go the way of Lineage, which is popular only in Asia. We have put our blood into every detail of the game's characters, all the way to the symbolic patterns." Aion is a massive multiplayer online role-playing game that combines PvP and PvE in a fantasy dream setting. It features flight as well as aerial combat in a shattered fantasy landscape. The game is inspired by multiple themes and has a distinctly unique atmosphere which can be described as ethereal, or dream-like. Environments depicted in screenshots and videos display soft, vibrant colors and light bloom. Aion creates a visual world that players will feel they can step into and appreciate its majesty. Characters are strong and imposing, while depicted in rich detail with vivid colors. The experience of the game is one that affects all a player's senses and draws them into its fantastical, yet eerily realistic setting.
A three pronged battle
The background story of Aion is a tale of betrayal and vengeance. In the beginning of the world of Aion, a powerful race called the Balaur was created by the god Aion to roam the world of Atreiain in service of their god. Their own will led them to rebel against their creator. Aion then created another race, the Daevas to fight for control of his initial offspring. Even though they were individually less powerful then the Balaur, Aion programmed them with a sense of loyalty and worship towards him so they would obey him in all matters. The Daevas fought the Balaur and expelled them from the world Atreia into a different dimensional plane. For a time there was peace. But the Daevas, though all loyal to the god Aion, had different views regarding the Balaur which ultimately led to them to split into two different Factions. One part of the Daevas wanted to end the eternal war with the Balaur and try to make peace, while the other side wanted to fight until the end. Now, a three-sided war is waging between different factions, with the main focus for each being the control of the Tower of Eternity. Nobody knows what happened to the god Aion after the tower was destroyed, but both factions know they have to prevent their part of the Tower of Eternity from being destroyed in order to ensure their own survival. The players take the role of leading characters from each faction, starting out as lowly soldiers, eventually building their power and potential, becoming more and more powerful and rising in the ranks of their race's military.
Active game play
The end game of Aion will revolve around battles within the Abyss (PvP Zone). Found in the Abyss are huge, spooky castles where large scale battles will take place. The game currently does not allow factions to fight internally and certain items like high end armors and weapons can be purchased with points, giving players a greater sense of involvement and ownership. A distinctive feature of this game is the ability to fly. This will be a limited active skill, through which the character will be able to perform various exclusive skills. It will also be used to find higher elevation areas or materials that are not accessible through walking. Later the game will be released with items to upgrade flight time.
