NCsoft's open letter to the Aion community targets all players of NCsoft games

It's not everyday that we find a letter addressed to an entire company's audience when it's posted on a specific game site, but that's what NCsoft West's executive producer, Lance Stites has done with his recent letter to the Aion community.

To sum up his letter, it's been a busy series of restructuring the company and preparing for their next big release: Aion. While much of the focusing has been on Aion, the company isn't looking away from Lineage, Lineage II or Exteel. Those are still high on the company's priority list, according to Stites.

But things are going along smoothly for Aion, as more voice overs are currently being recorded, the localization is continuing smoothly, and tutorial videos are in production. It sounds like Aion really is the golden game of the studio, but it's also nice to hear about all of the staffing changes going on with the other games.

For the full letter and all of the nitty gritty of what's going on with the studio, head on over to Aion's website and check out Stites's report.

Reader Comments (19)

No mention of Guild Wars/Guild Wars 2 or CoX? I know Anet was restructured to be under NCSoft West (the ex-head of Anet was the one running it until recently), I assume CoX probably is as well. Seems quite odd that neither ever gets mentioned when they list NCSoft games.

So Dungeon Runners is the red headed stepchild of NCSOFT? No mention at all or plans.

Well I guess DR is not part of Ncsoft West.

You know I would, but seeing as how NCSoft has either given up on Guild Wars or just doesn't care, I think I'll pass. Also Aion uses GameGuard which just makes me want to kill someone. As for it being the 'Golden Game' of the studio, It's more likely to be a very pretty and expensive flash fire.

It launched in Korea last year and broke all their records so yes, it is the golden child of the studio atm. The western market is just extra gravy.

LOL, Statesman looks SO out of place in that pic...

I fear that Aion game will fail because western gamers and asian gamers have different tastes, and all of the decisions will ultimately be made by the koreans. For example NC West knows very well that in the forum polls 90% of the western players would like Gameguard removed. They know it does nothing to combat hacking/botting, but because of the asian influence are powerless to do anything about it. It happened with Lineage 2 and it will more than likely happen with Aion aswell.

If this goes through as is you can be sure that 80% of the technical support forums will be Gameguard related.

"If this goes through as is you can be sure that 80% of the technical support forums will be Gameguard related."

Yes yes and yes again....you can bet yer buttons that will be the case!

Oh, I thought the letter would be something more interesting, like apologizing for screwing over Garriott and screwing over Tabula Rasa players and developers.

Its small things like ignoring Guild Wars and CoX in this announcement that make me continue to lose confidence in NCSoft. After seeing the mess they made of TR I keep getting the feeling they would rather just abandon the US market and just stick with their comfort zone, even if it meant furloughing every US employee they had.

Just for clarification to everyone, this letter came from the executive producer of NCsoft West, which has control of Lineage, Lineage II, Aion, and Exteel.

Paragon Studios is responsible for City of Heroes.
ArenaNet is responsible for Guild Wars.

NCsoft West does not have any input in those two games. He just didn't comment on what his studio isn't responsible for.

Yes, it's confusing, I know.

Thanks Colin I always wondered hoe that worked out for GW's.

Well that clears that up then. I don't think I'll really be getting into Aion though either way. It looks like WAR with wings and an eastern art style.

Are you sure of that, Colin?

When NCSoft West was formed Guild Wars players were told that Arenanet would from then forward be directly under NCSoft West. The fact that NCSoft West product development was to then be headed by the former head of Anet was held up as 'proof' that GW2 was getting all the resources it needs.

From one of the many articles released at the time:

"NCsoft is consolidating their European and U.S. subsidiaries, including ArenaNet, under a single lable, NCsoft West, the company announced today."

[...]

"We are confident that by combining our subsidiaries into a unified global organization under Chris Chung’s leadership, NC West will become a more powerful force to be reckoned with in the western MMO market,” said TJ Kim."

[...]

http://kotaku.com/5047993/nc-europe-nc-austin-and-arenanet-transform-to-become-nc-west

Sure sounds to me like Anet is part of NCSoft West.

Ok, I just spent an hour attempting to break through all of this red tape. I finally have found the missing link, and here's where everyone is missing the boat, including me at times:

There is a difference between NCsoft West and NCwest.

NCwest is the publishing oversight company. It is the unification of all of their development studios under one roof. With that said, the development studios still work on separate games.

The development companies include Paragon Studios, ArenaNet, Carbine Studios, and, here we go, NCsoft West.

NCsoft West is in charge of developing Aion, Exteel, Lineage, and Lineage II. Their executive producer only oversees these games. They are a separate studio from Paragon, Carbine, and ArenaNet.

So, technically, the title should be "executive producer addresses all players of NCsoft West games." But, we'd probably still be having the same discussion, and the same misunderstandings.

Hope that clears things up.

It does clear things up some, Colin, thanks for doing some research into that.

I do have to say, the whole NCSoft West/NCWest is even screwier then I'm used to seeing from NCSoft.

Using the phrase "a letter addressed to an entire company's audience" together with the marquee of all NCSoft titles is a bit misleading in this context.

Agreed. I saw the pic and thought there might be something of relevance to the *only* game there that I am interested in -- GW1/GW2 -- but, alas, no. :(

Read what Colin said people. NCsoft West is NOT in charge of ALL NCsoft PUBLISHED games.

There's a difference. The title of this article is misleading.

The title of the article is misleading, yes. I made a mistake on it and should have specified NCsoft West games. However, the title is simply a broad statement and is further clarified in the article, which is what the title is suppose to do.

NCsoft's open letter to the Aion community targets all players of NCsoft games

Reader Comments (19)

Posted: Jun 27th 2009 10:17AM Myria said

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Posted: Jun 27th 2009 3:21PM CheesecakeBandit said

Posted: Jun 27th 2009 5:22PM Myria said

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