I’m starting to view the paid-for period of an MMO’s life as the pre-pubescent stage: the inevitability of growth into F2P is starting to look like it’s in the DNA. Both Everquest and Aion are noticing other MMOs, worrying about their acne and taking an interest in clothes. Aion in particular is experiencing a growth spurt, finally readying version 3.0 for everyone to play. (more…)

The last time I mentioned that NC Soft’s sort-of-flying MMO, AION, was going free-to-play I used the phrase, “there’s no such thing a free launch”. However, the accolades, the knighthood, the journalism awards and the general celebrity that came from such an extraordinary joke never materialised. This gross oversight should be sorted out quickly. And here’s your chance, because there’s a date for the change now, and more details of what happens if you were a subscriber. Because come the 28th February, Europeans won’t need one to get in.

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As RPS’ only painfully single person at the moment, I’m happy to inform you that Valentine’s Day is cancelled>. A pox on all happy couples, literally and figuratively. Return to your empty, silent houses with the biggest bag of sweets you can, turn off the lights, and spend the evening sobbing until the sweet, sweet chocolate oozes out of your eyes and anus.

…or alternatively, jump into one of the many Valentine’s Day events taking place this week in assorted games. Almost anything with a cash shop will be running a sale, but many are running special events. (Though not all. DC Universe Online for instance scrapped the Valentine’s content it tried last year in favour of waiting until the team has the time to do something good instead.) Jump in with a loved one, or just celebrate Aching Solitude Awareness Day by ganking any of those pesky doting sweethearts who get too close. Like I care. Sob.

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The next MMO making its inevitable way to being free-to-play is NCsoft’s Aion, the flying game that does its best to never let you fly. Come next February and you’ll not need to pay to get into the game, via the powers of Gameforge. This is, say Eurogamer, NCsoft’s plan to “boost player numbers in Europe”. In other words, people aren’t playing the disappointing Western incarnation of the MMO, and they want to reawaken the servers. And this is a long-proven method.

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Playing Brink this weekend made me worry. But not about the usual things. I was worried that there would never be another way to experience the details of its world – no possibility for further exploration of the Ark and its precarious situation. This isn’t something I normally think about when faced with a multiplayer shooter. I certainly had no interest in finding out more about the world of Quake III, or Battlefield 2, because nothing in them really inferred anything outside those isolated battlegrounds. Their conflicts were their world entire. Not so with Brink, and, now that I come to think of it, a few other worlds, too. I begin to wonder whether game fictions might be too readily disposable>.
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The 2.5 update for Aion, Empyrean Calling, brings in some graphical tweaks and a new character customisation system. It’s really rather lavish, as you can see in the trailer below. It always amazes me to see the amount of content that gets poured into these games, and it’s a strange kind of cruelty that the actual game structure means the likes of me will never actually get to see it. I’d happily wander around as a tourist for a few hours.

Aion players can apparently already access the new patch on the test server.
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Patch naming might be a lawless and uncharted field, but this is still the dumbest thing I’ve heard all morning. Back in November, Korean MMORPG Aion received its 2.1 patch. Today, it’s received… its 2.1 patch, part 2. Does that mean we’re playing v2.1(pt.2)? Foolish devs!

(Edit: Aha! RPS commenter and all-around clever human Kitz informs me that this is because us foreign types received the original 2.1 Korean patch in instalments, for some reason. Thanks, Kitz. Thitz.)>

What is interesting about both iterations of the 2.1 patch is that they make this famously grindy game less grindy, so if you just wanted to play a fun game where you character flies around on a pair of modular wings, now might be your chance. Back in November the developers “significantly” increased drop rates, and with 2.1 pt. 2 they’ve lowered the quantity of materials required for crafting and increased the rewards you get for finishing campaign quests. Each patch adds lots of new crafting recipes, too. I’ve re-posted the trailer for the expansion, Assault on Balaurea, below. It has many wings in. (more…)

There must be some Aion players out there in the seething RPS masses. Hands up – who is still playing?> You still getting a kick out of it? Does this new “Assault on Balaurea” expansion tickle your fancy? Seems pretty standard fare for MMO expansions: higher level cap, new zones, new instances, and some tweaks to things like pet ownership, but it could be a big deal. The trailer, which I’ve posted below, is predictably gorgeous. (more…)