How deep is NCSoft's involvement in GW2?

[Rawt]

how involved are ncsoft besides being the 'distributor' of the game? i noticed the character creation system and some other things were taken directly from Aion. I'm absolutely stoked about this game, but had such a horrible time with aion and ncsoft and their support (or lack thereof), that im extremely turned off by anything ncsoft.

so where exactly does the line stop with ncsoft?

[Salech]

They're only distributors, Arenanet have the right to do what they want with the game, with 0 influences from NCsoft

[Rawt]

they gotta be more than just distributors, the game even uses the same character creation system as other ncsoft titles.

[Kolo]

Not really since ArenaNET may have liked their character creation system and programmed it for their game.

[Deleted]

they gotta be more than just distributors, the game even uses the same character creation system as other ncsoft titles.

In the sense that you customize your char?

I'll let you in a secret... Most games let you customize your char.

[Rawt]

No i mean, it's directly taken from Aion. Not a similar version, but an exact clone. i'll try to find the dev blog about this to post.

[MalazanFan]

they gotta be more than just distributors, the game even uses the same character creation system as other ncsoft titles.

Which is more cost effective? Creating a character creation system from scratch or modifying a pretty solid character creation system from one of your publisher's games. NCsoft is not designing/developing GW2. I am not sure when it comes to customer support.

Edit: It's not an exact clone. It's modified.

[personn5]

Character creation in Guild Wars 2 applies Aion's technology as its basis. Although not as extensive as the other game, ArenaNet maintains a specific artistic aesthetic in response.

Found that on the GW2 wiki.
Also, here this: http://guildwars.incgamers.com/blog/...terview-part-1

[IMonstrousI]

I personally havent played Aion (haven't even seen a video) but if something looks good and works. Keep It.

[MalazanFan]

I personally havent played Aion (haven't even seen a video) but if something looks good and works. Keep It.

Agreed. I liked the character creation in Aion, except the fact that you could make some pretty monstrous looking characters because there weren't limits on some things like head size in proportion to body. I'm pretty sure this is one of the modifications GW2 made to the Aion system. They don't want characters to look so bizarre that they hurt immersion.

[Blufossa]

Agreed. I liked the character creation in Aion, except the fact that you could make some pretty monstrous looking characters because there weren't limits on some things like head size in proportion to body. I'm pretty sure this is one of the modifications GW2 made to the Aion system. They don't want characters to look so bizarre that they hurt immersion.

/\/\/\ This, for sure.

Also, I didn't even think of Aion when I looked at GW2's character creation. I thought of Elder Scrolls: Oblivion.

And then my thought process said, "Holy crap, Oblivion type of customization in an MMO?..... AWESOME!" And especially after seeing the Charr females. Finally a female with no "wonder boobs" to prove it! Even the Worgen in WoW made me just facepalm after seeing their final form. (I'm strictly talking about animal-type races, I've been very tired of Furry/Anime related looking characters for a while now.)

[Eorayn]

I think they are responsible for the in-game shop. Like Activision is for WoW.

[DeanyKong]

If their distributor truly had their fingers in ArenaNet's project, they would've forced a release date a long time ago, trust me.

[Deleted]

Says so in the linked interview - ArenaNet liked NCSofts character creation and so created their technology with Aions tech as a basis.

[Mothhive]

No i mean, it's directly taken from Aion. Not a similar version, but an exact clone. i'll try to find the dev blog about this to post.

Can't tell if trolling... saying it's a clone of Aion's character creation tool is like saying Rift's Graphics are a clone of Fallout 3's because they use the same engine.

Arenanet have taken the system used for Aion's character customisation and have drastically adapted it for their uses. They've put sensible limits on what you can tweak and the proprtions your character can have so any characters created with it fit in with the aesthetics of the world. You won't get hideous monsters like you did in Aion. Watch any Guild Wars 2 Character Creation demo on Youtube and you'll see just how different they are.

[Edge-]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game_publisher

Here's a link to exactly what a publisher (NCsoft publishes the game) does.

But each publisher handles things differently, as we've seen with some who give their companies free reign to do what they want, and others who crush them (cough EA destroying Westwood). From everything I've heard though (I'm not talking about official statements, I've actually talked to some of the guys at Paragon and ArenaNet off the record) NCsoft has actually been great about letting them do their own thing. NCsoft is smart enough to know that Korean style games don't work in the US (after how Aion fared with no changes when it came over) and has seen how well Anet and Paragon have been doing, so they give them their space.

[Deleted]

I guess it depends on the person. Recently I had to recover my PlayNC account password because I wanted to check stuff out, it took them six hours to get it fixed. Can't really complain.

[Lucky_]

For what it's worth, it seems NCSoft's support has gotten better. Back in 2008 when I first tried to get my lost password back for my account, it had huge wait times and I actually didn't succeed in getting the password because of rep being... well clueless.

When I tried again last week figuring I could try GW again some time before GW2 comes, I sent out an email, and in two business days they replied me with detailed response on how to get my passwords, including exact directions where to go and what to enter.


It was like day and night. Frankly, I think that it deserves a recognition just how much better the response (and response time) was this time around.

[Haavar]

I'm just glad that we can create characters with in-depth customization without people being able to create characters which look like they escaped from Monsters Inc.

[Deyadissa]

It's far from a clone, just because they are similar does not mean they are copied.


Guild Wars 2 uses a different character creation system by heavily limiting the sliders to make them look as realistic as possible.