A new community blog from Ayase was posted earlier this evening. Inside, we get a sneak peek at all the exciting activities that will be held over at Aion’s GamesCon booth next week. You can view the original post here or just read it below.

The sixth closed beta event is currently well underway with mighty steam clouds puffing out its towering feedback chimney. Meanwhile, careful preparations are being made behind the scenes in our activity-bursting offices to ensure a thoroughly fun gamescom experience next week. That’s right - we’re heading to one of the world’s largest games exhibitions, taking place in Cologne, Germany, starting next Wednesday 19th. Keep in mind that the convention’s name is actually meant to be written ‘gamescom’, without an upper case first letter - it’s not just me slacking off!

I realize that it might be a little bit overwhelming to see two such exciting activities, both closed beta and gamescom, take place so near each other on our axis of time. Rest assured that I frequent NASA’s website to catch any natural phenomena that may spring up as a result of this. It’s bound to happen. But I digress.

Without further ado, let me collate the more notable Aion-things you will be seeing at our booth in Cologne this year, whether you’re actually there or simply following us online.

Live Interviews - check!
Lani “Liv” Blazier will be hosting these Q&A type events that will span the duration of gamescom. Our central stage will host a variety of different guests and the language will be English, with German live translation. We’ll have these interviews available online afterwards for you to dig into.

Defeat Amboss - check!
In German they call it “Hau den Amboss” and it has to be one of my favorite events. The premises are as follow:

1) A secret game show-esque game has been selected by German community members
2) Members of the community line up on the stage along with our German Community Manager Martin “Amboss” Rabl (’Amboss’ translates to ‘anvil’)
3) The game is on; Community Manager versus Community member. Who takes the crown?

“Defeat Amboss” will end in a rain of swag and moo-cards, a type of card those of you who visit the convention in person will probably get to know intimately. Collecting these cards will give the owner ‘experience points’ (XP) and some of the most avid adventurers will be able to turn them in for precious treasure…

Costume Competition - check!
Uh-oh! I think we’re all in for a treat here! During gamescom we will be arranging an exciting costume competition for all booth visitors to turn their virtual characters or familiars into physical reality. It comes with prizes and I’ll be there to snap some classy pictures for you all to view right here in our community blog.

Aion Live Theater - check!
I’ll try to end this blog post on the highest note possible. What could possibly be more mind-blowing than seeing actresses acting out scenes from the world of Atreia live from our gamescom stage? An engaging script written for this event specifically along with a couple of behind-the-stage ’special arrangements’ will ensure that this becomes, literally, a high-flying experience (how is that for a sublime hint?).

The above highlights are of course only a modest selection of the many things we are planning to entertain you with at gamescom, but follow our Twitter feeds (@aion_ayase, @aion_amboss, @aion_liv, @aion_xaen), Facebook page page and website closely and you’ll be sure to catch anything I have yet to mention.

We hope you are all as excited for next Wednesday to arrive as we are. I will personally be traveling on Saturday and Sunday, and therefore unavailable throughout the weekend, but will try to make up for this with some dazzling Aion coverage during gamescom.

We will be broadcasting all stage activity live on the web and will get you details on how to hook on to our stream a bit later on.

See you online, see you there, and stay tuned for more!

/Ayase