In anticipation of the launch of this year’s biggest massively multiplayer online (MMO) release, Aion, NCsoft announced an exclusive cross promotion today giving players the ability to call upon the Aion wings emote within the Guild Wars family of games.

Designed as an added value and a way to say thanks to our biggest fans of the Guild Wars and Aion franchises, players that purchase an Aion Collector’s Edition or a first run Aion Steelbook Edition will be rewarded with a Guild Wars emote that displays the wings that have become synonymous with Aion.

While the Aion wings emote will stay active in a players account forever, the promotion has a limited run. In order to guarantee a Guild Wars Aion wings emote code, players are encouraged to pre-order Aion at several participating retailers, including GameStop, Amazon, Best Buy, Fry’s Electronics and EB Games.

For more information on the Guild Wars Aion Wings promotion, please visit www.guildwars.com/aion.

About Aion

The MMO genre spreads its wings and takes flight in Aion, the latest title from publisher and developer NCsoft and the most anticipated new MMO of 2009. Aion is a visually stunning massively multiplayer online RPG where you fight in an epic celestial war between twin races of winged beings. Wielding devastating powers and the capability of genuine flight, you must restore the balance to a beautiful world shattered by cataclysm. Customize your online experience like never before, including character, weapons and item customization, in preparation for story-driven quests and innovative combat on land and in the air. Choose your side, spread your wings, and claim your rightful place among the immortals.

About Guild Wars

Guild Wars, Guild Wars Factions, Guild Wars Nightfall, and Guild Wars: Eye of the North, are global online role-playing games that allow gamers to play with anyone, anytime, and anywhere in the world. Within the games, players venture through multiple chapters of an award-winning storyline in which they face-off against magical creatures, forgotten races, vengeful spirits and even a god. Players can choose to play through the game solo, recruit henchmen that you control or join a party with other players. The Guild Wars franchise subscription-free business model has proven to be a big hit with gamers, bringing an enormous and diverse online community to the game.

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NCsoft fans are in for a treat at this year’s Penny Arcade Expo. A wide variety of treats are in store for fans of NCsoft’s Aion, Guild Wars 2, and City of Heroes. Check out all of the juicy details below!

Playable builds, art books, developer chats, exclusive codes, artist signings and giveaways are a few of the activities taking place in the NCsoft booth

With Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) 2009 now in NCsoft West’s backyard following our recent Western headquarter relocation to Seattle, attendees will quickly realize we’re holding nothing back. Making quite the splash, NCsoft will host three distinct booths featuring playable content from the launch update of the most anticipated MMO of the year, Aion – recently awarded “Best Online Game” at gamescom last weekend; various activities surrounding the recent reveal of the Guild Wars 2 teaser trailer, including a Guild Wars 2 art book giveaway; and the playable City of Heroes Issue 16 “Power Spectrum” and Mission Architect build, featuring powers customization and Mission Architect enhancements on the show floor.

We invite you to come visit us at our Aion, Guild Wars 2 and City of Heroes booths to see what we have going on. Below you will find additional information regarding NCsoft PAX activities:

Come experience what all the buzz is about! The Aion booth will feature 20 gaming stations complete with the new playable content from the update 1.5, playable for the first time in North America. The launch update introduces numerous enhancements, including continued improvements to Aion’s innovative character customization now featuring a host of Western styles, as well as new zones, instances, skills, quests and continued game balancing and improvements. We will also have Aion spokespeople, including Brian Knox and Lani “Liv” Blazier, available for one-on-one interviews in the booth (#642). Additional information on Aion can be found the Aion Web site.

Hot off the world premiere of the teaser trailer in Cologne, Guild Wars 2 will be attending PAX in force. An exciting draw at the booth will be the giveaway of The Art of Guild Wars 2 – a hardbound book packed with 128 pages of eye candy by Guild War 2’s award-winning artists providing fans with a glimpse into the world of Guild Wars 2. Artists will be on site signing the book throughout the show. In addition, we’re hosting talks covering the upcoming novel The Fall of Ascalon and Q&A sessions with the Guild Wars Live Team in the booth (#842). Visit the Guild Wars Web site for additional information.

Visit the City of Heroes booth (#542) for the opportunity to get your hands on the long awaited powers customization update featured in the game’s 16th free expansion, “Power Spectrum,” before its public release. City of Heroes’ developers will be available to give hands-on tips for using the game’s Mission Architect user-generated content system, answer questions and discuss the future of the super hero MMO genre. In addition to booth activities which include giveaways and a PAX exclusive Costume Power code, the City of Heroes team invites you to their panel discussion entitled “Mission Architect: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Story,” and will host a player Meet and Greet on Saturday evening. More information on City of Heroes can be found on the City of Heroes Web site.

We have here a video of Lani Blazier taking to the stage at Gamescon to ask Lead Designer Yongchan Jee some questions from the audience. Find out what’s happening at Gamescon each day by checking out the community blog over at aiononline.com.

There is also a live theater event taking place as well. Acts I and II are currently available on video.

ACT I

ACT II

We have some new screenshots from NCsoft of some new content in the 1.5 patch and also a collection of cleric screenshots. If you want to see more, you can check out all of our available screenshots here!

[View with PicLens]

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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