Brian Knox knows what it's like to put out a Korean MMO in the West and get little notice for it. He worked on NCsoft's Lineage II -- a game that's huge in Seoul but doesn't draw more than a small, passionate audience outside of Asia.
The story is completely different, however, for the recently-launched PC online game Aion. Released last year in South Korea, it hit North America and Europe 10 months and three major updates later -- in what appears to have been a successful program to beef up game content, build buzz, and ensure localization quality.
With news immediately prior to the launch that the game had reached 400,000 preorders in the West, the game obviously has outpaced the majority of MMO imports. What lead to this success? Gamasutra discussed process and philosophy with Brian Knox, who works out of NCsoft's Seattle studio as a producer on the game.
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