AION is a fantasy MMORPG developed from NCSOFT (Korea), that initially launched in 2008 and shortly after in NA/EU. Gameforge, the European publisher of MMORPGs, took over the publishing rights of Aion in Europe from NCSOFT in 2011, handling it in separate servers and monetization system from the NA version.

Gameforge has faced significant criticism from players and former employees. Common concerns include aggressive monetization, inadequate customer support, questionable account management practices and a lot more... and AION is no exception!

A lot of EU players have voiced long-standing frustration about major issues, as below:

RNG MECHANICS AND THEIR IMPACT

Aion’s gameplay heavily incorporates RNG (Random Number Generation) mechanics, affecting various aspects such as gear, odians, runes enhancement, stigma enchanting, minion upgrades, transformation contracts fusion etc, even events rewards. Players often experience multiple consecutive failures when attempting to enhance their gear, even with expensive or hard to obtain materials, with failures leading to downgrading or destruction of items. A system that is excessively punishing instead of rewarding, a great disappointment.

NERFED DROP RATES & RECYCLED EVENTS WITH OUTDATED REWARDS

There have been numerous reports and discussions within the Aion community regarding the very low drop rates under Gameforge's management. Players have shared experiences of farming thousands of mobs for hundreds of hours during additional drop events, just to be 'rewarded' with minimal and outdated items. The reduced drop rates have been described as ''game-breaking'', affecting players' ability to progress. A community-compiled spreadsheet analyzing drop rates during the current patch, indicates that valuable and desirable items have drop rates as low as 1%. These data support players' perceptions of nerfed drop rates for such items. Gameforge reportedly reduced drop rates in order to combat botting. However, an auto-farm feature is available in-game since 2020, patch 7.6. This means that players are allowed to bot without using any 3rd-party program, as in the past. But nerfed drop rates, remain nerfed.

Players have also expressed their dissatisfaction that Gameforge’s management of Aion events is outdated, poorly executed, or unbalanced. They have also reported that Gameforge often reuses events from NCSOFT without proper adaptation, leading to technical issues and players’ frustration. Additionally, dissatisfaction and perceived lack of innovation about repeated or recurring events in Aion managed by Gameforge has been expressed multiple times by the players. More specifically, events such as additional drop event and Tiamaranta’s Eye, are being implemented since 2024 – note the nerfed drop rates as above and the RNG mechanics as below. According to Gameforge, events planning occurs a year in advance. Therefore, since 2023 there wasn’t and still isn’t any kind of events planning. Moreover, events have sometimes been delayed or terminated without prior notice, preventing players from claiming their rewards.

PAY TO WIN (P2W) WALLS AND HEAVY MONETIZATION

The community is reporting for many years that Aion is heavily monetized, often requiring substantial real-money investments to remain competitive. Essential items and progression tools are predominantly available through the cash shop. This setup often compels players to spend real money to remain competitive, leading to a perception that financial investment is necessary for meaningful progression. While Aion is featured as free-to-play, many core features are restricted or less accessible without purchasing the Gold Pack or other premium services. This includes limitations on trading, reduced experience points gains and access to certain in-game content, effectively creating a two-tier system that favors paying players, while free-to-play players are massively disadvantaged.

Additionally, players report that the introduction of in-game shop RNG boxes and seasonal event rewards offer low-tier items most of the time, with rare and valuable items being exceedingly difficult to obtain, while others also report that spent substantial amounts of in-game currency or real money on these RNG-based features without guaranteed success, leading to frustration and a sense of unfairness.

Moreover, the in-game shop has been labeled as overpriced, with essential items being sold at extremely high prices.

The player base has actively voiced their dissatisfaction with Gameforge’s aggressive pay-to-win-monetization approach. A petition urging NCSOFT to reconsider Gameforge’s publishing right for Aion has gathered over 500 signatures, highlighting widespread concern over the game’s direction and management, but still nothing has changed. In a notable case, a German player filed a lawsuit against Gameforge after spending over 13k euro in in-game purchases, citing concerns over the game’s potentially addictive monetization practices.

SERVERS’ INSTABILITY AND TECHNICAL ISSUES

Servers’ instability and technical issues affecting gameplay and overall experience have plagued the game. Players have reported that common technical issues such as frequent lags, crashes, ‘’sendlog’’ errors, performance and connectivity errors, make the game unplayable, with some demanding server fixes. Comparisons that have been made to other regions, note that such issues are less prevalent elsewhere, suggesting that the problems are specific to Gameforge’s management.

INADEQUATE AND POOR CUSTOMERS’ SUPPORT

The majority of Aion EU players have also expressed concerns about the quality of Gameforge’s support services, citing delayed responses, lack of transparency and unhelpful resolutions. But what should someone expect since they have no idea about the game at all!

Players have been receiving generic responses when they report suspicious players for using unauthorized software, even with links to unedited video footage of incidents that clearly demonstrate the opponent’s actions beyond reasonable doubt. There are plenty of cases with opponents following around or targeting sins and rangers in hide without using seed of detection. For example, a community member shared that after reporting such activity, the support team stated ‘’ We will be vigilant and proceed with further investigations. However, we cannot communicate on the progress of the investigation nor on the actions taken towards the reported players in accordance with our procedures.’’ Such responses have led to frustration among players who feel their concerns are not being adequately addressed.

On the other hand, concerns have been raised about inconsistent enforcement of rules and lack of clear communication regarding official warnings and penalties. For example, on July 2024, an official warning was recorded to a player’s account for sharing an account that he never shared, with the support team replying to him ‘’ we were informed that you are sharing your account’’, followed by a ‘’we won’t provide any evidence’’. When he insisted to provide him with proofs about account sharing, the Team Lead Customer Support threatened him that his case will not be discussed any further and in case he continues to spam them for proofs he will block him from the support system.

On another case, on March 2024, a player was reported for kill trading in Dumaha Training Arena, with the support team banning his accounts for 15 years. According to them, after a recent investigation, they discovered that multiaccounts were used in order to trade Abyss Points (AP) in Dumaha Training Arena.... In the meanwhile, it is well-known that in Dumaha Training Arena you don't get any Abyss Points when killing the opposing faction, since it is just a Training Arena! A few tickets later, the support team reviewed this information and decided to lift the suspension from the player's accounts. A case that clearly indicates that support team has no idea about game mechanisms, and delivers bans with questionable investigations.

Players are not surprised to be honest, Gameforge is well known for their corruption, their power abuse and their lack of respect to the player base.

There have also been instances where players experience significant delays in receiving support responses, sometimes waiting several days without any acknowledgement. Additionally, some players have reported that their support tickets were closed without resolution, leading to further dissatisfaction.

Plenty of other concerns have also been raised about inconsistent enforcement of rules, with reports of known cheaters receiving minimal penalties while other players face strict punishments for minor infractions. Additionally, there are allegations of Game Masters (GMs) abusing their power, such as banning players during in-game events without proper justification

The community has been actively calling for more transparent communication from Gameforge’s Support Team with suggestions that include from them to provide periodic summaries of actions taken against rule violators and more detailed explanations when support tickets are resolved.

The dissatisfaction with Gameforge’s support has led to community-driven initiatives, including petitions urging NCSoft to revoke Gameforge’s publishing rights for Aion in Europe.

Players have discussed the possibility of legal action against Gameforge for unjust bans. In one forum thread, a user mentioned a past case where a player allegedly took legal action and was unbanned after several years.

UNRESPONSIVENESS FROM COMMUNITY MANAGER

A community manager’s role is to attend events, to organize social media, to set up live streams, to hang out where the players are, to define the community’s purpose, to inspire the players and actively engage them into the community. A community manager’s role also is to collect the players’ feedback and not just deliver it to the developers, but to come back to them and update them. He is not just a delivery man. It really takes a special kind of person to be a community manager and our own, Mr. Drestam, is nowhere close to that kind of person.

Many Aion EU players have expressed their disappointment about unresponsiveness from the Community Manager on Discord. Furthermore, cases where maintenance communications are literally absent or cases where the same communications are incomplete and inaccurate are a weekly routine. While, cases like players tagging him in order to be informed about their concerns either are left on read, or replied with negative words, not sure, I don’t know, I can’t etc. So, how it became that the job of a Community Manager is just ignoring everything?

We invite you to the Aion’s official discord and see for yourself.

SERVERS’ CURRENT POPULATION

Many players have chosen to leave Aion EU under Gameforge’s management due to all these major issues (servers’ instability, technical issues, aggressive monetization practices, pay-to-win elements, frustrating RNG mechanics, inadequate support and management, lack of feedback to the community’s concerns), resulting in low population, that affects in-game events, group activities and participation. The last major server consolidation occurred on March 2018, resulting in the current server configurations (from 9 to the current 4 ones: Sillus, Stormwing, Odin, Ragnarok). Since then, Gameforge hasn’t announced any new server merges for Aion EU, despite the fact that players keep sharing actively their experience on Aion’s official discord and by submitting tickets, detailing how the current systems have diminished the game’s enjoyment and sense of achievement.

MANIPULATED FLASH AUCTION OUTCOMES

The cherry on the cake!

Gameforge’s Flash Auctions in Aion EU are limited-time events where players can purchase with Aion coins (bought with real money) in-game items at progressively decreasing prices. These auctions typically run for a few hours, usually every 2 or 3 weeks, with each item available for a short duration. During this time, the item’s price drops at set intervals until it is either sold out or the time expires. This format encourages quick decision-making and competition among players.

Over the years, the player base has been raising great concerns, that flash auctions present suspicious activity. Players have identified bot-like patterns and scripted behaviors, during exact purchase timestamps, when the two most expensive items become available.

During flash auctions that took place on March 29th 2025, a player recorded this suspicious activity and submitted a ticket asking from Gameforge to clarify how the timing of the first out of the five available for purchase items of the two high-value items appear consistent every time the past years.

More specifically, the suspicious patterns occurred for the below items:

+11 Extreme Equipment box (available items 5 within a 7 minutes time limit)

Ultimate Transformation Contract: Azphel (available items 5 within a 7 minutes time limit)

The first +11 extreme box (starting price 90k aion coins, approximately 3,6k Euro) was instantly sold at 06:36 for 88,8k aion coins (approximately 3,5k Euro), while the remaining 4 available boxes were not sold at all – remember during the 7 minutes the item’s price drops at set intervals.

The first Ultimate Azphel Contract (starting price was 25k aion coins, approximately 1k Euro) was instantly sold at same time, 06:36 for 24k aion coins (approximately 950 Euro), while the remaining 4 available contracts were sold out at lower prices, minimum capped at 12k due to the 7 minutes sales limit.

According to a support representative, all sales during flash auctions are legitimate and driven by actual player activity, with no interference from their side to simulate purchases, assuring him that all transactions follow their standard procedures and are processed fairly for all customers. The Support representative also stated that timing of purchases can often appear consistent due to a variety of factors, including time zone differences (this for real?), system processing times or patterns in customer behavior. The player was not satisfied with the usual generic replies from support team and asked for clarifications.

The Team Leader Customer Support, the same person, who threatened the player who got an official warning on his account for account sharing without getting any kind of proof, claimed the ticket, just to provide another irrelevant and inaccurate response to the player’s core concern about internal scripts that interact with the flash auctions system. This time, claiming that due to technical limitations they cannot update the auction display in real time, therefore, it may appear as if an item was sold consistently at a specific second, when in truth only the auction display was updated at that time.

As this issue artificially inflates demand and can influence the players’ spending decisions under false pretenses, a reply back from the player followed, asserting his legitimate interest for transparency, asking from the representative to provide more specific information, as the support’s replies suggest either a lack of review or deliberate deflection.

The ticket has been closed with no further explanations, as expected. Not surprisingly, support teams threaten people or closes tickets, when they are cornered with no escape.

The player informed the Team Lead Customer Support that, if the situation will not be addressed adequately, he will be forced to explore legal resource, including escalating this issue to the Gambling Commission, to the ASA and to the consumer protection authorities, in order to address potential violations of fair play regulations and consumer rights under German law.

Affter so many years of the repeatable, patterned behavior at fixed timestams being identified from the player base, during the next flash auctions that occured on Monday April 21st, 2025, the sales didn't present any suspicious activity.... surprisingly (?)

Welcome to Gameforge!

With this petition, we, the players and supporters of Aion EU Retail, are demanding immediate reform from Gameforge. We are no longer willing to stay silent while Gameforge exploits its community, silences criticism, and abuses its control. The time for warnings is over.

We are calling for an immediate overhaul of Gameforge’s:

Unjust and automated account banning systems

Negligent and disrespectful customer support

Unbalanced monetization tactics and anti-player decisions

Lack of transparency and community engagement

This petition is not a suggestion — it is a final notice. Should Gameforge fail to address these issues swiftly and publicly we will submit complaints and evidence to EU consumer protection agencies, digital rights organizations, and relevant gaming watchdogs to push for accountability through formal channels.

We are done being ignored. Gameforge profits from its players — and it’s time they are held accountable to them.