About a week ago, Aion’s North American Producer, Chris “Kinslon” Hager, posted some translated patch notes from Korea’s 1.9 Aion Client Patch, and, a week before that, North American Community Manager Andrew “Tamat” Beegle “leaked” the early patch info to Aion players via an iPhone picture of his super-secret meeting itinerary. If you consider it objectively, these two pieces of news are really the smallest of small tidbits when it comes to new information.

Anybody who’s been eager to see what’s beyond 1.5 has known for months that Aion’s next big patch is set to hit in Q2 (so April-May-June of 2010), but just weeks prior to Tamat’s and Kinslon’s “leaked” info, Aion’s fan base was awash with anger and disgruntlement. Flash forward to the present day and, while we wouldn’t say that players are delirious with happiness, it is fair to say that there’s a slight trace of optimism wafting in the air. Objectively speaking, Aion as a game has not really changed in the past month, but just looking at the attitudes of most fans, there is a palpable difference from a few short weeks back. Read more