Blade & Soul Dojo: Blade & Soul Dojo - News, Wiki, Forums, Community Fansite

First of all, the Dojo would like to apologize for the lack of Blade & Soul news, NCsoft and Team Bloodlust left us completely dry this month. I know most of you are getting extremely anxious here, but you have to keep in mind that these periodical dry periods are to be expected when a game is still under development. We just have to wait them out together and be patient. The news will pour right in once the Korean closed beta, which is scheduled for early Q2 2011, begins (bits not covered by the NDA of course). As cliché as this sounds, keep your chin up! You'll be running through those Blade & Soul meadows with Qing Gong before you know it!

This dry period doesn't mean the Dojo has been completely out of work though. We have been hard at work preparing a Blade & Soul Wiki for everyone. An encyclopedia haven for all the Blade & Soul information you can possibly think of. From your favorite races lore to game mechanics (when they're released of course). The wiki's foundation has been set and is just waiting for your fingers to get it rolling with information.


With this Wiki comes new Dojo staff openings. To make this wiki as clean and organized of an environment as possible we're looking to recruit some new Wiki Team members.

So what does a Wiki Team member do exactly?
Wiki Team members are entrusted with keeping our wiki as clean and organized as possible. This includes warding off spam edits, banning misbehaved members, correcting edits and more. They must keep themselves up to date with all Blade & Soul information as well, placing that information on the wiki as fast as possible.

Wiki Team members must provide the qualities of self-starters and go-getters. If there is information to be found and solutions to be explained they have to possess the innate ability to go out and find these things on their own terms and not wait for someone to tell them to do it. They have to be dedicated to what they do and be willing to teach others as well as learn from others who are also helping run the wiki.

As a Wiki Team member you'll be expected to:

• Be active daily within the Wiki community.
  
• Be on your best behavior at all times. Make the Wiki a warm and welcoming place.
  
• Be helpful! Provide detailed solutions if you know how to solve a users Wiki problem.
  
• Delete off-B&S-topic articles, also known as spam.
  
• Correct user edits, including misspellings, grammar and bad facts.
  
• Update the wiki with new released information right away.

What are the requirements for such a position?
You'll have to meet the following requirements in order to volunteer for Blade & Soul Dojo's wiki team. We ask that all potential applicants meet these requirements before submitting their application.

• A clear understanding of the English language (Superb English skills).
  
• Previous Wiki experience is a must.
  
• Must have good organization skills.
  
• Must know the Blade & Soul game through and through.
  
• You must be somewhat active on our boards prior to your application.
  
• No warn points on your Dojo record.

How do I apply?
If you feel being a part of the Wiki team is the thing for you and you meet the requirements posted above then it's time to apply.

How well you set up the page and how in-depth you make your article will determine your acceptance. Use this sample article to show us what you've got, don't hold back! Get creative!

The topic of the article will be Blade & Soul's playable races. You will be using your own words of course, a simple copy paste of pre-existing Race descriptions will not suffice. Ready to begin? Simply register an account with our wiki (here) and begin by editing your own user page. Please note that placing the article on any other page will not count.

Once your user page is complete private message the following information to Revast and title the message "[Your User Name]'s Wiki Team Application".

• Name: Your real name.
  
• Age: Your age (obviously)!
  
• Location: Where you live and your time zone.
  
• Online Hours: Approximately how many hours you spend on our forums each day.
  
• Experience: What are your experiences with Wikis in the past? What Wikis have you contributed to the most?
  
• Sample Article Link: Place a link to your user page on our wiki containing the sample article here.
  
• Additional Comments: Is there anything else you'd like us to know? Leave it here.
  
• Contact Information: Leave your MSN, AIM or Skype information here.

We're looking to recruit roughly 2-3 new Wiki Team members for now. The acceptance process may take some time so be patient! We will get back to everyone who has applied. If you weren't accepted after the recruitment process here is completed, fear not! We will definitely be opening up recruitment again in the future when we feel the wiki has grown a reasonable amount.

Thank you for your time and enjoy the wiki everyone!

Blade & Soul CBT Date
A special thanks to Elimer for this find over on Digital Daily, and to Yuan for the quick translation. Be sure to give them both thanks and a handful of cookies!

The long wait is finally over. NCSoft is set to launch their CBT of Blade & Soul around the end of April. OBT is scheduled to happen around August to October. NCSoft is hoping the announcement of the CBT for Blade & Soul will pull some attention away from its rival, TERA. However, most online gaming media has recognized that Blade & Soul has been causing quite a stir and the reactions and feedback from players at the recent G-Star event speaks for itself. Blade & Soul has had incredible amounts of feedback and very positive reactions from the gaming community. Many foresee NCSoft retaking a solid grip on the industry after the success of Aion and the now imminent MMO giant, Blade & Soul.

According to the rumor around the industry, TERA is a target of NCSoft and potentially their main rival. Not because TERA has a lot of subscribers and players that endanger Aion’s success but because TERA was made by those critical members once involved in the development of Lineage 3. Because of this, many thought Blade & Soul’s CBT was going to happen around the same time as TERA’s launch. However, that assumption proved false after several delays. The good news from this is that recently NCSoft had made a statement, unofficially, that Blade & Soul’s CBT is to happen around late April or early May.

The scheduled Blade & Soul CBT happens to fall right when TERA’s 3 month subscription ends. Most speculate that this is to bring the TERA players to Blade & Soul instead of them re-subscribing to TERA. Many say that Blade & Soul’s rivalry against TERA will start to begin around April. It is uncertain whether or not Blade & Soul’s CBT will affect the traffic of TERA and it is true that Hangame did its part in the success of TERA. Hangame will definitely not just stand by while NCSofts tries to lure away TERA players.

Blade & Soul’s launch is scheduled around August to October. Most speculate that NCSoft’s strategy is to bring some of the crowd away from TERA after 90 days of launch and then bring additional players by launching the game after three months of closed beta testing.

NCSoft’s primary services are all centered around the Q3 and Q4 sections of this year with the launch of Guildwars 2 and big updates to Lienage 1 as well as Aion’s 3.0 patch. The second half of 2011 is going to be a critical time for NCSoft. Will Blade & Soul successfully overshadow TERA? Only time will tell.

Korean New Year
Team Bloodlust released a little concept art to celebrate the Lunar New Year (Feb. 3rd) and to give thanks to all their fans for giving them their support for the past year! Team Bloodlust wishes everyone a happy new year and great times ahead!

This concept art commemorates the Year of the Rabbit with two cute little Lyn's!

Blade & Soul's OBT Set for 2011
“Blade & Soul's will definitely have its OBT this year” -NCsoft Director Jae-Sung Lee

NCsoft made an announcement about Blade & Soul's OBT date at a recent conference. Jae-Sung Lee, NCsoft's director, said "This year top quality MMORPG's will rule the market. Games like TERA, ArchAge and Blade & Soul will stand in the forefront." he then proceeded to talk about Blade & Soul's OBT saying "Blade & Soul will definitely have its OBT this year.”

NCsoft told us in the past that Blade & Soul's OBT would begin last year, but they ended up pushing it back saying that they wanted to make the game proper first! Instead of an OBT release for 2010 they handed us a demo at the G-Star 2010 convention and Decembers Soul Party private gathering. The Soul Party event contained game content up to level 40, showing people that developing was well on its way but they still left us hanging at the event, giving us no word on when the OBT would arrive.

With NCsoft's previous push back in mind many feared that Blade & Soul's OBT wouldn’t happen this year, but after Jae-Sung Lee said “It will definitely happen.” at this recent conference, all the worries seemed to fade away.

Translated by Yuan.
Source: ThisisGame.com

You probably stumbled upon Elimer's post about this recently, here. We just thought we'd dig into this further and clear this up a bit for you all with a translation from ThisisGame.com. This article was translated by Yuan.

iOS Blade & Soul Comes True
NCsoft develops Blade & Soul Spin Off for the iPhone and iPad!

Remember NCsoft's little April Fools' joke last year? The one where they stated that Blade & Soul will be developed for the iPhone? It seemed like an obvious joke at the time but apparently NCsoft has turned it around and is actually looking to make a Blade & Soul spin off (side story) game for the iPhone and iPad!

NCsoft has already started developing the spin off title and has recently started seeking experienced individuals for the games development team. NCsoft is currently hiring an Art Manager, a Client Programmer and a Server Programmer for this new project. Hiring a Server Programmer gives us reason to believe that this game will contain multiplayer aspects!

Edit: We would like to point out that Blade & Soul's iOS version will not be developed by the same team creating the PC/Console version. This spin off game should have little to no effect on the original games development speed.

Some of you might be familiar with Epic Games recently released Unreal 3 Engine game for the iOS titled "Infinity Blade". NCsoft prefers that the Art Manager they are looking to hire has experience working with the Unreal 3 Engine, which means we could expect Blade & Soul's iOS versions graphics to be on par with its PC counterpart.

According to ThisisGame.com, one of Epic Games staff members had this to say at E3 2010; "With this new iOS, Unreal Engine games like NCsoft’s upcoming Blade & Soul game can potentially be made on the iOS."

Here's what NCsoft had to say about all of this; "Currently this recruitment is just a test, we will be doing many experiments and we are not 100% certain that the game will be coming out on the iOS."