<body><div data-contents-type="text"><strong><div class="fr-image" contenteditable="false" data-contents-json="{"src":"https://fizz-download.playnccdn.com/lg/file/BladeNSoul/download/19b950edeae-ac3062e4-52f7-46f7-9eb2-6acc753b6fa0","width":null,"height":null}" data-contents-type="image"><div class="fe-image-inner"><img src="https://fizz-download.playnccdn.com/lg/file/BladeNSoul/download/19b950edeae-ac3062e4-52f7-46f7-9eb2-6acc753b6fa0" alt="letters_from_players_banner.jpg" class="fe-image"></div></div></strong></div><div data-contents-type="text"><br class="ProseMirror-trailingBreak"></div><div data-contents-type="text"><strong>[Updated January 16th] New Staff Letter Arrived. Read the letter Cricket!</strong></div><div data-contents-type="text"><br class="ProseMirror-trailingBreak"></div><div data-contents-type="text"><strong>Player Submissions Deadline:</strong> January 8th 11:59PM PST</div><div data-contents-type="text"><br class="ProseMirror-trailingBreak"></div><div data-contents-type="text"><strong>Read the Letters</strong> is a special 10th anniversary event celebrating the voices, memories, and moments that shaped Blade & Soul over the last decade. This event brings together letters and Q&As from both the community and the Blade & Soul Staff who helped build the world behind the scenes. Together, these messages form a living time capsule of Blade & Soul’s journey over the past ten years.</div><div data-contents-type="text"><br class="ProseMirror-trailingBreak"></div><h1 id=""><span style="color: rgb(204, 102, 0);"><strong>Player Submissions – Share Your Story</strong></span></h1><div data-contents-type="text"><br class="ProseMirror-trailingBreak"></div><div data-contents-type="text">We’re inviting players to take part in the 10th anniversary celebration by submitting your own Blade & Soul memories in Discord! We will select <strong>3 winners from LIVE and 3 winners from NEO</strong> to be featured as part of the anniversary celebration. Additionally, anyone who submits an entry and attends the anniversary livestream will also have a chance to be <strong>randomly selected to have their character sketched live on stream by one of our staff.</strong></div><div data-contents-type="text"><br class="ProseMirror-trailingBreak"></div><h2 id=""><strong>How to Enter</strong></h2><div data-contents-type="text"><br>Copy, paste, and post your responses using this template below into the Discord channel #player-letters and include a photo of your character as well. Please only use one post per response. If you run out of characters, feel free to do more posts.</div><div data-contents-type="text"><br class="ProseMirror-trailingBreak"></div><div data-contents-type="text"><strong>Letters From Players Template:</strong></div><div data-contents-type="text"><br class="ProseMirror-trailingBreak"></div><div data-contents-type="text">Character Name:</div><div data-contents-type="text">Game Type (LIVE or NEO):</div><div data-contents-type="text">Server (Past or Present):</div><div data-contents-type="text"><br class="ProseMirror-trailingBreak"></div><div data-contents-type="text">Introduce yourself! What is your main character name, favorite class, and how long you’ve been playing Blade & Soul?</div><div data-contents-type="text"><br class="ProseMirror-trailingBreak"></div><div data-contents-type="text">What is one in-game moment you’ll never forget?</div><div data-contents-type="text"><br class="ProseMirror-trailingBreak"></div><div data-contents-type="text">Do you have a favorite community memory or story?</div><div data-contents-type="text"><br class="ProseMirror-trailingBreak"></div><div data-contents-type="text">What makes Blade & Soul special to you?</div><div data-contents-type="text"><br class="ProseMirror-trailingBreak"></div><div data-contents-type="text">Anything else you’d like to share for the 10th anniversary?</div><div data-contents-type="text"><br class="ProseMirror-trailingBreak"></div><div data-contents-type="text"><em>Please attach a photo of your character to the same post</em></div><div data-contents-type="text"><br class="ProseMirror-trailingBreak"></div><h1 id=""><span style="color: rgb(204, 102, 0);"><strong>Letters from Staff – Messages from the Past and Present</strong></span></h1><div data-contents-type="text"><br class="ProseMirror-trailingBreak"></div><div data-contents-type="text">As part of <strong>Read the Letters</strong>, we’re also sharing special messages and short Q&As from former and current Blade & Soul Staff. These letters reflect on favorite moments, behind-the-scenes memories, and what Blade & Soul has meant to the people who helped create it. These staff letters will be revealed throughout the 10th anniversary celebration, so be sure to check back often here or on Discord in the #staff-letters channel.</div><div data-contents-type="text"><br class="ProseMirror-trailingBreak"></div><h2 id="" style="text-align: center;"><br class="ProseMirror-trailingBreak"></h2><hr data-page-break="true" contenteditable="false"><div data-contents-type="text"><br class="ProseMirror-trailingBreak"></div><h2 id="" style="text-align: center;"><strong>Justin aka Cyan - Former Community Manager</strong></h2><div data-contents-type="text"><br class="ProseMirror-trailingBreak"></div><div data-contents-type="text" style="text-align: center;"><div class="fr-image" contenteditable="false" data-contents-json="{"src":"https://fizz-download.playnccdn.com/lg/file/bladensoul/download/19c22be9c2b-03f0fcb2-822b-4fd2-b2a2-dc45be67c852","width":null,"height":null}" data-contents-type="image"><div class="fe-image-inner"><img src="https://fizz-download.playnccdn.com/lg/file/bladensoul/download/19c22be9c2b-03f0fcb2-822b-4fd2-b2a2-dc45be67c852" alt="justin_thumb.jpg" class="fe-image"></div></div></div><div data-contents-type="text"><br class="ProseMirror-trailingBreak"></div><div data-contents-type="text"><strong>Introduce yourself! Your name, role(s), and when you worked on Blade & Soul:</strong><br><br>Hello!~ My name is Justin, some of you may remember me as Cyan (from the Forums, Reddit, livestreams, and whatnot.) I started at NC way back in Aug 2016, which was a few months after the game came out as a Community Coordinator. Before I got my job, I was actually a mod on the subreddit when the game launched, which was buzzing at that time. When I started at NC, it was my first game job, and my first kinda "grown-up" job, if you could say. I was very green to working in that sort of environment, so it was really surreal to me. But when I started, there were a ton of people enjoying the game, and updates were coming out pretty frequently. I worked with Liinxy mostly, on things like browsing and responding on the forums, digging through patch notes to write the various articles that came out (systems, dungeons, updates, you know all that kinda stuff), posting various things on social media, you get the idea. Later on, I started doing the livestreams with Brett and Hime, which was a lot of fun but also a lot of information to go over and cover. <br><br><strong>One Blade & Soul moment that still sticks with you:</strong><br><br>We were at dinner with some of the KR team one time when they were visiting, and I asked them multiple times to make a Lyn Destroyer. It never happened though. Sad :(  We were also quite invested in the PvP side of things as well. There was always so much going on in that front, and it was actually pretty cool being part of it. I remember we had an in-office tournament happen one time with players from all over NA and EU, with the casters too, and when we were all wrapped up, we actually went to a theme park near the office (Knotts Berry Farm) and I got to hang out with everyone that came in for the tournament and go on rides and stuff. That was fun and that was the first time I ever went there too, so it was just a cool memory I have. One of the casters, Barney, was from the UK, and he was struggling with the California sun, haha. <br><br>One thing I also always remember is Kero yelling at us in Chinese 😭<br><br><strong>A favorite or memorable moment involving the players or community:</strong><br><br>In general, it's hard to say, since I was involved with the players a lot (even if they didn't know), there were a lot of things that happened over the years. I had fun doing dabs on the livestream, or just hanging out in random Twitch streams of people streaming the game. I still see emotes here and there of me from the stream on various Discords and stuff. I was also really into art, I love seeing art and the creations people do. I pushed heavily for the loading screen art contests, design contests, etc. The comic contest that ran was something I wanted personally, and I thought it was so cool seeing all the funny comics, etc people made. Honestly, there were so many amazing artists and creators. I really hope you guys are doing well and continuing to be creative!<br><br><strong>Why Blade & Soul mattered to you, or what made it special:</strong><br><br>I was a big player of AION when the game came out in 2009, and played it for many years. I heard NC was working on B&S and visited the KR website and all that sort of stuff in excitement. Before B&S came out in 2016, it was actually announced way before for the NA region. I don't know if anyone remembers that, but there was basically an announcement for it, and then things went silent for a very, very long time until it was re-announced. It's a little funny because I remember seeing a post on the old website after the initial launch about some of the people working on the game at NCWest, and I messaged them on FB asking them if the game was still coming out. That's weird, don't do that. But I was excited and wanted to play. I played the KR version, and you know "another version," and then eventually the game came out for us. I mentioned before I was a mod on the subreddit, so overall, I was pretty stoked for the game. I even made a fansite called Bopae (which is what Soul Sheilds were called before they changed it, argh!). <br><br>All that being said, I was really excited to play the game, haha. And then I played FM when it came out, and my fingers were killing me.<br><br><strong>Anything else you'd like to say to the community?</strong><br><br>It's been a few years now since I was in the game. I've grown up a bit and am looking at 10 years here in this industry as a Community dude, and I look back fondly at the time I had working on the game. It was fun to play and fun to interact with. There are so many random and fun things that happened over the years I had there. Like me banning someone from the official Twitch account over 100 times 😅<br><br>That being said, I am still in contact with some of ya'll, so shout out there. A lot of old content creators became friends of mine, and I still pop in and check out their streams and videos to see what they are up to. We've all grown up so much since 2016! Hopefully I get another Discord message in 10 years to talk about B&S for its 20th anniversary!<br><br>-Cyan</div><div data-contents-type="text"><br class="ProseMirror-trailingBreak"></div><div data-contents-type="text"><br class="ProseMirror-trailingBreak"></div><hr data-page-break="true" contenteditable="false"><div data-contents-type="text"><br class="ProseMirror-trailingBreak"></div><div data-contents-type="text"><br class="ProseMirror-trailingBreak"></div><h1 id="" style="text-align: center;"><strong>Linda Hime - Former Community Manager</strong></h1><div data-contents-type="text"><br class="ProseMirror-trailingBreak"></div><div data-contents-type="text" style="text-align: center;"><strong><div class="fr-image" contenteditable="false" data-contents-json="{"src":"https://fizz-download.playnccdn.com/lg/file/BladeNSoul/download/19bc86835c0-c3489452-a60c-4a12-aaed-4a1e863d9cb6","width":null,"height":null}" data-contents-type="image"><div class="fe-image-inner"><img src="https://fizz-download.playnccdn.com/lg/file/BladeNSoul/download/19bc86835c0-c3489452-a60c-4a12-aaed-4a1e863d9cb6" alt="1516249295588.jpg" class="fe-image"></div></div></strong></div><div data-contents-type="text"><strong><br></strong></div><div data-contents-type="text"><strong>Introduce yourself! Your name, role(s), and when you worked on Blade & Soul:</strong></div><div data-contents-type="text"><br class="ProseMirror-trailingBreak"></div><div data-contents-type="text">Greetings Crickets! I’m Linda Hime, you may remember me as your former community manager, livestream host, and the boss of good ol’ Justin. </div><div data-contents-type="text"><br class="ProseMirror-trailingBreak"></div><div data-contents-type="text"><strong>One Blade & Soul moment that still sticks with you:</strong></div><div data-contents-type="text"><br class="ProseMirror-trailingBreak"></div><div data-contents-type="text">I must say it’s hard to pick one moment that stuck with me. We’ve had the wild ride that was the launch party in 2015, and each game update has been more intense than the last! If I had to pick one moment, it was the Warlock 3rd specialization livestream during the pandemic. It was a small update so I was like “I can do this livestream on my own since I play Warlock and all!” Everything was going well and I was showing off the new Aerodome. As I tried to enter the area, my game client disconnected. I had planned for most situations, but I did not expect to get disconnected so I literally stared at my screen, my face basically read “this did not just happen” for like 2 seconds before I switched to the brb screen. Chat was laughing. I laughed, reminding viewers that I was on the test server (I was!). I did disconnect again but I recovered much better the second time. </div><div data-contents-type="text"><br class="ProseMirror-trailingBreak"></div><div data-contents-type="text"><strong>A favorite or memorable moment involving the players or community:</strong></div><div data-contents-type="text"><br class="ProseMirror-trailingBreak"></div><div data-contents-type="text">This was another livestream situation. I was doing a Blade & Social livestream with Justin, and suddenly I bursted into a coughing fit. When I recovered, I read in chat where somebody asked me if I had allergies. That’s when I learned my coughing fits were a symptoms of my allergies! I had no idea! So I learned something new about myself thanks to that player. </div><div data-contents-type="text"><br class="ProseMirror-trailingBreak"></div><div data-contents-type="text"><strong>Why Blade & Soul mattered to you, or what made it special:</strong></div><div data-contents-type="text"><br class="ProseMirror-trailingBreak"></div><div data-contents-type="text">What makes video games so beautiful are the player communities. There are so few products where people come together passionately to share their feedback and concerns because they care. Blade & Soul was the same. </div><div data-contents-type="text"><br class="ProseMirror-trailingBreak"></div><div data-contents-type="text"><strong>Anything else you'd like to say to the community:</strong></div><div data-contents-type="text"><br class="ProseMirror-trailingBreak"></div><div data-contents-type="text">I would say keep sharing feedback whether positive or negative. Your voice is valued even if it doesn’t feel that way. And don’t give your current community manager too hard of a time.</div><div data-contents-type="text"><br class="ProseMirror-trailingBreak"></div><div data-contents-type="text"><br class="ProseMirror-trailingBreak"></div><hr data-page-break="true" contenteditable="false"><div data-contents-type="text"><br class="ProseMirror-trailingBreak"></div><div data-contents-type="text"><br class="ProseMirror-trailingBreak"></div><h2 id="" style="text-align: center;"><strong>Stephane Lo Presti - Former Content Marketing Strategist</strong></h2><div data-contents-type="text"><br class="ProseMirror-trailingBreak"></div><div data-contents-type="text" style="text-align: center;"><div class="fr-image" contenteditable="false" data-contents-json="{"src":"https://fizz-download.playnccdn.com/lg/file/bladensoul/download/19bb932cdf5-306f4bc7-aaea-4df4-ab24-cf94c872c0b1","width":null,"height":null}" data-contents-type="image"><div class="fe-image-inner"><img src="https://fizz-download.playnccdn.com/lg/file/bladensoul/download/19bb932cdf5-306f4bc7-aaea-4df4-ab24-cf94c872c0b1" alt="stephane_small.jpg" class="fe-image"></div></div></div><div data-contents-type="text"><br class="ProseMirror-trailingBreak"></div><div data-contents-type="text"><strong>Introduce yourself! Your name, role(s), and when you worked on Blade & Soul:</strong></div><div data-contents-type="text"><br class="ProseMirror-trailingBreak"></div><div data-contents-type="text">Hi! My name is Stephane Lo Presti. I was the Blade & Soul Content Marketing Strategist from February 2022 to June 2023.</div><div data-contents-type="text"><br><strong>One Blade & Soul moment that still sticks with you:</strong></div><div data-contents-type="text"><br class="ProseMirror-trailingBreak"></div><div data-contents-type="text">The high point of my time on Blade & Soul was the marketing campaign we put together for the “Symphony of Destruction” update that introduced the Musician class in October 2022. We worked for many months to learn all the details about this very large patch, getting deep into the tank to make sure that the release would land well, including making changes specifically for the Western audiences. We brainstormed a lot of promotion ideas and did fun things like the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKuOut_aHms">interactive YouTube video</a>, the contest with a Grand Prize of <a href="https://bladeandsoul.plaync.com/en-us/board/livenotice/view?articleId=6335bea80000000000002488">a Zither instrument</a>, or <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnOuaeYGnrA">the preview livestream</a> with Brett Jaxel! And then, the day of release was upon us and we enjoyed watching the community have fun with the new class.</div><div data-contents-type="text"><br><strong>A favorite or memorable moment involving the players or community:</strong></div><div data-contents-type="text"><br class="ProseMirror-trailingBreak"></div><div data-contents-type="text">In all honesty, there wasn’t a single moment that stood out during that year, but instead the entirety of that period felt like an incredible effort to connect with that community. I very much enjoyed engaging daily with the Blade & Soul community on the forums and social media. They helped me understand the game, their expectations, hopes, and also gave us ideas! This relationship with the community was so good that the game producers, Andrew and Michelle, started writing regular Letters from the Producer (with adorable Chibi pictures).  While I was fairly discreet in-game, I started becoming more public at the end of 2022 and remember having a ton of fun playing the Windwalking Race with them.</div><div data-contents-type="text"><br><strong>Why Blade & Soul mattered to you, or what made it special:</strong></div><div data-contents-type="text"><br class="ProseMirror-trailingBreak"></div><div data-contents-type="text">I played the original game when it was released in 2016, but I was too busy to keep up with the updates. So coming back to this game and playing it daily reminded me what I liked about it, and surprised me with how much it improved since launch. Plus, having an active community to engage with made this experience so much more special. We play MMOs to connect, share our love of stories, virtual worlds, and gameplay mechanics. Blade & Soul still has an incredible combat system to this day. But also, for this year I worked on Blade & Soul, I got to work closely with a great team of coworkers, so shoutout to Nico, Olga, Lance, Ron, Joslyn, Pauline, Ara, and John in addition to the people I mentioned above! Last but not least, it was very special to work closely with the Blade & Soul development team at NCSOFT In Korea.</div><div data-contents-type="text"><br><strong>Anything else you'd like to say to the community you can say here:</strong></div><div data-contents-type="text"><br class="ProseMirror-trailingBreak"></div><div data-contents-type="text">There’s a very special memory I have about the Blade & Soul game. I was once at the NCSOFT office in Seattle, visiting a few Community Management colleagues. In between meetings, I was asked if I was fluent in French as my accent gave it away. It turns out that on that particular day, the production team was working on localized VO for an upcoming release and they needed a French person to record a few lines. I jumped on the opportunity and went into the audio recording booth to speak a few French lines. I’m not sure what the Blade & Soul update was but I’m proud that my voice was in that build. 😊</div><div data-contents-type="text"><br class="ProseMirror-trailingBreak"></div><div data-contents-type="text">Thanks for welcoming me to your community, even if it was for a shorter time than I anticipated. You didn’t make it hard for me to be a part of it; you helped me grow as a human being and professional, and you taught me the values of dedication and passion. We rarely get to say proper goodbyes online as it’s all digital, and real-life sometimes breaks our communication patterns, so I’m sincerely glad that I get to say these few words for Blade & Soul 10th Anniversary. I’ve been playing online games long enough to know how rare it is for games to live that long, and I hope the community gets to enjoy many more years of fun together. <3</div><div data-contents-type="text"><br class="ProseMirror-trailingBreak"></div><div data-contents-type="text"><br class="ProseMirror-trailingBreak"></div><hr data-page-break="true" contenteditable="false"><div data-contents-type="text"><br class="ProseMirror-trailingBreak"></div><h2 id="" style="text-align: center;"><strong>Cozzy - Quality Assurance</strong></h2><div data-contents-type="text"><br class="ProseMirror-trailingBreak"></div><div data-contents-type="text" style="text-align: center;"><div class="fr-image" contenteditable="false" data-contents-json="{"src":"https://fizz-download.playnccdn.com/lg/file/BladeNSoul/download/19b9f564830-c569de5c-db2f-4975-8247-bf4e4b046a4f","width":null,"height":null}" data-contents-type="image"><div class="fe-image-inner"><img src="https://fizz-download.playnccdn.com/lg/file/BladeNSoul/download/19b9f564830-c569de5c-db2f-4975-8247-bf4e4b046a4f" class="fe-image"></div></div></div><div data-contents-type="text"><br class="ProseMirror-trailingBreak"></div><div data-contents-type="text"><strong>Introduce yourself! Your name, role(s), and when you worked on Blade & Soul:</strong></div><div data-contents-type="text"><br class="ProseMirror-trailingBreak"></div><div data-contents-type="text">My name is Cozzy and I am part of the QA Team. I joined quite some time ago and started B&S during the release with the Sin class. I did Sum, BD and FM, but I have been doing this QA role regularly since the Gunslinger release. When using my Sin, I am a shadow enjoyer of PvP, while the other classes are heavily made for PvE. I currently play on EU server, and if you see me you can invite me (given that I am free) for DB runs or HM, or just photos. I'm down for it, but my gears are only optimized for S3-4 runs, but I'm practicing on ZA nowadays.</div><div data-contents-type="text"><br class="ProseMirror-trailingBreak"></div><div data-contents-type="text" style="text-align: center;"><div class="fr-image" contenteditable="false" data-contents-json="{"src":"https://fizz-download.playnccdn.com/lg/file/BladeNSoul/download/19b9f69e046-7564dd33-4ef4-4daa-ba6a-c40d30989824","width":null,"height":null}" data-contents-type="image"><div class="fe-image-inner"><img src="https://fizz-download.playnccdn.com/lg/file/BladeNSoul/download/19b9f69e046-7564dd33-4ef4-4daa-ba6a-c40d30989824" alt="image (94).png" class="fe-image"></div></div></div><div data-contents-type="text" style="text-align: center;"><br class="ProseMirror-trailingBreak"></div><div data-contents-type="text" style="text-align: center;"><br class="ProseMirror-trailingBreak"></div><div data-contents-type="text"><strong>One Blade & Soul moment that still sticks with you:</strong></div><div data-contents-type="text"><br class="ProseMirror-trailingBreak"></div><div data-contents-type="text">This is quite new and fresh, but it has really stuck with me. I remember the community discussing the drops in Ebondrake Lair, an old heroic dungeon where a stunningly beautiful outfit drops. People have been discussing this on the official Discord server, trying to find proof that it really drops. Ashira, our moderator, asked the team to run the dungeon hundreds of times to prove that the outfit drops, so that the community wouldn't waste time running the dungeon only to find out that it doesn't. I did it, and other people found it suspicious until they tried and got the drop. I think it's hilarious that I got the drop after 70–100 attempts. It was quite painful farming, but some people got it after only 10–20 attempts. I think this has brought back old dungeon farming more often, allowing more people who are passionate about “endgame outfit” farming to be closer, and I wish we could open more dungeons with outfit drops.</div><div data-contents-type="text"><br class="ProseMirror-trailingBreak"></div><div data-contents-type="text">As a QA role, it's the day-by-day moment of back-and-forth emails of bug reports, features, or improvement suggestions for the game to the devs. :)</div><div data-contents-type="text"><br class="ProseMirror-trailingBreak"></div><div data-contents-type="text"><strong>A favorite or memorable moment involving the players or community:</strong></div><div data-contents-type="text"><br class="ProseMirror-trailingBreak"></div><div data-contents-type="text">It’s always been the people who communicate their issues and opinions about the future of the game that have always been memorable. I could name them but it's a long list.</div><div data-contents-type="text"><br class="ProseMirror-trailingBreak"></div><div data-contents-type="text">From a QA standpoint, my most memorable moments involving the players are those who discover Easter Eggs before the QA team does. This ranges from finding hidden NPCs/assets in the game to uncovering hidden areas. Not to mention the hilarious character and boss glitches haha.</div><div data-contents-type="text"><br class="ProseMirror-trailingBreak"></div><div data-contents-type="text">There have been quite a lot of memorable moments with the community ever since we started using Discord. For example, my favorite BnS character is now an emoji called “Cozzydo”. Shoutout to the maker of this emote xD. It is used in lots of conversations, whether they're game-related or not. People use it for trolling and memes in chat, and so on.</div><div data-contents-type="text"><br class="ProseMirror-trailingBreak"></div><div data-contents-type="text"><strong>Why Blade & Soul mattered to you, or what made it special:</strong></div><div data-contents-type="text"><br>Blade and Soul is a very special game to me. Not just because I have spent almost my entire career with the title, but because it is the community that makes me want to do more, deliver, and work hard for what they deserve. It’s their perseverance to keep playing the game in good and bad times while also making suggestions to make the game a better place for the current, new, returning, and veteran players. It is their passion that makes us strive to go beyond what we are capable of.</div><div data-contents-type="text"><br class="ProseMirror-trailingBreak"></div><div data-contents-type="text"><strong>Anything else you'd like to say to the community, you can say here:</strong></div><div data-contents-type="text"><br class="ProseMirror-trailingBreak"></div><div data-contents-type="text">Doing this job isn’t always easy. Believe it or not, we can’t catch everything. With that in mind, I would like to thank the community for continuously reporting in-game issues and voicing your opinions about the upcoming patches. This gives us time to make adjustments, and while these don't always happen, we never give up on what we believe is best for this community. This year, our team will continue to push the boundaries in the hope of implementing the changes players ask for.</div><div data-contents-type="text"><br class="ProseMirror-trailingBreak"></div><div data-contents-type="text">From the beginning, I have never really been involved with players or the community, as I have always kept a low profile in the game and put work first. I used to read forum feedback, both positive and negative. However, with the help of Bear, Rownen and the staff who established the Discord and introduced the hard-working moderators, I was encouraged to engage directly with the community and listen to their feedback through the game and Discord. This enables the team to attempt to implement the changes we all desire, ensuring that the game continues to prosper. Please continue reaching out to the staff, as we always listen and try to deliver regardless of the results. Cheers!</div><div data-contents-type="text"><br class="ProseMirror-trailingBreak"></div><div data-contents-type="text"><br class="ProseMirror-trailingBreak"></div><hr data-page-break="true" contenteditable="false"><div data-contents-type="text"><br class="ProseMirror-trailingBreak"></div><div data-contents-type="text"><br class="ProseMirror-trailingBreak"></div><h2 id="" style="text-align: center;"><strong>Nicolas Coutant - Former B&S Senior Producer</strong></h2><div data-contents-type="text"><br class="ProseMirror-trailingBreak"></div><div data-contents-type="text" style="text-align: center;"><div class="fr-image" contenteditable="false" data-contents-json="{"src":"https://fizz-download.playnccdn.com/lg/file/bladensoul/download/19b99d4a2a2-6d2d4f8d-039e-4f69-b7b2-4df63867a253","width":null,"height":null}" data-contents-type="image"><div class="fe-image-inner"><img src="https://fizz-download.playnccdn.com/lg/file/bladensoul/download/19b99d4a2a2-6d2d4f8d-039e-4f69-b7b2-4df63867a253" alt="nico_cropped.jpg" class="fe-image"></div></div></div><div data-contents-type="text"><br class="ProseMirror-trailingBreak"></div><div data-contents-type="text"><strong>Introduce yourself! Your name, role(s), and when you worked on Blade & Soul:</strong></div><div data-contents-type="text"><br>My name is Nico, and I was a Senior Producer for Blade & Soul from 2015 to 2020.</div><div data-contents-type="text"><br class="ProseMirror-trailingBreak"></div><div data-contents-type="text"><strong>One Blade & Soul moment that still sticks with you:</strong></div><div data-contents-type="text"><br>I had to rewrite my answer multiple times – too many that stand out! But I will say playing the game for the very first time on the Korean servers is something that I still remember fondly. I experienced a bit of that first MMO feeling where everything is new and exciting, and after my first play session, I was hooked.</div><div data-contents-type="text"><br class="ProseMirror-trailingBreak"></div><div data-contents-type="text"><strong>A favorite or memorable moment involving the players or community:</strong></div><div data-contents-type="text"><br class="ProseMirror-trailingBreak"></div><div data-contents-type="text">There are so many <div class="fr-image" contenteditable="false" data-contents-json="{"src":"https://a.slack-edge.com/production-standard-emoji-assets/14.0/google-medium/1f60a.png","width":null,"height":null}" data-contents-type="image"><div class="fe-image-inner"><img src="https://a.slack-edge.com/production-standard-emoji-assets/14.0/google-medium/1f60a.png" alt=":blush:" class="fe-image"></div></div> I think seeing our NA and EU esports teams competing in the Blade & Soul World Championship against the best players from other regions was a pretty epic moment. Those events required so much planning and logistics, but in the process, we would get to work and meet with players and community members, which was the best part.</div><div data-contents-type="text"><br class="ProseMirror-trailingBreak"></div><div data-contents-type="text"><strong>Why Blade & Soul mattered to you, or what made it special:</strong></div><div data-contents-type="text"><br class="ProseMirror-trailingBreak"></div><div data-contents-type="text">For me, it was the Journey. Hyung-tae Kim’s art, the amazing world design, the beautiful music, the captivating revenge story, and of course, the world-class combat are what made this game truly special for me. Working on the game and meeting the developers was the cherry on top. It shaped much of the rest of my career, and for that, it will always matter to me.</div><div data-contents-type="text"><br class="ProseMirror-trailingBreak"></div><div data-contents-type="text"><strong>Anything else you'd like to say to the community?</strong></div><div data-contents-type="text"><br>While we brought this game to market, ultimately, it is the players who were the main engineers of its success by popularizing it to a global audience and sharing valuable feedback to help shape its future. The amount of dedication I’ve personally witnessed over the years from the community is absolutely humbling and gives a lot of meaning to our work. A special shoutout to all the amazing artists who produced stunning fan art. It is always such a treat to see.</div><div data-contents-type="text"><br class="ProseMirror-trailingBreak"></div><div data-contents-type="text"><br class="ProseMirror-trailingBreak"></div><hr data-page-break="true" contenteditable="false"><div data-contents-type="text"><br class="ProseMirror-trailingBreak"></div><h2 id="" style="text-align: center;"><strong>Jonathan Lien aka Babbletr0n - Former B&S Producer</strong></h2><div data-contents-type="text" style="text-align: center;"><br class="ProseMirror-trailingBreak"></div><div data-contents-type="text" style="text-align: center;"><strong><div class="fr-image" contenteditable="false" data-contents-json="{"src":"https://fizz-download.playnccdn.com/lg/file/bladensoul/download/19b950d2db1-d6ea89c2-7675-44f3-a04f-661670aeaa9d","width":null,"height":null}" data-contents-type="image"><div class="fe-image-inner"><img src="https://fizz-download.playnccdn.com/lg/file/bladensoul/download/19b950d2db1-d6ea89c2-7675-44f3-a04f-661670aeaa9d" alt="V7cqVA44_400x400.png" class="fe-image"></div></div></strong></div><div data-contents-type="text"><br class="ProseMirror-trailingBreak"></div><div data-contents-type="text"><strong>Introduce yourself! Your name, role(s), and when you worked on Blade & Soul</strong><br><br>My name is Jonathan Lien aka Babbletr0n and I was a Producer for Blade & Soul from 2015 to 2019.<br><br><strong>One Blade & Soul moment that still sticks with you</strong><br><br>The launch of the game in North America and Europe, highlighted with the Launch Party at Esports Arena in Santa Ana. It was the culmination of much hard work and preparation by the teams at HQ in Korea as well as at NCWest. Hmm, yeah it was either that or eating spicy noodles on stream so that my face could become a meme.<br><br><strong>A favorite or memorable moment involving the players or community</strong><br><br>It’s hard to pick one specific moment, but when I think back I really appreciate all the interactions I had with the community–whether it was telling people how *excited* I was via the livestreams, answering questions on Twitter, or meeting in person at conventions. I built relationships with people that still persist to this day, and I’ll still get recognized a couple times a year in public which always leads to a fun conversation.<br><br><strong>Why Blade & Soul mattered to you, or what made it special</strong><br><br>Blade & Soul will always be a very special part of my career and life. I played the game on the Taiwan server before working on it and I loved it so much; I was thrilled when Nico (Senior Producer at the time) approached me with the opportunity to work on the game as a Producer. It was my first production role in the industry and also my first role where I had direct interaction with the community, so I feel I learned a ton both professionally and personally.<br><br><strong>Anything else you'd like to say to the community?</strong><br><br>Overall, I just hope people enjoy Blade & Soul because I loved playing it and I wanted people in North America and Europe to have a great experience playing it as well. Your feedback was invaluable, whether it was support or criticism, and I can honestly say that both the teams in Korea and at NCWest took your feedback seriously and put a lot of effort into implementing what we could. Lastly, I hope everyone had a great holiday and a happy new year!</div><div data-contents-type="text"><br class="ProseMirror-trailingBreak"></div><div data-contents-type="text"><br class="ProseMirror-trailingBreak"></div><hr data-page-break="true" contenteditable="false"><div data-contents-type="text"><br class="ProseMirror-trailingBreak"></div><div data-contents-type="text"><em>Check back soon for more letters from the staff and add your own in #player-letters!</em></div><div data-contents-type="text"><br class="ProseMirror-trailingBreak"></div></body>