A few minutes ago aion_trine posted a tweet about network outages for Aion, GW and Lineage 2:

We have been experiencing peer network outages for Aion, GW and Lineage 2 . Our team is investigating the source of these outages

Since Minecraft, EVE Online, League of Legends and games site The Escapist are under “Titanic Takedown Tuesday” attack, we hope it’s not the case with Aion.

We are currently experiencing network outages. We do not have an eta as to when they will stop; however, we do expect to continue experiencing them for the next hour or so. We apologize for the inconvenience and thank you for your patience and understanding. Please continue to monitor our Twitter feeds for more information.

[Source]

Today, Aion team presents a new Free Trial program beginning Thursday, May 26, 2011.

We are pleased to announce the start of the Aion Free Trials, beginning Thursday, May 26, 2011!

Spread your wings and join in the fight against your ancient enemies! Play Aion’s Free Trial for 10 days and experience the stunning beauty and depth of action found only in Aion! Our new Free Trial landing page will go live May 26, 2011!

Not sure where to start? Our new Faction Incentive Program provides a great entry point for new players. Grab your friends and ascend, Daevas!

Play Aion’s Trial for 10 days FREE

Explore the world of Atreia as you level to 20

Join or create a new Legion with your friends

Learn a craft and forge your own equipment

Don’t forget this week Aion team prepares two events

• May 25 – June 8: ‘Gateway Getaway Event’
• May 25 – May 31: ‘Behind Enemy Lines Rifting Event’

Aion team has been working on new project which aim is to improve play experience. The main focus of this program is to establish incentives on specific North American and European servers which have a faction in need of growth and support.

Selected North American and European Servers

The North American and European Servers which are targeted as ‘Selected Servers’ for our Faction Incentive Program are as follows:
 
North American Selected Servers

 
European Selected Servers

Balaur Abyss Takeover – All North American and European Servers

As part of this exploration, when we push 2.5 Empyrean Calling to our live servers, we will be resetting the fortresses to Balaur owned as part of our push. We will investigate possibility of additional Balaur Fortress takeovers as we progress.

Creation Incentive Package – Selected Servers

To assist in the creation and leveling of characters, characters of the targeted faction on selected servers, between level 10 to level 49, will receive (50) fifty Berdin’s Amulets. Berdin’s Amulets deliver a 50% additional EXP gain from hunting, gathering and crafting. The effect lasts one hour, with a one hour cooldown after activation. The Berdin’s Amulet survey may only be accepted by one character per account on your server; however these amulets may be stored in your account warehouse and moved between your main and alternate characters.

Gateway Getaway Event – Selected Servers

During this event, we will introduce special entrance gates for players of the targeted faction on selected servers. The gates will allow your characters to enter fortress instances despite fort ownership. This event is one we have run in the past for all of our servers, but will occur on a more frequent basis for the Faction Incentive program. For the targeted faction, on our selected servers, we will be running Gateway Getaway on a rotating schedule starting on June 8, 2011. We do anticipate running this event for all factions and all servers as a special event, separate from the Faction Incentive Program.

Fortress Siege Incentives – Selected Servers

The Fortress Siege Incentives are a weekly reward which will reward players of the targeted faction, on selected servers, for the specific fortresses they capture on that server. Each successful capture of selected forts will add to the total weekly Siege reward.

 
The rewards will comprise of additional medals rewarded to all players of the targeted faction on the server, level 25 to level 55. Players will have a choice between gold and platinum medals from a weekly survey. The number of medals will be determined by the final tally of fortresses which the faction conquered during the week. The survey containing the reward tally will be delivered the following week.

 
Currently we have chosen to focus the Fortress Siege Incentive on conquering Upper Abyss Fortresses and the Divine Fortress. We may decide to expand or change our fortress selections as the Faction Incentive Program progresses.

 
Each Upper Abyss fortress is worth a Fortress Siege Incentive tally of (2) two gold medals or (2) two platinum medals. The Divine fortress is worth a Fortress Siege Incentive tally of (5) five gold medals or (5) platinum medals.

The new Aion 2.5 update, Empyrean Calling, introduces two new skills for every class. One of the new skills can be purchased from the Class Trainer. The other new skill is a Stigma skill.