NCsoft has dropped details on the North American pre-order program for Aion, and while the exclusive beta access and priority character privileges are nice, it's all about the winged hats.
The pre-order exclusive Black Cloud hat is the cherry on top of the pre-order goodness to be had by simply reserving your copy of NCsoft's latest massively multiplayer online game Aion. There's also the experience-enhancing Lodas' Amulet, and one of five different Ancient Rings of Power, based on where you put your money down. Amazon gets the Ancient Ring of Earth, for instance, while GameStop snags Fire and Best Buy scores Magic.
Along with the in-game goodies, pre-order customers will also receive access to all remaining Aion beta events, a 48-hour head start on everybody else, and a chance to select their character and server in advance.
Aside from all of those benefits, you might want to pre-order the game just to get a copy of the Limited Collector's Edition, which will only see 35,000 copies hitting North American shores. There's no hat in the box, but you don't want to overwhelm the customer base with hats all at once.