Massively catches up with the new Age of Conan director
A short while ago we had the chance to speak with Craig Morrison, the new director for Funcom's pulp fantasy epic Age of Conan. Morrison assumed the helm after the previous (development) director Gaute Godager stepped down, and since then the AoC team has been making a concerted effort to reach out to players. Perhaps drawing on lessons from other companies that have experienced player perception problems, the Funcom director seems to be making a deliberate campaign out of player recruitment, feedback, and communication.
Join us as we reflect on this initiative, discuss issues that the Funcom staff see as most important to the Age of Conan playerbase, and walk through features associated with the most recent expansive patch. Read on for the full details and insight into this unique MMO. %Gallery-11743%
Thank you for speaking with us today sir. To start with, what do you see as your biggest challenges as you've stepped into this new role?
Craig Morrison: I think whenever you take over a project of this scale there are always challenges. I approach it in the same way I've done every job at Funcom. Our goal with the designers and coders is to keep the experience of the player in mind. We hope to address the things that make the game fun for the player, the areas of the game that make the game enjoyable. Since launch there's obviously been a lot of feedback from the players about what they did and didn't like. It's important for us as developers to listen to that feedback, take it on board, and make sure our plans are consistent with the player's vision.
At the end of the day we make these games for players. If we're not addressing the player's needs, we're doing ourselves a disservice.
It sounds as though you're relying the good will of the players, word of mouth from the playerbase, to spread the word about the game and ensure that issues are addressed. Can you talk about your philosophy for getting more people engaged with Age of Conan?
Craig: We're making sure that when we address gameplay, systems, content, we restore some faith. Among many gamers that tried the game, the issues we had right after the game's launch were troublesome. A lot of them we've already resolved. Some of them we're still working on, but we've made a lot of progress. That means in effect there are people, hundreds of thousands, who are basing their feedback on the game as it existed months ago. We've already made great inroads in resolving the issues that caused those players to not like the game in the first place.
For example, we've resolved many performance issues with the game, optimized it in many ways. Making sure that the 'out of memory' errors don't happen ... making sure that players can just play the game, which was one of the big frustrations when we first launched. One of the main things after we launched was resolving those issues so that players could have a good experience. I think the players that are still in the game have really enjoyed the improvements we've made. You need only read through our forums to see that the people playing the game are seeing the difference. They're seeing the improvements, they see that we're focusing on the right areas, and we're making the game experience more enjoyable for them.
We rely on those people who are still playing to spread the word, so that people who are basing their opinions on Age of Conan around the game's launch can have a balanced point of view. When you've got a sizeable group of players that haven't played in a while, it's good to engage with the existing players. They can point out where the game has improved in a lot of detail, and it's much more believable for those lapsed players to hear it from fellow gamers.
I can say until I'm blue in the face that we've improved performance, that it's much more stable, but if they talk to the current players and that's not backed by reality it's hard for them to swallow. We're supporting our existing players to be advocates for us, because there are still very much thousands of people playing and enjoying themselves. We want to spread the word that we're focused, the game is improving, and the game is better today than it was at launch.
A major patch was just recently added to the game. You've tweaked classes, fixed some UI issues, and added in some major components to the PvP system. Can you walk through some of those broadly to give readers a sense of what's been added?
Craig: The game update that went live recently was very large. There were quite a few areas of new content, new systems added on, improvements to existing ones. It was probably the largest game update we've done since the game launched. The main new feature was the PvP Consequences system. It adds a layer of new mechanics to the PvP system; basically player actions start to have an effect on how NPCs perceive them in the gameworld. Eventually if they take enough actions that they're deemed a murderer, they'll have to resort to using other NPC encampments. These 'outlaw camps' require murderers to pay for services they might get for free in the more civilized parts of Hyboria.
It makes life a little bit harder for them, but I think it adds a nice dynamic element to their gameplay. It allows the players to bring themselves into the gameworld as they want. To create their own fame and infamy, to make themselves known for being a murderer or for hunting them. I think it adds a great dynamic element to a PvP system. It should make things a lot more colorful for people, a little more engaging.
