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Age of Conan reintroduces free trial
Age of Conan has seen its share of ups and downs in this first year since launch, but the ride seems to be smoothing out lately. The first expansion is on the way, new content has been offered, and the PvP side is getting some extra attention. Community manager Oliver "Tarib" Kunz even took a bit of time lately to lay out a patch timeline for players, to let them know what's coming up. Back in July, a list of "10 reasons to give it another look", included free account reactivation for two weeks.Now Funcom is issuing a similar invitation to everyone, reintroducing the free trial for players looking to try Age of Conan, and those wanting to take a second look at the new and improved game. This time they're offering 7 days of full game access, although there are some restrictions on things like trading, public chat channels, forums, and in-game mail.)If you want a closer look at what Funcom has been up to with Age of Conan lately, visit the trial website to take them up on their offer.
Age of Conan's PvP developer interview
Age of Conan didn't have the smoothest launch, and its first year has been spent in no small part dealing with the aftershocks. Now, however, the game is cleaning up quite nicely, and it's focusing on core areas that keep people in the game and engrossed. The strength of the game's PvP was always one of its core selling points, which should make it even more interesting to fans to see MMORPG.com's recent interview with PvP developer Tim Donks.The interview is very frank -- Donks comes out and says clearly where he feels that PvP is hitting its mark, and what places he thinks it's still falling short of target. He's pleased by and large with the game's "murder point" system that discourages high-level players demolishing weaker (although some players aren't), but he's not wholly happy with how the PvP advancement system in the game is working and talks a bit about how he wants to improve it. There are also a few stories that highlight some of the little changes that can have a larger impact on the overall direction of the game, including how something as small as altering NPC patrol routes can encourage PvP.If you're curious about the direction that Age of Conan's PvP is going right now, both in the near future and with the upcoming expansion, the interview should provide a meaty read. And if after that you feel the urge to pick up your sword and go find someone unsuspecting to test it on, well, so much the better.
The Daily Grind: Does playing an MMO pique your interest about its origins?
MMOs are rarely stand-alone entities; there are exceptions of course but most are created thanks to a fan base from some other medium. Some, like WoW, are based on older games (often completely different types of games like an RTS or RPG) with a rich mythology that lends themselves perfectly to transcend its original form and become an MMO. Others, like Age of Conan and Star Trek, have their origins in novels, film franchises or even a TV series. I know, I know, I'm still waiting and living in hope of that Firefly MMO just like the rest of you. So my question for you is this: Do you play an MMO because of where it came from? Are you a Trekkie who is dying to captain your own ship? Did you play Warcraft back in the days of The Frozen Throne and gravitate naturally to the MMO? On the flipside, did the lore of LotRO make you want to read Tolkien's books? For you, what came first, the origins or the game?
Age of Conan still in development for Xbox 360
Funcom is still developing a Xbox 360 port of Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures, the publisher reiterated in an interview with Eurogamer. The affirmation comes after PC player subscriptions for the MMO dropped and half the servers were shut down. Game Director Craig Morrison wouldn't go into specifics beyond the fact that the company still plans on having a version on Microsoft's console. Morrison describes the team working on the console version as small and dedicated. Heck, it's worth a try. Then again, who will test it? Didn't QA get laid off?
Age of Conan's servers being cut by over half
Funcom has revealed that its ailing MMO Age of Conan will reduce its server count from 49 to 18. The cuts are most dramatic in the US, where 25 servers have been hacked to six. GI.biz speculates that AoC won't be shut down because it's Funcom's only source of income until it launches The Secret World, allegedly releasing in the next couple years.Although the server reductions have been anticipated since late last year, Funcom only recently announced the full list of closures mergers. Funcom also recently disposed of employees in its QA and customer service departments. The company isn't doing too hot with its Hyborian Adventures at the moment, but hopefully these changes will keep the company afloat until the Conan expansion's cash infusion arrives.[Via Massively]
Funcom confirms Age of Conan layoffs
The bad news parade for Age of Conan doesn't look like it's going to stop until it pulls a Tabula Rasa. TenTonHammer has confirmed layoffs at developer Funcom's US branch. Although the company would only acknowledge "staffing cuts," TTH reported rumors that 70% of the staff, mostly from the customer service and quality assurance departments, were let go. Although it's certainly no secret that Age of Conan is hurting at this point, the QA and CS departments are the two bookends of support on many MMORPGs. When there's no need for them, it speaks volumes about what happens next. [Via Game|Life]
Funcom co-founder quits, Age of Conan in Anarchy Online director's hands
Funcom co-founder Gaute Godager has resigned from the company after 16 years, citing dissatisfaction with certain elements of the company's MMO Age of Conan. The very bold statement by Godager comes as former Anarchy Online producer and game director, Craig Morrison, takes the reins of future Hyborian adventures.In a follow-up piece by GI.biz, Funcom's European product manager stated he didn't want to get into specifics over why Godagar was "dissatisfied," but that "there were elements in the game that he was not happy with and he wanted to take the consequence of that." He concludes that the big priority right now is to give players what they're asking for. Apparently, Morrison's just the man to do it.Source -- Funcom press releaseSource -- Funcom: Godager stepped down as "consequence" of Conan problems%Gallery-6912%
Age of Conan developer's stock drops by half
Funcom, developers of supposed MMORPG-hit Age of Conan, has seen its stock drop 55% over the last couple weeks. The stock has gone from $54 to $24 (as of last Friday) per share as speculation continues about how successful AoC actually is. Massively notes that there's no way of knowing how many players actually stayed beyond the free 30-day trial and Funcom's done some phenomenal PR spin on the topic; however, we do know that the game has had strong sales at retail. The $54 price may have been a bubble, though, since $24 is what the company had been trading at earlier this year. If the price drops down further, then it looks like investors don't like what they're hearing about the game and are losing confidence in the company.[Via Massively]
Zero Punctuation visits Conan in Hyboria
No matter how much the hardcore MMORPG crowd may want to deny it, almost every game in the genre wants to be, or wishes it could have been, World or Warcraft. This week's Zero Punctuation says as much, with Yahtzee trying to enjoy his Hyborian adventure but wandering into familiar -- but not quite right -- WoW territory. Check out the NSFW review of Age of Conan after the break.
Age of Conan reaches 700,000 players
Funcom announced today that Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures has entangled 700,000 players in its breast-reducing web. GameDaily reports that Funcom believes this makes Conan the #2 subscription MMO in the western world -- yeah, World of Warcraft is still #1 ... by a long shot.According to NPD, Conan remains the top selling PC title in the US since its launch May 20. Funcom reported early last month it had shipped a million copies of the game to retail and now believes its current subscription numbers give it "significant development resources" to evolve the game over time. Hopefully this also means bugs that reduce anatomical parts will be caught in the future.%Gallery-6912%
Age of Conan ships a million units
Despite changing women's breast sizes without permission, Age of Conan is apparently doing well, as publisher Funcom has announced that the game has shipped 1 million units. Late last month the company announced it had reached a customer base of 400,000.Funcom's VP of Sales and Marking, Morten Larssen, says Funcom's sales data shows that AoC is "the biggest MMO launch since World of Warcraft." He believes the numbers are very promising for the future. Yes, but are the numbers promising a customer base of 10,000,000 players?
Age of Conan dethrones GTA IV in Europe
With the amount of hype, advertising, positive reviews and media attention Grand Theft Auto IV has received over the past few months, we wholly expected it to remain on top of the software sales charts until our video game consoles grew sentient and attempted to purge humanity from the planet. Strangely enough, a dark horse recently overtook Rockstar's well-received crime drama in many European territories -- a horse mounted by a brawny, rippling Cimmerian. Yes, Funcom's decapitation-rich MMORPG Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures recently outsold GTA IV in a number of European locations, including Germany and Sweden. Since Rockstar's latest opus is still selling like freshly baked hotcakes in North America, we can't help but wonder if GTA's themes of living the American dream and hooker brutalization got lost in translation as the title crossed the Atlantic -- or whether Age of Conan's musclebound mascot reminds German gamers of a certain pop culture icon who is quite revered in their country.
Age of Conan early access 'sold out'
Those who wanted to pay extra to explore Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures' lands a little early are probably going to be upset to discover that "early access" is now sold out. A post on the MMORPG's official forums gives little explanation as to why this occurred, but eagle-eyed players who read the fine print point to Funcom having discussed limited availability. Looks like MMO players will need to find some other game to grind in until Conan officially begins next week. [Via Massively] %Gallery-6912%
Age of Conan trailer is up, and it's bloody
Here's the Age of Conan trailer we've been waiting on (the whole thing is after the break) fresh off of its release on GameSpot. The environments look good, but I have to say that the character models seem a bit disappointing, at least from what I could see. But there are some cool-looking mounts in here, flowing cloaks, lots of boats and of course, plenty of blood and dismemberment: the heads, they are a-poppin'.Haven't got enough Age of Conan media yet? Be sure to check our Dark Templar and Barbarian hands-on, as well as the gallery of screens from CES, and a GDC PvP city preview. Could May 20th maybe come a little sooner this year?
New Age of Conan trailer drops Thursday
Ten Ton Hammer is reporting this morning that Funcom and Eidos have announced that a new Age of Conan trailer will appear on Gamespot.com Thursday. According to the announcement on the AoC official forums, the video will launch at 1700 California time ( -8 GMT). Since I'm bad with that whole international time thing, the TTH guys have done my work for me... apparently "1700 California time" translates to roughly 12pm EST. If it's as bloody as the above pic - wow! We'll let you know when the ball drops so you can make a beeline for Gamespot.
There's no crying in head lopping
The fine folks at Funcom have posted a brief update about the beta for their upcoming head-loppalooza, Age of Conan.The biggest news: female avatars are now available! Gotta love this line from Funcom: " ... while there are some bugs to work out -- people always seem surprised to find out a beta is actually used for finding and squashing bugs! -- they are playable..." They also gave a count of how many patches have dropped in the last few weeks. January had three, while there's been two so far this month. Wednesday's update dropped over 2.5 gigs of data! Lastly, PVP and the PVP servers will - for the first time - be opening soon.So if you're one of the lucky ones in beta - rejoice! But whatever you do... don't cry. As Tom Hanks might say: There's no crying in head lopping!
New Age of Conan developer blog on MMORPG
MMORPG.com just launched a new developer blog for Age of Conan. Writing about the ins and outs of this mature hack-n-slash is Jason Stone (aka "Athelan"), one of the game's designers. In his first entry (posted yesterday), Jason introduces himself by explaining his roll in AoC and what his gaming background is. His goals for the blog are to "highlight the goings on in the Age of Conan community, respond to community questions and feedback, give you sneak peeks into my own Beta experiences..." For now Jason will be the only contributor, but he hopes that other members of the development team will chime in from time to time.Almost all of these dev blog's are worth the time to read because they really give a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the game's design and progress. Us old timer's never had anything like this back in the day, so it's a real treat to get what amounts to first hand information straight from the "horse's mouth" - so to speak.
The Virtual World Boom
Looking for a great escape from reality? Nothing comes close to a Virtual World for a thrill seeking whimsical adventure that doesn't require you to crash your bank account or take some time away from work-- except when an expansion is released or you that long-awaited beta invite shows up, thank you sick leave! It's only natural that people from all walks of life and ages enjoy being entertained by an interactive medium that offers socialization, avatars, items, mini-games and other various shenanigans. Everyone from Webkinz moms, Club Penguin kiddos, the voracious World of Warcraft indulgers and in between is getting in on some Virtual World action. The whole Virtual World genre is going to get a lot more crowded as big media conglomerates take notice and throw staggering piles of cash around in an attempt to attract new visitors. Recent findings by the Virtual World Conference suggest that from October 2006 to October 2007 more than 1 billion dollars was invested in 35 virtual worlds companies. Over at Business Week, there is a great write-up from Paul Heyman of Game Daily about the stirrings from the last Virtual Worlds conference and where some of this money is coming from and where it's going. You won't find any Jeff Kaplan quotes on "welfare epics" but it's still worth a gander if you are interested in an upcoming subset of the genre that will probably prove to be more popular than traditional based fantasy MMORPGS. It isn't the promise land for every Virtual World. Mike Schramm recently reported on the MMO Boom and how it isn't always peaches and cream. This year has been rough on Auto Assault and Gods & Heroes: Rome Rising as both MMOGS shut down permanently while Ryzom is still hanging on for dear life. Despite the pitfalls, MMORPGS will thrive or World of Warcraft will at least, for how long? If Ultima Online has lasted 10 years, WoW will easily top that. 2008 should prove to be a better year for MMORPGS with Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning and Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures set to hit our desktops. My hope is that these Virtual Worlds, the ones with elves and fireballs and not Hello Kitty, will be just as fun to explore as their predecessors.
Choppin' heads with Age of Conan
Eurogamer has posted a rather lengthy preview of Age of Conan from Funcom. AOC looks to be shaping up nicely, adding some new spice to the MMOG genre. First and foremost, is the combat system. Rather than opting for the single click system used in most MMOG games, AOC utilizes a real time combat system. Players have access to several different kinds of sword strokes, each with different arcs and effectiveness. These strokes can be chained into different combos, adding a level of skill to combat. Of course, damage is still determined by dice rolls, so it's not entirely real time, but still a welcome change of pace. The game is host to many other great concepts, like in-game cities actually built by player guilds. These cities, of course, can be sieged by other guilds, too, so you'll want to beef up defenses. The game also adds many story-driven single player elements to the MMOG genre. All in all, it's looking like Age of Conan will bring some interesting new ideas to the MMOG genre without straying too far from the path set by those before it. Hit the "read" link for the full preview.
New Age of Conan video barbarizes the net
A new video of Age of Conan has appeared at GamersInfo, taken from a recent Funcom press event in San Francisco. The video -- at least for us -- appears to have no sound, so the action is missing a little flavor. Still, we do get a glimpse at some of the game's detailed environments and the combat system. We've mentioned the combo-driven combat system before, but this is the first time we've seen it in use. Honestly, it looks like it could use some work. Either that, or the person playing had no idea what he was doing (a likely possibility at a press event). We can't complain about the environments though (especially the cities). They look great. Hit the "read" link for the video.[Via Evil Avatar]
