Ask Massively: And the award for "Least Surprising Question of 2008" goes to...

Here at Ask Massively we sometime have difficult, but fun, choices to make with respect to which questions we choose for our weekly cornucopia of information and commentary. This was not one of those weeks. Perhaps you have heard, but there was a new MMO launch this week. Granted, Issue 12 of City of Heroes might have flown under some of your radars, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't discuss the new and exciting features that NCSoft has brought to their popular franchise.

Perhaps, one day, we may have such a discussion, but not this week.

(This question has been roughly paraphrased)

Dear Ask Massively,

What did you think of the Age of Conan launch? Is it a good game? Should I buy it?

- roughly 300 emails since Tuesday

If I gave you the short and sweet answers to these questions, you might be tempted to skip the rest of the column which follows after the jump. The only thing I can really do is make it worth your while to keep reading, because the quick and dirty answers to these questions are

• "It was nearly flawless compared to previous MMO launches"
• "Yes
• "Definitely, yes"

After the jump, I'll mention some areas where you may want to exercise caution and I might even take a stab at pointing out some of the game's flaws. Let it not be said that I don't give you, our loyal readers, your money's worth.

With all of the hype surrounding the launch of Age of Conan and all of the rumors flying around about the game. How was the actual launch? At first, a few of us were concerned because many players had experienced problems with the "Early Access" program where customers who had pre-ordered the game were supposed to have an opportunity to start playing 3 days before the game was made available to the general public. The problem was, there was more interest in the game than Funcom had planned on. (We should all have such problems.) Funcom had only allocated a limited number of slots in the early access program and the number of folks lining up to play far exceeded that number. In fact, according to early figures, and these numbers come from Funcom, Age of Conan has sold more than 700,000 copies (including over 100,000 Collector's Editions) as of launch day. To put that in perspective, World of Warcraft sold around 250,000 copies on launch day, which, at the time, was the most successful MMORPG launch in history.

As for the launch itself, a few glitches were reported on the forums about being able to claim pre-order items, but speaking from my own experience, there was little to no network latency (at it's peak, I had a latency of around 150ms) and no problems with server crashes. A few reports of server queues surfaced, but those who reported them said that they were short (under 5 minutes) and only on the busiest servers. Again, to put that in perspective, how many of us remember the frequent crashes and massive (no pun intended) server queues on WoW's launch day (and several months afterward)? It seems that Funcom learned their lessons very well from Anarchy Online.

Assuming that we can agree that the launch was a rousing success, how was the game itself? Much has been written about the issues with the Beta version of the game and of the higher-than-normal hardware requirements. The Beta must have had some significant debugging code enabled because the live version of the game ran noticeably better on my system. Last week's Ask Massively touched on the graphics requirements in more detail, but in the release version of the game, I managed to get frame rates well over 60 FPS and as high as 90 FPS in some areas. Obviously it dropped somewhat in more crowded areas, but there was very little chop, even in the most crowded zones. Performance aside, the game is a treat for the senses. It looks great, the music is top-notch, and it's pretty darn fun to play. (But of course, you've read all about that already, right?)

While playing the game, I kept an eye on OOC chat just to see what players were saying while playing the game. There were a few gripes about claiming pre-order items and, at least on my server, the players were helpful and offered suggestions on how to fix or work around their issues. (There *was* a fair amount of snark, but this is the Internet and snark is our oxygen.) There were the standard questions about how to find quest locations (Answer: Check your map and look for the big X) and many, many comparisons to "that other game". Most of the folks who offered opinions stated that they would most likely continue to play both games for a while, but that Age of Conan will definitely keep them interested over the long haul. Some members vociferously responded to references to "That game from Blizzard" with howls of derision towards "B.net fanbois" and their ilk. For the most part, however, the other players were respectful, fun, and helpful. In this case, the "Mature" rating for Age of Conan may actually prevent some (but not nearly all) of the worst social offenders in World of Warcraft from making their way into Hyborea. One can only hope. Overall, the player response was overwhelmingly positive.

So, to answer the last part of the question, should you buy this game? Absolutely. The game is polished and ready to play, but there will certainly be changes coming in the next few months. That is universal to every MMORPG and should be no surprise to fans of the genre. Right now, the game is "shiny and new" and players appear to be having a lot of fun exploring all that Age of Conan has to offer. I would certainly recommend that you get in on the fun now. There is no need to wait.

If you would like to have your questions answered here in Ask Massively, feel free to send us a note via our tip line or via email at ask AT massively DOT com. With the large number of African business concerns who are asking me to help them transfer money out of their countries, I should be able to fund my own MMO venture in about a week and a half. Enjoy your Memorial Day weekend (in the US... just "Enjoy your weekend" to everyone else) and stay safe. (Unless you're the main tank, in which case it's your job to take damage)