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Age of Conan ratings for all territories revealed
Today FunCom received word on the ratings for Age of Conan in each territory and what to expect in each version. Of course, we already know about the US version. The rating subject has been heavily speculated about over on the official forums for a while now. So finally getting to let the Barbarian out of the barracks must have felt good for community manager Pharamond. According to Pharamond these are not design issues, but legal requirements for the ability to sell their game in each territory.[UPDATE] It looks like nipples will be optional in the US version, according to this post.
Age of Conan officially rated M; Prestige class changes possible
More news has come out from the recent Age of Conan: Hyborean Adventures press event held by Funcom. Ten Ton Hammer is reporting that the ESRB rating for AoC has been confirmed to be an M. What this means is that the game will be able to be distributed state-side in pretty well all mass-market retailers. For many of us who have been following the game for some time, we weren't quite sure how the rating wound wind up landing due to some of the fairly graphic gameplay and the adult sexual themes contained in the game. The question now is just how much of that will make it into the M-rated release versus some of the demos we've seen. Will we, in fact, "see titties" as Jorgen claimed -- or will we simply be taken to a screen blackout/time passes while our barbarians get their freak on? (For that matter, will the game wind up freak-on-free?) Another thing noted at the press event was the potential exclusion of the Prestige classes in AoC. However, as TTH notes, we shouldn't panic about that just yet. The thought is that if Funcom do decide to remove Prestige classes, they will instead make the talents and abilities widespread so that you can more fully customize your character. While the potential loss of a class is always kind of a bummer once you've gotten your sights set on it, the flip side is that more personal customization of a character is generally a lot of fun. That lets the theorycrafters get down and dirty with the numbers and figure out just what builds with which gear make for some truly creative mechanics. When you combine it with different combo attacks like AoC has, this could be just the ticket to becoming a truly epic hero of Hyborea.
