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The Perfect Ten: MMO prisons
Chillin' in the clink. Spending time in stoney lonesome. Thrown into the slammer. Checking in to the big house. Doing (perfect) 10 to life in the hole. Learning the ropes in juvie. Prison: The only fun thing about it is the slang that people have come up to describe it. And while you may never actually want to spend any time in the crowbar hotel in real life, chances are you've already done so in MMOs. Jails are an ever-popular locale in online gaming, and they almost always deal with an epidemic of escaped -- yet still milling around casually -- prisoners. So in today's Perfect Ten, we talked to the warden and got you a special glimpse into pixelated pokeys, if only to scare you straight. No more exploits and bots for you, young man or woman!
Age of Conan: Unchained conquers 300,000 new players, doubles revenue in a month
The secret is out and the jig is up: MMO studios have solid evidence that adding a free-to-play option on top of a subscription model is the way to bring in hordes of new players. Age of Conan: Unchained proved this today as Funcom announced the addition of over 300,000 players to its bloody family in the first month of service. Apparently the servers are packed full and Funcom is raking in the moolah, too. The studio announced that servers have quadrupled activity during this time period, and revenues have more then doubled. This is certainly good news for the 2008 title, which is now being supported by a mix of subscription and cash shop options. Funcom CEO Trond Arne Aas is pleased as (a) punch: "The launch of the hybrid business model has been very successful so far. The activity levels on the servers are booming with a fourfold increase in players during July, we more than doubled the revenue generated from the game, and we have experienced a positive development in subscriber numbers. This definitely gives us great hope for the game's future." Age of Conan is set to release a movie tie-in update later this month called Savage Coast of Turan to take advantage of the Conan the Barbarian movie coming to theaters on the 18th.
Funcom prepping new Age of Conan adventure pack inspired by film reboot
It looks like rumors of new film-related content for Age of Conan were pretty accurate, as Funcom has officially announced The Savage Coast of Turan adventure pack for its fantasy MMORPG. According to a new press release, the pack "includes but is not limited to" content from the forthcoming Conan the Barbarian film reboot and will see players traveling to the lands of Turan some 20 years after the events of the movie. Players will explore the city of Ardashir and take on new quests, encounters, raids, and dungeons, all inspired by the film and on display in the recently released Conan trailer. Conan the Barbarian debuts August 19th, and while there is no firm release date for The Savage Coast of Turan, film producer Fredrik Malmberg says that fans will appreciate the synergy between the movie and Funcom's MMORPG. "Many of the concepts, locations, and designs from the game development were utilized by the film team for consistency," he said. Check out our AoC gallery below for a glimpse of some Ardashir concept art that includes new Turanian armor. %Gallery-9836%
The Anvil of Crom: Can Funcom capitalize on the Conan film reboot?
I don't know about you, Age of Conan-faithful, but I'm a hopeless film trailer junkie. I collect them. I watch (and re-watch) them on my computer, my phone, my television, and of course, at the cinema proper. A lot of the time, trailers are substantially better than the full-length films they're meant to sell, and I've even been known to pay full price for a ticket only to walk out after the preview (particularly when said preview concerned a long-awaited prequel and was inexplicably tacked on to the front of Meet Joe Black). Given that Conan already plays a significant role in my gaming life, I think deconstructing the recently released trailer for the upcoming film franchise reboot makes a certain sort of sense. Sadly, Massively isn't a haven for film criticism, but I'd like to get around that by doing a bit of theorizing on how the new flick could conceivably affect our favorite MMORPG.
Conan game being conceived by Paradox and DDM
A new Conan el bárbaro video game is being developed in a collaboration between Paradox, which holds the rights to the Hyborian adventurer, and Digital Development Management (DDM). Basically, it'll be the job of DDM's "game industry services division" to seek out a developer and publisher to get the game on store shelves. A DDM representative wanted to be clear that the game will not necessarily be based on next year's Conan The Barbarian film. At best, Conan's recent game career has been shaky from both a fan and fiscal standpoint. The Age of Conan MMO is still around, unlike fond recollection for THQ's action game from 2007. And yes, a Conan parody actually made a great cameo in Comic Jumper, but that wasn't exactly "official."
Comic Jumper's second, totally barbaric comic style revealed
Click to Barbarian-size Curious about the variety of artistic and thematic comic book styles you'll experience once you get your hot little hands on Twisted Pixel's action-platformer, Comic Jumper? The game's second overworld was recently revealed in screenshots and concept art, and ... well, we sure hope the estate of Robert E. Howard never sees this particular stage, as it clearly parodies his beefy, Cimmerian brainchild. Heck, the comic's named Nanoc: The Obliviator -- flip it around, and you get Conan. (Actually, you get Rotaivilbo Eht: Conan, but ... well, two of those words aren't words.) Check out both galleries below to get a sense of what the world of Nanoc is going to look like, then check out Twisted Pixel's in-depth preview on the game's official website. %Gallery-92487% %Gallery-92486%
Age of Conan vs. Schwarzenegger's Conan
With most great movies, the videogame version will fall drastically short of expectations. Here we are, looking the official retail launch of Age of Conan right in the eyes, and we have to ask ourselves: will Age of Conan deliver on the promise of this 80's cinema staple? From everything we've seen AoC delivers in regards to action, scenic beauty, gameplay and excitement. If you have the computer muscle, this will be a gaming tour-de-force. Just the same, the Arnold Schwarzenegger Conan movies are writ large in your mind. You may still have lingering questions.Today, we'll put those questions to rest. We've compared five aspects of the game versus the film classics. Not only that, but we've kept score. Plus, as an added treat, each argument in the movie's defense includes a wonderfully cheesy video clip to get that full effect. Read on to see who wins: the Austrian all-star or the Norwegian newcomer?%Gallery-23259%
Stephen King goes batty about video games
Stephen King is "the man." He's one of my favorite authors and a very big reason why I'm a writer today. I've followed the ebb and flow of his career, from his meteoric rise (and eventually perpetual stay) on the New York Time's Best Seller list to the the mostly abysmal adaptations of his books to film. Anytime he talks, I tend to listen.So you can imagine my intrigue when King, a man who has never tested the virtual waters (F13 doesn't count) with his magnificent worlds - how great would an MMO set in the world of The Dark Tower be? - voiced his opinion about the proposed Massachusetts bill to ban the sale of "violent" video games to anyone under the age of 18.
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.
TTH talks with Funcom about Barbarians
Barbarians. Love 'em or hate 'em, but it's likely going to be the most played class when the gates finally open to Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures. This adult themed, head-lopping affair may be an MMORPG where you can play several archetypes, but without Barbarians there would be no Conan. Thankfully, Funcom knows this and are making sure it lives up to what every fan of Howard's legendary literary lout would expect. TenTonHammer's Cody "Micajah" Bye sat down with Evan Michaels (Funcom System Designer) and talked about this classic class.While most people think of Barbarians as savage and brutal, Funcom has labeled them under the "Rogue" archetype in AoC. According to Michaels, Barbarians are by nature roguish in that they are very individualistic, much like Rogues. They are unequaled melee fighters. When asked how they'll be balanced compared to other "tank" characters Michaels stated that Soldiers will specialize in wearing down their opponent and last longer in a prolonged battle, while a Barbarian would rely on pure aggression to dispatch their foes. Another interesting tidbit that Michaels revealed was that Barbarians will be more effective when the odds are stacked against them. Barbarians have several different abilities that can hit multiple targets, so they become more effective when surrounded.Yep, look for Eli the Barbarian when AoC lets loose the dogs of war in late March. And be sure to read the entire interview if you plan on partaking in your own Hyborian Adventure.
Age of Conan's bloody PvP system
Funcom has been posting periodic gameplay features for Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures, and this week's topic is the PvP system. Forget about all the reward systems you know -- Crom laughs at your achievements and entitlements! In the Border Kingdom, it's blood coins that are the true measure of a warrior, and they can be earned by beating opposing players to a bloody pulp using the game's impressive arsenal of melee and ranged weapons.Visit Age of Conan's official web site for new concept art and additional gameplay details on spellweaving, class archetypes, and siege PvP combat.See also: Age of Conan wins big at E3
