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The Secret World's PAX recap video talks PvP, progression
If you couldn't make it to PAX on Easter sunday, you can at least catch up on the happenings around Funcom's The Secret World booth thanks to a new video that the firm recently uploaded to its YouTube portal. The clip is about six minutes long, and it splices together random con-goer interviews with gameplay footage of The Secret World's ability wheel and progression system. Also featured is Funcom community manager Glen "Famine" Swan, who says that he is excited about the game's "persistent PvP, because [it's] doing a lot of grass-roots stuff that [he] grew up with in the MMO genre." Famine also touches on the TSW's three-faction design as well as the fact that the PvP game is ever-changing and filled with progression-related rewards. If you're not so much into the PvP, don't fret, since you can still PvE with your friends regardless of which faction you choose. Check out the full clip after the break.
Help Somalia hunger crisis by playing Bad Company 2
Somalia is in bad shape, you guys. Two back-to-back seasons of inadequate rains have prevented the country's agricultural infrastructure from producing enough food to cover the needs of its people, and as a result roughly 3.7 million Somali citizens are in need of assistance. The situation is so dire in some parts of Somalia that the UN has declared it a famine, which could spread throughout the entire country in as little as two months. It's bad, and once again, a group of intrepid gamers have taken it upon themselves to help when help is needed most. Battlefield community site Don't Revive Me Bro has joined forces with pro gaming organization Quantic Gaming, fellow community resource Battlefieldo, and DICE's own Daniel Matros to produce First Person Saviors, a 24-hour Battlefield: Bad Company 2 event benefiting Somalia's people. The event, which started this morning at 9 AM GMT (5 AM EDT) and runs until that time tomorrow, urges players to join specially-marked "Somalian Hunger Relief SHR" servers, rather than their usual virtual homes. Donations will be accepted by Gamers Outreach, 100 percent of which will be passed along to the World Food Programme to aid in their humanitarian efforts. In addition to the warm, fuzzy feeling you'll get from knowing you've done a good thing, people who donate are also automatically entered into drawings for prizes and giveaways, held at specific donation intervals. The event is also an opportunity to test your mettle against some of the best Bad Company 2 players in the world, as well as actual DICE employees. So get to it! Go kill some dudes, and help save millions.
Age of Conan: Unchained (aka F2P) starts tomorrow [Updated]
Yeah, you read that headline right. Age of Conan: Unrated is now Age of Conan: Unchained according to a new Craig Morrison interview over at PC Gamer. Oh, and that free-to-play launch date we've been asking for? It's tomorrow today. Funcom is inviting both new and old players to check out a good portion of its Hyborian content on the house, and the company will also be unveiling its cash shop (complete with a new "temptress" pet that helps the title live up to its mature rating). Unchained also marks the release of new content in the form of the Forgotten City and The Breach solo instances. As we told you last month, these new dungeons scale to your level and offer an experience designed to relieve the monotony of the well-traveled Noble District villas. Stick with Massively all weekend as we bring you the latest AoC: Unchained news and impressions, and don't forget to check out the Unchained launch trailer after the break. [Update]: Funcom has also posted its traditional monthly dev update, which focuses on all of the new content coming soon to AoC (and there is a lot of it). In addition to the two dungeons debuting today with Unchained, players can look forward to the long-awaited House of Crom dungeon (no, really!), new tier four raids, the Savage Coast of Turan stuff, and of course, Blood and Glory. [Update 2]: AoC 2.6, and F2P, is in fact going live today -- June 30th -- and the game launcher is currently down for patching. Funcom's Glen "Famine" Swan confirms as much on the official forums, and we'll link the patch notes as soon as they're available.
The Anvil of Crom: What's going on
Funcom's Age of Conan is a title that's changed quite a bit over the two-plus years it's been on the MMORPG market. Whether you're talking about the recent Rise of the Godslayer expansion, the game-changing 1.05 update, or the hundreds of smaller tweaks, balances, class revamps, and content additions that Hyboria has seen since 2008, there's never been a shortage of things to discuss. Through it all, AoC die-hards have debated, pleaded, flamed, and in some cases, constructively discussed the merits of the title in one primary place: the official forums. Owing to its existence as a niche title with a smallish population, AoC doesn't feature huge third-party fansites like EQ2Flames, AionSource, or any of the legions of communities that have sprung up around World of Warcraft. No, all the Hyborian meta-gaming action is centralized in one spot, and in this week's Anvil of Crom, we're going to highlight and discuss some of the more noteworthy threads that you may have missed over the last couple of weeks (including a definitive answer from Craig Morrison as to the size of the game's development team). Flip past the cut for more.
Final round of The Secret World questions revealed
Funcom has been making fans of The Secret World very happy lately, thanks to the community Q&A with Ragnar Tournquist. Senior Assistant Community Manager Glen "Famine" Swan rounded up a list of questions asked by fans, got answers, and released the list by thirds on the TSW forums. The third and final round of questions went out on the forums yesterday and they were met with an enthusiastic response from fans. These questions addressed bosses, GM involvement, transitions between zones, plans for the future and more. However, the answer that sparked the most discussion was the one surrounding the concept of corpse running -- it sounds like it's definitely going to be a part of the game. Check out the full blog post for the final Q&A session.
The Secret World Q&A with Ragnar Tornquist
Funcom Senior Assistant Community Manager Glen "Famine" Swan has dropped a gem of a post on the official forums for the forthcoming MMORPG known as The Secret World. The development team has been collecting questions from the community for some time, and the answers are being rolled out in a series of Q&A-style posts. Game Director Ragnar Tornquist fields the questions for this first installment, and talks about a wide range of topics including social events, open versus linear game design, and magical variety in the game world. "There's going to be tons of variety in terms of what kind of magic players can learn and how they can use it – both in terms of visuals and gameplay – and that also goes for the magic weapons players get to wield. But it's still magic of our world, not a world of elves and dwarves and dragons (well, um, sort of), and it'll feel as such. There's voodoo, illusionism, demonology - magics that belong in the darkest corners of Earth, not in some high fantasy world," Tornquist says. Check out the full session over at the official forums.
Official Age of Conan database offers easy info
MMOs see updates quite frequently, and with games that have developers actively posting on forums an attentive community member can absorb plenty of useful information. However, not everyone is up to the task of tracking all news, dev posts and dev blogs on every little topic. This is where Age of Conan's "New Community Database" enters the picture. Handled by the community team at Funcom, the database will serve as an easily accessible source of pertinent game-related information about updates old, new, small and big. Everything from minor content stuff to full-on expansions, like Rise of the Godslayer. The website is still partially in beta as content is being added and knobs are being tweaked and dialed for maximum performance. So if in your venture for precious information you run aground due to a lack of content or technical issues, don't be all too surprised. Having an official wiki isn't a bad idea. With time and attention there's no doubt many a person will find the source of info highly useful. In fact, we've already discovered a great use for it right here, although that particular opinion is arguably of a subjective nature.
AoC dev blog discusses class tweaks and recruiting more advocates
Funcom's Glen "Famine" Swan has put another entry into his blog at MMORPG, discussing Age of Conan's upcoming guild features (which Craig Morrison elaborated on in his recent game director letter) as well as some class tweaks that the developers have been working on. Right now the dev team is looking at the Bear Shaman and Barbarian classes, with the Conqueror and Dark Templar up for possible changes after they're done with the first two. He doesn't spill the beans on exactly what might be happening with these classes but we're told to stay tuned for more information soon.The rest of Famine's blog post relates to things outside of the game. It sounds like the Advocate Program has been going well, but Funcom would like to bring a few more advocates on board. Along with the existing class advocates, they might be recruiting advocates specifically for areas like roleplaying and player-versus-player, as was planned some time ago. Famine also gave a quick update on Funcom's plans for Dragon*Con in Atlanta this September. Among the activities will be a developer panel featuring Age of Conan's lead designer Joel Bylos.
Age of Conan: One Year Later video
It's almost the first anniversary of Age of Conan's release, and Funcom's Glen "Famine" Swan was reflecting on the past year when he found the "One Year Later" video. Although it's a fairly well-made piece, it doesn't come from Funcom; a community member called "CptHeatSink" is given the credit on Famine's MMORPG blog. The video encompasses a lot of the changes that have gone on in-game and quite a few guilds pitched in to help with the footage. There's a slow build for the first couple of minutes, but after that it's all about the combat. Hit the jump to check out the video. Make sure to click the HD button in the bottom right corner after you've hit play for a higher quality version. This won't be the last you'll hear of AoC's birthday -- expect more soon as the actual date rolls around.
Meet Jarle Snertingdalen from AoC's Systems Team
Funcom's Glen "Famine" Swan would like to introduce us all to a member of the Age of Conan development team, Jarle Snertingdalen. Aside from having a fairly superb name, Snertingdalen is also the Associate Producer for AoC's Systems Team. Unsurprisingly, this team deals with a lot of the systems in the game, such as combat, character development, items and loot tables, and RPG systems. The associate producer role has him managing the team, making sure that things are on track, and coordinating with other teams.We're sure that some of our readers are very interested in career paths in the gaming industry, and Snertingdalen's is revealed to us in the interview. Working with AoC was his first games industry job, and he began as a programmer in the tools department back in 2004. After switching around to a few different roles, including Technical Director, he arrived at his current position. It sounds like he got there just in time to be involved in some massive changes to the game, since patch 1.05 will be altering many of the systems mentioned above. To find out more about Snertingdalen's work on AoC, check out Famine's blog at MMORPG.com.
Age of Conan's official developer blog resurrected
It's been some time since Age of Conan had an active developer blog. In fact, looking at the calendar reveals that no such blog has existed since launch day back in May 2008. In all fairness, FunCom has been a little busy with bug fixing, balancing, content throughput and some fairly massive overhauls of game systems. Still, it's nice to have a place for subscribers and interested onlookers to read up on the latest updates -- especially since the stuff that's been added back into the game really deserves some attention.For the first post of the newly resurrected dev blog, FunCom's Glen "Famine" Swan sticks with discussing the newest update and touches on the itemization overhaul coming up next. It's a good start, but a post talking about the mistakes made pre-launch and corrections since then would be a wise choice, we think. It never hurts to cop to your mistakes, and then show how you resolved them. Having fun in Conan's homeland? Make sure to check out all of our previous Age of Conan coverage, and stick with Massively for more news from the Hyborian Age!
First Age of Conan server merge successful
When news of impending server merges in Age of Conan broke in December, it caused a bit of a stir -- particularly in the post's comments. Age of Conan Producer Craig Morrison later said the merges would take place in stages, but then technical issues arose, postponing these changes for roughly a month before Funcom was confident it could go off without a hitch. Earlier today, one month after the initial plan, the first set of servers were merged in Age of Conan: Bloodspire and Hyperborea have now merged into Bloodspire. Apparently AoC's virtual realm did not implode as the worlds were spliced together. Glen 'Famine' Swan, Age of Conan's US Community Manager, jokes, "I'm currently on Bloodspire now watching the global spam." Well there you go, business as usual in Hyborea. For the Age of Conan players among our readership, did the server merge affect you in any way -- be it positive or negative?
Funcom confirms attendance at Comic-Con for AoC
Attendees of this year's Comic-Con International at San Diego will be able to catch up with members of the Age of Conan team, as Funcom has confirmed that two of their big names will be visiting the convention. Product Manager Erling Ellingsen and US Community Manager Glen "Famine" Swan will both be in attendance and ready for the fans.The AoC crew will be at the San Diego Convention Center from July 24th through July 27th, in Exhibit Hall G Booth 5129. To assist in your journey to meet them, you can check out the center's floor plans ahead of time. Just remember to be on your toes at their booth -- Conan fans are among the bloodthirstiest of gamers, so keep an eye on any twitchy cosplayers with sharp weapons.
Interview with AoC CM pulls some punches
If there's one individual whose position we're glad we haven't been in for the past few months, it's that of Age of Conan Community Manager, Glen "Famine" Swan. We've long been aware of the trials and tribulations that are part of the every day life of your average CM. It's an experience that is trying enough to have forged the bonds of a community management... community. We've seen only small snippets of the almost illogical anger that Age of Conan's troubled launch has provoked, and we can only imagine what it must be like being the front man for such player disappointment.We were a little disappointed then to see that a recent interview with Famine really failed to dig into any juicy tidbits. Of course, we understand that he wouldn't be able to recount any of the truly horrible details of the last month in print, lest he raise the ire of his community, but we'd have hoped some of the questions would have at least attempted to give the poor man an outlet. At the very least, he mentioned that they're trying to put together a class lead system on the official forums that should help channel feedback to the developers more efficiently than at present.
Translation issues delay AoC patch notes; community starts their own
Those waiting anxiously for today's Age of Conan patch notes have been left wanting for the last few hours, as the Update Notes forum shows no signs of stirring. An official response was dug up on the German forums, and later confirmed by US community manager "Famine" -- apparently, the cause of the delay is to do with the translation of the patch notes, which must be released in all languages at the same time.In the meantime, in a similar vein to previous weeks, the community has started up an undocumented patch thread in the forums (from European players who are already playing the new patch since their servers have gone online). However, this week everything is undocumented for now; the OP has promised to sort the thread later on when the official notes come out, removing things that are listed there. If there are enough things that are unique to the community thread at that point, we may revisit it for discussion. Even now, there are some very interesting points in that thread that we would love to bring up, but we'll leave it for you to browse for the time being, and get back to you when the real notes are released.Update: Patch notes are now available! Dissection coming up.
Age of Conan login servers besieged by Set [Updated]
Weekend warriors of the Hyborean variety may have to look into another extra-curricular this Sunday, as the Age of Conan login servers appear to be experiencing some troubles. Players reported serious lag spikes late this morning, developing into an all-out server downage. This blogger is currently unable to get back through the character login servers. Says Funcom Community Manager Famine, "It looks to be something externally right now but the operations guys are looking at it."Instead of rickrolling the official forums like many other players seem to be doing, might we recommend taking this as an opportunity to mow the lawn or walk the dog? Or if the outdoors isn't your thing, how about reading through our backlog of Age of Conan coverage?[Update: It appears the servers are back online. If we had known simply posting about the outage would bring them back up, we'd have done it much sooner!]
