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G4's MMO Report pokes at AoC
The deluge of coverage for Age of Conan continues to overwhelm us all, and that's a good thing. Sure, there are the legions of ravening fans who were going to pick this title up no matter what as soon as it became available, but there are a good number of you still on the fence out there. Perhaps sensing this, G4's The MMO Report has gone to the effort of putting together their Age of Conan Special, wherein they interview AoC designer Jason Stone.On the show Stone talks about how AoC distinguishes itself from its competitors, notably through its combat scheme, the in-development anti-griefing 'Bounty Prison' system, weapon-specific fatalities, and the stacking debuff death penalty. Check out the embedded interview after the jump.Best exchange of the interview -- Jason: "So you can say whatever you want to me ... and be a complete dick." Casey: "As I would."[Thanks, Kristina!]
Panel of MMO developers discuss the industry at Comic-Con
Over at New York Comic-Con 2008, Ten Ton Hammer assembled a group of respected MMO developers to answer questions about the future of the industry, and just to talk shop in general. The members of the panel were: Age of Conan Game Designer Jason Stone, Warhammer Online Senior Producer Jeff Hickman, Turbine Vice-President of Product Development Craig Alexander, 38 Studios Vice-President of Creative Development Scott Cuthbertson, and EVE Online Game Designer Matt Woodward -- phew, that's a lot of capitalization.There are two videos to watch, one in which the questions come from TTH, the other being an audience Q&A. Combined, the videos take the better part of an hour to watch, but you'll find some interesting and differing viewpoints on various topics, such as business models, world-altering events, product placement, sci-fi versus fantasy MMOs, winning market share from World of Warcraft, and community features in and out of game.
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Funcom promises ale and wenches on launch day
Salty wenches, axe-wielding berserkers, and players stuck right in the middle of it all with a frosty ale in hand. Virtual life is so beautiful. Funcom promises to deliver this adult oriented gaming adventure through the upcoming MMO, Age of Conan. If you want the gory details on what AoC has to deliver, game designer Jason Stone sat down and took a few moments to pour some barbaric ale and tell his tale.Jason explained to the folks over at Zergwatch that the AoC team was not about to compromise their devotion to the mature content that is part of the Conan world. There has been some criticism concerning the violence and other, more mature, content, but they are holding their ground. He was then asked about the approaching launch. Will we find ourselves at launch day with our blades blunt and our armor rusted? Hell no! Jason assures us that the team at Funcom has learned from the launch of Anarchy Online and that we can sharpen our blades and get right down to business starting on day one.
By Crom! Another Border Kingdom Cryer!
It halted some feet away, and Conan glared at it, trying to distinguish its fire-misted outline. The quivering flame had a solid core; the flame was but a glowing green garment that masked some evil entity. "By Crom, I'll have your name!" shouted the Cimmerian. "State your business here!" A sharp laugh echoed from the slate walls of the cliffs that lined the path. "Well do you know my mission. We have come to demand RP-PvE servers in Age of Conan!" "What devilry is this? Surely even the most ale-sotted noble has ceased to call this song from the minstrels." "And yet, even as the Sun may set and shroud her rays, leaving dark; she may still rise in the morn, burning bright with the light of a million... well, a dozen... okay, with the awesome light of but a single Sun." Conan sniggered. Another role-player.A fully-fledged forum brawl has broken out over the question of PvP servers in Funcom's Age of Conan, and frankly, we're more than a little wary. Roleplaying is like juggling, after all; it looks great when it's going well, but one dropped chainsaw and suddenly everyone is screaming. Best of luck to the Conan community no matter how this one turns out. In other news, AoC dev Jason "Athelan" Stone answered a burning question about the demon form the Heralds of Xotli could wear. It used to be almost permanent, but that made all Heralds look identical; it will now be a short duration, powerful spell on a fast cooldown. That's a welcome change for any Herald who couldn't remember what they looked like! The tank-like Guardians are proving a popular class in beta; seeing how rare tanks have become in most popular MMOs, perhaps AoC has stirred the magic sauce to make them desirable both for solo and group play. It's nearing launch time for Age of Conan, and in our minds, we're already sailing the wine-dark seas of Hyboria with naught but pillage on our minds. If your dreams are likewise drenched in blood, try your hand at finding Mitra for a beta key, or try for a chance at testing PvP to your heart's content.[Via Ten Ton Hammer]
Age of Conan zone preview is smooth as silk
Ten Ton Hammer has a new zone preview video from FunCom developers Jørgen Tharaldsen and Jason Stone. This particular video is from The Maze, a tantalizing small team instance from Aquillonia. What we are seeing is running at a very smooth 40 frames per second while the game engine is loading well out of visual range. That's just another nail in the coffin of our concerns, which is a very good thing to bury.Aside from technical milestones, we've got to admit that the bog creatures (or pond demons?) seen in the video are quite cool. It's good to know that these instanced areas are getting a lot of attention, as we all know how people love running quests with their tight knit groups. Age of Conan is definitely one of the prettier massively games coming out this year, we can't deny our sudden drool-begotten stares of the scenery reflected in ponds.
Behind the 'Cheetah 2' performance increase in Age of Conan
While there weren't many MMO companies at CES, you could find a few doing their thing at the edges of the show. Sony Online Entertainment was certainly there, and we came away with a few choice tidbits from their games. Age of Conan was a big presence at the Games for Windows area of Microsoft's booth, and Dan O' Halloran has been reporting on what they had to offer.I stood and chatted with Conan designer Jason Stone for a specific purpose: to get to the bottom of the newly announced 'Cheetah 2' package of upgrades. Essentially a large number of engine tweaks that are all coming together at the same time, Funcom chose CES as the perfect time to unveil their nerdy workings."Yesterday in our Cheetah 2 build we were able to fly over this valley with 800+ NPCs loaded, every NPC in the zone loaded, and I never dropped below about 25 frames per second. Without loading all those NPCs, I was going over 64/84 frames per second. Now, the Cheetah build we brought to show, a lot of people have been asking "Can I run the game on my computer?" and "What's it going to look like on DX9?". We've made sure we focused on what we brought here as far as Cheetah 2, is all DX9/Windows XP. We're talking about 1920 by 1200, and getting upwards of 30 to 60 frames per second – very solid Windows XP graphics. Massive, massive increase in performance, and we're really proud to be able to show that to people. We want people to know we're not going for a repeat of our Anarchy Online launch."Read on for more on their effort to bring the shiny to the players, what it's like to work on a game non-stop for three years straight, and a view on the 'boobs and blood' debate from his side of the screen. And if you're still not all that familiar with the game, go back and read Akela's great chat with Jørgen Tharaldsen from last year.%Gallery-13299%
