Anticipating Age of Conan

I have to admit to feeling a little ambivalent about Age of Conan over the last couple of years.

While it’s been on my radar, and I’ve posted a few items on it, I haven’t really followed it with much more than a passing interest. Some of that has to do with my current game load. I’m already involved with a few MMORPGs. There’s only so many that I can juggle and still get anywhere in. A bit like relationships really.

I reckon I’m also a little bored with the fantasy factor. Nearly every game out there is based on a medieval swords and sorcery archetype. There’s not a lot new under the MMO sun lately. There’s a crop of SciFi MMORPGs on the way, Jumgate Evolution, Stargate Worlds, and the post apocalyptic Fallen Earth and friends. I am looking forward to these, but they won’t be out for some months (at least) yet.

I’d love to see some attempts at non-standard fantasy. Steampunk based on China Mievilles New Crobuzon from Perdido Street Station. Or perhaps Gothic fantasy based in an alternate Victorian era world.

So even with this slightly jaded feeling I’m experiencing at the moment, I’m beginning to get a sense of anticipation for Age of Conan.

Perhaps it’s because the world that Howard built for Conan isn’t based on Tolkiens world. JRR Tolkiens influence on fantasy fiction has been absolutely enormous. Much of the fantasy literature written since Lord of the Rings has borrowed much from Middle Earth. Howard however never borrowed from Lord of the Rings. Howard died in 1936 at the age of 30, nearly 20 years before Lord of the Rings was published.

As an aside, you could almost call Howard the Mozart of his time. By the time of his death at 30 years of age, he had written over three hundred stories and seven hundred poems and was an accomplished pulp fiction author. He is considered one of the seminal fantasy writers of the 20th century, along with JRR Tolkien.

I get the feeling that Age of Conan isn’t just going to be a mature rated version of World of Warcraft. I think it could be that something different style of fantasy that I’d like to see.

I’m looking forward to Age of Conan. Are you?

Popularity: 16%

Censorship Affects Global Unity

One of the things I’ve always enjoyed about playing MMORPGs is that you will never know who you might meet. One day you’ll be chatting with guildies from your own country and culture, the next you’ll be grouping up with someone from a completely different culture. If you keep your eyes and mind open, you can learn a lot about other people.

Unfortunately, that’s been changing over the last few years. World of Warcraft effectively divides players between the European and US servers (Aussies effectively play on US servers.) Now it appears that Funcom are going a step further.

The folks at  Gaming Shogun emailed Funcom for an update on the censorship issues of the last week or two. What they were told was that Age of Conan will be heavily regionalized. It turns out that players who buy the game in one region will not be able to play it in any other regions.

So if a German player buys AoC from the United States because he wants to experience the full impact of the games combat, something his government doesn’t like, then he will not be able to play it on the European servers. The same goes for players in other regions who want to experience the game in a way not pre-determined for their part of the world.

I’m still not sure what restrictions will be placed on Age of Conan for Australian players. I emailed Funcom the other day, but haven’t yet received a reply. I originally thought that I’d be able to buy the game online and do a digital download, but if Funcom are this serious about restricting how players can play the game based on regional censorship codes, then maybe us Aussies will be out of luck.

I guess I’ll have to wait and see.

While we’re on the subject, don’t forget Februarys Poll on Game Ratings. Head over and have a vote, or add your opinion in the comments.

Popularity: 47%

AOC Uncut

In North America at least…

It looks like the ESRB has rated Age of Conan and yes you can all relax… There will be nipples.

I can hear the cheers go up from here. Unless it’s a Super Tuesday celebration I can hear.

This doesn’t surprise me in the slightest. I never expected the North American release of Age of Conan to be censored. Don’t get me wrong, there will be controversy, after all this is an election year which means that some game somewhere will get targeted for being the corrupter of all innocence. It might as well be AoC.

I’d expect Age of Conan to be censored in some countries. Germany has a track record of banning games that the censors deem to be too violent. I’m not sure about nudity or sex though. I seem to recall reading about a TV game show where the contestants are completely nekkid. If that’s true, a few nipples won’t worry them.

Here in Australia though. Well, that’s another story. Our nations busybodies, also known as the OFLC (Office of Film and Literature Classification) have been hard at work in recent years denying the right to adults throughout our sunburned land the right to choose the games they play.

They did this way back in 1996 with Duke Nukem 3D. 3D Realms were forced to censor all the content with the strippers and turn off all the blood. Luckily 3D Realms did this using a software flag, and after the game was released here, posted the details on how to turn everything back on.

Hooray for common sense.

Reminiscences aside, I expect the boxed version of Age of Conan to be banned by the OFLC here in Oz, unless Funcom somehow guarantee to censor the game for Australians. Even if Funcom does this I suspect there will be a relatively easy way to get an uncensored client.

If not, digital purchase and download, here I come.

BTW, there is a poll this month asking what rating you are prepared to play up to. Appropriate for the topic don’t you think. Please take the time to vote.

Update: I just fired off an query to Funcom asking them about the rating, and possible censorship, of the Australian release of AoC. If I receive a response I’ll let you know the details.

Popularity: 23%

By Crom Delayed Again

It seems like it was only a few days ago that Funcom announced March 25th as the release date for Age of Conan. It looks like the Barbarian gods weren’t all that pleased because the date has once again been pushed back. Now to May 20, but still 2008.

There are a few commentators saying that it’s better to push the date back than release a buggy game, and I have to say that I agree with this sentiment. Anarchy Online was released by Funcom to a pretty ordinary launch. By ordinary, I mean disastrous. It took them a long time to recover from that, but in the end had a pretty good game that is still doing well.

Times have changed though. A bad launch back a few years ago didn’t spell the end for a game because there wasn’t as much competition. AO had time to recover. Compare to Vanguard which has improved since launch, but because of increased competition isn’t recovering.

Funcom has also recently cut back on the number of classes. I also think this is a good thing. I know there were a lot of people hanging out to play those classes, but it’s better to have something working now than having a half-arsed class that plays badly and takes a long time to fix,

The beauty of the MMO genre is the ability to add things like classes to the game at a later date. It’s always possible that the removed features will make an appearance in the future. But for that to happen the game has to be successful at launch.

Let’s hope that Funcom make the most of the additional months and get Age of Conan out the door with the minimum of problems.

Popularity: 22%

Age of Conan Delayed

With all of the announcements of preorders and business models over the last couple of days, it’s inevitable that there will be some bad news.

Funcom today made the following announcement:

Durham, USA – August 10th, 2007 – Funcom announce a new release date for ‘Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures’. The highly anticipated MMO is now set to release on the 25th of March 2008. By setting a new release date for the game, Funcom can continue the focus on honing, polishing and improving the heralded qualities of the game, ensuring a fantastic MMO experience when it launches next spring.

“We naturally regret that we have to push back ‘Age of Conan’. However, after careful consideration, and analysis of recent Beta feedback, we believe that the new release date is in the best interest of the gamers, our company and our owners,” said Trond Arne Aas, CEO of Funcom. “We are fully committed to delivering games with absolute qualities, and in the current MMO marketplace we know that only the best is good enough to truly succeed. With the new release date we have therefore given ourselves more time to meet and deliver on the massive expectations for the game. We are certain that our choice will ultimately pay off, and that all ‘Age of Conan’ players will get a special online experience.”

”We are honored by the immense reception our game is constantly getting, with an astounding amount of positive press coverage, awards and magazine covers, but we still see that we need to polish some aspects of the game even further, especially when it comes to the entry barriers,” said Gaute Godager, founder of Funcom and Producer / Director on ‘Age of Conan’. “With the added development time we can now deliver something even more unique and powerful, something which is worthy of the incredible Conan legacy.”

‘Age of Conan’ is consistently mentioned as one of the most anticipated PC games in development. It has received numerous magazine covers and awards, including ‘Best MMO of E3′ awards from IGN, GameSpot, GameSpy and Yahoo. ‘Age of Conan’ is a key title in Microsoft’s Games for Windows line-up, as well as being a showcase DirectX 10 title for nVidia. The game is currently in general Beta, and applications for testing are available at http://www.ageofconan.com.

Age of Conan is the second MMO that Funcom have released. While I wasn’t there for the initial release of Anarchy Online, I heard about a lot of the fallout after I did start playing. AO had a really terrible release day. There were all sorts of problems with the servers and the game. Funcom however, managed to get on top of it pretty quickly and a month or two later delivered a pretty solid and fun game that is still going strong.

However, I’m not sure the end of March will be the best time for them to release Age of Conan. With the October 30 release date it looked like they didn’t have too much competition. Sure there’s Fury and possibly Tabula Rasa to compete with. But, next March it’s looking like they will be up against Warhammer and Wrath of the Lich King which are both ‘expected’ in the first quarter next year.

Both of these games are king-hitters in the MMO genre and the releases are going to capture a huge amount of player attention. If any of the other games that are due later this year are pushed back, the competition will be even more intense.

Still, I think players would prefer the game to be in a good state on it’s release, even if they have to wait longer for it. It’s disappointing to hear that a game (or anything) that you’ve been waiting a long time for is going to be delayed. But it’s a lot more disappointing to pull the wraps off and find a game that’s not all that shiny underneath.

What do you think; will this delay, and the possibility of an Age of Conan release around the same time as Warhammer and the World of Warcraft expansion affect your decision to buy AoC?

Popularity: 17%

Age of Conan Beta Signups

This Spring Barbarians everywhere are invited to hack and slash their way through Funcoms upcoming MMORPG, Age of Conan Hyborian Adventures. In preparation for the bloodletting and carnage of two parallel beta programs, Funcom have announced the opening of beta signups.

The two beta tests that are being run are the General Beta which tests gameplay, and the Technical Beta which tests things like server load and capacity, and other technical things. The earlier you sign up, the more chance that you have to get in to at least one of the betas.

Remember that Age of Conan is a mature game. It does contain high level violence, and other adult content. If this sort of thing isn’t for you, don’t sign up. But if you’re into dismemberment, decapitation, and arse sculpting, then AoC just might be for you. I’ll be signing up once my PC is back from repairs.

Popularity: 15%

Age of Conan Delayed

Famine, the community coordinator for the Age of Conan forums has posted that Age of Conan - Hyborian Adventures will now be released on the 30th of October, 2007. This is a delay from the original release schedule of Quarter 2 (Apr - Jun) this year.

Unfortunately, this means that it will be another four months before we can crush our enemies, see them driven before us, and hear the lamentations of their women.

However, there’s a chance coming up to secure a spot in the open beta. Funcom will soon be making an announcement on how members of the Age of Conan community will be able to get one of these soon to be coveted spots. If you are interested, now is a good time to sign up to the AoC forums. 

Popularity: 19%

Impressive Up and Coming MMOs

A few days ago, I wrote that I had signed up for the beta of Lord of the Rings Online. At the end of that post I mentioned that there were a bunch of other impressive MMOs on the horizon. A reader commented, asking me what they are.

Here is my list of impressive up and coming MMOs.

Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures

Developer: Funcom Official Website
Release: Q2 2007

Age of Conan is set in the universe of Conan the Barbarian at the time in the novels where Conan has become king. This is going to be a very violent game with a MA rating. It is also the only game I’ve seen where the character creation allows you to configure the shape of your arse.

Tabula Rasa

Developer: NCSoft Official Website
Release: Unknown

Tabula Rasa is a Sci-Fi MMO being developed by Richard Garriot, the man behind the Ultima games including Ultima Online. This game plays more like a FPS, but has the character development of a RPG.

Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning

Developer: Mythic Entertainment Official Website
Release: 2007

Warhammer Online is being produced by the developers of the online game, Dark Age of Camelot, and is being set in the Warhammer universe. The graphics seem to be a little reminiscent of World of Warcrafts style, but the game as I understand it, will be substantially different.

Huxley

Developer: Webzen, Inc. (No Website)
Release: 2007

Another Sci-Fi MMO that has the leveling system of most MMORPGs, but from what I understand is more of a FPS action style. I saw some gameplay video a few months ago on the G4 TV site, and this game looks awesome. Unfortunately, as yet they don’t seem to have an official site for the game.

Star Trek Online

Developer: Perpetual Entertainment Official Website
Release: 2007?

Supposed to go to beta sometime in summer 2007. It will include starship combat as well as PvP and solo play. STO will deliver the essential experiences associated with Star Trek: shipboard and starbase life, away-team missions, holodeck activities, and encounters with other starships. And the best thing about this game is that I can be a Klingon. Scrape ‘em of Jim!

Stargate Worlds

Developer: Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment Official Website
Release: Unknown

One of my favorite TV series, so I really hope they do a good job. Stargate Worlds will let you play as a Human, Jaffa, Goa’uld, or Asgard. It looks like they will include the Atlantis worlds as well, which creates almost infinite possibilities for missions. I don’t really see a warrior class for the Asgard though.

Final Thoughts

Including LotRO, this makes seven big online games in development that will soon be released. There are a few other games out there that I haven’t mentioned that are imminent. Vanguard: Saga of Heroes is one that I’ve only recently heard about. Just about every other week I see a report of another MMORPG being announced. It seems every man and his dog is getting into the business. This is not to mention the latest announcements of MMORPGs set in the Firefly and Fallout universes which can also be considered reasonably hefty licences.

I was going to include more information on each of these games, but as I was writing this article, I became aware that I couldn’t do each of these games justice with a single paragraph. If anyone is interested, I’ll do more complete articles on each of these games in the coming weeks.

Popularity: 76%