The Daily Grind: Would you check back in on Age of Conan for free?
Filed under: Fantasy, Age of Conan, The Daily Grind
A lot of updates and additional content have been coming down the pipe for Age of Conan in the last several months, and that pace doesn’t look to be slowing down anytime soon. It’s one thing to slap another fifteen bucks on the table in order to give an MMO the second go-round. That’s why we’re wondering how many previously subscribed players would be interested in re-installing and patching (a courageous task indeed) the game to see how things have changed.
All things considered, we’ll probably see a “come back for free” deal out of Funcom sometime this year. And it’s possible that new and intriguing content updates will have manifested on the live servers by that time. Our curiosity will of course mean a revisit to Hyperborea for us, but what about for you, our dear readers?
The Daily Grind: Would you check back in on Age of Conan for free? originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 26 Feb 2009 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Ten Ton Hammer interview with AoC’s Craig Morrison
Filed under: Fantasy, Age of Conan, Game mechanics, Interviews, Patches
On the heels of one of Age of Conan’s biggest patches since release, Ten Ton Hammer had a chance to speak with Game Director and Producer, Craig Morrison. The interview sheds much light on patch 1.04, forthcoming features, and Funcom’s plans for the future. It appears that while Funcom’s CFO may have recently resigned, the company has no plans to give up on the game just yet.
One of the more interesting things to note is that they designed their new group dungeon, Xibaluku, based on player feedback. Funcom aims to make the bosses of Xibaluku much more dynamic and interesting than the bosses AoC originally launched with. Not to leave PvPers behind, they have also overhauled the mini-game queue system to improve its frequency as well as improved the guild/siege declaration system. DirectX 10 support is coming soon but wasn’t stable enough for release in 1.04. Future patches in this cycle will focus on itemization, tweaking character statistics, and a totally new gemcrafting system.
With patch 1.04 and additional patches over the next couple months, Craig feels that most of AoC’s major problems will comprehensively dealt with. They are interested in seeing how players will react.
Ten Ton Hammer interview with AoC’s Craig Morrison originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 25 Feb 2009 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Funcom goes bi-coastal this year at conventions
Filed under: Fantasy, Age of Conan, Anarchy Online, Events, real-world, News items
If you’re an ardent follower of Age of Conan, or perhaps one of the folks still spending time in Anarchy Online, then it looks like you’ve got a choice of conventions to attend this Labor Day weekend! Funcom has announced that not only will they be returning to their regular East coast convention haunt, Dragon*Con, as part of the MMO track - they’ll also be expanding their travel this year to hang out with the gamers at PAX as well!
While there’s no specifics as yet as to what they’ll be doing with their communities at each convention, we can tell you from personal experience that Funcom throws good parties and has some pretty interesting panels. So, if either one of these two conventions is on your travel agenda, be sure to pop by and say hello to the Funcom teams.
Funcom goes bi-coastal this year at conventions originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 25 Feb 2009 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Reply by Dardore :: Domain name + Hosting Combo….
I wouldn’t be having a “checkout” tool, or trying to sell products directly online, rather selling company image, capabilities, and driving the ability to want to learn more. So I don’t know that that would be enough information to warrant a recommendation, but any feedback or direction is awesome!!!
Also, keeping into consideration this being a start up, one thing I do want to ensure is that expenses do not exceed revenue (which at this time is $0). But keeping into consideration that some expenses are needed, particularly at launch, we do know that it’s going to cost some money to keep up, but we want as inexpensive as possible right now. So basically I really only want to purchase the domain name ($16.99 or whatever it is) + basic hosing ($71.00 a year). That’s kinda what my estimates are. The rest, I assumed would be done on a trial and learning basis.
Again, I’m possibly missing the point here, or going about this all wrong…. but eh, you never know your capabilities if you don’t ask what’s available and what other’s opinions are.
Domain name + Hosting Combo….
I have a question that hopefully some of you guys can answer.
I’m putting together a Sole Proprietorship for the wife and going to help her make and market her website. First, obviously, is the domain name purchase + hosting of it. I was looking at GoDaddy.com and wondered what you guys thought of that? I don’t have any experience really in code and website creation, but wondered if anyone has any experience with it here. I guess my questions are:
1.) Is it ok and cost effective to use godaddy.com domain name registration + cheapest hosting level
2.) Is there easy to use GUI interface to make the website?
a.) If so, do I also have customizable options
3.) Am I just totally stupid here and missing something? Is there an easier answer to all of this?
Anyone do any of this on the recreational side of things and want to help me get it started? It’s a corporate branding company and it’s pretty exciting to learn about, you might actually learn a thing or two 
Funcom CFO resigns in wake of $23.3M loss
Filed under: Fantasy, Age of Conan, Business models, Economy, MMO industry, News items
These are bad times all around in the massively multiplayer online game industry in terms of the economy. The troubles of some companies are still coming to light, as is the case with Funcom. James Lee from GamesIndustry.biz writes that Funcom has reported its Q4 2008 financial results with “an operating loss of USD 23.3 million, caused by a depreciation of USD 22.8 million due to the lagging performance of Age of Conan.”
In addition, Funcom CFO Olav Sandes given notice of his resignation. Sandes is not the first high level employee to quit in recent months, but all is not doom and gloom. Funcom’s Q4 2008 subscription revenues from Age of Conan have shot up to USD 8.7 million, up from USD 1.2 million year-on-year, Lee reports. Funcom expects a Q1 2009 revenue of between USD 6 million and 8 million, largely comprised of subscription fees for Age of Conan. James Lee’s GamesIndustry.biz article has further details on Funcom’s financial situation.
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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! |
Funcom CFO resigns in wake of $23.3M loss originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 23 Feb 2009 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Age of Conan wins Best Original Score at IFMCA awards
Filed under: Fantasy, Age of Conan, MMO industry, News items
The fantasy MMO Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures is a game that’s notable for its score, and this aspect of the title has drawn accolades from gamers and music critics alike. Composer Knut Avenstroup Haugen was even nominated for Best Original Score in a Video Game in the Hollywood Music Awards. While ultimately that honor went to Wataru Hokoyama for Afrika, Haugen now has cause to celebrate his big win at the International Film Music Critics Association (IFMCA) awards.
The IFMCA is an association of online, print, and radio journalists who write about film and television music. Clearly they were impressed with Haugen’s work. Age of Conan won Best Original Score for a Video Game or Interactive Media, this time beating Afrika, as well as Gears of War 2, Mercenaries 2, and Star Wars: The Force Unleashed.
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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! |
Age of Conan wins Best Original Score at IFMCA awards originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 20 Feb 2009 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Reply by Lomax :: [WoW] Why do people STILL play WoW?
I do agree that there is more to the success of WoW then the quality of the game, its kind of a phenomenon. I’m sure if Blizzard cancelled it and tried to relaunch it again it would never be the same sort of success even if the game was twice as good.
Saying that though I think from playing it the strength of the game are in
1) Its well designed storyline (or at least its great to play in the world)
2) Having PVP integrated everywhere (battlegrounds are fun) even if the PvP is pretty badly implemented in comparison to other games.
3) The graphical style which looks comparatively good for the age of the game whereas other games that tried to be realistic at the same time tended to look artificial, being deliberately cartoonish I think was a strength for Blizzard at the start. This could also be the draw for younger players, I guess it does help even if it dooms a lot of the population to being awful to group with 
I think now #3 though is starting to act against it and I think Blizzard know it, they are slowly upgrading things but I wonder if someone can take their crown away, they are also running out of #1 too since they have been killing off major characters in the story they built up over warcraft #1 to #3. For me #1 is the most important part of a MMO.
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Reply by Lomax :: [WoW] Why do people STILL play WoW?
Specifically I’m curious because Blizzard seems to release expansions at such a slow pace that I cant figure out what people do between expansions? Are they just grinding out the same content night after night?
It seems that in eq2 players can max out their toons soon after a xp and boredom begins to set in. This doesnt happen in WoW?
What is different about WoW that players continue to play night after night even though the content doesnt change much?
I think there must be a big difference in WoW and EQ2 then, hitting max level in WoW still takes some time despite what people say, but then the real game starts for most people.
If you are a raider then the route of running dungeons for gear, then running heroic dungeons for better gear while doing things to get rep you need for more gear and enchants plus getting your trade skills up to max level takes more time really then the levelling 1-80.
Alternatively if you are a hardcore PVPer then you will do some of the dungeons etc more as a casual thing to get enchants and some starter gear, but doing 2v2, 3v3, 5v5 arenas as the main game along with getting materials for enchants etc. Also you have the battlegrounds to pvp around in which also gives you gear for honour
Lastly if you are casual then the endgame for you might just be running dungeons, some people are now heavily into achievements pet collecting + holiday events, doing most of your pvp in battlegrounds (probably the best pvp part of WoW) and questing around. Even being casual (I still think that can involve a lot of hours per a week - but no hard schedules to raid etc and no minimum attendance etc) entry level raiding is good fun, the main guild I’ve been in has been this sort of setup (I did do a hardcore one once, but really it felt more like a job), with the new expansion the raiding difficulty is fine enough to allow casual guilds to progress now.
The other big thing missed on WoW is that the patches are big and put new content into the game telling the storyline (which was well done in my opinion), for example in the burning crusade
First release had a 10 man raid, and 4 25 man raids with the expansion pack
Later content patch released two more 25 man raids with the main bad guy of the expansion Illidan Stormrage released (Black temple)
Later content patch released a harder 10 man raid
Later content patch then added a twist to the storyline (the story was threaded through it all so wasn’t add hoc’d together) here a new zone was added, a 5 man dungeon and a final 25 man raid (hard as nails one too :P).
In between the major patches they did add in smaller ones which still added some content to the game such as factions, mounts etc, and classes get changed around a fair bit effecting the pvper’s, overall they kept things going ok I’d say, so there is more added to the game then the expansion packs imply.
Based on that I’d say the whole getting to max level thing in WoW isn’t the major part of the game, is this a big change in philosophy from EQ2?
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Reply by Lomax :: [SOE] ’s New Flagship Product
Interesting, very interesting. As for the game type they have dropped some hints with storyline mentioned and wanting MMO experience so we know for sure its a MMO, I would not actually count in Planetside 2 here as a contender then. I’ve not played it although I’ve heard a lot about it, but storyline doesn’t seem a criteria for it, that was a game that was just dying for a better 1st person shooter engine as good as it was still.
I’d like to think they will go for EQ3 here, but that’s thinking from the heart rather then the head, the only thing that makes me believe it could be is that out of that list I think it looks like only Everquest looks (to me) worthy of producing a new version since it has the following. The timing would be right though since in 3 years time when this new MMO is likely to be launched EQ1 will be looking ancient and EQ2 will certainly be looking a bit old.
One other small bit of news I saw on WoW, one of the lead designers there has left WoW for Blizzards new upcoming MMO, I’m curious too as to what that will be, my guess would be a flop though compared to WoW since I have a feeling WoW is the Harry Potter of MMO’s, its good but nothing about it really seems to justify its level of success, it seems to be more of a phenomenon.
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