Age of Conan community interview: Your questions answered!
Filed under: Fantasy, Age of Conan, Interviews, MMO industry, Massively meta, Community Q&A
Earlier this week, we asked for your Age of Conan questions, and you delivered. Although we only received seven usable questions (some were duplicates and two we combined), the answers given by Game Director Craig Morrison are candid and to-the-point. Funcom’s steady push for new content and poised ear to the community shows that they’re on board to keep AoC going strong for a long time.
Follow along after the jump for Craig’s answers on changing Tortage, more PvP, opening the forums to everyone and more.
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Age of Conan community interview: Your questions answered! originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 13 Nov 2009 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Age of Conan community interview: Ask Funcom!
Filed under: Fantasy, Age of Conan, Interviews
As anyone who has been following Age of Conan for the last few months knows, Funcom is working hard to get their MMO back on the top of everyone’s playlists. Launch-day bugs have been fixed and they’re focusing on more incentives to get players back into their game.
With last month’s Game Director’s letter explaining a push towards more player feedback, we wanted to help along the process a bit with your questions. Do you have something you’d like to ask about the new content? How about something concerning their revised subscription options? Whatever it is, Funcom is ready. Email your questions to shawn AT massively DOT com by Thursday, November 12 at 8am ET, and we’ll pick the best 10 to send along to Funcom. Questions left as comments to this post will not be considered. Once the answers get answered, we’ll be sure to post them up right away.
Age of Conan community interview: Ask Funcom! originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 09 Nov 2009 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Craig Morrison discusses Age of Conan’s improvements and future
Filed under: Fantasy, Age of Conan, Interviews, News items
Craig Morrison spoke with Eurogamer recently about the state that Age of Conan; what’s been going on over the last year and where the game is headed in the future. This is of course one of many interviews you can expect to see regarding Age of Conan as Funcom is in the middle of their summer blitz to get people to come back and check out all the changes.
As it turns out, a whole lot has changed. We’ve mentioned it on our podcasts and in our posts, but Morrison is keen to continue to emphasis the improvements and updates here as well. The latest update has quite possibly been the biggest and equally subtlest improvement yet, as it completely reworked the item system to be less obtuse and make items more desirable.
But you really don’t need to take Morrison’s word for it, since the two free weeks campaign is in full effect. You can be sure Massively is jumping head first into Hyboria to get a taste of AoC’s new flavor.
Craig Morrison discusses Age of Conan’s improvements and future originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 09 Jul 2009 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Interview with AoC Live Producer
Filed under: Fantasy, Age of Conan, Interviews
MMORPG.com sat down with Age of Conan Live Producer, Henning Solberg to chat about various aspects of his job, recent positive reviews the game has been getting, and new things coming down the pipe. In case the second point in the previous sentence is surprising to you, here’s some proof!
Henning has been with Funcom since 1995 and has worn many different hats during his tenure, including: QA Manager, Designer, Lead Designer, Lead Scripter, Director of Online Services, Associate Producer, and now finally Producer. His current job has him planning, organizing, setting overall priorities, and staffing for the various development teams. “The team makes the game, the producer helps make it happen!”
In terms of new things he’s working on, Henning mentions the RPG overhaul that will make gear more valuable to players and the new Tarantia Common District, two items that have been in development for a long time. In order to figure out what to update next, Henning lists various sources such as playing the game themselves, reports containing detailed player feedback, and the QA team.
For an expansion of these details and much more, head on over and check out the full Henning Solberg interview.
Interview with AoC Live Producer originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 18 Apr 2009 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Age of Conan offers chat and prizes
Filed under: Fantasy, Age of Conan, Contests, Interviews, News items
Added to that, Funcom are holding an upcoming chat with the Xfire community on the 10th at 5pm EDT. As an added bonus for those who are interested in attending, they’re offering five lucky winners who attend the chat a copy of Age of Conan, a free one-year subscription, and a pile of in-game goodies. So if you are enjoying the updated Hyborian homelands, head over to Xfire and get registered to win some gaming goodness.
Age of Conan offers chat and prizes originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 06 Apr 2009 20:00:00 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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Massively catches up with the new Age of Conan director
Filed under: Fantasy, Age of Conan, Massively Interviews
A short while ago we had the chance to speak with Craig Morrison, the new director for Funcom’s pulp fantasy epic Age of Conan. Morrison assumed the helm after the previous (development) director Gaute Godager stepped down, and since then the AoC team has been making a concerted effort to reach out to players. Perhaps drawing on lessons from other companies that have experienced player perception problems, the Funcom director seems to be making a deliberate campaign out of player recruitment, feedback, and communication.
Join us as we reflect on this initiative, discuss issues that the Funcom staff see as most important to the Age of Conan playerbase, and walk through features associated with the most recent expansive patch. Read on for the full details and insight into this unique MMO. %Gallery-11743%
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Massively catches up with the new Age of Conan director originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 11 Nov 2008 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Word of mouth key to bringing Age of Conan players back, says Craig Morrison
Filed under: Fantasy, Age of Conan, Interviews, MMO industry
Since Craig ‘Sirillon’ Morrison took over as the director of Age of Conan, even the gnarliest curmudgeon would have trouble claiming that things hadn’t changed for the better. They might not have changed enough for some people’s tastes, but work has been done and is still ongoing. Now, Craig talks to Eurogamer.net (at considerable length) about AoC, the changes that have been made and those that are yet to come.
Although there’s plenty of information, there isn’t all that much new information; players will be glad to know that the hope is for the PvP consequence system to go live ‘early next week, if not this week’ with Ymir’s Pass following soon after.
When it comes to enticing back lost subscriptions, Craig places great value on word of mouth among the players themselves, observing that people who are having a good time in AoC will naturally pass on that information: ‘… that’s what we focus on - making the game as good as we possibly can, so that our own players become advocates for the game.‘
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Funcom’s product manager speaks out on Gaute Godager’s departure
Filed under: Fantasy, Age of Conan, Interviews, MMO industry
With the recent news of Age of Conan’s Gaute Godager departing Funcom so suddenly, many players want to know what happened exactly. As an original founder of the company and through 16 years of employment at Funcom, one can only wonder what this says about the company. So MTV Multiplayer was able to sit down to a short interview with Funcom’s product manager Jorgen Tharaldsen concerning this sudden departure of Godager.
Tharaldsen is understandably positive about the new direction of the company under replacement game director Craig Morrison. He praises Morrison’s work as a community manager at Funcom and as a game director for Anarchy Online. Yet he also touches on the legacy of Godager and what he has meant to the history of MMOs in general. Not much else is said about the reasoning behind Godager’s departure (besides what Godager has already said himself), but Tharaldsen seems optimistic about the future of the company and Age of Conan.
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Daedren pulls no punches on Erling Ellingsen interview
Filed under: Fantasy, Age of Conan, Business models, Interviews, MMO industry, Opinion
A few weeks ago, we pointed the Massively readers to an article entitled Age of Conan: A post mortem analysis, written by the Daedren over at r1ftgaming. In that lengthy article, Daedren gave his top reasons for AoC’s demise, and even offered it as a lesson learned for future developers. Comments on his site, and here at Massively were quite heated concerning players’ malcontent with Age of Conan.
Since then, Daedren was able to grab the attention of Funcom, and hence an interview with Product Manager Erling Ellingsen. In true Daedren style, he doesn’t beat around the bush and asks the questions plaguing the minds of most former and current AoC subscribers. Where is this PvP system we’ve heard so much about? Why announce a new expansion when the current game still needs so much work?
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