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Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures: 3rd Anniversary Interview With Craig Morrison
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
It's hard to believe that it's already been three years since Funcom's Age of Conan launched itself on the MMO world but it's true! MMORPG.com Industry Relations Manager Garrett Fuller recently had the opportunity to sit down and chat with AoC's Executive Producer Craig Morrison. Check out Craig's thoughts about the past three years and what he hopes for the future in our exclusive interview.
Age of Conan has turned three years old! What has been your favorite part of the journey?
Working with this team, and getting to build a game and build upon a fantastic license and gameworld. Conan is really a great license to work with, and a very interesting MMO project to get to head up. Watching the team build the expansion, and see it come to life so vividly and successfully was definitely a highlight, because it was something we got to put our own touch on, but I am proud of everything the team has achieved over the last three years.
Read more of Garrett Fuller's Age of Conan: Third Anniversary Interview With Craig Morrison.
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Comments
Why didnt you ask Craig about everything that is wrong with Conan? Why are they constantly losing subs and money? This is a pointless softball interview.
/agree
This interview makes it sound like AoC is an AAA member of the genre and FC is very happy with it. Would have been nice to see Craig pushed on what he is going to do to actually make this a AAA game, attract more players etc. Yes they have a fantastic licence but they are wasting it in not making the game good enough to actually play.
I'm assuming you guys haven't played since the first week of release or something? There are new players and a ton of returning players showing up every single day. A lot of new content has already been added to the game and more is coming. Even presumedly an expansion pack.
Conan is definitely a AAA title and keeps getting better with each new patch. It's a wonderful change of pace from the WoW clones like Rift and everything else out there.
This.
Best MMO on the market for me these days. Dreamworld update made the game decently playable even on 3-4 year old laptops, Khitai is awesome after the progression patch, there's tons of (good) content, graphics and music/sound are best on the market and not to mention that the combat system puts every other MMO to shame.
Only minus is the PvP. God damned bunnyhoppers.
Heat, pressure and time. The three things that make a diamond, also make a waffle.
Also known as Ardanwen.
Can't play, too choppy. Will not re-subscribe untill it's fixed. I have a brand spankin new computer, better then when I played 2 years ago and now it's not playable due to this choppy issue.
You would assume wrong. Ive played it on and off for the last year waiting for it to get better. I have to wonder if yvoue played since release as it is obvious subscribtions are dropping. They are down to 4 servers now, and their financial reports show conan taking in less money every quarter.
"Following the positive revenue development after the
launch of the Godslayer Expansion Pack and the
launch in Korea, revenues of Age of Conan declined in
Q3 and Q4. The Age of Conan game remains cash flow
positive, but less so than expected by the Company,
and the Company therefore had to make an
impairment charge to the game at year-end of 2010."
The best MMORPG at the moment. I redubbed 1 year ago and never stopped playing since then. The game is fun and it has a lot of opportunities to play both PvE and PvP. Don’t listen to the trolls, Funcom, you are doing pretty good job.
Yes, subs are down ... for some an action based MMORPG just isn't their tatse.
However .... AoC is a great game and the dev's have made great strides in terms of quanity AND quality. This is a AAA title from the bottom up. True, its not a WoW clone. If thats what a person is looking for there are tons of them out there. AoC is its own game and what they have tried to bring to the table was done very well. Too bad they bungled the start. They will pay for that oversight till the end.
I don't recall that the number of people determine whether an MMORPG is an AAA title or not, but I thought it was the production value and such.
I'd say MMO's like WoW, LotrO, AoC, EQ2 Aion, Rift and WAR are AAA titles, with maybe titles like CO, STO and Vindictus and such as below that level (AA? B? Don't know)
FFXIV, Vanguard, I guess those could be regarded as AAA title as well? Not sure.
The ACTUAL size of MMORPG worlds: a comparison list between MMO's
The ease with which predictions are made on these forums:
Fratman: "I'm saying Spring 2012 at the earliest [for TOR release]. Anyone still clinging to 2011 is deluding themself at this point."
I haven't heard anyone talk about sieges in forever. Whats the deal with the sieging ? Does it even still exist? Does anyone even do it? Or am I jsut not sober enough and am thinking of another game??????
I've played AoC recently. Its dead, and its not even considered a PvP game by those playing it.
I was not looking for another raiding game. There are already 100 to choose from.
This may not be a "WoW clone" through and through, but, boy, it walks and talks an awful lot like a duck.
To all of those people saying "there is no pvp" I beg to differ. I play on Wiccana and I PvP everyday. True there are still some problems, but tbh it is getting alot better. FC has a chance to make a big impact with the movie coming out. Lets hope they don't drop the ball this time, second chances don't come along often.
Well, I played on Doomsayer during Early Access until just before patch 1.05 went live, and I would PvP constantly. I've logged back in recently, rolling a lvl50 on Wicanna, and I've tried, unsuccesfully, three times to queue up for a PvP minigame. Am I doing something wrong? How can you PvP everyday when I haven't been able to get a match in the last three?
Course he is a lvl 80 that has bin blinded by it. there alot of folks who say theres pvp, and grouping,and fun..well theres not.
Im playing atm, and not the free days but a sub , same issue all over the place on every server (tho the main pve server seems a little better ) below 80 there is -no- grouping, no pvp, AoC = a Solo game were you grind to 80 in order to find other players doings mini's and khitai content. the gap between a new 80 and a "vet" 80 is also HUGE, perks, time based give them better stats and powers, PvP gear gives them a HUGE adv, as a new 80 you can expect to die, die die, and just lay down on your back untill someone kills you. and thats between two egual classes, theres still some mayor issue's whit class ballance going on.
the game is fun, but for new players it got alot of fustrations and i be amazed if 1/10 stays and subs afther the first month free play. it be more likely 1/1000
If you shoot a mime, do you have to use a silencer?
Oye. Garrett Fuller!!
Craig 'Godslayer' Morrison will be back on MMORPG soon spouting on about the upcoming movie tie-in content for AoC (The Savage Coast of Turan) and if you get the job to interview him don't make the same mistake as Eurogamer have just done.
Be sure to press him on camel mounts. Make him squirm.
I occasionally return to AOC when I'm so bored of anything else but simply treat it as a single player RPG as that in essence is what it is until level cap.
I play at Aquilonia, one of the least populated servers in Europe. When you join a guild, you'll be able to group even there below level 80. Minigames below level 80 are non-existing on that server, but are definitely going on at the more populated ones.
It's no different from other MMO's that have been out for some years: people are max level. Go to the most populated servers on WoW, and you can bet that in a lot of zones you'll be playing alone or have a hard time finding a group for some low-level dungeon. And as a new player in WoW, you'll also have a hard time taking on people who've played for 7 years.. And class balance? Have fun finding an MMO which has real class balance, you won't find one.
Age of Conan has the same "problem" every single MMO has that has been out for some time.
The game's great, and I'm having fun levelling even on the less populated servers. Grind? There's so much content now that there's hardly any grind needed to reach max lvl. Definitely not more than in any other AAA title.
Heat, pressure and time. The three things that make a diamond, also make a waffle.
Also known as Ardanwen.
If they have the same problem, then MMORPG should do a service and ask Craig about those problems, not what he think is the most awesome part of his awesome game.
Do you see them asking those questions to any other developer? Do you think interviews with any developer should always focus on class balance and not finding a group at low level? Because, again, you could ask those same questions to Blizzard devs but I see noone calling for that
.
Heat, pressure and time. The three things that make a diamond, also make a waffle.
Also known as Ardanwen.
Whats your point? That im right?
His point is more that asking those questions make no sense.
Looking at your 1st post in this thread, why they're losing subs or money? What tabloid question is that, do you want them to go into fortuneteller mode? Sorry, but asking a question like that just makes no sense at all and the answer you'll get is some guesswork at best. It doesn't make for a better news article unless you're FOX News.
The ACTUAL size of MMORPG worlds: a comparison list between MMO's
The ease with which predictions are made on these forums:
Fratman: "I'm saying Spring 2012 at the earliest [for TOR release]. Anyone still clinging to 2011 is deluding themself at this point."
Yet, we players can tell them exactly why theyre losing subs.