What’s Going on with Age of Conan?
Posted by ze Kranky Kraut on August 6, 2007.
AoC has been on my rather short list of MMORPGs to keep tabs on for quite a while. I like FunCom as a company and I have confidence in their ability to innovate. I love the fact that AoC is supposed to be a game for mature audiences. I’m sick and tired of the current trend of making MMOs as unoffensive and politically correct as possible (no religions, demons and angels in Vanguard; the markedly Puritan clothing choices in EQ2 etc.).
Lately, I’ve been getting progressively more worried, though. AoC is supposed to be released in October, a mere 2-3 months from now. And so far, they haven’t shown anything of relevance. A couple of cinematic trailers, some UI footage and a number of short flicks showing some guys whacking a bunch of mobs. That’s basic functionality. Who cares? Let’s see what we have not been shown yet:
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Dungeons and quests
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Mounted combat and real-time archery
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Player-built cities, including sieges and defense
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mass PvP and formation combat with AI controlled soldiers
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the innovative, multi-tiered class-system
FunCom make quite large claims for AoC, don’t they? Every day we’re getting closer to the October 30th release date, with no substantial information released on the very features that are supposed to set AoC apart from the competition, I’m getting more and more convinced that AoC is, in fact, exhibiting the horrible trio of high expectations, overambitious goals and a looming deadline. If that stuff was ready for release in October, they would have shown at least something by now.
FunCom can’t afford to push back the release date too far. Going up against Warhammer in Q1 2008 would be a bad idea, WAR would slaughter this game. On the other hand, FunCom can’t afford to release a half-fnished shell of a game, either. Not after they did it in the past with Anarchy Online and certainly not since Vanguard proved beyond the shadow of a doubt that gamers won’t tolerate it anymore.
Games Convention in Leipzig (Agust 23rd to 26th) will probably be the last opportunity for FunCom to convince the public that AoC will not end up as yet another MMO debacle.
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2 Comments
johnny said:
As you probably know by now the date for AoC has been put back, one of the Devs posted:
“I have explained why it takes time, and that is unfortunate. I am dead certain I shall be vindicated in this decision! Hey, we could have given you some bull**** reason about needing more time to polish a startup area or whatnot. This is the truth. It stings.”
on the VN boards http://vnboards.ign.com/warhammer_online_age_of_reckoning_general_board/b22997/104085747/p1/?15Unsure why a pot shot at WAR was needed, MMO’s having the date put back is hardly breaking news. Maybe a bit of sweating under the coller you think?
I’ve never personally looked forward to AoC that much, it just didn’t grip me and certainly didn’t make me think of Conan when I saw it.
I think AoC would have been better sold as a PvE game than anything, after all most people are more familiar with his films than anything and in that he was essentially a psychopathic burgler robbing big nasties of shiny daggers.
ze Kranky Kraut said:
I’m not convinced that AoC would fare better as a PvE game. Who needs another PvE game? There’s WoW, there’s EQ2, there’s Vanguard (for what it’s worth).
WAR will improve on DAoC’s RvR formula, AoC sounds a bit like what Shadowbane tried to do. There’s room for both types of PvP gameplay but is there a market for yet another PvE game?
As long as developers don’t come up with with a PvE formula that radically differs from what EQ had to offer 8 years ago, there’s no need for another PvE game, at least not as long as WoW and EQ2 are still in business.
I’m not the greatest fan of PvP in MMORPGs but after almost 9 years of doing essentially the same PvE crap over and over again across man different games, I’m simply not interested anymore. Developers seem more inclined to innovate in PvP gameplay than PvE gameplay.