Are you prepared Conan?

January 18, 2008

Only a few days ago we’ve learned that Age of Conan is coming – and as early as March 28. 2008. I must say that I’ve mixed feelings about this release date. On one hand, I’m really, really looking forward to finally get to play the game I’m anticipating as much as everyone else, but on the other hand - judging by the information publicly available – I’m asking myself: Is Age of Conan really ready for prime time, and Funcom is just trying to increase the tension by not answering some of our questions or did once again the suits win and Age of Conan is going to be rushed on the market like many of its MMORPG predecessors?

Please forgive my skepticism, but considering Funcoms past – some might remember of their first major MMO project “Anarchy Online” which didn’t go smooth to say the least – it is hard to ignore a grain of doubt.

Age of Conan seemed to be everywhere at CES 2008 Las Vegas. And we’ve witnessed a true AoC media spectacle. But many questions remained unanswered. For example it is still not clear how the Dungeons actually play. Most of the video footage about Dungeons that I saw made the impression of “Cheetah 2” technology demos (Cheetah 2 is the successor to AoC’s rendering engine). Meaning the focus was on technical aspects like graphics quality and frame rates but failed to display actual game play. One of my other gripes is the fact that most of the footage has either Funcom employees playing the game or supervising players playing it. Shouldn’t a game that is supposed to take on MMO Heavy-Weight „World of Warcraft”, be playable without baby-sitting two months prior release?

Next issue is the number of playable classes available at release. The situation is a tad confusing. Some reports state it’s going to be fourteen classes, while others say twelve. What’s the matter Funcom? Is Funcom itself still not sure about this? I sincerely hope this is just a minor communication glitch and the classes have been finalized for release. Otherwise I fear for the class balance at launch.

Funcom has announced that there will be an Open Beta. I think this is a good decision. I do not share the opinion of some folks that the quality of technical feedback from the beta “testers” is next to useless especially since AoC is targeting a more mature audience than other comparable games. Speaking as a developer myself, I think in order to be able to actually transform the feedback gained from the open beta into a more stable release version of the game, the beta would need to start right away. Unfortunately there’s no information about the start of the beta phase or the selection-process mentioned at the official forums. Judging by the radio silence in this regard, my bet is on a Fileplanet-Subscriber Beta.

I do really hope that I’m not sounding too negative, because it was not my intention to spell doom on this game. Far from it, actually I’m hoping that in the end my doubts were totally unfounded, and I wish the game all the best, both as a fan and as a customer. Because one thing is certain: Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures must become a success, even if for the sole purpose of restarting a real competition on the currently WoW dominated MMORPG market.

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