Calendar Sunday, September 05, 2010
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Age of Conan Expands

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New Content, Plus 14-Day Promo for Returning Members

Those who once sank their teeth into the MMORPG Age of Conan, are now being called upon to return.  With this major update, the game is significantly different, with new features, an increased focus on lore, and a lot more high-level content including raids and story.  Will all this, paired with an offer to revive inactive accounts with 14 days of free full access, help Conan compete in an increasingly barbaric online RPG marketplace?

By Nathan Hawks

The two-week free reactivation can be claimed by former Conan players any time between July 8 and July 22, 2009.  Those who pay to join the game are also being offered a free mount. 

Some of the features of the Age of Conan RPG really are worth writing about.  Crafting professions can get epic – sure, you can make luggage and swords, but you can also build a city or keep.  Players who are intimidated with introducing their new character into an online RPG's virtual world stage, will appreciate the single-player introductory game.  This orients the player before unleashing them into a live server, and has the potential to greatly reduce the social tedium of newbie indoctrination – for everybody. 

Some of what Age of Conan is calling “new” does not refer to recent updates, but rather, they mean “new” as compared to the standards found in other online RPGs.  Still, looking at the classes they hold out as examples of what Conan has to offer, you can see interesting new takes on classic online RPG mechanics.

  • Dark Templars – A DPS, basically a dark paladin, combining heavy weapons and magic.
  • Demonologist – A summoner/mage, wielding extremely powerful offense, but sad, sad defense.
  • Herald of Xotli – A hybrid mage/soldier.  Good offense and versatility, poor defense.

Age of Conan has been in heavy push mode, blitzing online RPG buzz channels for about the past month.  It is the cherished love child of nVidia and Microsoft, and has won significant acclaim.  However, AoC is also the RPG whose chief financial executive resigned this year, after player recruitment fell flat on its face.  The game's owner, Funcom, was reported to have lost more than a third of its cash reserves due to disappointing returns on Age of Conan.  Major downsizing and other executive exits, however, seem to have only revitalized the project, and Funcom and its sponsors are clearly not giving up without a fight. 

Sources:
  Age of Conan website
  Games Industry Biz
  WarCry Network

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