Funcom have now Age of Conan Unchained online, with some details about the hybrid model here. A bit over 6GB of download if you don’t have the game installed already.
Usually when I get engaged in some MMO I tend to look up the company itself for some information. If it is a public company I have a look at the financial reports – sometimes a bit boring info, but may sometimes also provide some interesting insights.
I took at look at the Funcom Q1 2011 financial report that were released a few days ago, as well as the report before that. For The Secret World there were a few bits of information availble, which included:
In the past few weeks Funcom received both positive and negative remarks for their new offline leveling system. Massively had a positive post about the feature, which received a lot of comments.
I think both the author of that post and also Funcom are on the right track here. Many MMO games have run into a trap in that leveling itself in a game has become a key purpose for playing. People talk about speed of leveling, if there is enough content to support leveling to max level etc. And when talking about alternatives to the mob killing/leveling part, we may talk about crafting or similar features.
But these are very abstract concepts and if we do not lose this abstraction the different MMOs become just a grey blur – they all have mob killing, crafting, PvP, PvE or whatever – in one form or another. For some people that is fine and enough. But I would hope that we somehow can get past the pure abstract mechanics and get back into the virtual worlds.
I want to play a game because I can be a kick-ass space pilot, or command demons from the underworld to wreck havoc. Or I can explore worlds with strange creatures that no-one has heard of, or see twin suns set on the horizon.
Pretty much every time a new subscription-based MMO is released or is about to be released there is a lot of comments about “game is released too soon”, “it would need another X months”, “it is missing vital features”. These comments have been for many years – if the answers were that easy, one would think that would have picked up on that, right?
The issue here is of course that there are no easy answers like that – repeating comments like that hardly brings any new insight and may very well be wrong anyway.
I have seen a few posts from various bloggers about how bad 2009 was for MMOs. Personally I do not quite agree. For me personally there were more interesting new titles released in 2009 than in 2008. But also considerations for a good/bad year should include existing games as well – new expansions and changes, different price and payment models etc.
Thoughout 2009 I have played/tried a few different MMO or MMO-type games:
City of Heroes/Villains, Guild Wars, Lord of the Rings Online, Chronicles of Spellborn, Runes of Magic, Jade Dynasty, Project of Planets, Zero Online, Vendetta Online, Pirate Galaxy, Champions Online, Saga of Ryzom, Dungeons & Dragons Online, Fallen Earth, World of Kung Fu, Twelve Sky 2, Age of Conan, EVE Online, Shin Megami Tensei, FusionFall Online, GhostX – perhaps a few others also that I have forgotten about. Some of these would be an emphasis on tried rather than played though – for various reasons I barely completed the tutorial on some.
While otherwise limited in content updates, I loved when NCSoft/Paragon Studios released Mission Architect for City of Heroes/Villains. A really great feature! It was however plagued with being exploited by some and also in a sense too successful – too many story arcs and less than adequate search tools initially caused some trouble. While it is used by players today, it has perhaps not created the subscriber success that some may have hoped for. Still, it is an important step in making an innovative approach to MMO content a reality. I think that was one of the major milestones of 2009.
With the exception of Guild Wars, most of the fantasy titles I only played for short periods of time. Sometimes a bit grindy and with no special love for the fantasy genre, I gre tired of most of them quickly. Guild Wars has been lots of fun though – partially because it is a good game, but also very much due to the people of Tuesday Noob Club. Not played much lately though and the combination of real life schedule and lack of excitement for fantasy titles has contributed to that.
Just as I managed to totally avoid Warhammer Online last year I also totally avoided Aion this year, and World of Warcraft as usual. There simply has not been any compelling eason to consider playing either of the games.
Champions Online has received the bulk of my play time lately and for good reason – it is an excellent and fun game if you just want to mess around a bit, blow off some steam and get your mind of real life issues, just for a short bit. It is a good complement to other games or other activities.
I think most of the games I have played or tried I have not written much about – which is not to say that there are bad games. Sometimes it has just been bad timing, or some technical issue. I am glad that I have at least tried a fair number of games and see more of what is out there, rather than just focus on a few new Western subscription-based titles and live on the hope that the next big title with be it.
I think it was either The Chronicles of Spellborn or Saga of Ryzom that were among the first of the subscription-based MMOs to offer free trials which were not limited in time, but rather how far you can get into the game. This approach has then been picked up by Warhammer Online, Age of Conan and Champions Online.
One thing that these games all have in common is that they are not really fighting in the absolute top with regard to subscriber-numbers, so understandably they have to do more to entice people to play. But some of them are still not going the path of “free-to-play” model and some of them keep the same subscription fees. Is an unlimited free trial enough?
In Ryzom you are restricted to the tutorial area, which you can spend a few hours. Age of Conan is limited to the Tortage area, which is also a number of hours, although a bit different game from what is outside Tortage. Champions Online is restricted to the Millenium City crisis zone (the tutorial zone), where someone typically would spend their first 5-6 levels, but in theory possible here to stay until 15. I do not know what the restrictions are for Warhammer Online, have not tried that game.
I guess it is a sign of the times that it becomes more difficult to compete in the MMO space – go back a couple of years and many MMOs were probably doing ok financially even if there were not big blockbuster successes. In the last 2-3 years it has been more of a mixed bag, at least that is how it appears.
I would not be surprised if we relatively soon will see that almost all games will have their first part “free” in some way and unlimited in time, to get people to try it.
It was bound to happen. I am not really a big fan of fantasy, but some settings do have an appeal for various reasons. Guild Wars is beautiful, has some great stories and some really great game mechanics. Chronicles of Spellborn has this mystical and fascinating story and environment and is different in a number of ways. Runes of Magic on the other hand does not really fascinate and does not have a compelling story to drive the game like the two others. But it works for casual short session dabbling.
And neither of them have any elves. This is a big plus. I hope neither game will ever introduce elves. A view of elves that I liked is from an author who wrote this:
Elves are wonderful. They provoke wonder.
Elves are marvellous. They cause marvels.
Elves are fantastic. They create fantasies.
Elves are glamorous. They project glamour.
Elves are enchanting. They weave enchantment.
Elves are terrific. They beget terror.
The thing about words is that meanings can twist just like a snake, and if you want to find snakes look for them behind words that have changed their meaning.
No one ever said elves are nice.
Elves are bad.
Say fellows, any relationship with the creature from the Black Lagoon?
Age of Conan is another of those games. It has no elves and a setting that has good potential for interesting stories and adventures. And it has a few game mechanics that I like. So I decided to give it a 3rd time to see how the game worked out. The first time was just when the game launched, with a number of issues. The second time was late last year and the game was better to play then, but rather empty and perhaps not quite fulfilling its potential for epic adventure.
This time the emptiness does not seem to be an issue and it is quite noticeable that there is more life in the game now after the server merges. There is plenty of talk in the chat channels, more people running around in the areas etc. The chat is not of the Barrens chat type and seesm generally to be kept at a nice level.
I decided to play a bit with one of my lowbies first; Ghorash, a Dark templar who was level 8 when I last left the game. This meant going through Tortage again, which I did have some reservations against before. But the experience turned out better than I had expected.
The story followed a different path than I had played before, which meant there were some new elements. But it was also interesting to see that they had done some changes in the game that did contribute to a better overall experience. There was less trash loot filling up and more of stackable stuff. There were also vendors outside Tortage itself, like in White Sands Isles. Various small changes like that, which removes some earlier annoyance factors.
Hey, it is a foul to attack a player without the ball!
While I was still longing to get out of Tortage to get out in the real world, it was still a rather nice experience and I quite liked the Dark Templar. I also had a go with my fiery missionary (the Herald of Xotli), getting back into the Evangelism by Fire game play. Also taking a peek at the crafting side in Purple Lotus Swamp, I found it a nice change to actually see other people there – did not happen the previous time I played. The bug which causes play to start at midnight in the game became noticeable outside Tortage. It was generally dark when I played, except for the multi-player part in Tortage.
It has only been a brief re-visit so far, but I hope it can work out better this time. The activity in chat channels and in various areas was more encouraging this time. I do hope the story elements of the game can play out better and keep it interesting, It already has the advantage of no elves compared to LOTRO for example, and also nicer combat mechanics.
Lately the somewhat limited game time I have had has been split between all three MMOs I currently play – City of Villains/Heroes, Guild Wars and Age of Conan.
Fighting Nightmares (elite bosses) and other zombies in Grandville
Since it is Halloween season most games has some Halloween events. In City of Villains/Heroes it is the usual trick and treat knock-on-door from last season, with all the disguises as various villains. The added part for this year was the Zombie invasion, which is pretty much like the RIkti invasions, only that there are zombies pouring out of the ground instead of Rikti dropping down from ships.
It is pretty much the same kind of frenzy fun that the Rikti invasions can be – pretty much some intense fighting everything that pops up for a number of minutes. Had one good session with that in Grandville with one of my dominators (Flamebrain) disguised as a Knife of Artemis member. Not that that made any difference 
The fire imps had a great time, my psychic screams hopefully made some impact, but most mobs died too quickly to think that the holds and stuns had a significant impact. Pretty fun in any case.
Smashing the Mantis
My fiery missionaire has continued her exploration of Khopshef Province, quite frequently leaving a trail of dead and burned corpses after her. Adhering to slightly different ethics than my Cimmerian Bear Shaman, she has no trouble with helping the local militia to hunt down and defeat a slave rebellion, punching some undead fellows or just just rampaging anything in the vicinity – reward or no reward, she just seem to enjoy that.
The local Mantis population did experience this in particular while exploring their part of the province. I guess the bigger they and the bigger thumps they make adds to this…
This is one thing I think Age of Conan managed to do better than most other fantasy MMORPGs out there – fun combat. I have quite enjoyed melee fighting in this fantasy setting, which is something I have almost never done in other fantasy MMORPGs (Brigand in EQ2 is an exception).
Burn Mantis burn
While trying to put up some compelling and burning arguments about the bliss of being a servant of Xotli is a nice activity, Tatiana also did some exploration of the parts of the province that she had not been to.
This included a big interesting building in the southern part fo the region, which she learned was called the Black Castle. A bit uncertain if there were any possible converts there, she left without investigating further. After all, a Black castle sounds a bit burned, so maybe the bliss of Xotli had already been told to its inhabitants.
Later though when helping with some espionage on a local citizen she learned that there might be some transformed human that need the to hear the message anyway! A nearby parked caravan also expressed their displeasure with the inhabitants of the Black Castle, although there were some more commercial motivations behind their less positive attitude.
Black Castle
But the explorer mind was also pointing towards the big pyramid in the area, which the locals referred to as the Pyramid of the Ancients. While the surroundings around the pyramid was nice to explore, there has not too many in the area to provide the message of Xotli to except for a few lions. So Tatiana decided to leave this part as well for the moment. An assignment she had picked up was a about killing a chicken handler and one of his chicken. The thought of some fried chicken for lunch was quite appealing, so she headed off to find the chicken handler.
Finding him was quite easy, but it turned out to be difficult to convince him to end the existance in favor of Xotli or prepare some fried chicken. In fact he beat Tatiana completly with only receiving a few scratches himself.
Pyramid of the Ancients
Maybe fried chicken is not the best food right now. Around this point it seemed that Tatiana hit level 30 and an old Destiny quest suddently became plausible. So she headed to Khemi to find out more about this and this is the point she is at right now.
When playing various characters in MMORPGs I often prefer those whose abilites make them a bit fuzzy in terms of role. This is one reason I prefer City of Villains to City of Heroes; the archetypes do not quite fit in traditional roles to the extent that they might do on hero side.
While I have not tried all classes in Age of Conan there were some of them that appealed to me directly from their descriptions; in particular Herald of Xotli and Bear Shaman. The combination of some magic/mystical powers with nitty-gritty big weapon swinging does have its appeal.
While my HoX has ventured into the Stygian country side, my Bear Shaman Wolfsbane was stuck in Tortage. This was due to that he had a bit of a tough time for a bit there in the early double digit levels. But after he got some more healing and smashiong powers under his belt it started to become more manageable. At 19, he defeated Strom and headed back to his good old home land of Cimmeria.
Home sweet home
All was not well though and Wolfsbane soon found hints that he should head off to Clan Moragh’s settlement and provide them som help with the threat from the Vanirs.
On the way he did encounter both a poor boy who had lost his belongings to some local wolfs. With his name, how could he refuse to help? He did feel a bit guilty about hitting some of the cubs near the wolf pack leader though, which turned out to have the boy’s belongings.
Continuing his path further down to Clan Moragh he encountered an old warrior who wanted some help with delivering some of his belongings to his family in the settlement. Since that was on the way Wolfsbane accepted the task.
Death is present at Clan Moragh
After arriving to the Clan Moragh settlement it soon became clear that this was a place of sorrow and destruction. Being a shaman and a man of restoration as well as destruction (from his trusty club), Wolfsbane offered to help out. He started out with collecting some herbs to make medicine; but the Vanir were lurking nearby and the effort did not go without bloodshed.
One of the wounded suggested that it might be smart to strike at the Vanir camp where they kept their wounded and kill them while they were weak. However, Wolfsbane refused this – if they die that should be in a fair fight. There is no honour in killing the weak.
Some intelligence from another warrior indicated that the river might be poisoned – the Vanir may have placed rotten corpses in the river to transfer it to the settlement an infecting its inhabitants.
Fighting the Vanir
Performing some persuasive “talk” with some Vanir and investigating the river a bit into Vanir territory showed that the suspicion was true; there were corpses in the river! The discovered corpses were cleared from the river (not particularly nice work…). Further incursions into Vanir territory was discussed to stop future activities to infect the river water again.
With lots of “persuation by club” being performed, Wolfsbane ended up with a few more trinkets than he needs, plus a bit more cash. So he decided to support the local traders and craftsmen, which they seemed happy for – you do not really say no to some new customers in times like this.
Oh my, that is a mighty fine shield you have there...
I was happy to be able to get out of Tortage and into the “real” world for a bit. And the Conarch Valley is quite beautiful. I like the down-and-dirty approach for the Bear Shaman here and it is fun to play, even though he does not match my Herald of Xotli in terms destructive persuation.
Unfortunately my gaming session did not go trouble free. After playing for a while I got a BSOD (Blue Screen Of Death), which is something I had hoped would not appear. Remains to be seen if this will be a recurring event or just something that happened now; it was the first time I got that with this computer set-up though.
But despite that, I quite enjoyed my Conarch venture so far.
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