f13.net

I know that all of you are anxious to learn more about what's up with Age of Conan, especially after our recent announcement. I will use this opportunity to try to, in a rather detailed manner, go through the very essence of the game – what we have accomplished, what we have changed, where we stand, and also touch on the great future ahead.

As all of you know we are deep in Beta at the moment, and so far way more than ten thousand people have been invited. Naturally not all people are playing all the time (reminder from me: check your email;), but we have some really awesome testers, hacking away at our systems and design. As you all also know we have been in various stages of beta for a long time, but it's over the last months we have really been able to get the feedback we need.

Let me take side-step here to tell you a bit how we look at various aspects of the game. You probably don’t know this, there are more than 500 or so code-features that we have in the game. Each of these features are tracked with a status description defined by QA, beta testers, the core team etc. They also have a level of importance. We do this for all the content as well, every region/zone, monster, mesh and item. We do this to try to make sure nothing slips through the cracks – that everything gets enough testing, polish and rework. We, as most developers, call each round of creation, testing and polish “iterations”. The higher the iteration count, the better the result.

Most of the content and most of the features have been deployed to the beta, or are waiting for deployment in QA. Let me give you an example on some things we have a special focus on right now. Things like core hands-on combat (iteration nine now), items and quest rewards (iteration 3), feat system (was redesigned after last delay. It is now in a new iteration and feels truly awesome), PvP mini-games (iteration three, soon going live on Beta, with more areas on the way) and GUI (iteration 5, 3, 2 or one depending on the area) are all things we have a special eye on.

Some places in our development things are coming slowly to the beta version, in other places it is blindingly fast. As an example; when the new rendering engine was patched to beta recently, the engine we had on the beta was almost three months old. On other stuff we patch it out almost instantly, and what it all boils down to is quality and iteration. Is it good enough to test yet, are we happy about it? That is why we have features in the beta which can only be triggered by GM commands (like building a battle keep). The entire foundation and code is there though– it just needs cleanup before it is enabled. Through the rest of February and March (and beyond) we will implement what we have, make it available to test, and then polish, and polish. Once we move towards our initial March deadline we will then focus harder on shifting to a launch mind-set, but still continue the polish as we move towards May 20th. Seeing from my side of things, and seeing that I can play or peek at ALL parts of the game, I therefore actually feel very good these days. It’s busy, for sure, but what we have coming for you is something special.

So then; what about the cuts you might have heard about after the community event? First of all; we wanted to tell our community sites this first as they are so important to us. That some cuts had to come is a natural part of creating an MMO, and I will tell you why. As you all know it is my responsibility as a Game Director to guide the vision, tinkering at every little part of the game to make the WHOLE much better than each of the parts. That means that my job is not only about creating but also about changing stuff, or cutting them – or as in the case of classes pool them up. At the end of the day someone has to say «this was a much better idea on paper than in the game. Let us focus on what is there – for the good of the whole game.» I do this all the time, through the whole development cycle. I do this on hundreds of things you have never heard about. I do this with regret more often than not, but I always know it is the right thing to do. With more than 500 features, tons of content and endless combinations of features and content to balance - each and every one a building block in the great MMO world of Hyboria, it must be done.

For each and every single one it is my job to go in and say «go go go», or, «cut», or «this must change». I don't do alone of course, thousands of beta testers, the Funcom team and our close partners are also part of this. For let's face it. When we announced Conan in 2005 we had to go out with a feature list. We had to communicate what our game was about. When announcing a feature list we also made a promise to you! And our promises are very, very important to us as a company as well as to me as a person. When it comes down to the essence of this promise to you it is however clear that the most important is the one about giving you a good game as a whole when played, not as a list of features on a piece of paper or in a message on a board. I wish I had the fantastic ability to communicate an idea, a vision, an feeling – not as a list of features in mere words ,p Sadly, it is not possible. List of features are what the players expect and will get. I will go through the list of features changed or cut compared to what it sounded like three years ago. And, honestly, these cuts DO actually make our game better, I know you might not want to see this from my point of view, but it’s true.

Global Forced Player Formations – This is a fantastic idea on paper, and we have even demoed it live. At E3 we had fifty people in a formation. The player formations were implemented and tested, we even have tools to set up positions and add their effects. The problem was, it never excited people to lose control over their characters. Having your character move when someone else moves sort of undermines the idea of a game don’t you think? The coordination of a voluntary formation was just too much for most players, especially with the collision system we have. It simply wasn’t fun! It has now melted down to location based effects only for some classes. (Stand in line with a Conqueror when he is running his formation, and you will have a great deal of resistance vs knockbacks for instance…)

Two more classes merged – The Lich into the Necromancer and the Stormcaller and Scion of Set merged into the Tempest of Set. I use the word merge here instead of cut, as we have not really cut what those classes could do. We have rather taken the best of what they had, to make our other classes even more unique. At the end of the day we chose «unique, varied, fun, solid». Remember that unbalanced classes are the number one topic of all released MMOs, or where you know EXACTLY what a class must do in the end-game. When it comes to our classes it has been more important for us to look at the whole instead of each single piece.

Prestige Classes - It was a great idea those many years ago before we got into the depth of our character progression, but as we moved deeper and deeper into development and our internal alpha testing we found that the prestige classes were not giving the experience they were supposed to. In fact, the prestige classes were doing the opposite of what we wanted them to do when they got into the mix. It didn't give more variety or more solid character progression, it rather cornered the player. We wanted character progression to be about choice, and not about running down a small corridor to a given end. The end result was something people weren’t used to and upset them too much.

Going to hell as a result of screwing up your spell-weaving - Hmmm, two crucial magicians wiped from a raid test sort of left us asking if this idea was even good on paper ;p I rest my case.

That was our cuts, and you might not ever see these things either. It’s not a lot, and it won’t make the game any lesser. In fact, most of our ideas and announced features have proven to be sound, well performing features, and the ones who haven’t been was better off left out.

That is not to say that everything stays the same as it was originally intended, seldom anything do, it only means that we have found that the vision was working as intended, and gone with that. This means that Age of Conan keeps on having a feature list which is groundbreaking for the launch of any MMO. I mean, the siege PvP is still in (and you will have an awesome time with it as you come to the end-game), mounted combat is still in (and it works, he he, I know some didn't believe we could pull that one of ;p), our great hands-on combat system is still in, PvP progression is still in, our raid dungeons are still in, player-made cities are still in (and they will still be in the resource and building regions) tradeskills are still in, thousands of items and great rewards are still in, all of our dungeons are still in (and they look and play great), all of our cities are still in, Conan is still in the game, Tarantia noble district is still there, our destiny quests are still there, our thousands of general quests are still there, our amazing landscapes are still there (and working great with the updated engine;), our 7.1 audio technology is still in (and what an audio landscape!), the dynamic camps are still there, the AI is still there, the hundreds of emotes are still there (yes, you can sit of course – even on chairs – just wait and see ;p), the ability to solo to level 80 is still in (but it won't be trivial), the feat tree is still in (and getting better all the time!), great solo game play in the beginning is thriving, you can behead, dismember, gut and gawk at the sexiest females in the MMO universe…

...phew.

When we gave you our feature list it was not an empty marketing promise to merely grab your attention, but our serious effort of telling you what we were trying to accomplish. We told you about our vision for the game. The vision has not changed at all! The true Conan experience awaits.

So what about the open beta then, when can you get to play? We will continue to invite more and more people to our general beta and our tech events all the way up to the end of April. If that number goes up to 35000 I wouldn't be very surprised at all, perhaps even more. With these numbers we are able to test all we need to test – and to control the logistics of a simultaneous US and European launch in 4 languages! And then in May, well, we will soon tell you ;p!

So what about the times ahead then? In one of the first postings I did several years ago I talked about what I think we have a proud tradition of doing in Funcom – have a dialogue with our players. We ask, you tell - we listen, you ask, we tell - you listen. In the post launch road this is what we will have the highest focus on – dialogue. An MMO is a joint venture.

The first months will only be about instantly (or as fast as possible) deal with “issues”. After that, we shall have more foci: expansion packs, live content updates and working on an Xbox 360 version. Before launch I plan to commit on a roadmap for all content that we at that time want to add, change or investigate. I am not sure I will communicate this entire plan, but some of it will come as another statement, and will include loose dates with a solid order. I plan to make some of these features and areas actually come in the order as decided by a poll. We shall see what the future brings!

I have told the dev-team quite often – “I have never worked on a better team”. I can now say to you, “I have never worked on a game of which I have been more proud”. The other day the Combat and Control team and I visited a level 37ish “outdoor dungeon” called the “Sanctum of the Burning Souls”. It is a group instance. We were sweating through the dungeons barely managing to stay alive as the Guardian lost aggro because a Barbarian did too much dps or the Tempest of Set went out of mana and couldn’t keep his heals up - and I thought to myself: “I am playing a real, deep, fun and truly engaging MMO here, but with approaches and action like no other online game before!»

The great house of Hyboria has been erected, and we are now doing the final interior work. The red (blood stained;) carpet is ready to be rolled out . Soon!  And I just know you will love most all of what we have ready for you. I know this now.

 

Yours truly

Gaute

I stopped caring about this game.. As I feel it's going to tank like Vanguard did.

Unfortunately I know a bunch of people that are salivating over the game like it's the second coming.

I think a lot of people now, just don't put as much into a "Coming soon" game anymore. For various reasons.

Nice PR piece. 

This game is not anywhere near VG I don't think.

At least the reasoning mostly makes sense. I have to question the spell-weaving thing though. They have a feature where you can die if you screw up, someone screws up and dies, and that convinces them that it's a bad idea? What?

I think a lot of people now, just don't put as much into a "Coming soon" game anymore. For various reasons.

However, i am looking froward to checking this game out. And this blog article is a decent one, and i found it somewhat telling about the man who wrote it.

Forced formations worked fine in sb, they were only used instead of a /follow command though nobody would ever use them in combat.

The other day the Combat and Control team and I visited a level 37ish “outdoor dungeon” called the “Sanctum of the Burning Souls”. It is a group instance. We were sweating through the dungeons barely managing to stay alive as the Guardian lost aggro because a Barbarian did too much dps or the Tempest of Set went out of mana and couldn’t keep his heals up - and I thought to myself: “I am playing a real, deep, fun and truly engaging MMO here, but with approaches and action like no other online game before!»

That makes me not want to play the game at all.

That makes me not want to play the game at all.

Not sure how I missed that.  LOL?   I can't imagine any other MMO where tanks lose aggro to DPS and healers go /oom.

Then after a few more minutes of this barely staying alive we wipe. Then the Tempest of set says "L2P newbz" and uses what we call in AOC his "hearthstone" and we were without a healer - and I thought to myself: “I created a real, deep, fun and truly engaging MMO here, but with approaches and action like no other online game before!» would look real good on my resume when this game fails"

That makes me not want to play the game at all.

And then, Conan stepped in from the shadows and thrust his sword deep into the guts of the fake Cimmerian while throwing his knife right through the left eye of the Guardian. With one swift movement, Conan drew his sword from the dying Barbarian, who in death showed himself to be the pitiful scoundrel he had sought not to be in life. The leader of the Burning Souls had been momentarily dazed by Conan's entrance, but now charged Conan. Dodging the his blows from up, Conan aimed low at his ankle, slicing it right off, falling him down on his knees. Using a dexterity only a true Barbarian possesses, Conan sprang and jumped high at the Diamond of Souls embedded in the head of statue of their animal god, using the back of the leader of the Burning Souls as a stepping stone. With the diamond in hand, Conan was already leaving, when the Tempest of Set called. "What about me", she inquired. "You should choose your companions more carefully, for these murderous villains would have surely killed you, or worse", replied Conan. "Luckily for you, I am only going to steal a kiss."

Right?


RIGHT???

Not sure how I missed that.  LOL?   I can't imagine any other MMO where tanks lose aggro to DPS and healers go /oom.

Or maybe that it was a fun experience where shit hit the fan and the came through in the end with a win and it was memorable because he was playing with his friends?

however, I think the core issue is around "but with approaches and action like no other online game before".

AO had the aggresive/defensive slider. Which everyone set to max aggresive full def and forgot about.  :grin:

FIFY

I thought the first thing everyone did in AO is rebuild their newly formatted HDD.

lolwut? First thing I do with new chars (when I played AO) was set full agg.

I thought the first thing everyone did in AO is rebuild their newly formatted HDD.

If you're a member of one of the eight or nine best guilds on the server, your city is entered into PvP eligibility, which means others can attack, break apart structures, and if they manage to smash your keep, can take over. After a keep is destroyed, there should be enough resources lying around so the conquerors can at least build a keep of their own, so they don't have to wander around scouring for resources to merely claim ownership.

GDC08 Presentation (http://trailer.onlinewelten.com/videos,id3264,age_conan_praesentation.html) - Rather lengthy presentation showing plenty of gameplay, including a short dungeon crawl, some mounted combat, city-building and battlekeeps.

GDC08 Presentation (http://trailer.onlinewelten.com/videos,id3264,age_conan_praesentation.html)

http://forums.ageofconan.com/showthread.php?t=58241

Kinda lame, but go pray or something.

Strength: Gives you a damage bonus for melee attacks and also increases the attack rating for certain weapons.
Dexterity: Gives you a bonus to your defense rating and increases the attack rating for certain weapons.
Constitution: Determines the amount of health and stamina your character has.
Intelligence: Determines the amount of mana your character has, and increases magic rating for mages.
Wisdom: Determines the amount of mana your character has, and increases the magic rating for priests.

This game seems to similar to shadowbane its starting to worry me.


That could have been copy/pasted from the sb site as far as i can tell.  Yeah, yeah str makes you hit harder and int gives you mana works for every game, but the wording is damn near the same.  Attack rating vs defense rating, health and stamina, etc, it all sounds very shadowbanish.

Bleh ive played pretty much everything under the sun, including dnd long before i got online not to mention practically every single mmo and the first thing i thought when i read that was "that sounds exactly like sb". 

WHY DOES HE HAVE TO SAY "UHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH" SO FUCKING MUCH!? :ye_gods:

Minimum Specifications:

OS: Windows Vista/XP
Processor: 3GHz Pentium IV
RAM: 1GB RAM
Video Card: Shader Model 2.0 and 128MB RAM: NVIDIA GeForce 5800 or ATI 9800

Recommended Specifications:

Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4 GHz (E6600) or better
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce 7950GX2 or better
RAM: 2GB or more

AOC system requirements:

Yeah, those system requirements probably just shitcanned any chance I had at playing AOC this year. Even if I could, it would probably look like refried monkey ass.

The lessons of Vanguard are apparently really hard to learn.

Minimum Specifications:

OS: Windows Vista/XP
Processor: 3GHz Pentium IV
RAM: 1GB RAM
Video Card: Shader Model 2.0 and 128MB RAM: NVIDIA GeForce 5800 or ATI 9800

Minimum Specifications:

OS: Windows Vista/XP
Processor: 3GHz Pentium IV
RAM: 1GB RAM
Video Card: Shader Model 2.0 and 128MB RAM: NVIDIA GeForce 5800 or ATI 9800

Those don't seem unreasonable for anyone that plays PC games regularly.  Especially for a game that isn't likely to be released for another 6+ months.

Those don't seem unreasonable for anyone that plays PC games regularly.  Especially for a game that isn't likely to be released for another 6+ months.

Those specs are roughly what I had in a computer 5 years ago (except the graphics card, kind of expected though). They're completely fair and there's no reason it wouldn't run on a 360.

Edit: The only "issue" is the 35GB install.

Guys.

There's no cancel button on this install.

What happens if I didn't have 70GB free?

Get a second hard drive and plug it in before your HD fills up!

:ye_gods: you're not joking are you?
Are we staring at a 4 DVD release? This is dwarving Vanguard's famed 20 GB install size.

Correction. Download was 35GB. Install was like 24.5 or something after the patch.

A bunch of people were just put into the general beta now that the tech beta is over.

I may have been one of those people.

So much for those "Similar to Oblivion" system requirements. Their minimum is Oblivion's recommended.

I hate to say it, but those steep requirements may have just insured that AoC bombs.

Seriously, to the people crying about the minimal specs......get a fuckin job.

Those specs are roughly what I had in a computer 5 years ago (except the graphics card, kind of expected though). They're completely fair and there's no reason it wouldn't run on a 360.

Recommended Specifications

Windows® System 2000/XP OS:
Intel Pentium® IV 1.5 GHz or AMD XP 1500+ MHz
1024 MB RAM
64 MB 3D graphics card with Hardware Transform and Lighting, such as NVIDIA® GeForce™ FX 5700 class card or above

It's dual core 2.13 GHz, 2 gb ram, wih 7600GT card. Meaning yup, it doesn't quite meet their "you might actually play rather than just get frustrated" specs.

My wife is in the beta (wait.. I am not married) and what I saw over her shoulder says Vanguard and Conan should never appear in the same sentence, post, thread, forum, internet.

Pure speculation? My guess is that rig will do fine at low-mid settings.

Don't be silly. Vanguard redefined the word "trainwreck". Conan won't tank.

Don't be silly. Vanguard redefined the word "trainwreck". Conan won't tank.

the assembly of the technologies used is more solid?

I'm just scratching my head at why a lot of developers aim at the medieval setting market, when there's a huge void in the sci-fi MMO setting where ppl are made to suffer SWG. The devs instead prefer to dive into the pool of Zerg that is WoW and hope they can somehow gain a chunk of the swarm that is 'tired of WoW but not tired of medieval orcs and elves'

Fuck, even Warhammer too. Wtf? You have space marines and orks but thinks you can get better chunk of the pie by putting a more RvR-centric WoW?

I enjoy Sci Fi worlds a lot now, but I enjoy them for what they are - Crafted places of varying degrees of quality and fun - They don’t have the same kind of difficult-to-define resonance that Fantasy does.  They take effort to get “lost” in.

My current system was built roughly year ago, and used mid-to-lower end of spectrum components available back then since i'm too old to bother and spend shitload of money to play the hardware race for 2-3 interesting games released per year. It's dual core 2.13 GHz, 2 gb ram, wih 7600GT card. Meaning yup, it doesn't quite meet their "you might actually play rather than just get frustrated" specs.

Doesn't that setup beat the crap out of AoC's minimum setup?

I built a AMD core duo platform last year with 2 gigs and a 7950 512MB card last year, monitor and all, for 1200.  That was 1 year ago.  I'm pretty sure you could knock off another 200 from that, and even more if you have a monitor already.

I think the main appeal of fantasy is that you can have tons of items, monsters, magic, etc, and just generally make shit up to your heart's content. If you want an enemy that has the body of a dog and the head of a dolphin you just do it.

In sci-fi you can have - humans with guns. Lots and lots of different kinds of guns...

I think the main appeal of science fiction is that you can have tons of items, monsters, psionics, etc, and just generally make shit up to your heart's content. If you want an enemy that has the body of a dog and the head of a dolphin you just do it.

In fantasy you can have - different sized humans with swords. Lots and lots of different kinds of swords...

There's much more freedom in fantasy because of the existence of magic. Yes, Star Wars had some weird aliens and such but mostly it was guys with guns.

It certainly isn't hard or military or speculative sci-fi, and "The Force" is obviously magic. But even if you accept it as sci-fi 99% of the guys in Star Wars are humans in armor with guns.

Forget Star Wars.  I knew it was a bad example about 15 seconds after I posted it because some dork was going to pull the old, "It's actually fantasy in a future setting."  Whatever that means.

The point was that the realm of Sci Fi is as equally unbounded as the realm of Fantasy.  Actually, I think Fantasy is more bound by convention than Sci-Fi is, to the point where it is much more limited a genre for story telling purposes.

Science Fiction has a tone realism that Stars Wars lacks.

Science Fiction has a tone realism that Stars Wars lacks.

Ok. Example:

There is a floating city, the questions is, "How is it floating".

medieval-fantasy, and high-fantasy would explain it as "Magic".

science-fantasy would explain it as an engine (science) powered by bottled dragons breath (magic).

science-fiction would explain it as an engine, powered by a solid fuel source, or other (Dilithium crystals and antimatter creating force) that is simply 1k times more effective than what we currently have.

Only Star Trek technobabble has to explain it like this.

A good writer knows it is not necessary to say how it works regardless of the genre, and is often counterproductive.  In Laputa and Battle Angel Alita (first examples that popped into my head), the floating cities are never explained beyond being giant floating cities.  It's just the way it is and the why of it is not important.

Don't confuse specific occurances of how things were done with how entire genres need to be written.  (Even my fantasy race example was mocking this.  A good fantasy can have fantastic races, too.  Or only one race.)

Rod Serling said that "science fiction makes the implausible possible, while science fantasy makes the impossible plausible."

Wouldn't that be because Star Wars is space opera and so focuses more on larger than life characters and drama rather than the tech bits..?

What the author chooses to focus on is what the genre is.  BSG has both of those things, but its always within a realistic treatment of an imaginary world.

But when you looked at one of those city's, the mechanisms was apparent your brain accepted them, and they fell into one of the examples, and was acceptable for the genre it was in.

On the converse, the Conan game will have ubiquitous magic even though my impression of the source material is that it is a pretty low magic world. 

This current derail is even more demented than most on f13.  This is the CONAN thread.

@Murgos - Si-Fi = Science Fiction (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_fiction). Science-fiction isn't the same as science-fantasy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science-fantasy), your castle would fall under that category. Yes, i follow some of the more literal definitions, but i have to.

Science fiction (abbreviated SF or sci-fi with varying punctuation and case) is a broad genre of fiction that often involves speculations based on current or future science or technology.

Science fantasy is a mixed genre of story which contains some science fiction and some fantasy elements. Science fantasy is therefore even more elusive of definition

That is the most annoying website, just censor the thing to death so I can actually get to something rather than inputting my age constantly.

Is it me, but after watching that video, I still don't see this *active combat system*?

How come?
There is NO autoattack. You have to swing your weapon, every single time and in different directions. They say it clearly in the video.
Does everything with something resembling a hotbar reeks of WoW to you?

When did autoattack go from a desired feature (Diablo-click-click-click) to a liability?

If you're "moving around alot" in DDO to fight you're a fucking idiot.  DDO's combat system is either spamming clicks while tripping,  or you took the awful "I can strafe and attack!" feats that totally gimped your character.  Also, DDO has autoattack, it works alot better than sitting there spamming clicks.

From what I've heard, this combat system is NOTHING like WoW, or any other MMORPG really.

Huh?  If you think getting spring attack is gimping your character.. well.. I'm not even gonna go there.  I don't tend to stand in one spot and let spells get spammed on me, or I move position to always be behind or flank. 

Yes, there is an auto attack.. and it also attacks slower then actually clicking to attack..

Maybe you should learn the game a bit more before calling me a *fucking idiot* lol.  If you are standing in one spot using auto attack and hitting your one special attack, then you are better off playing some other mmo's.

The Diablo comment deserved to be ignored as I mentioned different attack directions but Ratman chose the smarty way regardless. I got distracted by its lack of a point.

Lol @ avoiding spells in DDO.  Sorry dude, but thats a load of shit, DDO melee combat is clickspam and spamming trip.  You can't effectively flank or get behind NPC's unless you're not tanking, and good fucking luck avoiding anything except at point blank.

Umm been playing since beta.. have 1 capped cleric, 1 battle cleric at 14, 1 wizzy at cap, 1 sorc at cap, 1 fighter at cap, 1 ranger at cap, 1 rogue at cap. 

The only casting dynamic to get shitcanned was the hell consequence of being overambitious with your casting because it just lead to un-fun downtimes in groups while the caster had to fight their way out of hell.

Heh. That sounds fun. I really think people need to lose the concept of having to stay constantly busy on the go and grindy in MMO's. What ever happened to real risks for your choices and socialization? Spending time chatting with people and getting to know them better?

Outside of everyone's guild how many people do you really know in  <insert your current mmo name here>?

Does anyone actually use their MMO to relax anymore?

It's called MySpace.  It's all pink and fuzzy.  Have fun.

Heh. That sounds fun. I really think people need to lose the concept of having to stay constantly busy on the go and grindy in MMO's. What ever happened to real risks for your choices and socialization? Spending time chatting with people and getting to know them better?

Outside of everyone's guild how many people do you really know in  <insert your current mmo name here>?

Does anyone actually use their MMO to relax anymore?

Does anyone actually use their MMO to relax anymore?

I think trying to do any sort of harder sci-fi as a MMORPG would be difficult, especially a traditional character-centric DIKU one. That PS3 game "The Agency" is going to have the same problem, how many different types of guns can you have as items?

They could always do what they did with AO, and make a shit ton of useless guns.

I wasn't suggesting that people become total slack asses. I was mearly pointing out what i think is a worsening trend in MMOs. Also i was asking questions in which i was intersted in discussing. You didn't need to go overboard and throw poo at me. :uhrr:




 :roll:

Sure.

There's good and bad wayy to encourage socialisation in mmog.

The good ways include :
- Mini-game (WoW card game)
- Elaborate pointless but fun feature (music instrument in Asheron's Call 2, dancer profession in SWG)

The bad ways are mainly when the socialisation is forced to your throat :
- Having to watch a Wookie dance to regenerate an obscure meter
- Having to tolerate a bad/stupid/annoying healer because you can't do shit with out him
- And yes, having to wait for your mage to come out of hell by doing a lame and repetitive punitive quest

None of that is really social interaction.

None of that is really social interaction.

Wuh? Having been in bands in both SWG and LoTRO, I beg to differ.

You obviously weren't a dancer in SWG's beginning and didn't partake in some of the music groups in AC2.   They were very social bits during the time I played with both.

What ruined the social bit of SWG was the holocron grind.  All of the sudden folks who had no interest in being a dancer were forced to be master_dancer.  Better to just afk macro and walk away, they thought.  It fucking killed it for the small group of us dedicated to Theed & Corellia's scene on Scyllia.

Outside of everyone's guild how many people do you really know in  <insert your current mmo name here>?

Yea, I need experience bars to chat with other people too.

They, themselves, were not. Most social interaction was happening in spite of, or during the time those mechanics were required, or in someones other words, "forced".

- Elaborate pointless but fun feature (music instrument in Asheron's Call 2, dancer profession in SWG)

oh man,i cant get over this...

IS THIS GAME UBER OR NOT!? WTF... !!!! :pedobear:

oh man,i cant get over this...

IS THIS GAME UBER OR NOT!? WTF... !!!! :pedobear:

Apparently, it is.

http://www.techchill.com/2008/03/24/age-of-conan-tops-sales-charts-despite-being-unreleased/

Well it has CGI boobies, and now we know how many people love those.   :awesome_for_real: