The Age of Conan Game Director sent out a new etter recently discussing the upcoming changes to the game.  One thing that stuck out is their "level 50" plan; basically once you hit the level 50 milestone in Age of Conan with one character you are allowed to instantly create another level 50 character of any class on that same account.  This is a quick way to get a comparable level character from another class to experience the game from a different perspective I...

Check out GGL's new Age of Conan contest.  You will basically be putting your face onto an Age of Conan character model.  Creepy but cool.  Prizes aren't that amazing and are all AOC specific but I commend Funcom and GGL for thinking outside of the box and coming up with something this off beat.

Below is the contest details as posted by GGL. You can view the original article here.

"Welcome to the Big Stage Crown Yourself King Conan Contest, where you...

The folks over at Massively had this new article:

The folks over at eurogamers managed to hold down Age of Conan Game Director Craig Morrison long enough for an interview.  The interview goes into the state of the game, its challenges, upcoming changes, and the general health of their AOC community in general.You can read the original article here or...

Mark Jacobs, VP over at Mythic in charge of the Warhammer Team confirmed that there would indeed be layoffs in the near future but assures us that the game will go on and development will continue.  You can read the post in his consolidated Layoff rumor thread over at the official Warhammer Online forums but for ease of reference I have copied it...

Mythic recently released a Herald Article showing "proof" that balance between the opposing factions was now basically "fixed".   The first thing that sticks out from their post is that they bucket all servers together by US and Monolith servers, so basically two buckets.  At that level things do look relatively balanced, but the concern has always been that specific servers are way out of balance.This rather positive post is misleading because the...

Now that Age of Conan’s Bloodspire and Hyperborea servers were successfully merged, it’s time to get down to the rest of the merges! Here’s the scoop from Funcom:

Firstly, we present you the list of the planned servers to be merged (see below). We will proceed with merging next week and the specific date and time as well as the expected downtime will be announced soon too. As a general information we can already say that the plan is to merge all EU...

Life Day has come and gone yet again in the online world of Star Wars Galaxies.  Well almost gone that is, the event will be done this Monday (January 12th, 2009).  Official text from the SOE post below:

"Life Day ends on Monday, January 12, 2009, so be sure to get your last minute gift stomping and tree decorating done! The Rebel and Imperial organizers will be leaving the cities, so don't miss your chance to get that gift you've had your eye on....

The dev team posted their latest news regarding sieges in Warhammer Online and the known lag problems when participating in this type of gameplay.  The news is that they have implemented a solution for the lag....  I like to call it simply "Begone wimp!"  Basically as the population in these besieged cities becomes higher the game begins to forcibly teleport players away from the area based on their level.  Basically if you aren't level 40 then you will be...

The Age of Conan MMO server mergers have Begun!! To accomplish this the US servers will be down starting around 7:00 a.m. EST on January 7th (or 12 p.m. GMT) for about six hours so that the Bloodspire and Hyperborea servers can be merged. If past server related patches are any indication, 6 hours may be too short of an estimate for such a task as this merger though.

While this was Originally planned for early December 2008, bugs with the migration/merging process were found that...

Mythic has gone ahead and joined the multitude of MMO's out there that have some type of in game holiday event. Whether it be the Everquest I & II Frostfell, SWG Life Day, or whatever Christmas themed activity, Mythic is in on the holiday cheer now.  Their first event is called Keg End, what amounts to a drunken party of pummeling snotlings and ogres in search of bigger and better brew. Toss in a bit of explosives and you are pretty much ready to get in on this event.  Here...

Glen Swan released their followup update on the upcoming server merge. This time the update is basically an FAQ of all the questions that are being asked regarding how te merge will happen and in what ways will it affect guilds, character names, battle keeps and cities.  Read carefully friends or suffer the consequences for not being prepared for the mass migration.

"
Q:  Will all servers be merged at the same time?

A:  No. We will do this over a certain...

"As announced a few weeks ago, we will merge the Age of Conan servers before the Christmas Holidays. Today we want to give you some detailed information...

We all know that Age of Conan under delivered on their PVP promises.  PVP Rankings and consequences in particular were missing. And of course the drunken brawling which promised a bit of humor and a break from the norm in the game world.  While regrettably I cannot say that you can now jump in game and drunkenly pummel your friends, I can say that recent patches have gone a long way to making the PVP aspect of the game much more interesting and inline with what original...

An update on the new classes from EA:

"You may have already noticed that we have opened up the last 7 events for the Heavy Metal Event so you can take part in them all, at your leisure, over the extended Thanksgiving Holiday.  We want everyone to have a chance to unlock the Black Guard and Knight of the Blazing Sun. You can now finish the event and redeem the Heavy Metal Chest from a Herald.  When you redeem the chest, it is important that you open (right...

Folks,


   Over the last few months I’ve spoken about our continued focus on improving our open RvR systems.  While we have taken some major steps in the last month, we believe that there is much more we can do to encourage people to take part in oRvR throughout the entire evolution of their character(s).  Over the next few months we have some very exciting changes and additions taking place.  Please note that as always, this does not represent...

Across the Old World and on the island home of the High Elves, bitter enemies clash in bloody skirmishes and mighty battles. For the soldiers of Order and Destruction, there is no respite and no mercy. Now, the warring factions will gain new allies in the form of the fearsome Black Guard and the cunning Knight of the Blazing Sun. These heavily-armored soldiers race to the battlefront to anchor their...

"Folks,

   When we launched our Public Test Server last week our goal was to create a place where we could test and iterate on ideas/initiatives/bugs with our subscribers in a non-LIVE environment.  Our plan was that no patch would make it through the PTS until we were sure that it was tested thoroughly and properly.  Patch 1.0.5 (Combat and Careers) is a perfect example of how this system is supposed to work. Thanks to the data and feedback we’ve...

...

It had to happen sooner or later folks.  Now that the big game companies have ensured that virtual pixel items and characters are considered actual "property", the inevitable court case had to come up where someone was charged for stealing someone elses in game junk.  This particular case happened in Amsterdam. 

This is the news release on it.

Amsterdam - A Dutch court has convicted two youths of theft for stealing virtual items in...

Well we all know by now that there will be two careers introduced into the game in December.  This was talked about in Mark Jacobs State of the Game post recently.  There will be much fanfaire and hooplah for the debut of these two careers, The Black Guard (Dark Elves) and the Knight of the Blazing Sun (Empire).  Some in game event and background story to introduce them into the realm.. woohoo!  Flavor of the month alert :)

The real question is how many of you know...

Folks,

After over three years of work and one of the smoothest launches in MMORPG history, WAR is moving quickly towards the end of its first month.  This is a perfect time to take a look at where we were, where we are and where we are going.  First, on behalf of everyone at Mythic, I would like to thank you for your interest in our game.  While it is impossible for me to personally thank all 750K+ worldwide account holders, please know that we are grateful for your...

750,000Players Join the Waaagh! in Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning

The Armies of WAR Continue to Grow as New Recruits Join the Battle in Support of Order or Destruction

FAIRFAX, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Mythic Entertainment, an Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ:ERTS) studio, today announced that 750,000 players have registered for the critically acclaimed fantasy MMORPG, Warhammer® Online:...

Hail fellow Hyborians!

First I want to let you guys and gals know who I am. I have in recent months taken over the crafting system here at Funcom. Rest assured I do read the crafting forums. And believe me when I say individual suggestions are noted, and we are working hard to accommodate them where appropriate. Obviously, some concerns are easy to address, while others tie back to known underlying issues. It's always a balance between spending resources on a quick-fix...

Today we received notice that Dagoth guild 'Ascendant' had completed the construction of their tier 3 city! Ascendant had this to say:

CONGRATULATIONS ASCENDANT!!!

In a mere 4 months, through a phenominal display of teamwork and dedication, at 9:30 on October 2, 2008 Ascendant constructed our Tier 3 Architect Workshop, completing our WORLD FIRST TIER 3...

The new Game Director for Age of Conan did a bit of posting on the official forums and had some interesting information to share, not the least of which was the fact that server merges are coming.  Here is what was said:

"Today I wanted to take the opportunity to go over some of the updates, changes and developments you will see in the game over the coming weeks and months. Hopefully this will give you a little insight into what order things are being addressed in and what...

Warhammer has made the news over at MSNBC.  Check out the link below to see the post launch video talking up the game and the experience.  So far so good for EA's new feature product it seems.

See video here

500,000 New Player Accounts Created for Mythic Entertainment's New Fantasy MMORPG

FAIRFAX, Va. - September 26, 2008 - The Armies have assembled and the Worldwide WAAAGH! is Underway! Mythic Entertainment, an Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS) studio, today announced that in the first week since launch over 500,000 new players have registered for fantasy MMORPG, Warhammer® Online: Age of Reckoning™ (WAR), in North America, Europe and the Oceanic territories. EA's...

Funcom releases their latest edition of the Hyborian Insider, #4.  In this edition they discuss upcoming content as well as reviewing the upcoming DirectX 10 features that Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures will soon be having.  The DirectX 10 changes in particular will make the game look considerably different if your system can actually manage to have all of the bells and whistles turned on high enough to appreciate them... the underwater example they showed looked like something...

Funcom announced a changing of the guard yesterday.  Apparently the former Game Director for Age of Conan resigned amidst rumors of his disappointment in how Age of Conan turned out.  How does this impace the game's future?  Read the press release below and you decide, maybe a new face in charge might be what the game needed.  Then again.....

Durham, USA – September 17, 2008 – Funcom announce that Craig Morrison has been appointed as the new Producer...

Greetings!

While we've provided this information in the past we wanted to be clear on how and when you will receive your Collectors Edition rewards on the characters you create during head start.

In order to receive the in-game items from your Collectors Edition you must have a valid CE Product Key entered (The one that comes with the box) this means you will not be able to use the items and faces during Head Start, however, you can use them on the character you...

WAAAGH!!!!

What an awesome week it's been!

Not only has the feedback been terrific but with your help we've been able to get the game in great shape for launch.

Beta started over a year ago and it's truly amazing to see how far things have come, the community has grown and game just continued to improve more and more.

This has been an awesome experience and we are proud to have shared it all with you. Celebrate this moment because for...

Mythic released a new video which shows you what it means to be serving the forces of destruction.  nice PVP / RVR footage included there for your viewing pleasure.  Fun stuff!

A quick update from  Mythic for al you daytime players or guys playing hooky from work or school just to squeeze in some extra play time.  Bad news too I am afraid.

"At 8:00 AM EDT we will be bringing down all of the Open Beta servers for patching.  We anticipate the servers being back online by 10:30 AM EDT.  Stay tuned for updates and thank you for your patience.  We will get you back into the WAR as soon as possible."

Now far be it from me to be overly critical about the words coming out of someone's mouth, but this particular exec kinda lit a fire under my rump to say something.  It seems that with the announcement of Lord of the Rings Online's upcoming first real expansion, The Mines of Moria, the management decided to toss out some of their Public Relations / Marketing spin.

...

The infamous PvP patch which has been pushed back more times than anyone cares to think about.  The current date for this to go live in Age of Conan's live servers is September 10th.  While the patch is largely a fix to PvP and how it works or in some cases does not work right now, there are other aspects which are stirring considerable debate. 

The Gem Nerf is a sore spot for many players who spent considerable effort trying to acquire a great set of gems for the...

The great marketing folks over at EA have released a new full sized cinematic trailer for Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning.  If this doesn't entice you into wanting to play, I do not know what will folks.!

http://mythicmktg.fileburst.com/war/us/ ... ic_08.html

A great intro to the game and the concept...

I was sorting through my old game boxes earlier today, you know..tossing out the ones I'll never play again due to boredom level or overall suck factor.  I ran across one though that made ma pause.  I stared at it for a moment and the memories came flooding back.  Good memories, fun times shared with online friends.  Challenges that I faced alone or with others in this particular MMO.  A smile began to cross my face but then was suddenly halted as I began to...

In response to this weekends preview beta play that many players were able to partake of, EA released the following brief statement to say thanks and to let us all know the status of the servers post preview.

"We're going to be taking the servers down at 10:45 AM ET this morning to end the Preview Weekend. Thanks to everyone who participated! This weekend has been a huge success and it never would have been possible without the enthusiasm of everyone who got out there and...

The folks over at voodoo extreme got their hands on a bunch of screenshots of upcoming content for Age of Conan, content anticipated in the recently announced expansion slated for early 2009 if rumors are true.  I'd have to see the locations / zones personally to comment on them, having a ridiculously detailed play area that is so graphic intense that it grinds yoru system down to a chugging crawl isn't considered by many to be worth the extra...

Funcom attended the Games Convention in Leipzig Germany recently and unveiled their DirectX 10 move!  Although many expected Age of Conan to have been shipped with these DX10 features already present, the unexpectedly long wait is almost over. 

Now Age of Conan is arguably one of if not the best looking game graphically as it stands.  Could those development hours not have been better spent in fixing real game issues...

In anticipation of the upcoming Sep 18th release of EA's new MMO Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning, they have created a play online style game where players from all over can login to the site, create their character for this game and then compete with thousands of others to take over states and score points.  The highest ranked players are shown in a top 10 style board and EA has promised to give special rings in game to those players who score the highest in this Warhammer pass...

EA has an aggressive pre-order program in place to get all the MMO players out there on board their new MMO Train.  They are offering some nice benefits and little perks for pre-ordering as is typical but the game itself seems destined to sell just fine without the need for so many carrots to be used to lure us in.  In game items, early starts, and a battle deck.. Oo yay, yet another online card game.... oh for the simpler days of Magic the Gathering.

check out the official...

It is with a perverse sense of joy that I announce that the great wait for Demonologists is over... The Succubus Pets now have Nipples! Yes it's true folks, our previously mutant succubi with rounded blobs of flesh on their chest have been granted their true "womanly features" by having nipples magically formed on their bouncy fleshies! I know that many a demonologist in Age of Conan had been traumatized staring at their anatomically incorrect pets for a long time now so this...

Age of Conan Game Director Gaute Godager is back to tell us about the plans for the near future.

Greetings fellow players.

While it has been some time since I last gave you an update, I wanted to touch base and let you know what we are working on at the moment and where we are going in the times to come. I want this update to focus on what is actually happening to the game now, what we have done, and also some of...

Over the last few weeks it has remained the overall #1 PC game in most European markets, while also performing tremendously well on several all-format charts. In the US, Age of Conan impressively conquered the #1 PC spot for the first two weeks of available NPD data. Due to the amazing interest surrounding the game, more than 700.000 gamers have now signed...

The folks over at Massively had this new article:

"We've been quite taken aback by the responses many players direct at Funcom's Age of Conan. We're not sure if the accusations of the game being a "beta version" or just a "total POS" are the product of unrealistic expectations or are just general animosity towards a game that, at launch, lacks the polish of its biggest competitor. If you've got your ear to...

Greetings fellow Hyborians!  Funcom has announced the launch of Testlive!  This is basically their new testing server.  It is common in AO to pull testers from that server for private testing of soon to be released contentg, aka the beta volunteers!  Interest you at all?  Give the below article a read for more details!

"Greetings!

Today we are proud to announce the launch of our new Age of Conan Testlive Server. This server is open to everyone...

Greetings fellow Hyborians. Our resident Code Monkey, Jonaphin, has tossed together a search able zone list for Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures. You can use this tool by clicking on a preset level (1 - 5, 6 - 10, etc) range, area (Stygia, Aquilonia, etc.), or Zone Type (Dungeon, PVP, etc.)

Once you do this you get a resulting list of zones taht met your initial search criteria at which point you can then click on a specific zone. This will bring up a more detailed zone information...

So you want to know more about spellweaving in Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures, especially from a Demonologist's perspective do you? Well you are in luck my friend, I created a great guide that reviews in detail the intricacies of spellweaving in general as well as the specific aspects of it that a Demonologist would see. I hope you find the guide useful and benefit from it.

Introduction:
The spellweaving system in Age of Conan is one of the main reasons...

Yep, I took the bait. I saw one of their ads on a network site and was curious what the guides were about. As with most purchasable game related ebooks the description read well, something everyone would want to have. Now having been burned by ebooks in the past I was a bit bitter and overly critical of ebooks in general. A guild mate told me that this was actually a pretty good ebook so it got me thinking about it. I did want a more well rounded knowledge of the game beyond what the...

Greetings all.  Prepare for Funcom's latest invention.. Powerpoints.  Not sure quite how to classify this though... a quasi AA-veteran reward-PVP reward system that grants you points to trade in later for feats, xp, and items supposedly.  Sounds interesting in a twisted kind of way.  Read below for Funcom's full post.   

Original post ...

Mounts
The Killer Rhino and War Mammoth have received a minor increase to their trot and gallop speeds. The trot (default movement speed) should now be slightly faster than a jogging player, while the gallop should only be slightly slower than a sprinting player.
The Standard Horse has received a moderate increase to it's canter and gallop speeds. The canter (default movement speed) should now be equal to a sprinting player, while the gallop should be...

Lazareth has agreed to be our Herald of Xotli class leader for AOC Classes. He is an avid player and fell in love with his twisted two hand sword wielding demon loving character class from the first time he logged in on him I think. he has already written up some good first impressions style info about the class and will be working closely to get the spell and combo section for that class updated and as accurate as possible.

If you have any questions about the class, he is your...

Greetings fellow denizens of Hyborea. AoC Classes has finally gotten their Spells, Feats, and Combos tools live and fairly well populated. There are still gaps in the information and while we will strive to fill in the missing information over time, we would gladly accept any and all help that the community might give. If you see an item of data missing (mana cost, range, damage, etc) please take a moment and let us know via our contact...

Greetings fellow mages, it is with great relief that I advise you all that there are some interesting and much needed changes upcoming for the Necromancer and Demonologist classes.  Check out the below comments that were found over on the official Forums.

------------------------------

"Hello fellow Age of Conan players!

As was mentioned yesterday, I wanted to take the time to inform you all as to what we are currently working on in regard to the Demonologist...

First off, i am not a fan of the way mana regen works currently. In a group its not that bad because you have other people to take the heat for you allowing you to regen mana. However when soloing being completely incapable of regenerating any mana while being attacked combined with the fact that you are almost exclusively taking the hits has made for several deaths that could have been avoided with just 1 or 2 ticks of mana.

Now on to the class itself. I am fairly satisfied so...

The Dark Templar is very easy to level to about 20, you get some good combos, the destiny quest is pretty straight forward and you have alot of fun running your sword through people and cutting their heads off, when you get a blunt weapon you put the people on their knees and bash the back of their skull in, which looks very cool. The only down side I have had with the fatalities I pull is when I am fighting multiple mobs it pauses to do the fatality graphic which kinda throws you off with...

Are you playing Age of Conan: Hyborean Adventures?  Want to help give back to the community or simply showoff all your l33t knowledge?  Well then friend, listen up!  AoC Classes is looking for knowledgeable and friendly folks that want to be part of the community and become the defacto specialists on their specific classes. Sort of the unofficial Class Leaders.. ooo deja vu!

If you are willing to devote some time to helping out the community and being part of the AoC...

Greetings Hyborians once again It would seem that our friends over at Funcom have decided to grace those of us who were beta testers with a gift. I received this email earlier this morning so thought I'd toss it out there for community review. And for the record friends... I am not a THRUSTWORTHY participant!!!! Spell check much guys?

"Greetings!

You have been a long and thrustworthy participant in our community, and as such we would like to thank you for...

Greetings fellow fans of head lopping. It is with much stress and loss of sleep that we present you with our spell database. This has been a hectic feature put together for AoC Classes by our resident code monkey Jonaphin.

We are still compiling our Age of Conan Spell info and we would appreciate any spell updates or submissions that you may have. Please send them to info@aocclasses.com or simply send me a PM here.

The Spells Database can be found at the following...

Well fans of Hyboria, Age of Conan is now open to the public.  I hope that all the early starters burned what levels they could to get away from the crowds because here they come.  Mind you, a bit hard to get too far ahead if the servers are down half of the 3 day early start period.. well unless you exploit and reach level 80 on the first day (yes that did happen).

As I have said previously, I am quite pleased with the game so far although there are still a few minor bugs...

Greetings Fellow Hyborians new and old. The gates to Hyboria have finally been cracked open a bit allowing the first wave of people to sneak in before the masses awaiting outside. I pain particular attention to how the people rushed in, how the city of Tortage held up to this influx of new refugees and I am forced to say.. WOW (As in overly impressive, not to be confused with that other game out there).

Aside from starting a few hours later than initially anticipated, the process...

AoC Classes is proud to announce that Nindydar has volunteered and been accepted as the Necromancer Class Leader for our Age of Conan community site. He has been extremely helpful in the past working with the community with information regarding hunting locations as well as a knowledgeable and friendly member of these types of online communities. We expect to see some great information coming from him soon for the Necromancer Class!

Please join us in welcoming him to the crazy crew...

The folks over at Funcom posted today that they would be making the download client available but that there are a few delays in the payment and authorization process. We will receive emails giving us the url and instructions for downloading the client once the payment processes. They also warned us to NOT share the url since it will only make downloading it that much slower for us when non early start players download it prematurely.

You can read the full article over on the ...

Greetings all. As anxious as we all are to know what the official server names will be, it is sadly not yet finalized. One thing that is for sure though is what the servers will be named after.

They had even let us take part of helping to select the names over on the Official Age of Conan forums. They had a series of polls setup where were able to help decide!

Here is the list of related...

AoC Classes is looking for knowledgeable and friendly folks that want to be part of the community and become the defacto specialists on their specific classes. Sort of the unofficial Class Leaders.. ooo deja vu!

If you are willing to devote some time to helping out the community and being part of the AoC Classes team of weirdos, by all means send us a message and tell us a bit about yourself and what class you'd be interested in taking the reigns on.

Greetings all. I wrote up a review of my experience so far with Age of Conan and I posted it over on Destructoid . I am assuming that I do not need to tell you all what that site is, any gamer should know it by now I'd hope. Anyway folks, give it a read over and comment on it as you will.

...

Greetings fellow Hyborians. I come to speak of matters most interesting to our people. I am certain you have all heard the news that if you pre-order your Age of Conan game you will get receive bonus in game items, To put it lightly, there has been a slight bit of controversy over this matter due to how it is being done.

The official pre-order site that funcom has up has been updated to be less confusing but previously it implied that you would get to choose one of three items. ...

Associate Producer Morten Byom over at Funcom was forthcoming with some info on exactly what Siege PvP is about. While not enough detail was revealed in my opinion, it does give a general overview of what would go on with Siege PvP. It does appear at first glance to be something which would help unite guild members and enhance the fun factor of Age of Conan, if nothing else it would at least break any possible monotony from leveling up. You decide for yourself if this is your cup of tea....

Once Age of Conan goes live we will all obviously be paying monthly subscription fees for our entertainment. It has been a topic of debate for some time now as to how much exactly the different regions / countries will be paying for this "fun". Well the debates are over now since Funcom recently released the pricing structure. So take a peek and learn how much you will be dishing out for your AoC fix every month.

Original post can be found ...

Funcom has released their preliminary rule set for roleplay servers once they go live. As would be expected if basing it on previous games that have run RP servers, the "special" nature of these servers is little more than simply policing character names and discouraging OOC chatter in chat channels. We can always hope that they find another way to differentiate themselves with Roleplay PVP servers, but for now this is probably the extent of what will happen with...

With the start of the open beta, Funcom has lifted the restrictions on the US reporters so expect to see the flood of game related info start pouring in. Screenshots and actual insider game info will be available as it becomes available.

We have some interesting items to post so expect to see this place get active in a hurry.

~~ Crom

As I stare at the calendar I am shocked to see that there are only 7 more days before the barrage of open beta invites begin to go out and the Age of Conan worlds get much much busier.

Is the game ready? Will we have everything promised or will Funcom make the same mistake other MMO's have made in the recent patch and under deliver on their promised features. Time will tell but hopefully lessons have been learned from the errors of others and the launch will be flawless......