Rumor: Age of Conan in bad shape
by Michael Zenke 
Feb 5th 2008 at 5:00PM
Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, Age of Conan, Bugs, Classes, New titles, Patches, Opinion, Rumors
A poster to the boards at IGN has let loose with a lengthy list of problems in the current Beta build of Age of Conan. The beta, as he describes it, sounds like it's in pretty bad shape. Missing elements include:
- PvP, including the much-vaunted border skirmishes.
- The option to play as a female character.
- Most of the zones; estimate for launch was at one point 35 and in the Beta they apparently have only 14 half-finished areas.
- Most spells/abilities.
- Any sort of working economy.
This is, of course, a rumor as of right now. This is either a beta tester breaking the NDA (and thus is already not to be trusted), or someone out-and-out lying. It's still enough to give you pause. Given the unexpected death of Gods and Heroes last year, the possibility that there are so many problems with the game so close to launch ... We'll attempt to get a comment from the folks at Funcom as soon as possible.
[Via Common Sense Gamer]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
bobby boy said on 5:22PM 2-05-2008
ummm this is by far the worse news item ive ever seen on this site.....i mean really.....a random post on the IGN boards is news these days?
ummm wow....
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armedbushido said on 6:53PM 2-05-2008
Well I just do not take anyone posting a forum seriously!
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TwistedBishop said on 5:42PM 2-05-2008
Most of the potential news "leaks" aren't even news. We've known that female characters aren't in the beta yet, that 2 classes got removed, that Prestige classes are gone.
This seems more like some kid whining that he's not getting a perfectly finished game for free. Which is about the problem with 90% of people in betas.
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luchifer said on 5:42PM 2-05-2008
I heard that theres a random poster on IGN forums saying that the world is ending in 2010. You guys should inform that too. Pick a title like : Rumor, the world is ending.
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Hot Soup said on 5:43PM 2-05-2008
I think this game will do exactly what Horizons did to me 5 years ago. Promise an amazing alternative to the EQ's and WoW's out there, and then fall horribly short in scope during development.
I'm sticking with City of Heroes and EQ2 for now.
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Max said on 5:58PM 2-05-2008
I have to agree with other commenteers ... this is pretty pathetic by way of "news." Are you guys secretly owned by SOE or something?
And while I'm at it ...
1. No Beta has ever had an economy that reflects launch-era mathematics, so that should have been your first tip that this guy was an ignorant fuck who simply wanted to run his mouth (much like myself, I admit).
2. Simply because he broke his NDA does not make him untrustworthy. It simply means he doesn't take seriously a corporate entity's standing within the law. Lots of people are guilty of the same thing, and I'd still trust them to tell me if the sky was blue or not.
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Max said on 6:00PM 2-05-2008
And that graphic ... I mean, I know you guys are basically playing word-association with Google Images to keep up with the demands of your 24/7 publication schedule, but Jeez Louise is that a stretch!
I kid because I love.
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Axus said on 6:27PM 2-05-2008
This website has gone to ridiculous levels for news items, a non professionals forum post on ign does not classify it as newsworthy. The fact that you are scrounging for every little small piece of information, be it reliable or not makes me not want to get news from the site, I would rather you have much less news then crappy, unprofessional news leaks. Removing this website from my bookmarks.
Goodbye.
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Brinstar said on 6:39PM 2-05-2008
From what I know about Age of Conan and the Conan world, I'd disappointed but would be hardly surprised if they didn't allow players to have female characters. That's one of the more eyebrow-raising claims in this rumour.
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Max said on 11:19PM 2-05-2008
In several dev videos they have stated that the reason you cannot play girls in beta is that they are still working on animations for the girls and didn't see any need to rush just to have it in early since they play exactly like male characters.
I believe they cited a figure near 3,000 when talking about the number of animations per gender.
TwistedBishop said on 7:13PM 2-05-2008
They're definitely allowing players to play female characters. It isn't implemented in the beta yet, but according to the Q&A panel in January it's already available to GMs.
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Moopcow said on 9:27PM 2-05-2008
These claims seem to add up, honestly. But don't ya'll discourage the spreading of items that are under NDA? Or maybe I have that backwards, confused with your policy on covering anything that requires you to sign a disclosure agreement, or something... How you run your business is up to you though :)
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Moderndaydruid said on 9:43PM 2-05-2008
Hey Massively why give this jack ass any recognition and link to his post? I expect more from my fave daily MMO news source. Disappointed.
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Ghen said on 10:24PM 2-05-2008
I love the occasional bad apple blog post, the comments almost make it worth it to make it a secret routine ;)
oh wait, conspiracy?
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Basil said on 12:08AM 2-06-2008
Did anyone bother to read the actual post that he linked to?
Whoever posted the beta information might be 90% full of shit, but his breakdowns and his descriptions don't sound it. Sounds like a pretty good first hand experience of the game from the perspective of an average gamer. Sure hes blown alot of it up and made big deals out of stuff that is already on its way to being implemented or fixed (like the graphics, or the female toons, etc.) but I think its great to see both the good and bad of a game's progress and thats all Micheal is doing here.
We come here for information on games we are excited about. One players bitchfest about a beta is to be taken with a grain of sand, but I definetly love reading about it. It's a post I wouldnt have found myself, they found it for me, I read it, I enjoyed. Sounds like Massively did it's job.
: )
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Mr.Pickles said on 4:41AM 2-06-2008
Two different threads were started on the Official AoC forums about this article, and both were quickly deleted with mods complaining that "no commenting on rumors" or "Beta leak from NDA, don't do it".
Honestly, though, I've seen several "breaches" like this one with the same concerns coming from the testers. There's only a few things that can come from this question wise:
-Have they put Chettah2 into the beta yet?
-How old, month wise, is the beta's current model vs. the one they're working on in-house?
Anyways, since this website doesn't give two hoots about NDA/Beta leaks, can we atleast go by something more "visually confirmational":
http://www.stage6.com/user/meelkfax/video/2191705/Age-Of-Conan-AoC---Dual-Wielding-in-Wild-Lands
http://www.stage6.com/user/meelkfox/video/2138830/Age-Of-Conan---Conall's-Valley-Exploration-1-of-2
http://www.stage6.com/user/meelkfox/video/2138962/Age-Of-Conan---Conall's-Valley-Exploration-2-of-2
And these videos can give the real truth to the game. Take them how you want them.
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Znith said on 7:53AM 2-06-2008
Honestly if anyone has ever tested Funcom's AO back in the day then they will understand the situation. AO was a complete mess, beta and release wise. I tested for months and gave uncounted feedback and bug reports along with many others, however the game was released with a ridiculous amount of problems, bugs and massive lag. I expect the same thing with this game. Maybe after a year or so things will straighten out as they did with AO.
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TwistedBishop said on 11:49AM 2-06-2008
The converse of such logic is that FunCom is very familiar with the consequences of a poor launch, and that they are doing everything they can to avoid AO's failings. This includes: making huge changes to the game based on beta tester feedback; delaying and delaying again to work out bugs; providing lots of information to the community and press and listening to their reactions; and preparing themselves for the realities of launch day crunch.
This is not the case we see with most MMOs, where they're rushed out the door regardless of complaints because the developers can't afford to wait any longer. FunCom has a very large amount of financial backing on Age of Conan, and they have the luxury of being both the developer AND publisher (with Eidos just distributing). They're taking the time to make sure it gets done right.
Having experience launching AO, even if it went poorly, should only make Age of Conan less likely to avoid such a fate. We certainly saw that with Turbine. DDO was a huge mess of an MMO at launch, then LotRO comes out and it's one of the smoothest and most successful launches in the history of the genre.
Koolaider said on 7:43PM 2-06-2008
How badly were you hurting for a story, Michael Zenke? This is not something I would expect to see from a credible MMO website.
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Rocqu said on 8:45PM 2-06-2008
TenTonHammer would at least try to get a development comment to add to this before attempting to post this trash. You guys need to re-evaluate where and how you do your news.
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