Funcom has released its financial results for Q3, and it's not pretty. Revenue was down 68.5% to 5.7 million USD, and expected to drop even more in Q4. This time last year they were reporting a profit of $3.3 million, a strong contrast to the current $9.6 million loss. They see a few reasons for this drop, including some stiff competition: "The Company ran a successful re-evaluation campaign during July, increasing the number of subscribers to the game. However, the launch of two major competing MMO-games during Q3 led to a subsequent reduction in subscriber levels."

Funcom remains optimistic, though, thanks to numerous upcoming projects. The Secret World is reported to be "progressing well", Age of Conan is planning a launch in Korea, the "Rise of the Godslayer" expansion for AoC is on its way, and Funcom recently received a grant to create an extreme sports MMO.

The full report can be viewed here.

Earlier this week, we asked for your Age of Conan questions, and you delivered. Although we only received seven usable questions (some were duplicates and two we combined), the answers given by Game Director Craig Morrison are candid and to-the-point. Funcom's steady push for new content and poised ear to the community shows that they're on board to keep AoC going strong for a long time.

Follow along after the jump for Craig's answers on changing Tortage, more PvP, opening the forums to everyone and more.

Funcom recently announced their plans to get older players back into Age of Conan and boost multi-month subscription rates. Players with inactive subscriptions are invited to retry the game for two weeks and receive a double experience bonus. Those who sign up for multi-month subscriptions will receive these additional bonuses:

• 3-month sub: Beta access to The Secret World
• 6-month sub: Beta access + in-game helmet that boosts experience gain by 10%
• 12-month sub: Beta access + helmet + a free copy of Conan expansion Rise of the Godslayer

Age of Conan has received many updates in the year and a half since its release. However, MMO players can be an unforgiving bunch, so these incentives to give the game another shot are quite necessary. And it's extra-smart given all the excitement around The Secret World. Considering how many players would be willing to pay for beta access, a subscription to a vastly improved AoC is just icing on the cake.

For those interested in catching up on AoC, check out the most recent game director's letter, new content, and revised subscription options. Have a burning question for Funcom about this or anything else? Ask it here.

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	Having fun in Conan's homeland? Make sure to check out all of our previous Age of Conan coverage, and stick with Massively for more news from the Hyborian Age!

With the chilly, rainy winter settling in for much of the northern hemisphere, scenes like today's One Shots from Age of Conan are welcome sights. If you use those powers of imagination, you can almost imagine the balmy breezes coming in off the water as you disembark in a strange new land. Ray S. sent this great shot in of his first moments in town, and explains the scene: This is the view of Tesso village in Wild Lands of Zelata that greeted my Assassin Deltex when he was fresh off the boat from Old Tarantia in Age of Conan.

We love to look around the lands of Conan, but we need all of you players to send in your screenshots! All you have to do to show off the parts of the world you like best is to email your images to us here at oneshots AT massively DOT com. Be sure to add in your name, the name of the game, and a quick description. We'll put them out here on Massively for everyone to check out and give you the credit. Couldn't be easier!

As anyone who has been following Age of Conan for the last few months knows, Funcom is working hard to get their MMO back on the top of everyone's playlists. Launch-day bugs have been fixed and they're focusing on more incentives to get players back into their game.

With last month's Game Director's letter explaining a push towards more player feedback, we wanted to help along the process a bit with your questions. Do you have something you'd like to ask about the new content? How about something concerning their revised subscription options? Whatever it is, Funcom is ready. Email your questions to shawn AT massively DOT com by Thursday, November 12 at 8am ET, and we'll pick the best 10 to send along to Funcom. Questions left as comments to this post will not be considered. Once the answers get answered, we'll be sure to post them up right away.

The October Director's letter for Age of Conan has been released, and it looks like the AoC team is continuing to seek player support and suggestions for improvement. The increase in player questionnaires and surveys will continue in an effort to get feedback from fans, as will weekly updates from the community teams to keep players informed of what's happening. They're also working for increased player interaction by seeking more members for the volunteer program and continuing the recruit-a-friend program.

The big news, as always, was the upcoming update. The 1.05 cycle is coming to an end and the 1.06 cycle is in the works, with the hope that it will hit the test servers in the next few weeks. The Director's letter gave a few hints as to what to look for in 1.06: "We are now focusing on the new Guild Renown feature and the new Tier Three raids encounters. We will be running several initiatives one the test servers during the testing to ensure you get your chance to have your say!"

The full letter can be seen on the official site.

Halloween is probably second only to Christmas in terms of holiday popularity. Ask just about anybody what their favorite holiday is, and they'll probably list one of those two (if it fits the culture). Naturally, as MMO players, we have fun celebrating it in our virtual worlds just like we do in the real world. And boy, this year, do we ever celebrate. Just about every active MMO out there had (or has) something going on. The 2009 lineup included:

• Final Fantasy XI - Harvest Festival
• City of Heroes - The Deadly Apocalypse
• EverQuest II - Nights of the Dead
• Fallen Earth - Days of the Dead
• Warhammer Online - Daemon Moon Rising
• Aion - Harvest Revel
• Guild Wars - The Mad King's Revelry
• Runes of Magic - Pumpkin Festival
• Lineage - Cavern of Chaos
• Lineage II - Spooks and Scarecrows
• Age of Conan - Nights of Lost Souls
• EverQuest - The Haunting of Norrath
• Legends of Norrath - Brraaaaaainss!
• Star Wars Galaxies - Galactic Moon Festival
• Exteel - Hey, sweet! Paint!
• Free Realms - Super Spooktacular
• Champions Online - Blood Moon

Most of these events last a few days into November, so if there's any one in particular you're dying to experience, you might still have a chance if you have a subscription laying around. If you're not able to visit any of these in person, we have screenshots from many of these events in the gallery below. Enjoy!

MMOs see updates quite frequently, and with games that have developers actively posting on forums an attentive community member can absorb plenty of useful information. However, not everyone is up to the task of tracking all news, dev posts and dev blogs on every little topic. This is where Age of Conan's "New Community Database" enters the picture.

Handled by the community team at Funcom, the database will serve as an easily accessible source of pertinent game-related information about updates old, new, small and big. Everything from minor content stuff to full-on expansions, like Rise of the Godslayer. The website is still partially in beta as content is being added and knobs are being tweaked and dialed for maximum performance. So if in your venture for precious information you run aground due to a lack of content or technical issues, don't be all too surprised.

Having an official wiki isn't a bad idea. With time and attention there's no doubt many a person will find the source of info highly useful. In fact, we've already discovered a great use for it right here, although that particular opinion is arguably of a subjective nature.

Funcom's Erling Ellingsen recently informed Eurogamer about future Age of Conan subscription "initiatives" being planned, which are to follow the new price reduction of multi-month subscriptions . It's of particular interest that Funcom is planning further pricing specials, as they've been doing a lot to bring players back to the game ever since launch. Should their efforts pay off, it's likely that The Secret World will see a significant development boost, which is something we'd be very happy about as fans of Ragnar Tornquist.

However, nobody knows yet if the current "initiatives" have been helping, as Erling wasn't able to comment on current numbers. So until some hard numbers come in -- hopefully of the positive nature -- it's anybody's guess on how the game will perform. It's possible that there's a free-to-play model in the game's future, especially since it wouldn't be the first time a Funcom game has gone that route. However, only time will tell where King Conan and his followers end up.

The most recent Age of Conan newsletter is out and it features a lot to discuss. The big news is that update 5.6 aka Nights of Lost Souls is fully loaded on the live game servers. With it comes new seasonal content, the Veteran Points system and a brand new dungeon. This is the kind of stuff an aged MMO thrives on, especially the Veteran Points -- but there is a small hitch.

So this Veteran Points system, it's pretty cool. You gain special points the longer you stay subscribed and then use said points to purchase things like basic riding training, free character reset potions, a nice bag to expand your inventory... oh and larger breasts! Mission control? This is palm, we're on course to dock with face. Being fair, male players can also make their arms buffer, but none of it really seems necessary. In fact, it seems a little counter-intuitive towards bringing back reluctant former subscribers, which is exactly what Funcom has been trying to accomplish.

Even still, there is a lot of cool free stuff coming for the game. Just be aware that, well, this is still Age of Conan in spirit and so, yeah, breast enlargements.

If there was ever a benevolent government in these rough financial times, it's King Conan's monarchy. But we don't honor him for the order that he brings to the lands of Hyboria and not for rippling muscles and barbarian tactics that he brings to the throne. We honor him today for the price drop!

While the usual $15 a month price hasn't changed, the 3 month, 6 month, and 12 month prices have dropped. The 3 month now offers a 20% discount, the 6 month is a 30% discount, and the 12 month subscription is now a 45% discount.

This brings the prices to $99 for the 12 month, $63 for the 6 month, and $36 for the 3 month. Certainly good news for anyone who's been sucked in by the barbarians, or looking forward to the release of Rise of the Godslayer.

For whatever reason, MMO gamers have a low opinion of prisons. We always seem to assume that rather than being filled with fuming criminals kept under strict control, every one you venture through will be full of escaped criminals staging an elaborate prison break. Then again, it does have a cool factor going for it, which is doubtlessly why Age of Conan has dipped into the well with its upcoming Iron Tower. MMORPG.com has recently featured both a rundown of the upcoming dungeon's features and a short internal interview offering more details about the tower's design and purpose.

Concluding the game's lore regarding the conflict in the Common District of Tarantia, the Iron Tower is embroiled in a war between a group bent on releasing a specific prisoner and a warden dedicated to preventing that same prisoner's release at all costs. Neither side is benevolent toward the players, with the warden at the edge of madness and the invader releasing prisoners to help supplement her forces, and the battle up the tower requiring high-level players to deal with both forces amidst the deranged captives. If that sounds like a good time to you -- and if you're fond of Age of Conan, we can't imagine it wouldn't -- take a look at both the rundown and the interview, and get ready to break in to a prison.

We are well into that time of year - Halloween is almost here and a quick look into nearly any MMO out there will show it. We've been talking about quite a few games out there and how they're celebrating, but they're certainly not the only ones putting jack-o-lanterns in their windows. Follow after the jump for a look at how some of our other favorite MMOs are celebrating.

Age of Conan has seen its share of ups and downs in this first year since launch, but the ride seems to be smoothing out lately. The first expansion is on the way, new content has been offered, and the PvP side is getting some extra attention. Community manager Oliver "Tarib" Kunz even took a bit of time lately to lay out a patch timeline for players, to let them know what's coming up. Back in July, a list of "10 reasons to give it another look", included free account reactivation for two weeks.

Now Funcom is issuing a similar invitation to everyone, reintroducing the free trial for players looking to try Age of Conan, and those wanting to take a second look at the new and improved game. This time they're offering 7 days of full game access, although there are some restrictions on things like trading, public chat channels, forums, and in-game mail.)

If you want a closer look at what Funcom has been up to with Age of Conan lately, visit the trial website to take them up on their offer.

Age of Conan didn't have the smoothest launch, and its first year has been spent in no small part dealing with the aftershocks. Now, however, the game is cleaning up quite nicely, and it's focusing on core areas that keep people in the game and engrossed. The strength of the game's PvP was always one of its core selling points, which should make it even more interesting to fans to see MMORPG.com's recent interview with PvP developer Tim Donks.

The interview is very frank -- Donks comes out and says clearly where he feels that PvP is hitting its mark, and what places he thinks it's still falling short of target. He's pleased by and large with the game's "murder point" system that discourages high-level players demolishing weaker (although some players aren't), but he's not wholly happy with how the PvP advancement system in the game is working and talks a bit about how he wants to improve it. There are also a few stories that highlight some of the little changes that can have a larger impact on the overall direction of the game, including how something as small as altering NPC patrol routes can encourage PvP.

If you're curious about the direction that Age of Conan's PvP is going right now, both in the near future and with the upcoming expansion, the interview should provide a meaty read. And if after that you feel the urge to pick up your sword and go find someone unsuspecting to test it on, well, so much the better.