age-of-conan posts

One Shots: More still to learn

by Krystalle Voecks Nov 23rd 2009 at 2:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Screenshots, Age of Conan, One Shots

With Funcom offering some crazy good deals for returning players to Age of Conan, many folks are once again wandering the lands of Hyboria. Well, not just that - but it's nice to have a sunny, hot land to wander as opposed to going out in the freezing cold. Today's great Age of Conan One Shots comes to us from Thomas, who writes in: [This] picture is of Callypiso outside Kheshatta City with the slums behind her. She was trying to track down an old man to further her powers over the dead.

Find something worth sharing on your recent adventures? Just in the mood to show off what you've been doing? All you have to do is email your screenshots to us at oneshots AT massively DOT com along with your name, the game it's from, and a quick note about what we're seeing. We'll post it out here and give you credit for sending it in!

Tags: age-of-conan, aoc, funcom, one-shots, screenshot, screenshots

Building MMO landscape scenes

by Brendan Drain Nov 23rd 2009 at 11:00AM

Filed under: World of Warcraft, Fantasy, Screenshots, Age of Conan, EverQuest II, Lord of the Rings Online, MMO industry, Hands-on, Academic, Virtual worlds

Landscapes have been a staple component of almost every MMO in recent memory. With the exception of some sci-fi titles, most MMOs take place on the land of some imagined island or continent. Some use stylised fantasy landscapes that run smoothly on even low-end computers while others have managed almost photo-realistic visuals at the cost of performance. But have you ever thought about what's going on behind the scenes in your favourite MMO? Most of us don't think about how the computer is actually drawing the terrain we run around on. We don't give much thought to the different ways each MMO renders the water in lakes, rivers and oceans. And just how does your computer render so many trees and plants without grinding to a halt? As part of my masters degree in computer science, I got to grips with a number of these techniques and found it a fascinating thing to learn about. Now when I play a new game or see MMO screenshots, I can't help but think about what the computer is doing in the background and how particular visual effects could have been achieved.

In this technical article, I talk about some of the components of an MMO landscape scene and a few of the techniques used in creating the graphics behind them.

Tags: age-of-conan, billboard, engine, everquest-2, everquest-ii, graphics, heightmap, lake, landscape, lighting, lod, lord-of-the-rings-online, ocean, plants, river, scenery, scenic, technology, terrain, terrain-rendering, textures, trees, water, world-of-warcraft

Building MMO landscape scenes, part 2

by Brendan Drain Nov 23rd 2009 at 11:00AM

Win a free year of Age of Conan

by Rubi Bayer Nov 21st 2009 at 6:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Age of Conan, Contests, Giveaways

Word of mouth is a powerful advertising tool, and most companies realize this. Quite a few are even willing to hand over some freebies or other incentives in exchange for a good word from their current customers.

Giveaway Gamer, a site dedicated to...well, giveaways, is the latest site to jump on this bandwagon, and the carrot on the stick is a year of free Age of Conan playtime. All they ask is that you spread the word about their contest in whatever way you choose: Twitter, Facebook, interpretive dance, mention it on your blog or podcast; it's entirely up to you. Send Giveaway Gamer an email telling how you passed the word along -- links, screenshots, photos, and videos are even better -- and you're entered in the contest.

The contest runs through December 18th, and the winner will receive a year of free AoC playtime and pile of in-game goodies as well, such as the mammoth, rhino and horse mounts. All of the entry information can be found here at the Giveaway Gamer site. While this doesn't count as an entry for Massively, we wish you guys the best of luck!

Tags: age-of-conan, contest, free, giveaway, giveaway-gamer

Funcom publishes sharp revenue drop for Q3

by Rubi Bayer Nov 17th 2009 at 5:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Age of Conan, MMO industry, News items

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.

Tags: age-of-conan, breaking, financial-report, funcom, Q3, rise-of-the-godslayer, the-secret-world

Age of Conan community interview: Your questions answered!

by Shawn Schuster Nov 13th 2009 at 1:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Age of Conan, Interviews, MMO industry, Massively meta, Community Q&A

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.

Tags: age-of-conan, aoc, community-interview, community-q-and-a, craig-morrison, funcom, interview, q-and-a

Subscribe to Age of Conan and receive The Secret World beta access

by Brooke Pilley Nov 11th 2009 at 1:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Horror, Age of Conan, News items, The Secret World

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.

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!

Tags: age-of-conan, aoc, Arnold-Schwarzenegger, beta, bonus, erling-ellingsen, eurogamer, funcom, subscription, the-secret-world, tsw

One Shots: We could use a vacation here

by Krystalle Voecks Nov 10th 2009 at 2:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Screenshots, Age of Conan, One Shots

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!

Gallery: One Shots

Tags: age-of-conan, aoc, funcom, one-shots, ray-s, screenshot, screenshots

Age of Conan community interview: Ask Funcom!

by Shawn Schuster Nov 9th 2009 at 3:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Age of Conan, Interviews, Community Q&A

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.

Tags: age-of-conan, aoc, community, funcom, interview, q-and-a

Age of Conan Director's letter for October

by Rubi Bayer Nov 2nd 2009 at 3:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Age of Conan, News items

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.

Tags: age-of-conan, aoc, aoc-1.06, directors-letter, funcom, guild, guild-renown, patch, patches, raid, raids

Official Age of Conan database offers easy info

by Kyle Horner Oct 30th 2009 at 11:00AM

Filed under: Fantasy, Age of Conan, News items

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.

Tags: age-of-conan, aoc, community-database, database, famine, fantasy, funcom, wiki, wikia

More Age of Conan subscription incentives coming

by Kyle Horner Oct 29th 2009 at 4:30PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Age of Conan, Business models, News items

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.

Tags: age-of-conan, anarchy-online, ao, aoc, erling-ellingsen, eurogamer, funcom, launch, ragnar-tornquist, subscription

AoC patch adds veteran points, new dungeon, plastic surgery

by Kyle Horner Oct 28th 2009 at 10:00AM

Filed under: Fantasy, Age of Conan, Patches, News items

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.

Tags: age-of-conan, aoc, aoc-5.6, funcom, iron-tower, nights-of-lost-souls, patch, update, veteran-points

King Conan lowers prices on long-term subscriptions for all

by Seraphina Brennan Oct 26th 2009 at 11:00AM

Filed under: Fantasy, Age of Conan, Business models, MMO industry, News items

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.

Tags: age-of-conan, aoc, barbarian, conan, funcom, king-conan, long-term-subscription, price-drop, rise-of-the-godslayer, subscription, subscription-price

Fourth annual MMO calendar now on sale

by Rubi Bayer Oct 24th 2009 at 6:00PM

Filed under: Culture, MMO industry, News items

It's that time of year again - the MMO Calendar for 2010 is on sale. MMO Calendar is a yearly project created as a non-profit fundraiser for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. The calendar features original art from 12 different current and upcoming MMOs, and 100% of the purchase price of every calendar is donated to St. Jude.

This year's calendar includes artwork from:

It promises to be a gorgeous calendar, but just in case the art alone isn't enough to convince you, purchasing the calendar will get you entered in a drawing for one of ten prizes including closed beta access, subscriptions, and boxed game sets. Calendars will be shipped by December 5th and the prize drawing is December 7th, so visit MMO Calendar to order yours!

Tags: age-of-conan, calendar, culture, dungeons-and-dragons-online, eve-online, everquest-2, everquest-ii, free-realms, Guild-Wars-2, lord-of-the-rings-online, mmo-calendar, runes-of-magic, runescape, the-secret-world, Warhammer-Online, world-of-warcraft