General Discussion

MMORPG.com's Carolyn Koh is at CES and yesterday she had the opportunity to talk to the Funcom crew about their upcoming MMORPG, Age of Conan. In this report, Carolyn lets us in on the look of the game and what's coming down the pipe before the game's scheduled launch date in March.

A visit with Funcom Designer Jason Stone and Product Director Jorgen Tharaldsen is always a great experience. Jorgen has the most amazing head for numbers and is able tell me things like there are currently over 2,700 animations for female avatars in game. They haven't quite finished them all yet, which is the reason they have not shown female avatars, nor included them in the beta builds as the game play experience is the same with avatars of either gender. On the other hand, Jason Stone will take me through GM tools to show me female avatars and show me an animated emote he created which had Jorgen trying to hide the screen with his hands, crying "Noooo! I can't believe you showed her THAT!"

I am happy to report though, that female avatars are definitely in the game. The GM tool Jason ran me through is what they call a "play field" where I saw literally, hundreds upon hundreds of male and female avatars dressed and undressed in hundreds of different outfits and armor. "We've got more than just the chain mail bikini," he said. "We've got some actual armor in game."

"We learned a lot from Anarchy Online," said Jorgen as he asked Jason to show me the social clothing choices. "We know that players enjoy having more than one set of clothing, more than just wearing armor." They are coordinating the pieces however, and unlike Anarchy Online, we won't be seeing white wedding dresses on hulking male bodies - or in the context of Age of Conan, itty-bitty chain mail bikinis on hulking Cimmerians.

Check out the whole report here.

Great report! Even more excited about the game now thanks!

No open beta. That might be a good thing. Also, the Rhino mount sounds awesome. It says this will be in the Bestbuy box, so i dont know if you could still get one if you dont buy it from Bestbuy??? It also looks like they are going to go with the March release date, which is great. Roll on March!

or in the context of Age of Conan, itty-bitty chain mail bikinis on hulking Cimmerians.

Awh...  Can they at least wear the itty bitty bottom pieces?

I'll agree though that not having an open beta *may* be a good thing. I know a lot of people out there who will gladly shell out $50 for a game that gets decent reviews, but won't put the same money into an well-reviewed MMO until they've tried it

Hopefully though not having an open beta pays off... and it's good for us because less people will be whining on the forums about how they won't play the game because *gasp* there were still a few bugs in the beta.

I'm curious about the whole special edition thing. I wonder how that will pan out for EU folks. I've ordered a collector's edition from my local store, so I'm hoping Funcom won't limit SE's to the two companies named.

Originally posted by korvass

I'm curious about the whole special edition thing. I wonder how that will pan out for EU folks. I've ordered a collector's edition from my local store, so I'm hoping Funcom won't limit SE's to the two companies named.

Yeah im from the EU too. Hope we dont get screwed on that front. I'm looking forward to being a part of an MMO right from the beginning again. I tought that would have been LOTRO last year, but i just didnt get into it. I remember being part of SWG when it was first released, but that was before the dark times...before the CU & NGE! Anyway, i hope that AoC will at the very least run smooth & look good on my pc & that should be enough to keep me with it.

Originally posted by korvass

I'm curious about the whole special edition thing. I wonder how that will pan out for EU folks. I've ordered a collector's edition from my local store, so I'm hoping Funcom won't limit SE's to the two companies named.

Here is a link to the main forum that has a listing of many places to get CE

http://forums.ageofconan.com/showthread.php?t=50409

Heden

I didn't notice any mention of the cost of a monthly subscription fee.  Is this still being decided?

Hmmm.... I'm always suspicious when there isn't an open beta.  It makes me wonder what they don't want me to see.

I hope this game is good.  We've been waiting for a good MMO for a few years now.  But, I guess we won't know until release?