http://news.spong.com/feature/10109775/Andreas_214_jerfors_-_Age_of_Conan_Quest_Co-ordinator?cb=188

A lot of MMOs are very samey. What have you done to differentiate Conan?

Andreas Öjerfors: How much have you seen?


Up to level 12.

Andreas Öjerfors: Then you've seen really nothing of the game so far. Basically, up until level 12, until 14 at least... really until level 20, that's an introduction into how to play the game, really. You have the quests there and the storylines.

If you don't care for them, well, it's partially a mechanic that teaches you to deal with the game. That's one of the reasons why we have the single-player content.

First we believe that to have the player get a connection to his character, which I don't think a lot of MMOs do. Secondly, it's a way of not being pushed into the world having no idea of how to play the game - actually allowing you to take the time to learn the mechanics.


So, you have a focus on story in quests and a different killing system. Is there more to it than that?

Andreas Öjerfors: I think there's a lot more to it than that... I think you experienced some of what we're trying to do, even up to level 12. The difficulty with an MMO, of course, is the limits the 'MM' part puts on it.

So, levels 1 - 20 and even afterwards, we have the single-player quests where we can do much more and if you think that's just 'blah blah blah' and 'kill five' or something then I don't think you'll play a lot of it. But the multi-player quests - that's a huge challenge for any MMO. What we really try to do is push it further. We use a lot of scripting where you have to do quests where you defend something,or you destroy something within a certain time or try to use those things.

Sometimes in MMOs you have problems where you can't do a fresh quest because you don't have space to do it. Will that be a problem here?

Andreas Öjerfors: The quest inventory? Basically, it's not going to run out. There is, of course, a technical limit, but the quest inventory will not run out.


So, you won't find that you can't do a quest because there isn't room?

Andreas Öjerfors: Exactly, that's why we created a separate quest inventory.

What about quest story arcs? Will several smaller quests combine into one story arc?

Andreas Öjerfors: Yes. One of the things the game director (Pål Frogner Hansen) wanted from the very start was that the player should just be able to log in, play half an hour to an hour and really accomplish something.

So, we have smaller quests that you can finish in half an hour/an hour, and they have their own small story. But then, that story of that quest is part of a bigger quest chain, which in itself tells another story, then those quest chains tell the story of the whole area. And together, of course, they tell the story of the whole game. But, we have a story for the whole game, and that conflict is reflected in nearly each and every area.


What is the global conflict in the world of Age of Conan, then?

Andreas Öjerfors: What a difficult question. Well, you have Thoth-Amon, and Thoth-Amon has many factions that support him. Then you have simple wars. You have areas where there's a war between two peoples, and you can help one side conquer the other. So, you have a lot of different factions, but the major conflict, that's Thoth-Amon and his people against Aqualonia.


Sticking with the story, how important do you see the license as being? You've got 'Conan' in big letters in the game's title, but you're only going to see him for a small portion of the game...

But, I don't think that the most important part... Conan is very important, but it's also very important – the world that Howard wrote and created – Hyborea. And I think that's as much of the license as Conan. And we have taken that very seriously.


In terms of the look of the game, was there any past medium that Conan appeared in which was an important touchstone for the game? The comics? The film? There was even a cartoon at one point...

Andreas Öjerfors: Yes. Frazetta, I think his name is (Frank Frazetta actually. Ed again). One of the artists. He had a big impact on our art. And our art director, Didrik Tellefsen, based a lot of our look on that. And what he aimed for was not realism, but hyper-realism. It's so realistic, it's crisp.


In player-versus-player, will there be something to deter players from killing someone many levels below them in the open world PvP servers?

Andreas Öjerfors: No, not really.


Do you have something to avoid money-selling from China and so on?

Andreas Öjerfors: I know that they have plans, but it's not really what I work with. That's the kind of stuff that they don't really want to explain to people – how to circumvent our security.


What will be the differences between how the classes play?

Andreas Öjerfors: The main difference, of course, will be between levels one to 20 where you have four different storylines intertwining with each other. We try to show a little of that with the start-up, city stuff – how they affect each other and how you're actually in the Resistance against the tyrant of Totage. How you play different roles depending... it's not every class, it's the four different archetypes. You have four different quest lines. So, you play different roles in that story.


And after level 20 it gets streamlined? Every archetype gets the same play?

Andreas Öjerfors: It's more like that, yes. There are some quests (for specific archetypes) but the majority of quests are open to everyone

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There is more from the link above for those interested :)

Very interesting actually. It is always nice to hear what the developers and game designers have in mind for their own game, and what they intend it to be, instead of guessing yourself.

Same guy here, in a video presentation about quests in the game: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrvgaRJiT4M