MMORPG.com's Garrett Fuller recently asked a few questions of Funcom's Erling Ellingsen about the direction that the company will be taking in 2010.

Image Credit: Gamer.no

MMORPG.com:

Funcom won Most Improved Game for 2009 with Age of Conan. Tell us your plans for the game in 2010.

Erling Ellingsen:

That was a great honor. We've worked very hard on adding new content and new features to the game since launch in the summer of 2008, and to see that hard work pay off is great. The team's been very dedicated in their work, and Funcom have maintained focus on the game ever since launch. Just a couple of weeks ago we launched the latest update, Return of Thoth-Amon, that introduces new guild gameplay and tier three raid content. Our focus in the weeks and months ahead is the expansion, and while we will continue working on live updates, we are definitely focusing on getting Rise of the Godslayer out there.

Read Funcom in 2010.

interesting. I can't wait to see the in game trailer of The Secret World. :)

 this guys age of conan videos at launch were beyond creepy.  

 Why does anyone continue to "interview"  that idiot Ellingsen? The guy is a liar and a spin-doctor. Plain and simple. Wanna interview Craig, Sanek, or any of the other devs, fine. But stop giving this flea bag limelight he doesn't warrant. The fact Funcom didn't throw his ass out with Gaudager is troubling enough as it  is.

I thought  lotro earned the most improved game reward,  or one of them at least.  I find the entire story funny.

I guess folks like conan, i made it 2 weeks in beta and gave it up and never ever looked back.

 Dude, I can't wait to see what they have planned for this game.

Good interview!

I will take a look at The Secret World.

However as a player of AO since the start until they ruined the game with EQ 1.5 er .. Shadowlands, I will be very leary of Funcom.

I can't wait to see more on TSW. Age of Conan won most improved game, and it deserved it.

Originally posted by erictlewis

I thought  lotro earned the most improved game reward,  or one of them at least.  I find the entire story funny.

I guess folks like conan, i made it 2 weeks in beta and gave it up and never ever looked back.

Maybe it is time to "look back" and see why Age of Conan earned Most Improved.

Originally posted by Thornrage

Originally posted by erictlewis

I thought  lotro earned the most improved game reward,  or one of them at least.  I find the entire story funny.

I guess folks like conan, i made it 2 weeks in beta and gave it up and never ever looked back.

 

Maybe it is time to "look back" and see why Age of Conan earned Most Improved.

love to know what has changed honestly >

Wish Funcom could make a game a rich and deep as AO.  I played AO for almost 3 years, but right now the population is just too low to play.

Hmmmmm....interesting....so no direction set for Anarchy Online.....why is it an in depth game can be forgotten so quickly? When Age of Noman...I mean Conan came out the quality of customer service and fixing certain parts of the game got forgotten. Its sad really....alot of people liked/like AO and now it seems Funcom is just gonna let it fade...WAKE UP Funcom...if you forget about your player base for one game what makes you think we want to see it happen elsewhere?  Just my opinion...I will remain a faithful AO player til it dies...hopefully Funcom will wake up and do the right thing.....appeal to their entire player base...not just those in AoC.

Great interview! For whoever asked what's new since launch of Age of Conan, check this link out:

http://www.ageofconan.com/updates/?utm_id=419

Originally posted by erictlewis

I thought  lotro earned the most improved game reward,  or one of them at least.  I find the entire story funny.

I guess folks like conan, i made it 2 weeks in beta and gave it up and never ever looked back.

Lotro should have won it imo.

Lotro has improved to the point where I like to play it,  Conan has improved to the point where even a free reactivation doesnt warrant a down-load.

Originally posted by markh777

Hmmmmm....interesting....so no direction set for Anarchy Online.....why is it an in depth game can be forgotten so quickly? When Age of Noman...I mean Conan came out the quality of customer service and fixing certain parts of the game got forgotten. Its sad really....alot of people liked/like AO and now it seems Funcom is just gonna let it fade...WAKE UP Funcom...if you forget about your player base for one game what makes you think we want to see it happen elsewhere?  Just my opinion...I will remain a faithful AO player til it dies...hopefully Funcom will wake up and do the right thing.....appeal to their entire player base...not just those in AoC.

I don't think FC has any intentions of abandoning their player-base in AO. Last I heard they were working slow and steady on the new graphic and content.

What to remember here tho, is that Erling is hired (like it or not) to provide marketing for the upcoming games/expansions and not for the already known and established games/exapansions, so him giving no indication as to where AO is headed is not all that strange. The playerbase in AO is fairly stable I guess and the outlook of any substantial growth is probably just not there even if you were to hype the game up in the skies again. In the end, FC is running a business, and they focus on the things that will hopefully get them the most income in order to continue making games. 

I liked the interview tho, always nice to see what the employees think of the development of MMO's in the coming years, and I'm excited to see how TSW will end up.

Referencing the article here on MMORPG.com the other day www.mmorpg.com/newsRoom.cfm/read/16242/utm_campaign/MMORPG News Alert Email/utm_source/MMORPG/utm_medium/email, imagine if FC could manage to give the world in TSW a proper "virtual world" feeling, that would be amazing.

Khaz

And still MMORPG.COM goes on about Funcom.  How much exactly are they paying this website ? 

Funcom is the biggest failure of MMO developer ever.  THey have launched two games that both came out buggy and half finished and then they used the hype money to fix up some of the biggest issues - without ever beeing able to reallly grasp how bad the game were really designed in the first place.

MMORPG.COM is the only website in the world that voted AOC as the most improved MMO game of 2009.  And Funcom has been milking it for 2 months now - sending hired hands to create articles and PR news to make it look like the game is actually anything other than trying to recover from the crap it was at launch.

And btw.  The best example yet of how poor FUncom actually is doing their job - is that ALL ATI video cards are not fully compatable to AOC. And Windows VIsta users are still having huge issues with running the game.  NOw... thats like 50% of all the playerbase.  And they say its improving... lol

Originally posted by sadeyx

Originally posted by erictlewis

I thought  lotro earned the most improved game reward,  or one of them at least.  I find the entire story funny.

I guess folks like conan, i made it 2 weeks in beta and gave it up and never ever looked back.

 

Lotro should have won it imo.

Lotro has improved to the point where I like to play it,  Conan has improved to the point where even a free reactivation doesnt warrant a down-load.

No it doesn't.

While LOTRO is a great game nonetheless. Since Mines of Moria and now with Mirkwood. It has turned into a horrible tedious grind fest. Not to mention the hotly debated and hated Radiance and LI system.

So no. LOTRO sertainly doesn't deserve most improved game award at all! Sorry.

Originally posted by Frobner

And still MMORPG.COM goes on about Funcom.  How much exactly are they paying this website ? 

Funcom is the biggest failure of MMO developer ever.  THey have launched two games that both came out buggy and half finished and then they used the hype money to fix up some of the biggest issues - without ever beeing able to reallly grasp how bad the game were really designed in the first place.

MMORPG.COM is the only website in the world that voted AOC as the most improved MMO game of 2009.  And Funcom has been milking it for 2 months now - sending hired hands to create articles and PR news to make it look like the game is actually anything other than trying to recover from the crap it was at launch.

And btw.  The best example yet of how poor FUncom actually is doing their job - is that ALL ATI video cards are not fully compatable to AOC. And Windows VIsta users are still having huge issues with running the game.  NOw... thats like 50% of all the playerbase.  And they say its improving... lol

Ever thought that it might be in fact an ATI problem itself?

Age of Conan isn't the only game that causes problems for ATI users. That's why I haven't touched an ATI card for the last 3 years!

So many issues with so many games. It's not even funny!  ATI's drivers are horrible!

And I am not saying that NVidia is free from that. They have their issues too. But all in all, their drivers are a lot better overall and causing far less issues.

The good old times when ATI was superior to NVidia are long past and gone.

Cheers

Originally posted by Frobner

And still MMORPG.COM goes on about Funcom.  How much exactly are they paying this website ? 

Funcom is the biggest failure of MMO developer ever.  THey have launched two games that both came out buggy and half finished and then they used the hype money to fix up some of the biggest issues - without ever beeing able to reallly grasp how bad the game were really designed in the first place.

MMORPG.COM is the only website in the world that voted AOC as the most improved MMO game of 2009.  And Funcom has been milking it for 2 months now - sending hired hands to create articles and PR news to make it look like the game is actually anything other than trying to recover from the crap it was at launch.

And btw.  The best example yet of how poor FUncom actually is doing their job - is that ALL ATI video cards are not fully compatable to AOC. And Windows VIsta users are still having huge issues with running the game.  NOw... thats like 50% of all the playerbase.  And they say its improving... lol

Wow... just... wow...

Originally posted by Guillermo197

Originally posted by sadeyx

Originally posted by erictlewis

I thought  lotro earned the most improved game reward,  or one of them at least.  I find the entire story funny.

I guess folks like conan, i made it 2 weeks in beta and gave it up and never ever looked back.

 

Lotro should have won it imo.

Lotro has improved to the point where I like to play it,  Conan has improved to the point where even a free reactivation doesnt warrant a down-load.

 

No it doesn't.

While LOTRO is a great game nonetheless. Since Mines of Moria and now with Mirkwood. It has turned into a horrible tedious grind fest. Not to mention the hotly debated and hated Radiance and LI system.

So no. LOTRO sertainly doesn't deserve most improved game award at all! Sorry.

I will say this about lotro, they claimed on their website they won, I could care less.  SOM Shadows of Mirkwood put the final nail in the coffin for me. I was a founder and a lifer in lotro, and it has went right into the outhouse. I agree they dont deserve anything.  Honestly the thing I found funny was one game that folks love to hate conan beet out lotro,  now that is funny.  However I don't play lotro any more, nor do I play conan all the hype in the world is not going to get me to play either at this time.