Well thank you for the response and it was informative. I knew that the guild was not organised by a bunch of guts-gory kids for sure because the whole thing, from organisation to delivery seem to be quite proffessional indeed. I was more concerned (as you have both commented on) the 'darker take' of the conan world. I have read all of the lore on the website, also most of the forum posts and other material.

The Lore mentions the exploits of Kabres who becomes a necromancer among other interesting writings but to consider this and the mention of a city of the dead Nexmoenia (Which is based on Xuthal?) one can assume the more dark theme to the guild.

As for me I have been a GM for a raiding guild in wow but i have also really got heavy into the PVP side of the game and hit the grandmarshal (when it really meant something) but due to life commitments I wont be getting so involved in this game so I will participate more on a causual bases and more importantly a roleplay bases. (I really would like to see inter-political situations develop between warring guilds and the status of emissaries as something important)

The type of barbarian I will be playing will be heavyily steeped in viking mythos and I am therefore determing wheather that would 'fit' with the theme of your guild. The reason why i am writing all of this and asking questions is because you do seem like a very good guild but the moment i see naked orgies with ritual sacrifices to Set i will be sharpening my blade:),

I'm still considering to join or not. The guild does seem very well organised and with a clear vision and fun ideas, particularly like the jousting contests (maybe this could be do inter-guild and guild-guild).

Some things do concern me about the guild presentation though i have to say. We all know that the conan world is rather dark and bloody, and skulls are littered everywhere although not all of the places are like that but (as their name suggests) the guild seems to be into the blood this and blood that with skull and cross bones decorating the site. I am not trying to be critical at all here as its up to anyone how they run and present their guild im trying to find out if it maintains a mature attitude, one that would suit me and my mmo friends.

It seems their is no place for neutality of role, however I think there is a great place in the game for that. not only conquest (everyone almost says the same on their guild sites) but also to diplomacy with other guilds.

This being said one the main things that interested me with this guild was the fact that most of the members (the ones i saw) were mature adults and also hardcore/serious gamers that will be getting involved. I just hope the overal mentaity of the guild holds and reflects the members therein and is not just a facination with blood and guts.

Again i will say that i am not trying to be negatively critical i merely seeking a decend guild to take active part in and one that my good natured friends would also feel at home in. It does seem that most guilds out there are into the destory mame kill instead of presenting a more appealing neutrality.

That card will be just fine to run LOTRO.

As for the pst above i would say the same, enjoy the low levels they are the most fun. As for the server i would suggest the RP one Laurelin, the kinship i would suggest would be the Hard Biscuits they are a mature group of players who are very nice people and do a bit of everything really, from easy going roleplaying to raids and a few go pvp and are hardcore at that...great bunch who make the game a lot better than it otherwise would be.

My days in LORTO are coming to a close soon for other reasons than the game itself but my experince of the games has been mixed.

I really enjoyed the fresh new game and early levels was a great. The graphics are stunning i really liked them and it seemed like middle earth as Tolkien, envisioned it, came alive.

I wanted to solo experience the game as much as i could and join groups and people on the road for encounters and then  i came to Dol dinen which is the changing point for me. There were lots of quests for that place but it wasnt just to go there and get out it was a real tennis game of back and forth but the thing was it was not soloable (I tryed with a guardian and a loremaster to do that an in both cases it was very hard at the suggested levels). So a demand to group was evident but the touble is that people are all on different parts of different quests which created lots of logicaly bordom on top of that it was all a mass quest grind which destroyed the atmosphere.

When i couldnt get a group it was a matter of standing around doing nothing because all the quest log was full of fellowship quests. sometimes (for two weeks) i would log for an hour or more to try for a group and nothing so would log...this made me stop the game for 3 months. After that i went back and decided it was time to join a kinship (The best kinship actually the Hard Biscuits they are such a nice lot of people).

I saw both the guardian and Loremaster to lvl50 and I hit the fellowship quest problem again but this time it was a lot hard. Tried the PVP and its really not what i envisioned for middle earth and epicness. The problem is, as in most of the same genre, that creating specific level areas means that once you have passed that level there is nothing to keep you in that area or to cause you to return. And anyting in that area you have no fear of (same was in wow). Its a shame that you cant lvl to 50 just in the shire and never leave it, as it is you have to spend most of your time in a dull and boring place rather than then empty fields of the barrow downs.

I hope that future games will have something in all areas for all levels and characters. When a character is high level they are ignored by low level monsters in low areas so why cant this also work the other way? So a high level monster (in a multi level area) ignores the level 5 but is threatened by the level 50. After all does a huge dragon care about a farmer or is he worried about the armoured warrior...hope you see my point here.

I will one day return to LOTRO, first because of the nice kinship i found but also i really want that game to be successful. The dev team are great in listening to people and implimented changes. Their servicec is great, (everytime we have needed a GM in an instance we have waited less than 5 minutes its incridible.)

I would like to see how it develops but as a poster above has said, im kind of bored with the high fantasy right now. I would like a futuristic one to look forward too (Fallout MMO) but as it is i will try AoC and when i get the chance i will return to LOTRO and punch Sauron on the nose.

I too am concerned that they will be over played for a number of reasons. I will have a barbarian as a main but i also think the class will be like the ranger class in wow or LOTRO in that they will be easy to solo to high lvl and so desireable to many.

One of the abilities of the barbarian is that they get more dangerious when other barbarians are in there group so it almost encourages mobs of barbarian hordes, which is good and bad really because if played well i think that they could be awesome and eventually the class may be weakened to compensate. I really wanted to just have one character this time round so i hope the bar turns out ok. I think every game i try i make one less alt and now i dont even want to have lots of little alts, just one main.

Glad they finally review the repair costs it wasnt fun the way it was. Its hard if your raiding every day of the week because inbetween you cant really get the funds to repair so i found i slowly ran out of silver.

The Dps will be good for soloing for sure. Good changes all in all.

I was wondering about the PC demands myself. I dont have a great graphics card and the pc is quite old really so i was wondering wheather i should get a new graphics card or to get a xbox360. Thing is that i dont think the AoC will be out on xbox for some time.

They did say that they have set the pc demands to equal the Oblivion game so if you can run that game you will be able to run AoC. So i got Oblivion and tryed it out which was a great success. Oblivion runs well on my pc although a lot of the settings are low. So if i get a new graphics card (a Sapphire x1950 pro 512 mb for around £100) i should be just fine. I might not get to seeall the loveliness of AoC but it will be enough to get my foot in the door and if i can get an upgrade later that will be great.

It would be good if they have account subs for pc and xbox the same so i can start out on my pc and when the xbox release comes out (and hopefully cost of xbox comes down a bit) i can switch and keep my account.

I agree that it can destory a RP atmosphere but when i use the voice feature i do try to remain in-character so my tank sounds a lot different to my mage:) so it can also add immersion.

Sometimes its imporant to have voice for doing hard things like raids so there is a benifit in the option of in-build voice chat. Ts and vent i couldnt stand, i used skpye for wow back in the days but lets hope it becomes standard for games.

It do think its a benifit to add out of game things to in game UI, like the voice chat but i am also thinking of the feature that AoC will have which is to search for a guild ingame which says time in the offline search that gets you to plow through hundreds of guilds that prob wont even be on the right server.

I would say that its a great idea to sit around a campfire and enjoy the low level game as that is when weathertop is a great thing to talk about and take and adventure too.

One thing you dont want to do is grind to top level as the quests become dull as fellowships form only to do a quest and disband stright after (sometimes without as little as a hello or goodbye).

Once at top level the game looses its magic, in fact i would say that the magic goes once you hit around 35ish and you have to experience the serious quest grinding dilemas of Dol dinen.

I have noticed a decrease in the community on the game as of late as a lot of people have got to top level and dont know what to do. Some get to the rift and others start alts but once they do hit 50 you rarely see them around.

The game is very enjoyable but i would say not to rush to gain level and enjoy the low level interactions.

As far as i am aware its LOTRO and that is a great feature i hope that it becomes standard soon in all games.

Only under the most snowy condition

I have to say that i have had really bad experinces with the rolepay element in both WOW and LOTRO. Games in themselves are all possible roleplay enviroments and the roleplay comes down to the people you meet. once you meet a good bunch then stick with them.

In wow i have had people giving so much abuse that everytime i roleplayed around stormwind i had to add about 10 to my ignore list. Apparently rp is for young idiots etc but if it wasnt for rp there wouldnt be this games industry.

In LOTRO i have very high hopes and the atmosphere is truly amazing. My first encounter with some 'roleplayers' was a real disapointment. while i was having fun and enjoying the fact i am walking half way across Bree land in chacter they were more interested in my punctuation and complained that i wasnt roleplaying if i didnt use punctuation, needless to say i just started to roleplay on my own:)

Eventually i meet a realy nice kin that did roleplay but the interest in the game has really gone down. I am now going to RP on oblivion and see if that has better roleplay on it:) nothing like an offline game i have come to think.

Lets all hope AoC is what we have always wanted,,,a roleplay enviroment with nice and actually roleplayers who dont jump up and down and then start dancing. If that is the case i want to be able to cut their heads off.

Well 3 level 70's and lots of instances and raiding but i left the wow game now. It was the longest i played a single game for though and i will say that the instances are really well designed and interesting but sometimes frustrating and require a lot of 'work' to get nice things which doesnt catter for casual players, and in all honesty taht is the games main player base.

I went over to LOTRO and found that to be quite fun to start with but once at the end game it offers less than wow and in a way its repeating. Now i think i am looking for a new game...not just new but very different. one of the reasons i am waiting for AoC is that its combat system is going to create a change for good players to shin....skilled, cause it has a lot more skill to the combos than a point and click. It better be good cause after 2 years of playing wow i am reluctant to try another fantasy swords and sorcery thing.......waiting for a Fall Out type mmo that would be great.

Well for those who stick with wow i hope you get more than a new colour of orge with the same annoying sound effects....you never know, there might be rainbow coloured murlocs too. I have great memories from that game though but as most my friends dont play there any more, or those who do, only on and off, i dont think i will return.

Wouldnt it be superb to have ultra real combat:

The sword cuts are great i am really impressed.

I would like to have the choice of 'fighting styles' though. ,like 'professional', 'crazed', passive, etc.

It would be great to have an open hit system in which you can hit your allies if they are fighting too close...this would cut down ganking in PvP for sure and add to that realism.

Shield walls....as well as making an enviroment more dangerious by swinging your sword next to your alliy, if you stand close to your fellow guardian the two (3,4.-300) will add to defence to make a virtual shield wall. You could have stright walls or circle the healer etc and would also make effective shield wedges or attack formations.

I think this will be on the agenda soon. As well as AoE fireballs actually effecting the caster if they are too close to the spell themselves after all they should be aware of the danger of their power.

Hmmm, well:

Graphics look nice and so does combat.

The 'red flag taken' sounds a really bad voice over and destroys the minimal atmosphere.

Flag games......in Age of Conan? really bad idea. at least call it capture the sword or something.

I want to see hordes of combatants lined up and ready for the charge, shields locked (for better defence), with the mad barbarians trying to brake the shield walls.....not get the blue flag into red base...please.

I am definitively in favour of age restriction for roleplay servers as the word roleplay has been corrupted with indecency as of late and the bare flesh in AoC wont help the adolescent. Its good that they have created a world that holds to the world in which the fantasy is set.

How this will be policed is a tough one but one way would be to have character ages....and in game contense forbidden or granted based upon the character age. this way there would be some kind of parental control and in addition to this there would be a nice element to the roleplay server who had young-old age. game contense could be controlled based upon the age of the character.

I also hope that they will put a limit on the amount of jumps someone can do in a set time as there is nothing more un-roleplay like than a twat jumping up and down saying 'dude' or any of the other stuff. maybe words are something else restricted to age. i know my barbarian wont be saying much but sure cutting heads of the farmers.