Age of Conan servers are shut at the moment at Funcom readies the new "unrated and Unchained" version of the game. Unchained, for those not in the know, is the free to play version of Age of Conan. The official website is also down in preparation for the arrival of Unchained.

Will there be a player shop to buy various items that allow you to advance in the game?

Yes, we have already been selling those types of convenience and progression benefits for some time through the game’s account pages, so this just places those kinds of items into a store setting similar to that you would find in other free to play games. This is already something we have integrated in the Korean version of the game, and our backend for that type of service is already well established and tested as it currently runs the store in Anarchy Online.

Read more of the MMORPG.com interview with Funcom's Craig Morrison about Age of Conan Unbound.