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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsBreakfast Topic: Did Age of Conan pull you away this weekend?
by Dan O'Halloran 
May 18th 2008 at 8:00AM
Funcom's Age of Conan opened yesterday to those who pre-ordered. Considered one of the two MMO's this year that has a chance to take a chunk out of WoW (Warhammer Online being the other), this newest entry into the overcrowded fantasy genre officially goes live on Thursday, but Early Access was granted to those willing to lay out the cash.Now, I'm not fool enough to predict that AoC will take down WoW, but I do believe it will take a chunk out of WoW's playerbase in the short term. There is a malaise setting in among WoW players and guilds now that we are in the long wait until Wrath's launch. And nothing kicks you out of gaming doldrums like something new and shiny (not to mention bouncy and bloody.)
This morning we ask you not if you are leaving WoW for AoC, but if you are indulging in a little weekend sideline fun in the lands of Hyboria. Or have your stalwart guildmates suddenly disappeared yesterday?
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Breakfast Topics
Reader Comments (Page 3 of 4)
Kaylek May 28th 2008 10:00AM
Problem is, WOW is popular because of those traits, and a competitor would have to appeal to the same audience on some level if they expect to win out.
Lazerbyte May 18th 2008 11:22AM
I played it and I like it the only real problem is that it is still quite buggy and a very very graphical!
I do like it and it is a lot of fun!
kunukia May 18th 2008 11:31AM
I did not, but a LOT of my guildies are trying it. They even made a sister guild on one of the servers. I hope they come back. My druid is ready for the final step of her fast flight quest, and I don't want to PUG it.
Mel May 18th 2008 11:33AM
I am not interested in the Conan franchise. It is a dull wet dream for preteen boys from the early years of the last century. Boring as hell and dumb to boot.
The game is a pityfull waste of a seemingly good gaming-engine on a crappy story. Rip out the Conan and substitute it with something interesting - THEN I might consider testing that one out.
_LarZen_ May 18th 2008 4:54PM
Rofl...thank God im not you...I would....
Kyudo May 18th 2008 11:40AM
Unless AoC has a powerful API for user mods via Lua, Ruby, etc, then it will never pull me in.
Aside from that, Conan? Honestly...?
Warhammer at least has some lore built around it that has garnered its own fanbase--too bad I never got into it. But the Conan fanbase? Obscure.
The only RPG that could pull me away would have to be Final Fantasy based.
I played FFXI ages ago, but didn't have the time or enough friends playing--I tried playing it again recently, and it's just an abysmal game. It has its great points, like the ability to play one character and just change classes--not to mention have two classes simultaneously! The quests doesn't have question marks above peoples heads--you actually had to read and figure quests out. The combat was interesting in that with an Xbox360 controller hooked up to your PC, you could just play it like an FF game on your couch--except online, with friends. It gave you back that awesome feel of Epic FF battles, except this time you're in real control of a character.
It's real issue? SLOW. And boring. It has no real way to properly level aside from being power-leveled. The leveling gets exponentially harder and you continue to gain the same damn XP percentage of like... 1. And everything took ages to do! No real PvP, wimpy dungeons, and loading screens between zones?
I still enjoyed it though, until the leveling got harder and then I couldn't really progress without gathering a team of 5 people to fight the same mobs over and over for hours, only to level-up 5 hours later. It wasn't worth the time and effort, but...
If they ever redid FFXI with a gameplay system more like WoW, I'd probably drop WoW in a heartbeat.
And this isn't to say I won't try AoC--I just have a feeling it will lack all the little polish that WoW does, and have zero compelling story to pull me in.
Realism? In fantasy? No thanks!
Ogre May 19th 2008 2:18PM
Conan? Obscure?
I guess to today's MTV suckled generation, but it is a property that has been around for ohh, 76 years!
Far more people know of Conan than WoW or anything by Games Workshop.
Let's see if anyone knows WoW or Warhammer in 2084...
Iwanttobeasleep May 18th 2008 12:16PM
I'm bored of WoW, but I'm not touching another MMO. I play WoW to be with friends, Age of Conan might as well be a single player game for how much I'd enjoy it between now and getting back into WoW.
I'm playing The World Ends With You instead. Amazing game.
Cynra May 19th 2008 7:28AM
'asleep, wise choice, sir, wise choice. I snagged The World Ends With You the day after it came out and I got ridiculously attached to the game. In fact, I actually stopped playing the newest Ace Attorney game (I'm a closet fanatic of that series) to play it. It's a phenominal RPG: the grungy-yet-vibrant graphics and cutscenes are gorgeous, the soundtrack is absolutely addictive, and the characters and story are engaging to a fault.
I won't reveal any spoilers, but two notes. First, I thought no less than two times that the game had ended and was incorrect every time. That made me giddy because what I thought was a wonderful-yet-short game became an engaging-wonderful-and-omigawd-there's-more game. Second, there's some replay to the game beyond experiencing it for the second time and I love the way that they handled it. There's no New Game+ here; pick the chapter you want to start at and jump into it without any reservations. THAT alone made playing the game again more palatable.
Baluki May 18th 2008 12:18PM
I've been playing WoW since the beginning, and it's still fun for me.
It's going to take a lot to pull me away from it, and AoC and WHO don't sound very interesting.
Foul May 18th 2008 1:42PM
Played the game for a couple of days now, i've enjoyed every minute of it. I'm not planning on dropping WoW for it, but it is really fun game to play when you want something different. Conan has a lot of great lore to build on, some people have obviously just watched Arnold's movies and base their opinion on them.
Todd May 18th 2008 1:16PM
AoC will never steal me away. I just could care less about that lore and universe. Warcraft though I have been playing since the original Orcs & Humans rts game came out.
At this point I really don't know if there is a mmo that could steal me away from wow. Hmm.. Maybe a bioware mmo based on KOTOR. Bute even that I would still play wow.
samlee860407 May 18th 2008 1:29PM
although i am not into AOC, but alot of my guildmates are. Many of them are leaving, especially the officers and the MT. In the end, the GM quit WOW and sold his account. The guild no more doing 25 man. They are all my freinds, ever since i start playing WOW. Personally i hate seeing them leaving, but well, life goes on .
SpunkyMcSpunker May 29th 2008 3:49PM
I have trouble believing someone already sold their account for WoW who was a GM. I call BS on this one
Kz May 18th 2008 2:45PM
My Wow playing time has been reduced to less than 10% of what it used to be. Not being a raider I have run out of content until WotLK. So I played AoC some yesterday and today. There must be quite a few playing as AoC had to add two more servers yesterday. The early access program was sold out so many more wanted to get in but could not.
The lag is not good at present, but that is probably normal for a new game from what I have heard. The character creation process is nice. Melee is more demanding than Wow. The content is a bit linear, but I am only level 10. Up to level 20 one can choose to solo by playing in the AoC night time which I have been doing.
I would imagine this game is going to go through a lot of changes. I plan to continue playing to see how it unfolds. For those that don't know, general availability start 5/20.
Elph May 18th 2008 2:48PM
I played AoC all day yesterday and had a blast.
Pingmeister May 18th 2008 4:12PM
For those who are not familiar with the Conan books I suggest trying a few of the Robert E. Howard original novels. It is a very unique writing style, very colorful and action-packed.
As a writer myself I often re-read his novels because of how powerful his descriptions are. The L. Sprague DeCamp novels pale in comparison.
I don't dare try the AoC game. Bad enough that I'm addicted to ONE MMO.
Tenchan May 18th 2008 4:51PM
Played all day and love it. Will keep playing with much enthusiasm.
Still playing WoW too. Some of us are able to enjoy multiple things without immediately falling into rivalry thinking ;)
haust May 18th 2008 5:45PM
Well, I'm a Warcraft and Blizzard fan.
AoC ?? WH ?? No thanks, it's that simple for me.
Now, having other big names in the fantasy MMO market is a good thing for gamers. They can choose their playstyle and/or their lore. The more the better :)
Ravenswing May 19th 2008 7:44AM
Sadly, I got to play the beta. Performance issues and bugs are to be expected, it's a beta. Bugs which stop you progressing past level 5 on two out of two characters, and a company that clearly does inadequate testing (one of those two bugs was marked as fixed in the patch notes 7 days before release, but was actually worse), that kind of thing I don't expect.
If Wrath doesn't come out until Christmas, I might consider playing a bit of Conan in September after a few major patches have fixed the bugs.