Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures Quest Designer interview

  

You can easily imagine Funcom‘s resident lore guy shout “By Crom!” after asking you to put your feet up as he relates the latest story in the rich history of Hyboria.

In an interview with Quest Designer and Lore Master Elliot Kingdon (the said lore guy), he explained his role in the development of their lore-rich fantasy MMORPG Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures (also on Xbox 360) and the biggest issues he tackles while handling his job.

A long-time fan of the Conan universe, Kingdon related how his interest in the world itself was what drew him into his current job. Coupled with his love for computer games, his role as the go-to guy about the Conan universe is what makes his job so enjoyable for him.

He mentioned that he and his team take a lot of their ideas mainly from the lore of the game, written from actual stories by the original Conan author Robert E. Howard. He went on to explain the importance of this saying:

Lore is an invaluable framework. Staying true to it and producing a fun game need not be mutually exclusive. And nothing we do in the MMO will violate the original stories, they’ll still be right there on the shelf.

All the aspects of the game were closely incorporated from the actual lore of the Conan storyline. Gamers won’t be surprised to see long-dead villains rise from their graves or the fact that the world itself, while in placed in a purely fantasy setting, has magic as a rare but powerful commodity.

It goes without saying that Elliot definitely loves the job he has. And when asked who his favorite NPC was in the Age of Conan MMORPG was, his answer was quite simple: “Conan has to be my favorite”.

  

You can easily imagine Funcom‘s resident lore guy shout “By Crom!” after asking you to put your feet up as he relates the latest story in the rich history of Hyboria.

In an interview with Quest Designer and Lore Master Elliot Kingdon (the said lore guy), he explained his role in the development of their lore-rich fantasy MMORPG Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures (also on Xbox 360) and the biggest issues he tackles while handling his job.

A long-time fan of the Conan universe, Kingdon related how his interest in the world itself was what drew him into his current job. Coupled with his love for computer games, his role as the go-to guy about the Conan universe is what makes his job so enjoyable for him.

He mentioned that he and his team take a lot of their ideas mainly from the lore of the game, written from actual stories by the original Conan author Robert E. Howard. He went on to explain the importance of this saying:

Lore is an invaluable framework. Staying true to it and producing a fun game need not be mutually exclusive. And nothing we do in the MMO will violate the original stories, they’ll still be right there on the shelf.

All the aspects of the game were closely incorporated from the actual lore of the Conan storyline. Gamers won’t be surprised to see long-dead villains rise from their graves or the fact that the world itself, while in placed in a purely fantasy setting, has magic as a rare but powerful commodity.

It goes without saying that Elliot definitely loves the job he has. And when asked who his favorite NPC was in the Age of Conan MMORPG was, his answer was quite simple: “Conan has to be my favorite”.