Erling Ellingsen on being alone on Age of Conan

AoC

Erling Ellingsen gave us an update about what’s up with Funcom‘s upcoming MMO offering, Age of Conan. Erling actually had a lot to say, not only about the game but about MMOs in general. He kicked things off by stating the importance of single-player experiences. He says that “MMOs can be very intimidating at first. They lack many of the gameplay mechanics that draw the player in from the start of most games, such as story that really takes you by the hand and gets you going.”

This mantra is what’s in the dev team’s head that is why they introduced a single-player part in Age of Conan. At first, you will be all alone in exploring the island of Tortage and eventually, you’ll be encountering other players. In that way, Erling believes that the players would be able to bond with their characters and they’ll have a wider understanding of the game.

With regards to the Real Combat system, he mentioned that the game will “rely mostly on the standard character skills, not the player’s “twitch” skill. The action is never so fast and accurate that the faster you’re able to press the keys, the more damage you will do. It is much more a strategic, tactical type of fighting.” With that, you could already picture how violent and brutal AoC would be. So would a really physical world have room for spellcasters? According to Erling, spellcasters and magic are not neglected as Hyboria isn’t only known for its brutal realism, but is also home to mystical creatures and mythologies.

For most game developers, a game being rated as Mature is a bad thing. But to Erling and FunCom, they see it as something good. Call it optimism, but he believes that “Having the game rated Mature does give us a lot more opportunities to fully realize the world of Hyboria in accordance with the works of Robert E. Howard, the original author of the Conan stories.”

To read the blow-by-blow account of the interview, check out the link below.

AoC

Erling Ellingsen gave us an update about what’s up with Funcom‘s upcoming MMO offering, Age of Conan. Erling actually had a lot to say, not only about the game but about MMOs in general. He kicked things off by stating the importance of single-player experiences. He says that “MMOs can be very intimidating at first. They lack many of the gameplay mechanics that draw the player in from the start of most games, such as story that really takes you by the hand and gets you going.”

This mantra is what’s in the dev team’s head that is why they introduced a single-player part in Age of Conan. At first, you will be all alone in exploring the island of Tortage and eventually, you’ll be encountering other players. In that way, Erling believes that the players would be able to bond with their characters and they’ll have a wider understanding of the game.

With regards to the Real Combat system, he mentioned that the game will “rely mostly on the standard character skills, not the player’s “twitch” skill. The action is never so fast and accurate that the faster you’re able to press the keys, the more damage you will do. It is much more a strategic, tactical type of fighting.” With that, you could already picture how violent and brutal AoC would be. So would a really physical world have room for spellcasters? According to Erling, spellcasters and magic are not neglected as Hyboria isn’t only known for its brutal realism, but is also home to mystical creatures and mythologies.

For most game developers, a game being rated as Mature is a bad thing. But to Erling and FunCom, they see it as something good. Call it optimism, but he believes that “Having the game rated Mature does give us a lot more opportunities to fully realize the world of Hyboria in accordance with the works of Robert E. Howard, the original author of the Conan stories.”

To read the blow-by-blow account of the interview, check out the link below.

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