Massively^™

This week's episode of the CBS sitcom The Big Bang Theory prominently featured Age of Conan, and its A-story dealt in a light-hearted way with online gaming addiction. If you're unfamiliar with the show, the premise is as follows: two extremely geeky twenty-something males -- both scientists at Caltech -- move in across the hall from a pretty but not-too-terribly sophisticated blonde woman. Commence unlikely friendship and all the humor that comes with it!

In this week's episode, one of the two geeks is playing Age of Conan when the girl comes over. She starts playing the game and becomes addicted, rejecting responsibilities and basic hygiene for the remainder of the episode. The premise sounds typical, but the episode has a certain wink-like-quality to it. It's all in good humor, and there are a lot of inside jokes that only players of the game could get.

Funcom's active participation becomes evident when cut-scenes rendered exclusively for the show make an appearance. It's likely that Funcom paid for this product placement, actually. We've embedded a brief clip after the break, but you should check out other (unembeddable) scenes at the show's website (watch any clip from season two, episode three), but be aware that CBS insists on living in some long-dead century by not making the complete episode available online.

[Thanks, C.A.]

---

	Having fun in Conan's homeland? Make sure to check out all of our previous Age of Conan coverage, and stick with Massively for more news from the Hyborian Age!

In an interview with MTV Multiplayer, Funcom's Jørgen Tharaldsen speaks surprisingly frank about the many criticisms Age of Conan has been dealt. Topics cover everything from the current state of the game to what Funcom is doing to bring back players with a "come back and play for free" invite sometime in 2009, according to Jørgen. The whole read is just generally very interesting and well worth your time if you've any interest in Age of Conan and where it's headed in the coming months.

At the end of the interview, the question of Warhammer Online and Wrath of the Lich King come up in relation to any possibly concerns for Funcom. Jørgen delivers one of his most lucid comments about AoC when he says, "I don't think anything is easy in the world of MMO's, and fighting to get new subscribers is a constant challenge. Now it's 'WAR' and 'Lich King' - going forward there will be many others." The list of other contenders is indeed longer than a Dream Theater solo and in a couple of weeks we may have to add yet another large contender to that laundry list.

Have you ever wondered what goes through the mind of a game music composer as they write the theme for our favorite games? Why was this particular piece chosen for this part of the game? Was it written with the game's lore in mind, or written beforehand, and just added to the game afterwards?

In the recently released Age of Conan soundtrack album, composer Knut Avenstroup Haugen poured his heart and soul into making what could be argued as the best game soundtrack in awhile. In an article at Ten Ton Hammer, Haugen talks in-depth about his masterpiece soundtrack album, and what inspired him to make the music. Each piece is described in detail in an order relative to how you would hear them in the game. You can play and listen to six of the tracks straight from the article, to entice both AoC players and non-players alike.

You may have heard that some Age of Conan servers will soon be merged in both the North American and European regions. New game director Craig Morrison made the announcement in a letter to the community just over a week ago. That revelation was a tacit admission that the game is not performing as expected, but Morrison has made it clear that he wants Funcom to brush the dirt off its shoulders and move on.

Will the mergers encourage you to jump ship, or do you take them as a sign that Funcom is aware of the situation and ready to take decisive action to improve the game? Morrison claimed that the decision was made in response to player demand; were you demanding it? And regardless of whether you plan to stick with AoC (or return, if you've already left), do you believe the game has recovery and a positive future ahead of it?

---

	Having fun in Conan's homeland? Make sure to check out all of our previous Age of Conan coverage, and stick with Massively for more news from the Hyborian Age!

Early last week we discussed the upcoming server merge coming to Funcom's Age of Conan. Announced by new game Director Craig Morrison, the merge will combine a few of the lower population servers and (hopefully) will give players a more vibrant play experience. Jørgen Tharaldsen, Product Director for the game, has now stated publicly that they went ahead with plans for the merge only because of a vocal outcry from the playerbase in that direction.

Speaking with the site Strategy Informer, Tharaldsen stated "I think that people who are playing Conan are actually very happy about the news, and indeed it's been one of the most requested things from our playerbase. The essence of any MMO is the social experience, and right now people are spread out a bit too thin across the servers." He goes on to note that server merges only primarily help players that are already in the game. Convincing new players to try out the title is the next step, one they're currently working on behind the scenes at the company. We'll follow the story of AoC's server merge as it moves forward.
[Via 1up]

---

	Having fun in Conan's homeland? Make sure to check out all of our previous Age of Conan coverage, and stick with Massively for more news from the Hyborian Age!

Okay, Funcom, we get it. You're deadly serious about fixing Age of Conan. First the beginnings of the PvP patch went live, 'Patch 2', giving players PvP XP and gear. Then we got to see the reworked notoriety system on Testlive, along with shady camps and six pages of patchnotes. And now we get a lengthy document about coming changes to the crafting system on the Testlive server. Good heavens, anyone would think that Craig Morrison bloke actually knew what he was doing.

Age of Conan crafting had been lacklustre. The new changes, which are scheduled to go live as part of Update 3 - the very same update that will polish off the PvP changes - add much more depth and complexity to the tradeskills. Weapons and armor will now have recipes that drop for city, base and culture versions, depending on whether they require a guild city or not. The 'base' pieces can be worn, and also used up in crafting to produce new pieces.

---

	Having fun in Conan's homeland? Make sure to check out all of our previous Age of Conan coverage, and stick with Massively for more news from the Hyborian Age!

Just as players' patience was starting to fray again, 'Patch 3' has arrived on the Age of Conan testlive server, and it is a chunky one - we counted at least 594 meg. Feel like browsing the patch notes? Make a nice cup of something, put your feet up, take your time... there are six pages to wade through.

Obviously we can't detail all of them here, but they range from the silly-but-desired 'Party people rejoice - proper drunkenness has been implemented!' to the necessary 'Fixed several causes of crashes and assert errors' to the trivial 'For decency's sake, Old Finn now has pants!'

But the most interesting new feature is the addition of Shady Camps as a complement to the new Age of Conan PvP notoriety system, as promised by Craig Morrison recently. There are several other new tweaks to the system that had us eager to see it go live. We've put them behind the cut.

Free running and urban exploration in virtual worlds have both taken off significantly in recent years. Players can be seen clambering around buildings and jumping between the rooftops in games from World of Warcraft to Everquest 2 and Funcom's Age of Conan is no different. Like a lot of players, I found myself eventually having to make my own fun after a while. For me, that meant finding my way onto the rooftops and jumping between them like a maniac. In this visual article, I find myself on the rooftops and back alleys of two cities in Age of Conan and see things from a perspective that most players will never see first hand.

---

Having fun in Conan's homeland? Make sure to check out all of our previous Age of Conan coverage, and stick with Massively for more news from the Hyborian Age!

Age of Conan players have been curious to see what new Game Director Craig Morrison will bring to the table. He's already proven willing to wade in to the forums and give players clear answers to their questions, and today he's provided a lengthy and frank letter about what will be coming to AoC in the future. There's a lot of information to digest.

Although it's low down on the list, the news of coming server merges caught our eye immediately: 'we are actively working on an approach to merge servers, both in Europe and North America.' While this can (and no doubt will) be interpreted as an admission that the population is low on certain servers, it is also indicative of a willngness to do something decisive about the situation, so that the players can have the best experience. That gets points from us.

In addition to explaining Power Points and Kingship, which were announced some time ago but not really mentioned much since, Craig also provides some very interesting new information about the PvP consequence system, which adds more detail and game world immersion than had previously been announced.

---

	Having fun in Conan's homeland? Make sure to check out all of our previous Age of Conan coverage, and stick with Massively for more news from the Hyborian Age!

In just over one month, Massively will celebrate its first birthday! Last week we started a countdown to the event by kicking off a series of features highlighting the best stuff from the site so far. We started with our ten most important interviews. Today, we're continuing the weekly countdown by listing some of your (and our) favorite guides!

We broke them out into six categories, counting down to the best and most popular. A wide variety of games are covered, so chances are you'll find something useful in here. This list can serve as a springboard to a ton of content -- dozens and dozens of articles. So consider this your go-to place for info on some of the hottest games.

Without further ado, here's the guide to our best guides. Wow, how meta is that!

The MMO genre was born and raised in the PC culture. The reasons are obvious, of course -- personal computers have been connected to networks for a long time, the keyboard was more effective for communication before the advent of Voice-over-IP. That said, a lot has been done to make platforms like the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3 more attractive for MMO developers and players.

Funcom plans to release Age of Conan for the 360. DC Universe Online, The Agency, and Free Realms will all be available on the PS3. In fact, noted MMO developer SOE was not long ago moved into what is basically Sony's PlayStation division with the explicit intent to focus on console MMOs. Blizzard has hired workers with console experience to work on its unannounced "Next-Gen MMO." Clearly, this generation is going to greatly expand on the pioneering efforts of past console MMOs like Final Fantasy XI. Surely if the genre doesn't explode on today's consoles it will in the next batch, right?

Are you looking forward to leaving behind the mouse and keyboard so you can lounge on the sofa with a wireless controller, or are you concerned that too much will be lost in translation? Maybe you think that attempts like The Agency will fail, and the bubble will burst before anyone even really notices it. There are a lot of problems, such as the expense and hassle of the process of authenticating patches in a tightly-controlled service like Xbox Live. Are problems like that deal breakers?

It took a while getting there, but PvP gear finally made it to Age of Conan. Was it worth the wait? Apparently, yes. The PvP patch has caused a marked increase in enthusiasm for the game, and players are killing each other like never before in their haste to earn PvP levels. Unfortunately, the AoC PvP notoriety patch didn't go live yet, so nobody is being branded as a murderer or criminal no matter how many lower level passers-by they ambush and massacre.

Martuk at Ten Ton Hammer has put together the first part of an exhaustive catalog of all the PvP gear that's made it into the game so far, complete with requirements and bonuses, so you can plan out exactly what you want to wear in your PvP career. You can pick the gear up from vendors, who you can find in the game's racial hubs. Each piece has a minimum PvP level required to wear or wield. Note that the minimum character level is 80; this is definitely endgame stuff.

Although there are ten PvP levels, the gear available only goes up to level 5 so far. More gear will be coming in the future to take the system all the way up to level 10.

We relish informed opinion pieces here at Massively. That's what the professional site gamesindustry.biz is serving up for us, in the form of an editorial by site founder Rob Fahey. He tackles a subject we've looked at ourselves fairly often in the last few weeks: the nature of World of Warcraft's dominion, how long it can last, and whether challenging WoW is even worthwhile.

As well as running down the recent challengers to WoW, Rob makes two extremely simple points. Firstly, WoW is successful not just because it's good now, but because millions of players have invested in it over time and built up inertia. It's not just the mass of an MMO, but the velocity that counts.

Secondly, given the tremendous inertia, he argues that competing with WoW would be suicide. Games companies would be better advised to seek virgin territory, and 'avoid WoW's market like the plague'. Rob clearly has a high opinion of WoW, which he describes as 'the most polished and perfectly balanced MMOG ever created, regardless of what a small but vocal band of snooty naysayers may argue'.