October 25th, 2008

Age of Conan PC – The Return

Age of Conan, PC, and a bunch of crazy MMORPG gamers, that's enough to start a war. Obviously, I am not talking about really crazy gamers, since "crazy about MMORPG" should be enough. Just like in any real war, there are advances and retreats, and if you're working on such a game, these are the last things you want to see. The reason is obvious - a retreat means less users, less money, and the beginning of the end. While Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures is a really good MMORPG, it seems there are people leaving it, but that's not something out of ordinary. The interesting part is how Funcom plans to lure them back into the game's world...

Thinking about promotions? Maybe even a few free months for those turning their faces to Age of Conan once again? Well, not quite, since Funcom's Craig Morrison simply said they will do all that's possible to provide a better service to the existing subscribers, and then rely on a "knock-on effect," as GamesIndustry.biz writes.

Talking to Eurogamer, Mr. Morrison said

"In the MMO space, word of mouth is incredibly important. If we can show that the players who are playing the game are having a good experience, that the game has improved and that they can see that - that they're talking to us, and we're engaging with them... That has a positive knock-on effect."

As a direct conclusion of this fact, all they need to do is solve the problems with Age of Conan, PC or Xbox 360 version, and that should bring people back pretty easy, according to Craig Morrison. "When people first mention the game, they don't necessarily hear a negative voice - they start to hear people going 'actually, you know, the guys have fixed all of that - the game's better now, you might enjoy it now'," he said, and I must agree with that, only that he forgot one thing - if a game like this one gets negative reviews after being officially released, most of those reviews won't be changed simply because various issues have been fixed...