War of the Failures

Lately I have come to the realization that two of the biggest failures of 2008 are now two of my all time favorite games.

Age of Conan and Warhammer Online.

But, a battle royale is coming next week between these two newer generation MMO's. Age of Conan will be releasing their new expansion, Rise of the Godslayer. May 11th to be precise. Why does this create a field of war, when these two games are not so much like each other?

Originally both games were heavily PvP oriented. But, Warhammer took a different approach by making it all about the large open Realm vs Realm combat. Age of Conan went for a guild based "siege" mechanic (I do not want to argue semantics here either. We all know WAR has sieging, but AoC definitely does not have factional PvP...yet.) and one on one dueling. WAR had scenarios and AoC had CTF style arena based 6vs6 style combat.

Age of Conan took a different direction eventually in late 2009, focusing more on a gear grind based PvE system, but still having PvP. Just, it seems to me that PvP really has no "purpose" when you kill for the sake of killing. WAR though has always focused on a "sides" based system. When a particular "faction" has won the day, rewards for all in that "faction" or realm was included. Age of Conan is the every man for himself or his guild fight. WAR is for Order or Destruction being in control.

Differences abound, but the similarities of these two games could not be more adequate.

These games were truly failures of their time.

Both games were hyped beyond compare from their respective game directors, and were not quite up to what was stated about them. Both games opened to acclaim by many and sold as man copies as to try and compete with that powerhouse known as WoW. Both though slowly degraded and were denigrated for many broken systems they had in place.

Eventually the mighty two toppled to where today they each struggle to keep themselves alive.

But, a sea change is on the horizon for one game. Age of Conan  has started to gain a larger following. Reviewers of games and many a blog have touted the games turn around. Sales of the expansion have been brisk. And as noted on Xfire, growth is hitting the game before the expansion launch.
Recent numbers show Age of Conan at roughly about 908 players on Xfire. In a previous post from last month, ( The Xfire Game ), AoC was at 677 players. This is important, as using the calc system I discuss in that post, Age of Conan is hitting around 110k players / subs per month. (As I must always note, these estimates are part of a game, using the Xfire tracking system, and are not 100% accurate, but do give a good glimpse of popularity).

WAR had made progress as well with the game, but continues to live with setbacks. Servers were closed overseas. A Large billing fiasco made Mythic the brunt of bad news. And finally a most recent newsletter makes mention of a mechanic that has not existed in the game since launch, having Order and Destruction characters on the same server...which has led to speculation of more server merges.
Using the same Xfire gaming system for sub counts, we also see what effect this news is having on Warhammer Online. The previous count (from March 29th) had WAR at roughly 621 players. This converts to about 75k subs. The game is now hitting 590 Xfire players, or around 70k subs. (Note, this number is interesting, as many a quote has suggested that roughly this many were affected by the billing fiasco...but, that is speculation. I may discuss that more on Twitter later).
Seeing I am playing WAR, I can also feel the difference from when I launched to now. Less Scenarios opening up, less full ORvR groups...basically a feeling of more emptiness.

My thoughts are that when Rise of the Godlsayer launches, that even though WAR and AoC have been neck and neck on Xfire...it will start a larger tumble for WAR. The number of players will fall, and unless something drastic happens soon, WAR could see an end to it's glorious rebound.

What are your thoughts? Leave me a comment. I will be opening wide the comment floodgates today as well, so feel free to "express yourself".

Header changes - Of the moment...

Bear with me as I play around a bit with my header images.  If it is too large, let me know...k?

I like the idea of having my header image reflect my current games of choice.

For example the current one (which I will leave up for a week). I saw this image yesterday while browsing my gaming images folder. It was from Eye of the North for Guild Wars. I just saw header image potential there. EoTN, as well, really shows what we can look forward to in Guild Wars 2, with it's large open vistas and landscapes, and this image is just one piece that looks awesome. I have quite a few more coming.

I loved the previous image I had in the header which was from Rise of the Godslayer for Age of Conan. It was a render piece for a new zone. Looked incredible. But, AoC is not on my list yet, and will not be until the expansion. Let me tell you why.

The family made this choice for one major reason. We wish to start over. But, as a family, we have played through the intro several times, and are quite familiar with the Tortage experience. We figure if we wish to do it again, we want a new place to go to when we are done. Khitai, part of the new expansion, will fit the bill perfectly. As well, the intro zone will be new and fresh after a long hiatus, so we should have quite a bit of fun.

For now, we are learning and discovering Factions for Guild Wars. Our classes are still slightly weak in my experience, but learning to use what we have is a study in patience. I am already on my 4th do-over for skill layouts.
As for the others, my wife just loves her Mesmer. I am interested in how she is playing it, and will get to see that more as I move my Ritualist into a "healer" type role. I will be babysitting the players and will get to see what skills are being used more.
As for my son, he finally found the major issue with the Assassin. This class is powerful, but also quite weak in aspects of armor. Seeing the class is always in the front line, he also met his fate a multitude of times. We do not have a main tank class, so yes, he is getting ripped apart and dying....a lot. He was almost ready to throw in the towel (again).

But, it will take time for all of us to learn the aspects of these different classes and learn how to best mesh them together. I do not want to get to max level and then be done again, as I just do not feel like starting over again. I hope we find the right place to be.

So, it looks like the basis of todays post is starting again. As I have started blogging again, I also have redone the header, for a fresh start. Hmm. Is Spring around the corner?

Cheers

Age of Conan - Massively discusses RoG

Rise of the Godslayer, the new expansion for Age of Conan was discussed in detail on Massively (Source).

It does look like some clarification is needed though, as the article mentions one point.

"Interestingly, the Gateway to Khitai, which is part of a 20-to-40 area, is the only new area being added with the expansion. The vibe we got was that Funcom wants to flesh out the less potent part of the game world's content and this level spread was the weakest link -- at least until now."

This proves to be a conundrum when information like this is stated, when in fact Craig has gone on record at one point discussing new "Level 80" content.

"The steppes of the Gateway to Khitai provide level 20-40 adventuring, and lead players up to the Great Wall. But not beyond it.

Lots of sheer cliffs, lots of rope bridges; some areas have a Thousand Needles vibe.

To get beyond the Wall and into Khitai proper, you'll need a high-level character"(Source)

.

Hopefully this will be rectified
In the mean time, there is still some good information there, so please give it a read.

Age of Conan - Exclusive Godslayer footage

Ten Ton Hammer has some exclusive in game footage of the "Rise of the Godslayer", the new expansion for Age of Conan, for our perusal.

We see in this video a walk around a village at the base of the Great Wall. Ten Ton also notes that players enter Khitai at level 20, thus giving a new experience for the levels 20-40 (as well as additions to endgame).

Enjoy the video

Age of Conan - Khitai lore

Over at the Cimmerian blog is a 3 part series as it relates to the Khitai.

The Khitai are the new race being introduced in the Age of Conan expansion "Rise of the Godslayer".

The posts deal with an in depth look at various culture reference, lore and what has been noted by Funcom so far.

This first part of the series deals with Geography and Ecology

The second deals with Religion and Culture

The third is based on the Peoples and Trade.

If you are like me, and enjoy how the lore works in Age of Conan, how Funcom strictly stick to guidelines and how the world in AoC matches the books, this is a great read.
Craig Morrison has stated that a lot of research has went into studying Asian culture, buildings, etc. So, hopefully a lot of what we see on these posts will be integrated.

Enjoy.