Age of Conan wins big at E3

by Alan Rose { May 22nd 2006 at 11:40AM }

Funcom's Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures took home multiple honors at this year's Electronic Entertainment Expo. The upcoming MMO was praised by GameSpot, GameSpy, and IGN with "Best MMO" and "Best Persistent World" awards, beating out contenders such as Huxley, Tabula Rasa, and WoW: Burning Crusade. Age of Conan ships in Q4.

See also: Weapons from Age of Conan, Age of Conan class system revealed

Tags: age of conan, e3, funcom, hyborian adventures

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Jeff @ May 22nd 2006 1:30PM

It may have "won big" at E3, but this story's been up for three hours now and not a single comment before mine.

There is something about a disconnect like that in the gaming industry that bothers me, and it always makes me wonder where the root of it lies. Is all this positive media coverage "bought", as so much preview coverage supposedly is? Does Funcom just not have the money to promote this title properly? Should we be interested and we're just not, is the media just out of touch with the interests of their readers, or is something more nefarious going on with the preview coverage?

Given that some posts here get hundreds of comments and then one like this - about a big upcoming game that took home "multiple honors" at E3 - gets none, it just makes me wonder.

But then, maybe I'm just overthinking things.

Brad Groux @ May 22nd 2006 1:46PM

As a long-time player of Anarchy Online I can't wait to get my hands on Age of Conan. Funcom has a great MMO system on their hands and the extended success of AO shows that. Funcom's only failing grace with AO was the fact that they swung the nerf bat based upon the "bitching" of a minority of subscribers and they pushed expansions on you too quickly without fixing the bugs that were already in the game. If they keep their strong customer support, great gameplay and story and follow Blizzard's lead in how they deal with class reviews and slow down on expansion releases Age of Conan will be a great game from a great developer.

Rayonic @ May 22nd 2006 2:29PM

The biggest stumbling block is probably the name. I mean, "Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures"? Way too wordy and obscure, not to mention potentially misleading. People hear "Age of Conan: blah blah blah" and they immediately think it's some movie spinoff action game where you play as Conan the Barbarian.

And its further confused when people hear "Age of..." and immediately think of a certain RTS series (Age of Empires, Age of Kings, Age of Mythology, etc.)

My advice would be to drop the "Conan" (as Conan the Barbarian has become way too campy of a concept). They should probably drop "Age of" too. And they need to find a more mainstream word (or phrase) for "Hyborian". I consider myself well educated, and I had to hit the dictionary for that one.

I'm dead serious. They need to think up a new name or they'll never achieve widespread success.

scott @ May 22nd 2006 2:35PM

Are there no women characters in this game? I have yet to see a pic or screenshot of one.

Age of Conan is a great name. The Hyborian part is a bit much though.

Jesse @ May 22nd 2006 2:44PM

Wow, how ridiculous that Vanguard:SOH wasn't even a finalist alongside this junk. The obvious reason is that these developers prepared exclusive interviews with the game sites, whereas Sigil simply demonstrated their game to anyone who came by their booth.

I watched Gamespot's coverage of Age of Conan. It looked polished, but buggy and rather dull. The interview consisted of about three sentences repeated over and over and over. Meanwhile, Gamespot gave all of 5 minutes to Vanguard, and Jeff Butler spent those minutes tripping over himself trying to answer questions in that limited amount of time.

So I guess we know which game site we can count on for unbiased coverage.

Griffon @ May 22nd 2006 2:55PM

I saw a live stage preview preview of this on Gamespot during E3 (it's still on the site if you want to look it up). I hardly saw anything to be impressed with, let alone "Best of" quality. It seemed very average in terms of graphics and gameplay and control, I think the best bit was the horse animation.

had2comment @ May 22nd 2006 3:07PM

Brad,

You are giving too much credit to Funcom's Anarchy Online. AO had the worst launch of any MMOG, ever, with the one possible exception of WWIIOnline. Shadowbane's launch was better than AO's, and that's saying something. The fact you don't even cite AO's craptastic launch as a "failing grace" makes me wonder how long you've actually played the game. You say Funcom's AO involvement means that Age of Conan will be good. I say be wary.

Additionally, AO's "extended success" you cite to is very relative. Does it make enough money to support itself? Yes. But by no means is it a success story among the likes of EQ, DAoC, CoH, WoW, or even SWG and EQII.

AO peaked at 60k subscribers in July of 2001. 60k. Its fubar'd launch explains the drop in subs immediately after launch to 20k users. AO was never able to fully recover, although it did make a comeback to 40k subs only to steadily drop off again. I don't see the "extended success." See for yourself (AO is on the 0-120k sub chart, the smallest subscription based chart):

http://www.mmogchart.com/Chart3.html

I've learned over the years not to get hyped over any MMOG release. Anyone remember how Shadowbane was supposed to be the EQ-Killa-9000? Ya, that worked out great. The list could go on and on about failed promises on MMOGs across the board.

So Age of Conan could win the coveted Most Awesomest Game Award at the BuyMoreAdsHerePrzKThxBye trade/award show, and it wouldn't mean a thing. What matters is what Age of Conan brings on launch day. That's it.

Ian @ May 22nd 2006 3:36PM

So? Bioshock won best game at E3 from IGN and Gamespot.

jennie @ May 22nd 2006 3:47PM

I saw a couple of guys at the Conan booth playing as women in their undies, so it does have female characters.

Sadly the booth babe setup and inflatable swords meant there was a permanent crowd at the Conan stand, and they didn't have time to give me a private walkthrough, so there hasn't been a Joystiq Impressions of the game yet.

hohoho @ May 22nd 2006 4:08PM

the dude on the screenshot(/photo/banner) looked a bit like the dude in god of war...

Cheggelund @ May 22nd 2006 8:14PM

When it comes down to it E3 awards don't mean much. That being said AoC looks like a great game. If you have been following this game for a while you know the unique and innovative ideas that Funcom is trying to implement.

Such as:

-The game will cater to both casual and hardcore gamers
-Great action based combat system
-Meaningful PvP with siege weapons, battle formations, and mounts (hey you can ride mammoths!)
-The ability for guilds to create cities and battle keeps
-Meaningful crafting, with items that are usable
-Single player introduction into the game world. This is a great concept. It will ensure that everyone in the world understands the game mechanics, and have a good grasp of the storyline and features of the game prior to joining the MMO part.
-Great graphics. Very artful and moody. I know the graphics in AoC might not be as ‘smooth’ as some of the other games, but you can’t beat the gritty, lush settings in this game.

Those are just some of the aspects of this game. Off course, the success of this game will require a smooth launch, which is something Funcom messed up with AO.

My hopes for this game are very high though, but as I said initially, E3 awards don't mean much. Funcom has the chance to do something special here, and I think that they will.