Make the Isle of Tortage your bitch with Funcom's new and improved free trial for Age of Conan. Rather than the old 7-days deal, from now until January 1st, players who sign up for the free trial and log onto the game (important step there) will have unlimited access to the first 20 levels of gameplay until the game's servers go dark. Create as many characters as you want, take off your female character's shirt and make obnoxious comments, and generally be a nuisance to more serious players, who will appreciate the fact that you're locked on that island until you can swipe your parents' credit card.

"Our original seven day trial has been very successful so far," says Morten Larssen, Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Funcom. "But with the holiday season coming up this is the perfect time to shake up our trial offer a bit and try out something new. So everyone who downloads the trial before January 1st will be able to play the first part of the game for free, forever. We are confident that many of those taking advantage of this offer will choose to become permanent players, allowing them to experience all of what the game has to offer including all the additions and improvements introduced since launch."

Just head over to the Age of Conan trial page to sign up and download the client.

The Rise of the Godslayer expansion introduces players to the lands of Khitai, with several new world regions filled with new dungeons, quests and rewards. There's a new player race, alternate advancement, and all kinds of goodies to make your stay in Hyboria more enjoyable. The expansion is due out next year, but fans can get an early peek on Monday when Funcom presents a live gameplay demonstration on Xfire.com.

"We have been working on the expansion for ‘Age of Conan' for quite some time now, and everyone on the team is eager to lift the veil and include the public in what we are trying to bring to life," says Game Director and Executive Producer Craig Morrison who will be hosting the live gameplay demonstration together with expansion Lead Designer Joel Bylos. "Development is coming together nicely, and we are really excited to see the empire of Khitai coming to life! Doing a live demo on Xfire is a brilliant way for us to reach out to a broad audience and show just what they can expect from ‘Rise of the Godslayer' as we continue to move closer and closer to launch."

The demo kicks off at 12PM Pacific time, so make sure you pack a lunch.

Funcom wants you back in Age of Conan, and they want you back bad. As of today, they are offering a free two weeks of Age of Conan to returning players, with some rather special incentives for those who pony up cash for a renewed subscription. One month nets you a free week's worth of game time, which I suppose is nice, but not nearly as nice as the three months incentive. Re-subscribe to Age of Conan for 90 days and you get a beta slot in The Secret World, which is looking much more interesting than many MMO games out today, including Age of Conan.

But wait, there's more! Subscribe for six months and you get all of that, plus a 10% experience boosting helmet, and a year will get you the beta spot, the helmet, and the upcoming Age of Conan expansion, Rise of the Godslayer, completely free! All of this, plus double XP for everyone in the month of November.

A deperate move by a desperate company, or an outpouring of love for the fans that they've lost? Is beta access to The Secret World worth $40 or so? You be the judge.

Funcom's new Canadian headquarters will be put to use immediately, with skilled teams being formed to work on both Age of Conan and the upcoming MMO The Secret World, which the company will be showing off at PAX 09 this weekend. The Montreal location further extends Funcom's global presence, joining previously established offices in Norway, China, the U.S., and Switzerland.

Funcom CEO Trond Arne Aas sings the praises of our neighbors to the North.

"Montréal has established itself as one of the world's most important locations for video game production, and we are looking forward to taking part in that success. In addition to strengthening our North American presence, the new studio will take advantage of the great incentive programs offered by the Québec region, incentives that makes Montréal one of the most cost effective locations in the world for developing MMO games. This will in turn allow us to better balance our costs, making it possible for us to continue to expand our investments into the MMO segment."

We may kid our Canadian brethren from time to time, but one thing's for sure: they sure know how to woo game developers.

My beef was that a lot of massively multiplayer online game developers claim that their combat is somehow fundamentally different than the usual system of point, click, cool down, then click again established in MMOs like EverQuest II and World of Warcraft. I said Cryptic's claim about Champions Online's action-oriented combat was no different and admitted that the question would need more hands-on time than I had had to really determine if Champions' combat is different or just looks different.

Never one to shy from skepticism, Cryptic Studios stepped up with a second hands-on for me so I could get a better feel for the combat. Here's what happened.

What Is It?
Champions Online is a superhero themed MMO developed by Cryptic Studios for PC and eventually Xbox 360. Combat in the game takes place both between superheroes and villains and in arena style player versus player fights between superheroes. The primary controls for combat with the keyboard configuration are the number keys 1 through 7 and on 360 controller, it's the face buttons and face buttons plus left trigger – although the exact controls haven't been finalized yet.

What We Saw
I played through the beginning and the boss fight of what's called a "lair" in Champions both with a ranged character and with a melee character. It's an instanced dungeon where a group of players face off against and/or rescue non-playable characters. This particular layer involved a mastermind villain taking over a prison and (full disclosure) was partially developed by Kevin Stocker, a guy I know outside of work who knows a thing or two about the movie Aliens.

How Far Along Is It?
Champions Online goes live September 1. The 360 version is still a long ways off, according to creative director Jack Emmert.

What Needs Improvement?
Targeting Gets Tricky: You can change between targets on PC by just left-clicking a target with the mouse and on the controller, you tap the left bumper. However, the frenetic pace of combat makes these simple controls tricky, especially on PC if you're holding down the left mouse button to adjust the camera while running to one side to avoid an attack. I'm hoping that on the controller scheme they work it out to where you could tap the left bumper repeatedly to change targets among a mob – that would really smooth things over.

The Picky May Not Be Pleased: There are things you can do in Champions Online combat that single-MMO players may not be used to; however MMO connoisseurs probably won't be surprised – or impressed. For example, a WoW devotee may not be used to the idea that you can dodge any attack (even spells) by moving out of range and an Age of Conan fan might not be used to the idea that bosses and mini bosses have specific tells that require you to block or dodge, depending on which attack they're signaling. If you've played both of those games plus a dozen other MMOs besides, however, none of this will sound especially new, different or special and you'll probably stay skeptical while the less picky players are enthralled.

Still Feels Like A Cool Down: Technically, the spells in Champions don't need cool down periods after you cast them. However, you can't cast higher level spells without building up endurance with low-level attacks. It's a little bit less boring to mash the X button over and over than just sitting there and watching the timer on your best area-effect spell expire; but it still feels like a cool down period just the same.

Ranged Combat Is Cheap: This is actually a plus for a jerk like me – but I think it's cause for complaint. Emmert says that the tradeoff between a ranged superhero who can just spam a single fireball attack while flying around in a circle is that a melee superhero's attacks are more powerful. He says that this makes it more rewarding for the melee character if he or she can just get to that fireball-spamming jerk and execute an attack. But if the jerk is me, I'm telling you right now, you'll never catch me. You'll die cursing me for the cheap jerk I am.

What Should Stay The Same?
There's Always Something To Do: To quote Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw's review of Eve Online, MMO combat works like this: "You click on an enemy and start kicking his shins. He then starts kicking your shins. Then you take it in turns kicking until one of you falls over." Champions Online shakes that up a bit by giving the player more to do than just stand there and kick. At any one point during combat you could be kicking someone's shins, raining fire down on them from the air while you hover overhead with your fiery fairy wings, dodging an attack with a well-timed mashing on the A or S button, or waiting for a command to pop up and tell you to mash a button to collect an item drop or escape an enemy attack or hold. You're always moving in Champions, always changing targets and never not mashing on an a button once combat gets going. Big plus.

It's Console-Oriented: What makes Champions feel action-y to me is the fact that everyone is moving all of the time and you're frantically pounding on attack keys to keep up. It's more like Marvel Ultimate Alliance than WoW, and that's exactly the feel that Cryptic was going for, according to Emmert. He says that the future of MMOs lies in consoles, so their goal was to get an action RPG experience inside ofa persistent, well-populated MMO world that worked just as well on console as on PC. To that end, Champions was planned with consoles in mind all along, with none of the built-in "latency" of other MMOs where you have to wait for a spell to cool down simply because the technology on which the MMO is built cannot handle a bazillion particle effects at once.

Final Thoughts
After the much-longer hands-on, I've changed my mind. Combat in Champions Online does feel different than combat WoW because of how fast everything moves – including you. I wouldn't go so far as to say it's a revolution in MMO gameplay, but the quick combat is going to go a long way toward making the jump to console smoother and more fun. My only conflict now is deciding whether or not to wait for the 360 version.

Oh, here're a couple of other tidbits of interest that came up during my extended hands-on:
—They're already planning out a secret identity system for DLC
—The 360 controller will work at launch, but it won't be "supported" technically until a deal on the 360 version is reached with Microsoft
—The biggest criticism Emmert fears hearing is from superhero players who want a purely solo masked avenger experience. That's just not what Cryptic is out to do with Champions Online – so if any potential reviewers are reading this, think Justice League instead of Dark Knight going into it.
ETA: Cryptic Studios clarifies that "You can play solo in Champions as much as you like; you don't have to team up to enjoy the game. However, this is a Massively Multiplayer Online Game, with the emphasis on Multiplayer. Other players will affect the world of Champions Online. You'll see them running off to stop a bank robbery, while you're on your way to rescue hostages. This isn't a game for players who want to be the only superhero in town."

After months spent tweaking and polishing the game play and overall experience of their massively multiplayer take on the Conan universe, Funcom is just about ready to pack their updates into a much more expansive format. Speaking to Eurogamer, Funcom director of communications Erling Elllingsen reveals that a dedicated team has been working on the expansion since the game launched, and that the core changes will continue with its eventual release.

"We are bringing a lot of that into the expansion as well," said Ellingsen of the core changes, "making sure we build upon the strengths of the game and stay true to the original vision we have always had for Age of Conan. I think players will be pleased!"

At this point I don't think it's so much about pleasing existing players as it is drawing in new players. Hopefully the expansion will have some of that as well. We'll find out come the GamesCom show in Cologne Germany next month.

Age of Conan expansion reveal soon [Eurogamer]

Yes, along with the new areas, which can be seen in the lovely screenshots here, Update 5 is another step in Funcom's continuing effort to make Age of Conan the sort of MMO that keeps old players and brings in a steady stream of new ones. This main focus of this update is item statistics, specifically how they affect a player's performance. Starting today, players should notice a much more significant change in the effectiveness of their skills by wearing items with stat-enhancements, which in turn makes finding and creating new gear that much more rewarding.

The update also adds more life to guild cities, allows players to gain PVP experience through mini-games, and perhaps the most compelling new feature for those who migrated from World of Warcraft, social pets. See? Funcom totally knows what players want!

Funcom's latest financial report states that "a significant increase in new customers in Q1 compared to Q4 has led to a stable and solid subscriber base", meaning that the game's launch in Eastern Europe and free trial offer seem to have done the trick.

Course, Funcom didn't go so far as to reveal how many new subscribers there were, exactly. Or how many have left over the same period. Or what the game's exact player base is. But still! Good news is good news, and the bad news can wait for another day.

Age of Conan turns corner, says Funcom [Eurogamer]

Age of Conan has gotten off to a bit of a slow start. Well, that's not entirely true. More like it got off to a quick start, and then a large chunk of folks left. A slow middle, if you will. Now Funcom finally releases a free trial client, on the hopes that a horde of people have been just sitting around, waiting for such an offer.

"The time has finally come for us to open the flood gates," says Morten Larssen, Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Funcom. "There is a world of gamers out there who have never played ‘Age of Conan' and we want them to experience what hundreds of thousands of gamers have before them. The game has matured tremendously since launch, and we feel confident that this is the time to launch a trial. ‘Age of Conan' is simply bigger and better than it ever was, and we want both new and previous players alike to experience that!"

So it's finally ready for the public?

Players can download the free trial directly from the Age of Conan website, though if they sign up over at Fileplanet you get fourteen days and an exclusive firework, perfect for firing off as you welcome the crowd passing through the floodgates.

Funcom's latest massively multiplayer online game Age of Conan is to blame for the company's huge deficit, with $22.8 million depreciating in the face of the game's poor performance. The bad financial news was compounded by the announcement of CFO Olav Sandnes's departure.

"Funcom is a company with a substantial potential based on a unique combination of skill sets in a fast growing global market. I wish Trond Aas and the rest of the organization all the best in realizing the full potential of the company," commented Sandnes.

Despite the operating loss, revenues were up for the fourth quarter, with subscription fees from Age of Conan raising them to $8.7 million over last year's $1.2 million.

In layman's terms, Funcom gained money from subscription fees, but lost money actually operating the game. This is reflected in the closure of over half of the game's servers last year. The company basically spent too much to make that $8.7 million.

Still Age of Conan soldiers on, despite estimates the the subscriber levels for the game are below the 100,000 mark. There's still hope, as Funcom has recently announced launch plans for the game in Poland and Russia, two countries where Conan remains immensely popular. We'll be keeping our fingers crossed.

Funcom CFO resigns following $23.3m loss [GamesIndustry.biz]

Funcom have announced that during the week, the total number of servers for the game will be reduced from 49 to just 18, with the biggest losses due to strike North America and Oceania.

There, 16 servers are closing, leaving only six behind. Europe will fare slightly better, with 12 servers to be left open so as to cater to the all major language regions equally.

Funcom's line is that this will improve player experience, with busier servers meaning busier, more enjoyable worlds. And in a small way, they're right. But in a bigger way? Going from 49 servers to 18 shows just how quickly and how savagely this game has tanked.

Funcom to close over half of Conan servers [GI.biz]

The wreckage includes three titles whose names are either punchlines by now or dangerously close: Hellgate: London, Age of Conan, and the dumpstered Tabula Rasa, joined by the patched-too-late Pirates of the Burning Sea, as examples of how not to run an MMO railroad.

Hellgate cratered thanks to bad management, bad decisions and their reversals, and its bastard sibling Tabula Rasa was so awful Lord British decided to leave Earth rather than deal with the mess. Pirates of the Burning Sea patched its problems, but way too late to save itself. Age of Conan, as discussed before, stopped trying after you got past level 20. Bottom line, Hellgate and Tabula Rasa's servers are shutting down entirely (or already have) and the other two have merged or closed many of theirs too.

The lessons? Listen to beta testers; get the launch right, because patches won't save your asses, and if you're innovating some new gameplay mechanic, do it like you mean it. A successful MMO depends on a huge investment of a gamer's time. The investment on the development/publishing end should be total, too.

The MMO Crash of 2008 [Hellforge]

Unlike that other video game goat-killing event, Funcom keeps things virtual with it's holiday goat hunt, with a prize package consisting mainly of the game's pre-order bonuses and two months free game time up for grabs for whoever manages to down one of the poor creatures. The trick is, there's only one goat per server, so only one person per server can win. Riddles as to the goat's location can be found at the official site, along with a listing of servers where the goat has already appeared and went down.

While some servers have already held their events, more will be having theirs on the 29th, 30th, and 31st, so who knows? You might still have a chance to get your goat. What you do with it when you get it is your business.

In-Game Season Event [Age of Conan via Massively]

Writer Nelson Williams over at Vox ex Machina gives a detailed takedown of how an MMO goes from 700,000 subscribers to nearly zilch in six months. The short answer, after level 20, everything becomes visually dead and unfun, catering only to those who enjoy antisocial MMO behavior and all of the genre's most tedious tasks. [Edit: I changed the headline, perhaps a bit late, because it suggested this MMO was dead and no longer being played. It is, they're just not having much fun.]

When you first login to Age of Conan, you’ll wake up on the shores of a lush island, overflowing with quests, voice actors, plotlines, and wonderful vistas. Even bitter veterans who wouldn’t piss out Funcom if the entire company were on fire admit that this starting zone, Tortage, is a great experience. Tortage lasts for about twenty levels out of eighty. Then, you step away from the jungle harbours and into the wide world, and that’s when Funcom shouts “Sucker!” in your face before running off laughing into the night with your money. They give you the finger the whole time.

Funcom's made an effort to shore up these problems and spiffy the experience. But the article points out the game's producer and director, Gaute Godager, left his 16-year career with the company over how the game was handled after its release. That absence further hurt efforts to save the franchise.

In the end, all that is left are guilds of gankers, hiding in grinding caves and waiting for someone to unstealth. What began among the jeweled towers of Aquilonia ends then, here in caves and dirt. And brown. Lots and lots of brown.

Age of Conan: How an MMORPG Dies [Vox ex Machina]

"This is an important update that opens up a lot of new gameplay content for players who have already passed the level fifty mark," says Game Director Craig Morrison. "In the months ahead we will introduce even more new content, and coming up soon are two exciting new high-level dungeons intended for players who have reached the maximum level. At this stage adding more content and keeping people entertained is very important to us!"

See! They want to make it all better again! Hit the jump for screens from the new update, now live on all servers.

Major Content Update For Age of Conan Now Live!

– New update introduces new land area, a new dungeon, new quests and hours of more adventure –

Durham, USA – November 14th, 2008 – This week Funcom updated the ‘Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures’ live servers with the largest gameplay content addition since launch. By visiting the vast, new outdoor area of Ymir’s Pass players will now be able to find new quests to solve, new characters to meet, new monsters to slay and a dramatic new storyline to unravel. The update also includes a new dungeon – The Amphitheater – that holds one of the most epic and memorable monster encounters ever created for the game.

"This is an important update that opens up a lot of new gameplay content for players who have already passed the level fifty mark," says Game Director Craig Morrison. "In the months ahead we will introduce even more new content, and coming up soon are two exciting new high-level dungeons intended for players who have reached the maximum level. At this stage adding more content and keeping people entertained is very important to us!"

This free update is available to all ‘Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures’ subscribers and the content will be downloaded automatically when launching the game. In the months following the launch of the game, Funcom has addressed several of the key concerns voiced by the players and have also added a series of new content and features. Recently the live servers received a major update to the player-versus-player part of the game, allowing players to become criminals based on their actions when battling other players. New armor, weapons and other content have also been added, and from a technical perspective the game has also seen major improvements in terms of stability and performance. Funcom remains determined to keep updating and improving the game, and will keep players posted on the updates that are planned in the months ahead.

‘Age of Conan’ launched in May this year and immediately topped sales charts around the world. It has received more than thirty magazine covers and more than fifteen major awards, including numerous "Best MMO of E3" awards and the "Best Online Game of Show" award at GC 2007. The game has received numerous glowing reviews, including a 9.4 score from US website GameZone. ‘Age of Conan’ is a key title in Microsoft's Games for Windows line-up, as well as a showcase title for nVidia thanks to its jaw-dropping graphics.

For more information on the game and instructions on how to order your copy today, visit www.ageofconan.com.

“Bringing ‘Age of Conan’ to Korea is something we have wanted to do for a long time now,” says Funcom CEO Trond Arne Aas. “This is a very exciting and highly dynamic market, and we know that Korean gamers are amongst the most active online gamers in the world. With their solid legacy in online gaming, Neowiz Games is one of the most successful and knowledgeable companies in the market and we are very pleased to be working with them.”

Give it to Korea, they'll play anything! The country has been exporting slightly broken MMO games for years now, so it's good to see the folks at Funcom returning the favor.

Age of Conan Coming to Korea!

– Neowiz Games to Publish Localized Version of Funcom’s Highly Acclaimed Online Game –

DURHAM, N.C.—(BUSINESS WIRE)—Funcom is proud to announce that ‘Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures’ will be launching in Korea. Online media publisher Neowiz Games will be responsible for publishing the highly acclaimed massively multiplayer online game, and will be working closely with Funcom in producing an adapted and fully localized Korean version. Neowiz Games will act as a full service provider, handling everything from distribution to customer service and community management.

“Bringing ‘Age of Conan’ to Korea is something we have wanted to do for a long time now,” says Funcom CEO Trond Arne Aas. “This is a very exciting and highly dynamic market, and we know that Korean gamers are amongst the most active online gamers in the world. With their solid legacy in online gaming, Neowiz Games is one of the most successful and knowledgeable companies in the market and we are very pleased to be working with them.”

“We are very excited to introduce the world class large scale MMORPG, ‘Age of Conan,’ with its popularity and great reputation in the industry," says Neowiz Games CEO Choi, Gwan-ho. “This will be the first large scale MMORPG for Neowiz Games and both the companies will also work tightly together to adapt and implement a fully localized game for Korean users.”

The Korean release of ‘Age of Conan’ will include all updates and content added to the game after the US and European launch. It is also important for both Funcom and Neowiz Games to adapt the game to the local market, and the two companies will work closely together in making sure ‘Age of Conan’ meets gamers’ expectations. A release date for the Korean version of ‘Age of Conan’ has not yet been finalized.

‘Age of Conan’ launched in May this year and immediately topped sales charts around the world. It has received more than thirty magazine covers and more than fifteen major awards, including numerous "Best MMO of E3" awards and the "Best Online Game of Show" award at GC 2007. The game has received numerous glowing reviews, including a 9.4 score from US website GameZone. ‘Age of Conan’ is a key title in Microsoft's Games for Windows line-up, as well as a showcase title for nVidia thanks to its jaw-dropping graphics.

For more information on the game and instructions on how to order your copy today, visit www.ageofconan.com.

"To date, 68 percent of the players who listed Age of Conan as their reason for cancellation, and 46 percent of players who listed Warhammer as their reason for cancellation have reactivated their subscriptions to World of Warcraft."

With the release of the Wrath of the Lich King expansion only a week away, I wouldn't be surprised to see those numbers growing by a good bit before all is said and done. I wonder if they track the people who answer, "I just don't love you anymore"? Come on, I didn't mean it baby, you just make me so crazy sometimes.

Blizzard Unfazed by Conan, Warhammer [EDGE]

It works like this: You begin as an innocent. Killing another innocent makes you a criminal with a bounty on your head, and killing enough makes you a murderer who gets attacked by town guards. Killing criminals and murderers doesn't hurt a player's reputation at all. It's a nifty system that I am rather looking forward to having in place. Until then, I hide.

Conan PVP consequences "very soon" [Eurogamer]

...I can today confirm that we are actively working on an approach to merge servers, both in Europe and North America. It’s important for us to ensure the best gameplay experience for you all, and more healthy populations on each and every server will make sure we maintain healthy communities for the game in the future. Still, there are many complexities involved in this, and we want to ensure that everything happens as fair and streamlined as possible. That work has now started, and we are naturally making sure that guilds and players can get to new servers in the best possible way.

So don't worry, die-hards! Soon a rush of new friends is coming your way, and who knows, if you play your cards right they might get that DirectX 10 version up and running soon too.

Letter from the Game Director – September 2008 [AOC Forums via GamesIndustry]