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Conan MMORPG In The Works

Posted by Zonk on from the me-zonk-you-mmmog dept.

Based on Robert Howard's classic Conan the Barbarian series, The Age of Conan: Hyborean Adventures is in production by Anarchy Online developer Funcom. On top of the setting, Funcom apparently plans to shake up the traditional massive formula. From the article: "Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures will be a PC 'online action RPG' that will be a mix of 'story-driven single-player experience and a massive and brutal multiplayer endgame.' According to Funcom game director Gaute Godager, it will begin as a single-player RPG adventure, and when that portion's story is complete, it will let players bring their characters into an MMORPG universe."

45 comments

  1. But what about Andy? by identity0 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Conan just hasn't been the same since Andy Richter left.

    Oh well, at least it'll have La Bamba, right? And Max? And Joel, the manic-depressive announcer?

    I can see it now: "Play Conan! The only MMORPG with a masturbating bear!"

  2. In the year 2000... by dhakbar · · Score: 2, Funny

    ... there will be an MMORPG based upon popular talk show host, Conan O'Brien.

    In the year 2000...

    1. Re:In the year 2000... by KevinIsOwn · · Score: 2, Funny

      If there is a handle that I can pull to see random clips of Walker: Texas Ranger, I won't just buy it once. I'll buy it twice.

  3. unique? by Korgrath · · Score: 1

    "According to Funcom game director Gaute Godager, it will begin as a single-player RPG adventure, and when that portion's story is complete, it will let players bring their characters into an MMORPG universe."
    This does sound kind of cool, but... how many people want to pay for an MMORPG for months and months, and then finally work their way up to the point where you can actually play it as an MMORPG? Well, who knows, it'll be interesting to see if it succeeds!

    --
    Theory of flight?! I'll teach you the theory of fist!!
    1. Re:unique? by SB5 · · Score: 1

      That frankly makes no sense. The game you buy in stores would probably have the Singleplayer RPG on it. Then once you want to move up to the MMORPG level, or have completed the single player RPG, you can then play it as a multiplayer online RPG. Then you start paying the monthly fee. Which makes more sense, unlike the MMORPGs which want to pay twice for a game. Once in the stores, then "subscribe" to it.

      --
      If what you are reading sounds funny, or sarcastic, lame, or stupid
      it is because it is supposed to be. just laugh
    2. Re:unique? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Except, as with all MMORPG's, the character is bound to be stored on the server.

      Otherwise, every script kiddie in the world is just going to mark their client as having finished the solo RPG with a custom-tweaked character as the end result, and head right on in.

    3. Re:unique? by chronovoreprime · · Score: 1

      It's likely going to be an extensive set of tutorials, followed by a small story arc that will be somewhat indicative of the MMORPG's gameplay, before turning the player loose in the field. Somehow that seems more likely than some Dusk-'til-Dawn mid-game perspective shift in gameplay. IIRC Anarchy Online's quests are instanced dungeons, so it is likely that they'll keep that style, as it emphasizes more personal single-player and set-group experiences, and seems easier to deal with an "action RPG" that way.

  4. Monthly Fee by Casisiempre · · Score: 1

    Let me guess... people have to subscribe from the beginning, and so, pay a monthly fee, even while working on the single player part. That way they get bonus money without actually having to pay for hosting of the MMORPG until characters have gotten far enough along. Nice way to save money.

    1. Re:Monthly Fee by E_elven · · Score: 1

      Yeah, boy, I bet Conan thought life in the Hyperborean era was tough!

      --
      Marxist evolution is just N generations away!
  5. Uhm... by KronusOverlord · · Score: 1

    How will they avoid the use of cracks and trainers in the SP adventure?

    1. Re:Uhm... by SocialEngineer · · Score: 1

      More than likely by still managing characters on the server, at least. I could also see managing the gameplay dynamics itself on the server, as well.

      --
      "Better to be vulgar than non-existent" -Bev Henson
    2. Re:Uhm... by SB5 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Lets say its a level based RPG. And at max, someone in the SP game will be allowed to get to level 20 and be able to spend 40 points on their character. Anyone with more than 40 points is automatically voided, and/or above level 20 is voided. Its wouldn't be hard to do that. I would think it would also be bad for the SP adventure to have random loot drops, although if that was done, then just make really good items impossible to drop, and most of the MMORPG items would be naturally better than anything even the best random loot drop in the single player.

      And if someone wants to use cracks or trainers in the SP adventure, well that could be negotiated by just being able to play the MMORPG immediately and recommend that you play the SP adventure first and by doing so you get a bonus by playing it.

      Make the CD key generate a unique key after playing via some algorithm to unlock the MMORPG part. Sure, the algorithm could always be broken but if you put in the right checks like make it so that it really isn't worth bothering with it.

      --
      If what you are reading sounds funny, or sarcastic, lame, or stupid
      it is because it is supposed to be. just laugh
    3. Re:Uhm... by Teh+Suq · · Score: 3, Informative
      According to the FAQ on their website, it is all on the servers, nothing will be offline.

      http://www.ageofconan.com/conan/faq.html

      Does the game have single player elements?

      The first sections of the game will be played just like a single player title as you develop your character through an involving storyline, as you prepare for even greater adventures beyond. The whole game will always be played on online game servers.

  6. The inevitable "comedy" pastiche by Andy+Mitchell · · Score: 1
    Lets get the inevitable cheesy comedy pastiche of Conan the Barbarian dialogue out the way...

    Crom, I have never prayed to you before. I have no tongue for it. No one, not even you, will remember if our posts were good or bad. Why we posted or how we were flamed. All that matters is that today, few posted against many. Valour pleases you, so grant me this one request. Grant me Karma.

    And if you do not listen, then to hell with you! ;-)

  7. Conan RPG? Sounds like a great game! by cheezus · · Score: 1

    ...for me to poop on!

    --
    /bin/fortune | slashdotsig.sh
    1. Re:Conan RPG? Sounds like a great game! by KronusOverlord · · Score: 1

      http://www.formetopoopon.com/poop.php?url=www.ageo fconan.com%2F&you=&friend=&x=120&y=45 Not really... you can't see the poop!

  8. Wrong direction guys! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "... Funcom apparently plans to shake up the traditional massive formula." ... and they're starting with a Medieval Fantasy setting!

    To this day, no one had thought the merging of the Fantasy and Multiplayer RPG genre's possible.

  9. I like my 1984 version by eamonman · · Score: 1

    I guess someone finally had to add an RPG element to it. I was getting a little tired of playing this one. I recall playing this game over and over and over... and subsequently dying over and over and over.

    --
    0- Eamonman Proud member of DNRC
  10. Multiple Genre Games by SillyHatsOnly · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Multiple genre games have rarely gone over well. In theory one would think a wider game means it would appeal to a larger range of customers. In reality, it typically means the game is so spread out that nothing is refined or implemented well. Then again, this can possibly provide excellent tracking data for both single player and MMO behaviors since the player data will likely be stored on the server. Now where did I put my Sprite...

  11. Robert E. Howard by grumpygrodyguy · · Score: 2

    Best...Sword&Sorcery Writer...Ever

    --
    The government has a defect: it's potentially democratic. Corporations have no defect: they're pure tyrannies. -Chomsky
    1. Re:Robert E. Howard by Attaturk · · Score: 2, Insightful


      Best...Sword&Sorcery Writer...Ever

      Nah, that's David Gemmell.

    2. Re:Robert E. Howard by Rubel · · Score: 1

      I have a serious love/hate relationship with Howard's stories. The excellent swashbuckling action, full of stealth, weird magics, beautiful monsters and ravening princesses...Yes!

      but then there's the nasty racism. I was really startled when I ran into some of that.

    3. Re:Robert E. Howard by cluke · · Score: 1

      Yeah, he's pretty good. Possibly because he keeps writing the same book over and over, he's bound to be good at it by now! :-P

    4. Re:Robert E. Howard by DuckDodgers · · Score: 1

      I disagree. I've read quite a bit of both, and Howard gives more visceral action with fewer words.

      Besides, Gemmell's characters have deux ex machina help so often they may as well sit in a chair and let other people finish the story.

  12. Triumph the Insult Comic Dog!! by antdude · · Score: 1

    You forgot Triumph the Insult Comic Dog. He would poop on you for forgetting him! :P

    --
    Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
  13. a fantasy MMORPG? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    FINALLY someone had the wisdom to make an MMORPG set in a fantasy world. This is one market that has yet to be tapped!

  14. Finally by Impy+the+Impiuos+Imp · · Score: 2, Funny

    Beefinator: Alas! After lo! these many years. I have finally secured the Magical Uber Blade of Conan himself.

    Beefinator: Have at thee!

    You hit a dire rat for 4 points of damage.

    ** A dire rat hits YOU for 17 points of damage!

    You miss a dire rat.

    ** A dire rat hits YOU for 19 points of damage!

    You hit a dire rat for 2 points of damage!
    Critical hit! You hit for an additional 2 points of damage with your Conan Uber Sword!

    ** A dire rat hits YOU for 18 points of damage!

    ** You have been slain by a dire rat!

    Sonja's Daddy416: U suck b4115, d00d.

    --
    (-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
  15. Personally, I'm holding out.... by CaseM · · Score: 1

    I'm holding out for a Grignr-themed MMORPG.

    With today's graphical capabilities, Jim Theis' prophetic vision can finally become reality!

    A sweeping blade of flashing steel riveted from the massive barbarians hide enameled shield as his rippling right arm thrust forth, sending a steel shod blade to the hilt into the soldiers vital organs.

    The disemboweled mercenary crumpled from his saddle and sank to the clouded sward, sprinkling the parched dust with crimson droplets of escaping life fluid.

    The enthused barbarian swilveled about, his shock of fiery red hair tossing robustly in the humid air currents as he faced the attack of the defeated soldier's fellow in arms. "Damn you, barbarian" Shrieked the soldier as he observed his comrade in death.

    A gleaming scimitar smote a heavy blow against the renegade's spiked helmet, bringing a heavy cloud over the Ecordian's misting brain.

    1. Re:Personally, I'm holding out.... by rathehun · · Score: 1
      What I'd really like would be to see Robert Jordans world out as an MMORPG. The sheer number of factions, people, the detailed world that is already available - there is nothing here that won't work. It could even be heavily scripted, like the MxO, with the bigger characters occasionally showing up....

      ahh...who am I kidding? He hasn't finished the books even.

      And the WoT game sucked. Yes it did.

      R.

    2. Re:Personally, I'm holding out.... by Fjornir · · Score: 1
      I'll play if I can hunt down and kill Rand so Jordan has to write up a decent protagonist. Better yet maybe someone could balefire the fuck out of Rand so I can get back the hours I wasted reading the parts he was in waiting for the books to get good. Rand was the reason I stopped reading around book six or so, closely followed by the fact that there wasn't a single convincing female character and Nynavae was less interesting and more annoying than Rand.

      But... I'd be willing to try it out, I guess. More likely if it was set a few Ages before the books take place, but...

      --
      I want a new world. I think this one is broken.
  16. ....sigh.... by Fjornir · · Score: 1
    I'd be hard-pressed to think of five fantasy worlds I'd be less likely to play in....

    Help me out here! Xanth, Valdemar, whatever the hell Rosenberg called his Keepers of the flame

    --
    I want a new world. I think this one is broken.
    1. Re:....sigh.... by Aadomm · · Score: 1

      Xanth, oh my god that would be awful. Both Oz and Narnia would be fairly terrible too I think.

      --
      Mention the Lord of the Rings one more time and I'll more than likely kill you.
    2. Re:....sigh.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes, it would suck, but think of all the naked chicks. His books are the literary version of Playteen.

    3. Re:....sigh.... by cluke · · Score: 1

      Yeah, an MMORPG based on a Piers Anthony would be a trauma to play. You'd probably have loads of 'Rape Quests'. What is it with that guy and rapes? I read one of his books and it was pretty decent, about a ship of space-travellers hijacked by pirates. Only thing that spoiled it was the rapes. So many rapes! A woman offered to let the pirates rape her, so they would leave her daughters alone. But they were raping her daughters anyway. But hey-ho, they didn't really mind that much, so it was all ok.
      Are all his books like that? The guy needs help.

    4. Re:....sigh.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wow. I read the Mode books, the Adept books and the Xanth books (until about middle school when I outgrew them). Not a single rape that I remember. I think there might've been one in the Incarnations series, but...

    5. Re:....sigh.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Mode books: main character was gang-banged, two or 3 other characters also raped(and 1 child molestation)

      Adept books: There were definitely a few forceful/coerced ones, but it has been long enough that I can't say for sure any were outright rapes.

      Xanth books: One was suggested to have happened in the first book, offstage(Bink participated in the trial) and there were several more, although (almost?) never in detail. Loads of coerced sex, especially if you count the love springs.

      Never read the Incarnation series.

      But definitely the tyrant books were the most rape-oriented series, although Firefly was more graphic.

    6. Re:....sigh.... by mconeone · · Score: 1

      The incarnation series kicked ass.

  17. Don't forget about firefly by mconeone · · Score: 1

    That book was seriously whacked out. Theres this blob that emits a smell which arouses humans, to the point of ejaculation. When it gets you, it crawls in your pee-hole and eats you from inside. Then, your memories are transferred to the sex-blob.

    Creativity or insanity?

  18. I'm waiting on by Nothing+Special · · Score: 1

    The MMORPG based on Cohen the Barbarian, Discworld's Greatest Warrior. That would be a truly great game.

    1. Re:I'm waiting on by Fjornir · · Score: 1

      Tried the Discworld MUD?

      --
      I want a new world. I think this one is broken.
    2. Re:I'm waiting on by Nothing+Special · · Score: 1

      i guess i'll have to, now. that sounds totally awesome...well...awesome in a totally nerd way. but, hey, that about sums me up.

  19. Crush your enemies by rpjimmypop · · Score: 1

    "Conan what is best in life?"
    Conan: "To crush your enemies, to see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of the women."

    1. Re:Crush your enemies by the_ed_dawg · · Score: 1

      In a teaching training seminar, I was asked what was most important as a teacher. The response: "To crush your students, to see their grades driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of their parents." Absolutely no one got it. Talk about awkward... :)

      --
      There are two types of people: those prepared for the zombie apocalypse and those who will be eaten.
  20. End Game by Nytewynd · · Score: 1

    I wonder if when you reach max level, you get to be the governor of the largest region in the game.

    --
    /. ++