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Hyborian Adventures … the story thus far in Age of Conan

Perhaps the main competition is real life commitments which is why after almost a month of playing, I’m still barely midway into the game at level 34 35 (ding!).

I rolled a Conqueror, a soldier archetype and one of the 12 classes in Age of Conan. At 34, I’m still guildless (this is the fault of Kiven and Rico hrmp!) and although finding pick up groups for mid level quests are not as hard as I thought, knowing how MMO’s work, guilds are needed for end-game content especially for AoC’s PVP system which looks a lot like Age of Empires! I’m running on the Oceanic Bloodspire PVP server, so if there are any other Filipinos who are recruiting, I’m here! 😀

Here’s what I’ve been missing out:

For what it is, I’ve never played any other MMO this long other than World of Warcraft. I guess MMO’s are starting to adjust their gameplay to cater to both the casual and hardcore gamers using ladder rankings and specific PVP rewards without alienating the more casual gamers (I’ve gravitated towards “casual” as I’m usually out most of the time).

On a scheme of diminishing returns, MMO developers are basically reserving a slot in the 24 hours of a gamer’s life. Every gamer has a certain threshold with how many games he or she can play at any one given point. I for one consider myself very lucky to have time to play two online games – this one and Team Fortress II, which is a more come in and get out kind of thing. AoC is more long term. That should buy enough time for when Starcraft II and Diablo III come out in the next 2 years. So yeah, between that and offline PC games (trying to finish Mass Effect again) and the Wii .. geez.

People have been asking this early adopter how good the game is and if it can compare to World fo Warcraft. I’ve honestly been hooked to AoC’s combat system that requires you to do button combinations to perform special attacks. So combat is very much a real time thing where positioning and timing matters. There is actually a significant backstory to the game which I enjoy, something most MMO’s tend to leave out. As for the in game bugs, all there is to say is that this is the nature of early retail versions of massive multiplayer online games. WoW was like that in its first few months, so I figure things can only go up from here. It’s a damn good game – a huge breath of fresh air from the other MMO’s we’ve seen. The only other game that’s as high in anticipation would be Warhammer: Age of Reckoning which is coming out this September.

Do you still have the time to play PC games or do you really make time for gaming by hook or by crook?

By Jayvee Fernandez

Jayvee Fernandez is a tech enthusiast and sitting Techbology Editor for The Philippine STAR.

He is also an EAN certified SCUBA Diver and underwater photographer based in Metro Manila, Philippines. His photos and videos have appeared in various international and local publications including Random House Germany, Discovery Channel Canada, and CNN.

9 replies on “Hyborian Adventures … the story thus far in Age of Conan”

Have you tried LOTRO? I wanna get into either that or conan a little bit.

Honestly though I’m more casual than ever now. I get some FPS action from instantaction.com, play a bit of Oblivion every now and again, but I’ve sol all my consoles and I’m just playing the DS these days.

The Penny Arcade game was pretty pimp, though for some reason they wouldn’t accept both my credit cards so I couldn’t keep playing it.

sa bloodspire server din ako pero im only lvl 21 sino pang pinoy doon sali niyo ako pag may pinoy guild thou i think pag pure pinoy lang un guild baka matabunan tyo ng iba kasi konti lang pinoy doon for sure… and like other guilds they have like 500 plus members (active and inactive) players

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