Age of Conan: Popularity Trouble .

I’ll say it right off the bat so that there aren’t any doubts; Age of Conan, right now, is a great game. But beyond all reason, Age of Conan exists within that boundary of the MMO industry not too different to Schrödinger’s cat. In spite of Funcom’s efforts to improve the game (and those in-game have told me they’ve gone leagues in updating the game), AoC still remains in a state of ambiguous existence, haunting the peripheries of the online gaming scene. It’s a solidly beautiful game with 7 years’ worth of content and experience learned from monumental difficulties, travails, and failures; so why isn’t it getting as much attention as other top earning titles in the industry? Obviously, its F2P model is making money otherwise it wouldn’t last as long as it has, but it does beg the question.

 

Rough Start

I don’t think I know of any MMO that launched flawlessly – even the mightiest, World of Warcraft, had one of the worst launches in gaming history. AoC, on the other hand, not only had launch issues but problems well beyond that which were far worse than any sudden incapability of supporting half a million players or bad codes that caused much internet outrage.

The level of polish in AoC, at launch, was astounding… for the first 20 levels. While Tortage might be a riveting experience, the rest of the game was far different. When players got used to the lovingly made environments of Tortage, the areas after that treated them to some of the most badly developed areas ever seen in gaming history. Textures were bland and lifeless, models were repetitive, and even the lighting engine was so bad that night time was merely a splosh of a darker shade of the sunny landscape. The fully voiced NPCs that once delighted players with their immersive scripts, delectable voice acting, and truly entertaining novel-like qualities had all but dissipated in the blink of an eye, instead meeting only silent dolls that sent players on their way to participate in some meandering tasks not too different from killing ten rats in some dank sewer.

There were many other promised features that never made it into launch or, if they were present, were diluted in a way that they were barely recognizable. But the most unforgiveable of all of AoC’s sins was the lack of an actual end game. There was little else to do other than a perpetual whack-a-mole in PvP and finishing missed activities.

The game was incomplete. Funcom had decided to throw out a big MMO release that was far from a finished product. Companies have always been forgiven for sketchy launches, but never those that promised much and under delivered far less than was acceptable. With other games in the horizon of 2008 like the then-super hyped Warhammer: Age of Reckoning, Aion, and the arguably greatest WoW expansion of them all, Wrath of the Litch King, AoC bled more than it should have and is still paying for its mistakes in the present day with its wraithlike status due to word of mouth that it is an awful game. I can’t tell you how many queries of “Is AoC really that bad?” float around various gaming forums.

Trust is always hard to regain after a fiasco like that, but it isn’t impossible. Many other MMOs have risen from the ashes only to be bigger and better than what it used to be. But some can’t be afforded that luxury because of what I think really makes players stick to a game; its IP.

 

“Who asked for a Conan the Barbarian MMO?”

That was the collective inquiry my friends and I had at the time Age of Conan was first announced. Many of us remember the two movies on it back in the day and as sure as they were successes, it was surely a relatively forgotten IP in the new millennium. The media landscape was littered with much more “modern” characters of archetypal masculinity and general badassery that range from the famed and timeless Gordon Freeman to King Leonidas and his band of manly Spartans. In this day and age, no matter how one would appreciate Conan the Barbarian’s source material or how good the original creator wrote, it’s not incredulous to say that Conan has lost almost all of his relevance save for his most devoted fans. It’s sort of like how Duke Nukem was treated when his lost game was finally developed and released. When we were kids, Duke’s misogyny was badass and his tactless dark humor was, well, humorous. Now he’s just a misogynistic jerk. The same form could be said about Conan the Barbarian.

Of course, there was the hype for Age of Conan; I remember the very vocal supporters of AoC regarding it as a (yet another) WoW-killer that is poised to bring back the “true” sense of RPGs and many more that found the “WoW” type of gaming to be a dated and archaic thing that needed to be replaced. Some fans were even so hyped that they didn’t even know why there were excited for AoC in the first place – they were neither fans of the lore nor were into the nitty-gritty of its core gameplay. By now, we can all accept that a well-advertised and publicized game release is going to attract far more supporters beyond its genuine fans. Simply put, the hype for AoC wasn’t it due to being based on the stories of Robert E. Howard, but it was just because it was a new, high-profile MMO release.

I’m certainly not saying that Conan the Barbarian is a bad IP; not by a longshot. It’s just that the prime of his popularity in the modern age did not last past the Schwarzenegger movies and hasn’t become a timeless gem like, let’s say, Star Wars – something that everyone almost universally enjoys, no matter what type of media. In that regard, remember the steamrolling hype-train that was The Old Republic? Regardless of what folks feel about it today, SWTOR had a lot going for it. That MMO had one of the most devoted fanbases in recorded media history and those people alone could have fuelled SWTOR to go on a long and healthy life if it weren’t for the mishandling of both EA and Bioware with its playerbase. Despite its initial failings, SWTOR goes on to be extremely profitable for its developers – proof of the always palpable curiosity of Star Wars Fans.

But let’s think bigger. So, why not think about the big daddy, World of Warcraft? It doesn’t have the strength of Star Wars, but when WoW first came into existence, it was hot off the heels of Warcraft 3’s glowing success in the gaming world as well as its loyally solid following from the previous games. It certainly wasn’t the first MMO, so you can’t really say everybody lined up for the MMO titan for reasons other than the IP and the generally crazy hype for every major game launch. Especially in regard to 2008’s Wrath of the Lich King that pulled away so many players, not only from AoC, but from every other game. Who didn’t want to take on the Lich King?

But the absolute BEST example for this whole IP kerfuffle that I’m talking about is Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn. Without a doubt you are familiar with FFXIV:ARR and its hugely successful run at present, but you may not be familiar with its less than stellar start in 2010. Square Enix redeveloped the game and released and entirely new experience a year later. How did you think Square Enix was able to take back all those who lost faith in them and then some to make the MMO the success it is now? Overlooking the actual beauty of the overhaul, one has to take into consideration that it is still a Final Fantasy title. Like it or not, for those embroiled in gaming, who can truly deny the gravitas those two words in that order have? Certainly not I.

Now, look back at AoC and ask yourself why they weren’t able to pull off that same level of triumph even though Funcom improved the game. It becomes very clear that its rather unpopular source material may have done more damage to it in the long run when it is compounded with the same level of distrust folks had with Square Enix in their MMO’s birth because it doesn’t spark the same level of curiosity and interest folks would have to a more household name. I’m not saying that a strong IP is what makes or breaks a game, but it certainly would be helpful to have one. At the end of all of this, while I still maintain that AoC is a great game, it hasn’t stayed popular with its current player base as a Conan MMO, but rather purely a unique RPG.

Despite AoC’s excellent showing in recent years, it’s not only going to be (or has already been) difficult to earn back the trust of those that quit to commit again in the same level most do for popular MMOs like WoW or FFXIV, but it will also be hard to attract new players amidst all the negative press about the game, especially when we take into consideration that there are an innumerable amount of other fantasy MMOs out there that may be far more preferential for others.