A couple of days ago, I loaded up Age of Conan again, because Funcom is doing a free two week deal for returning subscribers. There were a lot of things I really liked about AoC, so I’m giving it another shot.
I created a new character (a necromancer) because I…uhm… forgot how to play my Herald of Xotli (*blush*), and although I think melee combat is definitely one of AoC’s strongest elements, I’m enjoying being a caster.
A few notes:
– Global chat population seems split between extremely polite, more mature sounding folks, and teenage boys who probably lied about their age to buy the game. I spend most of my time with the combat tab flipped to front. I wonder how many women play the game and how that compares to other MMOs.
- Why must the “OMG WoW is so much better than this game!” crap show up in the chat channels of every other game? New players need to be restricted out of global so the trolls can’t hang out. Been to WoW, done that. Now let me play my AoC!!
- Not being able to see high level/max level characters in the starting area is a little odd. I never realized how much I enjoy checking out high level characters in a new game, to see what my gear could look like one day. I also find it encouraging that people like the game and care about it enough to reach the upper levels and still log in.
- Lots and lots of LFG… from the same people looking for the same instances. I’m not sure if that’s a sign that there’s not enough of a population to put groups together at those levels, or if people just don’t pug much.
- No obvious RP yet. I’m on the unofficial RP server, Wiccana, which supposedly has a big RP community. I have yet to see any of it, but I found this website, which has info on RP events. I’m going to scope out some of the places that RPers tend to hang out.
- Casting combat is very much the generic mage type stuff in other MMOs. My necro has only one “fatality” (combat finishing move), which is hardly noticeable. The melee characters get dramatic things, like decapitations and blood splatters across their monitors. As a caster, I feel a little like an afterthought. My next character will be a DT, I think.
- I really like the quest presentation in AoC. You enter into a conversation with the NPC, and have choices of things to say. In the starting area, all the NPCs have voice acting accompanying the quest text.
My little necromancer just got finished with Tortage last night, at the ripe old level of 22, and is off to Khemi. I’m eager to see if AoC has improved in the world beyond Tortage.
