Mitra's Method: Regarding PvP, what can a player expect as they progress through the PvP levels? What are some of the changes a player might notice in their competitive play as they start from PvP level one and finish on PvP level 20? And while we're still on the topic of it, has Gaute gotten any better at PvP?
Shannon Drake: PvP levelling is not as play-experience defining as all that. It's not like being Level 1 versus Level 20 in the game, where something Level 20 is harder simply because they're Level 20. It's more an indicator of your (or the other player's) skill and, as such, the higher level they are, the harder they're going to be to take down, not because they're just "Level 20 and you're screwed," but because they're the badasses that clawed their way to the top. It's not about being better simply because you're higher level, it's more a badge of honor, like "This guy is the best of the best, and if you take him on, he'll chop you into tiny bits!"
Mitra's Method: Players will appreciate different things in a game - beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so to speak - but what's the one thing, if you could only pick one thing, you hope every player will make note of and appreciate in 'Age of Conan'?
Shannon Drake: We don't talk about it as much as we talk about everything else, but the sound design is amazing. It's more than just the music, too, and even more than the ambient sounds (though both of those are fantastic!). It's things like the noise each spell you cast makes, so it's possible to tell, simply by listening, when you've cast Spell A versus Spell B. The sound guys toil away in a dark corner of the building, then wander up and hand us these beautiful gems before disappearing into their sound mines again. We don't say anything about it, because we might startle them, and then we'd never see them again!
Mitra's Method: Any last words for the Mitra's Method and 'Age of Conan' faithful reading at the moment?
Shannon Drake: The long, hard road out of production is almost done! We'll see you in Hyboria in under a month!
