Age of Conan Q&A: Mitra's Method Talks to Funcom's Shannon Drake

Shannon "Pharamond" Drake over at Funcom and Mitra's Method's Stephen "Weezer" Spiteri got together for a little chat about the status of Age of Conan. Drake gives us some answers in a special edition of Mitra's Method!

Mitra's Method: One of the key features of 'Age of Conan' is its revolutionary real-time combat system, and it's amazing, but I was wondering how important it was for Funcom to pull this off. Gaute Godager spoke about how at the start "it couldn't be done" but how does it feel to have it nailed-down? How do you think this will change MMORPG gaming?

Shannon Drake: The thing I've noticed playing other MMOs since I started working on Conan is that I'm a lot less tolerant of classic autoattack+special attack combat systems than I used to be. Even in a game I enjoy, I find myself jabbing forlornly at the movement keys and muttering, "So I can't do anything but stand here flailing away?" It's hard to go back to it once you've gotten used to swinging your weapon yourself, working through combos, and otherwise actively managing your combat.

Read it all after the leap.

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But seriously. ;) While we're ever-hopeful for a completely smooth and pain-free launch day, and will be working tirelessly towards that with the open beta and PVP test and tech/stress tests and general beta (whew!), I don't think any of us is naive enough to think that everything will go completely smoothly and according to plan.

I sense fear

I just sense common sense. Have you ever seen a launch go 100% error/bug/issue free?