Game Director Letter – April 2014 Discussion

[Texan615]

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-t0-DaNcj3i...00/justinb.jpg

justin bieber is a ranger just like you mr i need taking the shot to play ranger lol

Wearing a Texas Rangers jacket and a San Francisco Giants cap, the poor boy is clueless.

[Mysticblood]

Really? The Conan books (and yes I do mean the original REH) I read are full of loin cloths, bare chests and horned helmets (well, maybe not the latter). On the other hand Khitai is barely mentioned and we don't hear about tiger/wolf/lizard mounts or dildo helmets (fearless souls). I actually only read Conan comics AFTER reading REH (and not many of them of them mind you). The only thing I saw before reading REH books was the 1982 film (fun and I love it but it's not really REH's Conan).

Funcom did not always stick to the original REH material anyway, be it Turan or Khitai or w/e they had other sources of inspiration than just the books Just check Gaute interview. Notice how he says that he wouldn't have gone for Khitai if the game had been a success and if he was thus free to do anything he wanted - Khitai was basically an attempt to save the game with the Asian market (I think there actually was Korean servers at some point)

And... adding to what you've already said, how I understand it is that they received a very large lump sum of money from an *drum roll* asian investor and his condition was that the expansion be *drum roll* asian. Problem is that few korean style MMOs are as successful in N/A and it's been discussed time and time again in a multitude of games, endless grinding just doesn't work for us Westerners.

[Greyloins]

I certainly went too far in mentioning that loin cloths were uncommon in REH's writings, though in your rush to straw man my argument you neglected to notice that I wrote "less", not "totally absent". I recently rewatched the 1982 Conan film, and was perhaps a bit too focused upon the image of a sweaty young Schwarzenegger running around half-naked and goons with winged or horned helmets who look like extras from a Wagner opera - something which is NOT how I imagine the world of Conan.

In any case, I find the art style of Khitai vastly superior to the old style. Granted, there are a bunch of Khitai armours which, while cool and unique, aren't coloured in a way that looks good in AoC (Scholar's, Sin T4, T4 heavy dps set etc) - don't diss the dildo-helmets though, they're awesome. However, if you think say the cloth sets from Iron Tower look better than the Scarlet Circle/BB sets, or the Conq/DT T1-T3 looks better than Last Legion/Wolves/soldier T4 sets, or the T1-T3 necro set looks better than T4... Then I think there's nothing I can say to convince you, 'cause there gotta be something seriously wrong with you.

Also, this stuff people keep saying about how Khitai was made as some last-ditch effort to appeal to Asian markets... I'd be very interested to see any sort of official confirmation that this was the case. It sounds like utter and complete bull to me - I don't recall seeing even a single player from further east than Russia in AoC, and in any case the content in the Khitai expansion; seriously hardcore dark **** that makes old-school AoC look tame in comparison, not a single cuddly animal in sight, and really well-designed, challenging dungeons does not seem like the sort of thing that appeals to eastern markets, grind or no grind.

[kalston]

Also, this stuff people keep saying about how Khitai was made as some last-ditch effort to appeal to Asian markets... I'd be very interested to see any sort of official confirmation that this was the case.

The words of the original GD aren't enough for you? I don't even know what to say.

There's nothing wrong with us, by the way, we have different opinions and tastes. The only problem here is you You can be a Khitai fanboy all you want, doesn't make you better than us. To be honest, it makes you less of a REH fan since, again, Khitai barely appears in the books and what you get in AoC is Funcom's creation with a touch of Lovecraft and REH here and there*
. On the other hand playing the original game, you're pretty deep in REH's world (Funcom's vision of it, but I like it and I believe many others do).

*Khitai has probably made an appearance or two in the comics inspired by REH's Conan, so it's very possible Funcom borrowed some ideas and names from that. I think I even read one ages ago.

[Rathothis]

I recently rewatched the 1982 Conan film, and was perhaps a bit too focused upon the image of a sweaty young Schwarzenegger running around half-naked and goons with winged or horned helmets who look like extras from a Wagner opera - something which is NOT how I imagine the world of Conan.

REH's stories are rather action-focused and don't waste pages and pages on descriptions of clothing. And the images you get as a reader are quite inconsistent - knights with plumed helmets and barbarians wearing nothing but loincloths? I guess this leaves some room for imagination.

However, the common denominator is that this is pulp. And if you feel the game has too much naked skin, here's REH at his best, from Queen of the Black Coast:

She turned toward Conan, her bosom heaving, her eyes flashing. Fierce fingers of wonder caught at his heart. She was slender, yet formed like a goddess: at once lithe and voluptuous. Her only garment was a broad silken girdle. Her white ivory limbs and the ivory globes of her breasts drove a beat of fierce passion through the Cimmerian's pulse, even in the panting fury of battle. Her rich black hair, black as a Stygian night, fell in rippling burnished clusters down her supple back. Her dark eyes burned on the Cimmerian.

Now to your other points,

... if you think say the cloth sets from Iron Tower look better than the Scarlet Circle/BB sets, or the Conq/DT T1-T3 looks better than Last Legion/Wolves/soldier T4 sets, or the T1-T3 necro set looks better than T4... Then I think there's nothing I can say to convince you, 'cause there gotta be something seriously wrong with you.

Also, this stuff people keep saying about how Khitai was made as some last-ditch effort to appeal to Asian markets... I'd be very interested to see any sort of official confirmation that this was the case. It sounds like utter and complete bull to me ...

There is little point in debating taste, but since you brought it up, how about you compare the Bossonian Prowler set to sin T4 gear? Just about all of the culture sets, with the exception of the Acheronian Keeper one, are just awesome. Strangely, old world raid sets visually were a big let-down compared to culture armour.

As to your second question, well you probably won't find what you are looking for in official press releases. But based on what Gaute and Joel have said, it's pretty clear that the decision to go for Khitai rather than a more "canonic" Conan setting was driven by commercial considerations:
Original GD
Current GD

[kalston]

Another comparison comes to my mind, Black Dragon vs Fearless Souls set, it's hard for me to believe anyone would prefer the looks of Fearless Souls (but eh, to each his own...)

[Derled]

The words of the original GD aren't enough for you? I don't even know what to say.

There's nothing wrong with us, by the way, we have different opinions and tastes. The only problem here is you You can be a Khitai fanboy all you want, doesn't make you better than us. To be honest, it makes you less of a REH fan since, again, Khitai barely appears in the books and what you get in AoC is Funcom's creation with a touch of Lovecraft and REH here and there*
. On the other hand playing the original game, you're pretty deep in REH's world (Funcom's vision of it, but I like it and I believe many others do).

*Khitai has probably made an appearance or two in the comics inspired by REH's Conan, so it's very possible Funcom borrowed some ideas and names from that. I think I even read one ages ago.

They made khitai so aoc would be published in korea and get fast money in pocket,

[Derled]

Another comparison comes to my mind, Black Dragon vs Fearless Souls set, it's hard for me to believe anyone would prefer the looks of Fearless Souls (but eh, to each his own...)

no one does, fearless soul looks like fruit and that helmet is like iron dildo

[Greyloins]

As to your second question, well you probably won't find what you are looking for in official press releases. But based on what Gaute and Joel have said, it's pretty clear that the decision to go for Khitai rather than a more "canonic" Conan setting was driven by commercial considerations:
Original GD
Current GD

Wow, that's surprising, and a little worrying. Marketing for eastern players seem to have been a spectacular failure in that case... Considering Khitai only starts after 80 levels of classic AoC, and even then has next to nothing in common with Asian MMOs, I don't see how they could've thought it would bring in many asian players.

As for Fearless vs. Black Dragon; yeah, I do think Fearless is better looking and the helmet is awesome. Black Dragon is a pretty cool set though (though not as cool as the vanity Roman/Aquilonian armors you can scrape together in different Aquilonian dungeons) - and far better looking and practical than what I'd consider typical classic AoC armors, like the conq, barb and necro raid armors.

As you brought up sin T4 (even though I explicitly mention it as a counter-example...) - let me state again that there are some Khitai armors that could do with hefty recolour and don't look very good at the moment. Sin T4 is pretty ridiculous now, but if it was all black instead of green and purple, it'd be the coolest sin set in the game. And Sin T¤ is far from alone. But still, I think a larger percentage of Khitai sets are good-looking and well-designed than the percentage of classic sets that are.