VenusGaming

Funcom, producers of Age of Conan, announced its full server merge plan for the Age of Conan servers. The merge will bring a total of 49 AoC servers down to 18 - 24 U.S. servers down to 6, 13 English-European servers to 4. These server merges reduce the servers down to one of each type in most regions. This comes after a proposed merge on December 1st, in which only two small server merges were announced. It also comes after Voodoo Extreme announced Age of Conan as their 2008 MMO of the Year, and G4 had nominated the game for the same category (although Warhammer Online won the title).

Still, we should have known Age of Conan was in dire straights when it began offering free ice mammoth mounts to new players. Hell, a lot of AoC veterans could tell you the game was in trouble from beta, when large, empty landscapes plagued even high-end computers with heavy lag, or when the game began to get toned down from its original bloody, violent tone to appeal to more players.

Sure, there were some hopes for Age of Conan. For instance, its “Real Combat” system promised a more interactive and intense combat experience than the typical auto-attack plus skills of most MMO combat systems. Lots of adult MMO fans were eager to see a realistic environment with a darker, more adult edge to it than had been offered before. Its use of DirectX 10 was a stunning proof to us how beautiful the new DirectX engine could make our gaming experience. AoC was anticipated for years - from 2003 till 2008.

Now, the server consolidation in AoC is showing us that the game is likely nothing more now than an expensive failure. I predict it won’t make it until 2010, and if it does, well, I’m in for a shock. Good luck, Conanites and Funcom. May you not get lost in the dark lands of Cimmeria.