I worry that they’re gun shy after the problems endured after the Anarchy Online release – but then again – maybe perfection upon release is the way to go. They’ve learned from their mistakes – but then again, I don’t think perfection is completely possible before release. Is it?
While waiting, though, Massively did a great in-depth interview with Jørgen Tharaldsen (I can’t believe he’s not in Wikipedia – I’ll have to sort that out in a sec)before Christmas, which is worth a look at. They go into the politics of rating, which I found really interesting! Akela Talamasca also shot this gameplay footage:
It’s edited to the parts with glorious Nick Yee. I definitely recommend watching the whole thing although CNN’s video player annoyed me some. The program is ok – nothing really new – but a great resource (specially for someone like me who’s applying for work in a place filled with negative skepticism of virtual worlds)! Trond Aas (Funcom) has an adorable response to Jimmy Wales‘ vision that Wikipedia will remain text based (part 6), where he shares his vision that instead of reading a speech given by Cicero in Rome you’ll be able to immerse yourself in the Roman era and listen to the speech given on the streets of Rome – by looking it up on wikipedia first. I think that’s just charming!
Nils and I are pretty much at uni now 24/7 trying to finish our stuff – and breaks are filled with dreamy fantasies of what life is like on the other side of this tiresome tunnel! So naturally we’re talking a lot about games. So we’ve been looking into Age of Conan. Man! It looks awesome! I’m still worried that my testosterone levels aren’t high enough for truly enjoying it, but I had a look at the Age of Conan wiki – and my heart started racing with excitement! 60% of that was probably just the enjoyment of the hope of being able to play again – but listen to this:
“We call the engine Real Combat, and it is based on six directions, or ways, of attacking an opponent with a sword. First, you can hack down against the head. Second, you can slash diagonally down from the right, while the third is slashing the same way from the left. Fourth, you can thrust against the torso. Fifth, you can slash diagonally up from the left, and sixth, you can slash diagonally up from the right. The point here is that these directions lend themselves naturally to being strung together in combinations. These combos unlock additional damage and faster combat, if done well.”
– Gaute Godager
What fun!!!! And it looks freakin’ awesome!!!
Additionally we were blessed by Marius Enge’s presence on Thursday. It was supposed to be an hours lecture but ended up being about 2 hours. What an absolutely delightful man. He was just so informative and answered annoyingly stupid questions (from yours truly) clearly and inspirationally. He informed us a bit about how Funcom works internally and I just sat there thinking “I WANNA WORK AT FUNCOM, I WANNA WORK AT FUNCOM, I WANNA WORK AT FUNCOM!! SOD THIS ACADEMIC BULL – I WANNA WORK AT FUNCOM!!! I BELONG AT FUNCOM!!!”.
He was there to talk about the AI in the game, which was amusing even to me, who understood 1/100th of the content.
I could go on and on – but I need to run! Have an absolutely great weekend, all!!!!
Magnet and Funcom’s Dreamfall have been nominated for ‘Best Video Game Score’ at the 2006 MTV Video Music Awards’! Excellent, excellent, excellent!!!! I’m so proud!!!! Oh…how I hope they win!!! Maybe then things will start blossoming in this country – and investors will be running after game designers!
Magnet being a ‘Bergenser’ makes my heart pound even harder!!! Hats off to them and congratulations Funcom!!! I shamefully haven’t played it yet! But is number one on my list!!!
Yup! Ragnar Tornquist reports that Dreamfall: The Longest Journey is available for preorders now!!
And I’m just kicking myself for actually spending money on having a good time Saturday night!! Why oh why didn’t I save my money for this?!!!!
Remember What The Dormouse Said 