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Eurogamer has the word from Leipzig's Games Convention that Funcom is spooling out new information about their newly-released title Age of Conan. Among the most interesting tidbits: concept art for the first AoC expansion should be released later this week. Word is that it has a "strongly oriental look", perhaps hinting at an Eastern-themed context. They're also talking about a film tie-in, hinting at connections between the Lionsgate movie production and the MMO. Details on that promotion were as sparse as the expansion hints, other than Ellingson saying they have "a very close relationship with the guys making the movie."

The site also put forward information about upcoming updates to the gameworld. Hints at the "Black Castle", the Commons district of the capital city Tarantia, and the much-anticipated Ymir's Pass are all in the article. The Pass was mentioned by Erling Ellingson as one of his favorite upcoming content pieces in our recent interview with the project lead. Head on over to the site for all the gory details.

First off, this post is not part of giant campaign to promote World of Warcraft, Age of Conan or any other game. This post is based on two things: a recent opinion piece at MMOCrunch regarding AoC's "demise", and an eyebrow-lifting quote from Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime that says "40% of the World of Warcraft subscribers that left for Age of Conan have since returned."

The post at MMOCrunch points out a few interesting issues on both sides of the fence. First off, there's Morhaime's quote, coupled with recent AoC numbers that range from 1 million subscribers at launch to 700,000 on June 30th to the recent report of 400,000 subscribers remaining. On the WoW side, they point to another article claiming that Blizzard's recent Recruit-a-Friend campaign is a cry of desperation against falling subscriber numbers. Either way you look at it, and no matter what you actually believe, many are obsessed with WoW's success and every time it rises or falls, new speculations and theories arise. So will there ever really be a WoW killer, or should new developers just take the approach of Paul Barnett and aim more towards being the Led Zeppelin to their Beatles?

If you've not yet reached level 40 in Age of Conan, you could be forgiven for not knowing a single thing about gems or gemcutting. There's no reason why you should; gems don't even drop before level 40. But gems are, right now, one of the most controversial subjects in AoC to date. There are even mutterings that the PvP patch shouldn't go live until gems are properly dealt with somehow. So what's the fuss about?

Here's the short version. Gems are a way to add extra magical effects to crafted items. They drop from foes in a raw state, and can be crafted (cut into a usable form) by characters who have the appropriate skill and equipment. They can then be socketed into player-crafted items, giving bonuses and other effects. On the face of it, this is a pretty swish crafting system, allowing for customizability and a personal touch. There are serious issues with it, however.

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When you hear Age of Conan, you probably think half-naked women, hack and slash, or perhaps 'bugs and unfinished content.' We're betting you never think of NPC children playing games, but that's just what today's One Shots shows off! This screenshot comes in to us from Graeymap (aka Pumpkinbum) who ran across this particular scene while out adventuring recently. Graeymap writes: Kids playing 'AiirPlaaaaane' in Old Tarantia reminds us of our carefree childhood days before heads rolled. It's certainly an unexpected thing to find a game like Age of Conan!

Have you stumbled across any NPCs doing unexpected things? Perhaps you caught a bunch of them huddled together in a strange fashion due to a bug? Or perhaps you just want to show off the cool things that you're doing? Whatever your reason, whatever your game, grab those screenshots and send them to us at oneshots AT massively.com! We're all about seeing different game worlds, but we need you to send them in.

The servers are down this morning for extra time, allowing a major patch to be applied to Age of Conan. This particular set of changes has been a long time in the testing, going through several iterations on the Testlive server. The new PvP consequence system, however (which includes PvP XP and notoriety) isn't included and is still being tested. The focus on Testlive is still apparently on setting appropriate PvP XP and murder points. We haven't yet seen the promised PvP gear appear on Testlive yet, let alone on Live.

In today's patch, among a host of class changes and other crunchy bits, there are a lot of fixes and alterations to massive PvP, which should make a big difference for the players who have reached level 80 and were looking forward to this feature working properly. We're also interested to see new voice acting for a large number of later quests. The sudden silence after Tortage always did strike us as peculiar.

Complete patch notes follow after the cut.

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This week, we present to you the first installment of the Hyborian Backpackers' guide to the zones of Age of Conan. Over the coming weeks, we'll be scouring every nook and cranny of Conan's world to bring you all the sights, quest locations, and notable local characters that make up the areas of AoC. Whether you are the type of player that likes to stop and smell the roses, or prefer to have a heads-up on where to go next and charge towards the level cap, these guides will give you an excellent overview of what each zone has to offer so that you don't miss a thing.

To kick things off, we have put Conall's Valley under the spotlight, seeing as a good portion of the population will end up here after leaving the isle of Tortage. Starting at Conarch Village and winding up in an encounter with the big Ymirish baddie pictured above, the trek through the valley proved to be rewarding in more ways than one. Click through to the gallery guide to join us in the first leg of our epic journey across Hyboria!

This year's Games Convention in Leipzig, Germany should be a big event for Funcom, who will be showcasing new Age of Conan content. Funcom's latest press release states they will be showing attendees new locations, content, and features that will make it into Age of Conan in the coming months.

The event will also showcase demos of Blue Orb Inc.'s software which enables gamepad play as well as a look at Matrox's TripleHead2Go, for widescreen gameplay across three screens. Funcom adds that they will reveal the title's forthcoming DirectX 10 features to the press at the Games Convention, so expect more details about the long-awaited features to be announced later this month.

The screenshots keep rolling in from lots of people who are really enjoying the look and feel of Funcom's Age of Conan. Today's One Shots submission comes to us from Konig, who appears to have found a lovely place to look across the mountains in Wild Lands. Konig writes:

Here is my (relatively) early level Dark Templar In the Wild Lands in Age Of Conan. I was trying to find a shortcut across some mountains when I moved the camera back and swing it around to find [this] amazing shot.

Have you run across an amazing vista in your travels? Maybe you've just had an exciting time in battle lately, and have a triumph screen of you among a field of bodies. Heck, if it's an MMO screenshot, we want to see it! Just send those in to us here at oneshots AT massively DOT com along with a description of what we're seeing. We'll put it up and you get the credit! How easy is that?

We covered the NCsoft quarterly report two days ago; now it's Funcom's turn. Many gamers will be keenly interested to know what the truth of Age of Conan's performance really is, what with nay-sayers taking delight in talking it down and representatives and supporters talking it up. The game is either thriving, or dying on its backside. People are leaving in droves; whole guilds are untouched and continue to play on busy servers. AoC sucks; AoC rules. What do the figures say?

As it turns out, we have to distinguish between the report presentation - a colorful package that includes lots of celebratory marketing woo-woo material - and the financial report itself. If one looks at the report presentation as opposed to the financial report, it appears the game sold over 800,000 copies to date and currently (that is, 'per August 14') has 415,000 customers. That many subscribers would certainly be enough to keep the game alive and healthy. But there's a big twist around the corner.

An Age of Conan player tricked a naïve, Funcom-employed Game Master (an in-game customer service representative) into pursuing cybersex with him. The player posed as a female playing a male character and enticed the male GM with flirtatious remarks and innuendos. After the GM fully threw himself into the moment, the player revealed that he was male, and that the conversation had been a prank.

Friends of the player posted screenshots of the conversation on MMORPG's forums, and the ensuing controversy led Funcom to fire the GM for unacceptable behavior and violation of the customer service guidelines. Destructoid then interviewed the prankster and hosted the unedited version of the conversation screenshots.

Frankly, we're not sure who is the bigger jackass -- the GM for his unprofessional behavior, or the player for baiting him into it. Everyone seems to have his or her own unique interpretation of this fiasco.

[Via Big Download]

He may not be the most popular man in Age of Conan right now, but after this, you have to accord him at least a sliver of respect. Funcom Project Manager Erling Ellingsen made a personal appearance yesterday to give some answers on a thread where the atmosphere was, frankly, extremely hostile.

The fact that after a warm-up that mentioned wanting to throw things at the screen whenever his face appeared, he began his opening comment 'My friends...' is also worthy of respect.

He went on to provide some honest answers to concerns, assuring AoC players that features that weren't in at launch will be added (with a special mention of Drunken Brawling) and pointing out that WoW didn't have anything like the amount of end level content at launch that it does now. Ymir's Pass, we learn, is 'just about done', though Ellingsen wouldn't commit to a date, for the obvious reason that he'd get 'crucified' if it wasn't met.

Here's something you don't see everyday in an MMO; someone standing on the lip of an active volcano! We're not quite sure why Nuutador the Cimmerian Conqueror clambered up here to look down into the mouth of this smoking, steamy volcano in Age of Conan. But if you're curious (and it won't really hurt you) why not! Nuutador writes in:

[This screenshot is] from Wild Lands of Zelata -- from the top of a volcano. Took some time to climb up there but hey, what wouldn't you do to get somewhere you really want to go? =)

We're more the 'luau with frozen drinks' type ourselves, admittedly. Do you have any screenshots showing off strange and unfamiliar places that you've cliffwalked to? If so, we'd love to see them! Just send them to us here at oneshots AT massively.com.

The construction of guild cities has been one of Age of Conan's main features since release. One such city on the Fury PvP server is Goonrushalem, home to the Thulsa Goons guild. Nestled in the foothills of Stygia's Purple Lotus Swamp, the city of Goonrushalem was once one of the largest player-built cities on the server. Originally intended to be built up into a functional battlekeep for siege warfare, other guilds have since taken the lead and beaten Thulsa Goons to that goal.

Join me as I take a visual tour of the great Goon complex, and discuss the uses of the various buildings it contains.

Last night a new patch went to Age of Conan's Testlive server. As well as making the usual slew of fixes and changes, including addressing memory leak and crash problems, and introducing a revamped version of the Catacombs in Old Tarantia, there were some tweaks to the PvP consequence system.

We're glad to see the following among the patch notes: 'Trading with a criminal will inform you of the consequences and prompt you to confirm to continue.' The consequences of trading with a criminal are being flagged as a criminal yourself, so before this minor but crucial adjustment, it would have been rather easy to end up an open PvP target just by accepting a trade invite. Other adjustments include: no PvP XP earned for snuffing targets below level 10; no progression beyond PvP level 5 until you're level 40; no earning PvP XP at all if you are under level 10; and no trading with NPCs at all if you are a criminal.

Many of the players are, quite understandably, very eager to see the new PvP system go live. Changes like the above make it clear that Funcom want it thoroughly tested before that happens.

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