Perhaps many people still clearly remember that muscular conan played by Arnold Schwarzenegger.Robert E Howard created a true fantasy legend in the 1920s and 1930s with his character of Conan the Barbarian. One of the most popular and influential characters in all of fantasy fiction, the man of few words and a large sword has sold tons of books and comic books and has appeared in two feature films. Now, Anarchy Online creators Funcom has been working on Age of Conan for quite some time. Having gone through the both the public and beta test, the development is nearing its final stages.
Now let Erling Ellingsen, Product Manager at Funcom, give us some latest news and details about this anticipated MMORPG.

MMOsite: First off, thanks for doing this interview with us. Do you have any exciting news to share with us regarding the recently concluded 2008 Game Developers Conference (GDC)?

Erling Ellingsen: Absolutely, the show was fantastic for us. We managed to show new features we had never shown before and the game looked extraordinary. A lot of press from all over the world came to visit and it turned out to be one of our best events yet. It was great to meet all the journalists and it was a thrill for us to be able to show city building and mounted combat. And, of course, how can you resist the opportunity to go dancing across the Golden Gate Bridge wearing nothing but slippers and some flowers in your hair? Yeehaw!

MMOsite: AOC is the first MMO which supports DirectX 10.0, which means it will require high on players' computer. Many players will have to upgrade their computer in order to play Age of Conan. What measures will you take to allow more players especially those with low-end computers to play the game?

Erling Ellingsen: Actually, you don't need to play Age of Conan using DirectX10. The game still looks great on DirectX9, and I imagine most players will end up using that (due to the high penetration of Windows XP compared to Vista). Thanks to our proprietary engine called DreamWorld we can really tweak and scale the graphics to such a degree that even lower end machines will be able to run it. Of course, Age of Conan is a hungry beast and the more you feed it the happier it will be, so higher end computer owners will definitely get bang for the buck!

MMOsite: How are things going on with the open beta of Age of Conan? Funcom announced that Age of Conan will be delayed until May 20th. What's the main reason behind? Are you confident that the commercial release will happen as scheduled this time?

Erling Ellingsen: We delayed the game because we wanted to spend more time polishing and perfecting certain elements of it. We're very glad that we are in a position that allows us to do this, because we really want what is best for the game. The extra months of development time allows us to make the game even better! Age of Conan is not in open beta yet, and we are not ready to make any announcement on the specific dates for the open beta.

MMOsite: Unlike other fantasy MMO games, in the world of Age of Conan, gamers will not play as elf, dwarf or orc and it seems that few spells are involved. Can we take it that spells will play a less important role than swords in Age of Conan?

Erling Ellingsen: Age of Conan does shy away from the traditional fantasy standards, and I think skinny guys with pointy ears would have a hard time surviving in the brutal reality of Hyboria. Magic is very much present in the game, though, but it's a different kind of magic. In Hyboria, magic is something sinister and powerful ¨C and it often requires you to make a pact with the forces of evil before you can harvest that power. Spell casting is definitely an important element of the game, and we have some great new innovations to this system: the way you cast spells is often different from other games, such as having to aim at your victims!