Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures Interview
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MMORPG.com: For those who don't know, can you tell us what led to the decision to radically change the game's item system?
Craig Morrison: Again, I'm not really sure that 'radical' is the word I would personally use to describe it, but I guess that is subjective! As I just mentioned in the previous question it was driven firmly from the feedback from players after the launch last year. While not a radical change, revamping the RPG system was certainly a major decision. I think though that it was an easier decision to make than you might think. The feedback regarding items and their relative worth was pretty consistent. People just didn't see the items and statistics in the game as meaning enough to their character. When we sat down and looked at it none of us really had any doubts that this was an area of the game that just wasn't delivering what players wanted and expected from an RPG system.
That of course opened up quite a few risks as well. Changing something so fundamental to the game after launch always means you have to be careful and mindful about what players like about the game already. I think though that the feedback made it an easy decision, it was an area we really had to address in some way and we didn't want to apply a 'band aid', it was important to me to implement a sound and thorough solution. The systems revamp is about giving us a sound and solid foundation from which to build the game in the future. Now that we are not restricted as much by the very narrow power range of the original system it gives us more room to manoeuvre.
