Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures Interview
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Q: Does Age Of Conan have opportunities for communities to create their own stories with each other in that freeform PnP sense?
A: We have a host of animations to unlock player creativity. If you go to YouTube and search for WOW you'll find videos of weddings, porno movies, and they do everything with the few tools they have. There is really, really so little that you need to give the players but we are trying to give them a lot. You can build your own cities in Age Of Conan, which encapsulates the whole of this. I'm a psychologist, that's my education, so the social aspect is paramount in anything you do.
You play MMOGs for one reason, and that is to be seen by other players in various ways. To be recognized, to compete. It's this really dualistic thing someone sees me, I see them. Everything we do needs to reflect this, all game mechanics, all items. Take a simple thing like amour. If I were to put cool-looking amour as the best loot from the first quest in the game, it would dilute the meaning for all the rest you get. Why does it do that? Because players think that until someone sees them with something finer they've not really achieved much in the sense of how they look. The look of the amour, how people see you and what you achieve are connected, so when you kill the last big dragon or daemon that's when you get the best-looking amour in the whole game, because people will want to know where you got it. That in essence is an MMOG that recognition thing; how you are seen by your peers.
