Here is a little guide for the newbie. Massively multi-player online role-playing games (MMORPG) are a genre of role-playing video game that have a very large interactive space for gamers to access. Within this space is a virtual game world, where you can assume the role of a character of your choice or creation. You control everything they do. As such these games are completely different to alternative options, like the card game based PartyPoker or Angry Birds.

The MMORPG game is different to single-player or small multi-player RPGs, because of the amount of players involved and the nature of the game. The world you enter will evolve even when you are offline. Age of Conan and World of Warcraft are just two of the MMORPG games that are available to play.

So why should you get involved with an MMORPG game of your choice?

Fun – Role-playing taps into our inner child, from back in the days when we would dress up as firemen, wizards and barbarians for the fun of it.

Social – The social interaction within the games are real, therefore you can unofficially meet a person from all the way across the world from you. Say you live in England, you can interact with a player in Japan with a similar interest. Every so often the game will require you to work within a team too, therefore you are working together with new friends from around the globe in a safe virtual existence.

Time – Time goes quickly when you are playing Age of Conan, because there is so much to do, so much to consider and many options available to you. They are great if you have a day to yourself and want to ward off boredom.

The MMORPG game for newbies hails from Living Hyboria!

Age of Conan on Facebook hails from Living Hyboria!

The results of the campaign are really good with server activity booming … The feedback from returning players has been really good so far, and it seems that the game’s massive changes since launch is making a big difference for them. We’re very excited to see the renewed interest among former players!

It sure seems that Erling Ellingsen on Funcom is quite pleased with the result.

Re-evaluation period results in more tits hails from Living Hyboria!

Eurogamer checks out Rise of the Godslayer hails from Living Hyboria!

With the expansion we not only get a new landmass in Kithai, we also get the Kithan playable race, new armor, combos, and other things that a new area generally brings in any MMO. No new classes though, the current ones will have to suffice and I think that sounds like a good idea. Kithai characters will start in Tortage, as usual, but will travel to Kithai when the night questline is finished, much like Cimmerians travels to Cimmeria and so on. Tortage is said to be slightly updated to fit the Kithans entering the scene, that’ll be interesting to see.

The expansion takes a step from the Robert E. Howard short story Tower of the Elephant in some fashion, and it is set years after this occurs. How Conan slaying the imprisoned elephant-like good in that tower has anything to do with Rise of the Godslayer isn’t known at this time.

That brings us to the story, and this is how it is described on the campaign site:

Far to the east, beyond the devil-haunted towers of Zamora and the wind-tossed waves of the Vilayet Sea, the Empire of Khitai spirals slowly into chaos. The tendrils of darkness spread through the lands, tainting them. The Hyrkanians, kept at bay for thousands of years by the Great Wall, now spill across the Northern Grasslands in a wave of savage slaughter. The once beautiful lands of Chosain Province burn as power-hungry warlords fight to control every inch of the land.

And behind the scenes, sorcerers play games of power for stakes that would shrivel the soul. The desert of black sand known as Kara Korum seethes with alien creatures, bizarre and twisted forms of life that cry out human voices yet attack with demonic fury. And deep in the vine-choked jungles of Paikang, the heart of the corruption beats to the rhythm of another world.

Now, the slave who became a liberator must walk the dark roads of the empire and rise against the darkness that dwells there.

Let the rise of the Godslayer begin!

Uh-huh. Right.

Kithai is in turmoil and there will be focus on factions and the conflicts in Rise of the Godslayer, we’re told. You can join any faction, and that will open up different questlines, which sounds cool.

Other news include new mounts: Tigers and Wolves.

In the case of the Tiger mount, for example, it is a religious ritual for the cult that you must join. In order to capture their tiger, the player must travel into the woods unarmed and unarmored and kill the Tigress barehanded. Then they can pluck the mewling and defenseless newborn from the den and bring it back to raise it as their own. It first becomes a pet and the player must teach the tiger all of the necessary skills for survival such as hunting, stalking and battle. Once the tiger has grown large enough and if the bond is strong enough, the player must create a saddle out of various ingredients scattered across the land. Only then will the Tiger become a mount.

One might expect a raised level cap, but that’s not the case. Instead, we get an alternate advancement system:

The alternate advancement system will basically allow players to use their experience towards special alternate advancement feats and combos. This will open up a lot of new potential abilities for players. In addition the players will also be able to ‘train’ these feats to a second level over time to perfect them. This will allow players to choose which of their new feats or abilities to focus on and decide which order they build them up in. This training will continue whether you are online or offline, and will take a certain amount of time to complete (depending on the power of the feat), so it is a tactical choice for the player as to which order they do this training.

So when will we play Rise of the Godslayer? No release date has been set, and it is probably a bit optimistic to hope for a Holiday season release, but it isn’t impossible. We’ll see what the reports from the Gamescom show floor tells us, the expansion is supposed to be playable there. My guess is March 2010 for this one though, but hopefully I’m wrong.

Be sure to check out the screenshots, artwork, trailer, and the official expansion website.

Age of Conan Expansion Announced: This is Rise of the Godslayer hails from Living Hyboria!

Artwork from the Rise of the Godslayer Expansion hails from Living Hyboria!

Trailer Time! Age of Conan: Rise of the Godslayer hails from Living Hyboria!

]]> http://livinghyboria.com/news/trailer-time-age-of-conan-rise-of-the-godslayer/feed/ 0 http://livinghyboria.com/misc/what-the-mmos-have-come-to/ http://livinghyboria.com/misc/what-the-mmos-have-come-to/#comments Wed, 19 Aug 2009 11:00:35 +0000 Thord Daniel Hedengren http://livinghyboria.com/?p=366 What the MMOs Have Come To…! hails from Living Hyboria!

]]> Uhm. Yikes. And LOL FTW d00d, perhaps…!

Found via the excellent Broken Toys blog. More The Guild goodness in the YouTube channel.

What the MMOs Have Come To…! hails from Living Hyboria!

]]> http://livinghyboria.com/misc/what-the-mmos-have-come-to/feed/ 0 http://livinghyboria.com/gallery/first-screens-of-the-new-age-of-conan-expansion-rise-of-the-godslayer/ http://livinghyboria.com/gallery/first-screens-of-the-new-age-of-conan-expansion-rise-of-the-godslayer/#comments Wed, 19 Aug 2009 10:33:58 +0000 Thord Daniel Hedengren http://livinghyboria.com/?p=368 First Screens of the New Age of Conan Expansion: Rise of the Godslayer hails from Living Hyboria!

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First Screens of the New Age of Conan Expansion: Rise of the Godslayer hails from Living Hyboria!

]]> http://livinghyboria.com/gallery/first-screens-of-the-new-age-of-conan-expansion-rise-of-the-godslayer/feed/ 0 http://livinghyboria.com/news/conan-radio-launches-yes-thats-right-radio/ http://livinghyboria.com/news/conan-radio-launches-yes-thats-right-radio/#comments Tue, 18 Aug 2009 10:54:26 +0000 Thord Daniel Hedengren http://livinghyboria.com/?p=364 Conan Radio Launches (Yes That’s Right: Radio!!!) hails from Living Hyboria!

]]> Conan Radio is a pretty funny little project getting ready to roll out, broadcasting “live from Old Tarantia”. They are looking for people:

Conan Radio is looking for interested individuals for Live DJ’ing, Voice Overs and Program Hosting. If you are interested in any of the positions please contact Brad at brad@zero-nation.com for more information.

Links to tune-in is available from the site of course, and if you’re playing on the Cimmeria RP-PvE server you can hear from the good folks behind the project there as well.

I wonder if they’ll try to stay in character? Might be a bit hard, given that there were no radios in Robert E. Howards universe… Still, gotta love the dedication here, so here’s hoping it’ll take off! Tests are being done this week, so maybe we’ll here more later.

More information on the official Age of Conan site.

Conan Radio Launches (Yes That’s Right: Radio!!!) hails from Living Hyboria!

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