Funcom’s upcoming MMOG, Age Of Conan, delivers a distinctly adult fiction alongside its brutal, bloody combat – innovating in the MMO space as it marries combo-based attacks with Diablo-esque slashing. We battled the wintry climes of Norway to get hands-on time with the title, and sit down with the game’s director, Gaute Godager (pictured), to discuss where Funcom intends to take the MMOG. 

This combat system is more action-oriented than many other MMOGs – do you think this reflects a change in RPGs in general?

It’s an interesting question. Many people have likened MMOGs to an Excel sheet,  particularly in terms of combat. I think that’s all well and good – I made a game like that myself. But I think inspiration from other more action RPGs like Knights Of The Old Republic have made me think about what else we can do on the internet that really drives activity and gives a sense of being there. I don’t know if that’s a general move for RPGs but it’s a change akin to moving from strategy games to realtime strategy games. It’s a natural evolution of people’s interests; they want to have a different type of experience whilst keeping the old experience at the same time.

Do you think this represents a move away from the use of pen-and-paper (PnP) mechanics in virtual worlds?

For me it’s almost like a movement towards it. Having a choice in what the player’s doing – I think that’s the big difference between an MMOG and PnP. The social aspect is very, very similar in many ways, but MMOGs’ rules are very fixed and what you do doesn’t matter as much as what your character does. Adding the element of player action on top is what we’re doing. In some ways I think we’re going back towards the PnP freedom, the creativity, exposing the player skill in some way. 

Does Age Of Conan have opportunities for communities to create their own stories with each other in that freeform PnP sense?

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.