Cilus
07-25-2007, 03:22 PM
http://forums.ageofconan.com/showthread.php?t=33827 By: Pharamond
After some conversation amongst ourselves, we wanted to take some time out to speak a little about E3 and the comments and feedback that we've gotten that everyone has had afterwards.
The show this year took a little getting used to for everyone involved. Rather than 50,000 attendees, there were about 3,000, and there wasn't the opportunity to show the game on the show floor, where you'd normally get to reveal a few more bits of juicy information, have fans dropping by, and so on. This year, the presentations were focused on the large media sites and the press. It was a wonderful opportunity for us to get word of the game out to an even wider audience—we even popped up in USA Today, both the website and the newspaper itself—but it also meant we had to shift the focus of our presentation from presenting for the hardcore fans who know everything to presenting for a wider audience of journalists.
In those presentations, we had to assume that large sections of our potential audience didn't know anything about the game and work from there. That's why you saw us focusing on the combat system and the game world itself. To people who've never seen it before, or don't know Conan that well, it's the first thing that really grabs and holds your attention. If you're used to auto-attacks in MMO games, watching someone actually controlling combat, with blood spattering and heads flying off is really, really cool. Think back to the first time you heard about or saw the combat system. That's what a lot of these guys were seeing for the first time. As much as we would've loved to go into more detail about the game, we had about fifteen minutes per person to say, “Here's who we are, here's our game, and isn't it amazingly cool?” And judging by some of the E3 articles we've read, the answer seems to be, “Yes!” We've already gotten a nice selection of awards, including Best PC Persistent Online Game from IGN, Honorable Mention for MMO of the Show from WarCry, and a nomination for Best Role-Playing Game E3 2007 from Gametrailers.com.
We also know a lot of you would've liked to see the video of the presentation itself. Indeed, we went into E3 with the intention of showing off lots of the in-game video. Due to the Internet issues we ran into—keep in mind there was a 3-megabit line being shared between all the companies, journalists, and other guests of the hotel—we decided not to, since the lag was terrible.
That said, we understand that all of you who are loyally following the game are eager for more and more information! It means a lot to us that everyone is enthusiastic about the game and wanting to know more. The Friday updates will continue, of course, but as we have said all along, we firmly believe in trying to have things as polished as we can before showing them publicly. Naturally, there are still things we are working furiously to finish, polish up, and tweak, as with any project at this stage, and the team are hard at work ensuring that we can get things precisely as we want them for launch. The beta is also giving us tremendous amounts of feedback, and it also means that some things are getting changed and tweaked based on feedback from our testers. We've said from the outset that the real meaty details (the stats and numbers, etc.) would only be seen very close to launch (if it at all), excepting those taking part in the beta process.
So, we do understand that you'd like to see more information and details released (and, as gamers, we know what it's like to anticipate a new game's release!). As to your complaints about the lack of detail, point taken. We understand that we not only need to present more information, but we also need to present more detailed information, and we will be working on getting that information into your hands as soon as we can. We will have to ask for your patience, however, as a lot of the team is currently taking their vacation before the big push to launch.
Above all, we'd like to thank you for your enthusiasm. The passion of the Conan community is a remarkable thing, and we're all very grateful you're here. We are working very hard to deliver the true Conan experience that you have all been waiting for!
After some conversation amongst ourselves, we wanted to take some time out to speak a little about E3 and the comments and feedback that we've gotten that everyone has had afterwards.
The show this year took a little getting used to for everyone involved. Rather than 50,000 attendees, there were about 3,000, and there wasn't the opportunity to show the game on the show floor, where you'd normally get to reveal a few more bits of juicy information, have fans dropping by, and so on. This year, the presentations were focused on the large media sites and the press. It was a wonderful opportunity for us to get word of the game out to an even wider audience—we even popped up in USA Today, both the website and the newspaper itself—but it also meant we had to shift the focus of our presentation from presenting for the hardcore fans who know everything to presenting for a wider audience of journalists.
In those presentations, we had to assume that large sections of our potential audience didn't know anything about the game and work from there. That's why you saw us focusing on the combat system and the game world itself. To people who've never seen it before, or don't know Conan that well, it's the first thing that really grabs and holds your attention. If you're used to auto-attacks in MMO games, watching someone actually controlling combat, with blood spattering and heads flying off is really, really cool. Think back to the first time you heard about or saw the combat system. That's what a lot of these guys were seeing for the first time. As much as we would've loved to go into more detail about the game, we had about fifteen minutes per person to say, “Here's who we are, here's our game, and isn't it amazingly cool?” And judging by some of the E3 articles we've read, the answer seems to be, “Yes!” We've already gotten a nice selection of awards, including Best PC Persistent Online Game from IGN, Honorable Mention for MMO of the Show from WarCry, and a nomination for Best Role-Playing Game E3 2007 from Gametrailers.com.
We also know a lot of you would've liked to see the video of the presentation itself. Indeed, we went into E3 with the intention of showing off lots of the in-game video. Due to the Internet issues we ran into—keep in mind there was a 3-megabit line being shared between all the companies, journalists, and other guests of the hotel—we decided not to, since the lag was terrible.
That said, we understand that all of you who are loyally following the game are eager for more and more information! It means a lot to us that everyone is enthusiastic about the game and wanting to know more. The Friday updates will continue, of course, but as we have said all along, we firmly believe in trying to have things as polished as we can before showing them publicly. Naturally, there are still things we are working furiously to finish, polish up, and tweak, as with any project at this stage, and the team are hard at work ensuring that we can get things precisely as we want them for launch. The beta is also giving us tremendous amounts of feedback, and it also means that some things are getting changed and tweaked based on feedback from our testers. We've said from the outset that the real meaty details (the stats and numbers, etc.) would only be seen very close to launch (if it at all), excepting those taking part in the beta process.
So, we do understand that you'd like to see more information and details released (and, as gamers, we know what it's like to anticipate a new game's release!). As to your complaints about the lack of detail, point taken. We understand that we not only need to present more information, but we also need to present more detailed information, and we will be working on getting that information into your hands as soon as we can. We will have to ask for your patience, however, as a lot of the team is currently taking their vacation before the big push to launch.
Above all, we'd like to thank you for your enthusiasm. The passion of the Conan community is a remarkable thing, and we're all very grateful you're here. We are working very hard to deliver the true Conan experience that you have all been waiting for!