We asked Jørgen about the recent server merges that had taken place, to see if he could enlighten some of the concerns that sparked from this announcement, because some people thought that this could be the beginning of the end for the MMO. Jørgen said that he was confident that people playing Age of Conan are happy about the news, and that it was requested from the playerbase.
“I think that people who are playing Conan are actually very happy about the news, and indeed it’s been one of the most requested things from our playerbase. The essence of any MMO is the social experience, and right now people are spread out a bit too thin across the servers. The merge will hence improve the overall fun-factor, and will make it easier to team and fight with and against other players.
“In and by itself a server-merge won’t be a be-all end-all solution to get players, it’s not primarily a mechanism for that. It just helps to reinforce the fun and social factors for the many players in the game right now, which in itself is positive of course.”
You can see our question, and Jørgen’s full answer to that question below.
Strategy Informer: Funcom recently announced that the Age of Conan server’s would be merging to help populate servers that aren’t getting enough people. Naturally, consumers that are playing Age of Conan will start to worry about this news, do you think they should be worried? And will this be enough to help the current situation, or are you planning additional procedures to get more players in Age of Conan?
Jørgen Tharaldsen: I think that people who are playing Conan are actually very happy about the news, and indeed it’s been one of the most requested things from our playerbase. The essence of any MMO is the social experience, and right now people are spread out a bit too thin across the servers. The merge will hence improve the overall fun-factor, and will make it easier to team and fight with and against other players.
In and by itself a server-merge won’t be a be-all end-all solution to get players, it’s not primarily a mechanism for that. It just helps to reinforce the fun and social factors for the many players in the game right now, which in itself is positive of course.
To get new players to enter the game there are many other things which is of a higher importance, I think, and at the core of that is quality content on a month by month basis, delivering on promises and on player concerns, having a good communication so the players are in the know, and delivering a great service via customer service, community reps and GM’s. This combined, and doing it great, is what will eventually determine our long-term success. We have already taken immense strides on improving on numerous parameters since we launched, but the work continues.
Check back tomorrow for news on the Xbox 360 version of Age of Conan, and to see what Funcom thinks about the competition that Warhammer Online is bringing to the MMO market.
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