General Discussion

Mats Remman from Funcom answers questions from our own Garrett Fuller about his job, his game, and life in the industry.

MMORPG.com:

Tell us a little about your childhood. How did school and where you live influence your choice to join the video game community?

Mats Remman:

I guess I was fortunate in the way that I got my first C64 at age 6, and used to spend quite a bit of time in front of it. From there it just expanded and I've either owned or had access to a bunch of different gaming hardware. But there was never any community here that had a more genuine interest in game development, so it wasn't until adulthood that I started to get more involved in the video game community. Also, growing up in a little town in northern Norway, having just about no decent game retailers didn't actually help on getting enough games!

Read the whole article Here.

   Not to put a negative spin on things, but what the hell, I will anyway. Everytime I see one of these interviews it's always with some kid who is now a developer. Best of all he worked for Blizzard, and I'm guessing that his favorite game (other than AoC of course) is WOW. It looks like hes had a good three seconds of life expierence, which is just one more reason I feel so damned inspired about the prospect of AoC being a whiz bang game.

   Well call me crazy but I'm going to go out on a limb and say that AoC is going to be a level based, quest based, item based game. I'm sure that you'll have a noob zone, and that as you progress through your levels the ai will generously allow you the privilege of moving to the next zone. Your hand will be securely held throughout each step of progression in the virtual world. There's no need to worry about having an independent thought.

   There will be no housing. The crafting (if there is any) will be as simplisic as it is pointless, because lets face it, everything of value wil no doubt be the ever-lovin soulbound. PVP will be equally pointless as well as risk free. I mean we wouldn't want looting in our bloody, gore infested murder of other players? Let try to keep it civil folks. Don't worry though, there will be blood money, that you can use to but special happy items. Instead of targeting an enemy, I now can swing my sword and it hits everything in a certain radius. Thats just so next generation.

   Can someone please make me a sandbox game already? Something thats skill based, with housing. Something craft based not item based. A game where I can Loot in PVP. How about a cross between old SWG and UO. I'm really hoping someone will soon, because I just can't choke down another game of the same old same old.

Originally posted by havocthefirs

   Not to put a negative spin on things, but what the hell, I will anyway. Everytime I see one of these interviews it's always with some kid who is now a developer. Best of all he worked for Blizzard, and I'm guessing that his favorite game (other than AoC of course) is WOW. It looks like hes had a good three seconds of life expierence, which is just one more reason I feel so damned inspired about the prospect of AoC being a whiz bang game.

He is in charge of loot

   Well call me crazy but I'm going to go out on a limb and say that AoC is going to be a level based, quest based, item based game. I'm sure that you'll have a noob zone, and that as you progress through your levels the ai will generously allow you the privilege of moving to the next zone. Your hand will be securely held throughout each step of progression in the virtual world. There's no need to worry about having an independent thought.

You get to solo up to level 20 and then you enter the mmorpg part of the world. Your hand is not held.

   There will be no housing. The crafting (if there is any) will be as simplisic as it is pointless, because lets face it, everything of value wil no doubt be the ever-lovin soulbound. PVP will be equally pointless as well as risk free. I mean we wouldn't want looting in our in our bloody, gore infested murder of other players? Let try to keep it civil folks. Don't worry though, there will be blood money, that you can use to but special happy items. Instead of targeting an enemy, I now can swing my sword and it hits everything in a certain radius. Thats just so next generation.

We do not know how crafting will be just yet but there is housing. PvP is far from risk free because you can lose some of your items. Honestly, if you swung your sword in a whirlwind, and should have hit 8 mobs, why only hit the one you have in you target window? That doesn't make sense. I physics say I would have connected with 4 mobs, let me hit all 4 mobs.

   Can someone please make me a sandbox game already? Something thats skill based, with housing. Something craft based not item based. A game where I can Loot in PVP. How about a cross between old SWG and UO. I'm really hoping someone will soon, because I just can't choke down another game of the same old same old.

The pvp in this game is more skill based and less item centric. The crafted items are just below the best items in the game from raid bosses so that both hardcores and casuals are on an almost even playing field.

I agree with havoc to a certain degree. Id worry too, if that was their main developper base. It is not. They have their good old AO team working on this title too.

Havoc, look at it this way, it might make you feel better. The Reason why this guy in charge of loot, was chosen, was because every single other more important developper was working. he even seems surprised that he was interviewed.

Actualy this tells nothing about AoC, it tells more about how mmorpg, wasnt able to get the people they wanted to interview in the first place.

On another note. Id have no problem having a true gamer in charge of loot. Its cool with me.

Originally posted by havocthefirs

   Not to put a negative spin on things, but what the hell, I will anyway. Everytime I see one of these interviews it's always with some kid who is now a developer. Best of all he worked for Blizzard, and I'm guessing that his favorite game (other than AoC of course) is WOW. It looks like hes had a good three seconds of life expierence, which is just one more reason I feel so damned inspired about the prospect of AoC being a whiz bang game.

I don't play WoW. I used to, but I haven't in a long time. I am still a kid, and I'll be a kid until the day i die. That's what makes life fun. It's somewhat hard to cram down a life experience in a brief interview article that goes on the web, I hope you understand. If you want to know more about me, don't hesitate to send me a PM with your questions, I'll try to answer them to my best extent.

   Well call me crazy but I'm going to go out on a limb and say that AoC is going to be a level based, quest based, item based game. I'm sure that you'll have a noob zone, and that as you progress through your levels the ai will generously allow you the privilege of moving to the next zone. Your hand will be securely held throughout each step of progression in the virtual world. There's no need to worry about having an independent thought.

There will be levels, quests and items in the game. There will be a zone you start in. Spot on!  ;)

   There will be no housing. The crafting (if there is any) will be as simplisic as it is pointless, because lets face it, everything of value wil no doubt be the ever-lovin soulbound. PVP will be equally pointless as well as risk free. I mean we wouldn't want looting in our bloody, gore infested murder of other players? Let try to keep it civil folks. Don't worry though, there will be blood money, that you can use to but special happy items. Instead of targeting an enemy, I now can swing my sword and it hits everything in a certain radius. Thats just so next generation.

The crafting is mostly done by Jayde and PVP is very much up Athelan's alley (you can search for their posts on the official forums).

Originally posted by havocthefirs

   Not to put a negative spin on things, but what the hell, I will anyway. Everytime I see one of these interviews it's always with some kid who is now a developer. Best of all he worked for Blizzard, and I'm guessing that his favorite game (other than AoC of course) is WOW. It looks like hes had a good three seconds of life expierence, which is just one more reason I feel so damned inspired about the prospect of AoC being a whiz bang game.

   Well call me crazy but I'm going to go out on a limb and say that AoC is going to be a level based, quest based, item based game. I'm sure that you'll have a noob zone, and that as you progress through your levels the ai will generously allow you the privilege of moving to the next zone. Your hand will be securely held throughout each step of progression in the virtual world. There's no need to worry about having an independent thought.

There will be no housing.  Will players be able to build cities in Age of Conan?
Yes, there is a complete system in place for allowing guilds to build entire cities, and there will be both PvP cites (or battlekeeps as well call them) and cities found in areas where you can not PvP.

The crafting (if there is any) will be as simplisic as it is pointless, because lets face it, everything of value wil no doubt be the ever-lovin soulbound. Will there be tradeskills and crafting in Age of Conan?
Yes, definitely. All of the four prestige classes – the Lord, the Commander, the Master and the Crafter – have access to certain crafting classes

PVP will be equally pointless as well as risk free. I mean we wouldn't want looting in our bloody, gore infested murder of other players? Let try to keep it civil folks. Don't worry though, there will be blood money, that you can use to but special happy items. Instead of targeting an enemy, I now can swing my sword and it hits everything in a certain radius. Thats just so next generation. So the Border Kingdom is the only place for PvP?
No, there are other areas to engage in player-versus-player combat. You can, for instance, pick a fight at a tavern once you get drunk enough, or you can get involved in mini-games in the arenas. But generally other players will not be able to harm you outside the Border Kingdom unless you want them to.

Can someone please make me a sandbox game already? Something thats skill based, with housing. Something craft based not item based. A game where I can Loot in PVP. How about a cross between old SWG and UO. I'm really hoping someone will soon, because I just can't choke down another game of the same old same old.

So most things you seem to want i do see them coming with Conan, maybe not that much freedom, don't know yet how it feels untill played. Its definitly a more promising titel then the rest of the new upcoming mmo's

Check full list : http://community.ageofconan.com/wsp/conan/frontend.cgi?func=publish.show&func_id=1029&table=PUBLISH&template=news_features_game&selected=1029

Another note, that asumtion of "kid" dunno where that come's from, maybe you havn't notice'd HE IS WORKING IN THE INDUSTRY, how many of us posters do you think have such a cool job. Now not saying my own job or anyone else his/her job isn't cool, but from a gamers prespective it surely is cool when people are given such chances to get in that industry and make a mark.

The only thing with AoC what worry's me is from my point of view

The game is currently being developed for Windows and Xbox 360.

from a developers point of view i would have done the same thing as thats a hugh market laying there on console's.