Ten Ton Hammer - Taking MMO Gamers to the Next Level!

Funcom has been on the MMO industry map for almost a decade. They are known for Anarchy Online, Dreamfall, Age of Conan, and are now starting to release news on their next project, The Secret World. But the company has certainly had its ups-and-downs. Numerous players and critics believed that the company's most recent title, Age of Conan, was launched too early and suffered from high system requirements, bugs, and lack of content, thus leading to many updates over the past year. Similar problems cropped up when Funcom released their first MMO title, Anarchy Online, too soon as well, and the company has continued to pump time and energy into their still operating first project. Yet current Age of Conan and Anarchy Online players now hail both games as being strong and fun.

This past February, Funcom unveiled The Secret World at GDC '09, and the ideas behind the game seem innovative enough to complement the very creative viral marketing strategy that hopes to bring players into the mythology long before the game is launched. In the rest of this article, Ten Ton Hammer takes a look at what has worked for Funcom and what has not. Will Funcom learn from its trials and tribulations with Age of Conan and Anarchy Online to resurface with a fascinating new MMO style that is The Secret World? Let’s find out from both players and Funcom representatives.

Let's step back to April 2008, fans of Conan the Barbarian are clamoring to get into the beta test for Funcom’s Age of Conan. The forums are abuzz and the numerous fansites are full of news, rumors, and reports on the game. The MMO industry is on the verge of launching its next round of big, post-WoW games that are exciting MMO junkies all over again. Fans cannot wait to see the blood and M-rated content of the grim Conan world, they are excited by a new combat system that uses combinations and allows players to attack multiple targets. The hype is high, the time is right and Funcom is riding the wave into launch.

Fast forward to May 2008. Funcom lets players jump into a very short open beta test, and the game is set to launch at the end of the month after some more delays. People are getting their first hands-on look at the Hyborian city of Tortage, a pirate town that jumps right out of the pages of one of Howard’s Conan yarns. The opening twenty levels of the game play like a single player adventure; your character feels part of the story and is actually secretly working for King Conan himself.

As players begin this journey they find it fraught with woes, and we’re not talking about Picts with spears chasing you through a coastal forest. We’re talking about system requirements and some bugs. Ten Ton Hammer asked Premium Members what they thought of the early days in AoC:

“Personally, I think the game launched way too early without the testers seeing much of the game. Were there good parts? Absolutely. Tortage was probably the most fun I've had in an MMO,” Centrik replied.

By the end of May, Age of Conan was in full launch mode. The release was covered by all the gaming press and the game drew some high marks for its innovation to the MMO genre. However players were starting to see a different angle. Some players felt that AoC’s high system requirements caused issues.

“[The] game was too intense for too many people's systems,” said Vaebn.

In June 2008, Funcom had rallied back with promises that things were being fixed, but players also had a lot of options to look at on the market. With World of Warcraft plotting its Wrath of the Lich King expansion and Warhammer Online only months away, the MMO market was suddenly getting very competitive.

To further prove the point, Funcom's stock price on the Olso Stock Exchange was as high as 53.50 NOK (Norwegian currency) on May 22, 2008. But by July 22, 2008, two months after launch, the stock price for Funcom had dropped to 25.10 NOK. Tough times were upon Funcom, like every other MMO company facing the early part of the global financial crisis. Erling Ellingson, the Director of Communication at Funcom, had this to say on the ups and downs of the company and Age of Conan: