Questions
by Garrett Fuller, Industry Relations

style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">
Answers
by Jørgen Tharaldsen, Product Director, Funcom




The gamers have heard the cries and answered the call: style="font-style: italic;">Age of Conan is
well on its way to
becoming on of the mainstream titles in the MMOG space. With over
400,000 users inside Hyboria, no one can deny the marketing success of
the game. Continuing on our Age
of Conan
post launch interview coverage, Ten
Ton Hammer's Garrett Fuller took a moment to chat with
Jørgen Tharaldsen
about the launch of Age
of Conan
and his plans at Funcom during the
months and years ahead.



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Jørgen
Tharaldsen, Product Director

Ten Ton Hammer: The style="font-style: italic;">Age
of Conan
launch has been claimed by many to be a success.
How does it
feel to launch a game so smoothly? How does it compare to Anarchy
Online?


style="font-weight: bold;">Jørgen style="font-weight: bold;">Tharaldsen:
Relief!!! Almost everything has gone as smooth as we planned for, which
was a lot more than we could have hoped for. *smiles* From what tens of
people have told me the last few days we have had the smoothest MMO
launch ever. I guess all the paranoia we got from having the worst
launch ever has actually helped us a lot. *winks* AO was just a
completely different ballgame. We thought we knew a lot about games,
but looking back we were newbs about so many things. 
 



I seldom enjoy our many small victories, like ever, as there is always
something which can improved, but for once I have convinced myself to
just happy for a few days. Relief, indeed!  



Ten Ton Hammer: What has
the Conan team been doing over the last few weeks, describe the work
environment for those who want to enter game design?



style="font-weight: bold;">Jørgen:
Polish polish polish, crunch crunch crunch, sacrifice sacrifice
sacrifice. Add to that a healthy dose of upset girlfriends and friends
(mine for one), and just an incredible focus on making the game ship as
good as possible, and you have it. All the work involved includes so
many levels across so many countries, but for the devs it’s
been mostly about finding the right focus. Luckily we have a lot of
really senior devs who been able to prioritize dead hard on the end
goal (launch), and it has paid off.  It’s a
mastodontic task, but we made it! So far. *smiles*  



Ten Ton Hammer: Most
people don’t realize you have been at Funcom a long time.
What has it been like over the years to see the company grow and a
title like this launch?



style="font-weight: bold;">Jørgen: I
don’t think any names in Funcom have been known to a big
degree until recently as we have focused primarily on the games
(perhaps with Ragnar and Gaute as the exceptions).  As we have
evolved we have seen this change, and the way we have it today works
better within our current framework I think. Gaute and Erling have
become household names for many MMO fans by now, and I think
it’s great we now have a name and standing where amazing
people like them are allowed to shine.



Working in Funcom has always been great, but it has also been an
incredible challenge, where the word sacrifice seems to stand strong.
In the wake of the AO launch from 2001 to 2003 we saw massive
downscaling, with most people in the company fired (my dept. went from
17 to 3 people, for instance), but we were fixed on the fact that we
knew we could create magic if we got the chance.  As the years
have passed, and AO has continued, Dreamfall:
The Longest Journey
released and Conan evolved, I think we
have grown a lot as a company. What we have now I think is a strong
foundation for the future. At the same time we know what it’s
like to struggle, and we vividly remember that “knife on your
throat” threat we had for some years. Hopefully is has
instilled a certain sense of humility, hopefully enough to keep us down
should we potentially experience a success with future
games.      


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There's many more
years of Age of Conan to come.

Ten Ton Hammer: Funcom
has the Conan license from Paradox for years to come. What is it like
to know there is still much more of Hyboria to explore?



style="font-weight: bold;">Jørgen:
It feels good. *winks*  Personally I have looked tremendously
forward to the day when we could start Hyboria, especially seeing how
many years we have worked on the game. The launch is but the start of a
long adventure, and I hope many will join us for the ride.



We are now working on the roadmap for the times to come, and in
cooperation with our players I feel certain we will continue to build
Hyboria for a long time to come.



Ten Ton Hammer: Many
people do not know you are an amazing photographer. Any vacation plans
now to travel and take some great pictures?



style="font-weight: bold;">Jørgen:
Wow, thanks, that was nice of you. I don’t agree though, but
it’s a nice hobby.



I love travelling so I always have a vacation plan (and I am always
broke because of it). This summer I am going to camp a few days at a
festival in Hungary “where the unreal becomes
reality” and that should be a nice one for photos. I guess my
proper summer vacation is Argentina and Uruguay. I will snowboard the
steeps in the Andes mountain for 9 days in August, which I _really_
look forward to.  The one thing I am most tingly about right
now is an upcoming bicycle tour through Ghana, Togo and Benin around
Christmas. It’s months away, but it’s a world I
know nothing about so can’t quite get my head around it.
It’s a low-budget vacation, but cycling down and into the
countries which compromise the “slave coast” and
“gold coast” will be an interesting adventure for
sure.   



Ten Ton Hammer: Tell us
about Funcom’s plans for this summer? Will you guys be
hitting the conference circuit as hard as last year now that the game
has launched?



style="font-weight: bold;">Jørgen:
We won’t be as hard on the circuit as last year as we
don’t have new stuff to show quite yet, but we will be at E3
for sure, and perhaps Comic-Con to some degree. Then we gear up towards
Leipzig and DX10 stuff, and then Dragon*con in September with our
yearly community gathering. We do have some stuff a LAN parties here
and there. Hmm, adding it up, I guess we ARE doing a full round, at
least compared to most gaming companies.   



Ten Ton Hammer: What has
your personal experience been with fans of the style="font-style: italic;">Age of Conan
?


style="font-weight: bold;">Jørgen:
It’s been nothing but good, and since I am fan myself I can
fully relate. As we now move beyond the “honeymoon”
and into reality I hope that people will continue to support us, and in
return we will for sure continue to support anyone who plays the game.
We are nothing without the fans and players, and regardless of what
happens we will be doing the best we can to make the game a great place
to be.



Ten Ton Hammer: How do
you feel Robert E. Howard would have felt about Age of Conan?



style="font-weight: bold;">Jørgen: I
wrote a thing about this in the art book, and even though that was art
related I think it can be altered to something like "Gaute, Didrik and
everyone else who have made this game; I am certain you would have made
Robert E. Howard proud, and this is the game to prove it."  


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Tharaldsen believes that Godager and Didrik have made Robert E. Howard proud.

Ten Ton Hammer: Do you
think the success of the game will prompt the Conan movie into faster
development?



style="font-weight: bold;">Jørgen:
It’s already in development, and seen from our perspective I
think it comes just at the right time (2009).



Ten Ton Hammer: Finally,
over all the years of development, what was your favorite moment?



style="font-weight: bold;">Jørgen:
It must be April 20th 2005, the day when we first announced style="font-style: italic;">Age of Conan, and
when people started to send mail about how much they looked forward to
the game. During that day and the subsequent ones leading up to E3 that
year was really inspiring, when we started to grasp we could have
something big on our hands.



If Age of Conan eventually will become big remains to be seen, but so
far so good, we are off to a good start, if nothing else. We are
super-anxious to see where this goes of course, and I think the weeks
to come will be crucial. Interesting times indeed. *smiles*  
 

To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our Age of Conan: Unchained Game Page.

Last Updated: Mar 29, 2016

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