anarchy-online posts

Funcom has announced the seventh year of operation for Anarchy Online, the company's successful science fiction-themed MMO. Over nearly a decade, Anarchy Online has amassed over six million player-created inhabitants and more than 200 million hours of play time, which equates to approximately eight million days of gaming.

Gaute Godager, formerly game director of Anarchy Online and now game director for the company's newest hit, Age of Conan, couldn't be happier with Anarchy Online's success. "When we first set out to create Anarchy Online we had no true references, nothing to learn from, and this pioneer feeling is something we embraced and cherished. That Anarchy Online has lived for seven years is an astounding accomplishment, but it also proves that quality persists if it is nurtured and cared for in the right way."

Current Anarchy Online game director Craig Morrison asserts that the game's thriving, ever-evolving community should be the ones credited with the game's success. "The community and development team has almost formed a very symbiotic relationship through the years, and being a part of this positive and constructive unity is something which I am incredibly proud of," he said.

What does the future hold for Anarchy Online? "I hope the development of Anarchy Online will continue to grow," said Morrison. "Our goal now is to keep on evolving Anarchy Online for seven more years, at least, and I hope all of our players will join us for the ride."

Funcom's Early Access program for their upcoming fantasy MMO Age of Conan has officially begun but even an attempt to limit the number of people playing the game before the official launch on Tuesday has still resulted in the game's official web site getting slammed with tons of traffic.

At the time of the writing of this post the community web site is in a low graphics mode with only a few links available. The forums link has a similar message and adds, "For your information the game is now live, an (sic) you can also log-on to the game servers.." That may be the official version but right now a number of comments on Big Download have stated that they are unable to sign in yet.

All of this is extremely familiar. When Funcom launched their first MMO product, Anarchy Online, in 2001 it too suffered from post launch issues. One wonders why Funcom didn't learn their lesson from their first time.

While Funcom prepares for the launch of Age of Conan next week, it's also working on its next MMO titles. Revealed at last year's GDC, The Secret World is supposed to take place on Earth in the present day but be full of conspiracies and, yes, secrets. In Funcom's latest financial report the developer states that four of the game's playfields are "well underway towards completion". Some of the development team for the game were pulled to help finish off Age of Conan before its launch May 20.

Funcom also announced that is working on a new booster pack and a new rendering engine for its long running sci-fi MMO Anarchy Online. It is also starting up development of a casual MMO team which is now in its "technology development phase". No other info on this new department was revealed.