SAN FRANCISCO--With GDC 2009 underway, we took the opportunity to visit with AOCGold: Hyborian Adventures game director Craig Morrison on the game's current status and its planned updates. The game, Morrison admits, had a rocky launch and was lacking in some areas, but has since been amended extensively based on feedback from the player community. Commonly cited launch issues, such as a lack of higher-end content, a lack of diversity in quests and dungeons,anda lack of higher-end player-versus-player battle have been worked on; content has been added steadily post-launch, and high-level siege combat is also in the game and enjoyed by players right now. 

In Age of Conan gold : Hyborian Adventures, fire , brimstone, and a phat loot patch await you.

Variety is something that the development team has pushed strongly to implement as well, says Morrison, who cited the most recent in-game update that added a new dungeon, Xibaluku, which included several harrowing new encounters that require players to think on their feet, such as a powerful "boss" monster whose magical shielding can be deactivated only by solving an always-randomized jumping puzzle; and a monster-infested crevasse where sallying forth quickly means getting weakened by flocks of bats, but moving forwards too slowly means taking a nasty fall, since patrolling troll monsters will catch up to you and send you tumbling. And this push for variety will also be reflected in the coming update new content, which, in addition to including a new high-level dungeon area, will also include a wide-open outdoor commons area under siege by two rival gangs. These gangsconstantly battle for control in public, shared areas as part of a new story that will have new quests tied to it. Completing these new quests may turn the tide of battle in favor of one side or another...in real-time, as other players are making their way through this content. So, while you might be trying to advance the agenda of one faction, you may suddenly see the balance of power swing in favor of the opposing faction as a result of other players helping that rival faction...again, in real-time, with no instancing. Morrison explains that this kind of on-the-fly change, while very difficult to implement in the game,should help shake things up for players who are looking for something new.