After saying for months that Age of Conan didn’t look like it was my kind of game, I let a friend sway my resolve. Yesterday I joined the three quarters of a million people who’ve rushed to see blood gushing as heads are lopped off. It only took a little over an hour (maybe it was less, I was doing other things so had to keep checking back with the computer) to install and update.
The character selection screen is intuitive and there was quite an array of choices to make in avatar customization. I decided to play what I thought would be the easiest class for me; yes, a ranger. First snag I ran into was my name was taken. Second problem I ran into was the map system. I’m obviously not a geographer, since I couldn’t figure out where anything was (except the bad guys. They’re the people on the beach who try to kill you, and the people in the jungle that try to kill you. That part was easy to figure out). I did figure out the chat system, or at least how to make a comment in anyone in the absolute immediate are. I never did figure out how to talk in OOC. That’s okay. I probably wouldn’t have said anything at that point that anyone wanted to hear anyway.
The third problem I encountered was the combat system. No it’s not intuitive. I hated it. I obviously am not l33t enough to figure it out. I did figure out how to die, though, so I guess I have some talents. I decided to calm myself a bit by logging out, and reading up a bit about the game somewhere online, then try again. Logging out was easy. Finding a few websites wasn’t hard; just google AoC. The hard part was concentrating. The music from the game was still playing. I rebooted, thinking that somehow it hadn’t logged me out properly. The music was still playing. I stared at my desktop some and when that didn’t stop the music, I logged back in, out, rebooted; music was still playing. Pushing the mute button on my keyboard didn’t seem to work either. I began to get nervous. Was HAL taking over my machine?
I logged back in; went to Account Settings, tried clicking various options in the Audio settings. The music played on. I posted a message on IGN. The single response was that I should try things I’d already tried. I tried them all again. There was still no silence in my office. I uninstalled the game. Success! Back to peace and quiet.
