It's just in the nature of game developers to talk a little trash -- whenever you work on something for so long, you'll pretty much say whatever you can when someone asks you to compare your game to someone else's. So we'll forgive Funcom's Gaute Godager (game director of Age of Conan) for what he says about World of Warcraft in this Eurogamer interview.WoW comes up first at the beginning of the interview, and Godager gracefully accepts props for AoC having the biggest launch since World of Warcraft. Which is true -- AoC has shipped over a million copies since launch (though Warcraft has gone on to sell nine million more, and AoC hasn't quite gotten there yet). But at the end of the interview, Godager really brings out the big guns -- he says that playing WoW is fun and all, but "if you've been to McDonald's for four or five years, and had your burger and your coke, sometimes it's great to just have a great steak and a glass of good wine."
Apparently Age of Conan is supposed to be that steak, and our little critically acclaimed and history-making game is supposed to be the culinary equivalent of McDonald's. Which isn't a bad comparison -- we can definitely see Age of Conan being called "steak." Especially since it was served so undercooked.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
6-26-2008 @ 2:53PM
Liel said...
I played AOC for a while but had to quit due to work and night school getting in the way. When ever I play another non WOW game and I come back I appreciate the differences of each.
Wow is kind of like training wheels for mmos. If it is your first mmo and then you find yourself wanting more you can try other mmos that come out.
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6-26-2008 @ 2:54PM
Azyriel said...
Quit WoW for AoC, Quit AoC to go back to WoW.
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6-27-2008 @ 7:30AM
Valkoon said...
I did the same Azyriel.
WoW is getting old & stale but AoC was not the answer (although it did have many good ideas).
6-26-2008 @ 2:58PM
Satrix of SSO said...
Seems like if you love what you are working on, it's easy to consider the competition to be sub-par. /shrug.
I'm not really offended by his statements.
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6-26-2008 @ 3:00PM
Demosthenes said...
Steak can be expensive, and i'd rather have my fun sober.
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6-26-2008 @ 3:04PM
AeitZean said...
PC Zone rated AoC 73% and said that while the first area is good and all, the rest of it was very repetative, and complained that literally *all* the quests are like the 'kill x of y' quests. at least in wow the mononony is broken up by interesting quests like controlling a fel reaver to stomp through swathes of emenies, or disguising yourself to talk to sneak in places etc.
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6-27-2008 @ 9:57AM
zappo said...
To be fair however, much of WoW was the same way. People complained about boring quests that were little more than grinding, and Blizzard responded in BC by offering much more varied and interesting quests. It's a bit unfair to compare AoC starting to WoW to some extent, although Blizzard obviously learned from other MMORPGs while AoC seems to be starting about where WoW started instead of learning from it.
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As to the thing about McDonalds and Steak...
* There is a lot of crap steak, it's not auotmatically good
* There is a lot of crap wine, it is not automatically good
* Women mysteriously receive 25% less nutritional value for their steak
* A portion of the restaurant is collapsed in, but they're working on it .. Look a topless waitress!
Personally I'd say World of Warcraft is more like Friendlies - fun, decent food, but not life changing. AoC is more like Hooters - ... I'll let you fill in that analogy.
6-26-2008 @ 3:08PM
Tridus said...
Mad Cow steak, perhaps? AoC is a buggy, unfinished mess.
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6-26-2008 @ 6:38PM
dAnixx said...
dont get me wrong, but WoW was too when it started wasnt it?
6-26-2008 @ 3:11PM
Alchemistmerlin said...
I guess if the steak is from applebees, burnt, and served with frozen pre-packaged cheese fries...and the wine if from a box.
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6-26-2008 @ 4:02PM
Smurk said...
We must have dated at some point.
6-26-2008 @ 3:13PM
siorai said...
The problem with AoC is that you're basically paying to play a Beta at best, but many times I feel it's more like an Alpha. So many little things that are broken it's just annoying to play. Maybe AoC will be steak and wine in another 6 months to a year, but for now? It's a bloody slab of flesh that was barely shown the grill and a glass of freshly crushed grapes, skins and seeds included.
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6-26-2008 @ 3:14PM
cjshrader said...
To be fair, weren't people saying the same about WoW when it first came out?
6-26-2008 @ 3:37PM
Asa said...
cjshrader - Yes, the first few months of WoW weren't pretty. I still remember opening day there was a bug where whenever you looted a new item that wasn't already in your bag you got stuck in the looting process for 5-10 minutes. It was funny seeing all these level 5s crouched by corpses everywhere you looked. But honestly I've also played MUCH worse releases. Vanguard is the first to come to mind ... even 2 months after release it still felt like you were playing a game that was in beta.
I have only spent about 1 hour playing Age of Conan, so my opinion isn't well formed, but I wasn't all that impressed. Even with that glaring bug I found WoW to be instantly enthralling.
6-26-2008 @ 10:19PM
Pzychotix said...
Yeah, but what's the point of comparing AoC to what WoW was back then? The fact of the matter is AoC NOW is pretty bad, while WoW NOW is pretty good and polished. Unless AoC can get it's act together within a month and fix itself, WoW is still the better game to play at the moment.
6-26-2008 @ 3:14PM
cjshrader said...
"Which isn't a bad comparison -- we can definitely see Age of Conan being called "steak." Especially since it was served so undercooked."
They're going to need some cream for that BURN
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6-26-2008 @ 4:02PM
Badger said...
Indeed, somebody better call the WAAAAAAHmbulance
6-26-2008 @ 3:14PM
Aigarius said...
WoW is like a pizza delivery - cheap, known-good, common.
AoC is like sushi delivery - rare, more expensive and possibly suspect.
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6-27-2008 @ 1:10AM
Pucelle said...
And possibly containing neurotoxin.
6-26-2008 @ 3:16PM
Hamtax said...
I wonder how long he's been waiting to use that McDonald's vs. Steak line. Maybe he should have waited a little longer to use it.
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