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Age of Conan director Craig Morrison has penned his monthly 'state of the game' letter. In it, he discusses today's Ymir's Pass update as well as the future updates and changes. See what's coming your way by clicking 'read more'.

Age of Conan servers were updated earlier this week with the free content update, "Ymir's Pass". The new area features new quests, monsters and a brand new story to accompany it. Grab the details and view some screens by clicking below.

Age of Conan is on its way to Korea thanks to a distribution agreement reached by Funcom and Neowiz Games. Given the rabid nature of gaming in Korea, this can only be seen as big news. Check out the official details by clicking below.

Age of Conan music composer Knut Avenstroup Haugen has been nominated for a 2008 Hollywood Music Award. The nomination is for 'Best Original Game Score'. Grab the specifics after the jump.

When Tolkien, the father of modern fantasy, wrote "The road goes ever ever on," MMOs took him at his word. A large part of online gaming consists of traveling from one point to another, but when it takes so much time to get anywhere, frustration mounts. If I'm picking up a book or alt-tabbing to web surf or check e-mail instead of playing the game, there is something wrong with the dynamics.

MMO Calendar 2009 is now available to purchase, with 100% of the proceeds going to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital!

In this week's RoleCraft, Jim Moreno looks at how the new WoW Achievement system could affect roleplaying.

The latest patch notes for Age of Conan have been posted and, most importantly, the PvP Consequence System is now live on all servers. Check out what that means for you gankers by clicking below.

Character stories area told in MMOs so frequently we often don't even recognize them for what they are. They will exist whether there are active world stories or not. Such tales survive even if they are completely ignored by the devs. But as with all things in gaming, with proper attention character stories can be made stronger.

Age of Conan's system designer Dave Williams is the author of an in-house interview about culture armor. See what's involved in 'cooking up' the culture armor recipes by clicking below.

In this week's RoleCraft, Jim Moreno looks at other RP-centric sites around the Internet.

Age of Conan will be undergoing an update in the coming days. Along with changes to the PvP Notoriety System, changes will also be implemented to trade skills and the GUI according to Craig Morrison, AoC's game director. Check out the details by clicking below.

In this week's RoleCraft, Jim Moreno looks at the options RPers have when dealing with the old MMORPG standby - the expansion pack.

Hype and gaming are very familiar bedfellows - which means that when a game is released, many people may expect something more than what they actually get. Age of Conan fell flat in the face of expectations, and many gamers were outraged to find out that WAR was, in fact, not a flawless game. This week, we'd like to know:

Can any MMORPG - or game - ever live up to all the hype?

Share your thoughts with us and post in the comment thread!

Age of Conan's new Game Director, Craig 'Silirrion' Morrison, revealed yesterday on the official forums that Funcom is "actively working on an approach to merge servers". Morrison also confirmed that the DX10 features will be pushed to testing servers soon. Read the full post after the jump!

Age of Conan's new director, Craig Morrison, has penned a letter to players outlining the updates set to be implemented in the future. See what's up for Conan by clicking below.

MMO worlds are stagnant. They have cardboard cutout monsters and NPCs that stand in their assigned space. Players knock the monsters down like a fantastical shooting range, but after a few minutes, the pulleys whir, the monsters stand up, and the world reverts to its static state. On a micro level where thousands of players are sharing the same game space, this is to be expected. The problem is that it also exists at a macro level and constantly echoes in the background, "This world is not real... this world is not real..."

In this week's "RoleCraft," Jim Moreno looks at the difficulties of scheduling RP events with an established group, and some of the solutions involved.

PvP leveling is now a part of Age of Conan thanks to today's update. It is the first of a series of updates to the entire PvP system in the game. Check out what else changed today by clicking below.

Now that Craig Morrison is ensconced as the new director and producer for Age of Conan and Anarchy Online, he has spoken on the official forums as "Silirrion". Check out his first foray into the madness by clicking below.

In a surprising turn of events, Funcom announced that Age of Conan Director Gaute Godager is leaving and Craig Morrison is stepping in as the new Producer and Director of Anarchy Online and Age of Conan. Apparently the decision was partially made due to mounting criticism of Age of Conan. Check out the news after the jump.

Age of Conan's Product Manager Erling Ellingsen talks, in the latest release of Hyborian Insider, about the upcoming new features and the DirectX10 support. Check the video after the jump!

Product Manager Erling Ellingson talks about upcoming new features and the new DirectX10 addons for Age of Conan.

After a hiatus for PAX, Jonathan Steinhauer's column returns with a new series on the Elements of the Game. First, though, is an in depth comparison of WoW and LOTRO and what it means for the Future of MMOs.

In this week's "RoleCraft," Jim Moreno looks at different ways to roleplay with weather effects in-game.

Dragon Con, the bastion of sci-fi/fantasy conventions, will be hosting Funcom and Age of Conan at this year's event in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. Check out all the details after clicking below.

Age of Conan's European site has published preliminary patch notes for the August 27th update. They have issued a caveat that these are subject to change and may not end up on the testbed server let alone live in the game.

In case you missed the Age of Conan August 19th patch notes leaked last week, we have them for you again. Click below to see what the Funcom worker bees have created.

In this week's "RoleCraft," Jim Moreno continues his look at character alignment in MMORPGs - this time focusing on how in-game factions make characters "evil" (or not).

Age of Conan developers and Funcom have big plans to show off the game's DX10 features at the upcoming Leipzig Games Convention in Germany. See what they have in store for fans by clicking below.

Age of Conan developer, Wayne "Yakomo" Soong, is looking for help from players of Dark Templar characters. He's got a forum thread open on the official forums and a running list of DT bugs, reports and fixes. See what he has to say after the jump.

QJ.net posted today a massive list of patches from the upcoming Age of Conan update. Even though the leaked list is considered preliminary, it features significant updates and changes to every feature, and most notably to the massive PvP and player classes. Check the full list after the jump!

In this week's examination of Clausewitz "On Gaming," Jonathan Steinhauer looks at what victory and defeat mean ... to NPC monsters.

The latest patch implemented on Age of Conan servers has equalized the damage dished out by male and female characters proving that Funcom doesn't recognize the glass ceiling. Check out what else was fixed by clicking below.

In this week's RoleCraft, Jim Moreno looks at the standard D&D concept of alignment, how it works in roleplaying, and how it's applied to MMORPGs.