With the frequency of patches for Age of Conan Hyborian Adventures since launch, Game Director, Gaute Godager took some time today to address the community and elaborate on some of the future plans for Age of Conan． Once the major issues have been ironed out the team will be turning their focus to adding new content to the game．

Famine, official Community Manager for Funcom's Age of Conan, has released a statement today concerning the physical measurements of the game's female player characters． Here's what he had to say：

Today Funcom sent out a press release with the title "Age of Conan Reaches One Million Milestone．" At first glance, many took the headline as meaning the Norwegian developer's massively multiplayer online role-playing game Age of Conan： Hyborian Adventures had already enrolled 1 million subscribers．

Massively multiplayer games usually start you out as a wimpy adventurer in a high-fantasy world, beating up rats with a rusty dagger in the hopes of one day being able to afford a shiny new leather cap to wear． Funcom's Age of Conan： Hyborian Adventures will take a different tack by offering brutal real-time combat that will let you hack and slash your enemies into mincemeat． That's not an exaggeration--the game's extremely violent combat, which includes skewering enemies and lopping off limbs and heads, is in keeping with the source material from author Robert E． Howard, and will soon be available to try out in the GameSpot player-versus-player beta weekend． We sat down with game director Gaute Godager for more details． Let's say: You are really lucky today! You find the right place.

The game is on schedule for launch the 20th of May as we speak． We polish, remove annoyances, and optimize． Finally the client is approaching the target rendering performance, and it certainly is looking smooth． We are working hard on the features we haven't shown off in beta, features we have held back on purpose to have some new revelations at launch． Among these are spellweaving, massive PVP, and DirectX 10 [graphics]． In addition to this, the classes are getting their final overhauls before launch．

Norwegian developer Funcom has released its latest set of financials along with an update the Age of Conan： Hyborian Adventures beta．

In the wake of Blizzard Entertainment's 10-ton (and 10 million player strong) gorilla, World of Warcraft, it's difficult to accurately measure the success of a massively multiplayer online role-playing game． However, as several recently launched MMOGs can attest, just getting the first hundred thousand in the door can be a daunting feat． Of course, no challenge is too great for Conan the Barbarian．

Durham, USA - May 19, 2008 - Funcom is proud to announce that the Collector's Edition of Age of Conan is now completely sold out in all markets． The exclusive edition was announced in January, and has since topped retail charts at numerous retailers． In some markets, the Collector's Edition has been sold out for weeks, and as a result additional boxes were made． These are also sold out, and the total print run stands at 111．000 units．

The single-player questing offered within the first 20 levels isn't the only pacing adjustment Age of Conan introduces, though not every adjustment is as successful as others． For example, you can only learn crafting skills once you hit level 40． While the focus on combat is deliberate, crafting activities would have been a welcome way to mix up the early levels, especially given that you can gather resources before you can craft． The prospect of new loot, often a major reason to push forward, isn't as exciting as you'd hope, either． As you level, you'll find that few looted items are helpful, and the limited inventory space (even after buying an extra bag) can make dropped items more of a nuisance than a pleasure． The flow of new abilities is also inconsistent, since rather than bringing brand-new spells, new levels more often reward you with more powerful versions of existing spells and combos． Fortunately, the feat points you begin to earn at level 10 can be spent on new abilities and upgrades from one of three specialization trees．

Nevertheless, it really is about the combat, whether you prefer to beat up tarantulas or other players． Should you choose to play on a free-for-all player-versus-player server, be prepared for frustration． On those servers, you will be killed--often--by archers camping spawn points and "griefers" who get their jollies from punishing new players． But if you'd rather avoid the unfriendliness of such realms, you still have options． Instanced PVP battles are the most immediate outlet for your spellcasting prowess, and you can play a team deathmatch or capture-the-flag variant against others simply by adding yourself to the match queue．