Age of Conan Online

[MongooseMatt]

Hi guys,

If you have not seen it yet;

http://www.ageofconan.com/conan/index.html

One of our writers, Gareth Hanrahan, has been hard at work helping with this project, so you know it will be a good 'un!

 

[Odovacar's Ghost]

I posted about this yesterday. But, it is a relief that a part of Mongoose is guiding this new game.

 

[Odovacar's Ghost]

It is also interesting that they are using the same font as Mongoose, for the word Conan.

 

[Mythos]

It is also interesting that they are using the same font as Mongoose, for the word Conan.

That font is now the "offical" font of all new Conan products. If you check you'll see that it's being used for the action figures and new series of books.

 

[Mythos]

Looks like additional information on the game;

http://pc.ign.com/articles/606/606369p1.html

 

[Faraer]

This novel is heralded by many as one of Howard’s strongest

Since he only wrote three, this is a safe judgement.

Obviously Howard wrote the original works in the 1930’s, a long time before world war two, Martin Luther King or the 60’s sexual revolution, and some of his themes and characters are very much creations of their time that do occasionally jar our modern sensibilities, so Age of Conan will not be done in a tasteless, exploitative manner.

So Bob's stories were exploitative? As for 'tasteless', taste is relative, and when taste is corrupt tastelessness is a virtue and tastefulness isn't. (And lose the fruiterer's apostrophes.)

Rest assured however that the world of Conan will never, ever, be politically correct

Oh great, someone else claiming not to be 'politically correct'. How brave and distinctive.

Do a web search. The almost exclusive use of the idea of 'political correctness' is a straw man to slur treating people decently. It's a piece of right-wing propaganda that Howard would have seen right through and doesn't belong on MMORPG FAQs.

 

[gav]

Is there any way to download that font to use in word?

 

[EricKRod]

Sign me up as a Beta Playtester!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Eric in Vegas

 

[jay13]

...

Obviously Howard wrote the original works in the 1930’s, a long time before world war two, Martin Luther King or the 60’s sexual revolution, and some of his themes and characters are very much creations of their time that do occasionally jar our modern sensibilities, so Age of Conan will not be done in a tasteless, exploitative manner.

So Bob's stories were exploitative? As for 'tasteless', taste is relative, and when taste is corrupt tastelessness is a virtue and tastefulness isn't. (And lose the fruiterer's apostrophes.)

Rest assured however that the world of Conan will never, ever, be politically correct

Oh great, someone else claiming not to be 'politically correct'. How brave and distinctive.
...

I agree, I would like to know just what they found exploitative and tasteless about REH's writing.

 

[Raven Blackwell]

Well, women tended to suffer pretty horribly in his works- "Iron Nails", "Xuthal(sp?) of the Dusk" and the fragment "Snout in the Dark" all have S&M like torture scenes where bound women are tortured. [Robert Jordan was pretty bad about this- one of his pastiche baddies had a version of Tormented Sacrifice that could have been designed by de Sade.] There is also "The Frost Giant's Daughter" where it is pretty clear Conan is going to try and rape Atali....

A lot of his other works though have the psychological and/or physical toture 'off-screen' though and worked to clean Conan up a bit later on. And of course, Howard crucified Conan [among other discomforts] so I don't think we can call him equal oppurtunity in the inflicting suffering department.

IMHO though, Howard's depiction of violence is far less lurid that a lot of modern authors can get. Also, there was always the thread of oppressed virtue that a lot of the nihilist writers don't have. Howard grew up in corrupt times that modern technology apart, are a lot like ours are shaping up to be. Perhaps this is the cause of his sudden resurgence of popularity- resonance.

Raven, philospher

 

[InsomNY]

Howard might also come off as a racist, in the eyes of some modern readers. Despite the fact that characters of all ethnicities (note how I don't say "races"? :roll: ) get stereotyped, it's just as clear that none of his characters are any less human because of them -- any inhumanity comes from traits peculiar to the individual, and there are heroic types in every group as well. REH was fairly enlightened, especially considering his time and location, but he still uses the language of the time, which might freak some people out a bit.

Hmmm, I'm not sure if I've added anything to this discussion. Then again, us hook-nosed, blue-bearded Shemites are masters of deceit and doubletalk. :twisted:

 

[Raven Blackwell]

Not sure I am adding to the discussion here [and us Picts are always cagey and untrustworthy] but here's my noise.

Rest assured however that the world of Conan will never, ever, be politically correct

Oh great, someone else claiming not to be 'politically correct'. How brave and distinctive.

Snip

Do a web search. The almost exclusive use of the idea of 'political correctness' is a straw man to slur treating people decently. It's a piece of right-wing propaganda that Howard would have seen right through and doesn't belong on MMORPG FAQs.

I am with you on this. I am not sure where horror/fanatsy/sci-fi started to look more like porn than The Lord of the Rings but I am pretty disgusted by the behavior of so-called 'heroes' offered by writers today. There is preceious little heroic about their actions. It seems that a good portion of the published writing in this market has dissolved into the tasteless projection of an author's id driven fantasies of 'forbidden behavior' like incest, rape and murder. Lately to get a good reading experience the stuff I've been reading is at least 30 years old.....

Conan at least tried to maintain a more naturalistic code of behavior amidst the decaying morals of the 'civilized' Hyborian nations, his brief forays into piracy excepted. In fact Howard often used his heroes [and they were heroes for the most part] to contrast his idea of morals against the real life corruption he saw all around him in a Texas boom town. Lately a lot of authors seem to be saying they don't see anything wrong with corruption and outright enjoy it. And with Western society becoming more and more corrupt, they get a large audience. I guess Howard is right then- civilization is always doomed to decay into self-absorbed decadence.

Raven, who says we're living in 'interesting times'- unfortunately.