It’s a wonderful journey in Age of Conan, now we have huge news for the players, 250 hours to get level 80, besides I bet you will have so much of fun by playing this game. It's also important to note that that's pretty close to World of Warcraft's benchmark, too -- most players can get from 1-70 in 6 to 14 days played. I think my first 70 took me about 7 and 1/2 days. It's going to take you 250 hours to get to level 80 in Age of Conan.

That's the big news today, and I'm not sure exactly how I feel about that. On the one hand, that tells us very little about the actual game. Saying you have 250 hours of content means nothing unless that content is fun content. On the other, it does let you know exactly what you're getting into as far as a time commitment goes (on average). There will be so many gamers playing this game inspired by its time length. What's a good length of time for the leveling game to be, anyway? If you make it too long and drawn out, won't many players quit in frustration before they ever get to the top (Ever Quest was notorious for having players that never capped)? Maybe. Let them level too quickly, though, and they'll quit if there's nothing to do at the top. Even if there is something to do when you're capped, for many people, leveling is the game. I'm probably one of those people.

I hate structured PvP (like arenas) and while I dabble in raiding, I really have more fun leveling. So is 250 hours long enough to keep you interested? And why even tell us that in the first place? What does Age of Conan's 250 hours mean to you? First, lets talk about actual Age of Conan Powerleveling time. Since 250 hours is the average time to 80, your mileage may vary. The news blurb mentioned that leveling would take 2-3 hours per level until level 60, at which point it takes longer. If you want to do the math on that, take 2.5 x 60 and you get 150, leaving about 100 hours for the last 20 levels -- that's roughly 5 hours per level (or 4-6 if you want to stick with the same ballpark estimates as used for the first 60 levels). According to this news we know exactly the time frame we spending in Hyboria for each level. You can expect those numbers to decline as familiarity with the game increases, too. I suppose what it really comes down to is what you'd rather spend your time doing. The 250 hours it's going to take you to max out your character is fine, but what do you do when you get there? I hate maxing out my characters in MMOGs. As soon as I stop being able to advance my character, my interest in a game takes a nose dive.

The only reason I bother with the level 70 endless gear quest of raiding in WoW is because I have fun hanging out with the people. Otherwise, there isn't a whole lot of point to continue playing. Not mention the difficulty of farming WOW gold, you will find it’s much easier to farm Age of Conan gold, if you just have a try. It’s much different if you are really into raiding, but I think the numbers of truly hardcore raiders who enjoy the challenge of raiding (and have the time to engage in it) is small enough to be statistically insignificant. If you're into PvP, that's something else you can do at max level -- but if it comes down to a grind fest where the guy with the most time invested wins the day (as most MMOGs tend to be), that's not that exciting in the long run. I've always thought that MMOs were more interesting because of your character's personal advancement and story -- if you're really serious about going the PvP or E-sport route, you'd probably want your game to be built around those ideas and look something like this. So, if the real game is the game where you're able to advance your character by yourself (or in small groups), is 250 hours enough? Is it even close? Wouldn't it be better to push that average time up to 5 hours per level for all the levels and give players more area to explore, more items such as AOC Gold to collect, and more things to do?

It seems like a lot of players tend to agree with me -- as much fun as a little PvP on the side or a little raiding can be, the game is really about you and your character: getting stronger, gaining new skills, finding new equipment, seeing new things. Sometime in the last few years, MMOGs stopped being about the experience of playing and started being about finishing a climb to the top. The best evidence I can offer you for this is that the Age of Conan has handed us a handy 250-hour promise that that's all the time we'll need to spend AOC Powerleveling in Hyboria. But you know what? I don't care how many hours it's going to take me to max out in Hyboria. Most of the players are playing for fun, not for achievement. So the real point of these games is not capping. That’s why the day the players hit the point where their character stops growing is the day their interest starts to flag and start looking for other games to play.

I think it would do us all a lot of good to stop focusing on the goal of leveling, and start enjoying what we're doing -- taking a long time to level, from level 1 to level 80, is not necessarily a bad thing if you're having fun along the way. I'd rather spend months getting to 80 (and having a good time) than spend months sitting at 80 being bored. Of course, we still come back to the early point I made: If there's not content to support those 80 levels, they're not going to be very interesting (players will complain about the dreaded grind).

However, I'm not a huge fan of our totally quest-driven leveling and gameplay. Quests are nice, but they're more of an amusement park experience than a virtual world experience. You have to follow a map to figure out where to go and what to do instead of carving out the adventure by yourself, it's mapped out in such a way that you can plan exactly what the fastest route to the top is. How boring! Obviously, Age of Conan gold is another choice for those MMO game players who are hesitating to change another online game to play. Also it’s a good news for those players who is about to start an online game journey.