The Age of Conan team has posted its monthly development update for October, and this one focuses on all the technical aspects surrounding the upcoming 2.1 series of updates. Chief Technical Officer Rui Casais talks about what the update will mean for the game's core systems, while Lead Rendering Programmer Fred Richardson discusses the graphical upgrades players can expect to see in the future.

As far as classes are concerned, Guardians will receive some significant updates in the 2.1 series. The team also confirms that there will be a team vs. team option alongside the new dynamic queue system for PvP fans. The 2.1 series should be hitting the test servers this month, so keep an eye out if you'd like to try out the new content before it goes live.

Age of Conan fans who loved the games' in-game Halloween events from last year are in for a treat, as it's all making its spooky return, but with more social items than you can shake a stick at! With two solo quests and an additional etam quest, be sure to visit the official Age of Conan website to check out some of the items on the way. THe unusually useful Pict is probably one of the best. To access the quests in-game, just be sure to type /claim while in-game to receive a "partially translated page," which will direct you to your next quest.

Knut Avenstroup Haugen's work on Age of Conan: Rise of the Godslayer has just earned him a nomination for best original score from the Hollywoood Music in Media Awards. Other nominated game scores include BioShock 2, Halo: Reach and God of War III. The ceremony will be held from Nov. 18-20.

"Knut fully deserves this amazing nomination," said Age of Conan's Executive Producer Craig Morrison. "He worked tirelessly with the team to find the right themes, and just the right atmosphere with this score."

Congratulations to Knut Avenstroup Haugen and the entire Age of Conan team!

Whew, talk about a long name for a monthly newsletter! The team over at Age of Conan appears to be trying something new out this month; instead of seeing the standard "Letter from the Director" that players have been used to, the beginning of October saw a new concept: Monthly Development Updates!

In this monthly update, various Age of Conan systems designers contribute some words to explain some of the new content coming in patch 2.1 for AoC. Specifically, the monthly development update touches upon the new PvP mini-game, The Call of Jhebbal Sag, which is really AoC's version of World of Warcraft's Arathi Basin, with players holding capture points to win the game. Interestingly, however, some capture points may bestow positive or negative effects upon the players who claim it, so this will add an interesting level of depth to the mini-game.

In addition to having new PvP mini-games, players can also expect to see some nifty new social mini-games making their way into Age of Conan, including a treasure hunt, freeze tag, an insult and storytelling contest, hide and seek, and even horse racing! All guild members should be able to organize these fun little social mini-games, so if you've got a close group of friends that you play Age of Conan with, this might be a great way to let off some steam from caving in the skulls of your enemies!

Over the past week or so, Craig Morrison, the enthusiastic producer and developer of Funcom's Age of Conan, has been discussing what he likes to call "the numbers game," which was basically a personal blog post about MMORPG subscription numbers and why they might not be as important as we think they are.

In his first post, Morrison argues that we shouldn't judge an MMORPG's success by its population numbers because that leads us down some very slippery paths. First, there is the issue of being able to count 'players' in an MMORPG in the first place: do you count free trials? What about ones who are still subscribing, but do not play? What about players who play for an hour a month? Morrison then moves on to discuss units sold and how it's a big problem for MMORPGs. He notes that while other mediums, like books, movies and offline video games can be judged by their overall lifespan of sales, the number of units sold "only marks the beginning" of an MMORPGs life. In other words, if we were to judge MMO success based on initial sales, Age of Conan should be considered a powerhouse, with its 1,000,000+ copies shifted. On the other hand, if we just go by player population, AoC may be near the bottom of the pile.

Keep reading after the jump for details on his second post.

Have you always believed that your subscriptions should get you a little bit more than just... game time? Well, no longer will this be the case as Funcom is launching their new Premium Subscription Campaign today that introduces some awesome limited-time item bundles that will be awarded; all for just subscribing to the game! From now until September 30th, 2010, players who buy three months of campaign time will receive an additional 14 days of game time, five extra character levels and an Owlet companion pet! If you decide to purchase six months of campaign time, you'll also receive an extra 30 days of game time, ten extra character levels, the Owlet companion pet and the Warlord's Cache, which is a chest stuffed full with power potions and foods. If, however, you want to get everything there is to get, then pick up the twelve months of subscription time, which comes with an extra 60 days (that's two more months!) of game time, fifteen additional character levels, the Owlet companion pet, the Warlord's Cache and the Wings of Power, an item that gives all characters a +10% experience boost!

Be sure to check out the Age of Conan Premium Subscription FAQ if this sounds like something that interests you!

While it seems as though Funcom has been doing quite well over the past few months with their launch of Rise of the Godslayer, they will want more players to check it out! That's why, from now until July 15th, Funcom is now offering all players, both active and inactive, the chance to return to Hyboria to enjoy themselves in AoC's new Rise of the Godslayer expansion... for free!

So what are you waiting for? If you were previously inactive, this also means that you can get access to the core game for a free 10 days as well - Funcom honestly just wants you to check out their latest expansion and see how much this game has evolved since launch. And it's free, so what's there to lose!?

This month's Age of Conan Letter from the Game Director seemed like it was hard to write. Every game director wants to tell their players about the amazing new areas, loot or quests they have prepared for a new update, but it's equally important to tell them when the game needs some time to get a technical upgrade. It's just not as fun for them.

Age of Conan will soon be integrating the next level of Dreamworld engine technology into the game. What does this mean for Age of Conan players? A few things. The new technology upgrade means better performance in things like rendering and network latency. It also means entirely new technical features like deferred lighting and new development tools that enable game designers to create better content more efficiently.

So while it's not as sexy as new mounts or new areas to explore, the tech upgrade does confirm that Funcom is taking the Age of Conan franchise seriously, and that there in this for the long haul. The Dreamworld engine technology helps to make Age of Conan a bit more future-proof and once the developers learn to use the new tools it brings, you'll be seeing barbarians with swords that are shinier and pecks that are...flexier. The new technology upgrade should be completed and ready for the test servers by the end of august.

Check out the Letter from the Game Director yourself for more.

When it comes to expansions and MMORPGs, most development companies can be quite transparent as to the ways they want to push their game, and you can easily read these directions by simply looking at the main intentions of the expansions themselves. Blizzard, for example, "expands" upon the World of Warcraft universe by scrapping the old and ushering in the new, thereby demonstrating their desire for players to constantly feel like they're playing a brand new MMORPG with every expansion. For other MMORPGs, like Aion or Final Fantasy XI, expansions typically revolve around deficiencies in the original game, like the introduction of daily quests for Aion to alleviate that "grindy" feeling, or the introduction of Campaign in Final Fantasy XI to allow players a way of leveling up without always relying on a party.

In this way, when I first heard that Funcom was planning an expansion for AoC, I'll admit that I was a little bit wary. Here was an MMORPG known for being rather slim on content when it was first released and, just as the holes have been filled and the game is starting to go somewhere, Funcom decides to expand? What kind of message is that?

FilePlanet is running a pretty epic promotion for its subscribers this weekend. If you belong to FilePlanet you can download an exclusive Sneak Peak Beta for the upcoming Age of Conan: Rise of the Godslayer. The beta will take you through the entirety of the new expansion and will, get this, let you bump your character to any level instantaneously!

The Sneak Peak Beta is only running tomorrow, Thursday, May 6th through Monday, May 10th. Beta keys are very scarce so if you want to snag one you better get over to FilePlanet now! And watch for additional in-depth Age of Conan: Rise of the Godslayer coverage coming soon!