Pay a visit to Funcom’s website and you’ll notice that something has changed. A countdown has appeared, promising that “awesome stuff will be revealed” in just over a week’s time.

With LEGO Minifigures silhouetted underneath that countdown clock, it looks like we’ll be hearing more about the Oslo developer’s upcoming new MMO, announced last year. That announcement looks to be planned for August 29, placing it firmly between the two major gaming events of Gamescom and PAX Prime.

Everyone knows that the world is coming to an end later this month. But for Funcom's Joel Bylos, it just became a lot more real.

Bylos is Game Director for The Secret World, which, as you know, is all about conspiracy theories. Heck, they even have an End of Days alternate-realtiy game campaign running to capitalize on the potential apocalypse.

None of this sits well with Bylos, as you can see in video, which was clearly captured candidly and off-the-record.

Free-to-play is all the rage in our genre lately. For developers and publishers, it seems to assure a larger player base by removing potential barriers to entry. Their hope then, of course, is that you stick around and spend some cash. On the surface, this feels like a win for players because hey - we're not giving a penny to anyone until we damn well enjoy something! 

Not everyone in the industry is convinced that the free-to-play model is an automatic just yet, however.

Age of Conan's first expansion, "Rise of the Godslayer," will be available in less than thee weeks! Funcom recently announced a release date of May 11 for the upcoming, Asian-themed expansion that whisks players to the land of Khitai, offering new playfields and gameplay content. Funcom describes the expansion's theme in more detail:

The expansion, set in the eastern empire of Khitai, builds on an already extensive Conan universe and will let players travel to a unique part of Conan’s world where an ancient traditional culture clashes with dark forces.

According to WorthPlaying, "Rise of the Godslayer" will be released in both retail and digital formats, and the retail version will include a copy of the original MMO as well, so new players won't have to purchase Age of Conan separately to jump right into the expansion. The retail version also comes "bundled with a new social pet as well as a package of virtual items to welcome new players to Hyboria." According to the official Funcom press release, the "Rise of the Godslayer" pre-order campaign officially kicked off April 21, although the official site hasn't been updated to reflect this announcement yet. Expect more details in the days to come, and stay tuned to ZAM's Age of Conan portal site and the official Rise of the Godslayer Web site for all the news as it's released. In the mean time, check out our Rise of the Godslayer interview from last summer, and read Funcom's pre-order announcement after the jump!

Recently we had the opportunity to interview Craig Morrison, Game Director on Age of Conan. During our interview we discussed some of the changes that have been made to combat, the expected changes to PvP with the notoriety system as well as some of the newer content plans on the Age of Conan drawing board.

Tamat : Hello Craig. Thank you for taking time out of your day to talk with us about Age of Conan.

Craig : No problem at all. Glad to get the chance to answer some questions and talk a little bit about the game.

Tamat : Let's start with the most obvious question: How do you feel about Age of Conan in its current state?

Craig : I think we are in a pretty good position to build on the launch of the game. Obviously there were some elements of the game that people have really reacted well to, and some that haven’t worked out as well as we would have liked. We definitely recognize that there are some areas of the game that need improvement and we are working through those at the moment.

The Age of Conan team announced today that Funcom is giving away a ton of prizes to celebrate the winter season.

All you have to do is send an e-mail to contest@ageofconan.com with the subject "Season Give-away." Please provide the following information in your e-mail: your name, your address, your telephone number and your Age of Conan account name.

Starting today, one random winner will be selected every day until Dec. 31 to win a prize package including the new Snow Mammoth; the War Mammoth; the Killer Rhino; Ring of Acheron; Drinking Cape; Bag of Holding; Amazon Bow; and Totem of Origins. The full rules can be found here.

The new Snow Mammoth mount comes in three different looks and can be used in siege PvP-battles to attack enemies and destroy structures.

So I go out of town and the whole industry goes nuts!  A Funcom employee, a GM in their Age of Conan game, got caught being inappropriate with a player, and is now no longer employed with the company.

The screen shots and chat, including a helpful transcription even, are available on MMORPG.com.

Funcom only stated:

We are aware of this matter, and necessary measures have been taken against them. We have clear guidelines for all employees in Funcom, not least those who work with customer service, and if the guidelines are broken there are consequences

A quote from Age of Conan product manager Erling Ellingsen (Sorry no direct link as I don't speak Norwegian) is being passed around from Itavisen as: This is the behaviour that is not accepted by Funcom."

It won't be possible to get a quote from Funcom until Monday, and we'll try to get what we can, but it's good to know quick action was taken.

Since Funcom is worse then CCP about deleting uncomplimentary posts from their forums, there's not a lot of places to talk about it officially, but you can head over to our AoC forums and discuss !