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

By default your Health Bar is located above the Toolbar at the bottom of your screen． The Health Bar is symbolized by a red strip, with a green strip below it; or if you are a magic caster a green and blue strip below it． The green strip is your Stamina and the blue strip is Mana． When your health is depleted in combat your red bar will begin to empty． Just as the stamina bar will begin to empty as you use up energy for performing combos, and the mana bar will begin to empty as you cast spells． When you engage an enemy their Health Bar will also be viewable so that you may see how close to defeating them you are．

Age of Conan allows for a limited time single player experience, which you can use to get accustomed to the game, user interface and controls． Of course it's not all about learning, plenty of adventure also awaits you during this time． In the single player portion of Age of Conan you may still communicate with others on the same server． Although you may spend as long as you like exploring the beach and jungle, you should be able to reach the city of Tortage within an hour, at which time you will begin to see other players． Once you hit Tortage you are able to switch between the single player story (night) and multiplayer stories (day) freely．

This is a pretty important question you need to consider． Some players like to play through a game solo and enjoy it as more of a single player experience． You get the benefit of not answering to anyone, and you set your own play times, and experience the game at your pace． You have no allegiances and you can just enjoy your random interactions with all the players around you． Or you may decide you want to be part of a community and develop slightly more involved relationships with other gamers． DO you want to work together to achieve bigger goals, and act as a team? When doing this you should consider what type of team you're looking for． Are you interested in mainly PVP? PVE? A social /casual environment? A crafter heavy society? Figure out the top 3 things you want from a guild before approaching one to join．

Dungeons seem pretty interesting so far, with some being easier, outdoor locations that can be beaten solo． The more difficult ones, like the Sanctum of the Burning Souls, require a group and have better loot drops, as should be expected． Within the Sanctum were spiders and lost souls, a stone-walled ravine section with blood waterfalls and a pool below, and a boss encounter against a giant skinless demon． I got a piece of blue medium armor for myself with a nice design pattern on it, and it differed significantly in appearance from any of the equipment I'd seen previously． Even though the armor and weapon designs in the game are simply fantastic, it's annoying to see that after 20 or 30 levels your character's armor and weapons look largely unchanged, a result of a lot of the world drops and non-dungeon quest rewards having much in common in terms of visual appearance within their armor type categories．

It's impossible to think of Robert E． Howard's iconic Cimmerian barbarian without also thinking of the brutal, lawless, and lewdly wanton Hyborian Age in which Conan dwells． That's exactly the tact Norwegian-based Funcom plans to take with the upcoming Age of Conan： Hyborian Adventures, a fully fledged massively multiplayer online role-playing game in which players delve into a world lorded over by Conan the king．

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．

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．

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．

According to the NPD Group Age of Conan Hyborian Adventures is topping the sales charts surpassing World of Warcraft in their recent sales charts． This quite a feat to say the least as it also topped the chart in the number one slot while the Age of Conan Hyborian Adventures Collector's Edition took the number three slot． It probably missed the number two slot due to the fact they sold out． This week we continue the Cryer post launch coverage as we take a look at some of the top discussions and great content for the Age of Conan community． Ten Ton Hammer has been pumping out game related goodies and guide content and you can expect that flood of information to continue． The discussion has been raging across the forums since launch as the community settles in and the battle for the Border Kingdoms begin．