Breast outcry "very surprising" to Funcom

By Robert Purchese Published 4 June, 2008

Plus details of fresh content for June.

Funcom has told Eurogamer that it was very surprised by the strength of the reaction to the accidental shrinking of breasts on female models in Age of Conan.

Developer spokesperson Erling Ellingsen said even mainstream media had been in touch, for what he describes as a rather surreal bug fix and not, as some suggest, a sneaky way to water down its mature content.

"The amount of attention this accidental breast reduction has received is very surprising to us. I've had mainstream media calling me about this, and the forum has been glowing with some very interesting conspiracy theories," said Ellingsen.

"I can tell you, however, that this is nothing but a body morphing bug that is being fixed now. So your breasts should be back to normal as soon as possible. Never thought I would say those words, really. Interesting business, this."

Age of Conan launched last month and proved very popular. Ellingsen told us now was all about "retaining" subscribers.

Funcom is doing that by adding features you've asked for, such as the ability to not only dance but control your character while doing so.

We're told a better user interface will be introduced "soon" as well, and we were given a rundown of what to expect throughout June, including the much talked about remedy to "ganking" (groups of players ganging up on helpless targets).

"In June we're giving several dungeons in Stygia a complete overhaul. We're going over some quests to make them even more entertaining and adding a bunch of post-level 50 quests. We're adding voice-overs to a ton of quests pasts level 20 - about one each level - and we're putting in lots of quests that didn't make it for launch," revealed Ellingsen.

"Also for June - we're not completely binding ourself to a date yet - is an overhaul of the PvP system. We're making it so ganking has consequences! Very cool. Plus we're adding PvP gear and things like that."

Head over to our of Age of Conan preliminary review to find out what we thought; we'll be bringing you a full and detailed opinion of the game shortly before you have to decide to subscribe or not after your free 30-day trial.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (39) Latest comment 4 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • crazyhorse174 #1 4 years ago

    Shouldnt that sub heading be?:

    Plus details of flesh content for June.

  • ChthonicEcho #2 4 years ago

    Shows why people buy Age of Conan.

  • menage #3 4 years ago

    "I can tell you, however, that this is nothing but a body morphing bug that is being fixed now. So your breasts should be back to normal as soon as possible."

    This shit is so funny.

  • mallocks #4 4 years ago

    I like the sense of humour they've tackled it with, good stuff.

  • Bumhug360 #5 4 years ago

    Maybe there is an idea for a future MMORPG. Instead of gaining a new level when you reach a certain amount of XP your breasts grow. Could still be set in the fantasy setting as the skimpy leather armour also helps

    So what level are you?
    Im a 38DD
    Sweet, im just a 36B at the moment

  • absolutezero #6 4 years ago

    /dance

  • UncleLou #7 4 years ago

    Maybe there is an idea for a future MMORPG. Instead of gaining a new level when you reach a certain amount of XP your breasts grow

    Sounds like your average JRPG to me.

  • yupyup #8 4 years ago

    I don't think we've felt the full backlash from titgate yet...

  • grantc7 #9 4 years ago

    instant 10/10 :D

  • nickthegun #10 4 years ago

    He didnt expect a load of people who play video games all day to go mad about someone messing with virtual breasts?

    Is there another internet i dont know about?

  • LethalCookie #11 4 years ago

    Bumhug360 wrote:

    "So what level are you?
    Im a 38DD
    Sweet, im just a 36B at the moment"

    That was hilarious mate!
    Edited by 1 at 04/06/08 @ 13:53

  • ZuluHero #12 4 years ago

    "/dance"

    /make love
    Edited by 1 at 04/06/08 @ 13:55

  • Darren #13 4 years ago

    It is a bit sad that gamers felt the need to complain about breast sizes in a game. It does rather enforce the idea of these people being sad, lonely nerds who get off on women in videogames because they've never met or been with a real woman! LOL

  • Ainudil #14 4 years ago

    That's a mature themed game for you.

    Just means there are more 14 year olds playing it than anywhere else.

    Still. I like AoC. Plotwise.

  • ZuluHero #15 4 years ago

    @darren

    It wasn't that people were complaining about loosing their ample breasts per se, more that they thought there was a big conspiracy afoot in the form of 'hidden' censorship.

    Even though I don’t have massive breasts on my character in game - it's still my right to have massive breasts on my character in game if i so choose. Etc etc.

    In fear of going all Monty Python here, do you at least acknowledge my rights to have massive breasts? ;)
    Edited by 5 at 04/06/08 @ 14:22

  • Xerx3s #16 4 years ago

    An outcry because all the male players with weird fetishes want to play as females with massive boobies.

  • LazyDan #17 4 years ago

    Good to see they've kept abreast of the situation.


    /coat

  • prolific8 #18 4 years ago

    Wait a minute, they're surprised that geeks complained about less boobs? Did they research their target audience at all?

  • gruntboy #19 4 years ago

    Personally, I find the whole situation kinda saucy. I LOVE it when someone meddles with my breasts...

  • DarthKebab #20 4 years ago

    "Just goes to show that gamers are a bunch of immature kids."

    Well they did have a lot to get off their chest

  • MasterNameless #21 4 years ago

    Funcom limits funbags shocker.

  • ZuluHero #22 4 years ago

    Does anyone else find it ironic when people on a gaming website refer to others as "geeks"

    :S

  • L42yB #23 4 years ago

    /dance"

    /make love"

    /gets down tonight?

  • PlugMonkey #24 4 years ago

    It is a bit sad that gamers felt the need to complain about breast sizes in a game. It does rather enforce the idea of these people being sad, lonely nerds who get off on women in videogames because they've never met or been with a real woman! LOL

    Well this IS the Conan universe we're talking about here. Large breasts are integral to the story!

  • prolific8 #25 4 years ago

    You're making the assumption I used it as a pejorative. I played WoW for six months, I'm a geek and proud of it. Seems to me like you've got a bit of a complex about the term...

  • FunkyRenegade #26 4 years ago

    /dance"

    /make love"

    /gets down tonight?"

    /hands cookie

  • ZuluHero #27 4 years ago

    It’s because there’s still a social stigma attached to it. I still think its primary use is as a derogatory term, regardless of how some people wear it now as a status symbol. I don’t want to consider myself a “geek” and I’ve played wow for 3.5 years…

    I guess I’m still in the equivalent of the gaming closet ;)

    Yes I may have misunderstood your comment, but it was because you didn’t hint that if someone removed/reduced the boobs of your character, you’d be first in line to complain. I’ll admit that subtlety is lost on me sometimes though ;)

  • Chalee #28 4 years ago

    /dance"

    /make love"

    /gets down tonight?"

    /hands cookie

    /takes

    /makes love

  • sneetch #29 4 years ago

    @Eurogamer
    "Head over to our of Age of Conan preliminary review to find out what we thought; we'll be bringing you a full and detailed opinion of the game shortly before you have to decide to subscribe or not after your free 30-day trial."

    I reckon that after purchasing and playing it for a month people will be able to make their own minds up. Thanks for the thought, though. :)

    @MasterNameless
    "Funcom limits funbags shocker."

    Winner!

  • sneetch #30 4 years ago

    @ZuluHero
    "It wasn't that people were complaining about loosing their ample breasts per se, more that they thought there was a big conspiracy afoot in the form of 'hidden' censorship.

    Even though I don’t have massive breasts on my character in game - it's still my right to have massive breasts on my character in game if i so choose. Etc etc.

    In fear of going all Monty Python here, do you at least acknowledge my rights to have massive breasts? ;) "

    Yes, if everyone's characters suddenly became two feet higher or shorter it'd be the same outcry, it just happened to be their boobs that changed size.

    I think some of you guys are reading too much into this with the whole "this is damaging the image of gamers/gamers are immature" stuff. For a start the vast majority of gamers aren't even aware of this breast reduction bug (it is weird to be discussing this alright) and prejudging the group based on the actions or behaviour of a few members is, well, to coin a phrase "gamerism". :)

  • Chufty #31 4 years ago

    I reckon that after purchasing and playing it for a month people will be able to make their own minds up. Thanks for the thought, though. :)

    That's what I was thinking...

  • a8a #32 4 years ago

    They have already failed to retain me. The game has some very interesting ideas, but it is completely broken at the moment. If alpha is feature complete and beta is content complete, its almost at beta phase. It is certainly not a game which is ready for release.

    I am glad they will be working on Stygian dungeons, since some of them are too buggy to be playable at the moment. Take Pyramid of the Ancients as an example - I received 4 quests for this zone, and 3 of them were incompletable due to bugs. As for the 4th - well, apparently it IS possible to do the objectives in the wrong order and render it incompletable, but I managed to finish that one ok. Here's a tip for Funcom - if a dungeon is too buggy to do 75% of the quests there, dont release it until its fixed.

    As for class balance, well, it takes some time to figure these things out, so I can't really blame them for not getting it perfect off the bat. On the other hand, some classes are ridiculously broken. Assassin springs to mind first - their stealth ability, on which the class is based, works fine at night, but not at all during the day (ie 2 hours out of every 3). Any light at all makes it impossible to sneak up on a monster up to 5 levels beneath you. Oh, and female assassins have different - slower - animations to male assassins, which makes their overall damage output about 60-70% of their male counterparts.

    Funcom, I will not pay to beta test your game. Releasing it in such an unfinished state will kill your subscriber numbers from the start, and your game will fall with it.

  • AOFanboi #33 4 years ago

    AoC: Great! Though not without its "issues".

    The Vista 64 I run it on: Crap! How did that buggy resource hog get released?

  • evilboo #34 4 years ago

    This article illustrates nicely why normal folks are sometimes a bit suspicious of gamers. Just how big are those virtual girls tits?! We need to know!

  • Sar #35 4 years ago

    They're surprised by this?

    Don't they know their core demographic?

  • ZuluHero #36 4 years ago

    @sar

    not feeling particularly original today eh? Well i said it before and ill say it again,

    "It wasn't that people were complaining about loosing their ample breasts per se, more that they thought there was a big conspiracy afoot in the form of 'hidden' censorship."

    FUNCOM were SURPRISED by the level of interest it was generating OUTSIDE the main player base as it says in THE ARTICLE:

    "Developer spokesperson Erling Ellingsen said even mainstream media had been in touch, for what he describes as a rather surreal bug fix and not, as some suggest, a sneaky way to water down its mature content."

    Edited by 1 at 04/06/08 @ 18:44

  • 3william56 #37 4 years ago

    ZuluHero "I don’t want to consider myself a “geek” and I’ve played wow for 3.5 years… "

    Erm... I've got some bad news for you, buddy...

  • ZuluHero #38 4 years ago

    Yeah I know... Still, I consider myself a gamer, I didn't realise that the two were synonymous...

  • actionfitz #39 4 years ago

    nickthegun:
    "He didnt expect a load of people who play video games all day to go mad about someone messing with virtual breasts?

    Is there another internet i dont know about?"

    lol so very true :D
    ^^