In Age of Conan, you can be Stygian if you want to - but nobody will have a problem with you because of it, unless they're a player who's roleplaying. You're not going to end up in a fight because you were Stygian, nor will you do anything in the cause of Stygia. It almost seems as if player guilds were looked to as a source of factional conflict, rather than the game having to supply any. The region that probably comes closest to giving a sense of faction is Conall's Valley, where the bloody conflict between Cimmerians and Vanir is in full sway, and the player feels drawn into it.

It's this blogger's opinion that much of the criticism of AoC's later game can be traced to this abrupt loss of a sense of side-taking after Tortage. The player goes from being a hero of the Resistance to being an aimless mercenary rattling about in an enormous, indifferent environment.

Funcom can still turn this situation around. All they need to do is use the immense potential in the Conan IP, and recognise that players want to belong to particular sides. What works in Tortage will work just as well in the later game. Factionalism lends meaning and richness to content, and keeps the player from feeling like a glorified errand boy. As a Set-worshipping Stygian, I don't want to be blessed in the name of Mitra by patronizing Aquilonian priests who treat me just like anyone else. I want to smash their statues, cast serpents into their holy wells, and preach the ophidian gospels to their cowed people. And if any Aquilonian players have a problem with that, then at least we'll have something meaningful to PvP over.