Age of Conan: Secrets of Dragon's Spine Update Released

I hate Free MMOs that place new content behind payment barriers. Nothing is more frustrating then reading through a really promising press release with a cool trailer and awesome new features only to be met with a freaking price tag at the bottom. Seriously developers if you are reading this, STOP IT! It's been shown you can add new free PvE content and still make money. Why must you insist on doing otherwise.

With that mini-rant out of the way I can now announce in good conscious the next expansion to Age of Conan, called 'The Secrets of Dragon's Spine'. From the title alone we can already tell there might be dragons or at least A dragon's spine involved in the plot. Because you know, things named after dragons and fantasy MMOs must be forever intertwined.

Upon closer inspection it appears as if the new expansion focuses on new journeys for high level players. The trailer above shows off the incredibly aesthetics of Dragon's Spine along with giving us a glimpse of the new dungeon called The Sepulcher of The Wyrm. There is talk of hidden treasure buried deep beneath Dragon's Spire which was once home to an ancient culture of Serpent Men.

Players will need to approach the ruins carefully though, as there are rumors surrounding the Emerald Lotus return bringing with them their alluring and corrupting powers. We are warned that there may be even "darker powers dwelling beneath the Dragon's Spine" but like most, if it's out of sight it's out of mind.

The content is now live and in order to access the new content you must be a premium player. This is of course what caused my mini-rant above in the first place. "Premium" comes at the standard price of 15 dollars a month (i.e. it's a subscription). An older news post on the site from last month actually says the expansion would be free, but I suppose they just "forgot" to include the line "for premium players". If you want to find out more you can check out the official Age of Conan site here.