We have been surprised at the relatively smooth Early Access phase of Funcom's release of Age of Conan. Looking past the confusing and frustrating for many limited access to early access, we've experienced little of the lag, stutters, fits and starts that we expected. The game performance has increased dramatically since the Open Beta two weeks ago.

Funcom's previous foray into MMO's with Anarchy Online saw a game that wasn't ready for prime time 3 months after release with frequent crashes, unplayable lag and frustrated subscribers struggling to play a game that should have still been in beta. Apparently they learned their lessons well.

I remember crashes, queue's and many days of free play added to my account in the early days of World of Warcraft due to long server down times, 30 minute queue's and Blizzard practically begging people to move to other servers.

So far I have to say, good job Funcom!