Age of Conan opinions needed

[Kools]

Hit 80 on my Guardian a little less than a month after release, and cancelled soon after to see how it shapes up. 50+ leveling is far, far too grindtastic, with only enough quest content to get you roughly 3 levels out of every 10 level interval, and even less the higher you get - for example, the one and only level 70+ zone has enough soloable content to get you from 70 to...71.

 

There are remarkably few endgame six-man instances, and while there are a refreshing amount of raids in at release, they're all pretty buggy, and none of them have the "epic" feel of the early WoW dungeons - as much of a God-I-want-to-stab-my-eyes-out slog as Molten Core was, the Rags fight was pretty goddamn cool. They're also all pretty short.

 

The lack of gear emphasis really bothers me for some reason. I thought I'd like a game where bleeding edge gear wasn't a necessity, but it turns out I don't. Most of the crap you pick up from 1 to 80 is at best a marginal upgrade to what you're already wearing.

 

Sieges were a total joke last I checked on them, with framerates dropping into the unplayable slideshow region with less than half the supposedly supported number of participants, and that makes GvG PvP kind of pointless.

 

The real bitch of it is, the combat system - which is a refreshing change from one-click combat - makes it difficult to go back to other MMOs once you've experienced it. Which isn't to say it's perfect; melee is pretty much screwed in PvP unless they really can outplay the other guy, since casters still get instant damage with a single click, whereas some poor melee guy has to run around trying to land oftentimes abominably slow combos on moving targets, which is especially hard when you consider that you cannot be moving when the final swing - the money shot - of the combo goes off.

 

A buddy of mine who's still subscribed said he got an e-mail from the dev team today, a survey they're doing asking players what they should focus on next. This does not inspire me with confidence, since it seems to indicate that they have no idea how to go about fixing the numerous serious problems with the game, nor even what they all are.

 

But Jebus, it's a pretty game.

[Kools]

People need to stop buying games that require a monthly fee. Once the developers see that no one is buying their game they'll quit making those types of games or offer free internet play like BattleNet and GuildWars.

 

Given that WoW hit the 10 million subscriber mark a few months ago, I think it's fairly safe to say that the pay-to-play MMO market isn't going anywhere anytime soon. You might as well start minting your own money at that point.

 

Which is a good thing. MMOs need to evolve to survive, and there's simply no way you could continually develop a game with just the income from the initial sales.

[@\NightandtheShape/@]

A buddy of mine who's still subscribed said he got an e-mail from the dev team today, a survey they're doing asking players what they should focus on next. This does not inspire me with confidence, since it seems to indicate that they have no idea how to go about fixing the numerous serious problems with the game, nor even what they all are.

 

This is a foolish statement.

 

It is merely a matter of inquiring what fans would like to see fixed, how, why etc... One of the main things about MMO's is that they're constantly being developed, SoE made drastic changes to Star Wars Galaxies, many people felt that those changes broke the game, considering the amount of investment that a company puts into an MMO getting it right for the people playing the game is a high priority.

 

It does seem that AoC is having some teething issues, which is the sort of thing you should expect from an MMO on release, although I have heard that Warhammer Online is exceptionally stable even in its current state.

 

Is AoC finished, clearly not, the fact the guys are still working on the DX 10 renderer should indicate this to most people, AO wasn't finished either on initial release, but it did eventually see some major improvements and became an exceptionally popular game.

 

It is a risky approch that funcom have taken considering that basically WoW is stable, and extremely popular. One could argue that its unethical to release a game in a somewhat unfinished state, and have people pay to extensively test it, but then again it's also the quickest way to flag issues.

 

All's said it does seem that the development team is dedicated to improving the game, so I see no room for complaint. Frankly I'm not a huge MMO fan, I've played pleanty of them, and I would say that AoC is the closet I have come to playing an MMO I would consider to be fun.

[Kools]

A buddy of mine who's still subscribed said he got an e-mail from the dev team today, a survey they're doing asking players what they should focus on next. This does not inspire me with confidence, since it seems to indicate that they have no idea how to go about fixing the numerous serious problems with the game, nor even what they all are.

 

This is a foolish statement.

 

No, it's not. The players have been extremely vocal about what needs fixing; the developers have made some remarkably shocking comments about their own game that indicates they're not completely aware of how it functions. The female character swing speed bug was denied as existing for the first two months, for example, and that's a -significant- problem. Coming out now and saying, "Uh, hey, what ought to be fixed?" is a little worrying in that context.

 

It is merely a matter of inquiring what fans would like to see fixed, how, why etc... One of the main things about MMO's is that they're constantly being developed, SoE made drastic changes to Star Wars Galaxies, many people felt that those changes broke the game, considering the amount of investment that a company puts into an MMO getting it right for the people playing the game is a high priority.

 

Except that SOE wasn't trying to improve things for the people playing the game; Smedley specifically stated the reason for the NGE was that they were chasing WoW's subs. People playing the game always let the developers know what sucks and what they want fixed.

 

It does seem that AoC is having some teething issues, which is the sort of thing you should expect from an MMO on release, although I have heard that Warhammer Online is exceptionally stable even in its current state.

 

Not really. I've been around for plenty of launches. The technical issues aren't what bothers me; I expect those, as anyone should. WoW had technical issues at launch, but it also had plenty of content, and more patched in almost immediately. No MMO's ever finished, but some are more finished than others. AoC shipped drastically unfinished.

 

Is AoC finished, clearly not, the fact the guys are still working on the DX 10 renderer should indicate this to most people, AO wasn't finished either on initial release, but it did eventually see some major improvements and became an exceptionally popular game.

 

You might want to check AO's numbers again. It launched fairly well, and then tanked due to all the issues - eerily similar to AoC. It never recovered its popularity; it basically pulled a Vanguard, where it kept enough subs to sustain, but was in no way an "exceptionally popular" game.

 

It is a risky approch that funcom have taken considering that basically WoW is stable, and extremely popular. One could argue that its unethical to release a game in a somewhat unfinished state, and have people pay to extensively test it, but then again it's also the quickest way to flag issues.

 

That's not really what they're doing, though. Their stated goal has always been to do an XBox 360 release; they think that's where the real money is, with the way consoles are taking off. The guys that get a console MMO right, theoretically, are going to be hauling in the cash. Current AoC release is basically funding for 360 dev time.

 

All's said it does seem that the development team is dedicated to improving the game, so I see no room for complaint. Frankly I'm not a huge MMO fan, I've played pleanty of them, and I would say that AoC is the closet I have come to playing an MMO I would consider to be fun.

 

Dedication's great, as long as it pays off. There's no question that the dev team at Sigil, aside from the guys actually running the company, were dedicated to Vanguard. They built that game in a year, and taken objectively, that's pretty damn impressive. The game still killed itself at launch, and is never going to be considered a success. AoC seems to be trending down that path. Might be a great game in a year, but it's going to have a fifth of its launch population, because people move on, and WAR, Chronicles of Spellborn, and a couple other dark horses will be out by then. And let's not forget WotLK.

[J.E. Sawyer]

The game supports riding mammoths, therefore I must recommend it in spite of any flaws it may have, no matter how serious or endemic to the gaming experience they may be.

[@\NightandtheShape/@]

No, it's not. The players have been extremely vocal about what needs fixing; the developers have made some remarkably shocking comments about their own game that indicates they're not completely aware of how it functions. The female character swing speed bug was denied as existing for the first two months, for example, and that's a -significant- problem. Coming out now and saying, "Uh, hey, what ought to be fixed?" is a little worrying in that context.

 

You do realise alot of the dev team has been on Holiday? Regardless, recreating bugs isn't always that easy. I haven't currently experienced any bugs, that's not to say they don't exist... I'm not a part of the community in the sense that I have any feeling or awareness of what exactly is going off. That said you appear to be.

 

Except that SOE wasn't trying to improve things for the people playing the game; Smedley specifically stated the reason for the NGE was that they were chasing WoW's subs. People playing the game always let the developers know what sucks and what they want fixed.

 

That doesn't really address my main point, fact is they're asking people what's wrong... This isn't a bad thing really, doing it via a questionnare seems sensible enough.

 

Not really. I've been around for plenty of launches. The technical issues aren't what bothers me; I expect those, as anyone should. WoW had technical issues at launch, but it also had plenty of content, and more patched in almost immediately. No MMO's ever finished, but some are more finished than others. AoC shipped drastically unfinished.

 

They obviously felt it was finished enough to release, I certainly think that it will continue to expand, and grow from a content perspective, it may very well be thin on the ground in regards to content when compared with WoW.

 

You might want to check AO's numbers again. It launched fairly well, and then tanked due to all the issues - eerily similar to AoC. It never recovered its popularity; it basically pulled a Vanguard, where it kept enough subs to sustain, but was in no way an "exceptionally popular" game.

 

A link would help, it has atleast had a steady community of players to have been going for as long as it has.

 

That's not really what they're doing, though. Their stated goal has always been to do an XBox 360 release; they think that's where the real money is, with the way consoles are taking off. The guys that get a console MMO right, theoretically, are going to be hauling in the cash. Current AoC release is basically funding for 360 dev time.

 

I'll be sure to ask them next week.

 

Dedication's great, as long as it pays off. There's no question that the dev team at Sigil, aside from the guys actually running the company, were dedicated to Vanguard. They built that game in a year, and taken objectively, that's pretty damn impressive. The game still killed itself at launch, and is never going to be considered a success. AoC seems to be trending down that path. Might be a great game in a year, but it's going to have a fifth of its launch population, because people move on, and WAR, Chronicles of Spellborn, and a couple other dark horses will be out by then. And let's not forget WotLK.

 

People always move on, that's just the nature of the industry itself, maybe they have, time will tell.

[@\NightandtheShape/@]

The game supports riding mammoths, therefore I must recommend it in spite of any flaws it may have, no matter how serious or endemic to the gaming experience they may be.

 

Ahhh Small things, eh Josh?

[Kools]

A link would help, it has atleast had a steady community of players to have been going for as long as it has.

 

http://www.mmogchart.com/Chart3.html

[Moatilliatta]

A link would help, it has atleast had a steady community of players to have been going for as long as it has.

 

http://www.mmogchart.com/Chart3.html

As you should be able to see from the chart AoC and AO are on entirely different scales, AoC had 700,000 subscribers as of june 30 and AO never had more than 60,000.

 

Has AoC launched in asia? 50% or so of WOW subscribers are from asia.

[Hurlshort]

Those charts are terrible. They are hard to read and there's a good deal of guesswork involved. Turbine doesn't even make their numbers public knowledge, so who knows where that stuff comes from.

 

And could they be harder to look at?

[Jaesun]

Those charts are terrible. They are hard to read and there's a good deal of guesswork involved. Turbine doesn't even make their numbers public knowledge, so who knows where that stuff comes from.

 

And could they be harder to look at?

 

Did you even read where he gets his analysis, or is it easier to just make up statements?

 

I agree, the charts look horrible, though at the time when the site first launched, there were very few MMOG, so this data was easier to read. Now that there are so many, it is crappy to try and read and see which MMOG is which according to it's color. He needs to do a different format.

[Kools]

A link would help, it has atleast had a steady community of players to have been going for as long as it has.

 

http://www.mmogchart.com/Chart3.html

As you should be able to see from the chart AoC and AO are on entirely different scales, AoC had 700,000 subscribers as of june 30 and AO never had more than 60,000.

 

Has AoC launched in asia? 50% or so of WOW subscribers are from asia.

 

AO launched before WoW massively opened up the MMO market to those who had previously never been interested in it as well. I'm not really sure what your point is; AoC sold a lot of boxes, that's absolutely true. I'd be shocked if it hadn't bled at least 40% of its subscriber base since then, though.

 

And no, it hasn't launched in Asia, as far as I know. And yes, it's roughly half of the subscriber base for WoW.

 

That still leaves five million European and North American subscribers. Nobody's going to touch those numbers for a long, long time.

[Hurlshort]

http://www.mmogchart.com/analysis-and-conclusions/

 

That clears up a lot of questions, and scrolling down, there's a great little history piece about each MMO.

 

But yeah, he admits many games are guesswork on his part, so I'm not sure why I was chastised.

[Jaesun]

http://www.mmogchart.com/analysis-and-conclusions/

 

That clears up a lot of questions, and scrolling down, there's a great little history piece about each MMO.

 

But yeah, he admits many games are guesswork on his part, so I'm not sure why I was chastised.

 

I DON'T have anything against you Hurlshot

 

You made a "blanket" statement "and there's a good deal of guesswork involved" which is not the case where some ACTUAL data is gathered. Following the statement you provided, it implies that all the data on the site is guess work (which it is not). I guess that irked me.

 

Anyways, we are getting way off topic. Just play/buy Age of Conan, you can ride big friggin ELEPHANTS!!

[@\NightandtheShape/@]

I'd say that AO did well enough, it's not going great now, but it's certainly not done so badly that Funcom has gone bust or anything.

[Morgoth]

Now I've reached lvl 19 and finally got to Old Tarantia, which is beautiful (kudos to the Funcom artists! You're worldclass!).

I really enjoyed what I've seen so far, and it definitely destroys WoW easily. The upcoming WAR is just another quirky and colorful (read: American made) MMO, so I'll settle with AoC for quite some time now.

Oh, and no crashes whatsoever. The only thing I once experienced in Tarantia is a memory leak, after playing a few hours. Hope that gets fixed.

I'll look forward to the Funcom made "Secret World" as well.

Edited July 22, 2008 by Morgoth

[Kools]

Now I've reached lvl 19 and finally got to Old Tarantia, which is beautiful (kudos to the Funcom artists! You're worldclass!).

I really enjoyed what I've seen so far, and it definitely destroys WoW easily. The upcoming WAR is just another quirky and colorful (read: American made) MMO, so I'll settle with AoC for quite some time now.

Oh, and no crashes whatsoever. The only thing I once experienced in Tarantia is a memory leak, after playing a few hours. Hope that gets fixed.

I'll look forward to the Funcom made "Secret World" as well.

 

Yeah, the game got such glowing reviews mostly because a lot of the reviewers only played the 1 to 20 content, which is pretty awesome. Things take a turn for Crapsville around the level 50 area, though if you're only 19 now, they'll probably have all the promised 50+ content that was supposed to be released in July out by the time you have to worry about it.

[Hurlshort]

It bothers me whenever anyone complains about endgame content in MMO's. How many hours did it take to get to level 50? Did you enjoy those hours? I hear it on every MMO game, but the fact is some folks rush to the endgame and play crazy hours, and no developer can really keep up with those people.

 

People need to be patient and wait for the content to come out, they are working on it. Just take a break for a month or two if there's nothing to do. I've done that for LotR Online and I'm always amazed at what was done when I return.

[Deadly_Nightshade]

People need to stop buying games that require a monthly fee. Once the developers see that no one is buying their game they'll quit making those types of games or offer free internet play like BattleNet and GuildWars.

 

You are correct, the monthly fee system needs to die an extremely painful death.

[Morgoth]

Lvl 22 now, playing in the Wild Lands outside Tarantia, and still having plenty of fun. There's a content update supposed to be released sometime next week. Anyway, I don't see myself reaching Lvl 50 sometime soon - I'm not a powergaming nerd, after all. But the games's definitely addicitve and worth the money, even with it's share of minor problems.

[Morgoth]

People need to stop buying games that require a monthly fee. Once the developers see that no one is buying their game they'll quit making those types of games or offer free internet play like BattleNet and GuildWars.

 

You are correct, the monthly fee system needs to die an extremely painful death.

Not gonna happen, unless you want to see MMOs dying an extremely painful death.

[Xard]

I like the way how DN refuses to see the reality on what type of games MMO's are and what they must do

[@\NightandtheShape/@]

6 months is what I'd give AoC, I can imagine it'll all be sorted out by then.

[Deadly_Nightshade]

People need to stop buying games that require a monthly fee. Once the developers see that no one is buying their game they'll quit making those types of games or offer free internet play like BattleNet and GuildWars.

 

You are correct, the monthly fee system needs to die an extremely painful death.

Not gonna happen, unless you want to see MMOs dying an extremely painful death.

 

I would not mourn their demise, in fact I might even rejoice.

[Morgoth]

People need to stop buying games that require a monthly fee. Once the developers see that no one is buying their game they'll quit making those types of games or offer free internet play like BattleNet and GuildWars.

 

You are correct, the monthly fee system needs to die an extremely painful death.

Not gonna happen, unless you want to see MMOs dying an extremely painful death.

 

I would not mourn their demise, in fact I might even rejoice.

You don't like MMOs, then don't buy them, simply as that. Wishing somethings or someones demise is neither constructive nor will make things happen better.