There is a very good logical reason why Age of Conan dont appeal much to female gamers.....sadly

I'm a beta drooler myself :) so. Just I happen to actually get into Conan beta a bit earlier than most!

Originally posted by Athelan

I'm a beta drooler myself :) so. Just I happen to actually get into Conan beta a bit earlier than most!

By the way, what are numbers for beta now? About how many testers do you guys have, and how many are you adding per month/week/day/ect.?

Originally posted by star.buck

 

Originally posted by Athelan

I'm a beta drooler myself :) so. Just I happen to actually get into Conan beta a bit earlier than most!

Boo.

 

By the way, what are numbers for beta now? About how many testers do you guys have, and how many are you adding per month/week/day/ect.?

 

 

I don't think they aren't allowed to say Star.Buck. Its all comes under the NDA for Funcom. But in the last few weeks, notices have gone up that they will be sending out invites to a few thousand people leading into tens of thousands and that the 'vets' have been taken care of or will shortly too.

It looks like there is going to be alot of people in General Beta over the next few weeks leading into Open Beta at some point in the early months next year.

I'm just sad I can't update my dxiag file with a better PC now and daren't send in another incase of being disqualified.

Need to help the drool.!

Originally posted by AmazingAvery

 

Originally posted by star.buck

 

Originally posted by Athelan

I'm a beta drooler myself :) so. Just I happen to actually get into Conan beta a bit earlier than most!

Boo.

 

By the way, what are numbers for beta now? About how many testers do you guys have, and how many are you adding per month/week/day/ect.?

 

 

I don't think they aren't allowed to say Star.Buck. Its all comes under the NDA for Funcom. But in the last few weeks, notices have gone up that they will be sending out invites to a few thousand people leading into tens of thousands and that the 'vets' have been taken care of or will shortly too.

 

It looks like there is going to be alot of people in General Beta over the next few weeks leading into Open Beta at some point in the early months next year.

I'm just sad I can't update my dxiag file with a better PC now and daren't send in another incase of being disqualified.

Need to help the drool.!

I guess I'll have to wait and see if my Dad gets into the CB.

Originally posted by Battlekruse

There is a very good logical reason why Age of Conan dont appeal much to female gamers.....sadly

That's probably true, but at the same time that population seems a bit low. I wonder if there is a disparity in the number of women that participate in betas from the population that actually winds up playing the game.

I am not even sure of specific numbers, I do now we had a large influx recently roll into our general beta, and a recent tech test for PvP

Originally posted by Athelan

I am not even sure of specific numbers, I do now we had a large influx recently roll into our general beta, and a recent tech test for PvP

Shhh! don't tell me such things unless I'm going to be included  :P

Over all though the comment was just in general. In all the beta's I've been in seemingly few people are/claim to be women, however that number seems to spike after the launch of those games. I'm just generally curious if that is actually true or just skewed personal experience.

Isnt the problem primarily how the information is delivered rather than what information is out?

If you looked at wow at this stage before launch you had graphical interfaces with each class and race with pictures of members of the class and race, graphical interactive windows with examples of how they worked and what abilities they had access too. Lots of it werent correct but it still gave you a sense of what the classes were about and instilled a lot of confidence in the product.

Same in WAR atm. You have the podcast which not only are entertaining but also extremely informative combined with half finished graphical windows again on their main page giving out informations (not very much admitted) in a modern form that again give you confidence in the product.

AoC has text messages randomly placed allover and no direct link or inteactive links that say anything. It does not in any way instil confidence in the product. The AWESOME trailer you put out last week made me and many others drool for more but after the initial euphoria the questions arise: Why does a game that look this good and completed have such a poor homepage?

Originally posted by afoaa

Isnt the problem primarily how the information is delivered rather than what information is out?

If you looked at wow at this stage before launch you had graphical interfaces with each class and race with pictures of members of the class and race, graphical interactive windows with examples of how they worked and what abilities they had access too. Lots of it werent correct but it still gave you a sense of what the classes were about and instilled a lot of confidence in the product.

Same in WAR atm. You have the podcast which not only are entertaining but also extremely informative combined with half finished graphical windows again on their main page giving out informations (not very much admitted) in a modern form that again give you confidence in the product.

AoC has text messages randomly placed allover and no direct link or inteactive links that say anything. It does not in any way instil confidence in the product. The AWESOME trailer you put out last week made me and many others drool for more but after the initial euphoria the questions arise: Why does a game that look this good and completed have such a poor homepage?

If you want AoC information, you do need to look around a bit. I expect there is good reason behind this, I'm guessing that they purposely place information among different websites because then they can grab a wider audience into looking into playing this game.

Confidence in this product. It's obvious to me that FC in confident in AoC for the time being. If they were not confident, they wouldn't be holding a huge contest to have one lucky/talented/dedicated fan to Oslo to be in AoC paradise for sometime. If FC wasn't confident in AoC they wouldn't have invited all of the big name gaming websites to play the game in San Fransisco, and the media didn't seem to have anything bad to say about the game, besides the usual beta stuff. They are confident in AoC, I am confident in AoC, there's alot of information out on this game, and next month we have been told that a "flood of information," will be released.

Originally posted by Athelan

I am not even sure of specific numbers, I do now we had a large influx recently roll into our general beta, and a recent tech test for PvP

So are you sure now?

Originally posted by bluealien1

 

I'm going to start off by saying that this isn't WoW/WoW2..I mean WAR, and if it were I would be far away. I would much rather have no UI preview things then have incorrect ones that were uninformative.

 

If you want AoC information, you do need to look around a bit. I expect there is good reason behind this, I'm guessing that they purposely place information among different websites because then they can grab a wider audience into looking into playing this game.

Confidence in this product. It's obvious to me that FC in confident in AoC for the time being. If they were not confident, they wouldn't be holding a huge contest to have one lucky/talented/dedicated fan to Oslo to be in AoC paradise for sometime. If FC wasn't confident in AoC they wouldn't have invited all of the big name gaming websites to play the game in San Fransisco, and the media didn't seem to have anything bad to say about the game, besides the usual beta stuff. They are confident in AoC, I am confident in AoC, there's alot of information out on this game, and next month we have been told that a "flood of information," will be released.

Well the problem with the way they present the information is that its not up to date with how you present information today. They mostly give out information in text form in non-interactive messages that is very similar to old fashioned press releases. Problem is today people get information in a different way. They use interactive interfaces because they give you access you the information you get curious about all the time every time you get a new information so you go around in circles building up knowledge based on your curiosity. Just look at wikipedia and its success.

AoC probably has more information out than its competitors had at this stage but its not accessible in a modern way. It simply look unprofessional.

Add in details like the newsletters never reached a huge minority of those subscribed to them (47% of the subscribers never recived the 2nd last newletter) and those newsletters often contain information you already knew if you followed net news. So again you lose confidence.

The confidence I am talking about is not FCs confidence in the product, its the confidence potential but casual customers have in the product. And in this business customer confidence and exitement means far more than adds, visiting conventions and the actually quality of a product in development. A good product can die quickly if no one is exited about it before release.

Originally posted by Draccan

 Thanks. I almost died laughing reading this..

I don't know if this is sarcasm or genuine questions, but it so touches upon the problem there is with AOC. We have so little information. The devs are putting up smokescreens and their friday updates are hilarious. Text updates rather than videos, screenshots at best.

Though plenty of videos are out, a lot of gameplay issues are not answered, many basic questions like yours. Questions that seem unresolved in the game (they aren't keeping it back to peek our curiousity).

Look at the forums, it is stale. I check daily and nothing, NOTHING goes on. No interesting discussions. Why? People simply have NOTHING, NADA to discuss.

I am 100% sure the game will be delayed. I said so publicly 1-2 weeks before last delay and I shall say it again. Sometime January the delay will be announced. And hopefully it gives FC more time to solve the mess they are in.

Take the combat system for example. Alledgedly not working very well judging the official forums.

I think there is a chance that Norway's biggest entertainment project will be a vanguardesque nightmare. Maybe worse. Once the open BETA starts, if ever, I think there might be mass exodus and outcrys from the very fanbois themselves.

I don't hate AOC, but the more I read up on it, the more closely I follow, the more annoyed I am with FC's handling of it. The PR sucks. They seem to try to sell the game with boobs, lurid things (and I am NO purist and neither easily shocked), stale humour, rather than suspenseful, immersive updates, giving good information about the game. It just doesn't work for me.

I sincerely fear that Hyboria will be one pretty, bugged little world that after 3-5 months will be very, very empty. And I bet you my old bicycle, that the Xbox version will be cancelled. Just mark my words and wait and see.

Draccan

QFT

Very well put.

FC is too small a company to be putting out glitzy 'podcasts' regularly.  Their people are working on the -game- and they put out information as it is, not done up as TV ads.  All the references to fancier promotions are from far bigger companies with deeper pockets.  I rather like companies that put more into the game development than in the PR (try looking at the stockholder reports for Blizzard or EA to see where they -really- put their money).