Age of Conan

Originally posted by 28days

 

Originally posted by parrotpholk

. 2 and half months before release and so much is still unknown.

Why exactly do you need to know everything? Is there some type of law I missed that says a Video game developer has to release every little thing about the product they are developing?

 

Guess what - it isn't your place to judge if a piece of software is ready for release. That's the job of the publishers.

Back in the 80's and 90's no one knew much of anything about the games they were going to buy until they walked into the stpre and picked up the box.

I'am glad they're not having a open beta. Screw all you pre gaming whiners.

This game is far over hyped, and its going to hurt.

Originally posted by Tsnow

Acctualy that's for the paying public to decide. V:SOH anyone

Ya after you buy it..

Then you can go return it if you don't like it.

OR you can just wait for reviews after it's out.

Originally posted by 28days

 

Originally posted by Tsnow

Acctualy that's for the paying public to decide. V:SOH anyone

 

Ya after you buy it..

Then you can go return it if you don't like it.

At the store you bought it from.

Ummmm, I have been watching this game closely, and also Warhammer as many of you probably are also.  Ive played games for a long time, but probably not as long as the rest of you.  I was brought into MMOs by T4C (a crappy small one), and later DAoC (the best game EVAR).  Yes, that is ever with an a.  After reading this thread, i have been waiting on a very important part of beta to come up which is most definitely open-beta material, and what i believe is the most important part of open beta, to come up.  And obviously, if AoC doesnt have open beta, how will they handle it?  This topic is stress testing.  Ive always believed that open beta was primarily for stress testing and gauging how many servers will be required on start.  If they do not do open beta, how will they know if their equipment can handle however many people sub?  Shit, even with an open beta many companies still do not realize how many servers they will need.  WoW's open beta didnt prepare them AT ALL for the numbers they got.  I remember the hell of the first two weeks, where every server moved at a crawl and there were queues to log on.

Ive forgotten what my point was through writing this tangent on open betas, but im pretty sure you can figure something out from it and continue the discussion o.O

-Lance

Originally posted by 28days

At the store you bought it from.

 

Oh..Ok..I personaly have never been able to return an opened piece of software. 

The simple reasion why companys are now moving away from Open Betas. Its simply because too many players are taking open betas and investing more time into just playing the beta instead of reporting bugs. They are also reaching the level caps in these Open Betas and most people that do get into a open beta for a game they like they play so much that they burn themselfs out.

Tabula Rasa while some people hated the game the biggest group of people that enjoyed it and liked the game was reaching the endgame in beta and burning themselfs out. RG even stated there biggest mistake for TR was that there open beta was too long and that a big chunk of the player base burned themselfs out between the open beta and the end of the first month of play.

I for one see the industry moving away from open betas and more into a 14 day trial setup after release. Open Beta was initialy designed as a way to stress test your game at its max compacity but has quickly deteriated into nothing more then peoples free rides. I would hazard to guess that less then %5 of open beta players even report bugs or offer suggestions on features of the game.

We all just need to wakeup an realize. The days of EQ and UO of a game having long lasting open ended mass appeal is all but gone. Any game that does try to go outside of the WoW Clone model is quickly picked apart because they lack in one area or another while trying to offer something new to the market.

While I do not see Age of Conan or even Warhammer being the next WoW I do for see both of them doing well in there own rights.

If you think not having a Open Beta for you to leech onto the game and get a free ride for a month or two is a bad thing. Then dont buy the game! Age of Conan has already pushed back its release two times now to polish the game. If a company having the guts to tell themselfs that no the games not ready is not enough to show that they care and want the game to succeed isnt enough for you. Then obevisly anything short of giving the game to you free you wont be happy.

Do I think AoC will be ready at release. I know it will be. Will it be completely bug free. No not in this lifetime. No game has ever been bug free. But with a game engine that has been improved and developed for over 6 years now I think it will be alot better off then alot of other games.

FunCom had a horrible beta for Anarchy Online and the game never recovered, they have at least learned that little lesson.

As for what people will do without a open beta? The ones that really want to play the game will just buy it regardless, while the rest of us will just wait a month and see how bad/good it is then decide to purchase it or not.

Originally posted by silverlobo

FunCom had a horrible beta for Anarchy Online and the game never recovered, they have at least learned that little lesson.

As for what people will do without a open beta? The ones that really want to play the game will just buy it regardless, while the rest of us will just wait a month and see how bad/good it is then decide to purchase it or not.

It's a shame that Funcom will get the money from the few that are stupid enough to buy the game.  IMO they don't deserve any of it.