Age of Conan

Originally posted by Zorndorf

In every respect Wow beats Conan hands down.

From open seamless worlds with no loading graphical screens  to the CHOICE of playing styles.

Already know many MMORPG's that have a fully fledged e-sport championship ? Only one has it.

Conan is the next hyped kid in town, but a very small minority will PAY to play it, because it is an offline design (with loading graphics screen and all) tied to a server for having (not too many) play it in the same zone at once. And of course you need a whopping 8800 GTS to enjoy it.

Cities are "blocked" when too many are in it. Entry zones are being camped by gankers because of fixed entry points, "hopping" to escape into zones, people getting killed when they have a loading graphics screen.

And MINUTES long waiting times for everything  you do IF you follow the boring cut scenes for the 12563th time.

Seriously: having a loading screen for 10 seconds to even enter an inn ??? And AGAIN a loading screen to exit the same inn ???? in 2008 ???

 

I disagree, AoC has WoW in overall PVP only because WoW doesn't have much "real PvP" to begin with.. but besides that I'll agree with the every aspect part.

Originally posted by Horniak

 

Originally posted by Zorndorf

At last someone who posts in MMORPGCOM without bashing Wow players.

Think noone is bashing anyone just because they play wow. Think it's more the other way around. Some people who hasn't even tried the game come to these forums telling lies or exaggerating small bugs making them sound huge. Sadly most of these persons are WoW players. Ofcourse they will not be handled lightly, afterall this is the AoC forums and most people here like it.

 

Great post there skeaser :)

So after reading this thread, I've noticed everyone keeps bashing Zorndorf... yet you, same as the others, have failed to really explain how his complaints aren't valid.  Its usually just WoW sucks you're wrong whatever you have no taste.

I don't agree with all Zorn's points regarding AoC, especially his claims that you can't have "off-line" graphics in an MMO.  IMO that's rubbish.  Any good developer will include the option to tone down graphics and crank it up depending on your system.  Whether or not they could get it right in AoC is another matter.  But its perfectly possible to design a game with excellent graphics that can be toned down to be playable on any PC.

In fact, more than the engine its the artist that makes a game look good.  Take WoW for example.  AoC is tehcnically superior, but there's nothing wrong with WoW either.  Much of it is personal preference anyway.  I prefer WoW's graphics.  Not everyone prefers the realistic style of graphics offered by games like AoC, or Oblivion.  I think Blizzard did an awesome job with WoW.    They took lower tech engine approach and did the graphics in a style that made it work, and it works very well.  I love the way the game looks.  The art style appeals to me, and if I had to pick between which graphics I prefer I would say WoW.  The graphics in AoC seem a little more on the gritty side, which makes sense because it fits the world.  Altho I would have preferred a more assassin's creed style.

@Zorn: Speaking of graphics power...  Have you seen crowds in assassin's creed?  Now there's an example of a sexy game with a LOT going on.  The future of MMO's IS what you term "off-line graphics".  Technology progresses.  It won't be long before we see that level of graphcis in an MMO.  I can play that game flawlessly with my 8800GT, and 8800GT's are no longer cutting edge.  They can be had for $140... PC's progress at a VERY fast rate, and MMO's need to keep pace.  The technological progression seen in AoC is something all MMO's need to follow.  Crysis may be a bit laggy on my machine at times, but I can run it at 1920X1200 and my God does it look beautiful.  In 5 years we'll be seeing MMO's with Crysis' level of graphcis if technology continues its current level of progression.  You could go buy a dell PC with a Quad Core processor and 3 gigs of RAM for around $500.  Another $130 for a new graphics card and you've got a PC that can play AoC at max settings.

He was proven wrong on auction houses, or whatever they want to call them in AoC.  From what I've heard they're offline due to a "bug".. which also happens to be a pretty nasty one.

However, his complaints of loading screens are valid ones.  I won't deny that I haven't yet got my hands on retail, so I can't test it.  But nobody here has yet denied the existence of an overabundance of loading screens.  This is an MMO.  Its supposed to have immersion.  In WoW you get a loading screen between instanced dungeons and azeroth/outlands.  AoC has far far more loading screens.  Short as they may be, its going to be as annoying (or more so) than EQ's zoning.  WoW did get this part right with their huge landscapes that can be navigated without the need to see a loading screen.

Not only is the loading an issue, but the instancing (or as Zorn called it being locked out) is seriously annoying.  IMO WoW has it right with choosing your server and no inner-server instancing (except dungeons, but that's a different matter).  If I go into a city in WoW I see anyone in that city on my server.  AoC is different, and its different in a way that I strongly dislike.  Hopefully in the future they eliminate the need to instance public areas.  I don't want to have to jump through hoops to meet a friend in a city.  If someone cries "help, I'm being ganked at (location)" I don't want to travel there and then try to get into the right instance of that location.  Its not an issue for the solo player, but for social players its a huge issue.

Let me tell you a few things about WoW and PvP.

I played since the beta WoW, and i kinda liked it, especially since they promised something like siege PvP and other never given features.

In the beginning you would do PvP for fun. Be ganked, gank back (Tarren Mill anyone?). It was pointless but it HAPPENED in the world. Now when they introduced honor peoplke started farming battlegrounds and world PvP pretty much disappeared. Then came the wrath - the arena and WoW died for me.

People just level chars to make arena/battleground twinks. Thats what the world is good for, a grind for max level. WoW is E-Sports now  and if people could create 70 chars and play arena right away, noone would care to level in the game enviroment anymore. Arena became WoW. The world is just grindfeast for bots.

Its like playing guild wars now.

I hope AoC siege PvP will do great. I really do.

Originally posted by grues0me

Let me tell you a few things about WoW and PvP.

I played since the beta WoW, and i kinda liked it, especially since they promised something like siege PvP and other never given features.

In the beginning you would do PvP for fun. Be ganked, gank back (Tarren Mill anyone?). It was pointless but it HAPPENED in the world. Now when they introduced honor peoplke started farming battlegrounds and world PvP pretty much disappeared. Then came the wrath - the arena and WoW died for me.

People just level chars to make arena/battleground twinks. Thats what the world is good for, a grind for max level. WoW is E-Sports now  and if people could create 70 chars and play arena right away, noone would care to level in the game enviroment anymore. Arena became WoW. The world is just grindfeast for bots.

Its like playing guild wars now.

I hope AoC siege PvP will do great. I really do.

An arena twink?  Rated arena isn't until 70 and considering that BG gear usually is better (s1 and soon s2) than PvE unless you're dps (i.e. rogue), I really don't think you've ever played WoW + TBC.

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Originally posted by puma713

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Originally posted by winric

I really enjoyed playing WoW and atm I'm having a blast playing AoC, cant really tell which one is better and frankly I don't care. I just wanna have fun!

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Holy crap. A gamer that actually gets it.

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/signed

I agree with the poster that said to each his own. I love World of Warcraft and I have now fallen in MMO love with Age of Conan. I'm a woman torn between two lovely...games.

Age of Conan will probably never be a World of Warcraft killer but after logging into the Sentinels server for World of Warcraft not even ten minutes ago, I can say this....

It's a thumb of slow down and people heading for other pastures.

Stormwind was dead. I mean, there were three people in the AH and the only chat rolling by were from the trade channels. In my almost three years of playing I have NEVER seen it like that. NEVER!

Now let's all hope that the "kidiots" stay where they are and leave the good stuff for the adults :)

Originally posted by RainWind

 

Originally posted by Horniak

 

Originally posted by Zorndorf

At last someone who posts in MMORPGCOM without bashing Wow players.

Think noone is bashing anyone just because they play wow. Think it's more the other way around. Some people who hasn't even tried the game come to these forums telling lies or exaggerating small bugs making them sound huge. Sadly most of these persons are WoW players. Ofcourse they will not be handled lightly, afterall this is the AoC forums and most people here like it.

 

Great post there skeaser :)

 

<snip>

He was proven wrong on auction houses, or whatever they want to call them in AoC.  From what I've heard they're offline due to a "bug".. which also happens to be a pretty nasty one.

<snip>

However, his complaints of loading screens are valid ones.  I won't deny that I haven't yet got my hands on retail, so I can't test it.  But nobody here has yet denied the existence of an overabundance of loading screens. 

Anyway, as I said it isn't about being wrong. It's about repeatedly spouting the same wrong thing wherever possible, and in the manner in which it's done. I'm sure someone could post on here that they were sat on the toilet reading the game manual to pass the time and el zorn would be straight in there saying' yes but where's the auction house - that's right there isn't one in this game etc etc '.

It seems the loading times for zones are for some people an immersion breaking feature of Conan. That is opinion and we all have one. It is also an opinion based on fact because that really is the case. I could counter and say that the by todays standards poor graphics of WOW are immersion breaking for me and that it looks like a cartoon. But that is but my opinion. Nothing more.

However, is it immersion breaking for everyone? From the replies here then no it is not. Also when seeking to undermine something within a game, it has to be factually otherwise it holds no merit or credibility. Using examples from the open beta to try and bolster a cause is folly. Also trying t5o preach to people that know exactly what the score is , well is daft. Are you trying to convince me that the loading times are 30 seconds into an inn or 5 minutes into a zone, when the fact remains that even in open beta at the end of it, the loading times were nothing close to those figures and were significantly less ( 5 secs into an inn - 20 odd secs into a zone for me on med/low hardware )

The message is: By all means criticise something, but do it factually. If you feel the need to post the same unfactual points all over the shop then you really need help and there's clearly somer undisclosed and  underlying reason for all the negativity.