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6/10/08 1:05:49 PM#21
Originally posted by AOCtester I actually have to agree. The whole article read a lot more like an opinion piece designed to bring down Age of Conan. Every single major MMO has experienced these problems and delays, and I know from experience. I've played almost every major MMO at the launch and they've all had the same problems, delays, and issues. Only the early MMOs were unaffected by the Open Beta access issue because it wasn't used as a commercial ploy to sell the product. By far the best MMO launch I have ever experienced was Lord of the Rings Online because almost none of the problems were present, granted it took Turbine 2 games (and one botch) to get there but they did. Let it be known that I hate WoW with a passion and will defend almost any MMORPG against it. |
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6/10/08 3:16:38 PM#22
Originally posted by AOCtester What?
This article (Part 1 of X) outlines some of the problems with the game, more than anything else. I for one am having a pretty good experience with AoC but am frustrated that some of my colleagues are having problems. Will I leave the game if my guild decides to move on due to problems? I will. But in the mean time, I try to enjoy the game for what it is and have faith that Funcom will deliver on its promises. Should Funcome have been better prepared? Yes. Should they have a better PR/CS department? Yes. Are they paying MMORPG.com to write a flashy embellishing article? Are you nuts? Are they trying to fool people to spend their money? I ask you who is the more foolish; the one who fools or the one who gets fooled? Get informed, get educated and make an informed purchase. Don't blame publicity and hype (called promotion for you non-business types) for making a game attractive. That is the whole point of going in business....to make money. I personally can't wait for the next part(s) of this article, as I have been in the dark about some of the other issues I don't know about. I haven't looked around for problems that I don't have and count myself lucky. I do hope that people who left do decide to come back when the game actually goes through its polish. P.S.: I agree with LOTRO being my smoothest launch evar! 
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6/10/08 3:22:08 PM#23
Originally posted by AOCtester
I think the state of the game at launch is what has bothered most, and that will naturally be what they talk about last. Personally I feel like all of the people following the game were lied to. You don't release any software product that isn't completely tested and "feature complete." It's just bad business to do so, no matter what the reason. If you say something is definitely going to be in the game, then it damn well better be there. If you say "we're planning on it being in at launch" then you have some room to your statement where if it isn't in, it's no big deal. There are tons of issues with the high level content, and tons of issues with bizarre bugs that shouldn't have made it past the in-house testers. Poor development process IMO. To Seryth: I agree with your "get informed, get educated" argument, but wouldn't you agree that Funcom tried to prevent that. They didn't live the NDA until release. They didn't unlock the forums to the public until a week in. I mean it seemed like they were really trying to hide some things and prevent the gamers from being educated and informed about their next purchase. --------------------------------------------- |
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6/10/08 3:25:59 PM#24
Originally posted by Myrathi Amen Brother! Ever since Netscape started it's infinate beta cycle in 1997. Internet based software. Software that REQUIRES internet access to function at all, like a web browser or in this case an MMORPG. Has been developed with (ab)using the general public to act as their unpaid, in many cases your paying them, beta testing department. This trend has now migrated to consoles like the XBOX 360 and PS3 since both come with a hard drive (the ps3 always, xbox you can buy it after the fact) , sony and MS can now update to their hearts content games that shipped too early or in a beta state. It used to be that console games had to be 100% PERFECT, now they can be good enough. This will continue until the paying public stops buying beta quality software and stops being unpaid beta testers, and in some cases unpaid tech support via the forums. Case in point. AOC runs like dirt on my machine. But Vanguard, which uses the unreal engine, but an earlier version, runs wonderfully on balanced, but AOC is unplayable on the same hardware using the lowest settings possible and I tried for hours. Using a trick that a friend found on the forums. I was able to increase the frame rate from about 4 FPS to 8 to 10 FPS. Which makes it just barley playable. And NO I'm not getting a new computer just to play ONE game. Forget it. EQ2 runs beatifully as well on balanced even in a raid, and maxes out the WoW engine, but that is not really hard to do. Every game I have ever tried on my computer works awesomely, except Age of Conan. The continual beta release cycle will continue, because people will put up with it. It's sad but true. It's only going to get worse, as studios try to save a buck, why pay massive amounts of people to test it when you can unleash it on an unsuspecting public and call it a preview. At least call it what it is, unpaid beta testing. The two most common elements in the universe are Hydrogen and stupidity. - Harlan Ellison |
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6/10/08 5:07:14 PM#25
Here is what I feel Funcom should have done. Ive stated this on Test forums - on the public AOC forums and now here. First off - DONT fool the players. It can never pay off. Funcom did delepratly hide the state of the game when it launched. That on its own is a disgrace to gaming. It had nothing to do with servers - it had nothing to do with client stability. It had to do with a) the content of the game b) features of the game c) classes of the game. Stabilty of servers and Clients should have been tested months and months before at that stage. Imagine this... This game was in beta for ... God knows how long. Still there was NO focused testing of Spellweaving before launch. None.. whatsoever. And this leads to spellweaving beeing now disabled for certain classes. Imagine the effect on the overall classbalance ? Key factor of any MMO game was just thrown in at last second. And ofc it wasn't working. Content - Its lacking to maintain healty and steady lvling curve in the game. Part of the problem lvling is cause there are endless traveling between loading screens - and then running - and then running on slowed down mounts that cost fortune... Just so the Pre-Orders and EA would not go crazy on slow mount that was made for content that WAS NOT ready ... Now... Im still trying to be positive. Features - I could go on and on about this one. DX10 ... Who cares if this game has a box saying it specially supports DX10? There are many bigger features that again were NOT tested in beta and testers knew were not ready. So what should Funcom have done ? I tell you what.. THey should have been honest. Yes - thats a big word but it pays of longterm. So what does it mean to be honest in this case? Here is what it means. When "open beta" started Funcom should have come out and PUBLICLY announche the following. - The game will now be focused fully on testing the lvling process of the game. - Certain features of the game will sadly not make the launch. DX 10 - Guild Cities and Siege battles have not fully been tested and will need more time and testing before we can release it. - Our priority at this stage is to provide balanced content throughout the lvling progress. Thats why we are now focusing specially on spellweaving and will be launching focused testing in closed beta to test out this feature for those classes. Class balance is a key feature in any MMORPG game and we will do our very best to make sure we can provide both fun - and at the same time fair and balanced game throughout the lvling progress. Now.... What did Funcom actually say at this stage ?.... They came out PUBLICLY and said they were holding DX10, siege battles and spellweaving out for the closed beta testers so testers could look forward to something at release.... How many closed beta testers do you think actually belived that ? NOONE !! And NDA prevented testers to say so. All testers knew at exactly that stage that Funcom was no longer beeing honest about one word they said at that time. They were just selling an unfinshed game - trying to make as much money at launch and then .... well.... and then what ? Are ppl really surprised that the game is getting backlash now ? Really ? Or why do you think Funcom has made special rules that players that have BOUGHT their product are not allowed to say on OFFICIAL forums that they have chancelled the subsctibtion ? ..... Seriously .... Is that how to listen to custimors that were fooled into buying something they belived was actually a real end product ? What about beeing honest ? MMORPG.COM ... What about beeing honest for the good of the gamers instead of the gaming developers ? |
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6/10/08 5:07:20 PM#26
Originally posted by boinged
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6/10/08 5:21:57 PM#27
It was a good look at all the issues that occurred, with a tiny bit of speculation thrown in. It was neutral enough for me, so I like it and want to hear part 2! Please, don't take the article as a review of the game. Forums, blogs, and reviews are generally accurate, but probably can't tell you if you will enjoy a game. Especially with AoC, which seems to have a love/hate relationship. That said, I agree with all the peeps who want to wait a month or two. It's always smart to wait just a little bit for the bugs to be smoothed and the game polished by trial and error. |
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6/10/08 6:11:02 PM#28
And lets not forget the game breaking bugs.... 10k latency issue post is now at 1300+ and counting, with no acknowledgement from Funcom, this is the number 1 tech issue. Out of memory error at 1,100 posts and counting. Patching errors, BSOD, CTD, bad FPS on top rigs, list goes on. I also think the reason why they sold so many copies was they didn't honor their buddy key system, my brother had to buy a retail copy because mine and everyone else's buddy keys are not active yet. So glad my CE came with 5 buddy keys that don't exist. Also strange how you couldn't look at the AoC forums unless you had an account. Funcom have been really shady in their dealings. Anyone who has not got the game, do not get it for 3 months minimum. I myself despite liking the game, will not be comming back, I got burned too hard. I will be waiting for Spore to get me to WAR. |
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6/10/08 8:05:27 PM#29
AoC = Have people pay to Beta test a game... You know when you play too much MMO's when your partners pants have become a rare drop. |
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6/10/08 8:28:30 PM#30
Time for SOE to purchase the game.... yes.. I said it! lol Besides the wise cracks, I bought Vanguard at launch and it was full of bugs and I will never buy a game at launch again. I passed on AoC to see what the feedback was like and I will continue to wait until the major issues are dealt with. I don't want a game full of bugs and issues to spoil something with so much potential as what happened to me with Vanguard. First impressions mean everything in games... at least to me they do. Launch when ready should be the motto.
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6/10/08 10:41:46 PM#31
Originally posted by JK-Kanosi The instances are automatically spawned based on player population in that area--and they are automatically despawned in the same way..
Apply lemon juice and candle flame here to reveal secret message. |
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6/10/08 11:12:51 PM#32
Very good article. I was really curious about AOC's launch since it is the first major release in awhile. Hopefully companies learn from this and launches will go smoother in the future. |
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6/10/08 11:14:49 PM#33
Originally posted by mike470
I strongly support the author and mike470 on this subject. I've gotten mighty tired of gushing lemming news sites that naively proclaim "best launch ever" when it clearly was not. For a LOT of people. I felt the worst part of Funcom's PR was that they decided to lie to our faces. I, and I expect many others, would have understood if they were just candid and honest about their launch problems. Instead, we got "We couldn't have possibly anticipated this much interest!" Really. No way you could have seen this? Really? The only significant MMO for months around, you post MOST ANTICIPATED MMO AWARDS on your WEBSITE, beta tests are overwhelmed with people, you obviously PRODUCED that many copies and preorder codes, and you have a DECADE of MMO HISTORY as a REFERENCE, and you say to our faces there's no way you could have imagined the interest?!?!? This was almost as good as the follow up act, restricting access to the Funcom forums only to the people that were already in the game. So, all those people that were left to twist in the wind with no access now also had no help and no answers. Brilliant. |
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6/11/08 12:10:15 AM#34
Well i'll be.......someone with BALLS makes a very detailed and accurate portrayal. well done, and well said. can you smell that?!!...............there is nothing quite like it.....................the smell of troll in the morning............i love that smell. |
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6/11/08 12:29:27 AM#35
I personaly Have not had any problems with the game and I have been in since 3 days befor the launch, the biggest problem I had was the fact that they were doing maintince during peek hours in the US, they changed this last week, the game has been out for 2 weeks, its ran smooth for me every time I played it, there has been occational instance crashes and dumb things but all buggs that will get worked out sooner then later. The launch was not that rocky at all, dont get me wrong It could have been smoother but, it was what I expected. The, only thing I didnt like about his news report was he added at the end that you can not view the forums unless you have an active account. It was that way for the first week, but they changed it after that, a simple fix on that end. |
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6/11/08 1:07:13 AM#36
An excellent article highlighting some aspects of Murphy's Law in action during an mmog launch. Looking forward to part 2. |
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6/11/08 1:40:15 AM#37
Its about money. Always has been and always will be. mmorpg.com is a cheerleader site for the mmorpg industry. Company's pay money to advertise here. Moderators mod and direct forum content. Funcom designed and advertised a product to get you to buy it. Does it really matter how they went about it? They succeded on a massive scale. Hundreds of thousands of individuals purchased the game. Millions of dollars. Was it a succesfull launch? You bet it is. Funcom used deceptive advertising, misdirection and out right lies to make it happen. And guess what... They got away with it. I really think this will become the new mmorpg launch norm. Gamers = Suckers. Its all about the money... Suckers Hmmm... Wonder if im now going to get my third mmorpg trolling warning? I mean award... Reanim
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6/11/08 2:44:57 AM#38
You poor deprived little man, Originally posted by Reanim
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6/11/08 4:27:51 AM#39
Anyone want to actually give a balanced review of the launch? This one is just shockingly poor. |
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Jupp
 Apprentice Member
Joined: 1/21/08
"It is a mistake to bow to the wishes of munchkins who whine." - E. Gary Gygax |
6/11/08 4:54:32 AM#40
I was never touched by the issues that such a lot of other players had during the launch of AoC. I was never hit by server queues, wrong serials in the CE or even any crashes. For me the launch went very well. But I still think that it is important to see the other side of the medal of a game launch. The things that went wrong and that were perhaps not so well planned as they could have been. Mr. Reuther did a good job of covering the things that were less than pleasant for a good number of players, and there is no bashing and no unneeded negativity in this article. It is a reprensentation of the facts that were present at the launch of AoC. Honestly this is one of the better articles of MMOrpg and I really hope Mr. Reuther will stay here for a while. The article was fact-stating, neutral and to the point, even if some might not like the truth that can be found within this article. I for myself plan to make AoC my new virtual MMO home for quite some time into the future but that does not mean that I do not acknowlege the flaws in the introduction of this game. So, I am anxious to read part two of this launch article series. Nice work so far, Mr. Reuther :)
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you nailed everything my bro went through and whats keeping me from getting this "smooth launch" game. 
(for a couple more months yet)
