General Discussion

New MMORPG.com writer Mathew Reuther pens this look back at the Age of Conan launch from his perspective.

Each new year sees a few high profile MMORPG releases. These game launches are something each early adopter of a new MMO eagerly anticipates yet dreads at the same time. The veterans of the massive online gaming battlefield can tell you some real horror stories. As new games come to market and eager gamers await the opening of the game servers, one of the most oft-repeated tales is that of Anarchy Online's 2001 launch.

The story of this launch is probably one of the most chilling MMO tales floating around the net, as when the game released it was nearly impossible for customers to actually play. The ambition of the game's creators to have one large world where every gamer who wanted to play would be able to interact with every other player was unheard of at the time. Even today only one game (EVE Online) has successfully achieved this goal in a large scale title. This ambition came at a high price as the in-game avatars actually generated so much stress on the game engine that a matter of walking fifty meters in the game world became an arduous journey that could take fifteen minutes or more. Though the game developers (Funcom, a minor development house based in Norway of all places) were quick to begin addressing the issues, the damage done by the initial problems is incalculable. Even post-fix efforts to woo customers back with offers of free playtime were not a resounding success. Though Anarchy Online remains profitable (albeit with an alternate revenue scheme) today, it is likely a shadow of what it could have become had the launch not been an abysmal failure.

Read the whole editorial here.

Very nicely written Mr. Reuther.

I look forward to part 2.

Although i like constructive critism, all of part one looks at 'issues' of the launch, and doesnt mention any good points. He thinks they did that bad? Personally, me and the rest of my wow guild got onto a server with 0 problems and have been playing hapily ever since.

Does he think double the amount of servers should of been opened on day 1 ? Hence having low population servers?

Is part 2 the same old bashing? and nothing good on funcoms behalf. In my opinion they have a massive task ahead of them for the first few months at least, and are doing a good job.

I have to head off home from work now or i would post more, but to me it seems to be just a bashing news post.

Originally posted by Artermis

Although i like constructive critism, all of part one looks at 'issues' of the launch, and doesnt mention any good points. He thinks they did that bad? Personally, me and the rest of my wow guild got onto a server with 0 problems and have been playing hapily ever since.

Does he think double the amount of servers should of been opened on day 1 ? Hence having low population servers?

They get sales reports.  They *should* look at forums.  They should have been more prepared for the fact that their game had the possibilty to become a success.  While handling a launch of this calliber is not simple, it does not take away from the fact it was poorly done.

Is part 2 the same old bashing? and nothing good on funcoms behalf. In my opinion they have a massive task ahead of them for the first few months at least, and are doing a good job.

It should be the same old bashing.  Hopefully Part 2 will be about the bugs and how the game wasn't even complete at launch!!

I have to head off home from work now or i would post more, but to me it seems to be just a bashing news post.

I like this.  This is just saying what the fans have been complaining about.  The news writers here (I assume) are gamers just like us, and they are entitled to an opinion, just like us.  It is good that a news article is being put out about how [poorly] this launch was done, instead of just ignoring it and pretending like it never happened.  This is a gaming site, and opinionated news posts will be made gawd damnit!

There is nothing wrong with a news reporter voicing their opinion about this.  I, for one, look forward to more articles like this in the future.

I don't usually try a new MMO until a couple months after release.  I do a lot of reading and research before investing my time and money into something like that.  It's been my experience that upon launch, most MMOs have a lot of issues and bugs that really interrupt smooth gameplay and the immersion factor.  For example it's hard to comment about how much you love some of the group PvP when one or more members of your group is disconnected once per 10 minutes.   It's hard to discuss the polish and fun of the game before they fix a couple big issues (overcrowding & queue times, DX10, etc).

Once those kind of issues are handled players will start to comment about how awesome the combat system is, or how they like the art or mecahnics of something.   You just have to get the big things out of the way and that often takes a little time.   I am a huge Robert E Howard fan and would be very excited if Funcom solved the gameplay issues quickly before the player base becomes a little too disgruntled.  I think they learned some valueable lessons from the AO launch mess. 

Did it go wrong? Many more copies of the game were sold than anticipated and yet most people on most servers had an ok time.

I remember the PotBS servers at launch not long ago, with just a fraction of the player base, and they were really laggy. I experienced very little lag and no queues on my server with AoC.

PS. The instancing technology that so many people complain about in AoC actually saved Funcom lots of hassle with this oversubscribed launch, and it means if numbers die down then the instances will merge rather than servers.

So what he is saying is:

The game was vastly more popular than anyone imagined. Funcom was unprepared for the mass quantity of people who wanted to play the game thus, servers filled up quickly, early access keys ran out quickly, stores sold out and had problems getting enough to fill demand. In other words the game was a huge success. Yea FC way to screw up and make a game that so many people wanted to play that it overwhelmed you. Next time make a crappy game that no one wants to play so you have empty servers.

exactly. aoc is a success whether people like it or not. no game is "polished" at launch. as far as being "finished" at launch, no mmo is EVER finished. WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK UPDATES AND EXPANSIONS ARE?!