AoC has the potential to be a great game, but at the moment it is IMO just a pay to play the beta game.

I have given it more than a fair chance but i will now not be renewing my subs and here is why.

After the last patch they introduced some more seriously game breaking bugs. I have one toon that can no long get any xp rewards because of a bugged quest and another who cannot do his final destiny quest  due once again to a bug. I have one more final character that simply will not work at all ... he is stuck under the world.

I have petitioned for help many many many times... I have numerous open tickets but have received zero response from Funcom.

The petition system totally sucks, I petition, wait in que refreshing every four hours or so (i have sat online for over 20 hours with no response). Then when i go to bed my ticket times out and I am back to square one.

When in frustration me and several of my guild members hit up the forums with our problems guess what happens.

THEY BAN US WITHIN SECONDS!!!!!!!!!!

So ignore the offical AoC forums. Their true community and the people you want to listen to are being stifled.

Its a shame if they fixed the things they won't allow us to talk about the might have a winning game on their hands.

Funny reading this because this is the very reason ive just signed up to mmorpg.com. I receieved the message below following reposting a good post by someone about what he believed should be on the next patch that was closed without comment. Quite frankly i believe that AoC is suffering from a bunch of nobody diehard Funcom fans that have been given moderator status and are now on a power trip.

Don't get me wrong, i love Age of Conan it has huge potential as an MMO but the moderators on the forum are doing far more harm than good by overzealous moderating. Ive excluded my funcom name because they are just anal enough to look at other forums and ban you for posting negative stuff on them as well.

Dear *My Funcom Name Excluded*,

You have received an infraction at Age of Conan Europe Forums.

Reason: Reposting Moderated Material
-------
Hello

Infraction for re-posting moderated material

If a topic is closed or removed do not, under any circumstances, re-post the same topic or material. If you have any questions as to why a thread was closed or removed please contact the moderator via private message.

Regards

Tahitoa

Head Moderator
-------

This infraction is worth 3 point(s) and may result in restricted access until it expires.  Serious infractions will never expire.
 

Well its pretty standard on most forums anywhere that if you repost something that was deleted/locked that is a ban worthy offense. Wether the original post was "good" or not in your opinion or anyone elses is irrelevent.

I think its lame if they lockdown posts and ban people for voicing their opinions in a civilized nonflaming way. But after all it is their forums and they can do whatever they want, its not censorship. Just cancel your subscription if you dont like how they do things, thats all you can do.

I also cant say I toataly disagree with them being very strict on posters at this time. Its the rule on MMORPG's that are just released that on the forums you will have tons of people complaining about it. And you will have some people that just like the game. If those people that like the game dont agree that the game has MASSIVE FLAWS and doomsday is upon us then they are generaly flamed to all hell. The mod's there just arent tollerating that I guess, and I think any MMO that has just been released should do the same to prevent their happy customers from being attacked. Im not saying that was the case with the posts in question but in general that is mostly what you will see.

just a part of the master plan (see link in sig).

My personal opinion is that when it comes to public forums (funcom/mmorpg/etc) is that no thread should be deleted. Lock it, bleep the offensive language etc, and always, I repeat always comment on mod edits/thread locks reasons. Anything else is just blatant censorship.

I wouldn't have minded but the original thread had no moderator comment, no reasons it was just closed. It was fairly obvious that the reason it was closed was due to the last suggestion which was "Get more GMs and sack the moderators" but that could have just been deleted and the post left as it was becuase some of the other ideas and comments were excellent.

Censorship doesnt apply to anything you're talking about private property. Funcom owns the forums and they make the rules, you agree to the rules when you join the forums and agree to their TOS. If you play MMO's and dont know this already, you're either really new to the way things work or you should probably take the time to learn.

Just because they have the right to do censor the forums in the way they do, it does not make it right. After all mmos are all about creating and nurturing a community and you just cannot do that without free flow of opinions and ideas... at least if you ask me.

Originally posted by Gnazon

My personal opinion is that when it comes to public forums (funcom/mmorpg/etc) is that no thread should be deleted. Lock it, bleep the offensive language etc, and always, I repeat always comment on mod edits/thread locks reasons. Anything else is just blatant censorship.

Negative. When people post blatant crap seeking attention the best way to deal with it is simply to remove it and deny them the attention. You say censorship like it's a bad thing. Without enforcement there are no rules.

After todays patch, the problems and protests became so high that Funcom cannot censor it anymore. AoC definetly is in beta stage, and we are paying for this. Still, if it will be a good game at the end, I wanna pay.

However censor, and trying to hide the massive problems... cannot be done to a paying customer. We are not swearing, we are not flaming. Just because we are complaining about the server `rollbacks every 2-7 minutes` (which started today), we are considered `whiners` and censored. I am sure some people will come and start typing `You are whining bla bla bla` in a few minutes. But I will still try to warn people who are thinking about playing AoC. The game is in beta.

Originally posted by Gnazon

Just because they have the right to do censor the forums in the way they do, it does not make it right. After all mmos are all about creating and nurturing a community and you just cannot do that without free flow of opinions and ideas... at least if you ask me.

You're right, Im sure they do want to create and encourage a good community but having that also requires you to enforce the rules. It is a new game and though I havent been to their forums in a long time I can imagine that their is a lot of garbage being posted all the time. If a decent post gets deleted in the interest of keeping the flames toned down, it is really no great loss.

Its not just one or two posts that are being deleted .... compare the general tone on these forums where you are free to say what you like to the moderated forums ther Funcom are running.

IMO they are just trying to fight the fire and bad press that will come while they throw the real dev resources at the 360 game they are working on.

I feel ripped off gagged and frustrated.

I pay for the game and feel that at least SOME level of service should be available and I should be allowed to complain when none is forthcoming.

As it stands there is NO WAY, nothing, nada, nil .. that i can do about my characters problems and I am far from the only one in this position. Infact the only contact I have been able to have with any funcom employee was when they banned me for saying that I could not get any help. It goes beyond not caring about your customers and verges on the ludicrous.

Believe it or not I am still keen to play the game but I simply cannot ... what are peoples recommendations for my next move .... just cancel and wait for warhammer?

Sigh, Looks like problems are adding up fast, anyone see things getting better or slowly going down hill. I feel that funcom only has so long to fix alot here before they will be Vanguarded.

I cant believe people are actually paying funcom money, i think there the biggest ,lying , scamming company ive ever dealed with when it comes to MMO's

I for one vote with my wallet and its closed to funcom ,all never give them one penny ever i dont care what they do with AOC or how good it becomes i don't pay scammers money for any reason

^{It does seem to be getting worse atm.}

^{I really feel that the dev team the core dev team has moved onto the 360 game and that leaves just a few people working on "the cash cow".}

^{Ir seems that everything they try and fix gets worse or just stays the same, play testing on patches must be non existant.}

^{But let me reiterate ... there is much to be praised within the game but I do now fear it wont survive this as currently little or no improvements are being made. Todays patch is a classic example .. today the servers are falling over every 10 mins or and rolling back.}

Originally posted by Saggra

I cant believe people are actually paying funcom money, i think there the biggest ,lying , scamming company ive ever dealed with when it comes to MMO's

I for one vote with my wallet and its closed to funcom ,all never give them one penny ever i dont care what they do with AOC or how good it becomes i don't pay scammers money for any reason

You maybe right sir. I hate to say it but you maybe right.

I got -2 points (whatever that means) for posting I canceled my account, and another -2 for putting that in my SIG. The mods changed my sig as well :). Thought that was hilarious.

You know why you can't get a ticket response, they took all the gms off the game and put them moderating the forums lol.

Welcome to anarchy online.

The servers were ready to die we asked for help.

forums.anarchy-online.com/showthread.php

Funcom's reply shut up and f*** off.

forums.anarchy-online.com/showthread.php

Originally posted by hobo9766

Welcome to anarchy online.

The servers were ready to die we asked for help.

forums.anarchy-online.com/showthread.php

Funcom's reply shut up and f*** off.

forums.anarchy-online.com/showthread.php

wow. That gives me all the answers that I need time to kiss AoC goodbye before I waste moreof my time playing it and building a community in it.

Thanks for the heads up.