What a ridiculous question, unless they're using some of their retained earnings to subscribe to their own game. 

Originally posted by DarkPony

Originally posted by GenRabbit

I'm no expert on War, But what Ive seen of it, its more a threat to WoW than AoC. And why is that? because its seems to be just another WoW v2. I do play AoC, and so far I have no intention of stopping.

But yes Funcom needs to fix alot in the game.

What I like with AoC is that its a different breed, especially in the graphical department and that it had no elfs nor dwarfs.

 

It is only a WoW v2 at the most superficial glance; the kind of comparison if you flick  printed screenshots before an 8 year old for a split second.

Nah, I'll admit there is a similar 'look and feel' to both games but gameplaywise it's pretty much a whole different game. RvR vs. PvE focus for instance.

And it does look a lot better if you look a little closer.

WoW: http://wow.allakhazam.com/images/fashion/ToughScorpidBracersOrc.jpg

WAR: http://www3.telus.net/public/mehwulfe/kyan/WAR/classes/blackorc-t4-vi.jpg

At least more kick ass :P

I understand that some players really love those realistic graphics and player races of AoC but personally I found them to be boring in the long run. Diversity kicks ass in games in that the race/class combo you pick feels more 'unique' and becomes more 'you', if you catch my drift. But that's just me.

Personally I think AoC is going to have some big difficulties to still make proffits in the near future (considering the huge developement costs of AoC). Mythic needed 500k subs to keep WAR alive, like they said, I suspect FunCom had similar aims with AoC and they are already below that number.

WoW has a big enough buffer of subs to cope with a few dents here and there.

LOL come on, your going to compare the graphics of WoW and WAR by comparing a screenshot of a low level WoW player in crappy armor with a high level WAR player in awesome armor?

its not the armor that makes me think war has better graphics than wow. wow has pretty crappy graphics...love the game, but god its ugly. course, when do graphics ever really matter?

Its not all, but it is a part of it. If it didn't matter. Why not just Moria MMORPG, where you can choose between being and A,B or C. Then add D, E and F for the expansion. or go the way of text only?

AoC and Warhammer were both hyped for the same reason... pvp.    Players are much more likely to leave a bad pvp game to play a good pvp rather than leaving a good pve game to play a good pvp game.

If the pvp patch is delayed til after Warhammer, of if it is deemed to be 'blah'.. it will be the absolute end of AoC.   That being said, I still think that even if AOC retains every subscriber they have today, the company will still be bankrupt/out-of-business within 6 months.  They simply are losing too much money and don't have enough money to continue operations.

Originally posted by Abrahmm

Originally posted by DarkPony

Originally posted by GenRabbit

I'm no expert on War, But what Ive seen of it, its more a threat to WoW than AoC. And why is that? because its seems to be just another WoW v2. I do play AoC, and so far I have no intention of stopping.

But yes Funcom needs to fix alot in the game.

What I like with AoC is that its a different breed, especially in the graphical department and that it had no elfs nor dwarfs.

 

It is only a WoW v2 at the most superficial glance; the kind of comparison if you flick  printed screenshots before an 8 year old for a split second.

Nah, I'll admit there is a similar 'look and feel' to both games but gameplaywise it's pretty much a whole different game. RvR vs. PvE focus for instance.

And it does look a lot better if you look a little closer.

WoW: http://wow.allakhazam.com/images/fashion/ToughScorpidBracersOrc.jpg

WAR: http://www3.telus.net/public/mehwulfe/kyan/WAR/classes/blackorc-t4-vi.jpg

At least more kick ass :P

I understand that some players really love those realistic graphics and player races of AoC but personally I found them to be boring in the long run. Diversity kicks ass in games in that the race/class combo you pick feels more 'unique' and becomes more 'you', if you catch my drift. But that's just me.

Personally I think AoC is going to have some big difficulties to still make proffits in the near future (considering the huge developement costs of AoC). Mythic needed 500k subs to keep WAR alive, like they said, I suspect FunCom had similar aims with AoC and they are already below that number.

WoW has a big enough buffer of subs to cope with a few dents here and there.

 

LOL come on, your going to compare the graphics of WoW and WAR by comparing a screenshot of a low level WoW player in crappy armor with a high level WAR player in awesome armor?

more like both look's like something pulled out of a comic book produced by Disney on speed. And i have not seen screenshots, I saw the teaser or ingame footage trailer.

disney on speed huh? it always amazes me that there is so much rabid debate on prefered artstyle. i think i'd rather play the fun game over the pretty one anyday.

Originally posted by gryjin

disney on speed huh? it always amazes me that there is so much rabid debate on prefered artstyle. i think i'd rather play the fun game over the pretty one anyday.

Exactly. Fun gameplay and long lasting immersion is what it all boils down to. FunCom did their best to be next gen in graphics but the game is in general considered to be a disapointment because they failed to deliver in the gameplay and immersion departments.

To those having a problem with the pics I posted;

They were just a rushed comparison of two orcs and I admit; not very fair, equipment wise. But be my guest and browse some more WAR pics for yourself. I do think WAR looks a lot better then WoW.

http://www.warhammeronline.com/screenshots/index.php

But what's more; people are saying they have been running around in groups of +250 players in one area at the preview weekend and not experience lag at all. And there you have the downside of topnotch graphics and spell effects in an mmo; gamebreaking lag as soon as there is some massive pvp going on.

I think they will loose a huge percent of their remaining players.  Then I think that the servers will collapse because of lack of people playing them.  I mean who will want to play a PvP orieted game with sieges and stuff if there are no other players?  Without a server merge Warhammer will kill AoC and it will be lucky if they can keep their xfire numbers above any commercial game. 

I'm pretty sure that when Warhammer Online begins, only Protus and Avery will still be playing AoC.. I'm deadly serious.

i'm pretty sure protus doesn't even play the game actually : /

Originally posted by DarkPony

Originally posted by gryjin

disney on speed huh? it always amazes me that there is so much rabid debate on prefered artstyle. i think i'd rather play the fun game over the pretty one anyday.

 

Exactly. Fun gameplay and long lasting immersion is what it all boils down to. FunCom did their best to be next gen in graphics but the game is in general considered to be a disapointment because they failed to deliver in the gameplay and immersion departments.

To those having a problem with the pics I posted;

They were just a rushed comparison of two orcs and I admit; not very fair, equipment wise. But be my guest and browse some more WAR pics for yourself. I do think WAR looks a lot better then WoW.

http://www.warhammeronline.com/screenshots/index.php

But what's more; people are saying they have been running around in groups of +250 players in one area at the preview weekend and not experience lag at all. And there you have the downside of topnotch graphics and spell effects in an mmo; gamebreaking lag as soon as there is some massive pvp going on.

A fool's paradise is a wise mans hell.

Originally posted by Balthaazar1

I'm pretty sure that when Warhammer Online begins, only Protus and Avery will still be playing AoC.. I'm deadly serious.

The Soda guy on the official forums, makes Protus look cool actually.

protus toned it down alot when someone hit up the wikipedia definition of fanboy and edited it to use him as an example....i think it embarrassed him lol

Originally posted by Mrbloodworth

You guys talk as if only one MMO can be running at a time. Again, lack of perspective.

I agree. I will be playing LoTRO for the PvE and WAR for the PvP. Best of both worlds. The EQII in my sig will be repalced by a WAR symbol very soon.

Back to the OP , I think AoC is just a dead game walking right now. Optimisticly It may settle out at around Vanguard numbers. But if  FC keeps pissing people off it will be keeping Dark and Light company.

Originally posted by gryjin

disney on speed huh? it always amazes me that there is so much rabid debate on prefered artstyle. i think i'd rather play the fun game over the pretty one anyday.

So do I, but when the graphical style gets to irritating, its not fun anymore.

Originally posted by GenRabbit

Originally posted by gryjin

disney on speed huh? it always amazes me that there is so much rabid debate on prefered artstyle. i think i'd rather play the fun game over the pretty one anyday.

So do I, but when the graphical style gets to irritating, its not fun anymore.

er....i don't even know how to respond to this one...do people really think this way?

Exactly. Fun gameplay and long lasting immersion is what it all boils down to. FunCom did their best to be next gen in graphics but the game is in general considered to be a disapointment because they failed to deliver in the gameplay and immersion departments. 

i totally disagree with you there

i see the dissapointment of conan due to technical issues/ crashes on older system and missing pvp objectives that leads to boredome once the original (great imho) content runs out.

the immersion and atmosphere rocks in aoc and from a rpg point of view it offers much more then warhammer for example (judging from the beta and the ppl i met there)

Uhm AoC got what 50-100k active subscrubers now.. about 40-50% of them will walk to War, so that will leave AoC with 25-50k subscribers. If you dont believe me, I dont care. You can come back in 3 months and ask me how I knew that.

Originally posted by S1GNAL

Uhm AoC got what 50-100k active subscrubers now.. about 40-50% of them will walk to War, so that will leave AoC with 25-50k subscribers. If you dont believe me, I dont care. You can come back in 3 months and ask me how I knew that.

I would guess that AoC has about 175k subcribers currently. With release of War and WOTLK I can see that number falling to around 80k.

As more mmo's get released that number will continue to fall. IMHO AoC is a dead game walking. The only people to blame for this is Funcom themselves for releasing the game way to soon and being incompetant at fixing and running an MMO.

Why people continue to play and more importantly pay for the service they have recieved is beyond my understanding. Can only assume they have low expectations of an MMO and possibly lick windows for a living.