"Here are just some of the some reasons why you should return to Age of Conan now:

Veteran Points| Exclusive Subscription Rewards| Free Level 50 Character
Tons of New Conent| Enhanced Performance| 100% XP Boost"

-Email from Funcom

Anyone confirm this or have any details? If so, that's a little sad. I understand they want people to join and not have to go through the "difficult process of leveling," but that's a great way to ruin any kind of journey the game has to offer.

forums-eu.ageofconan.com/showthread.php

From AoC Forum:

More on improved character options

Last time out I hinted that there was more to come in terms of the new options for characters that will go live in 1.05. Today I can confirm that we will also be awarding a free extra character spot to all accounts with six months or more subscription history. This means that from here on in, all subscribers will get a ninth character slot automatically once they have subscribed for six months.

This means that veteran six month plus subscribers will be able to take advantage of the new level 50 character even if their existing slots are full. This isn’t just a limited time offer either; the extra slot will become available to subscribers who pass the six month mark in future as well.

We are also planning on offering additional character slots for sale once the update goes live. There will be two additional slots available for purchase. These slots will be available to all regardless of subscription length. So a six month subscriber would have access to up to eleven slots in total (eight by default, one veteran slot, and the two paid slots) and new subscribers will have access to up to ten (eight by default, and the two paid slots).
 

The additional character slot thing are exactly the kind of rewards they give out over on City of Heroes/Villains (same idea). So I wouldn't call DOOM on that. As far as the level 50 character, is it any character (sorry didn't read the forum post, blah) or an epic kinda character?

yeah id like a confirm on this , i mean it dont put you at max level but at least close to being back into the game.

i might be interested in retrying just for that reason , i do still listen to the music so i feel at this point i have gotton my moneys worth of the the ce edition just wish the entire game was as awsome as 1 thru 20

The free level 50 character comes to anyone who hits level 50 on another character. Once you do you can log out, make a character like normal, hit enter and it gives you the option of auto leveling it to 50, giving you a full set of decent gear as well as 1.5 gold to help buy a horse.

"but that's a great way to ruin any kind of journey the game has to offer."

Why do you think that?

Every single person who plays the game has the option to NOT take advantage of that feature.

If you don't want to do it - don't.

There could be someone like me with 4 maxxed out characters who enjoys the game but simply does not want to grind up another character.

Originally posted by Xerith

The free level 50 character comes to anyone who hits level 50 on another character. Once you do you can log out, make a character like normal, hit enter and it gives you the option of auto leveling it to 50, giving you a full set of decent gear as well as 1.5 gold to help buy a horse.

So it's similar to what WOW did with the DeathKnights and what Cryptic has already done with CoH/CoV (e.g., Kheldians and Night Widow/Crab Spider Archtypes...except those unlockables start from level 1). Yep, sounds like a lot of unecessary DOOM to me.

Originally posted by zigmund

 

"but that's a great way to ruin any kind of journey the game has to offer."

Why do you think that?

Every single person who plays the game has the option to NOT take advantage of that feature.

If you don't want to do it - don't.

There could be someone like me with 4 maxxed out characters who enjoys the game but simply does not want to grind up another character.

 

 

 

What you say is true for you, but not everyone has 4 maxed out characters. I have a level 22, and was under the assumption that I was being offered a cop-out to skip out on the actual leveling process. Funcom basically said, "Hey, come back, we'll even let you skip all that boring leveling!" They wouldn't offer the ability to skip the leveling if they didn't see it as an impediment to bringing people back. That is, in fact, the point of marketing; to increase demand.

However, if it is the case that you only get the free level 50 once you have another level 50, you would be totally right. No one wants to play through the same content twice.

Originally posted by Xerith

The free level 50 character comes to anyone who hits level 50 on another character.

Did they say that this time? Funcom omited it last time in an effort to get more players.....pretty deceptive if you ask me.

I just used it. I had a 50 guardian and just made a 50 assassin. It is part of the character creation process right before you complete everything after designing the character. It asks, "would you like to use your one-time free 50 character blah blah"?

by the way, I would not recommend if you are just starting the game and just hit level 50, well as far as pvp is concerned anyway.

Learning a class takes time and some steps you just can't skip, if you arrive at level 80 and only start discovering the calss then, you might have a very biased point of view of the class, which could lead to you quitting and/or whining on forums ^^

I "think" those level 50s were particularly targeted at people who had already much experience in the game.

So what's my point? Well, my point is playing the game from level 1 to level 80 is fun and usefull especially as there is not tht much content at level 80, I wouldn't waste my level 50 unless I had a very good reason to do so (i.e guild needs a healer ASAP, that kind of thing). 

Originally posted by finaticd

Originally posted by Xerith

The free level 50 character comes to anyone who hits level 50 on another character.

 

Did they say that this time? Funcom omited it last time in an effort to get more players.....pretty deceptive if you ask me.

What?

Originally posted by AmazingAvery

Originally posted by finaticd

Originally posted by Xerith

The free level 50 character comes to anyone who hits level 50 on another character.

 

Did they say that this time? Funcom omited it last time in an effort to get more players.....pretty deceptive if you ask me.

 

What?

I'm pretty lost on that one myself.  When I had gone back for a month (last time) was when they first did this.  It was made very clear that in order to get that "level 50" you had to already have one...

So I really dunno... beyond... "what?" was a good response.

Originally posted by Antarious

Originally posted by AmazingAvery

Originally posted by finaticd

Originally posted by Xerith

The free level 50 character comes to anyone who hits level 50 on another character.

 

Did they say that this time? Funcom omited it last time in an effort to get more players.....pretty deceptive if you ask me.

 

What?

 

I'm pretty lost on that one myself.  When I had gone back for a month (last time) was when they first did this.  It was made very clear that in order to get that "level 50" you had to already have one...

 

So I really dunno... beyond... "what?" was a good response.

Actually, the Email sent out had nothing saying anything at all about requiring a level 50. So Funcom was deceptive once again. Or can you point out where it says it requires a level 50 in the cut and paste? Get real Funcom has no problem missleading potential customers. The 2nd one may be account specific but the first was missleading.

Here is a cut and paste from 3 mos ago:

Get An Instance Level 50 Character

Did you know that you can log in today, create a new character with the class of your choice and see that character instantly turned into a level 50? You can! This onetime offer, per account, allows you to start out a new character without going through the low levels - perfect for trying out a new class! The level 50 character is activated through character creatio

cut and paste from this week:  

Your level 50 , BLANK, awaits your return to Age of Conan!

Originally posted by voodookhan

Originally posted by Xerith

The free level 50 character comes to anyone who hits level 50 on another character. Once you do you can log out, make a character like normal, hit enter and it gives you the option of auto leveling it to 50, giving you a full set of decent gear as well as 1.5 gold to help buy a horse.

 

So it's similar to what WOW did with the DeathKnights and what Cryptic has already done with CoH/CoV (e.g., Kheldians and Night Widow/Crab Spider Archtypes...except those unlockables start from level 1). Yep, sounds like a lot of unecessary DOOM to me.

i smell the stink of desperation with this move....

Originally posted by finaticd

Originally posted by Antarious

Originally posted by AmazingAvery

Originally posted by finaticd

Originally posted by Xerith

The free level 50 character comes to anyone who hits level 50 on another character.

 

Did they say that this time? Funcom omited it last time in an effort to get more players.....pretty deceptive if you ask me.

 

What?

 

I'm pretty lost on that one myself.  When I had gone back for a month (last time) was when they first did this.  It was made very clear that in order to get that "level 50" you had to already have one...

 

So I really dunno... beyond... "what?" was a good response.

Actually, the Email sent out had nothing saying anything at all about requiring a level 50. So Funcom was deceptive once again. Or can you point out where it says it requires a level 50 in the cut and paste? Get real Funcom has no problem missleading potential customers. The 2nd one may be account specific but the first was missleading.

Here is a cut and paste from 3 mos ago:

 

Get An Instance Level 50 Character

Did you know that you can log in today, create a new character with the class of your choice and see that character instantly turned into a level 50? You can! This onetime offer, per account, allows you to start out a new character without going through the low levels - perfect for trying out a new class! The level 50 character is activated through character creatio

 

cut and paste from this week:  

Your level 50 , BLANK, awaits your return to Age of Conan!

Like I said "What" ?

There was nothing with purposeful intent to deceive but for you as a game and company that you hate and make so much time available to act on that you would only see one side.

The truth is the first (small) amount that was sent out had the above wording, there was a quick change when realized and was layed out as below.

Support did say to people

"Greetings,

As mentioned by some people in that thread, you must first have a level
50 character in order to gain the instant level-50 boost for an
additional character. In some circumstances a more vaguely-worded email
was sent out, but most should be getting the corrected one. You have a
character at 44; once you get that character to 50, the additional level
50 option will open up for you.

I apologize for any confusion."

The email that was sent out to the other 95% of people read:

"Did you know that you can log in today, create a new character with the class of your choice and see that character instantly turned into a level 50? You can! This onetime offer, per account, allows you to start out a new character without going through the low levels - perfect for trying out a new class! The level 50 character is activated through character creation."
 

So you are trying to say they "Puposely" attempted, instigated and invested time to deceive people. I submit they saw the error and acted it on fast, in doing so shows that there was not intended deceivement by correction.

Some people also petitioned and got something similar to this:

"Greetings!

Thank you for Contacting Funcom Customer Support!

Your character that is level 34, is close to the ability to gain the level 50 option. If you get this player to level 40, you can email me back and I can assist. Upon review of the policy for returning players only, they lowered the requirement.

I appreciate your patience and feel free to reply to this email atanytime for further assistance.

Regards,

....."

It is crazy that I got one of the rare misleading newsletters and was like one of the only people who got no correction.  My point is I know how many times it was reviewed and rewritten so to ommit anything that epic on a win back campaign is epic.

I'm a bit of a stickler for ethics, I just left the #1 elyos guild on myserver  because they invited a botter.

It seems they fixed it once and it was to correct most likely what was just an oversight on their behalf. They also went as far as offering lower level players the deal to make up for it, to me it seems quite honorable.

Originally posted by finaticd

It is crazy that I got one of the rare misleading newsletters and was like one of the only people who got no correction.  My point is I know how many times it was reviewed and rewritten so to ommit anything that epic on a win back campaign is epic.

I'm a bit of a stickler for ethics, I just left the #1 elyos guild on myserver  because they invited a botter.

There is nothing wrong with that.

Simple fact is they did not set out to deceive and there was a forum post about it officially and they were quick to fix the error.

It was an email not newsletter.

Hardly call it epic, someone would come back anyway whether level 50 or not if they were interested.

He is referring the the newsletter sent to accounts that are inactive.  Ie AA wouldn't have seen it ;)

And yes it lists a laundry list of bonuses for coming back including the "Free level 50 character" without fine print about how it only applies to people who actually have a 50 to begin with.  On that account my highest toon is 12? but there it is in the email saying a level 50 just for coming back.  And vet points and and and...