Actually, have you seen any other game that would allow you to buy Tomes that permanently rise your attribute (strength/agility/vitality/fate/will) by 10 points that you can buy in-game for cash and which are nearly impossible to get in game. And when I say nearly impossible, I mean, you see it drop once per month of everyday 5-10 dungeon grinding?

Because those tomes iN lotro exist, why aren't you guys trolling Lotro forums about their Pay to Win strategy?

You think DDO is different? Because you know, the tomes of permanent stat increase exist in DDo as wel, which are again, cheap from Store and impossible to get in-game.

Funcom was never profiting from Age of Conan so the headline makes no sense ;p Doubled revenue?  Yes, but remember most of the revenue boost is now through one time deals rather than a subscription.  Plus Funcom has a history of calling events sucesses when they are epic failures such as Age of Conan's beta, head start, launch, sieges, shrines of bori, expansion, etc.  So we now know from this release that the unchained event didn't meet expectations, which it didn't.

The playerbase may be up but it is not at the leves it was before or just after the expansion launched last year and with the silly restrictions on FTP and lack of stuff to do at level 80 combined with non existant content updates players like myself are leaving. 

Its the same pay 2 win lie as with Lotro.

Both companies are using registrations as numbers instead of the REAL paying customers. Also theres no prove from either side about doubling their profits. So take it what it is, stupid PR  lies for rushed products.

 How is Lotro F2P model better. Free player in Lotro can't participate in any form of PvP (Age of Conan F2P does allow you join PvP) and how does Lotro tomes of permanent stat increase+10 (farily cheap in Store / nearly impossible to get in game ) differ from AoC store items?

For now you can't PVP in lotro as free player becouse Monster Play wasn't "cash shop ready" when FTP launched. Rise of Isengard is just around the corner now and it's bringing updated and expanded monster play to free players.

Stat tomes - like you said, are cheap in store.

In lotro you can earn turbine points ingame. Play the game, get points, buy stat tomes. Not only that. Buy permanent gold cap removal or permanent access to endgame expack and dungeons. No silly 3 day pass crap like in AOC. No rare/epic quality gear you can buy while leveling or at max lvl on PVP server.

Some people proved that playing on few characters in lotro you can permanently unlock everything from quest packs / dungeons /  skirmishes / stat tomes to expacks and all endgame content without spending real money.

Dont want to spend money ? Take your time accumulating turbine points. Want everything NOW ? Pay for it.

One way or another though - you don't need sub, and you keep access to the zones you payed for. Forevaa! :)

Revenue is not profit. Funcom could make a million times more than last week and theoretically not make a profit. They never said they are making 4 times the profit as some posts imply. It's all bullshit..either you're playing it or you're not. I like playing it from time to time. Nothing in the store...from what I've seen is pay to win just because it's name is in purple.. Some of the limitations seem ridiculous and store pricing on some items can really be too much but thats how these models make money. The "Its not really free" argument is really stale. We all know by now that "F2P" is going to come with a whole list "can" and "can not"s. Its a branding name and that's all. Even when something is Buy one get one free its really just buy these 2 items for one price. You can't get the free item without spending money...it's a condition of the offer...just like F2P has many...many..conditions. I am waiting for the day (and it will come) when all games will be F2P and start off giving you one room to play in. You can run around all u want but to leave the room you must pay. Just thankful it hasn't come to that ..yet.

Hellgate london - you can run around for free as long as you want - but if you want to progress you have to buy tickets to unlock new zones you can quest in.

Originally posted by CalmOceans

http://www.funcom.com/news/over_300000_players_join_age_of_conan_unchained_in_first_month

“The launch of the hybrid business model has been very successful so far,” says Funcom CEO Trond Arne Aas. “The activity levels on the servers are booming with a fourfold increase in players during July, we more than doubled the revenue generated from the game, and we have experienced a positive development in subscriber numbers. This definitely gives us great hope for the game’s future.”

HAH!  That is just incredible.

Yeah the Freemium model will just become more popular now.  Everyone is going to look at this and adopt that payment model.  I'm really afraid other F2P games will take it up, you know F2P that aren't Freemium but Free Free, and then won't be.

P2P Games are just gonna get bigger communities, more access and get better with more and more content.

HOPEFULLY Buy-to-Win is not going to be a part of this movement on any large scale.

Originally posted by COOKERpl

 How is Lotro F2P model better. Free player in Lotro can't participate in any form of PvP (Age of Conan F2P does allow you join PvP) and how does Lotro tomes of permanent stat increase+10 (farily cheap in Store / nearly impossible to get in game ) differ from AoC store items?

 

For now you can't PVP in lotro as free player becouse Monster Play wasn't "cash shop ready" when FTP launched. Rise of Isengard is just around the corner now and it's bringing updated and expanded monster play to free players.

Stat tomes - like you said, are cheap in store.

In lotro you can earn turbine points ingame. Play the game, get points, buy stat tomes. Not only that. Buy permanent gold cap removal or permanent access to endgame expack and dungeons. No silly 3 day pass crap like in AOC. No rare/epic quality gear you can buy while leveling or at max lvl on PVP server.

Some people proved that playing on few characters in lotro you can permanently unlock everything from quest packs / dungeons /  skirmishes / stat tomes to expacks and all endgame content without spending real money.

Dont want to spend money ? Take your time accumulating turbine points. Want everything NOW ? Pay for it.

One way or another though - you don't need sub, and you keep access to the zones you payed for. Forevaa! :)

LOTRO is doing it right.  This is what should be copied.

Originally posted by futnatus

Originally posted by COOKERpl

 How is Lotro F2P model better. Free player in Lotro can't participate in any form of PvP (Age of Conan F2P does allow you join PvP) and how does Lotro tomes of permanent stat increase+10 (farily cheap in Store / nearly impossible to get in game ) differ from AoC store items?

 

For now you can't PVP in lotro as free player becouse Monster Play wasn't "cash shop ready" when FTP launched. Rise of Isengard is just around the corner now and it's bringing updated and expanded monster play to free players.

Stat tomes - like you said, are cheap in store.

In lotro you can earn turbine points ingame. Play the game, get points, buy stat tomes. Not only that. Buy permanent gold cap removal or permanent access to endgame expack and dungeons. No silly 3 day pass crap like in AOC. No rare/epic quality gear you can buy while leveling or at max lvl on PVP server.

Some people proved that playing on few characters in lotro you can permanently unlock everything from quest packs / dungeons /  skirmishes / stat tomes to expacks and all endgame content without spending real money.

Dont want to spend money ? Take your time accumulating turbine points. Want everything NOW ? Pay for it.

One way or another though - you don't need sub, and you keep access to the zones you payed for. Forevaa! :)

LOTRO is doing it right.  This is what should be copied.

 I agree. DDO is ok but the LOTRO model ..imo is the best. I think for most companies though....it still doesn't provide the desired return. I am fine with AoC's model for the most part. The most annoying thing is I purchased RotGS expansion...but if I go free ..then I have to purchase most of the content  again (much like I had to purchase  the LOTRO:SOA content again though I owned the box set). I'm not even sure if it's a one time purchase either. I'll have to check into that if I ever bother to play those areas. I don't raid much so all the original  content is pretty much available unhindered.

Originally posted by futnatus

Yeah the Freemium model will just become more popular now.

Only among  the games which rightfully failed and got dumped by every almost mmorpg-player with his head at the right place.

Games coming from companies that were thinking they can get a piece of the big cake with products delivered broken, empty promises, PR spin and otherwise as little effort as possible.

Originally posted by VoIgore

Originally posted by futnatus

Yeah the Freemium model will just become more popular now.

Only among  the games which rightfully failed and got dumped by every almost mmorpg-player with his head at the right place.

Games coming from companies that were thinking they can get a piece of the big cake with products delivered broken, empty promises, PR spin and otherwise as little effort as possible.

 

 

Yeah, because giving a company money every month to play a game you already paid for when you and they know it doesn't cost them nearly that much to run the game means you have your head in the right place.

I for one hope the LotRO version of the "freemium" model or the GW2 B2P model ends up prevailing over the stupid P2P model.  I think it will increase competition while giving players more choices on their purchases.  If a player does it right, they can spend essentially only the box prices on a particular game and get as much enjoyment out of it as if they paid the subscription.

I say if AoC adopts a model similar to LotRO and is successful, more power to them and I hope the other devs are watching.

Originally posted by zymurgeist

I'm still waiting for that Funcom stock collapse and bankruptcy Azrile promised us years ago.

Yep, I was wrong.   I honestly had no idea a company could be unprofitable 11 out of 12 quarters, write off 25M of a loss while bringing in only 4M in revenues and still be in business.  It defies logic.  Very few companies last long having non-stop negative profits quarter after quarter. 

Originally posted by Azrile

Originally posted by zymurgeist

I'm still waiting for that Funcom stock collapse and bankruptcy Azrile promised us years ago.

Yep, I was wrong.   I honestly had no idea a company could be unprofitable 11 out of 12 quarters, write off 25M of a loss while bringing in only 4M in revenues and still be in business.  It defies logic.  Very few companies last long having non-stop negative profits quarter after quarter. 

You should have checked their cash reserve. After launch of AoC they had no debt and about USD 30 mill in cash. Now they still have some cash left and will soon (april) have two MMOs. Also AoC as an separate entity has been profitable for years now, they simply cut costs. The money they have spent has been on developing TSW. 

AoC is a fun game i like how it's really graphic and unique, even though of course they had to change the canon for the gaming industry a little. 

What's funny is seeing all the naysayers of F2P models (western Freemium to be exact) continue to say their troll stuff over and over again when Lotro is STILL making mad money off it's model to this day even without releasing hardly any new content in the past few months. (two skirms and a dungeon don't count) so, when people say oh well yeah its freemium lets see how well it does bla bla, the fact remains that is the new model that this economy can handle and still be competative and still receive revenue, it's a fact.

AoC has some trouble still but it looks like they are fixing the problems, hell even STO is going F2P at some point and they are revamping EVERYTHING from what i've read so this model of games ROCKS. we just have to watch out for P2W games like Allod's or games that CALL themselves F2P like Age of Empires Online when they are nowhere near that model AT ALL when deciding what to play.

 I was one of the people that came back because it went f2p.Walked around for a hour,wasn't impressed ....again,but hopefully they do well with it.Just because i think there combat system is a pos doesn't mean others have to also.

Originally posted by Azrile

oh dear.

The release says it has a 4 FOLD increase in players.   Fold means doubled.   If they said 4x´s the number of players, that would be 4xs the number of players.    Fold is double.

37.5k  doubled is 75k  doubled is 150k doubled is 300k.    37.5 to 300k is a 4 fold increase in players.   They specifically used the word ´fold´.

Quoted from dictionary for enlightenment:

fourfold - four times as great or many; "a fourfold increase in the dosage"

fourfold - by a factor of four; "the price of gasoline has increased fourfold over the past two years"

Also, they said '300k new players', not '300k players in total'.

So, to summarize, a 'four fold increase in players' means that the number of players compared to the pre-F2P situation has increased by a factor of 4 for the month of July, or has become 4 times as large.

If 300k new players were seen in July, then that means that the number of players before F2P was about 100k players.

100k players + 300k new players = 400k players = 4 times the number of players before F2P, or otherwise said a 'fourfold increase'.

Mind you, that's not saying anything about PCU, peak concurrent users, or such.

Tried to explain him before...

Lets see if he reads your english better than mine.

Annoying really, with people trying to disprove 1+3 = 4

300k new players?  They launched how many new servers to accomodate ALL of those active and new players?  I applaud AOC's success-i think its a perfectly fine game.  But i do chuckle at comparisons to EVE and a few other games that have either dozens of active servers or 60k + CONCURRENT users.  Dont think AOC is supporting that kind of playerbase on what? 4 servers?

But creative and courageous revival of an "older" and "struggling" game-I applaud it!  Anything that keeps the genre growing and positive works for me.

Originally posted by Vantras

300k new players?  They launched how many new servers to accomodate ALL of those active and new players?  I applaud AOC's success-i think its a perfectly fine game.  But i do chuckle at comparisons to EVE and a few other games that have either dozens of active servers or 60k + CONCURRENT users.  Dont think AOC is supporting that kind of playerbase on what? 4 servers?

But creative and courageous revival of an "older" and "struggling" game-I applaud it!  Anything that keeps the genre growing and positive works for me.

It is simple. 300 K people did create accounts since F2P transition , but question is how many people still play?

Surely not all of those. Many people just created f2p account and left after few days/weeks and are not playing anymore ,but they are still counted.

In P2P games when your subscription run out you're not counted anymore. In F2P you don't have subscription and your account is not deleted (in many games there is even no possibility to delete account f.e. Lotro) game developes can overstate amount of users.

How to count how many actual playing users F2P game has? There is no definition so no wonder that game studios do definite it into their favour for press and investors.

I did create account in AoC and I am sure I am counted in those 300 k of new players even though I don't play anymore lol

True test for AoC will be if they are able to sustain those numbers and revenue.

Becasue most of F2P games do tell about player number increase after transiction but are a bit quiet about it year later for example.