FunCom  has great ideas coupled with incredibly bad implementation, pathetic CS and bad management...plus amazing ptchmen which is why they are still around.

AO was a visionary idea executed in an incredibly botched fashion. It had the hands-down worst launch in MMO history and the customers hosed by it were never really compensated. It's staggered on since then because behind the horrid management there are some very invested and skilled people.

AoC was a significantly better launch, but again was terribly managed and completely failed to deliver on both what it could have been and what FC claimed for it initially.

TSW was the best launch of FC's run, so clearly they can learn something and are improving at some level of management. However once again I think it falls far short of what was promised and what the game could have been. They *will* move to F2P soon, regardless of what it does to lifetime subscribers and others because that is what the upper level of FC management does. All their current customers have served their purpose and can now be thrown under the bus as TSW will be milked for the operating capital, clout and hype to bankroll FC into their next project ;)

Originally posted by ericbelser

FunCom  has great ideas coupled with incredibly bad implementation, pathetic CS and bad management...plus amazing ptchmen which is why they are still around.

AO was a visionary idea executed in an incredibly botched fashion. It had the hands-down worst launch in MMO history and the customers hosed by it were never really compensated. It's staggered on since then because behind the horrid management there are some very invested and skilled people.

AoC was a significantly better launch, but again was terribly managed and completely failed to deliver on both what it could have been and what FC claimed for it initially.

TSW was the best launch of FC's run, so clearly they can learn something and are improving at some level of management. However once again I think it falls far short of what was promised and what the game could have been. They *will* move to F2P soon, regardless of what it does to lifetime subscribers and others because that is what the upper level of FC management does. All their current customers have served their purpose and can now be thrown under the bus as TSW will be milked for the operating capital, clout and hype to bankroll FC into their next project ;)

 

 

Very well put young man. The Beer is on me.

Originally posted by Brixon
Not sure why Funcom never really overhauled AO. AO is by far their best title, but it was mared by a horrible launch. The depth and setting can't really be found in any other MMO. If they would upgrade the game and relaunch it, they might have hit on their hands.

Exactly.  I loved AO when I played it, it was a fantastic game, but like everything else Funcom does, they promise a lot and never come through on any of it.  How many years have they been claiming the new graphics engine is coming out "real soon now"?  Let's be honest, it's never coming out.  It's just a line to string people along for a little longer and wring more money out of them.  I stopped playing AO because I had basically done everything it had to offer and I know that they're never going to follow through on any of their promises.  Come on Funcom, be honest, tell people that you're never going to do anything more with the game.

Originally posted by Eazydzzz

Originally posted by Vhaln
Its interesting how Funcom has become this edgy underdog dev that certain types like to rally behind.  "Interesting" probably isn't the word they would use.

Nope.  Not an edgy underdog.  Just like people who don't like WoW are just hating WoW to be cool.  Right?  One post about Funcom being good and they are now "an edgy underdog"?

 

Maybe I just like Funcom games.  Name one company that makes better games in the mmo world. 

 

Am I being an "edgy underdog"?

 

"certain types"

 

[mod edit]

I was drunk when I posted that.  I apologize.

Originally posted by Eazydzzz

Anarchy Online is still the best mmo I've ever played.  Maybe the best video/computer game I've ever played.   2001-2004 AO I'm talking about. 

When you read threads about what mmorpgs should be, you think "that was AO!!!!"

Age of Conan is awesome.  Put failcom logos as your avatar all you want, but AoC has it all.  Mature community, depth, hundreds of skill points you can apply to your character when you level, fun combat (way more visceral and action packed than the wanna be console games like tera or RaiderZ).  If you want console level action combat check out DC Universe, Vindictus, or PSO2.  PSO2 is beyond awesome btw.    Awesome soundtrack.   Very dark fantasy world, no bubbly fat animal people like in tera or gw2.  AoC reminds of 80s style DnD - gritty.

The Sercret World is also pretty amazing.  People asked for something different and Funcom delivered.  Sure, it's not perfect, but it's different.  TSW makes you think.  An mmo that makes you use your brain??  What is this 1999??? 

Funcom, imo, makes the best mmos.  They have 3, and they are all awesome. 

FunCom do some things really good, but they do have problems as well. Programming have always been a problem as example, AO took months before it was even playable.

Another problem they have is the fact that their games are far too small. What killed AoC for me was not the bugs (even if they didnt help) but the fact that the zones were few and small. Not counting AO here though.

And they add content really slow as well. AoC have been out for years and is still really small even with the expansion. Same thing here with AO, there they added loads of stuff but since then they seems to have grown lazy, or the engine makes it so adding content is too much work.

AoC got an unfair panning after it came out, but they did leave gaps in the questing to top level idea. Some grind was needed in mid level. Loads of posters on here were predicting TSW would be the same, don't hear them harping on so much about that now!

Old AO player myself, I never liked it as much as say DAOC but it is up there with AC in my eyes.

Originally posted by Scot

AoC got an unfair panning after it came out

It got exactly what it deserved after 2 years of false advertising and outright lies from Funcom about what would be in the game. Not to mention Tortage was one of the most inane, boring, simple, derivitive, length tutorials I've ever had to force myself through. And people called that "the good part". Follow the glowing arrows to the sparkling quest objectives through a linear forest!

Originally posted by Daneril
I quit AoC shortly after release. The game was a dissapointment after Tortage. But i came back about a year ago and the game is acutally very good.

And what of those of us who thought Tortage was laughably bad? If the best part of your game is a linear hand holding tutorial with the shallowest quests in the industry...

Originally posted by Starpower

"Funcom does a good job"

 

-Must be why they have mass layoffs with every release

Yeah, I am still trying to figure out why if they make such great games,  all their games have empty servers.   AOC went F2P and still is merging servers down to just a few.  TSW sold less than half of what Funcom was expecting and resulted in them laying off over half their staff.

Here is the fact.  All of Funcom´s games have had 1 or 2 really excellent parts.  AO had the most interesting world.  AOC had great high-end graphics and music.   Melee combat was also interesting to some people.   TSW had a great theme and environment.

But at the same time, each of their games had many MANY very VERY subpar parts to it that make it unplayable for most people.   You cannot cherry-pick the few good features of each game and ignore all the terrible parts to it and say it was a great game.

TSW is the perfect example of this.. the theme, environments are top-notch and unique.  However, character models and movements are from the 1990s.  Questing is also subpar, and more like WOW from 2005.

The numbers speak for themselves.

Originally posted by Scalpless

They've got great ideas, but often crappy execution. AO and AoC are especially good examples of this.

The most annoying of Funcom's failures is that, IMO, AO is still their best MMO. It has a huge, open world and a great mix of sandbox and themepark features - something both TSW and AoC lack. Too bad it's so 2001 it makes your eyes hurt, had some disappointing expansions, is quite dead and still doesn't have that new graphics engine they have talked about for years.

      IMO AO was by far the most fun of the 3......I was pretty disappointed with both AoC and TSW to be honest.......

Originally posted by Scot

AoC got an unfair panning after it came out, but they did leave gaps in the questing to top level idea. Some grind was needed in mid level. Loads of posters on here were predicting TSW would be the same, don't here them harping on so much about that now!

Old AO player myself, I never liked it as much as say DAOC but it is up there with AC in my eyes.

There was nothing unfair about it.  I remember sitting on AO the weekend that AoC came out and seeing how many people went over to play it and came back almost immediately.  AoC had a crappy launch and while it did eventually improve to some degree, it's still always been a game that's great for the first 20 levels of Tortage, then... not so much.

Originally posted by Azrile

Originally posted by Starpower
 

But at the same time, each of their games had many MANY very VERY subpar parts to it that make it unplayable for most people.   You cannot cherry-pick the few good features of each game and ignore all the terrible parts to it and say it was a great game.

TSW is the perfect example of this.. the theme, environments are top-notch and unique.  However, character models and movements are from the 1990s.  Questing is also subpar, and more like WOW from 2005.

The numbers speak for themselves.

Um, of all the things to criticize about TSW, QUESTING is not the one I would pick -- investigation quests that require use of brain?  Yeah, WoW's always had a TON of those...

Originally posted by Eazydzzz
 

Mature community

AoC has one of the most immature communities of any MMORPG on the current market.

Do you even play the game?

Originally posted by GolbezTheLion

Originally posted by Eazydzzz
 

Mature community

AoC has one of the most immature communities of any MMORPG on the current market.

Do you even play the game?

Agreed.  I always found it funny that for games they declare "mature", they always include the most immature elements.

"Hey, this is a mature game for mature players, so here, have some naked bouncing tits!"

The minute they slap the "mature" label on something, run.

Originally posted by Ortwig

Originally posted by Azrile

Originally posted by Starpower
 

But at the same time, each of their games had many MANY very VERY subpar parts to it that make it unplayable for most people.   You cannot cherry-pick the few good features of each game and ignore all the terrible parts to it and say it was a great game.

TSW is the perfect example of this.. the theme, environments are top-notch and unique.  However, character models and movements are from the 1990s.  Questing is also subpar, and more like WOW from 2005.

The numbers speak for themselves.

Um, of all the things to criticize about TSW, QUESTING is not the one I would pick -- investigation quests that require use of google?  Yeah, WoW's always had a TON of those...

fixed that for you.

Still those are far and few between.