Funcom Product Director Jorgen Tharaldsen speaks to MMORPG.com Managing Editor Jon Wood about the Fileplanet Open Beta. In this interview, Tharaldsen addresses a number of the rumors that have circulated since the Open Beta announcement.

Ever since their open beta was announced, Norwegian development company Funcom has come under fire from fans of their upcoming MMORPG, Age of Conan, and the criticism has had very little to do with the content of their game.

The complaints stem from a decision to partner with IGN’s Fileplanet for distribution of keys to their beta. In order for players to qualify for an AoC beta key, they have to be the proud owners of a premium membership at Fileplanet (which costs $5 per month for a year). While many has applauded a beta through Fileplanet, is has  also led players to feel as though they are paying to participate in a beta and that Funcom has done this in an attempt to a) draw in extra funds for the game and b) to disguise some kind of failing in the game itself.

Read more here.

THX
EDIT: Link doesn't work
EDIT2: Now it does

The link to the article seems broken.

[Edit]: Fixed fast hehe

You guys are way way too quick for me.

When we put up an article, there's like a 30 second overlap before the link works. I'm always stunned at how fast you guys are able to find it and post about it.

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“Looking back on this I think that if we had called it simply ‘Fileplanet beta’ instead of ‘Open beta’, many would have reacted differently. ”

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As one of the one hundred AoC Fileplanet Beta key winners, I have but one question.  Did I read the article correctly . . . 13 GB client?  Good Lord, it will take me a week to download that sucker!

Originally posted by spriteh

 

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“Looking back on this I think that if we had called it simply ‘Fileplanet beta’ instead of ‘Open beta’, many would have reacted differently. ”

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Indeed. What a difference a word makes

 

~Hairysun~

A bunch of lame excuses from Funcom. Paying to beta test is retarded. I call shenanigans.

"We really wanted to have an open beta, we just didn't care about it".

Which of course means that they really didn't want it.

What still bothers me is the nonsense about being able to patch 600,000 players on opening day (or maybe 400K on opening day and 200K three days later), but not able to support a staggered 'full client' client download for 50,000 people over a period of 2 weeks.  It's not my field of expertise by any means, but it sure sounds like a load.

I assume that you have people in charge of managing this.  What are those people doing right now, since you're so confident that you can handle the load that's 8 times as many IPA's as you would potentially have on launch day?

He's eiher being lied to or lieing himself.  Either way, it doesn't speak well for the company he is fronting.

AO had a horrendous launch as I recall.  We'll see if this is any better. 

Originally posted by cmcmaha

As one of the one hundred AoC Fileplanet Beta key winners, I have but one question.  Did I read the article correctly . . . 13 GB client?  Good Lord, it will take me a week to download that sucker!

As a fileplanet sub (for two weeks at least) you should get 250K-300K downloads. Take 13-15 hours on average.

As far as the article, it wasn't overly interesting. At this point, I am surprised they said anything at all unless they've actually seen pre-order cancels mounting and are attributing it to the way 'OB' is being handled.

The part where FC mentioned previous beta pushes for this game not costing a cent seemed rather silly to me. If he was trying to defend a service requiring payment, mentioning 'other' occasions that didn't cost would only server to alienate people who didn't get a chance to try the earlier attempts.

*shrug*

I hope 'some suprises' includes a patch that takes the level cap off or at least bumps it a little higher once the first crush of players rolls through. In any case, I'll be playing to 13 or whatever with the enjoyment of knowing I can play on the 17th without impedment.

I feel for the guy, his team is busting there humps and the lard ass idiots that live in their Mom's basement and could not get a job beyond Pizza Hut actually are given the credibility to question them.  

That's why I would never dream of game design as a career.  Enterprise software designers work less hours make more money, and when they are called into question, it is from a professional...not some mouth breathing fry cook with no life.

Said it many times. Love games hate most gamers.

Originally posted by todeswulf

I feel for the guy, his team is busting there humps and the lard ass idiots that live in their Mom's basement and could not get a job beyond Pizza Hut actually are given the credibility to question them.  

That's why I would never dream of game design as a career.  Enterprise software designers work less hours make more money, and when they are called into question, it is from a professional...not some mouth breathing fry cook with no life.

Said it many times. Love games hate most gamers.

 

+1

Originally posted by todeswulf

I feel for the guy, his team is busting there humps and the lard ass idiots that live in their Mom's basement and could not get a job beyond Pizza Hut actually are given the credibility to question them.  

That's why I would never dream of game design as a career.  Enterprise software designers work less hours make more money, and when they are called into question, it is from a professional...not some mouth breathing fry cook with no life.

Said it many times. Love games hate most gamers.

 

I could be wrong, but normally the programming guys, the ones who should be concentrating on game design and programming are usually not the network guys.

Had I been the admin, I would have loved for a 50k user test to confirm that my predictions that my work could hold 600k were right and let me pick up any bottlenecks etc that might be there and I not know about it.

Maybe, funcom is having its guys wear more then one hat.

Originally posted by Sinkael

 

 

 

I could be wrong, but normally the programming guys, the ones who should be concentrating on game design and programming are usually not the network guys.

Had I been the admin, I would have loved for a 50k user test to confirm that my predictions that my work could hold 600k were right and let me pick up any bottlenecks etc that might be there and I not know about it.

Maybe, funcom is having its guys wear more then one hat.

It's the nature of the beast.....everyone today wears more than one hat. Take me for example. I am a project manager for a largish medical software developer; I also handle certain aspects of the enternal testing process in regards to load balancing over Wireless WAN's. Two years ago there was an engineer to do that  job, but cost cutting measures have made us more lean and mean.

  Any way you look at it the OB was badly handled by Funcom.  Personally I see a company that is not used to the major leagues and Fileplanet came to them with a super proposition and they were out negociated.    They gave away the rights to the open beta without fully realizing the consequences (IMO of course).  Usually you will see a company give a number of keys to a site like Fileplanet but keep control of the event to be invite more serious testers to get the maximum of data.

  Not wanting to waste personnel is a nice theory, but how many man hours are wasted by having a different client for each event that has to be supported and patched ?  Hmmm.....

  As for the level 13 limit,  it is very scary,  I don't think it is a question of the game not be ready for toons higher than level 13, but more a very linear progression with minimal replay value.  As an Altaholic,  this is the scariest part of all and has made me reconsider getting the game for launch.  I now think I will wait and see how the launch goes and what the reviews say on PVE leveling.

Originally posted by todeswulf

 

Originally posted by Sinkael

 

 

 

I could be wrong, but normally the programming guys, the ones who should be concentrating on game design and programming are usually not the network guys.

Had I been the admin, I would have loved for a 50k user test to confirm that my predictions that my work could hold 600k were right and let me pick up any bottlenecks etc that might be there and I not know about it.

Maybe, funcom is having its guys wear more then one hat.

 

It's the nature of the beast.....everyone today wears more than one hat. Take me for example. I am a project manager for a largish medical software developer; I also handle certain aspects of the enternal testing process in regards to load balancing over Wireless WAN's. Two years ago there was an engineer to do that  job, but cost cutting measures have made us more lean and mean.

Ok, I can understand that but that seems like an odd thing to do in the MMO business. Considering that even Mythic before the EA buyout kept the departments seperate and didn't expect the programmers to handle network issues, if funcom wants to compete with the big boys like Sony or Blizzard, they better get their organizational skills together.

Originally posted by Red_Rider

  Any way you look at it the OB was badly handled by Funcom.  Personally I see a company that is not used to the major leagues and Fileplanet came to them with a super proposition and they were out negociated.    They gave away the rights to the open beta without fully realizing the consequences (IMO of course).  Usually you will see a company give a number of keys to a site like Fileplanet but keep control of the event to be invite more serious testers to get the maximum of data.

 

  Not wanting to waste personnel is a nice theory, but how many man hours are wasted by having a different client for each event that has to be supported and patched ?  Hmmm.....

 

  As for the level 13 limit,  it is very scary,  I don't think it is a question of the game not be ready for toons higher than level 13, but more a very linear progression with minimal replay value.  As an Altaholic,  this is the scariest part of all and has made me reconsider getting the game for launch.  I now think I will wait and see how the launch goes and what the reviews say on PVE leveling.

The level 13 limit bothers me too, the fact that it was said that by that level we can get a good feeling for what the game is also bothers me. Most MMO's don't even get out of the tutorial until about that level.

As a person who has payed for an Open Beta in 2002.  I have to say a paid Beta is a whole lot better then a free-loader beta.  You get a nice stable server, good support from the staff, and you don't have people constantly asking you for stuff.  I think a fileplanet open beta is pretty much the norm now. 

Lack of clear thinking on Funcoms part. It seems to me thy just wanted to get what THEY wanted to get and had a completly blind eye to how potential subscribers would react.I hope other decisions reguarding AOC aren't handled  in such an inept way.

( and NO...I will never pay for a chance to beta test a companys product)

So the children are all upset they have to pay for a membership.  Don't worry mommy will pay for it, if you cry and whine a bit.

Originally posted by todeswulf

I feel for the guy, his team is busting there humps and the lard ass idiots that live in their Mom's basement and could not get a job beyond Pizza Hut actually are given the credibility to question them.  

That's why I would never dream of game design as a career.  Enterprise software designers work less hours make more money, and when they are called into question, it is from a professional...not some mouth breathing fry cook with no life.

Said it many times. Love games hate most gamers.

 

That being said, I don't think you have to be a professional to question other trades.  What people have said is valid, it seems inconsistent to say that we can handle 600K subscribers day 1, but can't handle 50,000 people downloading the game.

What's strange is that they addressed it all.  The answer from the dev actually make the whole thing look worse.  Sometimes a 'no comment', and letting the product speak for itself is the best policy.

Originally posted by devacore

So the children are all upset they have to pay for a membership.  Don't worry mommy will pay for it, if you cry and whine a bit.

So speakth the troll. . .

Originally posted by andmiller

Originally posted by todeswulf

I feel for the guy, his team is busting there humps and the lard ass idiots that live in their Mom's basement and could not get a job beyond Pizza Hut actually are given the credibility to question them.  

That's why I would never dream of game design as a career.  Enterprise software designers work less hours make more money, and when they are called into question, it is from a professional...not some mouth breathing fry cook with no life.

Said it many times. Love games hate most gamers.

 

  Sometimes a 'no comment', and letting the product speak for itself is the best policy.

 

Isn't that the case and come judgment day it will.

Summary of what I got out of it.

Sorry, we should have said "FilePlanet Beta" and not "Open Beta". It won't happen again. Also, the FilePlanet Beta will only allow you to get to level 13 because we feel it serves our needs and at the same time gives the players a taste of what the game has to offer without giving away a cool part of the story.

IMO, nbd. All games are a crap shoot. Beta rarely lets you do more than get a feel for the game anyway.

This is such a stupid non-issue that players have made into some kind of soap opera. The only people complaining about this are those that think a beta of any kind is really just a trial, like they owe you somthing. When its not.

  Be warned, most future open betas are going to be just like this. So get the crying out now, it’s not going to change.