Hello again. After getting charbroiled on my last post, for simply saying hello, I was asked to make a different post. Its apparent that a lot of people in the community don't think you need me around. However, I guess there are some perks, for all of us, in this job of mine. I was recently contacted by somebody working for Funcom who has offered me more or less direct contact with the development team, in order to gain some feedback from the community and to try and convey to you all what is happening and why it is happening the way it is.

Before you start flaming - think of this as a constructive way for the player base to get some of their issues heard, and actually get official responses back from the developers.

Thanks for reading.

/puts on E.O.D. suit.

Hang in there Dom.

I doubt people are angry with you, they are just frustrated with the state of the product that they paid for.

If history is any guide, this will all get settled, one way or another, in a relatively short time. AOC will either get fixed to the point where it can earn a spot on the gamer's radar as a legitimate choice, or it will continue to spiral into decay and chaos and eventually fade into a niche it created for itself.

Have a good one.

The reason you are getting a cold reception is because all we ever get from Funcom is lies and spin.

Sending us another agent of spin is like doing another Erling Ellingson interview. We know how it will go and frankly, we're not interested.

The real steps that players need to see:

- Gaute Godager visibily and permanently fired from Funcom for wrecking both AO and AOC and the current director of AO taking charge of AOC

- Erling Ellingson visibly fired and replaced by someone who has a shred of credibility

- An overhaul of Funcom's communication on their official EU and US forums, not here

- An open, uncensored discussion avenue between developers and players without aggressive stealth-censoring mods like Tahitoa around

Funcom dug its own grave by treating its customers like rubbish and having prize asshats like EE and GG doing their comms. A bit of trimming of those counterproductive persons and an overhaul of policy is very much needed or FC's reputation will be permanently in the gutter.

Art,

If I am correct, Dom is "working" for MMORPG, not for Funcom.

They did not "send" him to us here, he **shudder** volunteered.

If this is the case, he really does not deserve to be a target of all the vitriol at this point.

They want feedback on the game from mmorpg.com forum goers?  How is our feedback any different from the ones on their official forums(before the threads are locked or moved)?  Shouldn't they be more worried about communicating things to their paying playerbase through their forums and website?  Sounds like a lot of smoke if you ask me.

Side note: For a guy who prides himself as a hardcore PvP player I'm really surprised at how sensitive you are to some criticism.  Did you have anything to do with that crappy PvP article that got posted on the front page?  If so, then any criticism was well deserved.

Oh my god, you volunteered

I am truly sorry then, I... well I wouldn't want to be you

Feel free to translate the previous post however, it is correct, just remember we're all cool with you

Originally posted by Dominisi

Hello again. After getting charbroiled on my last post, for simply saying hello, I was asked to make a different post. Its apparent that a lot of people in the community don't think you need me around. However, I guess there are some perks, for all of us, in this job of mine. I was recently contacted by somebody working for Funcom who has offered me more or less direct contact with the development team, in order to gain some feedback from the community and to try and convey to you all what is happening and why it is happening the way it is.

Before you start flaming - think of this as a constructive way for the player base to get some of their issues heard, and actually get official responses back from the developers.

Thanks for reading.

/puts on E.O.D. suit.

 

In all honesty, people here are being extremely rude.  Soon I will have a title just like yours (but for another game) and I doubt I will recieve the same crap you did.  Why?  Because you picked the game where there is an angry following, and they think you went a little easy on Funcom.

I think this is great what you did.  I also was in contact with  the developer for writing my piece, it's a neat experience and it is only helping the fans reading.

So best of luck to you and your future articles, your first piece was very well written. 

Welcome, it's good to see Funcom taking an active interest.

You might be interested in reading the following threads as a start.

http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/191383

http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/191535
 

http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/192582

The first one was an attempt to generate list of 'Five Things You Would Change', the second was a general discussion about whether the game is really that bad.

Both have at least some 'smouldering posts' so as long as you have your 'Oven Gloves' on, you should hopefully find interesting posts to read.

If you feel like you need cheering up though, try watching the spoof Youtube video in the third link.

Best of Luck in your Quest!

Are you seriously thinking Funcom will not make just another spin around it?  Or maybe I should say - U will not make another spin on it.  

Did you listen to the EE interview ?  ....   The game is PERFECT !!! 

Last thing MMORPG.COM needs is a person claiming to have access to FC and then giving all sort of PR bull out about the game.  We know the status of it - we also know how poorly they are doing fixing the broken things.

Most important - We all know this game is sinking to the 100k sub and 7.0 raiting.  Nothing will change that now.

You really are taking a bite out of a shit sandwich by taking this job.  I wish you the best of luck and I don't have any ill will towards you if you are indeed in search of answer from Funcom.   I seriously doubt that you will be able to effective, not by any fault of your own, but because of the arrogance of Funcom.

All these interviews we have been seeing paint a bullshit picture of sunshine in lollipops over in Hyboria, while people are fleeing this game like a crowd in a burning movie theater.  Until Funcom is willing to admit and accept accountability for some of the major problems in this game, anything you bring back to us is meritless.

You want to get us answers?   Pass this on to your contact.  I found out that there was out of control exploiting of their raid content by a guild that has been banned from almost every MMO it has played.  I sent the letter to the exploit email address, and nothing happened.   I later found out that they were using third party tools to farm resources.   I sent the pictures to the exploit email, and nothing happened.   To this day not a single member of this guild has had action taken against them.  I posted this on their forums after the silence, and they in turn silenced me.

I decided to use my platform as a spotlight blogger on this site to tell me story.  This blog got more hits than anything else I had ever written in this site.  They need to be held accountable for this, and any legit player playing Age of Conan needs to know that they have GM watching a guy jump on a wagon for 30 mins, but the end game content being exploited and third party programs goes unchecked.

Get me an answer on this:

http://www.mmorpg.com/blogs/Paragus1/072008/2168_Rant-AoC-Exploit-Early-Exploit-Often

or get them to be accountable for their mistakes, otherwise anything they say is completely worthless.  A lot of us got burned bad by this game.   We sold this game to our guilds based on information they gave us that turned out to be false.  Meanwhile Erling Ellingson is giving interviews about how awesome everything is going, and Gaute is writing letters about how his game will soon cure colon cancer.  The bullshit needs to stop if you or them is going to have any sliver of legitimacy.

Hi Dom

Welcome ,I'm really glad Funcom has realized the extent of the decline of the game and the animosity towards them around the perceived failures of AOC .i hope you can make a difference as I believe the game has potential. Please understand people are really irate with Funcom and most of the time it's valid reasons.If you have a channel into the Dev's please pass on the following message that I think is of paramount importance ..they can pass it on to the people who can address this .

The official forums and the behavior and attitude of the Mods is the worst I have ever seen in any game. They are arrogant ,condescending and do a real disservice to Funcom.They ban people who raise genuine complaints and at times are just unhelpful with there comments.I understand not all of them act like this and sometimes people do need to be censored and banned .However enough of them conduct themselves in a completely unacceptable manner .This is a major point of contention for many and even if the bugs are all fixed this needs to be addressed

Hope you can pass on the importance of this issue

Later :)

You might want to have them read through this as well . Acknowledging their disgruntled customers, Is the first step in rectifying this situation , Entertaining them in conversation is the second.
 LINK
 

---

Originally posted by Paragus1
You really are taking a bite out of a shit sandwich by taking this job.  I wish you the best of luck and I don't have any ill will towards you if you are indeed in search of answer from Funcom.   I seriously doubt that you will be able to effective, not by any fault of your own, but because of the arrogance of Funcom.
All these interviews we have been seeing paint a bullshit picture of sunshine in lollipops over in Hyboria, while people are fleeing this game like a crowd in a burning movie theater.  Until Funcom is willing to admit and accept accountability for some of the major problems in this game, anything you bring back to us is meritless.
You want to get us answers?   Pass this on to your contact.  I found out that there was out of control exploiting of their raid content by a guild that has been banned from almost every MMO it has played.  I sent the letter to the exploit email address, and nothing happened.   I later found out that they were using third party tools to farm resources.   I sent the pictures to the exploit email, and nothing happened.   To this day not a single member of this guild has had action taken against them.  I posted this on their forums after the silence, and they in turn silenced me.
I decided to use my platform as a spotlight blogger on this site to tell me story.  This blog got more hits than anything else I had ever written in this site.  They need to be held accountable for this, and any legit player playing Age of Conan needs to know that they have GM watching a guy jump on a wagon for 30 mins, but the end game content being exploited and third party programs goes unchecked.
Get me an answer on this:
http://www.mmorpg.com/blogs/Paragus1/072008/2168_Rant-AoC-Exploit-Early-Exploit-Often
or get them to be accountable for their mistakes, otherwise anything they say is completely worthless.  A lot of us got burned bad by this game.   We sold this game to our guilds based on information they gave us that turned out to be false.  Meanwhile Erling Ellingson is giving interviews about how awesome everything is going, and Gaute is writing letters about how his game will soon cure colon cancer.  The bullshit needs to stop if you or them is going to have any sliver of legitimacy.

---

...This

*wipes a tear from his eye*

Well said.

Originally posted by Dominisi

Hello again. After getting charbroiled on my last post, for simply saying hello, I was asked to make a different post. Its apparent that a lot of people in the community don't think you need me around. However, I guess there are some perks, for all of us, in this job of mine. I was recently contacted by somebody working for Funcom who has offered me more or less direct contact with the development team, in order to gain some feedback from the community and to try and convey to you all what is happening and why it is happening the way it is.

Before you start flaming - think of this as a constructive way for the player base to get some of their issues heard, and actually get official responses back from the developers.

Thanks for reading.

/puts on E.O.D. suit.

 

Hello Dom just wanted to say welcome and good luck to you mate :).

I do have two questions for you though.

If Funcom actually cared about what it's players thought then how come when anyone posts issues with the game on their forums they getted banned?.

Also why have we got to use the mmorpg forum to even get the Funcom devs to actually listen to players?. It makes no sense to me.

Please don't see this as a flame because it isn't. Funcom has lied through it's back teeth promising features and then when people have bought the game they then announce that these said features are not in the game.

Best of luck Dom , hope you have that tin-foil hat secured firmly!

Funcom need to start talking to their communitity honestly and not banning people that are just plain frustrated from being ignored and trying to help.Maybe electing some communitity reps from the player base to speak directly with Devs is the way to go.

Originally posted by Arthousesig

Oh my god, you volunteered

I am truly sorry then, I... well I wouldn't want to be you

Feel free to translate the previous post however, it is correct, just remember we're all cool with you

If Dom would clarify this point and that he DOES NOT WORK FOR FUNCOM in his first post, he would get a lot less flames.

Originally posted by Dominisi

Hello again. After getting charbroiled on my last post, for simply saying hello, I was asked to make a different post. Its apparent that a lot of people in the community don't think you need me around. However, I guess there are some perks, for all of us, in this job of mine. I was recently contacted by somebody working for Funcom who has offered me more or less direct contact with the development team, in order to gain some feedback from the community and to try and convey to you all what is happening and why it is happening the way it is.

Before you start flaming - think of this as a constructive way for the player base to get some of their issues heard, and actually get official responses back from the developers.

Thanks for reading.

/puts on E.O.D. suit.

 

I thought that was the purpose of their having a community manager, who we all know as Famine. If it didn't work through him, what makes you think it's really going to work through you?

Hell, they've had people in the same position as you that they title "Professionals" who supposedly do the same thing as you for their other mmo AO. It amounts to the same thing: info gets passed to you, you pass it to the devs, and they will systematically ignore it. And they will not give you any other info to give to us that doesn't already match their rosy-pink view of their game.
 

So, while you are entitled do do as you please and, I assume, have no ulterior motive other than trying to liason between the company and the fans here; do not expect your position to really be taken as anything more serious than a cheap novelty or another blowhole for their PR machine.

Just my opinion, your mileage may vary.

---

Originally posted by Zorvan

---

Originally posted by Dominisi

Hello again. After getting charbroiled on my last post, for simply saying hello, I was asked to make a different post. Its apparent that a lot of people in the community don't think you need me around. However, I guess there are some perks, for all of us, in this job of mine. I was recently contacted by somebody working for Funcom who has offered me more or less direct contact with the development team, in order to gain some feedback from the community and to try and convey to you all what is happening and why it is happening the way it is.
Before you start flaming - think of this as a constructive way for the player base to get some of their issues heard, and actually get official responses back from the developers.
Thanks for reading.
/puts on E.O.D. suit.
 

---

I thought that was the purpose of their having a community manager, who we all know as Famine. If it didn't work through him, what makes you think it's really going to work through you?
Hell, they've had people in the same position as you that they title "Professionals" who supposedly do the same thing as you for their other mmo AO. It amounts to the same thing: info gets passed to you, you pass it to the devs, and they will systematically ignore it. And they will not give you any other info to give to us that doesn't already match their rosy-pink view of their game.
 
So, while you are entitled do do as you please and, I assume, have no ulterior motive other than trying to liason between the company and the fans here; do not expect your position to really be taken as anything more serious than a cheap novelty or another blowhole for their PR machine.
Just my opinion, your mileage may vary.

---

Hey guys,

I just wanted to poke in here to help promote Dominisi new AoC Correspondent title for the site. Seeing the replies thus far, I can see there are doubts about the feedback being meaningless to us. I just wanted to say that it's not the case here. I know some will disagree or bring up examples of what has happen but in the end we can only focus on moving forward rather than moving backwards. So taking in the feedback at hand, moving forward, and of course increasing the feedback channels is always a good step to take when improving or enhancing communications.

I will do everything that I can to ensure Dominisi receives the information he needs as well ensure the feedback he sends gets somewhere. This includes  a more active role on posting as much as I do reading the forums here.

*salute*

Originally posted by FC-Famine

Hey guys,

I just wanted to poke in here to help promote Dominisi new AoC Correspondent title for the site. Seeing the replies thus far, I can see there are doubts about the feedback being meaningless to us. I just wanted to say that it's not the case here. I know some will disagree or bring up examples of what has happen but in the end we can only focus on moving forward rather than moving backwards. So taking in the feedback at hand, moving forward, and of course increasing the feedback channels is always a good step to take when improving or enhancing communications.

I will do everything that I can to ensure Dominisi receives the information he needs as well ensure the feedback he sends gets somewhere. This includes  a more active role on posting as much as I do reading the forums here.

*salute*

 

No, there's absolutely NO doubt about that.

But since you have decided to grace the forums here, perhaps you'd like to discuss the moderation habits of some of your staff, such as Lufkin, in an open forum where players discussing moderation of your forums  CANNOT be banned for it.? Since you admit you read the forums here, I'm sure you are more than aware of what I am talking about.