Originally posted by ZeGerman1942

Originally posted by Imjin

I find everything he says strange. From how they are run by standup people because they pull out a corporate credit card and buy drinks to the daily delusional responses.

One would think "groupie" might be a good description

 

Oh come on - everyone would do the same. If you are a fan of a game initially (before it is out) and the company flies you across the Atlantic, gives you a good show, feeds you and gives you booze and then introduces you to some devs and shows you some choice bits of a game - you would not be influenced either?

I am sure there is a fare amount of WAR fans on here - you would not be pro Mythic if they invited you for a weekend of some fun and games?

 

Thank goodness everyone wouldnt. Some people have a sense of self respect and wont be bought off so cheaply. It might gain them a small "get out of jail free card" but it would be very small. Ive been around  alittle to long and seen too many dog and pony shows to be swayed so easily

Originally posted by Arthousesig

The thing with fanboys is that you have to treat them with kiddie-gloves, they recieve a combination of stockholm syndrome, battered wife syndrome and some other syndrome that ends up with them justifying everything about a total failure of a game like AOC and a rubbish amateur company like Funcom

Basically, Ellingson could come to Avery's house, trash it, beat him up, screw his girlfriend and steal all his stuff - and he would still say something like "give Ellingson some time, he's just going through a bad patch right now but things will get better"

Bingo

Originally posted by Sceptrum

Now, this is from a discussion regarding an article on Age of Conan in a Norwegian newspaper:
http://www.dagbladet.no/kultur/2008/08/18/543982.html

This is my own translated version. From the way it's written it seems like an ex-Funcom employee, but you can never be sure, so I won't be upset if you think it is false.

--------------------------------------

I wrote about it before the game was released...and I'll write it again.

Conan became a failure because of management and primarily because of Gaute Godager who made big changes to the game in 2006/2007.

If he hadn't done those changes, the game would have been released in October 2007 and had a standard that would have surpassed WoW, just with better graphics. We had everything ready and we even had some beta testers praising the game. Everything that remained was to fix bugs.

But no..."wannabe-King" (cant come up with a better word atm and its 3am local time) Gaute had to follow his vision and throw alot of work away, at the same time as team leaders/middle managers were promoted. Middle managers that didn't have a clue on how to lead others, at the same time as they hadn't enough time to do work themselves, besides going to meetings and checking bugzilla to see everyone was working at least 10-12 hours.

Shame as many of the middle managers did a really good job "on the floor", so Funcom/Gaute lost their expertise too.

I left Funcom last Fall...I couldn't take it anymore. The work environment was very bad, everyone complained and felt trampled on by managment, at the same time as everyone had to work overtime without compensation other than a bad meal of pizza or spice (assume spiced take-away food).

I now work in another design company with proper work conditions and I'm enjoying it.

If anyone has to leave Funcom it has to be Gaute and some of the middle managers.

-------

Original comment is in the provided link in the Comments section. Posted by someone called Ex-Dev.
I'll just reiterate, it seems legit, but could very well be false. Im personally inclined to believe it, due to how it correlates with what little I know of Funcom.

I have consistently stated and will state again that AoC was a failure due to mismanagement.  They had had the right idea and then completely scrapped the combat system for the psuedo real time combat that the game was released with.  Every launch promise was broken and things through beta went from ok to bad to worse to craptastic launch.  Not the mechanics and tech of the launch, that went off well, but the game was trash and far from ready.

---

Originally posted by Imjin

---

Originally posted by Arthousesig

The thing with fanboys is that you have to treat them with kiddie-gloves, they recieve a combination of stockholm syndrome, battered wife syndrome and some other syndrome that ends up with them justifying everything about a total failure of a game like AOC and a rubbish amateur company like Funcom
Basically, Ellingson could come to Avery's house, trash it, beat him up, screw his girlfriend and steal all his stuff - and he would still say something like "give Ellingson some time, he's just going through a bad patch right now but things will get better"

---

 
Bingo

---

Originally posted by ZeGerman1942

i have actually just re-opened my VG account. The game is very solid, but that has never really been the problem in my opinion.

 

the game world is still too large and empty. respawn times (particular in lower areas) are insane and out of proportion and you are forced to group from day 2 really if you want to progress - the problem is thought that the population level is very low (even with only 4 EU servers - 1 of them being PvP).

 

I don't think i'll be subscribing beyond the month i just paid for again.

And a year later, even with very high end PC gear, it still looks a bit shit :(

Having said that i do think crafting and diplomacy is very good and innovative. If it was free to play i might keep subscribed for a few hours here and there simply for the diplomacy and crafting bit.

i totally agree, the game has low population, and gfx sucks, chars looks really stupid. That makes me hard to play the game, feels like 1995 =) BUT there are tons of stuff to do in this game if you compare to AoC =)

Seems like more ex-funcom devs are speaking out in that comments section.

"

RE: ååååh

Skrevet av Fra en annen ex-dev 19.08.2008 kl. 15:18

Jeg skulle ønske verden var så enkel som dette..

Ja, man skal rose de som tør tenke nytt, men Funcom er og blir en useriøs bedrift, mye på grunn av deres personalpolitikk. Jeg har selv jobbet minst 600 overtidstimer i året der uten å få noe spesielt tilbake for det, bortsett fra overtidsmat da selvfølgelig. (Arbeidsmiljøloven tillater 200 overtidstimer i året og da skal man ha minst 40% ekstra betalt for hver time.) De presser for overtid, men samtidig sier de at all overtid er frivillig og at det er så morsomt å jobbe med dataspill, så derfor trenger man ikke få betalt for det. De utnytter den unge arbeidskraften de har for det den er verdt, for unge mennesker er ofte ikke så opplyste når det kommer til rettigheter, det tar ofte tid å lære seg lover og regler, og man vil jo gjerne tro på ledelsen når de sier noe.

Selv om Gaute har en del av skylden så synes jeg det blir feil å gi han all skyld. Gaute ble presset fra veldig mange kanter og det er ikke alltid like lett å tenke klart og være konsistent til enhver tid under slikt press. Når det kommer til personalpolitikken så må personalsjefen ta på seg størsteparten av ansvaret og CEO'en i Funcom må også ta på seg ansvar når han vet hva slags politikk personalsjefen bedriver, men lar det slippe mellom fingrene. Når det kommer til antall bugs og tekniske mangler så er det Technical Director som bør ta på seg en del skyld.

Et annet stort problem som de fleste AoC spillere er smertelig klar over er all løgnen de serverer. Dere kan jo selv lese her hva mange spillere tenker om dette: http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm?GAME=191&PLAY=1248&BHCP=1&VIEW=videos&bhcp=1

De har mange problemer som bør og må rettes opp i. Skal man opp i gradene på Funcom så går det nesten utelukkende på trynefaktor og prøver man å ta opp problemer med ledelsen så er man heldig om man i det hele tatt får et svar tilbake. F.eks ble en god kollega av meg presset ut av bedriften etter at han kom med konstruktiv kritikk til sjefen sin. (Det var forresten ikke Gaute som var sjefen hans.) Et stort problem er også det at Funcom er veldig dårlig til å holde på og øke kompetansen, de gjør veldig lite for å holde på talenter. I mange tilfeller vet de ikke engang at talentene er talenter, for de har ikke ledere som har god nok faglig kompetanse til å se det.

Regjeringen må nok også ta på seg en del ansvaret, for det er ikke bare bare å drive et spillfirma i Norge på en lønnsom måte, så jeg har litt forståelse for at ledelsen i Funcom oppererer på gråsonen så ofte de kan, det er bare så synd at det går utover så mange enkeltindivider..

Uansett så håper jeg Funcom kan klare å rette opp i disse tingene og det er ikke slik at Conan nå er dømt til å floppe helt. De tjener fortsatt en del penger og klarer de å holde på minst 200 000 spillere over en lengre periode så vil det gå dem veldig bra økonomisk sett. Jeg håper iallefall Funcom tjener nok penger til å gi de ansatte den fete bonusen CEO'en muntlig lovte dem om Funcom skulle tjene nok penger, for det har de fleste av de ansatte der virkelig fortjent etter å ha investert sjela si i dette spillet."

Even more ex Funcom devs, this one is surprised the media in Norway hasnt gone after Funcom since they are breaking several work related laws in Norway.

"

RE: Fra en ex-dev

Skrevet av ex FC ansatt 19.08.2008 kl. 08:06

Kunne ikke vært mer enig, personlig slutta jeg på starten av nyåret (2008) fordi jeg var regelrett forbanna på hvordan alt ble gjort.

Veldig fornøyd med ny jobb som faktisk holder seg til arbeidsmiljøloven.

Synes det er trist at arbeidstilsynet og media ikke har bomba FunCom sønder og sammen pga. forholdene der som absolutt ikke holder mål (er mange andre IT-bedrifter som har ulevelige forhold også, men FC tok kaka for min del)."

---

Originally posted by MoLoK_
Seems like more ex-funcom devs are speaking out in that comments section.
"
RE: ååååh
Skrevet av Fra en annen ex-dev 19.08.2008 kl. 15:18

Jeg skulle ønske verden var så enkel som dette..
Ja, man skal rose de som tør tenke nytt, men Funcom er og blir en useriøs bedrift, mye på grunn av deres personalpolitikk. Jeg har selv jobbet minst 600 overtidstimer i året der uten å få noe spesielt tilbake for det, bortsett fra overtidsmat da selvfølgelig. (Arbeidsmiljøloven tillater 200 overtidstimer i året og da skal man ha minst 40% ekstra betalt for hver time.) De presser for overtid, men samtidig sier de at all overtid er frivillig og at det er så morsomt å jobbe med dataspill, så derfor trenger man ikke få betalt for det. De utnytter den unge arbeidskraften de har for det den er verdt, for unge mennesker er ofte ikke så opplyste når det kommer til rettigheter, det tar ofte tid å lære seg lover og regler, og man vil jo gjerne tro på ledelsen når de sier noe.
Selv om Gaute har en del av skylden så synes jeg det blir feil å gi han all skyld. Gaute ble presset fra veldig mange kanter og det er ikke alltid like lett å tenke klart og være konsistent til enhver tid under slikt press. Når det kommer til personalpolitikken så må personalsjefen ta på seg størsteparten av ansvaret og CEO'en i Funcom må også ta på seg ansvar når han vet hva slags politikk personalsjefen bedriver, men lar det slippe mellom fingrene. Når det kommer til antall bugs og tekniske mangler så er det Technical Director som bør ta på seg en del skyld.
Et annet stort problem som de fleste AoC spillere er smertelig klar over er all løgnen de serverer. Dere kan jo selv lese her hva mange spillere tenker om dette: http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm?GAME=191&PLAY=1248&BHCP=1&VIEW=videos&bhcp=1
De har mange problemer som bør og må rettes opp i. Skal man opp i gradene på Funcom så går det nesten utelukkende på trynefaktor og prøver man å ta opp problemer med ledelsen så er man heldig om man i det hele tatt får et svar tilbake. F.eks ble en god kollega av meg presset ut av bedriften etter at han kom med konstruktiv kritikk til sjefen sin. (Det var forresten ikke Gaute som var sjefen hans.) Et stort problem er også det at Funcom er veldig dårlig til å holde på og øke kompetansen, de gjør veldig lite for å holde på talenter. I mange tilfeller vet de ikke engang at talentene er talenter, for de har ikke ledere som har god nok faglig kompetanse til å se det.
Regjeringen må nok også ta på seg en del ansvaret, for det er ikke bare bare å drive et spillfirma i Norge på en lønnsom måte, så jeg har litt forståelse for at ledelsen i Funcom oppererer på gråsonen så ofte de kan, det er bare så synd at det går utover så mange enkeltindivider..
Uansett så håper jeg Funcom kan klare å rette opp i disse tingene og det er ikke slik at Conan nå er dømt til å floppe helt. De tjener fortsatt en del penger og klarer de å holde på minst 200 000 spillere over en lengre periode så vil det gå dem veldig bra økonomisk sett. Jeg håper iallefall Funcom tjener nok penger til å gi de ansatte den fete bonusen CEO'en muntlig lovte dem om Funcom skulle tjene nok penger, for det har de fleste av de ansatte der virkelig fortjent etter å ha investert sjela si i dette spillet."

---

I do believe that is in the wrong language.

The "original" ex dev comments more:

"

RE: Kan ikke Dagbladet ta et intervju med denne Ex Dev som skriver her?

Skrevet av Ex Dev 19.08.2008 kl. 16:41

Hei

Takk for interessen, men jeg tror ikke det er mulig.

For det første vil Funcom nesten garantert anmelde meg for injurier om jeg står frem med fullt navn.. Og for det andre så ønsker jeg ikke å se Funcom gå nedenom å hjem.. Kun deler av management der."

And here he answers on why some talked about features are missing:

"RE: Conan: the failure

Skrevet av Ex Dev 18.08.2008 kl. 23:07

Drunken brawling (barslagsmål) er implementert og funker.. men ikke aktivert. Det samme er muligheten for å rave rundt full.. Vi implementerte til og med et bordell.. Og det å slå ned kameler var en selvfølge (og meget mulig)..

De fleste kule tingene er deaktivert av ulike grunner, og da hovedsakelig fordi en eller annen syntes det ble for vulgært eller fordi det ikke passa inn - og det selv om det ble implementert nøyaktig etter design som orginalt var godkjent av sjefen sjøl.

Som jeg skrev i mitt hovedinnlegg her så er det så mye som er implementert men forkasta pga Gautes visjoner som han endra på ofte."

---

Basically the presumed ex-dev says that brothels and drunken brawling are working features, even camel punching. These features where deactivated for several reasons. The main reason was that they where considered to be "too vulgar" or "didnt fit in the game". He also says many things are implemented but not activated because it didnt fit in with Gautes "vision".

Originally posted by Midnitte

 

---

Originally posted by MoLoK_
Original norwegian text

---

 

I do believe that is in the wrong language.

Well, I just picked the "ex dev" comments. No go and translate it yourself :)

Please could a linguist translate to English ..my Norwegian is a little rusty :)

---

Originally posted by bcrankshaw
Please could a linguist translate to English ..my Norwegian is a little rusty :)

---

TRANSLATION

Directed by From another ex-dev at 19.08.2008. 15:18 I wish the world was as
simple as this .. Yes, we should commend those who dare to think again, but
Funcom is still a junk business, partly due to their personnel policy. I have
even worked at least 600 overtidstimer a year in which without receiving
anything in particular back to it, but overtidsmat then of course. (The Working
allow 200 overtidstimer a year and then, one must have at least 40% charge more
for each hour.) The pressures for overtime, but at the same time they say that
all overtime is voluntary and that it's so fun to work with computer games, so
why do you not get paid for it. They take full advantage of the youth labour
they have for what it's worth, for young people people are often not so
enlightened when it comes to the rights, it often takes time to learn the laws
and rules, and you will feel free to the faith in the management when they say
something.

While Jason is a part of the blame as I think it is wrong to give his all to
blame. Gaute was pressure from many sides and it is not always easy to think
clearly and be consistent from time to time under such pressure. When it comes
to the personnel policy, you need personalsjefen take on most of the
responsibilities and CEO'en in Funcom must also take on responsibility when he
knows what kind of policies personalsjefen companies, but let it drop between
your fingers. When it comes to the number of bugs and technical deficiencies
it's Technical Director who should take on a part to blame.

Another major problem that most AoC players are smertelig is aware of all the
lies they serve. You can even read here what many players think about this:
http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm?GAME\u003d191\u0026amp;PLAY\u003d1248\u0026am
p;BHCP\u003d1\u0026amp;VIEW\u003dvideos\u0026amp;bhcp\u003d1

 They have many problems that should and needs to be corrected in. Should be up
in the ranks of Funcom so it goes almost exclusively on trynefaktor and
challenges are to address the problems with the management as a big issue is
lucky if one at all receive a reply back. For example was a good colleague of
pushed me out of business after he came up with constructive criticism to his
boss. (It was not Jason who was his boss.) A major problem is also that Funcom
is very ill-suited to hold on and increase the expertise, they do very little to
retain talent. In many cases, they do not even know that the talents are
talents, for they do not have leaders who have good enough professional
expertise to see it.

 The government should probably also take on some responsibility, for it is not
only just to drive a spillfirma in Norway in a profitable manner, so I have some
understanding of the management of Funcom oppererer the grey zone as often as
they can, it's just so unfortunate that it goes beyond so many individuals ..

In any case, so I hope Funcom will be able to fix up these things and it is not
so Conan has been sentenced to flop all the way. They still earn some money and
they are able to keep at least 200 000 players over a longer period of time and
the the move them very good economic sense. I hope iallefall Funcom earn enough
money to give the employees the fat bonus CEO'en orally promised them of Funcom
would earn enough money, because it has most of the employees there really
deserved after investing soul is, in this game '.

Originally posted by MoLoK_

The "original" ex dev comments more:

"

RE: Kan ikke Dagbladet ta et intervju med denne Ex Dev som skriver her?

Skrevet av Ex Dev 19.08.2008 kl. 16:41

Hei

Takk for interessen, men jeg tror ikke det er mulig.

For det første vil Funcom nesten garantert anmelde meg for injurier om jeg står frem med fullt navn.. Og for det andre så ønsker jeg ikke å se Funcom gå nedenom å hjem.. Kun deler av management der."

 

And here he answers on why some talked about features are missing:

"RE: Conan: the failure

Skrevet av Ex Dev 18.08.2008 kl. 23:07

Drunken brawling (barslagsmål) er implementert og funker.. men ikke aktivert. Det samme er muligheten for å rave rundt full.. Vi implementerte til og med et bordell.. Og det å slå ned kameler var en selvfølge (og meget mulig)..

De fleste kule tingene er deaktivert av ulike grunner, og da hovedsakelig fordi en eller annen syntes det ble for vulgært eller fordi det ikke passa inn - og det selv om det ble implementert nøyaktig etter design som orginalt var godkjent av sjefen sjøl.

Som jeg skrev i mitt hovedinnlegg her så er det så mye som er implementert men forkasta pga Gautes visjoner som han endra på ofte."

---

Basically the presumed ex-dev says that brothels and drunken brawling are working features, even camel punching. These features where deactivated for several reasons. The main reason was that they where considered to be "too vulgar" or "didnt fit in the game". He also says many things are implemented but not activated because it didnt fit in with Gautes "vision".

I'll translate it to the best of my ability, im danish but norwegian is kinda the similiar language.

"Hi , thank you for the interest , but i dont think it will be  possible.

First of all funcom will press charges against me for breaking employment contracts if i go out in public with full name, and secondly i dont want to see funcom destroyed, only part of the management there.

Drunken brawling ( bar fights ) is implemented and is working, but not activated, the same is the option to strive around in the streets drunk, we even implemented a whore house , and also beat down on camels ( <- so i think anyhow ) , 

The cool parts of the game is deactivated for unknown reasons, or primarily because someone thought it became to vulgar or because it didnt fit in, and even though it was to be implemented precisely after design as originally was approved by the boss.

As i wrote in my main post, there is so much implemented but thrown away because of Gautes visions that he changes quite often.

Thx for translation  efforts :)

Originally posted by rav3n2

This may come as a shock to you but... You won their contest to visit their offices do you really think they were gonna show you unhappy personal?  Seriously think for a second, ofc everyone looked happy, I wouldnt expect anything less, I can assure you everyone was instructed to act like they were working in heaven.

Its like when you going to a restaurant as a food critic, your food is always gonna be extra carefully cooked and triple checked.

Actually might come as a shock for you, but some of us took a deviated tour on Sunday, turned up unannouced, even met the CEO coming out of the meeting with Eidos to delay the game (but didnt know at the time). I met many people who didn't know who I was or the people with me, whom all were professional. This was totally outside scheduled time.

Of course they want the food critic to be pleased, but I think I got a good glimpse outside the box too.

Of course I was posting the same things over a year before the visit as I was after :)

AOC didn't fail.

Next?

Originally posted by MoLoK_

Seems like more ex-funcom devs are speaking out in that comments section.

"

RE: ååååh

Skrevet av Fra en annen ex-dev 19.08.2008 kl. 15:18

Jeg skulle ønske verden var så enkel som dette..

Ja, man skal rose de som tør tenke nytt, men Funcom er og blir en useriøs bedrift, mye på grunn av deres personalpolitikk. Jeg har selv jobbet minst 600 overtidstimer i året der uten å få noe spesielt tilbake for det, bortsett fra overtidsmat da selvfølgelig. (Arbeidsmiljøloven tillater 200 overtidstimer i året og da skal man ha minst 40% ekstra betalt for hver time.) De presser for overtid, men samtidig sier de at all overtid er frivillig og at det er så morsomt å jobbe med dataspill, så derfor trenger man ikke få betalt for det. De utnytter den unge arbeidskraften de har for det den er verdt, for unge mennesker er ofte ikke så opplyste når det kommer til rettigheter, det tar ofte tid å lære seg lover og regler, og man vil jo gjerne tro på ledelsen når de sier noe.

Selv om Gaute har en del av skylden så synes jeg det blir feil å gi han all skyld. Gaute ble presset fra veldig mange kanter og det er ikke alltid like lett å tenke klart og være konsistent til enhver tid under slikt press. Når det kommer til personalpolitikken så må personalsjefen ta på seg størsteparten av ansvaret og CEO'en i Funcom må også ta på seg ansvar når han vet hva slags politikk personalsjefen bedriver, men lar det slippe mellom fingrene. Når det kommer til antall bugs og tekniske mangler så er det Technical Director som bør ta på seg en del skyld.

Et annet stort problem som de fleste AoC spillere er smertelig klar over er all løgnen de serverer. Dere kan jo selv lese her hva mange spillere tenker om dette: http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm?GAME=191&PLAY=1248&BHCP=1&VIEW=videos&bhcp=1

De har mange problemer som bør og må rettes opp i. Skal man opp i gradene på Funcom så går det nesten utelukkende på trynefaktor og prøver man å ta opp problemer med ledelsen så er man heldig om man i det hele tatt får et svar tilbake. F.eks ble en god kollega av meg presset ut av bedriften etter at han kom med konstruktiv kritikk til sjefen sin. (Det var forresten ikke Gaute som var sjefen hans.) Et stort problem er også det at Funcom er veldig dårlig til å holde på og øke kompetansen, de gjør veldig lite for å holde på talenter. I mange tilfeller vet de ikke engang at talentene er talenter, for de har ikke ledere som har god nok faglig kompetanse til å se det.

Regjeringen må nok også ta på seg en del ansvaret, for det er ikke bare bare å drive et spillfirma i Norge på en lønnsom måte, så jeg har litt forståelse for at ledelsen i Funcom oppererer på gråsonen så ofte de kan, det er bare så synd at det går utover så mange enkeltindivider..

Uansett så håper jeg Funcom kan klare å rette opp i disse tingene og det er ikke slik at Conan nå er dømt til å floppe helt. De tjener fortsatt en del penger og klarer de å holde på minst 200 000 spillere over en lengre periode så vil det gå dem veldig bra økonomisk sett. Jeg håper iallefall Funcom tjener nok penger til å gi de ansatte den fete bonusen CEO'en muntlig lovte dem om Funcom skulle tjene nok penger, for det har de fleste av de ansatte der virkelig fortjent etter å ha investert sjela si i dette spillet."

My translation:

I wish the world was as easy as this...

Yes, one should praise those who dares think new, but Funcom is and will remain an "unserious" company, much due to their personnell policy. I have myself worked at least 600 overtime hours a year there without getting much back from it, apart from overtime food of course. ( [Norwegian] Labor laws allows for 200 overtimehours a year og with at least 40% extra paid per hour). They pressure you to work overtime, but at the same time saying all overtime is voluntarily and that it is fun to work with games, so that's why you don't need to get paid for it. They exploit the young workforce they have for what it is worth, becayse young people are often not so enlightened/knowledgeable when it comes to labor rights, it often takes time to learn laws and rules and you often want to believe the management when they say something.

Even though Gaute is to blame, it is wrong to give him all fault. Gaute was pressured from several sides and it is not always so easy to have a clear mind and be consistent at all times under such pressure. When it comes to the personell policy then the HR manager (I reckon) has to take most of the blame and the CEO in Funcom also has to own up to his responsibility when he knows what kind of policy the HR Manager is working from, but lets it "slip through the cracks". When it comes to number of bugs and technical faults/errors then it's the Technical Director that is to blame.

Another huge problem that most of the AoC players are painfully aware of is all the lies they serve. You can yourself read what many players' thoughts are regarding this:
 http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm?GAME=191&PLAY=1248&BHCP=1&VIEW=videos&bhcp=1

They have many problems that needs to get straightened out. If you are to raise in the ranks at Funcom then it's almost exclusively through "face factor" and if you try to take up issues/problems with the management then you are lucky if you even get a reply. For example a good colleague of mine pressured out of the company after he came with constructive criticism to his boss (Gaute was not his boss btw). A large problem is also that Funcom are very bad at keeping and increasing their expertise, they do almost nothing to keep talents. In many cases they don't even know that their talents have talents, because they don't have managers with good enough industry expertise to see it.

The government should also take on part of the responsibilty, because it's not easy running a gaming company in Norway in a profitable manner, so I have a little bit of understanding in that the Funcom management is operating in the "legal borderlands/greyzone" as often as they can, it's just a shame it has consequences for so many individuals.

Whatever happens, then I hope Funcom can fix these issues and it's not like Conan is doomed to be a complete failure. They still earn a bit of money and if they manage to keep at least 200 000 players over a longer period of time then they will be financially well. I hope at least that Funcom earn enough money to give their employees the fat bonus the CEO orally promised them if Funcom made enough money, because most of the employees have really deserved it after putting their soul into this game.

----------

My take. Seems a bit legit, but not so sure after reading a few comments here so make up your own mind.

---

Originally posted by Mrbloodworth
AOC didn't fail.
 
Next?

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Originally posted by Mrbloodworth

AOC didn't fail.

 

Next?

it failed to me, and that is all that matters in my eyes.

If you look at the subs, it has failed alot of other people also. Pretty much any serious pvper, anyone that is a hardcore gamer, or people serious about RP,  people serious about a mature game, people who wanted a deep and intelligent character development system ( ala AO ).  People who wanted something more than a tank and spank game.

Yes, AoC did fail alot.