http://mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/post/2319032/thread/202285#2319032
 "Former Producer and Game Director Gaute Godager has chosen to resign from Funcom after working on Age of Conan since the initial conception, and he leaves the company after 16 years. Godager was one of the original founders of Funcom, and leaves a large legacy, having contributed to making Funcom the largest MMO company in Europe. “I have done my very best making this fabulous game, but I have concluded there are elements which I am dissatisfied with. I have decided to act on this, and as a result I have chosen to leave Funcom. It is time to get new, fresh eyes on Age of Conan, and I wholeheartedly support the appointment of Craig. I have had a fantastic time these last 16 years, and I am very proud of the many things Funcom has achieved. Funcom and Conan will always be a big part of me, but as I now look to new ventures outside the gaming industry I am certain Age of Conan’s future is in the best of hands.”
 

 Probably the best thing that could have happened for Age of Conan.  Now someone can step in and fix the game without having to deal with the original 'vision' (or lack there of).

Originally posted by kasta

 Probably the best thing that could have happened for Age of Conan.  Now someone can step in and fix the game without having to deal with the original 'vision' (or lack there of).

Yep, they removed the game director from Anarchy Online ( the one who actually made it work ) Craig Morrison.

Which means all the attention will be on AoC while some second-rate gets plopped in the AO chair.

Poor AO suckers...I mean customers.....better plan on that new graphic engine never happening now.

It's official

 Well, they probably looked at the Age of Conan subscriber base and the Anarchy Online subscriber base and decided that the AoC subscribers were actually paying money and they should probably try to keep them.

Oh ... My ... God ...

That's a bit of a bombshell! I'm guessing that things are not as rosy as Funcom are claiming and are dire enough to force the replacement of the top man.

Funny thing is, as a founder, Funcom couldn't really fire him. Wonder how bad the pressure was to make him resign. Wonder if investors perhaps had a say in his decision. I'm betting those stocks the fanbois kept saying didn't matter did indeed.

He hasn't just left Funcom, he's been run out of the entire industry.

Craig Morrison aka Silirrion, the dude who delivered a final killing blow to AO with his stupid ideas of PvP revamping?

Oh geez, AoC is dead... so dead now

No wonder the stock went up. :)

Originally posted by altair4

No wonder the stock went up. :)

Don't worry, it's temporary phenomenon, untill people who never played AO will realize what Craig Morrison is all about.

Originally posted by WisebutCruel

Funny thing is, as a founder, Funcom couldn't really fire him. Wonder how bad the pressure was to make him resign. Wonder if investors perhaps had a say in his decision. I'm betting those stocks the fanbois kept saying didn't matter did indeed.

He hasn't just left Funcom, he's been run out of the entire industry.

I was wondering about this myself. As a founder, he should be immune to this. Usually people have to leave after doing something wrong. As there weren't any news the last few days that I am aware of, , I'm guessing some bad news are coming...

Gaute in my view was actually a really good ambassador for Funcom ...this is a lose .

Also the vision for AOC was never the problem...it was really inspiring .The problem was the delivery of the vision .....they failed technically to achieve it.

Originally posted by mallor

Originally posted by altair4

No wonder the stock went up. :)

 

Don't worry, it's temporary phenomenon, untill people who never played AO will realize what Craig Morrison is all about.

Craig is the only reason AO is still alive. Even if he screwed pvp in your opinion, he added more content both paid and free then any other director, fixed more bugs both major and minor than any other director, listened to the community WAY more than any other director, implemented the fr00b program and the Phasefront paid points system, upgraded the servers to todays technology AND got the ball rolling with the new graphics engine ( which again will probably never happen now that he's gone to AoC ).

Originally posted by bcrankshaw

Gaute in my view was actually a really good ambassador for Funcom ...this is a lose .

Also the vision for AOC was never the problem...it was really inspiring .The problem was the delivery of the vision .....they failed technically to achieve it.

Lets' see.

Anarchy Online had a horrid launch and almost died out the gate. Director: Gaute Godager.

Age of Conan had a horrid launch the minute players saw past level 20 and is now on the brink of death. Director: Gaute Godager.

Who was in charge of delivering this "vision" you speak of? Gaute Godager.

Yeah, REAL good ambassador for Funcom.

A good decision that  hopefully gets AOC back on track. Sometimes a shake up like this is needed to get a fresh perspective and focus.

Great news for all the current players! I hope you guys get your game fixed now. Surprising news? Meh, not really it was coming sooner or later. I guarantee you it was an investor meeting that made Gaute throw in the towel. Sometimes it is best to just let go, he finally learned this.

As someone said, for a founder to leave the company he created and game something must have been happening behind the curtains. IMO, I've never gotten the impression Mr.Godager has wished to leave.

But hey, maybe this is Funcom listening to its customers? I do know one thing fans have been often saying is how Craig Morrison saved AO after replacing Gaute. So, call me a conspiracy theorist nut, but I do believe atm that the investors and maybe other Funcom people are the ones responsible for Gaute leaving.

Originally posted by WisebutCruel

Originally posted by mallor

Originally posted by altair4

No wonder the stock went up. :)

 

Don't worry, it's temporary phenomenon, untill people who never played AO will realize what Craig Morrison is all about.

 

Craig is the only reason AO is still alive.

I wouldn't call it alive. I took the free month offer to check the things out. I ran through the most popular zones and cities, the server(RK1) is a ghost town. The new content he added was too little too late, people spent 2-3 days to finish the new content and it only caused already tiny player bease to be spead out even more. As a result it became totally impossible to find a group. Also his stubborness and inability to balance the new idiotic LE OS system, which totally ruined NW PvP, has caused mass exodus of players from AO.

Not to mention I still fail to realize what he spent 2 years on working on expansion that included a whole new zone and a set of whooping T3 wanna be armors, some kind of battleground wannabe and some more perks.

Originally posted by WisebutCruel

Craig is the only reason AO is still alive. Even if he screwed pvp in your opinion, he added more content both paid and free then any other director, fixed more bugs both major and minor than any other director, listened to the community WAY more than any other director, implemented the fr00b program and the Phasefront paid points system, upgraded the servers to todays technology AND got the ball rolling with the new graphics engine ( which again will probably never happen now that he's gone to AoC ).

Agreed, Sil has been a great boon to AO and it will suffer with him gone, and the PvP changes since he's become director haven't been that bad, and are far outshined by all the good he's done for AO... more anti-FunCom rhetoric and propaganda TBH. IMO this is a great thing for AoC, and a very bad thing for AO, although if his team can keep things rolling then it might not be so bad. Hopefully Colin Cragg will do well for AO.

Originally posted by WisebutCruel

Originally posted by bcrankshaw

Gaute in my view was actually a really good ambassador for Funcom ...this is a lose .

Also the vision for AOC was never the problem...it was really inspiring .The problem was the delivery of the vision .....they failed technically to achieve it.

 

Lets' see.

Anarchy Online had a horrid launch and almost died out the gate. Director: Gaute Godager.

Age of Conan had a horrid launch the minute players saw past level 20 and is now on the brink of death. Director: Gaute Godager.

Who was in charge of delivering this "vision" you speak of? Gaute Godager.

Yeah, REAL good ambassador for Funcom.

I've never played AO so I cant comment

However you don't seem to understand the difference between a vision and the delivery of that vision.

AOC had a vision to revolutionize the MMO community with features like epic Siege battles ,unique PVP and an immersive game set in Conan universe. The vision required the technical ability to deliver that from the developers.Gaute is not a developer . Funcom failed in that respect ...he is responsible to a certain degree but can you blame him for the programming ineptitude of the Devs...maybe you can ?I don't think it's fair ?The problems with AOC cannot be fixed by him...they are fundamental and serious Dev issues and the way the game is coded ...egg instances ...and there is no quick fix