Originally posted by AmazingAvery

Originally posted by Elsabolts

Avery it may not be the end of the world but Funcom gonna say the world is flat. Or try to spin it that way and there spin is slowing down to a stop.

 

I think the figures speak for themselves. When you have companies like Merrill Lynch who are one of the world's leading wealth management, capital markets and advisory companies, and total client assets of approximately $1.6 trillion, buying Funcom Stock  up what does that tell you? I would also suggest reading the Oslo bors site to find more info about delisting and what it entails and the periods of time that can go buy before it occurs.

There is anything but slowing down right now, as far as the paying subscriber is concerned on the whole its full steam ahead. The interest is about the game itself, not the stocks or hearsay. Otherwise I would be sat around thinking whats the point as the world is going to end according to Nostradamus predictions in 2012 or Elsabolts thinks FC is going tits up.

Excuse me whilst I continue to pay for the game I enjoy with a decent population on the server of my choice with like minded people.

 

1 US$ = 5.73 Norwegian kroner, FC at 4.90 NOK = $28, When it gets to (1NOK if it ever does) then you will be looking at $6 a share.

It tells you they're taking a calculated risk on a stock that can't really go anywhere but up without totally bombing.

I'm surprised no fanbois are here claiming "It's all a big mistake. Funcom is vastly successful and will never need to merge servers!!"

Face facts, Avery. Craig will do what he can to stem the tide, but AoC is now the same as AO. A very niche game with a few thousand loyal to try and keep it afloat.

Well Amazing amazes me again.  It's a love/hate relationship but alas, this time he's right on and so is DeaconX.

Call us fanbois or whatever.

The fact of the matter is Age of Conan is a great game with a ton of potential.  Potential we will see to fruition, trust me on that.

The rest of you whiners can wail about "FailCom" 24/7, I don't really care. 

The fact of life is Age of Conan *WILL* find its way to release quality in a few months and if you're there with me to enjoy it, great.  If not, as I said before --

Sux 2BU.

I hope Craigh can save AoC and FunCom, I really do. As a lifetime ReH fan and as a person who followed the development of this game for 3.5 years I felt so betrayed when the you got past lvl 40 and discovered that not only were the world a tiny tiny place but it was also empty and pointless.

There were no adventure or heroics, there were no world to explore, there were nothing to try and gain and nothing had any point in the long run.

And the game was and is seriously broken. The basic game system were build over ideas that dont work in the long run. Like progression cannot be seen. Crafting does not do anything. Cities dont do anything except giving access to crafting . . . .that dont do anything. Armor defense might work from time to time but dont work in PvP but increased combat dps do . . . .  just broken.

So its good to see that Craigh goes straigth to the core problems in the game and try to fix them. Content, goals and game system. If he can turn it around then there might be a chance for us ReH fans to have a game to play again.

Originally posted by Soupgoblin

Bottom line: MMO developers pay attention; unloading a steaming pile on your customers, and then ignoring their suggestions and input is a sure fire way to lose your investment, just because past MMOs have been released buggy and incomplete, doesn't mean that the maturing gamers will except that type of crap now days. The genre has matured, and the players have matured, it is now time for MMO developers to mature as well.

 

Very well said! Sums up everything i wanted to say.

I dont plan on returning to AoC in the near future, but all this changes looks very good.

just like craig had to save AO he has to clean up the mess left by certain ppl at FC.. ;)

it will prolly hold a decent pop but it is never going to get 800k subs again, FC is trouble? mayb.. but just looking at the stocks (there is a serious financial crisis going on now.. dont xpect the stocks to go up anytime soon) aint enough.. only time will tell what happens to FC but after reading this game letter things SEEM to be going in the right direction

I've heard about 50 times now from funcom and fans that the game is 'finally turning in the right direction and listening to the players'. I heard it during beta, heard it the day before release, I heard it at release, I heard it after release with the 'weekly patch schedule', the so called pvp patch and state of the sieges and directx 10 and horrible official forum moderation and booting of Guate and once again with the new Game Director. Whoohoo its finally turning in the right direction now guys! really THIS is the one!

AoC stock is in the gutter, servers being merged, features printed on the box still not in and who is to say if they will ever be. All but the most arrogent and hardcore fans have moved onto other better games. AoC got stale after 2 weeks and after many months of release still doesn't offer anything of substance to come back to. Take this rotten horse off life support already and let it die.

Sorry there are too many better games out there and more coming yet this year.  Many of the AoC players were hesitant to buy War after the debacle with AoC.  With the minimal issues with War, people are now leaving in droves for War.  Why try to pvp in AoC, when War is designed for that and is a much better game?  Funcom has far too many things to correct to make it fun at end game.

Count on server merges first of the year.  It will be the only thing that Funcom can do.

Originally posted by AmazingAvery

1 US$ = 5.73 Norwegian kroner, FC at 4.90 NOK = $28, When it gets to (1NOK if it ever does) then you will be looking at $6 a share.

You've got it backwards. The Oslo Bors lists stocks in NOK. The stock is currently about eighty three cents a share. Since the company principals still own most of the stock the company is in no danger of a takeover. It does hurt their ability to borrow against future earnings.  It doesn't mean the company is broke or in any danger of going broke.

Originally posted by DeaconX

So many people are so completely unappreciative of the game they have in AoC it seriously disgusts me.  No it's not perfect, and although I HATE it when I see someone say 'go back to WoW' it seems to be all I can think of when I see so many lil babies whining so damn much and doomsaying left and right.  Working towards a great game and perfecting it, tweaking it, takes time and passion.  If you think FunCom is just out to screw you, than you've got your head so far up your own ass you must be too used to the smell of your own bs.

Game developers are in it for the passion.  It's not easy work, they aren't rock stars, the money is either just OK or great depending.  Either way, they're trying to find what works and obviously not trying to be a clone but something all on their own - which I think they've don't quite well with and can keep working on.

AoC deserves better than it's beging treated in my opinion... but people will always find something to bitch about and mob mentality rolls over like nothing else on the internet.  This is one of the best MMORPG's out right now by far - yet people would rather flock to the clones.  What's that say? Guess we players don't deserve attempts at progress and diversity in the MMORPG genre.  Bring on the clones...

 

BTW - Agree with Todeswulf.

QFT.  I usually do not get involved in these kind of discussions but I find the whole thread ridiculous.  Funcom has a guy who seems to have his head screwed on straight and is going to improve the game and everyone is still not happy. 

Age of Conan has alot of cool things going for it, like the combat system and graphics for one.  Sure it has problems, but there is nothing that is game breaking.   And those of you who think that they are game breaking.  Well you obviously have not been in the mmorpg scene very long. 

Ulitma Online had alot of bugs(to the point where some people tried to start a lawsuit) and Everquest had some major technical problems that made it unplayable at first.   Yet here we are, UO is considered an icon and Everquest became so popular for a long time that it was known as Evercrack.
 

I love it when I see everyone saying how Funcom screwed them, ruined their life, shot their dog, burnt their house, etc. etc.  AoC has been out barely over 4 months.  Give me a break.  It would be different if it was f'd up for over a year.

Again you people must have not been playing mmorpgs for very long.  Because lacking some features and content, plus having a few bugs is far from horrible.  Most of the professional reviewers seem to agree.  You really do not see a bad review anywhere here -

www.gamerankings.com/htmlpages2/927504.asp

 The fact is some players will never come back, some will and AoC will attract some new players in the future.  They will also get a boost when the new Conan movie comes out.  Will it ever be WoW like in population?  Of course not but they can still have a healthy population and be financially successful.

But I guess you can never make some people happy.  As awesome of a launch that WAR has had and as great of a game that it is, you still have people bitching about that too.  Of course lets not forget WoW itself.  The most successful game of all time and tons of people still bash it.

Yea, Honestly, I am hesitant about buying War.  My son bought it, i'm playing a character on his account until I know for sure.  So far what I can tell is that War is better than AoC in the fact that the combat model is far greater than AoC could have hoped for.  Sure AoC has a different combat model, but I don't think that's going to save AoC now.  I honestly don't know what FunCom can do.  And regardless if they fix AoC to release quality and bring out DX10, I don't think it matters now at this point.  I wouldn't even classify AO and AoC in the same area, because AO was not too well received by the general public, but I still like AO beause it truly did rock the MMORPG market at the time.  AoC, nothing was rocked.  Sure it had a good 700k launch, but if you design a game for longevity, AoC wasn't designed well.

Originally posted by Arthineas

 

I love it when I see everyone saying how Funcom screwed them, ruined their life, shot their dog, burnt their house, etc. etc.  AoC has been out barely over 4 months.  Give me a break.  It would be different if it was f'd up for over a year.

Frankly I've never understood the mentality and I hope I never do. It's fifty dollars a cautious gamer never would have spent in the first place. Complaining about it endlessly and sneering at people who enjoy the game or rooting forthe company to fail is incredibly petty. If you like the game play it, if not move on. Life is too short to spend being bitter about chump change.

Well, we could all look at it like that aside from the fact that Funcom promised a lot of things on launch and never delivered.  Sure, you could say most companies do this, but the point here Funcom ( I don't use FailCom) messed up bad.  All the 'Bois out there can revel in their game that has hardly no people in it.  Say what you want about AoC "I logged in and there was a whole lot of people".  After the PvP patch, i'm sure a few people came back but it wasn't staggering.  Funcom has a LONG time to go still in order to get a functioning product.  AO when launched was not exactly release quality.  Funcom's first attempt at a MMORPG.  Ok I can deal with the bugs.  But on AoC launch, Funcom focused on all of AO's faults and forgot about the others and I think this is where Funcom failed in this attempt. 

The way I personally see it is AoC is dead and again even if Craig fixes the problems it will still be dead.  Craig can't fix the human factor.  So this new Expansion for AoC they will release sometime next year will flop and any MMORPG they produce will flop.  This is how the ball rolls downhill.

Who is whining?  I bought a product that said it would have certain types of content.  Upon installation, said content wasn't there.

Mr. Morrison may indeed have an excellent track record.  Sadly, though, what AoC could have been from the start will now probably reach fruition a year from now.  I've already moved on to an excellent game that I enjoy tremendously.  At this point in time, it would take a miracle for Funcom to ever get any of my money for any of their products.

Originally posted by todeswulf

I love how folks that more than likely either still live off their parents Income or Work at the local Gamestop can say Too little to late game over  like it will have any relevance over the future of this game.  last time I checked AO still had a healthy popoulation, AoC will be fine. 

Too little, too late.

I don't live in my parent's basement nor do I work at Gamestop.

Funcom made some huge mistakes launching the game the way it was...

Yet, I also know that if I had to "watch" a game down the road, that AoC is the one, and not the backwards looking WAR, boring LOTRO, old in the tooth EQ2, or the very broken Vanguard.

The potential for fun exists more in a product where the engine is built to last, and a game that tries to shake up the norms of MMO's by trying something different with combat and story.

Funcom needs to expand content and itemization, but the game is not broken, as I can run it beautifully at 60FPS, with no crashes or graphical lag compared to several of the above mentioned games (every single one of them...LOTRO, EQ2, Vanguard, WAR all run like hell)

So, if you want a game that is built to last, then support AoC. If you want a game that still has old school mechanics and runs like crud...then by all means, support the other games.

Don't expect the genre to change one iota though by purchasing the old mechanics ...look forward and support games that try to advance the genre...

Originally posted by openedge1

Funcom made some huge mistakes launching the game the way it was...

Yet, I also know that if I had to "watch" a game down the road, that AoC is the one, and not the backwards looking WAR, boring LOTRO, old in the tooth EQ2, or the very broken Vanguard.

The potential for fun exists more in a product where the engine is built to last, and a game that tries to shake up the norms of MMO's by trying something different with combat and story.

Funcom needs to expand content and itemization, but the game is not broken, as I can run it beautifully at 60FPS, with no crashes or graphical lag compared to several of the above mentioned games (every single one of them...LOTRO, EQ2, Vanguard, WAR all run like hell)

So, if you want a game that is built to last, then support AoC. If you want a game that still has old school mechanics and runs like crud...then by all means, support the other games.

Don't expect the genre to change one iota though by purchasing the old mechanics ...look forward and support games that try to advance the genre...

99% agree.  1% being that LOTRO has played flawlessly for me ever since BETA in January.  It just always ran very smoothly for me - and despite it being fairly run of the mill, it has a great community esp. on Landroval.  Still, it wasn't nearly what I was hoping it would be - I would've done the franchise much more 'realistically' kind of like how Age of Conan feels and plays out rather than so ... 'Family Channel'.

All these things should have been in at release. I bought their shitty game and paid 1 month. They had their chance but blew it...

Luckily Darkfall is here and I won't ever have to buy play one of these instanced pve mmorpgs that promise "brutal" pvp - but in reality is just the same old rehashed pve mmorpg with instanced pvp minigames.

Originally posted by KhaelSan

All these things should have been in at release. I bought their shitty game and paid 1 month. They had their chance but blew it...

Luckily Darkfall is here and I won't ever have to buy play one of these instanced pve mmorpgs that promise "brutal" pvp - but in reality is just the same old rehashed pve mmorpg with instanced pvp minigames.

Oh jesus. Your in for a wake up call.

Originally posted by KhaelSan

s just the same old rehashed pve mmorpg with instanced pvp minigames.

Uh...what game did you play again? Must not have been Conan.

I think if you did, you picked the wrong server!