Originally posted by orzo

Originally posted by Dreamagram

WAR is out. WoW expansion coming in 6 weeks. AoC has a new man at the helm. He has given an update on what they're working on.

I see comments along the lines of both "this will turn it around" and "too little, too late". So I wanted to throw up a little poll to see whether people's thoughts and hopes are the same or differ a lot.

The question: is it too late for AoC to become a healthy game? Let us know both what you think (will they go down or manage well?) and what you hope for.

 

So about 65% of those here think its too late for AoC, weather thrilled or sad, they all say the same thing ... its TOO LATE!

You see that's the thing, OP tricked the trolls out of the poll by that I hope and think option. Of the rest of the normal gamers only 43% think it is too late. 57% think it is not too late. Numbers are still kind of shitty but not as bad as you suggest.

If they hurry up and deliver the game they promised folks, with all the features and minus the bugs, then yes, they have a chance to recapture some market share, but they have to hurry.

There is definitely hope for the game. They just need to keep fixing things like they are and they will be fine.

Originally posted by SaintViktor

There is definitely hope for the game.

There is much more than hope for this game. Now with the latest test server patch notes (currently v 3.21) we are even getting an improvement of the best pvp system ever (Lineage 2 PvP system) with criminal shady camps, guards attacking murderers on sight, quest lines for murderers, etc... etc...  awesome.

Originally posted by BigMango

Originally posted by SaintViktor

There is definitely hope for the game.

 

There is much more than hope for this game. Now with the latest test server patch notes (currently v 3.21) we are even getting an improvement of the best pvp system ever (Lineage 2 PvP system) with criminal shady camps, guards attacking murderers on sight, quest lines for murderers, etc... etc...  awesome.

This was a surprise to me. I had no idea of that this system was planned for the game. I knew murder/consequence  was on the way but I did not know that they would take it as fare as making murder quests and that guards will attack murderers etc. Sounds very promising.

I don't know if it will fail.  Even if it sucks now, they have a history of releasing suckfest games that have huge longevity and eventually turn it around.  (see Anarchy Online). 

Originally posted by anubis93

I don't know if it will fail.  Even if it sucks now, they have a history of releasing suckfest games that have huge longevity and eventually turn it around.  (see Anarchy Online). 

1) huge longevity , yes as a modestly populated niche title.

2) eventually turn it around,  yes to become a modestly populated niche title.

This is the second time they launched a broken MMO, burned the customers, the majority of which never returned. Very sad in Anarchy Online case. It became an almost unknown, very under rated and often over looked game. The bad rep it gained from it's catastrophic launch will last longer than the game itself, same goes for AoC.

Not to mention AO is 100X the game AoC is.

since i bought it, i hope it gets back on its feet one day....but at this rate....i don't think it can

I think that it is a crying shame that a game ends up in this way, what a wasted opportunity for all involved including the devs, producers and the players.

If VG can come back than AoC can surely come back, however it will never reach the hights that it could have done.

Even worse for Funcom, they have tarnished their name in this market  where people dont quick forget (SOE and SWG springs to mind) and a lot of people where exposed to their failings.

AoC will recover (this time next year for example)but will never be a great game, something it had the potetenial to be. It will be a niche game for a few that really like the lore involved.

Originally posted by eq2js

If they fix the bugs, it will easily be the best MMO on the market.

In fact, it already is imo, its better than WAR even with the bugs, and all the other MMOs are just more of the same WoW crap

The bugs other than the exploits and dupes they took so long to fix were never the issue for me, it was simply fast leveling combined with nothing worthwhile to do at max level meant the game became dull very quickly.

Originally posted by VultureSkull

I think that it is a crying shame that a game ends up in this way, what a wasted opportunity for all involved including the devs, producers and the players.

If VG can come back than AoC can surely come back, however it will never reach the hights that it could have done.

Even worse for Funcom, they have tarnished their name in this market  where people dont quick forget (SOE and SWG springs to mind) and a lot of people where exposed to their failings.

 

AoC will recover (this time next year for example)but will never be a great game, something it had the potetenial to be. It will be a niche game for a few that really like the lore involved.

Yes I am sure Asian Launch, Russian/EEurope Launch, Xbox360 launch, Lionsgate Conan movie wount hype the game to same levels as at US launch...Come on man, stop thinking yesterday. I see you on this forum 2 months from now talking about what an excellent game this is and how god damn successfull it is. It's not black and white;)

Originally posted by Toolfan

No it's not too late. There's plenty of people playing the game, unfortunetly they are spread over too many servers. People want to write this game off already and call it a failure just because it doesnt have 10 million subs. 200k-400k subscribers in the market is considered a success and to be honest that's all i expected from the game. Of course people left due to missing content but I knew half the people would leave after the first 30 days because of the immersion and lore. Comparing WoW and AoC on that regard is absurd. It would be like comparing Justin Timberlake to Tool. They both are great at expressing themselves in creative and original fashions, it's just not many followers from either end of the those spectrums would appreciate the others end.

I'm sure WoW and maybe Warhammer are good games, but it has no appeal to me what-so-ever. To me looking at my monitor at ridiculously glowing armor and weapons would be the equivelant of hanging out a gay night club with men dancing around with glow sticks in their hands.

AoC might look pretty but I found it to be unplayable.  The game was not fun at all.  Crafting sucks, pvp sucks, instanced small zones suck,  non-interactive world, more then 5 people in an area lags, poor design, the list goes on and on... Im playing Warhammer and although its not the prettiest girl on the block I can say that she is definitely the best in bed if you catch my drift.  The graphics are not that cartoony imo and its a lot of fun.  Try playing warhammer before you judge it based on medium graphics settings from open beta.  On a good computer the game looks pretty nice.

Even an orc wiggles a little while after an AXE to his head.  Just as AoC will do, it will wiggle and shiver and twitch before its goes dark.

That was uncalled for.

And guys, it is OK to not like a game, really, it is. Just know that your persional opinion does not speak for everyone.

There are tons of MMO's comming out, and out allready, find one you like.

Originally posted by PezzBomb

Originally posted by Raltar

For me, AoC never had a chance and will never come back. I played in beta and saw then that the gameplay was terrible. Leveling is a grind fest, the combat system is button mashing fever and the small instanced zones leave little room for exploration or any form of open ended gameplay. Unless AoC does something drastic that totally alters the entire basis of the game such as the way SWG had the "NGE" then it will never be the kind of game I would be willing to play. And since the NGE was probably one of the worst ideas in gaming history I'm not going to recommend that to the AoC devs. So they may as well admit they made a boring game which many people with high standards will not play and move on.

 

But can AoC itself recover, fix some of its problems and maybe regain a few of the fans it lost? Sure. Its possible. Anarchy Online was a terrible game when it was released. And although Funcom never made it into the kind of game that I would play myself, they fixed it up reasonably well and got a lot of people back. They could turn AoC around as well. It will never be a very big game and nobody will ever forget the way that Funcom treated the game and their customers over these last six months. But it may get a few people to return. And of course there will allways be the small crowd of blind fanboys who will fight to the death for the game like our buddy Cobra here.

I saw one of you post in one of the other AoC threads and I just want to let you know that I do not belive you. It is just odd to straight out hate a gamedeveloper to the degree you hate FC. It makes me think that you youself have some personal agenda. No hard feelings, but it looks kind of strange.

It looks strange to me that a guy who signed up for this forum yesterday already has eight posts, all of which defend a game he hasn't even played yet. Then he states that he doesn't believe the statements of someone who has played the game.

People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.

Originally posted by Mrbloodworth

That was uncalled for.

And guys, it is OK to not like a game, really, it is. Just know that your persional opinion does not speak for everyone.

There are tons of MMO's comming out, and out allready, find one you like.

Yeah we don't want discussion or debate around here...just mindless acceptance and enthusiastic praise.

Originally posted by Dreamagram

I think the key observations from the poll so far (135 votes) are...

• The ones hoping for it not being too late are in 5:3 majority (62% vs 38%)
• The one thinking it's too late are in 2:1 majority (67% vs 33%)
• The ones hoping for the game to fail (38%) are extremely certain that they are right (~90% of them also think it's too late)
• Of the ones hoping it's not too late (62%), a slight majority (54%) still thinks it actually is

The same observations after 100 more votes:

• The ones hoping for it not being too late are still in roughly 5:3 majority (64% vs 36%)
• The one thinking it's too late are now in 5:3 majority (62% vs 38%)
• The ones hoping for the game to fail (36%) are even more certain that they are right (~93% of them also think it's too late - was ~90%)
• Of the ones hoping it's not too late (64%), the majority (55%) now thinks it's not - was 54% the other way 100 votes ago

Only one real difference; more people who say they hope the game survives also think it will. A positive trend, for sure. Is that change due to more positive vibes in the community since the poll started, or just that the "hating" people (wishing for someone's work and others' entertainment to be ruined) - who are also dead certain they are right - are faster at jumping on threads and polls to trash the games?

Age of Conan is one of the finest MMORPG's out right now wether people want to admit it or not and it will only get better with time.  It's gonna be just fine without the doomsayers.

I read something that is very true for AoC in one of the other threads. "Where as other MMO developers seem to be looking backward when making new MMOs, FC and AoC is looking forward and trying to tap into new technology and ways to do things. This is giving the game a tremendous potential". This is what makes AoC so interesting, it just keeps getting better and better for every patch. I have no doubts in that AoC will grow into a even more fantastic game before it's release in Russia/East Europe later this year.  

Seems AoC is getting a bit of a positive spin these days. Maybe time to check it out again, once I tire of WAR. Or maybe Mythic will add some more stuff to keep me interested soon. We'll see.