AoC needs ti just die....so future mmo's will NOT be released early. So whatever you are playing. if it was released early switch games. Sleep for a couple months, Watch every Anime out there, Tinker around in WoW, EQ2, FFXI, Anything but rewarding that kind of behavior.

If AoC were in Development for 6 more months there is no doubt it would have been a WoW killer. but they got greedy and dropped the ball, Hell imo the game was released 1/2 finished.

Originally posted by Rhoklaw

Funcom as a company is so poorly run, it doesn't suprise me that AoC is in the state its in. When Anarchy Online released, Funcom immediately got titled with worst MMO launch ever. They did rectify this by making a solid PvP / PvE game that turned out to be quite enjoyable. Instead of learning from their original mistakes, they repeated them almost as if they copied and pasted them right into AoC, literally. If anyone knows what I'm talking about ( resistances in AoC such as toxic and nano which are part of Anarchy Onlines programming ). I mean come on people, thats complete rookie mistakes.

I don't know how long it lasted or if they ever fixed it, but a ticket submission in AoC used to get you an automated response telling you to go to Anarchy Online website.

Yeah, they copied and pasted.

Originally posted by abal

Originally posted by Terranah

The game apparently was optimized for nvidia but not ati, and they ignored the problem for the first month or so.  Basically my free month that came with the box purchase was wasted. 

 

Now if they want to give a free month trial, I might give the game another go.  Otherwise, they got their money but I feel ripped off because I met the system requirements but in cities outside of the starter area my fps dropped down to 5 or 8 fps.  Not really fun or playable, atleast for me.

 

What was the video card you were using back then? Maybe it wasn't powerful enough and you had the game settings set to very high?

Let us know what was the model of the ATI card...

I had an ATI card and didn't have too much tech problems, but it was a big known issue first couple of months. Tech forum full of posts how to work around or optimize your client til they fixed it for ATI users of certain cards. New cards at the time, iirc.

Originally posted by Shillz

Since launch Age of Conan subscriptions have gone from 800k to only 100k. That means there could be over half a million players that have tried AoC but didn't like it. Some players will never come back but some might, and Funcom needs them.

There was supposed to be a some kind of a win-back-program, but for some reason Funcom hasn't launched it yet. The question is: Is this win-back-program enough, or does Funcom need to do something else?

Personally I would like to see some kind of public apology for lying to the community.

If the Age of Conan had captured the essence of an REH Conan story to begin with, we wouldn't be asking these kinds of questions.  Instead, we'd be wondering what AoC could do to break the 3-5 million mark..  That's my opinion on the matter.  Sadly, the only game where I feel like I'm playing someone in REH's Hyboria isn't even related to the Conan IP.  It's called God of War, and even worse, Sony makes it.

Originally posted by Souldrainer

If the Age of Conan had captured the essence of an REH Conan story to begin with, we wouldn't be asking these kinds of questions.  Instead, we'd be wondering what AoC could do to break the 3-5 million mark..  That's my opinion on the matter.  Sadly, the only game where I feel like I'm playing someone in REH's Hyboria isn't even related to the Conan IP.  It's called God of War, and even worse, Sony makes it.

Would it be possible to explain how the game in your opinion doesn't capture the Lore to your satisfaction in the context and premise that FC have been clear about their interpretation of it for many years prior to release and the fact it is a video game afterall?

They might have more, maybe 150K but that doesn't really matter, they still have a lot of players to get back if they can.

As I see it, the problem isn't really that the game was very bugged at the launch, or the system, or whatever. The problem is that the game is far to small right now.

If they fix that they will start to attract more players fast, but if not current numbers will stay. They need to get that expansion out soon.

[Mod Edit]

Originally posted by Shillz

Since launch Age of Conan subscriptions have gone from  an estimated 800k to only 100k. That means there could be over half a million players that have tried AoC but didn't like it. Some players will never come back but some might, and Funcom needs them.

There was supposed to be a some kind of a win-back-program, but for some reason Funcom hasn't launched it yet. The question is: Is this win-back-program enough, or does Funcom need to do something else?

Personally I would like to see some kind of public apology for lying to the community.

1- Email with a apology to the old subscribers who quited.

2- Offer them one month free.

3- Put the option to skip Tortage OR add new  and diferent content in Tortage for each class.

redesign the shitty game world, remove instances, remove loading screens, change combat back to how it was orignally in beta, remove resspads, redesgin stealth, make mounted combat viable.

the list goes on and on.

I am telling you the game is far from perfect. They are Professions missing, it could be larger and many little things have to be optimized. But well it makes fun, at least for me. I haven t seen one better rp-Game out there, nor have I with better Graphics. Yes it is instanced, but you are used to it after a short period of gaming.

The Game is at least to me, much more fun than any other MMORG out there, that includes Warcraft. And yes I have played that througly. begun at 12 February 05. When I remember Corectly, for a few years. (Well not only that)

[Mod Edit]

I don't know. I was rather pissed over the way the Set incident was handled by Funcom. If you don't know what that is then look on offical boards. I think that was was the breaking point for me.

All the other stuff I can live with but total incompetence, never.

Lets face it, AOC is complete failure and there is no help for this game, its just a matter of time when FC will finnaly decide to shut servers down .

For Funcom would be better if they revamp Anarchy Online.

Good thing the subscriber are rising again, maybe this game will ones again shine in the future. If it wants to, it has to improve alot...but now it is a good game still. For some the best MMORG out there...

I played from last phase of beta and quit month after release, for me would be simple i think game dare i say has great potential but to me is just trash at this point, so this is what it would take for me honestly.

1. Refund of the game that was sold to me under false pretences.

2: Gear balance.

3. Real Robert Jordan Blacksmithing & crafting not this peice of crap is a disgrace.

4 Getting rid of elite instances and merging them with normal zones, i like sandboxes but can live with AOC zones but 2 different version of the same zone is just  cheap and bad design, theres great atmosphere in AoC but that one thing just destoyed every bit of imersion it had for me.

5: Heavy on end game.

Only these thing keep me away and would be happy to start paying a monthly sub again.

Originally posted by zazz

I played from last phase of beta and quit month after release, for me would be simple i think game dare i say has great potential but to me is just trash at this point, so this is what it would take for me honestly.

 

1. Refund of the game that was sold to me under false pretences.

2: Gear balance.

3. Real Robert Jordan Blacksmithing & crafting not this peice of crap is a disgrace.

4 Getting rid of elite instances and merging them with normal zones, i like sandboxes but can live with AOC zones but 2 different version of the same zone is just  cheap and bad design, theres great atmosphere in AoC but that one thing just destoyed every bit of imersion it had for me.

5: Heavy on end game.

 

Only these thing keep me away and would be happy to start paying a monthly sub again.

Good list. Too bad it would probably take Funcom 5 years to do all of those. And they will never do number 1 because that would be admitting failure, something that has never been an option for Funcom.

Originally posted by Mistmouse

I played AoC recently and I found it to be a visual wonder but lacking  the fun factor. The classes all seemed very bland to me and the world narrow and confined. Combat felt extra clicky and less on tactics than most game I hvae played.

I think they need a major class and combat overhall to have any real chance of getting folks to return. The bottom line is that if a game is not fun people wont play it, no matter how good it looks. I would glady give it another try someday if they made sweeping changes to the problem areas.

I didn't read this whole thread but I just want to say that I have to agree (except for feeling narrowed and confined).  I played the game and loved it for a good long while.  I stopped at high end because there was nothing there to really wow me.  I think they have made a game that is visually stunning, and the idea behind the combat is good however it became apparent that there was no real strategy needed during fights and so forth (for the most part). 

I will probably try it again someday, and I do keep up with whats going on, I just think the classes and combat system need to be redone...which is huge I imagine.

65 thousand trial downloads via Fileplant and Ausgamers so far, not including locations from FC or mmorpg.com in the past 2 weeks, looks like that goes in line with the numerous comments that people are seeing more people in game. Wonder how much that will change moving forward.

Looks like they are off to a good start so far, and that there is proven interest there.

Originally posted by Brialyn

Originally posted by Mistmouse

I played AoC recently and I found it to be a visual wonder but lacking  the fun factor. The classes all seemed very bland to me and the world narrow and confined. Combat felt extra clicky and less on tactics than most game I hvae played.

I think they need a major class and combat overhall to have any real chance of getting folks to return. The bottom line is that if a game is not fun people wont play it, no matter how good it looks. I would glady give it another try someday if they made sweeping changes to the problem areas.

 

I didn't read this whole thread but I just want to say that I have to agree (except for feeling narrowed and confined).  I played the game and loved it for a good long while.  I stopped at high end because there was nothing there to really wow me.  I think they have made a game that is visually stunning, and the idea behind the combat is good however it became apparent that there was no real strategy needed during fights and so forth (for the most part). 

I will probably try it again someday, and I do keep up with whats going on, I just think the classes and combat system need to be redone...which is huge I imagine.

Yeah, AoC is visually stunning. It's all these pretty pictures that made me (and everyone else) think they playing something new and amazing.

But if you look closely, past the graphics, fatalities and digital boobs, you will see Age of Conan is not new and it's not amazing. Age of Conan follows the same old boring MMO formula designed years ago.

This is the reason why 500k players left after a couple of months. They saw the "truth" and they didn't like.

My pvp guild of 100+ players quit AoC this week. AoC is good fun for a while until the "magic of pretty pictures" wears off and it becomes unbeliavably boring and tedious.

Friendly Reminder:

The topic of this thread is "How to get half a million players (who quit) back to Age of Conan?"

Please stay on topic and leave off-topic items to a separate thread or discussion.

Never going to happen. AoC has some fun aspects but I think just like me many felt to imprisoned and caged in AoC. I can only imagine how great this game could have been in the form of a sandbox game or at least with a more open world feeling.

To give you a rough picture of what I mean. Check this.

Let's not forget first impression. Something you can hardly ever repair.

The combat system needs to be replaced.  I understand they wanted more interactive combat and its great for the first 3 fights but then its just annoying.  Let me set my attack direction and then have it auto attack till I change it or perform a special attack.

Remove the insane zoning!  My god that first tortage quest!  Zone into pub - zone into night mode - zone out of pub to do the quest - zone back into pub hand in quest.  For all that time and loading screens what did you actually do?  You talked to one old lady!  Then you get sent back out again...Arrrrrgh

I tried to return to DDO and had the same issue.  EQ2 - don't mind the zones, they are big and you tend to spend a few hours in each one.  If Tortage itself was a zone and I did all the newbie quests within that one zone I could probably live with it.  Going into the pub shouldn't be some big event in loading - it wasn't that impressive inside.