What I've seen there are a lot of Norwegian people on this forum. About 25% of the regular posters are from Oslo, Norway, which is very strange since Oslo has only a population of 575k. Think about it. Such a small country and still so many posters.

This lead me to thinking. Is Age of Conan hugely popular in Norway? Is this the reason why we have so many posters from Oslo? Or is there some other reason?

The gamers of norway are quite used to use forums to post and express their feelings on, keep in mind almost every home has a computer and often we use internet every day. The reason why there is so many regular norwegians posting here is quite simple, look at the overall amount of regular posters in the aoc forum, it isn't that many. So spotting the Norwegians is quite easy, AoC in Norway isn't a huge game, neither is funcom. When funcom was about to launch people did talk about it and a lot of attention in Norwegian press since funcom is the only big game developer in Norway for PC games. 

Amongst the gamers in Norway you have people who blindly praise AoC, and people who blindly hate AoC, and you have the ones that are in between these 2 categories. Funcom's reputation in Norway are far from being gods of game developers, they are being judged as any other company that produces games.

The reason so many regular posters post I think is rather a coincidence then a planned conspiracy as some people like to think of it. Most of the gamers I know do use forums as a tool next to the game so it seems quite common that we will be active on both things.

Originally posted by Crashloop

The gamers of norway are quite used to use forums to post and express their feelings on, keep in mind almost every home has a computer and often we use internet every day. The reason why there is so many regular norwegians posting here is quite simple, look at the overall amount of regular posters in the aoc forum, it isn't that many. So spotting the Norwegians is quite easy, AoC in Norway isn't a huge game, neither is funcom. When funcom was about to launch people did talk about it and a lot of attention in Norwegian press since funcom is the only big game developer in Norway for PC games. 

Amongst the gamers in Norway you have people who blindly praise AoC, and people who blindly hate AoC, and you have the ones that are in between these 2 categories. Funcom's reputation in Norway are far from being gods of game developers, they are being judged as any other company that produces games.

The reason so many regular posters post I think is rather a coincidence then a planned conspiracy as some people like to think of it. Most of the gamers I know do use forums as a tool next to the game so it seems quite common that we will be active on both things.

Omg, you Norwegians often use internet EVERY DAY? That is amazing! You know we have interwebs in other parts of the world too. Popularity

There are about 1.630.000.000 internet users in the world. Oslo has maybe about 400.000 internet users (at most). This means that if you take 5000 random people, on average there is only ONE person from Oslo in that group. Yet if you look at the regular posters on this forum, we have maybe 20-25% from Oslo. If you want to see what I mean, look around the forums. When you see a guy who is praising AoC and attacking negative posters, look his profile. Chances are he's from Norway.

I think it's funny that the first person to answer to this thread is from.. surprise surprise.. Oslo, Norway.. Also you replied to my thread 7 minutes after I started it which means you started to write your post almost immediately after I started this thread. It's almost like you sit around your computer waiting for new (negative?) threads so you can reply to them. It's almost like you are doing some kind of damage control.

Lets face the facts. There are much more Norwegian posters here then there should be according to statistics. Oslo has 0,0025% of internet users in the world, yet here we have 2,5% of total posters, and maybe 25% of regular posters. Now my original question still stands. Why are there so many Norwegian people here? Is it a matter of national pride, or something else?

"Juutilainen"? - Finnish, right?

What are you getting at, exactly? I don't understand why this is so important to you. This is starting to look like some 'Scandinavian Cold War', and I thought you Fins only poked at Swedes and Russians. - See? I can make national generalisations too. ;)

Seriously though, Juuti, why is this a thread-worthy topic? Weren't you in that other thread about AoC sieges, pulling out all the Norse folk?

Originally posted by Juutilainen

Omg, you Norwegians often use internet EVERY DAY? That is amazing! You know we have interwebs in other parts of the world too. Popularity

There are about 1.630.000.000 internet users in the world. Oslo has maybe about 400.000 internet users (at most). This means that if you take 5000 random people, on average there is only ONE person from Oslo in that group. Yet if you look at the regular posters on this forum, we have maybe 20-25% from Oslo. If you want to see what I mean, look around the forums. When you see a guy who is praising AoC and attacking negative posters, look his profile. Chances are he's from Norway.

I think it's funny that the first person to answer to this thread is from.. surprise surprise.. Oslo, Norway.. Also you replied to my thread 7 minutes after I started it which means you started to write your post almost immediately after I started this thread. It's almost like you sit around your computer waiting for new (negative?) threads so you can reply to them. It's almost like you are doing some kind of damage control.

Lets face the facts. There are much more Norwegian posters here then there should be according to statistics. Oslo has 0,0025% of internet users in the world, yet here we have 2,5% of total posters, and maybe 25% of regular posters. Now my original question still stands. Why are there so many Norwegian people here? Is it a matter of national pride, or something else?

First of all I'm not from Oslo, Yes I'm from Norway but strangely enough Norway doesn't have only one city. Might be a shock to some people I know. ;)

Second as I said if you look at the amount of active posters on a daily basis on this sub forum the list of names won't be big, hence have a few Norwegians on the forum posting on a daily basis will be easy to spot if you look for it. Statistics is something you can wave around as much as you like, but it is just statistics and it won't always match perfectly. ;)

Third, you seem to grasp on any weak points you can and that is funny in itself. I don't sit around refreshing waiting for a negative post, I do refresh these forums every now and then and quite frequent during the day, and if I have time to reply to threads I find interesting I will do so.

Fourth as I have tried to explain other here I know nobody that have a national pride towards Funcom, heck most of my friends laugh at how the company have handled the launch amd we do joke about it. Sure some Norwegian might feel a pride towards Funcom, but I doubt they will be a large group. If they are feel free to prove me wrong with solid facts rather then interesting conspiracy theories ;)

Originally posted by korvass

"Juutilainen"? - Finnish, right?

What are you getting at, exactly? I don't understand why this is so important to you. This is starting to look like some 'Scandinavian Cold War', and I thought you Fins only poked at Swedes and Russians. - See? I can make national generalisations too. ;)

Seriously though, Juuti, why is this a thread-worthy topic? Weren't you in that other thread about AoC sieges, pulling out all the Norse folk?

You misunderstood me. I have nothing against Norwegian people. I've been to Norway and I Absolutely loved the place. All the people were really cool and the girls are third most beautiful after Sweden and Latvia.

I just find it strange that so many people here are from Norway. You don't find that strange? If you go to a party in New York and half the people are Norwegian, don't you ask yourself why that is?

If we look at statistics, there are much more Norwegians here than there should be. Is it national pride? Are they family members and friends of Funcom devs? Something else?

I think this is a legimate question.

Fair enough.

Yeah, if I went to a party in New York, and most were Norse, or South African, or Martian, or whatever, I'd ask the host why. Sure, that'd be intriguing.

But this is the internet. I wonder if people had the ability/tech to travel to parties around the world in the blink of an eye, that you wouldn't see 15 Norwegians in a party of 20 as being strange...hmm.. So yeah, I think it's just coincidence. But then again, maybe there are a few rabid Norse fans out there.

But to OP how many posters do we have that post on a daily basis and how many of them are Norwegian and from oslo? Kind of curious how you found that number. :P

Since you were mentioning statistics earlier I assume you have done the proper research, well I can hope atleast :P

Originally posted by Crashloop

But to OP how many posters do we have that post on a daily basis and how many of them are Norwegian and from oslo? Kind of curious how you found that number. :P

Since you were mentioning statistics earlier I assume you have done the proper research, well I can hope atleast :P

We are not doing science here so no need to do an academic study on the subject. Just look at the profile of some of our hardcore "fanbois". Most of them are norwegian. Simple as that. No need to whip out SPSS and start doing pies and diagrams.

OP made an observation and I agree with him. If we had majority of "fanbois" Sweden, it might just be a coincidence. But from all the thousands of cities around the world, those "fanbois" just happen to be from Oslo, the same city where Funcom HQ is located. If you believe that is just a coincidence, then you probably also believe in Santa Clause and Easter Bunny.

Lol you guys are funny. :D

Conspiracy theories are always good fun, you don't have to base any evidence in facts at all :)

OK lets attack this from a different angle, what posters are from Oslo then and hardcore fanbois?

Originally posted by Crashloop

Lol you guys are funny. :D

Conspiracy theories are always good fun, you don't have to base any evidence in facts at all :)

OK lets attack this from a different angle, what posters are from Oslo then and hardcore fanbois?

People who talk about conspiracy theories here don't even know what the word means.

I doubt Funcom has any viral marketing meetings every week where they discuss on how to mislead potential customers on forums. But what you have to realize is that EVERY SINGLE FUNCOM EMPLOYEE HAS A MMORPG.COM account. They all do. Why? Because it's very closely related to their JOB. You think there is one single person in the world who works for some TV company but doesn't own a TV?

Funcom employees visit these forums DAILY and when an idividual Funcom employee comes here during his lunch break or after work, pretending to be a "regular gamer", that is not conspiracy. BUT it can be morally wrong if that person tells lies about AoC just to get more people to subscribe. And this is what I've seen here a lot.

Luckily most of these viral marketers have been banned but they keep coming back with different usernames. When you've been here as long as I have you learn to recognize them quite easily. One of them admitted me in a PM that he have had over 20 accounts already.

Also some of them lie in their profile. It's funny when a person writes 20 posts a day with broken english, telling how awesome AoC and giving links to Norwegian newspaper articles (written in norwegian), yet this persons profile says "Austin, Texas".

Does this mean that our plans for world domination and subjugation have been thwarted?

I don't believe there's people being paid to advertise games in forums pretending to be regular gamers with honest intentions giving false reviews about the state of the game.

What I believe is that there are fanboys who spend a lot of time defending the positives of their game of election and there are trolls attacking the game based on outdated information.

But to be honest, I find to be more normal for a fan to spend his time defending a game than a troll spending his time to attack a game.

Originally posted by GiveMePvP

 When you've been here as long as I have you learn to recognize them quite easily.

Crashloop - joined 6/11/06

Korvass - joined 5/29/06

GiveMePvP - joined 12/1/08

Originally posted by Tjommis

Does this mean that our plans for world domination and subjugation have been thwarted?

Clearly, they have understood we all are paid by funcom or love the company enough to go through hell and fires just because it is Norwegian!

Oh noes what to do next? :)

Originally posted by Juutilainen

Originally posted by korvass

"Juutilainen"? - Finnish, right?

What are you getting at, exactly? I don't understand why this is so important to you. This is starting to look like some 'Scandinavian Cold War', and I thought you Fins only poked at Swedes and Russians. - See? I can make national generalisations too. ;)

Seriously though, Juuti, why is this a thread-worthy topic? Weren't you in that other thread about AoC sieges, pulling out all the Norse folk?

 

You misunderstood me. I have nothing against Norwegian people. I've been to Norway and I Absolutely loved the place. All the people were really cool and the girls are third most beautiful after Sweden and Latvia.

I just find it strange that so many people here are from Norway. You don't find that strange? If you go to a party in New York and half the people are Norwegian, don't you ask yourself why that is?

If we look at statistics, there are much more Norwegians here than there should be. Is it national pride? Are they family members and friends of Funcom devs? Something else?

I think this is a legimate question.

You really are a bit paranoid. From the dozens of people posting here, maybe a handful are from Norway.

And you immediately think we are some viral marketeers paid by Funcom. (points to your reactions in other topics).

I live in Oslo, Norway now yes. Absolutely correct. Am I norwegian? No.

I'm born in Holland, lived there for nearly 32 years and moved to Norway last year, because of my girlfriend, who happened to be Norwegian.

I am an IT system engineer and work for a major ERP software company. I have no connections whatsoever to the games industry. And thus nothing with Funcom either.

So there you have it. Happy now?

And about the popularity of Age of Conan in Norway.... well, let's say Funcom had it's fair share of bad press in Norwegian newspapers last year and early this year.

They're only recently in a more positive spotlight, because of that 4 part TV2 interview with Craig I believe. The links to that interview have been posted here somewhere.

Cheers
 

Originally posted by GiveMePvP

Originally posted by Crashloop

Lol you guys are funny. :D

Conspiracy theories are always good fun, you don't have to base any evidence in facts at all :)

OK lets attack this from a different angle, what posters are from Oslo then and hardcore fanbois?

 

People who talk about conspiracy theories here don't even know what the word means.

I doubt Funcom has any viral marketing meetings every week where they discuss on how to mislead potential customers on forums. But what you have to realize is that EVERY SINGLE FUNCOM EMPLOYEE HAS A MMORPG.COM account. They all do. Why? Because it's very closely related to their JOB. You think there is one single person in the world who works for some TV company but doesn't own a TV?

Funcom employees visit these forums DAILY and when an idividual Funcom employee comes here during his lunch break or after work, pretending to be a "regular gamer", that is not conspiracy. BUT it can be morally wrong if that person tells lies about AoC just to get more people to subscribe. And this is what I've seen here a lot.

Luckily most of these viral marketers have been banned but they keep coming back with different usernames. When you've been here as long as I have you learn to recognize them quite easily. One of them admitted me in a PM that he have had over 20 accounts already.

Also some of them lie in their profile. It's funny when a person writes 20 posts a day with broken english, telling how awesome AoC and giving links to Norwegian newspaper articles (written in norwegian), yet this persons profile says "Austin, Texas".

Blizzard employee's also check these forums daily, I assume same thing goes with them right?

I just hope Mulder steps in and uncovers this major conspiracy.

Originally posted by abal

I don't believe there's people being paid to advertise games in forums pretending to be regular gamers with honest intentions giving false reviews about the state of the game.

What I believe is that there are fanboys who spend a lot of time defending the positives of their game of election and there are trolls attacking the game based on outdated information.

But to be honest, I find to be more normal for a fan to spend his time defending a game than a troll spending his time to attack a game.

I will give you one example.

A couple of months ago, before Darkfall had come out, there was this rabid "hater" on Darkfall forums. All he did was say how much Darkfall sucks and how much better AoC is.

Forum mods tracked this users IP and guess what? The IP was in Funcom headquarters. That's right. Not just Oslo, Norway, but inside Funcom headquarters. Mods posted pictures as proof. Is the what you call a "conspiracy theory"?

Another example.

A couple of days before WAR came out, we had many new posters who posted about 30 posts a day, half of them on WAR forums saying how much WAR sucks, half of them on AoC forums telling how great AoC is. This is honestly all they did. You could instantly sense that they didn't have any interest in having a real discussion, all they did was bash WAR or praise AoC. This is not how "regular gamers" behave and the timing (just before WAR launch) was not a coincidence.

Viral marketing is happening all around us and I pity those individuals who are so naive that they think it isn't happening.

Since the thread has been hijacked by pro/anti conspiracy theories (make a new thread!!) I will try to re-rail it to answer OP

AoC is vastly more popular in Norway than comparing with other similar games. Several reasons for this

1) AoC received a lot of press (and still does) since its the only game developing company of some size in Norway. Lots of "national pride" articles has been written about Funcom and AoC.

2) Funcom is listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange. Lots of norwegian shareholders and again lots of articles in the fincancial press. AoC has held the front page on major norwegian finacial newspaper at least once.

3) Norwegians in general play more MMOs than many other nations, i.e. the marketshare of mmo vs other games is high in Norway compared to other nations. Several reasons for this. We have more time on our hand due to a generous social security system. I.e. every unemployed sh.. head can buy a PC and pay for an MMO. We have a very high distribution of broadband access and we are traditionally know as early adapters of trends and technologies

These three combined tells me that more norwegians follow AoC on this particular forum. And probably others. .