Funcom CEO Trond Arne speaks to the folks at GamesIndustry.biz about how they've turned the ship around with Age of Conan.

To support this assertion, Mr. Arne cites the myriad issues the game experienced in its early months, and the fact they've addressed most, if not all of them:

"The problems for Age of Conan arose after the game had been live for a period of time, as players progressed into parts of the game where content turned out to be too thin and advanced features simply weren't good enough," admitted the CEO. "There were also performance issues on some machines, and the items and RPG system – even though it worked exactly as we designed it – did not engage players for as long as we had hoped for."

"We have turned most if not all of this around and we have corrected these issues through a series of massive updates. For us it was never an option to drop the game despite the challenges we faced."

Find out what else Mr. Arne has to say in the full GamesIndustry.biz interview.

Its still heavily instanced, so no,  they havent.

You mean zoned which means persistent inside where as instanced means only you and your group is allowed. Every mmo has zones but Funcom chopped up the zones into a million pieces which makes it feel like you are in a maze with sliding doors all the time. They fixed a ton of issues which makes the game more fun to play but unfortunately the game had a bad first impression and very rarely you see games recover from them no matter how much is improved. I came back for awhile and tried it, I enjoyed my time alot better this time around but unfortunately for AOC, better games are ahead for us.

Originally posted by Cristina1

Its still heavily instanced, so no,  they havent.

Let's be fair. That isn't something 'broken' with the game -- just a design choice Funcom made that doesn't jive with you.

Originally posted by MikeB

Originally posted by Cristina1

Its still heavily instanced, so no,  they havent.

 

Let's be fair. That isn't something 'broken' with the game -- just a design choice Funcom made that doesn't jive with you.

Quoted for truth. Guild Wars is a "Heavily" instanced game, and a great game at that, and 6 million other people feel the same way. This is not a broken piece.

Myself, I came back when Craig put out the first major patch with content, and have stuck it out...why? Because I am sick of the stand and deliver of the "Press 1 and wait" combat systems of other stale MMO's. The cutscene quest givers, and smaller gear reliance vs more skill gameplay just works for me.

Now with the return, my wife has come back to playing again, and is having a blast, and even my son who was an avid Halo player is in the game as a new player, and enjoying himself.

Yes, the game has made a true turnaround...more than I can say for a few other select titles (like WAR and LOTRO come to mind that are stagnating)

Glad to be here for AoC's resurgence!

Originally posted by MikeB

Originally posted by Cristina1

Its still heavily instanced, so no,  they havent.

 

Let's be fair. That isn't something 'broken' with the game -- just a design choice Funcom made that doesn't jive with you.

Like the combat system.  I know I wasn't the only one turned off by the carpal tunnel syndrome style combo button mashing system.  Another design choice that probably alienated a lot more players as well.  All in an effort to appeal to console gamers at the expense of traditional PC gamers.

Originally posted by Vrazule

Originally posted by MikeB

Originally posted by Cristina1

Its still heavily instanced, so no,  they havent.

 

Let's be fair. That isn't something 'broken' with the game -- just a design choice Funcom made that doesn't jive with you.

 

Like the combat system.  I know I wasn't the only one turned off by the carpal tunnel syndrome style combo button mashing system.  Another design choice that probably alienated a lot more players as well.  All in an effort to appeal to console gamers at the expense of traditional PC gamers.

Actually, this was simplified as well. Combos no longer appear in 4-5 input strings. The longest string is 3, with most being 1 or 2 inputs.

Originally posted by MikeB

Originally posted by Vrazule

Originally posted by MikeB

Originally posted by Cristina1

Its still heavily instanced, so no,  they havent.

 

Let's be fair. That isn't something 'broken' with the game -- just a design choice Funcom made that doesn't jive with you.

 

Like the combat system.  I know I wasn't the only one turned off by the carpal tunnel syndrome style combo button mashing system.  Another design choice that probably alienated a lot more players as well.  All in an effort to appeal to console gamers at the expense of traditional PC gamers.

 

Actually, this was simplified as well. Combos no longer appear in 4-5 input strings. The longest string is 3, with most being 1 or 2 inputs.

It makes you wonder why these people continue to post, when their knowledge is ZERO of the game.

Better yet...if you DID play it, it sure is easy to go back and re-enable for the 14 days. You may eat your words.

Of note...if you did NOT like the combat, the instance/zoned world and need yourself an elf to be happy...go somewhere else.

They haven't changed anything that were reasons to why I left in the first place. Overly instanced and poorly implemented combat system being the two biggest of my gripes.

So far Im loving AoC, its just really hard to find a good group of people to play with, it seems like global chat is the only place to feel connected to the world, but global chat consists of garbage totally irrevalent to AoC. Don't mind the combat, don't mind the zoning/instancing, whatever you want to call it, I just want to feel more connected to the world, not alone in the middle of a deserted village.

As I said in another thread:

I played at launch and got to 80 after like 10 days, but I quit around day 15, because there was simply nothing to do.

I came back for the free 14 days, only to discover that nothing at all had changed. They added 2 solo instances, fixed the raids that were bugged at release, added PvP levels, and nerfed gem stacking. That's what they have done. It took them 1 year to do that?

The PvP is still heavily imbalanced, the new crafting is as stupid as it has ever been(especially the way that you remove gems), the game is still easily exploited to gain massive ammounts of mats and gold, the server I played on is pretty much empty now(Fury EU) and the simplifying of combos is lame(trying to cater to casuals now, eh?).

Originally posted by maacaaviityy

trying to cater to casuals now, eh?

What a ridiculous statement to make, the game has always been extremely casual.

FunCom can't win for trying to be honest, someone will always be around to complain regardless of whatever improvements they have made to the game.

Clearly it just isn't for you, no harm no foul.

Originally posted by maacaaviityy

As I said in another thread:

I played at launch and got to 80 after like 10 days, but I quit around day 15, because there was simply nothing to do.

I came back for the free 14 days, only to discover that nothing at all had changed. They added 2 solo instances, fixed the raids that were bugged at release, added PvP levels, and nerfed gem stacking. That's what they have done. It took them 1 year to do that?

The PvP is still heavily imbalanced, the new crafting is as stupid as it has ever been(especially the way that you remove gems), the game is still easily exploited to gain massive ammounts of mats and gold, the server I played on is pretty much empty now(Fury EU) and the simplifying of combos is lame(trying to cater to casuals now, eh?).

This is the type of false misinformation that continues to this day.

The above party fails to mention

Ymirs Pass (a whole new zone for upper 50's and 60's), Tarantia Commons for 75+, Slaughterhouse and Commons home for solo, Xib 6 man dungeon which is considered one of the most unique play experiences with puzzles and traps along the way. Wing 3 tier raid. Fixes to sieges, new recipes for crafting...

Fury is currently off limits to current players for transfers due to being one of the most full servers...

I could go on. But, this above is why so many people have issues because some carry grudges to this day against Funcom and continue to spout lies. Better to just go and try for yourself.

Here is a good basic list to get you started, or better yet...head to the forums abd read there...avoid the hate trolls of MMORPG.

http://www.curse.com/articles/aoc-en-news/431096.aspx

Originally posted by openedge1

This is the type of false misinformation that continues to this day.

The above party fails to mention

Ymirs Pass (a whole new zone for upper 50's and 60's), Tarantia Commons for 75+, Slaughterhouse and Commons home for solo, Xib 6 man dungeon which is considered one of the most unique play experiences with puzzles and traps along the way. Wing 3 tier raid. Fixes to sieges, new recipes for crafting...

Fury is currently off limits to current players for transfers due to being one of the most full servers...

I could go on. But, this above is why so many people have issues because some carry grudges to this day against Funcom and continue to spout lies. Better to just go and try for yourself.

Here is a good basic list to get you started, or better yet...head to the forums abd read there...avoid the hate trolls of MMORPG.

http://www.curse.com/articles/aoc-en-news/431096.aspx

 

QFE

Originally posted by openedge1

Originally posted by maacaaviityy

As I said in another thread:

I played at launch and got to 80 after like 10 days, but I quit around day 15, because there was simply nothing to do.

I came back for the free 14 days, only to discover that nothing at all had changed. They added 2 solo instances, fixed the raids that were bugged at release, added PvP levels, and nerfed gem stacking. That's what they have done. It took them 1 year to do that?

The PvP is still heavily imbalanced, the new crafting is as stupid as it has ever been(especially the way that you remove gems), the game is still easily exploited to gain massive ammounts of mats and gold, the server I played on is pretty much empty now(Fury EU) and the simplifying of combos is lame(trying to cater to casuals now, eh?).

This is the type of false misinformation that continues to this day.

The above party fails to mention

Ymirs Pass (a whole new zone for upper 50's and 60's), Tarantia Commons for 75+, Slaughterhouse and Commons home for solo, Xib 6 man dungeon which is considered one of the most unique play experiences with puzzles and traps along the way. Wing 3 tier raid. Fixes to sieges, new recipes for crafting...

Fury is currently off limits to current players for transfers due to being one of the most full servers...

I could go on. But, this above is why so many people have issues because some carry grudges to this day against Funcom and continue to spout lies. Better to just go and try for yourself.

Here is a good basic list to get you started, or better yet...head to the forums abd read there...avoid the hate trolls of MMORPG.

http://www.curse.com/articles/aoc-en-news/431096.aspx

 

I think you should look up the word "trolling". Because I'm not doing it.

I have to agree.  I havnt played for a while and can not comment unless I try it again now.  I hope they didnt simplify combat more than it was.

i quit 2 months after launch and spending 90 bucks on the collector edition. funcom had its share of issues but what really killed this game for me was the constant bitching of the players in the forum. that and the lag, connection issues, unresponsiveness of the dev team..blah blah blah. what provided the final nail was funcom nerfing everything fun based on that bitching. my char cant kill such and such... class balancing, which is never a good thing, should have been the very very least of the priorities, but nerfing was the only thing the dev team could do besides blame everyones computer for their epic failings. well, the party system was flawed, the instances took away from a persistant world feel, crafting lol, the economy was retarded, and the player base was whiny children or adults behaving like children, the quests were not creative or unique and the rewards not in line with the time investment. i played free games that were 3 times better than this.

the selling point was the conan lore. if i wanted lore, i would read a book. this was epic fail. as a previous poster put it, mmo's dont bounce back from a bad first impression. the ceo coming out and admitting that the game sucked [im taking creative license here] is not incentive for me to return. i want my initial purchase price refunded and my monthly dues. when i get an email  from notfuncom apologizing to me personally for wasting my time and promising they will never nerf another thing, and refunding my investment and giving me a free 3 month invite to return, then i would consider it...maybe. that and a rebranding. instead of conan hyborian adventures, conan , it works now.

What is still broken is PURPOSE  to the game. Its something they want when you read their dev blogs , but are too scared to implement.  Some sort of loss on PvP death.

Currently, if you kill me,  I lose nothing except pointless win\loss points. WOOOO. Who Cares? They are just bragging rights and given the tendency for ganks and only the kill shot really gets credit, the players don't take them seriously.

They need to fix this if they ever hope to have a finished game.

Originally posted by bizzaro1

 

the selling point was the conan lore. if i wanted lore, i would read a book. this was epic fail.

So you bought and played a game centered around lore when you don't even like or want lore in the game.

The rest of your post was whine, but this was worth responding to. Personally, you might want to give up rpgs of any sort. They all require reading, you know.

And go ahead, call me a fanboy. I'm sure everyone here would love the laugh that one brings.

MMO DEVS, beware,  were a very fickle group and once you give us a bad first impression you probably wont be making much profit.    STOP RELEASING HALF DONE CRAP. patches 2 months later dont keep customers. Nor do they encourage people to come back, Youve got one chance to wow and hook your player.