Originally posted by Draron

Originally posted by Pale_Fire

When I say in the black, I mean it is currently not losing money.  I do not mean that they have recouped development costs.  And you're right, if someone from FC lies, there is big trouble.  Below is the quote stating that they are currently profitable.  Now, you can call them liars, but the burden of proof is on you now, not them. 

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-10-02-the-secret-world-post-mortem-no-its-not-going-free-to-play-any-time-soon

"For one, Ellingsen said The Secret World was now profitable. I doubt that means Funcom has recouped development costs, but it probably does mean the game is paying for itself to run, because Funcom downscaled development to suit its income."

Pale, I wouldn't bother. Not to call anyone out or anything, but have you seen there post history? 

You're right.  I should have checked, first. 

TSW has some of the best content out of any game - MMO or single player. Yes, I'd put some of it's missions over any RPG in quality.

There's just not alot of it and it's a pretty niche title to begin with.

The engine is pretty damn good. If they can get it rolling out for licensing everything will be peachy. AoC and TSW's graphical quality speak for themselves. (AoC's version is better though, or I should say more mature development wise.)

I like Funcom, I loved Anarchy Online. 1-20 in Tortage. The first two weeks of TSW. But it's not an MMO you play for five years. Regardless of it's fistful of really topnotch features.

This is also one of a very select handful of games that the sound (let alone music) in general I didn't mute immediately and actually forgot about entirely as I was sucked into the world.

Originally posted by Pale_Fire

When I say in the black, I mean it is currently not losing money.  I do not mean that they have recouped development costs.  And you're right, if someone from FC lies, there is big trouble.  Below is the quote stating that they are currently profitable.  Now, you can call them liars, but the burden of proof is on you now, not them. 

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-10-02-the-secret-world-post-mortem-no-its-not-going-free-to-play-any-time-soon

"For one, Ellingsen said The Secret World was now profitable. I doubt that means Funcom has recouped development costs, but it probably does mean the game is paying for itself to run, because Funcom downscaled development to suit its income."

When looking at history, Funcom has never shut down a game, and has always supported us gamers that are playing their game.

I have enjoyed playing Funcom games for many many years since beta AO, and have always had a subscription open with at least 1 of funcoms games.  I still hope Funcom opens up a multi sub so that I could keep both AO, AoC and TSW account open at the same time.

Really looking forward to seeing these new updates going live and to keep playing and having fun in TSW! 

Originally posted by Chtuga

When looking at history, Funcom has never shut down a game, and has always supported us gamers that are playing their game.

I have enjoyed playing Funcom games for many many years since beta AO, and have always had a subscription open with at least 1 of funcoms games.  I still hope Funcom opens up a multi sub so that I could keep both AO, AoC and TSW account open at the same time.

 

Really looking forward to seeing these new updates going live and to keep playing and having fun in TSW! 

This is exactly what they need to do, TSW on it's own for most players is too expensive, a FC version of SOE's Station Pass would be a great idea.

I'd buy one :)

One thing ive always respected about funcom: They stick with their games.

Now i would even go as far as relating funcom to trion in terms of work put towards their games.  Problem is that with trions one example of awesome development, you have 2 funcom games where all that effort was put in making the game work right, rather than piling on content and new stuff.

This game had a good launch imo.  I saw the largest issue being that they launched in the shadow of one of the most overhyped mmorpgs ive ever seen, complete with the most fanatical and active "supporters" towards that game that ive ever seen.  This game was bashed ten times as hard as it would have been launching after GW...as a lot of players picked the game up at launch with the intention of dumpng and trashing it when GW came out.  So imo, the game got a lot of bad press for a lot of systems that were not flawless (combat and animations) however they were never bad to begin with, just not flawless.  Also the lack of content complaint from the gw2 wasnt very accurate, and funny considering the game they support.

Anyway, its good to see games earning their keep.  You wont see stuff like this in a 100% free item mall game.

Originally posted by fallenlords

Originally posted by Maelwydd

His investigation missions are far from grind focused. I think you are just being negative for the sake of it. Kind of a growing trend in online gaming recently sadly.

Considering he has just taken over as Game Director and only just published an open letter to the TSW community.  I think it's early days to call the direction he is going to take TSW overall. But he wants to make it more commercial, more commercial in what way?  To a Western audience or an Eastern audience.

 

Rise of the Godslayer was done with one thing in mind to give AOC an air of Eastern appeal.   They took two lines from a Robert E Howard story and built and entire expansion around it just to appeal to the Koreans and the Eastern market.  

 

This same man is now in charge of TSW.  So he is going to make TSW more commercial in what way? Hunch, turn it into a grind fest go free to play and launch it in Korea.  In other words follow the same trend as AOC.

Sigh...I hate having to go to external forums to defend myself, but honestly, I think I'd rather clear the air. Even though, Fallenlords, I have never seen you post a constructive or positive thing. So this is more for other people who might have questions about decisions made in the past.

1) The location of the expansion for AoC was mandated by the Game Director. Who was actually Gaute. Who had decided it way before launch. So Khitai was not my choice as a REH fan. It was however, what I was told to make.

My job was finding a way to actually tie the story to the lore. And yes, Robert E Howard wrote about 10 lines about Khitai in all of his stories. You'll find everything he ever wrote represented in the expansion. Because I cared, and I went the extra mile to make sure that the setting fit with the little information we had.

2) The grind in the expansion was a precaution, because AoC players were always finding ways to exploit the crap out of the content. So we figured we would build in the grind, and then reduce it quickly once our systems proved leakproof. And guess what happened?

We launched the Xpac, most of the AoC team moved to Montreal and I was moved to TSW. In a period of turmoil like that, it took them a lot longer to fix the grind than was planned. It has been fixed though, which it is interesting that you don't mention.

Oh and selling the game in Korea (going F2P on Conan was done like a year after I had left the project) e.t.c. You do realize Lead Designers don't make business decisions right? Deals like that are mandated from above.

So for rational people out there, hopefully I have set a few minds at ease.

Originally posted by nusquam

Originally posted by fallenlords

Originally posted by Maelwydd

His investigation missions are far from grind focused. I think you are just being negative for the sake of it. Kind of a growing trend in online gaming recently sadly.

Considering he has just taken over as Game Director and only just published an open letter to the TSW community.  I think it's early days to call the direction he is going to take TSW overall. But he wants to make it more commercial, more commercial in what way?  To a Western audience or an Eastern audience.

 

Rise of the Godslayer was done with one thing in mind to give AOC an air of Eastern appeal.   They took two lines from a Robert E Howard story and built and entire expansion around it just to appeal to the Koreans and the Eastern market.  

 

This same man is now in charge of TSW.  So he is going to make TSW more commercial in what way? Hunch, turn it into a grind fest go free to play and launch it in Korea.  In other words follow the same trend as AOC.

Sigh...I hate having to go to external forums to defend myself, but honestly, I think I'd rather clear the air. Even though, Fallenlords, I have never seen you post a constructive or positive thing. So this is more for other people who might have questions about decisions made in the past.

1) The location of the expansion for AoC was mandated by the Game Director. Who was actually Gaute. Who had decided it way before launch. So Khitai was not my choice as a REH fan. It was however, what I was told to make.

My job was finding a way to actually tie the story to the lore. And yes, Robert E Howard wrote about 10 lines about Khitai in all of his stories. You'll find everything he ever wrote represented in the expansion. Because I cared, and I went the extra mile to make sure that the setting fit with the little information we had.

2) The grind in the expansion was a precaution, because AoC players were always finding ways to exploit the crap out of the content. So we figured we would build in the grind, and then reduce it quickly once our systems proved leakproof. And guess what happened?

We launched the Xpac, most of the AoC team moved to Montreal and I was moved to TSW. In a period of turmoil like that, it took them a lot longer to fix the grind than was planned. It has been fixed though, which it is interesting that you don't mention.

Oh and selling the game in Korea (going F2P on Conan was done like a year after I had left the project) e.t.c. You do realize Lead Designers don't make business decisions right? Deals like that are mandated from above.

So for rational people out there, hopefully I have set a few minds at ease.

 

 

 

 

I appreciated you got out of your way to open an account here and post.

But you really just have to ignore Fallenlords, as he has been on a vendetta against Funcom ever since he posted here, even openly admited it countless times, that he is on a crusade against you guys until the day the company shutdown. Only then he will be satisfied.

So it's better you response to people here that actually are constructive and have a more sane healthy mind. As fallenlords is just downright scary in everything he posts.

I can understand, that if you lost someone you loved to a company bad practices (like deliberately poluting rivers with heavy chemicals, that caused seriously health problems for people and even have people die), that you start a crusade to get the company shut down.

But seriously....demonstrating this kind of behaviour against a gaming company. A company that creates games for our entertainment and has done no harm to anyone. That is just scary beyond any doubt.

Originally posted by fallenlords

Originally posted by Pale_Fire

When I say in the black, I mean it is currently not losing money.  I do not mean that they have recouped development costs.  And you're right, if someone from FC lies, there is big trouble.  Below is the quote stating that they are currently profitable.  Now, you can call them liars, but the burden of proof is on you now, not them. 

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-10-02-the-secret-world-post-mortem-no-its-not-going-free-to-play-any-time-soon

"For one, Ellingsen said The Secret World was now profitable. I doubt that means Funcom has recouped development costs, but it probably does mean the game is paying for itself to run, because Funcom downscaled development to suit its income."

If Funcom told people the moon was made of cheese I actually think some here would believe them.  The statements Funcom are issuing is by no way a true reflection of what is actually happening at the company. They will say everything is fine, right up until the moment they switch off the lights.    They are hardly going to issue a statement 'We are in trouble'  because then the industry and investors will have no faith in them.   They have to be perceived as strolling on through adversity, why do think GD is making noises like 'we are warriors' 'we have our war paint on'.  

 

When a company is in this type of situation, you don't believe what they say.  You try and formulate a picture of what is happening by looking at the available evidence.    Share price is not recovering, there will be some cost to Funcom of laying off half their staff. The implications of what happens with the Ex-Ceo might be far reaching if fines or some sort of financial penalty are involved, might not just impact him could impact the company as a whole.    Their future release schedule is sparse, their existing library of games is thin.  They have announced a switch in focus away from large scale MMO's.  Brings into question what is the future of their proprietary game engine.  In essence so many questions... but if Funcom say things are fine they by all means believe them, perhaps even buy some stock if you have that much faith.

I'll end my comments here, but you have no idea what you are talking about.  You make false, baseless statements with almost no foundation in reality.  You have no evidence to support your comments.  It's just hate and that's all. 

End of story.

---

Originally posted by nusquam

---

Originally posted by fallenlords

---

Originally posted by Maelwydd His investigation missions are far from grind focused. I think you are just being negative for the sake of it. Kind of a growing trend in online gaming recently sadly.

---

Considering he has just taken over as Game Director and only just published an open letter to the TSW community.  I think it's early days to call the direction he is going to take TSW overall. But he wants to make it more commercial, more commercial in what way?  To a Western audience or an Eastern audience.   Rise of the Godslayer was done with one thing in mind to give AOC an air of Eastern appeal.   They took two lines from a Robert E Howard story and built and entire expansion around it just to appeal to the Koreans and the Eastern market.     This same man is now in charge of TSW.  So he is going to make TSW more commercial in what way? Hunch, turn it into a grind fest go free to play and launch it in Korea.  In other words follow the same trend as AOC.

---

Sigh...I hate having to go to external forums to defend myself, but honestly, I think I'd rather clear the air. Even though, Fallenlords, I have never seen you post a constructive or positive thing. So this is more for other people who might have questions about decisions made in the past.

1) The location of the expansion for AoC was mandated by the Game Director. Who was actually Gaute. Who had decided it way before launch. So Khitai was not my choice as a REH fan. It was however, what I was told to make.

My job was finding a way to actually tie the story to the lore. And yes, Robert E Howard wrote about 10 lines about Khitai in all of his stories. You'll find everything he ever wrote represented in the expansion. Because I cared, and I went the extra mile to make sure that the setting fit with the little information we had.

2) The grind in the expansion was a precaution, because AoC players were always finding ways to exploit the crap out of the content. So we figured we would build in the grind, and then reduce it quickly once our systems proved leakproof. And guess what happened?

We launched the Xpac, most of the AoC team moved to Montreal and I was moved to TSW. In a period of turmoil like that, it took them a lot longer to fix the grind than was planned. It has been fixed though, which it is interesting that you don't mention.

Oh and selling the game in Korea (going F2P on Conan was done like a year after I had left the project) e.t.c. You do realize Lead Designers don't make business decisions right? Deals like that are mandated from above.

So for rational people out there, hopefully I have set a few minds at ease.
 

 

---

Thanks for posting, its the equivalent of the voice of god speaking from above lol.

As a fan of the company and products, it reaffirms that employees that take these measures still have souls and have not become 'suits' or think they are too good to have transparency with there customers. well that's least how I feel.

All the best on your current projects,

Nith.

Originally posted by nusquam

Sigh...I hate having to go to external forums to defend myself, but honestly, I think I'd rather clear the air. Even though, Fallenlords, I have never seen you post a constructive or positive thing. So this is more for other people who might have questions about decisions made in the past.

1) The location of the expansion for AoC was mandated by the Game Director. Who was actually Gaute. Who had decided it way before launch. So Khitai was not my choice as a REH fan. It was however, what I was told to make.

My job was finding a way to actually tie the story to the lore. And yes, Robert E Howard wrote about 10 lines about Khitai in all of his stories. You'll find everything he ever wrote represented in the expansion. Because I cared, and I went the extra mile to make sure that the setting fit with the little information we had.

Gaute gets a lot of blame for various things, according to Funcom the guy left due to not liking the direction AOC was being taken. According to you the direction AOC was taking was by design of Gaute.  You want to expand on that seeing as you are now being so open to the public.

 

As for what Howard wrote, a lot is dependant on which versions of the stories you read.  There are a lot of versions.  You had next to no references on Khitai, which again is why the choice for the expansion is a little strange ... whoever made the decision.    The main reference with Yag-Kosha and The Tower of the Elephant was one of Howards more bizarre stories.  In essence this was Conan meets ET.  On top of which as a Conan fan you think riding Wolves and Tigers fitted into the world of AOC. Gaute may have decided the course of the expansion, the end product was your doing.  Next to no testing, poor release, 32bit client memory error/leak, crashing when changing zone.   When I asked for a refund because I couldn't play the game, I got told 'Funcom don't do refunds' here have some free game time, for a game I couldn't play... No you have nothing to answer for ...Just imagine if you had appeased this one customer at the time as a company  I wouldn't be here now...a lesson in customer service if ever there was one.

 

2) The grind in the expansion was a precaution, because AoC players were always finding ways to exploit the crap out of the content. So we figured we would build in the grind, and then reduce it quickly once our systems proved leakproof. And guess what happened?

 

Well that is a nice admision, you introduce grind instead of content by design. I look forward to seeing what you do with TSW.

 

We launched the Xpac, most of the AoC team moved to Montreal and I was moved to TSW. In a period of turmoil like that, it took them a lot longer to fix the grind than was planned. It has been fixed though, which it is interesting that you don't mention.

 

Excuses, excuses. as a customer who cares about the internal struggles of Funcom. You moved to Montreal for what reason, probably tax breaks.  The Age of Conan supporters were left with a grindy game while you sorted yourselves out. 

 

This is my point with regards to Funcom, you care about yourselves.  You don't care about the players, you don't listen to the players and in essence dictate policy with next to no flexibility. 

 

Oh and selling the game in Korea (going F2P on Conan was done like a year after I had left the project) e.t.c. You do realize Lead Designers don't make business decisions right? Deals like that are mandated from above.

 

I realise you are probably not fully responsible for business decisions, but that's a little too easy.  You went free to play in Korea with AOC, at the same time keeping the subs in the West.  Stating as a company you would not be going free to play with AOC in the Western market.    So when the expansion was being made you had no designs on a free to play model?  Yeah right. Just like now TSW is tooled up to go free to play at the drop of a hat, yet you have no plans. 

 

That AOC expansion had a feel of free to play about it right from the start. Am I suppose to believe that the free to play stuff was retrofitted into the expansion after the event... hmm don't buy it.

 

So for rational people out there, hopefully I have set a few minds at ease.

 

I am rational just don't believe anything your company says, because I have heard a lot of reheotric from Funcom over the years that has turned out to be quite false... still waiting on my 360 verison of Conan and TSW.  You might be a good egg I don't know, you might lead TSW out of the wilderness and into the promise land.   But I doubt it.

 

AOC was a great game around 1.5/1.6 level... I loved it.  Somebody slowly runined it, you had a large hand in that.  So while I appreciate you commenting and putting things 'straight' I don't actually hold your company in much regard.  Over the years there has been a lot of misinformation fed to us from Funcom. If your goals are to address that balance and put things straight, then fair play to you. I hope you are the dawning of a new era in the history of Funcom.

Originally posted by fallenlords

Originally posted by nusquam

2) The grind in the expansion was a precaution, because AoC players were always finding ways to exploit the crap out of the content. So we figured we would build in the grind, and then reduce it quickly once our systems proved leakproof. And guess what happened?

Well that is a nice admision, you introduce grind instead of content by design. I look forward to seeing what you do with TSW.

Did you even read what Nusquam said here? They were planning on starting with the expansion being grindy UNTIL they had fixed exploits (Funcom doesn't ban exploiters, sadly). After the game had run a short time they were going to reduce the grind a lot, that didn't go as planned as the whole company basically moved from Oslo to Canada (and Nusquam was pulled from one prosject to another).

Now, I did stop playing AoC when the expansion came, partially because I was tired of the game and partially because it took 3-4 minutes to load the expansion areas (running windows xp 32 bit).

I do wonder why I play MMO's a bit though, when I find games like http://www.ftlgame.com/ really fun. ;)

Originally posted by fallenlords

Originally posted by nusquam

Sigh...I hate having to go to external forums to defend myself, but honestly, I think I'd rather clear the air. Even though, Fallenlords, I have never seen you post a constructive or positive thing. So this is more for other people who might have questions about decisions made in the past.

1) The location of the expansion for AoC was mandated by the Game Director. Who was actually Gaute. Who had decided it way before launch. So Khitai was not my choice as a REH fan. It was however, what I was told to make.

My job was finding a way to actually tie the story to the lore. And yes, Robert E Howard wrote about 10 lines about Khitai in all of his stories. You'll find everything he ever wrote represented in the expansion. Because I cared, and I went the extra mile to make sure that the setting fit with the little information we had.

Gaute gets a lot of blame for various things, according to Funcom the guy left due to not liking the direction AOC was being taken. According to you the direction AOC was taking was by design of Gaute.  You want to expand on that seeing as you are now being so open to the public

It's really quite simple. Gaute said there were "elements he was dissatisfied with." In the game he was Game Director for. He never said anything about the direction it was going. Feel free to fact check that.

http://massively.joystiq.com/2008/09/17/producer-and-game-director-for-age-of-conan-resigns-from-funcom/

To expand upon that, an expansion team was formed that I was not a part of for several months before I was brought onto the team as Lead Designer. They had been working from a vision document that was originally written by Gaute.

 As for what Howard wrote, a lot is dependant on which versions of the stories you read.  

Yeah no offence, but I spent almost 4 years of my life reading all the versions of the stories - but our mandate from Conan inc was to use a particular set, the Del Rey published versions. 

There are a lot of versions.  You had next to no references on Khitai, which again is why the choice for the expansion is a little strange ... whoever made the decision.    The main reference with Yag-Kosha and The Tower of the Elephant was one of Howards more bizarre stories.  In essence this was Conan meets ET.  On top of which as a Conan fan you think riding Wolves and Tigers fitted into the world of AOC. Gaute may have decided the course of the expansion, the end product was your doing.

It being one of Howards weirder stories doesn't change anything. As for Vaghasan (not tigers and never referenced in the game as tigers) and the wolves, feel free to brush up on the in-game lore. We explained both their presence and how it all worked. The entire storyline was also run by various Howard scholars. I even did an interiew on The Cimmerian about it. I do find it odd that anyone could object to exotic mounts when Conan has been confronted with flying demon camels in one story. 

  Next to no testing, poor release, 32bit client memory error/leak, crashing when changing zone.   When I asked for a refund because I couldn't play the game, I got told 'Funcom don't do refunds' here have some free game time, for a game I couldn't play... No you have nothing to answer for ...Just imagine if you had appeased this one customer at the time as a company  I wouldn't be here now...a lesson in customer service if ever there was one.

If over 8 months in beta is not enough testing for you, there is little I can offer to placate you. I had a very strong relationship with the beta testers, just like I did with the beta testers for TSW. I also submitted weekly lists of the top 10 issues with the expansion. Unsuprisingly, tech was the number one point on that list for months. We had most of our coders working on it. We also had iron clad default deadlines with our Korean partners. When the stability was deemed good enough, the expansion was deemed release worthy.  Release date was *never* the decision of the Lead Designer.

I apologize for your customer service woes, but again, this is hardly relevant to your original post casting aspersions on my ability to design and lead a project. I don't run the customer service area of the company, but you will note that if you head over to the TSW forums, there are plenty of positive customer service experiences. Could you admit that it might have gotten better over the past few years?

 

2) The grind in the expansion was a precaution, because AoC players were always finding ways to exploit the crap out of the content. So we figured we would build in the grind, and then reduce it quickly once our systems proved leakproof. And guess what happened?

 

Well that is a nice admision, you introduce grind instead of content by design. I look forward to seeing what you do with TSW.

So if the required faction points was lower, there would have been more content? Your reasoning is flawed. Read what I wrote again.

 

We launched the Xpac, most of the AoC team moved to Montreal and I was moved to TSW. In a period of turmoil like that, it took them a lot longer to fix the grind than was planned. It has been fixed though, which it is interesting that you don't mention.

 

Excuses, excuses. as a customer who cares about the internal struggles of Funcom. You moved to Montreal for what reason, probably tax breaks.  The Age of Conan supporters were left with a grindy game while you sorted yourselves out. 

 

This is my point with regards to Funcom, you care about yourselves.  You don't care about the players, you don't listen to the players and in essence dictate policy with next to no flexibility. 

Ah see I am not really making excuses, I am explaining the situation which led to your perception. I didn't apologize for it.

I'll ignore the melodramatic "Funcom doesn't care about players" stuff if you don't mind. Funcom is not a person. It is a company made up of individuals. I care about the players, and so do the rest of the design team. I'm sure the accountants don't and the chef in the cafeteria doesn't - but they are also a part of Funcom. It's essentially a meaningless statement.

 

Oh and selling the game in Korea (going F2P on Conan was done like a year after I had left the project) e.t.c. You do realize Lead Designers don't make business decisions right? Deals like that are mandated from above.

 

I realise you are probably not fully responsible for business decisions, but that's a little too easy.  You went free to play in Korea with AOC, at the same time keeping the subs in the West.  Stating as a company you would not be going free to play with AOC in the Western market.    So when the expansion was being made you had no designs on a free to play model?  Yeah right. Just like now TSW is tooled up to go free to play at the drop of a hat, yet you have no plans.

Yes, our Korean Partners, Neowiz, made Age of Conan free-to-play in the east. They used their own store and had their own setup. The AoC F2P you see today is something entirely different. And yes, when I left AoC for TSW after Godslayer, there had been zero design plans around making the game F2P. You don't have to believe me, but at least admit that I know a lot more about the internal processes of our projects (and company) than you do.

That AOC expansion had a feel of free to play about it right from the start. Am I suppose to believe that the free to play stuff was retrofitted into the expansion after the event... hmm don't buy it.

I'm sorry but your "feelings" are irrelevant. You can choose to not believe anything I say (and you've made it quite clear you won't) but again, one of us possesses knowledge and one of us is guessing at best.

 

So for rational people out there, hopefully I have set a few minds at ease.

 

I am rational just don't believe anything your company says, because I have heard a lot of reheotric from Funcom over the years that has turned out to be quite false... still waiting on my 360 verison of Conan and TSW.  You might be a good egg I don't know, you might lead TSW out of the wilderness and into the promise land.   But I doubt it.

Well again, there was a 360 port of the engine worked on for a long time. And then it was stopped because the memory requirements of Dreamworld exceeded what modern consoles with shared VRAM could handle.

I agree with you that marketing probably jumped the gun in announcing those versions. Ragnar set the record straight on TSW a long time before launch, however. I think it is a bit harsh to hold a grudge for an announcement that was retracted. Your call though. 

 

AOC was a great game around 1.5/1.6 level... I loved it.  Somebody slowly runined it, you had a large hand in that.  So while I appreciate you commenting and putting things 'straight' I don't actually hold your company in much regard.  Over the years there has been a lot of misinformation fed to us from Funcom. If your goals are to address that balance and put things straight, then fair play to you. I hope you are the dawning of a new era in the history of Funcom.

Well, if you used to love it and you feel I had a large hand in ruining that, you might also consider that I had a large hand in the game that you loved in 1.5/1.6. The game went in a direction you didn't like, and I understand that can be frustrating. But at the end of the day, nobody makes decisions that everyone agrees with. And players are incredibly conflicted in what they want and how they want it. 

As for "misinformation" it really does depend on things. As with the 360 example, for all intents and purposes people were employed to work on a 360 port. Does that mean Funcom lied when they announced it? And when it fell through, it means things had changed after the announcement. Then the announcement becomes "misinformation" but there was no attempt to mislead people purposely. On TSW we were very wary of "overselling" the game, and you have to admit that we promised nothing in the game that we didn't deliver (to varying degrees of success).

My point is that companies change, grow and evolve over time.TSW is *not* AoC - and the needs of TSW are not the same needs that Rise of the Godslayer had. 

Anyway, let me end this now. I don't think we should continue to argue about this as you have made your standpoint clear and I hope I have made mine clear. 

Originally posted by nusquam

Originally posted by fallenlords

Originally posted by nusquam

Sigh...I hate having to go to external forums to defend myself, but honestly, I think I'd rather clear the air. Even though, Fallenlords, I have never seen you post a constructive or positive thing. So this is more for other people who might have questions about decisions made in the past.

1) The location of the expansion for AoC was mandated by the Game Director. Who was actually Gaute. Who had decided it way before launch. So Khitai was not my choice as a REH fan. It was however, what I was told to make.

My job was finding a way to actually tie the story to the lore. And yes, Robert E Howard wrote about 10 lines about Khitai in all of his stories. You'll find everything he ever wrote represented in the expansion. Because I cared, and I went the extra mile to make sure that the setting fit with the little information we had.

Gaute gets a lot of blame for various things, according to Funcom the guy left due to not liking the direction AOC was being taken. According to you the direction AOC was taking was by design of Gaute.  You want to expand on that seeing as you are now being so open to the public

It's really quite simple. Gaute said there were "elements he was dissatisfied with." In the game he was Game Director for. He never said anything about the direction it was going. Feel free to fact check that.

http://massively.joystiq.com/2008/09/17/producer-and-game-director-for-age-of-conan-resigns-from-funcom/

To expand upon that, an expansion team was formed that I was not a part of for several months before I was brought onto the team as Lead Designer. They had been working from a vision document that was originally written by Gaute.

 

 As for what Howard wrote, a lot is dependant on which versions of the stories you read.  

Yeah no offence, but I spent almost 4 years of my life reading all the versions of the stories - but our mandate from Conan inc was to use a particular set, the Del Rey published versions. 

 

There are a lot of versions.  You had next to no references on Khitai, which again is why the choice for the expansion is a little strange ... whoever made the decision.    The main reference with Yag-Kosha and The Tower of the Elephant was one of Howards more bizarre stories.  In essence this was Conan meets ET.  On top of which as a Conan fan you think riding Wolves and Tigers fitted into the world of AOC. Gaute may have decided the course of the expansion, the end product was your doing.

It being one of Howards weirder stories doesn't change anything. As for Vaghasan (not tigers and never referenced in the game as tigers) and the wolves, feel free to brush up on the in-game lore. We explained both their presence and how it all worked. The entire storyline was also run by various Howard scholars. I even did an interiew on The Cimmerian about it. I do find it odd that anyone could object to exotic mounts when Conan has been confronted with flying demon camels in one story. 

  Next to no testing, poor release, 32bit client memory error/leak, crashing when changing zone.   When I asked for a refund because I couldn't play the game, I got told 'Funcom don't do refunds' here have some free game time, for a game I couldn't play... No you have nothing to answer for ...Just imagine if you had appeased this one customer at the time as a company  I wouldn't be here now...a lesson in customer service if ever there was one.

If over 8 months in beta is not enough testing for you, there is little I can offer to placate you. I had a very strong relationship with the beta testers, just like I did with the beta testers for TSW. I also submitted weekly lists of the top 10 issues with the expansion. Unsuprisingly, tech was the number one point on that list for months. We had most of our coders working on it. We also had iron clad default deadlines with our Korean partners. When the stability was deemed good enough, the expansion was deemed release worthy.  Release date was *never* the decision of the Lead Designer.

I apologize for your customer service woes, but again, this is hardly relevant to your original post casting aspersions on my ability to design and lead a project. I don't run the customer service area of the company, but you will note that if you head over to the TSW forums, there are plenty of positive customer service experiences. Could you admit that it might have gotten better over the past few years?

 

2) The grind in the expansion was a precaution, because AoC players were always finding ways to exploit the crap out of the content. So we figured we would build in the grind, and then reduce it quickly once our systems proved leakproof. And guess what happened?

 

Well that is a nice admision, you introduce grind instead of content by design. I look forward to seeing what you do with TSW.

So if the required faction points was lower, there would have been more content? Your reasoning is flawed. Read what I wrote again.

 

We launched the Xpac, most of the AoC team moved to Montreal and I was moved to TSW. In a period of turmoil like that, it took them a lot longer to fix the grind than was planned. It has been fixed though, which it is interesting that you don't mention.

 

Excuses, excuses. as a customer who cares about the internal struggles of Funcom. You moved to Montreal for what reason, probably tax breaks.  The Age of Conan supporters were left with a grindy game while you sorted yourselves out. 

 

This is my point with regards to Funcom, you care about yourselves.  You don't care about the players, you don't listen to the players and in essence dictate policy with next to no flexibility. 

Ah see I am not really making excuses, I am explaining the situation which led to your perception. I didn't apologize for it.

I'll ignore the melodramatic "Funcom doesn't care about players" stuff if you don't mind. Funcom is not a person. It is a company made up of individuals. I care about the players, and so do the rest of the design team. I'm sure the accountants don't and the chef in the cafeteria doesn't - but they are also a part of Funcom. It's essentially a meaningless statement.

 

Oh and selling the game in Korea (going F2P on Conan was done like a year after I had left the project) e.t.c. You do realize Lead Designers don't make business decisions right? Deals like that are mandated from above.

 

I realise you are probably not fully responsible for business decisions, but that's a little too easy.  You went free to play in Korea with AOC, at the same time keeping the subs in the West.  Stating as a company you would not be going free to play with AOC in the Western market.    So when the expansion was being made you had no designs on a free to play model?  Yeah right. Just like now TSW is tooled up to go free to play at the drop of a hat, yet you have no plans.

Yes, our Korean Partners, Neowiz, made Age of Conan free-to-play in the east. They used their own store and had their own setup. The AoC F2P you see today is something entirely different. And yes, when I left AoC for TSW after Godslayer, there had been zero design plans around making the game F2P. You don't have to believe me, but at least admit that I know a lot more about the internal processes of our projects (and company) than you do.

That AOC expansion had a feel of free to play about it right from the start. Am I suppose to believe that the free to play stuff was retrofitted into the expansion after the event... hmm don't buy it.

I'm sorry but your "feelings" are irrelevant. You can choose to not believe anything I say (and you've made it quite clear you won't) but again, one of us possesses knowledge and one of us is guessing at best.

 

So for rational people out there, hopefully I have set a few minds at ease.

 

I am rational just don't believe anything your company says, because I have heard a lot of reheotric from Funcom over the years that has turned out to be quite false... still waiting on my 360 verison of Conan and TSW.  You might be a good egg I don't know, you might lead TSW out of the wilderness and into the promise land.   But I doubt it.

Well again, there was a 360 port of the engine worked on for a long time. And then it was stopped because the memory requirements of Dreamworld exceeded what modern consoles with shared VRAM could handle.

I agree with you that marketing probably jumped the gun in announcing those versions. Ragnar set the record straight on TSW a long time before launch, however. I think it is a bit harsh to hold a grudge for an announcement that was retracted. Your call though. 

 

AOC was a great game around 1.5/1.6 level... I loved it.  Somebody slowly runined it, you had a large hand in that.  So while I appreciate you commenting and putting things 'straight' I don't actually hold your company in much regard.  Over the years there has been a lot of misinformation fed to us from Funcom. If your goals are to address that balance and put things straight, then fair play to you. I hope you are the dawning of a new era in the history of Funcom.

Well, if you used to love it and you feel I had a large hand in ruining that, you might also consider that I had a large hand in the game that you loved in 1.5/1.6. The game went in a direction you didn't like, and I understand that can be frustrating. But at the end of the day, nobody makes decisions that everyone agrees with. And players are incredibly conflicted in what they want and how they want it. 

As for "misinformation" it really does depend on things. As with the 360 example, for all intents and purposes people were employed to work on a 360 port. Does that mean Funcom lied when they announced it? And when it fell through, it means things had changed after the announcement. Then the announcement becomes "misinformation" but there was no attempt to mislead people purposely. On TSW we were very wary of "overselling" the game, and you have to admit that we promised nothing in the game that we didn't deliver (to varying degrees of success).

My point is that companies change, grow and evolve over time.TSW is *not* AoC - and the needs of TSW are not the same needs that Rise of the Godslayer had. 

Anyway, let me end this now. I don't think we should continue to argue about this as you have made your standpoint clear and I hope I have made mine clear. 

 

Thanks for posting, Joel. It really says a lot about how much passion you have for your work when you're willing to talk about it outside of company-sanctioned interviews, forums, PR material, etc. It's something I think needs to happen more in the industry, though I can certainly see why all the red tape prevents that.

ty for your post Mr. Funcom

I am a TSW lifer, and I look forward to what you guys are doing.  You are the only gaming company that even attempts to try anything new at all, and for that I applaude you, even though a lot of it is met with ridicule.  Some things you hit out of the park and somethings wont go over well.  As long as you continue to shoot for the stars, keep up the good work.  Please dont settle for WOWifying to attract some nawsayers, and I have seen you dont.

Is there any plans for a Funcom Pass? That would rock!