All Posts by Shannia

Played it, reviewed it.  Great game, great graphics, and even better story than graphics IMHO.  Yet, Age of Clonan is not for me.  An MMORPG is not about stuffing as many instances into a game and cloning the zones as many times as you can to fit 4,000 people on one server without lag.  To me, that complete breaks the immersion factor EXPECIALLY for a social gamer into roll playing.  Combine that with the horid gathering and crafting system in AoC, and this is a no go as far as spending $15 a month on.  Was it worth $50? Hell ya.  Is it worth another $180 a year?  HELL NO!  At least not in my opinion.

First of all, finish off the month with AoC.  By the time you get to the 70s you will know for sure if AoC is for you or not.   Remember, 73-80 is nothing but grind and that is a long haul IF you don't get into apprentice groups.  As far as WoW goes, it is a great game also.  If you like PvP they just announced S4 gear as of the 26th of June.  Like others have said, play what is fun to YOU.

remove crafting completely.  They need a year or two to completely rework gathering and crafting.  As it stands right now, it is the eye sore of the entire game if you can get past all the zone cloning.

Originally posted by Lottobarn

"Massive PvP update in June – New areas and dungeons – Powerpoints and Guild Alliance warfare to come

Durham, USA – June 13, 2008 – After the incredible initial success for Age of Conan, a whole world of MMO players are eagerly anticipating the future plans for one of the most popular online games ever released. While Age of Conan has already evolved massively since launch, numerous expansive additions are yet to come. Funcom and Eidos are therefore proud to lift the veil on Age of Conan’s promising future, and today the two companies reveal selected features which are now in production.

"While we have enjoyed the initial success for Age of Conan, we know that a solid launch is but the start when it comes to the MMO genre,” said Gaute Godager, Game Director on Age of Conan. ”As we look ahead we are preparing a huge amount of new content, and what we are presenting today will evolve Age of Conan even further. It’s naturally an incredibly ambitious update plan for a live MMO game, but we are certain our players would want nothing less.”

Without further ado, here are some of the cool things to expect in the months to come:

PvP evolved – To the Death

The great combat system in Age of Conan has taken MMO fighting to a new level of fun, and Player versus Player combat plays a major part in this. As a result, a massive new PvP update is planned for late June. Aptly called To the death, this update brings more consequence and rewards to PvP, and an important part of it is the Fugitive system. The more lower level players you kill, the easier it is for others to hunt you down. In addition, ten PvP levels with additional ranks will be introduced, as well as specific gear and weapons for PvP.

Guild Alliance Warfare

Preproduction has started on a MASSIVE free update which will come later this year. Currently titled "Kingship!”, large clusters of guilds will be able to form alliances, and rule and conquer on a massive scale. Everyone in a guild alliance will play a part in this system, and together they can even erect unique looking alliance Battlekeeps. The alliances can also fight over, and build, culture-specific "wonders of the world”, with a direct link to higher powers! As part of the system Funcom will also facilitate larger amounts of players in massive battles.

Powerpoints

This fall, a unique reward and character evolution system called Powerpoints will be introduced. This rewards active in-game behavior, and allows for gathering points through numerous methods, including owning a Battlekeep, playing the end-game at level 80, winning PvP matches, or simply being an active guild member or subscribing to the game. There will be many ways to obtain Powerpoints, and numerous rewards, ranging from exclusive Powerfeats to weapons, armor and potions. Powerpoints may even allow you to level faster!

New areas and dungeons

You won’t need to wait for an expansion pack to explore exciting new areas. In the next period, Funcom will include several new areas, as well as evolving already existing areas. This includes a brand new dungeon in Aquilonia, reshaping three dungeons in Stygia, and an entire mountain range in Cimmeria!

Improved player-made villages and Battlekeep systems

While the guild alliance system brings a whole new level to the game, Funcom will continue to expand the existing player-made areas and the systems running them. A focus on evolving the massive elements of the game even further continues, ranging from placing NPC’s in the cities to more choices and benefits.

Social updates

An MMO is nothing without a good social scene. While Conan is all about crushing your enemies, social enhancements are also getting some love. A fun example is the combo-based dancing system which is now coming to the game, and it’s entirely motion captured by professional dance artists.

More adventures

Age of Conan has received tremendous praise for immersion and the great voice-over quests. This is but the start of the adventure, and numerous new quests are coming into the game, spread across the entire world and across the level ranges. Soon 60 additional quests will also get full voice acting, further improving immersion.

Embracing community feedback Since launch several enhancements and fixes have been implemented to Age of Conan, and Funcom has continuously staffed up the service departments to improve customer satisfaction. This has already resulted in a better game experience, but the work will continue. At the heart of all of this stands the Age of Conan community. A lot of the upcoming improvements to the game will be based directly on community feedback, and the wishes and concerns players have when it comes to the future of the game will always be taken into account.

By reading the community websites, official forums and the monthly Clan of Conan newsletter you can expect additional information about upcoming features and released updates, as well as an arena to give your feedback. A new Clan of Conan newsletter is also going live today, with more detail on the upcoming features. http://funcom.cachefly.net/WebFiles/Newsletter/Issue17/

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About Funcom - Funcom is an independent developer and publisher of online games for PC, consoles and mobile platforms. Funcom has provided outstanding entertainment since 1993 and continues to expand its track-record of more than twenty released games. Recent titles include 'The Longest Journey', 'Anarchy Online' and 'Dreamfall: The Longest Journey'. For corporate information please visit www.funcom.com. For information about Funcom games visit www.anarchy-online.com, www.dreamfall.com, www.darkdaysarecoming.com or www.ageofconan.com. Funcom is listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange under the ticker FUNCOM.

About Conan Properties International LLC - Conan Properties International LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Paradox Entertainment Inc., controls rights to Conan, many associated characters and the Hyborian world, as created by Robert E. Howard and various rights expanded upon by many acclaimed authors and artists.  Many consider Conan the world's best-known fantasy character.  For more information about Conan Properties International LLC, visit www.conan.com.  For information about Paradox Entertainment Inc., visit www.paradox-entertainment.com.

About Eidos Interactive Ltd - Eidos Interactive Ltd is part of SCi Entertainment Group Plc (SEG) creators of some of the world's leading videogame properties. Eidos consists of offices across Europe and the US and several development studios including Crystal Dynamics, IO Interactive, Beautiful Game Studios and Eidos Montreal. The Group has a valuable combined portfolio of intellectual property including: Tomb Raider, Hitman, Deus Ex, Championship Manager and Just Cause.

The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners."

It is a damn shame they had time to focus on all this post launch content, yet they didn't have time to complete the content and fix bugs before release.  Maybe with their next MMORPG, they will finally learn from their mistakes with AO and the new mistakes with AoC.  There could be hope for Secret World.

Originally posted by sorcielle

Originally posted by Shannia

IMHO, AoC will be a F2P game in 18-24 months with EIDOS taking advantage of #5 in the your EULA, i.e. In-game Advertising.  After getting to 45, I can honestly say this game has more of a G.W./Hellgate:London feel than a MMORPG.  As good as the game is, I don't feel it is worth paying monthly subscriptions for.  Again, IMHO, there are many F2P games that are much more of an MMORPG that are worth paying for, but are free, than AoC.  Great game, just not a good MMORPG at all.

 

Boy do these posts get old...

While I will not call you a troll, it would be nice if you could post something without the heatshielding in place from the get-go.

STOP WITH THE "BECAUSE IT IS INSTANCED IT IS NOT A REAL MMO" BULLSHIT PLEASE. With one breath you can bash this game style dynamic, and in the next be crying over how all games are identical..

And quit holding up everything against WoW as your holy grail.... I am sooooooooooooo ooooooooo oooooooooo tired of the "WoW has 10mil supcriptions blah blah blah.. I am so validated by the number 10 million!!!"

And you ARE subtly saying you would rather be playing F2P over AoC, so either defend your orignal post or STFU.

Some of us actually like AoC... it is not perfect - but it sure as hell is a MMORPG.

Sorry Sir, if you go back and read the thread, I wasn't the one who brought up WoW.  I was responding in kind.  And no, it is not an MMORPG.  It is like Guild Wars and Hellgate:London.  It surely isn't an mmorpg.  If anything, it is trying to bridge the gap between battle.net and traditional MMORPGs.  It just takes in one step further than Guildwars and HG:L do.

Originally posted by Gnazon

Another point is that just because PC gamers are disappointed does not mean that xbox players will, mmo competition (and hence standards) is much, much weaker on the console market (afaik), so they can get away with more. Plus when the game releases for xbox the missing content and balance will be in already. Someone (and it was not me) once said on thise very forums that PC version of AoC will be the beta for xbox version, and it seems that he/she was right.

Very good point.  I always forget that M$ is sitting off to the side waiting for this to release.  Considering the direction M$ is taking their games, Item Mall will be in before in-game advertising.  M$ likes micro transactions in online games.

Originally posted by Psiho246

Shannia get a life. Iv been seeing you spamming this forums with negative comments about AoC since I registered. Don't you have anything better to do?

F2P...you are pathetic

What ever.  You need to look at all my posts about AoC.  Matter of fact, I gave the game a 75.   It is a great game, what it isn't is a MMORPG, IMHO.  You know, opinions, we are allowed to have those and post those as we see fit.  And for the record, there is nothing wrong with F2P.  What would be wrong is if Funcom did start putting in ads and didn't make it free to play. 

Originally posted by curiousdaoc

Originally posted by Shannia

 DeadlyMage and CuriousDAOC, you both need to learn to read.  No where did I say I like to play F2P games.  Ghost12, I'm glad at least you can read.  LOL

 

So you compare games you don't even like to games you are trying to bash?

The point of this thread is?

Any reason you didn't address other responses, you know, the ones related to your thread topic (of which my own had input as well)?

The answer: because you are a troll.

Sorry, TROLL, I was busy typing to someone else if you noticed.

Look at your AO, look at Funcom, look at EIDOS, look at their MAIN focus going forward for revenue is IN-GAME ADVERTISING, look at your EULA, #5 specifically, written by EIDOS and endorsed by FUNCOM or it wouldn't be in your game, look at AO again...  YES, F2P AoC is coming, it isn't a matter of if, but when.

Originally posted by Grekon

Haha... Sorry for mentioning the forever damned game, but WoW had it's own share of shitty stuff when it came out... Man I even couldn't create account the whole day... and for weeks the servers were very unstable... and if you want to mention pvp of AoC... well think about how long did it make for blizzard to get WoW classes balanced XD erm... year?

 

Sorry this came out little bit of WoW related post... Though when you look at the subscription amounts you know WoW ain't F2P after 3 years... Same will go with AoC... I have noticed huge improvements from closed beta to this day and I'm loving it better and better(even though I'm playing possibly the buggiest class considering pvp(Assassin)) after each patch(even with not much of improvements to assassin yet)

Dude, thanks for the derail.  Since you brought it up, The first day WoW was bad.  Within three days they got the servers calmed down.  One server bank crashed and was offline until they could replace the damn hardware.  Also, remember at that time 150,000 subscribers was a HUGE success in the field.  Blizzard sold out 275,000 copies in NA the first week.  You could not find a copy of the game anywhere.  Funcom is reaping the rewards of Blizzard single handedly making MMORPGs main stream.  3 1/2 years later, they have nearly 11 million concurrent subscribers.  Funcom is a publicly traded company.  We'll see in 12 months their financials and see how many subscribers they actually have concurrently.  I'm glad you are enjoying AoC.

And for the record, you can't ever balance classes for PvP. One tweek will make a class balanced 1v1, while at the same time making group pvp so unbalanced it isn't worth playing.  Classes should be balanced to what they bring to the PvE game, not PvP.  You can't balance for PvP for 1v1, 2v2, 3v3, 5v5, 10v10, and guild v guild.  You have to draw the line somewhere.  And for the record, WoW's PvP at launch was better than anything they have done after.  Open world PvP was awesome and now you never see that unless someone is going in to attempt to roll a king.

now, back to our regularly scheduled programming

Originally posted by curiousdaoc

Originally posted by DeadlyMage

Originally posted by Ghost12

Originally posted by DeadlyMage

no it wont

and go play a F2P if you like em so mush

 

Where did he ever say that he liked F2P in his post? At least take the time to read his post before you make a smart alek response.

 

 

"As good as the game is, I don't feel it is worth paying monthly subscriptions for.  Again, IMHO, there are many F2P games that are much more of an MMORPG that are worth paying for, but are free, than AoC."

he said this. can you read

 

Yep, thats owned, gotta love when someone tells you to read when they themselves have not.

The chances of AoC going F2P ever, are slim, the chances of it going F2P with 18-24 months are non-existent. Its an impossibility from a business perspective, especially considering the revenue FC poured into AoC to get it to where it is at.

 

DeadlyMage and CuriousDAOC, you both need to learn to read.  No where did I say I like to play F2P games.  Ghost12, I'm glad at least you can read.  LOL

I've got to admit, I'm very disappointed in Avery.

Some threads, he is bashing the OPs for posting negative threads and saying people shouldn't be doing reviews on this game because it is too early.  Up pops a positive review and Avery is there to defend it reminding us there is more proof of how glorious and wonderful Funcom and AoC are.  Then the next post a company writes AoC down and Avery is there to tell the OP wrong the review is again for the game being so young.  The next post Avery is there presenting another glorious review of Funcom and AoC.  It is a never ending cycle.  I'm sure this "See, I told you so" vs "But, it has potential" lines will keep on coming from not only Avery, but the other die-hard fanbois, as well.

Oh well, only a few more months until the next "AAA" game launches and we get to do it over and over again.  LOL

IMHO, AoC will be a F2P game in 24-36 months with EIDOS taking advantage of #5 in the your EULA, i.e. In-game Advertising.  After getting to 45, I can honestly say this game has more of a G.W./Hellgate:London feel than a MMORPG.  As good as the game is, I don't feel it is worth paying monthly subscriptions for.  Again, IMHO, there are many F2P games that are much more of an MMORPG that are worth paying for, but are free, than AoC.  Great game, just not a good MMORPG at all.

 *Edit*  I changed my prediction on In-Game Advertising because as someone pointed out, AoC on the XBox 360 will be coming out soon.  As such, it will breath more life into the game.

Mess me over once, shame on you.  Mess me over twice, shame on me.  I'm idiot to have believed Funcom learned from AO and Sigil's VanguardSoH launch.  Obviously, I was wrong.  Don't get me wrong.  Age of Clonan is a good game, but it is one of the worst MMORPGs I have ever played.  Graphics and story are the only things holding this one together.

Originally posted by LondonMagus

It's a great game, they are resolving issues quickly & now they are announcing new material as well.

Who cares whether the new stuff could have been in from launch if they had waited a few more months, the game is immensely playable now & most plenty of subscribers are very happy, mysel included.

Why is that some people just aren't happy unless they are complaining about being unhappy?

And your mentality is what seperates a 10 million concurrent subscriber based game from one that settles for 250,000 concurrent subscribers.  We'll talk again this time next year to see how well AoC is doing.

Originally posted by Gnazon

 

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Originally posted by cyricson
You must admit that at least there is something positive about this AoC lie. Mythic will not dare do the same shit as FC did. After this fiasco i am at least 1% more certain that WAR will deliver (even if it takes 1-2 more pushbacks)
Praise FC for teaching the other companies that we are NOT STUPID, we might get lied to, yes, but we are not fucking stupid and we do not forget. So let them lie to us, they will get paid only the first month.

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One would think that the companies would have learned that after Vanguard... I do hope that you are right though! :)

 

Preach it guys.  Funcom didn't learn.  How many times to players have to say it, "SCREW POTENTIAL"!  Bring out the box.  If you don't have it coming out the gate, don't open the damn gate yet.  Better to delay a year and get it right than to release with missing content that you've been bragging about for years.

Originally posted by elf225

Though we have all voiced what we view as the important aspects of an MMO, we still stick with an MMORPG that we find flaws in.  So, my question is what would it take from a new MMO to pull you away from your current MMO home and make you sub for a long period.  Basically, what is the ground breaking points for each of you.   Also, please fill in the list below for what MMO is your current home.

 

 

I want a sandbox game that takes SWG Pre-CU to the next level. Huge, open worlds with next to no instances except for boss fighting so we don't have to fight campers/gold farmers for boss fights.

But, more importantly, I want and open and honest developer that takes interest in the fans want first.

No more hype.

No more "polls" asking what type of servers/content we want then excluding what we've been asking for.

No more crappy crafting systems.  If you have crafting system in-game, make it an epic system with items better than anything that can drop.

No more lies.

No more epic letters of look at our "potential".

No more "letters of apology" post launch just to dangle carrots at us to keep us interested.

No more missing content.

No more rushed releases.

No more broken promises.

There is a start.  Now all we need is a company willing to pick up the challenge.

Originally posted by Wakygreek

Originally posted by hobo9766

I would to thank funcom for shafting all of us who play anarchy online. Now that aoc is out it is your gem and it seems you don't give a crap what happens to your paying customers in your old game. No GMs or ARKs since aoc launched people waiting in petitions for days and on top of that the server is crashing and we can't even chat anymore in game. Many of angry customers have even hijacked a patch update thread in forums and demanded someone answer and look what we get. Funcom putting the FU in fun.....

Answer your damn customers

http://forums.anarchy-online.com/showthread.php?t=530679

Wait we can't even chat anymore.

http://forums.anarchy-online.com/showthread.php?t=531031

 

 

 

So just to understand what your posting...you are angry at Funcom ok thats obvious.  You want them to read what you have to say.  Okay I get that too.  I guess my only problem is, why the hell did you post it here?  I mean are you expecting them to surf random websites in search of petitions about their other games? 

Because, funcom obviously isn't reading the AO forums.  He isn't an AoC customer.  Funcom says they read all the sites like WARCRY and MMORPG.com.  It is a logicial conclusion that he'd have a better chance catching a GMs attention here than on the AO forums.  They've been abondoned by the devs.  Damn shame actually.

LMAO...

OP, that was funny as hell.  Even a die-hard fanbois has to find that funny.

Oh, and a sinking ship is a very close second.

This is all for arguments sake to add to the conversation, but also to give you something to think about.

First thing, ask yourself, have you known ANY MMORPG company more secretive than Aventurine?

Let's assume that what Tasos has said is for real.  Aventurine has Greek defense ties.  They also have Lybian ties.  These are why it takes so long for anything to get done with regards to DFO, because they are involved in a lot of other things that take priority over DFO.  Let's assume that the Lybian connection is what is funding DFO.  Lets say in December DFO launches and they get 300,000 subscribers.

Six months later we find out that Interpol is investigating Aventurine, all of it's employees and customers.  Why?  Again, making this up for arguments sake, come to find out the financier of DFO has ties to militant extremists.  DFO turns out to be another front in funneling money into extremists hands.

Would you want to be part of that 300,000 making donations to organized crime of any kind?  I know I don't.  The way Aventurine has handled it's business practices is highly questionable at best.  They are extremely secretive.

Here in America, you don't have NASA or the Air Force hiring out defense contractors to make simulators and weapon systems, and at the same time the company has a side project  making video games.  If the the government wants a videogame, they go find a video game company and contract them out to make a game for them.  I don't think you are going to have Blizzard making stealth figther planes for the U.S. Navy any time soon.