This is a great video!

I think WOWs problem is simply that it is getting old. There are now hundreds of games that are so called "wow clones" These are constantly nibbling at WOW and reduicing the playerbase. WOW wil slowly dissapear and the MMO industry will re-invent itself. 

One should also mention that the run towards endgame is probaly a bigger problem in the industry than elves. 

One should maybe look at TSW it has no leveling (everyone starts at endgame) and it has no elves...

This is an interresting article. I am one of those that developers wants to stay ingame longer. I quit vanilla wow at level 55 (5 under cap) as the grind was to boring. The same with every other mmo out there i have played. I get to a few levels under cap and then quit. I guess me and many others have similar patterns and the devs "dumb down" the games to cater for players such as me. 

However no matter what they try i end up quitting a game faster and faster. For me its the journey and not "getting there" that counts. When the journey approaches the end I leave. 

I think maybe TSW has a good idea where you "start at max" and then grind your skills whil experienceing the content. Might keep me ingame longer. 

Originally posted by Elsabolts

I concur with most of the others here TSW will not do well, reason there Track Record.

 

I disagree with you and others saying that TSW will not do well. Reason is - mistakes will NOT be repeated. 

Mayans and Vikings. This is going to be fun!

Originally posted by Shivam

Originally posted by Redcor

AoC had a horrible launch but has improved tons in the last 2 years. Don't knock it till you try it. I tried SWTOR.

No i am pretty much knocking it after trying it.

When did you try it is the main question here?

If it was at launch you are completely outdated. If it was a year ago you are somewhat outdated, if it was 4 months (after f2p) ago your oppinon is based on updated facts.  

Funny how people forget......

When AOC launched and there was only voiceover for the first 20 levels there was an upproar on how bad it was that there were no voices in the rest of the game.

Now there is finally and MMO with full voiceover and the complaints come pouring in

I think this thread is full of ********

You find a source of entertainment that you enjoy and pay if it is within your budget.

USD 15 pr month and a OPTIONAL cash shop is within most peoples budgets. 

So, relax, evaluate if you enjoy the entertainment (i.e. computergame) and pay if you do. The company has to pay its emplyoees, managers and provide a surplus to the owners. 

Originally posted by VoIgore

Originally posted by sassoonss

Received an email - was sitting in junk. I usually dont click links directly to I logged in thru Funcom login account and the offer was for real.

 

Calling all Veterans!

Return to Hyboria!

With more players returning to Hyboria every day, and with the success of the recent adventure pack bringing great reviews, there has never been a better time to return as a premium player of Age of Conan: Unchained.

Don't believe us? As a special offer to those who have previously roamed the battlefields of Hyboria, we are inviting you back to experience the full game experience as a premium member for a whole month, completely free of charge.

The re-activation period will run from November 17th to December 17th 

For how long do we hear this bullsh*t now? 4 years?

Well Volgore - this time its due to the F2P model they implemented half a year ago. It has had a substantial effect. Log on and you will see for your self. Its free.....

Boicotting TSW because of their business model is like boicotting the Star Wars movies because they make money on Star Wars Lego. 

Just silly really

The game is 3,5 years old and there are plenty of dungeons and people who run them

here is a list

http://aoc.wikia.com/wiki/Portal:Dungeons

Originally posted by kylekbb

Well the reason i left i believe was my friend wanted to try another game. And i just kinda followed so i am goina check back into it. But if anyone can might list the most changes over the last few months.

Here you go.

Lots of stuff, but as said above. Depends on when you left. I have been playing irreglarly since the unchaind release

http://www.ageofconan.com/news/search/

Originally posted by Scambug

I'm also a little worried by the performance this game will have on low to mid ranged PCs since it uses the same hogtastic engine AoC does.

AoC is now more than 3 years old and PC's have catched up with it. It is still a demanding game in terms of pc resources, but it runs smothly on almost any mid range PC. I have a 2 year old laptop that I use for AoC and it works very nicely. I cant max it out on graphics, but i can get about 60-70% . 

For TSW they have also stated that they know about the problems AOC had with pc resources and therefore they are testing it on "weak" pcs. 

Finally at the Gamescon conference this weekend they used laptops when they presented TSW live. 

edit: pic of the PC build used at Gamescon for TSW

http://twitpic.com/67sbns

Originally posted by Azrile

Originally posted by zymurgeist

I'm still waiting for that Funcom stock collapse and bankruptcy Azrile promised us years ago.

Yep, I was wrong.   I honestly had no idea a company could be unprofitable 11 out of 12 quarters, write off 25M of a loss while bringing in only 4M in revenues and still be in business.  It defies logic.  Very few companies last long having non-stop negative profits quarter after quarter. 

You should have checked their cash reserve. After launch of AoC they had no debt and about USD 30 mill in cash. Now they still have some cash left and will soon (april) have two MMOs. Also AoC as an separate entity has been profitable for years now, they simply cut costs. The money they have spent has been on developing TSW. 

The freemium model is really good for the casual PVE player who wants to spend some time in Hyboria at his/her own speed. (like me) However once you get really into the game you will probably need a sub to experience the full feeling of the game. For competitive gamers i beleive a sub is a must. 

What are your best guesses on release date for SWToR or has there been any info on this?

Originally posted by Jackdog

Originally posted by Aceundor

Originally posted by Jackdog

Originally posted by shantideva

Originally posted by Jackdog

Originally posted by nihce

check the rating today

yeah it is popping up and down 700  hours  for no valid reason unless the servers were down Tuesday...odd

Servers were down for a small update, most likely what caused the drop.

ok a 6 - 7 hour downtime would account for it. Games just don't drop 25% and pop back up in the middle of a week for no reason' Looks like it has settled out around 2700 hours per day weekdays and most likley peak onSundays with about 3000- 3200 or so. Respectable.

it was at 3300 hrs today (saturday figures) and usually rizes on further on Sunday so we should see about 3500 hrs tomorrow. This is about a month since F2P and Blood and Glory. Seems like its stabilizing for the summer. Then soon there will be the new Conan film and probaly another influx of players. Quite nice actually for a 3 year old game that was predicted dead an buried within a year after launch. Yet again Funcom has turned a catastrophic launch to a solid MMO. 

depends on the retention, AOC never did have a issue attracting people, bbut has neve been goood at retaining them. Several times since release the game made it back into the 20's overall on XFire but within a month or so they would start falling again.I think it was made it back into the teens overall when the Xpac was released. for referance yesterday it was #39 overall with 11 other MMOs ahead of it. Better than a month or 2 back when it was dipping below #100

Jackdog - i agree with your conclusion. It will depend on retention. However your figures are wrong. At the launch of the Godslayer xpac AoC never got above rank 26. Also the dips below 100 were due to patches and downtimes. It was down in the 80s 

Source: A norwegian group of investors has made a website that tracks statistics for Funcom games. Have a look at the xfire stats on this page: zhttp://www.funcominvestor.com/aoc_statistikk.php

Klick on "xfire rangering" (xfire rank) and move the cursor over the graph (dont think it works in IE so try another browser if it fails to load. )

Originally posted by Jackdog

Originally posted by shantideva

Originally posted by Jackdog

Originally posted by nihce

check the rating today

yeah it is popping up and down 700  hours  for no valid reason unless the servers were down Tuesday...odd

Servers were down for a small update, most likely what caused the drop.

ok a 6 - 7 hour downtime would account for it. Games just don't drop 25% and pop back up in the middle of a week for no reason' Looks like it has settled out around 2700 hours per day weekdays and most likley peak onSundays with about 3000- 3200 or so. Respectable.

it was at 3300 hrs today (saturday figures) and usually rizes on further on Sunday so we should see about 3500 hrs tomorrow. This is about a month since F2P and Blood and Glory. Seems like its stabilizing for the summer. Then soon there will be the new Conan film and probaly another influx of players. Quite nice actually for a 3 year old game that was predicted dead an buried within a year after launch. Yet again Funcom has turned a catastrophic launch to a solid MMO. 

15 parallell instances in tortage tonight. lots of action on B&G. Global is crap of course

Everybody that is not able to run AoC today has one or more of these problems:

1) There is a  problem with their specific PC be it HW or SW

2) They have an old pc or graphics card

3) They are lying or trolling

The reason for this is simple. SInce 2008 Funcom has fixed crashes and problems again and again and again. They have polished the game and tested it on numerous rigs. There is of course a small chance that there are a specific compitability problem out there but I find that chances for that are quite remote. In other words: READ MY SIG