Originally posted by solareus

THere is difference between owning the material , and owning the name.

"Intellectual Property

CONAN® and/or CONAN THE BARBARIAN® and related logos, characters, names, and
distinctive likenesses thereof are trademarks of Conan Properties
International LLC unless otherwise noted. All Rights Reserved.
"

They just own the name (see above .. and likeness), you can go online and down R. E. Howard's books for free.

Yes and they use their position holding the copyright on the name to sue people into not being able to use the public domain material because it contains the name.  I am guessing if these jackasses held those rights in the 70's none of the incomplete stories that were finished by people like DeCamp could not have been written (dunno if thats a bad thing personally, I was never a fan of his versions).

From what I can find, only reason these guys have the IP is no one held copyright so they registered it and now own it, it's a cheap way to get control of the material. It's Vultures playing lawyer tricks. it's lame.

Originally posted by Sevenwind

Originally posted by Unfinished

Originally posted by nicols

Some sort of periodic royalty / licence fee for ...

I thought I remembered when AOC was announced, hearing people say it was a 'good get' financially. The Howard descendants lost the rights to his works by not renewing their claim (making it default to public domain). A 3rd party stepped in and registered trademarks on the name 'Conan' and some of the other characters. In theory getting a license from them was probably very inexpensive (you are just renting the name, not the lore) by comparison than to say the works of Tolkien. I am sure the Wachowski's probably charge big for the Matrix IP useage.

 

Howard descendants ended with Howards father. Robert's father hid his will when he died because all of Robert's work was to go to his friend. Once it was found out the friend didn't contest it and Robert's father tried to get what was owed to Robert from the various pulps.

His father than stuck all of that stuff in a trunk and moved to Ranger, TX. I think after Robert's father died De Camp and Glenn Lord had stuff Conan.

This is according to Mark Finn. I'm sure I got some of it wrong along the way.

I started looking up the public domain listings of his work, and now i wish i hadn't. The company that has licensed the rights to FC are serious assh*les. They sue fans you use the public domain works to try to strengthen the position of the rights they do control. Gotta love a buncha assh*le lawyers who start a corporation register a trademark on a property they dont own and screw over fans to make a couple bucks. Might wanna think about the fact if you support AoC you are supporting those f*ckfaces too.

Originally posted by nicols

Some sort of periodic royalty / licence fee for ...

I thought I remembered when AOC was announced, hearing people say it was a 'good get' financially. The Howard descendants lost the rights to his works by not renewing their claim (making it default to public domain). A 3rd party stepped in and registered trademarks on the name 'Conan' and some of the other characters. In theory getting a license from them was probably very inexpensive (you are just renting the name, not the lore) by comparison than to say the works of Tolkien. I am sure the Wachowski's probably charge big for the Matrix IP useage.

Originally posted by Wharg0ul

I totally agree though...they screwed the pooch....again.....hehehe.

Not worry guys FC will e-mail you a 'come back for X # of days free!!' every 6 months till the game goes dark, they have been doing exactly that for years with AO.

This was their big shot to try and get a ton of free 'so glad I came back' press, the early responses I have been reading on a lot of multi-game power guild forums haven't been very kind (a way better barometer, than a site like this). FC's marketing dept. will label it a giant success either way, they always have.

Originally posted by AmazingAvery

 

I think you guys are right.

And to add to what Zorv was saying, yes AO was a number cruncher with depth, and AoC is designed differently, at the same time at least in the graphics area there is a good foundation there, and whilst graphics are not everything, they do kinda draw people in. As people upgrade their PC's over time that depth can be added too. As Conan is not as much of a number cruncher but at the same time is pretty good for the casual gamer it depends on which you view as having more people over a longer time in retention but at the same time if the updates can be good enough...

 

Here's one huge difference between the two games, 1 yr after launch less than 1% of the players had a maxed toon, it took seriously dedicated, guilded player 18 months to hit the level cap, only poopsockers hit the top in less.  When the first xpac came out (territorial pvp) 3/4 of the map couldn't be claimed because not enough toons met the level req.

The biggest reason AO still has a following is simple, It's Community. It has always been so small, that by default it became close knit, there was no anonymity, the community easily policed itself. You had to team if you wanted to level, soloing to the level cap in AO was impossible for the first 3 yrs of the game. You ended up knowing everyone who played your faction, and many others from the opposition and even some folks from the other server. If you sucked at the game, or couldn't play your class, everyone knew - no teams for you - quit the game or re-roll. If you behaved like a jackass in a team, a global channel or toward any player in good standing quit or re-roll, because you'll never get a team. If you ninja-looted in a team or a raid, delete that toon right than, the whole server will know if the next 15 minutes and you will be griefed in every way possible anytime you login until the end of time. A community like that ends up distilling down to only quality players, AoC's community has as much in common with AO's as 4Chan does with a MIT Alumni meeting.  One thing is certain you never ever saw anyone from the AO community stoop to shilling for FunCom on 3rd party web sites.

It's hilarious to point to AO still running as a giant triumph, go log in and talk to those players, they will tell you the population is smaller than ever, the last xpac was another buggy grinding messes (still broken), and they resent that FC takes their subs but doesn't support them because they are focused on AoC and TSW.

Let's see the expansion was announced a few weeks after launch, than again a few months after that, and this post seems to be announcing the link to an announcement of the future announcement.

Seems like any time FunCom is desperate for attention to AoC they say  "Lookie! Lookie! Were announcing an Expansion!!"

I am guessing in August they will be announcing a long wait, one that will most likely be pushed back 'till it's ready'. Without an Internal QA staff subscribers maybe playing it for free on Test Live for half a year or more.

With anything gaming you can always expect Hype, but crying wolf every few months tends to turn hype into white noise.

Originally posted by catlana

Originally posted by Unfinished

Originally posted by catlana

Umm, having nearly a 1000 posts about a game that you have not played in a long time is obsessive. You even created the account to post negative things about AoC.

 

When you fabricate 'information' to make your point, it shows you don't really have one.

Using imaginary claims to Flame people is also pretty sad, it shouldn't be too hard to flame people using only the truth.

 

Okay, you have 42 and half pages of negative comments about AoC. That is 840+ negative comments about AoC.

I admit I was wrong about the account because your comment about Brad McQuad definitely predated AoC. Your account is also missing nearly 90 posts (most likely deleted).

Nice going with the back-pedal edit, did you remove that flame because you found the source  of my McQuaid comment and was not 'made by a sick person wishing harm on others'?

Maybe that mis-step can teach you to check posting histories more carefully, I think you'll find very few of my entries actually criticize the Age of Conan game. And I think you won't find a single post telling anyone not to play it. All your basis for slandering others seems to come from your imagination.

Originally posted by catlana

Umm, having nearly a 1000 posts about a game that you have not played in a long time is obsessive. You even created the account to post negative things about AoC.

When you fabricate 'information' to make your point, it shows you don't really have one.

Using imaginary claims to Flame people is also pretty sad, it shouldn't be too hard to flame people using only the truth.

Originally posted by MENGKESHI

 

On topic, yes ppl shouldn't listen to the obsessive 1000+ anti-aoc-post-doomsayers but should try for themselves

But listen to the guy who has 5,500 posts about Age of Conan, might wanna re-think who are you label 'obsessive'.

Companies and people who falsely advertise products will always draw criticism.

FunCom seems to have learned that, but some of their self-appointed reps haven't. Silly those same people haven't noticed that when they cease pasting up paper targets the shooting stops.

Originally posted by catlana

Originally posted by Teala

Doubtful it has grown.   Why do I say this...because FunCom can't sell the game they have to give it away!   Check out the banner.

 

The game is in a spot where the Game Director believes the game is solid with the new areas and improved gear. He therefore wants to start generating more positive word of mouth. The easiest way to do this is to give away a few copies to peeps.

By the looks of this thread its much easier to head over to 3rd party sites and post fictional reports of huge population increases.

Originally posted by openedge1

Still playing after all this time. One of the better endgames believe it or not...especially since the latest patch.

AoC did something opposite of what other MMO's are doing...while they get easier for the kiddies (Aion is one good example..my 10 y.o. son loves it), AoC got more difficult...

Challenge equals longevity in my book...and more fun to be had.

Also, all levels have full content, another bonus.

I am glad I stuck it out.

Umm, you said that AoC was the first game you actualy hit max level in an MMO, not hard to deduce that you don't have a lot of experience with other 'end games'.

Rather curious why the posting of a year old review even mistakenly hasn't been locked by moderators.

Originally posted by Alexander26

People are not leaving in masses due to the itemization revamp but instead how poorly the classes are balanced post 1.05.

The feedback was there before the update went live, I was there on TL and the concerns were ignored.

My class is a mess, so are others and thats why you see such a decline, especially on a pvp server... its ridiculous atm.

 

They have stated they will be re-balancing classes, we will see.

Glad to see a Player Advocate being candid about the situation, the other Advocate  who cuts-n-pastes posts here labeled those player concerns as 'QQing' (his words not mine), and claims people unsubscribing over the issue are a minority.  Sounds like maybe he is not being honest about the effects of the revamp is having.

Originally posted by AmazingAvery

Playing around with figures on YG:

Levels: 70-80         People:  6649

Levels: 50-60         People:  1158

Levels: 20-50         People:   7217

levels:   1-20           People:   19580

Levels 1-80            33762 results

PvP rankings list:  Displaying players updated within 30 days     11250 results

The numbers don't lie.

Not to mention the top 4 choices of class on this server out of everyone are not Casters.

Not people- Characters big difference when talking about true server populations

Numbers don't lie, but apparently spokespeople mis-label them dishonestly.

Originally posted by AmazingAvery

Originally posted by Unfinished

Originally posted by AmazingAvery

Originally posted by catlana

Yay! I was able to get my characters all on the same server finally. It was nice for Funcom to finally get this implemented.

 

Seems like when the cost gets weighed up against other similar games it is worth the money. I have not transferred any guys yet. But at least now I have the option too and it seems to be benefitting folks.

 

I wonder if those folks will get a refund when FunCom has to do another round of server mergers.

 

Are you privvy to something the rest of us are not? or is that just assuming you think so. Definately looks like the later.

Under used servers = shutdown. AoC has more than a few that meet that criteria. As one of their spokes people I would think you'd be aware of that.

Originally posted by AmazingAvery

Originally posted by catlana

Yay! I was able to get my characters all on the same server finally. It was nice for Funcom to finally get this implemented.

 

Seems like when the cost gets weighed up against other similar games it is worth the money. I have not transferred any guys yet. But at least now I have the option too and it seems to be benefitting folks.

I wonder if those folks will get a refund when FunCom has to do another round of server mergers.

Originally posted by AmazingAvery

Right before release remember they did say they made content for 9 months of play for the average 20hr a week player.

Odd than that almost everyone I knew who was playing at release hit the level cap in under 3 weeks, and we didn't play much more than 20 hrs/wk. Most of us had another 2-3 toons around 70 by our 2nd month.

Guess it's one more of the many things FunCom claimed before release that turned out to be a massive exaggeration or an out right  fabrication.

You know that whole list Avery, no need for me to type it out again.

Originally posted by Malickie

There could be more reasons behind no "win back" as of yet.  Take for instance the number of people who feel burned by funcom. Opening the floodgates allows them in as well. Considering the way these people post on forums, it would be of no  surprise if some took the opportunity to act out their anger on the community at large. Just as many former SWG players did the same on their free time. In game protests, harassment, player created lag by purposeful congestion etc... were some of the methods used.

They don't want back at least a portion the almost 1 Million subs they lost?? I find that hard to believe.

You think they are worried about the effects returning players would have on the community? Well AoC Global chat is notorious as the most un-monitored, foul mouthed, pornographic sewer of a chat channel in any MMO to date. Doubt a returning player can do much harm there.

You think returning players might harass other players in game? Well currently very bored folks have formed gank squads to camp any new player trying to progress threw Tortage on PvP servers. So I can't see a Former player making that situation worse.

They certainly can't gather en masse to 'protest' or lag out a PF, a new instance of the zone would be created to limit the number of players.

How is it you think a large group of players can make the game experience worse for the current players? And why do you think that FunCom would care about the current player's game experience? especially if they had a chance at 3-4-6-8 times the current subscription fees?

Being afraid of the former subscribers is hilarious, FunCom's handling of the game's future is what you should really be worried about.

Originally posted by crunchyblack

I would also like to add that it really doesnt matter about sub numbers and sales, if funcom could keep anarchy going for so long after its launch im sure aoc will be around for a while.  There are populated servers, well populated, and the games where it should have been a year ago.

Population and Sub numbers matter alot, if things like a steady Dev Cycle providing fixes and the filling out of the missing game features are important to you.

They certainly did keep AO alive, and used the sub money from it to dev AoC. Have fun paying for Conan's continued beta, while FC uses that money to dev TSW.

If the game were truely 'where it should have been a year ago' FC would have started the Win Back, they haven't. You are still a Guild patch, a Caster revamp patch, a Sieges patch, a PvP level / Reward patch and an End Game content patch away from being 'launch ready'. Having seen the last 12 months of the dev cycle, I think you are easily another 8 months to a year away from filling in those holes.

Have fun playing the expansion, while the original mechinics are still broken // missing.

Originally posted by Blutmaul

It is truly no fault to download the AoC-Trial and take a look at the changed, polished and improved AoC.

Take a look by yourself and dont get fooled by fans and haters - true man (and woman) decide for themself!

 

The trial does not give you access to enough of the game to verfify what the current game issues are., since launch most of player concerns begin to appear after level 40.