Originally posted by CujoSWAoA

Yeah, posts calling out the negativity on this Forum get deleted.

But posts that help aid in the verbal destruction of MMOs on this website get left. Because its 80% of the posts ON this website.

Moderation is never a topic for discussion, contact support@funcom.

Originally posted by Alandora

With all these 'new' players.. how is that Funcom themselves are telling you that revenues will be down 25% in the 2nd quarter compared to the 1st quarter.

It would be more accurate to label them "non-paying players", instead of "new".

With FC's earlier claim that 50% of a sub goes to cover Server Leases and Bandwidth.

Simple math time: for every 6 players on the free trial, one would need to sign up for a subscription for them to meet those costs.

That sounds like an awfully tight quota to make.

And they still wouldn't be covering the actual company's day-to-day costs.

Originally posted by Thoth-Amon

So you leave and the games screwed? Self important much?

I think you have it backwards, The game is screwed so everyone left.

The RP thing always leaves me confused.

I think unless you followed the whole backstory you end up lost, so someone please explain it to me this one time and I'll try to keep up from now on ..... Are the fans around here Players RPing that they work for FunCom? or Are they FC workers RPing that they are Players?

Thanks in Advance!

Originally posted by grimfall

 It's really amazing that you could spend times on these forums and be so blatantly ignorant of the business model of MMO's.  MMO's spend money in developement and start up costs, then make a shit load of profit with very little additional overhead.  The variable cost for a new subscriber is surely less than $1 a month, unless you want to add in new servers, but since they don't need to buy any servers at this point, that doesn't apply. Seriously, what do you think costs so much money?

 

Interesting, FC themselves claimed that almost 50% of the subscription fee goes directly to cover the cost of bandwidth and the server leases. (they sub out for both of those services)

Your theory that all MMO costs are incured upfront and than they 'sit back and rake it in' seems to forget that EVERY MMO has to continually add content free or paid for ( expansions ) to keep its population from getting bored and heading to another game for  newer challenges. Not to mention that every Dev house continues to debug their game code long after launch ( In FC case they are still trying to write the second half of that's missing from the game).

Upkeep for an MMO is certainly more expensive than what Sally Struthers needs a day to feed the starving kids in Africa

Originally posted by solareus

so rpg'ing is not what aoc is , Why is it even listed here at mmorpg then. This is probably the dumbest statement from a developer I've read since Fun wang in 2002.....

It struggles with the MMO part as well, maybe it should have just been an X-BoX Live game.

Originally posted by Krewel

Give it up, Avery (Amorey, is that you?), your time is up. Talking in the future tense is getting really ancient and unconvincing for the majority of players who were disappointed and disillusioned by one of the greatest scams in MMO history. I mean, seriously, just look at this goddamn patch 1.5 - sure, it's awesome, but it introduces such basic stuff that other MMOs have and that MMO players take for granted, and I see no reason to praise the developers for introducing that one year after the release. This patch is all the more reason that so far AoC players have been playing a beta, a damn test version for Funcom to realize what to do with the game. Sadly they decided to WoW-ify the game at its core, forgetting all about their promises in delivering an alternative to WoW clones.

They should just rename patch 1.5 into "WoW update".

This is a fundamental problem, as much as the AoC Fans want to paint Morrison as the Second Comming, Savior of MMO's, He isn't a proven game designer, let alone creator.

He was just an Anarchy Online fan volunteering at a third party site, did well and got hired on.  FC liked his style and picked him up  to run the Anarchy Online forums. When FC decided to dump all their resources into AoC (and basically run AO with a skeleton crew) he was handed the title of Head Dev by default.

AoC fans love to say that Morrison will take the game and turn it around and save it just like he did with Anarchy Online. Unfortunately that legend is completely over-blown and based mostly in fiction.  He was head of AO for a very short time (18 months at the most), and while he did communicate well with the player base (something FC historically refused to do) and implemented several (minor) changes that players had been begging for for years. Nothing major changed with Anarchy Online under his watch.

It's still an obscure game, with a super small but loyal population. It is still riddled with launch-day bugs, has major class balance problems and a broken PvP mechanics. Every patch still makes a mess and has to get multiple fixes down the line to solve the new issues that are introduced everytime they launch an update. And while it once was a game with a lot of innovations that were copied threw out the genre, in the past 5 years it has recycled trends instead of setting them.

Anarchy Online has never had a BIG TURN-AROUND, it's silly to try and credit anyone with some thing that never happened.

I am not trying to beat up on Morrison, I like the guy, I honestly do. And  I am a long time fan of Anarchy Online. But you can be a fan and still be honest about all the short comings. In fact a 'True Fan' is  the harshest  critic. (some of the posters in this section  should take that to heart).

On a side note: Craig's journey is an Amazing one. From Die Hard Fan to running the Whole Show, it's an Amazing feat. You can't take that away from the guy. And atleast one of the posters around here might take note of his Amazing accomplishments. And  probably think to themselves, Hey I am a Die hard Fan, I volunteered at a Fan Site. Maybe, just maybe, one day Amazing things could happen for me....

Welll, before folks get too far ahead of themselves trying to follow in his Amazing footsteps, You should know, the folks who had his CM job before him loved to cloud the facts, cut-n-paste propaganda, spin disappointments and failures, regurgitate company sound bites. All of those transparent and hackneyed tactics that only fool the fools.

What has given Craig such an Amazing reputation is that he didn't do those things. What has made Craig Morrison get to where his is was his Amazing candidness. Good or bad he gave it to the folks Amazingly straight.  Craig always made people feel like he was on their side when they had legitimate criticisms. Start there, and maybe Amazing things can happen to you too.

Originally posted by Crashloop

Originally posted by Unfinished

Originally posted by AmazingAvery

About 3 weeks more I reckon from those same 120 people on the team for the last 6 months.

 

 

Down from over 300, not really anything to brag about. Especialy when they still don't have the features that were advertised.

where did you get the 300 information from? Not that I say it's false, just not seen that number before as I can recall.

And I'm quite sure that it is normal for a mmo developer to reassign people to other games/parts of the development once a game is released as you don't need the same amount of developers making the bugfixes and updates for a game. Other companies outside the gaming industry does this all the time when they have launched a product and have made the production as efficient as possible.

FC claimed 300+ right after Godager left and they were trying to dig out of the launch mess.

Originally posted by AmazingAvery

About 3 weeks more I reckon from those same 120 people on the team for the last 6 months.

 

Down from over 300, not really anything to brag about. Especialy when they still don't have the features that were advertised.

Hilarious to see them trying to sell for a premium, what they already have too much of .. Space.

You can still find a truck load of the "1.2 Million shipped copies" for sale for as low as 1/10 of their original retail price.

cgi.ebay.com/Age-of-Conan-Hyborian-Adventures-PC-Games_W0QQitemZ320373263464QQcmdZViewItemQQ_pidZ48139780QQ_mediaitemZ1QQptZVideo_Games_Games

pardon me, I stand corrected, starting bids at 99 cents

cgi.ebay.com/PC-DVD-AGE-OF-CONAN-HYBORIAN-ADVENTURES-GAME-RTL-49-99_W0QQitemZ290316972113QQcmdZViewItemQQ_pidZ48139780QQ_mediaitemZ1QQptZVideo_Games_Games

Originally posted by Capn23

I just wish they would start hinting at what we will be seeing AFTER 1.05

The majority of the staff pulled from AoC to get the Secret World launch ready (well FC's version of launch ready).

But let's not get ahead of ourselves 1.05 still isn't live, it has sat on the test server for many months no reason it won't for a while more.

Keep paying for Beta! in a few more years you might get what's printed on the box!

Originally posted by Loke666

Originally posted by openedge1

Originally posted by stillkillin

age of CONan and funCON are making money?

lol

it is clear aoc will be sunset in the next 4 months

Oh look...another Doom and Gloom, that is spouting death of AoC, kind of like the others who said it would close in November of 2008, then January of 2009 and then May of 2009.

Amazing how those predictions have turned out....so sad!

 

The fact is that FunCom is at least doing better than EA, check out their financial report. And EA fired a whole lot of people and are still losing more cash then ever.

 FC's worth is in the Millions, EA's worth is in the BILLIONS. You may want to re-think your assertion.

And EA's stock is certainly doing a hell of a lot better than FunCom's quotes.nasdaq.com/asp/SummaryQuote.asp

Originally posted by Jackdog

I will try and put this as simple as possible for the mathematically challenged here. Last quarter I had 80,000 players, 25,000 canceled, I get 10,000 new players I end up the quarter with 65,000 players, This quarter I lose another 25,000 players, but I get 15,000 new players.

Now for the hard part did I have a increase in new players...think hard..ok since you look confused the answer is yes, did I have a increase in population...Now think hard again.... still looking puzzled there so I will help you...the answer is no. See that wasn't so hard to figure out now was it ? Now boys and girls we all see how AoC can have a increase in new players and still lose population.

 

Now you can see why FC wrote in their quarterly report they had a increase in new players and did not write they had a increase in population.

Tune in next quarter for further education in the wonders of mathematics

Leave off the zeros next time Jack, they'll have a better chance that way.

Originally posted by kodan420

Hey Unfinished did you completely miss that one little word INCREASE? Cause increase DOES equal MORE. And while retarded to even comment on you are correct NEW does NOT mean MORE. It means NOT PLAYED  BEFORE. Customer means paying usually. So by that statement they had MORE PAYING PEOPLE COME TO THE GAME... Try some reading classes or maybe even glasses.....

The report clearly says INCREASE (adj.) in NEW Customers (noun). 

That 'one little word'  is not used in association with the subscribers  anywhere in the report. In fact they specifically describe subscriptions as STABLE. i.e. unchanging.

Reading comprehension is an important life skill.

 trollbetterplzkthnx

Originally posted by TheNinjaboy  

Note: The contest Xfire numbers put AoC up to 300k-350k subs which we all knew was because of the event.

The previous Xfire numbers put AoC @ 180k-200k subs when matched up with the other MMO 's ratios.

That is what they are dropping off to again.

 

 

Still waiting for links or quotes to back up your imagined numbers and evidence of growth.

You seem to be confused about what words mean, with a free trial Players does not equal Subs , just like New does not equal More. 

P.S.  X-Fire never showed any of those numbers you posted, Sorry. www.xfire.com/games/aoc/Age_of_Conan_Hyborian_Adventures/

Originally posted by TheNinjaboy

 

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Originally posted by Unfinished

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Originally posted by TheNinjaboy

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Originally posted by Unfinished

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Originally posted by TheNinjaboy

 

 
I'll repeat this one again for you:
" According to the report, Age of Conan received an increase in new customers in Q1 of 2009,"

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New does not equal More, Sorry.

 

 

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Did you look at the report? They stopped the bleeding (unsubs)* and started adding new members. = More
I never suggested that they have MORE ** ( see your own sentence above) numbers atm then Q3 2008 but the decreases noted in the report they should be ~180k-200k subs*** and increasing as stated****.
 
 
 
 

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* Sorry it does not say that
** See what you did there?
***Made up numbers are made up.
****No increase in pop was stated. New players and subscription duration are the only 'More' they have claimed.  Sorry.
Only current population reference  is described as 'stable'  dictionary.reference.com/ which you can see (if you care to look) never means 'More'.
If there were an increase in the player population it would headline the report and be stated in very plain language.  Sorry, but it's just not there.
While you clicking links you might want to Google the phenomena known as 'population churn'.  lmgtfy.com/
 

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Fascinating.

 

Not only did you not understand what you read or but you could not pickup on the obvious.

Having the audacity to link a dictionary when you are playing semantics is top notch work.

My suggestion to you is while you're on that dictionary site look up that word.

 

Speaking of making stuff up (cough cough population churn)

There are no semantics to play with, the definitions of the words FunCom used are very narrow. Sorry

Someone else 'made up' Population Churn long before i had a chance to:  www.allacademic.com/meta/p_mla_apa_research_citation/0/2/2/9/0/p22908_index.html

But please quote something from any FC report that actually supports your wild claims, or are you going to stick with the 'NO IT'S NOT!!' rebutal favored by small children the world over?

Originally posted by TheNinjaboy

Originally posted by Unfinished

Originally posted by TheNinjaboy

 

I'll repeat this one again for you:

" According to the report, Age of Conan received an increase in new customers in Q1 of 2009,"

 

New does not equal More, Sorry.

 

Did you look at the report? They stopped the bleeding (unsubs)* and started adding new members. = More

I never suggested that they have MORE ** ( see your own sentence above) numbers atm then Q3 2008 but the decreases noted in the report they should be ~180k-200k subs*** and increasing as stated****.

 

 

 

 

* Sorry it does not say that

** See what you did there?

***Made up numbers are made up.

****No increase in pop was stated. New players and subscription duration are the only 'More' they have claimed.  Sorry.

Only current population reference  is described as 'stable'  dictionary.reference.com/ which you can see (if you care to look) never means 'More'.

If there were an increase in the player population it would headline the report and be stated in very plain language.  Sorry, but it's just not there.

While you clicking links you might want to Google the phenomena known as 'population churn'.  lmgtfy.com/

Originally posted by AmazingAvery

Can I ask, whats the point mate?

This is headed OT fast but :

AOC "Advocate" = AO "Professionals"

What should have been a wonderful resource for FC Devs turned out to be a PR gimick without any substance.

Originally posted by AmazingAvery

Lastly a must check out is the official forums where my Advocate colleages have cleaned up and sprinkled some love in the Assassin class forums

 

The last thing they did before they left? forums.ageofconan.com/showthread.php