I see an awful lot of MMO romanticising going on here...

People generally remember two things about all their previous MMO encounters: the really fun times, and the reason that made them quit.  Then when a new MMO comes out, it is inevitabley compared to the two said memories.

AoC's launch went really smoothly.  Servers remained up, downtime minimal, and lag being a one-in -a-blue-moon event that genreally resolved itself quickly.  There was (and still is) the occasional disconnect and bugout, but it's tolerable.  I have seen a lot of people compare AoC's servers to WoW, but people forget when WoW released, there was MASSIVE lag a big part of the time.  Let's not forget the 4-hour long server lag session where all you could do was chat or Alt-F4 to quit, or the impossible to loot lag issue that forced you into loot mode for 15 min stretches, or the constant server restarts that took place 4 times per day.  This stuff lasted a good 4 months after release (and some things longer).

As for the Pre order people, I feel for you, I really do.  But I separate that stuff from the launch and classify it as more of a distributor problem.  I only had one friend who pre-ordered and everything went smoothly for him.

Is AoC perfect? No.  Is AoC great? That's a matter of opinion, really.  I am enjoying the game, but it I am not without my share of complaints and concerns- However I generally tend to be concern about mechanic-oriented problems, not piddly little stuff like "I don't like the quests" or "I blazed to 80 and now I am bored." since that is ALWAYS a problem in every MMO.

What makes me nervous about my longevity with AoC is:

-Zone based and static resource collecting.  Boring and poorly thought out.  Gathering should be dynamic, not about who was fortunate enough to get into a low-populated instance of the gathering zone and who downloaded the most waypoints from the web.

-Stamina drain being a percent based.  Seriously, there is no point to aquiring +stamina pool gear.  In fact, it is detrimental to do so.  Casters have a huge edge being able to sprint more often and always having the option to get away, unlike melee.

-5 directional swings for melee classes are a joke.  There is ZERO difference between your normal 1 keystroke swing (upper left attack) and the Q keystroke swing (Lower left attack).  They still check against the same shield.  It is just fluff and serves NO PURPOSE other than to clutter your hotbar & make combos even MORE annoying as they grow from a 2-3 step combos to ridiculous 5-6 swing ones.

-Combat should be revamped to the way it was in Beta.  You got combos, you memorized them, you swung them manually and they procced.  The "press a combo and follow the simon commands" method is pretty stupid and a great waste of button space if you ask me.  They basically dumbed the game down because they were afraid of the learning curve.

-I also always have the fear that any MMO is going to turn into a massive raidfest, which is not at all my playstyle.  I happen to love playing in small groups with my RL friends, I don't want to raid, nor do I find it entertaining.

Game still needs another 6 months of class polish and bug fixing, but I guess good for them.

Originally posted by Sturmrabe
Am I loosing my mind or is there a stargate question in there?