For those of you acting like spending a little money to play it is no big deal you have to realize they advertise the game as being totally free to play and obviously the people that come to these f2p games are mostly kids for that very reason. Even only costing $5 or less a month it still doesn't matter if you don't have a way of purchasing gPotato on your own.

I'm an adult in my 30's and I pay for gPot easily but I can certainly see why they just chased away half of their playerbase or more with the 1.1 money grabbing patch. Before the patch there was nothing on the item shop that was necessary to play normally. You could even get a few item shop or like item shop quality items via questing in the game but they totally removed those. They even do stupid things like nerf classes just to sell more item shop items. Like the runspeed buff on my Psionist that they reduced to 1/3 of what it was for the sole purpose of selling mounts that are barely faster than running. That's just showing you how they sit around in the conference room and toss around ideas of how they can nerf something to sell more gPot.

It's hard to say since I've never seen a f2p game publish how many people are playing it much less how well they do with the item shop. Unlike p2p games where they are sometimes open about how successful they are and even if they keep it to themselves they are often involved with publicl traded company that releases the info for their stockholders and investors. Then you also have to consider how different cultures tolerate their games. Like Asians are notorious for actually enjoying grinding in their MMO's but it doesn't fly well in the West. Regardless they do well in the East but who's to say they are still successful in regards to the EU/US market?

Take Allods Online. Even before the 1.10 patch chased a lot of people off it was dubbed as a f2p MMO that raised the bar and a game that should have been about as popular as f2p can get. Considering they only had two servers that hovered around medium to low all you can really do is guess. I've played a lot of MMORPG's from WoW with insane active players to games that were dead and ready to close up shop and I'd have to say the number of people actively playing US Allods was really low when compared mainstream games made by .

I think I read where they said they spent $12 million making it. I have to assume that's pretty good size budget when it comes to f2p. Are they making enough money though that's the question. Since they just released a patch that put a lot more focus on the item shop just to play the game like normal I'd have to say they aren't. So it is even possible for an amatuer indie company to create a big budget game around a f2p model and stil be able to turn enough profit? Guild Wars is pretty much the only example of a game created by experienced mainstream develeopers with deep pockets and a game that was designed to be f2p from the ground up. I'm guessing they still do pretty well considering the sequel coming up.

Coming from someone that was playing Allods for several months I'm still seeing f2p games as nothing more than low quality cash grabs. They may be increasing the bar with content and depth but it's still got the stench of amatuer development work. They eventually go down the path of pay to win because in the end the devs are simply trying to balance lower quality with making money.

With the exception of Guild Wars or mainstream games that went from p2p to f2p there's still a fairly large gap between indepenant f2p games and p2p and I don't seriously see this changing anytime soon. You might be able to satisfy your MMO fix somewhat playing a f2p but the differences in quality with eventually become apparent and leave a bad taste in your mouth.

People are upset because they spend months and months playing a game and working on character developement and they are now realizing the developer car is driven by Stevie Wonder. It's not unusual at all for developers to make boo boo's in any MMORPG but it's like these devs have a goal of making $$$ and no amount of player feedback will deter them. I haven't seen such a hard-headed, incompetant developer ever in playing MMO's since 1999 and I'm not even exagerrating.

1- They just made buying stuff off the item shop not an option. If you want to be running around doing 200% less damage and having your items randomly inverted when you die(stats reversed--- +50 strength becomes -50 strength) you can still get by without buying gPot. I shouldn't have to tell you that would be a very bad idea.

2- Increase XP needed to level from 20-40 tremondously. Not only that not give enough real quests to fill in the gap. A game that was quest driven with minimal grinding just flipped over. It's now heavy grinding. Don't forget to buy your incense so you can kill something!.

3- Class nerfs. Somehow, someway they actually nerf classes that have the hardest time killing people/mobs and buff the OP flavor-of-the-month classes even more. Yes, somewhere there are devs with their heads shoved that far up their arse.

That's just my top 3. Looking at what they are giving the Russians with patches they're not done fuking this game up. It could have been a decent f2p game but it's turning into nothing more than a cash grab while the ship sinks so avoid it.

More like a IV drip to hold the game over until "The Hobbet" hits the big screen and resparks the franchise and this gimmick game. You don't go from p2p to f2p because things are good.

I played to lvl 10 this weekend after reading reviews about how this game has raised the bar. I couldn't help feeling I was playing a game that came out in 2003 and I'm not even joking.  The graphics are bland and the animations are horrid. Sound about on par with everything else. Completely amateur quality across the board..

I will say it had a little more depth than your typical f2p Asian cash-grab, fabricated crap but saying it's on par with p2p mainstream quality is pretty asinine to say the least. Stick with Guild Wars or DDO if you can't pay a monthly fee because everything else is low quality garbage. Ironically they probably make more money per subscriber but why they can't make a good game with a item shop so far is beyond me.

I started with AC2 as well. Even though it was seriously buggy and incomplete at launch it was immersive and fun to play. I really wish they hadn't closed up shop because now I want to play it again.

As far as current MMO's I seem to have a distaste for almost all of them. They all seem to repeat the same path where they hype up up to get you excited then fail to deliver the total package due to lacking content,  concept failures and slow fixes. Aion was the lastest on my quit list even though I played it long after my guild left for other things mostly because I had nothing better to do. Just that it wasn't fun and felt more like a chore to play. Not that I'm casual and hate working for things it's just like that was all the game had to offer. Huge time sinks with you tied down to a random number generator.

Warhammer was before Aion. I have to say that was probably the more disappointing one because it looks so good on paper and the world is really well done. Not that it was bad it was just that they messed up with the RvR. Would have been much better with 3 realms as I'm sure has been brought up many times. They were also too slow to react to gamebreaking abilites/bugs. Before you know it a year has passed and 3/4 of the subscriber base has left because RvR was more aggrivating than fun.

Well, not to cover every game I've played for the last decade but WAR brings me to the point as to why I'm sitting here not playing a MMO even though its my genre. No matter how much you like a MMO it's really only fun if you have lots of people there to enjoy it with and a active community.  Case in point is a game like AoC that fumbled at launch but have made some nice changes since. I go back to give it a try again and promptly quit a week later. Why? Because the game is barren and I don't want to play a MMO like one would a single-player RPG. It's the same for like most of the games on the authors list. I guess I'll never really get back into a MMO long-term until a company can put out a product at launch that can retain customers. I know that's easier said than done but I think we're all getting tired of the treand of starting off big and flopping hard shorlty after takeoff which has happened in almost every mainstream game the last 5 years or so.

Well I care OP because I haven't bought the game yet and sitting on the fence.  I'm not big on jumping into games because it's not WoW like people seem to these days, The general impressions I get seem to point to this game being your typical Korean grinder like Lineage which will most likely result in a mass exodus of people once again finding out a new game is not WoW 2 like has happrned in mainstream MMO's that have launched in the last few years.

Sucees in this genre is based on the number of subs to put it quite simply. From both a business and customer standpoint. MMORPG's are still a very small portion of the PC games market and most people that do play them are familiar with the what's out already and what's on the horizon. If a game is scraping the bottom of the subscriber base then there's a good reason for it and I surely wouldn't say it was successful no matter how much fun you have playing it. Even games that have been stamped as a failure by the MMO community and to the point where the doors should be be closed still have fans playing it and enjoying it.

Not trolling just telling the truth. Mainstream games with big money thrown at it also have a higher chance a failure than suceeding. Now you're getting into unkown developer land useing a indie budget to create a game people truely know very little about at this point. It could be a hit but common sense should tell you after looking at all the games in this genre that the chances of it bombing are much higher that it would being a suprise hit.

LOL>

MO is not art it's a product. Their sole purpose is to make money like any other business. They've already made money with a product that's still unseen. People tossing them money now are either bored and wanting something new and willing to pay for it or they're extremely gullible and don't realize the chances of this game being a truckload of fail is greater than it being a hit just because of trends in this genre.

Forgive Protus. He's is without a doubt the king of AoC's dellusional fanboys. I guess he took his crusade here. Sorry someone left the cage door open I guess.

Good one

The fanbois won't understand the references, well, because they're clueless fanbois

Originally posted by Wharg0ul

at higher levels, hitting a mob on a shielded side will result in damage proportionate to how much defence they have allocated there.

One bracket, moderate damage, 2 or three, forget it.

The great story aspects continue, but there are more stories to get involved in, and far more choices. It really opens up beautifully.

The linear, instanced, guided feel of the beginning of the game vanishes for themost part, and you are left in a world that will leave you exploring, screen-shotting, and generally marveling over a very alive-feeling environment.

Sorry to be so general, but I can't be specific, due to NDA of course.

Thanks but I just wish we could get more details to know for certain. If it loses it's Guildwars-cant-stray-from-the-path-too-far feel at level 20+ I would buy this game in a heartbeat. But this not knowing thing is driving me nuts because "GuildWars 2- The Age of Conan" would be a game breaker for me. Instancing is not a killer for me but the navigating the world on rails is.

1- Release the silly level 13 cap torwards the end of beta

or

2- Release the NDA completely. That's pretty silly as well to leave this intact for 13+ when early players will be playing retail in less than two weeks.

Originally posted by Cabe2323

 

Originally posted by DAS1337

Originally posted by Cabe2323

So I don't know what to think now.  I was hoping to get a new game to play but...

 

First off the client seems to run pretty well but it is somewhat clunky imo.  Reminds me of the plastic feeling of EQ2's character models. 

The combat is different but not really that much different.  I honestly like the reactive styles of Dark Age of Camelot more then the "Active" combat so far. 

I honestly don't like the overall feel of the game though.  It doesn't come off being very adult oriented.  It has a lot of unrealistic gore (ie massive amounts of blood on wounds that would be more blood then a person actually has) and also way over usage of sexuality. 

The number 1 thing that I don't like so far though is the zoning and path walls.  I honestly do not like zoning.  I feel like the game is a cross between guild wars and vanguard/eq2 style.  I just don't feel like I have a world to explore.  It feels like I am being pushed down paths to where they want me to go.  Literally too,  I mean I am really being pushed down preset paths to where I have to go. 

 

Overall the performance of the closed beta client was a lot better then when i tried my open beta client.  But it still just doesn't have that "it" factor for me. 

My best example would be that Age of Conan is like one of those big blockbuster popcorn summer movies.  They overdose you on special effects and load bangs, but have no depth at all. 

 

How many times do we have to say that the first 20 levels are linear and story driven?  Even Funcom has stated that there will be some walls, they are driving you in one direction because that's how the tutorial Tortage Island is supposed to be.  How can we make you understand?  The main land is supposed to be much more open.

You don't need to make me understand.  Why would anyone want to play something they don't enjoy for 20 levels, just for the promise that it will be better later?  In my opinion it is a horrible design plan. 

 

EQ2 has a starter island but it isn't linear like Tortage Island is.  It allows you to run around the entire zone up to the cliffs etc.  What I hate are these artificial pathways that are created in games. 

I'm concerned about the same thing. In a MMORPG in certain areas you should be able to take off in any direction and run for miles,. A truely open world experience.  If you don't know what I mean assume you're in a dessert with a path in front of you. In MMORPG's you could take off in any direction you like and die of thirst days later. In a linear game if you varried off the path you'd run into an invsible wall at 15'.

For AoC OB it's very linear like Guildwars. You can't stray too far from the path before you run into insvislbe walls or terrain you can't navigate past.

People keep claiming the world opens up at lvl 20. I think we're all ware the full multiplayer part starts then and the world is open for travel but are the zones still linear? That could indeed be a killer if so because there are probably many MMO players that do not like to be restricted like that. including me. One of the main reasons I hate games like GW or DDO.  And seeing as the OP stated they played closed beta too I'm not happy.

Wish they would let us level up higher or at least lift the damn NDA totally so we would know for sure. Another reason that makes me wary. They release NDA for 1-13 but leave the rest intact with only a week before they let early people play retail.

Open beta with NDA still in effect for all level 13+ content

Open beta with a very low level cap

Open beta that is restricted to only 50K Fileplanet subscribers

I'm still going to buy the game and try it myself but if that doesn't set off  alarm bells then you're either;

a) Not a MMORPG beta testing vet

b) A diehard AoC fanboi

This stuff is not even remotely normal for open betas

I used to be hyped but after hearing guildies saying it's not very good I'm a little more realistic about it. I'll more than likely still try it out but when hardcore MMO vets stop testing a hyped up game like this then you know something is very very wrong. 

Think you're thinking of the first one. This is the sequel and is still in open beta in Korea and hasn't been released anywhere yet.

Play one of the dozen or so free to play Korean MMORPG's. Now imagine better graphics. You've just played PT2.