Originally posted by zymurgeist

Originally posted by Sabradin

Originally posted by zymurgeist

Originally posted by Sabradin

 

"War is won by inches, not by miles..."
 

I think by the time you get to where you need to be everyone else will be miles ahead of you. 

But as long as your content with where you 'need to be' then I suppose thats all you need - as long as theres enough resources when you get there.  Unfortunately you have this which says either you're growing or you're dying (either you're taking in new things or you're an "isolated" system and will die overtime (entropy)).

nobody denies that theres movement - the general consensus is that its a dying movement

 

Sooo how many more months is AoC going to stay alive while people post useless speculation that it's dying? Oh that entropy theory? Pure inapplicable bullshit. If that were true UO would have died years ago. Sorry I don't buy common wisdom, most people agree, general consensus, internet opinions, or your dead parakeet told you so as authoritative either.

 

all your conjecture asside would you put money into funcom/age of conan as an investment?  No you're smarter than that.  So why divide yourself up like this

 

Which conjecture? My investments are based on near term earnings potential. Funcom's won't be even modestly atractive until TSW is close to release. That doesn't mean AoC is going away any time soon though. I'm not divided.  

See?  Now you are rational.  Take that reason and add 'entropy' and I think we'll be square. 

There are deeper principals than ratios that successful companies must follow if they want to be healthy.  The fact that they have said they want an MMO with a small/tight community is fair - if thats their desire then its their desire.  But it takes a while to become "well known" in a place where "everyone knows your name".  Sorta like being in a bar that has history - if you're new then they'll turn to you with murder in their eyes because you've stepped on their holy ground.  So it won't be attractive to new players but instead old ones.  But slowly over time those players will begin to leave for various reasons - even in a tight community of gamers.  Thus, the game will die slowly overtime (entropy).  It may even take some time, but in all real terms the "growing spirit" of this (type of) game is dead.

So how many months till AoC falls?  No idea.  What should be clear is that the game isn't a sound longterm investment for either financial onlookers or players who want many players to play with.  So even though theres movement, I argue its a dying movement.

Thorgrimm listed what he saw; but I think he's making mountains out of molehills (in the positive sense at least).

exactly

why invest your own thoughts/emotions into something you don't think is worth investing?  thats like willfully .. well, its like gambling - investing your assets into something that probably won't pay off just for the rush of it.  don't gamble, take fun in knowing what you support is actually working and will pay off in the end - you can have the rush plus the added payoff (you dont have to gamble)

the game is dead when you think of dead as "the point of no return" or "when it stops growing"

I think the guild I belonged to in 2005 still has a few members in it - and you may think that its alive - but when you see that you're either growing or your dying then the guild is "as good as dead" (it takes years for the tissue of a corpse to completely decompose)

Originally posted by zymurgeist

Originally posted by Sabradin

 

"War is won by inches, not by miles..."
 

I think by the time you get to where you need to be everyone else will be miles ahead of you. 

But as long as your content with where you 'need to be' then I suppose thats all you need - as long as theres enough resources when you get there.  Unfortunately you have this which says either you're growing or you're dying (either you're taking in new things or you're an "isolated" system and will die overtime (entropy)).

nobody denies that theres movement - the general consensus is that its a dying movement

 

Sooo how many more months is AoC going to stay alive while people post useless speculation that it's dying? Oh that entropy theory? Pure inapplicable bullshit. If that were true UO would have died years ago. Sorry I don't buy common wisdom, most people agree, general consensus, internet opinions, or your dead parakeet told you so as authoritative either.

all your conjecture asside would you put money into funcom/age of conan as an investment?  No you're smarter than that.  So why divide yourself up like this

Originally posted by Thorgrimm

Originally posted by finaticd

Gratz on making it into community college, but AoC's X fire didn't go up after Aion's release, even with free play time and an advertising thing where they spammed peoples e mails and gave two weeks free playtime....so yeah AoC is not going to grow.....Also, if you haven't noticed is very little forum traffic here this week and has been way down since Aion.

I have been able to back up my claims..hell the financial report that this thread is based on backs up what I am saying....AoC is bleeding players and it is not growing, hence why next quarter's projections are DOWN.

 

 

Where did you get your facts?  XFire is not as broadly used as many think.  It is an indicator, not a measurement tool.  It shows trends amoung its users.  It has the potential to be more, but it is far from representative of the player base of AoC.

I am watching my server closely.  My guild srops players that have not been active in the last 30 days.  This grooming of inactive accounts keeps our guild vibrant and active.  Even with the culling, we maintain over 750 members now and get new plaeyrs every night.  We are only one guild on one server.  It keeps growing.  Likewise, I have been seeing more players running around on Cimmeria Server.  We are not bleeding, we are growing stronger. 

Maybe folks are busy getting ready of the holiday.  Maybe folks are traveling to see their families. Maybe folks actually have to work for a living.  There are a lot of reasons why forums may get quieter.  Maybe folks simply tire of feeding the trolls.

The financial reports of all games are down and have been going down.  There is a recession going on, if you have not heard.  There are also holidays coming up and folks have less money to spend.  I am more interested in the activity involving a game. I see more players.  I see regular patches and updates.  I see new content in game and more new content on the way.  I see a new expansion that dwarfs the content that is currently found in game.  I see where the devs have been focusing their development time to avoid another blunder. 

THAT WHICH DOES NOT KILL US MAKES US STRONGER...

"War is won by inches, not by miles..."
 

I think by the time you get to where you need to be everyone else will be miles ahead of you. 

But as long as your content with where you 'need to be' then I suppose thats all you need - as long as theres enough resources when you get there.  Unfortunately you have this which says either you're growing or you're dying (either you're taking in new things or you're an "isolated" system and will die overtime (entropy)).

nobody denies that theres movement - the general consensus is that its a dying movement

Originally posted by finaticd

A small minority of players will also be annon but  the point still stands that server mergers are needed.  Anyone who engages in raiding and grouping and sieging and PvP and other stuff that guilds do would  realize this.

The developers stated the opposite:

"11.6 How many people can play on each server?
Our goal is to have a low enough population on each server so that “everybody knows your name,” since that will make the rivalries more fun and exciting and create a sense of community while maintaining that Massively Multiplayer feeling."

Many servers just had populations plummet so instead of waiting until after the expansion that is forever off to merge, why not get it over with now?  When two rounds of free-trials and free level 50 and double XP are unsuccessful, that is a lot of faith being put into the expansion.  I'm not a big fan of Funcom, no, but mergers have been called for by many players.

 

 

lol its not a "massive multiplayer" feeling if there aren't massive multiplayers

I keep this when I think its appropriate

Maybe they've considered giving out free lvl 80 characters - perhaps even more when thinking about the expansion

they're admitting nobody wants to do all that content leveling (and honestly who wants to continue doing leveling content 50-80 if you don't want to do the content 1-50?) from my exp. people who like age of conan like it for the leveling process because of the look (and maybe combat)

they've done this free lvl 50 before, I tried it during a free trial and lost interest .. quick

Originally posted by AmazingAvery

Originally posted by Sabradin

Originally posted by Sturmrabe

BUT WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN?!?!?!

 

with a pre-tax loss and forecasted decrease revenue they have GOT to cut costs

 

-edit
and this is what i mean when i say 'i wonder' about them scratching aoc production (even the expansion) and just go with investing in TSW
nobodys going to trust them to give them loan money, and AoC isn't going to be giving them enough $ to survive, so they either rush the expansion (for quick cash)(or stop production depending on how far along it is/how much additional it will cost), only use enough money for server costs and the bare essentials, take what money they do have left and any additional money generated from aoc, and invest it in The Secret World

or suffer a long slow death (not so long in reality but when you see an impending doom, it usually feels like forever)

its a risk, but if they want to hope to have a future its a risk they just might have to take (personally I think they'll accept the long slow death)

 

Actually the main focus is AoC right now. I am sure TSW will be at some point in the future. AoC is their bread and butter until TSW release. This is why from previous recent job cuts AoC was minimal if at all effected and Godslayer too. The job cuts effected TSW. Godslayer is already been in the making for a year.

Side question. 

I just started playing Dragon Age.  Have you played it at all?

It feels like what Age of Conan hoped to be.  A Dragon Age mmo. (and if they would have pulled it off Dragon Age would just be a single player Age of Conan :) )

---

I don't deny that AoC is their money maker; but is spending what money the company has left in AoC production and the expansion the best idea?  Maybe instead lay low, soak in what revenue you can get and use it on the next game?  Otherwise it'll be a tip toe towards bankruptcy - one step decrease revenue, next stop cut costs.. decreased revenue, cut costs.. and on and on and all the while TSW hasn't been invested much in. 

Just some thought

Originally posted by Sturmrabe

BUT WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN?!?!?!

with a pre-tax loss and forecasted decrease revenue they have GOT to cut costs

-edit
and this is what i mean when i say 'i wonder' about them scratching aoc production (even the expansion) and just go with investing in TSW
nobodys going to trust them to give them loan money, and AoC isn't going to be giving them enough $ to survive, so they either rush the expansion (for quick cash)(or stop production depending on how far along it is/how much additional it will cost), only use enough money for server costs and the bare essentials, take what money they do have left and any additional money generated from aoc, and invest it in The Secret World

or suffer a long slow death (not so long in reality but when you see an impending doom, it usually feels like forever)

its a risk, but if they want to hope to have a future its a risk they just might have to take (personally I think they'll accept the long slow death)

Originally posted by Frobner

Compare Funcom and CCP (Eve) and you see how games should be developed. 

PR Buisness  like Funcom throwing out games that are nothing but the hype (and they are doing it again with TSW) and trying to fool as many ppl to buy an empty box full of nothing but lies. 

Gaming developer releasing game with solid features that are then built upon with free expansions that benefit the gamers (not the moneymen).

One of compnay is hiring close to 500 new staff.  The other is firing and moving the rest of the staff to cheap labor countries. 

Funcom is a buisness monster that does not give a dam about gamers. Thats the bottom line and their MMO games are showing it.  That will never change - and the PR campaign for TSW has already started.

Gamers need to stop promoting what Funcom stands for.  It has nothing to do with games.  And therefor noone should really wish that company to survife when they are loosign subs and money like never before. 

Instead ppl should be promoting gaming companies that do things the right way and continue to bring out great content - even for free - and STILL they manage to make good profits to build even more content.

AOC is a failure - it was at launch - it is now - and it always will be.   Thats the bottom line.

/thumbsup

They're a business company trying to exploit the gaming market rather than a gaming company trying to exploit the business market.  Kinda like Sony from what little I've heard.

Originally posted by nihce

 trolls FIRST eat their brains. than become haters ... than start unreasonable discussion trying to eat brains of others. have you ever seen a smart troll?

Trying to eat some good reason first.

Food is good for you as long as its healthy.  And only with good reason may we have strong brains (and no brains are not for eating eww!)

Originally posted by nihce

 @ Krewel that was the idea :D ... it is no discovery

Anyway to the post above me: another troll who tries to find reasons for doomsayings. Layoffs were done simply because FC is moving his HQ to Canada - probly the layoffed people were all asked to either join them across the ocean or leave FC. They will, as was stated in one of the reports, hire more people when they are in Canada again. 

"Please come with us or please leave" ? i don't think so.

decreased revenue, decrease subscriptions, layoffs, + positive attitude?  Please place your hopes somewhere else than here.

Funcom may stay alive but AoC as a living/breathing mmo will die. "all mmos die"  as they must.

Expecting this decline Funcom was good at. - if they don't change their attitude they'll repeat themselves (maybe even worse)

Originally posted by Brotheryang

Playing one time was enough for me to find out it would never change but that has not stopped me from thinking maybe just maybe they did something great with the game. well if anything else you can use the game like i do. A nice heavy paperweight

 

but who knows maybe the expansion is what we have been waiting for?

thats what I've thought - they've been holding out on the "good" eog (endofgame) content for the expansion while they try to get the basics working

but I still have the game loaded on my computer (it only took 5 minutes to download all the new content) - and it'll probably stay that way for some time again (maybe another 3 months?)

Originally posted by Ibluerate

Did you bother joining a Guild?

Me thinks you decided to stick with talking in Global, bad idea.

I didn't bite the global, it bit me :)

But no I didn't join a guild simply because it was a bother. (been there/done that)

btw i have a lvl 80 with which i do my reactivation experience - last time lasted longer (7 days) - but it took just 20 minutes to realize the game hadn't changed enough to fit my fancy

Originally posted by Sevenwind

I envy your free time because I've got way better things to do than load up a game I dislike and know I will dislike. I mean you loaded up the game, did all that download to patch to spend 20 minutes in game. Seriously I envy your free time.

Its not because I knew I wouldn't like it - its because part of me thought *just maybe* its different.

Kinda like that food group you didn't like before - maybe you will now? 

Anyway don't envy me its a waste of your time.

for the free trial

so i logged in, had fun toying around with the feat tree (I see the DT tree is much better than it use to be) moved around a bit and realized no its done. 

I keep coming back to age of conan because I have this big sense that "theres something there" but I know from experience that theres nothing!

The game only works when the community has a rich character but the people are usually douchebags.  Sitting around just chatting with people in an imaginary world is not my idea of fun - especially when they're.. k, I'll bite my tongue.

AoC from my eyes is a game to be enjoyed with a beer - because you have to be drunk to like it.

Norways unambitious attitude may have had something to do with it.

So after the second free trial and less than 20 minutes I said goodbye, again maybe I'll see ya come expansion.  I hope they learn while they make TSW.

People want difficult challenges - but not to try to enjoy the company of vipers.

I wonder

how close are they to making aoc f2p, firing more aoc people, and hiring new people to do TSW?

I'd like them to treat aoc like they do anarchy online and move on to something else - no i dont think they learned their lesson, they don't know how to be honest and promote something at the same time (I conclude they believe promotion is inherently wrong and therefore they can't be honest at the same time)

I think hiring new people would be better than keeping the old.

Unfortunately I suspect their country has harsh penalties for firing people?  Just a guess (which is why I was suprised they even layed off some people).  I wonder if those people still are being payed (till they find new jobs?) IDK

"but in no way does us focusing on story in any way challenge us in that area."

then they don't know what they're doing

Originally posted by Lord_Ixigan

Going to start by saying I have played City of Heroes, but have NOT played Champions. This isn't a hate thread. I'm genuinely curious.

To those of you who have played Champions (and preferably both CoH and CO) - It was said well before the release of CO that Cryptic shouldn't bother making another super-hero themed mmo. Now that it has been out for a while, would those of you still playing (or those that have quit I suppose) now agree with that assessment?

Did Cryptic more or less just waste their time, effort and money doing something they've already done and, from what I've heard, actually do it worse?

i started day 1 and just quit yesturday

it was worth it

Originally posted by lampo

So I come back for the free 14 days to check it out since its been a few months, and the player base seems to have worsened since I last played in August.  Its really disappointing.  The game is fun, lots of quests, good graphics, but there is just nobody there! I'm in a guild were there are usually at least 10 people online, but everyone are such different levels and in any given zone there's just a couple players running around.  This game would be fantastic with a substantially larger player base to put in this huge world.  They should just end this or make it F2P, the crappy first few months of its life has crippled it.

this is why at the start it was worth leveling up because there were people to quest with

for those with good pcs at the time (if u had a normal pc u were shitouttaluck)

and of course the hope to lvl 80 good stuff drove - lol i remember our guild leader really pissed off our guild because everyone wanted to take a very proactive approach to farming resources for sieges and the like but he knew that there wasn't anything and they would be disappointed - we even had an exodus because we didn't believe him - boy did we learn)

Originally posted by SirPaco

Originally posted by allsmilestou

     Yes folks,im not a 'FANBOI' or 'HATER', or whatever terms you use. I just stopped an AION sub that ive been playing for the last month and a half or so. Hit level 38 and just hit a fkng wall...

Whenver I hit the abyss,Id get ganked within five mins by a group of five to ten elmos. Good times,lemme tell ya. And the pve? Dude,I fell asleep three times at my keyboard in Fire Temple. Seriously.. I was put on ignore by a guildie  for that lmao.

Anyway,been wanting to try AoC for a long while now, never downloaded it. So I took a chance and did ALOT of reading about the game,present day. Everyone,generally speaking of course,say the same thing. This is the game that should of launched. Epic blah blah blah.

So? I paid the five bucks,yes five lol,and downloaded it. Graphix? sick. The classes? many diff choices, having a hard time picking a main.Rolled a demon, necro and ,um,herald of somthing..Demon is fun as hell.

I rolled Wicc server,seems to be populous. So all in all,looks great so far. My only concern is the pvp minigames. Not sure if the population can support it.

With all the stuff F/Com is throwing out there to try this game,how could you not? Next patch I hear,you can actually level by pvping,ala WARHAMMER..Looking forward to that..

Long story short,game looks fkng sick. So far so good..And sht for five bucks? FIVE bucks to try this game? If your on the fence,try it...AND STAY THE FK AWAY FROM AION lmao....

 

you're right on one thing, and wrong on the other. Not that I "know it all";

You're wrong that next patch you will level by pvping. So stop looking forward to it, cause it's not going to happen (or else I am TRULY missing something lol)

You're right that for 5 dollars, it's worth playing.

But that's the sad thing see, it went from being a high end MMORPG to a 5 bucks one on sale that you can subscribe to for 1 year.

It really makes me sad to see the state of the game which I thought was worth a lot more than this... 

See, do you ever find ferraris on sale? Do you find the latest Iphone at 50% cut price? Do you find recent up to date and quality things on offer for ONE YEAR, with lots of goodies and stuff?

It's really sad...

"Uh, Funcom, just between you, us and the wall ... you're starting to come off as a bit desperate. Just a skosh." *