All Posts by Vetarnias

And surely you must have noticed that "Save Linna" cabal on the Rackham forum, with everyone rushing to sign the petition.

I decided not to do so, for a variety of reasons:

1) I'm not playing anymore, so it's none of my business.

2) I don't even know this Linna, even though I played on Rackham for 2 months.  My guess is that this Linna, who seems to have quite a reputation (otherwise the community wouldn't care) didn't revolve around my circle.  All I knew of her was what she posted on the forums.

3) Apparently the reason she was banned was because she had 3 accounts and played different factions on the same server, which a devlog recently stated is against the rules of the game.  I, for one, with my measly one account, tend to resent people with multiple accounts, as the only purpose to them is to give you an edge economically (very easy to do in this game, which has limited production lots) or strategically.  As far as I know, multi-boxing was tolerated by FLS (since it just means additional revenue, why wouldn't they?), but it's probably the multi-nation part which irks them.

FLS might be shooting itself in the foot by banning her, but she's a symbol of everything I hate in gaming: those who are ready to shell out more money just to get "an edge".  I wouldn't do it even if I could afford it.  But to her credit, she played as nationals, and  apparently wasn't using multi-boxing to provide ship durabilities to pirates.

4) In the end, she said that faced with a choice of either moving her characters, deleting them, or getting banned, she decided to leave the game.  So it's not exactly as though she was being banned without lack of an alternative.

Originally posted by majoch

I wouldn't read too much into the PoTBS official forums as well, maybe get a feel for which of the 4 servers and societies but keep an unbiased eye on the forum jousting,  IMO some of those people are responsible for chasing away a decent portion of the population with the elitist PvP spiel.

Exactly.  Much of the server-specific forum stuff revolves around banter and witty repartees using Bombay TV clips.  To that crowd, no salvation outside PvP, which is precisely what turned me off the game (including the lack of endgame beyond PvP).

What an unpleasant screenshot debate, with many faults on both sides.  The GM is either incompetent or inexperienced.  The player, on the other hand, displays every hint of instant gratification, for which he has been supported by others on the grounds that "he is paying for it", as though that immediately excused rude behaviour.

Reminds me of a case I heard about when I was working in retail, though it happened at another store in the chain.  One customer, after being told he could not get a refund or a rebate (something like that) started destroying store merchandise, and the manager told a receptionist to call the police while sending another employee to calm down the client.  The customer, without warning, aimed his hands at the employee's throat, starting to strangle him.  The employee only freed himself by punching the client in the face.  How it ended?  The employee was fired; the manager was demoted back to sales.  And the client?  Who cares?  The customer is always right.... right?

Originally posted by Malickiebloo

Originally posted by Vetarnias

This all begs the question:  If someone posted in a non-English language on the US forums, would he get in trouble?

You know, not writing in English would be a natural thing for, say, French Canadians or Southern US Hispanics.  Funcom can't pretend they don't exist....

Cela nous permettrait de voir s'ils seraient aussi rapides à nous censurer s'ils n'arrivaient pas à comprendre un traître mot de ce qu'on écrivait...

 

It might be quite foolish to suggest that Funcom has a bias for their us customers over members from other regions of the world. Considering they are European.

Not my point at all.  Although, to their credit, they do acknowledge the existence of a French minority on the North American servers (they have a French subsection for Zug players, based on that old convention that the last North American server in alphabetical order is where French players congregate).  It might be fun to see, however, how much French they would appreciate on all sections before they start handing out tickets.

This all begs the question:  If someone posted in a non-English language on the US forums, would he get in trouble?

You know, not writing in English would be a natural thing for, say, French Canadians or Southern US Hispanics.  Funcom can't pretend they don't exist....

Cela nous permettrait de voir s'ils seraient aussi rapides à nous censurer s'ils n'arrivaient pas à comprendre un traître mot de ce qu'on écrivait...

Forums only show a very tiny pop. of gamers into these games, and it amazes me how many people actualy think its a indicator of a games pop. LOL

Of the game's popularity, no.  Of the climate surrounding it, yes.

While there will always be critics for even the most popular games, and while forum populations tend to be the most vocal subset of the game's players, some of their concerns are legitimate.

Furthermore -- as is apparently the case here, with all those reports of frivolous bans -- treatment of the forum population by the company is a fairly reliable indicator of what it thinks of its players. 

What we can see on the Age of Conan forums: No developer interaction with the gaming population (except as Announcements from High Above, if even that), inconsistent, harsh, vague and unaccountable forum moderation (where criticism of the company or worse still, moderation itself, is apparently a worse offense than being rude towards other players), lack of acknowledgement of even the most trivial problems (it took a month to have a link to the Mannanan server subforum despite numerous requests!), and apparently a double standard when it comes to  European vs. North American players (no official RP-PvE server for North America despite an ongoing forum petition).

I think it's a mighty good indicator that it's not exactly the most player-friendly company out there.

Originally posted by vet-in-exile

Originally posted by SirXaph

Thankfully they've seen the light, as it were, and are going to be tweaking mechanics to reduce ganking.

Which is a meaningless statement until they provide some specifics of how they are going to accomplish that. From what I'm reading on the official forums I'm not hopeful they will be successful.

Even with the most innovative and clever system, I'm not hopeful they can ever be successful.

And how do we know if they've "seen the light"?  Maybe FLS is just paying lip service to the so-called carebears because they know the game can't be financially viable without them.

For all the united front FLS has always presented to the community as to its vision, I think there was and perhaps still is a major rift in the company between the anything-to-win pro-hardcore no-crying-in-the-red-circle mentality -- DrewC most famously, but also Rusty (" Read Sun Tzu's Art of War. It should be called the Art of the Gank.") and maybe a few other developers, perhaps Joe Ludwig (who will always have a special place in my mind for his cop-out approach to the Great Blackbeard Exploit Caper) -- and the balanced-PvP or more laid back approach (if honest about the "next big failure" quote, Isildur would be here, and I would add Aether's name too, and probably Snap as well, who is a newcomer to FLS but was the one who worked on insurance and seemed to demonstrate a clear understanding of gaming mentality in his few forum posts). 

In the early months, the first side was prevailing, but now I am not so sure.  Saving the game is probably a greater imperative than sticking to a vision which led to dwindling subscriptions.

Pfft, they'll censor everything, apparently.

Don't they realize that they are undermining the development of a community around the game?

Are you sure there is no other way for you to get the patch information?

And frankly, if this happened to me, I'd be closer to the "Cancel" button than to anything else.

Companies with such shoddy treatment of their customers don't deserve your money.

Originally posted by Elikal

I get a warning in english for posting one english sentence in a german off-topic forum. Is Gaute Groucho Marx and Funcom the Muppet Show? lol They have a burning forum and THATS their main concern? Wow. I admire a good sense of humor.

Erm.... since this is on the German forums, methinks you got the wrong Marx.

Just sayin'.

Budweiser might be the King of Beers, but I still think it's undrinkable horse urine.

The same analogy might be made with Age of Conan, but I wouldn't go that far myself.

My subscription expired on the 23rd, and I didn't play much during the previous month, but I was getting a distinct impression that nothing had changed much since launch, and that nothing is likely to change in the short term.  Even though I have just cancelled my subscription to Age of Conan, I am not planning on returning to PotBS until the feedback has improved.

Maybe that comes from playing on the French side, but the servers struck me as empty whenever I logged in.  Population-wise, levels seem to have returned to what they were pre-merger (in other words, Light Light Medium Light practically everywhere).  Activity on the official forums also seems to be down, now that the civil war between the hardcore and the PvEers over "ambush gameplay" has subsided, and that insurance is an inevitability.  Of note in your case is that there is much talk on the Blackbeard forum of transferring away due to the massive imbalance of server populations.

The economy was pretty much dead, and it is questionable whether insurance will change any of that, since the economic woes seemed to be the result of in-society production and economic-player exodus: Goods don't sell, and those that are available are posted at exorbitant prices.  Insurance will probably lead to even more inflation but with no additional supply.  An economic player could make some very good money, but I can't see why they would want to play a game in which all the non-economic content is PvP.

My main concern has never been PvP, but when I left, red circles were pretty much depleted.  Perhaps insurance will change that; perhaps not.  But I'm afraid that the endgame at 50 will never be more than what you fear it is, outside of port battles (which apparently have a lot of trouble getting filled up these days).

Originally posted by medafor

This is the ugliest. Age of Conan mmorpg.com boards have a lot of people who are disappointed once they reach higher levels, there being not much endgame content; more so than the other boards.

I see more negative comments on these boards than positive. Sure there are a few who still love it, but you see them a month later with the same old "I'm not happy anymore" post.   The game is a quick 30-day fix (or however long it takes to reach 60-80), then you move on. 

No one wants to stick around if there is no true endgame. i played beta and test live, by the time retail came out knowing how unfinished it was i was not going to be a dumb a** and buy it. Overall, the game is a big disappointment  to your average level 80.  Like i said some 80's may stick around , but the majority of them unsubscribe.

LOTRO and WOW for the win, I still subscribe to both after years; AOC I wouldn't touch after a few months of beta and test live. I also did test live all they way up until last week, so we were playing the same game you were and got patches before you retailers.

In my opinion, the game lacks in its current state.  When playing the Necromancer class i got to around level 60 using one spell the whole time; in WOW you are forced to mix it up and use your buffs or you will die.  AOC has no balance. The lore sucks, you can't deny that. The drops are retarded. My level 60 almost looked like my lvl 10, the social stinks, system requirements are retarded even though i have an 8800, core duo, gameplay is a bore, quests are repetitive, graphics are great though... but thats it.

These boards also resemble the official boards. Wake up Funcom, get some real programmers and get this puppy fixed for the customers you have left.

There, edited it for all the text-wallers out there. Maybe now we can discuss the OP's arguments instead of dismissing it as one chunk of text.

Reading the cancellation messages in four languages has been fascinating, especially for the difference between them.

Caveat. I speak English and French fluently, but I had to rely on Babel Fish to get an approximate translation in Spanish (though I once learned its basics) and German.

French tends to be a verbose language in comparison to English, but even here it has an additional sentence found in none of the other versions: "We remind you that we will maintain the data of your character, to allow you to continue the adventure where you left it." (Wasn't there something mentioned somewhere, the EULA or wherever, that basically said they were not making such guarantees?)

Also of note is that, unlike the French version, the Spanish version is written in an informal tone (tu instead of su, etc.).  Perhaps it has to do with social conventions, but I doubt it.

There are other variations throughout, which has me thinking that each of these versions, although based on a similar model, did not originate as translations of the other.

While I am no fan of the game, I am dismayed at the vindictive pettiness of some of the posters on these boards, who probably wish they could get ratings so precise that they could mention every thousandth of a point the game loses even though such measurements have no scientific value whatsoever.

Any new game will lose subscriptions over the first month, and in the early days of the game, I saw a lot of talk in-game by people who bought it only to discover they could not properly run it despite meeting the requirements.  Are you seriously expecting such people to upgrade their computers just for a game they have no idea whether they will enjoy in the long term?  In their place, I would just have written off the initial $50 and moved on.

So basically, those people have cancelled for reasons that had nothing to do with game mechanics or class balances or end-game content.  Yes, I saw several people complain about such things, and about how the game did not deliver all that it promised, and I'm sure many have cancelled because of that; I too share their concerns.  I find less and less reasons to log into the game, and I find that my system performance has decreased in recent weeks.  But I won't be pointing to every new adverse development, or making fun of anything Gaute Godager might be saying.  And I won't start whining about how they've nerfed my skillz in the Great Insignificant Peeveepee Struggle.

Usually, when I have to complain about a game, it has less to do with the actual game, but what a certain category of players make of it (for instance, that keep battle where both sides, made up of hardcore guilds, both accused one another of cheating even though by all accounts they were just as guilty as the other).  You might argue it's a result of bad design, as such players will exploit every fault, but even with a foolproof system they are such a pain to play with.

Hmm, your profile says you're from Berlin.  Getting the game in 1970 must have been quite something, considering how quickly you could have been cut off from West Germany.

Unless, of course, you're playing the East German version, where Conan strangely resembles Karl Marx, and all women seem to come right off the Olympic Track and Field team.   If so, don't reply, the Stasi might be reading.

Originally posted by Elsabolts

They have been handing out bans left and right and have shut down there own forums because of heat they were getting on them. They have a big problem and are in full damage control mode. in my humble opion!

The banning part I have no problem believing, but do you have any evidence that they actually "shut down their own forums because of heat they were getting on them"?  It might have been a technical glitch -- that happens to the best of places from time to time, and on that score, I am willing to give Funcom the benefit of the doubt.

Originally posted by Teala

Some of you may have read my review.   Game is good.  Could be great.   The problem is the game is not done.    The end game that Funcom promised and closed beta people never got to see is just not there.   No PvP system in place, sieges still do not work as Funcom depicted in videos months and months before release.   

So I'll list my main reasons for cancelling my account in order.

1) Lack of end game content.  Where are the sieges we were promised?  Where is the PvP content and system and why isn't it in yet.

2) Lack of content past level 50.  

3) Broken classes, broken skills, broken feats and the nerf bat swings way to wildly for my taste.

4) My character still wears the same drab armor she's worn since Tortage!  Where are all the armor graphics we were promised would be added?  I left EQ2 after my free month there because I was tired of seeing my character in a burlap sack.   In AoC that burlap just has various shades of tan and some metal studs.   1-80 she still looks the same!

5) Monetary drops.   I cannot push my self to farm resources(that part of the game needs fixed as well) so I rely on monetary drops to buy things.  I really enjoyed the fact that my horse had attack skills before Funcom decided to strip them from her.   Then we were told we were never intended to have them at such a low level.  OK.  Fine.   I'll purchase them.   Not!!!!!!!!!  Not in this lifetime!  It cost 100gold!  Forget it.   At the rate coinage drops in this game my character would never see that much gold in years of playing.   Considering how long it takes to gather just one gold!

6) Bugs, glitches and poor performance.  For starters I am tired of the CTD's due to the huge memory leaks in the game.   Port into multiple instances and you're going to crash due to the out of memory error. 

7)  The GUI and Chat need reworked, rewritten, from the ground up.   I do not wish to have to download and patch the game using a 3rd party GUI.   The one in game is so unfriendly and so poorly designed it makes Asheron's Call(a game from 1999) GUI look advanced!

8) Did I mention lack of content post level 50+

Anyway...game is fun to play...it is just broken, and to much needs worked on right now to warrant paying for it.   Game is great up to level 50 for the most part.  Past that and it just isn't worth the frustration.

It really does sadden me that I have to cancel.   Here is hoping Funcom gets it fixed, because the game(like so many others that came before it) has a lot of potential.  It could have been the MMORPG of the year...it was poised to be - alas Funcom is blowing it.

I made it to level 40, and I am already tiring of it.  To answer your points specifically:

1) I played almost exclusively on a PvE server, due to the awful reputation the PvP servers have.  The problem with PvE servers is that considering the nature of the game, and the characteristics of the world (amply discussed in the Conan stories), they all lack depth without a full-PvP environment.  And the PvP servers, on the other hand, seem to be filled by people who don't care whether they're playing spaceships, elves or sailboats, as long as they can gank or grief before jumping on to the next game when their interest runs out, not to mention the powergaming guilds who seem to think  that what they do actually *matters*

2) Content was dangerously turning into more of the same by level 35, when I finished most of the missions in the Wild Lands and in Conall Valley.  I levelled to 40 just to see how the crafting went, but by the time I reached it, I lost interest in even trying it out, not only because I heard it was broken, but that it would basically require a massive influx of money.

Not to mention that the trader interface is just awful, not at all user-friendly (and in many cases some items were dropped from the listings if you inserted larger criteria -- looking for shields from levels 1 to 80 would drop several shields in the 40 range, which would be listed if you inserted 40 to 80 instead; likewise, looking for all heavy armor would sometimes drop all bloodsilver items, for which you actually had to type the word to get them listed).  As a result, I am not expecting a great deal out of the economy in this game.

3) I always played a guardian, and never quite bothered to try some of the most advanced feats, as it seemed to me the damage they caused was essentially the same as those feats I obtained before level 20, with far more stamina wasted.  In a PvP fight, I suspect I would be soundly defeated, for a variety of factors having nothing to do with studying skills and feats.

4) Armor never really was a complaint for me.  There were subtle differences, and in my case moving from light armor (rawhide) to medium (padded leather) to heavy (iron ring, then bloodsilver) gave a good graphical variety.  My only disappointment was when it came to shields, as there were only a few models available (including a few quest rewards then sported by anyone who could use a shield -- that bloodguard, for instance).

5) Oh indeed, money drops.  And item prices are completely out of whack (just consider backpacks -- the cheapest is 50 copper and the most expensive is 50 gold, or 10,000 times more! ).  At the same time, most armor and weapons were unrealistically dirt-cheap.  Then there are mounts, a major complain of mine since I've learned that they gave away such a valuable item as a war mount to anyone who pre-ordered the game.  As someone who bought the game at the store, don't I feel like the sucker.

6) Strangely enough, I only crashed a couple of times, a handful at most, and found the game far more stable than some other titles I tried.  But while the game rarely crashed, it never performed well, thanks to my sub-par video card (actually below minimum requirements; the rest is fine).  Most of the time, my frame rate never reached the two-digit range even on the most optimized settings and with updated drivers, but at the same time I did not want to upgrade it until I had played enough of the game to decide for myself whether it was worth it.

Tortage was playable, and when I reached Old Tarantia, the game became sluggish though never completely unplayable.  Then I tried the major regions where most of the quests for my level were located -- Wild Lands, Conall's Valley, Khemi, Poitain, etc -- and all were playable on my system.  Finally I entered the Tarantia Noble District -- screeching halt: choppy as hell.  The NPC's there were maybe a couple of levels above me, but the lag pretty much ensured I was getting killed every time.

Then there were occasions when I tried to group up; if there were more than 3 people in the group, or worse, if there were heavy special-effects users, it was almost impossible to maintain good coordination (last time I tried, I was grouped with a Priest of Mitra and a necromancer -- just awful and barely playable).  That was when I realized that I would essentially be useless in a PvP environment unless I upgraded my video card.  But by now I have seen enough of the game to know it is not worth the expense.

Furthermore, the game's performance on my system seems to have *deteriorated* in recent days.  Might the patches be to blame?  I tend to think so...

7) I have seen worse -- much worse.

8) Why, yes, you did. But I would say that what finally turned me off the game was the size of the guilds that seemed to be playing it, hundreds of players, when I prefer smaller guilds (20 members at most) that keep track of progress and work closely together.  These tend to be hard to find, but here I don't think such guilds could even be competitive, and that if they exist, sooner or later they will be absorbed into larger guilds.

I haven't cancelled yet (as I still have 3 weeks to play anyway before renewal), but I am not expecting to be continuing to play this game for very long.  Good premise, gorgeously designed world (even on 2.0 shaders), but completely lacking in depth.  And the more I play MMO's, the more I think instancing is a major step BACK in their evolution.  It's not a world when you get 3 or 6 or 50 versions of it on a same server.

And what are those three things on the left that seem to be floating in the air?  Flying saucers?

Originally posted by MMO-Maniac

Food anologies,eh?

Ok.

WoW is the McDonald's of MMO games. McDies isn't that bad really. It's not good for you, but it's not horrible horrible food either. Think the fries, mmmmm, the fries are great, but the food is what it is: fast food.

McDonald's also has something WoW does not. Real competition(well, it does but, oh you can figure out what I mean).

McDonald's has Burger King, Wendy's, Subway, Chik-a-something, and other well known fast food places. What game choices have you if you decide you don't want a Bog Mac((WoW)also, the typo is how I feel about the Mac)? EQ2? COH? AOC?

When people say WoW is the McDonald's of MMO games, they are really praising WoW. McDonald's is extremly popular, doing very well as a business, and has a large group of dedicated customers. The food, as i said before, is what it is: fast food.

Ever notice if one of McDies competors comes up with a new burger, to stay ahead, McDies comes up with the same item only just a little different?

Now, what do i think of AOC?

Crack cocaine.

Some are addicted to it and defend it beyond belief, but just dont seem able to stop using it. They can see it's bad. They can see it's not the best. It has them in it's grip.

Will it always be like this?

Nah, it'll just take FunCom time to turn this bad drug into something more pleasing to the palate. Eventually, AOC will become that little fish-n-chip place people enjoy and gave a second chance, but won't ever be as big as McDonald's.

 

 

 

Speaking of McDonald's, did I hear correctly that they are the official restaurant of the Beijing olympics? 

Nothing more appropriate than an organization supposedly celebrating physical activity (albeit in an unpalatably elitist way) endorsing a fast food chain with such a shoddy nutritional track record...

And I sure as hell hope AoC doesn't turn into a WoW.  I never played the Blizzard game, but the artwork alone has been enough to convince me to stay away.  Besides, here it's Conan.  I might object to the treatment of women in the game, but Funcom will have to remain faithful to the original material if the franchise tie is to be of any use to the selling of the game.