Originally posted by MoLoK_

Announcing the x-pack so early is very smart move by Funcom. All the fanbois will continue to pay the monthly fee, waiting for the x-pack that will fix this half finished, bugridden game.

 

It will NOT come early 2009. More likely dec 09 or early 2010. And yes, the fanbois will pay the monthly fee from now until then (about 18 of them...), hoping, hoping.

Why do you still say the x-pac will not be out early next year, sice we have already read from the horse mouth that it will?

I wouldnt be surpride that they are putting most of the, suppose to be inside the game during launch, gameplay into the x-pac and come out claiming its NEW!!!! ITS BEEN WHAT YOU'VE BEEN WAITING FOR!!! BUY NOW!!! kinda crap thing......

So its really rather easy for them to release it by early next year you see.....

Originally posted by arctarus

Originally posted by MoLoK_

Announcing the x-pack so early is very smart move by Funcom. All the fanbois will continue to pay the monthly fee, waiting for the x-pack that will fix this half finished, bugridden game.

 

It will NOT come early 2009. More likely dec 09 or early 2010. And yes, the fanbois will pay the monthly fee from now until then (about 18 of them...), hoping, hoping.

 

Why do you still say the x-pac will not be out early next year, sice we have already read from the horse mouth that it will?

I wouldnt be surpride that they are putting most of the, suppose to be inside the game during launch, gameplay into the x-pac and come out claiming its NEW!!!! ITS BEEN WHAT YOU'VE BEEN WAITING FOR!!! BUY NOW!!! kinda crap thing......

So its really rather easy for them to release it by early next year you see.....

The horses mouth seems to be a bullshit artist hehe.

Originally posted by Bigdavo

Originally posted by arctarus

Originally posted by MoLoK_

Announcing the x-pack so early is very smart move by Funcom. All the fanbois will continue to pay the monthly fee, waiting for the x-pack that will fix this half finished, bugridden game.

 

It will NOT come early 2009. More likely dec 09 or early 2010. And yes, the fanbois will pay the monthly fee from now until then (about 18 of them...), hoping, hoping.

 

Why do you still say the x-pac will not be out early next year, sice we have already read from the horse mouth that it will?

I wouldnt be surpride that they are putting most of the, suppose to be inside the game during launch, gameplay into the x-pac and come out claiming its NEW!!!! ITS BEEN WHAT YOU'VE BEEN WAITING FOR!!! BUY NOW!!! kinda crap thing......

So its really rather easy for them to release it by early next year you see.....

 

The horses mouth seems to be a bullshit artist hehe.

Bullshit artist? Heh Funcom has taken Bullshit to a whole nother realm barely comprehensible by the human mind.

It will be hilarious when, months down the road, I hear about AoC Beta Te... I mean, *players*, pay for content they were supposed to have from the original game release

Originally posted by Warmaker

It will be hilarious when, months down the road, I hear about AoC Beta Te... I mean, *players*, pay for content they were supposed to have from the original game release

Yea they will add 4 cities and the Choppa. Seriously though, they are adding things that didnt make the cut this year, we hope.

The expansion is new content, not on the drawing board yet.

Where do you draw the line? Is every little bit of new additions in the future always going to be labelled as "should of been in for launch"?

Easily looking a year off for the expansion. In the meantime the game will have extra content added and additional Fugitive System. PLUS what didn't make the launch, eg, DX10 and the whole PvP system worked on as they didnt actually say it would have looting etc. Bloodmoney went out the window as it wasnt a viable system, was blood money in Beta? Yes, over 1 year ago and then got took out. And not to mention the whole Siege system being up to scratch.

Anything else is an Expansion just like any other game, which will include new starting area's and races amongst other things.

Originally posted by AmazingAvery

Originally posted by Warmaker

It will be hilarious when, months down the road, I hear about AoC Beta Te... I mean, *players*, pay for content they were supposed to have from the original game release

 

Yea they will add 4 cities and the Choppa. Seriously though, they are adding things that didnt make the cut this year, we hope.

The expansion is new content, not on the drawing board yet.

Where do you draw the line? Is every little bit of new additions in the future always going to be labelled as "should of been in for launch"?

Easily looking a year off for the expansion. In the meantime the game will have extra content added and additional Fugitive System. PLUS what didn't make the launch, eg, DX10 and the whole PvP system worked on as they didnt actually say it would have looting etc. Bloodmoney went out the window as it wasnt a viable system, was blood money in Beta? Yes, over 1 year ago and then got took out. And not to mention the whole Siege system being up to scratch.

Anything else is an Expansion just like any other game, which will include new starting area's and races amongst other things.

Any company can make all the promises in the world they want.  Whether you take their word for it is all up on you.

For me, going from Funcom's track record for AoC, I have no faith in them.  I put my money on it... via the CANCEL button.

The morons at Funcom have NOT even fixed the core game.  End-game is still borked.  Patches are screwing things up that were previously working.  Class issues not being resolved.  Major technical issues not being resolved.  Etc., etc., etc.  The game has been out about 2 months now, and no single major issue has been remedied.

If they haven't fixed the core game, I wonder what they can do with new stuff.

Originally posted by AmazingAvery

Originally posted by Warmaker

It will be hilarious when, months down the road, I hear about AoC Beta Te... I mean, *players*, pay for content they were supposed to have from the original game release

 

Yea they will add 4 cities and the Choppa. Seriously though, they are adding things that didnt make the cut this year, we hope.

This is NOT the Warhammer forum, my little lost lamb.

Originally posted by Amalaric

Originally posted by AmazingAvery

Originally posted by Warmaker

It will be hilarious when, months down the road, I hear about AoC Beta Te... I mean, *players*, pay for content they were supposed to have from the original game release

 

Yea they will add 4 cities and the Choppa. Seriously though, they are adding things that didnt make the cut this year, we hope.

 

This is NOT the Warhammer forum, my little lost lamb.

I know . Was just making the point about content "supposed to have from the original game release" comment. (Not knocking WAR)  Its just a point. AoC's Expac will be just like any other games. Point is where do you draw the line for what should be an expac?

Obviously it shouldn't be things they said were supposed to be at launch and obviously the game should be up to snuff before either a) the xmas box special and b) an expansion.

They have talked about a lot of ideas long time prior to launch of AoC which they would like to see in addition to the original concept released as an expac on their roadmap. Things that were not on the drawing board for AoC / ideas for the future just like all companies.

I am in full agreement that the game should deliever on the details on the back of the box and be polished up properly before an expansion comes. I think FC agree there too.

The news about the expansion plans are not old, they are just coming to light more so because of the many existant bugs in the game, people are like "woah.. Expac... not buying that till the original is fixed" because the game is still broke in places. And there is nothing wrong with that mentality either.

What FC I feel are trying to put across is that they are in with AoC for the long haul and commited to it, by re-iterating expansion details still, shows in some way their commitment to the game. AO is 7 yrs old now.

You know what, everyone upset / disappointed / pissed off with the game in whatever way (myself included in some area's) should be able to see that they are committed to it, whether it is working or not, or whether people have already left or not. Proof will be how the game plays and the sooner its better the better for the genre and for all. The way they turned AO around was great, just like other games developers.

So for me its not a question of will they pay for fixes? I'm confident the fixes will come first and the Expansion later on - as its always been.

If people feel they are paying for the game to be fixed right now, then stop your sub, its pretty easy to do.

If people are continuing to have fun in the game and they feel its worth their money then continue to subscribe.

If your on the fence about joining up, then wait for the buddy keys to come out and then make your mind up.

Originally posted by AmazingAvery

You know what, everyone upset / disappointed / pissed off with the game in whatever way (myself included in some area's) should be able to see that they are committed to it, whether it is working or not, or whether people have already left or not. Proof will be how the game plays and the sooner its better the better for the genre and for all. The way they turned AO around was great, just like other games developers.

So for me its not a question of will they pay for fixes? I'm confident the fixes will come first and the Expansion later on - as its always been.

If people feel they are paying for the game to be fixed right now, then stop your sub, its pretty easy to do.

If people are continuing to have fun in the game and they feel its worth their money then continue to subscribe.

If your on the fence about joining up, then wait for the buddy keys to come out and then make your mind up.

I can see where you are coming from in a lot of your points, but I don't agree with all of them.

In my opinion, whether or not the expansion was planned a long time ago, they should have waited until things had settled down a bit before making announcements. Rather than reassuring concerned players that they were committed to the game in the long haul, it had the appearance of corporate denial linked to another way of making money. Maybe the investors wouldn't allow them to delay & they had no choice, but whatever the reasons it seemed like bad PR to me.

In particular though I disagree with your suggestion about "if people they are are paying for the game to be fixed right now, then stop your sub, its pretty easy to do".  The problem with your suggestion is that there is no middle ground & in most other market sectors, if a customer had paid for services in advance & was unhappy because of quality & maintenance issues, the supplier would not simply say "take it or leave it".

Assuming the game had launched perfectly & there were no issues, the subscription rates would have still have been the same as they are now. If Funcom have acknowledged even partially that the service falls short of what they had initially hoped, why are they only expressing their regrets in words?

Luckily because I play a Demonologist on a PvE Server, I don't seem to have been that badly affected by some of the more 'interesting new patch features' (although I did get randomly blade-stormed by low level monsters for 5 times my maximum HP a few times, but to be honest I just laughed it off & treated it as a variation of 'russian roulette' where I had to kill the mob in a random time limit). I know that it might be hard to calculate because players are affected by bugs differently & it is difficult to put a price tag on the acknowledged shortfall in content, but if Funcom really wanted to reassure players that were uncertain if they wanted to continue, offering something more tangible might help.

It wouldn't have to be 'free game time' although that would probably be the most common suggestion after 'refund', but if there was some sort of in-game loyalty bonus (Not XP items though, levelling is already too easy!) they could offer to players that have continued to support the game though 'difficult times' it would be a good start.

Just my opinions. I really hope the game does succeed because I enjoy playing it & think it has a lot of potential, but I do find it depressing that Funcom don't seem to be taking things seriously enough.

Let me break a lance for Funcom and say, lets wait and see. I mean, if they have enough new content for an expansion not too expensive, its alright to *additionally* put "patch content" into the Xpack. Lets stay cool and wait for the details. I am always willing to criticize things, but ripping them apart before knowing any detail is just a bit ridiculous. I admit, they didnt deliver a lot of things they promised, so I too am very sceptical about the xpansion.