Trailer for The Savage Coast of Turan the last adventure pack for AoC

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWcyXqw5-RM&feature=player_embedded

The last?

I think the OP means latest not last. There is definitely more on the way, if we are to believe the development updates.

Originally posted by Lexite

The last?

Funcom based the hopes of their game getting a large influx of new players on a failed movie. They would have gotten better bang for buck advertising the game on Craigslist.

Personally, I think it should be the last adventure pack made until the devs can successfully pull their heads out of their asses and put AoC back on the map, starting with REAL advertisements.

Originally posted by eyeswideopen

Originally posted by Lexite

The last?

Funcom based the hopes of their game getting a large influx of new players on a failed movie. They would have gotten better bang for buck advertising the game on Craigslist.

Personally, I think it should be the last adventure pack made until the devs can successfully pull their heads out of their asses and put AoC back on the map, starting with REAL advertisements.

 I agree, and its actually kind of sad because the game has so much potential.

Originally posted by Lexite

The last?

Funcom based the hopes of their game getting a large influx of new players on a failed movie. They would have gotten better bang for buck advertising the game on Craigslist.

Personally, I think it should be the last adventure pack made until the devs can successfully pull their heads out of their asses and put AoC back on the map, starting with REAL advertisements.

 The movie  was a flop, no question. But regardless of how the movie did, even if it was a big hit , the game will only stand or fall on its own merits. What really raised up this game was the new FtP business model. As one who was playing the game before and after it was implemented, I can attest to the the increase in game population and the breath of fresh air the FtP business model brought in. No amount of advertising could have come close to bringing in so many new players. It has been like a flood!

Craig, AoC's game director, has stated in the game forums that there is really very little money available for advertising and Funcom has to be very specific and target their advertising carefully.  They keep AoC advertising focused on places that MMO gamers will most likely see them, which means gaming web sites. I don't read gaming publications but they may advertise in those as well. Point being the budget for running ads is not large.

Getting back to the movie, if Funcom was really so dependent on this movie doing well they probably would have advertised more in conjunction with it. But they didn't. In hindsight that is probably a good thing, since the movie did so poorly. It is not the movie that will make or break AoC, or even more advertising, which I agree wouldn't hurt, but the content, gameplay, and overall appeal of the game itself. That and only that will attract, and more importantly, keep players  in the game.

Originally posted by LuckyDucky

Originally posted by Lexite

The last?

Funcom based the hopes of their game getting a large influx of new players on a failed movie. They would have gotten better bang for buck advertising the game on Craigslist.

Personally, I think it should be the last adventure pack made until the devs can successfully pull their heads out of their asses and put AoC back on the map, starting with REAL advertisements.

 The movie  was a flop, no question. But regardless of how the movie did, even if it was a big hit , the game will only stand or fall on its own merits. What really raised up this game was the new FtP business model. As one who was playing the game before and after it was implemented, I can attest to the the increase in game population and the breath of fresh air the FtP business model brought in. No amount of advertising could have come close to bringing in so many new players. It has been like a flood!

Craig, AoC's game director, has stated in the game forums that there is really very little money available for advertising and Funcom has to be very specific and target their advertising carefully.  They keep AoC advertising focused on places that MMO gamers will most likely see them, which means gaming web sites. I don't read gaming publications but they may advertise in those as well. Point being the budget for running ads is not large.

Getting back to the movie, if Funcom was really so dependent on this movie doing well they probably would have advertised more in conjunction with it. But they didn't. In hindsight that is probably a good thing, since the movie did so poorly. It is not the movie that will make or break AoC, or even more advertising, which I agree wouldn't hurt, but the content, gameplay, and overall appeal of the game itself. That and only that will attract, and more importantly, keep players  in the game.

It seems that most MMOs have the advertising budget of a one man small business. I remember the devs for City of Heroes talking about that game's miniscule advertising budget. It seems pretty nonsensical for games that are dependant on a constant flow of new players to have such tiny budgets.

Last quarter Funcom only had 13m US$ left in the bank, and that is incredible small amount of money for a international game company with 300 employes. Hopefully the F2P release and adventute pack has turned it around so they have gained som money. The money has to last untill May 2012 when "The secret world" is released and they expect to earn around 150m US$ the first months from that game. 

Today AOC has to pay the salary for the devs working on TSW, with the release of the game(tsw) hopefully that will change and AOC gets to keep more money to hire devs. AOC will still be a modern game in all aspects in 2012, first class melee combat system, and exelent graphics. So there's no reason that Funcom will not try to "relaunch" the game again in the 2012-13 window, if they get the funds to throw more devs at the game and sort out some of the old bugs + create more content.