Sieges are fine, we have them each week on the server Im on and they dont lag the server to all hell anymore like they used to, bugs have been fixed in them and also intentional siege crashing has been fixed and ghosting is now consider an exploit.
The blood money thing Im not actually aware of, dont think ive heard of that one so cant really tell you there.
1.05 basically revamped the game. It took the classes and lowered down the horribly OP'd classes like ToS down to a level on the rest, it can still nuke but no where near in damage where it was. They also removed a lot of redundant abilities and combined a lot of spells, such as casters dont have 400 buffs to put up each time they die now, they either rolled them into 1 buff or removed them. They also redid a bunch of class skills such as conqs buffs have been completely redone from how they were.
PvP is pretty abundant especially on the PvP servers, there are quite a few PvP level 5 people running around now, and the start of PvP actually is quite frequent on White Sands Isles now so players who wish to be fighting all the time they level up are having to constantly watch themselves on PvP servers. I myself play on a PvE server so I cant overly speak on the scale of the battles, but simply going off forums posts from Cimmeria and Tyranny, people seem to be having fun with the pvp, especially now that classes dont wtfpwn anymore.
Really a lot has changed. I quit before 1.05 and came back last month and had to actually restart a new character just to get used to the changes. Give it a shot, I cant promise it will be for you buts its worth checking out whats different.
1: Have sieges been fixed? Are there still exploits such as glitching through walls ect causing it to end in less than a minute? No, still exploitable.
2: Has FC introduced drunken boxing now as they promised at launch? Didn't answer.
3: Do we have a blood money system in game as was hyped at launch? No.
4: How is the PvP? Is it more than a bunch of guys hanging around Kheshetta (spelling) PvPing (in a loose term) over nothing and getting bored? Sounds the same as launch, White sands ganking and bored lvl 80's in Kesh.
5: Are there major PvP battles of 100 vs 100 as promised at launch now? I'll take it as no.
You're vague at best when answering my questions, the only real answer I got was that sieges are still exploitable which in my opinion is unacceptable for an alleged AAA MMORPG 18 months after release and an expansion coming out Q1 2010. In fact it's pretty piss poor at best!
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience"
So you're saying, 1: Have sieges been fixed? Are there still exploits such as glitching through walls ect causing it to end in less than a minute? No, still exploitable. 2: Has FC introduced drunken boxing now as they promised at launch? Didn't answer. 3: Do we have a blood money system in game as was hyped at launch? No. 4: How is the PvP? Is it more than a bunch of guys hanging around Kheshetta (spelling) PvPing (in a loose term) over nothing and getting bored? Sounds the same as launch, White sands ganking and bored lvl 80's in Kesh. 5: Are there major PvP battles of 100 vs 100 as promised at launch now? I'll take it as no. You're vague at best when answering my questions, the only real answer I got was that sieges are still exploitable which in my opinion is unacceptable for an alleged AAA MMORPG 18 months after release and an expansion coming out Q1 2010. In fact it's pretty piss poor at best!
Agricola, you are refering to issues that Funcom has stated that were "good ideas on paper, but did not work in real life"
2, 3 and 5 are in this category. It has been explained time and time again that these issues wont be part of the game. If these issues are important to you then forget about AoC completely and look for another game. They simply wont happen in the forseable future.
Many things that were hyped before launch hasnt made it into the game and many things that never were mentioned are in the game now. Stop living in the past and focus on wether or not AoC is a good game for you as it is today. Thats the issue.
Originally posted by BishopB:
Are a lot of the trolls just angry kids with old gaming hardware?
How is this different than their other free trials? I mean you can ding 20 easy with the free trials they've had before.
Like the FilePlanet Offer a few days ago, this offer is of UNLIMITED DURATION if you sign up prior to Jan 1, 2010. Other offers were only of two-week duration. This is why it is limited to levels 1-20. With the two-week trials, you could conceivable exceed level 20 if you were racing through the content, but the dialogue and lore introduced in the quests offer a ton of background info to immerse the player in the Age of Conan Setting. If you race through the quest dialogue and lore, you are really missing out on some EXCEPTIONAL Content.
There are four Destiny Quests within Tortage. One for each of the Root Classes: Warrior, Priest, Mage, and Rogue. So a player could get a fresh experience from a different point-of-view four times. Yes, there are a lot of the leveling quests that will be the same for for all experiences, but there are four unique paths through Tortage in the Night-time Solo Destiny Quests..
Ok but given that you can complete tortage in far FAR less than two weeks, (and though there are 4 different quest lines in tortage, the differences are minimal. probably about 60 to 75% of them are identical) and with gimped comms, I just can't figure out what you'd do with unlimted play time stuck at lvl 20. In other words, I don't see what this offers that a 2 week (or even a 1 week) trial would offer. Either you'll be convinced to sub or cancel probably long before 2 weeks are up. Seems kinda gimmicky
I remember in the early access for AoC. I loved the game got outside of tortarge and the first thing I said was "Wtf happened to this great game I was just playing?". I ended up cancelling my prebook after relizing how bad the game was outside of the starting zone. Has this been fixed? or is the game still just as bland once you get out of tortage?
Bugs have been fixed in them and also intentional siege crashing has been fixed and ghosting is now consider an exploit.
That was supposed to include exploiting through walls that end it in 2 minutes.
As for the rest of your questions, I couldnt really answer due to I dont play on a PvP server, so the PvP I have is mini games. Id rather not hand out information that is incorrect simply because I dont know first hand.
The boxing and such yea will never be in game. Funcom originally was to eager to spew out anything and everything they thought might make it into the game some day, which was a bad idea. Since they have changed hands this has stopped and now we are only hearing about things that will actually make it to test live and then to the original game. Renown is the next big thing and so far is working great on tlive, and to me is a far more important addition to the game than any drunk boxing may have been.
And maybe Im just different, but I actually dont like Tortage. I much prefer places like Connals Valley after words rather than Tortage and try to move my characters out as quickly as possible.
New trials, re-evaluate offers and discounts every other month. Seems like they are really desperately begging for subs. For those who like the game and actively play it, i wish it would be a bigger success...but for what Funcom did to the customers and loyal fans at launch, i can't see the game going down the drain soon enough.
That is one negatively-biased opinion.
From a marketing point-of-view, FunCom has to beat the "bad rap" that is constantly being generated (and renewed) by people that have not played the game in 6-18 months and are holding a grudge for whatever reason. These players are not reasonable people, and they are unwilling to change their jaded opinions. FunCom has a Public Relations Nightmare (not Customer Service) on their hands. Gamers have a long memory, and they they are VERY unforgiving. With this offer, the folks at FunCom are trying to entice NEW PLAYERS into trying out the game as it stands now. They are VERY CONFIDENT in the QUALITY of the game NOW. Likewise, they want more folks to be able to try out the Update 1.06 Improvements (in TestLive NOW and soon to be released to ALL SERVERS) and TALK IT UP... If these folks stick around, which I suspect they will, they can easily upgrade their membership, so their characters can advance farther and BE READY for the RISE of the GODSLAYER Expansion.
These people are not reasonable people? you mean it's unreasonable to expect to get what all a company advertises to you right out of the box? It's unreeasonable to expect a company to be honest and tell us what does and doesn't work? Unreasonable to expect if we spend oodles of money upgrading our pc's to try out the awesome features you advertise? I guess it depends on what side of the argument you find yourself on as to what is inreasonable.
but yeah, to call this game Fantastic is like calling Twilight the Godfather of vampire movies....
Not sure what quality you are speaking of: You obviously have not played Age of Conan in a while, if at all.
Lore? You can run with all pets out as a necromancer in Cimmeria in front of guards. You can pk priests of mitra as a priest of mitra. Lore is broken. What makes this game any different from WoW in this regard? There are Goobers in every game that try to make it miserable for everyone else. This is why servers were created with RP Rolesets, so players could be punished or banned for "Breaking Lore". Now, on the flip-side, I have read both the orginal Howard works and many Pastiches; I have at least FOURTY (40) pocket-sized novels set in the Hyborian Age sitting in a box next to my computer now and more hard-covers and tabletop soft-cover printed editions (The Del-Rey Complete Collection of ALL HOWARDS STORIES in original 1930s format, not just Conan) in my storage until I set up space for my Bookshelf in my house. Cimmerians regularly kill other Cimmerians; their social structures hold Clans above most other groups, unless there is a "Bloody Broken Spear" and then all Clans HAVE to work together or be shamed otherwise. Stygians will slit another Stygian's throat if it will get them ahead magically or politically. The Cult of Set will kill any Stygian that does follow the line verbatim. Aquilonians will betray other Aquilonians if they are greedy or are seeking political power. If you doubt me, read The Hour of the Dragon by Robert E. Howard upon which this game is based and set two years thereafter. Class options? Same handful they had since launch - everyone starts on the beach and ends up joining a gang/guild to beat each other down - pan the camera in an age of conan fight and it looks like the same exacts races and classes killing themselves. Let's see... There are TWLVE (12) classes in Age of Conan AT RELEASE in May 2008, and these are limited by which of the three races can be in each class. World of Warcraft has TEN Classes after the Lich King which has ONLY BEEN Completed recently at Update 3.3 how long after the Expansion came out? Is this about a year now since Wrath of the Lich King was released? So which game has fewer options? Likewise, the Character Design system has more settings that most other games, except maybe Aion, and I know of folks who have spent hours just tweaking body parts, facial expressions, tatoos, and other small details. Not everyone is in a guild, but this is a Social MMORPG. Are you encouraging people not to socialize or to make new friends? If so, then why play a Massively Multi-player Online Role-Playing Game. Last time I checked, this was NOT Counterstrike... Race options? Same as above - and madly - the same 3 races since launch. Since day 1, my cimmerian, stygian, aquilonian guild could fight your aquilonian, stygian, cimmerian guild. There are THREE RACES in Age of Conan, with ONE more coming in Rise of the Godslayer . There are EIGHT Races in WoW, with two more coming in Cataclysm. WoW has TWO Factions that can PvP each other, and I believe Guilds can have other Guild Enemies and Allies, as well. Age of Conan has an Unlimited number of Factions that can fight/PvP each other based upon their Guilds. Since when does every community in a Country get along? Look at US TV on Saturdays and Sundays. Some fans of various College and NFL Football teams are as likely to strike each other as not in reaction to a heated conversation or rivalry. If you do not believe this, look at your local newspaper on a weekly or daily basis when they publish Arrest Reports. Look at Iraq and Afghanistan any day of the week and I bet you will see one faction of locals blowing up another faction of locals simply because they eat a western restaurant or support their country's new government. Tourists are attacked by robbers or pirates every day in Africa; in Egypt, armed bodyguards with machine guns are on most tour buses now. Until recently, Protestants and Catholics in Ireland would shoot each other or blow each other up, and many still hate each other despite the standing peace. Greeks fought against Greeks in the Trojan Wars. The Legions of Rome fought against each other prior to the final Fall of the Roman Empire. Nomadic horse-riders swept down upon other nomadic tribes on nearly every continent at the Dawn of Civilization, remember Attila the Hun and Ghenghis Khan? FunCom opted to INITIALLY create THREE Races with Graphical Depth in Character Creation to allow for unique appearances; this also allows for NEW Races and Playfields to be released with every "Formal Expansion". Armor options are limited in Tortage, but, after Tortage, the options in Armor are very spread out with PvP, Racial (more than three races, like Nemedian, Hyrkanian, Acheronian, Atlantean, Cimmerian, Aquilonian, Stygian, Vanaheim, Pictish and Khitan among others), Cultural, Factional, General, and Crafted Armor types available (this is not a complete list by far). So they ignored the lore, made less classes and races than games like eq 1 and daoc made years earlier with a far smaller budget - and have yet to expand to anything with depth. They DID NOT ignore the Lore, and were very interested in preserving the Lore if you take the time to read the General Quest dialogue information and pursue the Destiny Quests in game. The Rise of the Godslayer was built around the Howard story "Tower of the Elephant". If you pay attention, there are MANY EASTER EGGS in-game for those that are familiar with the Lore. Twelve Pastiche novels were published by Ace Fantasy, set in the Age of Conan setting, prior to the May 2008 release of the game, and in the timeframe two years after Hour of the Dragon novel in which Howard had NOT published any more stories. I think that in the ten plus years of Warcraft (1, 2, 3,& World) there are still only twelve novels or so. I think there are far more novels written by Pastiche Conan authors since 1932 than there are for Warcraft in any incarnation. Likewise, there are at least five major Conan comic book series available about the Hyborian Age (not including Kull or Red Sonya). Is there anything in World of Warcraft comics that is of the scale of the original Marvel Conan the Barbarian or The Savage Sword of Conan, which Dark Horse is now, slowly releasing in Graphic Novel/Collected Omnibus form? There are two completed Conan movies with a third and forth in the works now. As far as I recall, Warcraft can not even escape pre-production for their first movie. FunCom has not even touched a fraction of the established Conan Lore, so there is a ton of material (literally) for FunCom to grow Age of Conan through. They are not limiting themselves to ONLY Howard works, bcause Conan has fans in many different media formats and many fans have never read the original Howard works. FunCom trys to stay as close to the canon Howard material as possible. If we really want to dish it out, Age of Conan as a franchise is only a year and a half old or so. Warcraft is 10-15 years old. Yes, how long was Warcraft 1 out before Warcraft 2? How many races could you play? What was it called, Warcraft Orcs & Humans? My kindergartener can count this, even my preschoolers... Orcs = 1. Humans = 2. In the first year and a half of Warcraft, there were two races. In the first year and a half or AoC, there are three. I wonder how many races Age of Conan will have if it lasts fifteen years? FunCom only created the number of classes and races that they needed at the time. This allows room for expansion. So funcom used what they wanted of the Robert Ervin Howard universe, just enough rather to get some imagery. Then, the developers let the rest of the game go - and never looked back. Opinion and Fantasy on the Criticizer's part... He has obviously NOT read or watched the numerous Dev Diaries produced by Funcom over the last four years or so. This statement is entirely UNTRUE! 1-20 tortage in no way represents the rest of the game. Tortage was created as an Introduction. As Patches come out, more dialogue is added post Tortage. New content has been added since release post-Tortage that is as good, if not better than some of the Quest content in the Tortage Zone. I'll allow other players to talk about all the other zones that have been introduced since May 2008. By the way, how much Dialogue is there is World of Warcraft? Is there any content in WoW that is even close to the Experience give to players in Tortage? I recall reviewers from numerous companies said, at release, that nothing in any other game is even close to the depth and detail of TORTAGE, and NOW anyone can play it for FREE. What does a new player have to lose? Are some people afraid that the player count in Age of Conan will increase? I think so. And if only half of the new players sign up for monthly memberships, what has FunCom lost? What has FunCom gained? I look forward to all the NEW GLOWING REVIEWS that will be coming out in the next few months about Age of Conan. I see a Rocky Balboa climbing back tothe top after his initial loss. WHAT DOES NOT KILL US MAKES US STRONGER... "Fall down seven times and get up eight..." ~ An Old Cimmerian Saying And finally, the opening movie with Conan promising an epic conflict is about to occur never says in his speech, "my 3 race guild is gonna fight their 3 race guild..." they make the game look like an epic realm vs realm conflict then you find out its just a simple pvp if it's red it's dead coding debacle with nothing any more epic than the pvp you get in EQ2 or Vanguard. Dark Age of Camelot 2 a lot of us were praying for - we got nothing not even on Bane server where we thought ONE server would be dedicated to a culture vs culture conflict. The devs had no clue what to do with the server, and spent no time on developing it. Which game are you talking about? Again, this is mostly your OPINION... I seem to recall that many reviewers also LOVED THIS OPENING MOVIE, since it immediately immersed the player into the tone of the game, and subtley encouraged players to READ (Yes, an old concept often lost among youger players) and learn more about the lore and the player's place in it. If you wanted to be Conan, XBOX360 has a nice Console game that will let you hack and slash as Conan for as long as you want. Age of Conan has never really been completed past level 20. NO MMORPG is ever complete. If any MMORPG were completed at relaease, it would be Dragon Age Origins... Oh yeah, they are still releasing patches and new purchasable content. Let me see... Warcraft, Everquest 1 or 2, SWG, DDO, name an MMORPG and tell me if they do not receive updates and expansions. The subscription quantity speaks for itself - but it's always been a sad day in my book that a company like Bioware didn't do this game first. It cannot speak, since no "Official" numbers have been released other than 700,000 pre-sells and 1.2 million after the first couple months. Bioware has done great on their single-player RPGs; this is what they are good at. We have not yet seen anything that shows a complete functional MMORPG, yet. SW:TOR may turn out to be a great game; I am hoping it does. I feel bad for SWG when TOR does succeed. Until then, this is Hype, and we saw where that lead prior to the release of Age of Conan. Game producers need to learn not to fall prey to their own hype, and build a solid game in the first place. I doubt that FunCom will ever make that mistake again after seeing how long it takes to rebuild a broken reputation.
The WOW complex seems to be alive and well in the inner circle of Funcom/AOC, after reading through the first portion of your post I was forced to stop when on the third point you made you again mention WOW. The op as far as I could see never mentioned WOW so why keep comparing AOC to that game? Especially when the content offered by FC does not equal that of WOW (I'd fathom a guess that even at the age of AOC WOW had more content).
Now you tout improvements made to the content of AOC which I am not in the strongest position to argue but I'd fathom a guess that the gap between tortage and post 20 content has not been closed as tightly as you want us to believe if it had been this rather strong complaint against AOC would have been sung from the mountain tops by the FC mouth machine and the remaining community. Again I don't presume to say nothing has been added just challenging what you seem to want to imply.
Without having played this game since the first two weeks I can say lot's of promised features are still not in the game sieges are not reliable and the content gap has not been closed and until they can do these things they will have a hard time of even regaining many mmo players trust let alone get them to try an FC product again.
but yeah, to call this game Fantastic is like calling Twilight the Godfather of vampire movies....
Ok but given that you can complete tortage in far FAR less than two weeks, (and though there are 4 different quest lines in tortage, the differences are minimal. probably about 60 to 75% of them are identical) and with gimped comms, I just can't figure out what you'd do with unlimted play time stuck at lvl 20. In other words, I don't see what this offers that a 2 week (or even a 1 week) trial would offer. Either you'll be convinced to sub or cancel probably long before 2 weeks are up. Seems kinda gimmicky
I suspect the goal isn't to provide more for a demo, though maybe to create that perception. I suspect the goal is to keep people from creating new accounts and characters every time they want to retry the game.
Just a hunch. Also, it could be them trying to compete with WAR's free tier 1. Either way, I think it's a smart way to go. It's no secret that Tortage is the most polished part of the game.
This Unlimited free Trial area should me made available to all , what about the people that have bought the game previously and are uncertain about returning unless they try out the new improvments to game performance etc ?.
As far as I know, it is free for everyone now. The Sunscriber thing were just for a few days it seems.
ThorgrimmAge of Conan CorrespondentMemberPosts: 274
There are actually two offers on the table:
FilePlanet launched the first Unlimited FREE TRIAL. To access this, you must be a member of FilePlanet, though you do not have to be a paid member. As long as you sign up by December 31, 2009, you can play forever UP to Level 20. It covers the Tortage zone.
The second offer came directly from FunCom and the Age of Conan Community Website. It covers the same material, but your updates come from the normal update server instead of the FilePlanet sytem of servers.
"Get ready for the most savage, sexy and brutal MMO ever created!
This trial allows you to play all of the content on Tortage Island - for as long as you want at no cost whatsoever. Please note that a trial account has some limitations to avoid 'spam' and 'gold farmers': you can not trade with others, use in-game mail, public chat channels and you can not post on the forums.
All these limitations are lifted once you upgrade your account to the full version of the game. If and when you decide to upgrade your account you will receive an immediate boost to your progress through an exclusive and powerful beginner's item that increases both XP gain and your chance of performing fatality moves!
This offer is valid for those that create an account and log into the game before January 1st 2010. "
I'm going to state the obvious here, but remember everyone, this guy is an "Age of Conan Correspondent". That is...marketing...sales. He will tell you anything...ANYTHING to get you to try (and buy) the game. Whether it's true or not. That is his job. So take what he says with a huge grain of salt.
It's nice they are offering a free, unlimited trial where you can try it (again) to level 20. Make your own decision that way, but be very skeptical about what this guy types.
I'm sorry, I'm just fed up with the over-hyped, fast talking, "used car salesmen" tactics many of the developers and salespeople in the gaming industry have resorted to lately. Many times doing so to save games that are dying financially and are ready to keel over.
So statements from the original post like "game received critical acclaim" and "quickly became a smash hit in retail", are skewed so much that they can say they are "true" on paper, but the reality is very, very different. I love how "in retail" is added after the words "smash hit". The translation is..."we initially sold a huge amount of retail boxes after we hyped the game, however after people discovered how horribly put together the game was, they left faster than the first class passengers on the Titanic".
Reading this thread and the countless other posts by the AoC "advocates" and "correspondents", I gotta ask the question. Is there any other game in the history of this website that gets advertised as much on their forums? Most of time it seems like the advocate is the only one doing any posting at all through the week. Makes me wonder just who exactly is he advocating this game to. It's clear that this particular forum is inactive save for a few posters. I just think it would be time better served if all the advertising occurred somewhere more active. This isnt meant as a flame I really have no interest in AoC but I just find it interesting how much effort is being made to get people to play this particular game.
The most misused word on the internet:
loose
adjective, looser, loosest, adverb, verb loosed, loosing. adjective 1. free or released from fastening or attachment: a loose end. 2. free from anything that binds or restrains; unfettered
The word you are looking for is L-O-S-E. YOu can NOT loose a game.
AmazingAveryAge of Conan AdvocateMemberUncommonPosts: 7,188
Originally posted by comablak18
Reading this thread and the countless other posts by the AoC "advocates" and "correspondents", I gotta ask the question. Is there any other game in the history of this website that gets advertised as much on their forums? Most of time it seems like the advocate is the only one doing any posting at all through the week. Makes me wonder just who exactly is he advocating this game to. It's clear that this particular forum is inactive save for a few posters. I just think it would be time better served if all the advertising occurred somewhere more active. This isnt meant as a flame I really have no interest in AoC but I just find it interesting how much effort is being made to get people to play this particular game.
You have a choice not to read these boards if you choose you know. If you think that no one reads the boards here then why all the unique hits for the game this site stores? There are many a silent reader.
This is a pretty good offer and we have seen some decent response here in people revisiting or setting up 1st time.
ThorgrimmAge of Conan CorrespondentMemberPosts: 274
I do not work for FunCom. I am not an advertiser. I am a Network and Security Engineer by trade, and I enjoy writing creatively on the side. I am sharing NEWS, which I am encouraged to do as a Correspondent. Some people actually want to know when specials are released. Some do not want to have to pay to try out the game. It is a service that I perform for other people that are interested in trying this game that enjoy the Age of Conan community. I can either harass other game forums, or I can help other players in my game community. I made the constructive choice. What choice will others make?
I tested this offer. I was never asked for money, and I was never asked for a Credit Card number. I tried a server that I have not played on: Wiccana. Wiccana is crowded in Tortage now, so the promotion is working. I tried a class that I have never played before. There are people in every area that I travel to in Tortage. Guilds are also recruiting. Groups are recruiting for team content. Reponse time is much faster than I remember when I went through Tortage in fall of 2008. Latency is minimal. Audio and Video are crystal clear with no hiccups. The game is playing smoothly with no crashes and no glitches. Everything downloaded as fast as can be expected for a 13 GB download. I only had to pull it down once and I only had to install it once. I suspect the other several hundred people in Tortage tonight did not have any difficulties either. We are enjoying ourselves in a fun, robust game. Whether some people, like it or not, we have already chose and tried this game and it is working as well as expected.
I am amazed by the posts here when there is just a simple info presented to the forums. You can try the intro to AoC (20 levels, Tortage) for as long as you wish.
This an excellent offer to try different servers (PvE, PVP, role play) and different builds. Some people rush and try to level fast without paying atention to the backstory. This offer won't do much good to them. But others prefer to enjoy the stories they play, listen to the characters, look at the surroundings... those slower players will enjoy it.
Some say that Tortage is quite different from the rest of the game. That is not my experience, but we all see things differently. Even if you don't get past Tortage, these first 20 levels are an adventure, a complete one, on their own. And you get to play it for free, taking your time to do so.
I only see this as a great offer. If you are interested or intrigued by AoC, get your trial before the end of the year. If you don't want to get near AoC or a FunCom game again, don't. Simple isn't it?
ThorgrimmAge of Conan CorrespondentMemberPosts: 274
It is also a very good offer to play classes that you never tried without deleting your old characters that you have grown fond of. In Age of Conan, you start with eight character slots. You get a ninth slot after six months, and a person can expand their account (costs) with up to two more slots, allowing the player to have eleven active characters. I never really understood the idea of limiting numbers of characters. Other games have allowed unlimited characters, or a max number of characters on each server, and they are very successful. Since there are twelve classes with three different races (four with Rise of the Godslayer), there are a lot of combinations that can be tried.
Reading this thread and the countless other posts by the AoC "advocates" and "correspondents", I gotta ask the question. Is there any other game in the history of this website that gets advertised as much on their forums?
[Mod Edit]
Funcom has been spamming them lately and they have not been converting these free stuff into subscribers. Funcom is a much better marketing company than a gaming or MMO company, I admit. Free mount, free playtime, free double XP, free epic weapons, free item or char slots, free Tortage, free expansion, etc...invest half that creativity and energy into fixing, polishing, and building the game that was released over a year back and this game would rock.
I figured this would happen ages ago because Tortage is a marketing scam anyway to boost reviews of reviewers to lazy to play games more than a day, which was about all of em. Tortage was also used in the beta test exclusively to build hype in this title, so much time and energy was invested in that zone which takes 8 hrs or so to blow past for the purpose of advertising and hype...Funcom even said something about it to investors: the first 5 minutes draws em in and then Tortage will keep them or something....is just to bad a story needs a good begging and a good ending..to date it seems like Funcom spent a small fraction of the time put in Tortage on the endgame in which players spend many more hours.
But free mounts, epic loot, char slots, expansion, account time, and Tortage wont keep players in a poorly managed game. This marketing blitz was cute for a bit but now it is just doing a much better job than myself of informing the world how dire this game's situation is do to 40 million dollar loss and few players on the servers. Marketing towards free loaders and people enticed by blood and cleavage would pollute any MMOs community but in AOC it is the norm. Heck, level 25 free loaders PvPing and ganking in white sands is a good idea, right?
ThorgrimmAge of Conan CorrespondentMemberPosts: 274
This is why so many others games are also offering free trials during the Christmas Holiday...
It doesn't have anything to do with offering FREE Playtime when College Students are home on breaks between semesters? Sounds like a good way to entice your most likely audience to me, especially when positive word of mouth can be generated, and they can encourage their friends to play the trials, as well. This is why each server I log in to is crowded with new players right now. This is why Twitter is active now praising Age of Conan. This is why Facebook and MySpace is active now with positive comments about Age of Conan. This is why Tortage is active now on every server while people try it out again.
So the best that these nay-sayers can say against Age of Conan is complaints from 18 months ago. They really have no idea what is going on in game, other than reading forum posts from a minority of others. This is why they have to resort to personal attacks on those individuals who actually enjoy and play the game. Play the FREE Trial and see it for yourself... You have nothing to lose but a little time...
If players hate the game so much, why dedicate so much time in attempting to defame it? If the game is so bad, why are there over thirty-five reviews from different game companies attesting to its strengths? Why are there many re-reviews that highlight the improvements? In its worst state, Tortage was still the best Intro to an MMORPG that was available...
Jesus bring Amazing Avery back. At least he saw both sides of the arguement for AoC even if he saw the game through rose tinted glasses. Everytime i browse these forums now I have to skip over anything written by this new correspondant. Shouldnt the job of a corresspondant be to provide information on the game and to project an unbiased view of the game for forum users to make educated decisions based upon.
I feel I can post the above as I have an active AoC account....well for another week anyway. Thorgrimm be more adjective in your posts and see both sides of an arguement and you will gain more respect on this forum.
This is why so many others games are also offering free trials during the Christmas Holiday... It doesn't have anything to do with offering FREE Playtime when College Students are home on breaks between semesters? Sounds like a good way to entice your most likely audience to me, especially when positive word of mouth can be generated, and they can encourage their friends to play the trials, as well. This is why each server I log in to is crowded with new players right now. This is why Twitter is active now praising Age of Conan. This is why Facebook and MySpace is active now with positive comments about Age of Conan. This is why Tortage is active now on every server while people try it out again. So the best that these nay-sayers can say against Age of Conan is complaints from 18 months ago. They really have no idea what is going on in game, other than reading forum posts from a minority of others. This is why they have to resort to personal attacks on those individuals who actually enjoy and play the game. Play the FREE Trial and see it for yourself... You have nothing to lose but a little time... If players hate the game so much, why dedicate so much time in attempting to defame it? If the game is so bad, why are there over thirty-five reviews from different game companies attesting to its strengths? Why are there many re-reviews that highlight the improvements? In its worst state, Tortage was still the best Intro to an MMORPG that was available... Short List: http://community.ageofconan.com/wsp/conan/frontend.cgi?func=publish.show&func_id=1103&table=PUBLISH&template=reviews&selected=1103 Long List: http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/ageofconanhyborianadventures/review.html?mode=web
You missed my point: reviews come out when a game is released....those reviews covered Tortage only....Tortage was always a very polished area compared to the rest of the game. AoC lost so many players and junk after those reviewes were released do to what came after blowing through Tortage. Tortage > levels 20-79 > 80. Maybe the expansion will help endgame...it is doubtful they will start working on another expansion so perhaps they can polish it this time less the AoC team gets put on TSW, which is likely do to the same engine.
I can't speak for anyone else but I played during the win back after 1.5 patch was released, since there have been no major patches in the last 5 months, I'm up to date.
All the college kids who visit me over winter break play CoD:MW II on my big screen TV, so that's a hard market.
Me and the wife both gave AoC another shot. It's a nice looking game and the combat is great but it's still the AoC that we left for the most part. Lots of bug fixes and lots of changes but tortage is still the best the game has to offer. Tortage can be fast, fun and exciting and after me and the wife came back after maybe a year, tortage had us hooked again. But after tortage the same feelings of boredom returned. The game just slows down way to much after Tortage.
I mean we pick up quests and tried doing them in the other towns and such but.... they were fairly boring. Travel way over here do this, return, congrats here's your reward. Now go way over there and pick up this, they will send you way over to some other asinine person that will send you somewhere else only so that you may return to me to pick up your reward.
Age of Conan makes me feel more like a courier and a lacky more than anything else. I go get stuff, I deliver stuff, I go kill things to get stuff to bring back, I go kill a certain number of things and come back.
Me and the wife tried setting up camp in a few places to do a more traditional kind of grind to have a bit of fun but even that turned out to be borring as you advance very slow because the mobs don't give you much xp. Not only that but in single mob encounters the combo thing just feels akward. I enjoy it for big groups of mobs or boss type mobs, but for anything else it feels slow and clunky.
I don't know, not really a bad game I guess. Just not for me. If you like doing lots of quests and don't mind traveling a lot to do them it's probably right up your alley. If not, maybe not. But giving a game a go with a free trial can't really hurt anything.
Comments
Sieges are fine, we have them each week on the server Im on and they dont lag the server to all hell anymore like they used to, bugs have been fixed in them and also intentional siege crashing has been fixed and ghosting is now consider an exploit.
The blood money thing Im not actually aware of, dont think ive heard of that one so cant really tell you there.
1.05 basically revamped the game. It took the classes and lowered down the horribly OP'd classes like ToS down to a level on the rest, it can still nuke but no where near in damage where it was. They also removed a lot of redundant abilities and combined a lot of spells, such as casters dont have 400 buffs to put up each time they die now, they either rolled them into 1 buff or removed them. They also redid a bunch of class skills such as conqs buffs have been completely redone from how they were.
PvP is pretty abundant especially on the PvP servers, there are quite a few PvP level 5 people running around now, and the start of PvP actually is quite frequent on White Sands Isles now so players who wish to be fighting all the time they level up are having to constantly watch themselves on PvP servers. I myself play on a PvE server so I cant overly speak on the scale of the battles, but simply going off forums posts from Cimmeria and Tyranny, people seem to be having fun with the pvp, especially now that classes dont wtfpwn anymore.
Really a lot has changed. I quit before 1.05 and came back last month and had to actually restart a new character just to get used to the changes. Give it a shot, I cant promise it will be for you buts its worth checking out whats different.
My Guild Wars 2 Vids
So you're saying,
1: Have sieges been fixed? Are there still exploits such as glitching through walls ect causing it to end in less than a minute? No, still exploitable.
2: Has FC introduced drunken boxing now as they promised at launch? Didn't answer.
3: Do we have a blood money system in game as was hyped at launch? No.
4: How is the PvP? Is it more than a bunch of guys hanging around Kheshetta (spelling) PvPing (in a loose term) over nothing and getting bored? Sounds the same as launch, White sands ganking and bored lvl 80's in Kesh.
5: Are there major PvP battles of 100 vs 100 as promised at launch now? I'll take it as no.
You're vague at best when answering my questions, the only real answer I got was that sieges are still exploitable which in my opinion is unacceptable for an alleged AAA MMORPG 18 months after release and an expansion coming out Q1 2010. In fact it's pretty piss poor at best!
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience"
CS Lewis
Agricola, you are refering to issues that Funcom has stated that were "good ideas on paper, but did not work in real life"
2, 3 and 5 are in this category. It has been explained time and time again that these issues wont be part of the game. If these issues are important to you then forget about AoC completely and look for another game. They simply wont happen in the forseable future.
Many things that were hyped before launch hasnt made it into the game and many things that never were mentioned are in the game now. Stop living in the past and focus on wether or not AoC is a good game for you as it is today. Thats the issue.
Originally posted by BishopB:
Are a lot of the trolls just angry kids with old gaming hardware?
my screenshots with Conan and his secret service guards.
:-))
it was fun.
http://images.mmorpg.com//images/galleries/full/512009/a5cd53e7-3c69-42f7-b3e3-b4ae54ec98e2.jpg
http://images.mmorpg.com//images/galleries/full/512009/a5b5e85c-6869-4922-a6d3-ab6e33002fbb.jpg
How is this different than their other free trials? I mean you can ding 20 easy with the free trials they've had before.
Like the FilePlanet Offer a few days ago, this offer is of UNLIMITED DURATION if you sign up prior to Jan 1, 2010. Other offers were only of two-week duration. This is why it is limited to levels 1-20. With the two-week trials, you could conceivable exceed level 20 if you were racing through the content, but the dialogue and lore introduced in the quests offer a ton of background info to immerse the player in the Age of Conan Setting. If you race through the quest dialogue and lore, you are really missing out on some EXCEPTIONAL Content.
There are four Destiny Quests within Tortage. One for each of the Root Classes: Warrior, Priest, Mage, and Rogue. So a player could get a fresh experience from a different point-of-view four times. Yes, there are a lot of the leveling quests that will be the same for for all experiences, but there are four unique paths through Tortage in the Night-time Solo Destiny Quests..
Ok but given that you can complete tortage in far FAR less than two weeks, (and though there are 4 different quest lines in tortage, the differences are minimal. probably about 60 to 75% of them are identical) and with gimped comms, I just can't figure out what you'd do with unlimted play time stuck at lvl 20. In other words, I don't see what this offers that a 2 week (or even a 1 week) trial would offer. Either you'll be convinced to sub or cancel probably long before 2 weeks are up. Seems kinda gimmicky
I remember in the early access for AoC. I loved the game got outside of tortarge and the first thing I said was "Wtf happened to this great game I was just playing?". I ended up cancelling my prebook after relizing how bad the game was outside of the starting zone. Has this been fixed? or is the game still just as bland once you get out of tortage?
Erm no I said sieges were fixed...
Bugs have been fixed in them and also intentional siege crashing has been fixed and ghosting is now consider an exploit.
That was supposed to include exploiting through walls that end it in 2 minutes.
As for the rest of your questions, I couldnt really answer due to I dont play on a PvP server, so the PvP I have is mini games. Id rather not hand out information that is incorrect simply because I dont know first hand.
The boxing and such yea will never be in game. Funcom originally was to eager to spew out anything and everything they thought might make it into the game some day, which was a bad idea. Since they have changed hands this has stopped and now we are only hearing about things that will actually make it to test live and then to the original game. Renown is the next big thing and so far is working great on tlive, and to me is a far more important addition to the game than any drunk boxing may have been.
And maybe Im just different, but I actually dont like Tortage. I much prefer places like Connals Valley after words rather than Tortage and try to move my characters out as quickly as possible.
My Guild Wars 2 Vids
That is one negatively-biased opinion.
From a marketing point-of-view, FunCom has to beat the "bad rap" that is constantly being generated (and renewed) by people that have not played the game in 6-18 months and are holding a grudge for whatever reason. These players are not reasonable people, and they are unwilling to change their jaded opinions. FunCom has a Public Relations Nightmare (not Customer Service) on their hands. Gamers have a long memory, and they they are VERY unforgiving. With this offer, the folks at FunCom are trying to entice NEW PLAYERS into trying out the game as it stands now. They are VERY CONFIDENT in the QUALITY of the game NOW. Likewise, they want more folks to be able to try out the Update 1.06 Improvements (in TestLive NOW and soon to be released to ALL SERVERS) and TALK IT UP... If these folks stick around, which I suspect they will, they can easily upgrade their membership, so their characters can advance farther and BE READY for the RISE of the GODSLAYER Expansion.
These people are not reasonable people? you mean it's unreasonable to expect to get what all a company advertises to you right out of the box? It's unreeasonable to expect a company to be honest and tell us what does and doesn't work? Unreasonable to expect if we spend oodles of money upgrading our pc's to try out the awesome features you advertise? I guess it depends on what side of the argument you find yourself on as to what is inreasonable.
but yeah, to call this game Fantastic is like calling Twilight the Godfather of vampire movies....
The WOW complex seems to be alive and well in the inner circle of Funcom/AOC, after reading through the first portion of your post I was forced to stop when on the third point you made you again mention WOW. The op as far as I could see never mentioned WOW so why keep comparing AOC to that game? Especially when the content offered by FC does not equal that of WOW (I'd fathom a guess that even at the age of AOC WOW had more content).
Now you tout improvements made to the content of AOC which I am not in the strongest position to argue but I'd fathom a guess that the gap between tortage and post 20 content has not been closed as tightly as you want us to believe if it had been this rather strong complaint against AOC would have been sung from the mountain tops by the FC mouth machine and the remaining community. Again I don't presume to say nothing has been added just challenging what you seem to want to imply.
Without having played this game since the first two weeks I can say lot's of promised features are still not in the game sieges are not reliable and the content gap has not been closed and until they can do these things they will have a hard time of even regaining many mmo players trust let alone get them to try an FC product again.
but yeah, to call this game Fantastic is like calling Twilight the Godfather of vampire movies....
Ok but given that you can complete tortage in far FAR less than two weeks, (and though there are 4 different quest lines in tortage, the differences are minimal. probably about 60 to 75% of them are identical) and with gimped comms, I just can't figure out what you'd do with unlimted play time stuck at lvl 20. In other words, I don't see what this offers that a 2 week (or even a 1 week) trial would offer. Either you'll be convinced to sub or cancel probably long before 2 weeks are up. Seems kinda gimmicky
I suspect the goal isn't to provide more for a demo, though maybe to create that perception. I suspect the goal is to keep people from creating new accounts and characters every time they want to retry the game.
Just a hunch. Also, it could be them trying to compete with WAR's free tier 1. Either way, I think it's a smart way to go. It's no secret that Tortage is the most polished part of the game.
This Unlimited free Trial area should me made available to all , what about the people that have bought the game previously and are uncertain about returning unless they try out the new improvments to game performance etc ?.
As far as I know, it is free for everyone now. The Sunscriber thing were just for a few days it seems.
There are actually two offers on the table:
FilePlanet launched the first Unlimited FREE TRIAL. To access this, you must be a member of FilePlanet, though you do not have to be a paid member. As long as you sign up by December 31, 2009, you can play forever UP to Level 20. It covers the Tortage zone.
http://www.fileplanet.com/promotions/age-of-conan/unlimited-trial/
The second offer came directly from FunCom and the Age of Conan Community Website. It covers the same material, but your updates come from the normal update server instead of the FilePlanet sytem of servers.
http://www.ageofconan.com/trial/
"Get ready for the most savage, sexy and brutal MMO ever created!
This trial allows you to play all of the content on Tortage Island - for as long as you want at no cost whatsoever. Please note that a trial account has some limitations to avoid 'spam' and 'gold farmers': you can not trade with others, use in-game mail, public chat channels and you can not post on the forums.
All these limitations are lifted once you upgrade your account to the full version of the game. If and when you decide to upgrade your account you will receive an immediate boost to your progress through an exclusive and powerful beginner's item that increases both XP gain and your chance of performing fatality moves!
This offer is valid for those that create an account and log into the game before January 1st 2010. "
http://www.ageofconan.com/trial/player.html
Hurry out and get the trial now ! No kidding !
Download it now ! Then patch it !Then get ready for the ultimate thrill THIS provides !
img12.imageshack.us/i/ageoffailure.jpg/
Oh wait, corrupted or something.Quick do the download again ! And then patch again !
Oh wait......that doesnt help ....
Well... third time a charm ..... ?
And this game has been out how long ?
I'm going to state the obvious here, but remember everyone, this guy is an "Age of Conan Correspondent". That is...marketing...sales. He will tell you anything...ANYTHING to get you to try (and buy) the game. Whether it's true or not. That is his job. So take what he says with a huge grain of salt.
It's nice they are offering a free, unlimited trial where you can try it (again) to level 20. Make your own decision that way, but be very skeptical about what this guy types.
I'm sorry, I'm just fed up with the over-hyped, fast talking, "used car salesmen" tactics many of the developers and salespeople in the gaming industry have resorted to lately. Many times doing so to save games that are dying financially and are ready to keel over.
So statements from the original post like "game received critical acclaim" and "quickly became a smash hit in retail", are skewed so much that they can say they are "true" on paper, but the reality is very, very different. I love how "in retail" is added after the words "smash hit". The translation is..."we initially sold a huge amount of retail boxes after we hyped the game, however after people discovered how horribly put together the game was, they left faster than the first class passengers on the Titanic".
Reading this thread and the countless other posts by the AoC "advocates" and "correspondents", I gotta ask the question. Is there any other game in the history of this website that gets advertised as much on their forums? Most of time it seems like the advocate is the only one doing any posting at all through the week. Makes me wonder just who exactly is he advocating this game to. It's clear that this particular forum is inactive save for a few posters. I just think it would be time better served if all the advertising occurred somewhere more active. This isnt meant as a flame I really have no interest in AoC but I just find it interesting how much effort is being made to get people to play this particular game.
The most misused word on the internet:
loose
adjective, looser, loosest, adverb, verb loosed, loosing.
adjective
1. free or released from fastening or attachment: a loose end.
2. free from anything that binds or restrains; unfettered
The word you are looking for is L-O-S-E. YOu can NOT loose a game.
You have a choice not to read these boards if you choose you know. If you think that no one reads the boards here then why all the unique hits for the game this site stores? There are many a silent reader.
This is a pretty good offer and we have seen some decent response here in people revisiting or setting up 1st time.
I do not work for FunCom. I am not an advertiser. I am a Network and Security Engineer by trade, and I enjoy writing creatively on the side. I am sharing NEWS, which I am encouraged to do as a Correspondent. Some people actually want to know when specials are released. Some do not want to have to pay to try out the game. It is a service that I perform for other people that are interested in trying this game that enjoy the Age of Conan community. I can either harass other game forums, or I can help other players in my game community. I made the constructive choice. What choice will others make?
I tested this offer. I was never asked for money, and I was never asked for a Credit Card number. I tried a server that I have not played on: Wiccana. Wiccana is crowded in Tortage now, so the promotion is working. I tried a class that I have never played before. There are people in every area that I travel to in Tortage. Guilds are also recruiting. Groups are recruiting for team content. Reponse time is much faster than I remember when I went through Tortage in fall of 2008. Latency is minimal. Audio and Video are crystal clear with no hiccups. The game is playing smoothly with no crashes and no glitches. Everything downloaded as fast as can be expected for a 13 GB download. I only had to pull it down once and I only had to install it once. I suspect the other several hundred people in Tortage tonight did not have any difficulties either. We are enjoying ourselves in a fun, robust game. Whether some people, like it or not, we have already chose and tried this game and it is working as well as expected.
I am amazed by the posts here when there is just a simple info presented to the forums. You can try the intro to AoC (20 levels, Tortage) for as long as you wish.
This an excellent offer to try different servers (PvE, PVP, role play) and different builds. Some people rush and try to level fast without paying atention to the backstory. This offer won't do much good to them. But others prefer to enjoy the stories they play, listen to the characters, look at the surroundings... those slower players will enjoy it.
Some say that Tortage is quite different from the rest of the game. That is not my experience, but we all see things differently. Even if you don't get past Tortage, these first 20 levels are an adventure, a complete one, on their own. And you get to play it for free, taking your time to do so.
I only see this as a great offer. If you are interested or intrigued by AoC, get your trial before the end of the year. If you don't want to get near AoC or a FunCom game again, don't. Simple isn't it?
Played: UO, SWG, TR, WoW, AoC, EvE
Playing:
Interested in: JGE, LotR, TSW
It is also a very good offer to play classes that you never tried without deleting your old characters that you have grown fond of. In Age of Conan, you start with eight character slots. You get a ninth slot after six months, and a person can expand their account (costs) with up to two more slots, allowing the player to have eleven active characters. I never really understood the idea of limiting numbers of characters. Other games have allowed unlimited characters, or a max number of characters on each server, and they are very successful. Since there are twelve classes with three different races (four with Rise of the Godslayer), there are a lot of combinations that can be tried.
[Mod Edit]
Funcom has been spamming them lately and they have not been converting these free stuff into subscribers. Funcom is a much better marketing company than a gaming or MMO company, I admit. Free mount, free playtime, free double XP, free epic weapons, free item or char slots, free Tortage, free expansion, etc...invest half that creativity and energy into fixing, polishing, and building the game that was released over a year back and this game would rock.
I figured this would happen ages ago because Tortage is a marketing scam anyway to boost reviews of reviewers to lazy to play games more than a day, which was about all of em. Tortage was also used in the beta test exclusively to build hype in this title, so much time and energy was invested in that zone which takes 8 hrs or so to blow past for the purpose of advertising and hype...Funcom even said something about it to investors: the first 5 minutes draws em in and then Tortage will keep them or something....is just to bad a story needs a good begging and a good ending..to date it seems like Funcom spent a small fraction of the time put in Tortage on the endgame in which players spend many more hours.
But free mounts, epic loot, char slots, expansion, account time, and Tortage wont keep players in a poorly managed game. This marketing blitz was cute for a bit but now it is just doing a much better job than myself of informing the world how dire this game's situation is do to 40 million dollar loss and few players on the servers. Marketing towards free loaders and people enticed by blood and cleavage would pollute any MMOs community but in AOC it is the norm. Heck, level 25 free loaders PvPing and ganking in white sands is a good idea, right?
Funcom has reviewed all of its assets relevant for
impairment testing. This process has led to
recognition of an impairment loss of around
3,1 MUSD for Age of Conan due to a decrease in
numbers of subscribers for the game. Funcom Q4 10 report.
http://forums.ageofconan.com/showpost.php?p=2926123&postcount=7 500 mains/alts on Tyranny in past 30 days - instead of merge servers let's open a new PvP server, again! http://forums-eu.ageofconan.com/showthread.php?t=106427
This is why so many others games are also offering free trials during the Christmas Holiday...
It doesn't have anything to do with offering FREE Playtime when College Students are home on breaks between semesters? Sounds like a good way to entice your most likely audience to me, especially when positive word of mouth can be generated, and they can encourage their friends to play the trials, as well. This is why each server I log in to is crowded with new players right now. This is why Twitter is active now praising Age of Conan. This is why Facebook and MySpace is active now with positive comments about Age of Conan. This is why Tortage is active now on every server while people try it out again.
So the best that these nay-sayers can say against Age of Conan is complaints from 18 months ago. They really have no idea what is going on in game, other than reading forum posts from a minority of others. This is why they have to resort to personal attacks on those individuals who actually enjoy and play the game. Play the FREE Trial and see it for yourself... You have nothing to lose but a little time...
If players hate the game so much, why dedicate so much time in attempting to defame it? If the game is so bad, why are there over thirty-five reviews from different game companies attesting to its strengths? Why are there many re-reviews that highlight the improvements? In its worst state, Tortage was still the best Intro to an MMORPG that was available...
Short List:
http://community.ageofconan.com/wsp/conan/frontend.cgi?func=publish.show&func_id=1103&table=PUBLISH&template=reviews&selected=1103
Long List:
http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/ageofconanhyborianadventures/review.html?mode=web
Jesus bring Amazing Avery back. At least he saw both sides of the arguement for AoC even if he saw the game through rose tinted glasses. Everytime i browse these forums now I have to skip over anything written by this new correspondant. Shouldnt the job of a corresspondant be to provide information on the game and to project an unbiased view of the game for forum users to make educated decisions based upon.
I feel I can post the above as I have an active AoC account....well for another week anyway. Thorgrimm be more adjective in your posts and see both sides of an arguement and you will gain more respect on this forum.
You missed my point: reviews come out when a game is released....those reviews covered Tortage only....Tortage was always a very polished area compared to the rest of the game. AoC lost so many players and junk after those reviewes were released do to what came after blowing through Tortage. Tortage > levels 20-79 > 80. Maybe the expansion will help endgame...it is doubtful they will start working on another expansion so perhaps they can polish it this time less the AoC team gets put on TSW, which is likely do to the same engine.
I can't speak for anyone else but I played during the win back after 1.5 patch was released, since there have been no major patches in the last 5 months, I'm up to date.
All the college kids who visit me over winter break play CoD:MW II on my big screen TV, so that's a hard market.
Funcom has reviewed all of its assets relevant for
impairment testing. This process has led to
recognition of an impairment loss of around
3,1 MUSD for Age of Conan due to a decrease in
numbers of subscribers for the game. Funcom Q4 10 report.
http://forums.ageofconan.com/showpost.php?p=2926123&postcount=7 500 mains/alts on Tyranny in past 30 days - instead of merge servers let's open a new PvP server, again! http://forums-eu.ageofconan.com/showthread.php?t=106427
Me and the wife both gave AoC another shot. It's a nice looking game and the combat is great but it's still the AoC that we left for the most part. Lots of bug fixes and lots of changes but tortage is still the best the game has to offer. Tortage can be fast, fun and exciting and after me and the wife came back after maybe a year, tortage had us hooked again. But after tortage the same feelings of boredom returned. The game just slows down way to much after Tortage.
I mean we pick up quests and tried doing them in the other towns and such but.... they were fairly boring. Travel way over here do this, return, congrats here's your reward. Now go way over there and pick up this, they will send you way over to some other asinine person that will send you somewhere else only so that you may return to me to pick up your reward.
Age of Conan makes me feel more like a courier and a lacky more than anything else. I go get stuff, I deliver stuff, I go kill things to get stuff to bring back, I go kill a certain number of things and come back.
Me and the wife tried setting up camp in a few places to do a more traditional kind of grind to have a bit of fun but even that turned out to be borring as you advance very slow because the mobs don't give you much xp. Not only that but in single mob encounters the combo thing just feels akward. I enjoy it for big groups of mobs or boss type mobs, but for anything else it feels slow and clunky.
I don't know, not really a bad game I guess. Just not for me. If you like doing lots of quests and don't mind traveling a lot to do them it's probably right up your alley. If not, maybe not. But giving a game a go with a free trial can't really hurt anything.