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Funcom won't deliver
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I think it boils down to Ragnar Tornquist. He's shown us that he can make good games. But then again so has Richard Garriott. We have to wait and see on this one. From everything I have seen they are not rushing it out the door. So maybe they will take their time and do it right? The combination of Funcom and EA is a huge black mark to overcome.
My theme song.
They have no choice but to deliver as game companies only get one chance to mess up these days. SOE has used up their chance with TOR and DCU was their "nail in the coffin". Cryptic used up their chance with CO and when they messed up STO they are now officially dead. So now Funcom has used up their freebie with AoC so TSW is where they have to come through or die off. I think they'll come through as their business model depends on it and they don't want to end up dead in the water like SOE and Cryptic.
I am not a ____________ is a sure sign you are a __________. Never start off with such as statement as it tells everyone exactly what you are.
Epic Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAigCvelkhQ&list=PLo9FRw1AkDuQLEz7Gvvaz3ideB2NpFtT1
https://archive.org/details/softwarelibrary_msdos?&sort=-downloads&page=1
Kyleran: "Now there's the real trick, learning to accept and enjoy a game for what it offers rather than pass on what might be a great playing experience because it lacks a few features you prefer."
John Henry Newman: "A man would do nothing if he waited until he could do it so well that no one could find fault."
FreddyNoNose: "A good game needs no defense; a bad game has no defense." "Easily digested content is just as easily forgotten."
LacedOpium: "So the question that begs to be asked is, if you are not interested in the game mechanics that define the MMORPG genre, then why are you playing an MMORPG?"
I'm not so sure. I wrote them off after the AoC fiasco and they haven't disappointed me since. Holding a grudge is working out perfectly well for me.
Also, it wasn't the buggy state of the game that really ticked me off, it was FunCom's handling of it. While we were clamoring for major bug fixes, FC could barely even bring themselves to admit that they existed, let alone address them. Instead , the messages from on high consisted of happy happy joy joy BS. It was like being on the deck of the Titanic and listening to the band play waltzes as the seawater rose above our ankles. That's what I find unforgiveable. Not the bugs but the arrogance and dismissiveness.
Hopefully they've had an attiitude adjustment over the last few years so they don't screw over another batch of gamers. But even so, there's nothing they can produce that I'd be so hard up to play, that I'd consider giving them another dime. I don't care how many new leaves they turn over, other developers have done far more to earn my coin.
i resubbed in aoc for this month...for the record,i was a subscriber both after the exp and during vanilla's 1st year out..to those willing to listen,and most of us are usually not when in expectancy of personal fullfilments,i have some news to share,that somehow,magically,again,never quite reached this site's coverage of the current state of the game. This new engine implemented/merged/intergrated in AoC now is the one to be used for TsW..it is very bad..very..it does the opposite of what they said it 'would' do (you don't need 'less' to run AoC better like they said,you need more in fact to run it as you used to,prior to this update..new engine made a lot of people lower gfx down by a lot,check forums,no need to take my word for it),and does it with even more of a resources drain than the old one..it stutters,hiccups,draws frames slow and clogs memories in even high end systems. People relogging to raid,to PvP,etc etc etc. That's point one for me..something in the designs since 2002 using an adventure engine that cant even stand AoC..despite and still. Yes yes,they are 'tuning',yes yes i will say it for you,it will 'all be fixed in due time'..sure..don't stick to a guy's name,its the publisher that pays folks..if they call it quits in the engine dpt,its quits,will run as it is..publisher being the same,i see no reason to be as hopeful as some..we can't say it's all going to be different when really,jus sub and look at the engine yourself,then consider that funcom payed for AO and AoC,Funcom pays for this..nothing to do with the teams if the wallet decides it won't give more..something it has done over and over again..secondly,check those conference vids again..those having played AoC will notice...one starter area for all (hello Tortage all over again/part 2..is this how they learn from player feedback? And i cannot blame funcom for this now can i? this IS the team itself..
They have great ides,they always did..i was very excited over TsW until the conf videos and my resubbing in AoC...If proven wrong,all the best,would sure be a nice one on me : )
The only things that have me looking at this game are Ragnar Tornquist and the setting. A lot of what brought AoC down was the first Producer and Director. I really do think that Funcom has all their money on Tornquist and arn't really going to try and push him to rush it out before it's ready. He's in a possition where he can tell them to shut it or he walks. If that happens the game is dead and so is the company. So in effect he is calling all the shots and the only stress on him is making the game he envisioned. With all that said the only way I'm buying this game when it launches is if GW2 isn't out yet or they have an open beta with full access to all the games content and it turns out to be what they promised.
My theme song.
While I'm looking forward to many aspects of TSW, especially the creepy atmosphere possibilities, my biggest fear is the world will feel fractured.
Since the game takes place all over the globe, it is almost guarantee that there will be loading times in between each map. That always sucks me out of an MMO (other than invisible walls). I'm hoping they find a way to make it feel like one continuous world and not just a bunch of secluded maps.
I love all the people who just keep spouting "Ragnar Tornquist" and "it's a different team", as though that means something significant.
That's not how the programming shops I know of work; it is vastly more likely that FC has one set of people who work on whatever the project of the moment is than that they have completely seperate teams. To my knowledge, no game company has operated with completely isolated teams like that in a long time simply because it is not an efficient use of time or skills. A team that works on dungeon architecture is going to work on that for all of a company's products etc.
Now it is possible that Ragnar *IS* a vastly better executive than the others, but he is just the name at the top of the org chart; virtually everyone under him is going to be the same. Beyond that, he has been involved in FC management for a long time and the things that I and others are most worried about were management decisions, no dev team ones.
I hope I am totally wrong; I really want TSW to be a great game, but FC has a lot to prove to me and I will not give them any advance credit until I see it in a playable beta/demo and possibly not even until I see it in a live game.
So agreed. Even if I wasn't interested in TSW (I am), the fact that Ragnar is one of the people working on it would be enough to make me take notice.
I'm thinking that you actually know very little of how "programming shops" work. Isolating projects is a very normal practice... basically "no man can serve two masters". If you're on one project, that's your focus, you're not having to answer to two different people. As it just so happens, I'm a Project Manager.
Programmers do what they're told, and that's what most of the people on the team are there for. Get direction from the top, and do what they're told. Much of FC's original team has moved on, as the were dedicated to the core engine behind the game. With that out of the way, the current team gets to focus on gameplay, theme, and content. It's the creative side of things where all of the real magic happens.
Isolating projects isn't the same as having a totally different team; and most people I've known doing that sort of work considered themselves lucky if they only reported to two masters at once lol! Howver, quibbling over that is really irrelevent; You're again missing my point. I've never had an issue with FCs' "creative side", they have great ideas and usually eventually follow through on them to some degree. It's the management side where they consistently drop the ball, especially the upper management and that really hasn't changed now has it?
I really hope I am wrong; as bad as it was the AoC launch was definitely "better" than the AO launch. So maybe they can learn and do better...we'll see but I am not cutting them any slack. When they prove they can do it and not screw up, I'll believe it...not before.
Agreed as well.
Anyone looking for the typical hack and slash mmo will be sorely disappointed with this game. Ragnar is a storyteller "first", and everything he creates reflects that. Anyone who's played Anarchy Online AND read Prophet Without Honor knows this. And I have no doubts that TSW will be a direct reflection of something Ragnar has put tons of time into dreaming up.
Anyone interested can read the short novel here:
http://www.anarchy-online.com/wsp/anarchy/frontend.cgi?func=publish.show&template=content&func_id=2319&table=CONTENT
Agreed. The problem with AOC wasn´t so much the way the game played, it was the lies and arrogance from the management. Everyone in the world knew there were major issues with the game the first 3 months, but in all that time, nothing was ever fixed, or even admitted to... instead, all we got was hype about sales etc and every server set to ´medium´.
Funcom lost $25M from AOC in that first year. They had to write it off the books completely... and that was despite all the lying they did like only ever having an open beta for the first 20 levels which were vastly different than the rest of the game. They lied to get box sales and still lost money. Besides WOW, the mmorpg is pretty small... the amount of people who buy this game the first month is going to be very very small. Nobody is going to fall for the AOC con again.
The problem is the mgmt, not the designers. I don´t care who is designing the game, you still have the same ´businessmen´calling the shots.
Predestination? ROFLMAO Well, okay.....I guess anything is POSSIBLE. It's possible TSW could fail to deliver. Considering the people who are working on it, it's also possible that it will NOT fail to deliver. Believing things are predestined to fail or succeed is like believing in fairytales. We will just have to wait and see. Ragnar Tournquist is no slouch, however, and even with FunCom's history, his involvement gives them some credible advantage. But.....like I said.....we can't KNOW the outcome yet.
President of The Marvelously Meowhead Fan Club
It just so happens I have worked in Major IT environments with "Project Managers" my self and to be honest "project managed" IT just does not work, every single one I have encountered has been so far removed from the reality and so far based in Viseo charts and presentations that nothing ever went they way they expected it to.
Stating you are a project manager does not give your view point on Funcom any more gravitas than my view point on project managers,. Because unless you work for them you have no idea the structure they work to. Fact is they have failed with every launch so far and nothing they have put out has yet to suggest they will not fail again.
Shrug. I played Funcom's/Ragnar Tornquist's Dreamfall and The Longest Journey, they're among the best in their genre, great games.
I played AoC, I rank the gameplay experiences I had in AoC among the top 3 of the long list of MMO's I played, so it's definitely not a fail to me. I had great fun in the time I was subbed to it.
But then again, I didn't much care about the hype or hyped up expectations preceding and accompanying the launch. I played the game for what it had to offer, not for what I thought it would offer.
If people want to hang on to their grudge as a kid keeping his treasure of marbles close to his chest afraid that someone'll steal it, they can go ahead of course, I mean, there are still SWG fans who're still not over their SOE/SWG grudge after 6 years.
So everyone's entitled to their own preferences in what game to buy or not.
Personally, I find holding on to any grudge regarding a company or game beyond silly. Even more, wanting or predicting a game to fail just because of some petty, childish grudge. But I've never had any hype skew my expectations. I had a great time in AoC, the game and its community offered a solid, very enjoyable gameplay experience to me.
TSW seems even more up my alley, so I expect it'll provide me an interesting gameplay experience as well, at least for a while.
The ACTUAL size of MMORPG worlds: a comparison list between MMO's
The ease with which predictions are made on these forums:
Fratman: "I'm saying Spring 2012 at the earliest [for TOR release]. Anyone still clinging to 2011 is deluding themself at this point."
MAGA
Problem with Funcom.. every time they announce a new game, it's original, new and awesomesauce. The expectations are sky high, and they can't seem to bring a polished game in to the market.
Naah, I don't think that TSW and its launch will be the same as AoC for several reasons, but hey, I'm not constipated with any kind of years long grudge as some people seem to do. Up till now and apparently in contrast with many MMO gamers, I've had a great time in all the MMO's I've played, no burden of any unrealistic expectations, and AoC was one I've had most fun with.
I guess it's because I don't let any grudge or hatred for a company or former MMO's get in the way of me enjoying an MMO, works very good for me every time.
... oh, and you should really do something about your prostate, all those pics seem like a silent cry for help, I can understand how such a thing can spoil someone's mood permanently
Sorry, but that definitely isn't the case for Funcom's The Longest Journey and Dreamfall.
So what you're saying only applies to their 2 MMO's, and since when AO launched the MMO scene was a fraction of today's and prelaunch expectations and anticipation buildup of those first few MMO's was practically nonexistent, I'm guessing that what you're solely talking about is AoC, since that's the only one where everything you say could be applied to.
The ACTUAL size of MMORPG worlds: a comparison list between MMO's
The ease with which predictions are made on these forums:
Fratman: "I'm saying Spring 2012 at the earliest [for TOR release]. Anyone still clinging to 2011 is deluding themself at this point."
well i dont know i balieve funcom will deliver something with this new babey of there i have felt since the beginning of aocthat they hated aoc and have hated us the players they are very player hater in weys that they do things i will probly never play a funcom game again unless they chainge there staff complelty and revamp ther e company because the wey they do things is terrible they dont know how to ballence classes they take for ever to chainge things they hardly ever fix crap but meybee this is just with aoc who knows but i know im at that point where i wish never to give funcom mymoney again but whats out there nowdays worth giving are money for earthrise is not ready for pay to play yet all these outher games need lots of work or just suck or are just old out dated behind the times i balieve we the players have been evolving but the games are not so when is a game going to evolve we need something i know that there are games being made that do look great but time will tell hell meybee we will nuke each outher by then or a fireball from space will destroy us by then and we wont see gaming evolve much who knows im looking forward to brink and what its bringing to the table but whaat about mmos i do not see funcom doing anythiong but looking realy cool and frustrating the piss out of me
I'm sorry, I can't give Funcom the benefit of the doubt anymore. To say "this one will be different" is pure delusion.
So they have a "new" dev team. Who cares? Publicists, upper management, and company structure is still the same. They are still using broken engines, and the management are the ones who will decide what gets fixed, what they spend money on after launch, and what stays broken.
No one is disputing Funcom's creativity. They come up with original, innovative stuff. No one is arguing that. However, they have a track record of nothing but over-inflated lies, technical problems, ignoring their players, and overall poor management of resources, none of which rests on the shoulders of the development team. Maybe the tech issues, but even in that case it's the upper management who tells them to ignore those problems and continue to work on "new" things even when old things are busted and broken. I don't care if you took Blizzard's team over to Funcom. They still be managed by deluded slackers, which in the end is what counts.
I will absolutely not buy in to the hype again. If they deliver a great product, awesome. I'll play it when that has been verified. Week in and week out Funcom lied to it's playerbase through AO and AoC. Hell, they even lied on the BOX. This has nothing to do with the developers, and no amount of creativity is going to fix that.
I'm sure well be sorting through the cluster of complaints at launch, and all the while thinking "I told you so."
Yeah.. it came out a bit wrong. Never played Anarchy Online, but what I heard it was an amazing game with a pretty bad launch. I was only talking about AO and AoC. So, my bad.
I have posted this before. I will be Secret Wars. I will play Secret Wars. It has all the elements that I am looking for in a game. However, will i be let down in some areas. Most likely. They didn't make the game just for me. Will I stick through? Will SW become my new go to game? I have no idea it isn't released yet. But so far, it looks good.
Currently Play: ?
Occasionally Play: Champions, Pirates of the Burning Sea, WOW, EVE ONLINE
Not sure what Secret Wars is, to the poster above me.
Funcom has not delivered a decent experience in almost a decade.
I have no reason to believe this will be any better, and from what I have seen, it is not a mindblowing piece of fiction.
It's just. A game.
Funcom, really, needs more experience delivering popular triple AAA, cheap experiences before it successfully creates a new MMO. The genre has changed since Anahy.rc
Good luck to them, all the same. But I forsee this being AoC 2.