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AoC, fundamental problems with gameplay and support
Draccan
Member Posts: 1,050
I think AoC is suffering right now from a company that doesn't understand the basics of customer support and communication with customers.
Also this is one poorly constructed game.
1. DX10. I am surprised Funcom gets away with this one. They have misled their customers in the worst way. I find it sad they didn't believe in their game enough to be honest. They literally misled us. I said in the official forums for months before release that I couldn't believe it was in since we never saw that many screenshots or videos about it. They handled this so incredibly poor. But where is the public outrage? They have done this in the most horrible way I can imagine. And I knew they were outright lying.
2. It doesn't matter if they have sold 400.000 copies or even a million. I think people are already leaving in droves. Some reported whole guilds collapsing. Lots of whines and angry threads on the official forums. Even if they will break even on this game, and they might due to the attention it has gotten. I don't think this will live on much more than a niche game or less within a year.
3. Funcom keeps acting dodgy. They close the official forums from the public. UK and US readers can not read each other's forum.
4. Simple things like selling a CE of the game with an XP ring +2% and then later no one knows if this is 0,02% or 2% and what is worse they put in a level max of 40. WTF? Why do they do it? And since there were multiple threads on the issue, did Funcom address their customers? A resounding: NO!
5. Fundamental gameplay things like banks, traders are taken out under claim of fear of duping. Thruth is that they should have tested this in beta.
6. Viral marketing. FC uses viral marketing and I have on several occassions seen posts and flames from fanboys that looks like secret viral marketing. They should stop this practice.
7. Community is killing the game. You see, when the game was still in development the open forums were exploding with zealous fanboys. You couldn't question anything or ask anything or criticise any design element. It felt orchestrated. And people were misled and misleading themselves. It still happens in the EU forums at least. Flames for anybody who dont like the game or who criticise Funcom for their bad business behaviour.
8. Beta. This game shouldn't have been pushed out so early. It needs at least half a year of testing. Obviously they had no more money, but this should never be an issue. Funcom employees hiding as players as well as over zealous fanboys keep saying: "all mmos have bugs", "no mmo is released perfect", "WoW had server problems too" etc. etc.
In this regard the player base is acting like apologists for poor companies with poor business ethics. This game desperately needed to have more time in Beta. And there is no apology. The days where players will accept half finished games are over. At least coming to an end. There are two many games out there now and there will be even more. It will get worse next year.
Can a car manufacturer say, oh sorry I didn't have time to put in the left sidedoor, but it still runs, hence you need to pay the full price?
9. Graphics and gameplay (and lack of quests 40+): How it must suck for Didrik Tollefsen and his Chinese and Norwegian teams. They have done such an amazing job with the graphics like no other design team for a game ever. Just look at the CE softcover (!) art book. They should be praised and praised. But to make all this wonderful world only to wrap the whole beautiful affair, IP and lore around a mould that at heart is nothing but an instanced, smaller, more buggy and less broad version of WoW. Even the items are green and blue like in WoW. Sure the talent system is also similar to AO but mostly it resembles WoW. Raids, the structure of levels, battlegrounds... everything looks like WoW with Conan skin. No innovation. No brutality except fatalities... just WoW 2.0.
As much as the graphics IS lush, the gameplay is stale. Why even launch with so little 40+ quests? What is the point of that?
10. This game was sold on boobs and beheadings. Brutal was the keyword. Sexy / Lush another. I heard those over and over in official videos. But what does it have to offer? Where are the epic sieges? The novelty at all? Where is the brutal pvp? Being ganked at rez points because they couldnt spend an hour implementing a proper system from day 1 of the EA? So they put in a timer so short it runs out before the game is loaded? Where is the open world pvp? What is there to fight for? And please don't mention battlekeeps.
11. Instances:
Overused, the gameworld is too small. It is so painful to have enemies zone away, to not meet most of your guildmates randomly. To zone back to give a quest and zone in again only to wind up in an instance with new/other players than 5 minutes before. So all the little infights or friends are gone... You can't even see what instance you are in, only the choice of instances.
An incredibly poor game mechanic, only done because they couldnt be bothered to make a big enough world with multiple starter areas.
12. Poitain, Border Kingdom, instanced player cities and pointless battlekeeps:
Okay.. Poitain has place for up to 3 player cities. Ergo there are like 8-12 instances of Poitain. Besides ressources there is nothing else in Poitain. One big open empty zone, removed from the world. Why on earth have they done this?! Bad design choice again. It is removed from the game. Currently bugged so player buildings can be destroyed. What is worse is that since they are instanced I will never see most player cities. Rather than being something to show off it is a private affair for the guild. There is no roleplay or even epeen factor here. Just a hollow experience. What is the point of the player city if not integrated within the gameworld? Just a boost for the guild? Boring boring boring..
Now Border Ranges are the same. Empty zone with nothing going on. I believe (correct me if I am wrong) that this zone has the potential of 3 keeps, meaning there will be three instances of this zone to cover all keeps. So unless you belong to some uber guild with a keep or fighting to get one, you will never even see them. No reason to travel there. No questing. No real purpose. It is a very boring insta-fest way of doing it. Rather they should had a larger map for the game with keeps dotting the landscape all over the world, as ressource nodes guilds could have occupied.
As it stands Border Kingdom is excrusiatingly dull.
13. Ressources: Why are ressources static? I mean honestly coooome on!? This reeks of bad design. Look to SWG and even WoW has better ressource handling. 'nuff said!
14. Classes. All mmos need balance after launch and statistical data pour in. However FC didnt even finish the powersets, finish the feat tree, repair obviously broken items. Surely the balance needs fixing, but this game scream of early launch with broken powers and mechanics. They just didn't care to spend the dollars needed to finish it. There is no excuse. Sure the fanboys and employees of FC will make up stuff. But the game should have been completed.
Lack of scaling in necro and demo spells (I am a necro)!
15. Unsolved problems with keys and communication in general. I have never seen a company (since SOE with nge and I left before that happened) behave so bad. They don't communicate ever. Their Friday Updates on the main forum was shit for a year! They never engage or communicate their visions and goals. They never say sorry for screwing up. They never acknowledge issues. They don't time their downtime well for people who paid Early Access. The official forums are full with people who have problems but there is no help to get. And they have hundreds of unsolved tickets. No engagement, no communication seem to be key for Funcom.
16. Endgame. Again a poor design choice. Their dungeons/raids arent complete, nor that particular. The game AI is not that special. And there is no real endgame. Sure there are sieges, but they havent even been beta tested properly. So are they even in the game for real in a complete state or is this DX10 all over again. Guess what I think?
What is there to fight for? Incentives? Fun?
17. Funcom wanted to sell this game to pvp people and people who wanted something new, so why the game is still stuck in tank, healer, dps triangle, with little endgame and little pvp but battlegrounds and future keeps for the select few. The game reek of wowified. Either they changed their vision to follow WoW as much as possible or they lied originally. What happened to blood coins? Even the pvp xp is not turned on in the game? What is up with that.
It just seems like an unfinished product. Very beautiful and empty. More of the same. No new strategic elements. They couldn't even make a proper chat and guild friends list before releasing. Those things are easy to fix, more quests can be added. But the design choices they are stuck with.
18. It doesn't matter what I or anyone say. Time will show. But I am 100% sure this game will be sub 200.000 players six months from now. Some would call that a succes, but I think it is blown potential. Blown opportunities.
But if the customer service does not step up very very soon and fix people's problems with keys not working, gamebreaking bugs etc etc. the number might be half that by then. Time will show.
19. I can only petition FC to open their forums to world. Let everyone see what happens on the EU and US forums. Stop hiding the faults and problems of the game. Stop disgruntling and alienating people. You could have won many over by a simple "sorry" once in a while or even better: a simple "we are working on it, sorry for the problems it is causing!".
You really have proved how a large company can be greedy for profit and will not shy any tactic to get an upper hand incl. flat our lying about features!
/Draccan
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CASUAL CONFESSIONS - Draccan's blog
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Comments
20. Lack of complete patch notes! This is a no brainer.
21. Problem of closed forums between US and EU = no information sharing, good or bad. EU forums dont benefit of the larger US forums. Class and ressource discussions etc.. Someone mind taking a screenie or 3 of the top 3 pages of the US general forum. Just curious as to what is being discussed there..
22. Itemization = attack of the clones:
http://img367.imageshack.us/img367/1...clones1si3.jpg
http://img132.imageshack.us/img132/6...clones2ek7.jpg
There is no real itemization. I ran around like everyone else in this dress from level 20 to now (level 32-33).
23. Combo system is not working well in pvp due to animations take time to execute and players run around you.
24. Borrowed from Shannia in another thread:
"Funcom said battle keeps are in at launch! This may or may not be true. What is a FACT is that only level one player cities are in atm, and until guilds can get their city to level 3, they will never know if the battle keeps are in or not. Nice way for Funcom to block access to endgame content. Same crap as AO."
25. Selling CE with five buddy keys and then AFTER launch they say they aren't implemented yet! DOH!
(to be continued here)
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CASUAL CONFESSIONS - Draccan's blog
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Edtt* I'm sorry for being rude.
There is a reason why neutral reporting is the only type that is respected. Speak with only facts if you want to get your point across because on the internet nobody cares about your opinion but you.
Interesting and very archetypical post of the fanboys. Who is the hater here? You think flaming me helps anything? The time when fanboys could take over the forum here and on the official one is GONE. There are too many of these issues that I outlined (and many more) on the official forum. So yes, your flame is for nothing.
You on the other hand offer no rebuttal, just personal attacks. I know exactly what you do; that is to try to get the thread locked with senseless flaming!
MODERATORS: Can you please keep the thread open and not succumb to easy flame attempts to close critical threads, please?
I hope the fact that FC fills your marketing coffers will not sway you away from freedom of speach!
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CASUAL CONFESSIONS - Draccan's blog
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ProfRed... Why feed the troll?
Euhm... This is a great post keep it up! and... euh... nvm ProfRed!
Haha, now this made me lol...:D1$ bet on you can't spot the dude with the red dress and the purple cap !!
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CASUAL CONFESSIONS - Draccan's blog
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Well I have better things to do then sit there and respond to every one of your endless disgruntlements for this game when it is clear that it won't help anything. You have clearly already made up your mind that this game is horrible. You seem to me to just be looking for a fight, or an e-argument.
The point is, is that hundreds of thousands of people are enjoying the game, and i'm sure there are thousands that aren't. Everyone playing the game knows about everything you have listed so why do they need you shoving your opinion down their throats when i'm sure that they all have formed their own opinion on the matters already.
I'm a fan of the game yes, because I am having a blast playing it along with most of my friends. I'm sorry that you aren't having the same fun but I wish it upon you with one of the other games coming out in the near future.
It would have been a lot easier to read if it was either smaller (more condensed) or used some of the features of these boards, like bold, caps, underlines, lines etc.
As for the fanboys bit, this forum is saturated by haters. Any happy thoughts generated by any sort of enthusiast is getting drawned by negativity of all sorts. If you feel good about playing a game you're a. an idiot that has no sense of quality or b. a victim of marketing and hype.
Some people just can't seem to be able to grasp that playing an MMO is a balance between the things loved and hated. And when the balance tips towards love, the bad things weight less. They are there of course. But they weight less.
Ha HA.. And I tought AoC will have good itemization.. oh well.
I really wanted to buy this game soon but i guess it's better to wait few months and see what hapens.
Remember the early days of WOW?...Many critics..many ppl against...many complaints..etc...and in short time became the best mmo....
Now AOC...: nobody expected an ideal game with no bugs or problems...
Draccan...if u want a buddy key pm me ...enter the game and after 2 weeks post your opinion...
And Im sure after a month or two..u surely could make a proper review....
No mmo is perfect...but Im sure AOC will be verry close in 2 months...
Sorry for my english...
Why do people always have to stoop so low as to post rubbish like this. If you don't agree with the original poster, just say that - is there really a need to attack someone personaly.
As for the original post: you repeat a few things during your post, but overall it lists a few of the short comings of the game well.
buddy keys are not implemented yet... when they are I have 5.
Money is not my main concern, but a bad game is ... I feel companies are ruining the mmo genre with pure greed.
But maybe they are just too costly to develop properly..
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CASUAL CONFESSIONS - Draccan's blog
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Why do people always have to stoop so low as to post rubbish like this. If you don't agree with the original poster, just say that - is there really a need to attack someone personaly.
As for the original post: you repeat a few things during your post, but overall it lists a few of the short comings of the game well.
totally agree. Getting sick of ppl like ProfRed on this forums that post such rubbish. The OP have given some points of why he don't like the game and if you feel that he's wrong you should answer back with some facts too!And he have picture to support him. What you have prof? nothing but childish WoW language.....
RIP Orc Choppa
Well written and good research. However, i dont like the viral marketing claims. If you are going down that road this thread would fast be labeled the opposite; a competing developers hostile act.
But it does seem like this game is launched to fast. And there is offcourse no other reason to do this, then the simple urge to be out before WoW`s expack, Aion, Warhammer, etc. The market have been extreemely hungry after a new mmo. Not before have there been a demand like now. Wow have hooked millions on the mmo fix. And after 4years every drop of fun is milked and the time is for something new. Thats why a haflbaked game is rushed out, desparately grabbing a share of the market. And it is really a bit sad. Imagine what a 6 months hard work could have done to a game which first 20 lvl`s is getting 9-9.5 reviews in a majority of testings. 6 months could have worked in ALL the promised features. And there could have been at least one, month long smooth beta.
Then again; on the other hand. Theres prolly alot of ppl who have been dying hard enough for new stuff, so they are happy to got hands on something.
They should indeed have had abit more trust in theier product and its abillity to compete with other of the upcomming products. I wonder sometimes if games like Aion and Warhammer actually are just as finished as AOC is, and could be thrown halfbaked to the playerbase; but the devs choose to smooth things out. However thats is just me wondering:)
People seem to be comparing WoW with AoC with all the bugs etc expirenced in WoW at the start. Well atleast WoW was a finished game it was not an unfinished game and secondly I seem to remember the beta testing for world of warcraft going on for a long time, in essence they tried their best to get rid of lots of the bugs while AoC has decided they rather bring in the cash them provide a finished product. Good points by the OP he shows what AoC really stands for and a good critical review of the game.
That is because he took screenshots where people come right off the boat from Tortage where there just happens to be an awesome robe as a reward for a quest for mage types. In any game if there is an early quest with an awesome robe reward and you take a screenshot of the area where players go immediately after this quest this will happen.
My point is that this guy obviously hates the game, and theres no point defending it to him, but he is looking for things to complain about. I have screens where there are over 50 people running around and hardly any of them look the same.
When our guild put it's first city up there were around 90 people that were coming and going and I only saw one guy that looked similar to me, but I had a different head and cloak item.
Here is one shot:
img89.imageshack.us/img89/4853/ikaripicture017sn9.png
Why do people always have to stoop so low as to post rubbish like this. If you don't agree with the original poster, just say that - is there really a need to attack someone personaly.
As for the original post: you repeat a few things during your post, but overall it lists a few of the short comings of the game well.
totally agree. Getting sick of ppl like ProfRed on this forums that post such rubbish. The OP have given some points of why he don't like the game and if you feel that he's wrong you should answer back with some facts too!And he have picture to support him. What you have prof? nothing but childish WoW language.....
I don't play WoW. I responded that way because it was clear that the guy hates the game, and he is trying to back up hatred with facts which only works for similar minded people. Do you see me making a thread where I review the game anywhere? No you don't because I like the game too much right now to make a valid review. I couldn't do it without bringing in my love for the game all over the place thus discrediting my review.
Sorry for being so harsh, but it's the truth.
Edit: Also, I do agree with the facts that he posted. I wasn't saying I disagree. I was just pointing out how much he obviously hated the game, and how that discredited the facts he was throwing out to so many people.
1) Er....or it could be theey had it in, it wasn't working well, and they yanked it at the last minute due to bugs? That does happen you know.
2) You may be right about the niche game thing. Time will tell. It's not a WoW-killer, I'll tell you that. Doesn't stop it from being fun though.
3) They closed them? Uh...I'm on them now. Or did you just mean restricted? Lots of games do that. Lots of games also split the US and EU forums up. What hoorible purpose do you think they'd achieve by that anyway? Other than someone can't gripe at me in German.
4) Lack of communication is always annoying. As to the ring, do you REALLY expect it to do much? Too much of an edge and you'd have people raising Cain about it being unfair to those that couldn't afford CE.
5) Find me a game where players don't find an exploit after beta, and things have to be pulled. I DARE you to say WoW, so I can laugh.
6) This is very possible (And no I'm not a FC employee myself, although maybe that's the first thing they'd say...) Of course, I've seen some posts in these AoC forums bashing AoC and lauding VG that I SWEAR are Sony employees. It goes both ways,
7) True..but again, it goes both ways. Anyone says anything honestly nice about the game and game and they get flamed.
8) Again, hesitate to be labeled an FC employee for this but uh...it's true. Never seen a perfect launch. Hell, you shoulda seen Anarchy Online's! At least in AoC you don't take 15 minutes (literally) to load a zone, just to find out you spawned in a toxic waste river and died five minutes before you even could see.
9) I hear you on the lack of level 40+ quests...annoying. I presume they didn't expect people to level so fast. As to the WoW clone statement...eh...everything's a WoW clone these days, and WoW itself was an clone of EQ, and so on...honestly there is no such thing as an original game. Just hope to put a spin on an old concept, which FC has.
10) Also irritating. Hopefully will be fixed.
14) Yeah, demo is broke. Which is why you have all those red-dressed clones in your pic. Too many people playing the FoTM class.
If you were to post this on the official forums a little more positively and assuming that everything you listed is factual, this would be a very nice reference point for the developers to get things on track and producing the game that many people want.
I heard rumours about others getting the ban stick and since I am gonna play at least for a couple of weeks I don't want to be banned..
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CASUAL CONFESSIONS - Draccan's blog
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I understand your reasons, but i don't see why a statement like "I am sorry Funcom - raped your family - and -murdered your dog-" is necessary.
I know these forums rarely are civilized and constructive (you have to sift through about 200 posts to find one nugget of goodness), but it is statements like yours (from both the fanboys and the haters) that will get everyone even more aggressive.
I understand your reasons, but i don't see why a statement like "I am sorry Funcom - raped your family - and -murdered your dog-" is necessary.
I know these forums rarely are civilized and constructive (you have to sift through about 200 posts to find one nugget of goodness), but it is statements like yours (from both the fanboys and the haters) that will get everyone even more aggressive.
Yeah it was out of line. I'll edit it and apologize for that line.
I heard rumours about others getting the ban stick and since I am gonna play at least for a couple of weeks I don't want to be banned..
I read people post to that effect on these boards, but I don't know how true that is.So long as your feedback is structured in a positive way I can't see you getting a ban.
I also think it was only a forum suspension / ban they were referring to and not from the actual game itself.
I understand your reasons, but i don't see why a statement like "I am sorry Funcom - raped your family - and -murdered your dog-" is necessary.
I know these forums rarely are civilized and constructive (you have to sift through about 200 posts to find one nugget of goodness), but it is statements like yours (from both the fanboys and the haters) that will get everyone even more aggressive.
Yeah it was out of line. I'll edit it and apologize for that line.
Well done mate. /salute
RIP Orc Choppa
I agree with most of the points you have, however there are a few that I feel like you didn't have enough thoughts on. You said the professions are just as typical as any other MMOs as they specialize in tank, healer, dps, etc, etc. So tell me this, have you played ToS or PoM? In fact, these two healers can sometimes do more dps than a mage, so how would you assess their role in a team? They are meant to heal, do CC, AND dps at the same time, thus this is not a typical role of a healer. The last time I checked healers are only suppose to heal and remove negative effects from the team. Each profession have multiple functions and they are not enlisted in their own category. The correct way to describe this is to say that the classes are imbalanced, cause there's no logical explaination on why a healer can do more damage than a mage.