Not even close. The fact that they got an extra $5 million subscriber dollars just for a weekend fling of early access should tell you that even had it been awful and hellishly buggy (which it is neither) they'd be hanging around a long, long time anyway.
I don't know but it sounds like this is bad news for you. Indeed if you are waiting around for all your guild members in WoW to come back because its finally your turn to spend some DKPs then it doesn't look good. They may in fact not admit it yet but they've locked up all those great BPs, rings, swords and robes on accounts they will no longer play and not show up now to get you yours. The good news is, you are now Guild Leader. Grats on that! ~~
Seriously though, AoC is a terrific game. The combat is a nice change and will only get better, the graphics are outstanding and the gameplay works really well. Parts of the user interface is weak, imo, but they can fix that. It'll will outsell everything except WoW and only because of the low PC specs of that game.
But as for there being something wrong with the game that makes it unplayable or just not fun: there really isn't anything like that. The game has a lot to offer in the way of later-level play. The graphics are the most advanced of any MMO. And while it doesn't break any huge molds in gameplay, it breathes a bit of life into the typical system that has been around for over a decade. If you don't like the game, then don't play it. But there are plenty of people who do and are going to keep playing it.
Invisible walls, sticky spots, and a misleading class title would probably constitute unplayability for a lot of people.
You can tell me to get lost all you want but I paid 50 bucks, not 15, for the playtime, and I'll be sticking around in the sliver of hope that they do something about these problems.
Like to many other people, I'm just hoping for a decent mmo besides WoW. And I know thats why people are acting so damn fanboish, they are desperate for the game to do well 'cause theres nothing out there.
___________________ Sadly, I see storm clouds on the horizon. A faint stench of Vanguard is in the air.-Kien
A lot of the negative feedback is misinformation from people who haven't played the game or didn't get out of the tutorial.
All reasons and excuses aside, AoC is a good game and a fair majority of the complaints or complaint-thread Facts, are actually untrue.
It's got some bad things about it, nothing new there however you look at it.
If you've played DDO (i've used this before but this time i'll go into detail) and you've played AoC, and I mean say you've experienced midway through the game at the mid-level mark, then you'll notice a very large difference. Yes they both share instances, including towns and dungeons, yes there is no actual free roam or EQ/DAoC style zoning where you manually run through zones to reach your endgoal (most of AoC is npc teleport zoning ie. ship captains, caravan masters, etc, although some zones require you to go through other wild zones to reach them) , and yes when you enter a dungeon/zone you are given the opportunity to choose your difficulty, however there are vast differences, and i'll explain 2. DDO zones cut up the city into small pieces, they cut up dungeons into small/medium pieces, and they cut up 'outside' zones into small pieces with Flat walls that have tree textures on them to give the illusion of a forest that you cant enter (forcing your direction in most of them, some are wide enough paths to be considered open fields), meanwhile AoC has Large zones, much larger than it's open-world competitor WoW, infact, i'd say WoW's biggest zones (E. Plaguelands, winterspring, outland zones, etc) are the size of AoC's average zones, not to mention AoC doesn't use flat walls with 2d tree textures and it also doesn't force your path with rock walls etc. (besides dungeons and some of the tutorial tortage areas), infact AoC's zones are so large that the main aquilonian city dwarfs WoW's stormwind, and even if you put together all of the zone pieces of DDO's main city, it is still a fraction of aoc's big one. Second, when you enter a dungeon in DDO, it asks your difficulty so you can do it easy if you're weak, etc. and general these are single player dungeons, AoC uses a slightly different approach, in AoC when you zone into say an outside zone, it asks normal or epic, normal being you can do the zone like you would in any other game, choosing to solo or group for your standard kill quests and retrieve quests, or you can enter it on epic and enjoy the fruits of harder mobs and more group requirements, and then when you enter dungeons it also has the normal/epic options, and has personal and public instances within the dungeons, some dungeons even have both personal zone areas and public zone areas that everyone has access to, and for some you need to go through private areas to reach publics etc, those are the dungeons, and i'm sure as i get farthur in the game i'll see more and more group/guild private instances as opposed to open-public instances, not to mention the private ones i solo'd, im sure if i had a group that they could enter with me lol
I voted the game isn't dying and is just fine
I think this game will last a good 5 years before the nuise is really starting to drop down into neck range, maybe 3 years before it starts to show a noticable/worrysome decline.
this is mostly my opinion, however the info about the game that i say as fact is from my personal experience, so unless i do drugs then the odds of me perceiving all of it wrong is .. not likely.. but i suppose possible on maybe 1-2 LOL, oh, a few of my friends have been reading the complaints or the bad info on the forums, they also agree that Most of it is made-up or twisted around.
"Sometimes, things that may or may not be true are the things a man needs to believe in the most. People are basically good. Honor, courage, virtue mean everything. Power and money, money and power mean nothing. Good always triumphs over evil. Love, True Love Never Dies." Which Final Fantasy Character Are You?
Its a decent game. To be honest it didnt live up to my expectations though. I ignored the fanbois and the haters, read the features and followed what the devs had to say about what was gonna be in the game so my expectations were pretty reasonable. Id give it about a 8/10 for the first 20 levels.
I will admit that the cutscenes are a good way of immersing the player into the story. The combat is refreshing.... I know many people will just say you only smash the buttons but no, you gonna have to strategize for most damage for your combos to.
The biggest issue with the game though is instances. Instances were a big reason why I could never truely like Guild Wars. Also I have a huge problem with PvP mini games since it kills world PvP because its much less of a hassle to just que up then it is to go out and try to find worthy opponents.
I am having quite a bit of fun with this game. As this is my primary reason for playing a game, I don't think it is dying for me. It does have flaws and I am a little frustrated by some game features, but it is by no means a deal breaker. Since, I am not far enough to give a complete overview, I will not comment on each part of the game, but I suspect you would get at least a month or two of fun from the new experience. Then it will be completely based on the endgame additions. At this point it is a filler until WAR comes out.
"You dont win a war by dieing for your country, you win a war by getting the other poor bastards to die for theirs!"
A lot of the negative feedback is misinformation from people who haven't played the game or didn't get out of the tutorial. All reasons and excuses aside, AoC is a good game and a fair majority of the complaints or complaint-thread Facts, are actually untrue. <......>
this is mostly my opinion, however the info about the game that i say as fact is from my personal experience, so unless i do drugs then the odds of me perceiving all of it wrong is .. not likely.. but i suppose possible on maybe 1-2 LOL, oh, a few of my friends have been reading the complaints or the bad info on the forums, they also agree that Most of it is made-up or twisted around.
Would you argue that the Demonologist currently matches its website, manual, and in-game description? That the demon is a core and central aspect of the class?
Are there NOT tons of invisible walls in the terrain?
Are there NOT tons sticky spots on ramps, stairs, and hills; that controls are not finicky?
Do you seriously contend that the starting levels aren't important, that players should play through the bad in the hopes that at some point it will get better?
The game has real problems, and they are going to take a lot of time to fix assuming they can even be fixed. You can count on a vast majority of people quitting once their 30 days are up, where they haven't stopped logging in already. Thats just the reality of it. I'll be hanging around, possibly in vain, but at least i'm being realistic.
___________________ Sadly, I see storm clouds on the horizon. A faint stench of Vanguard is in the air.-Kien
A lot of the negative feedback is misinformation from people who haven't played the game or didn't get out of the tutorial. All reasons and excuses aside, AoC is a good game and a fair majority of the complaints or complaint-thread Facts, are actually untrue. <......>
this is mostly my opinion, however the info about the game that i say as fact is from my personal experience, so unless i do drugs then the odds of me perceiving all of it wrong is .. not likely.. but i suppose possible on maybe 1-2 LOL, oh, a few of my friends have been reading the complaints or the bad info on the forums, they also agree that Most of it is made-up or twisted around.
Would you argue that the Demonologist currently matches its website, manual, and in-game description? That the demon is a core and central aspect of the class?
Are there NOT tons of invisible walls in the terrain?
Are there NOT tons sticky spots on ramps, stairs, and hills; that controls are not finicky?
Do you seriously contend that the starting levels aren't important, that players should play through the bad in the hopes that at some point it will get better?
The game has real problems, and they are going to take a lot of time to fix assuming they can even be fixed. You can count on a vast majority of people quitting once their 30 days are up, where they haven't stopped logging in already. Thats just the reality of it. I'll be hanging around, possibly in vain, but at least i'm being realistic.
tell me where i can find an invisible wall, and you better not say tortage. the most i'd seen is 'sticky' wall spots on the crazy steep edges of mountains/cliffs that i shouldnt be on in the first place.
What do I care about the release-status of the demonologist versus the claims of it's developers? they've got plenty of time.
"Sometimes, things that may or may not be true are the things a man needs to believe in the most. People are basically good. Honor, courage, virtue mean everything. Power and money, money and power mean nothing. Good always triumphs over evil. Love, True Love Never Dies." Which Final Fantasy Character Are You?
I think its going to die, whether I want to keep playing and sticking it out or not. Yes, I regard almost all of those games to the left as being dead since a large community is really required.
I do not agree with your assessment
City of Heroes has been holding steady at around 150k subscribers for 4 years
you know whats wrong with your poll, and that it can never be used as any valid proof of anything OP? It is because anyone can vote on your poll, I voted a choice on your poll and I dont even play aoc lol.
tell me where i can find an invisible wall, and you better not say tortage. the most i'd seen is 'sticky' wall spots on the crazy steep edges of mountains/cliffs that i shouldnt be on in the first place.
What do I care about the release-status of the demonologist versus the claims of it's developers? they've got plenty of time.
I can already tell you are an apologist.
The invisible walls are all over the place, as I said earlier, in the wilderness. I encounter them pretty much whenever I stray off the marked path. It is to places that I am supposed to go too, for example there is a knee-level ledge that won't let me step from it onto the ground, I have to back-step and shimmy around to get to the monsters and area that were right there.
Sticky places would be, as I said, any ramps. Notice that when you go up or down a cracked ramp, stair, etc that your character glitches and auto-shimmys to correct? Sometimes it doesn't and you have to wiggle around? How about when you are approaching the stairs/ramp/etc from anything other than directly head on? When you want to just jump off the side?
The invisible walls are what killed Guild Wars for me. I just have a terrible time with them, especially in an MMORPG where one would assume that the world is mostly explorable.
Originally posted by Nadia
I do not agree with your assessment
City of Heroes has been holding steady at around 150k subscribers for 4 years
I am confident that AOC will do better than 150k
I don't consider 150k significant. Not for this type of game.
___________________ Sadly, I see storm clouds on the horizon. A faint stench of Vanguard is in the air.-Kien
Are you asking if the game that has been sold out in every computergame all over the place is dying? The most popular game in http://www.gamespot.com/ is dying. The one that 1/4 of the readers there voted as "the upcoming MMORPG are they are currently most interested in?" as many as voted for wotlk? That game you are asking if it is dying?
Nah, I hope Funcom don´t underestimate the sales again so the stores doesn´t get emtpied in a single day again.
And there was a press message a few days ago that AoC had already reached 400 000 active players. I have seen that numbers before, and 400k active players is what WoW has in the entire Europe althogheter: http://www.warcraftrealms.com/temp/activity-2008-05.htm
Now if you asked if WoW is dying then you would have been on to something, notice the big drop in active WoW Europe players that took place in april, a month before AoC was released.
If AoC continues to "die" like this then WoW will not be the number 1 mmorpg in Europe and US for more than max 2 years. Blizzard should be happy that it is still growing in Asia and that AoC isn´t competing there, too bad those 5+ million Chinese players ain´t paying much though.
Blizzards big problem isn´t that they are selling copies, their problem is that since februar 2007 in Europe the numbers of players leaving has been about the same as the number of new players coming. Imagine how fast it will fall when new players ain´t coming anymore.
Are you asking if the game that has been sold out in every computergame all over the place is dying? The most popular game in http://www.gamespot.com/ is dying. The one that 1/4 of the readers there voted as "the upcoming MMORPG are they are currently most interested in?" as many as voted for wotlk? That game you are asking if it is dying?
That doesn't mean anything at all.
I understand that everyone really wants the game to be a knock-out, blow-out hit though. Its still an alright alternative to other games like WoW, and could have been worse.
___________________ Sadly, I see storm clouds on the horizon. A faint stench of Vanguard is in the air.-Kien
nothing is wrong with this game. the only thing wrong is the people who want something to be wrong in this game. Most people who say this game sucks cant even play it cause they are too cheap to buy a better computer. others are complaining that it is like other mmo's which is not suprising to me since this game is an mmo therefore it will resemble other mmo's. So basically if someone has a problem with this game its their problem not anyone else.
Fact 1 - As often repeated, this game has only just been released and already critical bugs have been fixed. The fundamental criticism of the game either derives from personal preference about a particular game system or feature or fundamentally, the tech support, which to date has been admittedly poor. Yet, I've also seen great improvements in communication from Funcom. It seems after the shock of launching to numbers beyond their wildest expectations, they're now beginning to collect themselves and make strides in the areas where they're deficient. I'm sure they're hiring like crazy at the moment to fulfil this need. Over the next month I'm sure we'll see significant improvements.
Fact 2 - WoW had a worse start than this, and most MMO's have had a worse start than AoC. The best start all round is apparently LoTRo I can't vouch for this as I wasn't there but well done to Turbine. This still doesn't detract from the fact that AoC's start is one of the better starts for an MMO. Could it have been better? Absolutely and I'm sure Funcom themselves acknowledge this. I'm sure they're working around the clock to fix bugs and exploits, create new content especially for the upper levels, complete unfinished aspects of the game and most importantly, improve their tech support.
To those willing to beat down all these new games before they've had a chance to mature, be it AoC or a number of other games in recent history, I say with the complexity of creating, beginning and managing an MMO, let's see you do better! It's so easy to be an armchair critic.
Fact 3 - MMO players have become increasingly petulant and tribal - Rooting for their favorite game and feeling that it's their obligation to talk down any perceived rival. However, we all benefit from diversity and attempts to innovate, and only the most ardent troll can deny that AoC contans some significant innovations and will continue to build and extend upon those innovations. Given the nature of the MMO market, I personally wouldn't want to spend years developing these games only to have people with nothing better to do in their lives baying for your blood and your demise.
The negative posts are in the main by those who've taken a set against the game because it's not their kind of MMO, which is their perogative. We just don't need to repeatedly hear about it as if somehow your opinion has more weight than anyone else's. If you don't like the game, say your piece, move on and enjoy the game you do like. Put AoC behind you - trust me, you'll feel better for it and enjpoy life more. Acknowledge that there are a lot of people that do like the game.
Others spend vast amounts of time trawling for anything they can use as a weapon. A new bug or exploit - they look for chinks in the armor, and when one of those chinks are repaired by Fncom - say for example the traders - they then move on to the next perceived chink. Even the most trivial issue is blown out of proportion. I've seen more than a few of those posts here and it's the same individuals repeatedly posting and same issues, at least until the issue is addressed. Eventually they'll run out of issues. These are the one's who bleat the loudest, and I suspect they'd get some perverse satisfaction if tomorrow Funcom had to lay laid off it's staff and those people, many who have worked years and have families were rendered unemployed. The recent post about the stock price was particularly pathetic and a little sick to be honest. Look, you're not martyrs, you're not the bastions of some great truth with a solemn duty to spread the word and convery the unbelivers. You're just another opinion amongst an ocean of opinions.
AoC is a good game with the potential to be better. It's a newborn and as with any newborn, we won't really begin to see it's personality emerge for a few months yet. Ok for some of you it's not be your kind of game. We get it! You might loathe the instances, the combat, or a number of other aspects. Fine. Why not admit that this is your opinion rather thant the definitive word and after you've said your piece put the game behind you? Surely you would rather spend your time playing the game you do like? If posting the same post over and over on forums is more enjoyable than playing your favorite game then it doesn't say much for your favorite game to be honest.
If we're going to see every new game beaten to a pulp before it's had the chance to prove itself, then we won't see innovation, and eventually studios will make fewer and fewer games in this market and be less ambitious as ambitious ideas are often the one's fraught with problems, especially at launch. Guys, this behavior has the potential to strangle the industry.
I give it a 5/10 also. It's an ok game. Combat system is kinda neat. Graphics are ok. Bank is finally working. Resource gathering for 1st tier crafting starts at 20, second at 40, I've heard. Crafting doesn't start till 40. I can play it about an hour or two before it bores me. It's fun but it's a casual game for me. I will probably subscribe for a while but it does not hook me like other games have.
Im amazed someone has the same thoughts I do, I play it as soon as I arrive home, but then, I log off and go watch a movie or to browse forums. It's missing the addictive factor some games had for me and I'm also approaching it as casual, while I would be able to play 60 hours weekly, Im probably spending 25-30 on it right now.
Maybe it is cause I'm playing alone, but it sucks when my guild mates can't get to test it in their PCs cause my buddy keys aren't working >.<
Ahh the first attack of a troll by making a personal attack.
The invisible walls are all over the place, as I said earlier, in the wilderness. I encounter them pretty much whenever I stray off the marked path. It is to places that I am supposed to go too, for example there is a knee-level ledge that won't let me step from it onto the ground, I have to back-step and shimmy around to get to the monsters and area that were right there.
Are you even playing the same game as other people are? I can run from one end of Conall's Valley, or the Wildlands, or the equivlent are zone in Stygia (Can't remember the name now) and the only walls I run into are mts. If I am at the top of the Mountain I can jump down and hope I survive the fall but of course I can't go over a steep mountain. I am an adventurer not a professional Mt Climber. Oh btw this is all without using a single pathway. You can completely avoid the pathways if you want.
Sticky places would be, as I said, any ramps. Notice that when you go up or down a cracked ramp, stair, etc that your character glitches and auto-shimmys to correct? Sometimes it doesn't and you have to wiggle around? How about when you are approaching the stairs/ramp/etc from anything other than directly head on? When you want to just jump off the side?
I can jump up onto stairs/Ramp/Etc from the side. As long as I am not trying to jump to a higher spot on the stairs then I can reach. I can also jump down from any angle that I want. Have you even left Tortage?
The invisible walls are what killed Guild Wars for me. I just have a terrible time with them, especially in an MMORPG where one would assume that the world is mostly explorable.
There aren't invisibile walls in the game. There is small zones with a very direct path in Tortage which was designed that way. Tortage is also around 1-2 nights of play time for the average MMO player.After you leave Tortage there are NO INVISIBLE WALLS.
I don't consider 150k significant. Not for this type of game.
Well then you have a pretty stupid opinion no offense. 150K+ subscribers is a very significant accomplishment. But Age of Conan is on track for much larger numbers. They are tracking higher then any other MMO in History (NA/EU Release) They beat WoW's Release numbers and of course have beaten every other MMO's release numbers as well.
Lets put this in perspective. They sold atleast 400K copies of the game (110K at 90 dollars each and 290K at 50 dollars each) So that is about 25Million in box sales. If they keep even the 150K subscribers that was mentioned (which I think is on the way low end side I think they will be in the 300K range more likely if not 500K) then that is 2.25Million more per month in subscription fees. I am sorry if you don't consider that a success.
You do realize though that their launch success as placed them in the top 5 all time for most successful MMO games in NA/EU.
WoW
EQ1
AoC
DAoC
LOTRO, EVE, or UO (which we think were all around 250K subscribers at peak so far, Although LOTRO could be a lot higher then that)
There is your top 5.
Currently playing: LOTRO & WoW (not much WoW though because Mines of Moria rocks!!!!)
Looking Foward too: Bioware games (Dragon Age & Star Wars The Old Republic)
Been hanging on for months in hope it would be sorted, played beta and early access etc.
1 simple fact why i wont be playing next month, the game is far too heavily instanced, its terrible.
I do run on full graphics and it does look nice but every zone is instanced from between 1-30 running at the same time, horrible way to do mmorpg nowadays.
More like a single player rpg and you join a server to wave at a few folk that you might not see again as they in other instances, and you cant see which.
Hate games like this and do they have a right to call them selfs mmorpg's when the instances are player limited to less than 100 sometimes even less.
Playing: FFXIV Future: wishing for SWG 2, World of Warcraft Classic Played: Most current and extinct MMO's - 18 Years in....
As with so many games, people focus too much on launch issues and not enough on all those "matters of opinion."
With Vanguard, there were tons of posts about the launch, the system requirements, the server issues, etc. But there were relatively few posts about the fact that the gameplay is awful, the writing is bad, and the overall experience lacks cohesion and polish.
Ultimately, it's the latter issues that killed it. People would have been a lot more patient with the technical problems if the game itself had been even the slightest bit engaging.
With AoC, we see some people complaining about technical issues and some people complaining about the gameplay. People who defend the game focus on the technical complaints and say things are improving. They like to dismiss the gameplay issues as "a matter of opinion" that is somehow irrelevant to the discussion.
Well, the truth is, AoC, like Vanguard, will live or die based on the gameplay concerns. Because it is not quite the technical horror that VG was, people are likely to give it more of a chance, but there is still a very real chance the gameplay could turn them off. Or not.
It's really too soon to tell. A lot of people are trying it because it's new and different and obviously a more professional release than SOME games we've seen recently. But once the shiny veneer wears off and people get used to everything -- have time to get annoyed with the things that don't yet seem tedious -- that is when we'll see if this game will make it.
Right now, my guess is (as it was before launch) that AoC will be a modest niche success -- very modest. If Funcom actually listens to some of the legitimate complaints about the gameplay, they might manage to upgrade out of the "modest" category.
Your right on that. I was taking more the Launch numbers in general. WoW hit around 350K by Thanksgiving which was the first what 1-2 weeks the game was out and AoC has hit 400K in the first week it was out. It isn't an exact science to compare of course.
Currently playing: LOTRO & WoW (not much WoW though because Mines of Moria rocks!!!!)
Looking Foward too: Bioware games (Dragon Age & Star Wars The Old Republic)
I think it’s the best MMORPG to date even with some bugs and incompleteness that are getting quickly worked on. I say this comparing it to other games already out there, not some imaginary ideal that has never been created.
But I also think WoW is one of the worst MMOs ever created, so I do not have a popular opinion.
I think they are at 400,000 subscribers right now which is HUGE considering hardware requirements. I would say that 1 out of 20 PC gamers have a system that can run it. So if everyone had a machine that could run that 400k would be 8mil, more than WoWs non China players.
Yes there are many people complaining on the forums, but I talk to many people in game who love it. And problems are only getting fixed. Time will tell but I think this game is here to stay.
As far as people complaining, WoW has had forums complainers since the beginning and still has them. They can not be used as a gauge for how good a game is, or how popular it is going to be.
The only way to judge a game is to play it yourself.
Comments
Not even close. The fact that they got an extra $5 million subscriber dollars just for a weekend fling of early access should tell you that even had it been awful and hellishly buggy (which it is neither) they'd be hanging around a long, long time anyway.
I don't know but it sounds like this is bad news for you. Indeed if you are waiting around for all your guild members in WoW to come back because its finally your turn to spend some DKPs then it doesn't look good. They may in fact not admit it yet but they've locked up all those great BPs, rings, swords and robes on accounts they will no longer play and not show up now to get you yours. The good news is, you are now Guild Leader. Grats on that! ~~
Seriously though, AoC is a terrific game. The combat is a nice change and will only get better, the graphics are outstanding and the gameplay works really well. Parts of the user interface is weak, imo, but they can fix that. It'll will outsell everything except WoW and only because of the low PC specs of that game.
Welcome to 2008. Next up, WAR.
Invisible walls, sticky spots, and a misleading class title would probably constitute unplayability for a lot of people.
You can tell me to get lost all you want but I paid 50 bucks, not 15, for the playtime, and I'll be sticking around in the sliver of hope that they do something about these problems.
Like to many other people, I'm just hoping for a decent mmo besides WoW. And I know thats why people are acting so damn fanboish, they are desperate for the game to do well 'cause theres nothing out there.
___________________
Sadly, I see storm clouds on the horizon. A faint stench of Vanguard is in the air.-Kien
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2006/12/13/
A lot of the negative feedback is misinformation from people who haven't played the game or didn't get out of the tutorial.
All reasons and excuses aside, AoC is a good game and a fair majority of the complaints or complaint-thread Facts, are actually untrue.
It's got some bad things about it, nothing new there however you look at it.
If you've played DDO (i've used this before but this time i'll go into detail) and you've played AoC, and I mean say you've experienced midway through the game at the mid-level mark, then you'll notice a very large difference. Yes they both share instances, including towns and dungeons, yes there is no actual free roam or EQ/DAoC style zoning where you manually run through zones to reach your endgoal (most of AoC is npc teleport zoning ie. ship captains, caravan masters, etc, although some zones require you to go through other wild zones to reach them) , and yes when you enter a dungeon/zone you are given the opportunity to choose your difficulty, however there are vast differences, and i'll explain 2. DDO zones cut up the city into small pieces, they cut up dungeons into small/medium pieces, and they cut up 'outside' zones into small pieces with Flat walls that have tree textures on them to give the illusion of a forest that you cant enter (forcing your direction in most of them, some are wide enough paths to be considered open fields), meanwhile AoC has Large zones, much larger than it's open-world competitor WoW, infact, i'd say WoW's biggest zones (E. Plaguelands, winterspring, outland zones, etc) are the size of AoC's average zones, not to mention AoC doesn't use flat walls with 2d tree textures and it also doesn't force your path with rock walls etc. (besides dungeons and some of the tutorial tortage areas), infact AoC's zones are so large that the main aquilonian city dwarfs WoW's stormwind, and even if you put together all of the zone pieces of DDO's main city, it is still a fraction of aoc's big one. Second, when you enter a dungeon in DDO, it asks your difficulty so you can do it easy if you're weak, etc. and general these are single player dungeons, AoC uses a slightly different approach, in AoC when you zone into say an outside zone, it asks normal or epic, normal being you can do the zone like you would in any other game, choosing to solo or group for your standard kill quests and retrieve quests, or you can enter it on epic and enjoy the fruits of harder mobs and more group requirements, and then when you enter dungeons it also has the normal/epic options, and has personal and public instances within the dungeons, some dungeons even have both personal zone areas and public zone areas that everyone has access to, and for some you need to go through private areas to reach publics etc, those are the dungeons, and i'm sure as i get farthur in the game i'll see more and more group/guild private instances as opposed to open-public instances, not to mention the private ones i solo'd, im sure if i had a group that they could enter with me lol
I voted the game isn't dying and is just fine
I think this game will last a good 5 years before the nuise is really starting to drop down into neck range, maybe 3 years before it starts to show a noticable/worrysome decline.
this is mostly my opinion, however the info about the game that i say as fact is from my personal experience, so unless i do drugs then the odds of me perceiving all of it wrong is .. not likely.. but i suppose possible on maybe 1-2 LOL, oh, a few of my friends have been reading the complaints or the bad info on the forums, they also agree that Most of it is made-up or twisted around.
"Sometimes, things that may or may not be true are the things a man needs to believe in the most. People are basically good. Honor, courage, virtue mean everything. Power and money, money and power mean nothing. Good always triumphs over evil. Love, True Love Never Dies."
Which Final Fantasy Character Are You?
Its a decent game. To be honest it didnt live up to my expectations though. I ignored the fanbois and the haters, read the features and followed what the devs had to say about what was gonna be in the game so my expectations were pretty reasonable. Id give it about a 8/10 for the first 20 levels.
I will admit that the cutscenes are a good way of immersing the player into the story. The combat is refreshing.... I know many people will just say you only smash the buttons but no, you gonna have to strategize for most damage for your combos to.
The biggest issue with the game though is instances. Instances were a big reason why I could never truely like Guild Wars. Also I have a huge problem with PvP mini games since it kills world PvP because its much less of a hassle to just que up then it is to go out and try to find worthy opponents.
I am having quite a bit of fun with this game. As this is my primary reason for playing a game, I don't think it is dying for me. It does have flaws and I am a little frustrated by some game features, but it is by no means a deal breaker. Since, I am not far enough to give a complete overview, I will not comment on each part of the game, but I suspect you would get at least a month or two of fun from the new experience. Then it will be completely based on the endgame additions. At this point it is a filler until WAR comes out.
"You dont win a war by dieing for your country, you win a war by getting the other poor bastards to die for theirs!"
-General Patton
Are there NOT tons of invisible walls in the terrain?
Are there NOT tons sticky spots on ramps, stairs, and hills; that controls are not finicky?
Do you seriously contend that the starting levels aren't important, that players should play through the bad in the hopes that at some point it will get better?
The game has real problems, and they are going to take a lot of time to fix assuming they can even be fixed. You can count on a vast majority of people quitting once their 30 days are up, where they haven't stopped logging in already. Thats just the reality of it. I'll be hanging around, possibly in vain, but at least i'm being realistic.
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Sadly, I see storm clouds on the horizon. A faint stench of Vanguard is in the air.-Kien
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2006/12/13/
Are there NOT tons of invisible walls in the terrain?
Are there NOT tons sticky spots on ramps, stairs, and hills; that controls are not finicky?
Do you seriously contend that the starting levels aren't important, that players should play through the bad in the hopes that at some point it will get better?
The game has real problems, and they are going to take a lot of time to fix assuming they can even be fixed. You can count on a vast majority of people quitting once their 30 days are up, where they haven't stopped logging in already. Thats just the reality of it. I'll be hanging around, possibly in vain, but at least i'm being realistic.
tell me where i can find an invisible wall, and you better not say tortage. the most i'd seen is 'sticky' wall spots on the crazy steep edges of mountains/cliffs that i shouldnt be on in the first place.What do I care about the release-status of the demonologist versus the claims of it's developers? they've got plenty of time.
"Sometimes, things that may or may not be true are the things a man needs to believe in the most. People are basically good. Honor, courage, virtue mean everything. Power and money, money and power mean nothing. Good always triumphs over evil. Love, True Love Never Dies."
Which Final Fantasy Character Are You?
City of Heroes has been holding steady at around 150k subscribers for 4 years
I am confident that AOC will do better than 150k
EQ2 fan sites
you know whats wrong with your poll, and that it can never be used as any valid proof of anything OP? It is because anyone can vote on your poll, I voted a choice on your poll and I dont even play aoc lol.
playing eq2 and two worlds
I can already tell you are an apologist.
The invisible walls are all over the place, as I said earlier, in the wilderness. I encounter them pretty much whenever I stray off the marked path. It is to places that I am supposed to go too, for example there is a knee-level ledge that won't let me step from it onto the ground, I have to back-step and shimmy around to get to the monsters and area that were right there.
Sticky places would be, as I said, any ramps. Notice that when you go up or down a cracked ramp, stair, etc that your character glitches and auto-shimmys to correct? Sometimes it doesn't and you have to wiggle around? How about when you are approaching the stairs/ramp/etc from anything other than directly head on? When you want to just jump off the side?
The invisible walls are what killed Guild Wars for me. I just have a terrible time with them, especially in an MMORPG where one would assume that the world is mostly explorable.
I don't consider 150k significant. Not for this type of game.
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Sadly, I see storm clouds on the horizon. A faint stench of Vanguard is in the air.-Kien
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2006/12/13/
"Is AoC dying yet?"
Well, we are all dying...... slooooooowly!
I guess the OP was quite bored when he thought of creating such a poll.
Are you asking if the game that has been sold out in every computergame all over the place is dying? The most popular game in http://www.gamespot.com/ is dying. The one that 1/4 of the readers there voted as "the upcoming MMORPG are they are currently most interested in?" as many as voted for wotlk? That game you are asking if it is dying?
Nah, I hope Funcom don´t underestimate the sales again so the stores doesn´t get emtpied in a single day again.
And there was a press message a few days ago that AoC had already reached 400 000 active players. I have seen that numbers before, and 400k active players is what WoW has in the entire Europe althogheter: http://www.warcraftrealms.com/temp/activity-2008-05.htm
Now if you asked if WoW is dying then you would have been on to something, notice the big drop in active WoW Europe players that took place in april, a month before AoC was released.
If AoC continues to "die" like this then WoW will not be the number 1 mmorpg in Europe and US for more than max 2 years. Blizzard should be happy that it is still growing in Asia and that AoC isn´t competing there, too bad those 5+ million Chinese players ain´t paying much though.
Blizzards big problem isn´t that they are selling copies, their problem is that since februar 2007 in Europe the numbers of players leaving has been about the same as the number of new players coming. Imagine how fast it will fall when new players ain´t coming anymore.
That doesn't mean anything at all.
I understand that everyone really wants the game to be a knock-out, blow-out hit though. Its still an alright alternative to other games like WoW, and could have been worse.
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Sadly, I see storm clouds on the horizon. A faint stench of Vanguard is in the air.-Kien
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2006/12/13/
nothing is wrong with this game. the only thing wrong is the people who want something to be wrong in this game. Most people who say this game sucks cant even play it cause they are too cheap to buy a better computer. others are complaining that it is like other mmo's which is not suprising to me since this game is an mmo therefore it will resemble other mmo's. So basically if someone has a problem with this game its their problem not anyone else.
Fact 1 - As often repeated, this game has only just been released and already critical bugs have been fixed. The fundamental criticism of the game either derives from personal preference about a particular game system or feature or fundamentally, the tech support, which to date has been admittedly poor. Yet, I've also seen great improvements in communication from Funcom. It seems after the shock of launching to numbers beyond their wildest expectations, they're now beginning to collect themselves and make strides in the areas where they're deficient. I'm sure they're hiring like crazy at the moment to fulfil this need. Over the next month I'm sure we'll see significant improvements.
Fact 2 - WoW had a worse start than this, and most MMO's have had a worse start than AoC. The best start all round is apparently LoTRo I can't vouch for this as I wasn't there but well done to Turbine. This still doesn't detract from the fact that AoC's start is one of the better starts for an MMO. Could it have been better? Absolutely and I'm sure Funcom themselves acknowledge this. I'm sure they're working around the clock to fix bugs and exploits, create new content especially for the upper levels, complete unfinished aspects of the game and most importantly, improve their tech support.
To those willing to beat down all these new games before they've had a chance to mature, be it AoC or a number of other games in recent history, I say with the complexity of creating, beginning and managing an MMO, let's see you do better! It's so easy to be an armchair critic.
Fact 3 - MMO players have become increasingly petulant and tribal - Rooting for their favorite game and feeling that it's their obligation to talk down any perceived rival. However, we all benefit from diversity and attempts to innovate, and only the most ardent troll can deny that AoC contans some significant innovations and will continue to build and extend upon those innovations. Given the nature of the MMO market, I personally wouldn't want to spend years developing these games only to have people with nothing better to do in their lives baying for your blood and your demise.
The negative posts are in the main by those who've taken a set against the game because it's not their kind of MMO, which is their perogative. We just don't need to repeatedly hear about it as if somehow your opinion has more weight than anyone else's. If you don't like the game, say your piece, move on and enjoy the game you do like. Put AoC behind you - trust me, you'll feel better for it and enjpoy life more. Acknowledge that there are a lot of people that do like the game.
Others spend vast amounts of time trawling for anything they can use as a weapon. A new bug or exploit - they look for chinks in the armor, and when one of those chinks are repaired by Fncom - say for example the traders - they then move on to the next perceived chink. Even the most trivial issue is blown out of proportion. I've seen more than a few of those posts here and it's the same individuals repeatedly posting and same issues, at least until the issue is addressed. Eventually they'll run out of issues. These are the one's who bleat the loudest, and I suspect they'd get some perverse satisfaction if tomorrow Funcom had to lay laid off it's staff and those people, many who have worked years and have families were rendered unemployed. The recent post about the stock price was particularly pathetic and a little sick to be honest. Look, you're not martyrs, you're not the bastions of some great truth with a solemn duty to spread the word and convery the unbelivers. You're just another opinion amongst an ocean of opinions.
AoC is a good game with the potential to be better. It's a newborn and as with any newborn, we won't really begin to see it's personality emerge for a few months yet. Ok for some of you it's not be your kind of game. We get it! You might loathe the instances, the combat, or a number of other aspects. Fine. Why not admit that this is your opinion rather thant the definitive word and after you've said your piece put the game behind you? Surely you would rather spend your time playing the game you do like? If posting the same post over and over on forums is more enjoyable than playing your favorite game then it doesn't say much for your favorite game to be honest.
If we're going to see every new game beaten to a pulp before it's had the chance to prove itself, then we won't see innovation, and eventually studios will make fewer and fewer games in this market and be less ambitious as ambitious ideas are often the one's fraught with problems, especially at launch. Guys, this behavior has the potential to strangle the industry.
Im amazed someone has the same thoughts I do, I play it as soon as I arrive home, but then, I log off and go watch a movie or to browse forums. It's missing the addictive factor some games had for me and I'm also approaching it as casual, while I would be able to play 60 hours weekly, Im probably spending 25-30 on it right now.
Maybe it is cause I'm playing alone, but it sucks when my guild mates can't get to test it in their PCs cause my buddy keys aren't working >.<
Currently playing:
LOTRO & WoW (not much WoW though because Mines of Moria rocks!!!!)
Looking Foward too:
Bioware games (Dragon Age & Star Wars The Old Republic)
This is the argument that was pervasive during the post-release of BioShock.
Face it- hen so many people are having (a) problem(s), its the companies problem.
Edit: Cabe2323, you want to reconstruct your post so that I can read it?
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Sadly, I see storm clouds on the horizon. A faint stench of Vanguard is in the air.-Kien
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2006/12/13/
Been hanging on for months in hope it would be sorted, played beta and early access etc.
1 simple fact why i wont be playing next month, the game is far too heavily instanced, its terrible.
I do run on full graphics and it does look nice but every zone is instanced from between 1-30 running at the same time, horrible way to do mmorpg nowadays.
More like a single player rpg and you join a server to wave at a few folk that you might not see again as they in other instances, and you cant see which.
Hate games like this and do they have a right to call them selfs mmorpg's when the instances are player limited to less than 100 sometimes even less.
Playing: FFXIV
Future: wishing for SWG 2, World of Warcraft Classic
Played: Most current and extinct MMO's - 18 Years in....
Interesting Fact - I own 27 Tarantula's
As with so many games, people focus too much on launch issues and not enough on all those "matters of opinion."
With Vanguard, there were tons of posts about the launch, the system requirements, the server issues, etc. But there were relatively few posts about the fact that the gameplay is awful, the writing is bad, and the overall experience lacks cohesion and polish.
Ultimately, it's the latter issues that killed it. People would have been a lot more patient with the technical problems if the game itself had been even the slightest bit engaging.
With AoC, we see some people complaining about technical issues and some people complaining about the gameplay. People who defend the game focus on the technical complaints and say things are improving. They like to dismiss the gameplay issues as "a matter of opinion" that is somehow irrelevant to the discussion.
Well, the truth is, AoC, like Vanguard, will live or die based on the gameplay concerns. Because it is not quite the technical horror that VG was, people are likely to give it more of a chance, but there is still a very real chance the gameplay could turn them off. Or not.
It's really too soon to tell. A lot of people are trying it because it's new and different and obviously a more professional release than SOME games we've seen recently. But once the shiny veneer wears off and people get used to everything -- have time to get annoyed with the things that don't yet seem tedious -- that is when we'll see if this game will make it.
Right now, my guess is (as it was before launch) that AoC will be a modest niche success -- very modest. If Funcom actually listens to some of the legitimate complaints about the gameplay, they might manage to upgrade out of the "modest" category.
Bump to stick it to the vocal minority.
AOC did -not- beat WOW numbers for North America
but it still did well
www.funcom.com/wsp/funcom/frontend.cgi
meaning that approximately 200k or less were from North America
for context, WOW had 200k North American accounts during the *first day* -- 3 years ago
findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EIN/is_2004_Dec_1/ai_n7584110
EQ2 fan sites
meaning that approximately 200k or less were from North America
for context, WOW had 200k North American accounts during the *first day* -- 3 years ago
I love seeing proper facts brought to these forums. Thank you!findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EIN/is_2004_Dec_1/ai_n7584110
And yeah, Conan is doing well. Comparing to WoW is unfair for any MMO these days. LotRO and Vanguard should be the more recent games to compare with.
meaning that approximately 200k or less were from North America
for context, WOW had 200k North American accounts during the *first day* -- 3 years ago
findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EIN/is_2004_Dec_1/ai_n7584110
Your right on that. I was taking more the Launch numbers in general. WoW hit around 350K by Thanksgiving which was the first what 1-2 weeks the game was out and AoC has hit 400K in the first week it was out. It isn't an exact science to compare of course.
Currently playing:
LOTRO & WoW (not much WoW though because Mines of Moria rocks!!!!)
Looking Foward too:
Bioware games (Dragon Age & Star Wars The Old Republic)
I think it’s the best MMORPG to date even with some bugs and incompleteness that are getting quickly worked on. I say this comparing it to other games already out there, not some imaginary ideal that has never been created.
But I also think WoW is one of the worst MMOs ever created, so I do not have a popular opinion.
I think they are at 400,000 subscribers right now which is HUGE considering hardware requirements. I would say that 1 out of 20 PC gamers have a system that can run it. So if everyone had a machine that could run that 400k would be 8mil, more than WoWs non China players.
Yes there are many people complaining on the forums, but I talk to many people in game who love it. And problems are only getting fixed. Time will tell but I think this game is here to stay.
As far as people complaining, WoW has had forums complainers since the beginning and still has them. They can not be used as a gauge for how good a game is, or how popular it is going to be.
The only way to judge a game is to play it yourself.