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Funcom, general consumer courtesy
Seaka
Member Posts: 57
In general, there are rampant bug throughout the game, not only but including broken skills/feats, terrain glitches and more. But the real issue here is their gross negligence towards the tech support department of their business. With a recent patch, many people found themselves unable to start the game without crashing, or crashing after a very small amount of playtime.
While I understand it’s easier to ignore these problems, it most certainly isn’t in the best interests of your company to do so. I have not ever seen a customer support department so inept, so horrendously negligent as to make me wonder the validity of my purchase. I feel like I spent 50 dollars + shipping to stare at the game box and watch it re-install itself over and over, defragging and generally picking my computer apart, which unless you are very passionate, could hardly be called ‘fun’.
I don’t complain because there isn’t a fix yet, I complain because there has been absolutely nil customer interaction on their behalf. People who bought the game, that is exchanged currency for a service, are unable to access that service, and its being wholly ignored. There isn’t even a “This is under investigation” or “We are aware of this issue” robot response that even an idiot could macro and spam in threads.
I don’t know if Funcom comprehends the magnitude of this inaction, and its effect on its current and future player base. I want to play this game, the one that I spent money for, money that I went to work and earned, not went to work and ignored important things and/or customers. This may be a new business practice, but it’s definitely not one that will pay off in the long run as positive and may very well earn them a write-up from the BBB.
For the fanboys, I’m not debating the game nor is ‘fun’ factor or even its buggy self, which can be fixed with time (I remember WoW’s buggy, buggy launch). I’m willing to wade through bugs and report them and trudge on, but seriously Funcom, I’d like to at least get into the water or let me know why I can't get in the water and maybe toss out an ETA, its called customer relations, and it goes a long way even with little information.
Comments
I'm bringing this to the front page for some reality and for the sake of justice.
if you post bad things, be ready with your list of games you've played.
My estimated guess is that they got more clients that they originally anticipated, thus the number of support personnel is not up to the size of the current population, thus the delay. Since the game is roughly a working week old and since any additional personnel hired needs time to be trained, even at a basic level, I understand their issues.
Whatever those issues are however, it's not the fault of the customer to endure them.
And bigplanet, you'll find haters equally unreasonable arguing with to lovers.
I have played every MMO under the sun, you name it I've probably beta tested and played it for at least a couple of months, this isn't a gameplay thread, i wouldn't know I CAN'T get to the login screen, after numerous reinstalls, defrags, and hours of time wasted.
If you advertise products then aren’t able to come through, it’s not the consumers fault. I understand they have a lot to deal with, but honestly it’s not my problem, they accepted my 50 dollars just fine. This is the real world, excuses mean little to nothing, its about results, and I don’t see any nor any headway being made
That said, a little support would ease the unrest I'm having about my purchase, and theres many on the official forums that agree with me (you can't see them until you have an account). Also my Free month game time is still ticking away without ever have been used.
My main gripe is with the lack of ANY support of any kind, or any feedback to the community about anything. If they are swamped and trying to fix things....fine, but pay someone to say so in a formal setting, its called a Community Liaison. Bad press will kill a newly launched game faster than anything, and at this rate it does not bode well. Didn’t they learn anything about an MMO from AO?
Let's see, memory leaks, broken skills and feats, gankers heaven, unable to login, constant crashes, slow mechanics that even some of the top systems are having a hard time running (probably due to memory links), horrible customer service, constant down times, lack of customer care, lack of communication, etc...
So far I have heard complaints about almost every aspect of the game. I haven't even bought it and I'm disappointed. Of course, I am a child of the mother of MMO's, EQ. Alot of people scoff at EQ, but at least they wwere always on top of things and were constantly trying to fix things and keep thier client well informed. Same with DAOC.
All games have bugs, but these aren't just bugs. These are issues.
A tiny mind is a tidy mind...
I am impressed how many bugs were fixed from open beta to the launch. Much to the doomsayers disappointment.
And in other news:
http://www.videogaming247.com/2008/05/27/gta-iv-still-top-in-uk-age-of-conan-debuts-in-second/
Age of Conan is the 2nd best video game in UK, behind only GTA IV. And that list includes not only PC games but video games as well.
GTA IV still top in UK, Age of Conan debuts in second
May 27th, 2008 @ 19:33
A good effort there from Funcom’s MMO, but nothing’s going to shake GTA IV at the top of the UK all formats for a while yet. Last week’s chart here. Data’s for the week ending May 24.
Except, they are out of beta now, it has nothing to do with current 'doomsayers'. This is outright misconduct with the lack of contact with their consumers.
Trying to make it sound awesome because its only trailing GTA is nothing, GTA released perfectly, you can play the game start to finish, it is a finished product that if it DOESN'T work, you can return it, unlike an MMO purchase.
I'll try to remember their bug-fixing effort while i can't get past the patcher, and theres no comments from official Funcom staff. I bought a released product, not a beta, the ball is in their court not ours.
You know you never actually mention that you played the game here? i mean personally for youself and what issues you specifically have. maybe you could list some from 'personal' experience and maybe we could help here or at least try to help get you up and running in game.
For starters, might be a silly question, but have you done the simple config, Verify / repair ?
EDIT, ok wrote after your last post.
You cant get to the login screen then?
Ffs it's been a week! Give them some time...the game is as good as any other mmo I have ever played at launch and possibly a good deal better!
I have yet to have any real issues or encountered game breaking bugs...they are fixing stuff and I am sure they have prioritised and are working their way through the list of stuff...
It sounds like you have exchanged your "I Win" button for an "I want it now" button..
I have tried every single fix on the tech forums made by other members, i would try the ones Funcom suggested, but they haven't even acknowledged any issues.
It patches up to date, then i hit play and nothing happens and the exe crashes. Theres 300+ post threads on the exact issue, not counting other problems including BSODs and memory leaks etc.
As to 'its only been a week', this excuse holds no water in the fact that the game was released and beta tested, i didn't tell them to ship me a copy of the game and give me a week to get them the money.
unfortunately its the menality of people who are all in a "me me me" generation, who throw threats around if they dont get their way. Its a new product and if anyone has played an mmorpg before they should expect the unexpected at launch. Like you said its been out what? two weeks tomorrow.
I am interested in trying to help the poster out though.
I understand that many people feel isolated and/or ignored by the Funcom customer support. I also understand how frustrating it must be, having had similar experiences myself with other games.
However I myself have not experienced this. I have been playing the Early Access version of the game (disappointed only by the slight delay in release time), and have only suffered a few, minor but fixable problems.
I had crashes with the message "out of memory", so I stopped running programmes in the background, and dedicated less of my RAM to the graphics. Fixed.
I had massive performance problems, with 15 FPS max and reaching 3 or less in cities (laptop with GeForce 8400M GT). I changed the shader model down to 2.0, and now run the game on full high settings (4x AA) with 15-45FPS.
The only problem that I had, that has genuinely annoyed me was when I had problems with the game simply freezing, either on the loading screen or mid-game. To fix this I had to disable the game sound, which is pretty frustrating considering how awesome the sound is. But it is better to have this option rather than to run the game with crashes.
I think that my experience is pretty much what the majority of Age of Conan players have had. It is the unfortunate majority that have had massive problems, the causes of which ARE being addressed by Funcom. Whether explicity stated or not, NO commercial business with any desire for success would ignore problems like these. Funcom have showed that they DO listen to customer opinion, and they are occassionally seen posting on the official forums acknowledging issues that people are having.
I really hope that your problem is fixed as not being able to play this game must be very frustrating. It simply is a brilliant game.
Currently looking for core members, feel free to visit http://www.aoc-dynasty.webs.com/ for more info, and forums link.
Did you install the game from the disks or downloaded?
Have you tried the .ini edit to remove the movies at the start of the game?
There was a bug where when the game starts the movies / logos come up and people crash out.
What graphics card do you have?
It has nothing do with with a 'me me me' generation, it has to do with knowing the value of money versus what you get in return.
You cannot run a company and not at least post feedback to consumers having a problem, especially in sensitive times like this just after launching a majorly hyped title.
I know that in this behavior certainly is not accepted in any other setting of work where money is exchanged. I feel like I've gone mad when people can't even admit a companies failure at a simple thing like hiring community reps to talk to people at least, and with the lack of any telephone service and absolutely no emails going out from their tech department i feel like Ive maybe bought some swampland.
Edit: I'm running an 8800GT and i've tried mostly anything including multiple re-installs and defrags and even a complete OS reinstall.
Maybe a silly question, have you run the simpleconfig.exe verify and repair process?
Currently looking for core members, feel free to visit http://www.aoc-dynasty.webs.com/ for more info, and forums link.
Yes i have and reinstalled my video drivers multiple times. I've also been able to run the intro movie and all the logo plugs outside of the game perfectly. And it was installed from the disks.
I'm currently looking at several forums to see if anyone else is having the same problem as you, and if they have a solution.
What is it that *exactly* happens? You run the startup videos then the screen blacks? Or the game simply closes? I need to know more details please
Currently looking for core members, feel free to visit http://www.aoc-dynasty.webs.com/ for more info, and forums link.
I run the patcher, it checks it and after i click play. The patcher screen closes and then when not in fullscreen mode, nothing happens. Then about 5-10s later, it gives me the error and closes.
While in fullscreen mode, it does the same thing except during the 5-10s it is a black screen.
Cool ok, and what does the error message say?
Currently looking for core members, feel free to visit http://www.aoc-dynasty.webs.com/ for more info, and forums link.
It just a generic "AoC.exe has encountered a problem and needs to close".
Did you try to start the client in windowed mode?
Yes, i stated earlier how it reacts in windowed and fullscreen mode. Also in different resolutions.
I admit upfront I don't know much about computers other than what I have done to my own computer.
But is this graphic card a recent upgrade and if so what is your powersupply? Just wondering if it could be a power problem, or does your computer work fine with other games. Also is your card overclocked?
The card runs everything i've thrown at it including City of Heroes, WoW and others most recently. More graphically demanding, i ran EVE on full high settings with no lag at all, thats with the new update textures.
This is the only game i have troubles with at the moment.
Could it be some obscure anti-virus preventing the game from launching?
If you're on Vista, try to play it on adminstrative mode (right click on the executable and select "Run as administrator")