AoC Poll: Define Awesome vs. Fail

Hhussk

I am interested in how the AoC MMO will trend...If you have an opinion on AoC, please provide the following:

     If you think AoC will trend towards the AWESOME title, vote awesome and list 3 reasons (by priority) that will make it awesome. 

     If you think AoC will trend towards the FAIL title, vote fail, and list 3 reasons (by priority) that will cause AoC to fail.

 

I will tally the results and provide an unofficial report later on. Some posts will also be quoted.

FYI: I don't have a win/loss opinion on Age of Conan. Basically, I'm holding off playing it for a bit until I see the trend.

 Edit: Here are examples I am looking for:

AWESOME:

     1. Will keep a reliable player base of 150K

     2. Will maintain high levels of graphics while adding new content.

     3. Will be able to raise the number of people in instances without lagging.

 

FAIL:

     1. Will lost most of their subscribers.

     2. Will be unable to remove gold-spammers and exploiters.

     3. Will never have good Customer Service.

 

DeadlyMage

Originally posted by Hhussk


If you have an opinion on AoC, please provide the following:
     If you think AoC will win the AWESOME title, vote awesome and list 3 reasons (by priority) that will make it awesome. 
     If you think AoC will win the FAIL title, vote fail, and list 3 reasons (by priority) that will cause AoC to fail.
 
I will tally the results and provide an unofficial report later on. Some posts will also be quoted.
FYI: I don't have a win/loss opinion on Age of Conan. Basically, I'm holding off playing it for a bit until I see the trend.
  
 

so no in between vote.

also your results will be flawed. as anyone can vote.

Munkyman1

I think AoC did exactly what Funcom wanted the game to do.  So i would have to say the game isnt a failure, nor do i see the servers being shut down for several years.  I guess im saying is the poll even necessary? 

Ascension08

It's got more positives than negatives but not by much. So it's not awesome but not a failure either...sooo...?

Qmire

Doing a poll on these forums is like, doing an american fame poll down in the Iraq.....

 

So much hate here, if the Sith would be anywhere, they would be here.

 

"Your anger and hatred gives you moooree poooweeerrr"  Or whatever they might say.

JustBe

It's not a bad game but I'm soooo bored of the same old mmorpgs and AOC takes a step back rather than a step forward.

Kaynos1972

I voted FAIL.

1-Too linear

2-WOW & GW clone.

3-Boring loot system leading to poor economy.

In conclusion, AOC is just plain boring. 

Praxus

Do we really need another fugging poll exactly like this every bloody day?

Kyleran

Couldn't vote, the game is neither awesome (no game ever is) nor fails (yes, some do of course) but has various pluses and minuses for me.

Some of the other polls were broken down much better, this one just... fails.

 

Hhussk

I appreciate your responses.

Please note, I'm not trying determine if the game is a failure or a success. I really wanted to know how you think it will trend.

For example, one of you mentioned that it's going exactly as FunCom expected it to. Well, by that account, it would be trending towards "Awesome".

As well, I'm interested in some reasons why you think it will trend that way. I'll edit the original post to make certain it is clear...and sorry for the confusion.

dirtknap69

Originally posted by Praxus


Do we really need another fugging poll exactly like this every bloody day?

Yes - to stop people wasting their money buying AoC.

Gorondir

Originally posted by dirtknap69


 
Originally posted by Praxus


Do we really need another fugging poll exactly like this every bloody day?

 

Yes - to stop people wasting their money buying AoC.

Don't you have anything better to do in life besides telling ppl not to play?

I begin to think that all this hate is because you're under age and your parents won't allow you to play.

Qmire

Originally posted by dirtknap69


 
Originally posted by Praxus


Do we really need another fugging poll exactly like this every bloody day?

 

Yes - to stop people wasting their money buying AoC.

So the trolls have something to feed on.

 

Sorry for liking the game.

Gorondir

Originally posted by Qmire


 
Originally posted by dirtknap69


 
Originally posted by Praxus


Do we really need another fugging poll exactly like this every bloody day?

 

Yes - to stop people wasting their money buying AoC.

 

So the trolls have something to feed on.

 

Sorry for liking the game.

Nothing more to day... hehe

DeadlyMage

it seems that he is always trolling the AOC forums. he has nothing to do till darckfall comes out (which is never) so he decides to troll here

bee52

I voted awesome because:
1/ I don't give a damn if AoC succeeds
2/ I don't give a damn if AoC fails
3/ The poll is pointless and proves nothing.

fyerwall

Didnt vote because I feel AoC has a chance to be an OK mmo for people who like it. There are only 2 real areas that you can consider to be failures;

Funcom and the Hype.

Funcom clearly learned nothing from AO's launch, save for stability, both client and server. Other than that the game was almost void of anything past Tortage in the way of quests and your standard PvE fare not counting grind. They also hyped the game to near epic proportions boasting that the game would be this massive world full of adventure, sieges, etc when in reality its missing most of anything that was part of the hype machine.

Customer service in AoC is a joke at best, and Funcom could have expected this no matter what thier excuse was. They knew the interest in thier game was high, they knew the amount of preorders they had (hell if you ship expecting to sell near 700 copies, you should at least have the support staff on hand to handle that amount)

Hhussk

Originally posted by fyerwall


Didnt vote because I feel AoC has a chance to be an OK mmo for people who like it. There are only 2 real areas that you can consider to be failures;
Funcom and the Hype.
Funcom clearly learned nothing from AO's launch, save for stability, both client and server. Other than that the game was almost void of anything past Tortage in the way of quests and your standard PvE fare not counting grind. They also hyped the game to near epic proportions boasting that the game would be this massive world full of adventure, sieges, etc when in reality its missing most of anything that was part of the hype machine.
Customer service in AoC is a joke at best, and Funcom could have expected this no matter what thier excuse was. They knew the interest in thier game was high, they knew the amount of preorders they had (hell if you ship expecting to sell near 700 copies, you should at least have the support staff on hand to handle that amount)

I have noticed that AoC is having a customer service problem, but I was thinking that they would be able to augment it in time.

fyerwall

Originally posted by Hhussk


 
 
I have noticed that AoC is having a customer service problem, but I was thinking that they would be able to augment it in time.

Aye, it can easily be fixed over time, but Funcom should have been prepared at the start. Right now there is more CS on the forums deleting/locking out posts that paint AoC in a bad light than there are in game helping customers who actually need the help. The first few months of a game is a critical time for decent CS personel to be on hand and ready to assist players. Waiting weeks to months after the game has been out is just bad form.

Hhussk

Originally posted by fyerwall

Originally posted by Hhussk


 
 
I have noticed that AoC is having a customer service problem, but I was thinking that they would be able to augment it in time.

Aye, it can easily be fixed over time, but Funcom should have been prepared at the start. Right now there is more CS on the forums deleting/locking out posts that paint AoC in a bad light than there are in game helping customers who actually need the help. The first few months of a game is a critical time for decent CS personel to be on hand and ready to assist players. Waiting weeks to months after the game has been out is just bad form.

I have been reading about that. FunCom may have swung too heavily in the "ban exploiters" et al. direction. I figured they were proactive against people because of the whole "Ebonlore" episode a few weeks back.

You're not the first person to mention this. Customer Service does seem to be a big factor in how a game trends. Thanks for your comment.

nightwoulf

i voted fail for one big reason i was in tortage the other day and there is already gold seller spammers.

 

a gm came on and "banned" the spammer who came back 4 mins later. They booted and locked the char not the account.

yarilo

AoC will likely fail because

1. The World is too restrictive: each of the hunderds instances is a cell (some very small), movement is restrictive - just follow the path. So immersion suffers because the world feels like mosaics made of many separate zones and instances.

2. The game is not finished, missing content at higher levels and lack of end game makes it hard to enjoy the game after the first week. Funcom will resolve this eventually but by that time Warhammer will be out..

3. Combat mechanic, while interesting at first, doesn't live up to expectations when you group. It seems to chaotic and mindless and without any strategy.

Hhussk

Originally posted by nightwoulf


i voted fail for one big reason i was in tortage the other day and there is already gold seller spammers.
 
a gm came on and "banned" the spammer who came back 4 mins later. They booted and locked the char not the account.

While its good they banned the character, I completely see how its circumventable. Banning the account clearly has stronger repurcussions and would be more likely to change behavior.

A gold-seller spammer expects to lose his character...and sometimes his account. Usually the account is a throw-away.

While I do not know of this would solve the problem, I would ban the account forever and the IP of the spammer for 30 days. That way, no account he uses would work. Obviously, if he is assigned a dynamic IP, he could reset it...but the time it would take him to reset and start a new account would likely be too troublesome...and nonprofitable.

Gishgeron

 

  I'll play.  I'll even list my 3 reasons in a step format that I feel the game will follow in its trend.

 

  1:  Initial bugs, and serious game flaws.  The game released too early, there is no denying that.  Most people can, and will, manage past this stage though...but the sour taste it will leave in their mouths will ill prepare them to maintain patience for the issues in stage 2.  Dropping the game with such major issues like the basic stat system not even working and female characters having attack speed issues is a bad ideal, but one some people can trudge through as long as its worked on quickly. 

 

  2:  End Game design flow.   The PvP side of the game will likely never be fleshed out to the taste of PvP'ers who come from long time games that have already long since moved past the "Gee, how do you make it work?" step in their games' life.  Regardless of what the devs say, the gear issues WILL be noticed as the stat system get fixed and the realization that the raiding system will take priority as Funcom trys desperately to compete in that department until they can truly flesh out the MANY thousand issues that arise in a PvP setting.  Once the gamers realize they are re-entering the very same treadmill they have been on for years...the past mistakes from the early release will resurface and people will lose all patience with this team, knowing full well that they managed to basically copy a design system thats been around for a decade and STILL managed to bork it out the gate. 

 

  3:  New games, and the release of the other major contenders.  First, both WoW and WAR will release their projects soon enough.  While we cannot yet say what WAR will become, we CAN assume WotLK will open very nicely and its standing to offer even more gameplay options to the game than before.  It can also be assumed to a lesser degree that WAR will launch with a much more solid PvP environment, and thus quickly draw those players from AoC.  Once AoC has to compete with real contenders, and is no longer the new girl on the block, the players ability to ignore their nearly sacrilegious mistakes will diminish greatly.  Aion and Champions won't be long behind them, along with a long list of other games besides them that are trying to push the envelope in design.  Simply put, while we have been speaking of seeing WoW suffer a major number loss over the years....I think that it will be AoC that suffers one first. 

  WoW always had very solid game strengths to lean on when times got tough.  AoC will not, having decided to leave so much missing from their game AND leave that which made it in so buggy has barely even touched.  The "New kid on the block" syndrome will affect it FAR more, and FAR quicker, than it ever could WoW.  Just the launch of two similar quality contenders will see the game hemorrhaging players as though someone ripped its legs off and left it to die.

 

  Even still, I think it shall retain a plenty large enough core player base to be very profitable.  Easily, it will have the 150K I've quoted many times as being well enough to repay investment and keep the game floating healthily for years.  However, they missed a great opportunity to soar....and it WILL be reflected when the time comes.

Hhussk

Originally posted by yarilo


AoC will likely fail because
1. The World is too restrictive: each of the hunderds instances is a cell (some very small), movement is restrictive - just follow the path. So immersion suffers because the world feels like mosaics made of many separate zones and instances.
2. The game is not finished, missing content at higher levels and lack of end game makes it hard to enjoy the game after the first week. Funcom will resolve this eventually but by that time Warhammer will be out..
3. Combat mechanic, while interesting at first, doesn't live up to expectations when you group. It seems to chaotic and mindless and without any strategy.

Can you be more specific about how small some of the instances are? I mean, for example, can you describe one of the instances...why it is so small, what its purpose is, etc?

Hhussk

I had no idea female characters were slower...

Also, I do agree AoC will keep a player base...unless something usually imbalancing comes into play. Something that does not get resolved quickly.

You mentioned WoW and WotLK. I'm also watching how that unfolds because their player base is starting to get disgruntled over their elite gear being nerfed for the next expansion.