Mature rating 18+ is actually a way to lure all the 14-17 years old kids. Together with the console release, yes I believe AoC target audience is partially wow-kids, partially console genre newkidscomming kids ehm.
Two separate surveys among European and US players indicates that less than 4% are below 18 years of age.
Approximately 6000 players answered the surveys, which can be found stickied on the official forums.
Running a business with tens of staff is expensive.
For a start Google salaries in the US and a programmer can get $50000+ per annum.
As a rule of thumb multiply that by at least a factor of two to cover overheads.
Then these people work for 2+ years (5 on AoC?) on a project with no revenue?
The numbers start to get really big by the end of all that.
u cant say that they have no revenue at all, AO is the holy cashcow of funcom and they have a lot of other sources of revenue, just check their financial reports on funcom.com, i dont see any report with them in the red..
and yes that chart is funny, the truth is theres already more then 500.000 active accounts. i dont have a link to back this up i have this link which too proves the chart is false http://www.funcom.com/wsp/funcom/frontend.cgi?func=publish.show&func_id=1297&table=CONTENT that kid claims to have insiders.. who then? it can only be the highest fc employees, that just isnt going to happen its like seeing a chart right now that says that WoWs 10 million is like 1 million.... he made the chart up to get attention and it worked since theres now numerous threads about it on mmorpg.com alone
MMOs currently playing: - About to play: Lord of the Rings Online Played: Anarchy Online (alltime favorite) and lots of f2p titles (honorable mentions: 9Dragons, Martial Heroes, Dekaron, Atlantica Online)
That analyis is a prime example of misinformation. Not only his maths are wrong, but also he does not state his sources even though he mentions "FACTS" (capitalized) over and over again.
Mature rating 18+ is actually a way to lure all the 14-17 years old kids. Together with the console release, yes I believe AoC target audience is partially wow-kids, partially console genre newkidscomming kids ehm.
Two separate surveys among European and US players indicates that less than 4% are below 18 years of age.
Approximately 6000 players answered the surveys, which can be found stickied on the official forums.
haha this survey is a joke.
In fact it takes into consideration who owns the credit card. Dont you think that 98% of the 14-17 years old pay the subscribtion with their dad's credit card?
Mature rating 18+ is actually a way to lure all the 14-17 years old kids. Together with the console release, yes I believe AoC target audience is partially wow-kids, partially console genre newkidscomming kids ehm.
Two separate surveys among European and US players indicates that less than 4% are below 18 years of age.
Approximately 6000 players answered the surveys, which can be found stickied on the official forums.
haha this survey is a joke.
In fact it takes into consideration who owns the credit card. Dont you think that 98% of the 14-17 years old pay the subscribtion with their dad's credit card?
Oh yes, I did not think of that. I was wrong and you were right obviously.
40% was returned... Since when the heck were you able to return PC games. And the keys were already used saying that they 'insuficient system requirments.' Sure....
Do a search on the AoC website. Funcom just released the official sub numbers and it's 500,000 active accounts. I'm sure Briyan's Blog is really credible lol
the sadest thing about this entry are the comments about his math, trying to discredit him by calculating percentages of intermediate results, which is obviously total bullshit, if you're trying to flame someone, at least get your math skills straight and don't fabricate as much crap as the blogger does...
Then these people work for 2+ years (5 on AoC?) on a project with no revenue? ...
u cant say that they have no revenue at all, AO is the holy cashcow of funcom and they have a lot of other sources of revenue, just check their financial reports on funcom.com, i dont see any report with them in the red..
...
No. I didn't say that.
But, if you treat AoC as a separate project (You can bet Funcom's accounts department will) then my point stands.
Yes, they may use revenue from other projects to pay for and cover AoC... but not forever.
This seems a little fake... 40% was returned... Since when the heck were you able to return PC games. And the keys were already used saying that they 'insuficient system requirments.' Sure....
For those people throwing 500k active players in conan, you guys either are trying to lie to the rest of us, or just don't know wtf you're talking about. This is taken straight from Funcom's "Status of the Launch" PDF in Investor relations section
This just proves something I've noticed with regards to MMO's, I find that increasingly people set out, within days of launch, to seemingly destroy a game. More and more people seem willing to bombard forums and write rubbish like this.
I believe it is one thing to find you don't like a game, and sure, your perfectly entitled to tell people about your opinion on forums such as this, but sometimes you find people who claim to have cancelled days after trying a game, and they will still be on forums spreading malice and hate about a game a year later. It's like they can't let it go, they don't understand that other people may actually like the game. It's almost as if it becomes personal and they are setting out on a crusade to destroy the game.
No matter though, I'm still enjoying AoC despite the bugs, almost a month after launch I will be keeping my 2 accounts and have no intentions of re-subing to WoW.
In my experience you CANNOT take back MMO's. they ask you when you buy it if you meet the system requirements, and tell you you can;t take it back. if you COULD take it back you would just get the codes for free. the figures in pie chart are ridiculus.
anyhow this article is hilariously false. it just further shows how desperate some people are for AoC to fail, how desperate they are to tell people it is a rubbish game because they can't meet system specs or the combat is too active for them.
the author and the rest of the aoc haters need swallow thier jealousy and to GTF back to WOW, and let us enjoy aoc.
It's interesting that the author choose to represent a pie chart and integrate some made up numbers or what have you- that so many copies has been returned. It's an amusing chat / debate they have going.
Still, the whole thing seems really, really fake. Funcom is a publically traded company at the end of the quarter we will see actual figures.
nothing much more to say I guess other then I dont find it credible
Originally posted by MikeMB I'd trust that site reporting AoC news as much as I'd trust the Sony Defense Force bring me news about the Xbox 360.
Ah yes the SDF, still remember the Kill Zone 2 High Resolution Screens with photoshop touch-up vs. Gears of War 2 Low Resolution Screens with photoshop detouch-up. Though it always funny to read the comments and the PS3 fanbois and the 360 fanbois bitching at each other.
[[ DEAD ]] - Funny - I deleted my account on the site using the cancel account button. Forum user is separate and still exists with no way of deleting it. Delete it admins. Do it, this ends now.
I mean... come on. There is no penalty for giving false information on a vlog, blog, or forum...
But if a company releases false information to investors, the government, society in general... the consequences are too large.
Honestly, I recommend gameriot.com be boycotted for allowing information like this to be passed through.
If AoC recieved this, i'm going to LOVE seeing what WAR gets. >.<
Edit: Hrm I just looked at gameriot.com to see what they are... is it just a blogger haven? That's what it looks like. With all the different "reporters" it just looks like a place that advocates screamers and rumormill workers. Slapnuts is on the first first page and he writes this:
"Some geniuses did a study about in game advertising and apparently didn't talk to me at all. The results? In game ads aren't all that bad according to 82%, and 61% were favorable to said product after playing. Lame!"
yeah, I doubt this "article" is anything more than a blog given a pretty chart. HA in the link you can see:
Holy crap! It's amazing what people will do when they have access to blogging tools and pie chart creation tools. It used to be you spread rumors to attempt to bring down an opponent or something you didn't like, perhaps leave notes are scrawl on bathroom wall... But now something like this? Must be the digital age, and this whole article REAKS of false information and hearsay. http://www.funcom.com/wsp/funcom/frontend.cgi?func=publish.show&func_id=1297&table=CONTENT http://www.funcom.com/funcom/frontend/files/CONTENT/080602_Funcom%20Update.pdf I mean... come on. There is no penalty for giving false information on a vlog, blog, or forum... But if a company releases false information to investors, the government, society in general... the consequences are too large. Honestly, I recommend gameriot.com be boycotted for allowing information like this to be passed through. If AoC recieved this, i'm going to LOVE seeing what WAR gets. >.< Edit: Hrm I just looked at gameriot.com to see what they are... is it just a blogger haven? That's what it looks like. With all the different "reporters" it just looks like a place that advocates screamers and rumormill workers. Slapnuts is on the first first page and he writes this: "Some geniuses did a study about in game advertising and apparently didn't talk to me at all. The results? In game ads aren't all that bad according to 82%, and 61% were favorable to said product after playing. Lame!" yeah, I doubt this "article" is anything more than a blog given a pretty chart. HA in the link you can see: .com/blogs/Epidemic-Obesity Right. Moving on.
Seems like you didn't read my post, or simply just one of the not very bright ones. Sure, funcom can't lie to their investors, they just chose to use selective truths. It's true over 500k people have activated their box code. However, from that, can you really assume 500k people is playing RIGHT NOW? Where are the numbers of people that canceled their sub? The people that registered but can't play? They did the same thing about how many copies sold. They never told us how many boxes total were sold, only 1 million copies were SHIPPED.
This entire article is a complete fabrication... I would like to see the supposed reputable sources for the numbers they are providing. Everything I have read has indicated very different information. It really hasn't made sense to me all this time why some people seem so personally invested in AOC's demise... The only thing that makes sense is that they are absolutely terrified that the game's success might draw players from whatever outdated MMO these people play.
Article seems very accurate concerning all the troubles Age of Conan been having since release.
And it serves them just right. Funcom havent been the slightest truthful about there product and have been cheating money out of overhyped people whos been believing anything they been told. NDA was active until release, game couldnt be fully tested and alot of buyers bought a game they believed was something totally else then it really was. Funcom have cheated alot of people.
Funcom have hurt the MMORPG genre as a whole by there way of marketing and lies. Personally i hope game companies like Funcom have delivered there last game cause we dont need that kind of greed.
Originally posted by Aragon100 Originally posted by Anubisan This entire article is a complete fabrication... I would like to see the supposed reputable sources for the numbers they are providing. Everything I have read has indicated very different information. It really hasn't made sense to me all this time why some people seem so personally invested in AOC's demise... The only thing that makes sense is that they are absolutely terrified that the game's success might draw players from whatever outdated MMO these people play.
Article seems very accurate concerning all the troubles Age of Conan been having since release. And it serves them just right. Funcom havent been the slightest truthful about there product and have been cheating money out of overhyped people whos been believing anything they been told. NDA was active until release, game couldnt be fully tested and alot of buyers bought a game they believed was something totally else then it really was. Funcom have cheated alot of people. Funcom have hurt the MMORPG genre as a whole by there way of marketing and lies. Personally i hope game companies like Funcom have delivered there last game cause we dont need that kind of greed.
Get your ass back to the DF boards Aragon, we already know you have a woody for AoC and WAR.
[[ DEAD ]] - Funny - I deleted my account on the site using the cancel account button. Forum user is separate and still exists with no way of deleting it. Delete it admins. Do it, this ends now.
Although I am not a fan of AoC in fact I think its garbage, I have to say, that so called article is the biggest load of crap I have ever read. Full of complete lies. There is no wayyyyyy!!! Funcom requires 500k monthly subscribers just to break even, it's complete fabrication. No MMO company in their right mind would project 500k monthly subscribers as an achiveable target and if they NEED 500k just to break even they wouldn't even launch the game. Sorry I hate AoC as much as the next man, but that article is just rubbish and written by a total moron and WoW fanbois.
completely agree, i know it has its problems...but, this article is a bunch of made up bullshit. he made up the statistics, and percentages completely. so bogus.
Comments
Yeh, actually VG 30$mil was below average in compare to other mainstreamed titles.
REALITY CHECK
Two separate surveys among European and US players indicates that less than 4% are below 18 years of age.
Approximately 6000 players answered the surveys, which can be found stickied on the official forums.
Actually, of everything said this is the one approximation I could actually believe.
MMOs are not cheap to make. How many staff did / does Funcom have working on AoC?
MMOs in general cost $10,000,000 or more to develop: http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/mmorpg8.htm
(which is on the conservative side I think)
TR rumored to cost $100,000,000 to develop: http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/13489
with many in the middle of that range.
Running a business with tens of staff is expensive.
For a start Google salaries in the US and a programmer can get $50000+ per annum.
As a rule of thumb multiply that by at least a factor of two to cover overheads.
Then these people work for 2+ years (5 on AoC?) on a project with no revenue?
The numbers start to get really big by the end of all that.
u cant say that they have no revenue at all, AO is the holy cashcow of funcom and they have a lot of other sources of revenue, just check their financial reports on funcom.com, i dont see any report with them in the red..
and yes that chart is funny, the truth is theres already more then 500.000 active accounts. i dont have a link to back this up i have this link which too proves the chart is false http://www.funcom.com/wsp/funcom/frontend.cgi?func=publish.show&func_id=1297&table=CONTENT that kid claims to have insiders.. who then? it can only be the highest fc employees, that just isnt going to happen
its like seeing a chart right now that says that WoWs 10 million is like 1 million.... he made the chart up to get attention and it worked since theres now numerous threads about it on mmorpg.com alone
MMOs currently playing: -
About to play: Lord of the Rings Online
Played: Anarchy Online (alltime favorite) and lots of f2p titles (honorable mentions: 9Dragons, Martial Heroes, Dekaron, Atlantica Online)
That analyis is a prime example of misinformation. Not only his maths are wrong, but also he does not state his sources even though he mentions "FACTS" (capitalized) over and over again.
Two separate surveys among European and US players indicates that less than 4% are below 18 years of age.
Approximately 6000 players answered the surveys, which can be found stickied on the official forums.
haha this survey is a joke.
In fact it takes into consideration who owns the credit card. Dont you think that 98% of the 14-17 years old pay the subscribtion with their dad's credit card?
REALITY CHECK
Really can't link the Funcom financial report because they posted it in account information. ^
Anyway.. a blog on a WoW fan site is definitely not a valid source.
Two separate surveys among European and US players indicates that less than 4% are below 18 years of age.
Approximately 6000 players answered the surveys, which can be found stickied on the official forums.
haha this survey is a joke.
In fact it takes into consideration who owns the credit card. Dont you think that 98% of the 14-17 years old pay the subscribtion with their dad's credit card?
Oh yes, I did not think of that. I was wrong and you were right obviously.
This seems a little fake...
40% was returned... Since when the heck were you able to return PC games. And the keys were already used saying that they 'insuficient system requirments.' Sure....
i hate AoC but this is written by wow kids i wouldnt trust this site for anything
Maybe you should link it.
Okay... the official numbers are:
img501.imageshack.us/img501/7751/mmoshareti9.png
ROFLMFAO!!! good one!
Take the Magic: The Gathering 'What Color Are You?' Quiz.
the sadest thing about this entry are the comments about his math, trying to discredit him by calculating percentages of intermediate results, which is obviously total bullshit, if you're trying to flame someone, at least get your math skills straight and don't fabricate as much crap as the blogger does...
u cant say that they have no revenue at all, AO is the holy cashcow of funcom and they have a lot of other sources of revenue, just check their financial reports on funcom.com, i dont see any report with them in the red..
...
No. I didn't say that.
But, if you treat AoC as a separate project (You can bet Funcom's accounts department will) then my point stands.
Yes, they may use revenue from other projects to pay for and cover AoC... but not forever.
Nothing says irony like spelling ideot wrong.
http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/185255
Read posts from 72 on.
Nothing says irony like spelling ideot wrong.
Regardless of how fake that article is I can say that I am in the Yellow part of the Pie chart and so are a lot of people i have talked too.
the game is bad!
For those people throwing 500k active players in conan, you guys either are trying to lie to the rest of us, or just don't know wtf you're talking about. This is taken straight from Funcom's "Status of the Launch" PDF in Investor relations section
http://www.funcom.com/funcom/frontend/files/CONTENT/080602_Funcom%20Update.pdf
"TheAge of Conan
game now has over 500.000 active players (players who have registered their purchased game key in the Company’s registration and billing system). "
I mean, do I really need to go over what that sentence really means? Or are people just you know, not too bright.
This just proves something I've noticed with regards to MMO's, I find that increasingly people set out, within days of launch, to seemingly destroy a game. More and more people seem willing to bombard forums and write rubbish like this.
I believe it is one thing to find you don't like a game, and sure, your perfectly entitled to tell people about your opinion on forums such as this, but sometimes you find people who claim to have cancelled days after trying a game, and they will still be on forums spreading malice and hate about a game a year later. It's like they can't let it go, they don't understand that other people may actually like the game. It's almost as if it becomes personal and they are setting out on a crusade to destroy the game.
No matter though, I'm still enjoying AoC despite the bugs, almost a month after launch I will be keeping my 2 accounts and have no intentions of re-subing to WoW.
In my experience you CANNOT take back MMO's. they ask you when you buy it if you meet the system requirements, and tell you you can;t take it back. if you COULD take it back you would just get the codes for free. the figures in pie chart are ridiculus.
anyhow this article is hilariously false. it just further shows how desperate some people are for AoC to fail, how desperate they are to tell people it is a rubbish game because they can't meet system specs or the combat is too active for them.
the author and the rest of the aoc haters need swallow thier jealousy and to GTF back to WOW, and let us enjoy aoc.
Dear Game Developers,
Nerf Rock.
Paper is fine though.
Regards,
Scissors.
It's interesting that the author choose to represent a pie chart and integrate some made up numbers or what have you- that so many copies has been returned. It's an amusing chat / debate they have going.
Still, the whole thing seems really, really fake. Funcom is a publically traded company at the end of the quarter we will see actual figures.
nothing much more to say I guess other then I dont find it credible
Ah yes the SDF, still remember the Kill Zone 2 High Resolution Screens with photoshop touch-up vs. Gears of War 2 Low Resolution Screens with photoshop detouch-up. Though it always funny to read the comments and the PS3 fanbois and the 360 fanbois bitching at each other.
Holy crap!
It's amazing what people will do when they have access to blogging tools and pie chart creation tools.
It used to be you spread rumors to attempt to bring down an opponent or something you didn't like, perhaps leave notes are scrawl on bathroom wall...
But now something like this? Must be the digital age, and this whole article REAKS of false information and hearsay.
http://www.funcom.com/wsp/funcom/frontend.cgi?func=publish.show&func_id=1297&table=CONTENT
http://www.funcom.com/funcom/frontend/files/CONTENT/080602_Funcom%20Update.pdf
I mean... come on. There is no penalty for giving false information on a vlog, blog, or forum...
But if a company releases false information to investors, the government, society in general... the consequences are too large.
Honestly, I recommend gameriot.com be boycotted for allowing information like this to be passed through.
If AoC recieved this, i'm going to LOVE seeing what WAR gets. >.<
Edit: Hrm I just looked at gameriot.com to see what they are... is it just a blogger haven? That's what it looks like. With all the different "reporters" it just looks like a place that advocates screamers and rumormill workers. Slapnuts is on the first first page and he writes this:
"Some geniuses did a study about in game advertising and apparently didn't talk to me at all. The results? In game ads aren't all that bad according to 82%, and 61% were favorable to said product after playing. Lame!"
yeah, I doubt this "article" is anything more than a blog given a pretty chart. HA in the link you can see:
.com/blogs/Epidemic-Obesity
Right. Moving on.
Seems like you didn't read my post, or simply just one of the not very bright ones. Sure, funcom can't lie to their investors, they just chose to use selective truths. It's true over 500k people have activated their box code. However, from that, can you really assume 500k people is playing RIGHT NOW? Where are the numbers of people that canceled their sub? The people that registered but can't play? They did the same thing about how many copies sold. They never told us how many boxes total were sold, only 1 million copies were SHIPPED.
Article seems very accurate concerning all the troubles Age of Conan been having since release.
And it serves them just right. Funcom havent been the slightest truthful about there product and have been cheating money out of overhyped people whos been believing anything they been told. NDA was active until release, game couldnt be fully tested and alot of buyers bought a game they believed was something totally else then it really was. Funcom have cheated alot of people.
Funcom have hurt the MMORPG genre as a whole by there way of marketing and lies. Personally i hope game companies like Funcom have delivered there last game cause we dont need that kind of greed.
Article seems very accurate concerning all the troubles Age of Conan been having since release.
And it serves them just right. Funcom havent been the slightest truthful about there product and have been cheating money out of overhyped people whos been believing anything they been told. NDA was active until release, game couldnt be fully tested and alot of buyers bought a game they believed was something totally else then it really was. Funcom have cheated alot of people.
Funcom have hurt the MMORPG genre as a whole by there way of marketing and lies. Personally i hope game companies like Funcom have delivered there last game cause we dont need that kind of greed.
Get your ass back to the DF boards Aragon, we already know you have a woody for AoC and WAR.
completely agree, i know it has its problems...but, this article is a bunch of made up bullshit. he made up the statistics, and percentages completely. so bogus.
Holy sh@t ! I tought it was bad but not like that. 70k left
I have a bad feeling Funcom might be in big trouble now.