Errors can happen in any game, and they always get fixed. They are not making you crash on purpose and this isn't some personal attack so they can ruin everyone's day. Something went wrong and they delayed the US server downtime so they could find and fix the issues. Stop picking on everything little thing and declaring it the end of the world. You're worse than Chicken Little, my friend. If you don't enjoy playing the game, then don't play it and go do something else. There are many others that are willing to have patience and allow the game to work out its glitches. It's not the end of the world, and no one is holding a gun to your head, making you play.
So you think its fine to use 4-6 months on stuff that where promised to have been in from launch? Not really strange that MMO slack these days with people who dont care if they pay for alpha/beta states, "it will get fixed in the future, blablabla" .. so how long will you pay to wait for the fix. Dont say that people should chill, when they pay a game that should be working. Sorry, but your post is a lie from a fanboy minded perspective.
Hang on a sec...are you the same guy whos going by the same name whos slating AoC on virtually every other thread about AoC? and now they implement a patch and already you know the problems its caused? why do you still play the game lol? Oh wait it might be you dont but search endlessly for threads on how bad the game is lol. Thats quite sad hehe.
You can look at it as sad m8. I look at it diffrently. I want to play MMO games in the future that are actually delivering at launch - all those features the devs promised. And it has to have certain polish to.
Now.. .How will me talking about how bad the state of AOC is atm prevent more MMO games taking the same route as Funcom did with their unfinished game ? You go figure. If you can't then its not my problem.
I bought the game at launch so I could tell everyone accuretly about the state of the game and what the transactions from closed beta into retail actually brought us. Considering that it was supposed to bring sieges, spellweaving and dx 10... Then maybe you can see my point
I have played at least 12 mmos at launch and not one...repeat not one delivered what they advertised. Its not limited to the gaming world either. In RL I work in Financial Services and every single project has failed to deliver what it promised. Its just reality and either we live with it or decide to do something else with our time. I enjoy AoC because I focus on what I like about it and bide my time to see what they do with it.
The success of an MMO is in its post launch development and not the actual launch itself.
And the norm of MMOs should be unpolished and untested game at launch ? Are you then gonna be happy ? Is that the truth your looking for ? IT is impossible to fully test a MMO until you put it on the open market. Things that work with 300 people may break with 3000. No matter how many testers you bring in they will probably miss stuff that the players will find. Remember testers and especially developers have an idea how it is supposed to work and so they play the game expecting that. Players instead have no expectation and try to figure out the best way to make it work the way they want. So they find a lot of bugs and design flaws that will not be found otherwise. 1. Thing is Funcom did not care what the beta testers reported back to them. I can honestly say that the communication was crap, and thats why they never fixed the game issues pre-launch. Instead of me continuing to report back, i just stopped, there where no communication. And I knew the bugs/instability/gfx, how it causes more frustration than good. The lack of content. The parts to focus on to turn the game on track. So stop bullshitting people by assuming that Funcom did listen to what people tried to say in Beta. Again and again and again. You dont defent a broken game by making excuses its not any worse than others. The fact is you dont see half of the things that are actually broken in AOC cause you havn't got that into the game yet. We are not talking about any minor issues. We have now had a game in retail for a whole month that is still unplayable for many cause of memory leaks, missing features and then lack of content + untested. Yes - you can add few games together and say they had same problems but thats false. Vanguard had all of the problems on its own and way more. Anarchy Online had all the problems and way more as well. There are people having problems and then there are people with no problems at all. It is impossible once again for Funcom to fully test every possible configuration of hardware, software, and drivers that will be used to play the game. 2. Its a completly another thing to ignore their player base. Banning any bringing construcive critics. In terms of WoW. WOW did an open beta. I took part in it and I liked it alot. I desided to buy WOW cause I saw enough of the basic systems to see this game would be working longterm. That didn't mean it was perfect. Neither did it mean that this Open beta was perfect. But it gave the Devs chance to balance things - and it gave the gamers chance to see what the game was about, if it was running smooth and if it was something for them. Now... how many would buy AOC if you would have done one month of "open beta testing" like I proposed ? 3 months before launch I posted on closed beta forums a detailed post about how important it was for Funcom to launch a long term open beta to get any sort of balance AFTER they had actually implemented most of the chars abilites. But you know what ... Week before retail they changed the basic abilites of many classes and it went life untested. And you find it strange that we now have major balancing issues ? And you find it strange ppl are unhappy with those changes ? Would it be a problem if this was open beta ? WoW never had an open beta that was entirely open either. It had a period where they removed the NDA that is all "Open Beta" means. Lord of The Rings on the other hand had a more open beta with their fileplanet preview. Oh but wait so did Age of Conan. 3. WoW was more polished in a sense. It was buggy, but it had the elements that keeps people busy enjoying the game. The things that where in WoW from the beginning was basicly more polished, wich also reflects the growing player base. You have to look at the numbers, and numbers tell us that AoC lost 50% of their player base in 1 month. One dont have to be a rocket scientist to figure out the rest. AOC has failed. And ppl like me are free to point out how and when it failed. I have been a beta tester for many years now (including private payed testing) and I have never seen as horrible and unprofessional work like the past 5 months. It was obvious that this launch would not be about bringing out a quality product. And the closer we got to launchday the quality control and just basic aspects that simply HAVE to be working were not even implemented. I doubt you have even beta tested another game much less been payed to test if you honestly think that AoC is the most horrible and unprofessional work you have seen. 4. AoC was far from the worst release. But it was simply a very unpolished game, and got really booring inside the claustrophobic neverending loadinstanced world. Many functions where not intuitive compared to other MMO's. But things dont get better when they use 2-3 months to fix certain bugs. There are even memory bugs left in the game that have not been adressed correctly yet. And yes - maybe you say that its not true. But it surely is not the norm of MMO gaming. And I hope you agree with me that it should never become the norm of MMO gaming. If not then you are welcome to send me 15 bucks per month and I start working on a small coding software that will get patched every week or so. You have fun ! I don't see anything from Age of Conan that is different as far as running an MMO then any other company. Every single one of the 41 MMO games I have played/tested have been a similar experience in many ways. 5. Good luck living in a pipe dream. Wake up, before something bad happends in your life. God have a tendensy to wake people up in uncomfortable ways if it gets too far.
Oh and by the way in my 60 levels of playing Age of Conan since Early access (for the retail client, I was also a beta tester) I haven't crashed to desktop a single time. I have locked up once. I am playing the game on a fairly mid Range system that I built for between 800-1000 dollars.
6. Good for you man, good for you! What about reading about the other million people that had these issues? You think theres only you in the universe? If you dont experience problems, ofcourse there is nothing wrong!! Like I said previously, wake up from your dream mate. There are other people in the world than your narrow little view.
I have played at least 12 mmos at launch and not one...repeat not one delivered what they advertised. Its not limited to the gaming world either. In RL I work in Financial Services and every single project has failed to deliver what it promised. Its just reality and either we live with it or decide to do something else with our time. I enjoy AoC because I focus on what I like about it and bide my time to see what they do with it. The success of an MMO is in its post launch development and not the actual launch itself.
Well you partly hit the problem dead on with...
"Its just reality and either we live with it or decide to do something else with our time."
If people stopped paying for game that come out in a certain state (there have been a few really good launches). Then things would change... believe it or not I remember a time when games actually came to the market finished..
As to your financial services statement... I'd love to know where you work... If a company tells investors one thing... to get them to invest and it turns out to be false information..
There is this thing in the USA called the Federal Trade Commission which would come into play. Not so much when people who buy an MMO that they don't like, doesn't work or isn't what was advertised (not limited to AoC obviously).
And to top it all off... most places will not take back the MMO you bought because its been "opened". Sure you can reverse charges if you paid with a credit card but that just causes other problems.
A really cool idea would be.. to not put features on the box of your product that won't be in the game at launch...
and I'll totally agree that its not like Funcom invented the crappy incomplete falsely advertised game launch either. The industry really needs to start regulating its self because I'm sure some government body will if they don't.. and that will just translate into higher box prices for the consumer.
Short version...
People will put up with a lot more if you are open/honest with them and communicate in some way. Lying to your potential market, trying to hide things and ignoring your customers are not going to help you in the long run... regardless.
I have played at least 12 mmos at launch and not one...repeat not one delivered what they advertised. Its not limited to the gaming world either. In RL I work in Financial Services and every single project has failed to deliver what it promised. Its just reality and either we live with it or decide to do something else with our time. I enjoy AoC because I focus on what I like about it and bide my time to see what they do with it. The success of an MMO is in its post launch development and not the actual launch itself.
Well you partly hit the problem dead on with...
"Its just reality and either we live with it or decide to do something else with our time."
If people stopped paying for game that come out in a certain state (there have been a few really good launches). Then things would change... believe it or not I remember a time when games actually came to the market finished..
As to your financial services statement... I'd love to know where you work... If a company tells investors one thing... to get them to invest and it turns out to be false information..
There is this thing in the USA called the Federal Trade Commission which would come into play. Not so much when people who buy an MMO that they don't like, doesn't work or isn't what was advertised (not limited to AoC obviously).
And to top it all off... most places will not take back the MMO you bought because its been "opened". Sure you can reverse charges if you paid with a credit card but that just causes other problems.
A really cool idea would be.. to not put features on the box of your product that won't be in the game at launch...
and I'll totally agree that its not like Funcom invented the crappy incomplete falsely advertised game launch either. The industry really needs to start regulating its self because I'm sure some government body will if they don't.. and that will just translate into higher box prices for the consumer.
Short version...
People will put up with a lot more if you are open/honest with them and communicate in some way. Lying to your potential market, trying to hide things and ignoring your customers are not going to help you in the long run... regardless.
...Regarding your last paragraph I can't agree more. In fact I wrote an article on this exact subject a while ago. If you read it try and guess the game I was basing it on.
In short I agree that company's need to be brutally honest with their fans and if they actually laid it down then they would command respect and manage expectations a lot better.
Regarding my firm...its not just one tbh. I worked on plenty of projects over the years and its just normal to see the initial concept and design change so much that the end result is rarely the same or indeed complete. Our IT dept has just installed a major HR system and its now 6 months in and they are still trying to iron the bugs out and deliver what they promised. Guess I am just used to it now
Errors can happen in any game, and they always get fixed. They are not making you crash on purpose and this isn't some personal attack so they can ruin everyone's day. Something went wrong and they delayed the US server downtime so they could find and fix the issues. Stop picking on everything little thing and declaring it the end of the world. You're worse than Chicken Little, my friend. If you don't enjoy playing the game, then don't play it and go do something else. There are many others that are willing to have patience and allow the game to work out its glitches. It's not the end of the world, and no one is holding a gun to your head, making you play.
Errors can happen. You are correct a 100%.
But lets see Funcom's history on patching Age of Conan since release shall we?
They haven't released ONE SINGLE patch on the live server since launch that went without serious issues!
Not to speak from the last couple ones. Those were seriously the worst. Most game companies are getting better with patching along the way and the patches improve in quality and stability.
Just have a look at Turbine with LOTRO. It can be done. As long as you have competent developers, but more important, a competent manager that has actual control over the whole development process and most importantly, the Q&A process.
And seeing Funcom's way of horrible patching, they don't seem to have an Q&A department at all. Probably the devs themselves who test their work. Wich is the worst what you can do! As that's the only explanation I have for the mess they create with every patch.
So it's not about the latest patch alone. It's about the whole series of horrible quality patches that hit the live servers since release.
And the worst in all this, is that Funcom keeps ignoring their PAYING customers and even punish them with a forum ban if they complain about it!
Errors can happen in any game, and they always get fixed. They are not making you crash on purpose and this isn't some personal attack so they can ruin everyone's day. Something went wrong and they delayed the US server downtime so they could find and fix the issues. Stop picking on everything little thing and declaring it the end of the world. You're worse than Chicken Little, my friend. If you don't enjoy playing the game, then don't play it and go do something else. There are many others that are willing to have patience and allow the game to work out its glitches. It's not the end of the world, and no one is holding a gun to your head, making you play.
You have no idea of the rolling train wreck AoC has been since launch, nor how abysmally FC has been handling it, do you?
That was a rhetorical question.
It's not as though this is the first issue in an otherwise smooth post-launch and people are getting all up in arms.
This is yet another in an on-going comedy of errors (only it isn't funny) with this game, and its developer.
They put a patch in place... it breaks a bunch of other stuff. People post about those issues and over-zealous mods immediately delete the threads and/or ban the posters.
Meanwhile, they continue their PR spin about how wonderfully the game is doing... and they do this right under the nose of those who are telling them - repeatedly - that the game has serious issues.
This is the behavior that has driven player, after player after player from that game.... and they *still* don't get it.
As someone said in another thread... They are out of touch.
"If you just step away for a sec you will clearly see all the pot holes in the road, and the cash shop selling asphalt..." - Mimzel on F2P/Cash Shops
Dont listen to one word AoCTester says. Look at his past posts, not even one good post from this person. Please, leave the forum because truefuly, I nor many of us care.
That's a very meaningful and valuable, deep comment.... glad you shared it with us!
DB
Actually it is a good post. The AOCTester guy blames fc for his video card breaking during cb, since that time he has constantly spammed forums with complete and utter troll bait. This in itself isn't an issue, but AoC genuinely really does have a lot of issues and people like this just make it all that much harder for others to find out the real situation.
People used to come to this forum for the real opinion and views on a game but when a new game launches it has just become a place to smack talk and post bs. There are some good posters here who have good information why should we have to put up with idiots like this who hold a grudge as if a dev company personally insulted their family.
Find me the statement where I blame Funcom for breaking my Video card. Plz... Maybe read what I said here before. Beeing part of closed beta means you are there at your own risk. And before you continue to say Im here cause of broken video card, then maybe I should tell you that my GTX 8800 was still in 2 year warranty so I got a new one. In fact I got a 9800 GTX instead absolutly at no cost for me. There are some companies that DO actually have good services and keep their words.
But go on - plz keep going. Personal flames is something that ppl go for when they have no valid points to talk about. Your doing great job in that.
lol... Man the AoC apologists are out en force and fired up all of a sudden, aren't they?
That, in combination with the sudden burst of "we do care, seriously!" updates from FC and even a smattering of posts by their CM over the past few days...
Meanwhile, another patch breaks the game even more.
Makes me wonder if reality is finally starting to set in over there and they don't like what they're seeing.
A game bleeding players is an unsettling sight, to be sure. I've seen it myself in other games I enjoyed (AC2 to name one). I just never tried to blame the players for it.
"If you just step away for a sec you will clearly see all the pot holes in the road, and the cash shop selling asphalt..." - Mimzel on F2P/Cash Shops
lol... Man the AoC apologists are out en force and fired up all of a sudden, aren't they?
Actually, the discussion you're responding to happened two months ago.
It says something that a two-month-old thread can be revived and the argument carries on as if no time had passed. Does it say something about the game, or about the community that loves/hates it? I dunno.
So you think its fine to use 4-6 months on stuff that where promised to have been in from launch? Not really strange that MMO slack these days with people who dont care if they pay for alpha/beta states, "it will get fixed in the future, blablabla" .. so how long will you pay to wait for the fix. Dont say that people should chill, when they pay a game that should be working. Sorry, but your post is a lie from a fanboy minded perspective.
It does make you wonder. . . waiting until the 26th of August to necro a thread about something that happened on the 26th of June. Not that I'm helping things by continuing to bump it. I figured it would have been locked by now.
"I have only two out of my company and 20 out of some other company. We need support, but it is almost suicide to try to get it here as we are swept by machine gun fire and a constant barrage is on us. I have no one on my left and only a few on my right. I will hold." (First Lieutenant Clifton B. Cates, US Marine Corps, Soissons, 19 July 1918)
Comments
So you think its fine to use 4-6 months on stuff that where promised to have been in from launch? Not really strange that MMO slack these days with people who dont care if they pay for alpha/beta states, "it will get fixed in the future, blablabla" .. so how long will you pay to wait for the fix. Dont say that people should chill, when they pay a game that should be working. Sorry, but your post is a lie from a fanboy minded perspective.
You can look at it as sad m8. I look at it diffrently. I want to play MMO games in the future that are actually delivering at launch - all those features the devs promised. And it has to have certain polish to.
Now.. .How will me talking about how bad the state of AOC is atm prevent more MMO games taking the same route as Funcom did with their unfinished game ? You go figure. If you can't then its not my problem.
I bought the game at launch so I could tell everyone accuretly about the state of the game and what the transactions from closed beta into retail actually brought us. Considering that it was supposed to bring sieges, spellweaving and dx 10... Then maybe you can see my point
I have played at least 12 mmos at launch and not one...repeat not one delivered what they advertised. Its not limited to the gaming world either. In RL I work in Financial Services and every single project has failed to deliver what it promised. Its just reality and either we live with it or decide to do something else with our time. I enjoy AoC because I focus on what I like about it and bide my time to see what they do with it.
The success of an MMO is in its post launch development and not the actual launch itself.
Oh and by the way in my 60 levels of playing Age of Conan since Early access (for the retail client, I was also a beta tester) I haven't crashed to desktop a single time. I have locked up once. I am playing the game on a fairly mid Range system that I built for between 800-1000 dollars.
6. Good for you man, good for you! What about reading about the other million people that had these issues? You think theres only you in the universe? If you dont experience problems, ofcourse there is nothing wrong!! Like I said previously, wake up from your dream mate. There are other people in the world than your narrow little view.Well you partly hit the problem dead on with...
"Its just reality and either we live with it or decide to do something else with our time."
If people stopped paying for game that come out in a certain state (there have been a few really good launches). Then things would change... believe it or not I remember a time when games actually came to the market finished..
As to your financial services statement... I'd love to know where you work... If a company tells investors one thing... to get them to invest and it turns out to be false information..
There is this thing in the USA called the Federal Trade Commission which would come into play. Not so much when people who buy an MMO that they don't like, doesn't work or isn't what was advertised (not limited to AoC obviously).
And to top it all off... most places will not take back the MMO you bought because its been "opened". Sure you can reverse charges if you paid with a credit card but that just causes other problems.
A really cool idea would be.. to not put features on the box of your product that won't be in the game at launch...
and I'll totally agree that its not like Funcom invented the crappy incomplete falsely advertised game launch either. The industry really needs to start regulating its self because I'm sure some government body will if they don't.. and that will just translate into higher box prices for the consumer.
Short version...
People will put up with a lot more if you are open/honest with them and communicate in some way. Lying to your potential market, trying to hide things and ignoring your customers are not going to help you in the long run... regardless.
I love it.
AoC the worst MMO in history with the worst patches in history.
Just keep subscribing and we will add everything you ever wanted to the game we PROMISE we've never lied before and we show boobs.
ROFLMAO
They patched and some things got screwed up? Are you guys/girls surprised?
Well you partly hit the problem dead on with...
"Its just reality and either we live with it or decide to do something else with our time."
If people stopped paying for game that come out in a certain state (there have been a few really good launches). Then things would change... believe it or not I remember a time when games actually came to the market finished..
As to your financial services statement... I'd love to know where you work... If a company tells investors one thing... to get them to invest and it turns out to be false information..
There is this thing in the USA called the Federal Trade Commission which would come into play. Not so much when people who buy an MMO that they don't like, doesn't work or isn't what was advertised (not limited to AoC obviously).
And to top it all off... most places will not take back the MMO you bought because its been "opened". Sure you can reverse charges if you paid with a credit card but that just causes other problems.
A really cool idea would be.. to not put features on the box of your product that won't be in the game at launch...
and I'll totally agree that its not like Funcom invented the crappy incomplete falsely advertised game launch either. The industry really needs to start regulating its self because I'm sure some government body will if they don't.. and that will just translate into higher box prices for the consumer.
Short version...
People will put up with a lot more if you are open/honest with them and communicate in some way. Lying to your potential market, trying to hide things and ignoring your customers are not going to help you in the long run... regardless.
...Regarding your last paragraph I can't agree more. In fact I wrote an article on this exact subject a while ago. If you read it try and guess the game I was basing it on.
In short I agree that company's need to be brutally honest with their fans and if they actually laid it down then they would command respect and manage expectations a lot better.
Regarding my firm...its not just one tbh. I worked on plenty of projects over the years and its just normal to see the initial concept and design change so much that the end result is rarely the same or indeed complete. Our IT dept has just installed a major HR system and its now 6 months in and they are still trying to iron the bugs out and deliver what they promised. Guess I am just used to it now
http://www.mpog.com/blogs/chryses/062007/118_Tell-us-the-CRAP-and-it-will-set-you-free
Errors can happen. You are correct a 100%.
But lets see Funcom's history on patching Age of Conan since release shall we?
They haven't released ONE SINGLE patch on the live server since launch that went without serious issues!
Not to speak from the last couple ones. Those were seriously the worst. Most game companies are getting better with patching along the way and the patches improve in quality and stability.
Just have a look at Turbine with LOTRO. It can be done. As long as you have competent developers, but more important, a competent manager that has actual control over the whole development process and most importantly, the Q&A process.
And seeing Funcom's way of horrible patching, they don't seem to have an Q&A department at all. Probably the devs themselves who test their work. Wich is the worst what you can do! As that's the only explanation I have for the mess they create with every patch.
So it's not about the latest patch alone. It's about the whole series of horrible quality patches that hit the live servers since release.
And the worst in all this, is that Funcom keeps ignoring their PAYING customers and even punish them with a forum ban if they complain about it!
Have a nice day.
You have no idea of the rolling train wreck AoC has been since launch, nor how abysmally FC has been handling it, do you?
That was a rhetorical question.
It's not as though this is the first issue in an otherwise smooth post-launch and people are getting all up in arms.
This is yet another in an on-going comedy of errors (only it isn't funny) with this game, and its developer.
They put a patch in place... it breaks a bunch of other stuff. People post about those issues and over-zealous mods immediately delete the threads and/or ban the posters.
Meanwhile, they continue their PR spin about how wonderfully the game is doing... and they do this right under the nose of those who are telling them - repeatedly - that the game has serious issues.
This is the behavior that has driven player, after player after player from that game.... and they *still* don't get it.
As someone said in another thread... They are out of touch.
and the cash shop selling asphalt..." - Mimzel on F2P/Cash Shops
That's a very meaningful and valuable, deep comment.... glad you shared it with us!
DB
Actually it is a good post. The AOCTester guy blames fc for his video card breaking during cb, since that time he has constantly spammed forums with complete and utter troll bait. This in itself isn't an issue, but AoC genuinely really does have a lot of issues and people like this just make it all that much harder for others to find out the real situation.
People used to come to this forum for the real opinion and views on a game but when a new game launches it has just become a place to smack talk and post bs. There are some good posters here who have good information why should we have to put up with idiots like this who hold a grudge as if a dev company personally insulted their family.
Find me the statement where I blame Funcom for breaking my Video card. Plz... Maybe read what I said here before. Beeing part of closed beta means you are there at your own risk. And before you continue to say Im here cause of broken video card, then maybe I should tell you that my GTX 8800 was still in 2 year warranty so I got a new one. In fact I got a 9800 GTX instead absolutly at no cost for me. There are some companies that DO actually have good services and keep their words.
But go on - plz keep going. Personal flames is something that ppl go for when they have no valid points to talk about. Your doing great job in that.
lol... Man the AoC apologists are out en force and fired up all of a sudden, aren't they?
That, in combination with the sudden burst of "we do care, seriously!" updates from FC and even a smattering of posts by their CM over the past few days...
Meanwhile, another patch breaks the game even more.
Makes me wonder if reality is finally starting to set in over there and they don't like what they're seeing.
A game bleeding players is an unsettling sight, to be sure. I've seen it myself in other games I enjoyed (AC2 to name one). I just never tried to blame the players for it.
and the cash shop selling asphalt..." - Mimzel on F2P/Cash Shops
Actually, the discussion you're responding to happened two months ago.
It says something that a two-month-old thread can be revived and the argument carries on as if no time had passed. Does it say something about the game, or about the community that loves/hates it? I dunno.
Oh my god! This is such a shocking turn of events!
Alright, not really.
Good job on bumping a 2 month old thread, troll.
Seriously, wtf are you thinking?
It does make you wonder. . . waiting until the 26th of August to necro a thread about something that happened on the 26th of June. Not that I'm helping things by continuing to bump it. I figured it would have been locked by now.
Ack, nvm. Necro post
"I have only two out of my company and 20 out of some other company. We need support, but it is almost suicide to try to get it here as we are swept by machine gun fire and a constant barrage is on us. I have no one on my left and only a few on my right. I will hold." (First Lieutenant Clifton B. Cates, US Marine Corps, Soissons, 19 July 1918)