Others have already said it, but AoC won't be closing until FC itself closes the doors. Operational costs for an MMO are really rather minimal especially when running more than one, so FC will milk AoC for whatever revenue they can for the next decade or more...just like AO.
However, it will never "get better", momentary blips aside the population will never again trend upward and it will never hit the numbers it had at launch.
All the past patches have had some inclusion of something to do at endgame, whether it is whole new dungeons, whole wings of raiding, solo instances, siege fixes, crafting fixes, there has been some form of focus here and this is not letting up. It is all in the patch notes.
Speaking of longevity, will you stick around AoC if 1.05 is a disaster? Will that be the last straw for you being an advocate?
Define longevity. Will the game fold any time soon? I doubt it, unless Funcom itself goes under. AO has been around forever with 20k or whatever subs. I doubt the game will ever see more than 200k subs again, but it can still survive for a long time, as long as 1.05 isn't a total flop.
IMO Most people that will try AoC already have, I dont see them ever getting close to 200k. Funcom will be lucky to maintain the 75k or so they already have. Like you said AO stays running with 20k+ subs, Funcom will keep at least a pve and a pvp server open for AoC.
my own view from playing aoc is that after getting 1 toon to 80 there is no reason to do it on any other character. Your effectivly playing the same game through all the quests are the same. so Longevity is really defined by the end game content because you can reach it in less than a month.
So unless AOC's end game content such as pvp and the large raids can keep people occupied then no i dont think it does have longevity. I mean i think myself as a reasonably hardcore player but after doing a couple of the raids i thought well this game is boring and just cancled.
The aim for funcom to keep people interested in aoc is to make sure that new content is released BUT not just for end game but for the entire spectrum and get rid of the requirment to do the entire tortage missions over and over and over again because after the first and second run through you dont really want to do it ever again.
Comments
Define longevity. Will the game fold any time soon? I doubt it, unless Funcom itself goes under. AO has been around forever with 20k or whatever subs.
I doubt the game will ever see more than 200k subs again, but it can still survive for a long time, as long as 1.05 isn't a total flop.
Others have already said it, but AoC won't be closing until FC itself closes the doors. Operational costs for an MMO are really rather minimal especially when running more than one, so FC will milk AoC for whatever revenue they can for the next decade or more...just like AO.
However, it will never "get better", momentary blips aside the population will never again trend upward and it will never hit the numbers it had at launch.
Speaking of longevity, will you stick around AoC if 1.05 is a disaster? Will that be the last straw for you being an advocate?
IMO Most people that will try AoC already have, I dont see them ever getting close to 200k. Funcom will be lucky to maintain the 75k or so they already have. Like you said AO stays running with 20k+ subs, Funcom will keep at least a pve and a pvp server open for AoC.
my own view from playing aoc is that after getting 1 toon to 80 there is no reason to do it on any other character. Your effectivly playing the same game through all the quests are the same. so Longevity is really defined by the end game content because you can reach it in less than a month.
So unless AOC's end game content such as pvp and the large raids can keep people occupied then no i dont think it does have longevity. I mean i think myself as a reasonably hardcore player but after doing a couple of the raids i thought well this game is boring and just cancled.
The aim for funcom to keep people interested in aoc is to make sure that new content is released BUT not just for end game but for the entire spectrum and get rid of the requirment to do the entire tortage missions over and over and over again because after the first and second run through you dont really want to do it ever again.
no matter how pretty it is,