You have to keep in mind people like us who scour MMORPG sites and follow games from development are a minority. Most game subscribers are people who learn about the game THROUGH marketing, be it commercials, advertising, reviews, or simply seeing the box on a gamestore shelf.
I will never ever buy a game based on a fan-site review again. They are white-washed wastes of pixels. The Vanguard reviews were all about what it did right. I saw an email exchange between a review site and Alienware that made me want to punch the Alienware exec writing the emails. The only way you will ever be able to trust a review is when sites like these are no longer afraid of losing interviews because of bad reviews.
I'm not calling it vaporware (yet) but it reminds me of it with all the delays. They had lots of demos etc well over a year ago and things looked good. Then they delayed from spring to october. Now another 6 months?
They obviously have big problems. Hopefully they will resolve them.
AoC is an IP that is relatively unknown, so the staying power of it is already in question, not to mention keeping people interested while the devs delay it another 6 months.
Conan is a "relatively unknown" IP?? One of the classic fantasy series of all time that had as much influence on fanstasy games as Lord of the Rings?
Ask people on the street if they've ever even heard of Tabula Rasa or Richard Garriott and most will give you blank looks. Ask gamers from outside the MMORPG genre the same thing and maybe you'll get a few more responses. Ask those same people if they've ever heard of Conan the Barbarian and most (gamer and otherwise) will answer 'Yes'.
AoC is an IP that is relatively unknown, so the staying power of it is already in question, not to mention keeping people interested while the devs delay it another 6 months.
Conan is a "relatively unknown" IP?? One of the classic fantasy series of all time that had as much influence on fanstasy games as Lord of the Rings?
Ask people on the street if they've ever even heard of Tabula Rasa or Richard Garriott and most will give you blank looks. Ask gamers from outside the MMORPG genre the same thing and maybe you'll get a few more responses. Ask those same people if they've ever heard of Conan the Barbarian and most (gamer and otherwise) will answer 'Yes'.
IP recognition is not a problem for AoC.
More influence actually.
Tolkien wouldn't even have written the LOTR if he hadn't seen the writings, of REH and Lovecraft and Burroughs were selling.
we all hate delays but they are becomming more and more common. the publishers of a game set the release date and basically force the developers to run that deadline. 9 out of 10 times they cant and the game gets pushed back. this isnt always a bad thing.
AOC will be released on October the 30th. that drew many people to the website because it had a release date and it was close. it can be used as a marketing tool.
one last things almost ALL MMO's get pushed back now.
MMO wish list:
-Changeable worlds -Solid non level based game -Sharks with lasers attached to their heads
Long development times are a general problem for mmo's. By the time they come out, people's computers are 2 or 3 generations more advanced, so they can't really take advantage of the new pc's capabilities. When someone solves the problem and gets development time down to a year, they'll be massively succesful.
Show me any AAA computer game--MMO or not--that had a development time of a year.
Apply lemon juice and candle flame here to reveal secret message.
I have been eagerly anticipating this game for quite some time, but with Tabula Rasa right around the corner and other titles incoming titles, I am becoming disinterested. AoC is going to lose out on the holiday rush, and will be forced to build it's playerbase the hard way, marketing and word of mouth. It annoys me when these games start hyping themselves years prior to release, and delay their release repeatedly. I definitely want a finished product, but there has been too much exposure and hype for too long to keep people interested. AoC is an IP that is relatively unknown, so the staying power of it is already in question, not to mention keeping people interested while the devs delay it another 6 months. I think these companies should seriously consider concealing details about their game until at least 1 year before 'expected' release. You can only do so many previews before people stop paying attention. I am afraid I will be to engrossed into Tabula Rasa to give AoC a shot when it finally surfaces. Many people like me looking for a break from the elves and unicorns are going to jump at something this hoiiday season, and if these games are good (which TR is, even in beta it is really impressive), why would we switch to AoC when it finally steps into the market?
So, are you trying to say: That's all you can offer ?
This game isnt on the market yet, so i think you are rushing on espectations and i think they still have more features behind all this, and i think they know what they are doing when saying some info abouth this awesome game, so in others words i know this game still have a lot more to offer than all of us still dont know
AmazingAveryAge of Conan AdvocateMemberUncommonPosts: 7,188
Originally posted by Expatriate
Long development times are a general problem for mmo's. By the time they come out, people's computers are 2 or 3 generations more advanced, so they can't really take advantage of the new pc's capabilities. When someone solves the problem and gets development time down to a year, they'll be massively succesful.
AoC is being Quad Core Optimised as we speak - know of any other mmorpg that is? will also support 64 bit and DX10 too (as well as DX9) good enough for you?
Its just not viable to put something out with just one years development time
I'm quite happy that they are optimizing for Quad Core since I own a Q6600.
I prefer that the game is being delayed than being pushed out ala Vanguard, even though its quite a disapointment with the number of times the game has been pushed back.
Long development times are a general problem for mmo's. By the time they come out, people's computers are 2 or 3 generations more advanced, so they can't really take advantage of the new pc's capabilities. When someone solves the problem and gets development time down to a year, they'll be massively succesful.
AoC is being Quad Core Optimised as we speak - know of any other mmorpg that is? will also support 64 bit and DX10 too (as well as DX9) good enough for you?
Its just not viable to put something out with just one years development time
OMG, do you mean that my Intel Core 2 Duo Conroe 2.66ghz proccesor will not work on this game ?
Long development times are a general problem for mmo's. By the time they come out, people's computers are 2 or 3 generations more advanced, so they can't really take advantage of the new pc's capabilities. When someone solves the problem and gets development time down to a year, they'll be massively succesful.
AoC is being Quad Core Optimised as we speak - know of any other mmorpg that is? will also support 64 bit and DX10 too (as well as DX9) good enough for you?
Its just not viable to put something out with just one years development time
OMG, do you mean that my Intel Core 2 Duo Conroe 2.66ghz proccesor will not work on this game ?
The game has been optimized for Dual Core, its now being optimized for Quad.
Developement of AoC started early 2005, it takes at least 3 years to make a MMO in particular if the developers have to create the engine from scratch.
So for AoC first or second quarter 2008 seems about rigth.
2 years is the average time it takes for offline games, I believe devs sometimes think they are making one of those, and they come up with a too optimistic release dates.
They keep forgetting that a MMO game has the entire network infrastructure to be optimized, servers comunication, login and account management , clients, and stuff like this which cause the biggest problem of lag and stability.
Plus AoC ain't the only one who moved date, Warhammer, Gods and Heroes are 2 that comes up my mind, but I believe there are more.
I dont think putting the release back will effect them, if anything is gives people more time to find out about it and for them to work on PR.
As long as the developers dont do something totaly stupid (like sign up with SOE, the destroyer of MMOs), expect this game to have a pretty big following.
Even TR has been delayed, and not nearly long enough.It isnt ready at all, and honestly you wont be "engrossed" in 6 months becuase there is no end game there to keep you that long. The NDA is lifted, I can now sday that. But the fact is games get delayed, all software gets delayed, its the nature of software development to have scope creep to some degree. That risk is even higher in an MMO environment becuase finished code gets changed around quite few times as it is playtested and feedback is given from the community and the QA / Design people.
I have no qualms about the game being delayed until March, other than the fact its going to be an anxious 6 months. The very fact that you get a developer to post some feedback in this very thread is the reason why it is easy to keep that faith, and the fact that they do string me along with tidbits of info every week.
If it takes 6 months for AoC to live up to what its been hyped up to be, and to truly be what that 3rd gen mmo should be. Than 6 more months is a small time to wait becuase honestly alot of the mmos that are being pushed out are just not finished enough really all that good of a design to begin with. There is a alot of crap out there and more coming out. I can wait the 6 months for something with quality and polish.
So the game is delayed? So what? Yeah their rep and maybe their sales will take a small ding but do you think that if AoC is an awesome game that people will not sign up for it? Please. A delayed game is not ideal but it is a million times better then releasing a buggy unfinished game, that is almost impossible to recover from.
You dont want to hurry any game because it is nearing the holiday season big deal, do you want a game with less flaws or more if they rush it. Every game that has rushed to release the game have either not made it, game has turned free, or have tried to totally revamp there game to try and keep up to no avail.
Good that you will play and give Tabula Rasa a go that will give many players a break from the current MMO's we have out now and you may find that you like that more then you would like AoC how will you know until AoC is actually released.
People stop judging a game before it is actually released you are only going by another persons hear say they may only know as much as you do. Tabula Rasa is getting almost the same amount of advertisement AoC is getting right now so it really wont effect the game in any sense of the way.
If this ends up anything like Funcom's Anarchy Online, don't expect the delay to necessarily be a good one. AO was delayed multiple times, and at release it was still buggy. It took months before AO was playable. Then again, perhaps they have learned their lesson and will not release AoC until it is ready.
Trust me no one will be too busy playing Tabula Rasa to be interested in Conan. Most people that get suckered into buying that thing will be gone in 30 days. It's a single player shooter with a chat window with no end game, no real pvp, and a simplistic uninteresting crafting setup. G&H is flushed and the only other MMO due out soon is potbs which is still under NDA so I won't even get into ripping on that. It's being published by SoE so there you go.
Well, to be honest I agree with the OP in the sense that developers always seem to announce a product way before they can even realistically project a release date on it. And then they are either too slow at releasing information, and are vague about it...Or release too much too soon and delay it a number of times. While I think delays are fine, and by all means go ahead and take that route if need be, just don't get peoples interest and hopes invested so early that it becomes a major disappointment and/or begins to lose it's novelty.
I think a delayed launch is still preferable than a bad launch. People who are waiting for this game will pick it up when its launched assuming it isn't launched at the same time with another game that they are anticipating. I feel that people are attracted to new things, so even if a game is fixed or debugged 6 months after its release it may have already lost momentum.
Most guilds that I know move from game to game as a whole especially when new games are about to launch.
Comments
good luck waiting for that day.
I'm not calling it vaporware (yet) but it reminds me of it with all the delays. They had lots of demos etc well over a year ago and things looked good. Then they delayed from spring to october. Now another 6 months?
They obviously have big problems. Hopefully they will resolve them.
Ask people on the street if they've ever even heard of Tabula Rasa or Richard Garriott and most will give you blank looks. Ask gamers from outside the MMORPG genre the same thing and maybe you'll get a few more responses. Ask those same people if they've ever heard of Conan the Barbarian and most (gamer and otherwise) will answer 'Yes'.
IP recognition is not a problem for AoC.
Ask people on the street if they've ever even heard of Tabula Rasa or Richard Garriott and most will give you blank looks. Ask gamers from outside the MMORPG genre the same thing and maybe you'll get a few more responses. Ask those same people if they've ever heard of Conan the Barbarian and most (gamer and otherwise) will answer 'Yes'.
IP recognition is not a problem for AoC.
More influence actually.Tolkien wouldn't even have written the LOTR if he hadn't seen the writings, of REH and Lovecraft and Burroughs were selling.
we all hate delays but they are becomming more and more common. the publishers of a game set the release date and basically force the developers to run that deadline. 9 out of 10 times they cant and the game gets pushed back. this isnt always a bad thing.
AOC will be released on October the 30th. that drew many people to the website because it had a release date and it was close. it can be used as a marketing tool.
one last things almost ALL MMO's get pushed back now.
MMO wish list:
-Changeable worlds
-Solid non level based game
-Sharks with lasers attached to their heads
Long development times are a general problem for mmo's.
By the time they come out, people's computers are 2 or 3 generations more advanced, so they can't really take advantage of the new pc's capabilities.
When someone solves the problem and gets development time down to a year, they'll be massively succesful.
Watch the latest episode of "The Guild" and other Pwnage videos from around the net--also post your own: http://PwnerTV.com
An engineer gave me a choice once: On time or defect free. Choose one.
If you are not being responded to directly, you are probably on my ignore list.
Show me any AAA computer game--MMO or not--that had a development time of a year.
Apply lemon juice and candle flame here to reveal secret message.
This game isnt on the market yet, so i think you are rushing on espectations and i think they still have more features behind all this, and i think they know what they are doing when saying some info abouth this awesome game, so in others words i know this game still have a lot more to offer than all of us still dont know
Its just not viable to put something out with just one years development time
I'm quite happy that they are optimizing for Quad Core since I own a Q6600.
I prefer that the game is being delayed than being pushed out ala Vanguard, even though its quite a disapointment with the number of times the game has been pushed back.
Its just not viable to put something out with just one years development time
OMG, do you mean that my Intel Core 2 Duo Conroe 2.66ghz proccesor will not work on this game ?
It helps to get past level 3 in a beta.
Its just not viable to put something out with just one years development time
OMG, do you mean that my Intel Core 2 Duo Conroe 2.66ghz proccesor will not work on this game ?
The game has been optimized for Dual Core, its now being optimized for Quad.
EDIT: Spelling
Developement of AoC started early 2005, it takes at least 3 years to make a MMO in particular if the developers have to create the engine from scratch.
So for AoC first or second quarter 2008 seems about rigth.
2 years is the average time it takes for offline games, I believe devs sometimes think they are making one of those, and they come up with a too optimistic release dates.
They keep forgetting that a MMO game has the entire network infrastructure to be optimized, servers comunication, login and account management , clients, and stuff like this which cause the biggest problem of lag and stability.
Plus AoC ain't the only one who moved date, Warhammer, Gods and Heroes are 2 that comes up my mind, but I believe there are more.
I dont think putting the release back will effect them, if anything is gives people more time to find out about it and for them to work on PR.
As long as the developers dont do something totaly stupid (like sign up with SOE, the destroyer of MMOs), expect this game to have a pretty big following.
Even TR has been delayed, and not nearly long enough.It isnt ready at all, and honestly you wont be "engrossed" in 6 months becuase there is no end game there to keep you that long. The NDA is lifted, I can now sday that. But the fact is games get delayed, all software gets delayed, its the nature of software development to have scope creep to some degree. That risk is even higher in an MMO environment becuase finished code gets changed around quite few times as it is playtested and feedback is given from the community and the QA / Design people.
I have no qualms about the game being delayed until March, other than the fact its going to be an anxious 6 months. The very fact that you get a developer to post some feedback in this very thread is the reason why it is easy to keep that faith, and the fact that they do string me along with tidbits of info every week.
If it takes 6 months for AoC to live up to what its been hyped up to be, and to truly be what that 3rd gen mmo should be. Than 6 more months is a small time to wait becuase honestly alot of the mmos that are being pushed out are just not finished enough really all that good of a design to begin with. There is a alot of crap out there and more coming out. I can wait the 6 months for something with quality and polish.
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So the game is delayed? So what? Yeah their rep and maybe their sales will take a small ding but do you think that if AoC is an awesome game that people will not sign up for it? Please. A delayed game is not ideal but it is a million times better then releasing a buggy unfinished game, that is almost impossible to recover from.
You dont want to hurry any game because it is nearing the holiday season big deal, do you want a game with less flaws or more if they rush it. Every game that has rushed to release the game have either not made it, game has turned free, or have tried to totally revamp there game to try and keep up to no avail.
Good that you will play and give Tabula Rasa a go that will give many players a break from the current MMO's we have out now and you may find that you like that more then you would like AoC how will you know until AoC is actually released.
People stop judging a game before it is actually released you are only going by another persons hear say they may only know as much as you do. Tabula Rasa is getting almost the same amount of advertisement AoC is getting right now so it really wont effect the game in any sense of the way.
yeah rumor is TR is junk. They miss the Holiday but atleast in March the product will be worth buying.
If this ends up anything like Funcom's Anarchy Online, don't expect the delay to necessarily be a good one. AO was delayed multiple times, and at release it was still buggy. It took months before AO was playable. Then again, perhaps they have learned their lesson and will not release AoC until it is ready.
Trust me no one will be too busy playing Tabula Rasa to be interested in Conan. Most people that get suckered into buying that thing will be gone in 30 days. It's a single player shooter with a chat window with no end game, no real pvp, and a simplistic uninteresting crafting setup. G&H is flushed and the only other MMO due out soon is potbs which is still under NDA so I won't even get into ripping on that. It's being published by SoE so there you go.
Well, to be honest I agree with the OP in the sense that developers always seem to announce a product way before they can even realistically project a release date on it. And then they are either too slow at releasing information, and are vague about it...Or release too much too soon and delay it a number of times. While I think delays are fine, and by all means go ahead and take that route if need be, just don't get peoples interest and hopes invested so early that it becomes a major disappointment and/or begins to lose it's novelty.
I think a delayed launch is still preferable than a bad launch. People who are waiting for this game will pick it up when its launched assuming it isn't launched at the same time with another game that they are anticipating. I feel that people are attracted to new things, so even if a game is fixed or debugged 6 months after its release it may have already lost momentum.
Most guilds that I know move from game to game as a whole especially when new games are about to launch.