Haha your question just shows how much BS the term "Open Beta" has become.
The fact that people are considering not buying a game because they don't get a chance to TEST it shows that these things are not tests.
What you want is a FREE TRIAL. Not an open beta. They may have become the same thing but they are not the same thing.
No MMORPG should ever have an Open Beta prior to release, because no one comes to actually test. The most they should do is preview events like Guild Wars has done in the past.
I believe, you are very much mistaken if you think a company can "test" any kind of software and fix most of the bugs and stamp new CDs and distribute packaged game to all retailer across the world in just couple of weeks. This takes at least a month even today with all our efficiency and technology.
Open Beta is usually used for promotion of a product. Nothing more. What worries people now is that developers do not believe that their product can advertise itself if people would try it.
Haha your question just shows how much BS the term "Open Beta" has become.
The fact that people are considering not buying a game because they don't get a chance to TEST it shows that these things are not tests.
What you want is a FREE TRIAL. Not an open beta. They may have become the same thing but they are not the same thing.
No MMORPG should ever have an Open Beta prior to release, because no one comes to actually test. The most they should do is preview events like Guild Wars has done in the past.
It's a TEST drive for people. Obviously the game is done by the time open beta rolls around. I don't know about you, but I wouldn't buy a car without a TEST drive.
The price differance is fairly large between a car and a game....i'm not even going into what Beta is cause people should know by now, but the fact is over 100,000 people signed up for beta, So come on you really think it's gonna be an Open Beta
It doesn't really matter. It's my money, and I won't throw it away on a crap product.
Ok im going to tell youguys the flip side of things, I have a group of friends who plays FPS's like counterstrike and COD4 constantly. This same group of people saw a preview for Pirates of the Burning Sea. Mind you none of them had ever played an mmo, they all tried it cause it looked "Interesting" in open beta for fileplanet.
You know how much they liked it?
THEY DIDNT! Later a couple of em went onto one of the forums on a gaming site and said how bad it was. SO all im saying is, with a thing like open beta, you can get people that arent even in your target audience and even people who hate the game trying it out.
I play Tabula Rasa in open beta, and i hated it, I ended up trying it after launch and i love it, have been playing it for 2 months, so as you can see open beta means nothing.
"Launch is scheduled for March 25, 2008 and for those hoping for open beta, there won't be one. As Jason said, when they opened beta applications, they got 100,000 applications in a very short time. Right now, they have 15,000 invitations extended and they will simply invite many more players in the next few rounds. So if you want to take a look at this game prior to launch, and haven't put in your beta application, you can still put one in now. This is one beautiful looking game."
Open beta = free advertising. If Funcom miss such an opportunity, they are either really arrogant, stupid or smart.
I paid for Vanguard beta, I will not risk paying for another. if people continue to pay top cash for crappy games, they will continue to develop crappy games.
--- And when we got more women on the team, it was like No, no, no. We need puppies and horses in there. John Smedley, SOE
If they had 170k beta applications, they have plenty of people to draw from to test, if that's the intention, and it seems to be their path, as opposed to marketing.
I think Richard Garriott had some good points when he talked about the Tabula Rasa beta. Linkage
I tend to believe that many people apply for the beta for a free trial anyhow, so that's exactly what they get.
A good decision for Funcom? No idea, but on paper, you can easily argue that it is pretty smart, and some points to make that it isnt a good idea either.
I'm going to get it regardless but I'm sure there will be an open beta. It's a great way for FC to stress the game and servers and drum up some hype for the game...and hype = sales. Sales = Money and money is why they are making the game in the first place,
I hope if there's one thing that FC learned from AO's launch...
"Stress the servers BEFORE release".
LOL...
My mind is still rubberbanding from all the rubberbanding I did in Rubi-ka!
Reminds me of the movie "Three Amigos", with Steve Martin's character chained in that cell with the weights attached to his hands and feet. Running across the cities in AO was "Gonna make it.... gonna make it.... GONNA MAKE IT.... notgonnamakeitnotgonnamakeitnotgonnamakeit... <sob>".
open beta was only good pre-wow release because mmos weren't a fad then and they really needed as many testers as they could get their hands on
now that wow stirred everything and theres so many millions more willing to play (and hundreds of thousands willing to beta) having open beta is no longer necessary
a bold and intelligent move by Funcom
Just when you think you have all the answers, I change the questions.
open beta was only good pre-wow release because mmos weren't a fad then and they really needed as many testers as they could get their hands on
now that wow stirred everything and theres so many millions more willing to play (and hundreds of thousands willing to beta) having open beta is no longer necessary a bold and intelligent move by Funcom
The idea has been tossed around already that open beta really isn't to test the game itself but to test the servers. I don't imagine that a game like AoC will run smoothly from day one (save a complete flop resulting in sales being equivalent to closed beta user numbers) even stress tested but anticipation of what could possibly happen is the entire idea.
Bold and intelligent is to be judged after release, not before the lifting of the nda.
Like anyone expects the fanbois to be put-off by the lack of an open beta. If you've already made such an emotional investment in the game you're unlikely to be objective (Or even care if you're not objective. Hey, the special edition costs $90! Get two, Funcom will love you twice as hard). Since the 'journalists' here didn't ask why there wont be an open beta (or weren't allowed to divulge the information) all we can do is speculate and I have too much history with Funcom to see this as a good sign.
Additionally, why have they started pimping the DX9 client? Even though it's still buggy? (Check here -> Age of Conan CES Update at GameSpy)
Believe what you want about Funcom's reasoning, but I'm not buying a game that the developers have touted as a graphical showcase for DX10, until I see how it runs on my machine. At least Crytek put out a demo. Hey now, that may explain allot.
open beta was only good pre-wow release because mmos weren't a fad then and they really needed as many testers as they could get their hands on
now that wow stirred everything and theres so many millions more willing to play (and hundreds of thousands willing to beta) having open beta is no longer necessary a bold and intelligent move by Funcom
The idea has been tossed around already that open beta really isn't to test the game itself but to test the servers. I don't imagine that a game like AoC will run smoothly from day one (save a complete flop resulting in sales being equivalent to closed beta user numbers) even stress tested but anticipation of what could possibly happen is the entire idea.
Bold and intelligent is to be judged after release, not before the lifting of the nda.
agree except
bold before release, intelligent after
Just when you think you have all the answers, I change the questions.
What most of the people who say "no play before pay" should do is go apply for a job in the music industry. I hear they love rigid people unable to adapt to a changing reality. Stubborn idiots who every time someone suggest change.
The fact IS that things like retail, pay before play, etc are all becoming like the dinosaurs.
It doesn't MATTER if you call it open beta or free trail. Anything that's free for all, obviously is a free trial irregardless of if it actually serves any QA purpose on behalf of the developers. So, I presume there will be no open test phase for AOC, and the free trial will be way after release....
This tells me one thing. Here you have a game that you do NOT want people to try before they buy it. Wich in my not so humble opinion USUALLY means the game is or the developers are so incredible stupid that they dont realize what open betas have turned into (free trials) or maybe they just think all of us will front the money and be happy.
Either way, it's their mistake and all I can do is grin at their stupidity. Of course I could be wrong and every idiot on the planet is signing up blindly for it, it's happened before. What I do know is that in the long run, as more and more MMO's compete for people, there will be less mindless paying for a pig in the sack upon every new release....
Also, one more thing we know is that noone is ever alone. There is always someone like you, how many might differ, but there's always someone.
With that in mind it's interesting to look at MY buying habits. I have NEVER bought a mmo(rpg) I didn't get to test (as in either some sort of beta or free trial). Ever. Half of the games I tested I didn't buy because they were crap.
I know we are all dissapointed abotu there not being an open beta, but i have to say that so far funcom hasnt been stupid when it came to making this game at all. So im going to trust that they arent hiding things from us because they no there are some master secrets, but because they want to keep things for our imagination. they dont ant everything to come out before they sell the game. Like i said, we are all a little disheartend about no open beta but dont go crazy guys, and stop expecting so much!! thats is always a downfall.
.... So im going to trust that they arent hiding things from us because they no there are some master secrets, but because they want to keep things for our imagination. ....
Yes, it's always good to trust people who wants your money.
What most of the people who say "no play before pay" should do is go apply for a job in the music industry. I hear they love rigid people unable to adapt to a changing reality. Stubborn idiots who every time someone suggest change. The fact IS that things like retail, pay before play, etc are all becoming like the dinosaurs. It doesn't MATTER if you call it open beta or free trail. Anything that's free for all, obviously is a free trial irregardless of if it actually serves any QA purpose on behalf of the developers. So, I presume there will be no open test phase for AOC, and the free trial will be way after release.... This tells me one thing. Here you have a game that you do NOT want people to try before they buy it. Wich in my not so humble opinion USUALLY means the game is or the developers are so incredible stupid that they dont realize what open betas have turned into (free trials) or maybe they just think all of us will front the money and be happy. Either way, it's their mistake and all I can do is grin at their stupidity. Of course I could be wrong and every idiot on the planet is signing up blindly for it, it's happened before. What I do know is that in the long run, as more and more MMO's compete for people, there will be less mindless paying for a pig in the sack upon every new release....
i see your point but to be honest, MMOS are the only games you can play first before you pay. unless they drop a demo for the game, u just have to hope that its up to your expectations. Honnestly, we are all upset about there not being an open beta but to be honest, if the game is out for a while and you here its great, your going to try it, so one way or the other they will get your money. like i said in my previous post, Dont expect to much even though we have seen alot to believe in.
Multiplayer modes of games of all kinds usually have free trials frontpage doubleads on fileplanet.
Singeplayers demos even before release is not THAT uncommon for regular (non-mmo) games. I'd say it's very common.
It is defenitely NOT just mmo's that have free trials. However it's probably JUST mmo's that have the balls to have free trials 6 months AFTER release.
I get your point, I just dont agree. Also, I just said I don't buy games I don't test. So no, they won't get my money before there is a free trial, if the game sucks at free trial then they wont get my money at all.
I'm just like Ron Paul, I have a consistent voting record.
I hate stupid polls ftw! Ok but honestly, Funcom has been hyping there game since it began and telling everyone how revolutionary the combat system is and how good the game will be. I think it is only fair that there should be an open beta. It's time to show people the goods after 5 years.
But with no open Beta, is the game even ready for March?
The question with no open beta for AoC, is when will AoC really come out for all of us to play, sometime this summer, fall, or maybe just in time fore next Christmas.
You guys seem to have taken it upon yourselves to decide what an open beta is and isn't. To developers its still beta. It's a chance to find and fix issues in the game and more specifically to stress test your servers.
Does an open beta have some marketing aspects? Sure, but it doesn't make it the point of an open beta. That's the point of free trials. It's why they exist.
They have over 100k beta applications, that's more than enough to find and fix issues and to stress test their servers. It's as simple as that. They don't need an open beta to market the game because they game has enough hype and enough interest all ready.
You guys an your conspiracy theories are hysterical.
What most of the people who say "no play before pay" should do is go apply for a job in the music industry. I hear they love rigid people unable to adapt to a changing reality. Stubborn idiots who every time someone suggest change. The fact IS that things like retail, pay before play, etc are all becoming like the dinosaurs. It doesn't MATTER if you call it open beta or free trail. Anything that's free for all, obviously is a free trial irregardless of if it actually serves any QA purpose on behalf of the developers. So, I presume there will be no open test phase for AOC, and the free trial will be way after release.... This tells me one thing. Here you have a game that you do NOT want people to try before they buy it. Wich in my not so humble opinion USUALLY means the game is or the developers are so incredible stupid that they dont realize what open betas have turned into (free trials) or maybe they just think all of us will front the money and be happy. Either way, it's their mistake and all I can do is grin at their stupidity. Of course I could be wrong and every idiot on the planet is signing up blindly for it, it's happened before. What I do know is that in the long run, as more and more MMO's compete for people, there will be less mindless paying for a pig in the sack upon every new release....
Also, one more thing we know is that noone is ever alone. There is always someone like you, how many might differ, but there's always someone. With that in mind it's interesting to look at MY buying habits. I have NEVER bought a mmo(rpg) I didn't get to test (as in either some sort of beta or free trial). Ever. Half of the games I tested I didn't buy because they were crap.
Do you buy a car before you test drive it? Do you buy a song before you listen to it on the radio? Do you buy a television before looking at the picture quality on the floor model? There's an old saying about looking before you leap. I think it applies here.
Money is just too hard to come by, and a MMO company is still a company. They exist for one reason, and one reason only -- to make money. I might buy this without playing first, but not before I hear a ton of people telling me that the game is polished, finished, and not buggy.
On a side note, I'm okay with no open beta if Funcom with remove the NDA and allow the current beta testers to give us the straight story on the condition of the game. Let me hear from my peers just how good or bad the game really is.
Do you buy a car before you test drive it? Do you buy a song before you listen to it on the radio? Do you buy a television before looking at the picture quality on the floor model? There's an old saying about looking before you leap. I think it applies here. Money is just too hard to come by, and a MMO company is still a company. They exist for one reason, and one reason only -- to make money. I might buy this without playing first, but not before I hear a ton of people telling me that the game is polished, finished, and not buggy. On a side note, I'm okay with no open beta if Funcom with remove the NDA and allow the current beta testers to give us the straight story on the condition of the game. Let me hear from my peers just how good or bad the game really is.
You'll be able to do just that....after March 25th. There will be a plethora of professional and player reviews available and then you can decide to buy the game.
Well, bucking recent trends by most publishers, Funcom appears to have decided not to hold an open beta prior to launch. How do you feel about that? In my own case it doesn't matter, I was going to buy it regardless; chalk it up to my desperation to play a new game I suppose. But I know some folks say they won't play a game without some sort of free trial/open beta, and I was wondering if they were still going to stick to their guns?
You know people who won't play a game if the publisher doesn't have an open beta program? That's really weird. I can happily say I've never met anyone who feels that way; I wouldn't want to.
Games will be better off without those types of players.
No open beta does not nessecerly need to be pulled into a dooms day message or whatever. There can be loads of reasons for it and just like all the other people around, i would like to know what those reasons are. But at the moment im still looking very postive at it because nothing has been confirmed yet, and evry single thing ive seen since i started following this game looked good to me. When more people get invited into the beta expect to see some NDA breaches(as we get close to release none will care for getting banned on it) and allot more info, so just sit still and make your conlusion later, but not now.
I understand that people have principles but lets be honnest what is 50 dollars/euros ? Yes,nothing, i think most of us buy like 2 games a month anyway. It is the only game together with WAR that even remotely has a chance to atract people who are bored with all the other crap MMO's on the market right now.
People are always talking about vanguard here vanguard there and AoC possibly pulling a vanguard, i mean what the fuck ? I never bought the game because i knew from the start it was EQ2 with the same engine and same crap company behind it. Lets take a look at what floored the recent semi decent released MMORPG's. LOTRO: not enough endgame content and not refreshing enough. Tabula Rasa: Not enough content and just not deep enough. Vanguard: clearly a total fail backed by quess who SOE (POTBS lol).
So looking at the total thing, AoC looks allot better and promising to me, it will be the first new MMORPG i buy since i left WoW so i i have no trauma feelings after all those other weak ones. Like i said its the first one before WAR to even remotely give a try(some people just buy evry mmo without thinking).
Comments
I believe, you are very much mistaken if you think a company can "test" any kind of software and fix most of the bugs and stamp new CDs and distribute packaged game to all retailer across the world in just couple of weeks. This takes at least a month even today with all our efficiency and technology.Open Beta is usually used for promotion of a product. Nothing more. What worries people now is that developers do not believe that their product can advertise itself if people would try it.
There should have been a poll option for "They are hiding something".
It's a TEST drive for people. Obviously the game is done by the time open beta rolls around. I don't know about you, but I wouldn't buy a car without a TEST drive.
The price differance is fairly large between a car and a game....i'm not even going into what Beta is cause people should know by now, but the fact is over 100,000 people signed up for beta, So come on you really think it's gonna be an Open Beta
It doesn't really matter. It's my money, and I won't throw it away on a crap product.
Ok im going to tell youguys the flip side of things, I have a group of friends who plays FPS's like counterstrike and COD4 constantly. This same group of people saw a preview for Pirates of the Burning Sea. Mind you none of them had ever played an mmo, they all tried it cause it looked "Interesting" in open beta for fileplanet.
You know how much they liked it?
THEY DIDNT! Later a couple of em went onto one of the forums on a gaming site and said how bad it was. SO all im saying is, with a thing like open beta, you can get people that arent even in your target audience and even people who hate the game trying it out.
I play Tabula Rasa in open beta, and i hated it, I ended up trying it after launch and i love it, have been playing it for 2 months, so as you can see open beta means nothing.
-Jive
This very site:
http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/gameId/191/setView/features/loadFeature/1682
Thanks
C&P of the relevant part
"Launch is scheduled for March 25, 2008 and for those hoping for open beta, there won't be one. As Jason said, when they opened beta applications, they got 100,000 applications in a very short time. Right now, they have 15,000 invitations extended and they will simply invite many more players in the next few rounds. So if you want to take a look at this game prior to launch, and haven't put in your beta application, you can still put one in now. This is one beautiful looking game."
Open beta = free advertising. If Funcom miss such an opportunity, they are either really arrogant, stupid or smart.
I paid for Vanguard beta, I will not risk paying for another. if people continue to pay top cash for crappy games, they will continue to develop crappy games.
---
And when we got more women on the team, it was like No, no, no. We need puppies and horses in there.
John Smedley, SOE
Jump in with both feet.
If they had 170k beta applications, they have plenty of people to draw from to test, if that's the intention, and it seems to be their path, as opposed to marketing.
I think Richard Garriott had some good points when he talked about the Tabula Rasa beta. Linkage
I tend to believe that many people apply for the beta for a free trial anyhow, so that's exactly what they get.
A good decision for Funcom? No idea, but on paper, you can easily argue that it is pretty smart, and some points to make that it isnt a good idea either.
I hope if there's one thing that FC learned from AO's launch...
"Stress the servers BEFORE release".
LOL...
My mind is still rubberbanding from all the rubberbanding I did in Rubi-ka!
Reminds me of the movie "Three Amigos", with Steve Martin's character chained in that cell with the weights attached to his hands and feet. Running across the cities in AO was "Gonna make it.... gonna make it.... GONNA MAKE IT.... notgonnamakeitnotgonnamakeitnotgonnamakeit... <sob>".
open beta was only good pre-wow release because mmos weren't a fad then and they really needed as many testers as they could get their hands on
now that wow stirred everything and theres so many millions more willing to play (and hundreds of thousands willing to beta) having open beta is no longer necessary
a bold and intelligent move by Funcom
Just when you think you have all the answers, I change the questions.
The idea has been tossed around already that open beta really isn't to test the game itself but to test the servers. I don't imagine that a game like AoC will run smoothly from day one (save a complete flop resulting in sales being equivalent to closed beta user numbers) even stress tested but anticipation of what could possibly happen is the entire idea.
Bold and intelligent is to be judged after release, not before the lifting of the nda.
Like anyone expects the fanbois to be put-off by the lack of an open beta. If you've already made such an emotional investment in the game you're unlikely to be objective (Or even care if you're not objective. Hey, the special edition costs $90! Get two, Funcom will love you twice as hard). Since the 'journalists' here didn't ask why there wont be an open beta (or weren't allowed to divulge the information) all we can do is speculate and I have too much history with Funcom to see this as a good sign.
Additionally, why have they started pimping the DX9 client? Even though it's still buggy? (Check here -> Age of Conan CES Update at GameSpy)
Believe what you want about Funcom's reasoning, but I'm not buying a game that the developers have touted as a graphical showcase for DX10, until I see how it runs on my machine. At least Crytek put out a demo. Hey now, that may explain allot.
The idea has been tossed around already that open beta really isn't to test the game itself but to test the servers. I don't imagine that a game like AoC will run smoothly from day one (save a complete flop resulting in sales being equivalent to closed beta user numbers) even stress tested but anticipation of what could possibly happen is the entire idea.
Bold and intelligent is to be judged after release, not before the lifting of the nda.
agree except
bold before release, intelligent after
Just when you think you have all the answers, I change the questions.
What most of the people who say "no play before pay" should do is go apply for a job in the music industry. I hear they love rigid people unable to adapt to a changing reality.
Stubborn idiots who 
every time someone suggest change.
The fact IS that things like retail, pay before play, etc are all becoming like the dinosaurs.
It doesn't MATTER if you call it open beta or free trail. Anything that's free for all, obviously is a free trial irregardless of if it actually serves any QA purpose on behalf of the developers. So, I presume there will be no open test phase for AOC, and the free trial will be way after release....
This tells me one thing. Here you have a game that you do NOT want people to try before they buy it. Wich in my not so humble opinion USUALLY means the game is
or the developers are so incredible stupid that they dont realize what open betas have turned into (free trials) or maybe they just think all of us will front the money and be happy.
Either way, it's their mistake and all I can do is grin at their stupidity. Of course I could be wrong and every idiot on the planet is signing up blindly for it, it's happened before. What I do know is that in the long run, as more and more MMO's compete for people, there will be less mindless
paying for a pig in the sack upon every new release....
Also, one more thing we know is that noone is ever alone. There is always someone like you, how many might differ, but there's always someone.
With that in mind it's interesting to look at MY buying habits. I have NEVER bought a mmo(rpg) I didn't get to test (as in either some sort of beta or free trial). Ever. Half of the games I tested I didn't buy because they were crap.
I know we are all dissapointed abotu there not being an open beta, but i have to say that so far funcom hasnt been stupid when it came to making this game at all. So im going to trust that they arent hiding things from us because they no there are some master secrets, but because they want to keep things for our imagination. they dont ant everything to come out before they sell the game. Like i said, we are all a little disheartend about no open beta but dont go crazy guys, and stop expecting so much!! thats is always a downfall.
Yes, it's always good to trust people who wants your money.
i see your point but to be honest, MMOS are the only games you can play first before you pay. unless they drop a demo for the game, u just have to hope that its up to your expectations. Honnestly, we are all upset about there not being an open beta but to be honest, if the game is out for a while and you here its great, your going to try it, so one way or the other they will get your money. like i said in my previous post, Dont expect to much even though we have seen alot to believe in.
There it goes, the only chance for AoC to grab me from another game.
And if MMOs are the only games you try before buying (not true btw, demos hi!) its cause MMOs are the only games that release filled with bugs.
Multiplayer modes of games of all kinds usually have free trials frontpage doubleads on fileplanet.
Singeplayers demos even before release is not THAT uncommon for regular (non-mmo) games. I'd say it's very common.
It is defenitely NOT just mmo's that have free trials. However it's probably JUST mmo's that have the balls to have free trials 6 months AFTER release.
I get your point, I just dont agree. Also, I just said I don't buy games I don't test. So no, they won't get my money before there is a free trial, if the game sucks at free trial then they wont get my money at all.
I'm just like Ron Paul, I have a consistent voting record.
I hate stupid polls ftw! Ok but honestly, Funcom has been hyping there game since it began and telling everyone how revolutionary the combat system is and how good the game will be. I think it is only fair that there should be an open beta. It's time to show people the goods after 5 years.
Yes I will be jumping in with both feet first .
But with no open Beta, is the game even ready for March?
The question with no open beta for AoC, is when will AoC really come out for all of us to play, sometime this summer, fall, or maybe just in time fore next Christmas.
I'd compare it to a movie which isn't pre-released to critics. They're hiding something and that something smells rotten from this side of the NDA.
You guys seem to have taken it upon yourselves to decide what an open beta is and isn't. To developers its still beta. It's a chance to find and fix issues in the game and more specifically to stress test your servers.
Does an open beta have some marketing aspects? Sure, but it doesn't make it the point of an open beta. That's the point of free trials. It's why they exist.
They have over 100k beta applications, that's more than enough to find and fix issues and to stress test their servers. It's as simple as that. They don't need an open beta to market the game because they game has enough hype and enough interest all ready.
You guys an your conspiracy theories are hysterical.
Do you buy a car before you test drive it? Do you buy a song before you listen to it on the radio? Do you buy a television before looking at the picture quality on the floor model? There's an old saying about looking before you leap. I think it applies here.
Money is just too hard to come by, and a MMO company is still a company. They exist for one reason, and one reason only -- to make money. I might buy this without playing first, but not before I hear a ton of people telling me that the game is polished, finished, and not buggy.
On a side note, I'm okay with no open beta if Funcom with remove the NDA and allow the current beta testers to give us the straight story on the condition of the game. Let me hear from my peers just how good or bad the game really is.
You'll be able to do just that....after March 25th. There will be a plethora of professional and player reviews available and then you can decide to buy the game.
Games will be better off without those types of players.
No open beta does not nessecerly need to be pulled into a dooms day message or whatever. There can be loads of reasons for it and just like all the other people around, i would like to know what those reasons are. But at the moment im still looking very postive at it because nothing has been confirmed yet, and evry single thing ive seen since i started following this game looked good to me. When more people get invited into the beta expect to see some NDA breaches(as we get close to release none will care for getting banned on it) and allot more info, so just sit still and make your conlusion later, but not now.
I understand that people have principles but lets be honnest what is 50 dollars/euros ? Yes,nothing, i think most of us buy like 2 games a month anyway. It is the only game together with WAR that even remotely has a chance to atract people who are bored with all the other crap MMO's on the market right now.
People are always talking about vanguard here vanguard there and AoC possibly pulling a vanguard, i mean what the fuck ? I never bought the game because i knew from the start it was EQ2 with the same engine and same crap company behind it. Lets take a look at what floored the recent semi decent released MMORPG's. LOTRO: not enough endgame content and not refreshing enough. Tabula Rasa: Not enough content and just not deep enough. Vanguard: clearly a total fail backed by quess who SOE (POTBS lol).
So looking at the total thing, AoC looks allot better and promising to me, it will be the first new MMORPG i buy since i left WoW so i i have no trauma feelings after all those other weak ones. Like i said its the first one before WAR to even remotely give a try(some people just buy evry mmo without thinking).