What most dont realise or dont wanne admit is, where still as retail players BETA TESTING AoC, for all the new and prolly bigger group of console players, game is developed with console in mind not pc gamer.
I've willingly payed retail for a Beta. It was the first 2 years or so of SWG and it was the best gaming experience ever.
theres like, 5 big bugs in this game. stfu and go home. you've probably never played this game. this is actually one of the smoothest launches... even formal trolls know that. stop crying because your parents won't buy this "pile of bugs" because of the M rating.
theres like, 5 big bugs in this game. stfu and go home. you've probably never played this game. this is actually one of the smoothest launches... even formal trolls know that. stop crying because your parents won't buy this "pile of bugs" because of the M rating.
I believe I just witnessed an epic "Stop, drop, and ROFL" post.
People who say AoC is the worst launch in history have either not played many other games or are intentially exaggerating. SWG had a terrible launch, servers crashing left and right, and tons and tons of bugs, some that still haven't been fixed due SOE's asinine development.
I'm sure a lot of people here remember the SWG launch, so many bugs....items disappearing from player's inventories, hell even entire houses disappearing, tons of class abilities broken, and most of these didn't get fixed until 6 months or more after launch.
AoC is very playable and most of the bugs are relatively minor, and so far Funcom has been pretty good about fixing bugs.
Ok well obviously this is the first MMO you've EVER played at launch. Thank you for your honesty and sharing your opinion. Of course since you have no experience you won't mind if we totally disregard you now.
Because Shadowbane, Anarchy Online, and Vanguard have it beat in worst launches ever. Hell, Phantasy Star Online/Universe is far worse than this game... those games hardly classify as MMOs at all.
Let it be known that I hate WoW with a passion and will defend almost any MMORPG against it. Current: FFXI (PC/360) Want: FFXIV, Stargate Worlds, Star Trek Online Past: AC, AoC, AO, Atlantica Online, CoH/V, DAoC, Dungeon Runners, D&DO, EVE, Everquest I+II, FlyFF, GW (all), Lineage 2, LOTRO, Mabinogi, Maplestory, PSO (DC/Xbox/PC), PSU (PC/360), PlanetSide, RO, Shadowbane, SWG (Pre-NGE), SotNW, TR, UO, Warhammer Online, WoW, WWIIO
Because it's a good game... and I have seen very few bugs, none that were game breaking. It is nowhere near the worst launch in history. In my experience it is the second smoothest launch.. right behind LOTRO in terms of polish and stability. Miles ahead of the other games I played at launch. Including AO, SWG, Vanguard, Tabula Rasa... not to mention a bunch I didnt play, like DnL, Horizons, Seed, Roma Victor. You'd have to be an absolute noob to MMOs or half a retard to say this is the worst launch ever..I'm going to assume the OP is the latter.
Is a bad launch always the game makers/publishers fault? Couldn't a buggy launch, with unbalanced classes/game play also be partially due to bad beta testers, failing to turn in unbias opinions and bug reports? Just a thought.
This must be a joke post. Beta testers at fault? Sure, if they were paid to do so, aka professionals not doing their job. But Beta testers are amateurs. And while some amateurs produce better results than some professionals, the rule is that you can't really expect professional work from an amateur.
How many people do they have working at these companies? Can they find all the bugs and imbalances in their game through to the current end game that will launch?
Granted I am not in the gaming industry and don't have insider information, but I was under the impression that the main reason for beta testing was due to the fact that most of these companies aren't more than 15-20 people working on the game, and therefore they open the game up to 1000's of testers to help find bugs and imbalances, etc.
In my last post, I was basically implying that if you have a large number of 'fanbois' testing the game, fans that have been following a game for some time, many are going to be blind to anything but game stopping bugs.
I think AoC has a bad launch because after all the delays and 5 years of development, they completely boged the launch.
The game is release without direct X 10... they had five years, and they still cannot get the launched together.
The most memorable bug I had was, running into a cut scene at early levels and the cut scene doesnt stop after npc stop talking. They slaughtered my character... I could do nothing but watch my character get hack by 3 npc's stuck in cutscene mode. Funny in some ways, but also annoying and memorable.
And now I am at lvl 48, playing a conquerer. Only to find out because my character is female, it does less 25% less damage then the male. This suppose to be a bug, but is really annoying. The game slows down around lvl 45 and now I found out I would have to reroll a male character to do decent damage, it feels kinda daunting.
I encounter a hell lot more bugs, too many to list, some were actually useful.. (everlasting potions, but breaks game balance)
This launch really was kinda awful, considering the time they had during development and the time they had in beta; Instead of testing the game longer, to make sure the game work for their customers, they must have had alot of pressure from the upper management. The boys upstair properly told them what the hell you guys been doing for 5 years, release the game, we will iron out the mess later.
Is a bad launch always the game makers/publishers fault? Couldn't a buggy launch, with unbalanced classes/game play also be partially due to bad beta testers, failing to turn in unbias opinions and bug reports? Just a thought.
eh... hard to point a finger at testers. Most testers turn in bug reports and take pride in doing so. Its up to the devs to take the reports and do something about the bugs/issues.
Sure you have testers who will be blind to the problems and just 'play' thinking that someone else would have already reported it so there is no need to report it again.
But to the point, 99% of the bugs in a game will be reported and the devs will know about them. Thing is by the time beta is in full swing, most dev teams are near the bottom of thier wallets. They know the bugs are there, but they dont have the time to focus resources on them due to lack of time and money. They start to gamble on which bugs are dire and which can be shrugged off till after launch. The clock keeps ticking down, the funds keep shrinking, investors start calling and the list of 'after launch' starts growing.
There are 3 types of people in the world. 1.) Those who make things happen 2.) Those who watch things happen 3.) And those who wonder "What the %#*& just happened?!"
To be the worst launch on MMO history, the game should have the servers crashing left and right. As far as I'm aware, the servers have been and are still rock stable. So, no, it was not the worst launch on MMO history by far.
In fact, given the initial rush of players, that was unexpected even for Funcom, the servers behaved flawelssly. Admittedly some people were having problems on the client side. But from my understanding these were due to three issues:
Lacking machine (when was the last time people actually had a good experience with any game playing with the minimum settings?)
Outdated drivers (this little bit affects stuttering a lot. The very latest nVidia drivers will cut down this problem a lot on medium machines and completely on the high end)
Genuine PC/ game incompatibility issues (PCs are so diverse that these things will happen. This is part of the reason I'm buying hardware from brands with good support, although they cost more)
I understand that some people had issues with client crushes, but from what I've seen (from my limited experience), these were the exception. Most of the people had a very good experience with the launch and were happy with the way the game played in Tortage and a little beyond.
The game still has bugs. Very visible bugs. They are not gamebreaking (in my opinion), but hey do detract from the enjoyment of the game.
Some people don't like the gameplay.
There is not enough content in the mid to higher levels.
However, the above and more are problems not related with the launch, but with the game in general. We can therefore argue based on them, that the game will not have the longlivity the developers were hoping, if the game stays as is. But these are not points for an argument about how good or bad the game launched.
Oh, I definitely understand the 'running out of funds' point. But I'm still curious about how many people they actually have working on the game? 15-20? 50-100? If it's the former, how can they be expected to find all of the bugs, I have always assumed that was the driving force behind opening the game up to beta testers... But I've already admitted I don't know how it works, and I could be wrong.
Its not the worst launch in history but is the worst visible launch recently.
I think they realise to solve some things, they would have to go back to drawing broad to make changes that involves even more time and money than they can afford. So what's the finanically sounding solution?
Launch the game first, have the game start pulling the cash in. If is successful spend more money into developing the game. If is not, play moderate attention to the game, and let the hardcore fans keep playing it.
I don't see the point is someone wasting their time posting a thread like this. How does this matter. Play the game...if you like it then keep playing and have fun, and if not then just don't play it anymore. It's almost 100% opinion, and that's why people argue so much.
I don't see the point is someone wasting their time posting a thread like this. How does this matter. Play the game...if you like it then keep playing and have fun, and if not then just don't play it anymore. It's almost 100% opinion, and that's why people argue so much.
Actually there is very good point in posting something like this. AoC Costed $49.99 and has a monthly fee, is not free, is a product. And to no suprise people can get emotional when a product is faulty.
Do you buy a piece of software if it has excessive bugs? in application software, the answer is probably No. But in RPG's, the line is blurred, we forget what that it is really just a product, we buy into the hype and forced to accept a faulty product as normal, only thing we can do is talk about it in forums, Games are being realised with bugs, but AoC takes this to another level, a high profile game realised with excessive bugs.
Players want to warn others about how bad it is and what the problems are. They feel other people are being decieved, people are thinking critical and giving out their own voice.
Um no. AO was the worst launch in the history of MMORPG's. Ask anyone who was there and they will tell you that.
And yea, AoC was a horrible launch. Not quite as bad as Funcom's last game, but still pretty crappy nonetheless. Even games like SWG, which was a true MMORPG (this game isnt even a MMORPG) only had problems like the loot bug, because of all the damn people playing. I havent seen an AoC server on heavy load in over a week now. People are leaving in droves. And to put the icing on the cake, the last patch Funcom threw at us made the game a lot WORSE. 1 step forward, 5 steps back.
You had problems with AoC on the offical launch day? You best get yourself a better rig. My day wasnt as shitty as your though.
I ran on Medium graphics and had 1 disconnect (with 5 hours of gaming time) on launch day, And maintaining 30 FPS to 45 FPS in Daytime Tortage. As you can see, my FPS isnt relly much to right about, but still the game ran with no problems for me on the Thog server.
My system specs and this system is almost 2 years old.
It's an unacceptable launch, yes, but if you haven't noticed lately, it's sadly become the norm for MMORPGs. It's not perfect but it definitely isn't the worst launch... people are overexaggerating to that extent.
But like I did say, it's still unacceptable when a company promises something at launch then says, "Well yeah... we just said that so you'd buy it... but we'll add it, eventually...".
I wouldn't be surprised if WAR's launch is just as bad even with this extra given amount of time. Companies are too obsessed with making sure they're the winners, not the customers.
Title should be changed to AOC 8.7??? The worst MMO lauch of 2008.
At least its more accurate.
This is not to say that AOC is going to fail or is a terrible game after-all its only just come out. I personally feel that with any MMO including this one you should wait 6 months before you begin to judge a MMO as after 6 months you will have a better idea on the direction it is going to go.
Another great example of Moore's Law. Give people access to that much space (developers and users alike) and they'll find uses for it that you can never imagine. "640K ought to be enough for anybody" - Bill Gates 1981
Comments
Wow.
This topic has zero validity.
Age of Conan = one of the smoother MMO launches recently. It's no LotRO, but it wasn't AO or VG either.
Waiting for something fresh to arrive on the MMO scene...
Realms of Torment?
I've willingly payed retail for a Beta. It was the first 2 years or so of SWG and it was the best gaming experience ever.just saying.
theres like, 5 big bugs in this game. stfu and go home. you've probably never played this game. this is actually one of the smoothest launches... even formal trolls know that. stop crying because your parents won't buy this "pile of bugs" because of the M rating.
theres like, 5 big bugs in this game. stfu and go home. you've probably never played this game. this is actually one of the smoothest launches... even formal trolls know that. stop crying because your parents won't buy this "pile of bugs" because of the M rating.
I believe I just witnessed an epic "Stop, drop, and ROFL" post.
STOP WHINING!
People who say AoC is the worst launch in history have either not played many other games or are intentially exaggerating. SWG had a terrible launch, servers crashing left and right, and tons and tons of bugs, some that still haven't been fixed due SOE's asinine development.
I'm sure a lot of people here remember the SWG launch, so many bugs....items disappearing from player's inventories, hell even entire houses disappearing, tons of class abilities broken, and most of these didn't get fixed until 6 months or more after launch.
AoC is very playable and most of the bugs are relatively minor, and so far Funcom has been pretty good about fixing bugs.
Ok well obviously this is the first MMO you've EVER played at launch. Thank you for your honesty and sharing your opinion. Of course since you have no experience you won't mind if we totally disregard you now.
Because Shadowbane, Anarchy Online, and Vanguard have it beat in worst launches ever. Hell, Phantasy Star Online/Universe is far worse than this game... those games hardly classify as MMOs at all.
Let it be known that I hate WoW with a passion and will defend almost any MMORPG against it.
Current: FFXI (PC/360)
Want: FFXIV, Stargate Worlds, Star Trek Online
Past: AC, AoC, AO, Atlantica Online, CoH/V, DAoC, Dungeon Runners, D&DO, EVE, Everquest I+II, FlyFF, GW (all), Lineage 2, LOTRO, Mabinogi, Maplestory, PSO (DC/Xbox/PC), PSU (PC/360), PlanetSide, RO, Shadowbane, SWG (Pre-NGE), SotNW, TR, UO, Warhammer Online, WoW, WWIIO
Because it's a good game... and I have seen very few bugs, none that were game breaking. It is nowhere near the worst launch in history. In my experience it is the second smoothest launch.. right behind LOTRO in terms of polish and stability. Miles ahead of the other games I played at launch. Including AO, SWG, Vanguard, Tabula Rasa... not to mention a bunch I didnt play, like DnL, Horizons, Seed, Roma Victor. You'd have to be an absolute noob to MMOs or half a retard to say this is the worst launch ever..I'm going to assume the OP is the latter.
Is a bad launch always the game makers/publishers fault? Couldn't a buggy launch, with unbalanced classes/game play also be partially due to bad beta testers, failing to turn in unbias opinions and bug reports? Just a thought.
This must be a joke post. Beta testers at fault? Sure, if they were paid to do so, aka professionals not doing their job. But Beta testers are amateurs. And while some amateurs produce better results than some professionals, the rule is that you can't really expect professional work from an amateur.
How many people do they have working at these companies? Can they find all the bugs and imbalances in their game through to the current end game that will launch?
Granted I am not in the gaming industry and don't have insider information, but I was under the impression that the main reason for beta testing was due to the fact that most of these companies aren't more than 15-20 people working on the game, and therefore they open the game up to 1000's of testers to help find bugs and imbalances, etc.
In my last post, I was basically implying that if you have a large number of 'fanbois' testing the game, fans that have been following a game for some time, many are going to be blind to anything but game stopping bugs.
I think AoC has a bad launch because after all the delays and 5 years of development, they completely boged the launch.
The game is release without direct X 10... they had five years, and they still cannot get the launched together.
The most memorable bug I had was, running into a cut scene at early levels and the cut scene doesnt stop after npc stop talking. They slaughtered my character... I could do nothing but watch my character get hack by 3 npc's stuck in cutscene mode. Funny in some ways, but also annoying and memorable.
And now I am at lvl 48, playing a conquerer. Only to find out because my character is female, it does less 25% less damage then the male. This suppose to be a bug, but is really annoying. The game slows down around lvl 45 and now I found out I would have to reroll a male character to do decent damage, it feels kinda daunting.
I encounter a hell lot more bugs, too many to list, some were actually useful.. (everlasting potions, but breaks game balance)
This launch really was kinda awful, considering the time they had during development and the time they had in beta; Instead of testing the game longer, to make sure the game work for their customers, they must have had alot of pressure from the upper management. The boys upstair properly told them what the hell you guys been doing for 5 years, release the game, we will iron out the mess later.
And rest is history....
Sure you have testers who will be blind to the problems and just 'play' thinking that someone else would have already reported it so there is no need to report it again.
But to the point, 99% of the bugs in a game will be reported and the devs will know about them. Thing is by the time beta is in full swing, most dev teams are near the bottom of thier wallets. They know the bugs are there, but they dont have the time to focus resources on them due to lack of time and money. They start to gamble on which bugs are dire and which can be shrugged off till after launch. The clock keeps ticking down, the funds keep shrinking, investors start calling and the list of 'after launch' starts growing.
There are 3 types of people in the world.
1.) Those who make things happen
2.) Those who watch things happen
3.) And those who wonder "What the %#*& just happened?!"
To the OP:
To be the worst launch on MMO history, the game should have the servers crashing left and right. As far as I'm aware, the servers have been and are still rock stable. So, no, it was not the worst launch on MMO history by far.
In fact, given the initial rush of players, that was unexpected even for Funcom, the servers behaved flawelssly. Admittedly some people were having problems on the client side. But from my understanding these were due to three issues:
I understand that some people had issues with client crushes, but from what I've seen (from my limited experience), these were the exception. Most of the people had a very good experience with the launch and were happy with the way the game played in Tortage and a little beyond.
However, the above and more are problems not related with the launch, but with the game in general. We can therefore argue based on them, that the game will not have the longlivity the developers were hoping, if the game stays as is. But these are not points for an argument about how good or bad the game launched.
Oh, I definitely understand the 'running out of funds' point. But I'm still curious about how many people they actually have working on the game? 15-20? 50-100? If it's the former, how can they be expected to find all of the bugs, I have always assumed that was the driving force behind opening the game up to beta testers... But I've already admitted I don't know how it works, and I could be wrong.
Its not the worst launch in history but is the worst visible launch recently.
I think they realise to solve some things, they would have to go back to drawing broad to make changes that involves even more time and money than they can afford. So what's the finanically sounding solution?
Launch the game first, have the game start pulling the cash in. If is successful spend more money into developing the game. If is not, play moderate attention to the game, and let the hardcore fans keep playing it.
i agree vangaurd worse launch ever
I don't see the point is someone wasting their time posting a thread like this. How does this matter. Play the game...if you like it then keep playing and have fun, and if not then just don't play it anymore. It's almost 100% opinion, and that's why people argue so much.
Do you buy a piece of software if it has excessive bugs? in application software, the answer is probably No. But in RPG's, the line is blurred, we forget what that it is really just a product, we buy into the hype and forced to accept a faulty product as normal, only thing we can do is talk about it in forums, Games are being realised with bugs, but AoC takes this to another level, a high profile game realised with excessive bugs.
Players want to warn others about how bad it is and what the problems are. They feel other people are being decieved, people are thinking critical and giving out their own voice.
So yes, people need to talk about it.
now is 8.6
I ran on Medium graphics and had 1 disconnect (with 5 hours of gaming time) on launch day, And maintaining 30 FPS to 45 FPS in Daytime Tortage. As you can see, my FPS isnt relly much to right about, but still the game ran with no problems for me on the Thog server.
My system specs and this system is almost 2 years old.
the game should be rating under 8 if wasn't the blind fanbois giving all 10. 5 years of developement and they couldn't even fix the bugs?
It's an unacceptable launch, yes, but if you haven't noticed lately, it's sadly become the norm for MMORPGs. It's not perfect but it definitely isn't the worst launch... people are overexaggerating to that extent.
But like I did say, it's still unacceptable when a company promises something at launch then says, "Well yeah... we just said that so you'd buy it... but we'll add it, eventually...".
I wouldn't be surprised if WAR's launch is just as bad even with this extra given amount of time. Companies are too obsessed with making sure they're the winners, not the customers.
At least its more accurate.
This is not to say that AOC is going to fail or is a terrible game after-all its only just come out. I personally feel that with any MMO including this one you should wait 6 months before you begin to judge a MMO as after 6 months you will have a better idea on the direction it is going to go.
Another great example of Moore's Law. Give people access to that much space (developers and users alike) and they'll find uses for it that you can never imagine. "640K ought to be enough for anybody" - Bill Gates 1981