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Joining the quiter's bandwagon and adding my two cents.
DarkPony
Member Posts: 5,566
I have been playing AoC until level 72 with my main character and had a few 20ish alts as well.
The reasons why I quit AoC where not the many bugs, lack of content at higher levels, poor client performance and gameplay issues like the 'praised' combo system being annoying as hell for melee classes vs. runners. I could get over those and console myself in knowing that those things could, and most probably would be addressed in the foreseeable future. I often told people who were out on a limb flaming dev's for those problems in the first months after launch to have a little patience and that a good mmo is like a good cheese or wine; it gets better with age and you'd better not expect to enjoy a delicacy so shortly after production. Though player death mechanics and memory leaks got the better of me as well occasionally.
The reason why I quit AoC was mainly the instanced gameworld.
There is no bigger downer to the fun I have playing an mmoRPG then knowing that there are different versions of the continent I am traveling in and having to actually 'switch instance' at a specific spot in order to meet up with my friends. Even in mass pvp I often found myself out of the action and in another instance after dying because I didn't happen to be in one of the fighting raids. Meaning you don't even have full control on what instance you are in (unless you are in a group or raid which has live members in a particular instance), the game decides for you.
This also means there are no natural transitions between zones. You have to talk to stagecoach drivers parked around the border of a zone or a sailor at the docks to travel to the one which is (only in your imagination) 'next' to it. Which doesn't exactly help giving you the impression that you are living your virtual life in a vast, open world either. AoC felt confined and boxed in. It reminded me strongly of guildwars, a game I once left for the exact same reason. The world does not feel "real" or whole enough.
Instancing public zones of a gameworld is in my opinion the biggest sin any mmo devteam can commit in world design. Comparable to gross class imbalance in pvp gameplay. A huge downer for players. You've got your multiple servers to spread out your player base, dammit! FunCom focused too much on being next gen in eye candy and forgot about gameplay and immersion. It is truly a beautiful game with delicious animations and even better detailed environments but the clich
Comments
Spot on.
The reason people spend hours playing mmog is becasue they are engaging.
If you design regulat interuptions you break the illusion. Break the illusion regularly enough in a session and you give people plenty of opportunities to go do something else.
Caveat Emptor
Welcome to the majority of people that cant stand AoC or Funcoms lies. We are not as bad as some people say LOL.
i dont consider AoC a MMO and much less a RPG. This game is a glitch in our world. It should never happen!
My opinion will always be that the sole reason AoC is instanced is to tailor it to the Xbox 360 spec.
RIP Blackguard. May a resurrection come.
You're probably right about that. Personally the instancing didn't bother me, I agree it's overdone though.
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
The massive use of instances made the game truely pathetic.
that was the killing blow for me as well. I got up to lvl 60ish. I couldnt take the instances anymore. You could go from one city to another in just under 3 minutes by clicking the mariner bell.
Now, Im ok with some zones but when you have anywhere between 6 to 40 instances in each zone then that's where I sorta draw the line on things.
People who have to create conspiracy and hate threads to further a cause lacks in intellectual comprehension of diversity.
It is not a MMORPG it is a 1-20 single player game with multiplayer, very well done i might say. 20-80 it is an asian grind game with little to no rewarding points at all. Replay value is next to zero because all your characters go through the same missions again and again and again.
One word. BORING.
This is what killed the game for me too, the non-seamless world and the static loading screens whenever you want to go to another part of the continent, completely killing the immersion.
As I have never played WoW or any of the other popular MMORPG'S my only comparison is Lord of the Rings Online, a game that has a completely seamless outside world where you can run/walk or ride on your horse from one end of the current game world to the other, such as Angmar or Forochel in the north via a fantastic detailed area like The Shire, into a major population center like Bree-Town (where there will be some lag, admittedly, but no loading screens upon entering or leaving the town) etc all the way to Misty Mountains as an example.
And all this without ever encountering a single loading screen (apart from entering buildings and the infamous "Ered Luin" gate, let's hope they add The Tower Hills someday) or having your friends or other players placed in a different "dimension". And once "Mines of Moria" is released later this year there will be a single loading screen and then the whole massive dungeon area will be seamless, can't wait to take my toons there!
Basically, to cut a long rant short, this is what I would have wanted for AoC and the world of Hyboria as well, and LotrO proves it can be done. And don't give me the "oh, Age of Conan has so much more advanced graphics, it has to have loading screens", if you've ever played LotrO with DX10 and Very High or more you'd know that's simply not a very good excuse!
Totally agree with you! First time I hiked through Trollshaws and into the valley of Rivendell at sunset it felt like reading the book for the first time. So beautiful it just overwhelmed me! Huge zones as well. I picked LOTRO up after quiting AoC and the immersion and gameplay is just a fresh breath of air, really.
Also the amount of pollish and the completeness to it is amazing. Player housing, outfit system, musical instruments, crafting sytem, deeds and the list goes on and on.
Only gripe I have with it is that monster play does not compare to the excitement of open world pvp for me. Too bad, if not this game would be perfect. I would advise everyone to atleast try it once though. It's pure quality all the way.
My brand new bloggity blog.
No one has mentioned resurrection loading screens. THAT killed me.
I'm the healer of the group. I die. A conquorer rezzes me. I accept. I then get thrown to a loading screen for 1 second before I rejoin the battle. Now I have an image of Conan sitting on a thrown burned into my vision for the next few seconds, before I can refocus on the battle taking place around me. By then someone poor sap has usually died and I lose bearings in the battle.
I have accidentally pulled mobs many times after rezzing because I run the wrong way when I take cover to heal.
Resurrection loading screen was the stupidest thing I ever experienced in an MMO.
The static STATIC static world. Animations (static/nocontrol/sameoverandover), instanced (claustrophobic), travelling (no immersion). The good graphic doesnt fit in with the other static elements, it just makes the game even worse. I could actually understand such a world if it had Pacman graphic.. but AoC tries to be realistic, and it fails in so many areas.