ok im not trying to defenda bugged and unfinished game, neither will i defend funcom who showed great incompetense on thousand of points at this game. but i think the op has a bit of truth there the forum show angry people and it shows people with lots of time on their hand.
the regular joe that isnt a hardcore gamer if your a fan of the conan universe/ stories/ szene you can go into a store and either buy a rather mindless beat em up for the xbox or you buy aoc. while aoc isnt the messiah of mmos nor a wow killer nor a game that you can play 20+h a week its still worth its money (at least for the free month or till ur 80) compared to the other conan games you can buy. yet if you read the forums to inform yourselfe you will think this game is the worst game ever produced. it generates so much hate you could fuel 100 pits hells while at its core its a decent but not oerly great game especially if your into conan
The problem is that you cant keep playing Tortage, lvl to 80 or those things unless you pay a monthly fee. Buying a game to play the content you get in 30 days is just a waste of money no matter if you get a few hours of fun. The game need to be worth a monthly fee else stop having that fee.
i do believe that as a casual gamer playing maybe 12h/week u wont be 80 in 1 month, ull probably have 3month or so if you dont rush. even tough i find the content small compared to other mmos i find it ok compared to regular games taht you pay about the same money.
the problem is funcom didnt produce a mmorpg really but rather a normal game with decent single player value, pretty good conan lore, rather bad bugs on some systems and a hint of multiplayer at endgame but to litte to keep any "serious" mmoer playing the game.
thats the biggest question id ask in an interview with funcom.
with their experience, didnt they see that the mmo crowd would be 80 in 30-50 days having nothing to do but a rather tiny collection of raids ?
I played for 3 months and was level 63 I think when I canceled my account. This is in part due to the fact that my play time, per week, fell off exponentially as the patches got exponentially worse and worse.
What shit storm? That some people crashed while playing? That it needed some tweaking? That DX10 wasn't available? The only unhappy customers were the ones that expected a shiny diamond, like a mmorpg that has been out for years.
When highly advertised, on-the-box parts of the game are not actually in, that's not people being mad about the game not being a 'shiny diamond', that's people mad because Funcom has committed fraud by claiming to be selling a game with X and Y in it and Y is not in it.
Well I agree with the OP aswell..and have once written a post about this myself. But I think it's more this forum that has the mindset "to kill a game!".. Sure people are angry, even thou I do not agree with them, constructive critique is ALWAYS a good source for repair. But in this forum it's mostly only bullcrap, It's like a competition of who dictates the best Age of Conan hate post of them all.
/Junker
I read a few different forums and don't see much different from what's going on here the game is nice looking but that's it I mean you honestly think enough people read these forums to cost a game what 200-400k in subs? Or I'll do you one better are you naive enough to think that this forum has enough readers to do that?
but yeah, to call this game Fantastic is like calling Twilight the Godfather of vampire movies....
ok im not trying to defenda bugged and unfinished game, neither will i defend funcom who showed great incompetense on thousand of points at this game. but i think the op has a bit of truth there the forum show angry people and it shows people with lots of time on their hand.
the regular joe that isnt a hardcore gamer if your a fan of the conan universe/ stories/ szene you can go into a store and either buy a rather mindless beat em up for the xbox or you buy aoc. while aoc isnt the messiah of mmos nor a wow killer nor a game that you can play 20+h a week its still worth its money (at least for the free month or till ur 80) compared to the other conan games you can buy. yet if you read the forums to inform yourselfe you will think this game is the worst game ever produced. it generates so much hate you could fuel 100 pits hells while at its core its a decent game especially if your into conan
Maybe you and a few people out there have a higher threshold for crap? I mean really to make this statement make any sense every games forum on here would have to have the same hatred right? Of course with thousands of people posting you will have dissenting views about every game on here but nothing to this point for most games because most games simply aren't this over hyped and underproduced.
I read the forums for lots of games on here some I've played some I havent but I go on the forums for Tabula Rasa and the sense I get is that the game isn't a great success because alot of people find the design bad and a bit boring,CoH/V repetative,but go to the forums for say this game and SWGand you will see the truth these companies dropped the ball plain and simple and as I first pointed out maybe you can personally overlook alot of the things that this company did but be glad that there are more people who won't because in the end these guys are out to make money and the more we let them pull of launches like this the more they will do it.
but yeah, to call this game Fantastic is like calling Twilight the Godfather of vampire movies....
As you can see by my join date, I've been a member of these forums for a few years. Also, you can see by my number of posts, I've basically been a forum lurker or just wouldn't even view forums for months at a time.
I've never really spent much time on official or unofficial game forums, except when looking for answers to problems I've encountered. I have been able for years to filter past negative posts to find the answers I need.
***So, I fall into that category of gamer that plays the game and has fun doing it, outside of the influence of forums or feeling the social need to frequent forums. I'm representative of that other 80%.***
I've seen my fair share of negativity on forums concerning mmo's I've played over the years and it was always understood by me that there are just some people that are not going to be happy with certain game elements ongoing.
However, until experiencing Age of Conan for myself, I have never felt so compelled to warn others about a game. Funcom lied to everyone. They continue to lie in interviews. They did so many gamers wrong it is not even funny. No company should get away with this kind of behavior in any market or with any product.
So, the OP's argument of the forums ruining the game is not true. In fact, the game itself brought gamers, who don't frequent forums, out of their shells to share their stories of frustration so others would not have to experience the same.
In the end, if the crime is bad enough, the masses will rise for their voices to be heard.
Barfman - The superhero people are reluctant to call upon.
Originally posted by jaxsundane Originally posted by thark Well I agree with the OP aswell..and have once written a post about this myself. But I think it's more this forum that has the mindset "to kill a game!".. Sure people are angry, even thou I do not agree with them, constructive critique is ALWAYS a good source for repair. But in this forum it's mostly only bullcrap, It's like a competition of who dictates the best Age of Conan hate post of them all.
/Junker
I read a few different forums and don't see much different from what's going on here the game is nice looking but that's it I mean you honestly think enough people read these forums to cost a game what 200-400k in subs? Or I'll do you one better are you naive enough to think that this forum has enough readers to do that?
Well, AoC is not dead is it ? I ment the mindset of this forum is diffrent from the rest.
Sure there is harch tones in all forums but this forum takes the price in beiing worst, aspecially as many of the people that are here bashing AoC is no longer subscribers.
As far as I'm concerned AoC is not in much worse state than any of the MMO's I have been playing at release.
Althou I agree, Funcom has been sloppy handling the release and their initial fanbase.
My point is people have extremely critical views. 1 person says the game sucks ass and do not play. That person posts on the forums. 100 people read his review, and believe what he says.
That doesn't make any sense. So any game can be 'destroyed' by forums, and WoW, LOTRO, Eve, etc just got lucky, and poor AoC got the short straw? Because we all now no one posts shit about Blizzard!
Hey I'm gonna make a post that Halo 3, GTA IV and Rock Band suck ass, 100 people will believe me and post too, and in about 1 month sales of those games will be a big fat zero. LOL.
I understand where you are coming from. But you have to understand that the whole "funcom sucks" started within a week of release because a very small minority of vocal players (via the forums) spoke out saying how bad the game sucks. While the vast majority of players actaully enjoyed the game. Thus keeping AoC from gaining any new subscribers. And you cannot compare a console game to an mmorpg. At all.
No, you don't.
I did not quit because people said the game was bad, I quit because it is bad and its the only MMO i have ever hated to see ptach day come because they break more than they fix. They whole time I played (got to level 80) the game was extremely boring overall and the higher I leveled the less content I had to do for each level.
This game should have never been released in the alpha state it was. They should have kept working on it for at least another 6 months at a minimum before even thinking about retail release.
Good graphics and boobs do not cover up a half $%^$% game engine with no content. And with its performance their idea of massive pvp must be 10 on 10 since theres no way of doing 150 on 150 like they said before release.
why do think their no Mythic warhammer site forum ? they learn forums can kill a mmo.
Tabula Rasa didn't have any official forums. So what killed that game? Sure wasn't official forums or other game forums. Could the reason have been some of the same problems that AOC has?
The fact is that if a game sucks, people who play it and encounter that suckiness are not going to play that game anymore when there are better games out there. The only thing that official or unofficial forums do is allow players to communicate with each other and the development house of said game. If a game is of true quality both technically and professionally with it's player base, it will succeed. Failing in either of those categories will lead to a downward spiral for that game, no matter what is said on an official forum or otherwise.
Once again.....Tabula Rasa......no official forums.
Some people seem to believe that what others say is more important than the actions of a company. I'm sorry but actions speak louder than words. People will experience those actions for themselves before believing what some blockhead on some forum somewhere says about said product.
However, if that product experience of that person matches what that blockhead said, lookout, because the masses do speak. Which is why I believe that what Funcom did with AOC lead so many people to have a bad experience that the masses did speak.
It is Funcom's actions that lead to what we are all seeing on forums now, not the existence of forums that is the cause of AOC's demise. It is Funcom's fault AOC is in the shape it is now. No one else is to blame, period.
Edit: Acually, I believe that if a development house is really serious about it's game, it will not be afraid to host it's own official forum. Forums don't kill games. Decision makers kill games. One point I give to Funcom is at least they did have the balls to launch their own official forum.
Barfman - The superhero people are reluctant to call upon.
Edit: Acually, I believe that if a development house is really serious about it's game, it will not be afraid to host it's own official forum. Forums don't kill games. Decision makers kill games. One point I give to Funcom is at least they did have the balls to launch their own official forum.
I think this is exactly right. Any developer that believes in their game and cares about communicating with their customers will provide official forums. Mythic is making a mistake by skipping them. I played Tabula Rasa when it first came out and it was retarded to have to sort through four or five different sites/forums to get info from the developers and I see the same frustration coming with WAR.
Now does this mean that official forums are perfect? Nope. WoW's official forums are a cesspit but I can easily go and see feedback from Blizzard developers and have one place to go for community help if I need it.
AmazingAveryAge of Conan AdvocateMemberUncommonPosts: 7,188
Originally posted by pdxgeek
Originally posted by barfman
Edit: Acually, I believe that if a development house is really serious about it's game, it will not be afraid to host it's own official forum. Forums don't kill games. Decision makers kill games. One point I give to Funcom is at least they did have the balls to launch their own official forum.
I think this is exactly right. Any developer that believes in their game and cares about communicating with their customers will provide official forums. Mythic is making a mistake by skipping them. I played Tabula Rasa when it first came out and it was retarded to have to sort through four or five different sites/forums to get info from the developers and I see the same frustration coming with WAR.
Now does this mean that official forums are perfect? Nope. WoW's official forums are a cesspit but I can easily go and see feedback from Blizzard developers and have one place to go for community help if I need it.
Mythic came out and said something along the lines of - "it would be too hard a punishment on our staff and we wouldn't want to put them through this"
Forums are neccessary, whether 3rd party or official, having things in one place is good, being able to talk about things outside of those official forums without worry are also a good thing. The two together are a perfect ingrediant.
Instances. Lack of differentiating gear. Button mashing melee system. Lack of content. Bugs. Pinging out of zones/zones crashing. Horrid customer service. Having every NPC on Tortage speak to you and then no more VO's. Boring quests that lead you by the hand to your destination. etc.
Forums never have anything to do with a games success or failure, if you think they do, you're an idiot. It is Funcoms fault, and Funcoms fault only for Age of Conan's failure. Servers were packed on day one of headstart, then about a month and a half later.. once a lot of people got to the end game portion, players left in droves. That has nothing to do with a forum.
Mythic came out and said something along the lines of - "it would be too hard a punishment on our staff and we wouldn't want to put them through this"
What an amazing copout...
I think I know what they are doing, and it seems fairly malicious and decietful:
They have one major "fan-site" that they post and send information to. It is basically the AoC official forum board gone straight to hell, do not pass go, do not collect 200 dollars. This way we can't claim any of the crap going down on that website is EA/Mythics fault. We can't point out that those trolls and fanbois are actually employees. We can only, and probably correctly, assume that they are much like we do here on this board.
It is the official unofficial website, where EA/Mythic has no accountability if you ask me.
___________________ Sadly, I see storm clouds on the horizon. A faint stench of Vanguard is in the air.-Kien
Mythic came out and said something along the lines of - "it would be too hard a punishment on our staff and we wouldn't want to put them through this"
What an amazing copout...
I think I know what they are doing, and it seems fairly malicious and decietful:
They have one major "fan-site" that they post and send information to. It is basically the AoC official forum board gone straight to hell, do not pass go, do not collect 200 dollars. This way we can't claim any of the crap going down on that website is EA/Mythics fault. We can't point out that those trolls and fanbois are actually employees. We can only, and probably correctly, assume that they are much like we do here on this board.
It is the official unofficial website, where EA/Mythic has no accountability if you ask me.
First off I would like to say that I am a reader not a poster, I never had an account here mainly because I just come here to read the Eve gaming stuff ect ect. This topic really caught my eye and I would like to throw my 2 cents in the discussion.
I believe the poster above me is correct in the point that forums can influence the suscriber base in many ways. I know it did me. The whole conspiracy theory that mythic would be using the AOC boards as thier unnofficial hype boards and them using employees ect ect really got me going. Have you actually read the forums there lately. Just terrible. REAL bad. Anywayyyyy the point is if it is true (and maybe it is ...who knows stranger things happen) what nerve, I mean man what balls. I was NOT interested in Warhammer at all earlier but NOW ..NOW I am going to suscribe to Warhammer just on the premise that if this IS true I would like to do my small part in helping them eradicate these bozos from the gaming industry.
I was going to type in why I even care about FunCON but why bother. If Warhammer is slightly less fun than having sex with an Ice pick it will be miles ahead of AOC.
Ok why is thread still going. Once and for all forums don't kill games if the game is good. The fact for some odd reason people are still playing AOC means the forum has not killed the game. If you like the stupid game go play it. Stop bitching about people exrpessing their right to voice how much they don't like the game or hate funcom. Yea at times the piling on gets excessive but if the game had legs then all the forums would have an equal or more amount of people praising the games. I read reviews on several forums from people played the game the bad ones out way the good ones.
Funcom brought on the bitter feelings. The game itself just did not keep players. Forums only helped warn people what they are in for. Sure their some hateful stupid posts but there are also good critique of the game. There is also pure defenders of the game who you skip over and ones that might have valid points that are in favor of the game but they are far few. But once and for all game forums don't lead to the overall downfall of a game. They blow a few more holes in an already sinking ship, but people did not wake up and say hey lets not like this game. They played it and did not like it then were badly treated by funcom and at times lied to.
So lets just put this post to rest. I hate flamers but the maybe the next person to blame the forums for the down fall of AOC should get flamed. GO PLAY THE GAME IF YOU LIKE IT AND STOP COMPLAINING ABOUT PEOPLE WHO DON'T LIKE IT.
I usually use forums as a place to gather information about a game, and read a lot about AoC before I bought it. That helped me decide on which race and character class I wanted to play, but I basically stopped coming to the forums once I started playing. The game was exciting at first, but after a while it simply lost it's appeal. I stopped playing without reading about others forums chit-chat and negative attitude. I stopped on my own initiative.
Eh, without going into details every forum of every game that did poorly ends up with accusations leveled at players and posters. It is the easiest way to avoid the blame and negative feedback, it is not us - it is them!
Every game will live or die on its own merit, forums are just secondary means to express opinions. After all I have a hard time imagining that majority of players came to t e forums in advance with specific pourpose to bring down the game. Out of malice maybe? More plausible explanation is that negative forum posts are results of negative game experience. There are some earlier ardent AoC fans that defended and lauded the game before trying it and are now post sharp comments.
Eh, without going into details every forum of every game that did poorly ends up with accusations leveled at players and posters. It is the easiest way to avoid the blame and negative feedback, it is not us - it is them! Every game will live or die on its own merit, forums are just secondary means to express opinions. After all I have a hard time imagining that majority of players came to t e forums in advance with specific pourpose to bring down the game. Out of malice maybe? More plausible explanation is that negative forum posts are results of negative game experience. There are some earlier ardent AoC fans that defended and lauded the game before trying it and are now post sharp comments.
Well I have to say the old AoC forums did show a rapid decline as trust waned and as Funcom stepped up its ad campaign to a more sensationalist tactic. Emphesis on gore and nudity and that whole naked Playboy thing was a a clear example and spent too much resources and attention away from whatr mattered. The Game.
And yes the community went downhil fast. Its not the first time I have seen it happen. A forum can be a good indicator of if a game is worth staying the course or not. The Dark and Light forums are another example of a community gone poor as the company goes into chaos. Its certainly a good symptom. Just as you can spot someone coming down with an infection by flu like symptoms.
Did AoC forums cause the failure? No, I dont think so. But I can immagine it would compound it. After all if there is bad feeling all around then it is going to bring some people down. Be the straw that breaks the cammels back for some.
Seeing lots of negative posters can be mod dropping, and agressive ones can be intimiadating. I know looking at one up and coming game Im looking at the community and what is accepted to take place by the moderators and considering the implaications of that. In short there are some unpleasent and monopolising posters that just spoil the community for me and others and it just puts you off. After all you do think "do I wish to game with these people?" And even "what does it say about the company if this is acceptablke behaviour, what kind of game community are they trying to nurture and why?".
So there are alot of implicactions from a forum community that should not be dismissed. While I dont think they can cause a failure, they can make it worse and definatly show it happening.
It could be "Forums have damaged this game" cause that I do understand, but since the game is still live and people seem to be playing it there for it is NOT destroyed.
Most people think for themselves? Do we live in the same world?
Originally posted by Bodeus
it doesnt matter, the outcome would have been the same... the state of the game is the same wether it was hyped or not. Also, most people think for themselves. So all those "dont play this game" post made no difference either. People decide for themselves.
Comments
The problem is that you cant keep playing Tortage, lvl to 80 or those things unless you pay a monthly fee. Buying a game to play the content you get in 30 days is just a waste of money no matter if you get a few hours of fun. The game need to be worth a monthly fee else stop having that fee.
i do believe that as a casual gamer playing maybe 12h/week u wont be 80 in 1 month, ull probably have 3month or so if you dont rush. even tough i find the content small compared to other mmos i find it ok compared to regular games taht you pay about the same money.
the problem is funcom didnt produce a mmorpg really but rather a normal game with decent single player value, pretty good conan lore, rather bad bugs on some systems and a hint of multiplayer at endgame but to litte to keep any "serious" mmoer playing the game.
thats the biggest question id ask in an interview with funcom.
with their experience, didnt they see that the mmo crowd would be 80 in 30-50 days having nothing to do but a rather tiny collection of raids ?
I played for 3 months and was level 63 I think when I canceled my account. This is in part due to the fact that my play time, per week, fell off exponentially as the patches got exponentially worse and worse.
-Lum
If this was true, then WoW would have been a game of the past along time ago.
When highly advertised, on-the-box parts of the game are not actually in, that's not people being mad about the game not being a 'shiny diamond', that's people mad because Funcom has committed fraud by claiming to be selling a game with X and Y in it and Y is not in it.
Well I agree with the OP aswell..and have once written a post about this myself.
But I think it's more this forum that has the mindset "to kill a game!"..
Sure people are angry, even thou I do not agree with them, constructive critique is ALWAYS a good source for repair.
But in this forum it's mostly only bullcrap, It's like a competition of who dictates the best Age of Conan hate post of them all.
/Junker
I read a few different forums and don't see much different from what's going on here the game is nice looking but that's it I mean you honestly think enough people read these forums to cost a game what 200-400k in subs? Or I'll do you one better are you naive enough to think that this forum has enough readers to do that?
but yeah, to call this game Fantastic is like calling Twilight the Godfather of vampire movies....
Maybe you and a few people out there have a higher threshold for crap? I mean really to make this statement make any sense every games forum on here would have to have the same hatred right? Of course with thousands of people posting you will have dissenting views about every game on here but nothing to this point for most games because most games simply aren't this over hyped and underproduced.
I read the forums for lots of games on here some I've played some I havent but I go on the forums for Tabula Rasa and the sense I get is that the game isn't a great success because alot of people find the design bad and a bit boring,CoH/V repetative,but go to the forums for say this game and SWGand you will see the truth these companies dropped the ball plain and simple and as I first pointed out maybe you can personally overlook alot of the things that this company did but be glad that there are more people who won't because in the end these guys are out to make money and the more we let them pull of launches like this the more they will do it.
but yeah, to call this game Fantastic is like calling Twilight the Godfather of vampire movies....
As you can see by my join date, I've been a member of these forums for a few years. Also, you can see by my number of posts, I've basically been a forum lurker or just wouldn't even view forums for months at a time.
I've never really spent much time on official or unofficial game forums, except when looking for answers to problems I've encountered. I have been able for years to filter past negative posts to find the answers I need.
***So, I fall into that category of gamer that plays the game and has fun doing it, outside of the influence of forums or feeling the social need to frequent forums. I'm representative of that other 80%.***
I've seen my fair share of negativity on forums concerning mmo's I've played over the years and it was always understood by me that there are just some people that are not going to be happy with certain game elements ongoing.
However, until experiencing Age of Conan for myself, I have never felt so compelled to warn others about a game. Funcom lied to everyone. They continue to lie in interviews. They did so many gamers wrong it is not even funny. No company should get away with this kind of behavior in any market or with any product.
So, the OP's argument of the forums ruining the game is not true. In fact, the game itself brought gamers, who don't frequent forums, out of their shells to share their stories of frustration so others would not have to experience the same.
In the end, if the crime is bad enough, the masses will rise for their voices to be heard.
Barfman - The superhero people are reluctant to call upon.
I read a few different forums and don't see much different from what's going on here the game is nice looking but that's it I mean you honestly think enough people read these forums to cost a game what 200-400k in subs? Or I'll do you one better are you naive enough to think that this forum has enough readers to do that?
Well, AoC is not dead is it ? I ment the mindset of this forum is diffrent from the rest.
Sure there is harch tones in all forums but this forum takes the price in beiing worst, aspecially as many of the people that are here bashing AoC is no longer subscribers.
As far as I'm concerned AoC is not in much worse state than any of the MMO's I have been playing at release.
Althou I agree, Funcom has been sloppy handling the release and their initial fanbase.
why do think their no Mythic warhammer site forum ?
they learn forums can kill a mmo.
My point is people have extremely critical views. 1 person says the game sucks ass and do not play. That person posts on the forums. 100 people read his review, and believe what he says.
That doesn't make any sense. So any game can be 'destroyed' by forums, and WoW, LOTRO, Eve, etc just got lucky, and poor AoC got the short straw? Because we all now no one posts shit about Blizzard!
Hey I'm gonna make a post that Halo 3, GTA IV and Rock Band suck ass, 100 people will believe me and post too, and in about 1 month sales of those games will be a big fat zero. LOL.
I understand where you are coming from. But you have to understand that the whole "funcom sucks" started within a week of release because a very small minority of vocal players (via the forums) spoke out saying how bad the game sucks. While the vast majority of players actaully enjoyed the game. Thus keeping AoC from gaining any new subscribers. And you cannot compare a console game to an mmorpg. At all.
No, you don't.
I did not quit because people said the game was bad, I quit because it is bad and its the only MMO i have ever hated to see ptach day come because they break more than they fix. They whole time I played (got to level 80) the game was extremely boring overall and the higher I leveled the less content I had to do for each level.
This game should have never been released in the alpha state it was. They should have kept working on it for at least another 6 months at a minimum before even thinking about retail release.
Good graphics and boobs do not cover up a half $%^$% game engine with no content. And with its performance their idea of massive pvp must be 10 on 10 since theres no way of doing 150 on 150 like they said before release.
Tabula Rasa didn't have any official forums. So what killed that game? Sure wasn't official forums or other game forums. Could the reason have been some of the same problems that AOC has?
The fact is that if a game sucks, people who play it and encounter that suckiness are not going to play that game anymore when there are better games out there. The only thing that official or unofficial forums do is allow players to communicate with each other and the development house of said game. If a game is of true quality both technically and professionally with it's player base, it will succeed. Failing in either of those categories will lead to a downward spiral for that game, no matter what is said on an official forum or otherwise.
Once again.....Tabula Rasa......no official forums.
Some people seem to believe that what others say is more important than the actions of a company. I'm sorry but actions speak louder than words. People will experience those actions for themselves before believing what some blockhead on some forum somewhere says about said product.
However, if that product experience of that person matches what that blockhead said, lookout, because the masses do speak. Which is why I believe that what Funcom did with AOC lead so many people to have a bad experience that the masses did speak.
It is Funcom's actions that lead to what we are all seeing on forums now, not the existence of forums that is the cause of AOC's demise. It is Funcom's fault AOC is in the shape it is now. No one else is to blame, period.
Edit: Acually, I believe that if a development house is really serious about it's game, it will not be afraid to host it's own official forum. Forums don't kill games. Decision makers kill games. One point I give to Funcom is at least they did have the balls to launch their own official forum.
Barfman - The superhero people are reluctant to call upon.
I think this is exactly right. Any developer that believes in their game and cares about communicating with their customers will provide official forums. Mythic is making a mistake by skipping them. I played Tabula Rasa when it first came out and it was retarded to have to sort through four or five different sites/forums to get info from the developers and I see the same frustration coming with WAR.
Now does this mean that official forums are perfect? Nope. WoW's official forums are a cesspit but I can easily go and see feedback from Blizzard developers and have one place to go for community help if I need it.
I think this is exactly right. Any developer that believes in their game and cares about communicating with their customers will provide official forums. Mythic is making a mistake by skipping them. I played Tabula Rasa when it first came out and it was retarded to have to sort through four or five different sites/forums to get info from the developers and I see the same frustration coming with WAR.
Now does this mean that official forums are perfect? Nope. WoW's official forums are a cesspit but I can easily go and see feedback from Blizzard developers and have one place to go for community help if I need it.
Mythic came out and said something along the lines of - "it would be too hard a punishment on our staff and we wouldn't want to put them through this"
Forums are neccessary, whether 3rd party or official, having things in one place is good, being able to talk about things outside of those official forums without worry are also a good thing. The two together are a perfect ingrediant.
A lot of things killed this game.
Instances. Lack of differentiating gear. Button mashing melee system. Lack of content. Bugs. Pinging out of zones/zones crashing. Horrid customer service. Having every NPC on Tortage speak to you and then no more VO's. Boring quests that lead you by the hand to your destination. etc.
Forums had nothing to do with it.
What an amazing copout...
Forums never have anything to do with a games success or failure, if you think they do, you're an idiot. It is Funcoms fault, and Funcoms fault only for Age of Conan's failure. Servers were packed on day one of headstart, then about a month and a half later.. once a lot of people got to the end game portion, players left in droves. That has nothing to do with a forum.
What an amazing copout...
I think I know what they are doing, and it seems fairly malicious and decietful:
They have one major "fan-site" that they post and send information to. It is basically the AoC official forum board gone straight to hell, do not pass go, do not collect 200 dollars. This way we can't claim any of the crap going down on that website is EA/Mythics fault. We can't point out that those trolls and fanbois are actually employees. We can only, and probably correctly, assume that they are much like we do here on this board.
It is the official unofficial website, where EA/Mythic has no accountability if you ask me.
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Sadly, I see storm clouds on the horizon. A faint stench of Vanguard is in the air.-Kien
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2006/12/13/
What an amazing copout...
I think I know what they are doing, and it seems fairly malicious and decietful:
They have one major "fan-site" that they post and send information to. It is basically the AoC official forum board gone straight to hell, do not pass go, do not collect 200 dollars. This way we can't claim any of the crap going down on that website is EA/Mythics fault. We can't point out that those trolls and fanbois are actually employees. We can only, and probably correctly, assume that they are much like we do here on this board.
It is the official unofficial website, where EA/Mythic has no accountability if you ask me.
First off I would like to say that I am a reader not a poster, I never had an account here mainly because I just come here to read the Eve gaming stuff ect ect. This topic really caught my eye and I would like to throw my 2 cents in the discussion.
I believe the poster above me is correct in the point that forums can influence the suscriber base in many ways. I know it did me. The whole conspiracy theory that mythic would be using the AOC boards as thier unnofficial hype boards and them using employees ect ect really got me going. Have you actually read the forums there lately. Just terrible. REAL bad. Anywayyyyy the point is if it is true (and maybe it is ...who knows stranger things happen) what nerve, I mean man what balls. I was NOT interested in Warhammer at all earlier but NOW ..NOW I am going to suscribe to Warhammer just on the premise that if this IS true I would like to do my small part in helping them eradicate these bozos from the gaming industry.
I was going to type in why I even care about FunCON but why bother. If Warhammer is slightly less fun than having sex with an Ice pick it will be miles ahead of AOC.
Ok why is thread still going. Once and for all forums don't kill games if the game is good. The fact for some odd reason people are still playing AOC means the forum has not killed the game. If you like the stupid game go play it. Stop bitching about people exrpessing their right to voice how much they don't like the game or hate funcom. Yea at times the piling on gets excessive but if the game had legs then all the forums would have an equal or more amount of people praising the games. I read reviews on several forums from people played the game the bad ones out way the good ones.
Funcom brought on the bitter feelings. The game itself just did not keep players. Forums only helped warn people what they are in for. Sure their some hateful stupid posts but there are also good critique of the game. There is also pure defenders of the game who you skip over and ones that might have valid points that are in favor of the game but they are far few. But once and for all game forums don't lead to the overall downfall of a game. They blow a few more holes in an already sinking ship, but people did not wake up and say hey lets not like this game. They played it and did not like it then were badly treated by funcom and at times lied to.
So lets just put this post to rest. I hate flamers but the maybe the next person to blame the forums for the down fall of AOC should get flamed. GO PLAY THE GAME IF YOU LIKE IT AND STOP COMPLAINING ABOUT PEOPLE WHO DON'T LIKE IT.
I usually use forums as a place to gather information about a game, and read a lot about AoC before I bought it. That helped me decide on which race and character class I wanted to play, but I basically stopped coming to the forums once I started playing. The game was exciting at first, but after a while it simply lost it's appeal. I stopped playing without reading about others forums chit-chat and negative attitude. I stopped on my own initiative.
The forums are not to blame in my opinion.
Eh, without going into details every forum of every game that did poorly ends up with accusations leveled at players and posters. It is the easiest way to avoid the blame and negative feedback, it is not us - it is them!
Every game will live or die on its own merit, forums are just secondary means to express opinions. After all I have a hard time imagining that majority of players came to t e forums in advance with specific pourpose to bring down the game. Out of malice maybe? More plausible explanation is that negative forum posts are results of negative game experience. There are some earlier ardent AoC fans that defended and lauded the game before trying it and are now post sharp comments.
Well I have to say the old AoC forums did show a rapid decline as trust waned and as Funcom stepped up its ad campaign to a more sensationalist tactic. Emphesis on gore and nudity and that whole naked Playboy thing was a a clear example and spent too much resources and attention away from whatr mattered. The Game.
And yes the community went downhil fast. Its not the first time I have seen it happen. A forum can be a good indicator of if a game is worth staying the course or not. The Dark and Light forums are another example of a community gone poor as the company goes into chaos. Its certainly a good symptom. Just as you can spot someone coming down with an infection by flu like symptoms.
Did AoC forums cause the failure? No, I dont think so. But I can immagine it would compound it. After all if there is bad feeling all around then it is going to bring some people down. Be the straw that breaks the cammels back for some.
Seeing lots of negative posters can be mod dropping, and agressive ones can be intimiadating. I know looking at one up and coming game Im looking at the community and what is accepted to take place by the moderators and considering the implaications of that. In short there are some unpleasent and monopolising posters that just spoil the community for me and others and it just puts you off. After all you do think "do I wish to game with these people?" And even "what does it say about the company if this is acceptablke behaviour, what kind of game community are they trying to nurture and why?".
So there are alot of implicactions from a forum community that should not be dismissed. While I dont think they can cause a failure, they can make it worse and definatly show it happening.
Thought about it and thought your title is wrong!
It could be "Forums have damaged this game" cause that I do understand, but since the game is still live and people seem to be playing it there for it is NOT destroyed.
Think about it
Most people think for themselves? Do we live in the same world?
This game killed this game.