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Core Priority: Delivering great content + Admitting to launching game with 'initial issues"
AmazingAvery
Age of Conan AdvocateMember UncommonPosts: 7,188
Funcom product director Jørgen Tharaldsen gives MTV Multiplayer an honest and revealing interview.
"MTV Multiplayer: On a Blizzard financial call, it was said that 40% of “WoW” subscribers who left for “Age of Conan” have since returned. What is Funcom’s response to this?
Tharaldsen: That people migrate between games comes as no surprise, and, out of those, most naturally leave shortly after the start of the live cycle (like we are in now). I both hope and think that many will come back to try “Conan” again when they hear from friends how greatly it evolves, and that players who have never tried it will pop by as well.
Still, for us, the primary way forward is not by trying to take “WoW” players back, but delivering great content to our many existing players.
This will be, and is, our core priority, and then eventually, when the time is right, we will naturally invite those who left us for a new swing, for free, and I guess that the “proof will be in the pudding” when that time comes. That second return is about trust and adding enough new content, and this is naturally one of our key challenges going into 2009"
Read the rest here: multiplayerblog.mtv.com/2008/10/07/funcom-defends-age-of-conan/
Jorgen also talks about the Success of Warhammer Online here: www.strategyinformer.com/news/2304/funcom-talks-about-the-success-of-warhammer-online
"While we of course are playing WAR, like the other MMO games, they serve more as an inspiration than something to outright copy. On some things they have some nifty ideas, while on others they did not hit as well I think, just like with most games. We have some definitive strengths in Funcom, and with Age of Conan, so the way for us forward is not to copy or clone, but to build on our strengths, and improve weaker points, and then use other games as inspiration. I am certain Age of Conan will be a quality contender in the fantasy space for many more years to come, but how well it eventually goes remains to be seen. I have high hopes! "
Comments
That was a really good article. It really covered all the major concerns that players had in the past, are having now, and players concerns for the future. The major reason I will be buying this game is because it breaks the WoW mold. I've played WoW, but now I want something new. I look forward to purchasing and trying AoC around christmas when my computer gets upgraded.
EDIT: I r gud spelor wit gramer an werdz
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Meow
Glad to see FunCom turn around on the 'Everything is fantastic, nothing went wrong, really smooth launch' and start actually being candid (a wee bit late imo).
Maybe now some of the more 'Rose Colored' posters here in MMORPG-AoC forums can tone-down the full court propaganda press?
It does a disservice to folks like Avery who try to bring 'just the facts ma'am', and isnt helping your cause like you might think. FunCom has enough problems with credibility at the moment, posters here giving out 'positive' misinformation are just shooting AoC in the foot some more at this point.
But my god he is modest. Sorry I just have to say it, because I am so amazed how this thing turned around for AoC. The AoC forums had the darkest evil residing in it up till when patch 2.0 and the new GD came around. Now the place is pretty much a place where opinions are accepted and discussed in a very mature and civil manner. If you asked me 1 month back, I would tell you changes would be impossible (at least in 3 weeks). My 0.02 on the topic.
But my god he is modest. Sorry I just have to say it, because I am so amazed how this thing turned around for AoC. The AoC forums had the darkest evil residing in it up till when patch 2.0 and the new GD came around. Now the place is pretty much a place where opinions are accepted and discussed in a very mature and civil manner. If you asked me 1 month back, I would tell you changes would be impossible (at least in 3 weeks). My 0.02 on the topic.
said Archetype
posters here giving out 'positive' misinformation????? what? crazy man, this place is just full of haters. where is all this positive vibes you are talking about? we must find them fast!
I am really tired and off to sleep so only 2 things to gripe about :)P
First one underlined ---- "trust" I would trust them again. Once the company is sold to someone else competant.
last one underlined ---- It isn't a quality contender now, they need to make it one then talk about years to come. Which doesn't really matter if they get sold off to someone competant anyway.
But yeah overall good news. Nice to see them taking steps to reastablish thier credibility. Of course if there were still tons of people paying for the game they certainly wouldn't be admitting anything. They are losing to much money (GOOD) which is the sole reason for the smoke screen ohhh you can trust us again cause we are listening to our players blah blah blah blah insert EE pr comment here.
And they are offering free time to bring back old players eh? Better make it about 6 months of free time to make it worth the 30 friggin gig install and 9 weeks of patching itll take by then.
More PR garbage. Make the content and fix the game......until then ...stfu FC
Goodnight!! :)P
Why did they not take this route of being honest 6 months ago? Why did they not lift their NDA.
If you guys accept being lied to and treated in this manner as the norm you have some pretty low ethics.
Me personally, they could make this game fantastic and the best ever made. But my first impressions will always stick, and subsequent Funcom games will get no $$$ from me.
Like I said before, it really makes you wonder 'what if' this guy had been the frontman for the game before launch. A LOT of the negativity on this forum and others wasn't directed at a buggy game, it was directed at a deceitful company.
I like the idea of a 'free return', and it's something I mentioned before. Funcom lost our trust, we are not going to pay to give them a second look. Also to note, WOW has a 10day free return policy too, so it's not a PR disaster to have to give away free time to get players to give you a second look.
The whole part about the female swing speed is something I hope every other developer reads.. it is sooo true. It is just very hard to get away from a negative first impression. WOW will be forever labeled as raid2play, rep grinds and AFK AV; even though none of them have been true for over a year. There is always going to be a large group of former players who 'lolwut' whenever AOC is mentioned and never bother to notice that AOC is turning into a decent game.
Alright. But you have to realise they are trying to right the wrong and moving forward it's happening to some degree. Other recently released game didn't lift their close beta NDA either. It seems something that happens with the genre.
I am almost positive people will get a free try out again most likely in January in my opinion.
Ymir's Pass is a great content addition and combined with all the many inclusions over the next 3 months the game should be in good shape.