In a year? It may be the best thing since sliced bread, once you get used to the grabass zonelines and odd warp NPC placement in relation to what neighboring terrain is.
The engine is laughibly bad, even for a beefed up AO engine (and it is) - I doubt it will run properly on any system for the next several years simply due to that.
The texturing, skills, controls, sound, leveling is all pretty decent, though I did learn to hate Conarch Valley or whatever it is. (Snowy area with nasty frostgiant things)
I really felt that...
They did such a good job on Tortage, the lack of polish and general odd problems with the game later on came to leave a sour taste in alot of peopels' mouths. (Tortage is excellence!)
In a year? It may be the best thing since sliced bread, once you get used to the grabass zonelines and odd warp NPC placement in relation to what neighboring terrain is.
The engine is laughibly bad, even for a beefed up AO engine (and it is) - I doubt it will run properly on any system for the next several years simply due to that. The texturing, skills, controls, sound, leveling is all pretty decent, though I did learn to hate Conarch Valley or whatever it is. (Snowy area with nasty frostgiant things)
I really felt that... They did such a good job on Tortage, the lack of polish and general odd problems with the game later on came to leave a sour taste in alot of peopels' mouths. (Tortage is excellence!)
You have not tried the engine recently then...but of course, hardware is required..
I have a 4870 512mb, 4 gigs and Vista 64, and get a constant 60FPS ...WITH Shadows..
So, the game engine is future proofed. This same system though runs Vanguard, LOTRO, EQ2 and WAR like crap...why? Backwards looking engines.
But, as to the Tortage statement ..I agree. I have stated in the past, 40 levels would have been enough. Polish that 40, add full voiceovers, and then worked on PvP AFTER launch, and then 3 months down the road, release it as a free content update.
The bitching then would have been 50% less...guaranteed.
Originally posted by Scared I see FC kinda like as an ex-girlfriend who stole my money and cheated on me for months before getting caught. Of course I will break up with her and move on, but deep inside I get pleasure if she suffers and is unhappy, because I feel she deserves it. It's evil but that's human nature. We like it when bad things happen to bad people.
Bad people? Man, are you serious? You mean, all 150+ people working in the company? Everyone personally cheated on you, humiliated you and stole you money?
What about
I had good times with AoC but the endgame just wasn't there.
Speaking in the language of your "ex-girlfriend" metaphor: You've met a girl, she was nice, but after a couple of month together you started to realize that she's not up to your taste. Instead of just breaking up and finding another girl you became jealous, started to accuse her in cheating on you and stealing your money (though even she's got her own job, and you don't) and finally cheated on her yourself. She has left you, but once in a while you send to her hate mails saying how much you want her to have a cancer. As well as all her family and friends.
And then, when her grandpa finally gets a cancer, it's the best day in your pathetic life.
I see FC kinda like as an ex-girlfriend who stole my money and cheated on me for months before getting caught. Of course I will break up with her and move on, but deep inside I get pleasure if she suffers and is unhappy, because I feel she deserves it. It's evil but that's human nature. We like it when bad things happen to bad people.
Bad people? Man, are you serious? You mean, all 150+ people working in the company? Everyone personally cheated on you, humiliated you and stole you money?
What about
I had good times with AoC but the endgame just wasn't there.
Speaking in the language of your "ex-girlfriend" metaphor:
You've met a girl, she was nice, but after a couple of month together you started to realize that she's not up to your taste. Instead of just breaking up and finding another girl you became jealous, started to accuse her in cheating on you and stealing your money (though even she's got her own job, and you don't) and finally cheated on her yourself. She has left you, but once in a while you send to her hate mails saying how much you want her to have a cancer. As well as all her family and friends.
And then, when her grandpa finally gets a cancer, it's the best day in your pathetic life.
I think a more accurate "ex-girlfriend" metaphor for AoC would be:
You're out and see this attractive woman at the bar/club/whatever. You two start chatting, have some drinks, dance, and enjoy each other's company for a few hours.
Then you get her home and find out that "she" is a pre-op tranny.
Originally posted by smokeyjon Originally posted by ruslans
Originally posted by Scared I see FC kinda like as an ex-girlfriend who stole my money and cheated on me for months before getting caught. Of course I will break up with her and move on, but deep inside I get pleasure if she suffers and is unhappy, because I feel she deserves it. It's evil but that's human nature. We like it when bad things happen to bad people.
Bad people? Man, are you serious? You mean, all 150+ people working in the company? Everyone personally cheated on you, humiliated you and stole you money?
What about I had good times with AoC but the endgame just wasn't there.
Speaking in the language of your "ex-girlfriend" metaphor: You've met a girl, she was nice, but after a couple of month together you started to realize that she's not up to your taste. Instead of just breaking up and finding another girl you became jealous, started to accuse her in cheating on you and stealing your money (though even she's got her own job, and you don't) and finally cheated on her yourself. She has left you, but once in a while you send to her hate mails saying how much you want her to have a cancer. As well as all her family and friends. And then, when her grandpa finally gets a cancer, it's the best day in your pathetic life.
I think a more accurate "ex-girlfriend" metaphor for AoC would be: You're out and see this attractive woman at the bar/club/whatever. You two start chatting, have some drinks, dance, and enjoy each other's company for a few hours. Then you get her home and find out that "she" is a pre-op tranny.
hahahahahaha! Im glad I wasnt drinking my morning coffee while I read that.
I see FC kinda like as an ex-girlfriend who stole my money and cheated on me for months before getting caught. Of course I will break up with her and move on, but deep inside I get pleasure if she suffers and is unhappy, because I feel she deserves it. It's evil but that's human nature. We like it when bad things happen to bad people.
Bad people? Man, are you serious? You mean, all 150+ people working in the company? Everyone personally cheated on you, humiliated you and stole you money?
Like I said before, I feel bad for the hard working developers who had no part in FC's lying and amateur behaviour. They are the biggest victims here, not the players. They were betrayed by the management.
After FC goes bankrupt it can be difficult for them to find a new job. I would imagine being an ex-AoC dev does not look good on your CV (unless you worked with graphics or sound).
I see FC kinda like as an ex-girlfriend who stole my money and cheated on me for months before getting caught. Of course I will break up with her and move on, but deep inside I get pleasure if she suffers and is unhappy, because I feel she deserves it. It's evil but that's human nature. We like it when bad things happen to bad people.
Bad people? Man, are you serious? You mean, all 150+ people working in the company? Everyone personally cheated on you, humiliated you and stole you money?
Like I said before, I feel bad for the hard working developers who had no part in FC's lying and amateur behaviour. They are the biggest victims here, not the players. They were betrayed by the management.
After FC goes bankrupt it can be difficult for them to find a new job. I would imagine being an ex-AoC dev does not look good on your CV (unless you worked with graphics or sound).
Agreed...
Direction was the issue here, not the game itself.
I have said it over and over that the game is good, but Funcom is the issue. Misguided choices led this title down it's rocky path.
Time will only tell if it can get off that road and hit some smooth pavement.
While I can give you some of this.... I cant say that the developers are hold-harmless in this matter. 5 years and 60 million later they gave us this piece of crap.
Some people are like slinkies, they dont really have a purpose, but they still bring a smile to your face when you push them down the stairs.
Originally posted by openedge1 Originally posted by Scared Originally posted by ruslans
Originally posted by Scared I see FC kinda like as an ex-girlfriend who stole my money and cheated on me for months before getting caught. Of course I will break up with her and move on, but deep inside I get pleasure if she suffers and is unhappy, because I feel she deserves it. It's evil but that's human nature. We like it when bad things happen to bad people.
Bad people? Man, are you serious? You mean, all 150+ people working in the company? Everyone personally cheated on you, humiliated you and stole you money?
Like I said before, I feel bad for the hard working developers who had no part in FC's lying and amateur behaviour. They are the biggest victims here, not the players. They were betrayed by the management. After FC goes bankrupt it can be difficult for them to find a new job. I would imagine being an ex-AoC dev does not look good on your CV (unless you worked with graphics or sound). Agreed... Direction was the issue here, not the game itself. I have said it over and over that the game is good, but Funcom is the issue. Misguided choices led this title down it's rocky path. Time will only tell if it can get off that road and hit some smooth pavement.
I agree with you. AoC has so much potential but Funcom dropped the ball. The fatalities are the best and I dont think anything out now or in the near future can top it. I would love to come back and play this game under another developer. Put in the right direction AoC has the right stuff to be one of the top 5 mmo's. The biggest problem I see that I dont think can be overcome is the instancing. When I bought it, I didnt think it would be that big of a deal but after a few weeks playing, I noticed it took alot out of the social aspecs of the game.
I see FC kinda like as an ex-girlfriend who stole my money and cheated on me for months before getting caught. Of course I will break up with her and move on, but deep inside I get pleasure if she suffers and is unhappy, because I feel she deserves it. It's evil but that's human nature. We like it when bad things happen to bad people.
Bad people? Man, are you serious? You mean, all 150+ people working in the company? Everyone personally cheated on you, humiliated you and stole you money?
Like I said before, I feel bad for the hard working developers who had no part in FC's lying and amateur behaviour. They are the biggest victims here, not the players. They were betrayed by the management.
After FC goes bankrupt it can be difficult for them to find a new job. I would imagine being an ex-AoC dev does not look good on your CV (unless you worked with graphics or sound).
Agreed...
Direction was the issue here, not the game itself.
I have said it over and over that the game is good, but Funcom is the issue. Misguided choices led this title down it's rocky path.
Time will only tell if it can get off that road and hit some smooth pavement.
I agree with you. AoC has so much potential but Funcom dropped the ball. The fatalities are the best and I dont think anything out now or in the near future can top it.
I would love to come back and play this game under another developer. Put in the right direction AoC has the right stuff to be one of the top 5 mmo's.
The biggest problem I see that I dont think can be overcome is the instancing. When I bought it, I didnt think it would be that big of a deal but after a few weeks playing, I noticed it took alot out of the social aspecs of the game.
Agreed instancing killed the game for me too. Also the linear feel and the invisible walls also served to destory any illusion of a world, felt more like a rail ride.
Some people are like slinkies, they dont really have a purpose, but they still bring a smile to your face when you push them down the stairs.
Agreed instancing killed the game for me too. Also the linear feel and the invisible walls also served to destory any illusion of a world, felt more like a rail ride.
I think this is the big misnomer here, as this totally entails Tortage, and tells me you never left the island..
Agreed instancing killed the game for me too. Also the linear feel and the invisible walls also served to destory any illusion of a world, felt more like a rail ride.
I think this is the big misnomer here, as this totally entails Tortage, and tells me you never left the island..
I do want to point out, that these are accesible areas in these shots.
Now, I know there was instancing, but the zones were considerably larger than EQ2 or Guild Wars...2 other zoned games.
Take WoW where even though you have open fields and no zoning, you still had walls...mountains, cliffs, and so many variations of blockage..
If you want an OPEN world, then go play Vanguard...oh wait...that game still loads areas anyways (chunking)
So, really...the only rails in any game is your imagination...just have to have one.
Wrong - I left at level 64 - frost swamp egelphian mounts etc they are all basically linear. The whole game is linear. Man think about it ....................
Some people are like slinkies, they dont really have a purpose, but they still bring a smile to your face when you push them down the stairs.
I see FC kinda like as an ex-girlfriend who stole my money and cheated on me for months before getting caught. Of course I will break up with her and move on, but deep inside I get pleasure if she suffers and is unhappy, because I feel she deserves it. It's evil but that's human nature. We like it when bad things happen to bad people.
Bad people? Man, are you serious? You mean, all 150+ people working in the company? Everyone personally cheated on you, humiliated you and stole you money?
What about
I had good times with AoC but the endgame just wasn't there.
Speaking in the language of your "ex-girlfriend" metaphor:
You've met a girl, she was nice, but after a couple of month together you started to realize that she's not up to your taste. Instead of just breaking up and finding another girl you became jealous, started to accuse her in cheating on you and stealing your money (though even she's got her own job, and you don't) and finally cheated on her yourself. She has left you, but once in a while you send to her hate mails saying how much you want her to have a cancer. As well as all her family and friends.
And then, when her grandpa finally gets a cancer, it's the best day in your pathetic life.
I think a more accurate "ex-girlfriend" metaphor for AoC would be:
You're out and see this attractive woman at the bar/club/whatever. You two start chatting, have some drinks, dance, and enjoy each other's company for a few hours.
Then you get her home and find out that "she" is a pre-op tranny.
hahahahahaha! Im glad I wasnt drinking my morning coffee while I read that.
There is a better post about AoC and relationships : let me dig it up.
Wrong - I left at level 64 - frost swamp egelphian mounts etc they are all basically linear. The whole game is linear. Man think about it ....................
I am...and I don't get it.
How do you play WoW? Just wander aimlessly? How would you play WAR (ok, the A.D.D addicts do love this game, as it has 100 million things all going at once).
No you do quests (PQ's, etc...)
Because a game has a story, and as I level I can play in different zones? You call that linear? I do not NEED to do any of that, so in actuality, I can play the game as I wish, i.e: non-linear.
Just like every MMO is linear...if you let it be.
Your argument was being walled in...you are not. You can go most anywhere on the map you please.
Scared, Provided the frequency of yourself claiming other people being "employees" of whatever companies, and provided that you generally sound as an intelligent person, who apparently should have more important things in his life beyond kicking dead horses, I can not help the impression that you are an employee of some MMO company yourself. This looks like a regular FUD skirmish from the marketing/fan department of some (upcoming?) competing MMORPG. Let me guess... Darkfall?..
True, I have more important things in life than kicking a dead horse, aka FC. But sometimes people use their time unwisely. Some people watch tv, some people like to see AoC fail.
I see FC kinda like as an ex-girlfriend who stole my money and cheated on me for months before getting caught. Of course I will break up with her and move on, but deep inside I get pleasure if she suffers and is unhappy, because I feel she deserves it. It's evil but that's human nature. We like it when bad things happen to bad people.
At work, I have a couple of minutes a day to visit these forums and I do my part in putting FC's lying, amateur management out of a job. These people should have no place in MMO industry. I hope Erling goes next.
Unfortunately I don't work for any MMO company, but if I did, I would hope it would be better than Darkfall If ArenaNet needs more people for marketing, I might apply.
It will be a glorious day when FC goes bankrupt, and I will be here the day it happens.
Sociopath or vendetta holder extraodinaire?
I mean jesus man, that's pretty psychotic, don't you think?
EDIT- BTW why are you not also mad at Eidos, they did publish this game and must be at least partially responsible for the rushed state of the game at launch?
Sociopath or vendetta holder extraodinaire? I mean jesus man, that's pretty psychotic, don't you think? EDIT- BTW why are you not also mad at Eidos, they did publish this game and must be at least partially responsible for the rushed state of the game at launch?
You probably think my purpose in life is to see FC die. Sorry but that's not the case. I just use a couple of minutes a day to hopefully try to get some people not to re-subscribe until FC has finished AoC. I see it as a service to MMO community. I don't give a shit about poor little incompetent FC devs. If they cannot give us a product and service we are happy with, then they deserve to go bankrupt.
I don't think that makes me psychotic. But then again I believe crazy people rarely know they are crazy.
How much Eidos is responsible for the early launch is only speculation but at least they didn't lie to my face. Like I said before, bad products don't piss me off, only when they lie about it and treat community like crap.
If people re-subscribe or not, what does that have to do with you?
Does it bother you that people like something different then you?
There is alot of games i dont like, but i dont go around tell other people not to play them. And for god sake, i dont wish the developers of the game i dont like to fail.
People keep stating things like FC will go bankrupt and the game is a failure but in truth 400k subscribers at this stage is in no way a failure...EQ2 had 350k at its peak and it was the sequel to one of the most popular mmos in the past... Lotro never reached more than 300k and is now at only 150k and that game is going strong... WaR has reached 750k in its free month which is exactly pretty much what AoC had at that stage...who knows if WaR will increase after the free months up or noth but I believe it will end up around 400k like AoC... WaR wasnt for me and I AM going to resub to AoC for maybe a month just to see if it has improved... and as for performance I ran AoC on a dual core 2.3ghz with an 8800gt and the game ran fine even at release max settings with AA x8 with an average of 30fps sometimes more sometimes less.
-ok from reading around 400k was numbers from may and there is probably much less now.. but I wouldn't I wouldnt completely write off AoC...I think they will eventually stabalise there numbers round 250k eventually around the same that eq2 etc has.
Also I'd just like to add that Lich King is going to hurt WaR MUCH more than AoC because its community are all made up of people bored of WoW from what I experienced.
You,sir, are completely and utterly wrong. The fact that Xfire is a rough estimate of player trends may boggle your mind but the fact is that the trends can be linked on Xfire to many historical events on different games that does in fact prove that it does somewhat accuratly reflect what players are doing. Is it a 100% accurate model of what is going on? Of course not. But it does indicate trends. However, as player bases get smaller and smaller, such as in AoC, it does get less and less accurate.
As for Call of Duty series, it is ranked high because it is amazingly popular. COD4 has around 18000-19000 servers on any given night. Oh, by your logic I guess that is just coincidence then that it is ranked #2 on Xfire. Nope, noone is playing COD4, Xfire rank is just a random number!
Again, your comparison of different UT series is meaningless. Both UT and UT2004, while great games, are not exactly new releases. Lets face it, most UT players, at least in those early series, have moved on. So when you have a very low population, such as these games have, Xfire does become less and less meaningful, as far as rankings are concerned. Also you should be aware that UT2004 has some very popular mods that show up in Xfire but not on your browser search in UT. So therefore your comparison of UT to UT2004 does not take into account some very popular mods on 2004 such as Red Orchastra. I would be willing to bet there are many more people playing UT2004, with mods, than UT. UT was released in what, 2001??? What cavemen are still playing that?
Cut into that a little to make it somewhat readable - no need for 15 pages of quotes.
I disagree. Just because a handful of games are tracked accurately, does not mean that Xfire forms even a remotely decent indication of current game popularity. The vast majority of game statistics on Xfire can be proven to be utterly wrong, including the majority of the Top 10. If Xfire can't even remotely get the top 10 right, then how can you say it's anywhere near a decent depiction of how popular games are?
As for proof that the top 10 is completely inaccurate, there is plenty. Call of Duty 2 being ranked 3rd is ofcourse one of the prime pieces of evidence. Both Counter Strike and Counter Strike Source have several (dozen) times more players. Indeed even cavemen-games like Quake 3 and CoD 1 should be ranked above CoD 2, according to (far more) accurate game tracking systems (e.g.: Gamespy, Steam, Gametracker) that actually look at a sample of servers objectively, rather than a select few registered users. Instead these games are ranked pitifully low on Xfire by comparison (CS 1.6 + CZ = 13th ; Q3 + mods = 50-ish ; Call of Duty 1 = 11th).
Then there is the bit where CS 1.6 and Condition Zero combined sit in 13th place, even though CS 1.6 realistically is still the most popular shooter on the planet (however much I may dislike it). Condition Zero meanwhile should rank no lower than Enemy Territory (according to Steam stats it has well over 12000 concurrent player every evening - ET ranks no higher). Likewise Team Fortress 2 shouldn't rank so far below ET (8 places), seeing as concurrent player counts are actually equal.
Mentioning server counts is meaningless. They have no bearing on player counts. They may be a very rough indication of popularity (19.000 is obviously quite popular) but just having servers doesn't mean they're actually used. Just look at UT2004 or UT3: plenty of servers, not a whole lot of players - even though UT3 is a pretty decent game.
As for your bet on UT players vs UT2004 players - you'd lose that bet. Just because you think a game is less popular, doesn't mean it actually is - statistics are what counts, not gut feelings. I've actually done research prior to posting and have hand-counted active players in each standard game. I even included UT2004's most popular mod TAM in this count, which should've dramatically boosted it's ranking. In the end UT had 1100 players (without mods), where UT2004 (+ TAM) had barely 500. UT3 (without mods) ranked slightly higher at barely 600 players. (please note: gamespy can't be used in this case, because it tracks bots for UT2004, which make up for over 80% of it's player statistics)
If you really wanted to include Red Orchestra (which is now a seperate game) then I'd be forced to include the much more popular 'mod' Tactical Ops as well... which would only serve to boost UT's player counts further out of UT2004's reach. Because UT was the most easily moddable game at a time of few moddable games - and because it's several years older and more popular - it also has far more mods than UT2004 ever had. Counting these and their current player counts would really only make UT gain an even greater lead on UT2004.
However much you may dislike it, some people actually prefer to play good games over new games. You may call them cavemen, I call them gamers. Just because a game is newer (Quake 4) doesn't mean it's better (Quake 3). Although sometimes (UT3) it does (UT2004). It's why Counter Strike is still the most popular FPS. It's why UT is still far more popular than any of it's predecessors (or all of them combined for that matter). It's why Quake 3 still has many thousands of players every night. It's why Quake Live is in development and expected to do well. And it's why people are still playing World of Warcraft and not Warhammer Online.
So off you go, playing new games exclusively, regardless of their quality. I, as a genuine gamer, or caveman as you prefer to call it, will play good games - regardless of their age. I may be a caveman, but at least I'm having fun - can you really say the same?
Conclusion: Don't use Xfire to draw conclusions regarding game popularity. You're guaranteed to get it wrong. Hence you can't say Age of Conan is more or less popular now than a month ago based solely on Xfire statistics. I hope it does well and improves significantly over the next few months, because I still have a game card and I'd rather like it to be much improved and decently populated when I get around to playing it again.
(PS: UT was released in 1999. Ever noticed how everyone calls it UT'99?)
Apparently the poster above me didn't play any other games at launch. Vanguard, WoW (not as bugged but just as broken), SGW, etc were all just as broken, if not more so, as AoC
Apparently the poster above me didn't play any other games at launch. Vanguard, WoW (not as bugged but just as broken), SGW, etc were all just as broken, if not more so, as AoC
The only MMOs I played at launch were:
AO, EQ2, DDO, AoC.
Of those 4, AO was the worst, AoC was a very close second, followed by DDO then EQ2. And have played a decent cross section of other MMOs (but not at launch). I just find it odd that the two worst MMO launches that I personaly experienced were both Funcom games. I must give them a little slack on AO though, since they were still a very inexperienced company, but AoC proved they didn't learn a thing.
Comments
AOC, like AO at release, has potential.
In a year? It may be the best thing since sliced bread, once you get used to the grabass zonelines and odd warp NPC placement in relation to what neighboring terrain is.
The engine is laughibly bad, even for a beefed up AO engine (and it is) - I doubt it will run properly on any system for the next several years simply due to that.
The texturing, skills, controls, sound, leveling is all pretty decent, though I did learn to hate Conarch Valley or whatever it is. (Snowy area with nasty frostgiant things)
I really felt that...
They did such a good job on Tortage, the lack of polish and general odd problems with the game later on came to leave a sour taste in alot of peopels' mouths. (Tortage is excellence!)
You have not tried the engine recently then...but of course, hardware is required..
I have a 4870 512mb, 4 gigs and Vista 64, and get a constant 60FPS ...WITH Shadows..
So, the game engine is future proofed. This same system though runs Vanguard, LOTRO, EQ2 and WAR like crap...why? Backwards looking engines.
But, as to the Tortage statement ..I agree. I have stated in the past, 40 levels would have been enough. Polish that 40, add full voiceovers, and then worked on PvP AFTER launch, and then 3 months down the road, release it as a free content update.
The bitching then would have been 50% less...guaranteed.
Bad people? Man, are you serious? You mean, all 150+ people working in the company? Everyone personally cheated on you, humiliated you and stole you money?
What about
Speaking in the language of your "ex-girlfriend" metaphor:
You've met a girl, she was nice, but after a couple of month together you started to realize that she's not up to your taste. Instead of just breaking up and finding another girl you became jealous, started to accuse her in cheating on you and stealing your money (though even she's got her own job, and you don't) and finally cheated on her yourself. She has left you, but once in a while you send to her hate mails saying how much you want her to have a cancer. As well as all her family and friends.
And then, when her grandpa finally gets a cancer, it's the best day in your pathetic life.
Bad people? Man, are you serious? You mean, all 150+ people working in the company? Everyone personally cheated on you, humiliated you and stole you money?
What about
Speaking in the language of your "ex-girlfriend" metaphor:
You've met a girl, she was nice, but after a couple of month together you started to realize that she's not up to your taste. Instead of just breaking up and finding another girl you became jealous, started to accuse her in cheating on you and stealing your money (though even she's got her own job, and you don't) and finally cheated on her yourself. She has left you, but once in a while you send to her hate mails saying how much you want her to have a cancer. As well as all her family and friends.
And then, when her grandpa finally gets a cancer, it's the best day in your pathetic life.
I think a more accurate "ex-girlfriend" metaphor for AoC would be:
You're out and see this attractive woman at the bar/club/whatever. You two start chatting, have some drinks, dance, and enjoy each other's company for a few hours.
Then you get her home and find out that "she" is a pre-op tranny.
Speaking in the language of your "ex-girlfriend" metaphor:
You've met a girl, she was nice, but after a couple of month together you started to realize that she's not up to your taste. Instead of just breaking up and finding another girl you became jealous, started to accuse her in cheating on you and stealing your money (though even she's got her own job, and you don't) and finally cheated on her yourself. She has left you, but once in a while you send to her hate mails saying how much you want her to have a cancer. As well as all her family and friends.
And then, when her grandpa finally gets a cancer, it's the best day in your pathetic life.
I think a more accurate "ex-girlfriend" metaphor for AoC would be:
You're out and see this attractive woman at the bar/club/whatever. You two start chatting, have some drinks, dance, and enjoy each other's company for a few hours.
Then you get her home and find out that "she" is a pre-op tranny.
hahahahahaha! Im glad I wasnt drinking my morning coffee while I read that.
Bad people? Man, are you serious? You mean, all 150+ people working in the company? Everyone personally cheated on you, humiliated you and stole you money?
Like I said before, I feel bad for the hard working developers who had no part in FC's lying and amateur behaviour. They are the biggest victims here, not the players. They were betrayed by the management.
After FC goes bankrupt it can be difficult for them to find a new job. I would imagine being an ex-AoC dev does not look good on your CV (unless you worked with graphics or sound).
Bad people? Man, are you serious? You mean, all 150+ people working in the company? Everyone personally cheated on you, humiliated you and stole you money?
Like I said before, I feel bad for the hard working developers who had no part in FC's lying and amateur behaviour. They are the biggest victims here, not the players. They were betrayed by the management.
After FC goes bankrupt it can be difficult for them to find a new job. I would imagine being an ex-AoC dev does not look good on your CV (unless you worked with graphics or sound).
Agreed...
Direction was the issue here, not the game itself.
I have said it over and over that the game is good, but Funcom is the issue. Misguided choices led this title down it's rocky path.
Time will only tell if it can get off that road and hit some smooth pavement.
While I can give you some of this.... I cant say that the developers are hold-harmless in this matter. 5 years and 60 million later they gave us this piece of crap.
Some people are like slinkies, they dont really have a purpose, but they still bring a smile to your face when you push them down the stairs.
Bad people? Man, are you serious? You mean, all 150+ people working in the company? Everyone personally cheated on you, humiliated you and stole you money?
Like I said before, I feel bad for the hard working developers who had no part in FC's lying and amateur behaviour. They are the biggest victims here, not the players. They were betrayed by the management.
After FC goes bankrupt it can be difficult for them to find a new job. I would imagine being an ex-AoC dev does not look good on your CV (unless you worked with graphics or sound).
Agreed...
Direction was the issue here, not the game itself.
I have said it over and over that the game is good, but Funcom is the issue. Misguided choices led this title down it's rocky path.
Time will only tell if it can get off that road and hit some smooth pavement.
I agree with you. AoC has so much potential but Funcom dropped the ball. The fatalities are the best and I dont think anything out now or in the near future can top it.
I would love to come back and play this game under another developer. Put in the right direction AoC has the right stuff to be one of the top 5 mmo's.
The biggest problem I see that I dont think can be overcome is the instancing. When I bought it, I didnt think it would be that big of a deal but after a few weeks playing, I noticed it took alot out of the social aspecs of the game.
Bad people? Man, are you serious? You mean, all 150+ people working in the company? Everyone personally cheated on you, humiliated you and stole you money?
Like I said before, I feel bad for the hard working developers who had no part in FC's lying and amateur behaviour. They are the biggest victims here, not the players. They were betrayed by the management.
After FC goes bankrupt it can be difficult for them to find a new job. I would imagine being an ex-AoC dev does not look good on your CV (unless you worked with graphics or sound).
Agreed...
Direction was the issue here, not the game itself.
I have said it over and over that the game is good, but Funcom is the issue. Misguided choices led this title down it's rocky path.
Time will only tell if it can get off that road and hit some smooth pavement.
I agree with you. AoC has so much potential but Funcom dropped the ball. The fatalities are the best and I dont think anything out now or in the near future can top it.
I would love to come back and play this game under another developer. Put in the right direction AoC has the right stuff to be one of the top 5 mmo's.
The biggest problem I see that I dont think can be overcome is the instancing. When I bought it, I didnt think it would be that big of a deal but after a few weeks playing, I noticed it took alot out of the social aspecs of the game.
Agreed instancing killed the game for me too. Also the linear feel and the invisible walls also served to destory any illusion of a world, felt more like a rail ride.
Some people are like slinkies, they dont really have a purpose, but they still bring a smile to your face when you push them down the stairs.
I think this is the big misnomer here, as this totally entails Tortage, and tells me you never left the island..
This is what I SAW when I left Tortage...
Here
and
Here
and
Here
I do want to point out, that these are accesible areas in these shots.
Now, I know there was instancing, but the zones were considerably larger than EQ2 or Guild Wars...2 other zoned games.
Take WoW where even though you have open fields and no zoning, you still had walls...mountains, cliffs, and so many variations of blockage..
If you want an OPEN world, then go play Vanguard...oh wait...that game still loads areas anyways (chunking)
So, really...the only rails in any game is your imagination...just have to have one.
I think this is the big misnomer here, as this totally entails Tortage, and tells me you never left the island..
This is what I SAW when I left Tortage...
Here
and
Here
and
Here
I do want to point out, that these are accesible areas in these shots.
Now, I know there was instancing, but the zones were considerably larger than EQ2 or Guild Wars...2 other zoned games.
Take WoW where even though you have open fields and no zoning, you still had walls...mountains, cliffs, and so many variations of blockage..
If you want an OPEN world, then go play Vanguard...oh wait...that game still loads areas anyways (chunking)
So, really...the only rails in any game is your imagination...just have to have one.
Wrong - I left at level 64 - frost swamp egelphian mounts etc they are all basically linear. The whole game is linear. Man think about it ....................
Some people are like slinkies, they dont really have a purpose, but they still bring a smile to your face when you push them down the stairs.
Speaking in the language of your "ex-girlfriend" metaphor:
You've met a girl, she was nice, but after a couple of month together you started to realize that she's not up to your taste. Instead of just breaking up and finding another girl you became jealous, started to accuse her in cheating on you and stealing your money (though even she's got her own job, and you don't) and finally cheated on her yourself. She has left you, but once in a while you send to her hate mails saying how much you want her to have a cancer. As well as all her family and friends.
And then, when her grandpa finally gets a cancer, it's the best day in your pathetic life.
I think a more accurate "ex-girlfriend" metaphor for AoC would be:
You're out and see this attractive woman at the bar/club/whatever. You two start chatting, have some drinks, dance, and enjoy each other's company for a few hours.
Then you get her home and find out that "she" is a pre-op tranny.
hahahahahaha! Im glad I wasnt drinking my morning coffee while I read that.
There is a better post about AoC and relationships : let me dig it up.
EDIT : FOUND IT! http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/199192
Some people are like slinkies, they dont really have a purpose, but they still bring a smile to your face when you push them down the stairs.
I am...and I don't get it.
How do you play WoW? Just wander aimlessly? How would you play WAR (ok, the A.D.D addicts do love this game, as it has 100 million things all going at once).
No you do quests (PQ's, etc...)
Because a game has a story, and as I level I can play in different zones? You call that linear? I do not NEED to do any of that, so in actuality, I can play the game as I wish, i.e: non-linear.
Just like every MMO is linear...if you let it be.
Your argument was being walled in...you are not. You can go most anywhere on the map you please.
True, I have more important things in life than kicking a dead horse, aka FC. But sometimes people use their time unwisely. Some people watch tv, some people like to see AoC fail.
I see FC kinda like as an ex-girlfriend who stole my money and cheated on me for months before getting caught. Of course I will break up with her and move on, but deep inside I get pleasure if she suffers and is unhappy, because I feel she deserves it. It's evil but that's human nature. We like it when bad things happen to bad people.
At work, I have a couple of minutes a day to visit these forums and I do my part in putting FC's lying, amateur management out of a job. These people should have no place in MMO industry. I hope Erling goes next.
Unfortunately I don't work for any MMO company, but if I did, I would hope it would be better than Darkfall
If ArenaNet needs more people for marketing, I might apply.
It will be a glorious day when FC goes bankrupt, and I will be here the day it happens.
Sociopath or vendetta holder extraodinaire?
I mean jesus man, that's pretty psychotic, don't you think?
EDIT- BTW why are you not also mad at Eidos, they did publish this game and must be at least partially responsible for the rushed state of the game at launch?
You probably think my purpose in life is to see FC die. Sorry but that's not the case. I just use a couple of minutes a day to hopefully try to get some people not to re-subscribe until FC has finished AoC. I see it as a service to MMO community. I don't give a shit about poor little incompetent FC devs. If they cannot give us a product and service we are happy with, then they deserve to go bankrupt.
I don't think that makes me psychotic. But then again I believe crazy people rarely know they are crazy.
How much Eidos is responsible for the early launch is only speculation but at least they didn't lie to my face. Like I said before, bad products don't piss me off, only when they lie about it and treat community like crap.
To the OP.
If people re-subscribe or not, what does that have to do with you?
Does it bother you that people like something different then you?
There is alot of games i dont like, but i dont go around tell other people not to play them. And for god sake, i dont wish the developers of the game i dont like to fail.
This is just too silly.
Almost feel sad for people like this, almost!
People keep stating things like FC will go bankrupt and the game is a failure but in truth 400k subscribers at this stage is in no way a failure...EQ2 had 350k at its peak and it was the sequel to one of the most popular mmos in the past... Lotro never reached more than 300k and is now at only 150k and that game is going strong... WaR has reached 750k in its free month which is exactly pretty much what AoC had at that stage...who knows if WaR will increase after the free months up or noth but I believe it will end up around 400k like AoC... WaR wasnt for me and I AM going to resub to AoC for maybe a month just to see if it has improved... and as for performance I ran AoC on a dual core 2.3ghz with an 8800gt and the game ran fine even at release max settings with AA x8 with an average of 30fps sometimes more sometimes less.
-ok from reading around 400k was numbers from may and there is probably much less now.. but I wouldn't I wouldnt completely write off AoC...I think they will eventually stabalise there numbers round 250k eventually around the same that eq2 etc has.
Also I'd just like to add that Lich King is going to hurt WaR MUCH more than AoC because its community are all made up of people bored of WoW from what I experienced.
You,sir, are completely and utterly wrong. The fact that Xfire is a rough estimate of player trends may boggle your mind but the fact is that the trends can be linked on Xfire to many historical events on different games that does in fact prove that it does somewhat accuratly reflect what players are doing. Is it a 100% accurate model of what is going on? Of course not. But it does indicate trends. However, as player bases get smaller and smaller, such as in AoC, it does get less and less accurate.
As for Call of Duty series, it is ranked high because it is amazingly popular. COD4 has around 18000-19000 servers on any given night. Oh, by your logic I guess that is just coincidence then that it is ranked #2 on Xfire. Nope, noone is playing COD4, Xfire rank is just a random number!
Again, your comparison of different UT series is meaningless. Both UT and UT2004, while great games, are not exactly new releases. Lets face it, most UT players, at least in those early series, have moved on. So when you have a very low population, such as these games have, Xfire does become less and less meaningful, as far as rankings are concerned. Also you should be aware that UT2004 has some very popular mods that show up in Xfire but not on your browser search in UT. So therefore your comparison of UT to UT2004 does not take into account some very popular mods on 2004 such as Red Orchastra. I would be willing to bet there are many more people playing UT2004, with mods, than UT. UT was released in what, 2001??? What cavemen are still playing that?
Cut into that a little to make it somewhat readable - no need for 15 pages of quotes.
I disagree. Just because a handful of games are tracked accurately, does not mean that Xfire forms even a remotely decent indication of current game popularity. The vast majority of game statistics on Xfire can be proven to be utterly wrong, including the majority of the Top 10. If Xfire can't even remotely get the top 10 right, then how can you say it's anywhere near a decent depiction of how popular games are?
As for proof that the top 10 is completely inaccurate, there is plenty. Call of Duty 2 being ranked 3rd is ofcourse one of the prime pieces of evidence. Both Counter Strike and Counter Strike Source have several (dozen) times more players. Indeed even cavemen-games like Quake 3 and CoD 1 should be ranked above CoD 2, according to (far more) accurate game tracking systems (e.g.: Gamespy, Steam, Gametracker) that actually look at a sample of servers objectively, rather than a select few registered users. Instead these games are ranked pitifully low on Xfire by comparison (CS 1.6 + CZ = 13th ; Q3 + mods = 50-ish ; Call of Duty 1 = 11th).
Then there is the bit where CS 1.6 and Condition Zero combined sit in 13th place, even though CS 1.6 realistically is still the most popular shooter on the planet (however much I may dislike it). Condition Zero meanwhile should rank no lower than Enemy Territory (according to Steam stats it has well over 12000 concurrent player every evening - ET ranks no higher). Likewise Team Fortress 2 shouldn't rank so far below ET (8 places), seeing as concurrent player counts are actually equal.
Mentioning server counts is meaningless. They have no bearing on player counts. They may be a very rough indication of popularity (19.000 is obviously quite popular) but just having servers doesn't mean they're actually used. Just look at UT2004 or UT3: plenty of servers, not a whole lot of players - even though UT3 is a pretty decent game.
As for your bet on UT players vs UT2004 players - you'd lose that bet. Just because you think a game is less popular, doesn't mean it actually is - statistics are what counts, not gut feelings. I've actually done research prior to posting and have hand-counted active players in each standard game. I even included UT2004's most popular mod TAM in this count, which should've dramatically boosted it's ranking. In the end UT had 1100 players (without mods), where UT2004 (+ TAM) had barely 500. UT3 (without mods) ranked slightly higher at barely 600 players. (please note: gamespy can't be used in this case, because it tracks bots for UT2004, which make up for over 80% of it's player statistics)
If you really wanted to include Red Orchestra (which is now a seperate game) then I'd be forced to include the much more popular 'mod' Tactical Ops as well... which would only serve to boost UT's player counts further out of UT2004's reach. Because UT was the most easily moddable game at a time of few moddable games - and because it's several years older and more popular - it also has far more mods than UT2004 ever had. Counting these and their current player counts would really only make UT gain an even greater lead on UT2004.
However much you may dislike it, some people actually prefer to play good games over new games. You may call them cavemen, I call them gamers. Just because a game is newer (Quake 4) doesn't mean it's better (Quake 3). Although sometimes (UT3) it does (UT2004). It's why Counter Strike is still the most popular FPS. It's why UT is still far more popular than any of it's predecessors (or all of them combined for that matter). It's why Quake 3 still has many thousands of players every night. It's why Quake Live is in development and expected to do well. And it's why people are still playing World of Warcraft and not Warhammer Online.
So off you go, playing new games exclusively, regardless of their quality. I, as a genuine gamer, or caveman as you prefer to call it, will play good games - regardless of their age. I may be a caveman, but at least I'm having fun - can you really say the same?
Conclusion: Don't use Xfire to draw conclusions regarding game popularity. You're guaranteed to get it wrong. Hence you can't say Age of Conan is more or less popular now than a month ago based solely on Xfire statistics. I hope it does well and improves significantly over the next few months, because I still have a game card and I'd rather like it to be much improved and decently populated when I get around to playing it again.
(PS: UT was released in 1999. Ever noticed how everyone calls it UT'99?)
This thread still alive?
PS: Still "Resubscribed" BTW!
Ditto
"Everything the light touches is our kingdom" -- Mufasa
---
I am never playing a FunCom game again.
You can't find worse support anywhere. The game might look pretty but it's beyond boring and bugged like never before.
If it ain't dead you're not pressing 2 hard enough.
Apparently the poster above me didn't play any other games at launch. Vanguard, WoW (not as bugged but just as broken), SGW, etc were all just as broken, if not more so, as AoC
Games:
Currently playing:Nothing
Will play: Darkfall: Unholy Wars
Past games:
Guild Wars 2 - Xpiher Duminous
Xpiher's GW2
GW 1 - Xpiher Duminous
Darkfall - Xpiher Duminous (NA) retired
AoC - Xpiher (Tyranny) retired
Warhammer - Xpiher
The only MMOs I played at launch were:
AO, EQ2, DDO, AoC.
Of those 4, AO was the worst, AoC was a very close second, followed by DDO then EQ2. And have played a decent cross section of other MMOs (but not at launch). I just find it odd that the two worst MMO launches that I personaly experienced were both Funcom games. I must give them a little slack on AO though, since they were still a very inexperienced company, but AoC proved they didn't learn a thing.