Thanks for the feedback guys. We are also working on Free Trials pretty soon here too.
Excellent news! I suppose this means that the "win-back" campaign will start soon.
However, for the good of AoC, I hope that the free trials don't start too soon, as launching this too early could lead returners to think that little has changed.
As a great many people have mentioned, itemisation is a big issue. For many, class balance is also an issue (e.g.ToS being OP, DTs needing some love, HoX being Avatar-focussed & many others.)
For my money, I'm wondering if the free trials should only come after the system revamp (in 1.05 perhaps?), as that will, from my understanding, have a huge effect on item stats & gems and will allow FC to (finally) get on with class balancing in a serious way.
My guess would be that the free trials will launch after the stats revamp, but perhaps within a month before the launch of the Poor Quarter. That way, returnees would see content being added whilst they're playing, creating a nice carrot to make them want to subscribe.
First off - AOC has the worst possible chance of gaining alot of new custimors from free trials. The game client is HUGE ... actually its so big that Funcom has been charging ppl for just downloading it for the buddy program.
I highly doubt that masses of ppl will be downloading 15-20 GBs. Specially if that "free" download is actually paid for like with the buddy system.
I still consider Funcom to be in huge problem with AOC. Their best bet now is to focus on other games to try to get out of the mess they have got themselfs into. AOC will not make the money needed to maintain steady updates in the scale of the other big MMOs like WOW, LOTRO or even WAR. Thats just fact and ppl need to admit it. There will be less content coming into AOC than any other MMO in 2009. Cause the company simply does not have the money to compete.
About "free" trials from Funcom. First off - AOC has the worst possible chance of gaining alot of new custimors from free trials. The game client is HUGE ... actually its so big that Funcom has been charging ppl for just downloading it for the buddy program. I highly doubt that masses of ppl will be downloading 15-20 GBs. Specially if that "free" download is actually paid for like with the buddy system. I still consider Funcom to be in huge problem with AOC. Their best bet now is to focus on other games to try to get out of the mess they have got themselfs into. AOC will not make the money needed to maintain steady updates in the scale of the other big MMOs like WOW, LOTRO or even WAR. Thats just fact and ppl need to admit it. There will be less content coming into AOC than any other MMO in 2009. Cause the company simply does not have the money to compete.
The masses of people download MP3 files and other games by torrentsites for gigabytes after gigabytes, why shouldn't they want to download 20gb of a game?
Playing: Battlefield - Bad company (Xbox360) Arma2, DFO (PC) On my radar: TSW, MO MMO's played: SWG (pre cu/cu), WoW, AoC, WAR, DFO, Planetside MMO's that I have tested: Lotro, L2, Aion, Ryzom
Okay Frobner, I gave you the benefit of the doubt on another post you made today, figuring maybe you were just an uninformed person, not a troll. Alas, here you are again, but this time suggesting yo have to pay for the client when you get a buddy key.
I can tell you for a fact that the buddy key system they have in place does not charge the person to try the game, otherwise why even have a buddy program. As for downloading the 15-20 GB's, yes people do indeed download such file sizes. Everytime i gave EQ2 or vanguard a try, it was by getting the updater and letting it run for a day.
As for funcom being a problem with AoC, you are right, my worry is that while funcom has gotten better with working with the community, they could easily revert to their heavy handed ignorant methods. But to suggest taht AoC is incapable of making money to support itself is a tad preemptive. AoC has steadily grown with updates and patches and now has a moderate amount of content, and in the following year i'm confident there will be additions (2 lvl 80 dungeons are on testlive as we speak).
"There will be less content coming into AOC than any other MMO in 2009." - You do realize there are more then just 2 or 3 MMO's on the market. While i may be able to suggest this statement is false by simply stating that funcom announced an expansion for AoC last august with the expectation of release at the same time they tried to push into the asian market. OR I could point out other stagnant MMO's, EQ or Vanguard for example.
AmazingAveryAge of Conan AdvocateMemberUncommonPosts: 7,188
Originally posted by Frobner
About "free" trials from Funcom. First off - AOC has the worst possible chance of gaining alot of new custimors from free trials. The game client is HUGE ... actually its so big that Funcom has been charging ppl for just downloading it for the buddy program. I highly doubt that masses of ppl will be downloading 15-20 GBs. Specially if that "free" download is actually paid for like with the buddy system. I still consider Funcom to be in huge problem with AOC. Their best bet now is to focus on other games to try to get out of the mess they have got themselfs into. AOC will not make the money needed to maintain steady updates in the scale of the other big MMOs like WOW, LOTRO or even WAR. Thats just fact and ppl need to admit it. There will be less content coming into AOC than any other MMO in 2009. Cause the company simply does not have the money to compete.
The buddy Key thread continues to grow and is popular. Same on official fourms and guild forums all over.
They are in demand, simply put, Still. I highly doubt you can speak for them all.
I consider people who come to the forums with outdated information based off experiences half a year plus ago to be an issue for the interest party persuing. Misinformative, no factual postings and guess work is all they have left. They are not up to date on forthcoming changes or short term or long term goals. Hate and deceivement and ulterior motives often overclouds judgement. Of course all opinions are welcome but it is strange when you actually log into the game these days and wonder what some people are on about.
If you think AoC is doomed why show the same interest in the game as the company making it?
FC made over $100 M revenue last year and when the Quarter report comes in a few weeks time will show you to be wrong. Same as last time and time before right?
AA can u plz inform the above poster that Funcom is charging players for downloading the Buddy key client ? It seems like he is not gonna belive it when I say it.
For the rest of my comments - I stick to every word I said. Thats my opinion and Im free to have one.
AmazingAveryAge of Conan AdvocateMemberUncommonPosts: 7,188
Originally posted by Frobner
Lets stick to facts plz AA can u plz inform the above poster that Funcom is charging players for downloading the Buddy key client ? It seems like he is not gonna belive it when I say it. For the rest of my comments - I stick to every word I said. Thats my opinion and Im free to have one.
Frobner, you are absolutely right Funcom DO charge $2.99 to download the client, but not if you install from DVD, if you do DL though you get an extra 3 days of play to make up for it - which I think is adequate.
Of course your opinions are welcome, might not always agree, but still welcomed.
In the coming couple months there should be a free trial though, we will probably see details on Feb 23rd I think.
Lets stick to facts plz AA can u plz inform the above poster that Funcom is charging players for downloading the Buddy key client ? It seems like he is not gonna belive it when I say it. For the rest of my comments - I stick to every word I said. Thats my opinion and Im free to have one.
Frobner, you are absolutely right Funcom DO charge $2.99 to download the client, but not if you install from DVD, if you do DL though you get an extra 3 days of play to make up for it - which I think is adequate.
Of course your opinions are welcome, might not always agree, but still welcomed.
In the coming couple months there should be a free trial though, we will probably see details on Feb 23rd I think.
I just hope for FCs sake that their "free" trial really is a "free" trial, as in removing the ridiculousness of charging people to download their own game. I understand it costs a fund (a small one at that) to maintain a 15-20gb download source, but I would think the benefit of having more people try the game and potentially buying it would be far more worth it then the 10% of those who would be willing to pay the $3 dollars, despite how small a cost it is. I basically look at it from FCs perspective
If 10 potential players all tried the game, maybe 2 or 3 of those people would buy the box. If charging $3.00 just to download the game and not being available anywhere else (it is, but very difficult to find anymore) then maybe only 2 of those people out of 10 would be willing to pay just for a trial; it's unlikely that either of those two would buy the game, when in comparison to the 10 people who would try it; an overall profit of $80 - $120 (or less, depending on where it's purchased and how much FC actually makes from a box sale. Realistically probably $40 - $60 dollar profit) compared to the $6 dollars sounds better to me.
Better hope any free client distribution system isn't run by Solid State Systems. Their PoS "torrent-hybrid" screwed over a ton of the Early Access Downloaders. Had to love FC's support answer to work around that crap software , "Turn your DL to Max and your UL to min, log-off once your DL is complete" ... talk about recipe Epic P2P Fail .... that truly was the harbinger of things to come.
About "free" trials from Funcom. First off - AOC has the worst possible chance of gaining alot of new custimors from free trials. The game client is HUGE ... actually its so big that Funcom has been charging ppl for just downloading it for the buddy program. I highly doubt that masses of ppl will be downloading 15-20 GBs. Specially if that "free" download is actually paid for like with the buddy system. I still consider Funcom to be in huge problem with AOC. Their best bet now is to focus on other games to try to get out of the mess they have got themselfs into. AOC will not make the money needed to maintain steady updates in the scale of the other big MMOs like WOW, LOTRO or even WAR. Thats just fact and ppl need to admit it. There will be less content coming into AOC than any other MMO in 2009. Cause the company simply does not have the money to compete.
OPINIONS STATED AS FACTS / FACTS WITHOUT SOURCES
First off - AOC has the worst possible chance of gaining alot of new custimors from free trials.
Their best bet now is to focus on other games to try to get out of the mess they have got themselfs into.
AOC will not make the money needed to maintain steady updates in the scale of the other big MMOs like WOW, LOTRO or even WAR. Thats just fact and ppl need to admit it.
There will be less content coming into AOC than any other MMO in 2009.
Cause the company simply does not have the money to compete.
More than likely, any free trial will be limited to participating in Tortage only, along the lines of EQ2's Trial of the Isle. This would keep the client size relatively small compared to the full game.
Considering the amount of boxes they sold at launch I wonder how many people would be interested that do not already own the disks or client.
i was going to say this.
They should in fact aim for that lot imo. To do that they should be able to say "hey come back, the things you said missing when you filled the form when leaving are in now"
Considering the amount of boxes they sold at launch I wonder how many people would be interested that do not already own the disks or client.
i was going to say this.
They should in fact aim for that lot imo. To do that they should be able to say "hey come back, the things you said missing when you filled the form when leaving are in now"
problem is that although the game runs smoother in DX9, has most of the major bugs squashed, and a few of the leveling gaps have been filled in it is still the same game in most respects.
You sure try hard don't you Mr. AmazingFanboy? You can fanboy and hype a game skyhigh all day long but a company charging for free trial... Dosn't need alot of explanation...
Failcom at it's best...
You live in a communist state? Where you are forced to do things against your will
FYI nobody forces you to do anything here, so since you dont like to pay for it then dont. Nobody will shoot you!
And by the way its not technically a free trial its a buddy program.
You sure try hard don't you Mr. AmazingFanboy? You can fanboy and hype a game skyhigh all day long but a company charging for free trial... Dosn't need alot of explanation...
Failcom at it's best...
You live in a communist state? Where you are forced to do things against your will
FYI nobody forces you to do anything here, so since you dont like to pay for it then dont. Nobody will shoot you!
And by the way its not technically a free trial its a buddy program.
oh come on now , I don't see how anyone can defend that policy. That had to be #2 in the most desperate, dumbest and greediest policy I have ever heard of in gaming. #1 was Farlan marketing a 60 dollar (might have been $80, I never got suckered on that one) Dark and Light "preorder' sight unseen .
Considering the amount of boxes they sold at launch I wonder how many people would be interested that do not already own the disks or client.
i was going to say this.
They should in fact aim for that lot imo. To do that they should be able to say "hey come back, the things you said missing when you filled the form when leaving are in now"
problem is that although the game runs smoother in DX9, has most of the major bugs squashed, and a few of the leveling gaps have been filled in it is still the same game in most respects.
and for that reason they should wait with free trials. i think they will enable it after the dx10 patch but imo they should wait until they finish itemization, stat changes.
Considering the amount of boxes they sold at launch I wonder how many people would be interested that do not already own the disks or client.
i was going to say this.
They should in fact aim for that lot imo. To do that they should be able to say "hey come back, the things you said missing when you filled the form when leaving are in now"
problem is that although the game runs smoother in DX9, has most of the major bugs squashed, and a few of the leveling gaps have been filled in it is still the same game in most respects.
and for that reason they should wait with free trials. i think they will enable it after the dx10 patch but imo they should wait until they finish itemization, stat changes.
I completely agree.
One thing though is unless DX10 runs better on the main servers than it does on the test server they better hold off on release. I am using Win 7 and do not receive much if any performance hit between any of my DX10 games except AoC. There my FPS is cut in half, I would bet that it would be darn near unplayable except on a monster machine in Vista. I never bought Vista so I can't test that.
I would blame it on background metrics except the game runs the same in DX9 on either Win7 or Win XP so it definitely the DX10 client. Anyway other than the water and fog the DX10 is not all that anyway, I mean how much time can you spend admiring the water quality in a game for entertainment. It's nice fluff but to me the loot tables and a more content for a alternate advancement path would have been priority.
Glad to hear they are getting things turned around over there but this game imho will never hold a candle to LOTRO maybe if you're in it for pvp but otherwise theres no competition. Good luck though to you and funcom as well
but yeah, to call this game Fantastic is like calling Twilight the Godfather of vampire movies....
I completely agree. One thing though is unless DX10 runs better on the main servers than it does on the test server they better hold off on release. I am using Win 7 and do not receive much if any performance hit between any of my DX10 games except AoC. There my FPS is cut in half, I would bet that it would be darn near unplayable except on a monster machine in Vista. I never bought Vista so I can't test that. I would blame it on background metrics except the game runs the same in DX9 on either Win7 or Win XP so it definitely the DX10 client. Anyway other than the water and fog the DX10 is not all that anyway, I mean how much time can you spend admiring the water quality in a game for entertainment. It's nice fluff but to me the loot tables and a more content for a alternate advancement path would have been priority.
it already has the best graphics so i dont see why the rush (actually i do, seeing as dx10 label on the boxes has been made the flagship of the hatred, funcom probably thought people actually cared about dx10 that much). I mean its good policy to try doing better all the time even when you are at the top but its better policy to know where you are lacking and improving the needed parts first.
personally I would never go back to AoC. I bought the box but stopped playing after 2 months due to a myriad of reasons. I hope the game dosent fail because it has some great features but I reckon it is still declining for a while until it levels out with a community of harcore AoC lovers. But will it be too late by then? Let us wait and see.
Originally posted by Falfeir it already has the best graphics so i dont see why the rush (actually i do, seeing as dx10 label on the boxes has been made the flagship of the hatred, funcom probably thought people actually cared about dx10 that much). I mean its good policy to try doing better all the time even when you are at the top but its better policy to know where you are lacking and improving the needed parts first.
Comments
Excellent news! I suppose this means that the "win-back" campaign will start soon.
However, for the good of AoC, I hope that the free trials don't start too soon, as launching this too early could lead returners to think that little has changed.
As a great many people have mentioned, itemisation is a big issue. For many, class balance is also an issue (e.g.ToS being OP, DTs needing some love, HoX being Avatar-focussed & many others.)
For my money, I'm wondering if the free trials should only come after the system revamp (in 1.05 perhaps?), as that will, from my understanding, have a huge effect on item stats & gems and will allow FC to (finally) get on with class balancing in a serious way.
My guess would be that the free trials will launch after the stats revamp, but perhaps within a month before the launch of the Poor Quarter. That way, returnees would see content being added whilst they're playing, creating a nice carrot to make them want to subscribe.
Bear shaman good in sieges? Not at the moment, mate. Now only casters are good in sieges.
Fun to play, you can go dps healing or bybrid. Very nice class
About "free" trials from Funcom.
First off - AOC has the worst possible chance of gaining alot of new custimors from free trials. The game client is HUGE ... actually its so big that Funcom has been charging ppl for just downloading it for the buddy program.
I highly doubt that masses of ppl will be downloading 15-20 GBs. Specially if that "free" download is actually paid for like with the buddy system.
I still consider Funcom to be in huge problem with AOC. Their best bet now is to focus on other games to try to get out of the mess they have got themselfs into. AOC will not make the money needed to maintain steady updates in the scale of the other big MMOs like WOW, LOTRO or even WAR. Thats just fact and ppl need to admit it. There will be less content coming into AOC than any other MMO in 2009. Cause the company simply does not have the money to compete.
The masses of people download MP3 files and other games by torrentsites for gigabytes after gigabytes, why shouldn't they want to download 20gb of a game?
Playing: Battlefield - Bad company (Xbox360) Arma2, DFO (PC)
On my radar: TSW, MO
MMO's played: SWG (pre cu/cu), WoW, AoC, WAR, DFO, Planetside
MMO's that I have tested: Lotro, L2, Aion, Ryzom
Okay Frobner, I gave you the benefit of the doubt on another post you made today, figuring maybe you were just an uninformed person, not a troll. Alas, here you are again, but this time suggesting yo have to pay for the client when you get a buddy key.
I can tell you for a fact that the buddy key system they have in place does not charge the person to try the game, otherwise why even have a buddy program. As for downloading the 15-20 GB's, yes people do indeed download such file sizes. Everytime i gave EQ2 or vanguard a try, it was by getting the updater and letting it run for a day.
As for funcom being a problem with AoC, you are right, my worry is that while funcom has gotten better with working with the community, they could easily revert to their heavy handed ignorant methods. But to suggest taht AoC is incapable of making money to support itself is a tad preemptive. AoC has steadily grown with updates and patches and now has a moderate amount of content, and in the following year i'm confident there will be additions (2 lvl 80 dungeons are on testlive as we speak).
"There will be less content coming into AOC than any other MMO in 2009." - You do realize there are more then just 2 or 3 MMO's on the market. While i may be able to suggest this statement is false by simply stating that funcom announced an expansion for AoC last august with the expectation of release at the same time they tried to push into the asian market. OR I could point out other stagnant MMO's, EQ or Vanguard for example.
The buddy Key thread continues to grow and is popular. Same on official fourms and guild forums all over.
They are in demand, simply put, Still. I highly doubt you can speak for them all.
I consider people who come to the forums with outdated information based off experiences half a year plus ago to be an issue for the interest party persuing. Misinformative, no factual postings and guess work is all they have left. They are not up to date on forthcoming changes or short term or long term goals. Hate and deceivement and ulterior motives often overclouds judgement. Of course all opinions are welcome but it is strange when you actually log into the game these days and wonder what some people are on about.
If you think AoC is doomed why show the same interest in the game as the company making it?
FC made over $100 M revenue last year and when the Quarter report comes in a few weeks time will show you to be wrong. Same as last time and time before right?
Lets stick to facts plz
AA can u plz inform the above poster that Funcom is charging players for downloading the Buddy key client ? It seems like he is not gonna belive it when I say it.
For the rest of my comments - I stick to every word I said. Thats my opinion and Im free to have one.
Frobner, you are absolutely right Funcom DO charge $2.99 to download the client, but not if you install from DVD, if you do DL though you get an extra 3 days of play to make up for it - which I think is adequate.
Of course your opinions are welcome, might not always agree, but still welcomed.
In the coming couple months there should be a free trial though, we will probably see details on Feb 23rd I think.
You sure try hard don't you Mr. AmazingFanboy?
You can fanboy and hype a game skyhigh all day long but a company charging for free trial... Dosn't need alot of explanation...
Failcom at it's best...
Frobner, you are absolutely right Funcom DO charge $2.99 to download the client, but not if you install from DVD, if you do DL though you get an extra 3 days of play to make up for it - which I think is adequate.
Of course your opinions are welcome, might not always agree, but still welcomed.
In the coming couple months there should be a free trial though, we will probably see details on Feb 23rd I think.
I just hope for FCs sake that their "free" trial really is a "free" trial, as in removing the ridiculousness of charging people to download their own game. I understand it costs a fund (a small one at that) to maintain a 15-20gb download source, but I would think the benefit of having more people try the game and potentially buying it would be far more worth it then the 10% of those who would be willing to pay the $3 dollars, despite how small a cost it is. I basically look at it from FCs perspective
If 10 potential players all tried the game, maybe 2 or 3 of those people would buy the box. If charging $3.00 just to download the game and not being available anywhere else (it is, but very difficult to find anymore) then maybe only 2 of those people out of 10 would be willing to pay just for a trial; it's unlikely that either of those two would buy the game, when in comparison to the 10 people who would try it; an overall profit of $80 - $120 (or less, depending on where it's purchased and how much FC actually makes from a box sale. Realistically probably $40 - $60 dollar profit) compared to the $6 dollars sounds better to me.
Better hope any free client distribution system isn't run by Solid State Systems. Their PoS "torrent-hybrid" screwed over a ton of the Early Access Downloaders. Had to love FC's support answer to work around that crap software , "Turn your DL to Max and your UL to min, log-off once your DL is complete" ... talk about recipe Epic P2P Fail .... that truly was the harbinger of things to come.
OPINIONS STATED AS FACTS / FACTS WITHOUT SOURCES
First off - AOC has the worst possible chance of gaining alot of new custimors from free trials.
Their best bet now is to focus on other games to try to get out of the mess they have got themselfs into.
AOC will not make the money needed to maintain steady updates in the scale of the other big MMOs like WOW, LOTRO or even WAR. Thats just fact and ppl need to admit it.
There will be less content coming into AOC than any other MMO in 2009.
Cause the company simply does not have the money to compete.
More than likely, any free trial will be limited to participating in Tortage only, along the lines of EQ2's Trial of the Isle. This would keep the client size relatively small compared to the full game.
Considering the amount of boxes they sold at launch I wonder how many people would be interested that do not already own the disks or client.
I miss DAoC
i was going to say this.
They should in fact aim for that lot imo. To do that they should be able to say "hey come back, the things you said missing when you filled the form when leaving are in now"
I need more vespene gas.
i was going to say this.
They should in fact aim for that lot imo. To do that they should be able to say "hey come back, the things you said missing when you filled the form when leaving are in now"
problem is that although the game runs smoother in DX9, has most of the major bugs squashed, and a few of the leveling gaps have been filled in it is still the same game in most respects.
I miss DAoC
You live in a communist state? Where you are forced to do things against your will
FYI nobody forces you to do anything here, so since you dont like to pay for it then dont. Nobody will shoot you!
And by the way its not technically a free trial its a buddy program.
You live in a communist state? Where you are forced to do things against your will
FYI nobody forces you to do anything here, so since you dont like to pay for it then dont. Nobody will shoot you!
And by the way its not technically a free trial its a buddy program.
oh come on now , I don't see how anyone can defend that policy. That had to be #2 in the most desperate, dumbest and greediest policy I have ever heard of in gaming. #1 was Farlan marketing a 60 dollar (might have been $80, I never got suckered on that one) Dark and Light "preorder' sight unseen .
I miss DAoC
i was going to say this.
They should in fact aim for that lot imo. To do that they should be able to say "hey come back, the things you said missing when you filled the form when leaving are in now"
problem is that although the game runs smoother in DX9, has most of the major bugs squashed, and a few of the leveling gaps have been filled in it is still the same game in most respects.
and for that reason they should wait with free trials. i think they will enable it after the dx10 patch but imo they should wait until they finish itemization, stat changes.
I need more vespene gas.
i was going to say this.
They should in fact aim for that lot imo. To do that they should be able to say "hey come back, the things you said missing when you filled the form when leaving are in now"
problem is that although the game runs smoother in DX9, has most of the major bugs squashed, and a few of the leveling gaps have been filled in it is still the same game in most respects.
and for that reason they should wait with free trials. i think they will enable it after the dx10 patch but imo they should wait until they finish itemization, stat changes.
I completely agree.
One thing though is unless DX10 runs better on the main servers than it does on the test server they better hold off on release. I am using Win 7 and do not receive much if any performance hit between any of my DX10 games except AoC. There my FPS is cut in half, I would bet that it would be darn near unplayable except on a monster machine in Vista. I never bought Vista so I can't test that.
I would blame it on background metrics except the game runs the same in DX9 on either Win7 or Win XP so it definitely the DX10 client. Anyway other than the water and fog the DX10 is not all that anyway, I mean how much time can you spend admiring the water quality in a game for entertainment. It's nice fluff but to me the loot tables and a more content for a alternate advancement path would have been priority.
I miss DAoC
25 Gb to download (why is it sooo big when there is sooo little ingame?), thats around +3 days for normal people haha. Maybe even more days...
Then you must patch this broken game for even more hours.
After your done you have no more space on your HD and you must uninstall the game.
Still Failcom...
Glad to hear they are getting things turned around over there but this game imho will never hold a candle to LOTRO maybe if you're in it for pvp but otherwise theres no competition. Good luck though to you and funcom as well
but yeah, to call this game Fantastic is like calling Twilight the Godfather of vampire movies....
it already has the best graphics so i dont see why the rush (actually i do, seeing as dx10 label on the boxes has been made the flagship of the hatred, funcom probably thought people actually cared about dx10 that much). I mean its good policy to try doing better all the time even when you are at the top but its better policy to know where you are lacking and improving the needed parts first.
I need more vespene gas.
personally I would never go back to AoC. I bought the box but stopped playing after 2 months due to a myriad of reasons. I hope the game dosent fail because it has some great features but I reckon it is still declining for a while until it levels out with a community of harcore AoC lovers. But will it be too late by then? Let us wait and see.
Its a trick...get an axe!
QFT-they need to hire you
I miss DAoC