AmazingAveryAge of Conan AdvocateMemberUncommonPosts: 7,188
Originally posted by Alexander26
Aion shouldn't have much of an impact on AoCs population. If any game would attract the same type of players who enjoy AoC it would be Mortal Online imo but those in the beta haven't been saying many good things about it.
I'd agree with that, I pre ordered and paid upfront already for MO, with no time in game, over a lot of time in game with Aion and no pre-order.
If people are having fun in AoC then really there is no need to jump on the next hype machine as they already probably have been through that once and got burned.
right now with the free time for veterans and the XFire contests kinda hard to tell what is really going on population wise. Last week when I retried it seemed as if the population was decent but I would hardly call it "booming". Nothing like it was at release, now that was Booming. It was mostly 1 and occasionally 2 instances per zone whereas at release there would have 5 to 10
If the PvP in Aion is decent I have a feeling that it is going to kick the living crap out of AoC's PvP servers though as well as Darkfalls.
I've really been wanting to play Age of Conan but with Champions coming out I don't see that happening. I was hoping to win one of those digital copies given away a while back on mmorpg but didn't win oh well next time
WOW, a PR person from Funcom saying "everything is great with AOC" . Weren't they saying the same thing last summer, just a few months before announcing they were closing 75% of their servers?
Free trials are free, people will play them just out of boredom.
AmazingAveryAge of Conan AdvocateMemberUncommonPosts: 7,188
Originally posted by badboybill
Originally posted by Alandora
WOW, a PR person from Funcom saying "everything is great with AOC" . Weren't they saying the same thing last summer, just a few months before announcing they were closing 75% of their servers? Free trials are free, people will play them just out of boredom.
I agree. What do you expect Funcom PR person would say? AoC is dying? Of course he will say AoC is doing awesome, just like they said last year when people quit the game is masses.
I really don't understand why we needed to have thread about this. This is like me watching a tv-ad and starting a thread about this new awesone cleaning product. They said it will take out all the stains!!!!
Yes, quite. I can definitely understand how a thread with this topic title would certainly get you in a huff considering your disposition towards the game and company.
People can see log in and check out the activity themselves
That is the beauty of it, doesn't matter what you or anyone else says, people can make their own mind up. Guess what mate, they are too
Can you show an unofficial type of metric that disproves this?
We just need Unfinished in here now, where is he?
AmazingAveryAge of Conan AdvocateMemberUncommonPosts: 7,188
Originally posted by badboybill
Doesn't it bother that you are basically just a part of Funcom PR machine? I enjoy Age of Conan, your impressions are just your own, you want to think that then how does it bother you? Think about it. They say: "servers are booming!" and you come here to start a thread about it. They say: "AoC is not going to shut down!" and you come to here to start a thread about that. And you have started how many negative threads? and posts in such a short amount of time that you have several people here questioning. I am posting a news item. The same type from other websites that mmorpg.com does in the game info specific page. I also came here to put across a couple of questions, I suggest you re-read the whole of the post. Everything in white is me the colours are not mine, I even done this to help ppl see the difference. Now I do understand that you are a AoC Advocate and get paid to give us news about AoC, but you should be more objective. What I've seen, you only give us the good news, which are usually just something Funcom said, without any proof. Any negative piece of news you try to sweep under the rug. This makes you seem more like a marketing guy who is spoon fed by Funcom, rather than an objective Advocate. Wrong I do not get paid and I never have. We both know that don't we. Like I said re-read the first post. If servers were really booming, Funcom would show us the subscription numbers. Good thing with numbers is that thye don't lie. But when you use words like "booming", it can mean anything. Funcom cannot be blamed for using it even if it's not true, because what is "booming" anyways? We both know that FC will not show us sub numbers just like LOTRO doesn't. Booming is a pretty easy word to understand. As all this falls inside this quarter you will hear more about it officially in approx one month. Forums like this one should be about discussing the game with fellow gamers, not MMO companies personal advertising space. You have a choice not to post or read. We are discussing the game, 3rd time, re-read the questions in the opening post for objectively asked questions that are open ended. I am trying to engage the reader about the topic, your trying to talk about other things not related.
Doesn't it bother that you are basically just a part of Funcom PR machine? I enjoy Age of Conan, your impressions are just your own, you want to think that then how does it bother you? Think about it. They say: "servers are booming!" and you come here to start a thread about it. They say: "AoC is not going to shut down!" and you come to here to start a thread about that.
Just my opinion here Avery, but I would think that one day Funcom is going to realize that their over the top hype and astro turf techniques are exactly why they attract so much criticism. EE should have just said something like " the population is good" and left it at that instead of coming off like a infomercial salesman.
How many copy & paste threads like these do we need before Avery finds out that his middleman mentality is as useless as EE's messianic prophecies? Either a blogger praises AoC and makes ridiculous claims or the Funcom's PR machinery, Avery will make a thread out of anything. I'm not saying that other threads like "AOC IS DOOMED" or "How soon until AoC closes down" are better, but Avery's copy & paste approach is no different.
Right, servers are booming with activity. Compared to what? The release? No way, now THAT was activity. Compared to the state of AoC when there were more servers than players? Sure, but that is a moot point now, isn't it? Propagating an MMO with less than 200k players for having active servers - do we live in the same reality?
Though, I can safely say that the EU server Fury is really booming with activity. In fact, there are so many people there that the global channel should be removed, imo.
Oh, and btw, there is one little nasty trick when AoC servers are "booming with activity". It's called LAGSPIKES. That's right, the good old red bars on the lower part of the screen are back once again. I don't know if they ever fixed this at all (perhaps lagspikes disappeared temporarily when there were so many servers and so little people), I remember the bars back in the year 2008, but when I log in a few times per week, I get a lagspike every 15 min or so. I guess "activity" comes with a negative side effect, just like everything in AoC
I am one of those who came back after being burned early, and have to say I am liking the changes. My barbarian could use a few buffs (but seems like that is coming) and my DT is so much more fun to play now (I just love Dread Shadow!). The servers I am playing on in the EU dimensions seem almost as busy as I remember last August...not quite as many people, but seems people more spread out now, guess that is natural.
I got conan on ebay with a couple of t60 day time cards for a bargain price . What i expected was a dying game like Warhammer but what i got was a game equally as busy as most medium load servers on Warcraft ( even before the 2 week welcome back offer ). I play on Fury Europe . Even though i dont intend to stay in AoC once Aions released i think its a game i shall come back too over the years to come . Its in quite a healthy state even more so than Lotro .
Funcom is in a panic, and they will do a full out PR | Lie blitz from now until the NA release of Aion. They see the writing on the wall, they're just trying to erase it so their fanbase can be fooled.
Yeah heard that pre WAR and pre Darkfall release, AoC lived through those will live through an Asian themed game launch.
Don't be so sure. I heard Aion is pretty good and might steal a huge chunk of AoC players.
And to those who say Aion and AoC are so different that they don't compete of same customers, please don't be stupid. Both are MMO's where you run around with a sword in your had, of course they compete of same kind of customers!
You heard Aion is pretty good. Well, hearing and self experience is 2 huge things. The former come with hypes while the latter comes with true story.
Aion and AOC is different and it is catered to different groups of players. Yes, we have swords on our hand running but they are ran differently and being used differently.
As you said, both are MMO's and why i dont see you playing any other MMOs? What reason will you give if you have quit a MMO recently? Not your type?
I love how when things are bad, the rolls come to every thread and say "haha! I knew it!"
Then, when anything positive is posted, and players reaffirm it, the trolls done't belivie it. Yet, they're not actually in game or played the re-eval w/ an agenda and state things like "I came back and the game is still crap. Adn I knew it in the first 45 mins". Idiots. Learn to breath through your nose.
anyway... OT: Wiccana has seen a huge increase. I think the 10%-20% resub is about right. But, of the (lets be modest) 600K offers to retry, we're looking at 60-120K resubs. And I think that might just be about right (probably a litlle south of 80K).
That's not a number to shake a stick at. Considering the amount of people that just flat out are pesismistic and unwilling to be objective or have realistic expectations, that's huge.
I know my guild has seen about 15 people of the 40 (that came back to the guild itself) resub and really enjoying things. As someone actually playing, and having been a part of the community since 1/09, the servers are booming when being objective.
Booming? Really? I still haven't seen more than two instances of a zone. Population up? Sure. When you're giving people free play time, they will take advantage.
I noticed they extended the 14 day winback. Is that because it's working or because many of the earlier 14 day players have already quit?
They should have replaced Ellingson, he is someone who will forever known to not only spin and mislead but to outright lie, he is the face of the cancer in funcom, when he speaks who he is and his past will always taint the message for those players who played at release.
I have to agree. He is to Funcom what Tasos is DFO. As long as either are with their respective companies, I refuse to support any game or company that wants to have either one of these guys as the "voice" of their games. History speaks for itself and both have brought a lot of discredit to their companies.
Fear not fanbois, we are not trolls, let's take off your tin foil hat and learn what VAPORWARE is:
"Vaporware is a term used to describe a software or hardware product that is announced by a developer well in advance of release, but which then fails to emerge after having well exceeded the period of development time that was initially claimed or would normally be expected for the development cycle of a similar product."
AION is going to fall flat on it's face. 200K subs tops in the west after 3 months. I haven't played a more wattered down and generic MMO in a long while now.
Originally posted by Vagrant_Zero AION is going to fall flat on it's face. 200K subs tops in the west after 3 months. I haven't played a more wattered down and generic MMO in a long while now.
Absolutely agree. I played on the Chinese servers for a month before I got bored and this was with the English patch and and English speaking guild. The game is boring. Polished, but boring.
Former xFire user... I only wanted a game tracker and messenger, not a screenshot taker, video recording, broadcasting piece of bloatware.
AION is going to fall flat on it's face. 200K subs tops in the west after 3 months. I haven't played a more wattered down and generic MMO in a long while now.
Absolutely agree. I played on the Chinese servers for a month before I got bored and this was with the English patch and and English speaking guild. The game is boring. Polished, but boring.
Double agree. I did not find this game fun at all. It was like playing L2 all over again, in my opinion. I liked the graphics in both games, but did not enjoy the gameplay.
anyway... OT: Wiccana has seen a huge increase. I think the 10%-20% resub is about right. But, of the (lets be modest) 600K offers to retry, we're looking at 60-120K resubs. And I think that might just be about right (probably a litlle south of 80K).
No way they got anything like that, if they got half of that I'd be surprised, if they got say 80k resubs and then another 3k from the thousands of games they just gave away free then they would have pretty much doubled their current player base. If they got anything like close to double they would not just be saying the servers are booming they would either say "our player base has grown by 80,000 people in the last month" or they would say "we have double or nearly double the player base we had a couple of months ago". Either one of those is much more impressive than just saying the servers are booming and no company, and funcom in particular ever miss out on using the best number or phrase to represent themselves.
Xfire suggests about 30% more playtime than at the start of the month, so something like 30k extra people playing seems like a fair number to go with. If those people are still playing in a few weeks the win back campaign has been a success, though no where near to the extent you suggest.
Have not tried Aion myself, but the gorgeous graphics, the flight, and the promise of good balanced RvR style PvP has me intrigued. If the PvE is any good that might end up being the game that breaks my LoTRO habit.
Anyway it goes I think it is going to squarely hit AoC where will hurt the most, that is with the graphics fans and the PvP fans. People like myself and I would bet a lot of other gamers including AoC, LoTRO, WoW, and WAR fans will try it simply out of curiosity so the AoC fanbois better hope what they are saying is right because if not AoC and Funcom is going to be in for a world of hurt population wise. LoTROs lifetime subs, healthy population, and lore fans will keep it from hurting too badly I think, npthing much can hurt WoW simply because of its population. AoC and WAR however are different stories since in particular because of their emphasis on being PvP oriented in their gameplay.
AION is going to fall flat on it's face. 200K subs tops in the west after 3 months. I haven't played a more wattered down and generic MMO in a long while now.
you know aion allready have about 3 million subscribers right?
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
AION is going to fall flat on it's face. 200K subs tops in the west after 3 months. I haven't played a more wattered down and generic MMO in a long while now.
you know aion allready have about 3 million subscribers right?
You know he's talking about the 'west' right? Not east (Asia etc)
AION is going to fall flat on it's face. 200K subs tops in the west after 3 months. I haven't played a more wattered down and generic MMO in a long while now.
you know aion allready have about 3 million subscribers right?
You know he's talking about the 'west' right? Not east (Asia etc)
Yes, I'm aware of that. However Aion won't fall flat on it's face. Even if it isn't a great hit in the west it will be a mayor success in the worlds of MMO's.
The only way Aion can be considered a failure is if they don't attract more then 100K subscribers after the first 6 months in the west alone. 200k subscribers is actually quite a decent number in the world of MMO's, not many Western based MMO's have managed to attract much more subscribers then between 200-500K subscribers.
* Eve online is around 500K subscribers
* Lotro has about 350K or so last I heard
* WAR last official statement was around 300K (even tho that number is most likely way off these days)
WoW is the only western MMO that has broken all previous records, and there is no western MMO that can match it. But from these 11,5 million subscribers wow is supposed to have we know a huge amount is located in asia, so how many subscribers in the west alone will be nothing but a finger in the air and guess. One rumor mention when Blizzard got shut down in china that there was around a couple of millions that would be affected, other said as many of 6 millions players could loose their access.
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
Comments
I'd agree with that, I pre ordered and paid upfront already for MO, with no time in game, over a lot of time in game with Aion and no pre-order.
If people are having fun in AoC then really there is no need to jump on the next hype machine as they already probably have been through that once and got burned.
right now with the free time for veterans and the XFire contests kinda hard to tell what is really going on population wise. Last week when I retried it seemed as if the population was decent but I would hardly call it "booming". Nothing like it was at release, now that was Booming. It was mostly 1 and occasionally 2 instances per zone whereas at release there would have 5 to 10
If the PvP in Aion is decent I have a feeling that it is going to kick the living crap out of AoC's PvP servers though as well as Darkfalls.
I miss DAoC
I've really been wanting to play Age of Conan but with Champions coming out I don't see that happening. I was hoping to win one of those digital copies given away a while back on mmorpg but didn't win
oh well next time
WOW, a PR person from Funcom saying "everything is great with AOC" . Weren't they saying the same thing last summer, just a few months before announcing they were closing 75% of their servers?
Free trials are free, people will play them just out of boredom.
I agree. What do you expect Funcom PR person would say? AoC is dying? Of course he will say AoC is doing awesome, just like they said last year when people quit the game is masses.
I really don't understand why we needed to have thread about this. This is like me watching a tv-ad and starting a thread about this new awesone cleaning product. They said it will take out all the stains!!!!
Yes, quite. I can definitely understand how a thread with this topic title would certainly get you in a huff considering your disposition towards the game and company.
People can see log in and check out the activity themselves
That is the beauty of it, doesn't matter what you or anyone else says, people can make their own mind up. Guess what mate, they are too
Can you show an unofficial type of metric that disproves this?
We just need Unfinished in here now, where is he?
Just my opinion here Avery, but I would think that one day Funcom is going to realize that their over the top hype and astro turf techniques are exactly why they attract so much criticism. EE should have just said something like " the population is good" and left it at that instead of coming off like a infomercial salesman.
I miss DAoC
Avery is a good man just misguided, Funcom is in trouble and im sure he knows it.
MAGA
How many copy & paste threads like these do we need before Avery finds out that his middleman mentality is as useless as EE's messianic prophecies? Either a blogger praises AoC and makes ridiculous claims or the Funcom's PR machinery, Avery will make a thread out of anything. I'm not saying that other threads like "AOC IS DOOMED" or "How soon until AoC closes down" are better, but Avery's copy & paste approach is no different.
Right, servers are booming with activity. Compared to what? The release? No way, now THAT was activity. Compared to the state of AoC when there were more servers than players? Sure, but that is a moot point now, isn't it? Propagating an MMO with less than 200k players for having active servers - do we live in the same reality?
Though, I can safely say that the EU server Fury is really booming with activity. In fact, there are so many people there that the global channel should be removed, imo.
Oh, and btw, there is one little nasty trick when AoC servers are "booming with activity". It's called LAGSPIKES. That's right, the good old red bars on the lower part of the screen are back once again. I don't know if they ever fixed this at all (perhaps lagspikes disappeared temporarily when there were so many servers and so little people), I remember the bars back in the year 2008, but when I log in a few times per week, I get a lagspike every 15 min or so. I guess "activity" comes with a negative side effect, just like everything in AoC
I am one of those who came back after being burned early, and have to say I am liking the changes. My barbarian could use a few buffs (but seems like that is coming) and my DT is so much more fun to play now (I just love Dread Shadow!). The servers I am playing on in the EU dimensions seem almost as busy as I remember last August...not quite as many people, but seems people more spread out now, guess that is natural.
I got conan on ebay with a couple of t60 day time cards for a bargain price . What i expected was a dying game like Warhammer but what i got was a game equally as busy as most medium load servers on Warcraft ( even before the 2 week welcome back offer ). I play on Fury Europe . Even though i dont intend to stay in AoC once Aions released i think its a game i shall come back too over the years to come . Its in quite a healthy state even more so than Lotro .
Yeah heard that pre WAR and pre Darkfall release, AoC lived through those will live through an Asian themed game launch.
Don't be so sure. I heard Aion is pretty good and might steal a huge chunk of AoC players.
And to those who say Aion and AoC are so different that they don't compete of same customers, please don't be stupid. Both are MMO's where you run around with a sword in your had, of course they compete of same kind of customers!
You heard Aion is pretty good. Well, hearing and self experience is 2 huge things. The former come with hypes while the latter comes with true story.
Aion and AOC is different and it is catered to different groups of players. Yes, we have swords on our hand running but they are ran differently and being used differently.
As you said, both are MMO's and why i dont see you playing any other MMOs? What reason will you give if you have quit a MMO recently? Not your type?
I love how when things are bad, the rolls come to every thread and say "haha! I knew it!"
Then, when anything positive is posted, and players reaffirm it, the trolls done't belivie it. Yet, they're not actually in game or played the re-eval w/ an agenda and state things like "I came back and the game is still crap. Adn I knew it in the first 45 mins". Idiots. Learn to breath through your nose.
anyway... OT: Wiccana has seen a huge increase. I think the 10%-20% resub is about right. But, of the (lets be modest) 600K offers to retry, we're looking at 60-120K resubs. And I think that might just be about right (probably a litlle south of 80K).
That's not a number to shake a stick at. Considering the amount of people that just flat out are pesismistic and unwilling to be objective or have realistic expectations, that's huge.
I know my guild has seen about 15 people of the 40 (that came back to the guild itself) resub and really enjoying things. As someone actually playing, and having been a part of the community since 1/09, the servers are booming when being objective.
Booming? Really? I still haven't seen more than two instances of a zone. Population up? Sure. When you're giving people free play time, they will take advantage.
I noticed they extended the 14 day winback. Is that because it's working or because many of the earlier 14 day players have already quit?
I have to agree. He is to Funcom what Tasos is DFO. As long as either are with their respective companies, I refuse to support any game or company that wants to have either one of these guys as the "voice" of their games. History speaks for itself and both have brought a lot of discredit to their companies.
Fear not fanbois, we are not trolls, let's take off your tin foil hat and learn what VAPORWARE is:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaporware
"Vaporware is a term used to describe a software or hardware product that is announced by a developer well in advance of release, but which then fails to emerge after having well exceeded the period of development time that was initially claimed or would normally be expected for the development cycle of a similar product."
How is Funcom in trouble?
Does anyone forget about sales of the game? I'm sure they've made all their money back within a few months.
They know Aion is gonna hurt.
MAGA
AION is going to fall flat on it's face. 200K subs tops in the west after 3 months. I haven't played a more wattered down and generic MMO in a long while now.
Alltern8 Blog | Star Wars Space Combat and The Old Republic | Cryptic Studios - A Pre Post-Mortem | Klingon Preview, STO's Monster Play
Absolutely agree. I played on the Chinese servers for a month before I got bored and this was with the English patch and and English speaking guild. The game is boring. Polished, but boring.
Former xFire user... I only wanted a game tracker and messenger, not a screenshot taker, video recording, broadcasting piece of bloatware.
Absolutely agree. I played on the Chinese servers for a month before I got bored and this was with the English patch and and English speaking guild. The game is boring. Polished, but boring.
Double agree. I did not find this game fun at all. It was like playing L2 all over again, in my opinion. I liked the graphics in both games, but did not enjoy the gameplay.
To each their own.
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Promote what you love instead of bashing what you hate.
No way they got anything like that, if they got half of that I'd be surprised, if they got say 80k resubs and then another 3k from the thousands of games they just gave away free then they would have pretty much doubled their current player base. If they got anything like close to double they would not just be saying the servers are booming they would either say "our player base has grown by 80,000 people in the last month" or they would say "we have double or nearly double the player base we had a couple of months ago". Either one of those is much more impressive than just saying the servers are booming and no company, and funcom in particular ever miss out on using the best number or phrase to represent themselves.
Xfire suggests about 30% more playtime than at the start of the month, so something like 30k extra people playing seems like a fair number to go with. If those people are still playing in a few weeks the win back campaign has been a success, though no where near to the extent you suggest.
Have not tried Aion myself, but the gorgeous graphics, the flight, and the promise of good balanced RvR style PvP has me intrigued. If the PvE is any good that might end up being the game that breaks my LoTRO habit.
Anyway it goes I think it is going to squarely hit AoC where will hurt the most, that is with the graphics fans and the PvP fans. People like myself and I would bet a lot of other gamers including AoC, LoTRO, WoW, and WAR fans will try it simply out of curiosity so the AoC fanbois better hope what they are saying is right because if not AoC and Funcom is going to be in for a world of hurt population wise. LoTROs lifetime subs, healthy population, and lore fans will keep it from hurting too badly I think, npthing much can hurt WoW simply because of its population. AoC and WAR however are different stories since in particular because of their emphasis on being PvP oriented in their gameplay.
I miss DAoC
you know aion allready have about 3 million subscribers right?
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
you know aion allready have about 3 million subscribers right?
You know he's talking about the 'west' right? Not east (Asia etc)
Currently restarting World of Warcraft
you know aion allready have about 3 million subscribers right?
You know he's talking about the 'west' right? Not east (Asia etc)
Yes, I'm aware of that. However Aion won't fall flat on it's face. Even if it isn't a great hit in the west it will be a mayor success in the worlds of MMO's.
The only way Aion can be considered a failure is if they don't attract more then 100K subscribers after the first 6 months in the west alone. 200k subscribers is actually quite a decent number in the world of MMO's, not many Western based MMO's have managed to attract much more subscribers then between 200-500K subscribers.
* Eve online is around 500K subscribers
* Lotro has about 350K or so last I heard
* WAR last official statement was around 300K (even tho that number is most likely way off these days)
WoW is the only western MMO that has broken all previous records, and there is no western MMO that can match it. But from these 11,5 million subscribers wow is supposed to have we know a huge amount is located in asia, so how many subscribers in the west alone will be nothing but a finger in the air and guess. One rumor mention when Blizzard got shut down in china that there was around a couple of millions that would be affected, other said as many of 6 millions players could loose their access.
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