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What are the reasons most people didn't resub or subscribe after trials?
finaticd
Member Posts: 843
After win backs and free trials. I just wan't to know why people are not playing this much anymore per the numbers of forum traffic of gamespot, AoC official site and per X fire. - it is no secrete that the game has few players on the three USA servers.
We heard so much has changed from fans but since the numbers are back down to where they were before the free trials, I just want to know why people are not playing as much.
I'm sure many people did start playing again so why did an equal amount of original players quit? Give any reasons because I'm sure there are some here.
For me:
1) Funcom is an unethical company - they even lied and promised free level 50s with no fine print to veterans.
2) AoC is a small MMO with very little to do, is to linear.
3) This game is in jeopardy of shutting down if people keep leaving, it isn't AO - AoC costs way more to run
4) PvP sucks and penalty system sucks.
5) The game is still buggy and whenever I log on I get a black screen with a high end PC.
Funcom has reviewed all of its assets relevant for
impairment testing. This process has led to
recognition of an impairment loss of around
3,1 MUSD for Age of Conan due to a decrease in
numbers of subscribers for the game. Funcom Q4 10 report.
http://forums.ageofconan.com/showpost.php?p=2926123&postcount=7 500 mains/alts on Tyranny in past 30 days - instead of merge servers let's open a new PvP server, again! http://forums-eu.ageofconan.com/showthread.php?t=106427
Comments
6) Erling Ellingsen seriously when i heard him "Our servers are booming with activity" when trials just came around I would never sub to this.When this guy is there Funcom couldn't change.
If the servers get to populated then AoC has to sort out the lag issues.
On Crom where the server population is high, the lag at times can be bad, where as on the RP pvp it's quite and the server runn's much better, so as you can see you can't have it all.
Most people play welfare games (ftp) to suit there welfare PC's, you need a med-high end PC to run these new games now.
How many grapic's card are produced in one year ?
If your P.C is more than 5years old, then unfortunalty it needs lots of cash thrown at it.
So for those of who can afford to play.
Lack of content 70-80, and then when you once get to 80 after you have completed, vistrex, yakmar,kyllky 100 times you have a choice of BRC 1 and 2.
Class balance, it seems to me that FC do a juggling act between the classes, its like flavour of the month or flavour of 6months etc. Seem to nerf up then nerf down i don't get it.
At the moment BS are the OP class just like they where at release, BS got a nerf people stop playing um, quit or roll another class, wait till FC boost um back, start playing again or switch back. So now the server is over populated with BS because they are unbeatble 1v1. Why is one class so OP its a fuking joke.
Before the patch 1.05 the pvp was getting there, still unbalance but it was getting there, fights where faster and more thrilling, now there are that many stunns,roots fears its a joke.
My 1v1 experiences have been to say the least a shile of shit, ive fought people (1v1) for that long iv'e grown a beard.
The reason i play AoC is because i have alot of good friends in the guild, but when somethink else comes along we will be gone, which is a shame because we are the third biggest guild on the server.
you forgot: damn LOADING SCREENS everywhere - when you leave a small zone, die, scratch your ass or whatever! Man that's so annoying!
I have just been playing for a couple of months, on and off, but i enjoy the game so far (currently lvl 63). When i downloaded the geme i also downloaded x-fire, but i soon deleted it again. The reason for this, is that x-fire turned out useless for me, i didn't find it relevant since noone else from my guild uses it, and because, in total, very few people use it for age of conan. In our guild we use raidplanner and the guild chat for communications, and we have our own website. You can find almost all the features of x-fire elsewhere, and since x-fire is about social interaction it is stupid to use unless your friends are using it or there is a big community. So if i were you i wouldn't weigh the x-fire numbers so heavily.
regarding number of players, my experience from in game, is that the crom server is booming, lately i've seen ques forming for some quest bosses, people were actually waiting in line to kill some white bear in thunder river
and it's become way easier to find groups.
Take care.
Well, it is fairly easy to answer your question regarding Bear Shaman. What is unique to bearshaman is that the character role is to stand aside tanks and heal and debuff enemies (i don't know if this is along the lore or not). Now here is the problem, that was actualised in 1.04. Bearshamans in group pvp were put in back - to heal casters. Why is that you say? Because they had so little surviability and so little real debuffs that even the best were useless in group fights (a few bearshamans back in the days realised how useless we are and specced into pure dps - I used to call myself bearhox ... Probly in most epic pvp minigame I fought with bearshaman who topped everyone in kills neglecting his real role. Why? Because it was useless to play your role ... Imagine how long with only medium armor last along tanks? 0.0005 seconds would be the time I would probly meassure if it wasnt for the lag that prolonged it into 50 seconds (
) So as I said bearshamans had nothing to do in group pvp (I cannot heal casters in back line because healing effect is in AoC calculated by dps you deal) - we were just statistics
Now, there is only one way to fix this and that is what funcom has done (as i heard)- increase bearshaman surviability and take away their OMG I AM HOX dps. But the minute you give a healer surviability you make him OP in 1v1. Now Bearshamans can probably fulfill their role in group pvp ... BUT this game has to have group pvp in order for people not to cry "OMG HE IS OP". Yeah, he is ... but only because group pvp is the goal in AoC (it is ofc debattable how far they are achieving this goal)
I am confused. You are stating that Xfire is the end all be all of game subscriber rates, and now that AoC has gone back to the 40's, it will shut down?
You are also saying that since forum traffic is down, even though the forums seem to be mostly full of haters and trolls with agendas than actual players, which to me sounds like there is actually less hate discussion than game discussion, that the game is going to fail?
Had I not already shown you how low on the charts games like EQ2,CoH, Vanguard, Lineage 2, etc are on these same charts, yet they continue to thrive?
Finally, you use these tools to come to some arbitrary number of players in YOUR head (which I assume will be some ridiculous 50k range), when we players who are on the actual servers still see a ton of players?? You use some sort of conjecture out of the thin air that supposedly as many players quit than stay...almost like you WORK for Funcom, because they would be the only ones to know this...which I doubt.
Guess you could see why I am confused. (I really am not, and know the main purpose of this thread...but lets pretend)
I sure am not saying that AoC is some smash hit, I also am not saying that Funcom is making money hand over fist (and they deserve it for what they did to this game), but these doomsday threads get old, and sound more stupid everytime they are posted...especially by you when that is all that you seem to do.
I guess I cannot see the reason to post utter crap like this is all.
I am confused. You are stating that Xfire is the end all be all of game subscriber rates...
He didn't say that. There was a trial. People tried it. Of the people who tried it, a given percentage did not subscribe. He's asking why. A completely valid post.
For me it was a combination of things that I could list but ultimately it was that the game seemed basically the same to me as before. Yes there were some changes but still, a lot of glitches still there from launch.
I am confused. You are stating that Xfire is the end all be all of game subscriber rates...
He didn't say that. There was a trial. People tried it. Of the people who tried it, a given percentage did not subscribe. He's asking why. A completely valid post.
Does he or you know what the exact percentage is? Does it matter? A percentage try LOTRO, WAR, EQ2, etc, etc and do not subscribe. Does this mean this post should be in the General Gaming forums and not here? I think so.
But, then the agenda kicks in...note the underlying Funcom attack that follows his "simple" question.
And I am sorry but if that is all you gained from his post,...read it again...?
Simple answer, tried the free trial and hated it. What didn't I like? Nearly everything from the look and feel to character animations, combat, rigidly linear zones, blocking terrain/climb points, unexciting gameplay....about the only thing I liked was swimming underwater. First game I have ever uninstalled and walked away from even before the trial was up.
I am confused. You are stating that Xfire is the end all be all of game subscriber rates...
He didn't say that. There was a trial. People tried it. Of the people who tried it, a given percentage did not subscribe. He's asking why. A completely valid post.
Does he or you know what the exact percentage is? Does it matter? A percentage try LOTRO, WAR, EQ2, etc, etc and do not subscribe. Does this mean this post should be in the General Gaming forums and not here? I think so.
But, then the agenda kicks in...note the underlying Funcom attack that follows his "simple" question.
And I am sorry but if that is all you gained from his post,...read it again...?
Still, if you have to make up things your opponent says in order to argue against your opponent then obviously your position is very weak.
I understand exactly where Finaticd is coming from. Nonetheless AoC is the game that after a long wait, and after a very rocky start and continued game cycle FINALLY had a vet winback trial. Now population estimates, based on the same criteria used by those to say the servers were 'booming' during the trial, are down. Whatever Finaticd's motives are, asking people why they did not resub after trying the trial is a valid question for AoC.
6) I quit AoC because it wouldn't work with X-fire or dx10. I really wanted my time to count for something!
.. .... .- - . - .-. --- .-.. .-.. ... .-- .... --- .-. . .--. --- .-. - .-.-.-
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Promote what you love instead of bashing what you hate.
That maybe your opinion, or you just plainly hate Funcom and AoC, but to say that about the game is an absolute lie. Character animations are probably the best out there right now, (sorry if they dont look like your cartoon WoW characters),, Combat follow-up by the awsome finishing moves is a truly first for a MMO, but yet you flame this?, Blocking terrain/climb points- I am not a fan favorite of AoC anymore, but i know a game with truly amazing graphics, and AoC has them.
I've been writing up a list as I go along with this come back trial thing, if something annoys me then I write it down.
- Combat system wonky in PVP it just feels very off and it's hard to see what you're doing wrong with it. Unlike games like WoW where the combat system is perfect and just works and clicks with everyone. I hate for example how I have to use the directions to use specials but theres this lag between the time you click the button and you see it on screen. I want it to happen right away and I want the feedback. It also makes it very hard for melee classes like Assassins to hit their targets because the target is running about all over the place. I dunno it just feels very off in PVP. Oh and I also hate how the animations move you around the screen where as in woW your character stays in one place which makes you feel in control.
- loading loading loading... I hate having to load up everywhere, it breaks the immersion and I wish the game was seamless and felt like a world rather than a series of levels.
-Can't visit lower lvl areas or quests and can't get quests which are oo high level which is annoying if I want to collect all the quests in one area and then level with the quests I can do. Then do the ones I've just gained acces to without having to run back to the quest giver again, which I would have forgotten where he is by then.
- Armour all looks crap and the game is very dull on the whole. The character models while they can look good, looke off most of the time, really ugly and the clothes they're wear always looks like brown rags. I also think all the instances so far have been really poorly designed and boring compared to WoW.
- Game needs a LFG group system that WoW has. I mean it has something similar but it doesn't have the auto join a group or the summoning features of WoW which make it much easier to get into groups and do instances.
- More voice work needed because Tortage had voice work and then after that the world seems lifeless and dull. All the quest givers have no voices which seems very off seeing as it's trying to do the Bioware type thing... if you're not gonna voice that then I'd rather just have them give me quests like WoW.
- More dances cause the ones in the game are crap
- Weird targetting system. I mean it's very hard to target what you want fast and efficiently when fighting more than one target, where as in WoW it works.
- Lag period between combat and resting/stealth is annoying. Theres never any indication I can't do it but theres this weird like 5 second lag inbetween.
- Hate the way u talk to npcs. I just wish it didn't do that Bioware like thing that I said above, just give me the WoW style quest givers.
- Getting stuck to floor under water. I often find myself swimming and then get stuck in the floor bed and have to jump to get out.
- Hate the slow transition between zoning of how the load screen fades, which on a PVP server is annoying.
- Raise the quest limit cause I want to store group quests I can't do yet cause I can't find a group but then be allowed to go to a new area and get quests to level but my quest book is getting full up.
- To have an introduction to gathering and crafting would be nice.
That'll do for now.
Speaking only for myself, I didn't resub after the trial because of the following:
1. I hate that missions are either completely soloable or forced grouping. Elites will kick your butt even if you are 10+ levels above them. Instead of having a pulse pounding flight, I knew with absolute certainty that I could either beat the mob or had no chance at all -- this goes for almost every mob in game that I encountered.
2. Lack of good grouping means I had to skip way too much content, even after said content turned gray and I was way over it in level, I still couldn't go back and do it for the story. That sucked.
3. Where in the hell are the 1,000+ unique sets of armor that the devs talked about more than a year ago? In a game as gorgeous as AoC, the lack of unique armor really sticks out like a sore thumb. Did they fire all their artists or are they still trying to fix the gimped DX10 stuff? Either way, this was a major turn off for me.
4. The world still feels like I'm moving down paths from one area to the next. It doesn't feel massive or open at all. More or less, I felt like I was in a funnel no matter where I went. Some places were wider than others, but still... bleh..
5. Either finish the voice overs or get rid of the voiceless cut scenes. They're just reminders that the game still isn't finished.
6. Where are the combos for the spell casters? We hear a lot about revolutionary combat system, but it's only half done and implemented. Spell casters play pretty much the same in AoC as in WoW. Click target, spam spell until target is dead. Again, bleh...
7. For the love of Pete, give us a way to skip Tortage. It's cool the first time through. No so much the 5th time through. About 8 times through, I want to throw the computer into the volcano. Either add new starter areas, or just allow players to bypass this part completely.
8. Stop dicking with things that aren't broken. You break them when you do. Nerf, nerf, buff, buff, nerf, buff --- NERF! WTH? Stop it already and fix what needs fixing.
Yeh cause Xfire is the be all and end all and DX10 really makes or break a game.......
I can tell you right now that you shouldn't have left WoW in the first place.
I can tell you right now that you shouldn't have left WoW in the first place.
I left WoW cause Battlegrounds killed world PVP and so I couldn't enjoy it anymore cause it turned from an open world game to might aswel all be instanced.
I'm just comparing Age of conans features to the game that does them best. Thats why WoW is so popular because it nails so many aspects and blizzard are the masters of every genre they touch because they put the polish and testing in. Everyone I know loves WoW for the combat and the main problem my friends have with other mmorpgs when trying them out is the combat system cause they never feel as good as WoW's.
WoW is the standard now.
There are a lot of changes, but its still basically the same game. If you didn't like the game at launch because of gameplay reasons, you probably won't like it now. If you liked the game at launch but got fed up due to the bugginess/instability then there is chance you might like it now. Funcom is still the same however.
After the re-evaluation period was over my opinion of AoC wasn't much different from before. The main reasons I would not resub are:
1. Population was still low. Not enough ppl around, at times it seemed like a single player game.
2. Small zones, too many loading screens. Game is very linear. World just seems small.
3. Latency problems, bugs, but not as bad as before.
4. IMO, one of the worst communities in the mmo genre.
The way I see it, #1 is mostly due to #4.
That maybe your opinion, or you just plainly hate Funcom and AoC, but to say that about the game is an absolute lie. Character animations are probably the best out there right now, (sorry if they dont look like your cartoon WoW characters),, Combat follow-up by the awsome finishing moves is a truly first for a MMO, but yet you flame this?, Blocking terrain/climb points- I am not a fan favorite of AoC anymore, but i know a game with truly amazing graphics, and AoC has them.
Well, first in all honesty I do hate FunCom, that's public knowledge, but I did give the game a fair shake.
I know they did all this fancy motion capture crap, but they botched it. The people all move like bad B movie gorillas, not people. (For clarity, I don't play WoW - always hated the cartoony crap - and NO ONE out there currently has "great" animations, they just all mess them up differently) The animals are even worse, even the bad CGI critters on most Sci-Fi channel productions move better.
AoC combat is the same lame button mashing that every MMO uses, very thinly disguised. Yippee, they called it direction junk instead of chains, reactives or conjunctions, big whoop. It's the same "target mob, mash a,b and c buttons to do Z" and if you can't see that, you're drinking the cool-aid.
As for graphics, AoC has high technical graphic qualities no argument, but stylisticly it *looks* like crap. They tried to duplicate the whole "gritty" Frazzetta painting thing with every landscape and to me it ended up looking terrible...so sue me.
Lastly, how exactly is my opinion a lie? Really confused by that one, unless you have a conspiracy theory that I secretly loved the game and I'm only lying to drive the stock price down more or something
This is SOOOO true! The instancing is horrible, I spend more time watching a loading screen than playing the game.
Second, I unsubbed because the community is utterly atrocious. Not one nice person, not one helpful friend, not one even polite passerby.
Third, the game is still buggy, I still get odd random CTD's for no reason. Fix these issues and I may resub.
I can tell you right now that you shouldn't have left WoW in the first place.
I left WoW cause Battlegrounds killed world PVP and so I couldn't enjoy it anymore cause it turned from an open world game to might aswel all be instanced.
I'm just comparing Age of conans features to the game that does them best. Thats why WoW is so popular because it nails so many aspects and blizzard are the masters of every genre they touch because they put the polish and testing in. Everyone I know loves WoW for the combat and the main problem my friends have with other mmorpgs when trying them out is the combat system cause they never feel as good as WoW's.
WoW is the standard now.
Everyone I know hates WoW combat (well except for my boy Krewel here - he counts for 50% of ppl I know - thats how big fanboy he is
)
As for combat smashing buttons - you clearly didn't play this game long enough to master the system. The big thing with it is that you have to actually hit the character (granted that goes only for melee) in order to get hits registered. Also button smashing will not get you a win (at least not in 1v1) since you will most likely miss all the combost that way versus half decent opponent. Also, you have to aim for unshielded areas (mainly hitting your opponent on the back) so everyone who knows how to play will try to get around you and land a finisher there and not just smash buttons randomly.
That being said - this game has some very nice features that were not matched yet in MMO genres and it doesn't matter what lvl 15 ranger who never got off first island thinks about it. You gotta be blind and pretty damn stupid to not acknowledge FC for what they made right - if you do so ... we will be playing button smashing WoW like in 2050.
This is SOOOO true! The instancing is horrible, I spend more time watching a loading screen than playing the game.
Second, I unsubbed because the community is utterly atrocious. Not one nice person, not one helpful friend, not one even polite passerby.
Third, the game is still buggy, I still get odd random CTD's for no reason. Fix these issues and I may resub.
I have to agree the community in AoC is horrible. Community, unbalanced pvp, bugs and loading screens are the main reason why I didn't resub after the trial period.
Indeed i have same experience from there.Though i must admit i got pretty laugh from flame wars on global chat.