Somehow I doubt people quit as a result of guildbanks not getting bigger. It just doesn't seem like a gamebreaker to me.
"Man I loved age of conan, but the size of the guild bank just killed it for me".
Sure 90/100 would vote in favor of something as trivial as more storage space or puts more power/convenience into the players hands, but that doesn't mean it is a pressing issue that needs priority attention and the company is not interested in player feedback by not acting upon those requests.
You had troubles with xfire and a few other people did to, so it can't be a good source for tracking anything.
Is that all?
Funcom seems to have enough faith in the program to advise people to install it and your sample size of 5 computers (not even 5 people) doesn't make a compelling argument.
I've always thought XFire and MMOs made no sense. XFire started as a tool for gamers to find which server their friend was on and join it directly, as such I think for a lot of people it is still used for that purpose today. I only ever turn on xfire when playing FPS games to easily join friends in matches already or to allow people to join up with me easily. Steam makes this easy as well so I used XFire very little anymore.
The concept of having XFire open while in an MMO is lost on me, most people focus their playing on one server. And every MMO now has friends list, guild lists etc that lets you know when people log on and off and let's you easily communicate back and forth. So why use XFire while playing MMOs? I just don't get it.
For that fact I think the numbers on XFire as far as MMOs are concerned isn't that accurate, but then again I don't hold a game's worth by it's XFire rating. Different games attract different types of gamers, also different types of gamers have interest or a lack of interest in XFire. So you might have a type of game that attracts the same type of player who would use XFire and that game would now have a high rating.
But the important thing to remember over all of that is that AoC sucks regardless of XFire rank.
Oh I got your point clear enough. You had troubles with xfire and a few other people did to, so it can't be a good source for tracking anything. Is that all? Nope. You still do not get it. It is ok. Funcom seems to have enough faith in the program to advise people to install it and your sample size of 5 computers (not even 5 people) doesn't make a compelling argument. They actually do not "advise" people to use it. They tell people when Xfire is running a contest and when to install it for XFIRE contests. Again, there are guaranteed reasons for doing this, and it has nothing to do with it not causing performance issue. Example of announcement. http://forums.ageofconan.com/showthread.php?t=199778 Not once did they say "install it"...but, are helping others know Xfire is running a contest. So, sounds to me like they are just helping Xfire out, and all it does is help AoC get hits from Xfire. Why would Funcom turn down free advertising due to performance issues. And as well, no where on their site do they say the Raptr client, another new tracking tool, does not work in DX10. The Raptr site does not say it as well...yet, when talking to the Raptr team, they advise players to play in DX9. Getting my drift here. You think Funcom would just say out loud "Don't run Xfire as it causes problems with our client...".. Yea right. I still say "fallible" and flawed. (As a side note, I have yet to red bar since uninstalling Xfire also. Thus, the reason for my post...if you are having issues with AoC and run Xfire? Think about uninstalling)
You really think Funcom is just doing xfire a favor by "helping out" and maybe getting some free publicity out of it? You don't recognize a paid promotion when you see one? You really want to believe that funcom is willing to help someone out by advising its users to install a program that you claim degrades performance of the game? Oh thats right, you want to play word games not and pretend funcom didn't want people to install xfire.
They wanted the free hits from xifre ratings as a result of the contest. You admit that. They officially endorse the contest which the first step requires use of the xfire client while running age of conan. You admit that.
However you can't admit funcom endorses the use of xfire in conan, because it shows just how wrong you are in this entire post.
You can play all the word games you want. That I don't get your message which is paper thin. The funcom never said the word install.
To tell the truth you sound desperate to find a reason to discredit xfire and this is the best theory you can come up with. I think it has been myth busted enough by the simple fact that funcom spent money and actively engaged its player base to install the software as a marketing piece.
So the choices are:
a) funcom wants its users to install software that will drive players away
b) you can't set up a computer that runs xfire properly with an mmo.
So, you decide to avoid your wordplay by stating Funcom "advises" people to install Xfire. They have not "advised" anyone to do anything, but yet, you wish to continue to avoid this.
As to the "advertising", it is really simple. Xfire NEEDS to have games to promote their product. Xfire is useless without product. Xfire simply gives Funcom "free space" to advertise its product, thus allowing Xfire to advertise IT's product. Xfire runs a promotion, Funcom announces said promotion...done.
Now, lets use MMORPG.com as our advert example. Ads all over the place for various games, including AoC. Funcom has paid for that space. Simple deduction. Games need to pay to advertise.
Now, same thing with Xfire. Funcom pays for space. Their adverts are all over Xfire.
But, Xfire wants to get its product onto more computers, thus having more eyes to see its product. They then run a contest in a partciular game, and offer prizes.
What YOU are trying to say is Funcom has PAID for advertitising space, oh and PAID for all the prizes. So, Xfire gets nothing out of this?
That is your backwards thinking.
Xfire basically is being advertised for free using YOUR thinking.
In all actuality, neither one of us is right, and the contest is being sponsored by OCZ Tech.,
But, if I was running a company and was not an idiot, I would make DAMN sure that if I am givng away prizes, I will make sure the advert says "Sponsored by Funcom"
I am sorry, but when I read " Xfire is holding an Age of Conan Video Capture Contest", and OCZ is sponsoring it, I think MY assumption that Funcom is NOT the sponsor, thus not paying for it
So, of course Funcom is NOT going to say "Hey, better not install this as some systems will experience issues"...and then ruin a chance at some free advertising.
I don't need to play word games to twist something to fit my opinion. Funcom in no uncertain terms was encouraging its players to go on over to the xfire site and follow the rules which clearly state to install and use xfire in age of conan. I don't know how much more clear it can be that funcom encourages its player to use xfire. Pick what ever term suits your fancy, but they endorsed xfire for use in conan.
Here is a blurb from funcom about the contest.
"Visit the Xfire contest rules page and follow the detailed instructions on how to submit your video! " -Funcom
What was the first step in the instructions? Install xfire.
Now that pretty much nullifies your little theory that xfire ruins age of conan gameplay. That doesn't mean there cannot be oddities with xfire (or any piece of software) in conjunction with conan (or any other piece of software).
You want people to believe you have solved the riddle of xifre and concluded it is fallible due to your sample set of what? 5 computers.
For your theory to be valid, funcom would have had to purposefully engage in a subscription promotion with a piece of software that harms customers play experiences and would most likely cause people to leave if they couldn't figure it out. Not to mention the promotion revolves around capturing video which would be like filming the terrible performance caused by xfire and putting it up for display to potential customers.
Just think about that for one second please.
What YOU are trying to say is Funcom has PAID for advertising space, oh and PAID for all the prizes. So, Xfire gets nothing out of this?
It is pretty common for the company with a product to pay an advertising fee and supply prizes for a promotion. I'm not sure how you don't understand what xfire is getting. Xfire gets paid to advertise. Running a promo for a game is.. advertising and someone is going to pay for that. Either payed directly or through sponsorship it doesn't matter, someone is paying.
For example, do you think game shows on television don't get paid to give away cars and other brand name prices? Do you think they do it for free? No, companies pay for advertising AND supply the prizes.
Why wouldn't funcom say "Hey, better not install this as some systems will experience issues"?... Lets see.... because it is not the truth? Outside of your limited experience and 2 other people you point to, there are thousands and thousands of people running xfire each day with age of conan. How is that for reality?
How many more ways can you try to prove your theory where all other evidence, including funcom, says that overall it is wrong.
Alright everyone! I have cleaned up this thread quite a bit. Please stay on topic and AVOID name calling. Any form of name calling is considered flaming. This thread has some good back and forth discussions going on, so I am going to leave it open for now, but be careful with how you reply.
O.K. I will take the 100,000k figure as valid but also remember that during the same time Funcom gave away free level 50s so many people probably cashed in on that. When Funcom states that most players are not level 80 that is probably because they are counting the myriad of lower level alts that many players have ammassed just like the census sites.
I already admitted that the trials seemed to be popular going by stat trackers however much of the numbers have reverted to where they were prior, who knows maybe many subscribed and playtime is just way down.
Would those be Xfire numbers? They are quite unreliable, and using those as any measure of overal scrips is still ridiculous. Thus the reason I started this op.
Wish I knew what numbers you feel "reverted". Search sites? Web traffic? All useless.
Basically there is one thing we DO know.
We know nothing.
And Funcom holds the cards to the overall data. If the game is not shutdown by now, then it will carry on.
Simple mathematics there.
Google Trends
Xfire hour logs
Official forums
Mmorpg posts
They've all dropped off and dried up somewhat since the trial ended. The trial was extended in order to get more players because it was so underwhelming in the first 2 weeks. If only 1:20 or 1:15 actually resub, well there is a reason for that and its not because the players are wrong about the quality of the product, it is because the quality of the product has not improved substantially and if the AOC dev team didn't understand that before the trials they sure as hell do now.
Yet, what is amazing is I can whip out any data I wish to and show something like...oh say...this?
Weird how that works to anyones favor that wishes it.
Ya your data is old that trafic died down on all sources, we already know it was up after they spammed e mails to bring back old players. You linked Warhammer to compare...look at how much that game spiked during free win backs same thing with AoC.
Guess the real thing we learned is people come back for free trials and then abruptly leave if the game is X. Solve for X.
However, Xfire is valid for showing up and down trends within any MMO as MMO players are X fires biggest population, as AoC leaked players we watched it go down proportional to the leakage.Your anecdotal evidence about Xfire not working on your PC is not statisticaly sound as your the only person complaining after xfire event win backs etc which showed many people can use X fire while playing AoC and a solid minority do perhaps 5% of the population.
EDIT: ya I don't think the fans understand that there is something missing from this game that keeps it from retaining customers. When Funcom said that subscribers were staying longer it was because only the die hard fans were left. However, there are fans of any game ever made no matter how broken or bad. I made a post asking why people did not resub - take that to Funcom or look at the myriad of sugestions on the official forums because that is all that is there. One thing holding AoC back is they can't redo the entire game mechanics and design after star wars failure.
Alright everyone! I have cleaned up this thread quite a bit. Please stay on topic and AVOID name calling. Any form of name calling is considered flaming. This thread has some good back and forth discussions going on, so I am going to leave it open for now, but be careful with how you reply. Thanks!
So when I referred to Loke as a moron earlier that was name calling. I apologize Loke you are a moron but I won't call you that anymore. Thanks to Eric Cartman from police squad for coming in here and patrolling a useless thread instead of closing it down lol.
2nd quarter report will be out on Aug 26th. Guess that will show how much of a effect the server merges and free trials had. The third quarters report in November will reflect the veteran campaign.
Anyway Open you used to swear by Xfire when you used to quote it to show how LoTRO was dieing, what a change of heart you have had.
Just looked at the forums, yesterday only 15 threads were replied to on the US general forums...sad
The 2nd quarter report should show 3 things for sure.
-Subscriptions are stable, because pretty much everybody who played in Nov 08 thru Jun 09 played with stable server pops made up of some new players and die hards who like the game and dont care about the Dev
-Hours per player should be up because server patches are months and months apart
There was about a 50% increase in activity on servers and 30% increase in buzz on the forums from the free trials. But they won't be bothering to tell you the "Trial to Subscription Conversion" Numbers because that who should nothing positive.
This will in all likelyhood be one of the last quarters of AOC.
The 2nd quarter report should show 3 things for sure. -Subscriptions are stable, because pretty much everybody who played in Nov 08 thru Jun 09 played with stable server pops made up of some new players and die hards who like the game and dont care about the Dev -Hours per player should be up because server patches are months and months apart There was about a 50% increase in activity on servers and 30% increase in buzz on the forums from the free trials. But they won't be bothering to tell you the "Trial to Subscription Conversion" Numbers because that who should nothing positive. This will in all likelyhood be one of the last quarters of AOC.
please explain why this is one of the last quarters with AoC when the game is making money?
Originally posted by BishopB:
Are a lot of the trolls just angry kids with old gaming hardware?
The game collapsed after launch because it was an empty broken shell of a product compared to what it was advertised to be.
Today it has DX10 and stable performance. As far as critical improvements and implements that is it. It has a few new areas, a few new balances, and a few bug fixes, is it revolutionary or a radical improvement from what it was? No and no.
In order to stay afloat they needed to bring additional subscribers to stave off the attrition which will occur during the next 6-12 months as new bigger better actually complete and feature rich and fun MMOs come online. They also needed to redeem themselves for their failure at launch with the free trials.
AOC did not have a successful free trial.
What happens on servers in AOC as evidenced by the decline in 2008 in august september and october, is that they reach a point of no return where they hit a certain population level where grouping is impossible and global chat is quiet for a long time and then it feels like a single player game and people quit.
AOC is on that path and there is nothing being done by the developer to remedy the broken things, only to add new things instead of fixing what is already in existence.
Last quarters of AOC are being played as we speak.
The one thing we learned is 2 people will pull X fire from thier computers to try to convince the world AoC is doing well, yet it is not it has been failing hard since release.
AoC is down, what are they going to do about all the people leaving without people to replace them now that thier free trial card has been used?
Look Funcom had all the time in the world to fix stuff they realeased very little in the last year and the people have spoken by leaving once again en mass. Alll that is left is people who could care less about how bad the game is just fans hoping Funcom fixes this broken game, which will never happen.
Finantcid and LordBonzey2 obiously disagrees with me and I am fine with that.
My claims are these.
1) AoC as a game works very well. Technical performance, content and gameplay is up to par or above. This can be proven by slow increase in playerbase since december. There has been ups and dows, and yes numbers have been falling since june, but they were the highest in june since september last year. Current level of players is way above what it was in december/ january. Player retention rate has increased. If you like AoC or not is now a matter of taste, not of technicalities or lack of content.
2) AoC had one of the worst launches in history. They delivered an unfinished product to the market who hated them for it. (this negativity still lingers around in these forums)
3) Funcom started to fix the game about a year ago when they fired Gaute Godager (old GD). This work is more or less completed now. See 1)
4) Funcom says stuff all the time and as a company you cannot trust them. They have lied too much. However they make great games. "love the game, hate the company". This can be proven by TLJ and AO who have been played by millions and are still good games. I would have appreciated if the negative posters here could se the difference between the game and the company, but that i am afraid is asking for too much.
Originally posted by BishopB:
Are a lot of the trolls just angry kids with old gaming hardware?
Finantcid and LordBonzey2 obiously disagrees with me and I am fine with that. My claims are these. 1) AoC as a game works very well. Technical performance, content and gameplay is up to par or above. This can be proven by slow increase in playerbase since december. There has been ups and dows, and yes numbers have been falling since june, but they were the highest in june since september last year. Current level of players is way above what it was in december/ january. Player retention rate has increased. If you like AoC or not is now a matter of taste, not of technicalities or lack of content. 2) AoC had one of the worst launches in history. They delivered an unfinished product to the market who hated them for it. (this negativity still lingers around in these forums) 3) Funcom started to fix the game about a year ago when they fired Gaute Godager (old GD). This work is more or less completed now. See 1) 4) Funcom says stuff all the time and as a company you cannot trust them. They have lied too much. However they make great games. "love the game, hate the company". This can be proven by TLJ and AO who have been played by millions and are still good games. I would have appreciated if the negative posters here could se the difference between the game and the company, but that i am afraid is asking for too much.
The game has stable performance in most areas in the DX9 client. DX10 cuts your performance in half and for most players will probably be unacceptable. If it was only 15-25% I could see the reason for it but its just not up to par. Sieges are still prone to crashing. Raids, well still laggy. Grouping is still poor grouping.
AOC did have one of the best launches, it was what happned after launch, their marketing and their actual reality of implementation were two different dimensions. Firing Godager really did little to improve the game, sure it had to be done, but don't tell me Craig has been the 2nd coming of Christ for AOC cause it is not true. He has born more responsibility than Godager for the state of the game and has done less than Godager probably did over his tenure to improve it.
Funcom is a lying pile of shit company and AOC is their product, they also have not redeemed themselves whatsoever. AOC needs another year in development and under the direction of a project manager that is interested in holding his team to account on what the community wants for features and what direction the community wants the game to go in, not what they think will be good. AOC has missed the ball at every opporunity and Funcom manages to fuck up just about everything they do with it from billing, customers service, to the prioritization of what to fix, when and how to do it. Vetern rewards are another issue which remains unresolved. I just don't want to hear anybody talking about how AOC is competitive or there is some magic return of players staring in December because that's bull cocky.
Finantcid and LordBonzey2 obiously disagrees with me and I am fine with that. My claims are these. 1) AoC as a game works very well. Technical performance, content and gameplay is up to par or above. This can be proven by slow increase in playerbase since december. There has been ups and dows, and yes numbers have been falling since june, but they were the highest in june since september last year. Current level of players is way above what it was in december/ january. Player retention rate has increased. If you like AoC or not is now a matter of taste, not of technicalities or lack of content. 2) AoC had one of the worst launches in history. They delivered an unfinished product to the market who hated them for it. (this negativity still lingers around in these forums) 3) Funcom started to fix the game about a year ago when they fired Gaute Godager (old GD). This work is more or less completed now. See 1) 4) Funcom says stuff all the time and as a company you cannot trust them. They have lied too much. However they make great games. "love the game, hate the company". This can be proven by TLJ and AO who have been played by millions and are still good games. I would have appreciated if the negative posters here could se the difference between the game and the company, but that i am afraid is asking for too much.
The game has stable performance in most areas in the DX9 client. DX10 cuts your performance in half and for most players will probably be unacceptable. If it was only 15-25% I could see the reason for it but its just not up to par. Sieges are still prone to crashing. Raids, well still laggy. Grouping is still poor grouping.
AOC did have one of the best launches, it was what happned after launch, their marketing and their actual reality of implementation were two different dimensions. Firing Godager really did little to improve the game, sure it had to be done, but don't tell me Craig has been the 2nd coming of Christ for AOC cause it is not true. He has born more responsibility than Godager for the state of the game and has done less than Godager probably did over his tenure to improve it.
Funcom is a lying pile of shit company and AOC is their product, they also have not redeemed themselves whatsoever. AOC needs another year in development and under the direction of a project manager that is interested in holding his team to account on what the community wants for features and what direction the community wants the game to go in, not what they think will be good. AOC has missed the ball at every opporunity and Funcom manages to fuck up just about everything they do with it from billing, customers service, to the prioritization of what to fix, when and how to do it. Vetern rewards are another issue which remains unresolved. I just don't want to hear anybody talking about how AOC is competitive or there is some magic return of players staring in December because that's bull cocky.
Thank you for confirming my points even if you put it in other words than I do
1) Game works fine. Current known problems. DX10, Raiding and Sieging. (Two last will probably be fixed in 1.06).
2) I will correct myself and agree that they had a great launch but a terrible time immediately after. No disagreement
3) Funcom lies through their teeth. No disagreement there.
4) There is no magical growth of playerbase, no disagreement. You also do not deny that they have had a pretty slow, but steady growth theese last 6+ months. This is ofcourse due to item no 1) - bringing us back to "Game works fine"
Originally posted by BishopB:
Are a lot of the trolls just angry kids with old gaming hardware?
Originally posted by Aceundor 4) There is no magical growth of playerbase, no disagreement. You also do not deny that they have had a pretty slow, but steady growth theese last 6+ months. This is ofcourse due to item no 1) - bringing us back to "Game works fine"
I wouldn't say there has been slow and steady growth, there has been 4 (well more than that probably, 6 perhaps) months of a similar ammount of people joining to leaving, then a large increase in people perhaps as much as 30% over a short period of a couple of weeks and now slowly they have been losing more than have joined since then. Shortly I'd expect them to be back to parity again of losing a similar ammount to they are bringing in. Then in a months time they will start to lose people to Aion etc.
All of this was predictable without x-fire though I belive xfire shows something very similar to what I've described.
Funcom certainly did well to stop the rot and the win back programme went pretty well I think, but the current population is as high as it's ever going to get (unless the expansion is amazing)
I would expect that the win back programme was expensive though and I've been seeing AoC advertising everywhere which must cost alot, while it's been good for the games population I'm not sure how much of it will translate to the bottom line.
Originally posted by Aceundor 4) There is no magical growth of playerbase, no disagreement. You also do not deny that they have had a pretty slow, but steady growth theese last 6+ months. This is ofcourse due to item no 1) - bringing us back to "Game works fine"
I wouldn't say there has been slow and steady growth, there has been 4 (well more than that probably, 6 perhaps) months of a similar ammount of people joining to leaving, then a large increase in people perhaps as much as 30% over a short period of a couple of weeks and now slowly they have been losing more than have joined since then. Shortly I'd expect them to be back to parity again of losing a similar ammount to they are bringing in. Then in a months time they will start to lose people to Aion etc.
All of this was predictable without x-fire though I belive xfire shows something very similar to what I've described.
Funcom certainly did well to stop the rot and the win back programme went pretty well I think, but the current population is as high as it's ever going to get (unless the expansion is amazing)
I would expect that the win back programme was expensive though and I've been seeing AoC advertising everywhere which must cost alot, while it's been good for the games population I'm not sure how much of it will translate to the bottom line.
These are xfire figures, hours played on sundays since last year december, you tell me if it shows growth or not. However as OP has pointend out xfire figures may not be worth sh...t. Last year when it showed decline all us fanbois were telling how it dindt work, while the haters were using it to prove decline though.
X-fire for AoC (sundays):
07. des 08: 4819
04. jan 09: 5768
25. jan 09: 6853
22. feb 09: 7691
28. jun 09: 8359
19. jul 09:11227 (middle of winback)
09. aug 09: 9225 (winback over.)
Originally posted by BishopB:
Are a lot of the trolls just angry kids with old gaming hardware?
What does the number of xfire players in those same time periods show?
I'd asume with an increase in hours would mean an increase in number of xfire players, but that isn't a given truth. That is to say hours played can increase for a variety of reason with population growth being one possibility, but not the only explanation.
Originally posted by Aceundor 4) There is no magical growth of playerbase, no disagreement. You also do not deny that they have had a pretty slow, but steady growth theese last 6+ months. This is ofcourse due to item no 1) - bringing us back to "Game works fine"
I wouldn't say there has been slow and steady growth, there has been 4 (well more than that probably, 6 perhaps) months of a similar ammount of people joining to leaving, then a large increase in people perhaps as much as 30% over a short period of a couple of weeks and now slowly they have been losing more than have joined since then. Shortly I'd expect them to be back to parity again of losing a similar ammount to they are bringing in. Then in a months time they will start to lose people to Aion etc.
All of this was predictable without x-fire though I belive xfire shows something very similar to what I've described.
Funcom certainly did well to stop the rot and the win back programme went pretty well I think, but the current population is as high as it's ever going to get (unless the expansion is amazing)
I would expect that the win back programme was expensive though and I've been seeing AoC advertising everywhere which must cost alot, while it's been good for the games population I'm not sure how much of it will translate to the bottom line.
These are xfire figures, hours played on sundays since last year december, you tell me if it shows growth or not. However as OP has pointend out xfire figures may not be worth sh...t. Last year when it showed decline all us fanbois were telling how it dindt work, while the haters were using it to prove decline though.
X-fire for AoC (sundays):
07. des 08: 4819
04. jan 09: 5768
25. jan 09: 6853
22. feb 09: 7691
28. jun 09: 8359
19. jul 09:11227 (middle of winback)
09. aug 09: 9225 (winback over.)
That might show growth but the fact you have missed out march, april, may and 95% of june suggests someone being economical with the truth and trying to spin the numbers. your june is during free trials.
Originally posted by Aceundor These are xfire figures, hours played on sundays since last year december, you tell me if it shows growth or not. However as OP has pointend out xfire figures may not be worth sh...t. Last year when it showed decline all us fanbois were telling how it dindt work, while the haters were using it to prove decline though. X-fire for AoC (sundays):
07. des 08: 4819
04. jan 09: 5768
25. jan 09: 6853
22. feb 09: 7691
28. jun 09: 8359
19. jul 09:11227 (middle of winback) correction 9430
09. aug 09: 9225 (winback over.) correction 6426
dunno where you got those numbers but the ones for july 9th and 09August that you quoted are way off according to the numbers I get on the XFire site
Anyway was there a patch or something yesterday because it was down to #49
Originally posted by Aceundor These are xfire figures, hours played on sundays since last year december, you tell me if it shows growth or not. However as OP has pointend out xfire figures may not be worth sh...t. Last year when it showed decline all us fanbois were telling how it dindt work, while the haters were using it to prove decline though. X-fire for AoC (sundays):
07. des 08: 4819
04. jan 09: 5768
25. jan 09: 6853
22. feb 09: 7691
28. jun 09: 8359
19. jul 09:11227 (middle of winback) correction 9430
09. aug 09: 9225 (winback over.) correction 6426
dunno where you got those numbers but the ones for july 9th and 09August that you quoted are way off according to the numbers I get on the XFire site
Anyway was there a patch or something yesterday because it was down to #49
The xfire numbers suddunly changed dramatically, I've no idea what that means, they have corrected the graph and taken a few thousand off each day for the last few weeks. Is it bugged now? or was it bugged before? something dodgy has happened to the numbers.
Comments
Somehow I doubt people quit as a result of guildbanks not getting bigger. It just doesn't seem like a gamebreaker to me.
"Man I loved age of conan, but the size of the guild bank just killed it for me".
Sure 90/100 would vote in favor of something as trivial as more storage space or puts more power/convenience into the players hands, but that doesn't mean it is a pressing issue that needs priority attention and the company is not interested in player feedback by not acting upon those requests.
Oh I got your point clear enough.
You had troubles with xfire and a few other people did to, so it can't be a good source for tracking anything.
Is that all?
Funcom seems to have enough faith in the program to advise people to install it and your sample size of 5 computers (not even 5 people) doesn't make a compelling argument.
I've always thought XFire and MMOs made no sense. XFire started as a tool for gamers to find which server their friend was on and join it directly, as such I think for a lot of people it is still used for that purpose today. I only ever turn on xfire when playing FPS games to easily join friends in matches already or to allow people to join up with me easily. Steam makes this easy as well so I used XFire very little anymore.
The concept of having XFire open while in an MMO is lost on me, most people focus their playing on one server. And every MMO now has friends list, guild lists etc that lets you know when people log on and off and let's you easily communicate back and forth. So why use XFire while playing MMOs? I just don't get it.
For that fact I think the numbers on XFire as far as MMOs are concerned isn't that accurate, but then again I don't hold a game's worth by it's XFire rating. Different games attract different types of gamers, also different types of gamers have interest or a lack of interest in XFire. So you might have a type of game that attracts the same type of player who would use XFire and that game would now have a high rating.
But the important thing to remember over all of that is that AoC sucks regardless of XFire rank.
You really think Funcom is just doing xfire a favor by "helping out" and maybe getting some free publicity out of it? You don't recognize a paid promotion when you see one? You really want to believe that funcom is willing to help someone out by advising its users to install a program that you claim degrades performance of the game? Oh thats right, you want to play word games not and pretend funcom didn't want people to install xfire.
They wanted the free hits from xifre ratings as a result of the contest. You admit that. They officially endorse the contest which the first step requires use of the xfire client while running age of conan. You admit that.
However you can't admit funcom endorses the use of xfire in conan, because it shows just how wrong you are in this entire post.
You can play all the word games you want. That I don't get your message which is paper thin. The funcom never said the word install.
To tell the truth you sound desperate to find a reason to discredit xfire and this is the best theory you can come up with. I think it has been myth busted enough by the simple fact that funcom spent money and actively engaged its player base to install the software as a marketing piece.
So the choices are:
a) funcom wants its users to install software that will drive players away
b) you can't set up a computer that runs xfire properly with an mmo.
Ok, thanks for the chat.
So, you decide to avoid your wordplay by stating Funcom "advises" people to install Xfire. They have not "advised" anyone to do anything, but yet, you wish to continue to avoid this.
As to the "advertising", it is really simple. Xfire NEEDS to have games to promote their product. Xfire is useless without product. Xfire simply gives Funcom "free space" to advertise its product, thus allowing Xfire to advertise IT's product. Xfire runs a promotion, Funcom announces said promotion...done.
Now, lets use MMORPG.com as our advert example. Ads all over the place for various games, including AoC. Funcom has paid for that space. Simple deduction. Games need to pay to advertise.
Now, same thing with Xfire. Funcom pays for space. Their adverts are all over Xfire.
But, Xfire wants to get its product onto more computers, thus having more eyes to see its product. They then run a contest in a partciular game, and offer prizes.
What YOU are trying to say is Funcom has PAID for advertitising space, oh and PAID for all the prizes. So, Xfire gets nothing out of this?
That is your backwards thinking.
Xfire basically is being advertised for free using YOUR thinking.
In all actuality, neither one of us is right, and the contest is being sponsored by OCZ Tech.,
But, if I was running a company and was not an idiot, I would make DAMN sure that if I am givng away prizes, I will make sure the advert says "Sponsored by Funcom"
I am sorry, but when I read " Xfire is holding an Age of Conan Video Capture Contest", and OCZ is sponsoring it, I think MY assumption that Funcom is NOT the sponsor, thus not paying for it
So, of course Funcom is NOT going to say "Hey, better not install this as some systems will experience issues"...and then ruin a chance at some free advertising.
Try to get some reality here.
I don't need to play word games to twist something to fit my opinion. Funcom in no uncertain terms was encouraging its players to go on over to the xfire site and follow the rules which clearly state to install and use xfire in age of conan. I don't know how much more clear it can be that funcom encourages its player to use xfire. Pick what ever term suits your fancy, but they endorsed xfire for use in conan.
Here is a blurb from funcom about the contest.
"Visit the Xfire contest rules page and follow the detailed instructions on how to submit your video! " -Funcom
What was the first step in the instructions? Install xfire.
Now that pretty much nullifies your little theory that xfire ruins age of conan gameplay. That doesn't mean there cannot be oddities with xfire (or any piece of software) in conjunction with conan (or any other piece of software).
You want people to believe you have solved the riddle of xifre and concluded it is fallible due to your sample set of what? 5 computers.
For your theory to be valid, funcom would have had to purposefully engage in a subscription promotion with a piece of software that harms customers play experiences and would most likely cause people to leave if they couldn't figure it out. Not to mention the promotion revolves around capturing video which would be like filming the terrible performance caused by xfire and putting it up for display to potential customers.
Just think about that for one second please.
What YOU are trying to say is Funcom has PAID for advertising space, oh and PAID for all the prizes. So, Xfire gets nothing out of this?
It is pretty common for the company with a product to pay an advertising fee and supply prizes for a promotion. I'm not sure how you don't understand what xfire is getting. Xfire gets paid to advertise. Running a promo for a game is.. advertising and someone is going to pay for that. Either payed directly or through sponsorship it doesn't matter, someone is paying.
For example, do you think game shows on television don't get paid to give away cars and other brand name prices? Do you think they do it for free? No, companies pay for advertising AND supply the prizes.
Why wouldn't funcom say "Hey, better not install this as some systems will experience issues"?... Lets see.... because it is not the truth? Outside of your limited experience and 2 other people you point to, there are thousands and thousands of people running xfire each day with age of conan. How is that for reality?
How many more ways can you try to prove your theory where all other evidence, including funcom, says that overall it is wrong.
Alright everyone! I have cleaned up this thread quite a bit. Please stay on topic and AVOID name calling. Any form of name calling is considered flaming. This thread has some good back and forth discussions going on, so I am going to leave it open for now, but be careful with how you reply.
Thanks!
MMORPG.com Staff
Derek Gordon
Would those be Xfire numbers? They are quite unreliable, and using those as any measure of overal scrips is still ridiculous. Thus the reason I started this op.
Wish I knew what numbers you feel "reverted". Search sites? Web traffic? All useless.
Basically there is one thing we DO know.
We know nothing.
And Funcom holds the cards to the overall data. If the game is not shutdown by now, then it will carry on.
Simple mathematics there.
Google Trends
Xfire hour logs
Official forums
Mmorpg posts
They've all dropped off and dried up somewhat since the trial ended. The trial was extended in order to get more players because it was so underwhelming in the first 2 weeks. If only 1:20 or 1:15 actually resub, well there is a reason for that and its not because the players are wrong about the quality of the product, it is because the quality of the product has not improved substantially and if the AOC dev team didn't understand that before the trials they sure as hell do now.
Yet, what is amazing is I can whip out any data I wish to and show something like...oh say...this?
http://siteanalytics.compete.com/ageofconan.com/
Which shows a massive upswing...compared to say...oh...this
http://siteanalytics.compete.com/warhammeronline.com/
Now THAT is a downswing...
I guess what I see is growth for AoC.
Weird how that works to anyones favor that wishes it.
Ya your data is old that trafic died down on all sources, we already know it was up after they spammed e mails to bring back old players. You linked Warhammer to compare...look at how much that game spiked during free win backs same thing with AoC.
Guess the real thing we learned is people come back for free trials and then abruptly leave if the game is X. Solve for X.
However, Xfire is valid for showing up and down trends within any MMO as MMO players are X fires biggest population, as AoC leaked players we watched it go down proportional to the leakage.Your anecdotal evidence about Xfire not working on your PC is not statisticaly sound as your the only person complaining after xfire event win backs etc which showed many people can use X fire while playing AoC and a solid minority do perhaps 5% of the population.
EDIT: ya I don't think the fans understand that there is something missing from this game that keeps it from retaining customers. When Funcom said that subscribers were staying longer it was because only the die hard fans were left. However, there are fans of any game ever made no matter how broken or bad. I made a post asking why people did not resub - take that to Funcom or look at the myriad of sugestions on the official forums because that is all that is there. One thing holding AoC back is they can't redo the entire game mechanics and design after star wars failure.
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
So when I referred to Loke as a moron earlier that was name calling. I apologize Loke you are a moron but I won't call you that anymore. Thanks to Eric Cartman from police squad for coming in here and patrolling a useless thread instead of closing it down lol.
Yes Thanks,
LB
2nd quarter report will be out on Aug 26th. Guess that will show how much of a effect the server merges and free trials had. The third quarters report in November will reflect the veteran campaign.
Anyway Open you used to swear by Xfire when you used to quote it to show how LoTRO was dieing, what a change of heart you have had.
Just looked at the forums, yesterday only 15 threads were replied to on the US general forums...sad
I miss DAoC
The 2nd quarter report should show 3 things for sure.
-Subscriptions are stable, because pretty much everybody who played in Nov 08 thru Jun 09 played with stable server pops made up of some new players and die hards who like the game and dont care about the Dev
-Hours per player should be up because server patches are months and months apart
There was about a 50% increase in activity on servers and 30% increase in buzz on the forums from the free trials. But they won't be bothering to tell you the "Trial to Subscription Conversion" Numbers because that who should nothing positive.
This will in all likelyhood be one of the last quarters of AOC.
please explain why this is one of the last quarters with AoC when the game is making money?
Originally posted by BishopB:
Are a lot of the trolls just angry kids with old gaming hardware?
Sure.
The game collapsed after launch because it was an empty broken shell of a product compared to what it was advertised to be.
Today it has DX10 and stable performance. As far as critical improvements and implements that is it. It has a few new areas, a few new balances, and a few bug fixes, is it revolutionary or a radical improvement from what it was? No and no.
In order to stay afloat they needed to bring additional subscribers to stave off the attrition which will occur during the next 6-12 months as new bigger better actually complete and feature rich and fun MMOs come online. They also needed to redeem themselves for their failure at launch with the free trials.
AOC did not have a successful free trial.
What happens on servers in AOC as evidenced by the decline in 2008 in august september and october, is that they reach a point of no return where they hit a certain population level where grouping is impossible and global chat is quiet for a long time and then it feels like a single player game and people quit.
AOC is on that path and there is nothing being done by the developer to remedy the broken things, only to add new things instead of fixing what is already in existence.
Last quarters of AOC are being played as we speak.
The one thing we learned is 2 people will pull X fire from thier computers to try to convince the world AoC is doing well, yet it is not it has been failing hard since release.
AoC is down, what are they going to do about all the people leaving without people to replace them now that thier free trial card has been used?
Look Funcom had all the time in the world to fix stuff they realeased very little in the last year and the people have spoken by leaving once again en mass. Alll that is left is people who could care less about how bad the game is just fans hoping Funcom fixes this broken game, which will never happen.
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
Xfire results are fail. I play AoC and don't use Xfire. We have this cool thing called Ventrilo.....
Finantcid and LordBonzey2 obiously disagrees with me and I am fine with that.
My claims are these.
1) AoC as a game works very well. Technical performance, content and gameplay is up to par or above. This can be proven by slow increase in playerbase since december. There has been ups and dows, and yes numbers have been falling since june, but they were the highest in june since september last year. Current level of players is way above what it was in december/ january. Player retention rate has increased. If you like AoC or not is now a matter of taste, not of technicalities or lack of content.
2) AoC had one of the worst launches in history. They delivered an unfinished product to the market who hated them for it. (this negativity still lingers around in these forums)
3) Funcom started to fix the game about a year ago when they fired Gaute Godager (old GD). This work is more or less completed now. See 1)
4) Funcom says stuff all the time and as a company you cannot trust them. They have lied too much. However they make great games. "love the game, hate the company". This can be proven by TLJ and AO who have been played by millions and are still good games. I would have appreciated if the negative posters here could se the difference between the game and the company, but that i am afraid is asking for too much.
Originally posted by BishopB:
Are a lot of the trolls just angry kids with old gaming hardware?
The game has stable performance in most areas in the DX9 client. DX10 cuts your performance in half and for most players will probably be unacceptable. If it was only 15-25% I could see the reason for it but its just not up to par. Sieges are still prone to crashing. Raids, well still laggy. Grouping is still poor grouping.
AOC did have one of the best launches, it was what happned after launch, their marketing and their actual reality of implementation were two different dimensions. Firing Godager really did little to improve the game, sure it had to be done, but don't tell me Craig has been the 2nd coming of Christ for AOC cause it is not true. He has born more responsibility than Godager for the state of the game and has done less than Godager probably did over his tenure to improve it.
Funcom is a lying pile of shit company and AOC is their product, they also have not redeemed themselves whatsoever. AOC needs another year in development and under the direction of a project manager that is interested in holding his team to account on what the community wants for features and what direction the community wants the game to go in, not what they think will be good. AOC has missed the ball at every opporunity and Funcom manages to fuck up just about everything they do with it from billing, customers service, to the prioritization of what to fix, when and how to do it. Vetern rewards are another issue which remains unresolved. I just don't want to hear anybody talking about how AOC is competitive or there is some magic return of players staring in December because that's bull cocky.
The game has stable performance in most areas in the DX9 client. DX10 cuts your performance in half and for most players will probably be unacceptable. If it was only 15-25% I could see the reason for it but its just not up to par. Sieges are still prone to crashing. Raids, well still laggy. Grouping is still poor grouping.
AOC did have one of the best launches, it was what happned after launch, their marketing and their actual reality of implementation were two different dimensions. Firing Godager really did little to improve the game, sure it had to be done, but don't tell me Craig has been the 2nd coming of Christ for AOC cause it is not true. He has born more responsibility than Godager for the state of the game and has done less than Godager probably did over his tenure to improve it.
Funcom is a lying pile of shit company and AOC is their product, they also have not redeemed themselves whatsoever. AOC needs another year in development and under the direction of a project manager that is interested in holding his team to account on what the community wants for features and what direction the community wants the game to go in, not what they think will be good. AOC has missed the ball at every opporunity and Funcom manages to fuck up just about everything they do with it from billing, customers service, to the prioritization of what to fix, when and how to do it. Vetern rewards are another issue which remains unresolved. I just don't want to hear anybody talking about how AOC is competitive or there is some magic return of players staring in December because that's bull cocky.
Thank you for confirming my points even if you put it in other words than I do
1) Game works fine. Current known problems. DX10, Raiding and Sieging. (Two last will probably be fixed in 1.06).
2) I will correct myself and agree that they had a great launch but a terrible time immediately after. No disagreement
3) Funcom lies through their teeth. No disagreement there.
4) There is no magical growth of playerbase, no disagreement. You also do not deny that they have had a pretty slow, but steady growth theese last 6+ months. This is ofcourse due to item no 1) - bringing us back to "Game works fine"
Originally posted by BishopB:
Are a lot of the trolls just angry kids with old gaming hardware?
I wouldn't say there has been slow and steady growth, there has been 4 (well more than that probably, 6 perhaps) months of a similar ammount of people joining to leaving, then a large increase in people perhaps as much as 30% over a short period of a couple of weeks and now slowly they have been losing more than have joined since then. Shortly I'd expect them to be back to parity again of losing a similar ammount to they are bringing in. Then in a months time they will start to lose people to Aion etc.
All of this was predictable without x-fire though I belive xfire shows something very similar to what I've described.
Funcom certainly did well to stop the rot and the win back programme went pretty well I think, but the current population is as high as it's ever going to get (unless the expansion is amazing)
I would expect that the win back programme was expensive though and I've been seeing AoC advertising everywhere which must cost alot, while it's been good for the games population I'm not sure how much of it will translate to the bottom line.
I wouldn't say there has been slow and steady growth, there has been 4 (well more than that probably, 6 perhaps) months of a similar ammount of people joining to leaving, then a large increase in people perhaps as much as 30% over a short period of a couple of weeks and now slowly they have been losing more than have joined since then. Shortly I'd expect them to be back to parity again of losing a similar ammount to they are bringing in. Then in a months time they will start to lose people to Aion etc.
All of this was predictable without x-fire though I belive xfire shows something very similar to what I've described.
Funcom certainly did well to stop the rot and the win back programme went pretty well I think, but the current population is as high as it's ever going to get (unless the expansion is amazing)
I would expect that the win back programme was expensive though and I've been seeing AoC advertising everywhere which must cost alot, while it's been good for the games population I'm not sure how much of it will translate to the bottom line.
These are xfire figures, hours played on sundays since last year december, you tell me if it shows growth or not.
However as OP has pointend out xfire figures may not be worth sh...t. Last year when it showed decline all us fanbois were telling how it dindt work, while the haters were using it to prove decline though.
X-fire for AoC (sundays):
07. des 08: 4819
04. jan 09: 5768
25. jan 09: 6853
22. feb 09: 7691
28. jun 09: 8359
19. jul 09:11227 (middle of winback)
09. aug 09: 9225 (winback over.)
Originally posted by BishopB:
Are a lot of the trolls just angry kids with old gaming hardware?
What does the number of xfire players in those same time periods show?
I'd asume with an increase in hours would mean an increase in number of xfire players, but that isn't a given truth. That is to say hours played can increase for a variety of reason with population growth being one possibility, but not the only explanation.
I wouldn't say there has been slow and steady growth, there has been 4 (well more than that probably, 6 perhaps) months of a similar ammount of people joining to leaving, then a large increase in people perhaps as much as 30% over a short period of a couple of weeks and now slowly they have been losing more than have joined since then. Shortly I'd expect them to be back to parity again of losing a similar ammount to they are bringing in. Then in a months time they will start to lose people to Aion etc.
All of this was predictable without x-fire though I belive xfire shows something very similar to what I've described.
Funcom certainly did well to stop the rot and the win back programme went pretty well I think, but the current population is as high as it's ever going to get (unless the expansion is amazing)
I would expect that the win back programme was expensive though and I've been seeing AoC advertising everywhere which must cost alot, while it's been good for the games population I'm not sure how much of it will translate to the bottom line.
These are xfire figures, hours played on sundays since last year december, you tell me if it shows growth or not.
However as OP has pointend out xfire figures may not be worth sh...t. Last year when it showed decline all us fanbois were telling how it dindt work, while the haters were using it to prove decline though.
X-fire for AoC (sundays):
07. des 08: 4819
04. jan 09: 5768
25. jan 09: 6853
22. feb 09: 7691
28. jun 09: 8359
19. jul 09:11227 (middle of winback)
09. aug 09: 9225 (winback over.)
That might show growth but the fact you have missed out march, april, may and 95% of june suggests someone being economical with the truth and trying to spin the numbers. your june is during free trials.
dunno where you got those numbers but the ones for july 9th and 09August that you quoted are way off according to the numbers I get on the XFire site
Anyway was there a patch or something yesterday because it was down to #49
I miss DAoC
dunno where you got those numbers but the ones for july 9th and 09August that you quoted are way off according to the numbers I get on the XFire site
Anyway was there a patch or something yesterday because it was down to #49
The xfire numbers suddunly changed dramatically, I've no idea what that means, they have corrected the graph and taken a few thousand off each day for the last few weeks. Is it bugged now? or was it bugged before? something dodgy has happened to the numbers.