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Unique Holiday Offer: Unlimited Free Trial for Age of Conan (Funcom Direct D/L) until Jan 1, 2010
Thorgrimm
Age of Conan CorrespondentMember Posts: 274
Unique Holiday Offer: Unlimited Free Trial
Funcom is delighted to announce a unique holiday offer for its massively multiplayer online game ‘Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures’.
Anyone who downloads, registers, and starts playing the trial before January 1st 2010 will be able to enjoy all of level one to twenty – the entire Island of Tortage experience – without ever having to upgrade to a full account or pay a subscription fee. This unique Unlimited Free Trial campaign is only available until January 1st as a special holiday offer to anyone who wishes to experience the sexy and savage world of Conan.
“Our original seven day trial has been very successful so far,” says Morten Larssen, Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Funcom. “But with the holiday season coming up this is the perfect time to shake up our trial offer a bit and try out something new. So everyone who downloads the trial before January 1st will be able to play the first part of the game for free, forever. We are confident that many of those taking advantage of this offer will choose to become permanent players, allowing them to experience all of what the game has to offer including all the additions and improvements introduced since launch.”
Celebrate the holiday season by downloading the trial today, and experience ‘Age of Conan’ in all its savage, sexy and brutal glory. Go to http://www.ageofconan.com/trial to download the client and start your barbaric adventures today. Players can level up as many characters as they want before choosing to move on and explore the rest of the game. Players will be able to enjoy all of what Tortage Island has to offer, complete with player vs. environment and player vs. player gameplay. Users must take advantage of this offer before January 1st, and will need to log in to the game for the offer to take effect.
Launching in May last year ‘Age of Conan’ quickly became a smash hit in retail, shipping over 1.2 million copies around the world. In North America, the most prominent online gaming market in the west, ‘Age of Conan’ became the third best-selling PC title of the year in 2008. In the weeks after launch ‘Age of Conan’ simultaneously topped the charts in 17 countries, and the game received critical acclaim from gaming press across the globe. ‘Age of Conan’ is now available in English, French, German, Spanish, Russian and Polish localized versions, and is being prepared for launch in Korea as well.
Comments
It sounds great and I've been wanting to taste the waters of AOC again, but I have a few questions that you could probably answer for me.
Did Funcom fix the classes? Back when I played, ToS's took everyone to school.
Did Funcom fix the pvp? is there 100 vs 100 like they promised? or even 50 vs 50? I remember testing the pvp with Funcom gms and my guild and I could not have 20 vs 20 without massive lag.
Did Funcom fix sieges? are they even playable?
How is the population?
G4TV - THE FEED has also added a BLOG about it...
http://g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/701333/TheFeed.html?utm_source=g4tv&utm_medium=twitterblog&utm_campaign=so-0907-twitterthefeed-701333&cmpid=so-0907-twitterthefeed-701333
"Funcom is offering a holiday deal of an unlimited trial to all comers who sign up before Jan. 1. The free account allows you to play levels one through 20 gratis, although public chat, in-game mail and forum postings will not be supported with the free accounts--you don't want to make it that easy for gold farmers."
In other words try out the most polished portion of the game without being able to see the real game past 20 with all it's faults. Tortage is in NO WAY AT ALL similar to the rest of the game...
SEE ANSWERS ABOVE...
How is this different than their other free trials? I mean you can ding 20 easy with the free trials they've had before.
New trials, re-evaluate offers and discounts every other month. Seems like they are really desperately begging for subs.
For those who like the game and actively play it, i wish it would be a bigger success...but for what Funcom did to the customers and loyal fans at launch, i can't see the game going down the drain soon enough.
[Mod Edit]
Do not polarize the community.
This New Player Orientation area has been widely cited since DAY 1 (and before) about being the Best INTRO to an MMORPG EVER!!! Since August, FunCom has given Two free two-week trials for new players and two free re-trial offers for vets with higher level avatars to try out the new features. FunCom cannot make everyone happy, and some people simply enjoy being miserable. This is a GREAT OFFER, since there is no money up front. A new player can play for as long as they want from level 1-20, experiencing the Highly Acclaimed Graphics, Highly Acclaimed Music and Sound Effects, and Voice-Acted Dialogue for Quest Missions. Did I mention it is FREE and of Unlimited Duration?
If you do take up the offer, I encourage NEW PLAYERS to choose one of the Normal/PvE Servers until you learn how to defend yourself, using your Feats, Combos, Spells, and other Special Abilities. Tortage may get rough with a lot of Ganking and Griefing on PvP servers. It is reported to be a 7GB Download...
How is this different than their other free trials? I mean you can ding 20 easy with the free trials they've had before.
Like the FilePlanet Offer a few days ago, this offer is of UNLIMITED DURATION if you sign up prior to Jan 1, 2010. Other offers were only of two-week duration. This is why it is limited to levels 1-20. With the two-week trials, you could conceivable exceed level 20 if you were racing through the content, but the dialogue and lore introduced in the quests offer a ton of background info to immerse the player in the Age of Conan Setting. If you race through the quest dialogue and lore, you are really missing out on some EXCEPTIONAL Content.
There are four Destiny Quests within Tortage. One for each of the Root Classes: Warrior, Priest, Mage, and Rogue. So a player could get a fresh experience from a different point-of-view four times. Yes, there are a lot of the leveling quests that will be the same for for all experiences, but there are four unique paths through Tortage in the Night-time Solo Destiny Quests..
That is one negatively-biased opinion.
From a marketing point-of-view, FunCom has to beat the "bad rap" that is constantly being generated (and renewed) by people that have not played the game in 6-18 months and are holding a grudge for whatever reason. These players are not reasonable people, and they are unwilling to change their jaded opinions. FunCom has a Public Relations Nightmare (not Customer Service) on their hands. Gamers have a long memory, and they they are VERY unforgiving. With this offer, the folks at FunCom are trying to entice NEW PLAYERS into trying out the game as it stands now. They are VERY CONFIDENT in the QUALITY of the game NOW. Likewise, they want more folks to be able to try out the Update 1.06 Improvements (in TestLive NOW and soon to be released to ALL SERVERS) and TALK IT UP... If these folks stick around, which I suspect they will, they can easily upgrade their membership, so their characters can advance farther and BE READY for the RISE of the GODSLAYER Expansion.
It is reported to be a 7GB Download...
I want to try this game but on the Fileplanet site, it says the size is 13,236MB =12.92GB. I have AT&T and their high speed internet is not really high. Would take me over a day to download it without any interruptions...DAMN IT!!!!
[Mod Edit]
If I can save the readers of MMORPG any money, in these difficult economic times, while trying out any game that is available, I feel that I AM OBLIGATED to feed this information to my audience. If you have taken the time to read any of my articles, which you obviously have not, you would clearly see that I present the good and the bad, and I regularly ask others to form their own opinions, without trying to force untruths in their ears. I have even compared Age of Conan to the Strengths of its competitors in my very first published article. Yes, there are a lot of other good games out there, and I play several different games and try out others when I can get a Trial or Beta.
I am currently playing AoC and have played on and off since it first came out.
I am a casual gamer and I play on a PvP server: i love to PvP but also i suck very bad at PvP (86 kills/ 265 deaths ).
I have leveled probably 20 or so different characters up to level 20+ but most not higher than 30. My highest is 70 now.
IMO AoC is an awesome game. Some of the features i like:
the TUTORIAL was very helpful to me. some people just seem to know everything before they even start. i'm not that guy.
the GRAPHICS style is awesome; not cartoony (WoW) or exaggerated (WAR) and not high fantasy (AION) just very realistic? i dont know the correct description ("serious" maybe) but the characters look cool and especially the higher level armors.
FATALITIES! special combo moves unique to each class, that has blood splash onto your screen giving it like a 3d feeling.
the PvP COMBAT takes skill (i am lacking here) and is much more than just pressing the buttons. you have to move around alot, and learn to use your shielding (i've no idea how) or use crowd controls properly.. PvP IMO is really fun, but it does take skill. Casters are much easier to learn.
QUESTS, i have never been into Conan stories or books (just the Arnold movies) but doing all the quests was very fun and i did like them. You follow your path and take part in the story. they are cool and most of the NPC's actually talk to you (voice acting)
the ZONES are pretty big. On my current character (lvl 70) i have not repeated any zones. and i actually skipped a lot of quests and zones. its plenty big enough.
I have never been to a siege. i've heard that they are messed up, but there is often 20+ free for all PvP fights at various hotspots (rez pads) and i've not experienced any lag from that.
yes, of course there is always one class that everybody says is overpowered and another that is the suck... and it changes with every round of updates.. pretty common to all mmorpgs.. you can never please everyone. no matter though a highly skilled player will beat a lower skilled player in PvP regardless of class. i have been beaten by players 10 levels lower than me :-(
i guess this game is not for everyone. i have played several other mmorpgs ... i think AoC is the best for the things important to me: serious graphics style, PvP fun, interesting quests.
things that need improvement?
INSTANCING is stupid and i hate it. and the maps dont make any damn sense... either. where the hell am i in relation to old tarantia, tortage, my guild city?... its confusing.
i really hope they fix the SIEGE thing,.,, cuz that is what i am looking forward to most of all.
PvP MINI GAMES lately have died out. pre formed groups of guildies clean house versus pick up teams,,, which causes problems...
i just finished a quest and was rewarded by Conan in his palace... so i took off my helmet and took a screenshot (photo op) :-)
wish there was an emote for shaking hands with Conan... lol would have been funny.
well, thats my opinion to share with anyone who may be considering AoC.
i tried to upload my screenshots into this thread but they went to my profile instead. check me out.. photo op with Conan and his sercret service guards :-))
i liked your review
It is reported to be a 7GB Download...
I want to try this game but on the Fileplanet site, it says the size is 13,236MB =12.92GB. I have AT&T and their high speed internet is not really high. Would take me over a day to download it without any interruptions...DAMN IT!!!!
Actually, your estimate does sound a lot more realistic. I have a Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit system, with DirectX 10, and my Age of Conan directory is 33GB in size after all the patches and additional updated content.
I created a FilePlanet login to see about getting a Trial account. This is the info that came up...
Welcome to the Trial!
Your unique trial key is:
****************
Do not share your trial key,
or you may be unable to play.
FOLLOW THESE INSTRUCTIONS TO PLAY
1. Download the Age of Conan trial client: 7 GB
2. You will need to create an Age of Conan trial account here.
3. During account creation, enter your free trial key and enjoy the trial!
ENJOY THE TRIAL!
FOLLOWED BY:
Download Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures Trial Client (US)
Filename: AoC-Trial-US.zip
Author: Funcom
Size: 13,236.4 MB
Created: 4/2/2009
Updated: 4/3/2009
Downloads: 75,315
Also known as: Age of Conan
http://www.fileplanet.com/198196/190000/fileinfo/Age-of-Conan:-Hyborian-Adventures-Trial-Client-(US)
*** THIS CONFIRMS THE ERROR in File Sizes and YOUR CORRECTION of my earlier Post... Thank you, SIR!!!
GREAT POST!!! I loved it. To the point... Well said...
You will be happy to learn that all zones are Interconnected in Rise of the Godslayer. I suspect that if the "Connected Zones" Philosophy works well in RoTG, we may see changes made to the Aquilonia, Cimmeria, and Stygian Zones. There are losts of gates and portals throughout these zones that lend themselves well to "Next-door zones". This has already been successfully pulled off with teh Tarantia Commons, which was added after the release. I suspect, it can easily be done again, if the response is strong enough after Rise of the Godslayer is released.
*NOTE: To add a photo to a Thread entry like I do in IE7 or IE8, right-click on any graphic on any webpage, click PROPERTIES at the bottom of the menu, highlight, and copy the URL in the Properties. Next, press the icon that looks like a little mountain and sun picture under the Font and Size drop-down lists. Paste the URL on the Address line. I typically set my width to 500 if it is a larger image, and the height will be auto-adjusted. On the second tab, you can place a link as the background of the graphic, so, if a viewer clicks on the picture, it can take the viewer to the source site. I have noticed that if you try to "Upload New Image" from the image selection below your dialogue entry window for your message, these images will appear relatively small. I usually open a second tab in IE8 to my Personal Images on the MMORPG site, and take the Properties URL directly from there. This also saves MMORPG the throughput of having to use their bandwidth to move images around from various sites to pull into their webpages. It generally loads the images faster as well.
Brutally true.
That is one negatively-biased opinion.
From a marketing point-of-view, FunCom has to beat the "bad rap" that is constantly being generated (and renewed) by people that have not played the game in 6-18 months and are holding a grudge for whatever reason. These players are not reasonable people, and they are unwilling to change their jaded opinions. FunCom has a Public Relations Nightmare (not Customer Service) on their hands. Gamers have a long memory, and they they are VERY unforgiving. With this offer, the folks at FunCom are trying to entice NEW PLAYERS into trying out the game as it stands now. They are VERY CONFIDENT in the QUALITY of the game NOW. Likewise, they want more folks to be able to try out the Update 1.06 Improvements (in TestLive NOW and soon to be released to ALL SERVERS) and TALK IT UP... If these folks stick around, which I suspect they will, they can easily upgrade their membership, so their characters can advance farther and BE READY for the RISE of the GODSLAYER Expansion.
Not sure what quality you are speaking of:
Lore? You can run with all pets out as a necromancer in Cimmeria in front of guards. You can pk priests of mitra as a priest of mitra. Lore is broken.
Class options? Same handful they had since launch - everyone starts on the beach and ends up joining a gang/guild to beat each other down - pan the camera in an age of conan fight and it looks like the same exacts races and classes killing themselves.
Race options? Same as above - and madly - the same 3 races since launch. Since day 1, my cimmerian, stygian, aquilonian guild could fight your aquilonian, stygian, cimmerian guild.
So they ignored the lore, made less classes and races than games like eq 1 and daoc made years earlier with a far smaller budget - and have yet to expand to anything with depth.
So funcom used what they wanted of the Robert Ervin Howard universe, just enough rather to get some imagery. Then, the developers let the rest of the game go - and never looked back.
1-20 tortage in no way represents the rest of the game.
And finally, the opening movie with Conan promising an epic conflict is about to occur never says in his speech, "my 3 race guild is gonna fight their 3 race guild..." they make the game look like an epic realm vs realm conflict then you find out its just a simple pvp if it's red it's dead coding debacle with nothing any more epic than the pvp you get in EQ2 or Vanguard. Dark Age of Camelot 2 a lot of us were praying for - we got nothing not even on Bane server where we thought ONE server would be dedicated to a culture vs culture conflict. The devs had no clue what to do with the server, and spent no time on developing it.
Age of Conan has never really been completed past level 20.
The subscription quantity speaks for itself - but it's always been a sad day in my book that a company like Bioware didn't do this game first.
A Picture is worth a thousand words... (Especially in High-definition DirectX 10...)
Throm.. i seriously hope your getting paid by Funcom or MMORPG.com for doing this...... you alone = advertisement.
Doesn't matter if you're bringing positive or negative feedback to the game...
Okay, so I recently returned, and I love it...
I'm on Cimmeria, and there are Sieges pretty regularly...It seems like Mini Games did die for a while, but everyone is encouraging everyone to get back into them!!!...
Yea, there are a lot of immature players on Cimmeria, but I have noticed an increase in RPers, which is good for amn RPer like myself......
I'm absolutely lovin it...the open world PvP adds depth to my game, regardless of the gankers...it makes the world feel much more dangerous, like you always gotta watch your back...kinda like Hyboria should feel...
so...my point is...the game is doing good...the pop is really good right now...cant say for a few months ago, or how it will be in a few months, but there are people everywhere...groups and raid groups are easy to come by...
people should try it again...
PLAYING: NOTHING!!!
PLAYED:FFXI, LotRO, AoC, WAR, DDO, Megaten, Wurm, Rohan, Mabinogi, RoM
WAITING FOR: Dust 514
true but those 1000 words differ for everyone, where you see a beautiful oasis, some see a lonely player, some see godrays, some see zone border.
i hope they get enough subs to get things rolling again.
I need more vespene gas.
This game just hasn't changed enough since launch to warrant any kind of serious interest from former players. Also advertising it to people who haven't tried it with the hard sell is only going to come back to bite Funcom in the backside ... oh sorry it already did one year ago!
The facts are that it is barely different from launch, DX10 that they spent so much time on is a lame duck and about to be made obselete with DX11 next year. But hey it's a free trial so you can't really go wrong unlike the 800k+ gamers that pre ordered it at launch only to get hosed by the "sizziling steak syndicate".
So yeah, try out the only part of AoC that isn't broken. Tortage is a pretty good single player experience as far as soloing in an MMORPG goes and I give them their due respect for working hard on it. Afterwards though they just dropped the ball big time and you'll never know that unless you pony up and find out unfortunately, then of course they'll want you to pony up for the expansion also and I don't smell and steaks on the barbecue with that one either!
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience"
CS Lewis
Havnt tried AoC since 1.05 have we?
My Guild Wars 2 Vids
Havnt tried AoC since 1.05 have we?
I don't believe I have, well if you'd humour me a moment I'd like to ask a few questions about AoC since launch,
1: Have sieges been fixed? Are there still exploits such as glitching through walls ect causing it to end in less than a minute?
2: Has FC introduced drunken boxing now as they promised at launch?
3: Do we have a blood money system in game as was hyped at launch?
4: How is the PvP? Is it more than a bunch of guys hanging around Kheshetta (spelling) PvPing (in a loose term) over nothing and getting bored?
5: Are there major PvP battles of 100 vs 100 as promised at launch now?
If so then maybe I'm wrong and should give AoC another shot?
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience"
CS Lewis