I have a very hard time believing the statement that every single employee they laid off showed up to work for free the next day. I think that's an outright lie.
I was really psyched for this game as I love the whole conspiracy/Lovecraft theme, but the combat system/animations just killed it for me. I tried getting past it a couple of times in beta, but just could not.
..." Anarchy Online and our teams are committed to keeping to a schedule. We will continue to support our games on an ongoing basis.”
The graphics update for AO was first announced in 2006. What kind of schedule is that ???
I still don't believe that AO will ever see an update to thier graphics.
At this point I'd rather see them make AO 2 instead of fussing with the graphics for AO......AO2 if dont right would attract alot of people, especially if it has AoC quality graphics......Alot of people liked AO because it was a challenging sci-fi game, but the graphics turned away many....IMO AO still blows away both AoC and TSW for gameplay.
Why I wont play TSW: Because of the epic failure of AoC. Simple as that. Funcom will NEVER get another dime from me every again. There is a very good reason LOTS of people refer to them as FAILCOM. My entire guild and many others I know outside my guild (mostly PvP players) will never buy a Funcom MMO. It is simply too risky because previews and what's on the box may or may not be in the final game.
Originally posted by JerYnkFan I was really psyched for this game as I love the whole conspiracy/Lovecraft theme, but the combat system/animations just killed it for me. I tried getting past it a couple of times in beta, but just could not.
There is a 3 day trial you can play. The game is not the same as it was at beta.
Why do people decide on games during beta? TSW now is light years beyond even the last "open beta event" they had.
Judge a game on how it is now with a free trial.. not how it was during a beta or based on another game created 5 years ago.
I think the game is good, not great just good. I remember reading somewhere why some people think it has had problems out of the gate is timing of other more popular games coming out, hardware specfics compared to other games and keeping power of it's current player base. I know my cabal (guild) has lost 1/3 of it population because they live in parts of the world where thier internet speed (Required 512 KBPS or faster Internet Connection as posted on thier website) won't let them advance to nightmare dungeons. I have played MANY mmo's and I have never seen a encounter where people can't get past it because of a 2 second delay in thier ping/lag. Just my thoughts and I hope Funcom does something to combat that, lol and i know most of the people who left will come back because they have the lifetime subsctiption..LOL..
I had a great time with my 30 days free and 1 month sub, but I just got tired of haveing to fight every 5 steps, if it wasn't Zombies it was Fanatics or something else. The Secret World was not too secret, everyone in London, Soul and NY new about it and were talking about it in the street and lets not forget the bank where everyone proudly displays their weapons and magic, so much for being secret.
My initial thought was "what were they looking for" with regards to subs?
Everything they said about the game screamed niche. At least to my thought. Why would a company sink a lot of money into a game that has a very specific audience and expect to pull in large numbers of mmo players?
Maybe a millino signed up to their forums so they thought that meant interest in buying and sales. That might be a reasonable assumption. Personally, I never thought the game would get more than 250k sales. As it stood they had 200k or so?
And then they have to keep these players?
Game companies need to be more realistic. It's ridiculous that these games launch and if they don't hit a magic number they fold.
I remember being told about what it took to open a restaurant. One had to have 3 years worth of operating money because tha'ts the time it would take to start and grow the business. This was years ago so I'm not sure if that still holds true but it seems that companies need to plan better if they truly want to succeed.
The Occult and Conspiracys and Horror in general has always had huge fanbase--Zombies and Vampires is always popular.
Not a single clue what you are basing your "screaming niche" from..
Besides, since when isn't battling monsters in a game popular ?
the niche part comes from their posts about the puzzles, the solving clues, the going to outside sources on websites to figure out larger bits of story or clues to other clues.
All of this was presented over the course of development. Finding bits on a website that would be overlooked by most people. This type of game play is not mainstream.
as far as horror and occult having a huge fanbase: are you talking games or are you talking books/movies? Becuase "yeah" 100% agree, there is a huge fanbase out there for horror books/movies.
Now let's talk horror games. The only games that immediately come to mind (and amazing games in my opinion though your mileage may vary) are Clive Barker's Undying, Amnesia, Possibly Vampire Masquerade, 7th guest is an old one... I"m sure there are others but I can' think of them.
So which horror games that you know have a huge following? All the above games had a following and a deservedly devoted following but I don't recall any of those being blockbusters.
Silent Hill and Resident Evil come to my mind. I haven't followed them in many years but they both were huge blockbusters in the 90's early 2000's
Why I wont play TSW: Because of the epic failure of AoC. Simple as that. Funcom will NEVER get another dime from me every again. There is a very good reason LOTS of people refer to them as FAILCOM. My entire guild and many others I know outside my guild (mostly PvP players) will never buy a Funcom MMO. It is simply too risky because previews and what's on the box may or may not be in the final game.
You reap what you sow Failcom.
AMEN!!!!
It's really pitiful to see these kind of posts from people who just can't get rid of all that hatred. And all because a videogame (lol yes, a videogame) failed to meet their expectations.
Why I wont play TSW: Because of the epic failure of AoC. Simple as that. Funcom will NEVER get another dime from me every again. There is a very good reason LOTS of people refer to them as FAILCOM. My entire guild and many others I know outside my guild (mostly PvP players) will never buy a Funcom MMO. It is simply too risky because previews and what's on the box may or may not be in the final game.
You reap what you sow Failcom.
AMEN!!!!
It's really pitiful to see these kind of posts from people who just can't get rid of all that hatred. And all because a videogame (lol yes, a videogame) failed to meet their expectations.
If I had an Iphone and it didn't really work / hard to use / whatever, it is perfectly reasonable for someone to not buy Apple products from then on.
That doesn't mean you personally have to, just that acknowledge that someone might.
Gdemami - Informing people about your thoughts and impressions is not a review, it's a blog.
My initial thought was "what were they looking for" with regards to subs?
Everything they said about the game screamed niche. At least to my thought. Why would a company sink a lot of money into a game that has a very specific audience and expect to pull in large numbers of mmo players?
Maybe a millino signed up to their forums so they thought that meant interest in buying and sales. That might be a reasonable assumption. Personally, I never thought the game would get more than 250k sales. As it stood they had 200k or so?
And then they have to keep these players?
Game companies need to be more realistic. It's ridiculous that these games launch and if they don't hit a magic number they fold.
I remember being told about what it took to open a restaurant. One had to have 3 years worth of operating money because tha'ts the time it would take to start and grow the business. This was years ago so I'm not sure if that still holds true but it seems that companies need to plan better if they truly want to succeed.
The Occult and Conspiracys and Horror in general has always had huge fanbase--Zombies and Vampires is always popular.
Not a single clue what you are basing your "screaming niche" from..
Besides, since when isn't battling monsters in a game popular ?
the niche part comes from their posts about the puzzles, the solving clues, the going to outside sources on websites to figure out larger bits of story or clues to other clues.
All of this was presented over the course of development. Finding bits on a website that would be overlooked by most people. This type of game play is not mainstream.
as far as horror and occult having a huge fanbase: are you talking games or are you talking books/movies? Becuase "yeah" 100% agree, there is a huge fanbase out there for horror books/movies.
Now let's talk horror games. The only games that immediately come to mind (and amazing games in my opinion though your mileage may vary) are Clive Barker's Undying, Amnesia, Possibly Vampire Masquerade, 7th guest is an old one... I"m sure there are others but I can' think of them.
So which horror games that you know have a huge following? All the above games had a following and a deservedly devoted following but I don't recall any of those being blockbusters.
I'm surprised Sovrath I thought you would of heard of Doom, System Shock, Resident Evil, Silent Hill, Alan Wake, Left4Dead, Bioshock, Planescape: Torment, F.E.A.R, Demon Souls, Dead Space, Plants and Zombies granted many of these are Horror themed but so is TSW really.
This doom and gloom thread was brought to you by Chin Up the new ultra high caffeine soft drink for gamers who just need that boost of happiness after a long forum session.
Originally posted by JerYnkFan I was really psyched for this game as I love the whole conspiracy/Lovecraft theme, but the combat system/animations just killed it for me. I tried getting past it a couple of times in beta, but just could not.
There is a 3 day trial you can play. The game is not the same as it was at beta.
Why do people decide on games during beta? TSW now is light years beyond even the last "open beta event" they had.
Judge a game on how it is now with a free trial.. not how it was during a beta or based on another game created 5 years ago.
Often beta is the only chance some people get to see the game.....Even if it has made great strides, the beta impression is what most of us are going to go by.....A 3 day trial is about as short as it gets by the way.....Most MMOs offer anywhere from 7-30 days, depending on the game.
Why I wont play TSW: Because of the epic failure of AoC. Simple as that. Funcom will NEVER get another dime from me every again. There is a very good reason LOTS of people refer to them as FAILCOM. My entire guild and many others I know outside my guild (mostly PvP players) will never buy a Funcom MMO. It is simply too risky because previews and what's on the box may or may not be in the final game.
You reap what you sow Failcom.
AMEN!!!!
It's really pitiful to see these kind of posts from people who just can't get rid of all that hatred. And all because a videogame (lol yes, a videogame) failed to meet their expectations.
If I had an Iphone and it didn't really work / hard to use / whatever, it is perfectly reasonable for someone to not buy Apple products from then on.
That doesn't mean you personally have to, just that acknowledge that someone might.
It makes sense to avoid certain brands if you've had problems in the past.
I"ve had lots of problems with NCSoft in the past (not the games, but rather their customer support and billing) and I certainly tend to avoid their games now.
But that is very different from irrational hate ("you reap what you sow Failcom") , and trying to reinforce that notion by putting words in the mouths of others ( "my entire guild and many others I know").
Why I wont play TSW: Because of the epic failure of AoC. Simple as that. Funcom will NEVER get another dime from me every again. There is a very good reason LOTS of people refer to them as FAILCOM. My entire guild and many others I know outside my guild (mostly PvP players) will never buy a Funcom MMO. It is simply too risky because previews and what's on the box may or may not be in the final game.
You reap what you sow Failcom.
AMEN!!!!
It's really pitiful to see these kind of posts from people who just can't get rid of all that hatred. And all because a videogame (lol yes, a videogame) failed to meet their expectations.
What annoys me the most about these posts is that the number of people feeling ripped off by Funcom through AoC has to be a lot higher than the amount of sales of AoC when guessing by the number of people complaining about it. It's just cool to hate Funcom.
I really wonder if the "burned by SW:ToR" croud will whine on a similar level when the next Bioware game comes out. SW:ToR sold a lot better than AoC, shouldn't the whine be a lot louder then?
i stoped reading after Morrison saying that vanity items are selling well in TSW and creating revenue......
gamers who support subscriptions blame cash shop because they make F2P games P2W or just bad games overall..... but they pay cash shop in the same game they are paying a freaking subscription? Theres no way in hell im buying a vanity item in TSW cash shop unless the game is free to play, not even for a single penny, let alone paying the sub when ill be locked out of items i should have in game already... this foul milking strategy and bad habit has to end, now!....
i stoped reading after Morrison saying that vanity items are selling well in TSW and creating revenue......
gamers who support subscriptions blame cash shop because they make F2P games P2W or just bad games overall..... but they pay cash shop in the same game they are paying a freaking subscription? Theres no way in hell im buying a vanity item in TSW cash shop unless the game is free to play, not even for a single penny, let alone paying the sub when ill be locked out of items i should have in game already... this foul milking strategy and bad habit has to end, now!....
Yes! Because Funcom is clearly the only company that does this! And damn! They're selling clothes and social pets and titles! That's totally an ingame adantage! I wouldn't say anything if they sold mounts or something, but clothes? WTF is wrong with you Funcom?
If Funcom is up in arms i can share why the game did not do it for me.
The START was just so linear and boring,it did not grab my attention at all.It felt like a single player game.Now when i joined AOC the beginning gave the exact same feeling and much of the game thereafter was also that single player feeling.
So i feel 1 they need to make a much more exciting start,one that is wide open,not somne linear halls or alleys.It needs to encompass lots of players and lots of action.The second part is they NEED to get away from that single player design.Examples are the world SHOULD feel open as a realistic game world would be.This means you don't lock out doors or areas,you don't have players leading through ONLY one direction.The game world should allow players to come and go where ever they want.
There is yet more and i felt the same in AOC as well.No matter what anyone says gear/items NEED to feel important,that is the driving force that keeps players going.
Now there is the argument as to how difficult to make content, i believe it shoudl be quite difficult,that way RARE items feel rare and not everyone has them.
Story line is NOT as important as many seem to believe,all that a game needs to do is keep the owrld in cync with itself,in otherwords no rocket launchers in a midevil era.Create a story for the entire game but do not make it about the story,it shoudl be about the players character.
Character=cool abilities/skills/spells/gear/items ect ect.Then create an advancement system so the player becomes more important than levels.
Bottom line is FUNCOm seems to have locked into their thoguht process a single player game design.It does NOT work becuase it leads to linear game play and runs out of content REAL fast.Single player games are usually made to last maybe a few weeks maybe a month,you cannot survive on that type of content design.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
I have a very hard time believing the statement that every single employee they laid off showed up to work for free the next day. I think that's an outright lie.
I don't think they were fired on the spot. They were just informed that they would be getting let go - probably at the end of the week or something. That happened with me at a job. Company was in trouble and a group of us were told on a Wed. that we'd be finishing out the week and then our services would not be required after that, we'd be handed our final checks on our way out on the last day.
Knowing that, many people would say 'screw it' and just stop showing up.
Originally posted by Yizle Hmm maybe I missed it but thought they said they talked about AO? I didn't see anything on that in the article.
I noticed that too, They didn't speak of it here. They did address it over in AOs community forums though. Now they are talking about the new engine in 2013. Best thing FC can do now is just stop talking about it and hope the game is still online when they are ready. As it is, no one believes it anymore.
Im loving the "funcom is a greedy company with a greedy Buisness model" stuff.
ok so they are greedy. this is why you get 1200 funcom points for buying the game, 1200 more if you start with the trial and do more than 30 missions in 3 days. and a additional 560 every 3 months for having a subscription. They are soo greedy they are giving their funcom points away. The nerve of these people.
Because i can. I'm Hopeful For Every Game, Until the Fan Boys Attack My Games. Then the Knives Come Out. Logic every gamers worst enemy.
Im loving the "funcom is a greedy company with a greedy Buisness model" stuff.
ok so they are greedy. this is why you get 1200 funcom points for buying the game, 1200 more if you start with the trial and do more than 30 missions in 3 days. and a additional 560 every 3 months for having a subscription. They are soo greedy they are giving their funcom points away. The nerve of these people.
Wait a minute. There are many of us who have been long time customers of FC dating back many many years. Some of us have gotten burned by FC, some of us have watched games we enjoyed deeply become shells of their former selves due to FC's business models. I have watched them alter gameplay and nerf ways of doing things in the games just to encourage cashshop use. You come in with your example of FC Altruism, which btw I liken to a thief robbing you and offering to sell back your stuff cheap to make you think...Oh, how nice! That stuff should be available to anyone paying a sub to begin with. There are people whove had years of experience with FCs dealings.
Comments
I have a very hard time believing the statement that every single employee they laid off showed up to work for free the next day. I think that's an outright lie.
RELAX!@!! BREATHE!!!
At this point I'd rather see them make AO 2 instead of fussing with the graphics for AO......AO2 if dont right would attract alot of people, especially if it has AoC quality graphics......Alot of people liked AO because it was a challenging sci-fi game, but the graphics turned away many....IMO AO still blows away both AoC and TSW for gameplay.
AMEN!!!!
There is a 3 day trial you can play. The game is not the same as it was at beta.
Why do people decide on games during beta? TSW now is light years beyond even the last "open beta event" they had.
Judge a game on how it is now with a free trial.. not how it was during a beta or based on another game created 5 years ago.
This is a great game that most people would love if they took the time to get into it.
Dont listen to the whiners and "know it all" people that just want you to play the "right game" that they approve of.
This is currently the best mmo that you can play right now.
Silent Hill and Resident Evil come to my mind. I haven't followed them in many years but they both were huge blockbusters in the 90's early 2000's
It's really pitiful to see these kind of posts from people who just can't get rid of all that hatred. And all because a videogame (lol yes, a videogame) failed to meet their expectations.
If I had an Iphone and it didn't really work / hard to use / whatever, it is perfectly reasonable for someone to not buy Apple products from then on.
That doesn't mean you personally have to, just that acknowledge that someone might.
Gdemami -
Informing people about your thoughts and impressions is not a review, it's a blog.
I'm surprised Sovrath I thought you would of heard of Doom, System Shock, Resident Evil, Silent Hill, Alan Wake, Left4Dead, Bioshock, Planescape: Torment, F.E.A.R, Demon Souls, Dead Space, Plants and Zombies
granted many of these are Horror themed but so is TSW really.
This doom and gloom thread was brought to you by Chin Up the new ultra high caffeine soft drink for gamers who just need that boost of happiness after a long forum session.
Often beta is the only chance some people get to see the game.....Even if it has made great strides, the beta impression is what most of us are going to go by.....A 3 day trial is about as short as it gets by the way.....Most MMOs offer anywhere from 7-30 days, depending on the game.
It makes sense to avoid certain brands if you've had problems in the past.
I"ve had lots of problems with NCSoft in the past (not the games, but rather their customer support and billing) and I certainly tend to avoid their games now.
But that is very different from irrational hate ("you reap what you sow Failcom") , and trying to reinforce that notion by putting words in the mouths of others ( "my entire guild and many others I know").
What annoys me the most about these posts is that the number of people feeling ripped off by Funcom through AoC has to be a lot higher than the amount of sales of AoC when guessing by the number of people complaining about it. It's just cool to hate Funcom.
I really wonder if the "burned by SW:ToR" croud will whine on a similar level when the next Bioware game comes out. SW:ToR sold a lot better than AoC, shouldn't the whine be a lot louder then?
I certainly agree that AoC was mis-managed. However, I loved AO and I love TSW.
Unique, fun, different, and challenging. Wish a game like that attracted more people.
--Chegg
i stoped reading after Morrison saying that vanity items are selling well in TSW and creating revenue......
gamers who support subscriptions blame cash shop because they make F2P games P2W or just bad games overall..... but they pay cash shop in the same game they are paying a freaking subscription? Theres no way in hell im buying a vanity item in TSW cash shop unless the game is free to play, not even for a single penny, let alone paying the sub when ill be locked out of items i should have in game already... this foul milking strategy and bad habit has to end, now!....
Yes! Because Funcom is clearly the only company that does this! And damn! They're selling clothes and social pets and titles! That's totally an ingame adantage! I wouldn't say anything if they sold mounts or something, but clothes? WTF is wrong with you Funcom?
/irony
If Funcom is up in arms i can share why the game did not do it for me.
The START was just so linear and boring,it did not grab my attention at all.It felt like a single player game.Now when i joined AOC the beginning gave the exact same feeling and much of the game thereafter was also that single player feeling.
So i feel 1 they need to make a much more exciting start,one that is wide open,not somne linear halls or alleys.It needs to encompass lots of players and lots of action.The second part is they NEED to get away from that single player design.Examples are the world SHOULD feel open as a realistic game world would be.This means you don't lock out doors or areas,you don't have players leading through ONLY one direction.The game world should allow players to come and go where ever they want.
There is yet more and i felt the same in AOC as well.No matter what anyone says gear/items NEED to feel important,that is the driving force that keeps players going.
Now there is the argument as to how difficult to make content, i believe it shoudl be quite difficult,that way RARE items feel rare and not everyone has them.
Story line is NOT as important as many seem to believe,all that a game needs to do is keep the owrld in cync with itself,in otherwords no rocket launchers in a midevil era.Create a story for the entire game but do not make it about the story,it shoudl be about the players character.
Character=cool abilities/skills/spells/gear/items ect ect.Then create an advancement system so the player becomes more important than levels.
Bottom line is FUNCOm seems to have locked into their thoguht process a single player game design.It does NOT work becuase it leads to linear game play and runs out of content REAL fast.Single player games are usually made to last maybe a few weeks maybe a month,you cannot survive on that type of content design.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
I don't think they were fired on the spot. They were just informed that they would be getting let go - probably at the end of the week or something. That happened with me at a job. Company was in trouble and a group of us were told on a Wed. that we'd be finishing out the week and then our services would not be required after that, we'd be handed our final checks on our way out on the last day.
Knowing that, many people would say 'screw it' and just stop showing up.
I noticed that too, They didn't speak of it here. They did address it over in AOs community forums though. Now they are talking about the new engine in 2013. Best thing FC can do now is just stop talking about it and hope the game is still online when they are ready. As it is, no one believes it anymore.
Im loving the "funcom is a greedy company with a greedy Buisness model" stuff.
ok so they are greedy. this is why you get 1200 funcom points for buying the game, 1200 more if you start with the trial and do more than 30 missions in 3 days. and a additional 560 every 3 months for having a subscription. They are soo greedy they are giving their funcom points away. The nerve of these people.
Because i can.
I'm Hopeful For Every Game, Until the Fan Boys Attack My Games. Then the Knives Come Out.
Logic every gamers worst enemy.
Wait a minute. There are many of us who have been long time customers of FC dating back many many years. Some of us have gotten burned by FC, some of us have watched games we enjoyed deeply become shells of their former selves due to FC's business models. I have watched them alter gameplay and nerf ways of doing things in the games just to encourage cashshop use. You come in with your example of FC Altruism, which btw I liken to a thief robbing you and offering to sell back your stuff cheap to make you think...Oh, how nice! That stuff should be available to anyone paying a sub to begin with. There are people whove had years of experience with FCs dealings.