It was supposed to be a ‘WoW killer’. (I must admit.. ive played AoC too, so i know what I am talking about). But yet a another hyped MMO is broken against them. Age of Conan was probably the most hyped MMO in the last few years up to its release and while the hype helped Age of Conan to break sales records, it only lasted for a month.
Secondly Age of Conan did lose almost 9/10 of their potential subscribers. It’s not a rumor. They said as much in their reports to investors which has been talked about in many messageboards and other news sources.
So what now. The only way Funcom can save Age of Conan is to switch to Free 2 Play and have a cash item shop. But F2P are for failed MMO´s. I am pretty sure that soon we will see in game advertising like we seen in Anarchy Online where you must read something like a Toyota adv. in order to complete a quest.
World of Warcraft is out there. It will always be out there for those who prefer playing a cartoon. WoW is a fine MMO, huge, lots of fun gameplay, but it is a cartoon. Look at the elf and compare him to Conan. That is what art is all about. Conan is a low fantasy, largely realistic MMO.There is nothing else out there that compares to it. Playing AoC is nothing like playing WoW. They are both quest driven MMOs and that is about it. Imagine the combat AoC offers; decapitation, limb severing going on in a game that has this realistic art style as shown by Conan on his throne. They call this game unrated for a reason. It's brutal, there is no getting around it. Then on the other hand you have all this beauty. The natural environments are stunning, mountains, rivers, forests, birds, wildlife, fish jumping out of the streams. The towns and cities are lifted right out of Howard's stories. The production quality is top tier. Then there is the music. The music is not run of the mill video game fare. It is an award winning orchestrated score. You have to listen to it while playing to understand how much it adds to the game.
AoC is worth a look especially now that you can play a large part of it for free. If you don't want to wait for FtP to go live there is still the totally free demo which allows you to play the starter area from level 1-20 . Plenty to do there, in fact there may be enough content to hold you over until FtP launches. It will give you a good idea of the gameplay and what AoC has to offer in general. Also, it is a great test to see if your PC is up to the task of rendering this game. It is very demanding on PC hardware if you want to crank up the visuals.
Doesn't mean much if the actual game is boring though. Visuals only go so far. To keep playing it has to be fun. It's so obvious though that they put all their focus into the visuals and forgot/ignored the gameplay.
Oh, and I disagree about Wow looking like a cartoon. They have mearly used a stylized approach for their art. It's so distinct that you can instantly tell that it's a warcraft elf. That's more powerful than going for "realism" which never really turn out great in games anyway. The warcraft world is also a brutal place, riddled with war and destruction. That's my take on it. Of course, it's art so everyone will have their own tastes. There is no right or wrong with art.
AoC is not unfun or boring. It's a great Conan game. The great visuals, smooth motion quality, detailed environments, awesome music all add to the pleasure of playing the game, but that is not to say the gameplay is a bore. There is a lot about Conan's gameplay and game design that make it fun. It is just as fun as any other MMO out there at the moment, I'll say that much. The other thing about AoC is that there is really nothing comparable to it. It is very unique. I think it is a question of appreciating what the game has to offer. That's the bottom line.
The amount of time this game needs for you to catch up to be viable for pvp is ridiculous sadly, they should speed up the progress but devs in this game don't listen and never have.
I loved AoC until they introduced pvp levels after which the game took a dip in subscription numbers as they gave nothing to the players who had pvped from day 1.
The amount of time this game needs for you to catch up to be viable for pvp is ridiculous sadly, they should speed up the progress but devs in this game don't listen and never have.
I loved AoC until they introduced pvp levels after which the game took a dip in subscription numbers as they gave nothing to the players who had pvped from day 1.
Umm, you do realize that in a week or so they are opening up a new hardcore PvP server called Blood and Glory? Everyone starts from level 1. The playing field is level.
The amount of time this game needs for you to catch up to be viable for pvp is ridiculous sadly, they should speed up the progress but devs in this game don't listen and never have.
I loved AoC until they introduced pvp levels after which the game took a dip in subscription numbers as they gave nothing to the players who had pvped from day 1.
Umm, you do realize that in a week or so they are opening up a new hardcore PvP server called Blood and Glory? Everyone starts from level 1. The playing field is level.
IMO AoC going F2P was fairly obvious based on the ever shrinking population, and when they recently increased the size of the dev team...there was really no other explanation for that move.
The amount of time this game needs for you to catch up to be viable for pvp is ridiculous sadly, they should speed up the progress but devs in this game don't listen and never have.
I loved AoC until they introduced pvp levels after which the game took a dip in subscription numbers as they gave nothing to the players who had pvped from day 1.
Umm, you do realize that in a week or so they are opening up a new hardcore PvP server called Blood and Glory? Everyone starts from level 1. The playing field is level.
Link please! This is VERY interesting news!!
I hope a lot of you can join us on the new PvP server soon to launch. Everyone starts from a clean slate. It is going to be awesome.
Also, the content of those games doesn't suddenly change when they change payment model, the games don't suddenly turn to crap.
no, but neither does it suddenly get better and become a game I want to play.
If I didnt want to play it then, there is no reason i would want to play it now.
My point was that I don't get why people will play a game simply because it's free when they didnt want to before.
Because some games are not worth paying for to play.
Exactly
AoC obviously wasnt worth it for a stack of people before this, so i don't get at all why it now is for them.
The only reason I didn't continue to play was the lack of population on my server. Not because I wanted to quest or do any pve with them. It was all a matter of not having to watch my back while leveling. I find pve to be quite boring without any risk of pvp going on. I was on literally for 2 hours and found not one person even in the major city. Hopefully the F2P model will fix this and if so I will be happy to pay for a subscription. I hope it just pans out.
I raise the question someone else did earlier on... If their population is so "healthy" as the press release states, then why not continue with the subs only? Of course that's a rhetorical question. Companies are now catching the F2P bug, seeing how much more $$$ they can milk from players with nickel and dime purchases over a standard monthly sub. This entire move, I'm sure, is all about the $$$ to Funcom, and nothing more.
Well, no shit? What else could it possibly be about? That isn't a rhetorical question, I want to hear you answer- when a company changes the pricing model of one of it's products in order to encourage more business, what the fuck else is there for it to be about than the $$$?
I started this free trial or whatever about a week ago, playing off and on. I am still on Tortuga, with a Demonologist around lvl 15. I now am under the impression I will NOT be able to leave Tortuga as a trial player. Is this true? I'm reading the AoC forums now..I would not have thought this, but a friend who is playing AoC mentioned this.
Anyone know?
Playing: BF4/BF:Hardline, Subnautica 7 days to die Hiatus: EvE Waiting on: World of Darkness(sigh) Interested in: better games in general
I'm rather disappointed that they're doing class limitations. After looking at the differences between the premium and F2P model, this is the one thing that is holding me back on actually installing this game and giving it another try. This just seems like an utterly ridiculous move on Funcom's part; do they not realize that this will obviously cause severe class imbalance, or do they just see it as a non-issue? I would actually be just fine and dandy playing a Barbarian or Guardian, as the two were some of my favorite classes when I last played them nearly two years ago. But it seems rather bleak if I actually were to play them to a competitive level only to find that the game's meta was based on quantity of specific classes rather than quality of their balance or the players.
I even tried trial in 2008 and game was great,but my financial situation was being ''suffocated''...I tried trial 3 months ago and they improved game.Only thing is lower population so when this comes out,I'll surely download and could spend few dozen euros also
Good marketing decision<<<<<<which should Notorious Games from Xsyon earth make>>>>>
does anyone have any clues as to when the f2p might be implemented?
"There are at least two kinds of games. One could be called finite, the other infinite. A finite game is played for the purpose of winning, an infinite game for the purpose of continuing play." Finite and Infinite Games, James Carse
does anyone have any clues as to when the f2p might be implemented?
Funcom wants to have the f2p ready for the movie premier so that is before August. As long as they do not waste time on junk like the ranger revamp, Funcom should be able to beat that date.
Thanks for the info! I'm actually looking forward to this. I hope it will play as well as Vanguard has been playing for me lately.
"There are at least two kinds of games. One could be called finite, the other infinite. A finite game is played for the purpose of winning, an infinite game for the purpose of continuing play." Finite and Infinite Games, James Carse
Well I was going to come back till I found out I couldn't play on EITHER of my 80s without going premium, since they are only allowing you to play 4 classes, and my BS and Assassin are Premium Classes...apparently. That's if they even save game characters, they could be just deleting everyones characters which means I completely lose everything I had before.
Nevermind, they say if you ever were once a premium member you still get to play with all your characters.
I am definitely coming back for this too. I always liked AoC, but I like a lot of games and cannot really see myself subsribing to games anymore. I like the variety and the possibility to play many games at once. (Though I will subscribe to the new Star Wars mmo, if that is required. Because it's Star Wars!). I really like the new F2P-models in Lotro and DDO, and I hope Funcom's model will work too. Lotro and DDO are PVE-games though, and developers really need to be careful what they provide in the item-shop in PvP-games. Everyone hates PTW-games! I don't like that they only make four classes available for F2P-players - and from reading the FAQ you cannot really tell if the other classes will be available for purchase (but I really hope this is the case, or else I will not play at all).
actually they say you will get to choose only 2 of your multiple characters and may purchase more slots if desired. all your characters will remain, but you will have to decide which 2 you want.
"There are at least two kinds of games. One could be called finite, the other infinite. A finite game is played for the purpose of winning, an infinite game for the purpose of continuing play." Finite and Infinite Games, James Carse
It was supposed to be a ‘WoW killer’. (I must admit.. ive played AoC too, so i know what I am talking about). But yet a another hyped MMO is broken against them. Age of Conan was probably the most hyped MMO in the last few years up to its release and while the hype helped Age of Conan to break sales records, it only lasted for a month.
Secondly Age of Conan did lose almost 9/10 of their potential subscribers. It’s not a rumor. They said as much in their reports to investors which has been talked about in many messageboards and other news sources.
So what now. The only way Funcom can save Age of Conan is to switch to Free 2 Play and have a cash item shop. But F2P are for failed MMO´s. I am pretty sure that soon we will see in game advertising like we seen in Anarchy Online where you must read something like a Toyota adv. in order to complete a quest.
World of Warcraft is out there. It will always be out there for those who prefer playing a cartoon. WoW is a fine MMO, huge, lots of fun gameplay, but it is a cartoon. Look at the elf and compare him to Conan. That is what art is all about. Conan is a low fantasy, largely realistic MMO.There is nothing else out there that compares to it. Playing AoC is nothing like playing WoW. They are both quest driven MMOs and that is about it. Imagine the combat AoC offers; decapitation, limb severing going on in a game that has this realistic art style as shown by Conan on his throne. They call this game unrated for a reason. It's brutal, there is no getting around it. Then on the other hand you have all this beauty. The natural environments are stunning, mountains, rivers, forests, birds, wildlife, fish jumping out of the streams. The towns and cities are lifted right out of Howard's stories. The production quality is top tier. Then there is the music. The music is not run of the mill video game fare. It is an award winning orchestrated score. You have to listen to it while playing to understand how much it adds to the game.
AoC is worth a look especially now that you can play a large part of it for free. If you don't want to wait for FtP to go live there is still the totally free demo which allows you to play the starter area from level 1-20 . Plenty to do there, in fact there may be enough content to hold you over until FtP launches. It will give you a good idea of the gameplay and what AoC has to offer in general. Also, it is a great test to see if your PC is up to the task of rendering this game. It is very demanding on PC hardware if you want to crank up the visuals.
Doesn't mean much if the actual game is boring though. Visuals only go so far. To keep playing it has to be fun. It's so obvious though that they put all their focus into the visuals and forgot/ignored the gameplay.
Oh, and I disagree about Wow looking like a cartoon. They have mearly used a stylized approach for their art. It's so distinct that you can instantly tell that it's a warcraft elf. That's more powerful than going for "realism" which never really turn out great in games anyway. The warcraft world is also a brutal place, riddled with war and destruction. That's my take on it. Of course, it's art so everyone will have their own tastes. There is no right or wrong with art.
AoC is not unfun or boring. It's a great Conan game. The great visuals, smooth motion quality, detailed environments, awesome music all add to the pleasure of playing the game, but that is not to say the gameplay is a bore. There is a lot about Conan's gameplay and game design that make it fun. It is just as fun as any other MMO out there at the moment, I'll say that much. The other thing about AoC is that there is really nothing comparable to it. It is very unique. I think it is a question of appreciating what the game has to offer. That's the bottom line.
When something is fun it succeds.So since aoc is fun why it failed and went F2P? Something about the fun part must be wrong right? otherwise its subs would raise to 3-4 milions instead going so low.
I am sad FC didn't chose Turbine- like F2P system. But ok.
What really bothers me are INSANE prices on dungeons and locked instances. For example, if you want 7 days access to 3 zones of Khitai you will have to spend 900x3 FP =2700 FP. That's more than 20 euros. FOR 7 DAYS. WHAT THE HELL WERE THEY THINKING
Installing AoC and Vindictus atm as iam so bored with current games.
1 thing realy sucks and thats weapons and gear for $$$, free accounts are going to be cannon fodder wich shoulnt be the case no matter how you look at it.
I can understand to farm weapons and gear for quite some time, like in Aion.
But realy sell best stuff for money is a massive failure of a businiss model -_-
BF3 comming out soon Diablo 3 and GW2 on the horizon its gonne be a fantastic year for us, and lots of other mmo's will pull the plug shortly after the releases of those said games.
Comments
AoC is not unfun or boring. It's a great Conan game. The great visuals, smooth motion quality, detailed environments, awesome music all add to the pleasure of playing the game, but that is not to say the gameplay is a bore. There is a lot about Conan's gameplay and game design that make it fun. It is just as fun as any other MMO out there at the moment, I'll say that much. The other thing about AoC is that there is really nothing comparable to it. It is very unique. I think it is a question of appreciating what the game has to offer. That's the bottom line.
"The Pen Is Mightier Than The Demo"
The amount of time this game needs for you to catch up to be viable for pvp is ridiculous sadly, they should speed up the progress but devs in this game don't listen and never have.
I loved AoC until they introduced pvp levels after which the game took a dip in subscription numbers as they gave nothing to the players who had pvped from day 1.
This will definately bring me back. Maybe not full time hardcore, but once a while checking it out. So this was great news!
Thanks!
Make us care MORE about our faction & world pvp!
Umm, you do realize that in a week or so they are opening up a new hardcore PvP server called Blood and Glory? Everyone starts from level 1. The playing field is level.
Link please! This is VERY interesting news!!
Make us care MORE about our faction & world pvp!
IMO AoC going F2P was fairly obvious based on the ever shrinking population, and when they recently increased the size of the dev team...there was really no other explanation for that move.
I hope a lot of you can join us on the new PvP server soon to launch. Everyone starts from a clean slate. It is going to be awesome.
http://forums.ageofconan.com/showthread.php?p=2946712#post2946712
The only reason I didn't continue to play was the lack of population on my server. Not because I wanted to quest or do any pve with them. It was all a matter of not having to watch my back while leveling. I find pve to be quite boring without any risk of pvp going on. I was on literally for 2 hours and found not one person even in the major city. Hopefully the F2P model will fix this and if so I will be happy to pay for a subscription. I hope it just pans out.
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Rift Universe
Well, no shit? What else could it possibly be about? That isn't a rhetorical question, I want to hear you answer- when a company changes the pricing model of one of it's products in order to encourage more business, what the fuck else is there for it to be about than the $$$?
I started this free trial or whatever about a week ago, playing off and on. I am still on Tortuga, with a Demonologist around lvl 15. I now am under the impression I will NOT be able to leave Tortuga as a trial player. Is this true? I'm reading the AoC forums now..I would not have thought this, but a friend who is playing AoC mentioned this.
Anyone know?
Playing: BF4/BF:Hardline, Subnautica 7 days to die
Hiatus: EvE
Waiting on: World of Darkness(sigh)
Interested in: better games in general
Yeah, that's correct. Trial is limited to the starting area which is Tortage.
I'm also sitting there right now waiting for f2p
I'm rather disappointed that they're doing class limitations. After looking at the differences between the premium and F2P model, this is the one thing that is holding me back on actually installing this game and giving it another try. This just seems like an utterly ridiculous move on Funcom's part; do they not realize that this will obviously cause severe class imbalance, or do they just see it as a non-issue? I would actually be just fine and dandy playing a Barbarian or Guardian, as the two were some of my favorite classes when I last played them nearly two years ago. But it seems rather bleak if I actually were to play them to a competitive level only to find that the game's meta was based on quantity of specific classes rather than quality of their balance or the players.
What are they doing (if anything) for past subscribers who bought the expac and stopped playing before F2P happens?
I even tried trial in 2008 and game was great,but my financial situation was being ''suffocated''...I tried trial 3 months ago and they improved game.Only thing is lower population so when this comes out,I'll surely download and could spend few dozen euros also
Good marketing decision<<<<<<which should Notorious Games from Xsyon earth make>>>>>
does anyone have any clues as to when the f2p might be implemented?
"There are at least two kinds of games.
One could be called finite, the other infinite.
A finite game is played for the purpose of winning,
an infinite game for the purpose of continuing play."
Finite and Infinite Games, James Carse
Funcom wants to have the f2p ready for the movie premier so that is before August. As long as they do not waste time on junk like the ranger revamp, Funcom should be able to beat that date.
Thanks for the info! I'm actually looking forward to this. I hope it will play as well as Vanguard has been playing for me lately.
"There are at least two kinds of games.
One could be called finite, the other infinite.
A finite game is played for the purpose of winning,
an infinite game for the purpose of continuing play."
Finite and Infinite Games, James Carse
Well I was going to come back till I found out I couldn't play on EITHER of my 80s without going premium, since they are only allowing you to play 4 classes, and my BS and Assassin are Premium Classes...apparently. That's if they even save game characters, they could be just deleting everyones characters which means I completely lose everything I had before.
Nevermind, they say if you ever were once a premium member you still get to play with all your characters.
I am definitely coming back for this too. I always liked AoC, but I like a lot of games and cannot really see myself subsribing to games anymore. I like the variety and the possibility to play many games at once. (Though I will subscribe to the new Star Wars mmo, if that is required. Because it's Star Wars!). I really like the new F2P-models in Lotro and DDO, and I hope Funcom's model will work too. Lotro and DDO are PVE-games though, and developers really need to be careful what they provide in the item-shop in PvP-games. Everyone hates PTW-games! I don't like that they only make four classes available for F2P-players - and from reading the FAQ you cannot really tell if the other classes will be available for purchase (but I really hope this is the case, or else I will not play at all).
actually they say you will get to choose only 2 of your multiple characters and may purchase more slots if desired. all your characters will remain, but you will have to decide which 2 you want.
"There are at least two kinds of games.
One could be called finite, the other infinite.
A finite game is played for the purpose of winning,
an infinite game for the purpose of continuing play."
Finite and Infinite Games, James Carse
"where both free players and premium subscribers can purchase exclusive content such as weaponry and mounts "
Think I'll pass....
Heheh ... I'd have to agree.
When something is fun it succeds.So since aoc is fun why it failed and went F2P? Something about the fun part must be wrong right? otherwise its subs would raise to 3-4 milions instead going so low.
I am sad FC didn't chose Turbine- like F2P system. But ok.
What really bothers me are INSANE prices on dungeons and locked instances. For example, if you want 7 days access to 3 zones of Khitai you will have to spend 900x3 FP =2700 FP. That's more than 20 euros. FOR 7 DAYS. WHAT THE HELL WERE THEY THINKING
Installing AoC and Vindictus atm as iam so bored with current games.
1 thing realy sucks and thats weapons and gear for $$$, free accounts are going to be cannon fodder wich shoulnt be the case no matter how you look at it.
I can understand to farm weapons and gear for quite some time, like in Aion.
But realy sell best stuff for money is a massive failure of a businiss model -_-
BF3 comming out soon Diablo 3 and GW2 on the horizon its gonne be a fantastic year for us, and lots of other mmo's will pull the plug shortly after the releases of those said games.