f13.net

http://www.aocupdates.com/2008/07/16/age-of-conan-expansion-confirmed/

 :ye_gods:

(http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/39720/miscellany/ot/simpsons_nelson_haha2.jpg)

Any bets that amazing new DX10/11 features are in this expansion?

The safe bet is saying it'll never release.

I think the most shocking thing is that it shows how unaware Funcoms management is of the state of the game.

While the technical issues they have may be fixable, the damage to the games reputation is already done. People aren't going to come back.

Wow.. are they for real?   :ye_gods:

 :ye_gods:

Devils advocate:

You know, it could be that we, as players, have no idea how well or badly subscriptions are doing. In fact last they said, they had 700k subscriptions. We all know that those that post on forums are but a minority of loud players, able to turn small issues into mountains. From my personal experience, the game was improving, and things that I encountered were getting solved/better.

/Devils advocate

Otherwise, your right, a lot of players burned by their experiences will mostlikely not come back.

Yeah maybe its not AS bad as we think it is.  Not playing doesn't mean not subscribed after all, a lot of people might just not be logging on till the pvp patch.  Or whatever future patch that "fixes" their pet issue.

I know I've been guilty about doing this myself in the past (/eyes DAOC) but as an outsider, the Conan backlash feels sort of different to me. Maybe it is the whole '20 levels of great detail followed by 60 levels of not' thing making people feel like they got taken for a ride, but it seems like the hate is a lot more specific or virulent or something.

You take a big risk when you target the hardcore as the marketing demographic (stiff system requirements + mature themes). 

Nah, this games dead. The forums are even worse then Vanguards were.

I think Funcom's upper management actually believe the bullshit numbers they're showing their investors.

um, when reading that picture, does the accent go on the first Ha or the second?

Is it "ha HA!" or "HA ha!"?

just curious

The second.

(http://www.abaxion.com/cnk1.jpg)

Wrong, a Nelson laugh is the laugh of mockery. There's no emphasis on either, hence "Ha Ha!"

I don't buy that. Being unruly on MMO forums seems to be the new "thing to do".

In this instance I think it's one of those laughs that cuts out on the second 'ha' and trails away into a pitying incomprehensible silence.

This is something they could fix with an expansion. (Hint hint!)

Then you haven't been playing MMO's very long. Anyone remember the UO boards when Trammel was released?

The problem isn't the number of negative posts... the problem is the complete, total lack of "How do I finish this quest" type posts.
Basically no-one is using the forums for anything but complaining. If I were funcom, I'd actually just shut them down. They are just bad publicity at this point.

Go look at Vanguards forums... a lovefest in comparison. Now that's saying something.

They shut them down and the chatter goes to lots of other forums where they have no input at all in moderation.  I'd think that it's easier to fight a localized fire than it would be to fight one spread out all over the place.

The bigger issue is that Funcom doesn't seem to recognize that there is a fire. 

I don't think ostriches can hear you when they have their head buried under 6 feet of dirt.

Now who is the negative Nancy?

 :-P

 :roll:

Please.

Anyway, no something has happened in the past few years, it doesn't even matter if the game is good, shitt, i mean a perfect game could come out, and people would still post like asshats.

Most of it is tone, and people not conveying what they are saying clearly. Every single post every where is always some form of "One upping" the last poster. There is no discussion, just thousands of people flaming for the most part. The larger the player base, the worse it is.

Its like a whole "generation" of gamers do not know how to do anything but insult games, developers, and other players as a form of normal communication.

It can't be just me that has seen this.

It's not.

Internet anonymity is such a lovely thing.  Brings out the best in people.

I don't know why but all this expansion talking has made me want to play Dark 'n Light.

Are there really 700k subs? And players get burned out by little content?

Doesn't it strike you as important as hell to push out an expansion, hope you sell half a million copies before more people get disgruntled, if that's even the case?

Sounds like a solid business plan to me.

This was not an official announcement. It was a passing comment in an interview that amounts to "We are thinking/doodling with an expansion", on a fan site.

AFAIK its the only site running it, because he said it to them. lol.

Erling Ellingsen, the Product Manager of Funcom... basically the "Voice" of Funcom said,
“We’re of course working on an expansion, though we’re not really ready to talk about that now. We do think it will launch early next year, though. We’ll start leaking more information about that soon, though.”

Not, "They are thinking about it"
They are actively working on it.
They even have a ruff launch date.

What's so weird about it?
That's the norm in MMORPG world and it's not just the norm, it's expected.

It may sound ridiculous given the problems that plague AoC, but that's not even a news I think because in MMORPG world you always assume they are working on the next expansion unless they state the opposite.

The name of the expansion and a rough feature-list will make the news. This, is nothing.

There's nothing weird about it. It could even be a positive thing. It's just that announcing an expansion before they've actually gotten the promised base game off the ground is not good PR. It reads as "the game is done, now we're looking to expand it". Expansions usually mean new game systems and huge ramifications for the entire game and Conan is not ready for that.

Although, do consider we don't really know what Elling's "expansion" means. He doesn't say if it's really just a major content patch (a good thing!) or a retail box (kinda stupid).

It really isn't anything new. The internet dialogue around MMOs and MMO-like games has always been like this, right back to the flame wars that Threshold MUD guy used to start on Usenet.

Essentially : http://xkcd.com/386/  :grin:

It's the "WoW forum effect".

http://www.tk421.net/gallery/sounds/haha.wav

So I'm sure most of you have looked at this tl;dw video (http://trailer.onlinewelten.com/videos,id4639,age_conan_praesentation.html) about the expansion and upcoming changes in the game.

My favourite bit is the narrator saying "one of the things are our players are telling us is, there isn't enough content for post 55 characters". You mean, they didn't know? :awesome_for_real: