f13.net

Okay, my summer classes are all winding down and I'll have a month or two free to do nothing but level a guy. Given the entire history of F13 guilds lasting about a month, does AoC strike you guys as being different? Not that I expect to depend on you guys for my fun or anything, but if everyone's going to start cancelling their accounts in a couple weeks I'll probably just skip this one and paint up a Vampire Counts army for Warhammer.

Also, is there a good solo class that melts faces? I'm past the point of playing the victim classes (WoW Paladin, DAoC Shaman) and want to just play the class that everyone is bitching about being baaaaaaroken.

Also, the idea of building a cool player city is sexeh to me.

I'm having fun with it and dont see that stopping for quite some time...though I'm not with most the f13 guys.

Barbs are pretty sick right now, rangers seem a bit broke too.... For AoE: ToS and PoM are pretty awesome. I'd avoid all the mage classes.

I'll probably play for another month - see how it goes after that. Since EVE takes most of my gaming time and I haven't found anything to really hook me into the game yet.. though I am on a carebear PVE server so that might have something to do with it.

I think it depends on how fast they can fix the broken Feats (Talents) and also get some sort of balance. There is no doubt that Healers are overpowered right now. Other than that: http://forums.f13.net/index.php?topic=13287.msg461883#msg461883

Thats how I feel about the server.

F13 guild may have some legs due to player cities.   I'm not sure yet, pops have been down a little the last few times I've been on.  Perhaps the extreme catassing some have done and the overall unfinished nature of the game is forcing some people to catch their breath a bit.  We do, however, have a lot of initial traction unlike anything I've seen from the WoW, EQ2, CoH, LOTRO and POTBS efforts.  Only thing that's eclipsed this from what I've seen is the EVE involvement.

If you want a nice broken class, try a Priest of Mitra.  It's basically a DAoC smite cleric with ridculous survivability, AE, DPS and crowd control.

As for the whole PVP server thing, I don't see the majority of the guild migrating over although some have.  For me, If I'm reduced to moving to a PVP server to make the game interesting, that's when I know it's done for me.  I do not like FFA pvp at all, but I've partipated in it (AC2, SB) long after my UO griefer/ganker days when a game offers simply nothing else.  I simply just don't have the patience or mindset for a FFA pvp server anymore.  Maybe it's my advanced age or that I simply take a glance at who's drawn to it, what they post, and my mouth is suddenly agape in horror at the prospect of being surrounded by thousands of them.

A sucessful F13 guild will have a leadership with long term view to keep lights on so as F13ers come and go, they have a home to go to.  So does the leadership of BAT have legs for AoC?

You're pretty much depending on schild's interest in the game.  I don't think Danny has much interest in setting the pace for Bat Country.  Rattran and Kirth are good people but I'm not sure what their motivations are beyond just playing. 

We have a keep, that's something.

I'm having fun. I'll keep playing as long as I'm having fun.

That pretty much sums up my whole fiendish plan.

I'm having fun for the most part. but I'll be clear that as soon as WAR open beta/early launch starts I'm out.

I'm still having fun, but after grouping a bit last night, I noticed I got very absorbed. More so than when I solo. This is obvious, but there's an added factor. Fiance was bored and I didn't realize it because I was so absorbed. Thus, that bit of absorption has made me think that maybe MMO's aren't good for me anymore. So, I want to keep playing, but it might be better if I don't. I might have to go back to single player games where I can pause at will. We'll see, though.

So legs depends on wether or not I still get leg. So to speak.

Let's steal Viin, he'll make it work.

You do realise that Viin is a Corey, don't you?  Not one of THE Coreys but almost as good.  He can make anything work.

Ah yes, welcome to my life. I had to forcibly remove myself from the way-the-hell-too-immersed lifestyle of my earlier days in the genre, into the realm of pew pew instant gratification. It's not only the aggregate time investment with a wife who's got no interest in this shit. It's the inability to sit for multi-hour stretches too. Then with the kids, it's the inability to stay up late for marathon sessions (oh, I could... but man do I pay. Youngin's don't get daddy being too tired to move while the wife stomps around the house huffing about it  :grin:)

Heaven.  Its fun, period. 

Stop watching my life.

I'm finding it less and less fun the more I play because it's so broken.  I should put the characters I've been playing the most in the guild before that breaks, too.

You're a high enough level for where you see broken stuff?

My fps is broken.  I should have said "I'M so broken" , not it, I guess.  It's become so inconsistant.  Suddenly with that patch I go from 50 fps to 1, back and forth, over and over, endlessly and then I crash.  I've tried just about everything I can think of to resolve it.  I seem to have the anti-Midas touch with AoC!

IIRC you have an nVidia card, so maybe try this, I've heard good things:

http://www.vaguetech.com/forum/downloads.php?do=cat&id=37

You'll need to download the custom inf file:

http://www.vaguetech.com/forum/downloads.php?do=file&id=205

I'm duplicating myself since I didn't see this post at the time, but I should be around for awhile .bob.

Tempest of Set or a Priest of Mitra are good options if you want the power class, but they're likely to be hit with the nerf bat hard.  All the soldiers seem to be fairly well balanced and I don't expect a lot of drastic changes there.  (Not that you should bet on my predictive abilities.)

We can't help it if the game discovered your questionable taste in avatars.

Thanks for that, Cevik, and  :uhrr: to Ookii.

Still deciding on picking this up or not, at this point I think it depends on how the guild pans out.

When I checked when people have logged in a significant amount have within the past three days or so.  The problem is when I play I generally see nobody, I guess everyone is just casually gaming this.

Having played on Zug and Cimmeria, I think there's a bit more activity on the latter.

I'm feeling that I'm kinda of done with this one. I like the game, it's just don't have the inclination to play and pay for two MMOs at the same time.  The Bat Country guild isn't really providing any stickiness for me. I've yet to group with a single person and have seen a handful my entire time playing (none of us have actually acknowledged each other, heh).

So, I'm picking the game that has 2 friends returning to it, an established community, and is well.. finished.  AoC is a game I can actually see myself returning to, providing they can find a way to finish it.

PVP server has absolutely no appeal for me.  Zip. Zero. Nada. It just doesn't fit with the mindset I like to carry into these games nowadays.

Anyhow, will probably log on some more and see if the game can convince me otherwise.

That's a shame, Rasix, we're having a ball on the RP-PVP server right now, the ganking has been very light but random fights while out and about really do add somthing.  Theres only been one or two "fuck that asshole" moments, the most recent being a guy running through the cistern while everything is gray to him and training groups, which is really what I'd expect on a PVE server.

Heh. Shit like that takes miracles to pull mostly. I've played with my guild for.. 4 years now and during the leveling periods (this goes for all games we've been in) you rarely group or interact with your guildies. Thing is, with a playerbase of 30-40 players it's impossible to keep more than 3-6 players in your leveling range, unless you powerlevel (like you do in expansion packs / alts). Reason for being in a guild while leveling is the social benefits and having higher level players who can assist you with extremely hard stuff at obscure hours / group PvP / small instances. Real guild grouping starts at max level in most games, when all are on equal terms, you will have lots of players available around you for instances / PvP you want to run.

An example with my guild, and surely many others is, I grouped with 5 people from level 35 to 40 and went to sleep. When I woke up those people were in the 45-48 range. Then they were sleeping and I was 51 when they came back. It's always like that. Or you take a few days off and some no-lifer who you played with regulary is 15 levels ahead. Long story short, guildies aren't really there to group with you constantly and interact with while leveling, they are more bonuses you play with when possible, but most important chat buddies / assistants. I don't know ANYTHING about Bat Country / F13 guilds, but this is really a general thing that most people seem to misunderstand or misinterpret of what a guild is. If you want people to level with and play with together, you really need a buddy or a small group with same playtime availability. I've actually had several people leave my old guild during vanilla WoW leveling cause they had nobody in their level range to play with. So, there is many sides to what a guild can bring to you is what I'm trying to say. I guess.

EDIT: Looking at my reply, it might have been a bit subjective. Of course we were elitist fucks who wanted to be the best, you can actually do a more casual-friend guild and level / craft and play together 24/7.

I'd be annoyed every single time someone attacked me.  Every single time. 

I'd actually say that unless you're looking for PvP at all, AoC is not really going to stack as well against better PvE games like WoW and EQ2. This isn't a slight on PvEers (I'm usually one) nor PvPers, it's that the other games are far more polished in the NPC/mob/class-balance area than AoC. The thing that makes AoC interesting to me is the unfinished state and the rather loose set of rules. Who knows for how long that'll last, but I already got my money's worth so don't care :-)

All I can say Rasix, is try a PoM before you quit, once I got the assassin to 53, I had tried rolling a few alts, got a handful to 20, but none of them made me really want to login.

The PoM is just a fucking riot, and if you duo with a ToS you're an unstoppable AoE machine.

I've played PoM from the start.  I'm not sure where all the love comes from other than they're rather over-powered in PvE.  I really don't find them all that special. 

Did you spec divinity or vengeance?  I went vengeance+general, running around FotD at level 45 or so and rounding up entire camps to AoE to death just feels awesome, then heading to cannibal caves at 51 or so and racking up 7-chain kills, it's just awesome.  I wish the melees I played could pull that sort of shit off.

Or, try playing somthing else, like assassin, and then go back to the PoM.

Maybe different spec might be it, though it still sort of sounds like a being over-powered love for the character.  You have to wonder how interesting it'll be when they get around to nerfing it.  I have played Barbie and Assassin, also.  I'm playing a conquerer on a PvP server, when I can stay in the game at all, and it seems okay fun at the moment, but I'm only level 22.  I'm still having the crashing problem so I'll wait until they fix me before I try and level up/respec/do anything.

According to the EU forums Buffs no longer work for Repulse and it does less damage, even Improved Repulse does nothing.

Apparently it takes quite a bit longer to kill mobs now, fun while it lasted though!  I assumed you were taking those groups with some sort of Cleansing Fire > Repulse > Radiance combination.

Yeah, but repulse never did a shitton of damage compared to fire/radiance anyways, it was just thrown in there to let my hots get me back up from 10 things beating on me.

It's really not that big of a deal, it just means the people who are too stupid to active block while cleansing fire refreshes won't be able to pull it off, bleach in the gene pool imho.

And if improved repulse is doing nothing, it's a bug and will get fixed (eventually, lulz) anyways!

DISCLAIMER: English is not my language. So, I am serious. But don't take me too seriously.


I can't translate here the paper me and a friend are working on but one of the driving topics of the thing is that MMORPG *can* make you feel lonely.
In a mild and subtle way, the more people is around you, and you are not interacting with them, the lonelier and less comfortable you feel. AoC (PvE servers) gives the player the opportunity to be too self-sufficient, in a way that doesn't foster any kind of team play or socialization. If you are not in with people you really enjoy sharing things with, have a laugh all the time over a voice or simple guild chat, you won't find anything to bond with in a world, conversely, full of people doing  the same things you are doing but on their own. So you'll feel yourself stranger on a foreign land: "...saw the monuments and museums, toured around, tasted local food... even went to a few bars but didn't meet anyone nor made any new friends. Nice city, but it's lonely and cold here, I want to go home". Aren't these virtual worlds, after all?

As buggy and unstable as Age of Conan can be (and it's a bit of both less every 3 days due to heavy patching), the game does so many thing so much better than its rivals that I call batshit (little less aggressive than bullshit) on the unfinished/broken excuses for quitting. The game has many flaws but they are not game breaking (safe for number 1, below) at all and they can't deter from its many many qualities.

In fact, in a presumptuous dickeahd fashion I'll go as far as saying that whoever quits AoC falls in one of these 2 categories:

1) has a rig not powerful enough to run it in full splendor and with smooth framerate (people with lots of client crashes still fall in this category). That would be a good point. Stuttering is fatiguing for the eyes and for the mood. I am totally serious.

2) is pretty much done with MMORPG (unless it's with friends, but then again you could play Shit Online if it's about playing with friends).

In conclusion, I think this game has ADAMANT LEGS, and it'll show in the next 6 months. Sure it won't beat WoW (nothing will ever do), but it'll grow and stay for a long while. There's PLENTY of content already, and lots more is coming. It does many old things well and brings the best one in this genre since... forever. Which incidentally is what thiese games are about: combat.

Take some time off if you want, but in the near future you'll be playing Conan or you'll be somewhere else with your friends just because they are your friends (and their rigs don't run Conan).

MMOs are about combat? Fail.

You're insane.  Step away from the kool-aid.

Haha.
We don't have kool-aid here and honestly I don't have the slightest idea about what the hell it is supposed to be. Sounds like refreshing drinkable blood-stoppers.

Off-topic, but here's the reference:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonestown

Scroll down to the heading "Deaths in Jonestown".  It was Flavor Aid, technically, not Kool-aid.  Same function, different brands. 

I can't leave the guy hanging like that....

You can do better than that lamaros, since over half the time you spend in MMOs involves combat. The amount of bitching/discussion concerning builds and talent sets comes from...wait for it..........Combat and combat effectiveness! You take away a certain dance from people, no biggie. You slightly nerf a character's combat ability and look out folks!

While that may be true, Slayerik, that's just a mechanic of an MMO. Not what MMOs are about. MMO's are specifically and foremost about building communities... worlds even. If it was about the combat, you may as well be talking about a single player game.

I call bullshit. I don't disagree that the social part is huge in these games, the combat is just as big. Look at how many players do arenas/BGs/dueling outside Org...and that's just WoW.

Combat is THE mechanic in MMOs.

For a sociopathic PVPer, yea, of course. If you can't make friends, kill them.

I can't say we are to that point yet. If it were true, then games like Rysom, Seed, SWG pre-CU and Face of mankind would dominate the market. As it happens those games are closed, and or on last legs.

It is about combat, and the shiny.

You're mixing up what you do in an MMO with what an MMO is about. Combat is a major part of the game. No doubt. But the social aspects of the MMO is why it's an MMOrpg and not just an rpg. EQ's combat sucked. I'm sorry, but hitting auto attack and slamming taunt whenever it refreshed isn't exactly mind blowing excitement. It was the community that kept people playing. The MMO part.

He said mechanic, not emergent gameplay. Most community's require little to no mechanics, and the games that do have social mechanics...well, see my post above.

In fact, i would argue that in most Dikus its not the community that keeps it going, but showing the community what shiny you have, and they do not.

It's interesting to notice that in a post where I pointed out for 2/3 of it that the problem lies in the social commitment/bond and how the game channles you in it, some of you decided to nitpick that sentence about Combat.

Say what you want, but while combat is more than half of what you do in a MMORPG, the other half is the social part that I'd say the quitters are missing, hence they quit.
Honestly, I think the kool-aid comment was more spot on than the combat one.

That'f funny, I'm guessing I'm probably twice as social in these games as your are...Mr. Fear of Conflict Carebear.

Rationalize it however you want.

That's a social aspect you're trying to use as proof of combat being the main draw for these games. It's petty, but it's most certainly social.

EDIT : And further, that's a generalization. Yes, there are people more concerned about how they look to others and bragging about it, but I'd call that a section of the community as opposed to the whole.

So you (generic you) are telling me that if we removed Combat from WOW it'd be just as popular?

No, because combat is what you do while in WoW. It's the entertainment. But that's not what it's about. Would you play WoW if it was single player?

I don't think I get it - if all we care about is social (no combat) why wouldn't we just stick to chat rooms and IRC?

Most of us talk more on a message board (or IM) than we probably play games. I bet you talk more in the Eve channel while traveling then you spend in "combat" as well.

I'll reverse that. If all we care about is combat, why are we playing online with other people?

EDIT: Bah. Accidental post. Anyways...

If it was about combat, we could just post on a board or in a chat room about how we kicked ass in a single player game. Here's a screenshot of my new uber fantastic weapon. But that's not what it's about. It's about playing with other people. Socializing with other people. Sharing experiences with other people. That's what an MMO is about.

Maybe so, but that doesn't mean I want a "game" that's nothing more than a chat box with a screen saver background. It's the combat/industrial game we all play for, though we enjoy doing it together and against other players.

Sure forums are popular, but no one is paying you $15/m to be here. :)


Because we enjoy doing it together and against *human* opponents. We learn from each other, back each other up, have a team, etc..

Don't try to figure it out Viin, its not worth it. :)

The funny thing is I think we all know what the other sides are referring to, just arguing the semantics.


Shit, back to being a sociopath. What did I do with my box, anyways!?!!? Must...get...back...in...my...box!!!!

I added an edit above. Failed my keyboard dexterity roll and accidently hit post somehow without meaning to.  :uhrr:

Heh that's what happens when we're quick to post!

I understand what you are saying - I believe the social part is very important and these games wouldn't be engaging without it. But I also believe that the social experience must revolve around some common activity otherwise the social scene just falls apart (or becomes just another IRC channel that no one wants to pay for). It's a 50/50 thing - you have to have some of each in order to have a good compelling experience that keeps people hooked and paying your subscription fee.

I have a 32 PoM.  Good class.  Only char other than my bear shaman (fucking nerfs (not you)) that got higher than 25.

Back to your regularly scheduled discussion  :awesome_for_real:

For the record, i, personally, and not denying the social aspects of MMO's. I just make a distinction between mechanics, and what people will do with out need of a mechanic.

Fighting things with other people.

We're close to agreement, but are disagreeing on the finer points. I mean you, Viin, not that anti-social PvP people hater Slayerik (which I say in complete jest).

Combat is the means to the end. The end being, hanging out with friends online and sharing experiences. I once again bring up EQ's combat system. Boring as shit and absolutely no draw to it. But people played it for years because of their friends, guilds, etc. AoC does it far better, but it will still get repetitive. It will be the online friends that keep you around.

Even PvPers are online for social reasons. You can't tell me that grudges, KoS lists, you and your friends taking down opponents aren't a big part, and most likely the biggest part, of why you play the game. The combat is just the mechanism for all of that. It obviously helps if it's a good one and fun on top of that. But it's the social aspects and community that keeps most people playing. It's also the reason they played to begin with. Because why play an MMO at all? Hit up the FPS's for PvP if you're just about the combat and pwning people. You don't because MMO's are worlds. Worlds with communities.

At this point, MMOGs are just a way of making chatting more fun. Or if you have a second monitor, something else to do while you catch up with TV and movies.

Unfortunately, they are mere supplement to non-gaming endeavors. Maybe they'll be more one day. Maybe. Not with the current bunch of devs though I don't think.

Edit: In other words, yes. The social part. Everything else is total supplement. It's like when kids don't want to switch schools. They might not like school, but all their friends are there. Think of guilds as schools. When they die down, people leave. Or they all move to the same place - a new [strike]school[/strike] game.

No. Second Life is a way to have more fun while chatting. DIKU MMORPGs* are about combat first.

It's easy: if the combat sucks, the game is unpopular when compared to games where the combat doesn't suck. You can have all the fancy house building, music playing, chicken racing in the world, but if your combat engine feels like you're playing WoW underwater... well, good luck with that.

Falc said something else up there too. :wink:

* Not all games called MMOs should be said in the same breath as if they compare. SL to ATiTD to WoW for example.

I'm starting to see more class breakdowns and talk of over/underpowered classes, etc. It looks like the lipstick is starting to wear off the pig. Implosion is imminent!

Note: I still want to try the game out. I'm still in vicarious mode with the f13 crew. Seeing how it all shakes out. I should be trying it around October at the earliest. Or maybe sometime next year.

No, combat may be the draw but it's still just a mechanism.

Meh. I'm done.

It's the game. The game! THE GAME!! RAR RAR!

(just kidding).

Yea, it's the draw. Emergent gameplay and social ties become the retainer of course. People don't just fight in these games after playing six months or a year. Well, ok, some do sure. But for the most part, the social bonds created by social people (because some are not social) transcend the specific activity. That's when the game itself becomes a hobby.

It doesn't for everyone of course, but does for many.

However, that combat isn't just the draw. SWG NGE is the perfect example of how you can break the strongest social ties by redesigning the reason people are there. You can screw up a game enough to chase people away. Even UO didn't do that with its wholesale change.

Without a doubt. Yeesh! 

So Brogarn given what you just said (and not just you), looks like you do agree with me, that massive Bat Country quittage and the eventual/imminent failure of the guild at this point aren't happening because AoC it is not a good, great MMORPG, let alone because of the bugs or the supposed unfinished-ness, but just because f13-ers are too jaded to truly socialize?

I think the issue with AoC is that there's really no reason to group or interact at all except for chatting. At least in a PvP environment you are banding together for protection, etc but you really don't need to group at all in AoC unless you just decide that's what you wanna do.

And so, there's not much pull from the guild to keep playing because those strong social/interaction ties aren't there.

When this thread was one page I was going to post and say f13 in any online game will never really ever work, but then I didn't want to insult anyone who was giving it a shot so I decided against it.

But now that the new has worn off, I'll tell you something I learned awhile ago:

A group of jaded gamers with entirely different play styles and entirely different in game desires will never make a successful guild in any game, regardless of how excellent (or poor) the game is.  In order to make a successful guild in an online game, you need a common goal and playstyle that can be agreed upon by all (in spirit if not literally).  This group will never have that common goal or playstyle.

Remember this axiom and you will enjoy online games much more than you (you being the generic thread reader) currently do:  f13 makes a good place to talk about video games.  f13 makes a poor guild.

We did pretty good in SWG. But it was mostly because by the time we started working together, the game had shed all the people expecting something completely different.

I don't think it's an F13 thing though, but rather something endemic to loosely-associated people. We gather here a lot because it's easy to be social as an adjunct to avoiding work, for some :-) But many of us prefer different things, or have wildly different schedules. For most of the posters here, a forum is not a realtime activity. I don't need to "group" with schild to "achieve" something here, for example. So how our schedules different, how our playstyles differ, none of that matters.

Once in game though, it all matters.

So I'd say the axiom is not so much that F13 makes a bad guild. Rather, I think you don't want to make the assumption that a good forum posting community automatically translates into a good guild. It requires the same amount of ingame social work as any other guild does.

This has been the case with every forum community I've associated with over the years.

The best guilds I've been in were ones I found ingame that had similar interests.

Edit: Pretty much what Darniaq said.


And on topic, I find I'm losing interest in the game, I won't be continuing past the free month.

I think you want to make the assumption that a good forum posting community automatically translates into a bad guild.  The things that drive forums such as this one are, in a lot of respects, the opposite of what drives a good guild, and vice versa.

It's not a knock against f13, it's just that you need to look for different things in a forum about game development and a guild in an online game.

SWG had working personal housing and a variety of reasons for interacting with your community other than killing of and killing with.  That builds up a certain degree of stickiness that is sometimes hard to put down even after you've hit the point where the game is unworthy of the subscription.

This is not unlike PVP.  Heck, I played AC2 for over a month and that game was absolutely wretched. PVP does add a measure of stickiness when not much else is keeping you together and subbed.  The conflict, the need for protection, and the increased tension/excitement can prolong the excitement that you'd get from an activity that is either incomplete or un-fulfilling. 

Heh, the main reason my guild and I went full on PK in UO was because we were incredibly bored (from playing the lawgiver anti-pk) and just trying to squeeze a little more fun out of the game. 

However, this is 10 years later, and I don't need to resort to that. That being said, I may roll an experiment on Cimmeria just to see how accurate my self assessment is.

My axiom was that the game has indeed strong legs, and the fact that some people (here, but not just here) are quitting has much more to do with the socializing ways of jaded gamers, and with the lack of reasons to socialize before level 80, than with the lack of polish or content.


EDIT: I don't have any numbers but I agree with what Rasix just wrote, it was my main point since the beginning. Because of that, I am sure that the PvP servers are testing many people patience with all the ganking drama, but at the same time are building the game's financial fortunes and the just mentioned stickyness. On PvP servers you have experiences to share and laugh about since level 10, friends and comrades bonded to you by extreme ganking suckage/ownage. On the PvE servers it's you and just you against the XP bar. That doesn't work for everybody, no matters how big or good looking is the carrot at the end of the stick.

If it helps, not counting myself, 16 people have logged in on Zug in the past 24 hours. 3 were online when I checked (approx 5pm ETS).

The active roster being (off the top of my head and solely based on when I'm online):

Kirth (Highest level woot)
Rattran (Coming after Kirth with a vengeance)
Cheddar in some various form
Muffin
Nalas
Gualoc
Schild

That's all that comes to mind, the list really isn't that long.  I'd really like more people to group with but don't want to deal with the bullshit of some random guild.  Everyone get your shit together and let's play!

There are quite a few others on the RP-PvP server. They are slowly comming to the dark side.  :drill:

You forgot dannyb, or didn't you... I don't know  :uhrr:.

No one cares about that rag-tag group of misfits.

It appears that AoC will not put a dent in WoW or even SWG (I had to say that):

The AoC Launch Numbers

While the videogame media tossed around some big numbers at the AoC launch, including a major figure of 700,000 copies, the actual sales numbers were unknown, as Funcom could not/would not report any details beyond what they had shipped to retailers.   A recent press release, however, has given us more details about what happened to these 700,000 copies of the game.



That's right, we have a rather unhappy picture as we near the "one month" point for Age of Conan.

* ~40% are still sitting on retailer shelves
* ~30% were bought and returned due to insufficient system reqs
* ~20% were bought and installed but canceled without subscribing
* ~10% were bought and set up a subscription to continue playing

Of the much-hyped 700,000 number, this leaves us with about 70,000 Active Players in the world of Hyboria.

Myspace "subs" and YouTube "subs" put WoW to shame.  There's a reason Raph said "Fuck this game shit, I'm building a social network" and it's only partially because of the loud, obnoxious mouth breathers that constantly tell you how to run your own game while doing nothing to try it their own damn selves.  :grin:

Who's ass did that data come out of? Those points don't even make sense. Link please?

Context. Learn it. Love it.

"MMOs are about combat!" is the point taken question with. "AoC is the best thing since Kool-Aid because it's combat is better!"

No doubt combat or some other activity is fine, but the combat mechanics being the first and last words in what makes a MMO good?

No.

You know what game is about combat? Mount&Blade. That game was combat and nothing but combat (at least early on in beta). But if you host some servers and let people make persistent characters will it become the best MMO ever that everyone is only not playing because their PC isn't good enough or their friends are playing somewhere else? Fuck no.

The only thing true in your piece was the 700,000 part (http://www.videogamer.com/news/19-05-2008-8333.html), from a month ago.

Learn2lie plz  :awesome_for_real: You'd want something that sounded like it came from a more quantitative assessment, like 44%, 27%, etc. And it doesn't want to round up to an even 100% because when "press releases" like this are released, they generally round the individual values to a whole amount which invariably leads to a rounded-out 99% or 101%.

We're already past this :P

I was asleep in the interim, I needed closure.  :-)

Hahahahaahahahahahahahahaahahahaahaha

Wait, let me catch my breath.

Hahahahahahahahahahahaaha

God, that's fucking great.

It came from this forum thread:

http://forums.ageofconan.com/showthread.php?t=89351

Based on this blog post:

http://wowriot.gameriot.com/blogs/Epidemic-Obesity/Age-of-Conan-Desperate-for-Subscribers/

The guy who wrote the blog post simultaneously states that the numbers came from a "Press Release" and that the numbers came from Secret Sources That Cannot Be Named.

If you are bored at work today, I highly recommend reading the comments from the blog post.  They will numb your mind for at least 8 hours.

That is just horrible blog trolling.

What truly frightens me is that you've allowed someone to accrue 600+ posts around here that actually believed those numbers and came here to post them to prove his point.

I blame you, personally, Slayerik.

Who wrote that shit ? Rob Pardo ?


No. The game is sold out many places and they had to make 300k additional copies. That is the LAST thing you spend your "limited budget" according to the following statements :

1) You cannot return opened PC software nearly anywhere around the world, except if the owner is a friend or friends work at gameshops.
2) MMO's with used CD keys are.. Why the fuck am I telling you this?

This can be right. I think even more have canceled subs after honeymoon, time will tell.

No.

If Funcom is reading this I CHALLENGE YOU to make F13ers moderators of your forums.  IT WOULD FIX EVERYTHING.

Too fucking zealots of all stripes.

I already offered, they don't hire remotely. I would've probably done it for free too. But I can't afford that.

Our moderator at EU forums is a 14 year old girl who just discovered smileys and writes like the guy who put all devs on notice.

"Hi  :awesome_for_real:

We are letting you know later  :grin:

Thanks  :heart:

Anonchick  :pedobear:"

I was gonna say bring back Cosmik, but he turned down (http://n3rfed.blogs.com/) a Funcom return or something.

You know, I really agree with pretty much all of this.

I really think their stupid system reqs will really come back to haunt them. I get 100% stagger-o-vision, and in melee I get 2 or 3 swings into empty air before I get my character back under control after I drop something. Also I'm on a PVE server and most of the time its deadly silent in the OOC channels. This is a symptom of the regional nature of the channel. In Tortage it was pretty busy with people talking but since I left there its totally silent.

That said on a PVP server I would not have a hope as I would be at a total disadvangage due to the fact my computer can bearly handle it. WOW for all its faults can give pretty much anyone who logs on the same experiance, and if I had been playing WOW I would already be back there.

Right now I have copies of Fable and Gothic sitting on my shelf waiting to be played and frankly I'm probably going to compleatly quit and play them in the next week or so. I was thinking of trying a PVP server but the horror of going through tortage again juyst makes me balk. Frankly I'm just playing to see the next leg of the destiny quest and that will be it for me.

I'm probably more suited to single player gaming anyway.

Jesus the people on my PvE server never shut the fuck up.  Between OOC and the regional channels it's like a non stop barrage of stupidity.

Yeah it is the same on Ymir. On the PvP servers you can't avoid seing "ganker, fuck you, retard, racial slur, reported, debate over which race is superior, then AoC Stygian racism" etc. It kinda adds a flavor to the channels. And its always the same whiners. Other than that, people have mostly fun.

I'm still about, just in the midst of trying a couple rerolls that arn't in the guild yet until I figure out what I enjoy playing, since I didn't beta. Unless I'm mixing up names, Lantyssa's been on a fair bit when i've been playing as well.

Yeah, I'm on every other day or so.  (Think of the LAN in Kylantha as an easy way to remember.)  It depends whether my roommate is working or not so I'm either on Zug with y'all or Wiccana.  Or working on my alt-of-the-day.

We know you're lonely in SWG but you need to accept the game is dead.  Denial is unhealthy.

It wasn't Funcom. The Norwegian government won't let me into the country for some reason. I can only summize it has something to do with me not meeting the daily fish intake requirement.

Question:  is anyone actively "managing" the Bat Country guild?  I put my name on the sticky list, but I'm not sure who to talk to to get added.  There may be others in the same boat.

Send Cthylla a message whenever you're logged in. I've been getting 1-2 levels a day when I have a chance. Or try and catch Rattran online. There's a few others but I'm not sure how much they're logging in.

I picked it ip a couple of days ago and have been trying out the different classes. It's down to a run-off between my Priest of Mitra and my Tempest of Set. I haven't had time to really concentrate on it though due to school. I'll send Cthylla a message too when I get a chance.

Cool, thx!

Found you a job in the UK - even if you only fit somewhere in the middle of the salary range, I'm sure it will do ...

http://jobs.guardian.co.uk/job/610773/online-communities-manager/

edit - damn they fixed it ... it said £25000 - £2600035000