AoC - 400.000 players (27.05.08)

[ShenMolo]

Funcom (FUNCOM) now has over 400,000 registered players on their game "Age of Conan", reports a company in a stock exchange notification.

Source (from the Norwegian):

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=no&tl=en&u=http://e24.no/boers-og-finans/article2445187.ece

[Sir T]

Not bad. depends now on how many of their players they can hang onto.

[Threash]

Not bad. depends now on how many of their players they can hang onto.

Not many unless they get to patching all the missing and broken shit.  Fun combat can only keep you around so long.

[photek]

http://www.massively.com/2008/05/26/funcom-boasts-400-000-players-in-age-of-conan-so-far/

An official release from Funcom has announced that Age of Conan is one of the most successful PC titles "of all time." Since the game's release last Tuesday the Oslo company says that some 400,000 players have stalked the lands of Hyboria. A full half of those players are from the North American continent. If you recall, the company said that it had put roughly 700,000 boxes into the retail channel. Though they don't give specific numbers, the release says "an astounding number of concurrent gamers were logged on to the game, making Age of Conan one of the busiest MMOs in the western hemisphere." The official website received heavy traffic as well, with "2.2 million unique visitors" in the last ten days.

The release also notes the game's extremely positive reaction from review sites, with "the first 20 reviews [giving] Age of Conan an average score above 90%." Obviously that's some selective statistical selection, but generally the response among the playerbase seems to be fairly positive. Keen and Graev's decision to skip the game aside, everyone this blogger has talked to seems to be enjoying themselves. Even if Age of Conan isn't a "WoW-killer", or fails to retain these numbers beyond the next few months, it's clear that Funcom has a successful launch on their hands.

Says Funcom CEO Trond Arne Aas, "This is just the beginning, and we already look forward to massive updates and cool new features. We believe our focus on making Conan unique and groundbreaking is a key reason for the initial success. This is a focus we will keep and reinforce, and players can expect continued quality and innovation as we enter a new era for the game."

So what do you think will happen after the honeymoon ? How many players will be around in a month or two ? Fire up the speculation wagon! 

EDIT : Also, how the fuck do you review an MMO on release ?

[schild]

None of the members of press got to level 40, obviously.

I'm going to rip them an asshole.

The honeymoon won't stop if they learn to communicate and fucking patch. The first isn't likely as the CRM and PR at funcom is probably the worst in the industry. The latter is likely.

[Hawkbit]

I think a whole lot rides on the next 2 weeks.  If they don't get at least banks, mail, traders, guild cities and crafting where it should have been at launch, that 400,000 is going to 150,000-200,000 for month 2. 

As it stands, the game seems like it has less content than WoW did at release.  I think there's going to be a large contingent of people that burn through it in 2-3 months and never look back.  Especially if they get on the Blizzard 2yr expansion cycle. 

[photek]

I think a whole lot rides on the next 2 weeks.  If they don't get at least banks, mail, traders, guild cities and crafting where it should have been at launch, that 400,000 is going to 150,000-200,000 for month 2. 

I'm seconding this. Also the bugs and issues need to be sorted out within this week. Also balancing issues. I play a Barbarian on PvP server and have 276 kills - 19 deaths. I'm lvl 35 and have killed lvl 46 Herald of Xotli and I steamroll most classes, even multiple of them.

[schild]

PVP Being balanced is the least of my concerns. MMOG FFA PVP is just uber gay. I will not be touching on it in my article.

[photek]

PVP Being balanced is the least of my concerns. MMOG FFA PVP is just uber gay. I will not be touching on it in my article.

I'll tell you honestly why I rolled on a FFA PvP server. Cause im 99% sure the ruleset will change over the next months to something more... accepted by the common crowd. Only problem I encountered now on the server is seeing lvl 40-50 people ganking lvl 20's. When I'm bored I sneak around the small towns looking for gankers and kill them. Also graveyard campers are KOS for me. Lvl 10 or 50, GY camping sucks.

[Abelian75]

As it stands, the game seems like it has less content than WoW did at release.

A lot less, it feels like, especially in terms of breadth (like, multiple areas at a given level).  Probably in depth, too, but I'm hesitant to go past level 40-ish so I can't be sure about that.  This is really the first MMO since WoW (and at all, really, other than WoW) that I've felt willing to actually play the "whole" game, and it's begun to strike me just how much goddamn content WoW had at release.  I just did the Sanctum dungeon in AoC, and it was a pretty cool first dungeon, especially artistically, but I get the impression I can't currently look forward to anything matching that dungeon.  I don't get much of a "I can't wait to see more!" feeling from this game, but only because I suspect there isn't much more.  But damn, I wish there was, and I hope there will be, because the actual game is really fun.

And fuck, I know it has been said five hundred thousand times, but it SUCKS just having one starter area.  Even if it IS a really good starter area.

For me the next couple months are going to make or break this game.  It's either going to be a really huge thing for me or I'll lose interest quickly, we'll see.  I really want to love it it so, so many ways.

[rattran]

It's worked reasonably well for CoX.

[Trippy]

Moved to MMOG Discussion since it's of general interest.

[Fordel]

I think a whole lot rides on the next 2 weeks.  If they don't get at least banks, mail, traders, guild cities and crafting where it should have been at launch, that 400,000 is going to 150,000-200,000 for month 2. 

As it stands, the game seems like it has less content than WoW did at release.  I think there's going to be a large contingent of people that burn through it in 2-3 months and never look back.  Especially if they get on the Blizzard 2yr expansion cycle. 

They don't have bank storage in yet? 


Hasn't every MMO since like... ever, have bank storage?

[Slayerik]

PVP Being balanced is the least of my concerns. MMOG FFA PVP is just uber gay. I will not be touching on it in my article.

Blah blah blah

Uber ghey = PvE servers

Just saying.

[Venkman]

It's worked reasonably well for CoX.

You split between Galaxy and Liberty pretty quick though. And AoC's already blown past what CoH ever got

And fuck, I know it has been said five hundred thousand times, but it SUCKS just having one starter area.  Even if it IS a really good starter area.

Did they keep the feature where you could auto-level new characters to 20 once you reached 20 on your first character?

[Evildrider]

It's worked reasonably well for CoX.

You split between Galaxy and Liberty pretty quick though. And AoC's already blown past what CoH ever got

And fuck, I know it has been said five hundred thousand times, but it SUCKS just having one starter area.  Even if it IS a really good starter area.

Did they keep the feature where you could auto-level new characters to 20 once you reached 20 on your first character?

If there is, I'd like to know.. i've gotten two characters past 20.  I will not be doing that again.

[bhodi]

..

[schild]

PVP Being balanced is the least of my concerns. MMOG FFA PVP is just uber gay. I will not be touching on it in my article.

Blah blah blah

Uber ghey = PvE servers

Just saying.

You spelled gay with an h. You lose.

[Surlyboi]

PVP Being balanced is the least of my concerns. MMOG FFA PVP is just uber gay. I will not be touching on it in my article.

Blah blah blah

Uber ghey = PvE servers

Just saying.

You spelled gay with an h. You lose.

Too many blows to the head...

[Arnold]

PVP Being balanced is the least of my concerns. MMOG FFA PVP is just uber gay. I will not be touching on it in my article.

Which is why I have no interest in playing with people who don't want 24/7 FFA PvP.

It's not "uber-gay", it is THE BEST THING EVER IN A VIDEO GAME.  But let in people who don't want to be there, and it turns into a pile of suck as they bitch to everyonem, especially the devs.  I'd rather have a game that caters to carebears with a good ruleset on the PvP server.  See early AC1 Darktide, or early UO:Siege Perilous.

Believe me, there are sooooooooo many sheep who see themselves as wolves that we don't give a fuck if one carebear ever sets foot on one of our servers.

[schild]

No, 24/7 PVP is the best thing ever in an FPS. In an MMOG it's not nearly the best thing ever. But you keep thinking that. It's not like you're not in the minority or anything. Or hell, a minority of the minority.

[Nerf]

We'll never have another early AC1 darktide, just deal with it and move on.  FFA PvP HAD a place in MMOs, now? Meh.

[Sir T]

I joined a PVE server so I wouldn't have to deal with 14 year olds compensating for the size of their 6 inch little finger. I had enough of that crap in Eve.

back on topic I do agree that it needs a bit more outside-ness to really make things stick. Fun combat will get them a long way and fast leveling will at least help people compete fairly in the long term. Good questing will help too. But they need other things to do like trading and what not.

Actually having a decent customer services dept will go a long way.. and for the love of god kill the volunteer monitors stone dead.

[WindupAtheist]

Something about this thread...  So different, yet so much the same...

[Sir T]

*covers his crotch* what are you suggesting? 

[Sparky]

So someone finally did tap into the "If I can get just 5% of bored WoW players my game will be  " market.  Will be an interesting one to watch.

[Surlyboi]

*covers his crotch* what are you suggesting? 

Heh, no, he's right. As always, the PvPtards come out when they think they're gonna get a game that lets them be "free to kill anybody, anytime, 'cause it's just so real, man!" And then the anti-PvPtards, (myself included) come out and laugh at their tiny e-peens that they need to bolster by killing people that can't play the game as well as them.

[lamaros]

I predict AoC will go the way of LotRO if it hasn't gotten a considerable playerbase and does'nt suck by the time WAR/WotLK come out.

[Tarami]

I predict AoC will go the way of LotRO if it hasn't gotten a considerable playerbase and does'nt suck by the time WAR/WotLK come out.

Exactly what is the way of LotRO?

[Slayerik]

Boredom and loss of interest after about 3 weeks?

[Mrbloodworth]

On the topic of content amount. I put forth that the quests are better, and the contend is simply better than Wow launch content. I don't read shitt in Wow when i play, i have read just about every quest i take in AOC. As far as PvP, to each his own, but for one, i don't think classes are imbalanced. balance is a lie. A barbarian should kill a caster quickly, if he targets the caster... Casters are hard to play in this game, and are support roles, the are not first sting combatants, all casters can do some sick nasty things to others...IF they are supported and not focused on.

Also, lets not forget that most of what people post is only negative, I was very skeptical about FFA PvP in this game after the OB. But i have played on a RP-PvP server for a few weeks now, and its IS nothing like OB in terms of spawn ganking, or load ganking (EDIT: as in, its dosnt happen). Infact just last night i Role played a Necromancer getting robed by 4 thugs (They initiated it, walked up and demanded money), I killed 1.5 out of the 5 level 25's, while i was level 26.(i love my fear, but its not sustainable like in Wow where i have it on a foot pedal)

It was possibly one of the best times i have had in an MMO in years.

Now possably, PvP, and RP-PvP have attracted different types of players, but i am really enjoying the Rp-PvP, and have not had any issues with random ganking ETC..

They will at least run up and tell you they don't like the cut of your jib before attacking.

[Signe]

I haven't enjoyed PvP in an MMORPG since Shadowbane, which I simply loved.  I haven't tried yet in this game but I will at some point, if I can sustain interest.  I like large scale PvP much, much better than one on one, though I injoy the odd skirmishes that lead up to war.  48 X 48, unfortunately, is not what I had in mind, although I'll give it a go unless it turns out to be a huge slideshow.  In which case, I'm disappearing myself.

[shiznitz]

It's worked reasonably well for CoX.

You split between Galaxy and Liberty pretty quick though. And AoC's already blown past what CoH ever got

And fuck, I know it has been said five hundred thousand times, but it SUCKS just having one starter area.  Even if it IS a really good starter area.

Did they keep the feature where you could auto-level new characters to 20 once you reached 20 on your first character?

If there is, I'd like to know.. i've gotten two characters past 20.  I will not be doing that again.

I am not psyched to level a second character even to 10. Fast levelling and limited replay will hurt retention eventually. Funcom got the first half of MMOGs right. Now they need to show they can accomplish Act 2. Act 3 will be the first expansion.

[Tarami]

Boredom and loss of interest after about 3 weeks?

Maybe for the veteran crowd. My point was that LotRO didn't fail as was implied, it merely niched itself as a super-casual Diku. Just like CoX hasn't failed. Will Conan become a niche game? From where I am standing - likely. Does that make it a failure? Maybe it could be considered a success if becoming niche, atleast to the players enjoying it despite its status. It's all swings and carousels.

Paraphrasing Darniaq, every MMO that doesn't shut down is successful to an extent. I don't see the purpose of predicting the number of subscriptions for the sake of being right, which is largely what's honked around here.  I'm all for discussing the future of the genre aswell as its current state and games. But anyone can pull predictions out of their ass. It takes no effort at all and creates a Nostradamus effect - have enough guesses and you'll get some stuff right.

We are accepting your Excel charts now. May not be based on anything tangible. The jury's families, coworkers and SirBruce are not allowed to participate.

[Mrbloodworth]

It's worked reasonably well for CoX.

You split between Galaxy and Liberty pretty quick though. And AoC's already blown past what CoH ever got

And fuck, I know it has been said five hundred thousand times, but it SUCKS just having one starter area.  Even if it IS a really good starter area.

Did they keep the feature where you could auto-level new characters to 20 once you reached 20 on your first character?

If there is, I'd like to know.. i've gotten two characters past 20.  I will not be doing that again.

I am not psyched to level a second character even to 10. Fast levelling and limited replay will hurt retention eventually. Funcom got the first half of MMOGs right. Now they need to show they can accomplish Act 2. Act 3 will be the first expansion.

You can skip the entire destiny quest, as the beginning or between each arch is the option (Talk to bar NPC's). However skipping it means you get nothing, nada, zip.