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Author Topic: But Is It Fun?  (Read 13132 times)
Soukyan
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on: June 09, 2008, 12:20:14 PM

That seems to be the popular question in my mind. So what say you, players of AoC? Is it fun? Is it not?

I'd like some views from everyone, but I am particularly interested in the view of people who have played several MMOGs in the past. If anyone who played in the CoH group when I was on there is playing AoC, I'd be interested to hear your thoughts.

How does it "feel"? In other words, when you start playing this game, since its early focus is on single-player character development, does it feel like a good RPG? Do you find yourself dissecting game systems while playing, or is it immersive and fun enough that you don't dissect until you are offline later and in the MMOG comparison/critique mode?

Is it still a MMOG at heart or is there potential for the character development of the first twenty levels to be expanded out into higher levels at a later time to provide more story-telling?

I am sure that people have mentioned things at length in other threads, so if you don't want to repeat yourself, links to your thoughts in those other threads would be fine, too. I just wanted to gather the opinions in one spot for my own ease of perusal. Thanks in advance.

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Mrbloodworth
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Reply #1 on: June 09, 2008, 12:22:00 PM

Its only surviving because its fun. IMO.

People put up with buggy to play fun.

You can't patch fun. (you can, but by then its to late and your game is branded)

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photek
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Reply #2 on: June 09, 2008, 12:23:50 PM

To answer really briefly: Yes. It is fun. Lots of fun.

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Brogarn
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Reply #3 on: June 09, 2008, 12:26:03 PM

Completely agreed with MrBloodworth. Fun? Definitely. Flawed? Absolutely. Bug fixes, proper itemization, UI fixes (or community built ones, whichever), etc. All will fix the flaws. But it most certainly does not need the fun patched in.
shiznitz
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Reply #4 on: June 09, 2008, 12:26:45 PM

It's fun, even if you only have 30 minutes to play (at least up to level 20). I don't know if/how bad the timesinks (mostly travel if reports are accurate) get after Tortage.

I have never played WoW.
cevik
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Reply #5 on: June 09, 2008, 12:27:44 PM

I like AoC, I think it's fun.

That said:  I played CoH back at release (with you I believe, I was the Red Scare) and I hated it and quit before level 15 or so.

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murdoc
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Reply #6 on: June 09, 2008, 12:27:53 PM

First 17 levels are a LOT of fun, can't say much after that. I played for 15 minutes on a buddies account Friday afternoon and bought it first thing on Saturday morning.

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Reply #7 on: June 09, 2008, 12:29:42 PM

The first 40 levels are fun. 40 to 43 isn't that great. 44 to 50 turns the fun back on. I got 51 and almost 52 just harvesting, so there's that.

I shouldn't have to give opinions on fun or not though. I have a level 51, 40, 41, 26, 13, and a few level 1ers waiting to be played. When was the last time I did anything like that in a fucking MMOG? Oh, ya, never.
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Reply #8 on: June 09, 2008, 12:29:47 PM

Fun is the only thing they did right.

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Slayerik
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Reply #9 on: June 09, 2008, 12:30:07 PM

Yes it's fun.  Very much so. The random PVP is a breath of fresh air as well.

Like everyone else said, ya...its buggy. But hell, we put up with Neocron.....so, it cant be any worse than that right? :)

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Reply #10 on: June 09, 2008, 12:32:01 PM

Maybe you put up with it in Neocron.

You're sick. Sick.
Engels
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Reply #11 on: June 09, 2008, 12:33:17 PM

Neocron was like having your head shoved into a box filled with newspaper and asked if the comics page was fun.

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Sparky
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Reply #12 on: June 09, 2008, 12:35:47 PM

It's fun in spite of the bugs, lag (at the moment lots of Euros are getting 9K ms lag spikes at peak times because of a shitty hop near the servers - I hope they fix that shit fast) and jerktastic graphics.  

I'm having a lot more fun with my ranger than a first try with a guardian though.  Felt as if I could charge in and click my way to victory without even paying attention to what was going on with the guardian.  But I've got to plan out encounters and switch tactics if shit goes wrong with the ranger - feels sneaky and awesome.
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Reply #13 on: June 09, 2008, 12:36:22 PM

Neocron? That game was horrible.
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Reply #14 on: June 09, 2008, 12:42:03 PM

It's like early days of CoH fun.  Maybe not as much fun as the ex-presidents super group we made in CoH but that was fun of a different sort.

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Miasma
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Reply #15 on: June 09, 2008, 12:46:55 PM

Yes it's fun.  It's fun enough that I'm willing to put up with the bugs and the lack of polish.  The first forty levels are great but the content is a little weak after that, the zones are still awesome though.  Everytime I go into a zone I've never seen before I think to myself "lovingly hand crafted".  It's like they got a zone designer from a single player game and told him to make something with just as much attention to detail but much, much bigger.

To me it really does "feel" like you're in there.  A lot of the time in an MMO will be spent fighting and combat in AoC just feels good.  There are mobs called minions which are quite weak that often hang around the main mobs so when you go into battle you can often be up against five or six enemies and you just lay waste to them.  You get that powerful feeling an MMO should have.  One of the things that always bothered me in EQ2 were the layers of different combat systems and rules, explicitly grouped mobs, mobs with half a dozen different lights/circles/con graphics.  It just hammered home the fact that you were playing a video game, there was no immersion.  AoC has much cleaner and more engrossing combat (some of it is buggy mind you).

Story telling wise you do have a destiny quest going all the way up to eighty but it usually only takes about ten minutes to do and it happens every ten or twenty levels, that quest has voice acting.  They say they will be adding more quests like that.  Tortage is very story oriented but you do lose a lot of that once you leave.

I'm also saying this as someone who thought AoC would be a total disaster of concentrated suckage.  I have been pleasantly surprised.  It *should* only get better from here...
apocrypha
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Reply #16 on: June 09, 2008, 01:08:20 PM

It is great fun. I find myself logging in to play for 30 minutes sometimes and still feeling like I've achieved something.... pretty unheard of in MMORPG's really.

However some classes are more fun than others (i.e. less broken... or at least broken in fun ways!). If you do decide to try it then play a few different classes at least to 20, which only takes a few hours. Find one that you enjoy but be prepared for it to change. Class balance is totally out of whack at the moment and most people are expecting big changes to classes over the coming months.

The group dynamic is a bit different from most other MMO's I've played too - the roles are less rigidly defined and things are a bit more flowing and flexible. This is most apparent with healers - they're not squishy heal machines hiding at the back of the pack but mean bastard damage dealers too, often right in the thick of the fray dishing out the lumps as well as keeping others alive. It's the most fun I've had as a healer in any MMO since my pvp cleric in DaoC... in fact no, it's MORE fun than that was and that was awesome  DRILLING AND MANLINESS

But yeah, how long the fun stays funs is gonna be dependent on how fast the fix the bugs and problems that we're all tolerating because of the fun.

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Rasix
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Reply #17 on: June 09, 2008, 01:10:00 PM

I'm also saying this as someone who thought AoC would be a total disaster of concentrated suckage.  I have been pleasantly surprised.  It *should* only get better from here...

Yah, as one of the "lol, it's fucking Funcom", I have to admit the game is a hoot.  They are doing a lot of Funcom-y stuff, but they have yet to bring the AO level of incompetence.  And this time, the game is fun at the base level.  Even if AO wasn't a trainwreck, it felt to me like an also-ran but with a compelling setting.  This game has the compelling setting, the beautiful scenery and gameplay that enhances all of it.

Right now I have a lvl 39, 25, 24, 21, 20, 17, and a 10.  I like the solo game/MMO split of Tortage and have actively avoided the more broken parts of AoC.  I like trying out the different characters and feeling how different they are. The melee combat is fantastic, and even the spell casting adds a few neat tweaks.  Outside of Tortage, I like that there are still some solo instances.   I have wanted something like this FOREVER.  I don't play MMOs to be around other people, and this game allows me at times to go beyond the typical MMO soloing and enter an isolation chamber at times.   Oh ho ho ho. Reallllly?

Since playing WoW, no MMO has grabbed my attention like this.  LOTRO didn't last beyond the killing lnyx mobs (around lvl 15-20ish in beta)  that sounded like house cats (goddamn, that is one of the most mentally scarring moments I've had in any game), EQ2 just felt like more of the same, and in CoX: I never got past 11 before getting bored.  My last try at CoX ended at LEVEL 2. I just couldn't stand it.

Mostly, I just kind of turn my brain off while playing.  I fret over how to spec, because a lot of the information really isn't common knowledge yet.  I look at the official boards, but not for long.  The game is too young and there's not a whole lot of "you're doing it wrong" to care about.  But while I'm playing, it's just focusing on the combat, the quests and the environment. 


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Reply #18 on: June 09, 2008, 01:21:52 PM

I think the first 20-30 levels are fun.  After that, new class abilities come too few and far between for some classes, and the world design starts to get repetitive (aside from Stygia, whcih sadly doesn't get any mid-level content).  Like some people have said, it is like CoH in that the combat is fun, but you feel very little incentive to level beyond a certain point.
Jimbo
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Reply #19 on: June 09, 2008, 01:29:20 PM

Cool, now that I went and ordered parts to upgade the computers, I'm gonna have to try this game. 
Pennilenko
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Reply #20 on: June 09, 2008, 01:47:11 PM

It is super fun for me. Of course im not a hardcore player, I go at these types of games with a kind of uncaring attitude. Im way more interested in how i can sink into the game rather than play it. AoC is good for sucking me right in, and even though im on my 6th trip through tortage. Im oddly not sick of it.

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Slayerik
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Reply #21 on: June 09, 2008, 02:05:36 PM

Maybe you put up with it in Neocron.

You're sick. Sick.

I was talking to Soukyan :)

This isn't the Neocron discussion thread and I'll just let it die with my usual 'Neocron's Endgame pvp battles kicked ass'.

AoC seems to only be lacking in that area. Luckily for me, I'm not as obsessed with MMOs as I used to be and by the time I get to the real grind they may have patched in some stuff.

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Krakrok
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Reply #22 on: June 09, 2008, 03:03:11 PM


AoC is fun. It plays like Golden Axe. Also, PvP from 10-20 is fun because there are a bunch of people leveling alts and they cry. Just play it like a FPS.

CoH was a piece of shit except for the character generator.
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Reply #23 on: June 09, 2008, 03:26:30 PM

I think it's good fun, too, although I've not played much lately.  I have several characters, only one over 30.  I haven't heard super nice things about the over 40 game but considering how many people are willing to give Funcom time to fix, add, nerf and tidy up, you know it has to be fun.  I mean, this is f13!  Give someone time?  When does THAT ever happen?

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Reply #24 on: June 09, 2008, 03:35:32 PM

It is buckets of fun.

It has interesting classes that finally play/fight in a unique way. It has a combat that feels like you are actually swinging your mace and smashing skulls. It has fatalities, those simply never get old.
It has lots of short levels, which means the game feels generous and rewarding cause the ding!gratz usually comes right before boredom has a chance to kick in.
And when you are done with it, it's PvP time hell yeah!

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Reply #25 on: June 09, 2008, 03:50:35 PM

In other words, when you start playing this game, since its early focus is on single-player character development, does it feel like a good RPG?

Yes, it manages to feel more like an RPG than any previous MMORPG. There are some big, epic moments.

Quote
Is it still a MMOG at heart or is there potential for the character development of the first twenty levels to be expanded out into higher levels at a later time to provide more story-telling?

After 20, it is really an MMOG at heart, but there are still epic moments and constant good storytelling in the quest text. I don't think the character development 20-80 will ever be fleshed out, but it's not dull.

Quote
But Is It fun?

Yes. I had a GREAT time playing AoC on the weekend. I overdosed on it by trying to catch up with my guildies, but I still wanted to play more because I was having so much fun.

One thing is irritating me though - all the running. Big zones with quests that consist of multiple parts, travelling on foot, no griffin system, and "now go back and see the other guy for your reward". The feeling of fun and epicness makes you do the running, but when it's to the far northwest corner of a map for the fifth time, it wears you down. Lots of comments like "I need new shoes" and "you'd think I would get faster, with all this running training".
« Last Edit: June 09, 2008, 03:55:12 PM by Tale »
tazelbain
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Reply #26 on: June 09, 2008, 03:58:55 PM

And it should be still be fun when they finish the game.

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Soukyan
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Reply #27 on: June 09, 2008, 04:46:47 PM

Wow. Thanks for all the replies, and please feel free to keep them coming.

Schild is gushing about it, which, combined with the Amazon and IMDB DDoS attacks last week lead me to believe that the world will soon end. ;)

Yes, Slayerik, you make a very good point about Neocron. I played that game for quite a long time and put up with a lot of shit, but damn were those PvP battles fun. But I got your point. If it is just as buggy as NC, but 10x as fun, then it would certainly be worth some play time.

As for my mention of CoH, it wasn't that the game didn't get tedious, I was mentioning it for a frame of comparison to the few times when I managed to group up with our Bat Country group and spread the super hero love across the server. If AoC has the potential to provide that kind of fun grouping again (and it sounds like it does), then it is also worth some play time.

Also, it sounds like either there are a lot of people having so much fun playing that they are racking up the hours in-game, or it is fairly quick to level to a certain point. From what others have said above, it sounds rather quick up to a certain level. I was surprised at the number of people who have multiple 40+ characters, but that was until I saw that there are 80 playable levels. Interesting. What's the world like beyond 50? Lots of content still or is it still lacking a bit?

I'm guessing from the number of alts that the classes are refreshing and new enough that people want to try them all out, but I'm also guessing that beyond 40 something is a bit sparse based on the levels of the alts listed. Whatever the case, I probably wouldn't make it past 40 on any of them anyhow, so as long as that much of the game is fun, it is worth it.

This is a departure from my old habit of just jumping into every MMOG release and playing, I know, but aside from reading the entire Conan canon (you like that?) now to get up to speed, I want to be sure that the game will keep me around for a while. Yada yada yada. So foggy today.

What else? Oh, has anyone run this on Apple hardware? I'd be interested to know what the performance is like.



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Tale
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Reply #28 on: June 09, 2008, 04:53:40 PM

Schild is gushing about it

Not Good Example.

Quote
Also, it sounds like either there are a lot of people having so much fun playing that they are racking up the hours in-game, or it is fairly quick to level to a certain point. From what others have said above, it sounds rather quick up to a certain level.

Playing way too many hours on Saturday and Sunday took me from level 28 to 39, nearly 40. It's fast like that.
Cheddar
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Reply #29 on: June 09, 2008, 05:57:23 PM

I have no background on Conan- I have played every MMO pretty much (including the aforementioned Neocron).  3 MMO's I played the most were:  Asherons Call, CoH, and and Neocron.

The Game is FUN.  Plus, it has lots of potential community things that people like myself love.  Mind you, I am still new, but thought I would throw in my 2 cents.  I am actually a little surprised at how immersive it is.

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Reply #30 on: June 09, 2008, 06:54:52 PM

Yes, fun, very fun.  But don't pick a painful class to play as your first.  I think Bat Country got really sick of hearing me bitch about dying 12344321 times between 8 and 14 on my bear shaman.

I didn't think 1-15 was particularly fast levelling, but 15-34 was.  I gather that the levelling curve doesn't flatten out nearly as much as other games.

I started with a Bear Shaman.  Now I'm mostly playing a FotM Priest of Mitra.  I recommend FotM.  Doing it the way I did it, though, makes me feel horribly OP; doing it the other way might make me feel horribly frustrated.  Who knows?

I often play for a half hour or hour at a time.  Very easy to drop into and out of.

And I'll confess, sometimes I just smash the 1 key through quest text because I am lazy.  And it plays fun that way too, still.
raydeen
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Reply #31 on: June 09, 2008, 07:20:25 PM

Very fun so far. Just picked it up today and quite frankly, this may be the game I always wanted to play. It' s coming very close to the expectations I had of EQ all those years ago. Less downtime than WoW with graphics and settings as immersive as any of the Elder Scrolls games ever were/are. Installation and patching took a bit of time but it was worth it.

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Reply #32 on: June 09, 2008, 08:17:50 PM

Dammit.

I keep wanting to hold out and not buy AoC until the first major patch / content addition. To see what gets fixed, what gets broken and what gets left alone. But all this enthusiasm for it is chipping away at my resolve.

STOP ENCOURAGING ME!  Oh ho ho ho. Reallllly?

Mrbloodworth
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Reply #33 on: June 10, 2008, 05:48:31 AM

Dammit.

I keep wanting to hold out and not buy AoC until the first major patch / content addition. To see what gets fixed, what gets broken and what gets left alone. But all this enthusiasm for it is chipping away at my resolve.

STOP ENCOURAGING ME!  Oh ho ho ho. Reallllly?

"One of us, one of us"

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Cyrrex
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Reply #34 on: June 10, 2008, 06:04:55 AM

Dammit.

I keep wanting to hold out and not buy AoC until the first major patch / content addition. To see what gets fixed, what gets broken and what gets left alone. But all this enthusiasm for it is chipping away at my resolve.

STOP ENCOURAGING ME!  Oh ho ho ho. Reallllly?

I have to agree.  I was doing just fine with not playing AOC, and then all this rampant lack of hate.  Seriously, what are you people good for if you can't even properly hate on this game?  Now I am going to have to go buy it immediately, though of course, I doubt my stupid laptop will even run it.

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