Age of Conan going F2P

[Azazel]

I've got a sealed box for AoC. Does/will that make me a former Premium player when the included month dries up?

[Kail]

I've got a sealed box for AoC. Does/will that make me a former Premium player when the included month dries up?

I assume so, as long as the free month is still valid when the game goes F2P (they might just remove the option to register new purchased games when it does).  Aside from that, I don't think there's any benefit from owning the box; being a former Premium player is the same as being a free player, as far as I can tell (except that if your character was one of the restricted classes, you can still play them).

[Lantyssa]

I've got a sealed box for AoC. Does/will that make me a former Premium player when the included month dries up?

We'll have to see how they handle it.  In other games which have gone f2p you could add a code and it'd give you credit.  If you found old copies of LotR or DDO it was a cheap way to get a premium account for a month and be an upgraded account after that.

[Spiff]

Apparently they're also adding a new hardcore PvP server called "Blood and Glory".
The rules:


I'm sort of interested; the main pull for Conan was always open PvP to me, if there was ever an IP screaming for it it's this one.
The fact it's no transfer and only one character is particularly enticing.
On the other hand I do wonder if they can generate enough interest in the game still to fuel an experiment like this.

[edit] forgot the link to the original article

[Hawkbit]

It sounds great on paper, until you get to White Sands as a lvl 8 and get camped all fucking day by a 15 Ranger.  It's not fun.  That fucker was there every single time I tried to go over multiple days - like it was his own little slice of heaven. 

[Falconeer]

It's a niche server. Basically, if you roll on it, it means you are ready for the whole experience of being prey and predator. I think we beat this horse so many times. Yes, 99% of humans only like to win or eventually a fair fight. The remaining 1% think the metagaming behind the unfair conditions of a completely open, factionless MMO server can be pretty fun. To them (or me) it sounds great after level 8 too.

They mention the word niche multiple times in their explanation about the Blood & Glory server.
Just let us play and kill each other, dammit.

[Spiff]

I fully expect it to bomb for any number of reasons, which mostly boil down to: Funcom.
Expecting good implementation from them is reason enough to seek psychiatric help, especially considering this is basically an afterthought.
On top of which the game was never properly balanced for PvP to begin with.

That said; where most MMO's try to redefine how stale the reheated drivel they're delivering can be, once again FC pleasantly surprises me with an idea that's at least slightly provoking  .

[Mrbloodworth]

The only issue I had really with open PvP in AOC was the really easy to camp spawn points. No idea if this changed. That and the attacking while in a NPC conversation.

[Falconeer]

The only issue I had really with open PvP in AOC was the really easy to camp spawn points.

Absolutely. That really hurt the game even and especially on PvP servers.

[Dren]

Anyone see an update on when exactly this will go F2P?  2011 Summer is a bit vague. 

I'd like to try this out at least to see all the things I read about that were special and unique.  Seems like I could get at least 10-20 hours of entertainment from it for free.  Plus, it would be another MMO experience I can use to complain about the genre in more detail.

[DraconianOne]

This is happening tomorrow, apparently. "Age of Conan Unchained"

[UnSub]

This is happening tomorrow, apparently. "Age of Conan Unchained"

They could have gone for honesty in advertising and called it Age of Conan: Uncharged.

[Nija]

Age of Conan: Uninterested.

[Stabs]

Thoroughly enjoying Blood and Glory so far. Level 14 after a solid 5 hour session.

Not sure I understand how people play without stealth and/or friends though.

[Amaron]

I checked this out several days ago.  It was sort of choppy on my very supped up computer.   I went to the forums where someone with a machine like half as fast as mine told me to l2buy a new computer.   All of this actually made me smile because I hate funcom and I'm glad to see the kind of new user experience they deserve. 

[Nija]

Last I knew you wanted to force directx9 and there is a setting somewhere that when unchecked increases your framerate by 20%. It's checked by default. I forget which one it is. Do some searches for age of conan tweaks.

[Amaron]

Last I knew you wanted to force directx9 and there is a setting somewhere that when unchecked increases your framerate by 20%. It's checked by default. I forget which one it is. Do some searches for age of conan tweaks.

I really wasn't going to bother if a game that old was still forcing me to turn down settings on my current computer.    I was merely commenting on it to say Funcom hasn't really figured out how to optimize their client meaningfully yet. 

[Morfiend]

My friend made me try this out again. Turns out the F2P is pretty fucking worthless. I mean, really. No one in their right mind would play the game with the restrictions they put on the "free" accounts.

For example, if you want the expansion zones from Rise of the Godslayer on a F2P account, you have to first own the expansion, and then you actually have to rent access on a weekly basis. Same with a lot of the dungeons. Also, you are restricted from about 75% of the classes if you didnt have that class created before hand.

Now, they did add some cool things. Like "package deals" which are basically what you would expect as collectors edition stuff. They are pretty expensive, but come bundled with game time also. So if you are subscribing, they are kind of cool.

I actually resubbed for a month and have been having fun, but im sure something will happen to piss me off and make me quit soon.

[Cadaverine]

I reinstalled to check out the new pvp server.  Sadly, only 4 classes are available for f2p accounts(Guardian, PoM, Barbarian, and Demonologist).  So, I hopped on to one of my old characters, and ran around a bit.  Found the npc for some quest I had, and hand in the items.  ...And get no credit for the quest.  Logged right back out.  Not even worth it for free.

[HaemishM]

I'm trying it for free, having not played it since the last public betas. I level really slowly so I've only hit level 6 in two play sessions. Man, this interface must have been designed by a PHP coder. The fonts look terrible.

[waylander]

I'm going to give it a whirl.  It might be free but there are some premium perks that are worth it to sub for 1 month just to get while you're leveling. My friends are telling me that its decent enough to kill some time with until the next set of big mmo releases.

[Morfiend]

I'm going to give it a whirl.  It might be free but there are some premium perks that are worth it to sub for 1 month just to get while you're leveling. My friends are telling me that its decent enough to kill some time with until the next set of big mmo releases.

So far I have been having fun. Nothing has pissed me off to make me quit yet. I have been playing on Tyranny or the old pvp server. From what I can tell, most of the less mature crowd left for the new server, leaving Tyranny a little quieter, but a lot more mellow in the ganking and chat spamming.

I would consider only rolling on the new server if I had a guild to go with. Item loss plus no guards make trying to quest solo an exercise in frustration.

[PalmTrees]

I considered giving it another try, but they hid their download link well enough that during my search I caught sight of the f2p/sub differences in their faq. Too many restrictions for my tastes, especially not earning AA xp. I already thought it wasn't worth a continuing sub, don't know why they'd think I'd like to play a gimped character for free.

[Morfiend]

One thing I will mention also.

If you are playing and considering buying the expansion, get it from Amazon, not their ingame store. The expansion will run you around 900 points from their store (about $7), and give you basically access to expansion stuffs. If you buy it from Amazon, you get the expansion stuff, plus a bunch of preorder/collectors edition type stuff (pets and mounts and exp potions), AND a free month of Premium subscription for like $12.

[Lucas]

"...I'm making a note here: 'huge success'!"

http://www.funcom.com/news/over_300000_players_join_age_of_conan_unchained_in_first_month

[Threash]

That is... unexpected.

[Morfiend]

I think they could make a lot more if they would lower the prices just a bit. Paying $5 for a piece of armor is a bit much when there are like 8 armor slots and several weapon slots on top of it.

I would be much more inclined to buy some if it was in the $1 to $2 range. Especially while leveling up.

[HaemishM]

That is... unexpected.

Not to me. I think with this and LotRO's success, F2P is really the way to go for the future, especially for legacy MMO's.

[Kail]

Also note, it says new players, not paying customers.  I get the impression that a lot of these F2P games get a zillion new accounts on day 1 from curious newbies who play for ten minutes ang to away.  Probably doubly so for Conan, which draws in a lot of the massive "boobs and blood" demographic but doesn't really have much of either to offer them.

[HaemishM]

Also note, it says new players, not paying customers.  I get the impression that a lot of these F2P games get a zillion new accounts on day 1 from curious newbies who play for ten minutes ang to away.  Probably doubly so for Conan, which draws in a lot of the massive "boobs and blood" demographic but doesn't really have much of either to offer them.

Well, yeah, that's kind of a given. You'll get lots of lookie-loos for the price of free. The key point to that is to know that those lookie-loos might never have appeared if you hadn't gotten F2P. They'd already written you off. I'd assume their monthly new subscriber numbers on average were somewhere between 0 and a lot less than 300,000. And even more important, those 300k new users, most of whom probably didn't spend a dime, somehow managed to double their monthly revenues. So... winning.

[luckton]

Also note, it says new players, not paying customers.  I get the impression that a lot of these F2P games get a zillion new accounts on day 1 from curious newbies who play for ten minutes ang to away.  Probably doubly so for Conan, which draws in a lot of the massive "boobs and blood" demographic but doesn't really have much of either to offer them.

Well, yeah, that's kind of a given. You'll get lots of lookie-loos for the price of free. The key point to that is to know that those lookie-loos might never have appeared if you hadn't gotten F2P. They'd already written you off. I'd assume their monthly new subscriber numbers on average were somewhere between 0 and a lot less than 300,000. And even more important, those 300k new users, most of whom probably didn't spend a dime, somehow managed to double their monthly revenues. So... winning.

Would have been nice to know exactly how much revenue we're talking about that was 'doubled'.  Doubling $500,000, yeah, that's a good chunk of change.  Doubling $500 bucks...not so much...

[HaemishM]

Hey, it's still twice what they were making before. If you got $5 and somebody comes along and gives you $10, you're probably going to be pretty happy.

[Sheepherder]

One of the summary notes says server activity has quadrupled, so it's a bit of a stretch but not inconceivable that with 300 000 new people that they were down to ~75 000.  A sub for AoC was $15 / month, right?  So we're talking ~$1 125 000 with a huge amount of variability because I can't be assed to find better numbers.

[Malakili]

I'm still somewhat surprised by how well free to play models seem to be working.

[Lantyssa]

People are bad with regulating themselves.  See our fascination with credit.  A few big spenders easily trump normal sub rates, and ala cart means people who maybe kinda wanted to play can buy only as much as they want.

Plus it just puts people in the world, and since MMO are social in nature, having people around keeps other people around.  It increases the chance of retention and drive-bys.