Funcom: The "what were you thinking" Post

[quantanomad]

I believe in talking plainly. So that's what I'll try to do here.

1. The MOST important reason why Funcom decided to develop and market AoC MMORPG is because the company believed it will be a profitable venture. There are other reasons, to be sure. But that's the most important one.

2. WoW is by far the most popular and profitable MMORPG in the industry. If AoC could earn 1/10th the revenue that WoW is earning for Activision Blizzard, Funcom (and its stakeholders) would probably be pretty happy. If it means making a class who can turn into an wolf and throw down totems, the stakeholders couldn't possibly care less.

3. Average players don't post twenty posts on the forum a day. They have a life. They play games for fun; it can't be their second job. They constantly have to consider how much a game is asking them to invest and how much the game is giving back in return. When the time invested:reward gained ratio is too low, they move onto another game.

4. AoC is focused towards hardcore players. The game expects you to grind the same faction quests/dungeon/raid/battleground for a month just get one piece of gear (if you are lucky). A lot of the dungeons are too hard for gear level, pvp progression is too slow to become even remotely competitive for a fresh 80. For someone who has a full time job, AoC is not a game; it's work. Average players don't care about open world pvp or seige warfare - its always about who has the biggest numbers on their side. They also don't want to go through the nightmare known as leveling to 80 in AoC for two months just to play the actual game. Rule of thumb: if a feature was really something average MMORPG players wanted, WoW would've promoted it a long time ago.

5. AoC is still catering solely towards hardcore players. Funcom needs to evaluate if a few hardcore players are enough to generate the target revenue.

Tl;DR: AoC is work for average gamers with jobs or exams. The return is too low for the time invested. Funcom can't sustain AoC by catering solely towards HC players who take pride in devoting unreasonable amount of time in a game. To be profitable, FC should've paid attention to the needs of average gamers instead of the preference of hardcore players and like minded developers.

[CueQue]

AoC is unique because it takes time to earn good gear and exp. That's why i play it. But in WoW, you can get your first epic the day you ding lvl 90. WoWs system is ridicoulous and so is the players, kids who are rewarded by shiny purples by doing nothing. Then these epics will be replaced by greens in the next expansion or season. If you could obtain epics that easy in AoC you would need more content, lvl cap ,raids and items. In order to make people raid the latest tier-raid would be to make the gear extremly overpowered and thus it will end up being very addicting, not time-wasting and very gear based.
WoW has used this system all the time, they introduce the player like they were a 5 year old retard and make them unable to fail. AoC makes sure the kids stay out of Hyboria.

[Mellaus]

True.

As a matter of fact, if AoC had been the easy mode game other MMOs tend to be, none of us would be playing it, we would still be wondering why so many games nowadays are designed for mentally challenged people and why normal grown ups can't have good games to play.

WoW is like junk food, it's easy and cheap, that's why it's so successful.
It dos not make it any good, it's actually the exact opposite.

[Vahush]

Exactly McDonald and the likes makes the most profit and have the most customers does it make them any good? No, not for me at lest.

As someone said before if you are tired of having burgers all the time and want to have a nice steak with wine you play AoC. Generic MMOs satisfying low standard players are abundant choose one.

AoC is a niche game admittedly and I don't think devs at this point are trying to change that.

Too hard on high-end content for average MMO players used to whip flying pink bunnies to death or battling bosses that sound off flashing sirens and do a 30 second preparation animation for their big attack (Tera).

[LunaticAsylumLA]

Age of Conan has been drawing its population through its atmosphere. Complexity (though it is relative: the game is not too hard, but it demands some effort; levelling is insantely fast, and low-level PVP transitions us to level 80 PVP quickly and smoothly by gaining the first 1-3 levels) is a part of it, just like Howard, Lovecraft, and Smith's writing and Conan's milieu.
Whatever the game needs is adding more challenge, and people eagerly await each dungeon: Ai and T'ian'an Districts, Sepulcher of the Wyrm and Khan: all are fun and interesting to do.
If someone wants less complexity (mainly a person below eighteen, for instance), he goes to another title. The game is limited to a mature audience, and who does not love challenge when he grows up?

[Misiuggah]

The game expects you to grind the same faction quests/dungeon/raid/battleground for a month just get one piece of gear (if you are lucky)

You're doing it wrong.

[LunaticAsylumLA]

You're doing it wrong.

Basically, he says that all people who bring income to the game do not visit forums, are below eighteen (judging by his saying that the game is too hardcore), and are reluctant on achieving or working on something, opting for some mindless shooter.
I think he described the target audience for mobile phone "games" fairly well.

[Bibik]

Oh yes, another haterz vs fanboi thread. I've missed last one :o

[LunaticAsylumLA]

Oh yes, another haterz vs fanboi thread. I've missed last one :o

Choose your side, Padawan. I actually dislike some of the game aspects for their simplicity (check the number of my offline levels for instance), and I come across such posts as this one.

[Naerri]

You're doing it wrong.

Exactly...free yourself from mindless Flame/Vortex/KK mania...There is other stuff to do out there.