What is the deal with the new patch?

[Jaedelyia]

Restrictions aren't fuelled by our money, what the point of asking for subs if sub's money aren't used for developping new content for a mmorpg ?

Generally, the point of a sub is to be able to play the ENTIRE game.

Don't get me wrong, I agree on that. I already stated earlier that one could expect that new content is free for subbed players. You could expect that new content in a MMORPG is something that goes without saying.

But I was answering to Redd about another point. He was saying that if a content if accessible for f2P players, we (subscribers) shouldn't call that free because its development was fueled with our money. Well, while it's technically true and while I understand what he meant, it's still quite a stretch of definition. Basically if it's accessible without paying, I have no problem calling it free, and you could say that your subscription money is supposed to grant you other things. (And I'm not saying that these "other things" are worth it or not in the case of Age of Conan, I'm just saying that's how it works in general)

I wasn't speaking about Shadow of Vanaheim being behind a paywall.

[Rathothis]

the only thing funcom would understand if the sales was way low.
articles and 56 pages on forums never in the past caught the company attention.

I doubt sales will be terribly low, for the simple reason that there are plenty of people with enough FC points, and nothing better to spend them on. By contrast, I would expect that this hoax will result in fewer people prolonging their subscriptions. But of course executives will have an easy excuse at hand for that, like natural attrition or major game launches this year (Witcher 3 etc).

Funny thing is, AoC outperformed FC's internal expectations the last couple of years. Seems they are working on bringing reality in line with their expectations

[Chillee]

My only issue with it is not announcing the price when it was originally announced. They want to charge for something, sub or not, so be it. It's their prerogative. But not being up front about it is just foolish, bad business, and detrimental to the company, the fanbase, and the game.

There's no point in getting angry with the AOC employees who interact with us here. AOC does not have a specific game director any longer, and the decision to charge was probably a last minute decision made by corporate management, hence why we weren't informed.

[gcustoms]

In my opinion, I would have gladly paid $15 for a regular instance the size of dragon's spine that was rendered properly which could have included a new raid, dungeons, and gear that aligns with t5s model.

[sardanapal]

I doubt sales will be terribly low

i doubt that too thats why i said discussion is irrelevant

[Kurt2013]

I doubt sales will be terribly low, for the simple reason that there are plenty of people with enough FC points, and nothing better to spend them on. By contrast, I would expect that this hoax will result in fewer people prolonging their subscriptions. But of course executives will have an easy excuse at hand for that, like natural attrition or major game launches this year (Witcher 3 etc).

Funny thing is, AoC outperformed FC's internal expectations the last couple of years. Seems they are working on bringing reality in line with their expectations

This is the sad and dangerous point with subscription focused games. It is hard to gather the reasons people unsub, if you do not read the feedback and it is easy to fool yourself they leave for "natural" reasons. The effect (players leaving) is also usually more than one month away from the reason...which makes it easier to overlook. You can count on this happening in the next quarterly report.

Had they used and read the actual popularity and numbers from the shop, i doubt they would have used this whole theme. You can simply deduce from the existance of house of crom vanity (and power gear), the standard vanir sets, the additional shop vanir sets and the already existing events like midwinter festival, that the theme was a bit overused already. The least you would expect was knotting on the already existing threads of the temple of Ymir or Key to Thurga...

Had they looked at sales numbers and ingame prices from the trader, they would probably have chosen a different theme. Sadly i doubt we will see more updates like this in the future...
Imo even copy and paste content is better than no content and with the right price (around 500-600 points for permanent accountwide access) it might have been worth it. It is similar to Forgotten City and Breach, so the price should be around that edge. And without the anniversary timing and marketing stunt, it would have gotten a way better reception, because there are still too few f2p accessible, level scaling instances with unique loot out there.

@Sardanapal: For true evaluation you still would have to look how many people actually spent money to buy points just for this content. Of course people with 2000+ points of which some might even be temporary bonus points will use them to get permanent access.

[nattok]

Edit by Anzu: Please read the Social Guidelines before posting.

[Ymnir]

Is it really any idea having this discussion? Funcom won't change all the faults, they will put their heads in the sand and pretend there hasn't been any complaints.

[Jaedelyia]

Is it really any idea having this discussion? Funcom won't change all the faults, they will put their heads in the sand and pretend there hasn't been any complaints.

The problem is that the complaints probably won't fall in the good ears. Cirith did read them, but I'm pretty sure not in charge of anything related to marketing decision. I seriously doubt any guy behind the paywall decision read the forums, and since apparently we don't have a game director anymore, feedback to them will be difficult.

It might be a part of the job of Sezmra, as a community manager, but she's nowhere to be seen in this thread.

[Redd]

The problem is that the complaints probably won't fall in the good ears. Cirith did read them, but I'm pretty sure not in charge of anything related to marketing decision. I seriously doubt any guy behind the paywall decision read the forums, and since apparently we don't have a game director anymore, feedback to them will be difficult.

It might be a part of the job of Sezmra, as a community manager, but she's nowhere to be seen in this thread.

No one should be blaming Cirith or any other developer for this at least Cirith had dignity to show up here and try to clarify some things although it is not expected from him at all, and I thank him for that. Devs are doing their job they should be respected for that, but this is clearly a mistake done by FC's marketing team and community managers. Where are Sezmra or Tomium now, or any other FC officials to explain the misleading and false advertisement prior to this anniversary?