COMING SOON: Membership Revamp

[Belsvard]

My only problem with the sub fee/model is that this game is not being developed at all, and i may be stupid too, but having to pay a sub to play the expansion that i already bought , seriously? you only create negativity among users and those who wanted to play your game... i've seen many reviews about AoC, and everyone of them complains about that, but if FC is not doing anythign about it, i would guess they simply don't care.

this is sad because this is a solid game, great mechanics, great visuals even after 8 years, great fun, i can't understand why you choose to abandon this game to rot...

[Melekaiah]

My only problem with the sub fee/model is that this game is not being developed at all, and i may be stupid too, but having to pay a sub to play the expansion that i already bought , seriously? you only create negativity among users and those who wanted to play your game... i've seen many reviews about AoC, and everyone of them complains about that, but if FC is not doing anythign about it, i would guess they simply don't care.

this is sad because this is a solid game, great mechanics, great visuals even after 8 years, great fun, i can't understand why you choose to abandon this game to rot...

its all absolutly rediculous. all you need to do to really understand how funcom values their own game, is to look at what they do for TSW, which AOC community spent years dealing with beta testing for the upgraded engine. with the promise we would get tons of new content from tsw. like quite honestly its been a bunch of lies for years. and we still pay and play the game. or well some of us do. the list of promised thigsn to acutally delivered.

i just cant be bothered to make a list. if i did, i think id acutally punch a hole in my screen, when i looked at promised versus delivered.

I feel so sorry for odon having to deal with this.

[ckirmser]

My only problem with the sub fee/model is that this game is not being developed at all, and i may be stupid too, but having to pay a sub to play the expansion that i already bought , seriously? you only create negativity among users and those who wanted to play your game... i've seen many reviews about AoC, and everyone of them complains about that, but if FC is not doing anythign about it, i would guess they simply don't care.

this is sad because this is a solid game, great mechanics, great visuals even after 8 years, great fun, i can't understand why you choose to abandon this game to rot...

I see the fee as being what one pays to make use of the property of someone else.

I'd like to see some improvements, but I'd still pay my sub fee even if none were forthcoming, because I'm enjoying the game and feel that FunCom has a right to charge me to use their servers for my entertainment.

[Roddam]

I see the fee as being what one pays to make use of the property of someone else.

I'd like to see some improvements, but I'd still pay my sub fee even if none were forthcoming, because I'm enjoying the game and feel that FunCom has a right to charge me to use their servers for my entertainment.

If you subscribed to a premium movie channel that promised 1000's of new movies, but had the same 12 movies and nothing more for the last 5 years; would you continue to pay them? If they made a change that made some of the movies unwatchable, would you expect that they would fix it?

Just because it's a game does not mean it should not be run like a legit business. We are (or were) paying for a service and have (or had) reasonable expectations that Funcom would add content over time, fix bugs, and communicate honestly with us. None of this has happened.

[ckirmser]

If you subscribed to a premium movie channel that promised 1000's of new movies, but had the same 12 movies and nothing more for the last 5 years; would you continue to pay them?

If I am using their service to watch those movies, then the answer is, yes, I would continue to pay.

Now, if I no longer find those 12 movies entertaining and I no longer watch them, then I will cancel my subscription and stop paying them. Otherwise, they have a right to my money to pay for services rendered.

If they made a change that made some of the movies unwatchable, would you expect that they would fix it?

If that was a part of the contract, then, yes, I'd expect them to fix it. However, if they do not, my only recourse is to cancel my subscription, if it makes the use of their service unreasonable.

Just because it's a game does not mean it should not be run like a legit business.

As best I can tell, it is being run as a legit business. I am unaware of any criminal complaints against them.

Now, is it a well-run business? That, I can't say. But, I'm paying them for the entertainment I receive, not for their business model or practices, good or ill. When I am no longer entertained, I will no longer pay.

We are (or were) paying for a service and have (or had) reasonable expectations that Funcom would add content over time, fix bugs, and communicate honestly with us. None of this has happened.

• They did add content; one example is Rise of the God Slayer. There are other additions, as well.

• They do fix bugs. Maybe not all at one time, maybe not as fast as one would like, but they do. For example, that quest where you have to get past a couple of NPCs to get to a chest in the Fields of the Dead; they fixed it so the chest is useable when, beforehand, it was not.

• I have little experience with them communications-wise, but the little I have had seems to have been honest. I had lost a couple of character slots I'd paid for before subbing and, upon subbing, they were lost. I contacted them about it and the slots were returned.

The point is, what you say has not happened, has, indeed, happened. These things it may not have been done as fast or as often as many like, but they are getting done.

But, all that aside, I'm being entertained. That's all I really care about and that's what I'm paying for.

[Kantakwa]

[...]

I agree with you that everone has the choice to pay and just play the game and have fun - or not. And I for myself can not stand the f2p crowd crying for free content -you want something your pay for it, that is how the world functions.
But what you fail to understand is that there were indeed promises made by Funcom, and that there have been and are bugs in this game that were and are so damaging to the game you won't believe it. (And I don't think you progressed far enough in the game to run into the big bugs, and for the no smooth criminal part you might want to inform yourself better.)

The old forum is deleted, but the people who read them and are still here will remember this: During the development of TSW the development, work and bugfixing on AoC stopped completely. Every player noticed that immediatly, because at that time there actually happend development, bug fixing and so on, on a more or less regular basis. When the players took their questions about this to the forum, they got an OFFICIAL answer from the GD: That every work on AoC was turned down to a minimum because every hand was needed at TSW, that indeed the income from AoC was used to create TSW. He apologized for content not beeing delivered and bugs not beeing fixed. And then he explained how AoC will profite from all the work done on TSW, eleboratly listed what we can expect to see once TSW was live, because everything they developed for TSW can be easily ported to AoC. So he asked the players of AoC to support Funcom during this hard time, because in the end we will get so much more out of it then just a little bit content or bug fixing. I am not making this up, this promises were made to calm the crowd and to regain customers trust.

And I think we actually saw something from TSW...like....what....eeeehhhmm....YES! Two different looking werewolve enemies who could jump really cool and a pumkin (?) thingi boss in the halloween event on Conarch.

And that, my friend, is how you do not treat your customers. I am all with you when it comes to the choice thing. But as a customer I make my choices by the infomation I have at hand, and the information Funcom gave us during the development of TSW was in big parts a lie.

[Vilkata]

If I am using their service to watch those movies, then the answer is, yes, I would continue to pay.

Now, if I no longer find those 12 movies entertaining and I no longer watch them, then I will cancel my subscription and stop paying them. Otherwise, they have a right to my money to pay for services rendered.



If that was a part of the contract, then, yes, I'd expect them to fix it. However, if they do not, my only recourse is to cancel my subscription, if it makes the use of their service unreasonable.



As best I can tell, it is being run as a legit business. I am unaware of any criminal complaints against them.

Now, is it a well-run business? That, I can't say. But, I'm paying them for the entertainment I receive, not for their business model or practices, good or ill. When I am no longer entertained, I will no longer pay.



• They did add content; one example is Rise of the God Slayer. There are other additions, as well.

• They do fix bugs. Maybe not all at one time, maybe not as fast as one would like, but they do. For example, that quest where you have to get past a couple of NPCs to get to a chest in the Fields of the Dead; they fixed it so the chest is useable when, beforehand, it was not.

• I have little experience with them communications-wise, but the little I have had seems to have been honest. I had lost a couple of character slots I'd paid for before subbing and, upon subbing, they were lost. I contacted them about it and the slots were returned.

The point is, what you say has not happened, has, indeed, happened. These things it may not have been done as fast or as often as many like, but they are getting done.

But, all that aside, I'm being entertained. That's all I really care about and that's what I'm paying for.

Well said. I agree completely. I pay to play this game like any other game I play. When I am bored/tired/sick of the game, I will unsubscribe and move on.

FTP peeps, i'm sorry, but it is FTP, so if you want premium content subscribe to it. If you, knowingly purchased an expansion, that clearly states it is only accessible via a premium account, then that is your mistake.

Look here http://www.ageofconan.com/playfree to see what is available to FTP players before you purchase expansion packs... So simple.

[Nephturi]

I agree with you that everone has the choice to pay and just play the game and have fun - or not. And I for myself can not stand the f2p crowd crying for free content -you want something your pay for it, that is how the world functions.
But what you fail to understand is that there were indeed promises made by Funcom, and that there have been and are bugs in this game that were and are so damaging to the game you won't believe it. (And I don't think you progressed far enough in the game to run into the big bugs, and for the no smooth criminal part you might want to inform yourself better.)

The old forum is deleted, but the people who read them and are still here will remember this: During the development of TSW the development, work and bugfixing on AoC stopped completely. Every player noticed that immediatly, because at that time there actually happend development, bug fixing and so on, on a more or less regular basis. When the players took their questions about this to the forum, they got an OFFICIAL answer from the GD: That every work on AoC was turned down to a minimum because every hand was needed at TSW, that indeed the income from AoC was used to create TSW. He apologized for content not beeing delivered and bugs not beeing fixed. And then he explained how AoC will profite from all the work done on TSW, eleboratly listed what we can expect to see once TSW was live, because everything they developed for TSW can be easily ported to AoC. So he asked the players of AoC to support Funcom during this hard time, because in the end we will get so much more out of it then just a little bit content or bug fixing. I am not making this up, this promises were made to calm the crowd and to regain customers trust.

And I think we actually saw something from TSW...like....what....eeeehhhmm....YES! Two different looking werewolve enemies who could jump really cool and a pumkin (?) thingi boss in the halloween event on Conarch.

And that, my friend, is how you do not treat your customers. I am all with you when it comes to the choice thing. But as a customer I make my choices by the infomation I have at hand, and the information Funcom gave us during the development of TSW was in big parts a lie.

Oh gods, that again.

Since the development of TSW started before AoC was even released, what you're saying is plain ******** (Edit: I find quite funny that the forum prevents me to write such a common word as malecowpoo ). Let's take a look at the updates notes from 2010 (RotG release) to 2012 (TSW release.) We can see here from pages 4 to 6 a total of 50 patchnotes released over a little more of a hundred weeks.

As for that message from the GD, what's your source? Because I've been reading the forums since release (even if I seldom post), and there has been no such thing as you claim. We started to see a slower pace of bug fixing and new features some months after the release of TSW, when Funcom was forced to lay off a good part of their staff because of TSW semi-failure. That's when we lost one of theFrench CMs (Agroglyphe), and the other (Effiluna) started working more on the social medias than on the French community.

Get your facts straight.

[Bladesaint]

I am not sure it will be better than what we have now. We don't get much, but it is better than some POTs and chests or something.

[Kurt2013]

...
Since the development of TSW started before AoC was even released, what you're saying is plain ******** (Edit: I find quite funny that the forum prevents me to write such a common word as malecowpoo ). Let's take a look at the updates notes from 2010 (RotG release) to 2012 (TSW release.) We can see here from pages 4 to 6 a total of 50 patchnotes released over a little more of a hundred weeks.

As for that message from the GD, what's your source? Because I've been reading the forums since release (even if I seldom post), and there has been no such thing as you claim. We started to see a slower pace of bug fixing and new features some months after the release of TSW, when Funcom was forced to lay off a good part of their staff because of TSW semi-failure. That's when we lost one of theFrench CMs (Agroglyphe), and the other (Effiluna) started working more on the social medias than on the French community.

Get your facts straight.

Are you sure you want to lean out this far of the window? Can you even quote your sources to your facts? (mainly that TSW development startet before 2008...and i mean development not a vague idea, i know that they have been busy fixing and balancing RotGS during the time you mention)
Even if it started before, it proves or denies nothing about later redistribution of resources...things might not have gone as planned and funcom made very clear, which of the games is their beloved, spoiled child and what is the unloved hard working, but difficult foster child.

And i am quite sure too, that the slower pace of features and bugfixes started before TSW release , But here the reasons might be dreamworld engine update (linked to TSW) and failure of the assesment of the asian market for RotGS (not TSW fault). Still i think it strengthens what Feadara said, rather than weakens it. They probably wrote off AoC after their (ambitious) expectations from RotGS did not meet up (a mistake imo). And the update notes were mainly concerned at that time with fixing and balancing RotGS (again not truly TSW fault, but affecting the atmosphere and release of other stuff and fixing of older bugs).

But you are right, the main visible effects of their priorities (they released turan after TSW even with a smaller less focused team) came after the layoffs (which were a result of relying too much on TSW success, which was part of the criticism).
Things might not have gone so awry, had they distributed resources differently. And this could have even influenced the release and success of TSW positively.
In many cases it would have sufficed to keep a dedicated maintenance (especially when it comes to bugfixes and handling feedback...i can give you dozens of easily fixable bugs during that time, they were reported very fast, but some are still not fixed now. This proves lack of dedicated maintenance.). They suffered definitely from the "do not concern with minor things, we have great things to do" syndrome. Forgetting that you can not do great things, when not even able to do minor things...(or if you want to leap over the mountain in one jump it becomes impossible compared to climbing it in smaller steps).

But even assuming you are right and Feadara did not quote literally correct, what she describes is at very least the impression and experience a LOT of players had during that time. She is also right that people DO still remember- And i do remember and think even quoted the "trickle down" and "synergy" effect statement from the past GD, i am quite sure, if you look and want to find (there might still be hardcopies of the old forum around, so deleting history might not be as easy as thought. Part of this quote might actually been linked to the dreamworld engine update (which they did if i recall correctly with RotGS and TSW in mind)), you will find a quote not literally maybe, but in meaning say what she referred to. Could even be more than one quote or a mix of posts and gd letter statements...but people did not make up the before mentioned impression. Many were turned off to even try TSW (though it seems really not a bad game) by the handling of marketing and inhouse competition from funcom (an error i fear we see repeated now with exiles).

Sad thing is: If they did things right, it might even had happened as promised...but greed, mismanagement, layoffs, bad luck, inhouse communication and documentation, bad market and asset analysis and maybe even criminal energy played their part.

Bottom line: Not so easy to dismiss things as malecowpoo as it seems