Barb: Thomaran
Hox1: Mweru
Dt: Haikuju
Hox2: Shugorann
Tos: Nephertites
Sin: Leogetz
Necro: Viggomortis
and others...
"The sky is green. It is because I say it is. And because I said it on the internet."
Indeed!
Also,
1. don't search for meaning in the off topic forum!
2. but if you want a meaning, I'll give you one: AoC > anything FC have done since
Rathothis|Tempest of Set || Tigrathes|Dark Templar || Isitnofret|Herald of Xotli
BS|Sin|Demo|Barb|Conq
Sudatorius|Noob barb on Rage
New annual report out:
http://cdn.funcom.com/investor/2015/...ual_Report.pdf
Apparently, AoC still outperformed FC's expectations:
No internal favorable effects indeedOriginally Posted by p.63
Rathothis|Tempest of Set || Tigrathes|Dark Templar || Isitnofret|Herald of Xotli
BS|Sin|Demo|Barb|Conq
Sudatorius|Noob barb on Rage
Well what to say? If we keep paying for this game, something happens, maybe!? If we don't, well then nothing happens. Or is it the other way around? Anyway, I give up on figuring out Funcom. Only thing that does make sense is If this game IS in fact funding new TSW content. Ofc we can never prove that.
As far as I can see, the aoc content for this year will be a new pvp mode (maybe?), more Achivements (probably), Crafting revamp (MAYBE?). and no Slithering goodness (I gave up hope for anything not mentioned so far this year).
Ps. What I don't get is why the need for the crafting revamp? Sure the current is rubbish, and funcom have worked for a long time on the revamp, but I can't for the life of me see why I would want to go and gather "flowers" like a crazy person in a game where I already have several maxed out (sort of) chars. I seriously don't care if we will be able to craft T7 grade items because there is no need for it anyway. And to me this is really a melee fighting mmo above all else, not a gathering sim.
I have yet to experince another mmo with a combo fighting system like Aoc.
Pps. Well i guess T7 grade gear could be useful for one thing. To Complete a future achievement called "UNlimited Powahhh" Time trial for all instances.
Last edited by AngryBarb; 4th May 2015 at 22:41.
Barb: Thomaran
Hox1: Mweru
Dt: Haikuju
Hox2: Shugorann
Tos: Nephertites
Sin: Leogetz
Necro: Viggomortis
and others...
"The sky is green. It is because I say it is. And because I said it on the internet."
And were still not getting anything. Its May and still no timetable or plan for anything this year. Awesome
That's to be expected. MMOs will always start out at their strongest and slowly burn down.
Until a total polish/relaunch, or another Godslayer-sized expansion comes out the population will continue to decrease.
Of course. What may come as a surprise - or not, if you read last year's annual report - is that FC apparently expects the game to die faster than it does. Just goes to show that, in allocating their resources, they clearly underestimate the potential of AoC (while overestimating the potential of TSW). In other words: sure AoC is an old game with a troubled historical record, and thus its potential is limited. But you could do more with it than FC are willing to do.
Rathothis|Tempest of Set || Tigrathes|Dark Templar || Isitnofret|Herald of Xotli
BS|Sin|Demo|Barb|Conq
Sudatorius|Noob barb on Rage
The thing is, Age of Conan is a name that is half forgotten and half reviled. People no longer consider AoC when discussing MMOs, and of those who remember it, many swore never to buy Funcom again after that disastrous launch when so many abandoned the game. Even AoC's own players don't speak well of it, and most have a strange hate/love relationship with it. A revamp or new expansion is obviously never coming, I think the best we can hope for is a semi-timely craft revamp and a T6 with less recycled assets than T5 has, which will probably make some old veterans return and keep many from continuing to leave the game, but by no means result in a really big population.
TSW on the other hand has a lot of die-hard fans and almost everyone speaks well of it, particularly of the questing/story system (pretty much the only ones who hate on TSW are AoC players actually). TSW lacks the massive endgame of AoC (before you try to refute this claim, consider how big a percentage of the population has ever finished T3.5 or the Lurker, or killed Cheehwa or finished a T'ian'an run) and has a less interesting combat system, but it still has a lot going for it. It's no surprise that Funcom is putting more money on TSW. It's not like that development effort would do all that much if it was used on AoC instead: TSW players are getting like 2-3 storylines (more-or-less equivalent to the Dragonspine questline but with voice acting) every 6 months, not expansions or even regular raid tiers.
What you are saying is pretty much what FC must have thought after RotGS. AoC is a dead horse, let's put our bets on TSW. Fact is though, they lost a whole lot more money with TSW than they did with AoC. And when you read their financial reports, it is pretty clear that TSW revenues are declining significantly. Like AoC's - only that AoC beats their expectations, while TSW doesn't. In spite of the fact that all of FC's marketing activities for live games are focused on TSW, while AoC gets none (which is the main reason why the game is "half forgotten", as you put it).
None of that amounts to "hating" TSW. It's simple facts. I do acknowledge that TSW has creative merit, such as good storytelling and quest design. But that doesn't change that it was a complete and utter disaster financially, much more so than AoC.
And by the way, voice acting is actually pretty expensive...
With all of this in mind, I think the figures are pretty damning of FC's strategy to put all of their bets on TSW.
Last edited by Rathothis; 6th May 2015 at 18:37.
Rathothis|Tempest of Set || Tigrathes|Dark Templar || Isitnofret|Herald of Xotli
BS|Sin|Demo|Barb|Conq
Sudatorius|Noob barb on Rage
Sadly both games have been (ab)used. AoC as guinea pig and cashcow for TSW and TSW for a hype to gain credit and short term money for management. This resulted in less than possible revenue and a bad timing overall and a lot of customer frustration.
I would also say that AoC is not really only a love/hate relationship. You have a lot of die hard fans here too...and this despite everything the company has done. They love the game, but maybe hate the company.
On a positive note, this does not mean that ANY mmo game can be considered dead, just badly managed. Meaning a change in focus, management and personnel can result in a lot of revenue even for an old game (just look at remakes, old games sold now under steam and current triple A game problems). People will reward good work and a good game and they can differentiate obviously a lot more than the so called "decision makers".
Problem with evaluating something without proper experience is, that you can easily fall into the "self-fullfilling prophecy" trap.
Last edited by Kurt2013; 7th May 2015 at 16:09.