A little while ago, we had Mike announce that he was done with Age of Conan. I wrote a counterpoint opinion piece saying that I was staying in the game for the time being, although qualified it that unless the game picked up, I’d drop it within another two to three billing cycles. Essentially, I was putting Funcom on notice, with the point of view that I wasn’t going to offer Funcom my coin forever if the game remained in its current state and updates continued to break more than they fixed, among other problems.
Well, scratch that idea as a bad joke. I’ve now cancelled my sub within the next billing cycle. No more chances for Funcom; I’ve had enough of Age of Conan for good.
This game is freaking terrible, and it’s not getting any better. Even having a cool bunch of guildmates to adventure with (well, those who stuck with the game, at least), couldn’t pull this one out of the fire for me. I’ve turned my back on the game for good because, here’s the thing: I’m no one’s fool and, at the end of the day, continuing to pay Funcom for rubbish goes completely against the way I operate. A guy on the AoC forums made a list of things that annoyed him about the game and, looking down that list, I agree with him. I reproduce it here as a simple, shorthand version of things I hate about AoC:
~ No DX10 at launch
~ Meaningless item stats
~ Lag spikes/frequent server kicks
~ Single compulsory starting area
~ Buddy pass delay
~ Exhausting delivery quests/poor travel
~ Poor (non-consequential) death system
~ Various graphical & gameplay glitches
~ Instance heavy/too many load screens
~ On rails/invisible walls
~ Zero player character uniqueness
~ No item degradation/repair system
How do you like them apples, Funcom?
Anyway, for all those feeling royally screwed over by the Funcom experience (“Games for kids, designed by kids” reads one forum poster’s signature file), take heart that the company’s share price has absolutely tanked. Does $54 on May 21 to $16.30 on August 15 sound like a healthy situation to you? Nope, me either.
I had high hopes for Funcom’s upcoming game, The Secret World, but after the Age of Crashing… sorry, Age of Conan, experience, I’m in no rush to sample anything made by Funcom for… hmmm, let’s see… the next 5000 years? A truly excreable experience. Avoid, avoid, avoid.
I played the pvp game since paid launch and it has gotten much worse instead of better with each patch. The list that is in the editorial is correct and has much, much more that is totally screwed up including a near total lack of customer service. Avoid this game unless you like playing paid alpha’s.
you mean age of crack. lots of people are still hard in to the game. woops, sorry, i just blew down your article.
half of your “reasons” hold no ground either ;)
What a strange response, “haha”. So, if I have this right, you think 400,000 people quitting the game in less than three months was normal? Nothing to worry about? Funcom would have been expecting it? I doubt it, somehow. Still, I guess it’s all just a laugh to you… (gettit? laugh? haha? sheesh… tough crowd… I’m here all week, try the veal, etc…)
The only people still in the game are PoMs and ToSs because you’d be dumb to play any other class in this PvP game.
Having never played the game, I’d love to hear why half of those reasons hold no ground. Would be neat to hear an opposing view. Ive never heard anyone stick up for AoC, which says something itself…
You forgot to mention no drunken brawling ;). Also I think ‘haha’ must be Protus-AoC because only he is dellusional enough to beleive that people don’t think this game sucks. Also the sub base at the moment isn’t including the people who bought the 3 month sub right away wich is going to run out soon.
I have only just cancelled my AoC account yesterday. Let me say one thing first. AoC was a very impressive game graphically and has an excellent combat system. I made it to level 52 playing a HoX.
What killed the game for me is my guild (40 people) and friends (6 people) have all stopped playing the game. In fact I was the last person in my guild to still be playing the game as of yesterday. The last guildy stopped playing 15 days ago.
Sadly this did not give me much incentive to keep logging in. Many other guilds on my server have ceased to exist and unfortunately the server has become a wasteland. It’s a real shame as I still think AoC is an excellent MMO.
The big question is can it survive the current mass exodus of players. I guess I haven’t helped the situation by leaving as well.
I can understand why people leave the game for many reasons,some of the ones you give are valid though though many I either don’t see or are just off base:
~ No DX10 at launch
Who cares? Since when did “Doesn’t crash on Vista” become a downside for a game?
~ Meaningless item stats
Yep. Very true but not sure it’s worth leaving over.
~ Lag spikes/frequent server kicks
Yep. Particularly with the very ‘twitched based simon-says game style of combat this is a WTF moment.
~ Single compulsory starting area
Meh. So what? It’s something most games do (though not all) and it’s well designed.
~ Buddy pass delay
How about there just being no Demo at all. Who gives a crap about Buddy Keys if there is a Demo.
~ Exhausting delivery quests/poor travel
Travel was improved a month ago, it takes me no more than 5 min to get anywhere in the world. This is just off base.
~ Poor (non-consequential) death system.
In PvE I like the death system, time lost is enough for me and game stats show it’s enough for most players in the game. PvP is a whole other story, death IS meaningless which is why I routinely charge groups of characters 10 levels higher than me, why not.
~ Various graphical & gameplay glitches
Definitly. The checkerboard patch made the whole thing much worse.
~ Instance heavy/too many load screens
True but so what. I like the visual diversity in the game. I don’t really care nor do most folks.
~ On rails/invisible walls
Huh? Not really a big problem in the game, there are a few places if you get out to you can’t move and you can swim out to a few places where you hit a wall but ‘on rails’ that’s just unfounded.
~ Zero player character uniqueness
Yep. Most of us wear the same looking armor since 20.
~ No item degradation/repair system
Huh? I don’t see how it makes for a bad game. This sounds like a personal thing and I don’t see anyone else calling for this at all.
What surprises me more is you didn’t mention things like the crashes and DB rescans. You didn’t mention Content or Siege Combat not being fleshed out.
Overall I still think AoC is a good game with problems. I think This game and WAR are both in a wierd spot in that they’re coming during the death throws of this style of MMO. When The Agency and DC Universe hit we’re going to see a shift in gaming I believe and games like this are going to be seen as dinosaurs. Until then though I’ll just pick a dinosaur and ride it until the meteor hits. Haaaa Age of Conan Heeeyaaa!
Actually, I will add to the list of reasons, being that my wife and I both just quit last night.
. Horrid memory leaks corrupting the client
. broken quests that simply dont work
. missing animations on npc’s (skating around)
. feats that do nothing (broken??)
. missing PvP system (broken launch promise)
. elite quests that cannot be done with proper levels
. lack of endgame content
. leveling way too easy
Why on EARTH do you give two craps about DX10?
It’s Vista only last time I checked.
I’m sure that DX9 games work just as crappy under Vista as DX10 games would.
So supporting DX10 gives you… nothing? *maybe* awesome water reflections or something stupid thing like that?
Give me a break.
Anyone complaining about ‘lack of DX10 support’ is being just plain silly.
The game doesnt even run well on Dx9, not even close to well
With a home built, 3500 dollar, state of the art built-for-gaming rig, the game plays decidedly horribly. With all my hardware and money spent building, and time spent overclocking to godlike stats, I am extremely displeased with the garbage framerate (not really a constant problem, more like jumping 30-40 frames so as to never maintain a smooth, constant feel) and utterly glitchy environments.
My favorite arguments against things that hold no ground are the ones without any evidence to back up their claims either…
I haven’t been following AoC, but I’m curious to know how many copies they’ve sold and how many players have stuck around since their release. Any place I can find these numbers?
I’ve had issues with the game since launch including frequent crashes and freezes that drove me crazy. I did cancel after 2 months and it felt like the longest 2 months in my life. For all the reasons and more that you listed, AoC is a mess and no amount of pandering or promises are going to fix it.
I applaud your article and would love to see more of the same on this and other sites!
While I don’t necessarily agree with all of your reasons Rob, I hear ya loud and clear.
Most of my issues are with some unacceptable bugs that seem to just be getting worse with each patch. Memory leaks/constant crashing, Trading Post bugs up with wazoo, and horrible PvP mechanics are just a few of the things that are killing this game for me.
I’ll probably be pushing the ‘cancel account’ button very soon.
According to Funcom’s quarterly report, about 800,000 people bought the game and as of June 30th, there are about 415,000 subscribers counting those still in their free month. In other words, approximately 50% of players have unsubscribed from the game so far.
I canceled my sub last week. I just can’t do this any more. I’m an 80 Necromancer on a PVP server, from a smallish guild that recently got borged into a bigger one, and I’m just not into it. Not even to hang out with my guildies from other games.
I still think AoC has potential but unless FunCom gets new people at the helm, it’s likely doomed to never realize it.
Pardon me, but Warhammer Online meets all those in your list. Per se, it will be different because of rvr yadda yadda, which will clear down to massive zerging and beating those who are less in numbers. And yes, I am talking from closed beta experience.
If some of you folks actually saw a game working under DX10, I don’t think you’d be as quick to ask what the big deal is. Further, it was one of the “core promises” of AoC to release as DX10… heaps of people even upgraded their rigs to Vista in anticipation for it… and then it didn’t happen. LotRO, meanwhile, looks amazing under DX10.
I have played AoC since open beta. I played AoC every day for the last 3 months or so and have maxed 2 characters and half.
A few days ago i decided to cancel my subscription. I think this game needs a lot more time to get to where it should be and im not willing to sit around in boredom waiting for it.
Personally having played on both PvE and PvP servers and having experienced PvP and PvE high end sides i have to say this game is hella fun, but its lacking and after I played thru all the content 2-3 times i have no interest to sit around and wait for something that might come 6 months from now.
I personally think the game was rushed and when time came to fix things, Funcom started fixing on the wrong side of the boat. When thousands of people max out in 2 weeks and run around one map with no purpose you don’t go and fix lvl 20-30 areas. There are way too many problems that need to be adressed at high end of the game… and unfortunately i doubt that many people have the patient’s to sit and wait.
This game will have some fan base and people will play it. Maybe a year or two from now ill try it again…. but for now… im done with this game.
It was fun while it lasted tho. I can recommend this game to someone who wants to play something fresh, but don’t expect an exciting end game because as of right now it does not exist.
Cheers
Oz
And also here:
The Shares of funcom are notated in NOK, not in $
I wanted to like this game so much. After getting burned out on WoW I just wanted something new, interesting and fun. Unfortunately AoC was only new. After level 30 there was such a noticeable decline in content it was startling. Quests were bugged badly in many cases and there is really no meaning at all to PvP especially the promised siege content. The game looks good in terms of the surroundings but the characters are very bland even at higher levels.
There are some things they did right and a few cool innovations but not enough to spend money on month after month. This game truly feels like it was released a year or two earlier than it should have been. It is almost like a single person RPG they decided to turn into an MMO after level 20 but then created no content for it after level 30. It is a real shame because this game seems to have so much potential but releasing it in the state they did doomed it. Unless they pull a miracle out of their hats this game is going to crash and burn hard.
Funcom is an ironic name because in the end this game just isn’t fun. They should start off the new Conan movie they are making by having him charge through funcom gutting and cleaving off heads. ;) lol
I picked up AoC with a group of online friends (we’ve played together since SWG). We formed a guild and got cracking. Initially it was lively, but we found that the constant undocumented changes being made were extremely irritating.
I have to agree with most of the negative feedback on here. For my two pennies worth:
*The lack of DX10. Yes okay not game breaking but a good example of Failcom pushing ahead with a half finished product (dx10 was used as a selling point in the box).
*Bugged quests galore
*disconnects, lag and poor performance
*no character uniqueness
*lack of item degredation (for the people who didn’t get this, no item degradation or repair requirements equals no economy).
*classes were pulled left, right and centre in an attmept to balance them. I suppose it wasn’t possible to achieve a semblance of balance during hte games development.
*lack of the promised Siege Play at launch
Meh… I could go on.
All in all, we had a bright and active guild, with many old faces showing up to try AoC. The last member cancelled his sub a few weeks ago.
Fortunately, some of the new people we met in AoC have decided to stay in our little online community and join us in other MMO’s, so it’s not a total loss.
In closing, I’ll never touch a Failcom product again.
Worth noting, the shares have been as low as $4.30 in the past 24hrs. Wouldn’t you be spweing if you’d bought them when they were over $50?