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Funcom Age of Conan Hyborian Adventures MMORPG is Dying

onlinemassivelymultiplayer… — Funcom Age of Conan is Dying: Subscribers Under 100K, $23 Million 4q Loss, CFO Resigns - Plus AoC Combat Tutorial Video and Gameplay Footage.

Who dugg this? Made popular Mar 30, 2009

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  • inactive, on 03/30/2009, -0/+80shouldnt lie about the game, people might not have left so quickly if they were honest about having to release early. As I just said in another post, todays mmo'ers dont have the patience. nor desire to be in a paid-beta.

    Modern mmo PUBLISHERs (not devs so much, tho they lack balls) are killing the mmo boom. Instead of embracing it with creativity and honesty, they are stiffling it with early releases and poor communications.

    Communication is critical in the mmo field. Players are more relaxed when the dev is vocal because they can see there is change coming.

    End paid betas, end mmo-woes
  • TotalHalibut, on 03/30/2009, -1/+64When you release a game that's half finished, don't expect people to stay too long. It was a nasty bait-and-switch, particularly after the first 20 levels.
  • erhanaltay, on 03/30/2009, -1/+58but no respawn, that's too hardcore for me...
  • joe1985, on 03/30/2009, -2/+33Good, that game was bugged. They never answered their support questions. I'd get 60FPS in some areas, and then others it would drop to 13. The game was unplayable and they didn't even offer a free month. Seriously did they expect we would finance the game development?
  • theworldisflat, on 03/30/2009, -1/+32AoC made some fatal flaws on launch. The game simply wasn't ready, there were FAR to many servers (WAR made the same mistake) and the video leak was a big hit to performance. My biggest beef is that the majority of this could have been resolved, had the forums cut through all the BS and admitted the problem -- even now, there is bickering that AoC has over 250K subscribers (which everyone has refuted). That kind of crap doesn't help the game, at all.

    Another huge hurdle is that AoC has a very small previous knowledge fan base. Very few folks read any of the Conan novels or know the story, other than what they've seen in the (bleh) movies. Warhammer on the other hand has a healthy table top + novel following (myself included) and - while still flawed - seems to be addressing their problems.

    I liked many of the concepts of AoC, it just had a rough launch and not enough real content to back it up. Had they taken their time, fleshed out the story a bit more it would have done well.

    I'm still holding my breath for a WH:40K or a reboot of SWG - one can hope right? :(
  • uskomaton, on 03/30/2009, -1/+28You don't need a headset in Iraq?
    Are you a cook or something?
  • AgentD, on 03/30/2009, -3/+26Still waiting on an official Pokemon MMO
  • roseman5285, on 03/30/2009, -0/+23thats a shame....i really enjoyed that game, but moved on to WAR. i do miss the fatalities though.
  • rdyup, on 03/30/2009, -6/+27oh well
  • cthornett, on 03/30/2009, -2/+19Shame in many ways. The art concepts were stunning, but they just didn't have enough content ready to roll for high level players after launch. I don't think they've ever bounced back from that mistake. Ignoring WoW, 100,000 subscribers isn't bad, though. It depends on their overheads really, but £900,000 is quite a nice, tidy income.
  • ProjectGSX, on 03/30/2009, -0/+17Same thing happened to Hellgate: London. Released waaay too early.
  • darkheritage, on 03/30/2009, -1/+17The beginning of the game was really amazing (if your computer could handle the graphics)... you know the part they actually worked on before release. Once you got outside of the starting zones the game was horribly un-polished.
  • GalacticXenu, on 03/30/2009, -0/+16Good thing me and the rest of Hordes of Goonheim cut out early. It was pretty obivous the game was a crock of ***** when they let volunteer GMs (most of them were) ban people. That and the fact that they didn't deliver on half the ***** and nothing worked was a pretty bad sign.

    Seriously, ***** that game. Biggest pile of ***** I ever spent money on.

    I tried WAR for awhile but it just wasn't for me. It didn't have the interesting world WoW had (yeah yeah, I know, WoW ripped off Warhammer, but the world is far more interesting) and you can only lose to Bright Wizards so much...
  • kextype, on 03/30/2009, -0/+14Yep, if the rest of the game was the same as the first 20 levels but with a little bit more multi player plus end game game content that wasn't retarded the game would of been perfect.
  • Beatmiser, on 03/30/2009, -0/+14I'll tell you, I played at launch for four months. Came back last month. I've cancelled again before the subscription is even up. The reason? Sure there have been some improvements, but the game has sunk into the most vile collection of crude, bitter and angry misanthropes I've ever witnessed.

    The game is beautiful and had such massive potential, but as others have said, yes, the game was released less than half finished- and it's too little too late. Nevermind the fact that Funcom no longer even bothers to police its servers. Add to that the -most- broken pvp mechanics I've ever seen and the game is just a joke (For example, you can't attack lower levels without penalties but they can attack you all day long... and have found ways to exploit that system to essentially make you spend hours grinding off 'murderer points'.).

    Age of Conan...what a joke of a game.
  • MattRK, on 03/30/2009, -1/+15I cancled my subscription after the terrible pre-launch problems they had. Their response to everyone's outcry was "Screw you." Maybe i'm just spoiled by Blizzard waiting on me and all 15 million other users by giving us everything we ask for shortly after we ask for it. But saying "Screw you" is not a good idea.
  • TotalHalibut, on 03/30/2009, -1/+15People have been saying that for the past 4 years. They have yet to be right.
  • SaladCactusKing, on 03/30/2009, -1/+13Copy/Paste description makes for amusing silver lining. HEY, THE GAME'S DYING, BUT WATCH SOME VIDEOS!
  • elmuerte17, on 03/30/2009, -0/+11Server upkeep, bandwidth, customer service, electricity, etc are all scalable to the number of people playing. Even development and advertising costs can be scaled.
  • sodade, on 03/30/2009, -2/+11That combat looks way more visceral than the dumbass auto attack model of most MMORPGs.
  • Rivfader, on 03/30/2009, -1/+10 This is what happens when you release a half finished polished up and well marketed turd. Also when you promise all this great fluff and stuff then decide three months before release to tell everybody its not happening. Enjoy your abortion.
  • TheSkunkMonkey, on 03/30/2009, -0/+9It's comes down to corporate basics: greed.

    The companies footing the bills are used to games that sell hot for a year and then are forgotten as technology passes them up. So they feel the need to see ROI start as soon as possible, hence why we see unfinished games released as paid betas.

    What they fail to realize that a good MMO will last a long time and offer an even bigger ROI if they have the patience to allow the developers to do their jobs.

    Hell, there are MMO's running today that are over 10 years old! That's older than some of the players!
  • Harabeck, on 03/30/2009, -0/+8Eh, there's a lot more pvp than Wow, and the PvE is much worse.
  • inactive, on 03/30/2009, -2/+10Barley fit? Should they release one that is oat fit, or maybe wheat fit, instead?
  • Leo21k, on 03/30/2009, -0/+8And theres actually world pvp.
  • Locupleto, on 03/30/2009, -0/+8If you never played it, I recommend doing so before it dies. For $22.00 currently it is worth seeing. It’s not a great long term MMO but IMO easily worth that to check out. Quite beautiful and will awe you for a couple weeks.
  • anyone4apint, on 03/30/2009, -3/+11Protip: Don't release a product which is barley fit for closed beta as a fully shipping product.
  • serpentor, on 03/30/2009, -1/+8And here it is, a whole year later, and I'm STILL waiting for them to release a ****** demo*! Is there any MMORPG, or any game period, that doesn't offer some kind of demo/trial? Unbelievable.. I was really looking forward to this game, but refused to be a $50 beta tester.
  • ldailey06, on 03/30/2009, -0/+7Yea, it's hard to feel bad for the (original) devs of this game. We gave them a chance and they blew it.
  • Lionhart, on 03/30/2009, -0/+7Another great design ruined by uncooperative and greedy management.
  • dawaza, on 03/30/2009, -1/+8make it free2play
  • frmatc, on 03/30/2009, -0/+6No kidding. "Under 100k" is still quite a few. Just trim the fat and focus on your niche. I remember playing one MMO while online numbers were barely double digits off peak and rarely pushed 50 during peak hours. The multiple accounts maintained by veterans, mostly for extra storage, helped keep the lights on, while a developer or two kept things interesting.
  • inactive, on 03/30/2009, -7/+13>i really enjoyed that game, but moved on to WAR

    I moved on to Iraq War. Killer frame rates, insane resolutions and I don't need a headset.
  • Wreckage, on 03/30/2009, -3/+9Another falls before the Warcraft blade.

    Here's to hoping the new Star Wars: Old Republic can succeed.

    You think there would be enough players around to support more than just one major MMO.

    Someone needs to hit up the consoles.
  • inactive, on 03/30/2009, -0/+6zombie respawn
  • entropysteak, on 03/30/2009, -0/+6it lasted longer than i had expected...
  • elmuerte17, on 03/30/2009, -3/+9OPEN SOURCE IT!!!
  • jokerslayer, on 03/30/2009, -2/+8You have a problem with pokemon? Please tell me you're not older than 14.
  • chrrie, on 03/30/2009, -2/+8WoW has a monopoly over them because it's vastly superior to everything anyone tries to put out. The only reason people like you think it's getting worse is because they're trying to break into the casual gamer market by allowing people to get equivalent items without playing 4 hours a night 5 days a week.

    I wish I quit sooner too, but only because I put so much time into it and I have nothing to show for it now.
  • roseman5285, on 03/30/2009, -1/+7god, if there was a 40k MMO....i dont know if i would be able to hold a job.
  • KMartSheriff, on 03/30/2009, -1/+7Can't say I'm surprised at all.

    My buddies and I got the game when it was first released. We were all pretty much disappointed from the start. It did not feel finished at all; very much felt like a beta. *****, the installer didn't even put a shortcut on the desktop to play the damn game (how the ***** that bug got by I have no idea). It was fun, but at the same time the HUGE amount of bugs killed it for us. I can still remember download one of the patches, which came in at 1GB. Yes, a 1GB patch. This was just one of the many that was released during the first 2 weeks. It sucks too, because the game looked so ***** awesome. It was a lot of fun too. It just didn't feel finished.
  • meed, on 03/30/2009, -0/+5This is a great loss for boobies in video games.
  • vagrantwade, on 03/30/2009, -2/+7I played SWG for a long time. And then WoW for a couple years. Tried AoC which was garbage, WAR was highly overrated, not even remotely close to how good WoW is.

    I have completely quit MMORPGs and my life is much better for it. Wasted so much time playing those never ending pit games. I like my games to have an ending.
  • Harabeck, on 03/30/2009, -1/+6Mark them so we can laugh at you later? Why would Wow just suddenly fail?
  • Teburninator, on 03/30/2009, -1/+6Uh I don't think so bud. WoW keeps growing despite it being a huge time sink. They are about to release a new content patch (3.1 I believe) and continue to attract new players ( I think its 11 million +). Blizzard > all other companies imho.
  • DiggCommando, on 03/30/2009, -0/+5I agree. The graphics are beautiful and the single player game is not bad at all. Fatalities as a barbarian are lots of fun for a while.
  • solidcube, on 03/31/2009, -0/+5It sucks bad, I think. I bought it based on the hype. I will NEVER NEVER buy another game again without trying it somehow, and I will NEVER EVER buy another EA game, period. They've jerked me over too many times.
  • drowningfish, on 03/30/2009, -0/+5The only threat to WoW is Blizzard itself through a new MMO release.
  • elmuerte17, on 03/30/2009, -0/+5There are enough players... problem is, although other MMOs usually have all sorts of features WoW doesn't, they only do a couple of the many things WoW does really well and fail at the rest.
  • Jhiaxuz, on 03/30/2009, -0/+5Didn't they have a two thousand page thread about memory leaks as well?
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