Age of Conan director leaves Funcom

By Robert Purchese Published 17 September, 2008

Godager walks away after 16 years.

Age of Conan game director Gaute Godager has decided to leave developer Funcom after 16 years.

He will hand over the reins to Anarchy Online director Craig Morrison, who previously worked for the Telegraph and IGN.

"I have done my very best making this fabulous game, but I have concluded there are elements which I am dissatisfied with," said Godager in a statement.

"I have decided to act on this, and as a result I have chosen to leave Funcom. It is time to get new, fresh eyes on Age of Conan, and I wholeheartedly support the appointment of Craig."

Craig Morrison has outlined his top priorities as listening to and acting on concerns made by the players of the mature, fantasy MMO.

"I have a clear conviction I can lead the further development in a good way, evolving Age of Conan into something even better," said Morrison.

"At heart I will always be a gamer, and the coming changes and additions to Conan will always be done with the gamers in mind. Together I am certain we will shape an amazing future for Age of Conan."

Godager walks away after mounting criticism from Age of Conan fans that the game was simply unfinished and not ready to launch.

Parallels were drawn between the wobbly launch of Age of Conan and the wobbly launch of Anarchy Online, which Godager was also in control of at the time.

Age of Conan, despite complaints, boasts around 400,000 current subscribers. The game is also "still very much set to happen" on Xbox 360 sometime in 2009, although sorting the PC problems remains the dominant focus.

In the meantime, why not read the interview we did with Godager back in June.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (46) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • kangarootoo #1 3 years ago

    I personally think its always a shame when people comment in this way when leaving a project. Gaute Godager could have just said he was moving on to new challenges.

    Airing his laundry in public might give him an opportunity to fire a shot across the bows of whichever parts of upper management he is clearly unhappy with, but it doesn't really help the rest of the team feel confident about their work and achieves nothing positive.

    Not neccessary.

  • anomagnus #2 3 years ago

    I agree with kangarootoo, he is at leastly partly blame for the sitution.

    On the plus side, i was playing AO when craig came on, and it did mark a turning point in the game. He's a good guy

  • Erinan #3 3 years ago

    He was probably "asked to leave". AoC was rubbish anyway.
    Edited by 1 at 17/09/08 @ 11:13

  • Slabbathepave #4 3 years ago

    AoC is a joke. I stopped playing after the first month. It was going nowhere and the problems it had were horrific. It will crash and burn very soon. Believe me.... its shit.

    And i really wanted it to be otherwise. No excuse for the half baked stack of shit-buns it was on release... the class balancing is so off that i doubt it will ever be addressed.... the combat in AoC is broken at the core.

    I decided that paying Funcom to develop an MMO for the 360 was not in actual fact a good idea.

    Shocking really.

  • iokthemonkey #5 3 years ago

    "I have decided to act by running away and leaving somebody else to sort out the complete and utter shitefest that was Age of Conan. So long, chumps!"

  • spammage #6 3 years ago

    You can't polish a turd. The damage has been done.

  • kangarootoo #7 3 years ago

    I think people have probably forgotten what MMOs are like when they first launch. WoW was nothing like it is now in its first few months. Class balancing in particular takes a lot of time, and no MMO has launched with the same class setup it had a year later.

  • Erinan #8 3 years ago

    WoW was already very polished at its launch. WoW had a solid combat system. WoW didn't have an entirely instanced world. WoW didn't have the worst UI ever. WoW was fun.

  • viper_h #9 3 years ago

    /sets up a camping chair and waits for Gaol

  • iokthemonkey #10 3 years ago

    Anybody fancy some steak?

  • RamblinSydRumpo #11 3 years ago

    If you want a shining example of how polished a product can be at launch try Warhammer.

  • hula hoops #12 3 years ago

    Everytime I hear people saying, no MMO is perfect at launch makes me angry. It is no excuse for bad and unfinished game to be released this way.

    When I tried AoC, I had many expectations. I want everything that my current MMO gives me and more. Sure AoC is beautiful, sure it has nice boobies, muscles an the likes. But as soon as I tried to interact with somebody I feel lost.

    In WoW, I can just right click on someone else portrait and select any actions to perform. Hech, in AoC I wasn't even sure who is my current target, let alone whisper him, checking his gear or whatever.

    I might come back to the game in future if it reaches a good standard set by many other MMOs. But sadly I can't see this happening.

    Better eating McDonald burger and get full than eating raw stake and get food poisoned.

  • TitusCrow #13 3 years ago

    ding dong! the witch is dead... :)

  • kangarootoo #14 3 years ago

    Hehe.

    I don't play mmos and was just throwing the idea in the air that rose tinted goggles were perhaps at play here.

    If Conan is genuinely bobbins, I shall concede :)

  • warlockuk #15 3 years ago

    Sweet. So... are they going to fix the bugs now so I can carry on playing it, or are they just going to add more broken content to the already broken game?

    Oh, and who gets food poisoning from raw steak. It _has_ to bleed.

    Though AOC isn't steak. It is a mouthful of balls.

    (That said I did have fun playing it, but it just is too buggy and incomplete to warrant the cost - which IS higher than other mmos.)
    Edited by 1 at 17/09/08 @ 13:09

  • Darkjinxter #16 3 years ago

    Best of luck to the new director.

  • UncleLou #17 3 years ago

    The problem is you cannot test a game and then say it's suited for people with epilepsy. It simply will not be possible because we don't know enough about epilepsy. It's a pity that so many people cannot go near video games but those tests will not improve that situation at all so I have to admit I don't see the sense in them.


    I see where you're coming from, but people comparing WoW years after launch with new MMORPGs is just as anger-inducing. :)

  • Orange #18 3 years ago

    The actual launch of Conan in terms of server stability was fine. It was the horribly unfinished rest of it - the totally broken economy, the non existant pvp system, the total lack of quests from 50+ and making Main System and Cisterns open rather than instanced.

    It was a massive disappointment and miles away from the WoW launch which at least had stuff for players to do and interact with each other, Conan had neither. The WAR launch puts it even further to shame.

    Conan was thrown out of the door half cooked and watered down.

  • Orange #19 3 years ago

    I see where you're coming from, but people comparing WoW years after launch with new MMORPGs is just as anger-inducing. :)
    Some allowance has to be made a new release, particularly in terms of stability and the odd bug, but I do think it is still a valid comparison when the sub prices are the same, or in Conan's case even higher, particularly as most people generally only have time or money for one mmo at a time.

    For some reason there is a false impression that mmos can be half finished when released, which is bullshit. WAR is not half finished, Guild Wars was not half finished. WoW had some issues but at least had 1-60 in place and set a standard. Conan was a big backwards step, which for a game that had time to look at everything Blizzard and other mmo makers had done is unforgivable. It's not just the bugs and unfinished content, it's the parts which were just fucking awfully designed as well - like having no means of travel from one end of the world to the other apart from killing yourself at the start of each zone and respawning at the other end.
    Edited by 1 at 17/09/08 @ 13:48

  • Chaser #20 3 years ago

    tbh wow was not that stable at launch.... I remember a bug which persisted for a good few months where you were unable to loot items and the animation got stuck, only way to fix it was to log out...

  • mkreku #21 3 years ago

    I remember playing a paladin in the closed beta of WoW and having fun. Two weeks before the actual release of the game, they completely redid the entire paladin skill tree, which became useless (all depending on luck with no active participation from the player). Two weeks were not enough to address the problems so the paladin went into the game broken.

    As I was also a miner/smith, I had to cope with the "eternal mining problem" where the stuff you could mine never disappeared and instead locked up your character until you logged out.

    Fishing was also horribly broken in the beginning but I don't remember how..

  • trixter©ú #22 3 years ago

    Sounds fishy...he may have been asked to leave or he came up with the idea himself to make it look like they were going to address the problems. A little too late I'm afraid...I won't be wondering back into those waters anytime soon!

    Think I'll drink a beer now while I work out my new build for each of my level 70's now for a smoother ride through to 80 (of course I can only apply it once the patch goes live). Thankfully it's not AoC (apart from my female characters large chest muscles I don't miss it at all).

  • SleepyMagpie #23 3 years ago

    This was not expected, but I can really understand it. I like Gaute Godager, and being a Norwegian, it feels natural to root for the largest of our very few developers; Funcom. They are, all things considered, a hugely talented bunch, and we should show them gratitude for the original The Longest Journey, and many aspects of the flawed Anarchy Online (which actually works as an MMOG, and taught WoW many tricks).

    HOWEVER, as I wrote in various ruminations in the original AoC review thread: Age of Conan is broken at a fundamental level. Namely the newfangled and much bespoken combat. It will never gel properly, and will leave PvP (one of it's most played cards) a horrible mess. It also moots the application of any skill or finesse by the player. At the time being, numerous other issues plague the game. These can be fixed. The aforementioned cannot, apart from ripping the mechanics out, and creating an entirely new game.

    Maybe Gaute realized this, after a period of reflection, and not being called upon to be the mouth constantly. I wish him luck with whatever he considers next, I generally like his contributions.

    Many people go on about WAR being so much more of a game than AoC I see. Indeed WAR does not contain any fundamental gamebreakers as AoC did. But do not be deluded by so much fanboyism. WAR is in no way a game deserving an 8/10 at the time being. The scoring and review policies at EG are currently broken.

    I do hope WAR gets there though, because it has potential.

    DO YOU REGRET SCORING AOC AN 8/10 NOW EUROGAMER?



  • wired009 #24 3 years ago

    I was thinking the same thing about the game rating from EG. AoC is supposed to be a decent game isn't it?! I haven't played it yet but have been meaning to because I like the Conan theme. Why didn't Funcom realize there was a major problem with combat during testing? It's been less than a year since it's release, but all these lack of content posts have me scratching my head. If the problems are really so bad, Funcom needs to overhaul the game before year's end and restart the marketing machine.

  • Wyrm #25 3 years ago

    Fixing an MMO after launch? SWG anyone?

  • Gurgeh #26 3 years ago

    "tbh wow was not that stable at launch.... I remember a bug which persisted for a good few months where you were unable to loot items and the animation got stuck, only way to fix it was to log out... "

    There's a world of difference between those kind of bugs and the ones that AoC had. Class balance was an issue in WoW and still is, but the game mechanic fundamentals all worked. In AoC they don't, so their attempts at class balance are all over the place.

    Yes it's fixable, but I bet that 400,000 figure will be closer to 40,000 by the time it gets done.

  • iokthemonkey #27 3 years ago

    AoC was basically very front-heavy in terms of the content. The first 20 or so levels are great fun and it feels very different and is a lot of fun. But once you get beyond those levels you realise your character's armour looks exactly the same as it has since level 12, you're doing the same stuff repeatedly and that quests are so strung-out that the only way to unlock new challenges is to either wander willy-nilly around until you find a new node of quests or grind mobs in the hope of unlocking new content in your current zone.

    And unfortunately, neither path tends to lead anywhere.

    So the problem is that within about a month of playing it, you've seen all it's ever going to be. Yes, people will argue about player cities and PvP wars and so on, but in reality, AoC is only about 1/4 furnished.

    Add to that the fact that the Live Team constantly screw-up with each patch, fixing trivial pish whilst introducing game-breaking implementations of bad ideas and it becomes an exercise in futility.

    The other thing is that in terms of playability, it's VERY hardcore once you're past the starting zones. There are mobs that you're supposed to tackle in Level 20-odd quests that even level 50s struggle to take down. Yeah, they're group quests and they encourage team-play, but they're stupidly difficult to defeat. It's just a slog and simply not FUN to play. Even "standard level" quests are a nightmare and I regularly found myself tramping across a zone to do a quest and dying within minutes of my first fight. There was no sense of balance in the combat - most games, you feel if you can *just* land that hit, or *just* survive until that skill cools down, you can turn the battle. In AoC within 10 seconds of starting the fight you knew when you were royally fubared. And that was in most fights.

    But essentially, Funcom sold us a game that was simply broken.

  • Emth #28 3 years ago

    @anduz

    I'm sorry but it just doesn't work like that.

    Everything you said about WoW at release is true, but that was over 4 years ago. AoC isn't competing with WoW at release - it's competing with it now. You have to expect a game released 4 years after another game to be a significant improvement or what's the point?

    As far as I'm concerned Funcom verged on manipulative in the way AoC was released. Unlike WAR and WoW they kept a ridiculously tight NDA right up until release (and it's obvious why now), so people only had the first 20 or 30 levels to go on for reviews/word of mouth recommendations. It's unacceptable that they piled so much polish on the starting areas (which are a small part of the game as a whole) for no other reason than to grab up customers under a false pretence. I will certainly not buy another game made by Funcom.

  • Gaol #29 3 years ago

    Nothing short of a rewrite to major systems would help AoC, and they won't get funding for that.

    Pity none of the games press had the balls to save us all £30 by reviewing it properly, they must realise their mistake by now. I mean, WAR is far from perfect, but it's in a different league from AoC and got the same score. They need to do an AoC revisit and hold their hands up.

  • iokthemonkey #30 3 years ago

    Fixing an MMO after launch? SWG anyone?
    ---------

    SWG had some issues, yes and there were careers that were incomplete, vehicles and mounts came late to the show, the mission content was lacking and it did have some technical issues, but for all that, it was still playable and fun.

    At least it was until they turned it into "Counter-Strike: Jediz vs Siths OMGLOL"

  • Orange #31 3 years ago

    Spot on Emth, it was almost a con job the way they kept hold of the NDA and polished up Tortage to get people in. Not only that but the constant promises of imminent content as well. The pvp patch was promised for before the end of June!! Let alone stuff like alliance keeps which were promised for autumn.

  • 1simen1 #32 3 years ago

    As a sidenote. First part of the PVP patch was released today.
    And if you go to the official forums you will find a lot of happy players. Main reason beeing that OOM (out of memory leaks causing the game to crash ) appeares to have been fixed for a wast majority of players haveing that problem.

    Gems have been reset at much lover stats meaning that the so called "one shotting" has ended, greatly improving PVP.

    Also a huge list of other things added or fixed.

    If some of you nay sayers still have an active account i suggest you go try it out again.
    Or atleast read some of the feedback listed in the official forums.

    AOC may turn the tide with this patch....

  • iokthemonkey #33 3 years ago

    AOC may turn the tide with this patch....

    -----

    I'm sorry, but if somebody shits in my bed, no amount of scrubbing is going to persuade me back into bed with them.

  • curtlikesmeat #34 3 years ago

    Some interesting posts here. For me personally I would have had to upgrade my machine to play AoC and once I heard that they'd gone back to zones (ala Evequest) I decided it wasn't the game for me. I think in the WoW era it's now much harder to release an MMO. Back when Everquest started it started fairly slow and over a period of three years it gathered momentum as more and more people heard about it, these days there's so much hype for most MMOs that you have to be prepared for over 500,000 people on your servers in the first week and if you don't get it right straight away they never come back. It's almost as if a better business plan would be to release an MMO with no fanfare at all and gradually build up from there.

    Having said that I've always liked Funcom and have enjoyed The Longest Journey, Dreamfall and Anarchy Online so I will always look for their games in the future. Even if in some instances they weren't perfect they all had heaps of atmosphere. Also, I'll never write off an MMO as they can change massively over time - if AoC is still around in a year or two and I have a better machine I'll give it a chance.

  • 1simen1 #35 3 years ago

    iokthemonkey : And exactly how did they "shit" in your bed? Some of you MMO guys (that write like little boys) are to put it mildly DRAMAQUEENS.

    Have you ever tried putting up arguments? That will make you appear more mature to the readers. People might even take what you write seriously if you present your case good enough, The result often beeing a discussion of some quality. A rare sight these days indeed ;-)

  • iokthemonkey #36 3 years ago

    iokthemonkey : And exactly how did they "shit" in your bed? Some of you MMO guys (that write like little boys) are to put it mildly DRAMAQUEENS.

    Have you ever tried putting up arguments? That will make you appear more mature to the readers. People might even take what you write seriously if you present your case good enough, The result often beeing a discussion of some quality. A rare sight these days indeed ;-)

    --------------------

    Sorry, I thought everybody was aware of how bad the Age of Conan farce was. I guess you're not one of those people, so I'll give you a brief breakdown which hopefully you'll understand and see why people are angry: put simply, Funcom lied to their customers. They took money from people for a service they didn't deliver on and people handed over cash in good faith for something Funcom KNEW wouldn't work. I'm £70 out of pocket due to this game. If I bought a TV and only half the channels worked, it froze every 30 minutes and was black and white (despite being sold as a colour TV) then I could take it back to the shop and get a full refund. So where are the refunds to the people who shelled-out their cash? Funcom knowingly sold us faulted goods.

    The fact is there IS no discussion to be had on the matter. We handed over our cash in good faith and were shafted, plain and simple.

    I don't know. You seem to have some vision of me sitting here ranting and raving about it. I'm not at all. I cancelled my account and have put it down to experience that I - like many others - got burned. I now have no interest whatsoever in Funcom's "game" or any other future titles they may release. So don't get the idea that I'm bitter or angry or sitting here red-faced and huffing about it. I'm not at all. I'm merely pointing out that Funcom lied to their customers and - based on their track record - I have no faith in them ever rectifying the matter.

  • Stragen #37 3 years ago

    Well it WAS a good idea.

    The severe lack of communication between the devs and the community was shocking and is responsible, at least in part, for the giant tangle of problems that is now AoC.
    The problem with steak is that I like mine well done.


    AoC is like a dying dog,Somone please take it out to the pastures and shoot it while it still has some dignity.

  • 1simen1 #38 3 years ago

    Iokthemokey : Much better. Now that you argue i can tell where you are comeing from :-)
    However,to bring out the classic counterargument. When WOW lauched it was to put it mildly a poor lauch from what i have read.
    That has been the history for almost all MMO's there. When the masses enter the servers in full force, the devs will see for the first time what really is working and what is not. MMO's are much more complicated than other games. Basically because thousends of players interact in the same gameworld. Correcting something for player A might turn player B's game into crap and the otherway around.

    Hence MMO's take time to get right. Still don't thing i have heard about a MMO that was great from the get go for all players.


    In an ideal world it should't be like this, but it is. They should be perfect at launch. But both you know and I know that it's most likely going to be a bumby ride if you sign up from the start. Play from day one and chances are some of you will get "burned".Depending on hardware configuration some got burned badly in AOC (OOM = out of memory problems ,which is fixed for almost all players with the latest patch).

    I feel for those players that experienced problems. Then again most that bought the game has gotten far more bang for their buck than if they bought another type of game.
    Buy a game for your 360 and it might last you 8 hours. It would cost you far more than a pc game to.

    Buy an MMO and you pay for the game and a free month. Entertainment value (good or bad) is way higher in an MMO.
    A PC game is software, and when buying a MMO it's an always evolving one. You know that going in. It will change over time and hopefully for the better. Saying Funcom lied and that you feel svindeled for you cash is well......bull. You bought a product that will forever change. If you don't like the direction it takes you can jump ship. And many have. But you can't expect haveing a refund or what not for not likeing a game.

    From what i have read in AOC open forums the last patch was a big step in right direction. Meaning increased playabillity/stabillity( OOM mostly solved ), and first part of the PVP patch making combat much better(No more overpowered gems causing unbalanced gameplay)

    So i say again the tide has turned;-)

  • iokthemonkey #39 3 years ago

    Gee, I'm glad I got your seal of approval there.

    Okay, first-up, the difference between WoW's launch and AoC's launch was that WoW was actually playable from launch, didn't crash all the time and had about 80% of its content in place. WoW was subsequently BALANCED via patches and more content was added. AoC on the other hand has been nothing but a sham. The content - outside of Tortage - was virtually non-existent. You can't "change" content that isn't there.

    Secondly, trust me, I've played plenty of MMOs in my time. AoC is a hamfisted excuse of a "game." It matters not whether it's a PC MMO or not. It was released unfinished. Not in an "oh, we just need to modify this and see how it evolves when players use it" kind of way. No, it was unfinished as in the "let's just put it out and hope people don't notice it's a pile of shit" way.

    And you're clearly deluded if you think people are leaving because they "don't like the game." People are quitting because the game is broken. To extend my TV analogy, it's like you saying, "well even though the TV can't play any audio and the vertical hold keeps rolling the image, the reason you're not watching it is because you don't like the programs."

    That's the difference. Funcom sold us a broken product, not a product that needed some fine-tuning. To use the TV analogy again, most MMOs use the "test the water" principle - if a show is popular, they renew it and produce more shows of a similar style. Less-popular shows get shunted around the schedule or cancelled. If AoC was a TV station, though, their shows would consist entirely of static.

    And yeah, maybe the new patch has fixed a lot of issues. Makes no difference.

    Door, horse, tardy bolt-related incident.
    Edited by 1 at 19/09/08 @ 09:14

  • 1simen1 #40 3 years ago

    iokthemonkey, you couldn't play WOW at launch because you were queed in line waiting for the first months.....

    From what i read from others experience with WOW and AOC you did not play WOW from launch date, and you never played AOC past Tortage...If you did you are making things up to make WOW look stellar and AOC...well less stellar.

    Oh and the TV analogy of yours, TV's are HARDWARE, not SOFTWARE. Software for MMO's get fixed ,patched and polished as long as the game is up on the servers. So your argument is irrelavant at best....enough said.

    Again off course it matters that the OOM problem is solved. A huge number of players that found the game close to unplayable can now play AOC again without crashing left and right. I migth also add that much of the games content has been upgraded and polished since launch.

    Yes some parts were "unfinished" at launch, but i live in the "now" ,not the past. Right now the game has improved alot. Pople are mostly satisfied and do praise posts instead of whine posts for the first time in the official forums since launch. That is a good sign.
    Even though you ,Gaol (that is now trying to take WAR apart instead of AOC), and others do your best to piss in AOC's general direction.

    As time goes by more and more people will have hardware that can run the game easily on high settings. That will make a difference in the end. Aoc is a MMO for the future. Built to last. If your rig can take it you can join in right now.

    If people have good enough computers and try AOC they will get a good game experience. If you tried it earlier and found it unpilished and crashing to often, it is now beginning to shine and have stopped crashing.

    Don't listen to nay sayers. Give it a go and try for yourself. You will get alot more entertainment out of AOC than a "standard" pc game anyway...

  • iokthemonkey #41 3 years ago

    iokthemonkey, you couldn't play WOW at launch because you were queed in line waiting for the first months.....

    From what i read from others experience with WOW and AOC you did not play WOW from launch date, and you never played AOC past Tortage...If you did you are making things up to make WOW look stellar and AOC...well less stellar.

    -----------

    Oh right. I guess I just imagined taking a half-day off work to go buy WoW then installing it, setting up my account and playing all weekend.

    And yeah, I guess all those hours I spent wandering around killing Ymir in AoC were just figments of my imagination, too.

    Oh and WoW of course is so stellar that it's my favourite game ever. Yeah, I guess I forgot that when I cancelled my account after not even logging in for six months...

    Look, I'm happy you're enjoying AoC. My brother is. He still plays it. But it's not the be-all and end-all of MMOs. It's not. It's a shallow, broken, bugged excuse of a "game" with no content and a combat system that's a novelty at best. No amount of extra hardware or upgrades to your PC is going to improve that so-called "game." That is, unless somebody is poised to release the Content Adding 3500 Card that magically adds depth to shallow games, increases long-term play and polishes turds.

    AoC is a joke.

  • 1simen1 #42 3 years ago

    iokthemonkey, yes from what you are writing i Do believe you are imagening things.

    It's perfectly ok not likeing a game. Be that AOC, WAR or WOW or what not. You are only seeing negatives and nothing good in AOC. That means you are biased and probably just a fanboy of either WAR OR WOW.

    As a side note. I dont' own AOC. I have never played it. I plan to when i buy a new gameing rig. I read the official forums and have from day one.

    These forums have been a winefest until the last patch hit. Now there are more positives than negatives. That means that the game is coming together. Which again means i'm getting closer to buying a new computer...

    If you enjoy WOW, play it and be happy. If you enjoy WAR. Play it and be happy. If you enjoy AOC play it and be happy. If you don't like a game, stop playing it and move on. (Like i did a a few months after the NGE hit in SWG, man did that game rock before the CU). Why some of you feel the need to trash games you don't play or like is beyond me.

    Either you are beeing childish or you are partisipators of viral marketing.

    Example : i don't like the Halo games for the 360, i have played em, didn't like 'em. Hovever i have no problem seeing why many do. There are lot's of posetives in them, just not my cup of tea.

    If you had managed to come up with both posetives and negatives in your description of AOC, i might have takened your feedback seriously. All you do is rant,rant rant...Let people try for themselves. If they like it fine. Good for them. If they don't, fine now they know and can try other things.

    A game isn't exactly you life savings. Most grown ups spend alot more on a night out with friends than on a single computergame anyways. The game will last you alot longer and you will not get sick in the morning ;-)

  • iokthemonkey #43 3 years ago

    Well, I guess I'm "imagining" even more things now, seeing as, despite your claims of not owning AoC, it's listed on your games list in your profile. Or are you just retarded and you don't know how to work the Internet?

    Actually, it's clearly the former, as you've proven it with your idiotic statement. Maybe next time you try defending something you could, you know, actually learn what you're actually talking about and therefore have some common frame of reference... Just a suggestion.

    Indeed, here are a few more suggestions:

    1. You read my posts again and see my comments about WoW. Were I such a "fanboy" would I have cancelled my account that had sat untouched for over six months due to the lack of interest in the game? (I'll make it easy for you, "no I wouldn't have.";)

    2. Check out my comments on WAR here and you'll see I've expressed a complete lack of interest in that game, too, as it seems like WoW-Lite to me. So again, you're wrong.

    3. Go upgrade your PC and play AoC. Because until you do, all your comments are completely worthless, as you know NOTHING of what you speak.

    4. Next time you accuse somebody of being a "viral marketer" you should maybe look at your own comments first. I mean, somebody who claims NOT to own a game, yet has it in their game collection, then makes a bunch of "you're wrong, I'm right, even though I haven't played the game" comments looks about as fishy as Admiral Ackbar's scrotum.

    5. When somebody complains about a game THEY'VE played, don't try to argue with them when you HAVEN'T played that same game by pointing out how "good" it is. The fact is, bucko, I HAVE played the "game" and it's completely shit. You haven't. That therefore negates ANY comment you have to make on the quality of the game and makes you look foolish.

    6. Here's the best suggestion - just give it up and admit you're wrong. Because you are and everybody here sees it. You'll save yourself any further embarrassment if you just leave now with whatever shred of dignity you have still remaining.

    EDIT: Oh and one further point - the reason why there is so much "praise" on the forums is because everybody who played the game and complained has now moved on, leaving only a hardcore of players playing it now. If they're having fun and enjoying the new content, great. But it's too little, too late and no MMO can survive with the pitiful subsciption levels AoC has now.
    Edited by 1 at 24/09/08 @ 08:59

  • 1simen1 #44 3 years ago

    iokthemonkey lol. been checking up on me have you?

    The only reason i bother to write in defence of AOC is guys like you. People on a personal (or paid) vendetta to trash a single game.

    As a 35 year old gamer that follows the market as a part of one of my hobbies i read many gaming forums and follow gaming sites.
    MMO's are a bread apart and so are the MMO fanboys. People from one game will do whatever they can to trash the cometition.

    Some are paid to do so and others fear that their on personal favourite will lose players and motivated by that go to war in the internett forums.

    What set these people like yourself apart from other gamers is the total lack of balance. For you everything is bad,ruined crappy and sofort. There is nothing good about the game you spend time trashing at all.

    I have no respect for your kind, or your arguments. You disqualify yourself from beeing takened seriously because there is no objectivity at all in your writings. You and Gaol are prime examples of this.

    That is what provoked me to register and and write in AOC defence. Basically because im tired of guys like you trying to prevent people from trying out new games that they migth like.

    I have been following the AOC forums from day one. I have no problem seeing why there was a lot of frustration and whining going on because of bugs ,broken quests and OOM's. (out of memory crashes)

    However there were also people haveing fun. It can't be all bad then can it?.Many kept playing even though they had major problems running the game. That must mean that the core game has some entertainment values.
    As time pass bugs are ironed out (still many left) ,quests fixed and OOM issues have mostly been fixed and more content has been added (quests). Are there still problems in AOC ? Sure is, but the game is in a much better state now than at launch.
    The player base has been peticularly happy with latest patch that fixed many performance issues, especially the OOM's.

    Have i played the game for myself yet? No. Do i own it? No.However I have been reading the AOC forums on a daily basis since launch,learning about what the players consider to be the pros and cons of AOC.

    Oh and to show others your quality of arguments and direct misinformation, i will quote you from a thread in a WAR debate :

    "I think one thing to just keep in mind is that AoC was supposed to be picking up 700K+ subscribers and then dropped to 400K after the free trial month and now stands at around the 150K mark (and is predicted to fall by a third this month). "

    Again you are either using your vivid imagination , or flatt out lieing. In August 3 months after launch AOC had 400k + subs. That is the last known official number (Stock market reported).

    I'm very curious about your source for the 150k number you claim it has now, and just as curious about the source for the prediction "fall to one third by this month" (50k subs)

    Oh pretty please with suger on top tell me your source or you have just made an even bigger fool of yourself than i thought possible....

    I believe the english have a saying : "the proof is in the pudding". Your pudding sir is rotten and starting to stink.....

    Edited by 1 at 25/09/08 @ 11:20

  • iokthemonkey #45 3 years ago

    You haven't played AoC, so I'll explain another English expression you may have heard - "Stop talking out of your arse."

    Come back when you've played it and then we'll have a sensible discussion on this one, okay?

    Because until you actually have any idea what a shit-fest that "game" is, you'll continue to - and here's another expression for you - "talk complete and utter bollocks."

    I have played AoC, you haven't. Therefore I am in a position to comment on it. You are not. So I suggest you go spend a few bucks on your PC, upgrade it, buy the game, install it, play it for a few months then come back and you'll see that everything I've said is true.

    But yeah, you'll probably like AoC. Both you and it are jokes, so I'm sure you'll get on famously.

    Now if you'll excuse me, I've already wasted too much of my time trying to explain to you what an idiot you are, so I'm going to bow-out now. Take that as a victory on your part if you wish - well done at WINNING AT TEH INTERNETS! - but you clearly have no interest in even listening to what anybody has to say and, until you play AoC for yourself, I have no interest in seeing what absolute shite you're going to vomit forth next on the matter.

    Have fun!

  • 1simen1 #46 3 years ago

    Iokthemonkey, i listen but only to arguments. You have failed to present them and resort to slander ,namecalling and lies instead.

    I think your posts present my case better than i could have myself......