Age of Conan Comments by Rob Fahey

Monkeylackinginthebraindepartment:

Well i think you should play to. You haven't played it for about a year yourself. Meaning you don't have a clue. As you can see from the re-review your gripes is long gone exept for one thing and that is the basic design of the game. Zoning and instancing.

If you don't like that fine, but as i said before that is a matter of taste not quality.

You still claim that the game suck big time. I say that your experience of the game a year a go probably was bad, atleast for you and that you were in your right to be angry at the time.

Now over a year later the problems are fixed. Bugs are gone, performance issues are gone, content caps are gone, more content has been added, items are meaningfull, dx10 is in the live game (still beeing optimized), sieging works fine.

So basically it's time to stop living in the past and join the present. Atleast you can give them some credit for fixing a game that appeard broken for many and turning it around to something good.

You already own the game, you can get the free try again offer for 14 days. What have you got to lose?
As i have said before if you hate the zoning and instancing live the game be. But then you should stop commenting about AOC here aswell.

Your expoerience of the game is not valid and hasn't been for atleast 8 months. Craig Morrison and his team has made som many changes since you left that your opinions have been made obsolete.

I haven't played the game at all so my opinion about it mean nothing at all. I think people should try for themselves based upon good information. Your information has been anything but good.

I think the re-review is almost spot on from what i have read in the AOC forums and other places.

Presently it's a good game that looks great and runs great with huge potential. With the new Conan movie comng up and a new expansion i think its safe to say that AOC is here to stay wether you like it or not....

I've come to this game with fresh eyes, having quite deliberately avoided it since launch due to the well-known problems, and I was still very much into WoW at the time anyway.

However, having bought AoC at the end of last week and now spent the weekend playing it, I really can't see where all the hostility is coming from. Maybe it will turn to crap later on, maybe holes in it will start to appear over time, but for now I'm having a blast with it. Combat is so refreshing after the near 'turn-based' combat of WoW, it looks gorgeous, sounds fantastic, and there's plenty to do, certainly in the starting zones.

It doesn't have to be a WoW-beater to be a valid game, it's nice just to have something different to try. Not everything about AoC is convincing me, the instancing takes a bit of getting used to, the AH system looks a bit dodgy, but hey, was WoW perfect at this stage in its life? Not by a long shot......

I'm having fun with AoC, which is surely the main point of a game? If it all falls apart as I level up I'll just cancel my subscription, no big deal - but it's certainly caught my imagination and I'm hoping to get a few friends to sub as well so we can do some group play.

So you haven't played it 1Semen1?

You know, for somebody who doesn't play it, you spend a lot of your time reading about it. If the game is so great as you make out, I'd have thought actually PLAYING it would have been a more worthwhile activity than just reading about it and trolling my posts.

As for "what have I got to lose?" Well, how about a nice, clean, shit-free system? You see, Funcom can't even code a proper uninstaller and last time I removed that pile of stinking vomit from my PC, it left behind all kinds of shit stains. So thanks but I prefer to keep my system clean.

And my experience isn't valid? It's more valid than YOUR experience, 1Semen1. So I suggest you go follow your own advice and go and play it before you comment.

@Drogul and Cider-X
I'd say AO or Shadowbane would be in the win for worst MMO release.

When AO released it had so many memory leaks and bugs they had to add a temporary option that allowed you to disable seing other players, which for me must've been one of the most hillarious featers in a MMO. People loved it too because they were finaly able of traveling through hubs without crashing every 5 seconds. :p Aside from that the client was horribly unstable, and the big story they had promised everyone didn't begin until halloween despite the games jun release.

AO later recovered and became one of the best MMOs I've played. But most people never knew because they were so tied up in hating it over it's terrible release. Personally I think that turn around is enough reason to give AoC another try, but it would seem a lot of people can't get past feeling ripped off and while I consider it a waste of your own time it's certainly understandable and Funcoms PR division should really be ahsamed.

Shadowbane litteraly had more server downtime than uptime for the first month. The click to move system and interface must've been one of the worst interfaces ever to make it into a MMO. The game was build around having big sieges, but because the game engine and client were so horribly unstable going to a siege ment you'd crash pretty much every minute and if you were too many there you'd crash the server. ^^

I ended up playing Shadowbane for two years though. :p Loved the roleplaying enviroment it's free world and thick lore created.

I can't talk much about Vanguard because I was never able to make it run, but Age of Conan didn't really have a terrible release on the technical side. That is, if you had the hardware to run it and almost nobody did. But both of them were some of the first MMOs to release "oldfashion" without polish and unfinished in an age where people have come to expect finished products.

Personally I've been fairly happy to see them both get punished over their unfinished releases. It being a MMO with the possibility of you tinkering with it later more so than a singleplayer game really shouldn't be an excuse for developers to release inferiour products, and we need to continue showing them that as customers.

Monkeycrap:

You write: "And my experience isn't valid? It's more valid than YOUR experience, 1Semen1. So I suggest you go follow your own advice and go and play it before you comment. "

Let's make a deal. If you stop commenting about a game you own but havnen't played for almost a year, i'll stop commenting about a game i don't own and never played.

If not we can always continue to annoy eachother....

You don't annoy me. I'm perfectly happy to ignore your comments. You're the one who keeps trolling me.

So here's a better deal - put me on ignore.

End of your problem.

You won't though.

Monkeytroll:

I'm not trolling you, i'm arguing that your arguments don't hold water.

Two of your arguments or complaints are not debateable.

1: The fact that you felt cheated and poorly treated by Funcom for buying the game at launch when it wasn't quite there yet qualitywise. I think all gamers in Europe know that by now....

2: You do not enjoy AOC's use of zones and instanceing which is fair enough. Not everybodys cup of tea. I think all of Europe know that to.

Exept from that, i'm curious, what do you have against the game as it stands today july 14'th?

You can't tell me can you? If you try you only shoot yourself in the foot since you haven't played it since last august was it?
You quit before all mayor changes were introduced.

I hope that you either 1:
Go for the "return for 14 days for free" for people that left like yourself. Then your arguments would have som athority again.

Or 2:
That you move on in life and stop commenting bile about a game you left 1 year ago 'cause you did't like it and keep enjoying the game you do like, LOTR which i'm sure is good fun by the way.

I recently stopped playing WAR, as I found myself not enjoying it anymore - I thought it was a well put together MMO, and I enjoyed playing a game that took lore directly from the table-top game which I played loads as a kid, but it just felt like that once I hit level 40 there wasn't much more to do...apart from join the zerg and keep fortress taking (which got a bit boring after a while). This gave me a good reason to try AoC, after a got a free copy from EG.

I've only played for a few hours, but so far am enjoying it. The combat is enjoyable, and a bit fresh for the time being (I'm sure like most MMO's it will just become a routine of spamming certain keys, but hey that's not an issue really). The only thing that did concern me was that I created a ranger, but so far I've got to level 7 without once using ranged attacks. I have now got my first range skill, and just bought a bow, but it took a bit longer than anticipated :) I'm sure when I log back on this concern will vanish though.

I think the first few hours of playing any MMO seem great, as it's a new experience from the last MMO you would have played, but so far, so good. I did also really, really enjoy WoW when I last played a couple of years ago, but I found that the end-game sapped my soul - as a prot warrior there was too much pressure on my shoulders, and as much as I'd like to start again and play a ranged character, I don't want to have to level all the way back up to 60 (which was the max level when I last played) to feel like I'm carrying on where I left off.

My experience is more valid than yours ever will be until you play it for yourself, 1semen1. All you do is swallow the garbage Funcom pump out or regurgitate whatever crap you've read on the official forums. That doesn't give you an opinion.

I watched Gordon Ramsey on TV the other day. It doesn't mean I'm a world-class chef. You reading the forums/Funcom's PR doesn't give you a valid opinion, especially when compared to somebody who has played the game.

So I say again - go and play it and make up your own mind.

You won't though.

I uninstalled it ages ago (and the uninstaller did its job well, don't know what other people are complaining about) and, as I'm not doing any other MMOs at the moment I thought I'd give it a go.

It still looks fantastic when on the 'high' settings, and the combat is a refhreshing change from other MMOs. I'm still in Tortage though, so I can't comment on the later levels of play.

If you're a fan of Conan, I don't see why people wouldn't give this a go. If you're not a fan, move on with your life.

Monkeyturd:

So you mean that your opinion is more valid than mine. No argument there. I don't have a personal opinon of the game. I haven't played it.

How your opinon is more valid than the opinons of existing players in the forums that are playing the present build of the game and forinstance the opinion of Rob Fahey for one. That my friend is the question.......

You could try to answer but it would only reflect porly on you since you haven't played the present build and they have.

"How your opinon is more valid than the opinons of existing players in the forums that are playing the present build of the game and forinstance the opinion of Rob Fahey for one. That my friend is the question....... "

To be fair, iok never said his opinion was more valid than anyone elses, he just doesn't like the game. I think that's reasonable, not liking a game. If you play a game and don't like it, you probably won't play it again, even if they claim to fix it.

Well for somebody who doesn't have an opinion, you sure make a lot of noise about it.

I suggest if you wish to stop making an ass of yourself, you go play the game for yourself and form an opinion, because until then, your posts are simply empty guff, utterly devoid of any purpose beyond simply trolling MY valid observations and comments on a game I have personal experience of. Something you do not.

To be fair, iok never said his opinion was more valid than anyone elses, he just doesn't like the game. I think that's reasonable, not liking a game.

Yeah, it just gets a bit tiresome. He prefers Lotro, we get it, a game I thought was pretty boring after a few weeks. You won't find me in every Lotro thread whining how others "chuck it down" though. There's having an opinion, and there's behaving like a tiresome troll, and iokthemonkey is erring on the wrong side unfortunately.

Monkeysad:

Your opinion was valid a year ago. You comment on the game like you are still playing it which you are not. You have no experience with the current build which according to a lot off gamingsites and players, eurogamer included have fixed all your "problems" with AOC.

That is execpt for the basic design of zoning and instancing. That you can critisise all day long cause it hasn't changed.The rest have and you keep ignoring that which i guess would make you ignorant at best.

Again i do not have an opinon about the game itself beacuse i have no personal experience playing AOC. I do have an opinion about trolls who do their best to destroy a games reputation in the eyes of others when they spread misinformation.

Off course if you were to write down what it is that you don't like about the current build, that would make you a normal combatant in this debate again.

At the moment all you can write with your personal experiance with some authority is "the game stunk for the first 3 months, then i quit playing it. You can share with us what stunk rigth after launch. And you can share your frustration about Funcom releasing the game early.

As soon as you start arguing about how bad the game is outside of that launch context you are way over your head simply because you have no personal experience with the current build.

That is why i call you a troll and spend some freetime counterarguing with you.

Again i do not have an opinon about the game itself beacuse i have no personal experience playing AOC. I do have an opinion about trolls who do their best to destroy a games reputation in the eyes of others when they spread misinformation.

----

If you want to talk "misinformation" then I suggest you speak to your paymasters at Funcom.

I could list what's wrong with AoC but what's the point? You haven't played it, have no experience of it and so cannot counter anything I say. That and the fact that everything I say about the game being shit is still true. How do I know that? Because I've read what's been said about it. Oh wait, that's no way to form an opinion, is it?

Might I suggest you simply put me on Ignore? That way you don't need to read my posts and I don't need to respond to you. Because this is the problem: YOU cannot leave my posts alone. I post a valid comment or observation and you then post a "rebuttal" that's simply YOU trolling MY posts.

You know, if AoC IS so great and you love Funcom so much, why not support them by buying a copy of Age of Conan, signing up for a subscription and actually - gasp! - playing the game for yourself. It's a win-win! That way, you can enjoy your game, you can show your support for your fellow Norwegians and best of all, you can then discuss the game from an informed point of view not just with me, but with everybody else who's played AoC and thinks it's a sub-standard piece of shit.

You won't though, as you're simply a troll.

Well lets take some quotes from people who've resubscribed:

"Went back and tried it with 6 friends.... There's an old saying in Tennessee — I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again.

I won't be going back to the game the next time they announce they've fixed it. It's still weak sauce - repetitive, uninteresting, and a dead game. I pity the foos maxing out their chars in this world in hopes that there is better just around the corner."

"I recently tried it out. I made it to level 46 before I just couldn't bring myself to play it anymore. I enjoyed it a lot at first but the motivation to keep going wasn't there. PVP was somewhat fun but everything just got too repetitive."

"The game really isn't very different except the fact stats matter and there is a pvp system. It's still the same crap that everyone left behind in the dust a year ago, just with a slightly better polish."

and so on. Your mileage may vary.

@ ZuluHero

"It might be more technically accomplished, but Aion is more beautiful. Its one thing to have the tech, but useless if you don't have decent art direction. "

my thoughts exactly.
AoC is tecnically impressive (now that they're are finished with the paid for beta that has been the last year or so), but everything still looks kind of dull (from a design stand point). God rays and Rippling water are all nice etc but if your art has no character to it then why should i care?
I ended my account the first time at lvl 60 (barbarian), realism is fine to a point but come on... at least a bit of style or variety please.

oh and yes im in the middle of my 2 weeks re-evalutation.
The game runs well enough - it should do, I upgraded my desktop in time for AoC's launch (still rather beefy by todays standards).
I guess my experiance now is trying to reconcile the initial fun I had 1-20 in tortage and how good the game looks now with how frustated I was when I got to 60 on my Barbarian and realised how broken and unfinished the mid/end game was.

Allot of my goodwill went out the window after that, im still rather bitter and wary to be truthfull. I do hope FC continue to build on the progress they've made, but there just isnt enough to woo me back this time.
I remain hopefull for 'The Secret World' though. Ragnar Tornquist is a great story teller, I just hope the circumstances that had AoC suffer its premature and messy birth arent repeated next time.

Sorry if someone has already stated this, but:

Morrisons started a bargain bin yesterday, a large basket full of games. Age of Conan is in it for just £6. If you want the game I don't think you can get it cheaper than that right?

Monkeysad:

You write: "I could list what's wrong with AoC but what's the point?"

The point is this: Then your "reading fans" will know what it is with the game that you don't like.
Then they can compare these issues with the current build of the game.
Then your "fans" can see if any of your gripes with the game holds water or if those issues are gone now a year later.

So i dare you please list what you find wrong with AOC in your honest opinion.

Personally i don't think you dare....

Yeah, I can list what's wrong with AoC but all you'll do is dismiss my list because - bizarrely - you think you have some insight that's above and beyond everybody else, despite never having played it for yourself.

I really can't be bothered to expand any of this, so don't even try to counter it, as I won't respond to your "comments," as you simply have no idea what you're talking about anyway, so what's the point.

But here you go - Reasons Why Age of Conan is Shit

- Instanced, broken game world.
- Gimmicky combat system that gets dull very quickly.
- Terrible class balance both in PvE and PvP.
- Horrible character designs - saggy tits, flat faces, dead eyes and plastic-looking skin.
- Uninspired, repetitive quests.
- Repetitive starter zone you cannot skip.
- Character creation screen is a joke (it's impossible to actually SEE how your character's skin tone/coloring will look in-game.)
- DX10 is still in beta. DX10 was supposedly a launch feature.
- Launch features such as bar brawling, pre-order drinking cloaks, etc still not present.
- Weak quest rewards/designs (doing an high-level raid and getting 2 copper for 3 hours of work is not good.)
- Badly designed, cramped zones.
- Flawed PvP system that's open to blatant abuse, yet the developers claim "it's done."
- Uninspired direction, from the flat, dull brown world art to the repetitive, pastiche quests.
- Poor coding, with crashes, lock-ups and an uninstaller that doesn't work properly (and yes, this shit is still going on.)
- Terrible community filled with gankers, abusive players and 12-year old PWNAGE.
- General lack of polish and finish on everything.

There you go. A list of issues with AoC that's still applicable to this date.

Now you'll no doubt "counter" this list by regurgitating various press releases or other player comments. My arguments hold water. Yours - due to your lack of experience of the game - don't.

The point is, I don't think YOU care about AoC, because if you did, you'd have played it for yourself by now. Yet a year after release and you still haven't touched it, despite being one of its most outspoken supporters here. Why is that? If AoC is such a great game (something you don't actually KNOW, not having played it LOL!) why don't you actually try it for yourself and form your OWN OPINION?

I've formed my own opinion and provided a list of some of the reasons why AoC is a third-rate game. Now it's your turn to provide a list of why YOU think the game is good, formed FROM YOUR OWN PERSONAL EXPERIENCE of the game.

Go on. Make me eat my words. Shut me up. Prove me wrong. Play AoC for yourself, then provide a list of your PERSONAL EXPERIENCES of the game and shoot down my list. Because until you do so, your arguments are invalid.

You won't though.

Monkeyman:

Finally:-)

Now lets see...
You say: Instanced, broken game world.
I say: Not broken matter of taste.

You say: Gimmicky combat system that gets dull very quickly.

I say: Matter of taste. Many love the different MMO combat of AOC.

You say: Terrible class balance both in PvE and PvP.

I say: Still need some tweaking, but that never stops in a MMO

You say: Horrible character designs - saggy tits, flat faces, dead eyes and plastic-looking skin.
I say: Matter of taste. Still has the best graphics in any MMO.

You say: Uninspired, repetitive quests.
I say: Ever seen a MMO with great quests from level 1 - the end?

You say: Repetitive starter zone you cannot skip.
I say: Good and valid point. Might be fixed though when the expansion comes along.

You say: Character creation screen is a joke (it's impossible to actually SEE how your character's skin tone/coloring will look in-game.)
I say: Never heard that complaint before, never seemed to annoy many in the forums.

You say: DX10 is still in beta. DX10 was supposedly a launch feature.
I say: Half valid point. You can play DX10 in the current build. Still need optimizing.

You say: Launch features such as bar brawling, pre-order drinking cloaks, etc still not present.
I say: Irrelevant to the question about the quality of the current build.

You say: Weak quest rewards/designs (doing an high-level raid and getting 2 copper for 3 hours of work is not good.)
I say: Items mean something after patch 1.5, if you get enough doe for your effort?, matter of taste.

You say: Badly designed, cramped zones.
I say: Matter of taste.

You say: Flawed PvP system that's open to blatant abuse, yet the developers claim "it's done."
I say: Matter of taste. FFA PvP is a bit harsh for some. You can however chose different rulesets.

You say: Uninspired direction, from the flat, dull brown world art to the repetitive, pastiche quests.
I say: No current MMO out there has better graphics if your hardware is up for it. Not likeing the artstyle is again a matter of taste.

You say: Poor coding, with crashes, lock-ups and an uninstaller that doesn't work properly (and yes, this shit is still going on.)
I say: For the wast majority this is wrong and has been wrong for a long time.

You say: Terrible community filled with gankers, abusive players and 12-year old PWNAGE.
I say: Matter of taste. There are idiots in any MMO. And you don't know what the community is like you haven't played for about a year.

You say: General lack of polish and finish on everything.
I say : Wrong again, if you read what what all mayor gamingsites are saying. Been awhile since polish was an issue. Eurogamers re-review is one of many testaments to that.

So what it comes down to is that you for the most part have gripes with design choises and gameplay mechanics. Just as expected. Which is fine. You don't have to like the game.
What you should respect however is that others might find your gripes to be something positive and fun. Some of those design choises and mechanics you hate are the reason many others chose to play the game.

You can't attack the game for lack of polish, questgaps, unstable cllient or content that doesnt work. Those issues have been resolved and are close gone in the current build.

What you can attack is the design choises, which you do here, but those are not valid arguments about wether the game is good or bad. Thats like seeing "Bruno" at the movies, discovering that you hate it while your pal loves it. It can be a good movie ojectively even though it's not your cup of tea.

Oh, im not supporting AOC. I'm just counterarguing your arguments because you are extremely subjective when it comes to all things AOC and spread misinformation and personal opinions as facts in a personal vendetta over a game you clearly did not like and stoped playing last august...

Last debating with you is good practice for me. Haven't written this much English in a long time.

I have said it before and i'll say it again. If you stop writing crap about AOC in all threads after all newsstories made by Eurogamer about AOC, I'll stop countering you.

Not quite sure which one of us is the biggest fool for continuing like this, but atleast i get to finetune my English.

So, until the next time.

Regards "1semen1" , argueing against one forum troll at the time....;-)

PS: As they said in "Starship troopers" : " until you die or someone better comes along".........

I lost interest when I had to leave Stygia because of lack of quests. It may sound wierd, but I felt at home there. I've always liked ancient Egypt and it very much reminded me of that. the other places just felt so generic Northern Europe fantasy worlds which is much more played out in fantasy RPGs than Egypt.

Found it even cheaper on SendIt £4.89 one day only and In Stock
http://www.sendit.com/sendit/9963840.pro...

AOC has improved dramatically since my first two months of playing it, I originally left ( in July 2008)due to major in game instabilities.
I went back on 20th July 2009 following a free 14 day trial offer, and am now so impressed i bought myself another 60 days gametime.
The game has changed radically. It always had potential, and now I feel its been realised.
AOC is NOW a great game.

No. It sucks. just tried it. DX10 graphics are impressive initially. But has a very bad looking interface which makes it look like its been made in DarkBasic. Plus the combat does become very tedious early into the game.