More AOC subs "initiatives" in pipeline

By Robert Purchese Published 29 October, 2009

Funcom rewards vets, releases new patch.

Funcom has told Eurogamer that more Age of Conan subscription "initiatives" are planned, following the slashing of long-term memberships to the MMO.

"This is something we wanted to do to try and get more people over on longer term subscriptions," chief spokesperson Erling Ellingson revealed. "We also have a few other initiatives we want to realise to bring people over on longer subscription times, but we're not ready to reveal that just yet."

To entice commitment, a three-month subscription is now 20 per cent cheaper at £24.82; a six-month sum is 30 per cent cheaper (£43.42) and a yearly membership is 45 per cent cheaper (£68.24).

Has it helped? "I can't comment on any numbers," Ellingsen added.

Buying time now nets Veteran Points. These, alongside seasonal Halloween content and new high-level dungeon The Iron Tower, make up the Nights of the Lost Souls patch (update 5.6), released on Tuesday this week.

This patch, said Erling, has had "very, very good" feedback on the forum.

Newcomers earn 6 Veteran Points for each month you subscribe. After six months this goes up to 8 VP. That pattern - two extra Veteran Points each six-month period - continues. Examples of convenience items are Breast Enlarging for 3 VP, a Swift Horse for 85 VP and a Veteran's 35-slot Bag for 8 VP. A full list is on the AOC site.

The Iron Tower is a dungeon for levels 78 and above, and can be found in the Tarantia Commons. Bosses and rewards are on the AOC site.

The seasonal Halloween content is two solo quests and one team quest, and these offer rewards ranging from a demonic pet to a zombie-hand backscratcher. Again, descriptions and details on the AOC site.

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 (19) Latest comment 2 years ago

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

  • Pirotic #1 2 years ago

    begging, pleading and puppy dog death threats are all being looked into.

  • curtlikesmeat #2 2 years ago

    The lack of comments on this says it all really!

  • spudsbuckley #3 2 years ago

    This is actually a good game but it just go destroyed by WoW. Shame, i enjoyed the hell out of my free month but there was very few other people on there to enjoy it with :(

  • Res #4 2 years ago

    "This is actually a good game but it just go destroyed by WoW. Shame, i enjoyed the hell out of my free month but there was very few other people on there to enjoy it with :("

    MMOs seem to get destroyed by launching with way too many servers, then publishers refusing to close them because websites will start to report that it appears to be dying due to server closures. This means the community, despite being a big enough number to max out multiple servers ends up being spread across 30. People unsubscribe (or don't even bother subscribing thanks to the horrible first impression of every server having a low population) because they don't want to switch servers and start a new character, MMO dies.

  • zecker #5 2 years ago

    if anyone wants the reward they could just buy 6 copies for 10bucks

  • TheMoonRat #6 2 years ago

    @Res: the problem is they HAVE to launch with more servers, because initial demand upon release requires that to let everyone play. And then, no matter how good the game is, not 100% of the players who've bought the game will sub to carry on playing, so servers will become less populated. The key then is to keep population levels high enough so that the world isn't barren, but low enough in some servers so that new players can join.

    So the problem with AoC wasn't it's initial server numbers, it was the lack of content keeping people hooked into the game and subbing. Now, no matter how vibrant and alive some of the servers may be, it has this internet meme style stigma of being a barren wasteland. That's going to be a very very hard thing to shake off; it may never do so.

  • Atropos #7 2 years ago

    I'm enjoying the hell out of this game nowadays, pity it couldn't have been this good at launch. I'd recommend the current product though.

  • Gaol #8 2 years ago

    You recommended it at launch Atropos. Shill much?

  • Res #9 2 years ago

    "the problem is they HAVE to launch with more servers, because initial demand upon release requires that to let everyone play."

    I know they have the launch with enough servers to keep allow everyone who bought the game to play instantly. The problem is when the numbers inevitably drop from the release day there is a fear when closing servers that websites will report on it like the game is dying.

    This means they will try to keep the servers open so it doesn't get reported on, when really we should just accept that when a game first launches it is probably (with rare exceptions) going to need more servers than it ever will in the rest of the game's lifetime. That doesn't mean the game is dead, it just means it isn't going to have 3 million people spread across multiple servers.

    It is worth noting I am not just talking about Age of Conan, Warhammer suffered exactly the same problem when I was playing it. Just looking at the servers you could see three low RP servers, roleplayers wanted to be together but didn't want to recreate their players on ANOTHER low population server. Right then the three servers should have been merged to give the community what they want, instead the roleplayers went off into random high population servers and they all closed down.

  • bluefunk #10 2 years ago

    AoC is great now, all bugs bar sieges are fixed and there is lots of patches and updates in the works. Also whole new expansion next year.

    AOC ROCKS! :)

  • iokthemonkey #11 2 years ago

    conanlol

  • Slabbathepave #12 2 years ago

    Funcom should just led it die. I'll pay a monthly sub if they just go away, or apologise for ripping me off.

  • FortysixterUK #13 2 years ago

    I'd love to play it, but there's really on room for one MMO in anyone's life in my opinion, after all, you still have to play your Xbox, Wii and PS3 games too.
    Conan is good, and I even liked it when it was all unstable at launch, and when I went back a few months back it was just better in every aspect. But as I said, time is my factor.
    If Conan had hit first, maybe WOW would be the MMo that was floundering. But it wasn't. And WOW isn't.
    Frankly, WOW is unstoppable, and with cataclysm next year, all competition will stay subordinate to WOW.
    Simple as that.

  • Nephirion #14 2 years ago

    The Cataclysm that will hit WoW will be a Bioware's Star Wars the Old Republic game it will be as popular with the potential to become more popular than WoW due the huge reputation of KOTOR and the fact that its the Star Wars universe. Although WoW is the most established MMO people should never forget how old it is now, just reworking some of the old zones and a couple of new races just won't cut it for alot of people, Blizzard should focus on getting Starcraft 2 and Diablo 3 out as they haven't released any other game apart from WoW expansions since 2004.

    Remeber alot of people play WoW purely because there is no alternative as no other developer has been able to produce art, lore and implementation to Blizzards high standard. If any company can do it, it's Bioware the masters of the rpg.
    Edited by 1 at 30/10/09 @ 02:03

  • SleepyMagpie #15 2 years ago

    "If Conan had hit first, maybe WOW would be the MMo that was floundering. But it wasn't. And WOW isn't."

    No. WoW would have whooped AoC anytime, anyplace. It's just a MUCH BETTER game. This from a guy who doesn't care much for WoW.

    AoC has numerous game-mechanical problems. On top of that Funcom lied blatantly to their customers at launch.

    The train has left the station and is gone. The game has given up the ghost. The..

    Lastly, as someone else stated- I'll soon pay a months subscription for AoC if it would just go away, and Funcom would stop bugging us about it.

  • Amon_Amarth #16 2 years ago

    I like but no time for mmo's

  • xentar #17 2 years ago

    I wish I had more time and didnt have the PS3... AoC was a great fun for the first 6 months I played but with little kid there is no way I could spent hours locked in my study to play a MMORPG. AoC always had character whcih cant be said for many MMOs out there and I really miss it sometimes

  • iokthemonkey #18 2 years ago

    I've finally found a use for my copy of AoC: it's currently wedged between the seat and back of my PC chair, holding the latter in place following the snapping of the arm/support.

    Thanks Funcom!

  • bemaniac #19 2 years ago

    I used my limited edition map as a dishcloth.