AoC Early Access program sold out
by William Dobson 
May 14th 2008 at 10:15AM
Filed under: Fantasy, Age of Conan, Events, in-game, Launches, New titles, News items
So it seems that a lot of people want to play Age of Conan a few days early. The Early Access program that was offered to those who pre-ordered the game has sold out for all English versions of the game, with limited spots left for Germany and France. If you have a pre-order code for your in-game items, that will still work, but if you didn't actually register and buy your early access by this point, you're out of luck.This has obviously left many players upset and angry, and the forum thread that broke the news is filled with people lamenting their ruined weekend. Some direct their anger towards retailers who failed to provide their codes in time, others point the finger at Funcom. Regardless of Funcom's reason for restricting early access places, a number of forum posters have highlighted the community site's earlier mention of the limited availability: "Hurry though, because the Early Access is only available while supply lasts!". That won't help ease the pain though for those who had their hearts set on lopping heads off on the 17th.
[Thanks, ScytheNoire!]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Drew said on 10:41AM 5-14-2008
I just went and preorder yesterday(May 13th) and registered i've been downloading for almost 15 hours and im only at 55%. Good thing i got in right before cut off.
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stuffitmx said on 10:49AM 5-14-2008
Yes, the download is what, 12.5 gigs?
Well they certainly got the "Massive" right in MMO.
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Drew said on 10:53AM 5-14-2008
hahaha...yeah it's 14 gigs....im only averaging like 130 kb/s....i'm hoping it will be done bye tonight so I can turn my comp off since it sounds like a jet engine.
Green Armadillo said on 11:10AM 5-14-2008
The more I hear about this game, the more glad I am that Ihave nothing to do with it. If the starting zones can't handle all of the pre-order customers willing to pay EXTRA for early access, what's going to happen when they open the doors to everyone? Or are they planning on telling retail customers they can't start playing until the people who bought the game before them level up?
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Bob said on 12:26PM 5-14-2008
that isn't the point. Obviously you have read nearly NOTHING about the game or you would know how it is instanced and set up, meaning the newb areas CAN'T be overloaded.
The point of this I am sure is to slow down entry a bit to keep it more stable. Every single mmo that attempts to let everyone in at once has massive problems with server stability.
Why not let people in, in waves so that all can have fun instead of all at once and everyone laggy and crashed. That's Funcom's stand, are you in good hands?
Green Armadillo said on 1:49PM 5-14-2008
So the starting instances are immune to crashing from overpopulation... unless there are too many people and the server crashes? That's a fine distinction.
I stand by my point - either the servers can handle everyone willing to pay extra for early access (which won't be everyone who is going to own the game when it goes live), or they can't handle what's going to happen when the game launches.
Drew said on 11:20AM 5-14-2008
I dont know man....for me anyway im using this preplay period to determine if I will will actually buy the full game I dont mind paying the $5 for the extra 10 days and if i dont like it then i dont have to waste the $50 it will cost me to buy the full game.
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Dass said on 12:24PM 5-14-2008
"I'm hoping it will be done bye tonight so I can turn my comp off since it sounds like a jet engine."
Your Harddisk is about to crash... thats why it sounds like a jet engine better make backups before its too late....
GRT said on 12:35PM 5-14-2008
Same here. I had it pre-ordered from gamestop.com, then ended up canceling and getting a physical pre-order box from Best Buy ($10). Now I shell out another $5 to play for 10 days to see if I want to go back and buy my pre-order copy, or just eat the $15 on a lesson well-learned.
Too many aspects of this launch are "feeling" wonky for me to have much confidence in it.
TwistedBishop said on 1:37PM 5-14-2008
I've never had a problem getting refunds on preorder money from Gamestop. Not sure if Best Buy works the same way.
Jrogea said on 6:14PM 5-14-2008
thats why its limited
danarchy said on 11:49AM 5-14-2008
I have a very fast connection and still its showing 1d 13hours. Of course it's at 67% after 8 hours so I imagine its not a accurate representation. I didn't know it was a limited number though, lucky I got a craving for cinnabon yesterday and went to the mall!
And like Drew said, I like the idea I can spend 5 bucks to trial there game. If it sucks like vanguard Im only out a fin
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Leshrac said on 12:29PM 5-14-2008
I hate to say I told you so, but I told you so...........I predicted doom and gloom because they released the game as a gold candidate 3+ weeks ago? And I knew that there would be massive patches and glitches, and poor download times coming.
I leveled a character into his teens in the closed beta and the game was okay. I was pretty excited to play the game but with all of the glitches and issues, which I expect in beta, but nevertheless dampened my spirit for the game.
I was charged the $5 early entrance fee, I may just use that to see if the game has improved and not go retail and let the game cook for a few months.
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Slogo said on 1:41PM 5-14-2008
It makes sense and I don't really think it's fair to blame Funcom for it.
I'd be more pissed if I paid $5 for early access and wasn't able to play because everyone who pre-order (and who doesn't pre-order nowadays when bonuses are offered) rush online and clogged the servers for 3 days. Granted the early-access does come with 10 days game time but still...
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Drew said on 2:33PM 5-14-2008
"Your Harddisk is about to crash... thats why it sounds like a jet engine better make backups before its too late...."
How does that mean my hard disc is going to crash?....
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Ted said on 5:35PM 5-14-2008
This doesn't bode well for FunCom. Pre-Orders were sold with deceptive advertising promising a 3 day advance. Apparently many retailers weren't on the ball and haven't even provided the pre-order keys to their customers yet... and then FunCom pulls the rug out from under them?
I don't know. After the fishy "open beta" this just seems like another big miss when it comes to customer relations.
It's a PR disaster imo.
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danarchy said on 7:09PM 5-14-2008
I get a kick out of the melodrama hehe. "It's a conspiracy to cheat me out of $5!!!1!"
And in reply to Drew:
If your getting a loud grinding noise out of your PC you may have a hard drive thats going bad (hard drive is the part that stores all your data, games, pr0n, etc) or you need to take a spray air can to the inside of your puter and blow out all the dust and pot smoke.
If you find it is your fans there are alot of silent fans available and there pretty cheap, like 15 bucks on average. If its your hard drive (again the big silver or black box inside) then you need to get anything important backed up and take it in to be cloned onto a new drive.
Yaaaay for free tech support
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