The Daily Grind: Has AoC earned your money for another month?

by William Dobson Jun 25th 2008 at 8:00AM

Filed under: Fantasy, Age of Conan, Business models, The Daily Grind

The folks that picked up Age of Conan around the time of its release are nearing the one-month milestone of their accounts. The game's launch was fairly smooth as far as MMO launches go, with people actually able to log on and play for the most part. Many patches have been made, for better or worse, documented and undocumented. People's opinions have been varied and divided, some loving the game, and others just not digging it.

This one-month mark also means that some payment is in order if you wish to continue exploring Funcom's Hyboria. The question we ask of you this morning, is: will you be continuing your subscription to AoC, will you be canceling, or have you already jumped ship?

Tags: age-of-conan, aoc, funcom, subscription, tdg, the-daily-grind

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)

Nadril said on 8:26AM 6-25-2008

It has, and the only way to go from here on out is up and better.

Rollins said on 8:42AM 6-25-2008

It has not for me. I may get flack for saying this, but the game's too much like a prettier, grittier, and shallower WoW. Same questing, a similarly insignificant crafting system, and an overall lack of depth.

Bearlol said on 8:45AM 6-25-2008

Canceled.

A sugar-coated sh*t is still a piece of sh*t.

Would be interesting if someone compile a complete list of things that is changed in all the little patches and compare it to a normal patch of another game(say EQ2,or WoW).

Pirate Penguin said on 8:55AM 6-25-2008

Canceled.

The game felt shallow and unfinished to me. Constant patches, major 'balance' changes for classes, dozens of broken feats that do not do anything (or do not do what they say they do), dissappointing news about the end game seige warfare, and very high end computer requirements have steered me away. The game is definitly pretty on high settings, but the engine still seems very unpolished and unoptimized with many people getting higher frame rates on 'high' settings than 'low'.

Yomamas said on 8:56AM 6-25-2008

Wasn't for me, canceled...

Found a new home in Vanguard. Wow that game is amazing.

mikejl said on 11:06AM 6-25-2008

I'd be interested on your thoughts on Vanguard vs AoC? Lots of AoC vs. WoW out there; a Vanguard vs. AoC would be a good read.

Yomamas said on 12:13PM 6-25-2008

While AoC had (and has) it's issues, I'm a patient person, so that's not what really pushed me to try Vanguard. Actually the fact that people were comparing the AoC launch to the horrible Vanguard launch reminded me of the game, and I hit up the forums/website to see how it was doing. There seemed to be a general momentum of people joining up and trying Vanguard, many of them ex-AoCers.

After the grueling download what I found was really a gem. The game has soul... A large choice of unique races, each with unique abilities and starting areas. Then you move on to the classes, every one I tried felt significantly different from the others, different take on the roles than I've seen before, and a couple of truly unique ones.

The actual game is just MASSIVE, so much to explore and see. Other than the character art, the environments are just gorgeous.

Really to me AoC felt more like Guild Wars, which is not necessarily a bad thing, but not what I was expecting. I played the classic EQ back in the day, and loved it. Vanguard is the only other game to give me that feeling since.

Brian! said on 4:31PM 6-25-2008

I am thinking of Vanguard as well. I picked up Lord of the Rings on a super special. It is pretty fun, but just a little empty. I suspect that everyone is at a high level leaving my poor guy pretty alone in the newbie areas.

That is one thing that WoW has going for it. So many players still offer other lower character levels to group.

What is your favorite thing about Vanguard?

Yomamas said on 8:32PM 6-25-2008

Favorite thing...

I don't feel like I'm on a "track" railroaded through content areas/quests. Not sure if that makes sense...

I'm in no rush to level really, I hop on my horse (Diplomacy Quest Reward at level 10, so early), and just explore. Or go crafting (which is actually pretty interesting), or spend time reading the surprisingly well developed diplomacy stories (you play kind of a Collectible Card Game for diplomacy).

Heck, I'm even strangely addicted to harvesting resources... Its weird.

So favorite thing is the openness I guess, the fact that I am able to enjoy myself in much more than grinding or quests.

Steve_S said on 9:09AM 6-25-2008

I’ll be here until Wrath comes out.

feac said on 9:28AM 6-25-2008

canceled, shame they rushed beta.

crsh said on 9:46AM 6-25-2008

I never canceled my sub as I figured I'd wait until the first charge was about to hit to make a decision; I'm happily playing the game, I like where it's going and yes, it's holding my interest enough for me to pay the monthly fee.

I'm not denying there are a lot of issues, but they're certainly improving quickly enough for my taste (I don't play 12 hours/day everyday, so I don't care as much apparently).

Merkur said on 9:52AM 6-25-2008

Canceled. wounderfull grafic but shallow gameplay - too shallow

Merkur said on 9:53AM 6-25-2008

Canceled. wounderfull grafic but shallow gameplay - too shallow

Arabica said on 9:57AM 6-25-2008

I like Age of Conan and in my mind it's definitely worth my money. For those that are pissed off at Funcom and their "sugar-coated sh*t": complain more. The most successful, popular, and profitable MMO in history isn't immune to criticism either...

[Just a few threads taken from the FIRST page of WoW General forum at one glance]

Dead servers:
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html;jsessionid=D34951864BC0D7FA2B386C30F0A2A957.app05_07?topicId=7353016304&sid=1

Inadequate PVP system:
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html;jsessionid=D34951864BC0D7FA2B386C30F0A2A957.app05_07?topicId=7475658059&sid=1

The haves and have nots of gear:
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html;jsessionid=D34951864BC0D7FA2B386C30F0A2A957.app05_07?topicId=7475658324&sid=1

A point leeching problem that remains omnipresent for years:
[url omitted because of Massively's limits on them]

Abilities that haven't worked or worked worth a damn for years:
[url omitted because of Massively's limits on them]

General unrest from the chasms caused by the grind:
[url omitted because of Massively's limits on them]

Go ahead and trot out that tired argument by saying that WoW is crap. That's an awesome opinion and fantastic that you have it. The point is that they have won countless awards, a subscription base that is nothing short of gargantuan, and a mountain of money. Whether you agree or not they are by far the indusry leader and yet there's tons of things wrong with the game four years after launch. Did Funcom come up short in some areas? Uh...so do all MMO's. If you want a finished game play Madden. Wait, EA patches too. Shit.

I guess every game has it's disgruntled customers.

Nadril said on 10:01AM 6-25-2008

Am I the only person who would have just said fuck it and gone to another game if they would have delayed it anymore?

Oh well, I'm obviously not going to try and argue with anyones opinion.

And, while this may seem immature, I'm really looking forward to WAR's release if they push it out on the current release date. Should be interesting. (read: they totally aren't ready)

pufonthis said on 9:59AM 6-25-2008

Shame on Funcom for making us play an early beta version of Age of Conan and calling it a release client. This company will never receive another dollar from me.

Take away all the problems with the launch and all the crashing and you're still left with a mediocre game in my eyes. So no, I will not ever come back to this.

"A sugar-coated sh*t is still a piece of sh*t." - This pretty much sums it up.

Nice graphics, a dumb combo system that gets boring after a few levels, zoning, stats that don't matter, an utter lack of good content, this thing is garbage.

ScytheNoire said on 10:03AM 6-25-2008

Canceled it a while ago. It's just a prettier version of the same theme park we've been doing with a few little extras. Not enough to justify paying for it, and definitely not a game that was ready for release.