Age of Conan: A postmortem analysis?

by Shawn Schuster Aug 28th 2008 at 11:30AM

Filed under: Fantasy, Age of Conan, Game mechanics, MMO industry, Opinion

Ouch. That word pretty much sums up this article we found over at MMOCrunch regarding their opinion on the current state of Age of Conan. As declared in the article, it wasn't written to convince potential players that the game is bad (although... uh, it does?), or to tell current players that their game sucks, but it was addressed to Funcom and any other MMO developers out there currently working on a game to let them know why they're sometimes referred to as "Failcom" by the community.

This article is harsh, straight to the point and pulls no punches. That's exactly what we love. But whether you agree or disagree with the author's prognosis, these MMO postmortem articles are always written to charge people up. Give it a read and let us know what you think.

Having fun in Conan's homeland? Make sure to check out all of our previous Age of Conan coverage, and stick with Massively for more news from the Hyborian Age!

Tags: age-of-conan, aoc, failcom, funcom, hyborian-adventures, mmocrunch, postmortem

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Daedren said on 11:46AM 8-28-2008

Thanks, Shawn.

Just wanted to let everyone know the original article is at http://www.r1ft.com/age-of-conan/age-of-conan-a-post-mortem-analysis/

Hope everyone enjoys it!

Daedren

crsh said on 12:02PM 8-28-2008

This is roughly what many players have been posting on the official boards since launch; not to trash the game, but rather trying to make sense of what was happening (or *not* happening, rather).

After 3 months of silence from Funcom, unless broken to make empty promises they have yet to deliver on, it's about time the online zines pick up on this ugly situation.

The article isn't harsh at all, it's well deserved. Between Elligsen's blatant lies and Godager's "it's all coming soon!", something has to give. How low do subs have to drop for them to act?

Oh wait, they're already in damage control mode, shipping Elligsen to every game event to push content that has been promised for months with no actual delivery date in sight. Watch their next move, will we see Godager desperately blame the online mobs (me, you, ex-players, everybody) for trying to sabotage AoC? And then what?

"Failcom" is about right.

Blythe said on 12:39PM 8-28-2008

I played AoC for 6 weeks all the way to lvl 80 Priest of Miltra and prepaid for 6 months. This article hits the nail on the head about the problems with the game and FailCom. I just wish I could get my money back. Put I did cancel my account and uninstalled the garbage off my computer.

The Claw said on 7:37PM 8-28-2008

Asking purely out of curiosity, not to flame you: but what was it that encouraged you to pre-pay for 6 months on your account?

anahka said on 12:49PM 8-28-2008

A bit harsh maybe but the truth nontheless.

Hades said on 12:49PM 8-28-2008

I wrote a State of AOC Assessment back on July 4th (http://forums.ageofconan.com/showpost.php?p=1399230&postcount=1), and told them that their product would bomb if the game wasn't "right" within 90 days of retail release.

PVP players are a fickle bunch, and if you cater to them for a customer base you better launch your game with the features as advertised. If you don't, you have to deliver within 90 days or they bail on the game en mass.

No one's going to worry about AOC anymore, it had its chance and they blew it.

Nadril said on 1:17PM 8-28-2008

This article is 100% correct and does address what everyone has been saying for months now.

Greeen said on 2:34PM 8-28-2008

gosh, it hurts to read it, but it is so true. Funcom really has turned into a new SOE in terms of believing customers are idiots.

recursive said on 2:50PM 8-28-2008

Nice cheapshotting.

devo said on 3:08PM 8-28-2008

3 months of silence? Don't you read the official forums. There have been patches every week since launch, and only recently did they cut that back to 1 patch a week from like 3 I believe it was.

And why would anyone rush to lvl 80 after any game is released when you know there won't be tons of content at launch.

I for one love this game, graphics are awesome, game play is fun. I haven't played much lately but I enjoy the fact that I know funcom is addressing the issues, adding content , new items and a whole new PvP system.

The underlying game is good but needs polishing. Something that only happens with time in MMO's I find and funcoms rate is progression is pretty good all things considered.

Nadril said on 6:05PM 8-28-2008

What level in game are you. I am willing to bet a large amount of cash you do not have a level 80, and am guessing you are somewhere around the... 30-60 range?

Sorry but if you think that Funcom's patching cycle is effective at all you haven't been paying attention to the game. They almost always BREAK MORE THINGS THAN THEY FIX in the game with a patch. While a patch may make it so that this Dungeon is cooler they end up screwing up and not letting players enter it at all (this happened).

Or when they do a patch to help "improve" tradeskilling by adding in some special mobs in tradeskill zones they make it so that one of those mobs drops epics like others drop grays, killing the market.

Or when they patch (I don't even know what) and a gem duping exploit comes into play that doesn't get fixed for AN ENTIRE FUCKING MONTH destroying the in game economy and further imbalancing the PvP.

Just because they pump out half assed patches does not mean they are doing a good job.

@Green: Funcom is so much worse than SOE on so many levels.

Helbender said on 8:20PM 8-28-2008

Everyone makes too much out of the drop in subs. Conan is a niche game, made for 18+ players with mid to high-end machines. Two huge demographics contributed to the drop: kiddos who had to cancel when their parents saw what they were playing, and players with crap machines.

If the game was that bad then how did all you experts bear to play all the way to 80?

Just go play an elf...

Nadril said on 8:56PM 8-28-2008

Holy fucking christ fanboy alert. Let me state two things, first.

1) I am 20 years old. Certainly not a "kiddo" and I don't even live with my parents.

2) I have a plenty powerful rig for AoC. Crysis All highs 1680x1050 @ 35fps.

Age of Conan is not a "niche" game. Well, maybe it is, but it largely subscribes to the people who enjoy playing shitty games and enjoy taking it up the ass. Sorry for the harshness, but it's true.

Most of the fanboys still in AoC stick to the ideal that it is a "mature" game, yet the game has one of the worst in game communities out of about any game out there. The "kiddie" game so many people enjoy referring to (World of Warcraft) has a much better community as a whole.

The only people left in AoC stick there because of the OMG BLOOD and OMG BOOBS and are oblivious to the glaring faults with the game.

If I come off harsh in this post by all means, I intend to. Considering that anyone who doesn't play age of Conan is simply a "kiddie with a shit computer" is one of the simplest fanboy arguments there is. And, also:

"If the game was that bad then how did all you experts bear to play all the way to 80?"

This is one of the worst statements that can ever be said about a game. Why? Because if we don't play up to the high levels than (clearly) we didn't give it a shot. However if we did get up to 80 (which isn't fucking difficult fyi) than we clearly played it so much and got our moneys "worth" out of it.

Most of us who got to 80 got there because, surprise, we expected that FUNCOM WOULD BACK UP WHAT THEY SAID AND BRING IN ADDITIONAL CONTENT, AND FIX UP THE GAME. I dealt with all the shitty as bugs and problems because I had hopes it would be fixed. It wasn't.

And also a 50% + drop in subs on the first MONTH is not something to just shrug off, I'm sorry.

Rob said on 1:59AM 8-29-2008

Wow, Hellbender has no clue.

I'm no kid -- I'm 33 years old -- and I run a rig that runs Conan maxed out with one hand tied behind its back.

And I unsubbed. The game is crap.

Daedren said on 4:37AM 8-29-2008

Thanks for the feedback everyone.

@Nadril: You had me at "taking it in the ass" ... ;)

recursive said on 8:49AM 8-29-2008

Yeah, because that's almost as inventive as comparing devs to nazis.

20. Yeah right. Only physically maybe son.

Nadril said on 11:43AM 8-29-2008

Truth hurts, doesn't it? In all reality I really can not think of anything better than "taking it in the ass" because why people would accept such a shoddy, shallow and buggy product is beyond me. As I've said before these kind of actions would have destroyed any other company already, but since it's an MMO it can get away with it?

@Daedren: Heh, I aim to please :P

dbji7 said on 7:38PM 9-01-2008

I played one of the tanking class whose name escapes me right now. First of all i didn't played until level 80,i quit when i was around 30. The first 20 levels were great,but when you get out of the island you see the game's bugs and just how bad it really is. they plainly just spent most dev time on tortage and just forgot that there were 60 more levels.Too bad i payed for 3 months in advance...

The game does have one of the worst communities ever in an MMORPG,anyone that saw the OOC chat or played in a PVP RP server knows what im talking about. OOC chat was like seeing barrens chat all the time. And on my PVP RP server i never saw a single person roleplaying. I'm not even gonna talk about the forums.

A game can look great but if it doesn't have great gameplay it may as well be CGI movie.

@Nadril:"The only people left in AoC stick there because of the OMG BLOOD and OMG BOOBS and are oblivious to the glaring faults with the game."

Couldn't have said it better

camazotz said on 1:14PM 9-17-2008

Well, I've only been playing for about two weeks and have just hit level 11.....so I guess I really can't comment about the content quality (except to say that the low level stuff in AoC is a lot of fun). Still, I may never make it past my first month anyway, due to the persistent memory leak problems that I seem to be victim to. My wife's computer (which is ironicaly an inferior rig to mine) runs it better than my machine, which is disheartening. Plus, WAR came along and is so much more polished....I love the Conan novels and got this game for its subject matter (age 37, still appreciate boobs and blood, too) but I can only tolerate graphical slowdown and crashes so much. Well, another week or two and renewal time will determine whether I stay with it or not. Maybe this new patch being promised will work, but if not, WAR has my money for sure.