Age of Conan

I've been waiting for reviews and initial feedback before deciding whether or not to buy this game. After the official forums got restricted to players with registered accounts, I had to look elsewhere. Now I'm bored at work, and I figured I'd sign up here and give a big "Thank you" to all those of you who helped make the decision for me.

So far, every single complaint I've seen about game design choices, have been concerning things I dislike, or hate in my games. In particular:

I want a realistic looking world. That includes world size. Hyboria is huge, so I was worried they would destroy the impression of a realistic world by compressing it like the tiny continents in WoW. How can it feel like a real world if you can walk, or ride across all of it in minutes? If they did, indeed, make it anything close to a  realistic size, most of the content would be randomly generated, and you would never see other people outside cities. I'll take handcrafted snapshots from a bigger world any day, and choosing not to make the entire world available also gives developers the opportunity to, in theory, release an infinite amount of new locations within the same world in content updates and expansions. Good call.

I also want zoning. I have to compare to wow again here since it's the example that comes up most frequently for "seamless" worlds. The sacrifices made in that game to accomplish that, were not worth it for me. I'd much rather watch a loading screen for 10 seconds than run through an empty area while the next zone is loading for 10 seconds. At least with a loading screen, I have an excuse to leave the computer for a few seconds to put on coffee. Detailed houses and other in-door areas are also out of the question without zoning, and I for one expect a house you can enter to contain more than 2 chairs, a table and some generic NPC.

Instancing! Thank god they included this.Startup areas are usually hell in MMOs until months after release. Everyone solos through the first few levels anyway, so having hundreds of people around doing, or rather trying to do, the exact same thing is annoying. As for later areas, all MMOs have a limit to how many people can be in the same area. Add enough people, and eventually some will start losing their connections, or just crash because their computers can't handle it. I'd much rather have an artificial limit and a new instance opening up before this point is reached, than a game that's unplayable in certain areas. This does not break immersion for me. There's a limit to how many people I can interact with at the same time. All my friends can be in the same instance. Anyone else that is present at the same time is just there to give the impression that it is a living world. It doesn't matter if there are 50, 100 or 2000 other people in the same area to give that impression... except watching a slideshow of a living world is not my idea of fun, so I prefer a smaller number.

Siege battles sound like fun now that they've reduced the number of players to a manageable number. I feared a lag feast with mounted combat, siege engines and collision detection in the massive battles that were advertised. 48vs48 until they get the kinks out sounds great to me. If performance is acceptable, and siege events are always full, I'm sure they will increase the number, but I'd rather have 48vs48 than an unplayable event, or worse nothing at all because they couldn't include the massive battles at launch. As for never getting to participate in one because of the limited number of events and players in each battle... mweh, it's end-game content. It'll be tweaked several times over until most people get there, so I'm not concerned.

Anyway, thank you once again to those of you whining. I never trust positive feedback completely, but the negative feedback gives me a good idea about whether the "worst" issues matter to me or not. Pity the game isn't for you, but I'm convinced it's perfect for me, so I'm picking up my copy after work. :)

Agreed

Got my two pre-order copies to day (second is for my wife).

See you in-game.

good show, i love how you think.

If you want a game where you can see other players running around while you are about 2 minutes running distance away... then yeah, this game isawesome.... if someone runs on a path.. the ambushers will be able to see him coming a mile away lol.

Its funny, all the trolls were focusing on how the launch would be the worst in history about two weeks ago. Now all they got is instancing as their key amunition about the game...how sad for them lol

Yeah, all these people complain about things that are there to protect their gameplay quality. Just becuz the places are zoned/instanced doesn't mean yo uwill never run into the same people twice. That stuff is just there incase you need it, the graphics are much more intense than WoW's. I enjoy their graphics, but I also realize that they are crap and very simple unlike AoC.

Funny - I was just thinking the same thing.  I have been without a MMO for a while, and the stuff that people have been complaining about are actually the things that my husband, my best friend and I have been looking for!  Highly detailed graphics?  Instances so there are no fights or waiting for spawns and mobs, and the potential for peronal housing?  Zones, so we can get more detailed areas?   All of that, plus an adult game with an adult community and mature content and a complex battle system! 

We are buying this game tonight!!!

Originally posted by ladylore

 Instances so there are no fights or waiting for spawns and mobs, and the potential for peronal housing? 

Instancing isnt a bad thing. Only having 48 people in a zone is a VERY bad thing. Youll never see anyone. Just poor programming

Zones, so we can get more detailed areas?   All of that, plus an adult game with an adult community and mature content and a complex battle system! 

It may be M for mature, but the community is the worst Ive seen in any MMO.

We are buying this game tonight!!!

Great angle OP. Of course if I say how much I love this game I'll be called a fanboi, so I'll just button my lip and go play.