Age of Conan

Originally posted by Luxthor

 

Originally posted by Nikoz78

This game was admittedly designed for gaming consoles and is therefore a watered down version of a true MMORPG.

It's worth as an "MMO" should not even be seriously debated considering this very clear truth.

Further, this game in my opinion has the potential to damage the overall genera, bringing the core of what an MMO is to new lows.

Please don't misunderstand me; I'm not trying to attack anyone personally. I'm trying to point out that the sole reason this corporation (Funcom) made this game is to try and tap into a bigger market. In other words they are exploiting our genera for financial gains and we as MMO gamers should consider the damage it has the potential to cause to it.

Again, I'm not attacking anyone personally but consider the damage World of Warcraft has caused. It was such a hit ($$$) that every other, more complex MMO tried to emulate it. In effect, dumbing down the genera.

I like to compare World of Warcraft to pop music because pop music is very shallow and easy to understand and (admittedly) fun to listen to, and it out sells all other styles of music (by a large margin).

Pop music has damaged other styles of music, like country music (which today is candyass pop-fluff w/ no soul), ditto pop punk rock and nu metal.

It is in this way that these watered down MMO's are going to damage our genera. You can say that it does not matter, that it's just another duck on the pond - but I respectfully disagree.

In fact, I've lost much hope for the genera. These corporations ruin everything. Music is milked ruthlessly and turned into shallow trends, punk fashion is sold in mass chain stores like Hot Topic, it never ends.

They destroy the essence of whatever it is they are trying to exploit-for-profit.

MMORPG's are no exception.

I'm out.

OMG you sound exactly like dictator from one of those banana countries..

 

80% of people love to listen POP music, 80% love to drink lager instead real beer, 80% people love fast food, 80% people love to watch Hollywood popcorn movies, 80% people love to play graphic shallow  MMO(WoW, AOC) more than true deep one without graphic(MUD), etc.... it's just a way it is, and always will be.

 

You sir are plain evil in calling someone a dictator.

Everybody is entitled to there opinion, freedom of speech, you maybe not agree with him, but becouse 80% likes junk, dont mean its ok then.

AoC is dumbdown for consoles and avarage gameplay, if you like it or not.

Its also a endless grind fest even wursh then WoW, but in few months alot will see and agree with this.

There many more things to point out why AoC is a bad game but it dont matter, you like it or not as simple as that.

Future will tell if mmo community like this kind of game, 6year old game design with 2008 grafics(dont see why people say this, only water looks 2008 grafics but ok lets not be to negative here).

Originally posted by winter

 

 

  Let me guess your one of the VG fanbois that used to tell everyone that didn't think the game was perfect on release to go away as they were newbs with $500 best computers and weren't hardcore enough to play in your Elite MMO?.

Um, did you just copy and paste that from another thread? I read this exact text in another thread.

Originally posted by Evasia

 

Originally posted by Luxthor

 

Originally posted by Nikoz78

This game was admittedly designed for gaming consoles and is therefore a watered down version of a true MMORPG.

It's worth as an "MMO" should not even be seriously debated considering this very clear truth.

Further, this game in my opinion has the potential to damage the overall genera, bringing the core of what an MMO is to new lows.

Please don't misunderstand me; I'm not trying to attack anyone personally. I'm trying to point out that the sole reason this corporation (Funcom) made this game is to try and tap into a bigger market. In other words they are exploiting our genera for financial gains and we as MMO gamers should consider the damage it has the potential to cause to it.

Again, I'm not attacking anyone personally but consider the damage World of Warcraft has caused. It was such a hit ($$$) that every other, more complex MMO tried to emulate it. In effect, dumbing down the genera.

I like to compare World of Warcraft to pop music because pop music is very shallow and easy to understand and (admittedly) fun to listen to, and it out sells all other styles of music (by a large margin).

Pop music has damaged other styles of music, like country music (which today is candyass pop-fluff w/ no soul), ditto pop punk rock and nu metal.

It is in this way that these watered down MMO's are going to damage our genera. You can say that it does not matter, that it's just another duck on the pond - but I respectfully disagree.

In fact, I've lost much hope for the genera. These corporations ruin everything. Music is milked ruthlessly and turned into shallow trends, punk fashion is sold in mass chain stores like Hot Topic, it never ends.

They destroy the essence of whatever it is they are trying to exploit-for-profit.

MMORPG's are no exception.

I'm out.

OMG you sound exactly like dictator from one of those banana countries..

 

80% of people love to listen POP music, 80% love to drink lager instead real beer, 80% people love fast food, 80% people love to watch Hollywood popcorn movies, 80% people love to play graphic shallow  MMO(WoW, AOC) more than true deep one without graphic(MUD), etc.... it's just a way it is, and always will be.

 

He point something out , you as a AoC fanboi is hurt, belonging to that 80%, calls him dictator:(.

You sir are plain evil in calling someone a dictator.

Everybody is entitled to there opinion, freedom of speech, you maybe not agree with him, but becouse 80% likes junk, dont mean its ok then.

AoC is dumbdown for consoles and avarage gameplay, if you like it or not.

Its also a endless grind fest even wursh then WoW, but in few months alot will see and agree with this.

There many more things to point out why AoC is a bad game but it dont matter, you like it or not as simple as that.

Future will tell if mmo community like this kind of game, 6year old game design with 2008 grafics(dont see why people say this, only water looks 2008 grafics but ok lets not be to negative here).

 

I'm so sorry man, my intention was not to upset anyone, 'dictator' thing was a joke, thats why I put that smiley there.

Regarding AOC, I'm not funboi, will not buy that game simple because I cant stand zoning/instancing (GW experience was more than enough), and I knew this looong time ago before release, but I don't have nothing against peoples that love this game. Doomsayers are breed that I love to tackle here and there.

Originally posted by Nikoz78

 

Originally posted by link35

First of all AoC is not destroying anything and although you are right in a way about things getting changed, it will always be this way, things will never remain the same its the order of life, things just simply evolve, whether its for the good or the bad it is up to each person to decide.  I personally don't think AoC is damaging the genre by taking it to another level but that is just my opinion but I do agree that somethings are making our future look sadder than ever(Spongebob again my opinion) but we just have to learn to adapt and move on with our lives because as you said, (most) corporations only care about money these days but its just human nature so what can we do about it.

The point is that virtual worlds are NOT evolving.. they are de-evolving into linear, small, instanced console type games with on-line mode.

 

It's amazing how so many people can miss the entire point of this thread.

I do very much agree with you about zoning, over instancing and small tiny worlds being steps backward for where I would like to see games heading.  None of those are qualities I found enjoyable in games I've played. I could say the same thing about games that use classes and restrict everything by using levels.  Neither are enjoyable to me compared to other styles of games, but they are functional. 

While is might be a console game turned PC, there are a number of things that are good directions.  Trying a new combat system which is perhaps the most needed aspect change right now.  More detailed graphics are nice [but not at the total expense of everything else].  Town seiges or whatever they are going to be called is a positive step [when they get implemented]. 

Please don't read this as my endorsement of Conan executing anything properly or failing to do whatever.  I haven't had enough time to play to form a real opinion.  In fact the game is still sitting in the box as I am debating returning it.  I just  don't wan't to send reward money to someone who put out another unfinished game which is sounds like it is.

There are some huge mistakes here.

First, there is no such thing as an elitist game.

Vanguard and Age of Conan are both great games in some ways, the elitist posture ( again, without any fundation ) come from the players that thing if something needs more time or is less popular ( the anti posture ) is deeper or have more meaning.

Again, if we talk about music, a masterpiece of Dodecafonia may be hard to understand, a Romantic expression is a deep expression in a emotional sense, but these are pure art expressions...  but, metal, punk and rock are easy to understand as rap is, all are pop music and entertainment.

In games there is no such thing as pure art or pop, they are all at the same level with different mechanics.

See, a metal fan or a mmorpg player may act as a elit member and judge what is shallow and what is not, but he is making a mistake and this is a common mistake, most of people in US and today´s culture has this egomaniac failure and what feed this mistake is mass culture.

In North America ( here in South America too), a lot of people seems to just think they know everything, it is the NA ego cult, but see, if you dont know art ( and if you think rock is not pop, you dont know nothing about art ) and what is shallow and what is not ( see, the impression that deeper is better than shallow is not exacly the truth ), you just cant know or judge a game or a person of been shallow in that way, if you do that it is just a social clichê.

Again, if you dont understand all the art movements we had, from the Classical to Postmodern, you just cant use any art argument to show what you like among pop culture is deeper than what your neibhor like...  and to tell the truth, if you understand this, you wont have any nessecity to prove anything to anyone, share knolowdge is always more productive than the false elit posture "Im better than the rest".

...

Originally posted by Nikoz78

 

Whats ironic is that major film makers often openly attack mainstream society, evil corporations, etc. (in essence, saying the same things I am),  and I bet these same conformists in this thread love and watch these same films - but somehow miss the point entirely. American Beauty is a perfect example.

This post is written on caffeine and I really shouldn't be getting into the music and film side of this but meh...

I think you need to be careful with the above paragraph as it sort of hints that there is only one valid entire point in a movie. In reality, I think movies have many levels of meaning. Some meanings are only reached through people with particular life experiences. For myself, it is one of the joys of watching a movie with my friends.

However I would not disagree that Hollywood productions are entirely visceral and are read on a superficial level. Though at the same time I would not say all movies are supposed to have depth. My friends and myself often scorn moves which are perceived like this. Rightly or wrongly. Yet occasionally we engage in this guilty dumbed down pleasure. Though occasionally its 4 AM (again) and were discussing the headf*** that is the Donnie Darko plot.

Back to MMO's I do agree that compared to even Hollywood movies MMO's are not thought provoking nor challenging social norms and taboos. NPC's, for example, are not given a purpose or meaning beyond XP collection place holders. The same often goes for wider MMO aspects. Quests are always “go kill X, go do this and here is a exact position on a well laid out map” (Yes... the exploration bit was a lie!). The outcome of which has no affect on your character. There are no consequences. Oddly in some games the monotony of this style is often not replicated in patches. (E.g. City of Heroes took this too far and later added limtied cut scenes and slightly more flexible missions).

I find the above disparity between movies and games odd given the average age of a gamer is something like 20 odd. I don't believe that my generation is that dumbed down. Even, I'm not that cynical (yet). I'd say the current batch of MMO's get it wrong or do not employ pluralism (a kind of limited sandbox) in there design. Whether this is because of evil mega corporations prmoting material to dumb down the masses, or whether simply stupid and/or trapped in a system which promotes lacklustre products; is a larger argument that is way outside AOC or MMO's in general !

So I guess I am kind of agreeing with the OP's post that developers are to blame for meaningless content, ironically with promise of actually meaning on the box .... BUT ...

Again to trying to end positive! I would like to point out that every MMO a company produces, every engine created there is potential to sell another product. (It may shock some people to know LOTRO engine is a modified DDO one). Eventually I think an organisation, probably a smaller company ( not EA !) will break the barrier above. Maybe this will be done in one title maybe in several to please several people. The time for this ? I don't know but not this year that's for damn sure.

But.. yeah.. AOC is not breaking any non graphical barriers (despite its marketing claims to), even tiny ones which is why it gets my thumbs down.