General Discussion

The fact that the Director HIMSELF talks to the players...

... and acknowledges  (big) shortcomings:

is proof of damage control.

They must have had BIG numbers of cancellations  to justify this.

Detail: he doesn't speak  a word on instances and lack of Siege battles.

But helas the same mistakes:

Promisses of "new" without even fulfilling the old .

Sitting at 45, and having a blast playing AoC. (I have played, WoW, LotR, CoH/CoV, Lineage 2, ShadowBane, SWG, DaoC, EQ2, AC2, AO, Eve Online, Guild Wars and many more I am forgetting right now.)

Best looking game I have played MMO wise, and better than alot of non MMO's. (Eve and LotR come close)

Best 1-20 gaming expierence in any MMO. (Nothing compares, very well done)

Best Melee Combat in a game. (nothing like directional swings, combos, fatalities)

Best Music in a game. (I am really enjoying the sound track while I play.)

Questing - On par with WoW, LotR, EQ2

PVP - better than WoW, but Guild Wars, and Eve are probably better at this point.

Guild functions - Several buggy features, but you can build a city, which very few games let you do that.

Crafting - Not so good, feels added on late, similiar to WoW and PvP at launch, something they didnt plan much.

Instancing - there is one annoying spot in Tortage sewers, where it seems like every door you walk through triggers another instance, most people that complain about this most likely have run into it. It is the only place I have been in that is like that, and the rest of entire world, you hardley notice it, so i am ok with it at this point.

Spell casting - pretty much what all other games have, nothing really new.

Classes - very fun and exciting to play, nice variety.

Feats - I have grown to enjoy testing results and builds, with out all of the info right in front of me, and having to read about the only build anyone is useing for thier class. It's exciting to be in a game that hasn't been dissected by the mathameticians.

Mounts - best in any game I have played

The Grind - Are you kidding me? stop complaining, this game is very easy to level in even if there were no quests at 50-60, which there are plenty if you know where to look. And be social, do some grouping.

All in all, this is a great game and has set a high bar for all existing, and upcomming MMO's.

Originally posted by Zorndorf

The fact that the Director HIMSELF talks to the players...

... and acknowledges  (big) shortcomings:

is proof of damage control.

They must have had BIG numbers of cancellations  to justify this.

Detail: he doesn't speak  a word on instances and lack of Siege battles.

But helas the same mistakes:

Promisses of "new" without even fulfilling the old .

The fact that he acknowledges shortcomings to the community?  How can that be a bad thing?  I'm pretty sure that the gaming population is growing, not declining.  The people that have left are those who complain 24/7 and, in reality, would be dissatisfied with the product no matter what happens.  Also IMO, the AoC community is better without the negativity.

I personally appreciate what's been going on.

Originally posted by Myrathi

Keep in mind that all the optimists you're looking for probably aren't reading or posting on the forums; they're actually playing the game!

 

Absolutely spot-on.  In epidemiological science, we would call forum posters a "skewed sample."   Same goes for political polling.  This is why I rely on these forums only to discern what key game-play elements there are (like instancing and special directional attacks), and the degree to which core game mechanics need improvement.  Thus the forum commentary of "trolls" has utility to me-- but only to some extent.

In contrast, I know better than to make predictions on the commercial  fate of a game based on the postings of < 1% of a game's players on release.   Both auto-assault (ha- remember that one?  See my avatar) and AoC forums had passionate defenders and haters weighing in here at release.  However, the number of toons I saw around me in-game in AA plummeted within a couple weeks of release, whereas AoC is apparently adding servers left and right.  That is a better guide, and the true commercial fate will only be evident once time actually passes.

I'll be purchasing and playing this game... in a month or two when the worst of the kinks have been patched out.  Even so, I would probably have a blast installing it tomorrow since I'm a casual player who would not need a crap bucket under his chair (that was hilarious by the way), such that content patches would likely be rolled out by the time I'd need them.  Took me a year to get a toon to 50 in LOTRO.

In sum, be realistic on what can be meaningfully inferred from these forums considering the high likelihood of a skewed sample of participants.

It is said that , even God took 6 days to create the universe...and this is God i'm talking about...a supreme being...and I think its safe to say that the universe still undergoes regular patches and updates ...even up to this day...to this minute....and bugs...Platypus anyone? Not a very successful launch,,,seeing as popular belief is that earth is 10,000 years old..give or take.So lets give some credit to the AoC Developers...nothing is perfect...Ask God...if he'll listen.

....and unlike the AoC Director...good luck on God writing in to advise of upcoming changes/improvements  in the universe.

Originally posted by deguildeving

In LOTRO beta we were balancing classes far before release.  We were polishing up the completed crafting sytem.  Even finalizing the initial higher level areas months before it went live.  AoC seems to have just hit beta from alpha...  That's the feel anyway.  And I played beta (err alpha)...

We? You're a developer for LOTRO?

Ah yes,

THIS is what happens when you run out of time / money and have to release the game, despite the state it's in....

Then your first few months are spent using the boat load of money you just made to bring the game up to "Launch Ready" status.

I'm really not trying to burn AoC of Funcom, it's just a tragic reality of this market. MMOs are unique in that they can release an unfished product to make money to finish the product. Name any other gaming genre that can do that!

The real question then becomes is:

Is what they currently have available enough to warrant your purchase and financial support (subscription fees) until they patch the game up to the point they WISH they had it in at launch?

It's a personal question, everyone will likely have a different opinion and viewpoint.

Me? I'd rather they push launch back and get things right. But, as I said, sometimes (especially with self-published titles) that's just simply not an option.

There will always be people who like to level to the highest level in shortest possible time, people claim they can get to 220 in anarchy online in a few weeks and here i haven't even made it to 180 playing on and off since  2001 :) then again i'm not in any rush and by leveling slow i take time to see the world around me not just the zones that let me level the fastest.

I remember when sony released the planes of power expansion for everquest and the hardcore raiders could not get to the end zone(plane of time) cause it was not ready, that to me is even worse since it was an expansion.

Disturbs me a bit that tradeskills seems bad in AoC i have started to like doing tradeskills in other games, but hopefully they will fix it up to VG level (and yes i think Vanguard have super crafting reminds me of Horizons)

Haven't played AoC much yet but it looks fantastic and i bet it will get better when more dx10 stuff is added.

It is a nice stable beta at the very best.  I have played a solid two weeks.  I have seen many technical issues as well as creative short cuts.  Look at the models.  Most look similar or near alike.   As far as a ton of people having a good time so far I see most people in chat complaining about getting ganked repeatedly.