Age of Conan

Reading some of the posts on these forums, it seems to me that people have really short memory spans.  Speaking as someone who has beta tested most of the major MMOs, AoC has run smoother for me, with fewer problems, than 90% of them.  The performance is especially impressive when you consider where Anarchy Online was when it was this close to release.  I'll admit that I am an early adopter, and will be playing at release, but as a practical matter, it is virtually impossible to form a realistic opinion of an MMO, positive or negative, until at least a couple months after release.  Declaring at this point either that the game has "failed" or that it is the best thing since sliced bread is very premature.

That being said, I have managed to adjust my settings so that load times are virtually nil, and I would rather play a game with a great story and a dark fantasy atmosphere that has a few bugs and needs some polish, than an extremely well polished game with no soul and the graphics of a saturday morning cartoon.

Originally posted by Kyleran

Whether people like it or not, many gamers don't have the financial resources to upgrade their rigs with 8 gb of Ram and the latest paired video card solution.

Now, its ok if a developer wants to target that audiance, but they (and the players) have to understand why the game only draws 200K+ users. (which is more than enough btw).

IMO, there were many key factors that lead to WOW's commerical success, and certainly in the top 5 was the fact it played well on almost any hardware when released, and now plays even better 3+ years later.

Sure, the eglitarian crowd here can scorn other folks hardware as being old and outdated, but they shouldn't complain when their game of choice doesn't draw the subs they had hoped for.

 

I'm sorry, but a computer with 1 gig of RAM, single core, and 256 meg GPU is way outdated, by about 5-6 years.  Even my mother buys a new computer more often than that, and she's almost 60.  How does it feel to have a crappier computer than my mom?  hah.

For everyone that actually wants to know if the whole stalling / loading screen/ shader issue is something that is being looked into, here's the link:

http://forums.ageofconan.com/showthread.php?t=79173

Keep forming your opinions without properly looking up information, kids!

Originally posted by DAS1337

 

Originally posted by Kyleran

Whether people like it or not, many gamers don't have the financial resources to upgrade their rigs with 8 gb of Ram and the latest paired video card solution.

Now, its ok if a developer wants to target that audiance, but they (and the players) have to understand why the game only draws 200K+ users. (which is more than enough btw).

IMO, there were many key factors that lead to WOW's commerical success, and certainly in the top 5 was the fact it played well on almost any hardware when released, and now plays even better 3+ years later.

Sure, the eglitarian crowd here can scorn other folks hardware as being old and outdated, but they shouldn't complain when their game of choice doesn't draw the subs they had hoped for.

 

That's complete and utter BS.  You can go pick up 2 gigs of DDR2 800 for about $60-$80.  A half decent dual core for $150 and a GPU that runs the game on high between $150-$300.  How about all these tax rebates we are getting?  Don't give me this "Oh, people don't have the money BS".  People have the money, they would rather complain than to put it to good use.  How about Income tax that most of us got a couple months ago?  If you wanted to play AoC and pissed away all of that money, it's your fault. 

 

 

I'm sorry, but a computer with 1 gig of RAM, single core, and 256 meg GPU is way outdated, by about 5-6 years.  Even my mother buys a new computer more often than that, and she's almost 60.  How does it feel to have a crappier computer than my mom?  hah.

some of us would rather...oh i dunno..pay for a home improvement, pay a mortgage, pay a car payment, or save it for gas since it's skyrocketing through the roof.  A hobby is optional....paying bills unfortunately is mandatory

whats this whole issue? serioously. if your not willng to upgrade your computer, you shouldnt have to. but dont have misaligned expectations and feel like you were left out. the game does run great on lower end systems,b ut the truth of the matter is, this game is in fact a major beast graphically, and does in fact require the latest and greatest to run it at high. hell my last system before i upgraded recently was a 5600 X2(2.8ghz stock), 2gb of PC6400 ram and a single 8800 GTS 640mb system with a raptor x HD(pretty cheap now mind you) i was able to run pretty much max on tis game. and the loading was around 3-5 secs top if that. i found the game itself quite engaging.

now as for wow? yes part of the sucess of wow is in fact its accessibility on so many systems and its "easy to play hard to master" game play. you can play it on a 4  year old system and not blink twice. but like any game it has its downfalls, and had its growing pains. will AOC break WOW? hell no, personally I dont want it too. wouldit be nice for AOC to garner 500k-1 mill players? hell yeah, that will be a definite success. lets get real people, a MMO doesnt have to be the end all be all of MMO's to be enjoyable, its all about your personal preference, what you like, and what you enjoy. doesnt make you wrong, doesnt make you right, it just means this is what you enjoy. for me AOC Is what I enjoy, i played wow til lvl 70 as a priest, i found it boring after a while and found it an empty experience at the end, but thats just my "preference" nothing more, doesnt make me wrong, doesnt make me right.

in the end we have to make it clear and get it through some of your thick skulls ( you know who you are) that there are going to be people who prefer, or dislike what you like. but if they cant communicate in such a way that is respectful, mature, or remotely intelligent, oh well, thats their downfall. me, im going to enjoy AOC, and Im going to play it.

Well said Giants fan lol Grats on your Superbowl win.....I made $100 on you guys  =)

I will be buying Conan...I have loved the books since I was a kid and used to buy the Comic every month....Big fan..hell I even liked the 360 Conan game and critics hated it lol

Hardware aside The lore of the game attracts me....The harshness.....The darker take on magic...the brutality of the melee...This is a dark world and I am glad that it has been made. If it doesnt run pefect I am ok with that. This isnt going to be the holy grail of MMO's. But it will be, to me, one hell of a ride =)

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Originally posted by jiveturkey12

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Originally posted by LuckyR

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Originally posted by jiveturkey12

 

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Originally posted by onlinenow225

 

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Originally posted by Elikal

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Originally posted by Kairarr

You cannot have good graphics and a good gameplay.
I will stick with WoW "outdated" graphics, but with no loading screen when i die or enter a building.
I just wish Warhammer doesnt aim for graphics but for gameplay.

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Why cant we have good graphics and good gameplay? I dont see the logic in this.

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Well, theres a thing called a time constraint.  If the devs spend too much time on making graphics then the game story and what not will be horribly hurting, if the devs spend more time on game play, the game maybe fun but then if you cant see infront of you cuz its all blocks and squares that looses its fun aswell.
 
 
All in all devs deside how much time they put into graphics and gameplay.   Along with that, better graphics increase the need for a better computer which in turn lowers play base because no one wants to spend $2k on a computer just to pay another $50 and a subscription just to play one game.
 
Also higher graphics cost more money to run for the company, you need better servers and better sever equipment to support the game.  All in all, for the player/company base the best is to have an equal measure of spending enough time on graphics then the rest of you time on gameplay and features. 

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Have you played GTA 4 recently? the game that has been given a 10/10 rating almost everywhere?
 
 
It has amazing graphics and not to mention on of the most amazing stories I have ever played in a game, along with a slick multiplayer thats fast to get into and even more fun to play with freinds online.
 
So no this whole you cant have both deal is a load of bull.
 
-Jive

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HAHA sorry, but multiplayer is no where near the same as an MMO

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Can you go ahead and highlight the section of my post I claimed it to be?
 
I see you completely missed the point of what I just posted so ill write it in less words this time.
 
"GTA 4, is a game with amazing graphics and great gameplay, denying your rule then, that all games can only have either good graphics or good gameplay and not both. And this is not an opinion, this is fact., because weather you like the game or not,the gameplay is solid and well done and so are the graphics."
 
-Jive

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Don't know if you have heard this, but Age Of Conan is under development for XBOX 360 aswell..

And yes, the graphics from a more/less solo game with some multiplayer action is a complete diffrent story than a MMO..An MMO is ALWAYS more demanding..

/Junker