My take on the Booster Pack

[______________Luxxan]

For the amount of time some of you are spending on complaining about the Booster Pack, I'd suggest you go get a paper route or something. Work at McDonalds a few hours. That way you'll have the 15 or 20 dollars for the Pack and you won't have to whine anymore!

[_____________LNS0388]

My advice to you is to read into statements a little more. My issue isn't the 19.99. I can easily use the 100.00 I made today, save it, and buy the booster when it's out.

I have two issues with the pay-patch. The first is the fact that they should be working on some very serious bugs that still aren't solved. (Bugged Parry, anyone?) I know people are saying that they have two teams, one for the patches, and one for the pay-patch/shadowlands, but it's still (in my opinion) misused manpower.

My second issue with the pay-patch is the fact that I was made to believe that I was paying for new content in my 12.95 a month. I know they are a company, and are in it for the money, but it's not necessary to charge us for a really big patch.

My reccomended solution would be this: To allow players to download it at no price, or to buy it in stores, but get a coupond for a discount on Shadowlands. Everyone is happy.

Any comments are welcome, but I knew that was comming anyway.

::fits Flame retardant suit and executes Harden Skin::

Bring it! :-)

[___________Yorkforce]

Its not the money , Its the fact that FC are pulling a quick one(and it is the most obvious stunt) you have to look at us that are flaming the idea and why we do it.

We like AO , we had many hopes for it , we still do , but while FC continue to use tactics like this, less people will play , thus the death of AO will come quicker due to thoughtless souls making bad decisions.

With SWG beta now started ,
And looking at screenshots ,
Skills system (which everyone knows it the best route to take instead of the level treadmill or lvl restricted items)
The fact that every char starts the same and you choose skills which determin the profession.
The fact that even if half of the FAQ are included in the release .. its going to be 10x better than AO.
The fact that the people making it are veteran MMORPG programmers unlike AO programmers.

Im sorry , but this is the way its going .. AO is like a Skoda compared to the BMW of SWG.
Now AO wants you to buy thier headlights for 1/3rd of the cost of an entire BMW.

Everything that SWG is doing far out performs AO ..

AO = Shadowlands
SWG = Space Expansion

AO = Broken Trade skills
SWG = More Trade skills than Combat Skills

AO = Zones
SWG = Seamless

AO = Computer Lag
SWG = Dynamic Object Depixelers x Distance

AO = Missions
SWG = Quests + Trades + 9 Planets + 700+ Skills + Vechicles + Social professions + NPC factions + City Building + PC Shops the list goes on and on.

all in all

AO = Skoda (Except a Skoda is more reliable)
SWG = BMW

Bad marketing = more players leaving for other games.

[ryokucha2]

Originally posted by Yorkforce
AO = Skoda (Except a Skoda is more reliable)

hehe, I guess we will see what happends, If SWG comes out and is as great as everyone says, then Ill have no problem with the booster pack and it can cost 5cents at that point I still probably wouldnt buy into it.

But we will see how great SWG is, at least going to have to try it out, seems like everything AO tired to be, but just couldnt get there. All games sound great till they are online, SWG will have its problems too, but even so, maybe more options too, without having to pay for patches I hope :P

[______________Luxxan]

I seriously doubt Funcom is trying to pull a "fast one" on anyone. They are a small company and AO has been plagued with difficulty from the start. I'm sure they could use more revenue to better ensure their future. I have no problem giving this company another $15, because I know it's going towards more fixes, more content, and more story as well as increasing the chances the game will stay around for the full four years.

As for "misused" manpower, think of it from this perspective. The problem with bugs is that there are thousands of players playing the game, and bugs which only a few report. Usually, players are not adept at bug reporting, so the devs do not get much useful information about the bugs. This means they have to spend huge amounts of time trying to find and reproduce the bug.

Sometimes, they may never be able to find anything wrong and all that wasted time and frustration is for nothing. I would much rather they spend that time making new content and new story, things which they can constantly add to and directly reflect the time they put in. Leave the bug hunting to the ARK bug hunters, who are volunteers and do not take away from the core game dev department. Once the bug hunters have found and reproduced a bug, then the devs can go after fixing it.

This may mean that some bugs take longer to fix than they would otherwise (in most cases I think they probably get fixed faster anyway) but the trade off in the amount of content you get is astounding, and definitely worth it.

So just take a breath and realize that these guys have been working their butts off to make this game fun and that $15 is really not that much to pay to make the game that much more fun but it will go a long way towards ensuring their future as a company.

[_Bonk_]

Well if its $19.95 I'll still pay it but I think that paying that much for something that isnt even considered a true expansion is a little steep and I think this will piss many loyal customers off.

[lilnymph]

Originally posted by Yorkforce
AO = Skoda (Except a Skoda is more reliable)
SWG = BMW

AO = Here
SWG = Grass is always greener

Anyone else but me remember what everyone was saying when DAOC was about to come out?

hugs

lilnymph

[ralguramo]

Not all do, but some of the ones complaining talk about what the original game promised and how now AO is trying to charge for it. Then they talk about what SW:G is promising. It's not even in a box in the store yet. If it does everything they say, great, but don't hold your breath. Heck, they aren't even talking space travel for a year AFTER release.

As many have stated, a lot of games showed lots of promise til they hit the shelves. Threaten AO that you will leave to play other games. I'm sure they are aware of this. If it turns out that SW:G is all that and a bag of chips, it will get a lot of players from several games.

[XtroXtreme]

Originally posted by Ralgur
Not all do, but some of the ones complaining talk about what the original game promised and how now AO is trying to charge for it. Then they talk about what SW:G is promising. It's not even in a box in the store yet. If it does everything they say, great, but don't hold your breath. Heck, they aren't even talking space travel for a year AFTER release.

And when I get SWG I know that it will not have spaceflight at start. When I got AO I thought I should get more later since it was not included in a all to early realease, especialy since it was a pay beta.
I definitly are not get any pay patch to the pay beta, that is for sure.

[Lunayu]

I'm so tired of hearing about SWG. If you want it, you'll get it, big whoop!

AO is not DAOC or SWG or anything else. It would be quite boring if all these games were the same, worked the same, played the same.

AO is cheap! You can purchase it for a mere $19.99 unlike other games which will cost you $40-50 and then ask for more money each month. Did you forget when you purchased AO that you got the first month free! Stop complaining about prices!

I've played collecting card games before where you purchase 'booster packs' for the game. The 'booster pack' offered by AO has a lot more content and your guaranteed to get more use out of it.

There was mention on how AO was originally promoted. That was over a year ago! AO is not the same game anymore. So much has changed from what it used to be, for better or worse.

I love Anarchy Online. It's a great game that far surpasses anything I've seen. I'll stick with it untill the end.

[XtroXtreme]

Eh, Ao did cost 40-50$ at release. It just didn´t attract enough customers so they lowered the price, and tried the buddy recruiting and win a graphic card drive.

[Strayduck]

I deffinatly wouldnt of joined at that cost, 12quid is fine for me, anymore and i cant afford it. I love this game, im just sick of people moaning, cant funcom do somthing about them?

[lilnymph]

unfortantly they cant do anything for them unless they break the rules, then they can be banned. What Funcom should do is send them all a free leet doll, then they would have something to hug, and might not feel so angry at the world

Or we just have to wait for most of them (not all of them) to grow up out of the stage where it is fashionable to be against everything, and where you think you know everything (funny how these two come together isnt it ) .

hugs

lilnymph

[XtroXtreme]

Eh, Lillnymph it´s something we have grown into thanks to FC´s bad handling of customers. The game has become better though since the start (not that it was hard to make it better since it could hardly gotten any worse then it was at release).
But funny as it might be at that time I was happy and optimistic since I thought we had a communication with FC that worked together with a proper customsupport, since then I learned that was not true.

If FC just would at least try to get those two things I would give them a second chance, and I have actualy given them both a second, third and a forth chance but then I got tired of it.
I guess I can only take that much abuse before I start to bite back.

[lilnymph]

Problem is this company has over 100000 customers (and I know most of you dont believe that number) and there is no real way that it can even begin to provide the CS most people want, especilly not for $12.95 a month. And personanly I wouldnt even try with these boards in the state they are in hehe.

Though I have to say it has been alot better lately, with CZ posting like a mad man, and Ragnar aswell

I understand what you mean though Spook, but I dont feel insulting the company and thinking the worst of them at every turn is actualy going to help any. Remember ultimatly there are people at the Funcom end, and I think giving them encouragement and helping them improve is better than saying they are all rubbish and should be thrown out on the dole.

hugs

lilnymph

[XtroXtreme]

It IS nice to see more posts from people at FC on the board, but if that lead to a communication between customers and FC about what need to be done, or if we will be forcefed a vison FC have of AO remain to be seen.

As for custom support, that is a must in a game that you spend a lot of your time developing a character. If a DM in a P&P game treated the players like FC treats customers he would sone be out of players. If there is a problem it must be handled, and not ignored in hope that it will go away (Which is about what I´m about to do since I DID NOT recieve any custom support when one of my characters got broken in a bug. Bloody hell, i did not even recieve a replymail, and that is definitly bad support if can´t even reply to customers problems).

[lilnymph]

Ultimatly it is FC's game, and they can take it anyway they want. our only recourse is to take our money somewhere else.

And remember, the analogy with a PnP Dm doesnt work anymore than the barbie one else where on these boards. a PnP DM usually has about 5 or less people to keep happy, and balance and cheating arent an issue. FC has thousands of players, and balance and cheating are very major issues. They cant just agree witht he players at all times, and not all of their ideas will be good for players in the short term. However before you (in general you, not you in specific spook, hehe) go off and flame them for everything, try and put yourself in their shoes and thing what you would have done differently. If you really think about it, you might be surprised.

hugs

lilnymph

[XtroXtreme]

Originally posted by lilnymph
Ultimatly it is FC's game, and they can take it anyway they want. our only recourse is to take our money somewhere else.

And remember, the analogy with a PnP Dm doesnt work anymore than the barbie one else where on these boards. a PnP DM usually has about 5 or less people to keep happy, and balance and cheating arent an issue. FC has thousands of players, and balance and cheating are very major issues. They cant just agree witht he players at all times, and not all of their ideas will be good for players in the short term. However before you (in general you, not you in specific spook, hehe) go off and flame them for everything, try and put yourself in their shoes and thing what you would have done differently. If you really think about it, you might be surprised.

hugs

lilnymph

The DM might not have more then 4-8 (that is the size of groups at our meetings anyway), but the balance of the classes atc have already been done by the company that makes the game. As for cheeting, well I have seen that as well (some people just can´t stand to lose). But if a DM decide to add a new rule he must check that nothing get broken by it.

That last is what we have the test server for, even if I have seen from time to time that whatever been said of those on it have been ignored.

Anyway if something get broken, like let us say suddenly the DM of a fantacy game decide to remove magic, you might be quite sure he will have some players leaving through the door if he intend them to continue play their mages without magic.
I´m a DM at some of those times our group meet to play some PnP, so I know it is no dance on roses trying to satisfy all players, but almost all players are at least satisfied if you treat them by the rules and fix problems they are not responible for but you as DM are. And the fix for thing can usualy be discussed to reach an solution.

FC´s custom support have at times just ignored customers with problem, that is what I have a bone with.

[lilnymph]

I still think most people have unfair expectiations about what is possible, espcially CS wise.

Spook, your ok for a Troll, you actually have logical reasons behind your trolling.

hugs

lilnymph

[XtroXtreme]

I can handle a polite conversation for as long as I´m not insulted. My less nice post have been in respons to some people (fanboys) that make the ususal "you complain so you are stupid, and get the hell out of our game". If they had instead, like you, tried to have a more constructive conversation I must definitly prefer that.

It´s just that latly there have been very few of those responses, so I guess I got a bit cranky.