Posted Jul 02, 2008 at 02:04PM by Enrico S. Listed in: Opinions and Analysis, Community Corner Tags: Funcom, customer service
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Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures - Image 1Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures has been out for almost month and a half now. On the official forums the community has polarized into two distinct factions: those who won't be continuing their subscriptions to the game and those who will gut it out. Now the question is, what is the right move to pursue at the moment?

Now, some of you guys may say that I won't be able to establish the answer to that question in one article. You're right. What I can do, however, is give you guys a few facts that might help you make a decision.

It won't be an exaggeration for me to say that the game is buggy as hell. The game still has a number of memory leaks that need to be addressed, there are a number of class skills that don't work, and there are quests that can't be completed. To top it all off, Funcom's customer service isn't really that good and the patches have been substandard at best.

Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures - Image 1 Yes, I will admit that there are times that it feels like I'm paying to play an extended beta test version of the game and that Funcom seems to have fallen into a number of pitfalls that other developers of successful MMORPGs experienced back when they were starting out.

However, despite of these problems, the game is still playable. I can honestly say that I'm having fun despite all of the issues that I previously mentioned.

The memory leaks are horrible, but I've never really experienced them as often as some have reported. Not having a number of my class skills working just sucks, and to be honest, I wonder when Funcom will get to that. The quests are slowly being fixed.

Funcom's customer service will probably improve when they decide to get MORE PEOPLE to help manage the growing community and the patches, well, at least they fix a few of the problems in the game.

Now that I think about it, I guess I will continue to play Age of Conan. Why you may ask? Because the game fulfills the one basic thing I look for in any video game, it is fun for me. And as long as it remains so, I will keep handing Funcom my US$ 15 dollars.

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7 Comments


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   by Morlander - 2008-07-02
 » its yer money

once you hit 80 theres nothing to do but raid or pvp and pvp is pretty pointless atm ohh and dont forget you can go harvest resources... yay


   Re: Enrico S. (QJ. NET Staff) - 2008-07-02
 » true enough

I actually enjoy raiding :D and I still have my alts :D Are you going to keep subscribing though?
   by trixter - 2008-07-03
 » ciao

My account was frozen around two weeks ago already - my main char was only on lvl 48 - so I'm obviously not going to stick it out

If they want me to stick it out then they'll have to reduce their subscription price or give me some free time to make up for all of the hassles (several have hampered gameplay that badly for me). It is a competitive market and they can't be forgiven so easily because of the expectations we place on a high profile title like this. It has so much potential - just seems like they may be juggling far too much at the moment to try and please everyone. I guess it's a hard thing to do - can you pull it off in the long run is the question we should rather be asking.


   Re: Enrico S. (QJ. NET Staff) - 2008-07-03
 » That's rough

Yeah, they do have a lot of technical issues that they have to work through. You made a good point that it does seem that they are trying to handle too much.

As for whether or not it's sustainable, I honestly can't say. I mean, communication wise, the guys over at Funcom haven't exactly been very transparent on what they've been doing behind the scenes (a common complaint by many of the subscribers on the forums). Perhaps when they start talking more, we'll be able to see if what they're doing is indeed sustainable. :D
   by Hekynn - 2008-07-06
 » true true

They do have bugs to work around but hey its a new game and I like it I love the combat :D

   by Dragoon - 2008-07-06
 » lulz

I really like AoC. My main character is an assassin on Bluesteel, and at first I hated the assassin. I was constantly told it sucked, needed more CC, etc. Until I started to PvP with it, and strategise and learn more PvP techniques making it seriously involving and fun.

It may be true there is no content later in the game right now, but I am not a hardcore super fast leveler, my highest is 28. I also have a few alts and am in the largest guild on Bluesteel.


   Re: Enrico S. (QJ. NET Staff) - 2008-07-07
 » Hey, if you have space on your character list

Why don't you roll one character on the Wiccana server? We've got an official guild there called the Ravens of Memory. It's a family style guild, so no pressure to level or anything. :D


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