General Discussion

MMORPG.com Age of Conan Correspondent Ben Avery recently spoke with members of two Age of Conan Guilds, on in North America and one in Europe, to get their opinions on a number of issues relevant to the game as it is now and since launch.

In Part One, Ben talks to Mental Block, from the North American guild Primal Instinct.

Age of Conan is fast approaching the 5 months old mark. It released amidst a huge wave of hype. Is the game currently living up to the hype from the minds of its current player base? Did that wave of hype crash down and drown everyone? Is the game the same as it was at release? Has it gotten worse or better?

These are some of the questions that I hope to bring answers to in today’s Age of Conan state of the game Guild Q&A. One of the main reasons for doing this is to get some perspective from the current player base that has been in since launch. I thought ‘what better way to do this than to ask directly’! It’s also important to ask the right questions to get a clearer perspective for those interested. I have chosen two guilds to start – one from the European servers and one from the North American continent servers. These guilds are active in game, are known on their servers and have some good insight. I hope this comes across as adequate and unbiased enough for the critics and a decent enough read for the casual browser. As the questions asked are to the leaders and guild members alike, it should portray a good representation of where we are up to today with Age of Conan. We have one large guild and one average sized, both from a PvP and PvE perspective. As time goes on I might be doing more of these to getter a better feel of the truer state of the game.

Check out Ben's interview.

12-15 actives?  I wouldn't really consider that worthy of an article.  If I had been the correspondent, I would have tried to get an interview with more of a representive guild (granted that due to the sub decline that number might have dwindled somewhat).  No disrespect intended to the members of Primal but this article seems unworthy of the space it takes up.

Originally posted by Samhael

 

12-15 actives?  I wouldn't really consider that worthy of an article.  If I had been the correspondent, I would have tried to get an interview with more of a representive guild (granted that due to the sub decline that number might have dwindled somewhat).  No disrespect intended to the members of Primal but this article seems unworthy of the space it takes up.

I was going for a PvP and PvE guild perspective contrast - there is a part 2 coming soon, and seen as a whole might give a clearer picture. For Example the EU Guild coming - has 200+ members. P.I.'s numbers I believe have risen slightly as the article was penned a few weeks ago and patches since. A lot of P.I's members run on the test server too, giving further insight.

I too was dissapointed that the guild interviewed was a very tiny guild with very little experience with raiding and Sieging. I was also dissapointed that the guild was an old AO guild. So they may be somewhat biased towards Funcom (I'm not saying they are, but that is my perception considering they seem to be very fond of AO and Craig the game director).

Why couldn't you find a larger guild that has more experience in raiding and sieging?

On another note, I can see that the leader is not fond of the community, he considers them clueless, and he is happy with the "FOTM" OP Bear Shaman Class.

Overall the interview was very well written, but lacks substance due to the lack of experience exhibited by a very small guild, and the guild seems to have been "cherry picked" to get answers that the interviewer wanted to hear.

Next time find a guild that isn't heavily into AO, and that may be a bit more unbiased.

heh. the smaller the population the easier to be "king of the hill" Im sure some people are happy to be the big fish in the little pond. As for paid transfers . FC would have to be out of their mind clueless to not at least offer a limited time free transfer. Afterall the mess AoC is in now is all their fault. They should suck it up and do what it takes to make those players they still have happy and wanting to stay.

Originally posted by Soupgoblin

 

I too was dissapointed that the guild interviewed was a very tiny guild with very little experience with raiding and Sieging. I was also dissapointed that the guild was an old AO guild. So they may be somewhat biased towards Funcom (I'm not saying they are, but that is my perception considering they seem to be very fond of AO and Craig the game director).

Why couldn't you find a larger guild that has more experience in raiding and sieging?

On another note, I can see that the leader is not fond of the community, he considers them clueless, and he is happy with the "FOTM" OP Bear Shaman Class.

Overall the interview was very well written, but lacks substance due to the lack of experience exhibited by a very small guild, and the guild seems to have been "cherry picked" to get answers that the interviewer wanted to hear.

Next time find a guild that isn't heavily into AO, and that may be a bit more unbiased.

As I said this is part 1. Part 2 is a PvE guild which is large and into Raiding. The whole thing was 2 big to put up as one article. Therefore as a whole it should give the reader constrasting views coupled with my take on what was said too :)

 Hmm I find it really hard to believe that the person they talked with has been playing from day one just because of this quote.

 "Patches in AO used to come every 6-8 weeks (sometimes longer before Silirrion), I think that during launch (and the month following it) FC was fixing problems fast and effectively, downtimes weren't annoying as they were usually short. They were doing very good, I do think they should speed it up a little or just hot-fix things like the gems(remove them completely and rebalanced them on test), testing is required as well and the test server player base is ok, the Raid guild idea(to test raids on Test live) is also a good move.

I have no problem if the patches take longer, as long as they do not introduce game breaking bugs."
 

Patches in AOC were an ongoing joke server wide. The nerfed every 2 weeks and fixed bugs like NPC such and such will no longer dance on his chair. Not sure how things have been the last couple patches but that first 3 months or so it was all about the nerf bat. I recently read up some on the boards cause I was thinking about going back to see what had changed but the fact they still have not fixed much of the raiding makes me think not.

wow... a bear shaman saying that people gotta learn how to play their toon to be able to have fun in AoC... Just try a conqueror for fun, dont go for a 2hand weapon, try some dual wielding. And then come see me and explain me how a damn healer can outDPS the main DPS class of the soldier archetype ? How can a guardian (the main tanking class, the name says it no ? ) can outDPS a Conq ?

AoC should hav been the best MMO out there 4 month ago, they fucked it all up real good ! i've wait 2 years and a half for this game, i'm a fan of Conan lore, with bloody battles, where melee is the main kind of fight everywhere. But Funcom just made a Age of Caster...

Ninja patch happening any time of the days is kinda boring too, and having to wait almost a month to get some bas news (all they can do is change name of the damn abilities) in a fabulous patch where they're still having fun with caster class they'Ve been working on since launch !

Sorry but Funcom wont have my money anymore, i'Ve already paid enough, i'Ve been patient and they still cant fix their nightmare, enough is enough.

Originally posted by Samhael

 

12-15 actives?&