AoC: Does anyone play this game?

[Deka]

Well i think it might be a bit arbitrary to ask this if the latest post is from 2011 in this section.

But since i played a bit aoc and thought about giving it another try (f2p obviously, wont just throw money into their mouths) sooo maybe i have luck and there is still someone playing it.

Also another thing: Have anyone lately tried getting any skin to run? i do like to customize the games i play, but well read about it being disabled horribly by funcom.

[ChaosArcher]

Deka,
Here are some links:

The first one is a year old and states that the playerbase quadrupled in 1 month of going free:
http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/232/index/8100898/1

The one is two months old and talks about server merger:
http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/08/06/age-of-conan-merging-set-wiccana-servers-this-week/

What I could garner was that it was doing well, but it maybe dying a bit. I guess the best way to check is to play it

Can't help you on the skins part.

Hope it helps.

-ChaosArcher

[Tessera]

There was a short-lived spike in the number of AoC subscribers, after Funcom threw the game open to "free play." As one might expect, this induced a lot of older subscribers to come back and give the game another try. I mean, hey... when you tell people that something is "free," then you're bound to see a bunch of curiosity seekers showing up at your doorstep.

It did not lead to very many NEW subscribers, however. It was mostly returnees... veteran players who had canceled their subs years ago. The free-play announcement gave us vets a chance to stick our heads back in and mess around with our old characters. For nostalgia's sake, more than any other reason.

After the initial thrill died down, so did the number of active players. And so, once again, AoC became a virtual wasteland... and they ended up doing yet another server merger.

It's a dead game, folks. Been dead for several years.

As for custom skins, no... they won't work. Funcom has effectively sabotaged our ability to create any mods for AoC. I'm not sure why they did that, because the ability to introduce custom skins and custom UI mods would definitely give AoC the shot in the arm that it so desperately needs. But nope... they don't work. As I should very well know (I created some of the very first custom skins ever produced for AoC).

So to answer the OP's original question of "Does anyone play this game?" my qualified answer would be "Almost no one plays AoC these days." I logged into AoC just a month ago and I saw maybe five people on the entire server. It was rather pitiful. And it's been like that for the past three years.

Age Of Conan is a great example of what does NOT qualify as an adult game. Simply jamming a bunch of tits and ass into your game does not make it "adult." Tits just make it "pretty." Aside from the tits, AoC has no other content that I would consider to be adult in nature. It has no intelligence... it has no maturity... it lacks any sophistication, aside from its visual qualities... and overall, it's just as dumb and pointless as any other standard-issue MMO. Nor does it faithfully adhere to most of the "Conan-isms" originally created by Robert E. Howard.

Well, that is not what most adults wanted. What we want is not only the sexy stuff, but some intelligent and sophisticated and ORIGINAL gameplay, too. And AoC fails to deliver any of those things. Take away the tits, and AoC is just another formulaic and mundane MMO experience. Hence the reason that I have often referred to AoC as being "nothing more than WoW with tits."


ABOVE: an example of the custom skins that I was working on for AoC... just prior to when Funcom deliberately sabotaged the modding community.

[ChaosArcher]

Wow such an extensive response Tessera.

It seems the same why with fads, they come up for a short time, and once the wow factor has dispated, it dies (I would argue 3D is one such fad). I expected at least some players, by reading what you wrote, I am surprised.

I had one idea that Funcon made access to modding AoC so hard. Funny, I would have assumed the opposite, because mods add new life to game. I guess we can attribute it to stupid marketing decisions. By the way Tessera, great mods for AoC, pity the game is practically dead, or it would have been a nice addition.

Thank you for the insight.

-ChaosArcher

[Cylnar]

It seems the same why with fads, they come up for a short time, and once the wow factor has dispated, it dies (I would argue 3D is one such fad).

I assume you're talking about 3D in movies, and not in games. Because, you know...I'm pretty sure that 3D gaming is here to stay.

[Tessera]

I had (no) idea that Funcon made access to modding AoC so hard. Funny, I would have assumed the opposite, because mods add new life to game. I guess we can attribute it to stupid marketing decisions. By the way Tessera, great mods for AoC, pity the game is practically dead, or it would have been a nice addition.

Precisely. Mods add new life to a game. Especially a game that is in serious trouble.

I can't be certain about Funcom's reasons for sabotaging the efforts of modders like myself. But let's take a brief look at the history...

Not long after AoC first launched, I began working on some custom, high-quality nude skins for the female characters. A couple of other modders were likewise working on their own versions of texture mods (nude or otherwise) for AoC. This was back in 2008.

I was already well-known as a prominent nude modder back at that time, so as one might expect, the development of my own AoC mod was getting quite a bit of attention at the time.

Finally there came the day when I announced that my "AoC Superskin Mod" was going to be released very soon. People were very excited about it.

And within a week of that announcement, Funcom patched the game and effectively prevented ANYONE'S mods from functioning.

Maybe I'm reading more into this than I should... but the timing seemed very suspicious to me. 

It is also important for us to make note of the fact that back then, Funcom was getting quite a bit of harassment from the anti-titty crusaders out there. Groups of parents, religious nuts, you name it... they had been descending upon Funcom ever since AoC was released. And they were bitching about... you guessed it... the female nudity in the game.

As for why Funcom would deliberately nuke the efforts of the modding community..? I have no fucking idea. Maybe because they were afraid of how much worse the anti-titty crusade might become, if people suddenly starting seeing screenshots all over the web showing my AoC nude textures. By default, the girls in AoC are merely topless. But my nude textures made them 100% naked... with beautiful bare asses and very detailed pussies. So maybe the idiots at Funcom were afraid that the widespread use of my "AoC Superskin" might somehow ramp up the bullshit that they were already receiving from the anti-titty crusaders.

Or maybe they were worried that the use of custom skin textures might somehow compromise the integrity of the gameplay. I'm not sure how such a thing could be possible... not unless the sight of naked tits and ass would somehow give you an advantage in a raid (a boost to player morale, maybe..?) It really doesn't make any sense, but neither do most of the other decisions that Funcom made back in those days.

Maybe it was just their egos. Maybe the sight of my custom textures, which totally blew away the quality produced by their own developers, was too much for their fragile little egos to take. If that sounds silly to anyone, then keep in mind that the original game director for AoC was fired less than a year after the game was released. And he was fired for behaving like a megalomaniacal jackass and making a bunch of VERY bad decisions. There was no shortage of ego-based crappola being shown by Funcom back then. Maybe it's a Norwegian thing... whatever.

Anyway, I've been giving lengthy responses within this topic because it happens to be a subject that inflames me to this day. I was a member of the AoC beta community. I was there... right from the very beginning, way back in 2005. I had very high hopes for AoC. And like most other beta testers, I got sucked in by the pre-release promises being made by the assholes at Funcom. But as we drew nearer and nearer to launch day, I saw those promises being broken one at a time... in favor of censoring the game and dumbing it down. It made me so furious that I posted a huge blast of angry complaints on the AoC beta forums... and my reward (as usual) was to be silenced and banned by the devs. I warned them that their game was going to fail if they kept trying to deviate from their original game plan. And guess what..? They blew me off... even though I was dead-on correct. And I wasn't the only one saying it, either. Lots of beta testers were getting pissed off at Funcom. But they essentially ignored us.

I keep imagining how differently things would have been for AoC, if they had NOT sabotaged the modding community. One thing is for sure -- our mods couldn't possibly have made things any worse. Because for the past three years, AoC has been a fucking wasteland.




^^ I think that pretty much covers it.  :laugh:

[ChaosArcher]

It seems the same why with fads, they come up for a short time, and once the wow factor has dispated, it dies (I would argue 3D is one such fad).

I assume you're talking about 3D in movies, and not in games. Because, you know...I'm pretty sure that 3D gaming is here to stay.

Come on Cylnar, everyone knows 3D gaming is the future 

-ChaosArcher

[ChaosArcher]

Once again thank you for the detailed response and enlightening history Tessera.

Your picture sums it all up.

-ChaosArcher

[Tessera]

You are most welcome.   

[Dracolich70]

I got this game at release, and got a big clumsy Elephant that moved slower than I could walk. The combat system was quite interesting, but also a bit fatiguing, when most MMOs are about grind. Played a month, and have not come back since. See little reason to, as there are other free-MMOs that I haven't tried yet - like Aion(started downloading, but couldn't be bothered, to complete it, since MMOs are completely boring and lack depth, and I say this as one who has played WoW and Eve-online for years).

Single player games seem are more my cup of tea. Social networking I do not really care much about in games.

PS Think the most exciting thing was once in DaoC, I helped a woman, who turned out to be a married danish woman. 15 mins later, she called me on the phone wanting to do cyber-sex. Not my cup of tea either - I can't be a faker.

PPS I played WoW for such a long time, due to add-ons/mods.

[tones12]

The patching surely couldn't have been a coincidence! What a fucking waste... Can publishers held responsible for anything that has to do with 3rd party mods? Shouldn't think so..
Reminds me of supermarkets bleeching food before throwing it out. [Expletive here].

Interesting story, thanks!

[silentoption]

it's still up and running unlike hellgate london

[Tessera]

Hellgate: London is still available, too.

[Gimblenurse]

It's just sad. I refused to give up hope on the game for a long time. Finally I gave up on AOC, but I'm not quite ready to give up hope, that some day someone will make that game, that I (we?) hoped AOC would be. Still a shame for all the good content, which was wasted. For example, I really loved the music.

[Tessera]

Copied over from the members-only section of this board...

Too bad the modding community never saw your work, due to the mess that Age of Conan was.

Thanks, dude.  

I have a long reply, though. I hope all of you will read it.

Yeah... Funcom seriously dropped the ball on AoC. And now, it's probably too late for them to recant and fix it. By alienating modders like myself, they effectively doomed that game to "where are they now" land.

And it had so much promise. It really does make me sad. But not for myself. Listen up, people, I was able to play the game for almost a year with my beautiful hi-res textures, before they were sabotaged by Funcom. So it's not a personal loss for me... I've had my fun. I played that girl. I saw that beautiful Tessera-created body on my screen... for quite a long time.

No, I'm sad about it because I know... I absolutely know... that for this game in particular, a high-quality nude mod was not only appropriate, but DESIRABLE. This was a game that had nude women straight out of the box. AoC was ALREADY a nude game, so to speak. As it still is. So what would be more natural for a "nude modder" like myself, than to add my own little upgrades to an already nude game..? I really hoped that it would become a popular upgrade mod, for AoC players. As I am sure that it would have been.

But it was not to be. Funcom screwed me... and in the process, they screwed AoC, too. No, I am not being conceited when I say that. This is not my ego talking. I have received so many correspondences over the years, from either existing or prospective AoC players, that I can no longer deny what they have been telling me. Nor should Funcom deny it. And all of them have said the same things to me. And above all, what they said was this:

"Tessera, if your AoC skins had actually been released, I would still be playing that game."

Or...

"Tessera, I was thinking about buying AoC when I saw your textures... until I found out that you were screwed out of releasing them. Now, I no longer have any interest in AoC."

I swear to you all that I AM NOT blowing my own horn here. I know it sounds that way, but I'm not. And yeah, yeah... I do good re-skins. We already know that. I've been doing this for so many years that even my own ego doesn't matter anymore. I've been published... I've been lauded a million times... hell, even the people who profess to hate me still acknowledge my meager talents. Whoopie. I'm beyond the point where I feel any egocentric need to impress anyone with my artistic skills. Either you like my work, or you don't. I'm at the point where I am long past giving a damn. I do what I do... and most people like it. I've even been paid for it. A lot. How else do you think I was able to recently purchase a ranch in southern California..? Case closed.

No, I am not being egocentric when I talk about AoC and my re-skins for that game. I am actually trying to be charitable here. I really believed in that MMO. I was involved in the beta stages of AoC. I WAS THERE. And I really wanted AoC to succeed. I had been a fan of Robert E. Howard's wonderful fantasy stories for many years... long before Funcom ever thought about basing an MMo upon those stories. I know the material... extremely well. And At first, I honestly thought that Funcom's intentions were legitimate.

When they told us that it would be "an adult MMO, featuring female nudity," I was both impressed and encouraged. I even went so far as to offer my services to Funcom FOR FREE. Yes, I really did... during the first month after the game went "live."

But then... a mere week after I announced my intention to release a high-quality, fully-nude mod for AoC...

They changed the engine. They did it deliberately. They were worried that the ability to add texture mods to AoC might compromise the PvP aspects of the game. They were so worried about that, in fact, that they completely overlooked the fact that PvP in that game SUCKS... has ALWAYS SUCKED... and the bottom line is that most AoC players are there BECAUSE of the female nudity. Whether they openly admit to it, or not.

There's a guy over on The Escapist web site named Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw. He is famous for posting high-speed video reviews of various computer games. And more often than not, he seems to poo-poo the addition of tits and ass into various video games. And yet, when he played AoC, his very first character was a naked female Stygian.

Need I say more..? It is the tits and ass of AoC which has kept that game afloat. Be honest with yourselves. That is, indeed, the only reason that AoC has lasted as long as it has.

And that is why they made an enormous mistake, when they deliberately shut out nude modders like myself, Parmon, and others. They quite literally shot their potential cash cow in the foot.

And that is why AoC is a graveyard. It really is the true reason, regardless of the denial that we have seen... amongst both the industry, and even the AoC community. If Funcom would reverse their actions and allow texture modders to add their creations to the game... something that a much bigger MMO named EverQuest 2 has allowed... then AoC may very well begin to rise back up towards the top.

But it was not to be... sadly.  

Do you know why the Lord Of The Rings trilogy of films were so excellent and successful..? It's because the producers and the director remained so steadfastly loyal to the source material... that's why.

And do you know why AoC has been so unsuccessful..? Because the producers and the bean counters strayed so far from the source material... that's why. It's even more disgusting when you realize that a 33-year-old film adaptation of Howard's work ("Conan The Barbarian," starring Arnold Schwarzenegger) is less prudish and censored than AoC is... a supposedly adult PC game released in the 21st century. When the hell is the gaming industry going to grow the fuck up..?

This is where I need to address my numerous and misguided detractors again, because I can hear them muttering. I'm not looking for fame. I already have that... limited though it may be. No, I'm looking for honest and courageous devotion to the source material. Is that such a weird concept to you..? Does it seem unrealistic..? Then go tell that to Peter Jackson. Because what Funcom has done with AoC is a serious insult to Robert E. Howard and his estate. If some of you disagree, then you are children who seriously need to grow up, and stop allowing your personal insecurities to override your grip upon reality. Sexual repression, embarrassment, and antiquated prudishness have no place within the Howard mythos. Hyborea doesn't need a fig leaf. Hyborea is an erotic fantasy world. It's time to look in the mirror and see who we really are.

R.E. Howard saw it. And he saw it 80 years ago. So why can't Funcom..?

BELOW: Take another good look. Because THIS is exactly what Robert E. Howard wanted you to see. Don't believe me..? Then go read his books. My textures for AOC were based directly upon the descriptions within Howard's novels. The only thing missing from this Stygian witch is her ostrich-feather headdress (no mesh for it, that's why). And please... go slap Funcom in the face, and make them wake up.

[ChaosArcher]

Informative as always Tessera.

Now, where do I sign up to slap some sense into Funcom 

-ChaosArcher

[Wormphlegm]

Sexual repression, embarrassment, and antiquated prudishness have no place within the Howard mythos. Hyborea doesn't need a fig leaf. Hyborea is an erotic fantasy world. It's time to look in the mirror and see who we really are.

The biggest thing is that people have difficulty seeing the difference between art, and porn.
Nudity can be art, and it's not rare.

Porn can be art, but it's pretty rare.
I don't consider a chick gagging on a dick, before getting a load in the eyes artistic.
Nor do I consider gaping assholes to be artistic.

There are some porn movies out there that are actually artistic.
They're still porn, but they're also art.
They straddle(heh, straddle) that line.

Keep in mind, I'm about as far away from prudish as you can get.
I used to work in a sex shop/porn store during the night shift.

[Tessera]

The biggest thing is that people have difficulty seeing the difference between art, and porn.

Well then, the Louvre in Paris is a porn museum... because it's loaded with nude paintings and sculptures.

As is every other major art museum in the world. So I guess every art museum is really a porn museum, eh..?

People need to grow the fuck up, and stop treating nudity as if it were "dirty." That's what they need to do.