Age of Conan

When Denial, PR Spin, Forum Nazism.  Out Right Lying doesn't work. Why not try the truth.

http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/191/view/videos/play/1288

OMG..... you cant BUY entertainment like this.....  /grabs popcorn!

"not a perfect launch at all"..... he says!!!!

"need to fix the memory leaks!"!!!! he says!!!!

AoC is tauted as a PvP centric game.... Ellingson says that, (talking about PvP Experience) "I didnt feel it was a major feature!"...lol

he says that "we didnt meet the first delivery date for the PvP system we stated"....   he FAILED to aknowledge that they also missed the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th delivery date they stated also!!!

WOW.... (no pun intended)....  you ever get the feeling that other MMO companies are paying for subs in AoC JUST TO KEEP this level of delusion in the public eye?.... ROFL

Originally posted by Ghist

When Denial, PR Spin, Forum Nazism.  Out Right Lying doesn't work. Why not try the truth.

http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/191/view/videos/play/1288

 

The Truth?  Are you crazy?  Hold on that is just so crazy that might work!  Brilliant!

Actually he is only saying these thigns because he is in a corner.  Unfortunately it is the same old same old as shown by the forum moderation question.

Erling never responds to the type of questions people really want answered.  One thing you can notice on the official forums as the population is castrated/truncated (whatever descriptor  you want to use) is that the Fanbois feel that things are getting better.

That isn't to mention the numerous people with active accounts who have now been outright banned for posting negative comments on the general boards. 

Lit

The problem I have with this particular issue is not that Ellingsen is telling the truth, it's the fact that it took him several months before deciding that honesty was the proper course of action.

This glaring oversight is only magnified by the endless levels of general PR deceit that we've all witnessed over the course of time as well.

I have to question the sincerity of the honesty here, because I genuinely just don't believe Funcom cares, at all, about it's customers (which they've demonstrated through their actions for over 90 days), and I can't help but wonder if this is nothing more than a desparate tactic to try and save face amongst some of their customer base.

However. I do believe this is step 1 in the RIGHT direction for Ellingsen and Funcom. Want to know what would really send a stronger message than a delicate admittance of wrong-doing? Here's my list.

1) Restore forum privileges to all customers who have been banned.

Funcom censored so many people. I have no doubt that many of the banned offenders deserved their punishment, as this game generated a lot of hate. However, many users were banned simply for stating that they were dissatisfied with a product, now inferior and incomplete by admittance of Ellingsen himself, which I don't believe is fair. Or, if Ellingsen would like to test out how absurd the forum moderation is, have him create a few alternate forum names, and post slightly negative things about the game. Maybe if he was banned from his own boards for civilly citing the flaws that lie within it, he'd understand his community's distrust of the company better.

2) Offer a "Return to Hyboria" campaign later this year. Don't you DARE do this without fixing the game first, either. In other words, provide all previously paying customers a full, free month to anyone who had a subscription between May and the present. If the game is truly fixed, people may trickle back in slowly. Do NOT half-ass this, and try to rush it in to compete against Warhammer.

3) Start fixing performance issues. Hell, dedicate a whole month to nothing but performance patches.

4) Shut the PR Hype-and-Lie machines down entirely. Want to know how to undermine the sincerity of any true gesture admitting wrong-doing? Put out an article or a statement that is deliberately misleading the next day. We don't care about how many boxes you sold, nor do we want to hear about the "mature rating", or anything else. We want the game to be fixed, and fun. Rubbing our faces in the dirt is not an intelligible way to keep us excited about the future of Hyboria.

5) Dismiss the idea of an expansion pack for now. Want to hammer a nail in the coffin? Keep talking about the expansion pack when the elements that were supposed to be in your core game aren't even there. I *hope* I speak for everyone when I say that it is preposterous to charge people for things that you failed to deliver in your first game due to technical incompetence. I will personally never even consider re-subbing to this game if an expansion pack is released before this game is repaired.

I saw a lot of people write on AoC's old form that the froms is much more fun than the game it self, and thats one of the reasons why i strolled in to mmorpg.com.  And they were right, this is so much more fun :)  It is exsilerating to watch something i dread so much burn . . . . does this make me a bad person? :)

Originally posted by Cymdai

The problem I have with this particular issue is not that Ellingsen is telling the truth, it's the fact that it took him several months before deciding that honesty was the proper course of action.

This glaring oversight is only magnified by the endless levels of general PR deceit that we've all witnessed over the course of time as well.

I have to question the sincerity of the honesty here, because I genuinely just don't believe Funcom cares, at all, about it's customers (which they've demonstrated through their actions for over 90 days), and I can't help but wonder if this is nothing more than a desparate tactic to try and save face amongst some of their customer base.

However. I do believe this is step 1 in the RIGHT direction for Ellingsen and Funcom. Want to know what would really send a stronger message than a delicate admittance of wrong-doing? Here's my list.

1) Restore forum privileges to all customers who have been banned.

Funcom censored so many people. I have no doubt that many of the banned offenders deserved their punishment, as this game generated a lot of hate. However, many users were banned simply for stating that they were dissatisfied with a product, now inferior and incomplete by admittance of Ellingsen himself, which I don't believe is fair. Or, if Ellingsen would like to test out how absurd the forum moderation is, have him create a few alternate forum names, and post slightly negative things about the game. Maybe if he was banned from his own boards for civilly citing the flaws that lie within it, he'd understand his community's distrust of the company better.

2) Offer a "Return to Hyboria" campaign later this year. Don't you DARE do this without fixing the game first, either. In other words, provide all previously paying customers a full, free month to anyone who had a subscription between May and the present. If the game is truly fixed, people may trickle back in slowly. Do NOT half-ass this, and try to rush it in to compete against Warhammer.

3) Start fixing performance issues. Hell, dedicate a whole month to nothing but performance patches.

4) Shut the PR Hype-and-Lie machines down entirely. Want to know how to undermine the sincerity of any true gesture admitting wrong-doing? Put out an article or a statement that is deliberately misleading the next day. We don't care about how many boxes you sold, nor do we want to hear about the "mature rating", or anything else. We want the game to be fixed, and fun. Rubbing our faces in the dirt is not an intelligible way to keep us excited about the future of Hyboria.

5) Dismiss the idea of an expansion pack for now. Want to hammer a nail in the coffin? Keep talking about the expansion pack when the elements that were supposed to be in your core game aren't even there. I *hope* I speak for everyone when I say that it is preposterous to charge people for things that you failed to deliver in your first game due to technical incompetence. I will personally never even consider re-subbing to this game if an expansion pack is released before this game is repaired.

Great post. Number 4 especially.

The problem lie in this formula they have chosen to use.

Lie

Lie

Lie

Lie

Lie

Lie to cover up Lie

Truth

Sadly lie trumps truth until actions start speaking.

OMFG.  It shows you how stupid managment is at Funcom.  Erling says that he PERSONALLY felt that PvP wasn't one of the main features of Age of Conan.  WHAT THE HELL!?!?!?  See, Avery, and the rest of you fanbois.  Right there is LIEING to you all.  From forums everywhere including the Funcom forums, PVE was the unwanted stepchild of AoC.  It was all about combat and pvp on the forums for the last two years.  I can't believe Erling would insult the community like this and say that he didn't feel pvp would be that big of a feature with this game.  Are you kidding me?

I'm sorry.  The only way for Funcom to save face and move forward with the community is to fire both Guate and Erling.  Until that happens, I would never consider giving AoC a second look even if it was for a year, free of charge.

Originally posted by Cymdai

The problem I have with this particular issue is not that Ellingsen is telling the truth, it's the fact that it took him several months before deciding that honesty was the proper course of action.

This glaring oversight is only magnified by the endless levels of general PR deceit that we've all witnessed over the course of time as well.

I have to question the sincerity of the honesty here, because I genuinely just don't believe Funcom cares, at all, about it's customers (which they've demonstrated through their actions for over 90 days), and I can't help but wonder if this is nothing more than a desparate tactic to try and save face amongst some of their customer base.

However. I do believe this is step 1 in the RIGHT direction for Ellingsen and Funcom. Want to know what would really send a stronger message than a delicate admittance of wrong-doing? Here's my list.

1) Restore forum privileges to all customers who have been banned.

Funcom censored so many people. I have no doubt that many of the banned offenders deserved their punishment, as this game generated a lot of hate. However, many users were banned simply for stating that they were dissatisfied with a product, now inferior and incomplete by admittance of Ellingsen himself, which I don't believe is fair. Or, if Ellingsen would like to test out how absurd the forum moderation is, have him create a few alternate forum names, and post slightly negative things about the game. Maybe if he was banned from his own boards for civilly citing the flaws that lie within it, he'd understand his community's distrust of the company better.

2) Offer a "Return to Hyboria" campaign later this year. Don't you DARE do this without fixing the game first, either. In other words, provide all previously paying customers a full, free month to anyone who had a subscription between May and the present. If the game is truly fixed, people may trickle back in slowly. Do NOT half-ass this, and try to rush it in to compete against Warhammer.

3) Start fixing performance issues. Hell, dedicate a whole month to nothing but performance patches.

4) Shut the PR Hype-and-Lie machines down entirely. Want to know how to undermine the sincerity of any true gesture admitting wrong-doing? Put out an article or a statement that is deliberately misleading the next day. We don't care about how many boxes you sold, nor do we want to hear about the "mature rating", or anything else. We want the game to be fixed, and fun. Rubbing our faces in the dirt is not an intelligible way to keep us excited about the future of Hyboria.

5) Dismiss the idea of an expansion pack for now. Want to hammer a nail in the coffin? Keep talking about the expansion pack when the elements that were supposed to be in your core game aren't even there. I *hope* I speak for everyone when I say that it is preposterous