Ten Ton Hammer interview with AoC's Craig Morrison

@nadril
you know i try to take each game for its own as i play them. you are comparing AoC to AO, and its an apples to oranges comparison. they are both MMOs but they are inherently different. AoC is not your game or choice and thats understandable, but dont pass it off as fair b/c it doesnt meet your perception of what makes a "good" MMO.

I wasn't really trying to put down Age of Conan, just was kind of explaining my own reasoning. Really, for me, Age of Conan just didn't feel like anything special.

Age of Conan just didn't have that same feel that Anarchy Online did to me. I really can't put it into words, sorry.

I still dislike the combo system however. It's just a waste of time, because you still require a button press for your hotkey attack. In reality it just makes everything a bit more stupid.

Funcom should have made the combo system like a fighting game, it would have been so much more fun. Instead they release a gimmick.

Anyways I played AoC to 80 at launch and, like I said, it just didn't really get to me. A lot of it is very much "been here, done that" for me, and PvP in one zone gets boring.

That makes sense. I haven't played Anarchy Online completely. Only about a week of play on that newbie island almost a year ago. Honestly, I thought the game was great. The only thing holding me back from it was the graphics. I was hoping to join AO again once they had implemented the new graphics engine. However, I have yet to see it.

of course your correct in thinking AOC is generic, the released a game unfinished to a high degree. They have kept on a dev that is not in touch with reality or what players want (plus he wears to much rouge and lipstick).

They released no content (cut a huge amount before launch), no immersion after the starter levels (the voiceovers in the starter levels were some of the best i had seen to date and i was amped, until i left the starter area...) and they released bug ridden quests and npc's that decided if they wanted to come to work that day or not.

AOC is indeed not generic, and i will wager after another dozen or so patches it may indeed move from generic to "improved". To late for most of us though.

yeah because we know that EVERYONE that plays a game at launch sticks with it forever right?

the mistake that FC made was opening too many servers at launch, and they have fixed that, and from someone thats been playing the game since closed beta, yes it is going well.

WAR did the same thing, transfers and mergers not long after launch. its the nature of MMOs now a days. the devs have to meet the hype by having too many servers, and after the MMO community loses interest or gets all buttsore, or bitter because the game did meet their mold of a perfect mmo the devs are left with a tough choice, to merge or leave it. i wouldnt be surprised if this is a common trend with new MMOs from here on out. launch with 25 servers, after the population stabilzes, merge down to X servers and go from there.

Yes, it is me ;) Tend to check here at Massively everyday, and while not one to usually want to chip in to a discussion, one thing I do want to comment on.

@Iokthemonkey "And it's hilarious reading how the server merges are a "good thing." No they're not Craig. They show that your playerbase has deserted your game in droves and that - if the figures are to be believed - you've only retained about 10-15% of your subscribers."

Actually we'll have to agree to disagree there, they are a very good thing and I'll tell you why if it wasnt clear in the original interview.

While I can't talk about numbers as we are a publically traded company, the numbers that are public have of course shown that subscriber numbers fell after launch no-one denied that. So with that established and the known fact that we build a server infrastructure for the launch numbers how is it not a good thing to make sure that the experience for our paying subscribers is improved. Almost all players I speak to agree that busier servers by and large make for better game experiences. So isn't it not only 'good', but I would argue responsible, that we ensure we have several strong, thriving happy communities, rather than have our subscriber base spread out over more servers than we need?

Is it a sign we have less subscribers than we had at launch? Of course it is, that fact has been public since last year. That doesn't mean it's not good to take the correct steps to build the game for the future, and building healthy happy communities is the key to that :)

So yes, I do firmly believe the server merge process was a very good thing for the long term success of the game :)

I love how you're pointing out stuff that other people pointed out as soon as the game launched and ever since then, like you've had some sort of revelation. Everyone knows the game launched "unfinished", including Craig. But instead of constructive criticism, about what you'd like to see come out of Conan, you prefer to take pleasure in the failing of others and harp on things long since passed.

If you refuse to be a part of the solution, if you refuse to ever give AoC another chance, then please let this be the end of it and stay away from anything Conan related in the future. There's really no point what you're doing.

Replying to myself.. I understand the game has been largely solo based and that guilds did not really have a place, but it's like neither does a pure explorer/harvester unless they are guilded...

Meh. It's probably only a bad thing for me. ;p

"And you know what, when did it become MY job to fix their mess?"

It's part of being in a community, to help others, to take pleasure in being involved in the improvement of something bigger than yourself. You prefer to be a troll.

"I hope it's working out for you and you're having a lot of fun."

No, you don't.

"But please, don't try to tell me that somebody stating that sever merges due to a massive drop-off in its userbase is a positive thing."

You're defining "a positive thing" as a sign that the game is fiscally successful, and you'd be right, that server merges historically are a bad sign. I, and I think Craig, are saying that it's a good thing for the community, the people still supporting the game. There's currently a higher quality experience on the remaining servers given the increased population from the server merges. My gut is that the decision makers knew the server merges would look bad, but they still went through with it to improve the experience for their players. I applaud them for that.

I have been thankful for the server merges of the few games I have played that have gone through with it. It puts the M's back in MMORPG.

It seems stupid to think that any MMO would have more numbers on launch in these times. Everyone is looking for an escape from the established games, but move on for one reason or another. FC had an exceptional amount of reasons though.

I actually just resubscribed, mainly because of the recent patches and mergers.