I made it past the free month. Won't make it past that. It is interesting and all but not interesting enough to justify continued payment.

Turael

I am also one of the 700k that has canceled his subscription. Lots of huge bugs/broken feats, few quests 50+, no pvp leveling when pvp is the main focus of the game, and they keep way over-nerfing anything that is overpowered with a sledgehammer instead of a nerf bat. Why do female melee characters still attack 20-30% slower than male characters after all this time? ;p

jrcbandit

umm...selling 70% of your shipped product is not a bad number at all, for any physical media. that's actually really, really good. especially if it's a somewhat recent release.

tubby

@TakuFangirl:
That's not true, Age of Conan has the most unique combat system I've seen in an MMO.

Mommar

700K seems very respectable but I am saddened to read these posts. Sounds like a half baked MMO. By my count we have had two decent MMOs with original ideas in 5 years.

FFXI (not everyone cup of tea but its the only MMO with an actual fully fleshed storyline and is as deep as it gets) and WoW.

TakuFangirl

And no trial yet. That's a comercial strategy that did work well.

Kazama Sogetsu

I wonder if that number was before or after I canceled my free trial?

goddessakasha

it's a good number, and I'm one of them, but it would be nice to see the numbers of players remaining after the free month.

QC8472

Whats even more misleading is that every zone on ever server is instanced so youll never see that many people. The game was fun but didnt have much lasting appeal and there was a mess of bugs and balancing that needed to take place.

usaevo8

Were these numbers taken at the peak? I know there are people quitting by the day as far as my friends go.

I can understand how it's hard to put out a half decent MMO. It takes time to devolp the sooner you get it out the sooner you can start making some money to recoop your loses.

put putting out a product that ultimately fails within the first 2 months is just stupid. If there is no content for 55+ then take what little content there is, adjust it for lower level and cap the levels at 50, change the exp gained from killing and questing to a slower rate so people are not 50 instantly - use a curve, quick first 6 levels/10 levels etc then at '10' the game begins and you play for a month hardcore just to get level 50.

Zaos

Played the game for a month, wish i could get my money back. Nothing beats WoW.

will52

700k is damn impressive but i can't ignore the feeling that the majority are just ex-WoW players looking for something fresh and new. Age of Conan certainly isn't as main stream as WoW was (WoW rated for teens, pretty sure AoC is rated for mature) for example. Its done better than i ever thought it would, however its still new - the staying power might not be as great. I'd imagen a lot of people will cancel subscriptions once their 30 days is up. Happens with any MMO. Fast forward a year later after a release and if AoC can come back with some good stats... Then i'll be impressed.

Walker

When the overhype dust settles, Age of Conan will just take its place in history alongside other "3rd OnLine World" MMOs like Guild Wars, D&DO and Star Wars Galaxies.

fdisk

Considering that there is a lack of content from level 55+, many people are getting burned out from an incomplete game. I am one of those people!

Plus crafting in the game is the most un-user friendly interface I've ever seen in any game.

Boudabras

Well there is going to only be 699,999 after I cancel my account today. :P

raptorsrevenge

I wonder how many of those 700,000 will actually open up a Subscription for it past the free 30 days or so, because there seems to be a love/hate thing for this game. Some players seemed very positive about it and others seemed very negative.

ciabb64

@Gitaroo_Dude: Yeah, so hilarious...
:| Did they touch you inappropriately?

Drake Lake

It's going to be freaking hilarious when they decide to release the info on how many users retained their subscriptions after the free month runs out.

Gitaroo_Dude

700,000 - me - 5 friends. After the first month we all canceled our accounts.
They tried something new, good for them. Unfortunatly, it doesn't work. Its fun for the first 20 or so levels, after that I had no urge to play it again. Same went for basically everyone I know.

It really is a love it or hate it type game. Me? Hated it.

Khabi

I then must be one of the few on this site that will continue past my free month, and probably will continue my subscription for quite some time to come. IMHO Everyone forgets that this is a new MMO where of course there will be some bugs and little breaks in content from time to time... they are continually updating the game twice a week, if not more, and are listening to the community for what to add and where to add it.

AudibleDefect

@XeO3: Try leveling more before you comment -- there's only one or two zones you can go to at 60+. And yes, you can get a full logs worth of quest, but they're going to last you half a level max, and it usually takes more time to complete than just grind it out.

Oh, and, once you're up to level, try traveling in between all the 70+ zones. And go in main chat and see, whether people are spamming LFG grind group, or LFG quests.

geminas01

Companies need to start finishing their ***damn games before they release them. This is really getting old.

Akaraxle

@Mommar:

Unique as in DDR type clicking? Because it's a simple Simon says type of "Combat System", and that's what I'm hearing even from people that actually like the game

z0phi3l

@jrcbandit: "Few quests level 50+"? That's incredibly inaccurate, I've got a 60 with a full quest log, and more NPCs trying to give me new quests.

Maybe you should have explored the rest of the world before declaring there's nothing to do.

XeO3

AoC is less than 2 months old and already it kills WoW in terms of gameplay, graphics and overall design. While it needs some more high-content and a few bug fixes, it far outclasses the simplistic auto-attack and technicolor barf design of previous MMOs. It's still rough around the edges but it's got more promise than any other MMO out there, and it's already far more stable than WoW was at launch.

If you play for fun, try a few different classes, play with tradeskills (the ones that are working anyway), etc., you'll have plenty of fun, as they are adding/fixing stuff weekly.

If you try to powergrind to 80 over one weekend, you're going to be disappointed with the lack of endgame content right now, sorry.

XeO3

@TakuFangirl: Like he said, CoH would like to have a word with you.

AoC was good, but I didn't continue my sub. I don't really understand it, the gameplay was fun, graphics are good, and it was a blast to play, but it didn't pull me in like other MMO's have done.
It was one of the most fun MMO's I've played, and yet I didn't really like it. Go figure. =/

Coquiton

This is probably good news for a couple reasons: Large numbers of subscriptions lead to a more stable financial base, and more publisher support. Theoretically, this leads to a better, more fleshed-out game.

thefais

I canceled my sub a week and a half into my free 30 days. Game just didn't seem too fun, and the bugs were annoying. Oh, there was also the fact that the game ran like crap no matter what I did with the settings.

MantisDragon

@Mommar: most unique combat system that you've SEEN in a MMO? Or most unique combat system that you've PLAYED in a MMO?

Cause if you've played it, you'd know its 1) tedious for 4/5 "combos", 2) hard to pull off especially in PvP, and 3) not much different than pressing 1 for one skill and 2 for another.

Not to mention you attack slower if you're female.

geminas01

@TakuFangirl: City of Heroes isn't original?

But yup, Age of Conan is as buggy as it gets.

geminas01

Good for them. I'm happy with it so far and don't see myself canceling it anytime soon.

dry-roasted-peanuts

@geminas01: I've had a character over 60, there's some grinding and repeatable quests. The endgame content isn't as fleshed out as it could be, but its a lot better than most make it out to be, and it's a hell of a lot better than what most MMOs have to offer at launch.

Even with a 50-60 character, one quest can get you almost a full level of XP if you fight and explore a little along the way. If you sneak to the quest objective and right back to the quest giver for the minimum possible XP it's no wonder you ran out of stuff to do.

Learn how to chew your food, it tastes a lot better that way than just wolfing it down as fast as you can then complaining that it wasn't tasty enough.

XeO3

with all this negative feeling about the game i have only one thing to say:

RUNESCAPE FTW!!!

arkbuilder

Sounds about as fun a WoW gameplay wise.

Press # to activate skill
Talk to static npcs to get quests
auto targeting
instanced battle areas
Devoid of interesting story

Pretty much sums up every successful MMO, maybe its the fact that they are basically Rpgs dumbed down so a 2 year old can play them, then they connect them to the internet.

deathtastic

I only kept it because i already got charged >..<.

though my guild has ALREADY fucking imploded. so my interest in this game just sunk considerably.

Unfortunately, between the lolz guild dramaz and the fact that the game just really isn't finished i see this games userbase dropping pretty quick.

all hail our wrathy lichy mmo overlords i guess lol.

demonknightinuyasha

@XeO3: and, the only thing better about the graphics is the amount of detail in textures. Wow has more character despite the lower polygon rate... they say more clearly with 10 polygons than many designers do with 100,000.

Mohican

I only kept it because i already got charged >..<.

though my guild has ALREADY fucking imploded. so my interest in this game just sunk considerably.

Unfortunately, between the lolz guild dramaz and the fact that the game just really isn't finished i see this games userbase dropping pretty quick.

all hail our wrathy lichy mmo overlords i guess lol.

maybe warhammer will get it right with all its delays >.>

demonknightinuyasha

@XeO3: it has better graphics. as far as gameplay and design... not even close to wow. FAR short. I bet you didn't play wow at launch, either. The WOW beta was far more secure than Age of Conan's public release, and I played all of them with the same settings. The only problem WOW had at the beginning was not enough server space... there weren't any server crushing bugs such as AOC displays.

Mohican

We'll i'll be staying a while longer, i like it. And FunCom is really working hard to fix the bugs and add content, don't let the naysayers fool you. It is a good game and it has great potential.

Tajfoon

I tried it. It's just not fun enough to justify the amount of time creating characters in an MMO setting takes. The combat is fun, the character designs rock, I just don't like how long it takes and how dull it is to progress. They made a mistake by keeping you in sweaty Tortage for 20 levels. Knowing that I would never want to go through Tortage again, even though I would have liked multiple characters and classes, was enough to convince me to leave. When it feels like a grind and you're just getting started, that's a serious demotivator.

Mohican

@XeO3:

AoC fanboy alert.

People need to stop perpetuating this myth that AoC had a better launch then WoW, because it didn't.

Gitaroo_Dude

@Mohican: WoW launch was better?! You must have played a different WoW beta and launch than I did, I seem to remember patches that took forever due to a shoddy BT client, 15 minute lag spikes and the inability to loot items.

But hey maybe your version of the WoW launch was flawless...

As far as WoW looking better, only if you're Ted Turner on lsd. Low poly-count Crayola-colored armor and characters doesn't really do it for me though.

XeO3

@XeO3: What? A character over 60? Does that even mean you're level 80?

Did you even read my post man, I was talking about the lack of zones to go after 60. From what I can understand, level 50-60 is way easier than leveling 60+...so why do you keep talking about leveling from 50-60? Yes, they have repeatable quests, but they give you so little experience its laughable -- the amount is the same for killing 3-4 monsters, as a reward for killing 25. So why would someone spend time going back to town to pick up those quests instead of just staying at the camp killing a few more? One quest gives you one LEVEL of xp? LOL now I for sure know that you didn't play the game. You must be a level 3 playing in Tortage.

Sure, if I was the only person complaining about running out of quests, then you might have a point in your argument how I'm "cutting corners" and not "exploring the game." (Side note - if you really like exploring, go to the instance "Caravan" and see how badly its designed) But there are SO many people 65+ spamming LFG and LFM grind group, (which leads to zone instance camping, another problem with the game), and that pretty much means that I'm not the only one having leveling problems. I wouldn't mind "exploring" if the quests have variety, but there's only 2 types of quests (spoiler) - find this on the map, and kill this monster/loot this item. By the way, there's no such thing as "minimum possible XP". There's just a set XP you get per quest -- anything you get on the way pretty much counts as grinding.

So, no, like I said before, please level up more before you make any judgment on the whole grinding aspect of the game. It's obvious you didn't play AoC.

geminas01

Huge Negatives -

Forced single player - Destiny Quest, ok. I can accept that. I guess. But the Villa quests in Noble District? Those especially feel like they are intentionally there to grind for content lacking in that level range.

Areas unaccessible without Quest - A group of us 50s headed over to the Frost Swamp. We brought a guildie who was 33 and Apprenticed her up to our level. She couldn't enter because she didnt have the quest. The flip side of this was in the Wilds, there was some quest where basically I finished and turned in the quest after I had died, and I was locked out of the instance, while my wife had to finish it on her own. Lame.

Spawn Camping & Idiots who train. So since we couldnt go to the frost swamp, we tried the Cistern in Noble District. There is a quest turn in a few pulls in. Escort some chick out. Ok, a party member turns it in, and she whisks away. Of course, only that person received credit, and it seemed to be on a 10 minute timer. With a party of 6. Um. No. So we pushed ahead and were doing fine. Until another group comes running back with 7 or mobs that then drop on us when they die, probably because of all the aoe damage the game uses. We wipe.

I really almost canceled my account right there with all those happening in the span of a few hours. I want to like the game. It is very pretty, and the game can be fun. But constantly hitting things that are frustrating.

I've noticed the frame rate inproving and I cant help wondering if its improvements to the engine, or declining users.

lonkley

@deathtastic: You forgot the key element in AOC that seperates it from other MMOS.

Spam buttons to auto attack

Aex

Age of Conan is a fun game and probably has the best combat system I've used in an MMO. However AoC is littered with bugs, specifically ones that brake quests. There aren't many quests at higher levels and when one you're working on breaks it can be really annoying. Especially when it happens to more than one quest chain in a single session. More or less I would say the game is currently lacking in 3 main areas:

1. Technical issues.
2. Lack of content post-40
3. Lack of direction with endgame.

If those 3 can be resolved I think AoC could truly be great. However it just seems so much was left uncompleted after level 30 that filling in the holes could take a substantial amount of time. There has been progress made since January (during the general beta) but not enough to create anything that resembles a finished product. Whoever decided to push this game out the door when they did should be shot, seriously. I know every MMO has shipped unfinished but this is kind of ridiculous.

Replica23

Meh, I like it and I'll keep playing. I'm not sold on PVE/level-class based MMOs since I came from EVE, but I like Conan. I've played WoW and CoH, both left me cold. I've played EVE for three years now, and I don't see me leaving. AoC is in the middle. I really like the story and music and graphics, but it sure is different than what I'm used to.

BSAKat

@XeO3: Blizzard has more "character and clarity" in thirty polygons than many designers have in 100,000. Sure, AoC has beefier graphics, but this directly affects gameplay. Even if you shell out $4k for a rig that can run it with no beef, the people you play with and party with probably can't. Herein lies the essential matter for an MMO - they are the most fun when they are the most fun with other people. I view the fact that everyone on my server in wow can run the game as a huge gameplay boost.

Also, I fail to see how the AoC combat system was so amazing. It was different, entertaining, but it still involves executing timed button presses that effect whatever you are targeting depending on what button you pressed. All they did was add another layer of complexity by determining that skills can go to a second level if you follow the "simon-says" pattern printed on screen. You are still "targeting-NPC" and "pressing attack button 5, then 6, then 7." There is no 3-dimensional aiming as they made it sound. I think all they did was convince a bunch of MMO-fans they were doing something different, but mathematically and physically, nothing has changed at all from the standard RPG attack system for decades.

Mohican

Already canceled, like two weeks in. It's teh suxorz.

Silverbackne

I bought it. Subscribed for my 30 days and will not renew. The game is to broken now to play. I am better off playing another already "matured" and patched MMO. I don't like paying $15 a month sitting on my thumbs waiting for patches that won't come out for another 6.

Also you WoW fanboys are getting quite annoying. Your worse than the AoC guys.

Not-Witzbold

The above mentioned quests issues are indeed quite annoying when you play with a partner! Pretty good game, but not worth paying an extra $15 for when I still play WoW.

And even though they mentioned it - the shift from talking NPCs (with great voice work) to mutes but animated people outside of Tortage is quite jarring.

Turael

@Mohican: You obviously didn't play the game. Try playing as a ranger. And you don't need a 4K rig. My 2,000 dollar rig runs AOC on max with nary a hiccup. Blizzard has more "character and clarity" in thirty polygons? Right. Smacks of fanboi-ism. Protip: in AOC you can design a character that actually looks good, as opposed to looking like a retarded cartoon.

SWATJester

I've never played AoC but I can tell you this, WoW isn't great, it is that every other MMO is generally worse compared to the decent game that is WoW. WoW is like that humongo steak you get at Jimmy Bobs Old Grill BBQ Grill House, it doesn't taste good, it doesn't look right, but damn, it fills you up.

Coors Light is God

They'l be lucky if they can even keep 1/3 of the people that bought the game past the free month

desterion

well good for funcom, but after testing AoC, and after watching all the new stuff coming in WOTLK, I'm going back on WoW \o/

Lupin

AoC is... bar none the best MMO ever to launch and I would go so far as to say that it's type of combat will be the next 'standard' that all others are measured. Conan un apologetically steals from other successful games anything that works.
For example they changed guild chat to green very soon after launch for the WoW crowd. They have a built in 'quest helper' mod basically and the list goes on and on, color coded gear from white to green to blue to purple. all these 'standard' things add up to a great experience plus like I said their own innovations such as the aforementioned combat and the instanced zones to avoid griefers and the nodes for harvesting that are always in one spot just 0-100% full.
The fatalities are a very good and satisfying feature. Never gets old. They do IMHO however lack the fast travel within zones but maybe it will come. PvP will pan out over time, I beta tested WoW and played since launch on and off, it was a wreck at times and now it's just become LoS bullshit burst damage honor grinding monotony.
But that's just me.

sh0tgunn0strils

The poster above me is a rabid fanboy :D
Or blind, you decide.

Abriael

@Drake Lake: It will be hilarious. Their retention rate will be around 200k before the Winter of '08.

Maybe even less. Perhaps the spiritual successor of Vanguard.

PsycheE

I think probably the best way to describe AoC is "it has potential". It sucks that it isn't there yet, laden with bugs, balance issues, and other problems, but it *could* shine, with some more polish.

That being said, I am enjoying the game so far, but might consider picking another game back up until they get AoC ironed out a bit more.

Frankly, I miss the old glory days of the original Everquest before the Planes of Power expansion. That was probably the most fun I ever had playing an MMO.

WraithSama

@XeO3: WoW, in essence, does look better because you can render more then 20 people at once instead of switching lobbies, for the general consumers. I've had my gripes about this too. Can you imagine Ironforge lobby Theta, Beta, Alpha, #1, #2, ...

PsycheE

"b) have been purchased and haven't been activated."

That would be me. The 5 day early access + the few days bonus was more then enough.

H2oGatesy

i can tell you from playing the game, its probably gonna die out in 3 months unless it starts to pick up, I mean im ticked off that the world of hyboria is not free roam, I have to go through so many fucking load screens....In any case I'm only gunna give it probably gunna cancel my account in the nexty few days.

themule

@Gitaroo_Dude:

WoW fanboy alert.

People who obviously didn't play WoW at launch and experienced the rubber banding, occasional rollbacks, the crazy deal with the item database that resulted in the classic "loot scoot", the soul crushing latency and the patching issues among other things...need to stfu.

As for AoC, I'd rate it a solid "ok for now." Been playing it since launch but having been down this road so many times from Meridian 59 on I recognize that I am in the honeymoon period. I'm on a PvP server and the fights to be had are entertaining for now. The fact that the PvP system (experience and blood money for kills, etc.) is not in yet doesn't bother me right now because my focus in these games typically is to get the level cap first. If I was 80 right now I imagine I'd be annoyed at it's absence (61 Tempest of Set and 41 Bear Shaman). My real concern for my long term enjoyment for the game, and I suspect many others, is the siege system and world PvP. Battlegrounds, Arenas, and PvP mini games as their known in AoC hold zero appeal for me. I prefer the vagaries of spontaneous combat and the appeal of holding and defending territory. It's why I play EVE and used to play Shadowbane until it was apparent that I'd crash no less than 15 times during any small siege action. Mini-games in AoC or Arenas/BGs in WoW pale in comparison to the games that they are imitating and I don't have to grind monotonous 3v3s or whatever for weeks to be on an even keel to enjoy a CTF game in a decent FPS. PvP in an MMO should play to the strengths of the platform; a persistent universe with hundreds of active players building and destroying each others forts/temples/bases/whatever. Dark Age of Camelot is a fond memory for many who played that game (at least until Trials of Atlantis was released). Obviously I'm speaking from a PvP mindset. WoW has PvE down cold. Personally I'd be bored as hell if I was playing AoC on a PvE server.

Last I checked there was going to be a signifigant emphasis on mini-games as a means to getting "power points" or whatever they're called. These are used to by the PvP abilities, whatever they'll be. The fact that we still don't know how this system is going to play out and if mini-games are going to be the PvP in this game and world PvP is left to twist in the wind is what I think is pissing off a lot of people. Bugs...meh. WoW had them in spades at launch but people toughed it out. Lack of content...meh. For a long time UBRS was endgame in WoW but people toughed it out. While you were playing WoW what you never felt, or the developers did a good job of hiding, was that the game was somehow incomplete. That parts of it were unfinished or missing whole hog. You do get the sense of it in AoC and as the weeks roll buy and that honeymoon period starts to wane it's going to become a bigger and bigger problem. Being able to learn this from outside the game seems next to impossible. The free-trial codes that came with the game are to the best of my knowledge not able to used yet and you have to try and glean useful information out of the crap sandwich that is the AoC crazies talking about how it's the super ultimate mega wonder game of all time and the douchebags with their ever accurate crystal balls telling any poor bastard who will listen that "this game will go under tomorrow/next week/next month/next year".

Phaelog

I think that the big problem with MMO's these days are that the target group was spoiled by Blizzard. One of the world's biggest game developers, who has an almost endless budget, releases the game that makes MMO's really popular. After that the people expect anyone who comes after them to top them right of the bat now that the major bugs and delays have been forgotten.

Oh, and about the games being incomplete at launch can usually be accredited to two things: bad luck and/or the publishers pushing for release.

Now I'm not saying that you should stay with any game that you hate, but comparing everything with WoW is putting the bar a little high. If that's your standard, then congratulations; you just found the game you will be playing for the rest of your life, or at least 'til the Starcraft MMO gets here.

It's kind of a sticky situation if you ask me. Sure you can afford to eat steak, but enjoy the occasional hamburger as well. Problem is this new restaurant took all the costumers away, forcing the burger place to close. Now your stuck eating att the same place for the rest of your life if a miracle doesn't happen. (Steak can get old in the long run...)

Bhraal

Game is rubbish unfortunately. All my mates quit before level 30, but I pushed on til 60. But when my 'free' month ran out, I couldn't bring myself to resubscribe.

Combat is overhyped and shallow. It has nothing over a standard MMO system, except for the DDR minigame you are forced to play before you can execute skills. Group content is horribly dumbed down, and amounts to spamming your DPS skills that are not on cooldown, while the healer mindlessly cycles his heal over time spells across the party.

Game doesn't even have to potential to be great like I first thought, too many core mechanics are just plain broken or unfun. And meanwhile, gamebreaking bugs like slower female attack speeds thrive.

8MegsOnly

I'm just glad they've manage to get this many users since that means the game is profitable and the small norwegian developer got the funds to keep going.

So now Funcom... GIVE ME DREAMFALL CHAPTERS!

Cragen

The whole thing is very unfinished. Though it's fairly entertaining up until you get to the later levels.

From about 50-60 up it's pretty much a constant grind with only one zone for 50's and 70's, and only 2 for 60's.

At 80 there is only one zone, and a fairly small zone at that (it's the 70-80 zone so only like a quarter of it is 80+)

There's pretty much nothing to do once you get to 80 but farm resources for your guild city. Pretty quickly it becomes a chore just to make yourself log on.

Bugs are EVERYWHERE, many game-breaking, and yet Funcom keeps focusing the patches on class (un)balance and fixing stupid bugs like jump animations instead of fixing the major issues.

They released a beta; and I don't see why anyone would want keep playing it past 2 months.

munkeypants

I wanted to like this game. I really did. I picked it up right away and loved it. It was refreshing and engaging, but then something happened. I remember getting tired of all the bugs, and the quests seemed run of the mill and boring, with many having you go back and forth to the same damn place many times and no quick way of doing so.

They keep patching the game which is good, but also bad. Many of the changes seemed more like step backwards than forwards; stealth nerfs and quick fixes without any testing was starting to ruin my fun in the game. PvP evolved into a team gank fest. Everything ended up feeling so haphazardly patched together. I hope that in about 6 months to a year it ends up being a truly unique experience.

MrYoshida

Interesting.

I checked my online bank statement, and had two charges from funcom.

14.99 for the subscription
.12 for ATM Fee.

I believe this is a case of being pennied and dimed. :)

Really, what other mmos have a transaction fee for monthly payments?

Incidently, I'm leaning fairly hard on the cancel button, unless the couple friends I still have playing, continue to still play.

Rookerith

I dunno, 700k still seems pretty impressive.

Dukeman330