May
1
AoC’s State
This isn’t good. Not good at all:
In Beta, Age of Conan’s graphical and networking performance has been entirely sub-par. There’s no easy excuses, here, as none of the beta-participating bloggers have old machines. This blogger has an entirely unnecessarily nice computer, and it struggled to maintain the ‘medium’ setting. One of the other bloggers had to be fished out of the drink more than half a dozen times by a GM because the ground simply wasn’t there when he zoned into Tortage. Overall, game performance has been riddle with stutters, graphical pop-ins, and dropouts.
Some of these issues are likely tied to the Beta client, and will be removed along with the extra testing code before the game hits retail. Even so, it’s our view that the graphical requirements of this game may be unmanageably high. Many players who consider themselves to have a viable PC will find an unhelpful slideshow waiting on the other end of the Hyborean gate.
Dear Funcom….
It has been hinted and now noted that you haven’t seemed to learn the lesson taken away from EQ2 and Vanguard, i.e. that shipping a game with graphic requirements that kill a majority of your players will ultimately hurt your launch. Hurting your launch will hurt your subscriber base and the initial impressions sent out by people like me, other bloggers, and more importantly your player base. Low momentum coming out of the gate will hurt your bottom line. Why is that such a hard thing to understand?
I understand that playing with the latest graphical tools and toys is fun for your developers and looks really good on the resume, but it does nothing to help your customers. I understand that this is “future proofing” your game (*cough* bullshit *cough*) and I’ll be happy to accommodate you if your intent is getting my money later as opposed to now to pay off your development bills.
If I wasted my pre-order money on what accounts to a technical mess, please be aware that I will not be very happy…and Canadians are always happy.
Box of angry kittens in wait…your faithful MMO player,
Darren
…on a happier note, Michael does think the game has lots of good points to it:
The very first thing you need to know: if you are fearing a debacle, you can relax. There are many, many elements to Age of Conan that are polished and well-designed. Prospective players who have been looking forward to the game’s realtime combat can rest easy. Hyborean hopefuls looking for grittier setting have nothing to fear.
D out.
