I wonder if anyone is ever gonna read this. It could stay in here for years and noone would ever know!!

I played this game....for 3 weeks, I got to level 31 and just wanted to kill myself. EVERY "nano" you get is EXACTLY like ALL the other nanos you have. There is about 5 different nano's per character...yeah they have new names...yeah they cause more mana....but they do the exact same stuff..Not to mention all you ever do is play the same mobs with new names/colors. The missions.... They are all the same... most are even on the same god damn map. And another thing, the pvp in that game is retarded, a agent level 20 can kill ANY character up to there level, all you need is a decent gun and aimed shot... pow from behind a tree and they are dead. Also, NO innovative things in this game, yeah the graphics are pretty but there is no replay value at all. No trade skills, horrible guild system... this is NOT a complete game, why they ever even considered that people would spend there money on this steaming pile of garbage is beyond me... Thanks Funcom your the best!


ps. sorrry about paragraphs i was pissed when i wrote this

When most people say the game is "unplayable," what they really mean is that the game does not currently live up to their expectations. They're playing it right now.


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playable?? By: Ohdmeal
1 posts
Posted @ Thu, Jul 12th 4:25 PM Score: Decent[3.00]
This game is hardly playable as of yet. Once the game runs at about 75% of what EQ did normally than i would consider this game to be a finished product


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Compare it to a console game... By: Anonymous
Posted @ Thu, Jul 12th 1:01 PM Score: Default[2.00]
While I am aware that console games are different in that they don't support MMORPG style games (yet) I would suggest that the same standards should be upheld for PC based games. Just because you "can" send out patches doesn't make it right. If I bought this game for a console I'd be demanding my money back. Why? Because right now it is unplayable and full of bugs (seriously, how can something shoot and kick me from across a football field). Of course, eventually the bugs will be worked out and this will be an excellent game but that doesn't justify releasing an unfinished, beta-quality product. If this were a console game, FunCom would be out of business. Until it could be released as a console game I don't think it should be considered a "finished" product.


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Riddle of Steel? By: Anonymous
Posted @ Thu, Jul 12th 11:48 AM Score: Default[2.00]
What is steel compared to the hand that weilds it? The strength of steel is in the weilder's hand.

Just for Fun :)


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Playability By: Anonymous
Posted @ Thu, Jul 12th 11:42 AM Score: Default[2.00]
I would suggest that until the game provides satisfactory levels of entertainment for a 75% majority of players with systems that meet the MINIMUM and/or the RECOMMENDED system configuration (i.e. 64 and 128 meg) during average loading in a city, the game can not be considered 'Playable' under any interpretation of the word.

I've yet to hear anyone (let alone 75%) claim that with these minimal systems, they have been entertained, therefore it is utterly obvious the game is not playable.




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Once more into the fray By: bandurin
7 posts
Posted @ Thu, Jul 12th 10:08 AM Score: Decent[3.00]
Honestly, last night was as bad as some of my Beta 4 nights. The lag was terrible, and at one point during a mission, I couldn't walk through a door, the whole jiggy screen lag effect. But the Mobs could shoot me through the doors, and cast harmful programs at me as well. I couldn't get to them, problem with being a Martial Artist. I had to quit out, and come back in. I really don't think we should be billed yet. At least they fixed the disconnect thing though. *laf*



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Hrmmm... By: Anonymous
Posted @ Thu, Jul 12th 9:38 AM Score: Default[2.00]
Samsheed,
No offense friend but I don't share your enthusiasm, and that may very well be because you started playing EQ early on and have been brain washed that these things happen. But you know what I'm not buying it. When a game is produced it should be playable from day one. When I go to the store and drop $70 for a game then sign away a subscription for $15 a month or more I expect at the very least that the darn thing works properly. Anyone who tried playing in week one knows first hand how annoying that was, and although admittedly Funcom was fast and furious about improving game performance I am still not satisfied. You are right that I could end my subscription, but everyone knows that I will never see my $70 again. I feel disapointed that the game doesn't work well and feel like I was robbed of my initial investment. Overall the experience was unpleasant. If Funcom wants to take a financial bullet for it's subscribers, it may help them more financially in the end with customer satisfaction paying back in spades. If Funcom could not produce a playable game, then they never should have released it in the first place. If they ran out of money to finish it properly, that is their mistake. Why should we the players and subscribers have to pay with our money and time for their inability to forsee the problems, that is their problem and their product and we are their customers who deserve satisfaction.

IMO
Sparrow



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I must just be lucky then. By: Samsheed
11 posts
Posted @ Thu, Jul 12th 6:56 AM Score: Good[4.33]
I must just be lucky or something. Or maybe my standards for what makes a game "playable" are a little different than others, I dunno.

My background: Been running around EQ since barely a month after its launch, gone through heck and back with connection problems, but on the whole, nothing world-shaking. Started with AO on July 4th. My EQ time is generally every night during the week, and most weekends. I only get into AO about every other weekend, but then I play about 8am-3pm Eastern.

So far, I've had a pretty good experience with the game. I know that no product like this is going to be perfect "out of the box," so I do my best to be patient instead of going ballistic whenever it gets flaky. I'll admit, logging in on the 4th of July, creating my character, and then as soon as I enter the training grounds getting "The servers are coming down now, please log out," did kind of irk me, especially since that day I only had about an hour and a half to play and really wanted to try AO out (didn't get into beta quick enough). The patch time? 2 hours, natch. *shrug* Oh well, more time to study the manual better and learn more of the basic controls.

Got back in that Saturday, and had a pretty good time. There were moments when lag got kinda rough, but I took advantage of it-- went over more of the in-game controls, read up and tested some of the emote animations (I don't know which made me laugh more, /disco or /moon *grin*), and generally fiddled around with settings. I think it went pretty well-- learning everything from scratch, no gifts from any more advanced players, but I made level 6 in about 5 hours of play and only died once. "Never enter a mission with only 24 bullets left if your only weapon is a slug-thrower, Sammy," I could hear the old men saying when I was reanimated.

There was ONE place where I had trouble with frame/lag that became irritating, and that was when I explored the main part of town looking for a Nano shop. I got to close to what must have been the local "bazaar" because my FR went from smoothness to about 5 seconds per frame (no, I DIDN'T reverse that, I was moving in 5-second jerks by my screen). Once I eventually stabilized back in the direction I had come from, I RAN away and didn't go back.

Overall, though, I have had a pretty good experience with the game. Could it have gone better? Sure, but you can test something like this to death and STILL not get everything ironed out until sometime AFTER it's released, simply because there's no substitute for trying it out for real. The players after release can put in more man-hours in a single day than their whole company PLUS the beta testers could do in probably a week or more. Wider range of system configurations, playing styles, thought processes that lead players to try different things in different ways (which is how most "exploit" bugs are found-- if the testers found 'em first, they'd have been corrected ahead of time, unless the tester who found it was unscrupulous enough to hide the fact from everyone, hoping for an advantage after release *shrug*), and just sheer numbers stressing the systems-- all stuff that's essentially impossible to duplicate in the closed environment of a beta test.

As for saying they should keep us in for free until they "get all the bugs out," how then do they make the money they need to recover their initial investment in developing the game AND the additional funds needed to keep things going AND pay their programmers, support staff, internal testers, etc. if they DON'T start the paid periods? Bandwith and servers don't grow on trees, don't fall from the sky, and aren't left under the developer's pillows in exchange for teeth by some mythical fairy of MMORPG. They've gotta be paid for, and the cash has to come from SOMEWHERE. Of course, they COULD keep it free and keep going deeper and deeper into debt until they had the bugs worked out to everyone's satisfaction. Then they'd just have to scale up their charge to recoup the losses at that point.

Am I the only one who'd rather go ahead and pay $12.95 now instead of having to pay $30, $50, $100 a month a while down the road?

Hey, if you're REALLY that put out by it all and don't want to pay for something "unplayable" (no, I'm not going to say "take it back"), close your account for a month or three, then come back and try again. Why beat your brains out day after day trying to play if you feel it's unplayable? Give 'em time to fix things up, and THEN try again. Save yourself a whole lot of headaches and frustrations in the meantime.

Think. Then think some more. Then, if all questions are answered, consider how to act.

Samsheed

Samsheed/MNK, Mahein/ENC, Memvarwen/BRD, Hisstesh/SHM, Sinestraln/SK, Tresk/ROG, From Rodcet Nife

No! This is not playable. I am unable to even log into the game. After I hit the Log in button, I recieve the message " the dimension you are logging into is currently down" When the Dimension is NOT down.... Anyone got any tips?

There is a petition at....www.petitiononline.som/AOfix/petition.html...if you really want to let FunCom know .... read and sign it.... (I would love to see a FunCom employee try to play on a pentiumII 350 with 64 meg and a dialup modem).... thank goodness i don't have one!

Thank you all, you have convinced me not to get involved in AO for the forseeable future. The main problem I have with a "modern" type game is the suspension of disbelief. I have no trouble with fantasy games using hitpoints, when it comes to the use of guns however everthing changes. I have just seen a little of D20's Star Wars and their concept of fatigue and physical hit points sounds good. This might be hard to do for a hack and slash game, but think of the challenge! The quote on the opening page of this web site says it all for me, how can a man with a bat beat someone with a sub machine gun? Sometimes I'm sure, but it should not be totally dependant on skill level

I am also one of the many ppl that believe Funcom shouldnt be expecting money for at best a half assed game that isnt playable outside of the newbie zones I was on Lum The Mad's website and found this link to a petition to Funcom that I think everyone should get involved in if they want this to go through you can read the content from this link http://www.petitiononline.com/AOFix/petition.html
Lets get something done about this crap ASAP so we can at least put this matter to rest and flame funcom for more important things like making the game playable

Nopax

Yikes. Sounds painful to me.
Where does FunCom keep its 'Beta Testes' I wonder...

In case anyone is interested, ask your local EB how many AO Boxes have been returned. YES- You may return them to EB! (They just defect the game out, since its unusable). This number might shock you and make you wonder IF Anarchy will survive its creators decisions...

I used to work at the EBoutique in Seattle (Post me if you want ref's; not a very classy job so no reason to be proud ) and before this game, we COULDN'T take back online games once they were purchased. I was hangin' out with one of my friends who still works there, and the subject of AO came up. Being the national leader in video/pc game sales, I respect EB's outlook on how a game is performing. Well, imagine my surprise when my friend told me how many AO boxes were being returned!

Do I keep it? Wait a month for it to get fixed?
Yes. It's a good game, and all my posts on this board tell the truth, but I DONT THINK we all should be paying starting a few days ago (A 'Free' month is actually included in the purchase price of the game...) and I know FUNCOM is kicking themselves in the leg right now. So, how do we help them out?

I'm very mixed up on this right now, for one. I just don't really have the time to get screwed over day in and day out trying to log on to an unplayable game. I have a life outside of it thats much more interesting, so I'm o.k. there. But I'm an adult... What about the kids who are out of school for summer and bought this game with their 55 dollars of lawn mowing money hoping to have a good time with it? That's who I feel sorry for. Them and FUNCOM.

I wonder if FUNCOM will step up to the plate and re-neg on their decision to start the free month almost a week ago now. I hope so, but most likely not. They are almost a real life Omni Tek for sure. :(

Konami Ballbuster
R.S.G.E. Division 9
Central Intelligence, Sigma Unit
10th Dan Martial Artist
One pissed off dude...

We bought this product expecting something that worked. The terrible kludge funcom sent out on AO's release day should never have been there. I understand that there are bills to pay and publishers to worry about but the company should look upon this with shame. Just because other MMORPG started out as badly does not mean that the consumer should not expect a quality game. I understand that there is no such thing as a bug-free piece of software but the unending lag and disconnects that game with the first release should never have been brought to the stores. Just because every other company does it doesnt mean that it isnt wrong to f*** the consumers. We expected a quality game when it releases (quality as in bug-light). The company must realize that this poor start just means a loss of revenue in the future. I have pleaded patience to the customers that come in to the store I work in, because I know eventually Funcom will get it right. THIS DOESNT MEAN IT ISNT STILL F*****G THE CUSTOMER. It was a very Bad Thing to do. If it was delays vs. a crappy game. Look at Blizzard, the gamers buying their products know that even though there are (massive) delays they will get a product that works (and will also kick *** but thats beside the point or maybe not). Funcom should have learned by now that gamers dont like stuff that breaks and that they shouldnt do it anyway. Very Bad Thing this is.

-Gecko
(yes i know i need to get a account)

The people have spoken. Is Funcom listening?

-Konami-

I, like most others, am annoyed / angry about the problems with the game.

However, it is clearly playable. Why? Because many, many players are currently willing to pay our $12.95 to play the game. We expect it to get better, but whatever our ********* we're logging in each night and playing.

When most people say the game is "unplayable," what they really mean is that the game does not currently live up to their expectations. They're playing it right now.