Story line? Where are the players?

[cattlewoman]

Funcom AO is getting mind numbing and what are we going to do about it? I hope you are not waiting for Shadowlands to bring you out of your slump. Ever heard of preventive maintanence? I have been playing AO since November and since April I have seen AO steadily spiral down hill. AO is a great game with many issues. Some of those issues are complex and some of the problems could be easily remedied. I took a break from the game for three weeks and came back and created another character. (The main reason that I play AO is due to the character size. I don’t like playing a game where their players are about the size of a quarter on my monitor.) My new character is only level 40 and I can honestly say that there are fewer people playing the game then ever. I have spent days at a time looking for a team with little success. Every once in awhile, just by good luck, I would fine a team and then its back to standing around yelling for a team to group with but only having to give up and soloing a mission. (and no I’m not one of those players that team just to get a team mission to solo). Maybe Funcom will fix that issue.

I asked an ARK representative where all the new players were? He told me that probably they were on vacation and that Funcom sales are in better shape then ever. Hmm! The polls are reporting families this summer are staying home this year or traveling a few hundred miles from home, only to be back at the end of the day. Hotel occupancy is down and airline ticket sales are low. Funcom had to restructure their organization and let personnel go. Funcom is even asking their clientele base to find players for them. The days of having 59 or 100 petitions ahead of you are no more, (zero, 8 or 20 is the norm). Are these indications that maybe something is wrong with AO?

I remember the days when we hunted for experience and did missions for items and credits. Plus, there were many groups of people standing outside the west gate of Newland, standing at various OP-s outside Tir for the purpose of forming teams to go hunting. Those days of seeing 3 to 4 teams hunting shades are gone, 4 to 5 teams hunting in Rhinoman cockpit are gone, people standing in line waiting to group at bully bridge are gone, and countless teams in Mort are no more. Remember the days when you were new to the game and you had a mission out in the boondocks and on your way you would always see another player coming and going. Just to stop and talk to them was a special moment in the game. The ARK told me that players are doing team missions now days. Well! Ok! they still have to stand around looking to join a team to participate in a team mission. Where are those players I ask? I have stood many hours by Fare Trade which is the chosen location now for low level clans to find a team. For higher levels its North West terminals in Tir. I don’t see many high levels standing there anymore. Maybe they started ALTS, but then why don’t I see them by Fare Trade? Has the game come to players creating MA-s to run solo missions? Not many people get to play 8 to 10 hours a day at this game.

Here is a suggestion: Remember the ARK department responsible for events? Or did Funcom do away with that department? That department is responsible for “producing, and starring in small, medium and large events”, so why don’t we see much of this? Where are those Dust Brigades terrorists? Are they in nursing homes now? It sure would be nice to let us know this, so we don’t have to wait for them to pop up in their walkers. Do you want to create excitement and mayhem? Staging an event can liven up the game so much if you would just take 30 minutes to one hour a week. This doesn’t have to be done in the cities, where a lot of the other events took place, only to have the servers crash. It can be done in the wilderness. I would love to encounter the Dust Bridge while running through Varmint Woods, then getting on OOC chat and telling the whole world of Rubi-ka that the DB are having a picnic in the woods and lets gank them. Remember how people spammed the chat channel on the other events. It doesn’t take a lot of computer programming and organizing to just run around killing people. Plus, players like to see their name posted as participants or casualties of an event. I remember when the mutants over ran Newland and killed one of my friends while she was rezzing. She called me up at work and told me to log on and that Newland was being attack. Wow! What excitement that was. I remember way back when you had other events and of course the servers crashed, but hell we had so much fun and ended up talking about it for a few days afterwards. Take the most wanted article, that was a hoot. However, you forgot the little man. Just don’t recognize the higher players. Characters that are level 20ish and 70ish would like to see screen shots of their bodies and having their names recognized. Which would be Rubi-ka Times or Voice of Freedoms responsibility to stimulate the players lust for gossip, dirt, envy, or sorrow. I wish and hope that maybe you will actually listen to someone that didn’t post a letter to bad mouth another player or whine about not having something that another profession possesses. If you need creative input and suggestions Funcom you have my email address and yes I do reply back to all emails. LoL No insult intended.

[_____________Kirrana]

Well MaKettle

You are not alone many people feel the same way and it appears a lot of them have left. People might pour scorn on the guilds and people that wanted to be famous, like snarf, Azazzel, Redruum, Red freedom, methalon, meister, baxie, Dr Sheep (the list goes on).

But AO gave them that chance, but it also built up a community not only those people, but the people that flocked to those guilds but also the people that stood up to them.

But most of those people have left, in many cases taking their guilds with them. The knock on goes future down the line with news site, fan sites have little to report. Guilds with no real role in AO anymore.

I think a lot of people will come back if the story starts up again, but until then people are looking at the up and coming games to release them from this level mill.

[crazyhorse]

Originally posted by Kirrana
Well MaKettle

You are not alone many people feel the same way and it appears a lot of them have left. People might pour scorn on the guilds and people that wanted to be famous, like snarf, Azazzel, Redruum, Red freedom, methalon, meister, baxie, Dr Sheep (the list goes on).


I think a lot of people will come back if the story starts up again, but until then people are looking at the up and coming games to release them from this level mill.

Im afraid that if/when the story starts up again it could be/is too late...There are soooo fewer players now then first few months it is scary... I was just thinking back today and remeber when both Romes used to be packed, Omni Ent was jammed as was Trade...Now Rome's are ghostowns, the only people you see in ent are at bb or couple sets of mission booths and trade only around grid...Galaway, Harrys and lush resort used to be packed too, now all are quite barren...

There are so many games comming out soon that any of the people who have left I doubt many, if any, will be comming back anytime soon...FC is desperate for new players (as seen by the incentive programs) and that should be worrying to the entire player base...

[______________Salada]

Originally posted by Crazyhorse
Im afraid that if/when the story starts up again it could be/is too late...There are soooo fewer players now then first few months it is scary... I was just thinking back today and remeber when both Romes used to be packed, Omni Ent was jammed as was Trade...Now Rome's are ghostowns, the only people you see in ent are at bb or couple sets of mission booths and trade only around grid...Galaway, Harrys and lush resort used to be packed too, now all are quite barren...

There are so many games comming out soon that any of the people who have left I doubt many, if any, will be comming back anytime soon...FC is desperate for new players (as seen by the incentive programs) and that should be worrying to the entire player base...

Great, less lag this way

[crazyhorse]

Originally posted by Salada


Great, less lag this way

Hope you were joking

If not I would rather them fix the lag by fixing the server/programming problems rather then having fewer and fewer people...

There must be a critical mass of people that FC needs for this game to survive and looking around (as well as the layoffs and desperate attempts to attract players) I would be led to believe that they are below this threshold...