Friday with Means - November 27th, 2009 - Uphill in 6 feet of snow

[Camista]

I started AO at RK1, and allways I said I´m a German, things started to get rough. "Nazi" "fu... Kraut" is the most polite thing I wanna quote here.

Don't let the actions of a few morons stand for the entire server population. I don't know everyone on RK1 by any means, but no one I do play with would ever say something like that.

[Obtena]

"unknown fc employee:
Hey Means, the majority of RK3 wants to stay on their server, what do we do about it?

Means:
Let's just sit it out, we all know the server will soon die! Let them wait and they will be happy to have their unwanted tranfers! "

Is this how Funcom decided to take care of the "RK3-Problem"?

The population was not so good back than and has gotten worse because many RK3 players already started new chars on one of the other dimensions, but I guess it's like always inside funcom when it comes to AO, just milk the rest of the population and don't really invest into it.

Btw, is the probes.funcom.com including froob players?

Not sure what you expect ... FC to pay people to play on RK3? #1 issue is that it's a German server. You're already limiting your potential new players through that alone. It's unreasonable to think that allowing the server to die out isn't actually an option. Many games, many CURRENT and popular games do it, why is it so wrong for AO to not do it? Go get hit with the reality bus please.

[Shooorty]

Finally.....

[windcaster]

well, this maybe selfish but im kinda glad they're offering rk3'ers a transfer.

why? (here's the selfish part) at least some of them are gonna end up on rk2, and we need people too.. not as badly as rk3 does but lets face it they been dying a slow death for a long time at least now they can boost numbers on rk1 and 2 and something good can come out of it.

the only thing that really sucks is not everyone on rk3 can speak english and it may be a game ending move for that group.

COME TO RK2, WE HAVE THE BEST CHOCOLATE, RK1'er's HATE CHOCOLATE!
Rumor has it they got a thing for FRUIT CAKE over there

[SoldiTwo]

What exactly do you propose the do instead of the transfer? RK1 and 2 dont have that much greater of a population, the game is OLD. I don't care what they add to it Anarchy Online Is OLD. Long time players get bored, new time players dont like the complexity of the game. MOST of us have invested YEARS into this game and simply wont quit because we have invested YEARS into it.

Even with the new balance work, and new engine there is no 100% guarantee that AO will survive another 3 years. Attempting to convince people whom job it is to make sure that Funcom is there in 3 years to give AO a butt load of money to attempt to steal players from other games just is impossible.

If the current playerbase is yelling "The game is death death!" what do you think the guys that pay for AO are doing? I am truly surprised and impressed by Means ability to get funding for expansion and development for AO.


Now lets look at RK3 vs RK1 and RK2; RK3 Is primarily for German speaking players. Rk3 is primarily supported by a 3d party company. RK1 and RK2 are for everyone, the population pool on these servers is from all around the world. RK1 and RK2 are the primary servers for AO hosted by Funcom. RK1 and RK2 are the default servers, they change back and forth, but RK3 has NEVER been the default server.


So, what exactly do you expect Funcom to do to make more German players play Anarchy Online instead of what ever other game they are playing. It seems to me that the German speaking population has spoken by basic numbers as to if they want to play Anarchy Online or not.

AO is an MMO, age doesn't matter really much there.
Everquest 1 is from 1999 and they just make a major expansion(the 16. IIRC) for it:
http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/9/feature/3773

SOE is of course bigger, but whatever.

Your formula is "OLD = WTF, we won't invest **** in it, you can pay and play, but don't expect us to invest!"

If funcom really wants to revitalize AO they have to invest initial up-front costs.

BTW RK3 is run by FUNCOM not a third party.

[Obtena]

Thanks for that.
I don´t wanna offend anybody, just wanna say my opinion in a straight way.
I started AO at RK1, and allways I said I´m a German, things started to get rough. "Nazi" "fu... Kraut" is the most polite thing I wanna quote here.
And I´m tired off that game. On RK3 I find a community, without that prejudice.
RK3 is a difficult community but we hat some player from Canada etc. So I think we are not that bad as RK1/2 think.
Its hard to see DNW is dieing, but I cant change it. But I won´t play on the other 2 Servers, because I know what I have to expect. I expect, and my experience says the same, are prejudice, hate, flames, harresment. That´s nothing I want and wont spend my free-time and money.
So I´m sorry and my profound apologies for my english.
battlegnom

I think your bad experience was rare and speaks nothing of the multiple ethnicities that are existing on RK1 and RK2.

[SoldiTwo]

Not sure what you expect ... FC to pay people to play on RK3? #1 issue is that it's a German server. You're already limiting your potential new players through that alone. It's unreasonable to think that allowing the server to die out isn't actually an option. Many games, many CURRENT and popular games do it, why is it so wrong for AO to not do it? Go get hit with the reality bus please.

I expect honesty, and every other company that sees a servers population is too low reacts in a timely manner no 5-6 year later lol.

The reality is Funcom will invest as much as is needed to milk the rest of the population, but they don't invest anything to really stabilize AO.

[SoldiTwo]

well, this maybe selfish but im kinda glad they're offering rk3'ers a transfer.

why? (here's the selfish part) at least some of them are gonna end up on rk2, and we need people too.. not as badly as rk3 does but lets face it they been dying a slow death for a long time at least now they can boost numbers on rk1 and 2 and something good can come out of it.

the only thing that really sucks is not everyone on rk3 can speak english and it may be a game ending move for that group.

COME TO RK2, WE HAVE THE BEST CHOCOLATE, RK1'er's HATE CHOCOLATE!
Rumor has it they got a thing for FRUIT CAKE over there

Soon coming to you: RK2 will be merged with RK1!

[Technogen]

Once again, WHAT could they do? There's nothing that is going to magically make the population raise they already have the game free to play so thats not going to do it. So WHAT could they do?

[Metafly7]

They arent in the position to atm. If u want ppl to come to AO now, then ur looking for ppl who dont care about graphics. But nowadays thats almost the only thing ppl look at. After they have the Engine up they (atleast thats what i gathered) are up to promoting AO again. Thats the time to do it. Not now

[Technogen]

They arent in the position to atm. If u want ppl to come to AO now, then ur looking for ppl who dont care about graphics. But nowadays thats almost the only thing ppl look at. After they have the Engine up they (atleast thats what i gathered) are up to promoting AO again. Thats the time to do it. Not now

Heck, even Nintendo is having problems getting companies to keep building games for the Wii because players want to play the games with high end graphics.

[Phixalicious]

AO is an MMO, age doesn't matter really much there.
Everquest 1 is from 1999 and they just make a major expansion(the 16. IIRC) for it:
http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/9/feature/3773

SOE is of course bigger, but whatever.

Your formula is "OLD = WTF, we won't invest **** in it, you can pay and play, but don't expect us to invest!"

If funcom really wants to revitalize AO they have to invest initial up-front costs.

BTW RK3 is run by FUNCOM not a third party.

Try looking at the population of EQ vs. the population of AO.

Don't compare apples to oranges.

[rustinel]

Thanks for that.
I don´t wanna offend anybody, just wanna say my opinion in a straight way.
I started AO at RK1, and allways I said I´m a German, things started to get rough. "Nazi" "fu... Kraut" is the most polite thing I wanna quote here.
And I´m tired off that game. On RK3 I find a community, without that prejudice.
RK3 is a difficult community but we hat some player from Canada etc. So I think we are not that bad as RK1/2 think.
Its hard to see DNW is dieing, but I cant change it. But I won´t play on the other 2 Servers, because I know what I have to expect. I expect, and my experience says the same, are prejudice, hate, flames, harresment. That´s nothing I want and wont spend my free-time and money.
So I´m sorry and my profound apologies for my english.
battlegnom

You will find idiots like that in any game, any server and IRL. They are ignorant, stunted people and they will attack anyone for any perceived differences. You can't change them but you can ignore them/report them. ARK/FC take harassment very seriously but cannot deal with it if it goes unreported.

I think its sad DNW is closing. RK1 and 2 have their own population difficulties atm too. An influx of folk from DNW may alleviate that....but for how long?

This unique/crazy/wondrous game deserves to live, the scope, complexity, quirkiness, setting and community(apart from the aforementioned children) knows no equal. The current GD and his team have my full respect for their efforts and obvious love for their job. The title of this thread is scarily apt.

The folk I know in game will welcome all transfers from DNW, be they pvpers, pvmers, rpers. Whatever your reasons for being here we all share a common interest.

Your english is fine btw

[battlegnom]

Both in my past and in my current org we've had and have german players.
I have never even once heard of such incidents... and should they ever happen, I would hope those uttering such garbage would be banned following a prompt "/petition harassment".

Don't let the actions of a few morons stand for the entire server population. I don't know everyone on RK1 by any means, but no one I do play with would ever say something like that.

Many Thanks for that.

As I sad, I don´t wanna offend anybody, I just can tell my experiences. Ok, that happend 5 years ago, and at that time, I wasn´t relaxed enough to take actions like that.
I just wanted to play the game, and the only thing I wanted is a nice community without that nation-****.
So, if there is a org without any doubt I would be joyful to hear of that

battlegnom
with profund apologies for his english.

[SoldiTwo]

Once again, WHAT could they do? There's nothing that is going to magically make the population raise they already have the game free to play so thats not going to do it. So WHAT could they do?

first of all, it's their job to come up with something clever -but anyways:
1)
They could make Shadowlands and AI F2P and display ingame ads for theses players.
Not with these imho not so good billboards but with ads that get faded in in a save place so that the player doesn't die because of the ad. Or the can display ads after and before every zoning.

2)
Like someone mentioned, they could make a onetime fee, you pay for example 99,9$ and get a Lifetime Shadowlands account etc.

3)
They could rename RK3 to something general and make a Global OOC for every major language, so that a german can speak german in the germans channel and an english speaking player in an english channel if they wanted to.

[SoldiTwo]

They arent in the position to atm. If u want ppl to come to AO now, then ur looking for ppl who dont care about graphics. But nowadays thats almost the only thing ppl look at. After they have the Engine up they (atleast thats what i gathered) are up to promoting AO again. Thats the time to do it. Not now

That may be true, but it was Funcom that maneuvered AO into this position in the first place.

[SoldiTwo]

Try looking at the population of EQ vs. the population of AO.

Don't compare apples to oranges.

The point is, they did invest something into EQ, that's because they have a better population, not because EQ is a better game.

[Technogen]

They already have SL for 5$ a mo, and doing a 1 time fee would not pay for the servers month to month and the game would go splat.

3)
They could rename RK3 to something general and make Global OOC for every major language, so that a german can speak german in the germans channel and an english speaking player in an english channel if they wanted to.

This one doesnt make any sense what so ever, RK1 and 2 have population problems, making it easier so english speaking players can play on Rk3 would not raise the population when Rk1 and 2 are already english speaking servers.

[Berinda]

the only thing that really sucks is not everyone on rk3 can speak english and it may be a game ending move for that group.

From my experience, there's quite a few people on RK2 who can't speak English. So long as people transferring from RK3 can manage "<insert buff acronym here> pls" and tab-q they should be all right.

Plus, there is nothing to stop like-minded people who have trouble with English from forming their own orgs after transferring.

The real trouble here, in my opinion, is RK3 orgs losing the cities and tower fields they've earned.

[Technogen]

From my experience, there's quite a few people on RK2 who can't speak English. So long as people transferring from RK3 can manage "<insert buff acronym here> pls" and tab-q they should be all right.

Plus, there is nothing to stop like-minded people who have trouble with English from forming their own orgs after transferring.

There are already a few orgs on RK1 for Romanians and French, so its completely normal for them to do just that.