Hello Everyone!

[Philty]

I would say that, considering unclear situation (for customers) what is really going on in Funcom and what are really plans for keeping our beloved game alive, we need as much communication from FC emploees as possible.

As it looks now, approach of FC is completely opposite.

It starts with going to funcom pages. http://www.funcom.com/
Try to go there, what you can see? Secret world page with advertisement to start play secret world, conan and this bloodlines bull**** for free. Any sign of AO?..no ofc not.

If you get (not easily) to AO pages there is last "news" from 2012.08.14. This is like fail complete.

We have used to have weekly information about game progress, plus some presence of FC staff on forums, than we were changed to have monthly updates. Now we have there person wandering what to do to inform us while silence lasts from the end of February ...

Does abnyone from FC think that it is calming for current players giving them confidence to game progress?

I love this game and I want to see it flourish, not to die by negligence. Please FC persuade me about that. Thank you.

[Alves]

Do something for the Server Population
More and more People go... I think we reached the same number of active Player from RK1...

Do more advertising for the game and development (new Content/Add-Ons)... Without any new content and innovation, AO will die... I think that AO have maybe 2 years before it close...

[Neon_1]

So, what kind of cool stuff do you guys want to see on the forums? I currently run a "Your Voice" thing over on the TSW forums where players can ask questions and I send those questions off to developers each month. Would you guys like something like that? I'm open to suggestions and am willing to work with you all to get you the things you want and need.

~Morteia

1. Make that "Your Voice"- thingy happen asap. We are quite in dark what is happening atm, and regular feedback would be very much appreciated.

2. Professionals program and communicating with developers. How is this working nowadays ? Do professional program still exist and how does it work ? What is their relationship to dev-team ? If that program is dead, is there still any lines open between players and devs ? (relates to point 1)

3. Can you please get us an answer on the future of the AO ? Preferably an article or interview with the Game Director, which would light up the upcoming things and what plans does FC have for AO. Do we still have hope of things developing, new content, new story or even whole new expansion ?

4. Funcom in general. What is the situation there now ? Are the adjustments done for now or are things still in motion ? Is Anarchy developing team now "set" or are there going to be updates/adjustments there still ? What is the future going to bring, is AO still on the list when talking about developing/updating games or can we start saying goodbye to it already ?

5. Get hold of any web designers you still might have there. Show them http://www.anarchy-online.com, and tell them to redesign and update that to this day please. Not next month or in 5 months, it needs to be done now.

6. Whats the current situation in:
- New engine ?
- New starting experience ?
- Rebalance ?
- AO team and responsibilites in general ?

Also, if you can try to figure out any even remote ETA:s on those things. No need to be precice, but some realistic assesments would be nice, altough that has been kinda impossible to get..

7. If you can work with A.R.K:s and event organizers, please try to gather them up and set up a meeting where you could plan active ingame events in regular basis, where players can participate the "Fate of Rubi-ka", wheater it will be defending Old Athens or invading Newland(lol), anything would be a nice addition. Also keep in mind the story part in there.

8. Marketing, old players and rewarding. Any news on these would be nice. This part kinda attaches to the previous points, but is an important one to bring out. What is the reason for us old timers and new players to keep playing ? What is your plan to bring new players to the game ? Do we have something to look forward to ? Does FC plan to advertise AO more in the future or at the launch of new engine (if its still in the works) ? Are there any plans about new expansions ? Is the subscription price going to remain the same, or can we have it "updated" to more reasonable figure for 11 year old game ? Could there be any competitions held in forums or ingame to boost up and reward existing playerbase ?


These are the things that popped in my mind at least. I also summed up some thoughts from this thread here. Thanks also to other peeps here that have suggested these same things here in this thread and and those who have risen these things up 100000 times before on these forums. There are lots of questions unanswered, and you are going to have your hands full for months if you are going to get at least part of those done. Its not an easy job and even if you get things answered, there are still going to be mass amounts of whining from us players anyway. Hope you get started on those or better yet, deal part of these points to corresponding teams/individuals to solve/answer. . Welcome aboard, good luck, have fun. =)

[Gunforhire]

Bump this. I just want to say it really would be nice if the story line could be picked up again. It seems like the last time anything new happened was when OMNI move that GOT into Bor and that was what 4 years ago. Sheesh.

[Montelukast]

You guys know they'll never say what the plan is, cause I doubt there is one. We're just extra profit for future facebook games that have to do with fashion. This is a sub based game where updates should be coming in constantly, it if were free to play I could understand long delays on updates, however that's not the case. Anarchy Online is the mostly ignored child of Funcom, yet has probably brought them the most profits.

[Mastablasta]

Actually there IS a plan. It's just not as grand as it could be.

[Aeliniyah]

Actually there IS a plan. It's just not as grand as it could be.

And the Plan™ is to milk as much money from the loyal/stubborn players who fell in love with the game ages ago and haven't left yet, before finally pulling the plug?

'Cause thats what it looks like.

[Mastablasta]

No.

[Psikie]

***Disclaimer*** Im gonna switch topics a few times here.

1. Make that "Your Voice"- thingy happen asap.

While in theory I think this would be fantastic because I firmly believe the squeeky wheel gets the oil. The reality is these forums have consistently been the playground of a vocal MINORITY in game that has short sighted and at times very selfish motivations for their posts.

You guys know they'll never say what the plan is, cause I doubt there is one. We're just extra profit for future facebook games that have to do with fashion. This is a sub based game where updates should be coming in constantly, it if were free to play I could understand long delays on updates, however that's not the case. Anarchy Online is the mostly ignored child of Funcom, yet has probably brought them the most profits.

And the Plan™ is to milk as much money from the loyal/stubborn players who fell in love with the game ages ago and haven't left yet, before finally pulling the plug?

'Cause thats what it looks like.

Hmmm I can see both points, and I can actually agree with both points. So I am going to give you 2 points back. First I understand that 99% of posts are really from players that care about playing AO and it's future. As long as we can all agree that at least 1% is pure troll nonsense.

1. Again if you feel like you are being cheated on your subscription price don't pay it and be done until you see some actual progress you can accept to continue to pay and play AO. That's pretty simple and straight forward.

2. Consider the likely hood that AO may currently be cash neutral or slightly cash positive. Enough that it's not operating in the red (or negative cash flow) but not enough that massive resources can be allocated for all the grand promises of the past.

As a company funcom probably keeps AO and it's player base because we are the first ones to try their other products and make those games money. It's a lot cheaper keeping customers than getting brand new ones.

Now all that aside would I love to see new engine sure. New player experience sure. Rebalance more than all of the above yes. I would love to see a rk questline that explores some of the early omni tek origins on rubi ka similar to how Xan questlines provide story info. Like who the hell designed eye mutants?!?! Where did plainscales come from? Did the fauna/flora of RK arrive at the same time as cataclysm or do the periodically fall off the brink? (always wondered that)

What I don't want is some hodgepodge group of random testers/professionals or game designers that take a pen stroke and change up professions to where they are unrecognizable from the original boxed version.

[Teknologist]

It looks like most of my concerns have already been voiced here. I came late to the party!

You sound like you want to get some good feedback from players. Another good way to do that is to join the AOSpeak Server. Michizure has joined on various occasions and has gotten very good feedback from players on various issues.

[Mastablasta]

Oh, and IRC. Even in modern times devs on other titles have done IRC interviews/community meetups/spam. Used to be something that happened in AO in the past as well.
Like a more realtime Reddit AMA but you could do that too, I guess.

[Neon_1]

While in theory I think this would be fantastic because I firmly believe the squeeky wheel gets the oil. The reality is these forums have consistently been the playground of a vocal MINORITY in game that has short sighted and at times very selfish motivations for their posts.

First to the good points of your post, which is almost the whole post itself excluding the chapter I quoted. I agree with you on the other points almost 100%.

However I dont understand how can you see the forum "whining" purely selfish and non-productive ? Have you for example ever looked at Game Suggestions ? Or have you ever visited profession forums ? Of course there is lot of rubbish and selfish posts there too, but you just cant say that there arent thousands of good suggestions there, which sadly have been either ignored or abandoned because the lack of resources. But thats not the point still. When there comes a time, where the game forum stops having "whines" and suggestions about the game itself, the game is as good as dead.

If we can have communication with the devs, how is it a bad thing ? At least we can make some unadressed things heard of, which is usually pretty hard in the forums/ingame, and have a feeling that we are actually being heard. From there we can also maybe get some answers about the future even if its just bits from here and there. I agree with you on the fact that "if you feel like you are being cheated on your subscription price don't pay it and be done until you see some actual progress you can accept to continue to pay and play AO.". But still that doesnt mean that playerbase should stay silent and just wait until the "Lord" speaks.

Whining makes noise. Noise makes distortion. Distortion brings out confusion and chaos. Chaos makes things unstable. Unstability wakes up Leaders and Gods.

[Psikie]

If we can have communication with the devs, how is it a bad thing ? At least we can make some unadressed things heard of, which is usually pretty hard in the forums/ingame, and have a feeling that we are actually being heard. From there we can also maybe get some answers about the future even if its just bits from here and there. I agree with you on the fact that "if you feel like you are being cheated on your subscription price don't pay it and be done until you see some actual progress you can accept to continue to pay and play AO.". But still that doesnt mean that playerbase should stay silent and just wait until the "Lord" speaks.

Truth, it's more of how can devs/gd be expected to filter through good from bad posts on a daily basis. Thats almost a full time job monitoring the forums alone. How long before all the posts good or bad just become a lot of background noise and not really taken seriously.

[Marinegent]

The lack of respond by the topic starter has me left with the feeling that this thread has already been forgotten.

[Philty]

The lack of respond by the topic starter has me left with the feeling that this thread has already been forgotten.

You should look on TSW forums It is interesting to see and compare.

Anyway, Psikie devs/gd are not expected to filter through good from bad posts on a daily basis, that is why they employ people to watch over forums. It is called feedback and it is needed when you care about your product.
If you care....

[mishikato]

I need more hands to satisfy the facepalm I feel, but my heart just can't take it.

[Keepjoe]

Lets post on TSW forums in "Your voice"? maybe they might actually read it

[Morteia]

can we expect the same silence from you in regard to the future of ao as we've been getting from every other funcom rep so far?

Hopefully not, but being in charge of all three communities does make it a bit harder to get on the forums each day for updates. And this week Joel's in the office so we're having a lot of meetings to discuss what we can do about community engagement and updates.

Particularly updates on the new engine.

I want to see transparency from funcom. Either admit the game is on the shelf or be honest about how much work is actually being done for the games future.

I can tell you the game is not on the shelf at all. We've got devs working on the engine update (and they're totally real I can poke them and everything), as well as other fun stuff that Joel will have more details about.

You sound like you want to get some good feedback from players. Another good way to do that is to join the AOSpeak Server. Michizure has joined on various occasions and has gotten very good feedback from players on various issues.

Got your PM and am happy to get that set up as soon as I'm settled. It's a bit whirlwindy right now, so once things calm down I'll have more time to sit down and talk with our players.

Oh, and IRC. Even in modern times devs on other titles have done IRC interviews/community meetups/spam. Used to be something that happened in AO in the past as well.
Like a more realtime Reddit AMA but you could do that too, I guess.

Not a bad idea at all! I will work on this and see what can be done.

Truth, it's more of how can devs/gd be expected to filter through good from bad posts on a daily basis. Thats almost a full time job monitoring the forums alone. How long before all the posts good or bad just become a lot of background noise and not really taken seriously.

I can tell you that we do try to read a bit each day, and that even critical feedback, as long as it is well thought out and concise, is considered. It's just a bit harder now since there's three communities and one of me. :P
_ _ _

I'm also seeing the many requests for more open communication and updates on the state of the game/any plans for the game. I'm working on this with Joel, but he is going straight from this office to the Montreal office this week, so we might not have anything until the week after. This is simply because he is doing presentations and getting the centralized team up to speed this whole week, so he doesn't have a ton of time to sit down and actually compose the update letter.

As well, thank you guys for the warm welcome! I'm looking forward to working with you all and getting you the updates and information you want.

[Tanisthonus]

I can tell you the game is not on the shelf at all. We've got devs working on the engine update (and they're totally real I can poke them and everything), as well as other fun stuff that Joel will have more details about.

you can poke them? pics. i will accept funny dev pics in place of news on occasion.

[Teknologist]

I want to Poke a Dev!
12th Anniversary party at the new HQ anyone?