My message to Funcom

I think funcom has lost touch with their playerbase. They need to realize

1. Anarchy Online is not the 'latest and greatest' game. The surge in new players when they announced free accounts does not reflect an increase in overall population. If one paying player leaves and ten free players join, that is not an improvement.

2. The policies and procedures, especially when it comes to enforcement of the code of conduct, are on a "We don't have to tell you that/do anything, it's secret" policy. As a result, the common belief is that "For other than technical issues, calling an ARK is pointless."

3. Changes without reason. These changes being implemented, they need to show some documentation to the players of how they arrived at the decision to make these changes. This game has been going for four years. If you have players that have stuck with the game this long, it is not a license to treat them like sheep.

Funcom, Anarchy Online is an old game and it's not going to last forever. However, turning your backs on your players when they ask for respect will come around to bite you in the ass. When someone who has never played anarchy online looks at Conan, they're going to do a little research. If the top ten links they find when searching up "anarchy online" are people griping about how poorly they're treated in-game, what are the odds that player will join Conan?

For starters, the 1.6 patch is WRONG, because you're introducing new features without fixing old problems. I'm not talking about the big technical issues, but before you go 'fine tuning' the classes, maybe you should...

1. Fix some of the horrible typos and mis-quotes in the game. Example : Adventuring description still says "reduces falling damage". All of the "Gallant slave" nanocrystals have the wrong description. When last I checked many of the alien invasion items still have an 'invisible' requirement not listed in the description of the item.

2. Basic 'fix a setting and it's done' fixes. Playercity buildings is the big one. LOWER their view priority, so that they don't fully render when you could see even a tiny corner of it.

3. Turn the game 45 degrees. Think about it, your view is rendering a square around your character, making the distance in front of you the shortest distance. Add in the only 70 degree vision arc (on average), and you're wasting a huge ammont of processing power rendering what you can't see when walking about and can't see when you turn to look at it.


Funcom, it's a great game. However, it's not a cash cow like ultima online. The people 'addicted' to this game have alternatives out there. When a game has been going this long, the 'administration' and the 'players' of the game need to communicate instead of being artificially distanced.

Now, here's some suggestions to help shorten that distance.

1. You have a wide player base, and outdated graphical icons. Release a toolkit that allows the players to design their own graphics for the game and submit them to a team that reviews and implements them. Hold it as a contest, design new graphics for so many of those items that either have no graphic, or use a graphic already in use by 20 other similar items.

2. Start actually replying to suggestions in the game suggestions forum. If an idea is unfeasable, say what about the idea is unfeasable, and what is workable. Players want to know that their feedback is actually being recieved.

Thank you SOOOOOOOO much for posting this i posted one close to this but not near as good i will put a link to it. it also has some proablems FC wont get off there @$$ and fix that are long oever do http://forums.anarchy-online.com/sho...d.php?t=405150

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Originally Posted by securitywyrm

1. Anarchy Online is not the 'latest and greatest' game. The surge in new players when they announced free accounts does not reflect an increase in overall population. If one paying player leaves and ten free players join, that is not an improvement.

2. The policies and procedures, especially when it comes to enforcement of the code of conduct, are on a "We don't have to tell you that/do anything, it's secret" policy. As a result, the common belief is that "For other than technical issues, calling an ARK is pointless."

3. Changes without reason. These changes being implemented, they need to show some documentation to the players of how they arrived at the decision to make these changes. This game has been going for four years. If you have players that have stuck with the game this long, it is not a license to treat them like sheep.

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Re: 1: That wholly depends on the deal with the ad company. Most people tend to forget that froobs are paid for by that there ad-agency that supplies the in-game ads that froobs are required to see.

Re: 2: I agree, FC needs to adopt a high-visibility profile regarding enfocement of CoC and such.

Re: 3: Actually, they don't have to anything of the sort, unless we're talking moral obligation here. AO is FC's game and whatever they want to do with it they can.
I do agree, however, that we "should" be told since we're long-term customers but remain so only if we're satisfied with the product.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by securitywyrm

1. Fix some of the horrible typos and mis-quotes in the game. Example : Adventuring description still says "reduces falling damage". All of the "Gallant slave" nanocrystals have the wrong description. When last I checked many of the alien invasion items still have an 'invisible' requirement not listed in the description of the item.

2. Basic 'fix a setting and it's done' fixes. Playercity buildings is the big one. LOWER their view priority, so that they don't fully render when you could see even a tiny corner of it.

3. Turn the game 45 degrees. Think about it, your view is rendering a square around your character, making the distance in front of you the shortest distance. Add in the only 70 degree vision arc (on average), and you're wasting a huge ammont of processing power rendering what you can't see when walking about and can't see when you turn to look at it.

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You lost me on #3 but I agree with the other two. And based on their posts through time, so do a lot of others. :)

As for your suggestions, I'm all for them. :)

#3 is mostly a technical aspect, though you are completely correct, and something should be done about it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by securitywyrm

3. Changes without reason. These changes being implemented, they need to show some documentation to the players of how they arrived at the decision to make these changes. This game has been going for four years. If you have players that have stuck with the game this long, it is not a license to treat them like sheep.

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Agreed, they don't have to give us reasons, but the changes would probably make more sense if they did. Such as why are there AI-level requirements on the AI NT DoTS but none on the other Kyr'Ozch weapons?

Easy way to see this. Go out to a forrest somewhere and set your view distance to 100. Look to the edge of your screen to where you see something like a mountain range in the distance. Now turn to face it... woah it's gone! That's because it's rendering the square around where you are facing, making the view distance 'in front' of you the shortest. Combined with the average camera settings (either first person or third person), it means there is a lot of rendering going on that you can't see if you turn to look at it.

The solution is actually in the game's render settings, of what area to render based on character facing direction. Change that 45 degrees, and the view distance 'in front' of you would be the longest distance.

i agree with a lot of the things you said, i see a lot of good game suggestions in this forum that may go unnoticed or not even considered when patching goes on and feedback from some higher form would be appreaciated. but i cant stress enough for more info on what and why things are changed in the game notes, it will make it seem that FC is doing something.

edit:

btw i emailed funcom about my light radius suggestion a few months ago, which can be found here http://forums.anarchy-online.com/sho...d.php?t=402656

and no reply, go figure, so i posted here hoping for something to happen.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by securitywyrm

I think funcom has lost touch with their playerbase. They need to realize

1. Anarchy Online is not the 'latest and greatest' game. The surge in new players when they announced free accounts does not reflect an increase in overall population. If one paying player leaves and ten free players join, that is not an improvement.

2. The policies and procedures, especially when it comes to enforcement of the code of conduct, are on a "We don't have to tell you that/do anything, it's secret" policy. As a result, the common belief is that "For other than technical issues, calling an ARK is pointless."

3. Changes without reason. These changes being implemented, they need to show some documentation to the players of how they arrived at the decision to make these changes. This game has been going for four years. If you have players that have stuck with the game this long, it is not a license to treat them like sheep.

Funcom, Anarchy Online is an old game and it's not going to last forever. However, turning your backs on your players when they ask for respect will come around to bite you in the ass. When someone who has never played anarchy online looks at Conan, they're going to do a little research. If the top ten links they find when searching up "anarchy online" are people griping about how poorly they're treated in-game, what are the odds that player will join Conan?

For starters, the 1.6 patch is WRONG, because you're introducing new features without fixing old problems. I'm not talking about the big technical issues, but before you go 'fine tuning' the classes, maybe you should...

1. Fix some of the horrible typos and mis-quotes in the game. Example : Adventuring description still says "reduces falling damage". All of the "Gallant slave" nanocrystals have the wrong description. When last I checked many of the alien invasion items still have an 'invisible' requirement not listed in the description of the item.

2. Basic 'fix a setting and it's done' fixes. Playercity buildings is the big one. LOWER their view priority, so that they don't fully render when you could see even a tiny corner of it.

3. Turn the game 45 degrees. Think about it, your view is rendering a square around your character, making the distance in front of you the shortest distance. Add in the only 70 degree vision arc (on average), and you're wasting a huge ammont of processing power rendering what you can't see when walking about and can't see when you turn to look at it.


Funcom, it's a great game. However, it's not a cash cow like ultima online. The people 'addicted' to this game have alternatives out there. When a game has been going this long, the 'administration' and the 'players' of the game need to communicate instead of being artificially distanced.

Now, here's some suggestions to help shorten that distance.

1. You have a wide player base, and outdated graphical icons. Release a toolkit that allows the players to design their own graphics for the game and submit them to a team that reviews and implements them. Hold it as a contest, design new graphics for so many of those items that either have no graphic, or use a graphic already in use by 20 other similar items.

2. Start actually replying to suggestions in the game suggestions forum. If an idea is unfeasable, say what about the idea is unfeasable, and what is workable. Players want to know that their feedback is actually being recieved.

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Very good post..Anarchy Online needs a complete revolution about every element of it, if you'd ask me what they need to do and this can't be done with patches apparently, perhaps with large ones.

I cancelled my account, simply because of the distance you have described above. Before a bit I read in new patch notes that they fixed pet command bugs which were the reasons of my engineer deletion. They fixed it in this last patch even though it was repeated in patch notes forum section several times by experienced engineers. It's so sad to see a major profession problem fixed after 4 months maybe longer.

That's fine and good. I ended it here. Hopefully you will have more patience and enjoy with it more.

Goodbye

I bet this is going to be shut down soon FC cant have a bad rep now can they.
If you realy want to get this i will help you send emails to people about all the bugs i know of in Anarchy Online and the neglect that people are geting also.
Because FC cant stop you from doing that but they can stop you from posting here

To stop us from posting here they'd actually have to be reading these posts.

Hahahah yea your right. i got mine shut down for ''flaming'' but it kinda of was so they had an excuse to close, it but that was just an ark who did it he must have some love for FC. it was just a good old debate.

What i think people should do is band together and get mass amounts of people who will portest till we get some more respect and feed back all the people would have to do is quick for a little while untill FC agrees cause this is there only big money cow they have the adds to but if the marketers see such a big drop in players they are going leave FC behind to go to a game like ultima or swg.
its sad cause this game has so much potential. if they took player ideas and suggestions and informed us and gave us feedback like you said then they would be collecting so much cash it wouldent be funny.

Excellent post. :)

I hope we can have discussion about the game as it stands without it turning into flamming or flinging crap to eachother...

AO has had very rough life. They succeeded in having the worst launch in the history of MMO's, and surviving and turning around the game despite that fact... still, there was a lot of extremely irresponsible things being said by FC staff at the time, which did not help the image of the game or the company.

There is a reason why many of us play it either full time or part time or an occational log in. We still enjoy the game.

Certainly, it needs a drastic overhaul to be competitive with newer, shinier games.... and it still lacks basic components for level progression... but that's more or less due to the drastic scope of the game, with little focus on the content.

I think one thing Funcom needs to remember with AO and up and coming MMO's - this scale of gaming becomes less and less about the game itself (though in AO's case, they need to be playing catch up, so its still very much about the game) and more about the service being provided. MMO's are a service. Bottom Line. People are willing to pay for and stick around for a better service.

*me closes the door*

I would saggest emailing feedback@anarchy-online.com as it tends to get more attension. :)

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Originally Posted by mer

I bet this is going to be shut down soon FC cant have a bad rep now can they.

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Alright, that's unfair. People are welcome to voice complaints as long as they do so constructively. Ranting though is unconstructive and does not help anyone, and seeing as most complaints are rants, that is why they are moderated.

The reason why this post was locked was because, as the forum rules state:

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Originally Posted by The Rules

Funcom or Funcom policies (including these guidelines and their enforcement), exploits and account status are not topics for this bulletin board.

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This also isn't the best place to get FunCom's attention. I'm probably one of the more active readers of the forums, and I didn't even see this thread until I saw another moderator talking about. Send them an email instead.

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Originally Posted by mer

If you realy want to get this i will help you send emails to people about all the bugs i know of in Anarchy Online and the neglect that people are geting also.
Because FC cant stop you from doing that but they can stop you from posting here

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This attitude is completely unreasonable, and I don't see how you can expect anything constructive to come of it. Nobody is asking you to post here, and you are welcome to continue to do so, but you will have to obey the rules like anybody else.

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Originally Posted by securitywyrm

2. The policies and procedures, especially when it comes to enforcement of the code of conduct, are on a "We don't have to tell you that/do anything, it's secret" policy. As a result, the common belief is that "For other than technical issues, calling an ARK is pointless."

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I don't think there's anything secretive about policies and procedures, and what we (ARK) can and cannot help with. However, FunCom is not going to tell you the outcome of any investigation of another player. If a player violates the code of conduct, their punishment is at FunCom's discretion, and this information is not public. FunCom has stated numerous times that they cannot and will not release information on other players.

Your post was well thought out, and I appreciate the calm manner you brought up your concerns Securitywyrm, but due to various forum rules, this thread has been closed.

Just re-opening this one quickly to respond on a few points as I felt its important to clarify in addition to those Regulas has pointed out.

We can't always please everyone 100% with every patch, high level content some patches, low level in others, mid level or upgrades etc, as much as we would love to have the respurces to try and please everyone in every patch it is rarely possible.

Likewise we cannot simply only work on bug-fixes as players do also want new content on a regular basis, and such new content is important to give existing subscribers new things to enjoy and try to keep the game fresh.

Therefore we have to spend our resources accordingly

We know that each individual player has different opinions about what is important or what should go into a patch. That is the nature of having a dynamic online enviornment and unfortunately means we will never please everyone. All we can do is try our best to provide the most value to the game we can with each patch.

Likewise whilst your suggestion to use a more 'open source' type of system and let players help sounds great in theory it is simply not practical with a commercial game as complex as AO.

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When a game has been going this long, the 'administration' and the 'players' of the game need to communicate instead of being artificially distanced.

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I am sorry you feel that doesnt happen already, as we work very hard to communicate with the playerbase when working on the game. The Community Updates , the new featured content section (which includes design considerations in the articles when appropriate), the patch forums , the professionals program, the feedback emails, the surveys we do, the great ARK team, and from spending time in game, we try to communicate as much as possible and a good chunk of the fixes and changes in each patch come directly from player feedback (if I had to estimate it I'd say at least 30-40% of all changes in any given patch come almost directly from player feedback) so overall we feel we put a lot of time and resource into ensuring that communication is there.

Now whether any given player personally agress with our patches, or even their fellow players, is purely subjective so just because *you* feel a patch isn't great does not mean there isnt many players who think the patch is very good and addresses their concerns.