Age of Conan reaches 700,000 players
by Alexander Sliwinski 
{ Jun 30th 2008 at 5:00PM }
According to NPD, Conan remains the top selling PC title in the US since its launch May 20. Funcom reported early last month it had shipped a million copies of the game to retail and now believes its current subscription numbers give it "significant development resources" to evolve the game over time. Hopefully this also means bugs that reduce anatomical parts will be caught in the future.
Gallery: Age of Conan
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Haggard @ Jun 30th 2008 5:04PM
'Number 2 subscription based MMO in the west'
'subscription-based' criteria needed to make it onto the list needed because GW has a few million :P
Jakka @ Jun 30th 2008 5:30PM
Technically GW isn't an MMO, yet considering that all level 70 ever do in WoW is grind Molten Core 24/7 for Epic Lootz, GW could as well count as one.
Microswirl (MKWii:1676- 4270-3674) @ Jun 30th 2008 9:38PM
Excuse me, but how is Guild Wars NOT "Technically" an MMORPG?
Is it Massively Multiplayer? Check!
Is it a Role Playing Game? Check!
Is it Online? Most of the time.
NoHitHair @ Jul 1st 2008 4:54AM
He may be referring to the server system they use in which players are isolated from the rest of the playing world (depending on location). Though I hardly think that stops it from being massively multiplayer and an RPG.
meesterbacula @ Jul 12th 2008 5:07PM
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Slayer @ Jun 30th 2008 5:06PM
I've lost friends to this game. Is it that good? If that's the case maybe I should try it out.
Shagittarius @ Jun 30th 2008 5:12PM
It has potential but its only about half way done, content pretty much runs out at about level 50 except for the bare minimum needed to progress to 80. There are so many bugs to list them would be quite an undertaking, and rather than fix any of the bugs or add more content the dev team seems intent on modifying every single class to make the grind take longer and become more unplayable...
It could be a great game but they need to get their priorities straight or the success will be short lived.
NoHitHair @ Jun 30th 2008 5:49PM
Sounds eerily like when WoW first launched.
GenBanks @ Jun 30th 2008 5:57PM
Yeah, it's fun and will only get better from here.
Wes @ Jun 30th 2008 8:31PM
Basically, the game is unfinished and kind of buggy. Its great up till lvl 20, so-so to good until lvl 45+, bad after 50+ worse at 80 when you find out there's no end game and you have nothing to do with your level 80 character but farm mats over and over again.
In short, its not worth the $50-$80.00 price tag(depending onw hich version you buy) and definitely not worht the monthyl fee once you reach lvl 50. Some people might pay for a month after their free period if they game very casually and haven't reached 50 though but I suspect next month you'll see more and more pople drop out of AoC.
I know I did as it has nothing to offer me. Perhaps its my own fault for leveling my character to get to the end game? Maybe if I had enjoyed the ride and leveled very slowly or leveled characters from 8 classes at once, by the time I reached end-game they'd have had content to keep me interested?
Either that or funcom should have made some end-game content during theri 4 yeras of development time. No Directx 10 mode as promised yet, no pvp experience system and no functional(non-buggy/winable) mounted pvp combat. Three things that would add at least a point out of 10 to the games worth.
tmacairjordan87 @ Jun 30th 2008 5:08PM
Awesome job I guess. Only what...12,300,000 to catch up to WoW right?
Phylicus @ Jun 30th 2008 5:19PM
Amazing what people will suffer through just to play something new.
Age of Conan is garbage, plain and simple. Subscription numbers don't make a game good, they just let other companies know that they can ship a broken product and still turn a profit.
GenBanks @ Jun 30th 2008 5:58PM
At least a few hundred thousand paying subscribers disagree with you :p (Me among them)
Phylicus @ Jun 30th 2008 6:07PM
It's you "few hundred thousand" that are proving my point.
GenBanks @ Jun 30th 2008 7:01PM
As far as I can tell your point wasn't to disagree with the statement that the game is 'garbage, plain and simple'.
What do you think is more likely... That a few hundred thousand ppl disagree with you that the game is rubbish and actually like it, or that it's purely a matter of a few hundred thousand stupid people being fooled by the evil corporations that are Eidos/Funcom into spending hours playing the game?
tmacairjordan87 @ Jun 30th 2008 8:33PM
Not that I'm sticking up for age of conan, because I particularly don't like the look or the way it's geared (more towards pvp, which I don't like doing) but when WoW came out I was told by several people in my guild who bought it launch day that it was very unplayable for a couple months.
Takes a while to get MMO's up and running fine.
captainking @ Jun 30th 2008 5:22PM
I gave this game a try, got an assassin to level 55. But there's just no content at that level and grinding got really boring. Going to jump back in after the introduce the new zone for level 50s though, since AoC has loads of potential.
grand moff @ Jun 30th 2008 5:26PM
This game is horrible. The classes suck, the interface sucks, the universal starting area sucks, the cinematics suck and are unnecessary... what else? Everyone either rolls a hot babe or a Leonidas clone...
Anything else to add?
The whole story seems totally pointless. Pretty much a game based wholly upon a horrific battle system that makes absolutely no sense to me.
Mr.ESC @ Jun 30th 2008 5:40PM
"either rolls a hot babe or a Leonidas clone..."
So XxxSon0fLeonidas933xxX and Hotcowgirl16 are already taken?
GenBanks @ Jun 30th 2008 7:17PM
*What cinematics? o.0
*Interface is essentially similar to WoW, but with the option to choose your direction of attack... I don't see what problems you're referring to.
*The starting area is widely considered to be one of the best parts of the game... (Voice acting, story based night-time quests).
*Characters are much more customizable than most other MMO's (especially WoW)! Sure lots of people choose to be hot males or hot females... But believe me, you can create some really ugly bastards! Loads of stuff can be customized, I actually prefer the character creation in AoC to WoW/Tab.Rasa/LotRO/EO.
I think the main problem with character 'uniqueness' is not the appearance of the people, but rather the fact that there isn't enough variety in the armour appearance. That bugs me, but will be addressed over the coming months hopefully.
*Since when do people judge MMO's based on the overarching story? It's about the stories you encounter while questing, which are rather good (see my post about it further down). The main storyline with its voice acting is just a bonus.
*Why does the battle system make no sense to you? You mean the directional attacks? Has been pretty intuitive to everyone I've shown the game to...
Off topic though, I know I keep defending this game, but I just feel that the developers care about it and are going to improve it. Some people are ripping the game to shreds with negative comments and I think it's turning people off the game who might really enjoy. I have bought just about every MMO since WoW and I'm really liking AoC (I've been playing it since launch but I'm not that high level - I'm 41. But this is someone who bought WoW at launch and who's main is still at lvl 42 :p
grand moff @ Jun 30th 2008 11:56PM
Clearly you just think the opposite of what I think, lol. We obviously have different tastes in our MMO's so I won't try and refute everything you've said (although I could) When I say cinematics I mean the voice acting when you get quests. Not really a cinematic but i like to think it fits. The character customization is superior to World of Warcraft.. but most of the customization is pointless. I mean, if they scrapped all of the "chin width" and "eyebrow height" options and just left "boob size" I would think the same thing of it. The battle system is indeed at least SORT OF intuitive, as far as melee directions go. But when performing a special ability I find it kind of stupid and repetitive to tap not only the button for the special ability but ALSO a direction that really doesn't make much sense as I only have one option anyway. No choice is being made, so why throw in the challenge of pressing a direction key in time?
The starting area is indeed quite entertaining and helps you think that the game is a beautiful experience, especially for an MMO (it is) but the night quests (to me) kill the point of an MMO. Sure, you can't get ganked while questing about.. but I think what is magical about MMO's is everyone is questing and leveling and playing on the same field. If you run into them, there they are. Instead, the night time quests is like running into an instance in WoW by yourself. And I pay 15 bucks a month for an online service so I can truly feel as if I'm online. Not playing my super nintendo. Then, I don't know if the night-time, solo questing happens throughout the game in other forms.
The interface is a bit of a mess and doesn't even attempt to look pretty OR easy to follow. If you want to reach your skills menu, gigantic stone pillars descend from the heavens blocking your view of anything in the game.. unlike WoW where a tiny little box pops up that somehow shows more information in a smaller space.
And lol, I guess I just have a thing for overarching story lines.
Ok so I did refute all that you said. I know that the AoC developers are doing everything they can to improve their little baby.. But the game is not poised to destroy WoW. It still needs a LOT of work. Even so, by far the second best MMO i've played.
Shawn @ Jun 30th 2008 5:51PM
I've added many people to my buddy list, never to see them again. Fun as hell, but I haven't felt the need to login in a few weeks. Once the initial 2 month prepaid cards start running up at the end of the summer, that should give a good idea of how the game's future pans out. I don't think this is going to get millions of subs, but I'm sure it will have enough to keep it going
Sora267 @ Jun 30th 2008 6:05PM
So they've pretty much got a month and a half-ish to turn their entire game around before the statistics show that its epic phail? Good luck, Funcom >_>
Wes @ Jul 1st 2008 12:46AM
Pretty much. In my case, I've already left and haven't looked back. Anyone want to buy my copy of AoC and my account off me? Its got a Priest of Mithra on it.
offday @ Jun 30th 2008 6:00PM
Meh. I play WoW. I want to play this, but I doubt my computer could handle the specs.
GenBanks @ Jun 30th 2008 6:06PM
I hope people keep subscribing, this is a game that I think will outclass WoW in terms of fun and complexity as long as the devs keep up the rate of improvements and new stuff (two regularly scheduled patch days a week atm). It's already fun, but to really outclass the competition there's more work to do. I recommend people try it out... Even if that means waiting until around August to pick it up.
The Conan lore is a solid base for an MMO (I didn't know anything about it, but have started reading Robert Howard since playing)
I have more fun with the combat than I did in WoW
I love the PvP and can't wait until the XP update comes.
Graphics are gorgeous
I love the music
It's accessible
There are lots of really cool, non-grindy quests... EG a quest where you have to solve a murder mystery in the Tarantia Noble District, or one where you have to collect a bunch of insults to help you put down this obnoxious man in a bar. I have found the quests to be well written and interesting. Can't wait until they add in new quests and add voice acting.
Overall, I think the success is well deserved.
Psyclerk @ Jun 30th 2008 6:46PM
My brother convinced me to get on release day. I enjoyed it so far, but some classes (assassin!) have major problems. There are also a number of technical issues and of course, a lot of people are complaining about the specs needed to run it.
While I've liked what I've seen, I can't recommend it. The game could have easily used another six months in testing, and Funcom has only just now opened a test server for actual players. Problems like stats on armor not actually giving any bonuses make the company look even worse than amateurs. Add to that the fact that Funcom has an enormous lack of communication with players and the game can become frustrating. Maybe some hard knocks (read: cancelled subs) and enough time will straighten the game out.
Pro: Leveling is easy, especially compared to any other MMO, including WoW.
Con: Heavily PvP-oriented gameplay at max level.
Extra Con: Most PvP-oriented gamers tend to be major douchebags.
grand moff @ Jul 1st 2008 12:20AM
"Extra Con: Most PvP-oriented gamers tend to be major douchebags."
Psyclerk, the prophet. CoD4 comes to mind.
Jay @ Jun 30th 2008 7:04PM
I haven't been able to play this game yet. I've been told its very buggy and all the quests are pretty much "Kill XX amount of YY" and thats it.
GenBanks @ Jun 30th 2008 7:24PM
There is some of that but no more than the competition tbh. If you can't stand any grinding then AoC might frustrate you at times. But there are some real standout quests. The one I played most recently involves solving a murder mystery... You have to investigate dead bodies, talk to witnesses and eventually find the murderer.
In another cool quest you have to track down who has poisoned the water supply to a city. You travel to different parts gradually unraveling what happened.
Lots of the quests are written with a good dose of humour and have made me lol occasionally.
Imho the quests are good, I consider myself a fan :)
Royale @ Jun 30th 2008 11:57PM
Don't forget about Fabio and Princess!
Ramen @ Jun 30th 2008 7:16PM
Wow, 700,000 subscribers considering they did a breast reduction on all women characters. Good Job!
Nick @ Jul 1st 2008 12:17AM
It's not the amount of currently open subscriptions. It's a misleading figure. It's just the number of people that have opened an account period. Basically it's just the number of activated box sales and doesn't factor in the amount of people that have already canceled.
Entire guilds are leaving this game, take it for what its worth but I know myself and my guild has. It's not so hard to believe other people saying they're experiencing the same thing on the boards when you've already personally experienced it yourself.
This game isn't worth the money or the frustration. By the time they get all the features into the game that are missing but were advertised on the box WAR and WoTLK will be out. If you haven't bought this game already but really really want to try it then do yourself a huge favor and wait at least 6 months to get what's actually advertised on the box. (hopefully the features will be in by then)
Also Funcom's cancellation page is "bugged" when a player cancels and cites a reason from the drop down box it automatically changes the reason you selected to "Financial Reasons" when you hit the submit button.
Dunno If I trust any numbers from Funcom after I experienced that little "bug".
laocorne @ Jul 1st 2008 5:15PM
I was going to comment, but Nick nailed all my points for me. This is a misleading article in that it's not talking about -current- subscriptions, just total. How does AoC keep getting this kind of press? I've never seen a game with so many reviews based on its starter area(the only complete part of AoC), and now we get fluffy numbers as well.
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Draggon @ Jul 8th 2008 4:20PM
Great game. Been playing it since release. You prolly have to play on a PvP server to get the gritty, harsh "feel" that I think the game was designed to bring. Battling it out with other players and guilds over resources and grinding spots is just awesome IMO.
The combat system and graphics are phenominal. There are of course things that Funcom needs to fix, but they are working on them and releasing those fixes in weekly patches.