Finding a group in AoC is like any standard MMO - tough, involving lots of broadcasting over some channel, with plenty of waiting around for a somewhat ideal class composition, and very little guarantee that the other five people are going to gel together with you. I could levy the same accusation at MMOs like WoW and LOTRO, etc.

AoC’s design does include a few interesting features on paper: One is the apprentice system, based on CoX’s sidekick system. I haven’t seen this being used yet, and I suspect it’ll take people used to other MMOs a while to embrace the idea. I know I’m personally a bit too nervous to go into a dungeon that’s too high for me and trust an apprentice system, so I don’t even respond to calls to group until I’m an appropriate level.

I like that they’re sneaking in group content the higher in levels you go. I’ve never been terribly impressed by WoW’s “solo to 70, now group for endgame” approach. I’m one of the terrible inclined-to-solo cohort, but even I’ve managed to overcome my inertia and group up in order to complete a dungeon instance, and some overland group quests.

The design that encourages people to join guilds helps. (Building guild cities, siege pvp, etc. On paper anyway. Even if the implementation is currently buggy. Very buggy. Practically nonfunctional. Ah well.)

I disagree with your assessment of AoC’s quests though. Again, I could turn around and point back to CoX. “Why don’t I feel like a superhero?” goes the complaint we’ve all heard before. “I’m just beating up small time gangs. Why isn’t my superhero saving the world from great otherworldly menaces?”

It’s an MMO like any other. There’s bound to be some errand-running or warehouse-clearing for xp in between the really good story arcs.

I had a somewhat different experience during beta of AoC, and from that I decided not to buy it at launch, but to revisit it about 6 months post to see if it had been polished up.

My main problems with AoC were of two varieties. One was design, the other was implementation.

I can understand implementation problems - a certain feature is supposed to do X, but it just doesn’t work yet, but it can be fixed. Besides bugs, another example of an implementation problem is grouping.

I find there’s very little incentive - and a lot of disincentives - to grouping in AoC. Some of this is due to the community, but the game itself doesn’t overtly reward grouping outside of instances. Compare and contrast with an MMO like City of Heroes/Villains, where grouping is encouraged through xp rewards and complementary classes - and it’s easy to do. AoC seriously needs to fix the group chat, the grouping interface and give bonus xp for grouping.

The game also effectively punishes grouping by encouraging people to progress and churn quests in a variety of locations, which means they’re constantly speeding from one quest to the next. Stopping and gathering a group, doing some quests but not others, is enough for many people to just not bother and go their own way solo to get more xp/min.

Another implementation issue is the UI, which is stoneage by MMO standards. WoW and CoH/V have far superior UIs. But that can be fixed…

On the design side, I have an issue with the combat. I love 90% of the combo system, but I find it clunky. Why, for instance, do you hit a combo, hit the directions *then* the combo ability fires?

Why not use the directions to open up the combo which lights up in your tray, you hit it, *then* it triggers? I know Funcom freaked out several months ago from playtesters saying that system was too complex (although their original system was not exactly what I’ve described here), so they dumbed it down and made it more clunky.

The other main design thing that bugs me is that AoC fails to capture a lot of the real richness of Robert E. Howard. By this I mean Conan is often stalking through the bowels of some forgotten temple, more often than not running from something unholy into a scrappy desperate fight with a handful of cultists to steal the gem and only just makes it out alive. That’s an experience I’d like to have in a game.

But you never hear of Conan helping the local townsfolk gather wood, or wandering up the road, fighting a dozen gorillas on route, to kill a bunch of random bandits who stole some dude’s lunch. That kind of questing is banal, regardless of the flavour text surrounding it. And i was hoping AoC might have a more sophisticated approach to questing.

Anyway - just some thoughts. I think AoC might pull me back in in a few months time. But I don’t think I’ll ever be 100% happy with it. But that’s my, and my expectations’, problem…

I hated Guild Wars too with it’s over use of instance content, I just hope AoC doesn’t thril me the same way.

Nice post Ethic!

The gameplay has been quite engaging for me; I’m enjoying casters and smashers alike (from Priests of Mitra to Demonologists to Barbarians). Yes, there are a fair number of bugs (my minimap greys out pretty often, and I get a memory leak/crash maybe once per two hours of play) but discounting those, I’m having a great time.

But by all you hold holy, avoid the forums. ‘Cesspool’ is far too kind a word to describe the experience.

It is however somewhat buggy (nowhere near the extent AO or Vanguard was though) Most of it minor (my minimap keeps going gray for some unknown reason and only fixes itself when I zone) with some Major (I keep getting told I am out of Memory..with over 3GB of RAM >.< )

When it works though the game just “clicks” it is a gorgeous world. I just got a brand new Quad core Dual 8800GT system and I get to see the game in all it’s “pretty” and it lives up to it. While I still like the stylized artwork in WoW there is something to be said about the realistic look of Hyboria. I know the DX10 version of th egame was delayed but I wonder if FC will be able to implement it without making the already high system reqs even higher to run it.

1. It’s just not their kind of game. This happens. Why people review something that just doesn’t appeal to them is beyond me.

2. Bugs and unfinished content really bugs them. How they’ve survived through other MMO launches is beyond me, but I do understand being patient and just waiting until a new MMORPG has hit its stride.

3. Like pundits, they want to place bets on which game they think will ‘win’ the prize of being the next big MMO. Since they hadn’t predicted it was Age of Conan, they’re determined to trash it and favour games that haven’t been released yet.

I’m loving this game, but for me it seems tailor-made. My original first glances at it didn’t thrill, screenshots don’t do the animation justice, but once I’d seen actual video of it, and then after actually playing it… I’m hooked.

I too would have a hard time going back to any of the current MMOs.