Age of Conan Character Deletions

[Jan 11, 2010, 5:08 pm ET] - Share - Viewing Comments

Funcom is distributing an Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures newsletter urging former subscribers to re-subscribe to their barbaric MMORPG. Blackmailing is the word a player named Michael used in forwarding his copy, reacting to the plan to delete lower-level characters who don't rejoin the game, though it's hard to see why players would be upset at their toon being deleted if they did not plan to return. The text of the newsletter follows.

Dear customer,

Thank you for playing Age of Conan.

As part of our maintenance your account is now flagged to have your characters below level 20 deleted as part of maintenance. Please re-activate your account now to ensure that your characters progress and names stay intact.

As a welcome back offer we would like to give you a time-limited offer for 7 days of additional play time if you choose to re-subscribe now. Please click this link to use this special offer!

We hope to see you back in the game preparing your characters for the new adventures that will soon be introduced in the expansion "Age of Conan: Rise of the Godslayer". Click here to read more about the expansion.

Here are just some of the some reasons why you should return to Age of Conan now:

Veteran Points - Exclusive Subscription Rewards - Free Level 50 Character
Tons of New Conent - Enhanced Performance - Most improved MMO of 2009

Welcome back to Hyboria, Adventurer!

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22.

Re: Age of Conan Character Deletions

Jan 12, 2010, 14:33

Mashiki Amiketo

MattyC wrote on Jan 11, 2010, 16:34:
Besides, it's not like other MMO's have a never delete policy anyway.

WoW does.

Failing to read is a perceived skill.




-- "For every human problem, there is a neat, simple solution; and it is always wrong." --H.L. Mencken

21.

Re: Age of Conan Character Deletions

Jan 12, 2010, 11:03

Will W

It would be nice if they told me what level my characters on my account were in that e-mail.

20.

Re: Age of Conan Character Deletions

Jan 12, 2010, 03:20

JeffD

Everquest did it ONCE.. it was a level 1 (or maybe it was a level 10 and under) wipe on any character not logged in within like a month. It was about half way through its life cycle. I don't think wow has needed to do the same. The thing about wow is blizzard has shown themselves to be able to manipulate character data when the time to do so arises, so they have probably implemented compression and optimizations during large overhauls like expansions.

19.

Re: Age of Conan Character Deletions

Jan 12, 2010, 00:18

Umbragen

Go ahead and delete them, they're likely taking up names that could be put to better use. It's not like they are deleting accomplished characters - EA/Origin did a purge of all inactive characters once - wiped out all my maxed tunes. Needless to say I've never been back since. If they hadn't done it, they would have gotten at least a few bucks, just for the sake of nostalgia. This comment was edited on Jan 12, 2010, 00:21.

18.

Re: Age of Conan Character Deletions

Jan 11, 2010, 22:39

The Half Elf

Everquest or any SONY game has not done this. As for Blizzard, maybe with games other then WoW.

17.

Re: Age of Conan Character Deletions

Jan 11, 2010, 22:19

Innocent

it's dickish. what's it cost a company in memory to store one character? it's not like they store hi res renders of them, it's simply Stock Model #4 and Stock Face #1, then a big laundry list of shit in the storage vault.

16.

Re: Age of Conan Character Deletions

Jan 11, 2010, 22:02

wtf_man

Heh. Anyway... Levels 1-20 are pretty much a breeze, and as others have said the best part of the game... so I don't see the big deal if they get deleted. If one is going to go back, they're either going to play their higher level character(s), or start over anyway.

15.

Re: Age of Conan Character Deletions

Jan 11, 2010, 19:31

Belzabub

ASJD wrote on Jan 11, 2010, 18:29: The game sucks through and through. Age of Conan, please hurry up and die already! And to think you were just saying that wtf_man was acting 13 years old. I guess the shoe is on the other foot now!!! This comment was edited on Jan 11, 2010, 19:34.

14.

Re: Age of Conan Character Deletions

Jan 11, 2010, 18:29

ASJD

The game sucks through and through. Age of Conan, please hurry up and die already!

13.

Re: Age of Conan Character Deletions

Jan 11, 2010, 18:15

Ventura

if you arent part of the game anymore why does it matter if theyre gone for good? Knowing that your characters are still there sometimes motivates a return. If I spend a lot of time away from a game, and then come back, I don't usually jump straight back into any high level players I might have. No, I play a low-level character first, to get a feel for the game again. Or at least, I would, if they didn't delete them all.

12.

Re: Age of Conan Character Deletions

Jan 11, 2010, 17:38

nullability

This just feels like a dirty ploy to get people to re-subscribe, and I think they'll find it's unsuccessful. Maybe simply flagging a low-level character as "inactive"--which puts the character's name up for grabs for subscribing customers--would be a more reasonable strategy. But outright deletion under the paltry excuse of "maintenance" is likely to just rub potential returning customers the wrong way. They should make the game as accessible as possible, not threaten people who have already left the game to resubscribe "or else." This just gives people even more reason NOT to return to the game. This comment was edited on Jan 11, 2010, 17:39.

11.

Re: Age of Conan Character Deletions / wow's never-delete policy?

Jan 11, 2010, 17:34

winnetou

WORLD OF WARCRAFT® TERMS OF USE AGREEMENT Blizzard Entertainment may, in its sole and absolute discretion, suspend or terminate your access to the Service and disable or delete the Account, if: [...] (3) you use all of the allotted time that you have purchased to access World of Warcraft via a "World of Warcraft Game Card" or similar instrument. While to my knowledge they have not used these options yet, they did reserve the right to do so. Regarding AOC, we have to keep in mind that their unlimited trial promotion allows players unlimited access to Tortage- which I believe also limits us to level 19. This cleanup is therefore most likely a spring clean-up for orphaned trial characters with some possible collateral damage to subscribers' alts. Then again, don't they get to create level 50 characters once they have one character of that level?

10.

Re: Age of Conan Character Deletions

Jan 11, 2010, 17:30

Krovven

I seem to recall Blizzard purging characters below level 10 that had not been logged into for a long period of time. They warned beforehand, they also suggested just logging those characters in briefly if you wanted to avoid the purge. Also recall Everquest did a similar thing. It's not like they are deleting high level characters here (level 20, who cares?), it would be pretty dumb for any MMO to purge idle high-level characters and would be a sure-fire way to assure those people didnt return to your game.

Re: Age of Conan Character Deletions

Jan 11, 2010, 17:13

aNNe fRANk

okay theres been 8 comments and they all say the same thing : dont delete. i disagree. if you arent part of the game anymore why does it matter if theyre gone for good? if you dont pay, or play, then you really don DONT PLAY. btw, delete my Dungeons Dragons Online account. its been years. And, oh yea, "they hear me trollin; they hatin"

Re: Age of Conan Character Deletions

Jan 11, 2010, 17:12

Creston

Here are just some of the some reasons why you should return to Age of Conan now: - We can't spell the word content. Also, if you ever DO return at some point, we'll give you a free level 50 character. What's that? Why should you care about your sub-level 20 character if you get a free 50th level character when you come back anyways? Errr.... Good job, Funcom. Creston

Re: Age of Conan Character Deletions

Jan 11, 2010, 16:57

MattyC

I think never delete is a solid policy. Sure you have more data to keep up with, but using WoW as an example, I have quit a few times, sometimes for several months. I have always come back eventually. I wouldn't have done so if I had to start from scratch. That is the main reason I never went back to FFXI after taking a break.

Re: Age of Conan Character Deletions

Jan 11, 2010, 16:57

Narf2029

City of Heroes also never deletes characters if I'm not mistaken. The worst they will do is remove your name reservation if your character is under level 5.




Huh? I'm sorry, I was thinking about cake.

Re: Age of Conan Character Deletions

Jan 11, 2010, 16:52

DarkCntry

As does Turbine's stable of games...my old AC character still exists despite it being 8 years since I last actively played it.

Re: Age of Conan Character Deletions

Jan 11, 2010, 16:34

MattyC

Besides, it's not like other MMO's have a never delete policy anyway. WoW does.

Re: Age of Conan Character Deletions

Jan 11, 2010, 16:32

Tumbler

I thought they just said you can go into the game and play through tortage without paying so I'm not sure it matters, you can get to lvl 20 easily for free.




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