AO Interview

There is a Tor A. Wigmostad interview on AO Basher with today's second Q&A with the Anarchy Online community manager. The goal of the Q&A seems to be to face the tough questions head-on, as the following excerpt demonstrates:
Sion: The game had a problematic launch, do you feel the game was released prematurely?

We believed we would be able to launch the game in a way that would work out well for both the players and Funcom. A Massively Multiplayer Online Game (MMOG) like Anarchy Online is dependent on people playing it for several months. What this means is, a catastrophic launch isn't good for our long-term plans. Now, we all agree that things did not go as well as we had planned. Some problems probably could have been avoided by an extended release date and better planning. Some of the problems where also due to things it had been difficult to plan around. For instance, the number of subscribers we had at launch were much more than we had anticipated.

Sion: In short, do you think the game was ready to be released?

Tor Andre: At the time of ship, we believed we were ready for a launch, but, there were obviously problems in the game that we wished had been solved before release.
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15.
 
Re: hmm
Aug 22, 2001, 11:19
anon@212.111
15.
Re: hmm Aug 22, 2001, 11:19
Aug 22, 2001, 11:19
anon@212.111
 
Dark Age of Camekot have been beta testing for nigh on 6 months plus.
14.
 
hmm
Aug 22, 2001, 09:23
anon@165.166
14.
hmm Aug 22, 2001, 09:23
Aug 22, 2001, 09:23
anon@165.166
 
What is disgusting is the guy doesn't have the courage to admit they screwed up the release and they shipped it when it was not ready. Anyone could tell that. I was in the beta and I only had a chance to play a few times before it shipped. I think I was notified of the beta a week or maybe two before it was released. I was expecting the beta to last at least a month or two
13.
 
Re: Customer XP
Aug 22, 2001, 07:39
13.
Re: Customer XP Aug 22, 2001, 07:39
Aug 22, 2001, 07:39
 
Actually, reading the message boards about Everquest, Diablo II and the like CAN give you information on these issues (the whole TCP vs. UDP debate, for example). Funcom had the 'It Won't Happen to Us' mentality.

Let see, every MMORPG has had the same problem: server capacity and lag. Apparently, Funcom knew of this even through their 'final beta' (though I consider the retail product the final beta in this case). Solution: stress test the game with 3-4 times the amount of expected traffic, for days.

Hell, if game companies can't afford to test, they shouldn't be in business.

12.
 
Re: Customer XP
Aug 22, 2001, 04:46
anon@212.111
12.
Re: Customer XP Aug 22, 2001, 04:46
Aug 22, 2001, 04:46
anon@212.111
 
Funcom simply ran out of money. This as much is obvious. How can you say that you hadnt expected as many subscribers at launch? How many copies did they replicate? How many hits were they getting on the site? How many beta testers "shared" accounts?

Log on trends, visiting trends, all simple market research. Why dont they just admit that they ran out of money and had to release the s/w and patch it up later.

The PC platform and its buyers are duped by poor management and substandard releases of games. Asking a customer to patch on a weekly basis is quite simply disgusting. Look at the console market, (yes I know the differences, yes I know that they have different hardware, yes I know they get more support) they rarely need a recall (you cant patch a CD very easily) and yet the PC market can program for directx. As long as it works with directx then the onus is on the driver manuf. to create dx drivers.

No excuse really.
11.
 
Re: Customer XP
Aug 22, 2001, 04:02
anon@64.166
11.
Re: Customer XP Aug 22, 2001, 04:02
Aug 22, 2001, 04:02
anon@64.166
 
"No but any half brained idiot could guess what went wrong with those 2 releases and make improvements from those."

Ok, kid, tell us what YOU know that the rest of us don't...

God, this is ridiculous...
10.
 
Re: Customer XP
Aug 22, 2001, 01:43
anon@64.1
10.
Re: Customer XP Aug 22, 2001, 01:43
Aug 22, 2001, 01:43
anon@64.1
 
"Ummmm...Oh yeah, that's right. Those development teams wrote and publicly released manuals that described in technical detail exactly what went wrong with their releases.

Jeesh...Use your head you moron."

No but any half brained idiot could guess what went wrong with those 2 releases and make improvements from those.
9.
 
Re: Customer XP
Aug 22, 2001, 01:43
9.
Re: Customer XP Aug 22, 2001, 01:43
Aug 22, 2001, 01:43
 
"Ummmm...Oh yeah, that's right. Those development teams wrote and publicly released manuals that described in technical detail exactly what went wrong with their releases.

Jeesh...Use your head you moron."

No but any half brained idiot could guess what went wrong with those 2 releases and make improvements from those.

8.
 
Re: Customer XP
Aug 22, 2001, 00:02
anon@64.166
8.
Re: Customer XP Aug 22, 2001, 00:02
Aug 22, 2001, 00:02
anon@64.166
 
"They had the benefit of the Everquest and Ultima Online experiences to draw from (not to mention Diablo II). First impressions are the most important and they most likely lost customers because of their stupidity."

Ummmm...Oh yeah, that's right. Those development teams wrote and publicly released manuals that described in technical detail exactly what went wrong with their releases.

Jeesh...Use your head you moron.
7.
 
Re: Customer XP
Aug 21, 2001, 22:34
7.
Re: Customer XP Aug 21, 2001, 22:34
Aug 21, 2001, 22:34
 
And it was still Funcom's decision to allow these 'extra-retail' sales, anyhow, so it would still be their fault.

However, the servers were not ready for even half the number of sales, so you've got to point the finger at the company.

They had the benefit of the Everquest and Ultima Online experiences to draw from (not to mention Diablo II). First impressions are the most important and they most likely lost customers because of their stupidity.

6.
 
Careful Blue!
Aug 21, 2001, 20:51
6.
Careful Blue! Aug 21, 2001, 20:51
Aug 21, 2001, 20:51
 
You might poke a hole in your cheek sticking your tongue in it like that!

-tAE-

Avatar 473
5.
 
Re: Customer XP
Aug 21, 2001, 20:31
anon@207.136
5.
Re: Customer XP Aug 21, 2001, 20:31
Aug 21, 2001, 20:31
anon@207.136
 
"Its not hard dumbasses. You stamp X amount of CDs, well be ready for X amount of of subscribers!" --

This was not the case with Funcom's Anarchy Online, you did not need to buy a CD to play. You can borrow a friends CD(I belive they may have a place you can download it) and then when you register you can tell them you need a CD Key, they will give you one and charge you like $40. So to say they didn't (or even couldn't) anticipate the number of people would be correct, although its doubtfull the number of people who used this methood would ammount to anything that could hender the servers as much as they were at launch.

elseif
4.
 
Re: Customer XP
Aug 21, 2001, 20:31
anon@207.136
4.
Re: Customer XP Aug 21, 2001, 20:31
Aug 21, 2001, 20:31
anon@207.136
 
"Its not hard dumbasses. You stamp X amount of CDs, well be ready for X amount of of subscribers!" --

This was not the case with Funcom's Anarchy Online, you did not need to buy a CD to play. You can borrow a friends CD(I belive they may have a place you can download it) and then when you register you can tell them you need a CD Key, they will give you one and charge you like $40. So to say they didn't (or even couldn't) anticipate the number of people would be correct, although its doubtfull the number of people who used this methood would ammount to anything that could hender the servers as much as they were at launch.

elseif
3.
 
Re: Customer XP
Aug 21, 2001, 20:31
3.
Re: Customer XP Aug 21, 2001, 20:31
Aug 21, 2001, 20:31
 
"Its not hard dumbasses. You stamp X amount of CDs, well be ready for X amount of of subscribers!" --

This was not the case with Funcom's Anarchy Online, you did not need to buy a CD to play. You can borrow a friends CD(I belive they may have a place you can download it) and then when you register you can tell them you need a CD Key, they will give you one and charge you like $40. So to say they didn't (or even couldn't) anticipate the number of people would be correct, although its doubtfull the number of people who used this methood would ammount to anything that could hender the servers as much as they were at launch.

elseif

2.
 
Customer XP
Aug 21, 2001, 19:55
anon@166.70
2.
Customer XP Aug 21, 2001, 19:55
Aug 21, 2001, 19:55
anon@166.70
 
"For instance, the number of subscribers we had at launch were much more than we had anticipated."

To AO: Its not hard dumbasses. You stamp X amount of CDs, well be ready for X amount of of subscribers!
1.
 
Interesting
Aug 21, 2001, 19:33
anon@208.13
1.
Interesting Aug 21, 2001, 19:33
Aug 21, 2001, 19:33
anon@208.13
 
Good read.
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