This is one of those days.
The Good
Remember me musing a few days ago that 31 launch servers sounded like a lot? AoC may need triple that.
MMOCrunch is saying that Age of Conan is shipping 700,000 units worldwide for its launch, including 110,000 units of the Collector’s Edition, all of which are sold. If true, this is a phenomenal number – more units than even WoW shipped at launch, and well over what LotRO shipped. To say the least, this is an extremely good sign for Age of Conan.
The tricky part is that 700K units shipped do not necessarily translate into 700K units sold in any particular period of time, and that 700K players at launch do not translate into 700K players two or six or twelve months later. Copies could lay on shelves collecting dust and subscribers may desert, or there could be a huge sales run and product shortages. In other words, the number alone does not really give us a complete or accurate picture of the success or failure of the launch. I would like to be optimistic, and the 700K figure is probably three times what I would have expected, but we’ll just have to see how well the game holds up over the coming months. If nothing else, these numbers imply immense strain on Funcom’s server infrastructure at least over the next week or so.
In other good news, yesterday was a banner day for this space, setting a record number for total hits, and launching yesterday’s gigantic post into the top five most viewed posts ever on this blog (there’s a months-old EQ2 post that still gets hits because it was linked from the EQ2Players site.) Thanks to all for tuning in.
The Bad
The servers were down in preparation for launch most of last night and during the early morning hours this morning. This is understandable but kind of unfortunate. For me personally, I didn’t get to log in at all, which dashed my hopes of getting out of Tortage before the massive launch rush hits – I was so close. Hopefully every server won’t be utterly swamped tonight and I’ll be able to get some playtime in.
The Ugly
A guild called Ebonlore on the Tyranny server has apparently leveled all of its leaders to level 80 in two days due to some kind of experience exploit. This kind of bug is probably inevitable in the launch of any game, and this kind of behavior is… well, kind of inevitable from Ebonlore; they got themselves banned from Vanguard for something similar, and that’s not the only game whose door they’re no longer allowed to darken.
What’s their motivation for doing this kind of thing in title after title? I mean, they’re not really playing the game, are they? Buy the game for $50, play for two days, get to brag about world firsts for all of fifteen minutes, then get banned – what an experience! What a thrill! What a bunch of retards! Seriously, I just don’t get it, unless it’s Tiny Penis Syndrome, which is of course quite possible. Then again, it won’t impact my play experience, so why should I care as long as Funcom takes care of it?
May 20, 2008 at 12:35 pm
Hey Ardwulf,
I appreciate your posts on AoC. With my limited time, I am unable to play so it’s good to be able to read about both the positive and negatives players are experiencing with the game. Thanks!
May 20, 2008 at 12:45 pm
As to Ebonlore
E-Penis envy indeed…
How stupid…
I played AoC this weekend, and then this morning for open (yea…had just risen from bed, got my coffee and servers opened…)
I am now a “whopping” level 13….hehe…
I am finding my EASK quotient is huge with AoC (http://gillir.wordpress.com/2007/07/09/im-eask/)
So…I already feel my 50 bucks and pre-order was quite worth it..I am very pleased with the game…downtimes and all that…
Good thing I am still playing EQ2 for those off times…
Later
May 21, 2008 at 7:33 am
I’ve got 100 days played on my WoW main character. If CoA can keep people playing as long as that, they will have succeeded in making a great game.
Early days.
May 21, 2008 at 4:19 pm
I think the person with an e-peen issue is Ardwulf for attempting to get page clicks by using bullshit information he spent no time researching. The information about Ebonlore all came from our DKP listing site. The inner council and guild leader were all listed as level 80 to exclude them from a leveling competition we are having. This information was then taken to the official AoC forums and we were accused of cheating to level 80. Unfortunately, the server was down for 9 hours in the meantime meaning that no one could log into the servers and see that in fact we had no level 80s neither do we have the highest level on the server. Next time you foolishly chase page clicks make sure you check your sources so you don’t look like a fool. The ironic thing about this “situation” is that we seem to be the only guild NOT using exploits to get ahead in the game. The highest level player is a Tempest of Set who is exploiting the ability to summon more totems than they should be limited to and other guilds are using a bug with the Priest of Mitra that makes their group nearly unstoppable in pvp.
May 21, 2008 at 5:07 pm
-replying to Vytautas-
Easy there. No need to be so easily irritated by someone who only read and reports. Insulting him doesn’t make you more credible. Offering a different point of view on the whole issue might, however.
That being that, I very much appreciate your blog here, Ardwulf.
May 21, 2008 at 7:10 pm
I appreciate the reply, and I don’t mean that sarcastically. In point of fact, however, I did go to the Ebonlore website to see what the actual members of that guild were saying about it. Your forums are locked away for what I assumed were members only.
If you or any other of Ebonlore would like to post your side of the story here (and, let’s be frank, we have pretty much only heard the ‘Ebonlore is a big pile of dicks’ side of things up to this point,) to refute the story going around, you are more than welcome to do so. I will even post a retraction should that be warranted.
Meanwhile, I encourage you or any other member of Ebonlore to e-mail me at ardwulf@ytherra.com and spill your side of things. Fair’s fair, after all.
May 22, 2008 at 2:26 am
I’m not in any position of leadership nor am I in a position to speak for the guild. We all have had a great laugh about this but I don’t see the need for us to have any “official” position. All anyone has to do is make a character on the server, log in, and look at the highest levels through the search functions to see that there are no 80s.