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Ekim
Eagle's Shadow
Joined: 27 May 2002
Posts: 2365
Location: Montreal, Canada |
| The state of AO, one year after release |
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Hi everyone,
Is anyone here still playing Anarchy Online (AO)? Can anyone comment about the state of the game one year after its release? Is it better, worse, still lacking? I've played AO for three months from the date of release and quickly gave up on it, but am curious to know wether the developpers ever got a clue 
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Thu Aug 01, 2002 3:26 pm |
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Xanaki
Ghost of Asheron
Joined: 07 May 2002
Posts: 398
Location: Helsinki, Finland |
I am like you Ekim. I have the AO bought and standing in my bookshelf collecting dust. I bought it on day 1 of retail and played for about 2-3 months (I also was there in the beta).
I quickly gave it up because the bugs just were too much for me. The exact same bugs that were present in the beta. However, whenever you were able to play the game was totally fun.
So I'd like to know something about the current state of AO too...
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Thu Aug 01, 2002 3:31 pm |
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Provis
High Emperor
Joined: 01 Jul 2002
Posts: 872
Location: Middle of the Forest |
I tried it about 2 weeks ago and everything worked great until I was finished creating my character. As soon as I took my first step in the real work I crashed. I reloaded and crashed again. Over and over I crahed so I checked the forums and found out that, for AO to work with my video card I needed to use older drivers. I accept poor support for my ancient/"one and a half feet in the grave" video card but working fine at one point then not working at all in the next is messed up and IMO is a bug in the programming.
So, I can't really comment on the game much but why not just give it another shot. Just startup a free account then cancel it. If you like it you can reactivate your old account and play your old characters, assuming they haven't been deleted, if you don't like it nothing lost. 
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"Yea, so what I didn't like Planescape: Torment, what are you gonna do about it?" - Provis |
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Thu Aug 01, 2002 5:03 pm |
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Ekim
Eagle's Shadow
Joined: 27 May 2002
Posts: 2365
Location: Montreal, Canada |
Well, I could always start up and "try" it for a month. But since MMOGs tend to take a while to really get into and really find out what the game is worth, I want to know if the time ivestment would be good.
I mean, how is it once you get to higher levels? Is there still some interest in the game? I remember the first month being pretty fun even with the bugs in AO. It started to go down once you got to level 20... Is it still hard to find good weapons?
I mean, those are things that you can't find out in the free month. I want to know if it's worth investing some time in this game now or if it's just the same as it was when I left.
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Thu Aug 01, 2002 6:50 pm |
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MoonDragon
High Emperor
Joined: 25 May 2002
Posts: 1254
Location: Waterloo, Canada |
I asked this exact question couple of months ago and nobody answered it then either. 
BTW, the trial period is one week. I also wonder if trial periods apply to reactivated accounts.
If someone attempts it, please let us all know.
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Fri Aug 02, 2002 1:58 am |
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Provis
High Emperor
Joined: 01 Jul 2002
Posts: 872
Location: Middle of the Forest |
Maybe no one here plays it. 
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"Yea, so what I didn't like Planescape: Torment, what are you gonna do about it?" - Provis |
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Fri Aug 02, 2002 3:05 am |
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Ekim
Eagle's Shadow
Joined: 27 May 2002
Posts: 2365
Location: Montreal, Canada |
Yeah, I guess this answers our question  I'm a bit reluctant in trying it out again after the experience I've had, and so I will wait again. If anyone has any news, please post it
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Fri Aug 02, 2002 6:31 pm |
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Vergillius
Village Dweller
Joined: 27 Aug 2002
Posts: 3
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I've played beta 4 and 2 months into the commercial release of AO.
Last month, I reentered AO, my characters still existed so I could just pick up where I had left.
My experience only goes to level 50, that's as high as my engineer is now.
Okay, what's different:
Lag has improved somewhat, but they haven't gotten rid of it entirely. Still, it could be my system (athlon 650, 256 MB and GeForce 3 200titanium)
They still have a memory loss bug, it starts kicking in after around 4 hours of game time.
Virtually no crashes for me. When you can't enter a zone (private dungeon mission or so) just try again. It usually works the second time.
They started to implement crafts somewhat. I must admit that I'm having fun melting metal objects I've found and making rings out of them that I can sell for a fail amount of credits. Also, I'm making nano crystals now. Several interesting high level nano crysstals have to be player made, they can't be bought. But that's only when you're beyond level 150 or so.
What I appreciate about the first 50 levels so far is that a reward for playing is always very close on the horizon. Either you level, or you make just enough money to buy a better piece of equimpent, there is always an incentive to put in a few hours more. If I compare this to the veritable drag it is to play a level 54 necromancer in Everquest it is a major plus. In EQ you have to play 8 hours or so just to add an sliver of your exp bar, in AO (low levels mind you) rewards come much faster.
Downside to AO:
there are simply too few people playing. PvP can't get of the ground this way (not that I like PvP, I'm more a PvE guy). AO landscape is vast but also pretty empty.
The game lacks content. There is an on going story you can find on the internet, but you have a hard time finding it in the game itself. There are only about 2 big quests available. All the other quests you have to get through the mission computers. On the positive note; the missions aren't as bugged anymore as in the beginning of AO. But they really start to get repetitive.
Due to the lack of other players and that fact that it lacks somewhat landmarks it is difficult to find a group or get one started. Just as clerics in EQ, doctors are needed for a successful group. Since I always solo, I can't really comment on the group aspect of AO.
On the internet and in the forums there is a lot of whining about lack of support from Funcom and that they disregard the players etc etc. Personally I haven't noticed much about this myself, but that's probably because I've never ask for ingame assistance from the GMs.
So far, the bottom line is that Funcom really ****ed up the launch of AO and that they never managed to overcome that. I'm hanging around till the expansion hits. I want to see if it becomes more interesting then.
I hope my comments have helped somewhat. Please feel free to ask more direct questions. |
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Tue Aug 27, 2002 5:50 pm |
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Ekim
Eagle's Shadow
Joined: 27 May 2002
Posts: 2365
Location: Montreal, Canada |
Eeep!!! Bad word alert up there!! hehe!
Seriously though, thanks for the comments Vergillius. Funny enough, after a while I too decided to take the plunge again and re-try the game. I came to about the same conclusions as you did, only I would be a bit more drastic in my judgement...
Basically, I think the game is not worth th $12USD monthly fee for the following reasons:
1. Content is not lacking - it's absolutely non-existent. Apart from the early low-level special zone where you get to hone your skills for the first few levels, there are no neat zones where you could potentially meet other players around the same level. The few players that I did encounter (and yes they were very few!) were all much, much higher level than I was. Which left me on my own to adventure.
2. Although being left alone is not like being stranded on a desert island in this game since you have very viable ways to get by, it simply gets very repetitive VERY fast. Doind missions, geting tokens, buying better stuff, repeat... Once in a while you can go exploring the rather interesting environmnts, but as you already mentioned it's usually rather empty...
3. You mentioned this also but... What's the point of my character being in the game again? Oh... there's a war between the clan and Omni Tek... right! And what's happening with that now? I have to get out of the game and read what's happening on the web site huh? It all just feels as if I'm missing some major parties in there, but we never see anything happening in game... Maybe it's just me, but I was never witness to anything special, and I never heard about anyone being witness to anything special either.
Anyway, all in all what I found there is the exact same lacking game as I was playing last year, only now it seems less buggy and better balanced, although I didn't try all theprofessions though... I played for two weeks and had fun, but then I stopped and realized that I was allready doing the same thing over and over at level 10!! Usually you should get that rezlisation much later in the game! It took me 3 characters and getting one over level 40 in DAoC before I ever realized that...
I didn't group much either, but that a population problem I think. Even so, I'm not entirely sure I wouldn't have come to the same conclusion.
Anyway, it's a no-sale for me, and I don't think an expansion pack will change my mind either. Too bad, this game had some potential... 
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Tue Aug 27, 2002 8:19 pm |
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Bach & Baroque
Village Leader
Joined: 02 Jul 2002
Posts: 86
Location: United States |
(This post is just a teency bit  , but follows up on Ekim.)
Speaking of lonely online game worlds, has anyone seen Ultima Online as of late? I just bought Ultima Online: Lord Blackthorn's Revenge, and I honestly think it's a great game. Incredible depth and massive game world, and actually probably the best isometric-game graphics I've seen (the 3D models are quite perty). Problem is, I can find almost no one. I chose the "most populated" shard (Atlantic) but even metropolises like Britain or Trinsic seem like ghost towns. I've met some folks, but again it's the same issue that they're all very high-level, and thusly adventuring is left to me-myself-and I, opposed to a "fellowship". As much as I'd like to play the game, there frankly seems to be no purpose in playing it if you're all alone in what is supposed to be a "community" of people.
If even Anarchy Online (with its real pretty graphhics) is sorely missing a population, where are all the MMORPGers?  Has online RPGs just declined in popularity, or are they all in betas for games like Shadowbane or AC2? How about Asheron's Call 1? I've been interested in playing that, but not if you're lucky to see another gamer every half hour or so, a la Ultima Online. |
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Tue Aug 27, 2002 8:37 pm |
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Ekim
Eagle's Shadow
Joined: 27 May 2002
Posts: 2365
Location: Montreal, Canada |
quote:
Originally posted by Bach & Baroque
If even Anarchy Online (with its real pretty graphhics) is sorely missing a population, where are all the MMORPGers? Has online RPGs just declined in popularity, or are they all in betas for games like Shadowbane or AC2? How about Asheron's Call 1? I've been interested in playing that, but not if you're lucky to see another gamer every half hour or so, a la Ultima Online.
Where are the players? I'm surprised I would have though UO would still have a bigger playing community... I would wager they're mostly on EQ and DAoC. I've left DAoC in late May or early June and most servers were in the upper 2000 population at prime time. They have what, 10 servers? I guess that makes a lot of people I never played EQ but people still talk about it today, I'm pretty sure that there's still a whole lot of people playing it to this day.
My bet for the future (community and population wise, of course) is Star Wars: Galaxies. They have a bigger fan base than anyone can hope for already, so...
Honestly if you want a good community try DAoC, I had fun while I was there myself 
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Wed Aug 28, 2002 3:49 pm |
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Vergillius
Village Dweller
Joined: 27 Aug 2002
Posts: 3
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Well, my 2 cents on the lack of players in UO is this:
I believe that UO have very few new players arriving. Most players of UO are old fans, who've been playing for years and who all have higher level chars. This can be a bonus since it means that you've got the 'kiddie playground' pretty much to yourself but if you're a social player it can get pretty lonely.
Another thing I'm presuming is that allthough Origin will be counting actively paying accounts as their player base, a lot of these accounts will be dormant. I have an active EQ account, but haven't played EQ in months.
To be frank, if it wasn't for the player killers in the first year of UO (and I don't know if it changed afterwards) I would still say that UO is the best MMORPG, even if the graphics are really outdated (I saw AC 2 yesterday). It's just that I hate PKs |
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Fri Sep 13, 2002 4:30 pm |
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EverythingXen
Arch-villain
Joined: 01 Feb 2002
Posts: 4342
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I played AO for the first two months after its release. I loved it when I could actually find ROLEPLAYERs instead of legions of the el33t.
The most fun I had was being the Chippentrox dancer at a few party's at the nightclub in Omni 1. Or starting a speech pleading with the neutral citizens of a town (can't remember its name... had the big lake where all the weddings were performed and the cool 'skydiving' Grid exit port sometimes) to join the forces of Omni against the anarchists of the Clans.
Grouping with friends was always a blast too.
Alas, it grew stagnant... I was level 56 or so, and at that point had so many missions behind me it was horrible... a lot of the time I couldn't find any of my anarchy pals to group with. Joining a guild/clan helped with that a little, and we had some fun... but not enough to hold my interest.
I'm looking forward to SWG as well. It will be my second stab at the MMORPG fray (DAoC, from what I hear, is lacking content at high levels just like AO... so I never bought it.)... and I HOPE they do it right!
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Fri Sep 13, 2002 5:02 pm |
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Hexy
High Emperor
Joined: 28 Jun 2002
Posts: 621
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Seriously, EQ is still the best MMORPG out there, and it has the largest community.
I'm betting that the new behemoths in the MMORPG market will be SW:G and WoW.
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Like some bold seer in a trance;
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Sat Sep 14, 2002 2:04 pm |
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MoonDragon
High Emperor
Joined: 25 May 2002
Posts: 1254
Location: Waterloo, Canada |
EverythingXen, you should try Neocron. It's still in public beta, so you can get the feel for it before it comes out.
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Sat Sep 14, 2002 9:21 pm |
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