Age of Conan 3yr anniversary F2P till May30th

[xartin]

Anyone that got started with AoC several years ago and stopped playing...

Funcom reactivated all inactive accounts free of charge through the end of May. I've been playing again since last week and It's been refreshing and rather interesting. I was completely suprised my level 46 reaver was still on my account after having not played AoC since sometime in 2008.

Also AoC will be going free to play entirely in the near future so this may have some potential for multiboxing

Anyone still have a character on the PvE wiccana server?

[Ualaa]

I wonder if they'll go permanently Free-To-Play...

Historically, that is far more profitable than a subscription model.
But if a game starts to sell items which are power upgrades over drops, be it armor, weaponry, faster mounts, ie., anything not fluff... that usually kills a game.

Has Funcom published subscription numbers anywhere?

[xartin]

I just read about the free to play plans yesterday evening and it does appear to be a long term plan

‘Age of Conan’ goes FREE and UNRATED - Age of Conan Forums

The game's quest playfields look incredible in DX10 ( no idea if DX11 is planned) with 1920x1080 resolution and the graphics settings on outrageous with a high end video card. When AoC launched the hardware required to really stress the game's graphics potential really just wasn't available. My 8800GTX I had at the time was capable but to be honest was a total joke to AoC's graphics engine.

My SLI 480GTX's can push AoC at high gfx settings to well over 140fps in DX10 mode which just says a lot about funcom really making a game three years ago that just exceeded system specifications of most anything an average gamer owned.

I did quit AoC in 2008 but at the time you had to walk everywhere in the game and at level 46 that became extremely tiresome as there's no "flight masters" to get you around in the game world.

Lower levels can get basic mount training now. I found I had a bunch of veterans points and veterans rewards like a 24hr double XP buff potion that actually does only get used when your playing game time not as one would expect it to be used in 24 hours real time.

Possibly since i'd purchased the collectors edition in 2008 I'd gotten some extras but I can't confirm this. I spent most of my veterans rewards buying a horse mount and the training to ride one from the veterans point vendor.

With the updates to riding mounts, free to play coming and now having pc hardware that far exceeds the required specifications to really make aoc look and perform how funcom dreamed it should getting back into AoC has been an enjoyable experience

[kittydiln]

Originally Posted by Ualaa

I wonder if they'll go permanently Free-To-Play...

I am also wondering the same thing!







Professor Katherine Bodenhamer Anderson

[Chamassa]

Originally Posted by kittydiln

I am also wondering the same thing!

AN educated guess: yes.
If a game like this goes F2P, it's normally because the game is starting to lose ALOT of monthly fee income.
They fix this but giving players items to spend for, extra features etc.
But if a game goes from F2P -> P2P, they nearly allways lose a insanely large playerbase. Mostly because F2P just attracts a different group of mmo-gamers.
Going P2P again would be a deadly mistake and basicly an execution, it won't happen :P