According to video game site videogamer.com, Funcom’s re-evaluation move resulted in a noteworthy increasing activity, bringing lots of old players back once again. Funcom even states that entire guilds have made their return to the game.
The results of the campaign are really good with server activity booming … The feedback from returning players has been really good so far, and it seems that the game’s massive changes since launch is making a big difference for them. We’re very excited to see the renewed interest among former players!
It sure seems that Erling Ellingsen on Funcom is quite pleased with the result.
It was originally meant to be a one time thing, the screenshot competition hosted by GameRigs and endorsed by Funcom, to celebrate Age of Conan’s one year anniversary. Well, obviously people liked it, so now you can submit screenshot on a monthly basis to participate in the contests. Rules here, and your chance to win a battlemat cloth mousepad in Age of Conan styling this month.
I’m entering with a cook a pict shot, although I doubt that is the kind of epic stuff they want to promote.
When Age of Conan launched there was talk about the PowerPoints program, which would reward veteran (ie long term) players of the game. This has not been rolled out yet, but it seems as if it is still on the table. Game director Craig Morrison commented on the matter in the official forums, telling us that there will be a “veterans reward system” in the near future. Now, that could mean anything of course, but it is promising.
Morrison also said:
The veterans rewards when they arrive will be based on the number of months you have subscribed for in total. It will be retroactive as well so it will already know about those months you have already earned.
It is very much going to be about rewarding those who have been loyal to the game.
The IncGamers interview with Erling Ellingsen is an interesting read, but this question in particular sparked my interest:
There are many other MMOs of the same genre, and players can only afford so many subscriptions. Blizzard said earlier this week that it’s possible WoW will be free to play with microtransactions one day, would you ever consider changing AoC to a free to play model?
We’re certainly not ruling anything out, but we don’t have any current plans for that. However, we’ve had huge success going free-to-play with our other MMO Anarchy Online, and we strongly believe its a viable business strategy for these kinds of games.
Anarchy Online is still alive and kicking. It recently celebrated its eight year anniversary, so Funcom certainly knows a thing or two about free to play games.
Good news! Funcom’s blog about Age of Conan over att MMORPG.com is back up.
As you might have seen, I’ve changed the name from “Ask Funcom” to “Message from the King” to fit the new theme of the blog. Speaking of the new theme, I plan to bring more communication on the game with the upcoming updates, developer chatter, and other community ramblings. Hopefully the new theme, new name, and new activity will take this blog to new heights with promoting developer blogs on the site (our goal with MMORPG.com).
It goes on with some general information, and promises of pulling out the big guns in upcoming posts. Interesting!
