Age of Censorship!

Age of Censorship
Inserito originariamente da Abriael

Looks like Funcom's overzaelous moderation on the Age of Conan forums is beginning to border on clear cut censorship of any possible criticism, even in the form of concern by one or more paying customers.

They seem to be so absolutely frightened by any kind of bad press, that much frightened that they'll go to any lenght to try and silence voices that could convey to the general public the fact that many of their servers are struggling.

Luckily for us, their pretty paranoid control can't extend beyond their official forums, so the rest of the internet is ready to talk and discuss about what Age of Conan lacks. As you probably noticed, what it lacks the most is people (at least on many servers).

This evening I posted what I honestly feel was a pretty honest but very civil request on the official Funcom forum for them to look in the server population problems and try and find a solution. You can find the original thread here, and here's the text of my post:

As of now, many players are forced to play in absolutely underpopulated servers. In 11 servers (Bori, Hyrkania, Twilight, Bloodbrand, Corinthia, Soulstorm, Ibis, Titus, Strix, Zingara and Indomitus) normally fail to get 1000 people online during primetime. Most of them don't even go over 600, four of them fail to reach 300.

To play in an underpopulated server is a costant hindrance to having fun in the game, expecially during the endgame, but even before, as it's extremely difficult to find enough people (with the right classes) to do something else than random grinding and soloing/crafting. Such problems lead to more people leaving out of boredom, so the numbers dwindle further every day.

I understand that the initial sourge in sales and preorders gave Funcom some ground to overstimate the number of people that would have played this game, but it's now pretty evident that, in the game, there isn't enough people to fill all the servers that have been created.

That's why I personally think that we need Funcom to take immediate (or at least swift) action. Because it's not acceptable that a sizeable percentage of the game's population are forced to play in a less than optimal environment that seriously hinders their fun.

Possible solutions are many. The activation of buddy codes may be the first and "softer", and if that doesn't work begin to work on server merges or character transfers.
Also, less servers mean lower running costs for Funcom, so everyone wins.

Of course, IMHO. I feel it's a real and grave problem, so please keep discussion about it civil.

You can easily judge by yourself if this post really wanted any kind of moderation.

I had just the time to be insulted by the usual rabid fanboy and defended by a quite more sensitive user (whom i would like to thank, alongside all the ones across the internet that supported and praised my effort in gathering data), that the usual forum moderator dived in like a vulture and not only closed the post, but blurted out accusations that sound definately delirious. Here is the text of her post:

Sorry but this has to stop now!

This thread is just an other attempt to troll and provoke the community.

Closed!

On top of her senseless accusations, the not so nice moderator found appropriate to give me 3 infraction points and to threaten me of a ban.

Now, I'll let you draw your own conclusion out of this. I honestly am left almost speechless and extremely disappoited by such behavioir. They don't even understand that such paranoid behavioir not only doesn't silence valid concerns about the game (and I can't imagine a concern more legit than one about people not being able to find enough players to have fun with on their own server), but creates a situation of conflict that gives even more solid ground to the claims that the game is struggling. It's pretty evident from the level of overreaction, that the data I gathered struck home.

For sure, they need at least to learn moderating their forums. I moderated several in my life and took part in many more. I rarely seen such an awful behavioir, expecially by someone that should be a professional on an official board.