by Julie Whitefeather

“As one member of the Funcom team told us on our visit to the company’s Oslo, Norway studio, ‘For most games, their ultimate gola is to be on the cover of PC Gamer. But in this case, it is PC Gamer that should feel privileged to have Age of Conan on it’s cover.’” – PC Gamer Magazine

Age of Hutzpa

by Julie Whitefeather

My dear departed mother once taught me a definition of Hutzpa: someone who kills their mother and their father and throws themselves on the mercy of the court because they are an orphan.  The good folks at Funcom have now taught me a new definition of hutzpa – a developer who feels that PC Gamer Magazine should feel honored to have their game on their cover and then delivers a game that runs poorly even on a system that EXCEEDS the recommended system requirements. I understand if a game runs slow when it is run on a computer that simply meets the minimum system requirements. What I don’t understand is when I spend $300.00  upgrading a system to the point where it exceeds the recommended system requirements and yet still runs slower than a constipated snail that has just eaten five pounds of cheese.  Even when the game was set on the lowest graphic settings, the frames per second dipped so low when more than two other players where on the screen that I had to tap the screen to make sure that the computer was still on and no one had replaced my monitor with a painting.  There is a lesson to be learned here and it is a shame that funcom has yet to learn what is already obvious to SOE and John Smedley.

“Because we didn’t listen. I think we were a little too arrogant as a company. We thought we knew what was best as a company, and we should have listened more. That’s really the biggest lesson we’ve learned as a company in the last eight years. Listening to our customers is everything.” – John Smedley on SOE games that have gone through a difficult transition period

“We’re making sure that our games run on a wider specification of machines, because that’s another problem - we’ve been making games for machines that we all have at home…well - that doesn’t help us get the 10 year old kid with the 4 year old computer.” – John Smedley in the same interview as the quote above.

Yes, before anyone sends me an email or comment pointing out that Age of Connan isn’t marketed to 10 year old kids (well not on the face of it at least) the point is that in a market with ever increasing competition for ever decreasing disposable income games must run on a WIDE range of machines. When that doesn’t happen, another old adage comes in to play that says “fool me once shame on you – fool me twice shame on me”.  It doesn’t matter how many boxes of a particular game are sold at the outset, if a game doesn’t deliver on the hype and runs this poorly many of those same boxes are going to end up on the shelf and the monthly fees will go somewhere else.

But like most issues there are two sides.  The flipside of this particular issue are the gamers that are busy throwing mud in the face of their fellow gamers.  I once wrote that hell hath no fury like a gamer scorned.  I should expand that to read “hell hath no fury like a gamer who’s computer has been scorned.”  Forums and guild chat are now filled with gamers who shout that videocards like an NVIDIA 8600 are now old and chide other gamers for now upgrading to an NVIDIA 9600.   The simple fact of the matter is that with the economy the way it is not everyone is as fortunate as I have been to rush out and buy new computers and new upgrades. 

What’s wrong with a company catering to gamers with “high end” machines some may ask?  Plenty – ask the 50 employees of the Sigil Company who lost their jobs because of Brad McQuaid’s hutzpa when he drove Vanguard under for similar reasons.  Time and again developers at companies like Turbine, who brought us Lord of the Rings Online, have proven that a game doesn’t need to require a Cray Supercomputer to run on in order for a game to look fantastic.

Don’t get me wrong. I LIKE this Age of Conan. I WANT it to succeed. I am also not saying the game is “unplayable.”  Did I mind spending $300.00 to upgrade a computer to play it? In the end no; through a fortunate (and unusual) chain of events I also ended up with a high end 5.1 surround sound audio card for free as a result. The game also has it’s positive aspects if (and I mean IF) the game can deliver what it promises in the area of PvP it just may outshine Warhammer Online before it has a chance to get out of the gate. Even the combat system that does have it’s drawbacks also has its positive points.  The gut wrenching, disemboweling, combat effects are second to none including the blood splatters on the computer screen. The cutaway when ever you talk to an NPC isn’t exactly my cup of tea; but that’s just me.

In the end, what seems to be needed is another lesson like Vanguard taught the industry.  Even if it has to be tattooed on the forehead of developers in reverse so they can read it in the mirror first thing in the morning, the lessons that John Smedley espoused in the quotes above are important ones that desperately need to catch on before the disposable income of potential customers starts to find other ways in which to dispose of itself.  Again, I don’t want anyone to loose their job. I want Age of Conan to succeed.

What I DO want, however, is for Funcom to get a good swift kick in the teeth for letting a game past the beta stage that doesn’t run properly at the recommended system specs, even with all the graphic settings at the lowest settings.

See you online,

Julie Whitefeather