With all this, its said with the condition of 'If.' - Assuming the condition is not met.
On the idea on speculation, nobody here is in the position of gaining anything for doomsaying.
With all this, its said with the condition of 'If.' - Assuming the condition is not met.
On the idea on speculation, nobody here is in the position of gaining anything for doomsaying.
I totally DISAGREE. I think the worst is coming and FC is going to take 1-2 more months of subscriptions and then let the game die off. So don't be a sucker and get out now while you can!!!
In the meantime...you can in game mail me Psikie all your credits and yesdrop phats. Don't worry I will be more than happy to dispose of all that stuff so you never have to worry about it again. Besides you won't need them because the game is shutting down. So remember when you next log on it might be the last time. So don't forget to mail those credits, ai armors, ql240+ ofab types, complete patterns for Inf keys etc to me Psikie and never look back.
~Anyone can level, but only the wise gain experience~
*Bronto Burger, serving 10,000 high level noobs daily*
http://wolf-brigade.webs.com/
My Story
Don't feed the Mensa Tralalalala
Everyday I'm Shuffling.
You're very welcome to the opinion, happily not everyone feels the same. I don't see these posts as anything more than rumor-mongering & worrying. Neither actually serve any other purpose or benefit anybody at all.
Henny Penney & Turkey Lurkey spring to mind, perhaps you should Google that.
Ps, I saved you the trouble because I can't sleep http://tinyurl.com/474kj3
One profession to RoO them all, one profession to proc stun them, one profession to calm them all and in the darkness Exp perk them!
Crataiken 220/30/70 General - Primal Evolution - 3rd AI 30 'Crat on RK 1 Setup
Calms 220/30/70 General - Primal Evolution
Medicaiken 220/30/70 General - Primal Evolution Setup
Newen 220/30/70 President - The Galactic Milieu
Mettagirl 220/20/** General - Primal Evolution
Krataiken 150/18/40 General - Primal Evolution Setup
~Anyone can level, but only the wise gain experience~
*Bronto Burger, serving 10,000 high level noobs daily*
http://wolf-brigade.webs.com/
My Story
Don't feed the Mensa Tralalalala
Everyday I'm Shuffling.
I cant wait till they give us GM powers. I am going to take revenge on everyone who made fun of me in-game, made fun of me in high school, made fun of me in middle school, made fun of me in elementary school and made fun of me in my adult life. I will use those GM powers for pure evil till my vengeance is satisfied, much like an evil Batman.
If they are cost-cutting, they would likely move Customer Service out of North Carolina and combine it with the current Development operations in Montreal. That might also allow them to maintain some 'headcount' agreement they likely made with the Canadian authorities for their payroll discounts etc (we'll agree to maintain nnn employees in your country in exchange for assorted monetary subsidies), to offset other layoffs in Montreal.
Aside from that, can't see any other office 'closing' (doubt Switzerland is more than 3-4 ppl max) but some teams still further reduced in numbers. They specifically mentioned AO in their press release last week, along with AoC and TSW, which I think is a good sign. They did not mention a few of their other games like Pets Vs Monsters but some of that stuff is not entirely operated by Funcom, either.
AO is a very small budget target at this stage, and appears to still be at or near profitability, which I hope is enough to keep it flying under the chopping block radar.
Doubt we'll hear from Iliaya until after Fridays follow-up press release. That last Press Release, btw, was posted like 8 am GMT.
--
In the meantime, I'm logged into AO for some hours every day, while otherwise spending my time terraforming, butchering, and stonecutting in Wurm Online...
.
.
Dagget
President,
Venice Academy
You hit Tarasque with nanobots for 18280 points of melee damage.
First shade with Blades of Boltar
---
How much is enough?
Member of Halinallet!
Twitter is starting to smell something not good...scout @funcom
.
Dagget
President,
Venice Academy
Funcom is taking hedge trimmers to its Montreal offices today. Senior Game Designer Tanya Short posted the following this afternoon on her Twitter account: "When your branch shuts down, I guess it's less like being fired and more like honorable discharge. Thanks for going down with the ship! Bye!"
Massively contacted Funcom for an official statement. Director of Communications Erling Ellingsen confirmed layoffs but assured us that Funcom's games will continue on: "We are currently in a restructuring process and the Montreal office is part of that process along with our other branches. This process unfortunately involves a reduction in staff, but the studio is not closing down. It will continue on, but in a different form and function than today. Anarchy Online, as well as The Secret World and Age of Conan, will definitely continue to operate and be an important part of the company's focus going forward." He said that the studio would provide more details when it had finished with the process.
Funcom previously stated that it was restructuring the company to make it more profitable. The Montreal office was established in 2009 and employed 110 people.
source: http://massively.joystiq.com/2013/01...s-operational/
17th 2013 5:00PM..my browser says its 7 hours ago..
Canniball Girls,
first they love you to death,
then for dinner!
Bigpappapump, lvl 220 Trox Enforcer (needed only 11 years for that)
Gunjack, lvl 200 Trox Advi
Backfisch, lvl 120 Healslave
Well, that a.. good news. It could be worse, right?
I like PvP
TL6: Tereshkova 200 eng / Patrollerz 200 sol / Tankietka 200 NM enf / Pielegniarka 200 Tank Doc / Oleska 200 SOLIKeep
TL5: Miazga 150 sol / Piknababa 150 NM Enf 2he / Gigantika 150 NM Enf / Malutki 150 Enf Trox WIP
TL4: Ladyrazor 112 fixer (retired) / Shha 100 NT / Cycolina lvl 100 NM Enforcer
+ Tons of other chars...
I make weird TwInkz!
Signature updated: 29/06/2016
She says the branch closes down, and she was senior designer on The Secret World. That doesn't seem like good news at all. Let's not forget that in all the time FC has been operating in Montreal, Canada has been paying 1/3rd of their 7 million $ payroll, every year (see my link over in the Reet's thread). So even with just having to cover less than 5 million $ in wages, they ran into the ground. If anything it sounds more like they're just going to fire nearly everyone and keep only the bare minimum on to continue work on AoC and TSW.
I guess it's going to be tough waiting out new updates for AoC, those players just got a new expansion like patch, so there's plenty of people to cut from there now they've delivered.
AO isn't expecting any big patches nor are any really under development and in fact the game has been doing pretty much the same the last many years without having much of anything new injected, so why bother with continued development of possibly upsetting updates like new engine and rebalance? Just let it run its course how it is, continue to rake in some money without costing anything. Would be the best business decission for it, since chances of it suddenly making big bucks, even with new engine, new player experience and steam launch, are pretty remote.
Cut fast and cauterise the wound. That's how it's happening now.
Thor Mastablasta Hammersmith - Level 220, AI 30, LE 70 Clan Atrox Nano Technician - Setup
The Red Brotherhood
I'm a Nano-Technician, don't ever expect me to fight unbuffed, alone or fair.
Means: about f'ing time :P
Satenia: heresy <3
Znore: Mastablasta <3
Kinkstaah: I have agro from many mobs ;(
Madarab: we are aoe class, we are supose to use pistols
Marxgorm: the NT toolset does not fit into my raiding tactics
g'morning ^^
Looks like this is the new waiting area
So, 18.6, wru ?
You have already reached the maximum number of allowed accounts
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Little piece of advice... You want some hard facts about the state of things, don't look at tweets or news pages that much. Stick to the numbers FC's actually posting every quarter. Q4's not there yet, but Q3 didn't look that bad. Actually in Q3 they say numbers for AO and AoC were mostly stable with minor influx from GW2 and some WoW expansion.
So yeah, they're restructuring. Looking at the numbers and the FC stock i'd say they better do. But it doesn't look like there's any reason to cut down on the games. Or cease development on AO.
Quit being such negative people, I have played AO for a very very long time, I remember when Totw was new, We all want things like rebalance, (which is being implemented little by little by little) much like the icon change, and things like server merge and updates and everything. How about you look at the size of their team and realize they are doing what they can, changing hands so much from sillrion, to means, to lindelu to Genele doesn't help much either because everyone has to pick up from where the last left off, and that's a HUGE task. So instead of whining, I'm showing my support and I resubbed last month after being gone a year, things won't get done with people quitting and reducing their funds to even fund a project like this to continue anymore it won't happen in a timely manner, things cost $, dev time costs $, their computers and offices cost $, AO has their own dept, so does TSW and AoC. AO has a small team. Just give them your support, things are rough right now, LE kinda put things on a downward spiral when the promises of everything just got super extended.
I for one can't wait for the server merge, hopefully things will be ****ed back up again a little so we can get more team-based interaction going on, instead of the same "we all know everyone on RK2 because it's the same people for the last 6 years, give or take a few new people" I miss when the game actually had leveling spots, like 8x8, borgs, hecks, with a little bit inbetween, I know some people do borgs still for the froobs, but ado hecks is no longer existant, you gotta hope you know a 220 to take you to inf to power lvl you or get stuck. Back many years ago before these new instances players had a ton more interaction and had spots to meet up and "met" people. now the only place to meet people is bor. Call me nostalgic but I actually miss faction raids too, instead of instant gratifaction by doing SL Missions. I hope the adding of "DPS" to the weapons stops there, because if any more WoW-term implementation starts feeding it's way into AO I'm gonna be sad :/ Please, don't even put achievements in here.. Those are just my suggestions. Anyways, I will always support AO, it's one of the only MMO's out there that require any skill and hasn't been nerfed for the masses. I only ask now that once this is finished, they start working on raid mechanics, and making more things like DB3, and increasing them even further once the playerbase increases. The fact AO is as old as it is. 12 now, and the fact that it is still Pay to Play, vs TSW and Starwars which have already went F2P before it even really got started says something. EQ1/2 are also F2P. AO has a lot to be prideful for, people are still making guides on AO, people are still updating the DB and auno is still around. I'm pretty proud to say I play AO. I'll always tell my friends about it as long as it's around.
Last edited by wethepeople; Jan 18th, 2013 at 17:15:40.
Well, i believe after 12 years AO is no longer an ordinary game, it's an institution. As such, it may move forward slowly, but i think it's stable as a rock.
Meh... i´ll buy out AO if needed.
What sucks most...
If FC actually dedicated their budget focusing on AO, they wouldn´t need to fail at TSW and AoC...
A full going/updated/focused AO team could take this game so far... theres no MMO like this and it will never be...
But noooooo.... Lets pay royalties and develop a freaking conan game, because you know... it has such a huge fan base... of freaking 70 year olds....
Or better yet.... lets pul all the crappy fantasy movies all together and make a freaking MMO about it...
FC... you f´ed up so bad i really hope theres no going back, i will be devastaded if AO goes under, but honestly,, you don´t deserve to own this game anymore.