Should I...

[slackjoint]

Camelot unchained ?
And isn't valkyria also a somewhat private aoc server

[gcustoms]

Even bother to come back and play again?

Keep in mind I fully understand everything that is wrong with this game and that it is an abandoned wasteland of developer support, no new content, broken PVP, bugs and general malcontent.

For some reason, I keep coming back...

"no new content" Got all your toons full t5? ready for t6?

[Radicaltop]

Initial release date: November 2, 1999

Thats abandonware by now :P

Asheron's Call is in "maintenance mode" now but is still available on 7 servers hosted by Turbine. Players can now buy a lifetime sub for $9.99.

https://www.asheronscall.com

Turbine is planning on releasing the game to the community for private servers but is still working on this project. The company has indicated that they have no plans to sunset AC in the near future, at least until the player run server project is finished.

[Chop-Chop]

all that is moot since Funcom is bankrupt

Is not.

and looking to sell their company. So the future of AoC is really up in the air.

This is more accurate.


Now, here's the deal. Funcom is not bankrupt. The company was heading towards technical bankruptcy. In the fast lane. Express highway. Autobahn. Stuck on the M25 without exit. This ugly outcome was halted last week, thanks to a new agreement between Funcom and its largest owner. For details, please look up corporate information and recent interviews. Let me just state the bare facts:

The major shareholder is a Norwegian shipping company named after its founder Kristian Gerhard Jebsen (KGJ). Seemingly an odd fit, a shipping company investing into a gaming company, but the fact is, the shipping industry is loaded with money, and this particular owner (Hans Peter Jebsen, son of Kristian Gerhard Jebsen) has been patient and opening the wallet in times of need. Which is what happened a few days ago. KGJ has accepted an extension of five and a half months to Funcom's payback date (from 30 June next year to 15 December). If Funcom, by the 15th December 2016, is unable to pay back the loan (USD 3.95 millions) and the convertible bond (USD 6.2 millions), plus another convertible loan of USD 4.0 millions (expiring on 27th June 2017), Conan might be defated.

To prevent our king from such a fate, the major shareholder has put down some conditions that must be met. These can best be summed up in the words of the actual announcement that Funcom released last week: "The extension of due date is conditional upon prepayment of the two loans plus the USD 4.0 million convertible loan due on 27 June 2017 should the Company sell some, all or parts of its subsidiaries or other assets prior to the new maturity date. Any proceeds from such sales shall immediately be applied to repay the said loans".

And then one might think: How feasible is it for Funcom to repay the loans? This is where we, the players, come in: If you love Funcom's games and want to see them survive, help out by subscribing to AoC, buy TSW, try Anarchy Online's new game engine update and get hooked, grab the pricier PC/Mac Lego game instead of the iOS version, in short, spend money on Funcom. Think of paying for Funcom's products as a Kickstarter campaign without using Kickstarter (because going the Kickstarter route cannot be done - quoting Joel "Nusquam" Bylos: "We are a publically owned company and I think that complicates Kickstarter thing massively" (Source: http://forums.ageofconan.com/showthr...=1#post2037879).

But whatever we the customers can contribute with, is just a small amount of what is needed (if anyone wants to do the math and find out how many more AoC subscribers are needed to cover all the loans, for example... go ahead). Most likely Funcom is also aware of the fact that the gamers can only contribute with a fraction of what is needed by the deadline stated. Which is why the path, as laid down in last week's agreement, is most likely the road ahead: Funcom gets sold to another company, or merged with another company, parts of Funcom get sold (for example the DreamWorld Engine, which is worth a hefty sum of money in itself), some of Funcom's IPs get sold (TSW, AO), etc. Age of Conan and the recent Lego game are Funcom's creations, but they are based upon a rented license, so this might be a tad more complicated to fit into any new scenario (it might involve new negotiations with the license owners, for example).

Ole Schreiner (former CEO, now chief operating officer) said in an interview with Norwegian daily Dagens Næringsliv on the 26th of July (http://www.dn.no/etterBors/2015/07/2...uncom-i-trbbel) (before last week's agreement was made): "Technical bankruptcy is obviously a possible scenario as a last resort, but the company has taken, and continues to take, measures in order to avoid this from happen. Everybody working at Funcom lives and breathes for game development, and this is something we as a company has been doing for more than 20 years. We are working hard to make sure that there will be many, many more years".

Should Funcom no longer be an independent gaming house, it can still function as a name on its own, either under the wings of a more financially stable and active gaming company, or it could just be sucked up into a different company and the name Funcom will no longer be used. This is not the first time in gaming history that a game developer gets into financial trouble and must seek new opportunities elsewhere in order to survive. Look at Cryptic Studios: It started on its own, then Atari knocked on its door and bought the company. Then Atari sold Cryptic Studios to Perfect World. One game did not survive (City of Heroes, RIP), but Star Trek Online (licensed IP that survived the handover from Atari to Perfect World), Champions Online and Neverwinter are successful now. A similar thing happened to one of my old favourites, Fallen Earth. This started out as an independent creation by Icarus Studios, and is now part of the GamersFirst system (this also put an end to FE's subscription based model - FE went F2P, and seemingly is doing quite well now). APB is another game that followed this same path - GamersFirst arrived on the scene and relaunched APB (thus the name APB Reloaded), changed the model from subscription to F2P, and the game lives on. Turbine did well on its own with Asheron's Call 1 and 2, Lord of the Rings Online (licensed IP), and Dungeons & Dragons Online. Then internet warriors and gamers poured gloom and doom over the company when the announcement was made that Warner Bros Interactive Entertainment bought Turbine. Lotro is still a success several years later (albeit with so much focus on F2P that the game is just a shadow of its former self, IMHO). The most recent event in the MMO world was Sony (no lack of money there) deciding to sell Sony Online Entertainment (SOE), the creator of what I think have been some of the world's best MMOs ever (EverQuest, EverQuest 2, Star Wars Galaxies, heck, even Vanguard). SOE was bought by Columbus Nova (a U.S. affiliate of a Russian investment company). Columbus Nova changed SOE's name to Daybreak Game Company. All of SOE's existing games were kept alive.

Conclusion: No need to impose a game dev apocalypse, the world moves on, games and devs that are meant to survive, will survive in one form or another.

[slackjoint]

Well looking at the community managers and what the funcom marketing team has "achieved" I really don't want to support this company anymore .
Only guys not to blame are the 2 (???) current devs working on AoC .
I have already been stupid enough for a long term sub on 2 account and the money was literally wasted on Lego anyway .
So yea no extra money for funcom

[Radicaltop]

Conclusion: No need to impose a game dev apocalypse, the world moves on, games and devs that are meant to survive, will survive in one form or another.

Thank you for your well written, carefully reasoned exposition. Funcom liquidating and shutting down all of its games is at the very end of the possible outcomes to the company's debt woes. Of Funcom's assets, TSW is probably the most attractive to potential buyers so TSW might be sold to a major studio to pay off Funcom's debts, leaving AOC as the company's main game for the time being.

[Anubium]

If closing the game tomorrow was a done deal, then CG would not be on the test server forums talking about the upcoming t6 gear.

If they close the game, then it happens. I certainly don't have any money to buy the company.

I am going to enjoy things while I can. Its still videogame yoga for me.

[Mustaine]

This is more accurate.... (and Waaaaayyy MORE BORING)


Conclusion: No need to impose a game dev apocalypse, the world moves on, games and devs that are meant to survive, will survive in one form or another.

... I think I'm actually smarter for having read that post - CURSE YOU ! !.

But my question now is ~ what form will AoC take should the Company/Devs "survive? And will they be able to take AoC with them?

With the REH rights; this seems unlikely that anything similar to what happened with WarHammer Online would ever be feasible. That's what I was ultimately hoping for ~ the players able to host their own servers and ADMIN as it should have been done from the beginning (a whole can of worms there, but ...)

[Mustaine]

Until things look up and the dust settles from the crushing debt; Im NOT investing more than 1-months sub ~ sorry to those that think our Subscription costs will somehow help.

.

[davetheconq]

Yeah sad to say, and think about it we've been paying a sub to help the game develop since it launched and what exactly did that get for us. Paying them doesn't help much if they cannot get their act together