A
Auscia
Guest
In short:
I'm quitting DAoC in two weeks or so, possibly popping by during the first few days of May, before my account subscription runs out.
The main reason is that the only thing that's kept me returning to the game has been roleplay, and as it happens, I've managed to tie all of Auscia's loose ends up. I've effectively played her out of the running story lines; there are no reasons for her to stay active and on the field, but oh so many reasons to go home and take it easy. She's not only 16 weeks pregnant, but she's also come to a few sound conclusions about herself, what the future will hold and what must be done - and all of her plans are long-term plans that will take place behind the scenes.
Other, minor reasons are numerous, but I could live with them since the amount of excellent roleplay just was something that made it worthwhile. But, let's face it. The game in itself is stupid, repetitive and revolves around getting the next item/level. That just isn't what does it for me. I want surroundings that actually feel like there's substance to them. In DAoC all the npc:s stand in one single spot, night and day, and they don't have one single thing to say - except if you're on a quest, which always involve the same elements of running around and fighting numerous enemies. You can't even buy meals from a bar, and none of the inns have beds in them. I mean, how stupid is that?
RvR is illogical and stupid, consisting only of running around and fighting numerous enemies (dejá vu, anyone?). Repetitive? You bet. In addition, the classes are unbalanced and the success of the fights depends way too much on who has the most realm points, i.e. has had the stamina to play longest.
Not only is the game poorly designed, I've grown more and more fed up at GOA and Mythic. Not only have they basically neglected customer support, they promise a lot in the way of updates and evening up the game balance, but they never deliver. Mythic has a track record of promises to fix a lot of issues that even after a year are still not done. GOA... well, gods, GOA takes the grand prize. XML in the home pages is still broken, customer service, if you're very lucky, actually provides answers that in most cases consists only of the promise "we'll look at it"... which they never do. Lastly, GOA still hasn't fixed the update problem; for four weeks, paying customers have been sent to US update servers and have downloaded the wrong patch, which means you have to reinstall the game and hope that it doesn't happen again. Correcting such an error is in my opinion basic customerservice, but no, even though all it would really take is changing one digit to another, GOA doesn't come through.
Finally, the thing that broke the camel's back is this:
"More than a year after its launch, Dark Age of Camelot is going through a new evaluation of its subscription prices, while remaining the cheapest 2nd generation MMORPG on the market (from 9.16 ? per month).
This change of tariffs will take effect at the 5th of May 2003 onwards, and will affect the subscriptions signed after this date.
The subscriptions still valid before the revaluation will not be affected until they are renewed, after the 5th of May 2003 onwards.
From this date the new subscription tariffs will be :
1 month subscription : 8£ or 12?
3 months subscription : 22£ or 32? (less than 11 ? per month)
6 months subscription : 41£ or 60? (10? per month)"
Well fuck me sideways if I'll pay even more money per month for neglible customer support, buggy code and crappy game.
Despite my whining, it's been a fun rollercoaster, and I'm very happy to been a part of it.
I admit, I'm a bit sad to let Auscia go get the rest she needs, because I really love her complex psychology - neurotic, fragile and obsessively introspective, but also very empathic, stubborn and purposeful, Auscia always burns both ends of the candle by constantly striving to squeeze one more ounce of effectiveness to give her a bit more edge. Despite being a veteran of roleplaying games, this woman gives me a headache every now and then
Anyway, enough rambling.
Three weeks and counting. If you have loose ends to tie up with me, better start doing something about it
I'm quitting DAoC in two weeks or so, possibly popping by during the first few days of May, before my account subscription runs out.
The main reason is that the only thing that's kept me returning to the game has been roleplay, and as it happens, I've managed to tie all of Auscia's loose ends up. I've effectively played her out of the running story lines; there are no reasons for her to stay active and on the field, but oh so many reasons to go home and take it easy. She's not only 16 weeks pregnant, but she's also come to a few sound conclusions about herself, what the future will hold and what must be done - and all of her plans are long-term plans that will take place behind the scenes.
Other, minor reasons are numerous, but I could live with them since the amount of excellent roleplay just was something that made it worthwhile. But, let's face it. The game in itself is stupid, repetitive and revolves around getting the next item/level. That just isn't what does it for me. I want surroundings that actually feel like there's substance to them. In DAoC all the npc:s stand in one single spot, night and day, and they don't have one single thing to say - except if you're on a quest, which always involve the same elements of running around and fighting numerous enemies. You can't even buy meals from a bar, and none of the inns have beds in them. I mean, how stupid is that?
RvR is illogical and stupid, consisting only of running around and fighting numerous enemies (dejá vu, anyone?). Repetitive? You bet. In addition, the classes are unbalanced and the success of the fights depends way too much on who has the most realm points, i.e. has had the stamina to play longest.
Not only is the game poorly designed, I've grown more and more fed up at GOA and Mythic. Not only have they basically neglected customer support, they promise a lot in the way of updates and evening up the game balance, but they never deliver. Mythic has a track record of promises to fix a lot of issues that even after a year are still not done. GOA... well, gods, GOA takes the grand prize. XML in the home pages is still broken, customer service, if you're very lucky, actually provides answers that in most cases consists only of the promise "we'll look at it"... which they never do. Lastly, GOA still hasn't fixed the update problem; for four weeks, paying customers have been sent to US update servers and have downloaded the wrong patch, which means you have to reinstall the game and hope that it doesn't happen again. Correcting such an error is in my opinion basic customerservice, but no, even though all it would really take is changing one digit to another, GOA doesn't come through.
Finally, the thing that broke the camel's back is this:
"More than a year after its launch, Dark Age of Camelot is going through a new evaluation of its subscription prices, while remaining the cheapest 2nd generation MMORPG on the market (from 9.16 ? per month).
This change of tariffs will take effect at the 5th of May 2003 onwards, and will affect the subscriptions signed after this date.
The subscriptions still valid before the revaluation will not be affected until they are renewed, after the 5th of May 2003 onwards.
From this date the new subscription tariffs will be :
1 month subscription : 8£ or 12?
3 months subscription : 22£ or 32? (less than 11 ? per month)
6 months subscription : 41£ or 60? (10? per month)"
Well fuck me sideways if I'll pay even more money per month for neglible customer support, buggy code and crappy game.
Despite my whining, it's been a fun rollercoaster, and I'm very happy to been a part of it.
I admit, I'm a bit sad to let Auscia go get the rest she needs, because I really love her complex psychology - neurotic, fragile and obsessively introspective, but also very empathic, stubborn and purposeful, Auscia always burns both ends of the candle by constantly striving to squeeze one more ounce of effectiveness to give her a bit more edge. Despite being a veteran of roleplaying games, this woman gives me a headache every now and then
Anyway, enough rambling.
Three weeks and counting. If you have loose ends to tie up with me, better start doing something about it
