Open Letter from the AoC Product Director about Open Beta

Product Director Jørgen Tharaldsen open letter th the AoC Community:

Quote :

Hi everyone, as you can see we have made the big announcement you have all been waiting for today. We naturally see a lot of questions popping up, and I won’t even attempt to answer them all here. We will however try to go through the major ones so you may understand our reasoning, and hopefully get the details you need at this point.

First of all Fileplanet has posted a FAQ on their site where some basic questions are replied. You can find that here.

They will update this FAQ in the days to come as more questions pop up.

The registration to sign-up is now live, and you can find it here.

So, on to the meat of this somewhat lengthy article, read or delete at your pleasure:


WTF, only level 13 / SMART move on the level cap (pick a variant)

We have on purpose chosen to cap the Open Beta at level 13. As someone points out it is a quest junction in the game for the Destiny quests. It is however far enough to give you many (many) hours of entertainment, while giving access to both solo and group gameplay. How many hours is a bit up to you, and how many characters you create. If you are smart about it and team up (which we all know you will ;-P) you will also be able to access content for a tad higher levels. As you move into some quests which demands a certain level that will be the end of the experience. For now.

For those of you who are disappointed about the level cap; at Funcom we have always seen Beta PRIMARILY as a tool for development, a beta is there to test the game so it is as good as possible when we launch. Perhaps you have seen other solutions by other MMO games in the past, but by doing it this way we are able to test all we need, while hopefully also ensuring you get a great taste of all the new aspects we bring to the genre. As you can make several characters you can test out a lot before we launch, perhaps even making up your mind on your primary. This also means we get a focused testing on where we know the major load will come when we launch, which is at the instances running the start. Oh, for those of you wondering, when beta ends your character dies, and once we launch you will need to start a new.


Paying for Open Beta?!?!

The way Fileplanet works means that you will have to eventually pay, yes. This is not something we control, but please be aware that distributing, organizing and preparing such an activity is something extremely few gaming sites can cope with. I am not sure how well versed you are in the cost of internet downloads or what it takes to set things like this up, but I assure you, the Conan beta has a definitive cost for Fileplanet as well. Not just for the Peta byte of data going out, but for setting this whole thing up. When we started to look for a partner for Open Beta we didn’t have to think even twice, as IGN / Fileplanet are the best ones in the world on that. Simple as that. Extremely few companies are able to host and arrange something like this on the scale they do it. For us, to know that our partner can be fully trusted on everything from customer service to download speeds, was of the essence. Why we didn’t do it all ourselves? We have up until this point, tens of thousands have been selected, and we for sure will to a greater degree some weeks from now. But…as we move into final push we need final push attention too. Simple as that.

I know you will continue to discuss this aspect of it as we move on, and some of you are / will even be angry about it. Please, don’t be, this is a BETA, it is for TESTING Age of Conan BEFORE the LAUNCH. You do not have to sign up for this, it is voluntary. There is no god given right that everyone who wants should get access to a beta, remember that we are only trying to make the best possible game for launch, and the best partner we could find for that part of the Beta was Fileplanet. Age of Conan doesn’t start 1st of May, it starts when we launch. I hope I don’t come across as harsh here, we do love you guys and girls (group hug everyone) but please also understand our choices.


Will there be an NDA?

We might keep it up a bit to let the main stresstest rush go by, but it will be lifted way before we launch. Soon everyone can talk about what they are playing instead of what they think they will be playing. We really look forward to this of course! This marks the start of a new chapter for us, and you all, we are now soon moving into live services! Soon everyone


When will I get my keys and know if I am selected?

You will get a notification from Fileplanet next week, but you are able to register your email and get notification when you can sign-up next week. This does not require a Fileplanet membership. After that point in time it is a FIRST COME – FIRST SERVE rush to get keys (this is a normal way for Fileplanet to do it btw). The client downloads will go in batches though. To stagger the load this will need to be a bit staged as our MASSIVE download is a challenge for any network. This is done to ensure best possible download speeds


Is it available for everyone?

Yes, people from all over the world can sign up. Just last month we had people from a whopping 191 countries who visited the Age of Conan site, so of course we worked with Fileplanet on making it global. It will play towards US datacenters though. We are now moving into launch universes for our server parks, and this means that for this test other gamers will play on US ping times.


Only 50.000 players?

Only?!! Yes, it is what we need to stress test this part of the beta. Please understand; this will give us the data we need to move to launch. It is a small premiere for us if you like. At the same time it allows us to check strain over numerous servers, while at the same time giving us enough time to scale and fix for launch set-up.


Will general beta go on?

Yes, general beta will go on at different universe (Euro server parks). If you have already signed up through our own beta pages you might still have a chance of being picked, even though the chance is getting a tad slimmer as you may understand. We are soon launching though!


What about all the other questions?

This hopefully answered some of the most important ones, and our forum addiction means we will follow upcoming topics as well.

I hope that those of you who want to will get a spot in the beta, and that you will all have great fun when you get there. You have been amazing and waited for us and now everything moves into final stage. You have been part of the same rollercoaster we have been through, but this is it! Open Beta! Then launch!! Even though I know many of you would have wished for “complete, open, every single one being able to play for weeks for free, for as many levels as possible Beta” (TM); if you think about it, really think about it, and if you were working in Funcom, I am sure you would have agreed we have made the best approach. We chose this way because it is the best course of action to prepare for launch, and that is after all the goal of any beta.


WTF, what a lot of marketing “#¤¤#%

It’s the truth, hopefully you will understand our choices. This is a major hallmark in the development history of Age of Conan, and actually, it is great fantastic news. Isn’t it? Should some of you still be angry when you do get to enter the game; do like me, vent some steam by chopping of a few Pict heads

Have a great night everyone, hope to see you in Hyboria soon


Best regards

Jørgen Tharaldsen
Product Director