Is Anarchy Online Playable?

I figured I would put this up and let you debate on it. Funcom announced that the free month that comes with the purchase of the game has officially started as of yesterday because they now consider the game to be playable. Do you feel that the game is playable? Should they have started the free period or waited longer? Is the game now a final product and not just a beta? Feel free to add your opinions.

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not yet for me
# Jul 11 2001 at 5:01 AM Rating: Default
I wish it was playable for me. I want it to be badly. But, it seems that wanting in one hand a and you know what in the other hand the other hand still smells better. I still get booted to a windows file missing error. I have written them about this three times and they pronounce it all fixed now but it's not. I have no choice ( even though it does not sound rational) but to think that the company heads just pronounce things working and sit back and laugh to themselves saying. " Stupid gamers. Lets see how long they will hang on while we tell them you really have no problem." Some kind of behavioral modiification experiment, I guess. No I am not really this conspiritorial or paranoide heh. But my point is I don't see how other then pressure to generate another infusion of money to help pay for developement costs and that is plain wrong to hand us a rust bucket for 13 us dollers a monthg. I sure do wish they would read this because I CAN play EQ and AC with no missing file errors.
Gripes!
# Jul 11 2001 at 4:10 AM Rating: Default
YOU'VE GOT YOUR HEAD UP YOUR AR$E IF YOU THINK THIS CRAP IS PLAYABLE!

And, to the issue of comparing it to Everquest's launch, GET REAL!

THAT WAS THREE FREAKING YEARS AGO!

Arent we supposed to learn from our mistakes...

And as to the fact and statement:
"Your Free Time has Begun"
I say
"Your Free Time has Been Wasted. Thanks for your initial interest though."

Anyone who is NOT crashing SEVERLY got VERY VERY lucky in terms of their isp or something else. So, to those people, understand how frustrated the rest of us are who havent had the silver spoon yet.

WOULD SOMEONE TELL FUNCOM TO BEEF UP ON THEIR RESPONSES TO CLIENT PROBS???? WTF!

One dude waiting six days already for a f###ing response. Pathetic!!! IM GOING INSANE!!!

Playable???? HAHAHahAHAHHAAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy..
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy..
All wo...
You get the fuc king picture sheesus.

Konami Pissed.
RE: Gripes!
# Jul 11 2001 at 12:25 PM Rating: Default
So, what you're saying is, because I got on last night and played for 3 hours without problems and had a great time(good job on the recent fixes, Funcom) that I have my head up my "*********** I don't get some people. If you have a problem with a product then return it and move on. If you find that you can't stop playing the game even though it crashes, then I would suggest that it is fun for you even though yu refuse to admit it.
=(
# Jul 11 2001 at 3:52 PM Rating: Default
Hey congrats on being able to play for 3 WHOLE HOURS! But guess what, you and the other 1000 out of 35000 people that can play, im glad for ya but for the other 34000 people that crash, burn, and go to the point of almost breaking their CD. OK im not trying to complain or whine, im just sorta really pissed off and REALLY impatient. When i bought this game i was sort of expecting more and this is what i get. When i got the game on release date i told myself i would give it a month to shape up before i go back to boring old EQ. Ive noticed some improvments but not enough to make it playable. 2 more weeks left FUNCOM
Yeah.. right
# Jul 11 2001 at 3:12 AM Rating: Default
There are still a few major issues that need to be worked out before I would deem the game 'playable'. All today there were giant issues (not only with lag towards zoning) but with the playfield connections, so when I wasn't dying of lag, I couldn't zone anyways. Before that though, when I did manage to get in a few missions or so, it lags out so badly in combat that when the connection finally comes back, I simply die. Now I don't feel a real need to use the insurance machines too often, seeing as I can kick the crap out of 2, maybe even 3 of the guys I'm fighting at level 7 (easy slider comes in handy there) So when I lag out, and just die - when I know that if I were actually at the controls I'd be able to do something to fix the combat from going to hell, it really ticks me off. In my opinion, that's far from playable.
Playable
# Jul 11 2001 at 3:03 AM Rating: Default
capable of or suitable for being played

and if you dont beleive me...

http://www.infoplease.lycos.com/ipd/A0592024.html
Well...
# Jul 11 2001 at 1:22 AM Rating: Decent
The game has made quite a lot of progress in a short amount of time. Granted, when it was first released, you couldn't stay on for a few minutes. Now, staying online for large amounts of time is possible (unless you crash, very likely). On the other hand, when CAN stay online, you can't zone half the time, maps can't be uploaded for new missions, ammo mysteriously goes POOF, among other things... I'd have to say that yes, it is playable to an extent. I think we all have different ideas of playable. One person might think playable as in 'no bugs', where as Funcom considers playable being able to stay connected for half an hour or more... So until someone defines 'playable' as far as this game goes, I'd have to remain indifferent.
Sadly, no...
# Jul 11 2001 at 1:15 AM Rating: Default
A few days ago I would have answered with a weak 'yes', but now I'm not so sure. I was actually having fun using the mission generator until it stopped working for me. At that point I made the fateful decision to do some exploring in Omni-1 until the mission generator was working again. Big mistake! just inside the Omni-1 entertainment zone I entered a door set in the side of the first building I came to. Once inside the building, The exterior walls became transparent. Not wanting to tempt a crash due to a graphics problem, I immediately turned around and went back the way I came. Unfortunately, the door that had admitted me just seconds before now refused to let me leave! I spent the next twenty minutes exploring the invisible interior of the building and logging out and back in again in a vain effort to free my character by myself. Finally, I sent a petition for help. After waiting for over an hour, the game crashed, forcing me to log back in and petition again. After another hour of thumb twiddling, the game crashed yet again! At this point, I logged out, sent a detailed support request to Funcom's email customer service, and created a second character so I had something to do while waiting. After playing the new character for just long enough to aquire some money to access the mission generator, It suddenly hit me. Funcom had released a massively multiplayer online role playing game in which the only tolerable way of playing was a mission in an isolated area away from other players. Heck, if I wanted to play like that, I could just start up Baldur's Gate! After this realization, I promptly logged out and started playing EverQuest. I haven't heard anything from Funcom customer support for four days now. If I haven't heard anything within a week, I don't plan on extending my account past the free introductory period. It's just a shame that a game with so much potential has had such a poor launch due to an ill-conceived decision to release too early.
RE: Sadly, no...
# Jul 11 2001 at 1:24 AM Rating: Decent
Sorry friend, but you are probably trying to use the migen in the newbie zone. Won't work after lvl 6. Go out into the city and find another migen to use. You'll be glad you did. Those newbie missions SUCKED in comparison.
RE: Sadly, no...
# Jul 11 2001 at 1:20 PM Rating: Default
Just in case you didn't carefully read the above message, I didn't have a serious issue with the mission generator. In fact, I stated that it was one of the things I liked best. I half expected that there may have been a level exclusion feature at work. That's why I left the backyard to explore. At the present time I would love nothing more than to use a higher level mission generator and perhaps visit some better shops in Omni-1 proper. Unfortunately, I AM STUCK IN A BUILDING WITH NO EXIT!!!!! I wasn't expecting perfection form AO this close to launch, but of all things, I expected functioning doors and non-transparent buildings. These things should have been thoroughly tested way before the game's release.
RE: Sadly, no...
# Jul 26 2001 at 11:58 PM Rating: Good
*
101 posts
If you're still stuck (or if this happens to anyone else), use the /terminate command. It is a self-destruct. You die, but remember that in AO there's no CR so you and your stuff are out. If you're still low level, there isn't even any exp loss. I had the exact same thing happen as you describe above, down to the unanswered petitions (though I didn't bother to send an e-mail). I actually *did* go play Baldur's Gate for a while =P, but now I'm back into EQ.

I got to 12th level in AO and have since uninstalled it, disgusted with lag and the lack of interaction in the world. It really is too bad, because I wanted it to succeed, and it has a lot of potential, but it just didn't work for me. Hope you have a better experience.

Gryus
No
# Jul 10 2001 at 9:48 PM Rating: Good
Not yet, at least not for me. Anything beyond running missions out of the "backyard" is an exercise in frustration. I, too, have found off-hours to be manageable - but that's still not playable. I just hope it can be fixed, since it's fun when it runs.
nope :(
# Jul 10 2001 at 9:37 PM Rating: Default
Sad to say, no I don't believe the game is fully or even halfway playable...on their behalf though, the day BEFORE they made the announcement I was better able to play than I had in all the days prior, BUT the next day they took the servers down and since then missions have been nigh on impossible and the city lag has not improved one bit.
No Way!
# Jul 10 2001 at 6:28 PM Rating: Default
Playable? What a joke! I was willing to give Funcom the benefit of the doubt when they released the game. I figured maybe they were out of money and had no choice. But they made a ton off of the initial sale of the game and now are just being greedy. I will not pay them money to play a game that doesn't work! Funcom is starting to make Verant look good, and that's saying something.
RE: No Way!
# Jul 11 2001 at 1:15 AM Rating: Default
You're forgetting how bad the EQ release was. thook them about 4 weeks to get the game playable from a connection viewpoint. So much so that I remember John Smedley giving everyone a free month.

Can't comment too much on the AO woes. Whenever I login I die so fast it's almost irrelevant, and I can't tell if it's lag or me not knowing the game.

Anyhoo, as long as they don't make Origin (Ultima Online) look good, they're doing something right.
Not Yet
# Jul 10 2001 at 5:38 PM Rating: Decent
Funny. I laughed when I saw that announcement. AO is probably playable if you live in Norway. I have noticed that the lag is not too bad during off hours and you can actually get quite a bit done. However, during prime time hours in the US, there are so many people on that it is almost impossible to move in the cities of the popular zones. It is playable in the sense that once you put up with the difficulty of getting to your mission, you can then enjoy an hour of relatively lag free gaming within the mission. But once you leave and go to buy and sell, bank or anything else, you are seriously hindered.

So in my opinion the game is not yet playable to the extent that a final release should be. They should not have started the free month yet.
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