Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures Director Leaves Citing Dissatisfaction with Game

I was in the AoC beta for probably 6 months before the game came out and there were numerous decisions made during that time that really had my head scratching. For example Gaute gave his entire dev team their usual European month-long summer holiday as opposed to cracking the whip and getting things done. This was in spite of the fact he had a team of American developers that weren't under any legal obligation from European nanny states to take said month off.

During the entire beta they never once released a patch that didn't break something that was previously working. As a professional software developer myself, it reeked of poor SDLC practices. In particular they had some serious issues with source control and check-in/check-out procedures as clearly the devs were stepping all over each other in the source code. That's not a developer issue, that's a management issue.

My guess is this departure is not Gaute dodging a bullet. My guess is Gaute had no intention of leaving. My guess is Gaute was asked to bow out gracefully or be fired. I think it's FunCom that wants a new set of eyes on AoC, not Gaute.

Gaute was a failure as a director on AoC from day one. No one questions when an NFL team fires a head coach after a poor season. I don't know why anyone doesn't understand why Gaute is leaving. Good riddance imo. It's about time.

Boobies go a long way.

How can you hate a game with boobies?

I was very into the game until I realized even the common world zones were instanced, then I gave the game the boot, I hate that shit. Take a note from Blizz, only the dungeons should be instanced, the open world should be shared by all.

When making a MMO developers really have to create one thing for it to have a potential to do well.

Loading areas only when REALLY needed. Like WoW and WAR. Open world feel.

I really think that should be the very first thing said in the very first meeting at the start of a MMO development.

Failcom strikes again. And before anyone says anything, yes I bought the game. Yes I played the game (for 30 days). Yes it sucks and should never have shipped. I'm sure he was given the "option" to leave gracefully because his statement reads like a resignation form letter.

Fuck you Failcom for continuing to bill me after I cancelled, then when I mailed to protest, you had 'GM DarkDragonsFire' on the case, telling me he couldn't refund the money 'or they'd go bankrupt'

Yay chargebacks, god I'm a fool for wasting my money on that game

interesting, the question is which sets of player demands are going to plant seeds in his mind....

i really enjoyed the game, and still want to come back to it, just need to flesh it out m ore in the upper levels.

i wish them luck, and i hope the planted seeds are the ones i agree with :)

Funcom should gut the entire dev team here. AoC is nothing but a failure in almost every area.

I really wish the game hadn't been so muted. For the first 50 levels there's barely any variation in the armor and weapons design. The super-powered epic bow looks the same as the junk drop from 20 levels ago.

And don't get me started on the Market Place (Auction House for you WoWers)....

Better to get off the bus rather than be thrown underneath.

Jesus christ don't put AO staff on it!

"I am certain Age of Conan's future is in the best of hands." Well I hope that's true, I was really looking forward to this game becoming a huge success. Too bad the game is plagued with the game bugs (more or less) 3 months after release date.

LOLOLOLOLOLLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL

Traditionally, isn't the Captain suppose to go down with the ship not jump off it?

Dev's stop making so many MMOs. The huge majority aren't good enough to justify a monthly payment. Return to making a fun single player experience. After years of multiplayer games I'm finding myself enjoying single player games even more these days. It's a great feeling to actually "Finish" a game. Something you can't do in MMOs or Battlefields, etc.

I'd be willing to check it out again at a later date. Alas, it seems quite a few of its problems are inherent with the way the game was designed, so I'm not sure how they'll fix it. As for this guy, well, you made some really bad calls.