I posted this a little while ago to the player reviews for AoC. I'm kinda depressed about it actually - I had high hopes for AoC. I LOVE the idea of a Mature MMO! I'm hoping they get the bugs ironed out sooner or later, because this game does have a LOT of potential, if they'd get a few things fixed...

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I was VERY excited that an M-rated MMO would be on the market, especially one set in the world of Conan. I tried not to get sucked into the hype too much, but the screenshots and the dedication of the devs to the Conan universe was pretty impressive...and I found myself hopeful.

Then I finally got my hands on it. It started off a little slow, but I got my toon created and I started exploring. The character customization is staggering, and the game is simply beautiful to look at. I liked the idea of having more control over what your player does in combat. However...the honeymoon was soon over. I realize that as a brand new MMO, things will be a little rocky to start - thats normal. But between HUGE graphical glitches and in some places lag that made the game unplayable...I started to wonder if I'd made a mistake by pre-ordering and being among the first in.

For whatever reason, AoC would NEVER properly shut down for me. It didnt matter if I got DCed, or exited the game - every single freaking time it would create an error to send to MS and the AoC team. And, every single time I'd try to start the game again, I'd get an irritating message about how it didnt shut down properly last time, so now it needs to 'revalidate'...which took around 10 min each time ( I think once it was closer to 20 min though).

Aside from graphical/gameplay issues, I found another serious problem: other players. Granted theres always jerks online, but with this being an M rated game, I was hoping all the horny 15 year olds would get left out this time. I was sadly mistaken. It seemed like every time I popped into the daytime side of the game (to sum up, "day" is when you kill monsters and level up and get XP. "night" is when you work on single player goals, like quests for your type of character) chat was full of comments about 'boobs" "chesticles" "bewbies" etc etc etc. Yes, if you have a female toon, taking her top off does leave you...well....topless. I was having one of my graphical glitches when I found that out and all my toons armor disappeared, but listening to a bunch of kids go on about boobs just was a huge turn off from the gameplay itself.

Oh, the final straw on this game for me was this last patch. After installing the patch, suddenly World of Warcraft, Oblivion and The Witcher would freeze up on me and I'd have to reboot my pc. After uninstalling AoC....suddenly no more lockups! Hmmmmmm. While it is possible it was something else, the timeframe really makes me think it was something in the last patch.

So, to sum up:
THE GOOD: Very deep character customization, more complex combat than usual for an MMO, M rated content, beautiful graphics, great music and sound effects, excellent overall ambience, all in the world of Conan!

THE BAD: People who shouldnt be allowed within 100 yeards of M rated content are on it, graphical bugs, serious lag spikes that make it impossible to move let alone fight, possible PC complications between programs/software issues.

I've cancelled my subscription for now, but I plan on keeping my software for a later date if some of those kinks get ironed out. I can live with some glitches, and lag is always a beast - but they need to look into software compatibility issues and get some way to check peoples age!

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Edit: while I admit that its *possible* theres an issue with my PC, I find it unlikely. I have more than enough memory, a decent graphics card...I dont download things or run anything in the background I don't have to. If my "average" gaming PC can't handle this (and I did try lowering the settings, though according to the box I should have been able to run it almost to its max setttings) without conflict, then theres still something wrong. Again, I have had no issues with other software since uninstalling this game. I really do hope they get those issues ironed out, because this game does have a lot of potential and I would LOVE to be able to play a mature MMO! But until then, I'd say a '5' for a game thats nearly unplayable is actually more generous than most people would have given it...

I'm sure everyone has already seen the bad press on Mass Effect. If youve actually played the game and know whats true and what isnt, go here and sign:

http://www.petitiononline.com/foxnews9/petition.html

I may do a full blown rant on this later, but I'm still too ticked off to write on it now.

Well, despite our 'booming economy' I still cant find a job.

I've tried applying for everything I can find, not just paralegal jobs now. Not only does it look like my attempt to change careers was an utter failure, but I may have to go back to the profession I was so glad to leave. If they'll even take me back...

Even if I do get rehired back at what I was doing, background checks and the like can take months..and I'm out of time.

So the question remains: Do I list everything as one bulk lot? Divide it up by systems? List rarer titles by themselves? Can I even sell anything that would make enough of a difference to be worthwhile? From reading and looking around, I get the feeling I may not be alone in my financial quagmire, and doing a few spot checks on ebay prices for some of the higher-priced games has me even more depressed than the housing market. Gamespot has my collection valued at over $70,000....I think I'd commit murder for half that these days...it wouldnt pay off my student loans, but it would finish off the house and the one credit card I use and buy me a little more time...

edit: my sweetie just told me I'd get a kick in the pants if I tried to sell my stuff now (and have you seen what some games are going for on ebay right now? About a third of what some used to go for, can we say 'recession' anyone?), and theres a *possibility* I may get hired by a company thats interested in me in the next two weeks....so cross your fingers for me!!! However...just in case that doesnt happen....anyone know of any good collection software? I found one that lets you scan in your games by barcode - and thats NOT what I'm looking for. I'm looking for one that would let me upload my own picture and description, so if I ever do have to ebay it I could just link my own page to the ebay site - I dont think I could list nearly 1500 games pics descriptions and swag all on ebay without it costing a fortune just to list....