By Jim Rossignol on July 24th, 2008 at 8:53 am.
Want to try sword-swingin’ MMO Age Of Conan for free? Then you need to poke someone who is already playing with a collector’s edition of the game, and get them to send you one of their buddy program invites. Funcom have said that all retail copies will soon have the buddy program invites, which are free trials lasting seven days.
Folks who have invites to send out and want to share with their fellow RPS readers should do so in the comments below.
24/07/2008 at 09:10 Mitza says:
So I guess their servers are less populated now, eh? :)
24/07/2008 at 09:25 Mr_Day says:
I was horribly disapointed with Age of Conan, so much that I didn’t get to level 40 to try out my war mammoth.
Worryingly, the thing I was most upset with was the combat. It starts off with you thinking ‘Oooh! This is weird and odd and cool!’ before it degenerates into…wait, here is a thought.
Assuming you have ever played another mmo like WoW, have you ever fought your way into the belly of the undermine, slayed the chest keeper and grabbed the quest item? Have you ever then thought “Ah sod it, now I have to fight my way back out again.” because you knew the respawns were there already? The game is about combat, but it has become a chore. You’d rather use a cheating, quick way out like a hearthstone.
Imagine that every fight you got into was a convoluted mess of button pushes. People complain that in mmo games you just push the same buttons over and over. A fair point, but a lot of single player games are like that as well. You want to think you are doing something dynamic, reacting to the situation. I personally believe the simplified combat of WoW, EVE and City of lets you do that.
In Conan? You don’t react to situations. At all. You don’t even know what the situation is. You are playing Dance Dance Mutilation, and you are watching the combo buttons intently. I have died form an enemy I did not know was there because of it.
Every fight becomes a chore. Even a fight you can win quickly is more trouble than it is worth. When the big selling point of the game is the combat, that is not a good position to be in.
I have not yet reached those giddy heights, but reading forums where people have reached the big 8 – 0 already, the combos get longer and more intricate.
They complain that they are unwieldy for PVE, and utterly useless for PVP since you take so long to hit the other guy he has already moved away. These are not things I want to be looking forward to.
24/07/2008 at 09:51 Alex McLarty says:
Sounds like the cry of a seasoned warrior to me. Apt.
I’d like a free trial account if anyone would be so kind to electronically mail me one! I promise to hound your ingame character forever.*
(*At least seven days)
24/07/2008 at 10:00 Fat says:
I can’t even begin to get into all the things that were wrong with AoC anymore as it feels so long since i stopped playing. Got to 56 in the first 2-3 weeks then it just became a case of trying out alts to take my mind off the fact that there was a big empty space 50-70 where the quests were meant to be.
Utter shat. They need this buddy key deal to try and entice new people in, likely hoping they won’t be extremely hardcore players. That way it will take them more (though not much) than 7 days to figure out what a heap of fail it is.
24/07/2008 at 10:02 AbyssUK says:
Is this like giving away the first sample of crack for free ?
24/07/2008 at 10:03 Mr_Day says:
Right, I tracked down me collector’s edition box, and found the buddy paraphenalia directing me to the website.
I get there and am presented with a screen, which tells me to add my buddies’ e mail address, and that I should lend him my discs to install the game.
Because if not, you have to pay to download the client. Not kidding, directly from the site:
So. It is not a huge amountto pay, and I’ll chuck keys your way if you want them.
24/07/2008 at 10:17 Jetsetlemming says:
What? Seriously, what? Are they making a goddamn trial of their game, half the size of what the competition is giving away for free to boot, restricted so only existing players who bought the special fancy version of their game can give away ONE shot of?
Are they fucking daft?
Christ, and I thought Blizzard was stupid for making the trial for their massively multiplayer game single player.
24/07/2008 at 10:25 Dude says:
Bah the combat system is not that bad, for me it is certainly better than the wow approach that make me sleep. With my level 54 conquerant I can take on 4-5 mob of my level and down them if I play clever, for me that challenging enough… If you mess your combo or use the wrong one you will die quickly, if you manage well you will be rewarded by the feeling of you character being quite powerfull.
To be honest Mr_Day, you didn’t even reach the level where things gets interesting, you really get an good idea of what you character is good at when you reach 40.
Obviously the game still has its problems but thing are getting better, content patch is around the corner so I hope the gap level will finally be over and less farming will be involved.
No one mention the beautifull landscape you are in, the level of detail put in some of the zones is impressive and the feeling of being in a violent and adult world is also what make it so different from the disney feeling of most of the other MMO.
Fun enough most of the forum I go to are full of the same people flaming AoC, saying that it is doomed and going to fail, well I didn’t see a population drop on my server so a lot of people must still be playing after the first month….
24/07/2008 at 10:42 Mr_Day says:
I wanted the combat to be brilliant – the group mechanics part certainly sounded the business.
A tank class can save a healing class by standing in the way. Well, that’s the best idea ever. Using objects, and even other people as cover? That is quite something. I never once saw it happen. Maybe the groups I was in were wrong.
Ultimately, every party fight, even those inside instances, had every member of our party surrounding and then beating the mob. It got silly. We looked like we were a group of rapists – hello darling, you come here often? Let’s get you out of that heavy armour.
By the sounds of it, the content patch is badly needed – most mmos have no end game, but from all the complaints on my server, this one has no middle game either.
24/07/2008 at 11:05 Dude says:
Well, what instances did you do? The sanctuary is a little bite like the first wow instances, no much thinking, a lot of bashing. From what I hear gets more complicated after, some boss sucking your stamina and mana (that’s the tombs, I haven’t done it yet but soon). I also encountered some anoying teleporting boss, lots of fun when you didn’t clear what is around them and they pull everything by teleporting.
I did manage to intercept mob en route to kill our healer, it does work better in pvp, the tanks (you need at least two I would say) can block the other player going after the healer. But to be honest any good pvper is not going to go after the healer of the group, you need to down first the dps or the conquerant because: the dps can kill you faster than you would kill the healer and you can still kill them faster than they are healed. If you kill the healer and a conquerant is around there is a chance he gets the combat rez, so you will have to do it all over again.
To me those game mechanics are interesting because they break the mold of you classical MMO tactics, going after the healer then dps, last the tank is not a viable tactics in conan.
Anyway, I am probably the only one around here having a blast at this game, shame really, I am sure a few months down the line we will have a really good game, but in today gaming world people are too impatient. I am amazed when some people say that they bought the game, tried it for 2h then shelved it and say “nah was rubish”….
24/07/2008 at 11:25 CPY says:
And what if i dont have friend playing Conan and want to try out?
24/07/2008 at 12:40 DerekS says:
Could someone send me an invite? derek.slenk at gmail.com
This would be much appreciated, thanks.
24/07/2008 at 12:54 Orange says:
Not surprising it is only 7 days long, enough time for people to get through tortage and if they are really fast up to about 40. It is after 40 that the cracks really start to appear in the game.
Glad I unsubbed from it, and 90% of the people I know in game have done the same. It’s not awful, but after being rushed into release and too many late WoW-like additions it’s a real missed opportunity to do something distinctive in the genre.
24/07/2008 at 13:21 Mr_Day says:
@ DerekS
Buddy invite sent, 4 left.
24/07/2008 at 13:44 Matt says:
I remember this being a huge download. Unless things have changed, people should be aware that the client for this game is over 13gb and it installs to over 20, then you will have patches on top of that.
24/07/2008 at 13:52 Kelduum says:
Well, I seem to have some keys too now, even though I didn’t continue past the first month, so there’s what… 5 keys available?
And, of course, there’s a good chance you may be able to find the install discs on one of those inter-tron things with all the files.
24/07/2008 at 14:03 jon says:
Ooo, I would like a buddy key if people are giving them away please – jon [at] bantros [dot] net
I’ll use the internets to get the installer, cheers
24/07/2008 at 14:07 CPY says:
Any kind person that can invite me? cpypcy at gmail.com :)
Thanks
24/07/2008 at 14:13 Dan Milburn says:
I’ll take an invite too if someone would be so kind. danmilburn at clara.co.uk
24/07/2008 at 14:23 machineisbored says:
I’d also like an invite if anyone has one left.. to machineisbored at gmail.com.
24/07/2008 at 14:25 spambot says:
Yum yum yum lovely email addresses
24/07/2008 at 14:28 Kelduum says:
Ok, thats 4 down – 1 left!
24/07/2008 at 14:33 cullnean says:
id like one at lordpoon at googlemail.com
24/07/2008 at 14:42 majorbromly says:
Hey RPS’ers I’d like an invite if anyone’s willing.
majorbromly2 at hotmail.com
24/07/2008 at 15:20 malkav11 says:
Oh, Funcom. Who would have thought that the folks who made the extremely forward thinking decision to make the entire original content of Anarchy Online their free trial to get you to sub for expansion content would go to such a lame, archaic trial system. Newsflash – free trials need to be *free*, and freely available. It’s great to include buddy trials, don’t get me wrong, but those should be more extensive than the general version and be geared towards helping players enlist their friends to enhance their game experience. There still needs to be an option for people who don’t know anyone playing yet to see if they want to play at all.
24/07/2008 at 15:47 neoanderthal says:
oh, what the hell. with the epic fail going on at flagship (yes, yes, you told me so ;) ) I’m stuck without a decent game in the near future. I’ve been trying tabula rasa, but…. *shrugs*
anyhow, a kind soul with charity in his/her heart could send me an AoC invite at neoanderthal at gmail.com.
thank you, and good night.
24/07/2008 at 15:57 cyrenic says:
You guys should really be phonetically spelling out your email addresses. Unless you really like spam :P.
24/07/2008 at 16:29 Kelduum says:
Cullnean – invite sent, better luck next time everyone else.
And yes, you guys must really like spam!
24/07/2008 at 17:20 cullnean says:
cheers :)
24/07/2008 at 18:20 Harlequin says:
Cheers to Mr_Day.
This is exactly how I felt about the game. AoC is an atrocity to MMORPG-style gaming. I wish everyone trying the game out the best, but realize that the charm wears off fast. The Tortage area is very well produced, but other than that the game is a mess.
Get ready for a combat system that is not only boring, but horribly frustrating to engage in. Oh, hot tip, roll a caster class, because Funcom hates melee classes…even though this game is titled after a Barbarian.
24/07/2008 at 18:23 Stella says:
If anyone has an invite left, I’ll be glad to take it at yambola@gmail.com. Love.
24/07/2008 at 18:48 Mr_Day says:
neoanderthal and Stella should have incoming keys.
2 left.
24/07/2008 at 19:38 pnic says:
love to have an invite guys: pnic101 at hotmail dot com
24/07/2008 at 22:21 Ronin says:
Hey, if anyone has a spare key, could I have it? Thanks!
dante82 [at] gazeta pl
24/07/2008 at 22:25 Mr_Day says:
1 left. Any takers?
24/07/2008 at 22:40 no spam please says:
If there’s any invites left, please send one to ton_sen at yahoo dot com. Thanks!
24/07/2008 at 23:19 Chris says:
Hey I don’t need an invite, but is there a link for the paid client download?
24/07/2008 at 23:28 Mr_Day says:
Right, all gone.
I couldn’t find a link to download the client.
25/07/2008 at 00:39 neoanderthal says:
mr day – thank you very much.
as for spam, well, it’s gmail – it’s not like it’s an important account :)
as for the download, the link is an option once you sign-up/create a user account. man, talk about rigamarole.
Thanks again, Mr. Day.
25/07/2008 at 07:19 april holt says:
i would like a buddy key as well if someone has one available.thanks a bunch,been wantin to try this game since launch date.
25/07/2008 at 10:23 Ronin says:
yeah, me too – it seems that my earlier request has been ignored, well, maybe someone other has a key to spare? :) Thanks!
dante82 at gazeta dot pl
25/07/2008 at 13:52 Derek E says:
I am intrigued by this games graphics, but am a bit weary to buy with all the mixed reviews floating about. Would anyone be willing to send a buddy invite? I would be extremely grateful. Derek9099 (at) charter.net
25/07/2008 at 20:05 Hellwolve says:
Well, I’d be lying if I’d say I’m not really interested :-D
If someone were to send me an invite over at j.v.d.bos at google mail.com, I’d be quite gratefull :-)
26/07/2008 at 03:47 Don't Pay for Free Trials says:
If you also think paying $3 for a free trial is stupid, follow the instructions at http://aocanonymous.googlepages.com to download the US client. Not sure if this works for the EU client, might want to check the torrent sites for that.
26/07/2008 at 11:51 Schtee says:
If anyone’d care to give a poorper a code, they might just send it to schtee.taylor at gmail dot com
But then they mightn’t, eh?
28/07/2008 at 01:38 Jess says:
I’d like a buddy key is anyone out ther has any left!
jesser010482 at hotmail dot com
29/07/2008 at 05:35 shmoopy says:
Mr_day can you mail me a buddy card ive been dying to play this game!!!
29/07/2008 at 05:36 shmoopy says:
mail is freeman660 at gmail.com
31/07/2008 at 14:08 Mike says:
I’d like a key if anyone has one as I’m not sure if my PC will run this…
mike.white2008@gmail.com
04/08/2008 at 12:43 A-ROD says:
Hey if anyone has a buddy key iv been dyin to trythis game out thx email me at pop-tarts12@hotmail.com
10/08/2008 at 04:12 Selene says:
Looking for a buddy key if anyone has an xtra they don’t want. selene_vas_drom@yahoo.com
Heard mixed reviews about the game so I want to try it out to see who is right. Thanks! (^.^)
10/08/2008 at 09:01 Ironhead says:
3 buddy requests left any takers
If so mail me @ jmcmatrixs@gmail.com to say why you want a code and i will email it you
11/08/2008 at 15:15 mugiwara says:
im lf a invite aswell please if any1 has send me a mail to lezan87@hotmail.com
24/08/2008 at 00:37 Haste says:
Hello, if anyone has any invites to spare, please send one my way. :D I’d love to give this game a spin, have been hearing a lot of love/hate reviews and very curious to experience the game firsthand. Thanks!
csdagger [at] gmail [dot] com
28/08/2008 at 22:46 Jouni Kärmälä says:
My buddy sent me an invite about 30hrs ago, he didn’t type wrong my email address so is it just slow? Haven’t got the msg yet
16/10/2008 at 14:41 DarK__Soo says:
Hi there does anyone have a spare buddy key for Age Of Conan i downloaded the game installed patched lol took long enought but really wanna try it
please email me at dark__solo@hotmail.com
05/01/2009 at 05:30 AvishaYs says:
avishay1004 @ wala.com
can anyone please send me a buddy card…
thanks alot to all the helpers =]
05/01/2009 at 05:30 AvishaYs says:
@walla*