Age of Conan - about buddy invites and things …

Ok I don’t really get it but I don’t think Funcom is doing a great job at the moment.

Since a few days the game is live and publicly available. Now … I would really like to try out the game as it looks promising, but I really want to experience this myself for a couple of days to be sure my investment is worth it.
They don’t have a trial version, I can understand that, no problem as they have a buddy invite program. I have few friends playing AoC and asked if they could share me a key. In the mean while I download the client (about 12GB!!). Now I just got word from my buddies: “Sorry mate, the server gives me this in reply:The buddy key program will open as soon as server capacity allows. Please check back later.
I immediatly hit the Funcom forums for some more info and all I read was complaints. Collectors edition that promisis 5 extra codes but are not included, Age of Conan experiences startup troubles, the game is not actually finished, … hmmm wonder why they did go live then!

Common Funcom, let’s be serious, for a company that announces it’s new mmorpg as worlds biggest beta program:

Durham, USA – May 13, 2008 – Funcom and Eidos are proud to confirm some of the impressive figures powering the Age of Conan launch, and the two companies are happy to reveal that the Age of Conan Beta has passed 1 million sign-ups! As one of the most anticipated MMO’s ever, the 1 million mark confirms the amazing interest in the game.

“Funcom has not been able to find any higher beta numbers for MMOs in the western world,” said Morten Larssen, VP of Funcom Sales and Marketing. “We believe it represents the largest ever beta sign-up figure in the history of the genre.”

Having the largest beta program and not being ready for the launch? C’mon. On top of this, if there’s no capacity for buddies (and probably potential players) why should I believe the servers will be ready to take on a payed account? Or do I have to pay now and wait a month before I can get in to?

I know, I’ve could’ve joined the beta program, but why join the beta program if you know you won’t have the time to contribute and bughunt (as that’s what the beta is for). And I tried to get into the early joiners program but had no luck at that.
Well … guess the only solution is buying the game. So let’s head of to the www.ageofconan.com site, click the ‘buy now’ button. Have to click the ‘buy from a retailer’ before I can continue (like wtf?, there’s no other possibility and in the mean while I have all sorts of music and speech mixed through each other aaaaarghhh) and then I look for an appropriate online store, as Belgium is not listed (!). So I guess it will be ‘internation’ and I choose the Funcom Online shop. Ok let’s see … Dreamfall, Dreamfall Limited edition … NO I want AoC … Anarchy online (wasn’t that made free btw?), The Longest Journey, The Longest Journey Soundtrack. What? There’s no AoC on there????

So my only option is going to the store (and it’s raining cats and dogs for the moment) and pay for media I don’t need just to be able to play a game, that’s not finished and that isn’t capable of taking extra accounts as the servers are not ready for it. I don’t even want to go into the pricing issue which ranges from 15€ to 40€ per month depending in what country you live!

You know what … I’ll stick to Eve Online, and maybe … just maybe I’ll try this procedure again in a few years from now.