Despite complaints about stores running out of copies, lots of extended downtimes and people having trouble playing together due to overcrowded servers?
 

If I remember well, LOTRO's launch was a lot better. AOC crashes, has disappearing npc's and group members (if people group at all), non-working spells etc. The list is pretty long ;).
 

I'm with morph on this one, LotRO was imho indeed better, but that wasn't hyped and therefor acknowledged as much as the AoC-launch.
 

Agreed with the above...LOTRO was stable as all get out...but had their share of issues which no one seems to discuss

1. Auction House exploit that needed a big patch...(and surprise...one STILL exists to this day. There is a way for people to cheat others out of big money...sad...also, last report has it that the Auction does not sort items properly when searching...lol)
2. Floating NPC's
3. The infamous load screen just to go into a shop...

And this is also based on an older engine they upgraded, and an overall boring game...

I wonder why the hype did not exist for this game either...maybe it had to do with the fact that the last two games Turbine worked on are utter failures (DDO and AC2)..and they did not want to get everyones hopes up?
Maybe?
 

I think this boast is a crock of crap. LoTro seems to have a way better launch, it amazes me how people get swept up in the flavor of the month MMO's
 

I played Anarchy Online at launch, at let me tell you - it was horrible. Like, not even playable.

To say Funcom learned their lesson is an understatement. AoC still has issues, but it's definitely been smoother for me than WoW's launch.
 

I am getting the feeling that AoC's launch is sort of like DAoC's: smooth technical launch, but it is just a shell of a game with a lot of unfinished features.

Also, the bug reports, crashes, and downtime are starting to flow in. Still, not near the disaster I had anticipated, but it's still early :)
 

I hate to give Turbine credit for anything but I don't remember the AC2 launch being bad at all. The open beta experience was pretty awful, and it's easy to forget where one ended and the other began because the beta was more popular than the retail game.

I remember having a great time in that game at launch, roaming around completing the quests, easily forming groups, PVPing a little. The crafting system worked; it just happened to be terrible. The city repair worked, except that no one bothered rebuilding anyplace but Cragstone.

If I remember right, the real complaint was exploiting and a lack of high level content. Well the people crying for high level content mere weeks after launch were of course wandering around aimlessly on Linvak Tukal because they were the ones exploiting, and some people hated losing the race so that exploiting which didn't involve them at all was a huge issue for them. I was still running around on Osteth and western Omishan then and was totally in love with the game.
 

Well after debating a full week after launch I cracked down and bought AoC on my lunch break today. The $50 wasn't as much of a concern as the wife nagging if I really needed another game. I waited a week because the initial reviews on the game seemed to be bleh. No one really loved the game. No one seemed to hate it. After waiting a week I'm reading a lot of good comments about the game. I just need something to fill the WotLK gap. Over the weekend I was leveling a priest(made it to lvl 58)...about to hit the outlands when I realized I already had four level 70's.

When I get home tonight I'm gonna play some AoC and hopefully I'll enjoy it more than LotRO, which I preordered during open beta so I could keep my character @ launch. Then I never played after launch.
 

@Hudson
This is real easy actually...
This has nothing to do with the flavor of the month...

Turbine tried to game the launch of LOTRO, and tried to directly compete with WoW..

Their major mistake..

By doing the "4 Millions characters created" news release, but not releasing real numbers hurt them, and continues to hurt them to this day..
No one knows how well LOTRO is doing except by word of mouth...thanks to their closed structure...being the "We do not have to share that data as we are a private company.." does not sit well with many people...
Everytime I have logged in...it feels empty...yet, so many say it is not...
I was in a guild of 50+ players...only 3 existed there now after a year...
Out of a friends list of 25 people...5 have logged in within the last 6 months...1 within the last month...

Funcom has stated from day one...they are not there to "compete" with WoW, but to compliment it with a different style of play...

This is were AoC will do better in my opinion...as LOTRO to this day still fails to compel many players to stick around...there is nothing really unique about the game...

A stable release does not go far when content is not up to par..
 

As someone playinjg a fair bit of Age of Conan and not really noticing problems with extended downtimes, unfinished features or overcrowded servers, I'd still have to say that the AoC launch has gone significantly less smoothly than the LotRO launch, even if one doesn't count the prelaunch period. I was around for the LotRO launch, and while I got bored with the game rather quickly, it did indeed launch with fewer issues and glitches than AoC. The AoC launch has been solid, but 'best ever' is just silly hyperbole. And hyperbole - in either direction - doesn't really serve any useful purpose, or do any good for anybody.