Darkfall vs. AoC website. $$

$$'s are precious in this world as we all know! So in efforts of making best use of funds, I'd like to know everyone's thoughts on converting our AoC website to a Darkfall website to save a bit of time and most of all some cash. Our AoC branch was teaming with players in it's hayday, even boasting 109 players on vent simultaneously on AoC's opening day. Sadly however, I think AoC has seen the last of those days of grandeur .

The hosting for the individual website space alone through guildportal is dirt cheap ( $5 per month, per website) But all the little extras that makes a website a website and separates the men from the boys adds up. Each website with all the bells and whistles runs around $35-$35+ per month depending on bandwith used. We've tried to combine the website into "one website to rule them all", but we've found it just doesn't flow nearly as well as our main MMO's having their own space.

So in efforts to relieve some of the cost burden of a 5th website (our SWTOR is still in development) - does anyone have any objections to the conversion of our AoC website to that of a Darkfall site?

Edit: Note* this is not a thread to sever the AoC branch, the forums will remain here and intact as always. (more on this in my post later in this thread)

I have no objections here at all... especially since it will save you time and money as well. Plus like you said AoC has seen the last of those days of grandeur. So I say move forward with it...

I am in agreement with Lorahand.

I have been meaning to snd $$ lol I guess I should get off my duff and donate.

And while I own AOC, I can't imagine playing it...

Burn it down..

Then again darkfall isn't for rayve and I either.. we don't usually play pure PVP games.. she gets annoyed.

no objections here, I'm all for saving booty )

I agree. Our AoC branch may have once been great but its days of glory are far past.

Well if I could get the template I could port this to my own domain as a sub-domain to keep the handful of us informed of changes. I would like to have a link somewhere for anyone is interested to play AoC. The other offer I can provide is to pay for the AoC site directly but still be part of the Hammerfist Clan of games. I do play Warhammer as well from time to time. My concern is that a few of us will be left out in the cold without a form of communication with others or with our brothers and systems of the Hammerfist Clan as a whole.

Xenatha

Xenatha wrote:Well if I could get the template I could port this to my own domain as a sub-domain to keep the handful of us informed of changes. I would like to have a link somewhere for anyone is interested to play AoC. The other offer I can provide is to pay for the AoC site directly but still be part of the Hammerfist Clan of games. I do play Warhammer as well from time to time. My concern is that a few of us will be left out in the cold without a form of communication with others or with our brothers and systems of the Hammerfist Clan as a whole.

Xenatha

That was kind of my concern as well. I don't play the game but I would hate to summarily disenfranchise members of HFC that still are. Until recently the LOTRO side of the house was looking a little shaky and I would have been mightily upset if a similar idea was broached.

My $.02 is to see what kind of arrangement you can come up with Xenatha and the members of the AoC group.

Iam thinking there might be a little misunderstanding...this is just how iam seeing it...I think the gateway site is all Brakk is talking about(correct me if iam wrong) not the forums.....this is just me but rarely do i even go to the WAR site my bookmark is straight to the forums...so Iam pretty sure that the intention is to keep HFC rocking in AOC..

Paranoia wrote:Iam thinking there might be a little misunderstanding...this is just how iam seeing it...I think the gateway site is all Brakk is talking about(correct me if iam wrong) not the forums.....this is just me but rarely do i even go to the WAR site my bookmark is straight to the forums...so Iam pretty sure that the intention is to keep HFC rocking in AOC..

Maybe yes and maybe no.

The forums, as Brakk said in a similar thread, the web sites are the big open end of the "funnel". The forums is where all the good stuff happens, but the web sites are sort of the store fronts that get folks interested in us and want to take it to the next step. (Btw, I just took a peek at the HFC home page. I love the new page. Brakk, you rock!) Without the front end it basically says to the rest of the gaming community that HFC has written off AoC. However, it cost money to have a decent page on guildportal with the custom stuff that Brakk is doing.

I understand his desire to economize, but I am not sure pulling the plug on the site is the right way of going about, thus this discussion. In the final analysis, he is probably footing the majority of the bill for the websites. He could easily say, "Look, I am not seeing where we are getting any value out of this" and just pull the plug on it. At least he is giving us a chance give him some feedback or possible alternatives.

I'll say it again: You Rock, Brakk!

Xenatha wrote:. My concern is that a few of us will be left out in the cold without a form of communication with others or with our brothers and systems of the Hammerfist Clan as a whole.

Xenatha

Paranoia is correct. It seems there is some misunderstanding. I did not intend it to read we'd do away with the branch,... merely the website which is not being used. (I edited my original post to hopefully lessen the chance of further misunderstandings, I'll admit after reading it later it could have been taken either way, sorry for the scare.) The forum section here would remain as always. But the actual website listed here: http://www.guildportal.com/Guild.aspx?GuildID=198708&TabID=1677913 would be converted to Darkfall. The AoC icon on our gateway page at http://www.hammerfistclan.com would then direct link here to our forums rather than the website. It's currently $28 per month, and for the most part it's not being utilized efficiently in my opinion. It also has ads on it currently as we've received no donations from our AoC branch for upkeep in quite some time, and allowing the ads minimizes some of the unneeded costs. Sorry if there was some confusion, AoC will remain alive and as well as it's leadership allows.

It's been 5 months since we've seen an AoC application come through here, 20 AoC posts in the same time, I was trying to draw some conclusions from that. I'm glad to see however there is still some interest in our AoC brothers and sisters. I do wish you all wouldn't be so shy and come visit with the rest of us once in awhile

A lack of activity from group means one of two things: the group is just about dead or they are so busy playing the game that they don't have time to do so. Personally, I hopping for the latter rather than the former. Even so, if you look at the boards you'll see that the majority of the posters are officers of one game group or the other. There are a few big mouth individuals, such as myself, who are not of that demographic but still feel compelled to chuck in their $.02 or a regular basis.

They are more the exception than the norm, which only means I am exceptional! But then we already knew that. (At least, I did. Whoa! Who shrunk the door? I can't get my head through it now. I could when I came in here.)

All:

Thank you Brakk for the update. I have no problem with your approach as edited. A few of us have been Raiding and now have several lv 80's and working on new ones. Although it is only a handfull, but soon there may be more applications when the servers are merged. Yes they are going to bring down all the PvE servers into two. We will be merging with the Set server. *mumbles something about darn snake lovers .... I will update our Message of the day with the new link. The appliction forum please leave open if possible because after the merge we may have some additional interest.

Thank you for your consideration;

Xenatha

AoC/Warhammer