f13.net

http://www.darkdaysarecoming.com/

Eeeeeenteresting. Discuss.

This is going to bother me now. What do you do with the images!?

Freaky. I'm working on the Vitruvian Man puzzle now.

Edit: Vitruvian, not Vesuvian. I r dum.

I did it!   :lol:

What goes where and rotated where?

Or to save anyone some work...

http://www.darkdemonscrygaia.com/fallenearth/index.php (http://www.darkdemonscrygaia.com/fallenearth/index.php)

That website has Majestic written all over it..

I can't wait to get a pre-recorded phone call from an NPC at 3am.

I finally got the whole site unlocked. Pretty neat promo. Now let's see what showstopping bugs Funcom introduces...  :hello_kitty:

As long as they don't stab me in the face with the bits of my computer they break again, I'll feel blessed.

I'm hoping it's the follow-up to Dreamfall.

Posted a little while ago on the forums:

 Mm! Press!  (http://www.funcom.com/wsp/funcom/frontend.cgi?session=qratlyfsfjqqg3kbybctedbq6ssz3n&func=publish.show&func_id=1204&table=CONTENT&item=1004)

Funcom revealed the game in an exclusive article in the Norwegian newspaper VG (http://www.vg.no/pub/vgart.hbs?artid=196307), and for those of you who can't read Norwegian, here's a translated summary of the article, copied from a forum post at the official forums (http://www.darkdemonscrygaia.com):
Guess this thread can be moved to the MMOG section now =P

EDIT: Concept art (http://www1.vg.no/bildespesial/show/spesial.php?id=5346&o=0&katId=41)

Sounds like something I would give a shot, assuming that it works when I try to play it (beta, release, etc).

I think the first real test of this game will actually be Conan - both are going to be PC/360 games, and with Conan we will see if Funcom can actually release a game that works.

What the hell is this ?

Ironwood Head Hurt.

Modern conspiracy new-age-mysticism horror action-rpg MMO.

At least it doesn't have elves. I'd beta it.

This thread was in the other forum to make it seem fun :(

Rasix figured out my game. :(

Yes, I did.  Sorry, it's best you come to grips with this now.

Heh, in the 11th concept art page is a bar call the 'Magicians Knob'.   In terms of level design, will the Magicians Knob be polished? .... Get it? ... ha ha.

Project looks very interesting.

This? This has potential. Lots of potential.

Hire the guys who did Unknown Armies and fucking ROLL guys!

I am, of course, in.

Sanity loss would rock too...

I'm not sure any of us can afford to lose any sanity.

The man has a point. None the less I'm intrigued.

Sounds kind of like FunCom's attempt at a World of Darkness to me, but more info would be appreciated.

FunCom vs CCP in a euro battle royale for first horror/contemporary game to hit the market and then fail miserably!

You don't miss the sanity once it's gone.

I'll play any game with shiny knobs!

Cause they contain brains? Which you hunger for?

At least Funcom are only incompetent, instead of corrupt.

Actually funcom has been doing pretty well for several years. Hard to live down that launch, but they really bounced back and AO was very well handled after the first six months.

For those still interested who may not have got the email today:


which took me to this now deleted picture (it was flash) and text:
(http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/254/untitled2np1.jpg)


Here's a closer look at the pic:

(http://farm1.static.flickr.com/223/494210484_a5a97624a9.jpg)

 Discussion in progress  (http://www.darkdemonscrygaia.com/showthread.php?t=231)

I think Funcom may have something here. I appreciate this kind of "lore" more than words on the screen written by an intern or b-string fantasy writer. Hm, I suppose those two professions are the same thing really...

World of Darkness... isn't very dark.  It's usually neither scary nor disturbing.  I like the setting for what it is, but it's not Cthulhu.  It's not even Silent Hill.  Hopefully FunCom is aspiring to something like that rather than an attempt at doing something like WoD.

I'm telling you, Unknown Armies. This is Unknown Armies. Look it up.

Hm.

That's purty damn cool...

I sincerely hope you're correct, and these early concepts certainly give off a much darker vibe. But once you're in a world with people shouting "SO HOW DOES I LEVELED UP? LOL **** UR MOM SHE LEVELED MY COCK LAST NIGHT ROFL ", does all the darkness become merely cosmetic? Because I personally feel that WoD has some cosmetic darkness, just no dark substance.

looks more than just a bit Lovecraftian to me.

(http://img216.imageshack.us/img216/986/thesecretworldrevealed2uk9.jpg)

Oh hey, it's London.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neverwhere

I don't know how to explain how giddy I am at the prospect of a modern horror MMORPG. It'll be insanely hard to pull off. But it's something that I honestly want MORE than a Pots-Apoc MMORPG.

Yeah, the prospect of gunning down unspeakable horrors in an abandoned London underground station with two 45's a trench coat and a fedora would get me to at least buy the box and try the first month.

This. Especially if they can manage to make it more than instance upon instance of "Kill the level 36 Illuminati! Now kill the level 37 Illuminati! OH NOES LEVEL 38 ILLUMINATI!"

Regardless, I love the way they're handling the introduction and setting.

i cant get passed the vitruvian man :(

Got past it.  Sneaky bastards.

Anyway.  This is probably the most interesting looking MMO to me in a long time.  Can't wait to see more info come about.

I think one of the best parts about this whole conspiracy solving part is that Funcom is REALLY watching what they uncover on the forums. If someone gets ahead of themselves they silence them with messages like "This person doesn't know what they talk about. THIS IS NOT A CONSPIRACY!" Keeps people thinking.

If they prove they can release a game that works (AoC) then Funcom would seem to be the company to design a game with a good setting like this.  AO had a metric fuckton of lore and it was a pretty cool and varied world.  The gameplay let the lore down which is almost never the case.

I've got enough vapor-hype to get high off of right now between AoC, HG:L and WAR so you'll forgive me not even bothering to click the links in this thread...

You really should click them and stop being such a huge douche. You've really been oozing some douchery lately.

I think it's different cities depending on where you log in from.

I've only seen New York.

Yah, and the beauty of some of it you don't know who is a dev or player.  I read some of it and my mind is completely blown:  I'm thinking, no way they went that deep with the lore.  Did they?


Went back to the original site today to play around with the opening puzzle.  Here's a pic of NY, guessing it's after everything bad happens.

(http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/aa251/snakecharmer_04/ddac.jpg)

Evidently, the one pic up there is NYC, London and Singapore smushed together.

http://darkdaysrcoming.blogspot.com/

Crib notes for the lazy among us.

Pretty fucking cool imo.

Sorry, it's Shanghai, not Singapore.  Thanks for the blog site.  I think it's sort of cool, too.  It's a fun and clever way to introduce a game.  I'm having a good time reading people's theories.

I dunno, I'm sure it would be a nice book. Or a single player game. Or a game base on a fourm. But a MMOG with other human beings playing it?

A MMOG where you have to go to a spolier site to access the FOURM and them to gain hype they DELETE the contents of posts from developers? And how long do you think the'd be able to the keep the...content up for.

Still, it looks like a post-apocolytpic game, so perhaps it will be the Fallout MMOG instead. 

I meant pretty cool @ the work they went through for this beginning phase.

As for the game? I take the same stance I usually take "let me see it".

My MMO stance these days is, "it's crap until they pay me to say otherwise."  But I like the package so far.

I wouldn't call what has transpired so far "hype".

Hype to mde is what Smed or McQuaid did with Vanguard/SWG/EQ2. Hype is all the shit Blizzard threw out before BC, hype is a lot of stuff.

This... is different. This is making people work toward something that could be really interesting, to say the least. That said, of course they're gonna make you jump through hoops to keep you interested, especially when probably all they've got to show at this point is concepts.

If this is waht you want to term hype, I'll take it over any of the chest-thumping, "my game is good because I say so" bullshit that's been passing for hype for the past couple of years.

According to their press release, the game is in a playable state.  Vague statement, I know, but it leads to believe they're past the concept stage. 

Some concrete info on this game would be awesome.

Indeed, and I'll believe that when I see it. That said, so far, all we've seen is concept art and these fleeting glimpses at what could be a killer story.

Will the MMOtards fuck up your immersion of it with, "ZOMG HOW DO I SOLV MISTREE????" Sure as fuck they will, but I still like where it's going from here.

If the release date is Dec 12, 2012, I think I'll cry.  Or any day in December 2012.

On the flipside, if the release date is 2012, it might not suck.

That 5ish year development period for certainly Vanguard certainly did wonders. 

But damn.  2012.  I'll be 39 years old and likely not care :(  Or have forgotten.  Not sure if it's the 5 year development that makes me a sad panda or the realization I'll about to be dinging level 40.

Edit #1:  The realization of my own mortality. Again.
Edit #2:  Correct word placement is hard.

Doubtful it'll be 2012.

That's most likely part of the lore, considering 12/20/2012 is the end of the Third Age according to the Mayan calendar.

Those pesky pre-columbians...

This was good fun!   :-)


Someone made a wiki.  (http://www.wikitsw.com/index.php?title=Main_Page)

Actually after reading that post, I now what to play the game on the side of the forces of evil. Why vote for the lesser evil etc.

Perhaps the PvP will be who can hack the enemies messageboard first, and the winner is the person who can delete the most posts of the other side.

And already the fanboys are trying to change the game...

A petition is floating around on the forums to change the name of the game from The Secret World to "Cry Gaia", "because 'The Secret World' doesn't sound cool enough"

Seriously, kids let the developers call it what they want. And hell, if you're gonna change the name to anything, change it to Dark Conspiracy (http://darkconspiracytherpg.info/page.php?title=What_is_DC) Online because that's pretty much what it looks like it's shaping up to be. And hey, I'm cool with that 'cause DC was one of my favorite PnP games.

I know it's silly, and I haven't played Dreamfall (of course played TLJ), but I kinda idolize Ragnar at this point.

Plus, his name is Ragnar.

Things like this are really fun. A game before the game. People have already come up with terms like "false prophet" for this metagame for people like me... I posted some anagrams on an account to mess with people. They furiously figured them out and got strung along for a couple hours until they realized that I was definitely a false prophet. ;)

No I didn't.

That's just mean. 
Funny. 
But mean.

Thank God for the wikis and blogs, otherwise I'd be lost.

Ha!  Blackguard is a Red Herring!  Anyway, I didn't post on the official forum or anything but I very much enjoyed sussing most of it out and reading all the different theories people posted.  I even learned stuff!  I hadn't figured it all out before it was cracked, but I was ready for the answers.  One of the things I found nice was that it wasn't too, too hard or too, too long and it made sense at the end.  Everyone seemed to have a great time, too.

Actually, it seems to be a furious mix of pretty much every modern-setting conspiracy or horror PnP RPG known to man: Unknown Armies, Conspiracy X, Dark Conspiracy, Delta Green... Which isn't surprising seeing as how they all pretty much draw on similar bodies of pop-fiction and pseudohistory. Particularly Lovecraft, Leigh & Baigent, and Shea & Anton Wilson.

The game poster reminds me strongly of Eternal Darkness for the Gamecube, which is not at all a bad thing.

Bingo. And if it has one or two of the occasional, "oh shit" moments that or Dark Corners of the Earth had, my tiny little mythos heart will grow three sizes in delight...  :evil:

This is promising:


Found here, at Ragnar Tornquist's blog. (http://www.ragnartornquist.com/)

Looked up some art assets from Dreamfall, and to I'm impressed for something 7 years old would be an understatement.  Great looking visuals and art style.

I wonder if they're using middleware for the engine or if it's homegrown?

Uh, Dreamfall came out about a year ago. Really, the one thing that worries me is that the damn thing felt so unfinished along two of the storylines, and especially the ending of the whole thing. Pretty polished, technically, for a Funcom project. I don't recall any major showstopping bugs.

Ah nevermind.

I read here (http://goty.gamespy.com/2006/pc/index4.html) "Dreamfall: The Longest Journey is Ragnar Tornquist's long-awaited follow-up to The Longest Journey, GameSpy's Adventure Game of the Year for 2000" and just kinda stopped.

Reading comprehension.  It's a bitch sometimes.

I think I could have listened to Zoe talk for hours in that game.

/necroleghumpage

Like AoC, the game will be playable on the 360, and mentions the PS3 as well.

See here (http://www.crygaia.com/portal/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=35&Itemid=1).

In keeping up with my obsession with this game, I found this (http://www.crygaia.com/portal/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=40&Itemid=1) over at a fansite.  Quite impressive for something playermade.  Sounds like Dan LeFountaine, but not quite sure.  I guess they just did a shitload of audiosampling of his voice?

Who is Dan LeFountaine?

Isn't he the lounge singer on the Holodeck?

The movie voice over guy.

"In a world where nobody knew who Dan LeFountaine was...."

Its crazy how I can hear him saying that exactly as it would sound :)

For those that have not been following over at www.darkdemonscrygaia.com:

Over this past weekend, and thru tomorrow, Funcom has hosted Dreamhack over on Norway.  The clock that appears at http://www.darkdaysarecoming.com/ will hit the date 2012:12:21:00:000 (in that format as it appears at that site) at 11:39 hrs GMT June 18, 2007.  That date (2012:12:21:00:000) is supposed to be the end of the world according to the Mayan calender, as well as the date in 1928 that explorer Roald Amundsen disappeared or died (and not found).

An announcement of some sorts is expected (or something as mild as a change in the website) at that time.

Stay tuned!

Is that Mayan thing true?  Maybe I should stop contributing to my retirement savings and pick up a cocaine habit instead.

And...nothing happened  :heartbreak:

I am very disappointed.   :?

Oh, Funcom.

I am too.  Was really looking forward to some more news.

The next dates/times of significance people are looking towards are:
June 18, 2007 @ 19:28 hrs - For the year that Roald Amundsen disappeared or died
June 22, 2007 @ (unknown time) - The timer reaches another significant point for the Summer Solstace.  A connection has been made, but I'm not sure what.

I'll keep an eye out.  I really did think the initial event was good fun.

Yeah it was.

Ah well.  Back to waiting mode :shakefist:

RISE FROM THE DEAD!!! I COMMAND THEE!!!!

Producer/director/write/lead whatever of The Secret World is giving presentation to FunCom in a few days (http://ragnartornquist.com/?p=437).

:cthulu:

Because I want this game to be teh awesome, it will suck.  Do not get your hopes up.  You have been warned.

Yep, TSW interests me a lot more than AoC or WAR, but there will be plenty of time between releases to assess them individually. Especially since TSW is currently a great concept with not a lot of detail about how that concept will be implemented.

Interesting fun.  I'm not sure how I missed all of this.  I must of been napping.  Interesting game.  I'm just to lazy to go get into the conspiracy.

Yeah really not much to hear about this the past few months outside of the Ragnar blog quoted above. With him stating that there will be nothing officially released until post AoC launch I doubt we'll hear anything big on this till probably late spring early summer. That, of course, is assuming AoC hits it's March release date.

This setting seems right up Funcom's alley though. It's niche enough for them to have a lot of freedom creativity wise, yet I think that it will generate enough interest (at least initially) to turn a few heads in the MMO scene should the architecture be sound. FC has proven they have no problems developing mature, gritty content and to do a modern horror / cyberpunk settting properly, it needs to have grit.

Definitely on my radar.

It's definitely in the "keep an eye on" catagory, along with the WoD MMO, as I yearn for something outside of the usual Elves & Orcs, or Mining in Spaaaaaace thing.

However, despite their single player games, they've got one MMO under their belt.  And while they did turn AO around from a shitacular launch, they really didn't seem to do much with it, other than flail around haphazardly as far as expansions go.  So, I'm mostly curious how the AoC launch goes, as well as post launch.

tl;dr

What is this? I skimmed and saw something about a conspiracy?

This game lost me with the picture of the hawt chick with a katana. Cthulhu my arse.  The only way this fits the mythos is if he girl has utterly failed her SAN check and now believes herself to be invincible and her player has already resigned himself to the fact that Cthulhu will eat her in the next turn.

It is shaping up, however,  to have heavy doses of adventure gaming/puzzles which i like, but as far as being Lovecraftian it's missing the mark already.

Good.
Lovecraftian = failure when it comes to MMO's.

Funcom is at least trying their own IP & considering AO had a much more interesting world then most other AAA titles I'm looking forward to what they come up with.  This is super true because it seems like their are no elves.  By all means include some elements of cosmic horror, but if that's your only plan as a gameworld designer?  Your plan sucks.

Protip:  Games that really on atmosphere and surprise aren't going to make good mmo's.  Other players will quickly ruin those things for you.


P.S.  +5 points for pissing off DarkSign.  wtg Funcom

They arent creating their own IP....they're bolloxing up the Cthulhu mythos. Sure it's not technically Lovecraftian, but that's where the whole idea came from. So yeah, if they're going to do Cthulhu stuff there are certain things you cant mess around with. That would be like doing some comic that has a character that's a rip-off of Batman then putting Disney characters in it. OMG it's new IP! Barf. Internal consistency wins. You fail.

btw, not really pissed off, just disappointed.

Hoax is right though, you can't do Lovecraft/Cthulhu in an MMO.

Here's a quick reason why...

OOC: H4RKN355: "Where do I find Shub Niggurath?"
OOC: Yithkicker: "Lern 2 summon, nooblar!"

*shudder*

Some sort of 'event' is supposed to happen today, about 4 and half hours from now...No idea what.  Follow it here (http://www.crygaia.com/index.php).

Nah, this is about the 3rd or 4th time the early fanbase has come to the conclusion that at x day and x time Funcom is SURE to have some sort of super special event, they just HAVE to. This is also the 3rd or 4th time that they got kicked in the balls.

The thing that disturbs me the most so far is that this early fanbase well, they just freak me the fuck out. Maybe it's their knack for over analyzing things to the point of bold faced retardery, or the fact that they have this huge list of assumptions based on zero evidence.

Okay, yeah that's like the internet in a nutshell I know, but these cats take it to extremes. Really disturbing extremes.

Why they would they want to do Lovecraft/Cthulhu or even mimic it? Funcom writes original stories well.

Whatever was at that link has gone poof about.

It was just two fansites combining, not an official event. The result is at http://www.crygaia.com

'Lost' fans.

Fixed

sorry, you didn't fix it. You seem to WANT a Cthulhu/Lovecraft thing, despite the fact that it will fail horribly and may leave an honest fan of the mythos drooling on himself like he just had a serious run-in with a Great Old One.

I never said I wanted one. I explained why the picture is evidence of how they're doing it wrong - which is what was attributed to Hoax (although for those that need help, I did it specificially, he extrapolated to MMOs in general). You guys fail at subtlety.

...  If only I had noticed that was subtlety...    :oh_i_see:

Perhaps your posts would be better?

Here's a tip, I'm not sure where your used to unleashing your mad communication skillz, but I'm more then capable of going back and rereading your last 4 posts.  Nobody misunderstood what you were saying but you.  When you tried to pretend you weren't an ass.  But you are.  Thanks for playing though.  Perhaps you should go pass the bar in state #18 or something instead of posting on an internet forum, the latter seems to be too complicated for you to handle.

remember everyone, we're all just secretly ganging up on DarkSign because his towering intellect is so threatening *giggle*

Ahem, barista, sir, over here!

Could you please fetch both of these gentlemen a steaming glass of Shut the Fuck Up?  It's on me.

sips from cup....mmmmmm. that's good.

It's a game that has attracted the conspiracy theory nuts. My favourite was some guy who ranted on for pages and pages about a centuries old conspiracy that created a One World King. And that he had the gift of prophecy. I lost sanity points in reading it, I swear.

As for what the game is actually going to be about: let's let Funcom actually release some real info on it, rather than go, "They aren't hugging Lovecraft the way I think it should be hugged." There might be some Lovecraftian elements, but there is a lot of paganism and other X-Files-esque material they appear to be tapping into. It's currently something that seems a bit different, so we'll see where Funcom takes this.

Funcom released their yearly Christmas card, and it's TSW themed..

(http://www.crygaia.com/cgn/images/christmas/funcomcgnchristmas.jpg)

They're already picking it apart like vultures on the forums. I posted it simply because it's got that classy touch.


Btw, Merry Christmas you jokers.

I presume that is meant to be interpreted as a blindingly original class list?

L-R

Assassin
Mage
Pet guy
Cleric
DPS Melee
Avoidance Tank?
Resistance Tank?

I can see the design document already.

I could be wrong, but I think that's "Pet Girl"

That 'pet girl' looks like a ripoff of the chubber from Marvel's Runaways. She might as well have a raptor with a nose ring.

Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiise?

Or den and make a new one?

Anyway, new video posted (http://uk.youtube.com/user/AFriend20121221).  Bit of viral marketing after more than a year of silence from Funcom on the game; no gameplay however.

Kinda spooky!

Well, that was kind of creepy.  And it made my black pussy scratch and bite at the screen!

Who writes this crap?

Edit: Also, they might as well have just had Ringu (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGj6yW-_wuc&feature=related) tape. The vibe they aimed for but failed so hard. NINE THOUSAND (over!).

A thousand monkeys at a thousand typewriters?

I don't think so. The thousand monkeys theory says what came out would've been Shakespeare. What they posted? One monkey, on an etch a sketch.

I couldn't hear any words except "Rachel".  It WAS Rachel, right?  It makes me want to play a horror survival game or something.  Of course, I never finish those because I get too crreeped out.  I keep trying, though.

What the fuck was that video? What was the point? Schild is right, they should have just played the Ringu video tape, FFS. Fail.

It looks like the ARG* aspect of TSW are kicking in again (somewhat): forum thread run by the same character who posted the video (http://www.darkdemonscrygaia.com/showthread.php?t=2089).

*Alternate Reality Game. Roleplaying through multimedia over a larger scale. The main rule: this is not a game.

Heh, I think everyone here knows what an ARG is and wishes that Majestic had succeeded. If they don't they're communists.

ZOMG! the video amused Schild's weaboo sensibilities! Fail!  :drill:

All kidding aside, that WAS pretty lame. White noise and semi-scary voices? Come on.

And yeah, though I knew it was doomed to fail from go, Majestic could have been made of win if you were game for it.

Is a socialist close enough? :awesome_for_real:

Actually, an infinite number of monkeys at typewriters gives you Shakespeare. So about a thousand for this sounds about right.

Video was a fan thing (i.e. not Funcom).

Move along, nothing to see here.

HAH, IT WAS ONE MONKEY AT A TYPEWRITER.

The infinite monkeys give you Shakespear.  They also give you an infinite amount of other works of varying qualities.  Most of which are complete dreck.

So, class based, or skill? Taking bets.

Class.

Skills are hard.

Brainchild*

What's incredibly sad is that it was the most exciting thing to happen to TSW for a long, long time.

Given the problems that AoC has had, I don't think we'll see any news for TSW for a long time, and I have doubts if the game will ever see the light of day.

And that's too bad really.  I am/was really looking forward to something different.

Yeah, the big indicator was that no one from Funcom shut down this guys gig. I think they've just left the volunteers to deal with those forums.

There was one forum mod on TSW, but they seem to have gone pretty quiet since AoC launched.

Well, assuming they are still working on the thing.

Keeping people hyped for something for 2-3 years is HARD. I don't know why companys announce games--especially MMOS--so far in advance.

But yeah it's been close to a year sence they announced this. You would think they would throw some concept art or a screen shot up every couple months atleast. Hell E3 was last week, one could reasonably SOMETHING would be shown there.

Only more reason to speculate that TSW is going the way of Midgard.

I think TSW is still going because it is Tornquist's pet project. It was just launched way, way too soon. The whole ARG thing is a great idea for this genre leading into release, but isn't something that works in a stop / start way or "here's clue one - you'll get the next clue in 18 months".

In theory, Tornquist + team has the game in an alpha state. However, given the condition in which Funcom goes gold, alpha may just involve fingerpainting and shadow puppets.

They've still got one forum mod, which is all they need given the traffic (or lack thereof) and the community they've got so far.  Everyone else moved over to AoC when it launched.  If nothing is mentioned about it in their investors presentation for Q2, it should be pretty clear TSW's fate.  Conversely, as of the end of June, Tornquist posted in his blog that FunCom was looking for animators, artists, writers, designers, programmers, sound designers, associate producers, etc.  So basically, it sounds like a running prototype may be up, but that's about it.  Official listing is here (http://www.funcom.com/wsp/funcom/frontend.cgi?&func=publish.show&template=job_listing&func_id=1014&table=PUBLISH&item=1005).

Given the nature of the posts their looking to fill, I'd say we're are looking at 2011-12 for release.

But I thought Tornquist had a team on this - he's done internal presentations on it and has talked about it being 'close' to public release of info.

Which could all be hot air, I know.

That's what I thought as well.  Supposedly, as of a year ago, 40+ people were working on TSW - that it was in a playable state.  Which could have been the aforementioned hand and shadow puppets someone brought up.  Anyway, then something came out about how that entire team was shifted over to AoC.  They may STILL be on AoC, who knows. 

First pictures of TSW released in Funcom's Q2 report. (http://www.darkdemonscrygaia.com/showthread.php?t=2138)

So: Zombies. Discuss.

Also: TSW will be a "MMO gaming combined with Alternate Reality Gaming and social networking". An MMOARSNG, to coin an acronym.

It's using the same engine that was responsible for AoC.

Obvious city.

Majestic with MMO trappings? Yes please.

Funcom. Do we really want to give them the benefit of the doubt twice?

Heh, fair point.

I'll give them the benefit of the doubt that they can at least put out a product that's entertaining enough in the short term to justify a purchase.

Ok, yes, that's true.

I'm not sure I want to play any more Funcom games.  But zombies are very tempting.  I wish it were going to be like HGL.  Only good.

Bump mapped inverse road crossings. Great artistic choice.

Crosswalks that you can trip over were one of the early, failed anti-zombie measures.

It's nice to see someone is listening, and combining the social dynamics with cutting edge AAA gameplay. Although i hope they aren't developing it for PC, it’s a waste of time and money.

PC and Xbox360.

Just like Age of Conan. :oh_i_see:

Eh like any funcom product buy it 6 months after release and it will probably be a fun game. AOC had some good things to it but it was just no where near finished and fleshed out.

Did Anarchy Online ever turn into a "fun" thing?

And maybe it's just me, but that second pic is less 'scary', and more 'saddest zombie in Hooterville bemoans quality of only local all-night diner'.

I know people who think it (AO) turned into a fun thing. After being there at release, I canceled after six or eight weeks and never looked back.

The biggest tragedy in all this is that if Funcom hadn't decided to start shitting all over the MMO market, they could still be making great adventure games.

Funcom will do better if they finally learn that MMOGs are at least to some extent a service industry. Right now their model is "publish and we're basically done, fuck the idiots who complain afterwards". Judging from AO, eventually many moons later, the publishers move on and let a live management team do some work.

These two ideas are related. Funcom apparently thinks their publishing model for adventure games works for MMOs.

They are so, so wrong.

My issue with TSW having an ARG component is that I don't live in the time zone of either the developers or their target market. I really don't want SMSs at 2am on a Friday morning I have to respond to quickly, nor do I want to read how awesome the planned events were across the US were because I'll never get to go. If the ARG is a core part of the gameplay it'll make it hard for me to get involved.

Necro.

TSW to be revealed at this years GDC (http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/the-secret-world-to-be-revealed-at-gdc).

I just read the first page of this thread. You were all so happy and unassuming back then...

Two years has caused us to become jaded and cynical.

It's been too long and Funcom started out with some ARG stuff that made people think announcements were just around the corner. Also: AoC happened. I wonder if Funcom actually has the cash reserves to get this title 1) released and 2) polished so that people forget about AoC's launch.

Never doubt Funcom (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-rl3RPC_Mw)

That makes me smile every time I watch it. :)

I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest this game will be good. I don't know why exactly I think this, but I have much more confidence in it than AoC (which isn't hard, seeing how I had none in AoC...).

And dark days have actually come.

The best thing about this game is going to be the Dark Days website discovery game.

"revealing his vision for the game"    :roflcopter:


edit:  reality (http://uk.finance.yahoo.com/q?s=FUNCOM.OL)

Key Statistics
52 Week Change (1 yr):   -88.60%
Div Yield:   N/A
Div Payment:   N/A
Ex-Dividend Date:   N/A
Analysts
EPS Est (next year) :   1.49
Revenue (next year) :   422.50M
Net Debt (next year) :   -286.10M
Avg Rec (current)* :   1.92.02.02.0

Much the same boat as I am Lam. Big hopes are tacked to Ragnar far more than Funcom.

Although they may want to keep their lead designer in the loop on their announcements...

http://twitter.com/RagnarTornquist/statuses/1306642167

The whole mystery deal was the most awesome introduction an MMO could want. Sadly as the months ticked by and the entire development team getting re-tasked kinda killed my spirit. Ragnar did say somewhere the game was in a "playable alpha" 2+ years ago.

 It was also said the game intended to target Asian audiences which dampens my excitement.

Is there any hope in this, on paper this might be good, the screenshots even if its from an Alpha are pretty awful tho.

Were you hit on the head recently? Did the latter statement not clue you in to the answer to your question?


Abandon all hope ye who enter.

I, as a representative of F13, have decided to wade into the great untamed wilds of the early adopter forums for this game. Should I not make it back, remember that I will always love you.

Cue Whitney.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGC003Xz3CY


Thread can be followed here.
http://www.darkdemonscrygaia.com/showthread.php?t=2599&page=7

FALWELL, GET ON STEAM, WE MUST DISCUSS BATTLEFORGE.

I visit those forums from time to time - it's full of players who have been going months with no updates at all. It's the forum equivalent of in-breeding.

We'll see what happens when some more solid info comes out. Some of the established forum base won't like it and leave, but the place needs new blood (as does any unreleased title that goes months and months with no updates but has an official forums).

It's early days on that thread yet, but your Funcom cynicism (didn't quite count as bashing) hasn't prompted the sort of furious backlash one might have expected.

Hmm. Ragnar Tørnquist on twitter (http://twitter.com/RagnarTornquist):

He also wrote that.

So uhhhhh.

That's from a song by Glen Hansard, called "Falling Slowly".  

Probably not the best stuff to put on a twitter to give the 'hur hur hur failcom boat sinking hur hur hur' people something to chew on.

Sounds like he's making Cat Herders (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SmgLtg1Izw) into a game.

Update:

This (http://www.darkdemonscrygaia.com/showthread.php?t=2662) thread appeared over the weekend with a video (http://vimeo.com/4000825).  Which lead to this (http://www.sanctuaryofsecrets.com/) website.

Cool stuff.

It's been really fascinating to follow this thread (http://www.darkdemonscrygaia.com/showthread.php?t=2662) as people have dug into these puzzles.

Fun quote from said thread:
heh

This viral stuff is incredibly cool, and done very well.

Solution to the puzzle below.

Cool campaign they are doing there.  Fun stuff.

Other solution:

Some rumblings that this stuff may be for beta keys in the future so maybe worth just filling it out just in case if such things interest folks.

I was #203 or something.

Yep

#218 (did it about 9.5 hours ago).

334, this site is not getting many visitors.

Edit: Oh hey, what is probably a beta code given the number of digits in a nearly illegible font. Weeeee. Despite Age of Conan's fuckery, this is probably on the list of most looked forward to mmogs for me.

FunCom has proven they can market, still waiting for them to prove they can launch something resembling an MMO.

I am 333. Beat Schild by one, heh!

Wouldn't it be fun if the beta threshold was half the number of the beast?

308?

why would anyone want to beta test for Funcom

They ignored pretty much every single bit of feedback in the Age of Conan beta

Because after losing half a milllion subs in AoC and firing the chap in charge, they now appear to have started listening.
Could be wrong, but hey, if shit happens you can always sell the beta acc.

Info push is starting:

No classes.  No levels.  High amounts of player customization.

Cool cinematic (although no gameplay).  Links here (http://www.darkdemonscrygaia.com/showthread.php?t=2714) for images and trailer.

Debut Cinematic Trailer HD (http://www.gametrailers.com/player/47571.html)

Ragnar Tornquist Interview HD (http://www.gametrailers.com/player/47696.html)

massively.com impressions from GDC09 (http://www.massively.com/2009/04/07/gdc09-the-veil-lifts-on-the-secret-world)

Interview with Ragnar Tørnquist, Part I (http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/404/view/videos/play/1406/Interview-with-Ragnar-T%C3%B8rnquist-Part-I.html)  (MMORPG.COM)

Interview with Ragnar Tørnquist, Part II (http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/404/view/videos/play/1407/Interview-with-Ragnar-T%C3%B8rnquist-Part-II.html) (MMORPG.COM)

god

yes

I've been waiting YEARS (YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARS) for even a bad MMOG to take place in an alternate real world. Something fucking modern. God yes. That trailer made me ten kinds of moist. Even if it was a cinematic. I like the cut of Ragnar's jib, even if he's crazy and slapped Zoey's shirt on an asian.

This looks seriously sweet at first glance but its Funcom and they burned me on AO and I let them burn me again on AoC. Third time's a charm?

Interviews contain too much "I can't talk about that yet" and no timeline for beta or launch.

Fuckers.

All right, I'm in.  #462

A modern sci-fi horror MMO?  Yes please.

More promising than SWTOR, which in the course of just over 2 years announced They were making a studio, they were hiring people, they have a game, it's all storyline based, and it'll be out in a jiffy! Also, I don't know if Ragnar Torquist has ever been this involved with an MMOG. I don't think so, and his presence alone means the world will at the VERY least be worth exploring. I like the whole, NY, London, Seoul thing. Seoul is going to be fucking packed with weaboos though.

I can't wait until I have to sit and watch all of that.

Designer of games such as The Longest Journey and Casper, and writer of Anarchy Online. (http://ragnartornquist.com/)

I know what he's done. And I've never heard anyone complain about the writing (given its age) in Anarchy Online. In short, I knew the answer to my comment.

It was posted for everyone, not for you!  :raspberry:

I'm sure it will be worth exploring.  I'm seriously interested in this MMG, no doubt about that.  I loved TLJ and Dreamfall, and to a very large extent loved the lore behind AO.

But the "Here's some stuff!  Not too much, though, because we have more stuff coming out in autumn (maybe!)!  And we can't talk about 99 percent of what you want to know and we aren't telling you when the beta starts much less a target business quarter for launch!" shithypetrain should have never left the station.

This is all very minimal for a hypetrain. I'm not sure what crawled up your ass about it, but I wouldn't even call this a hype train. I would just call it placating the people that were hounding for some - ANY - information. SWTOR is a hypetrain. This is more like... a hype paddleboat.

So it's like, SWG cantinas in the World of World of Warcraft? :oh_i_see:

 :roll:

They should drop The Secret World as a name. Dark days are coming is far better.

Can't wait for the kill ten leprechauns quest.

OK.  You're right to a certain extent (hype train v hype paddleboat).  But it's not like the TSW forums had more than a handful of active members.  Wouldn't you agree it would have been best to just leave well enough alone and have a much bigger splash with more info than 'we can't talk about that yet'?  All it's going to do is temporarily boost their stock price, increase registration count, and have a short term effect on forum participation.

Then it will be a ghost town again.

Actually, he's probably saving info for E3.

Uh, there is a ton of info in the vids i posted that was an unknown before.

But as with all MMOs, it'll be known by its acronym. TSW vs DDAC. Not sure I like either now that I've spelled them out. The former sounds like a corporation and the latter sounds like a committee.

As much as i'd like it not to be the case, that's what the 'modern social bustle' boils down to in MMOs. Vide Second Life or even Funcom's very own AO.

Even their fact sheet specifically talks of "evening at the local nightclub becoming a night of terror".

Lord knows modern horror isn't a fertile ground for gaming of any sort.

I have a lot more faith in Ragnar than Gaute. My main hope is that they can actually keep the hype down in this one, and focus on a great PvE game without distractions from a forum full of mouthbreathers.

Well that is an interesting question.

Will there be PvP? Can we side with the, uh, dark side? Or is this purely PvE?

These comments in succession are awesome.

I've always prefered PvE and PvP. Not sure if a purely PvE MMO is for me, unless the co-op content is beyond regular MMO's.

I prefer to have some form of PvP in my MMOs - but if it makes sense in the context of the game to not have any kind of PvP, so be it.

I has PR.

I'm getting a bit excited. If only because this is looking like Lost Continents, but grittier and more modern. But I'm probably one of 5 people that feel that way.

Following the FunCom business model, 2.5 years and 2 xpacs later this will end up being a fun title to play.

Sorry just can't bite this time, AoC was the fool me twice.

Will the surgical removal of Gaute Godager result in a good, solid gaming experience for this new title at launch?

That is really what I am wondering the most.

Godager's mouth was always writing checks FC couldn't cash. I think their problems run a lot deeper than one person.

no classes, no levels, 'reactive' combat makes it sound like they are going for minimal core mechanics, which IMO is what got AoC in so much trouble.

I wish they would stick to what they are good at, single player games with great writing. They fail at MMO.

Wat?  No classes and no levels doesn't correlate to minimal core mechanics.  I don't know if you've played any 'skill based' games like, UO, EVE, or etc... but minimal core mechanics is not a phrase that describes them.

As far as AoC goes the combat was fun and intuitive, the graphics were good to great, the classes were interesting and varied (at least as much of them as was in place at launch) and it was STABLE.  The below 20 experience was amazing, at least once through, the 20-30 areas were very well done.

What killed them as was that all the stats, they did nothing and that the finished content stopped at the mid 30's.  That's a symptom of running out of time, not being unable to make MMOs.

Afraid it'll result in another Dreamfall. Nice story, weak game, shipped half done with the development team moved to chase after another shiny.

Sweeeeeet. And yes, modern setting. I so loved April and Zoe.

I guess I should clarify. I am all for non-archetype character formats. it's an FC version of no classes no levels that I fear. AoC's FPS-ish core, gear = no advantage, no reqs for gear, no specialty gear and skill trees that scream cookie-cutter, made the game play insanely shallow. I am leery that TSW will be a Horror skinned AoC.

Dunno how you can try to parallel it to something like EvE with broad character progression, situational equipment, career specializations & 'hybridizing' and a system where time invested = a more powerful toon. Let alone the sandbox vs. narrow gauge railroad of AoC.

Strip the graphics and AoC's core is about as complex as a cell phone game.

I still find it hard to wrap my head around the fact AoC came from the same company that made Anarchy Online, the polar opposite of game depth.

God I hope this game is good. Just for the setting alone. I am so ready for a "world of darkness" type setting. Or something along that style. Now, do I think this game will be good? Probably not. BUT I CAN HOPE!

What is your problem? You don't believe in Funcom's ability to make a third, completely different MMORPG when you just stated their first twos were in fact completely different? They said no classes, no levels... where does it even remotely reminds you of Age of Conan?

To blame Funcom perennial unfinished and precarious state of their games would be one thing. To blame their lack of depth would be ridiculous.

In fact, speaking of AO vs AoC then, you got the latter wrong. "Depth" doesn't only lie in characer customization or progression. AoC was supposed to focus on combat (check) and world building (fail so far. They couldn't finish it before launch. Rightful blame!) as opposed to generic diku #267 meaning items and more items. Those two systems were supposed to be very deep and the choice to strip diku-tradition characters of some supposed depth was to empower players and their action-arcade-fps tradition skills. A goal they achieved, and that's why it shines in PvP, but didn't meet the expected results in terms of commercial success. It means it was a poor financial/strategic decision, it means it was unfinished, doesn't mean it is a shallow or bad game.

You don't like AoC because you are looking for something else, not because it sucks.



Fake edit: and yes, Itto nailed you. At least Funcom gave us combat. Other MMORPGS are basically fantasy versions of Football Manager.

What about World of Darkness? Because you know...

From spreadsheets in space to vampire larping spreadsheets on the streets.

Same engine, being dev'd for XboX, self-described 'reactive' combat system, FC's long history of recycling and re-skinning to make  content (a lot of AoC mob animations are easily recognizable from AO).

It's great that they wanted to break outside of the mold with AoC, too bad the best they could come up with was gene splicing wow-skill-tree-fps-mortal-combat-fatality-pvp-honor-grind-guild-wars-private-karaoke-booth-game-world. Guess as an AO fan I expected a lot more from a company used to innovate in the genre.


As for 'my problem'? Other than AoC Fans quick to gain ire with people critical of the title? None really.

Yes, because having the same graphical engine is more telling about gameplay than having a completely different game design (classes and levels in AoC, no classes and no levels in TSW)


Yes, because having the same silly ambitions when it comes to console markets is more telling about gameplay than having a completely different game design (classes and levels in AoC, no classes and no levels in TSW)


AoC combat is not "reactive". What does that mean anyway? So not sharing anything here. But would be points for TSW if they can steal AoC combat, unless you liked the "so much deeper" Anarchy Online autoattack-based combat more.  :awesome_for_real:


Yes, because having the same mob animations is more telling about gameplay than having a completely different design (classes and levels in AoC, no classes and no levels in TSW)


You seem more concerned about the look of TSW than its gameplay. Make peace with yourself and stop mentioning depth or the lack of when they obviously have nothing to do with why you play games.

It is and isn't. It's reactive because, playing as a melee class, you'll target the initially randomly assigned unshielded areas of an enemy. It's also active because you know that, usually, after you hit the unshielded area, the mob's shields will go there, so you can just queue up an attack to hit some other area before your PC finishes striking the first area. Mind you, any system like AoC's, that makes me look at the screen while I play is better than what most mmo's offer.

So what is it? is it my low post count or my dislike of AoC that has your blood boiling Falconeer?

FunCom started as a company that was imaginative and 'scratch built' MMO ideas and has slowly slid toward being one that cobbles together piss poor replicas of what has worked for other games,  chasing after bigger market share.

Why am i highly suspect of TSW?, hell everyone should be with their track record.

As for "they say no levels no classes!' .. Anyone who was an FC customer prior to AoC can recite strings of examples of FC making statements that don't remotely resemble what they actually deliver. AO Vets still mock FC anytime they make big promises with a simple "There will be no camping in Shadowlands!"

Ive had more fun with the riddles than i did with AoC. So my expectations have already been surpassed.

Your persecution complex is quite annoying.

So I am told

Being suspect doesn't mean I also can't be interested. I actually think Funcom has a good chance of folding before we ever see TSW - after all, Funcom also promised a casual MMO to come out before Xmas this year in their investor information that I haven't seen anything else about - but it is at least going somewhere different.

No one's claming they expect god's gift to MMOGs out of them. You just have a lot of sand in your vagina. There's nothing wrong with WANTING a company to make something good. Because generally, when something fails, it kills that setting for other companies. The INDUSTRY should want them to do TSW right, and so should you. So quit your bitching and go play some Peggle or something.

I admit I am being a buzz-kill about this title. I guess I, like a lot of AO vets, we were very disappointed when FC tried to climb out of niche and go mainstream and we watched them tank again. As fans we took it more personal.

Did you just call AoC mainstream?  :awesome_for_real:

Pretty sure I said TRIED

You think they honestly tried to be mainstream with AoC?

Heh.  Nah.

They knew they were niche.  It's just that niche is a bigger market than it used to be 5 years ago.

Well Gamer-build-their-own rig mainstream. not Soccer-mom-afk-microwaving-mac-n-cheese-while-in-a-25 man mainstream.

Why didnt they just buy the rights to produce a Shadowrun MMO instead of this?
I mean, I like the premise behind TSW and I'm excited... but it still leaves me wanting, as usual.   I guarantee you Ragnar used some inspiration from SRUN; so again, just phreakin make SRUN: Online!

p.s.
Kind of interesting that the acronym for the game: "TSW" is the same as the publishing company responsible for Cyberpunk: 2020 (R. Talsorian).  eewwweeooo    :why_so_serious:

p.p.s.
There better be cyberpunk elements to this game.

... i'm sorry (I'll go to my corner now)

What exactly is giving you the shadowrun vibe? Im thinking more a modern lovecraft,occult detective vibe. Someone please invest in Smith and Tinker SR:online would be goodness.

The world within the world.
There's secret magic, secret corps, and secret folk out to fight against "whatever."
It's modern.
SRUN has horror elements, along with demons and monsters.
TSW (if they're smart) will have cyberpunk elements.

I dunno, maybe they're going for a modern Call of Cthulhu vibe here... I'm definitely feeling some pnp RPG-ness in this thing the more I study it though.
It'd behoove them to incorporate SOME kind of "Humanity" statistic. Srun, Cpunk, and CoC all had consequences for overly embracing technology or getting lost in the horrific "secrets" of the world - driving one mad.

I'd code it as some kind of psychotic AoE rage that kills any PC nearby.

No, I can't see any griefing potential in that AT ALL.

Will be interesting to see what they do with this.

I've always thought the problem with a modernish MMO would be the lack of item and enemy variety. We'll see how creative they can get.

I like the premise. I think the world is ready for a horror-themed MMO, or at least I am.

Really? Really?

What's it like in that box?

Just your lack of coherence. Being suspicious of TSW, as of any other pre-launch MMORPG, is reasonable. Being suspicious for the supposed lack of depth of AoC is not. That is all.

And I'm sincerely sorry for the low post count thing. I hate every form of bullying and I hate that it seemed so. Obviously that is not it. Many on this thread are suspicious, I just found your reasons to be a joke. No harsh feelings.

In a fantasy setting you can pretty much just throw anything in there and say "hey, it's magic." Just about any animal real or fictional can be an enemy and any mechanic can be explained away. In a modern setting you're dealing mostly with everyday items and weapons and humanoid enemies.

Now they could get creative and have you fight all sorts of strange otherworldly beasts, but they could also just make it a mix of humanoid vamps, werewolves, ghouls, etc. In a fantasy setting people will accept lazyness - hey it's a giant crab! Hey it's a giant rat! I think in a modern setting that kind of lazy design shows through more.

The setting they've chosen probably makes it a lot easier than something like The Agency or APB, but still makes it harder than fantasy IMO. Also weilding melee weapons creates more visual distinction than weilding different guns in that melee animations can be much more varied than firing animations.

I'm not saying it's impossible, just that they'll have to be more creative than typical MMOs.

The early promises look very good. Very good indeed. Tornquist has claimed a long-tailed character advancement system that is also aiming to avoid the grind.

(http://www.crygaia.com/tsw/reveal/factsheet.jpg)

Christ it's good to be back in the States..

Anyways, calling it now, they're gonna steal the weapon mod system from Hellgate.

Also Schild, give me a yell on steam next time ya see me on, I'll fill ya in on my absence.

A lot of modern-setting conspiracy games have these elements to one degree or another. Vampire/WOD & Shadowrun, certainly. Lesser-known franchises like Conspiracy X and Delta Green also have them, Cold City to a far lesser extent, and so on. Hell, see Deus Ex as well (sans the magic).

Anyway, I'll reserve judgment until they have something to actually show that isn't an exec shooting his mouth off or a cinematic. Talk is cheap.

*TSW begins where other MMOs end.*

wtf does that mean?  We start at level 80 in full raid gear?  j/k

Exciting ideas here, at least it's a novel setting.  

It *sounds* like fun: looks like somewhat "theme park" with different kinds of missions, ranging from pure action, to a more puzzle/graphic adventure approach. I'm totally fine with some sort of central hub with instanced stuff branching out from it, kinda like Guild Wars, which is still the MMOG (ok, ok, "Cooperative multiplayer", alright :P) I played the most beside UO (but LOTRO is rapidly kidnapping my soul  :heart:).

Unknown Armies would be a good license.

Ok, that I like. Looks like a page ripped from a PnP RPG book. Awesome.

http://www.darkdemonscrygaia.com/showpost.php?p=29943&postcount=2

Someone put up a timeline of the game.  Some stuff in there that may be new to you or interesting.  At least it'll update you on the game.

Edit to add: It's updated to 2007.  But a decent background.

Massively Interview with Tornquist (http://www.massively.com/2009/04/07/gdc09-interview-with-the-secret-worlds-creator-ragnar-tornqui/)

There are a few other interesting quotes.

Like...


and one more that piqued my interest...

Tornquist shouldn't show his face for a while. The memories of him going on about how wonderful Age of Conan would be are still too fresh.

For 7 days Age of Conan was wonderful for pretty much anyone not into Gwar shoulderpads. He was sincere, he only didn't play over the first week.

Modern-day horror setting w/ no classes and no levels? Well, I'm certainly more intrigued than I was yesterday. But... you know, Funcom. Show me.

Well, good to hear that they recognize that AoC needed about a year extra in beta and worth of content. Hopefully they won't rush TSW. I'll admit that AoC could have been decent if it was delayed.

wth are you smoking dude?  Have you ever seen/played/read stuff like Cyberpunk, Shadowrun, D20:Modern/Future, Call of Cthulhu, etc. etc. etc. etc. etc.   They all BLOW AWAY virtually any Fantasy system there is when it comes to gear and stats.
Fantasy systems are slight variations on the same crap... it's all sword and board, but with different stats.  In modern/cyber settings, you have EVERY weapon known (or unknown) to man at your disposal (meaning all of fantasy of course), including magic, psionics, genomics, cyberware, etc. [the list is endless really]
There isnt an MMO system I've seen that can even come close to handling the shear volume of crap you can play with in any one of the settings I just stated... Shadowrun especially.

I think you've just been brainwashed and deprived... and for that, you are forgiven.  :)

They dont have to be creative at all btw.  They just have to implement what's already there for them... something most devs have proven to be severely lacking at, to the point I'm convinced most of them are stricken with some sort of debilitating social disorder.  Because really, the stuff they do doesnt make sense.

Funcom would be making a serious mistake if they dont glean from pnp modern/future/horror systems already out there.  Specifically the cyberpunk and cthulhu mythos'... which have been combined many times already to great success generally.  All that being said, I think this game would be EASIER to design and develop than a standard Fantasy game, because really...  you're not having to re-invent the wheel here like you are with Fantasy.  All you have to do is implement old ideas that just havent made it into games previously (at least collectively) and voila - you're dubbed a genius.... like Blizzard did with WoW basically

I heard the gear/stat system was awesome in AO.

He specifically mentions the stats and spreedsheet stuff is there for the hardcore players in the massively interview.

It was awesomely complicated, there were many skills and each class could raise any or all of them. However, in the long run the system didn't scale well for various reasons and was incredibly hard to untangle. For newcomers it was also incredibly opaque, it was more or less a given that the first character you made in AO would end up being abandoned or gimped, as beginner players wouldn't have a clue what to raise. They rectified this with changes surrounding the Lost Eden expansion, although the system itself remained as complex as ever.

In a way it was a very clever system, by having classes they ensured some distinction, however there was a lot of scope within a class to be very unique without being gimped in any way. For people who like complex game systems it was a lot of fun.

The gear was a bit hit and miss. There were some stages of AO where gear made sense, but it gradually degenerated into mudflation as different subsets of gear and abilities got buffed while others didn't, leading to off outscaling problems. One of the developers (Means) did state that the skill system somewhat boxed them in, and was too big and complicated to change.

I would love a game with a skill system of the same complexity as AO's, however I worry that so many disparate elements can actually be sensibly balanced.

Sufficiently Advanced.

hmm... why the hell havent I seen this before?  Intriguing.  And free too.  Got a good review on rpg.net.

The aim is that your character starts off capable and gets better. So they won't fight giant rats, missing 75% of the time, but will fight (say) zombie hordes, blowing away 5 at a time.

Sounds like EVE's skill system - not necessarily the advancement method - has been looked at extensively, should they need a MMO reference.

I take that statement that there is no level grind.  They are going for the feeling of not rushing through the boring stuff to get to the good stuff.  The game starts and you play it.  Should be interesting because Tornquist is speaking about a lot of story telling too.

How are you supposed to know if it's "the good stuff" unless you have ground out 60 levels first?

There won't be a level grind because there are no levels (and I'm assuming hahaha this means that there isn't anything like levels, such as ranks).

There may be a skill grind, however. I really hope they take lessons from MxO which had the most flexible skill system I've seen in a MMO.

Puzzle solving time yet again....

http://www.darkdemonscrygaia.com/showthread.php?t=2795

date: Thu, Apr 9, 2009 at 9:11 AM
subject: Repaying old debts
mailed-bygmail.com

I hate to say this - and don't let it get to your head - but I need your help.

And you know, I think you owe me that, all of you. Last time around,
you made my life very difficult. I should be pretty fucking upset. I
AM pretty fucking upset...but I also recognize that you guys are
smart. Or at least tenacious. Tenacious will do.

Understand that I don't turn to you because of who you are or what you
represent. To me, and I'll put this bluntly, you're nothing but a
means to an end. But like it or not, you're involved, you know things
you shouldn't know - useful things - and apparently you have the
respect of those playing that ridiculous 'game' of yours. For better
or worse, you and your friends have the power to help me.

I've spent the last few years searching. I'm close...okay, so I THINK
I'm close...to finding what I'm looking for and then you probably
won't hear from me again. I'm close, but I'm stuck.

Not long ago, I found something that relates to my family - and that's
all I'm going to tell you about that, because I don't think it matters
and it's definitely none of your business. It's a probably a code.
It's always a code. From what I've gathered, it relates to a place. I
think there's something waiting for me there. I just can't crack the
code. And you guys? You guys have proven yourself to be the ultimate
code nerds.

What I have is two series of numbers:

54 - 10 - 122 - 29 - 14 - 83 - 26 - 101 - 61 - 7 - 64 - 31

and

25 - 06 - 18

That's all. There's no clue as to what the numbers mean. It's
addressed to 'Wagtail'. I believe it's for me. I remember my great
grandmother using that word when I was only five or six, before she
passed away. I know it's a bird - it's not like I can't use Google -
but I don't know the significance of it.

If you guys can help me - then help me. Call it repaying an old debt.
You almost got me killed. Or call it playing a game, because by the
looks of things, you like to play games.

I'll do you a favor in return. The Sanctuary of Secrets? Bunch of
idiots. Trust me, I should know. They're not malicious, just stupid.
They're children. They think they can save the world by spreading
information. By documenting secrets. No. This world, if it can be
saved at all, will be saved by people keeping their mouths shut. It's
worked so far.

Get to work. I'll be in touch.

A.B.

Those guys are going insane over there trying to crack the code.  Interesting to say the least, but no one has gotten it.

That was one of the great things about City of Heroes. A level 1 hero could easily take on 3-5 level bad guys with no problems and could head to the next fight with little downtime.

I got #290 with the gauntlet thing.

Source (http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/66414)

And the riddle is solved after 119 pages of madness (http://www.darkdemonscrygaia.com/showthread.php?t=2795).

It's a nightmare because you've got a thousand monkeys at keyboards trying to work out something cryptic. The good leads get buried under a ton of crap.

Yeah, basically the last 60 pages in this thread were "what we  thought of so far" and maybe 2 new ideas.  :uhrr:
Thanks to the influx of a lot of new folks there solving  the riddles got much harder then before.

If I were them I'd only allow possible solutions to be posted on the forum and discussion only allowed on IRC.

They need a discussion thread and a solution thread. Or some kind of forum better suited to such investigations.

It worked when the audience was small, but the whiff of beta / ARG has seen the forums explode.

Why are you even bothering with Funcom?  Here's a pretty accurate prediction :

(http://img60.imageshack.us/img60/8612/trainj.jpg) (http://img60.imageshack.us/my.php?image=trainj.jpg)

Their lore is always awesome, if nothing else. Probably we want to know the story.

I have no expectation of Funcom. However, they have tried to do things a bit differently for AoC and now TSW, which means I'm a ton more interested in them than whichever company does the next WoW clone, even if they do a top notch job on it.

TSW and the World of Darkness MMO are the two things on the horizon i even have the faintest hope for. And next to nothing is known about either of them.

Remember this picture from page 4?

(http://www.crygaia.com/cgn/images/christmas/funcomcgnchristmas.jpg)

I'm very dubious about this 'no classes' thing.

As I said on the forums, there might be no classes and levels, but there might be builds and ranks or something like that.

But it's pre-alpha. As I said elsewhere, pre-alpha forums (and pre-alpha promises) may have no resemblance to the final title.

I really really don't see how you get 'classes' from that picture.

Well, let's see.  Going from left to right, I'd say assassin, mage, pet class, vampire/witch hunter, maybe a sword master(can't really tell definitively with that one), a kung fu/chi power type, and going by the vest and belt on the last one, perhaps a merc/firearms expert.

From a picture of a bunch of traditional dikummog archetypes I'm interpreting that the development team envisage characters fitting into traditional dikummog archetypes.

It's only a picture, could mean anything theoretically. But I don't really see what would make funcom represent their game in that way if they weren't thinking of traditional archetypes.

EDIT: Not that there is anything wrong with traditional archetypes in some sort of 'soft' class structure.

All of the concept art we have seen so far has been similar. To the point that i believe that those guys are actual characters and not just random examples of NPC's.

If they stick with 360 development for this, they're gonna get burned.

The 360 is well on it's way to it's fourth year in retail. Certainly the backend of it's top tier lifecycle. Considering TSW is a good two years out minimum, seems like a way to piss away money.

I *think* they've figured that out by now. Even continuing with the 360 version of AoC is a waste of time.

If anyone can bring us a proper console mmog, it isn't funcom.

They are right up at the niche/serious-gamer/complex-gameplay end of shit. No way on this earth I see them figuring out the best way to simplify this for consoles.

So, over at Rock, Paper, Shotgun (http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2009/04/22/interview-tørnquist-on-the-secret-world/) there is a new interview with Ragnar Tørnquist:

click the
Sigh, in theory there is something refreshing about the whole approach but...:P

Ragnar seemed to be the most honest person when it came to AO and I recall him openly admitting it wasn't going down the right path.

I liked that interview. I'm getting that "this could be great feeling", which I always tell myself not to have about MMOs because it's usually a let-down in the end. But it sounds good.

I think he also nailed down the setting a bit too. It's Hellblazer Online (not the Keanu Reeves version)

I do not acknowledge the Keanau Reeves versions existence.

The only redeeming quality of that atrocity is a soaking wet Rachel Weisz.

It had a great supporting cast and Peter Stomare made a great Lucifer.

Yes, but everytime I see that, I keep hearing, "Where's zee money, Constantinski?" in my head.

Is that a MMO he is describing, it sure doesn't sound like it.   Reads like a single player linear RPG - that you can't finish yourself.

Isn't someone ever going to invent a dynamic world?  All I read about is more and more static quests and single thread 'story' lines - which only means: read wall of text, go to place X, fill N Foozles, get M items, repeat until done.   Also each player repeats the same quests, please someone invent something new!

Not possible. All that can change is the way such things are delivered.

Make it "dynamic" and the players who missed out on the quest that's no longer available to them because someone else have completed it will whine. Not that the static approach isn't irritating as well, but given neither option actually removes the annoyance and one requires considerably more content than the other, it's no surprise static worlds are the norm.

The only game right now that has a truly dynamic, player run component, as cliche as this will sound, is Eve.  Which makes me think you can't base a dynamic game around rigid structures like specific quest lines or even 'playgrounds'.  You probably have to make a sandbox full of interaction enablers (chat rooms, message boards and trade) and strong political consequences and let the players build game structures out of that.  Then manipulating those structures in game becomes the dynamic aspect.

At an individual level there needs to be stuff present to keep people entertained, and importantly able to drop out of the meta-game when it becomes to much or too risky, but you need to have an overlying meta game that is allowed to evolve and has VERY ACTIVE dev involvement.  I mean the devs have to literally be looking at what the players are doing and working to enable them via new mechanics and features on a constant and continuing basis.

Basically a 250k subscribers game. Wait in direct competition with EvE, divide number by 2.

Ya, because all dynamic world games would intrinsically be in direct competition with EVE.  :uhrr:

In direct competition with WOD Online.

And before WoW came along everyone said that there were only 500k subs in the entire market and that you were going to have to share them with EQ.

That idea was wrong then and it's wrong now.

The fact EVE's subscription numbers have steadily increased from 50k in 2004 to 250k in 2009 kind of dispels that illusion as well.

I'm defiantly sure it peaked at 250k 3 years ago...

They announced 200k in November of 2007.  :uhrr:

You should try to more definite and less defiant.

See page 5: http://ccp.vo.llnwd.net/o2/pdf/QEN_Q1-2008.pdf

If you look there is a graph showing growth of accounts from 2003 to present.  It's pretty steadily upward.

Was looking for that but could not find it.

EvE is starting to remind me of a zombie outbreak. Geez I was wrong there, but god damn how many people still need second accounts  :awesome_for_real:

You're just an idiot.  I think that may be the case.

I don't think eve is a great comparison. Obviously a PvP battleground will have shifting fronts but the world as a whole doesn't really change, capabilities do not vanish or new opportunities open up. Outside of patching in new content of course. Also this is being postulated for a game that seems far more PvE based.

Tabula Rasa sort of tried to do it (you could lose control of areas) but it was constrained so you couldn't lose too much. Horizons and WoW have done it in terms of unlocking new content and EQ with the sleeper event but it always tends to lead to people who "missed the boat" feeling cheated.

It would be sort of cool if the whole gameworld could be structured by the developers like a monstrous version of CoH's mission architect. A trouble arises (somewhere, some event, some enemies) discovered by clues and countered by new weapons and information tracked down all over the world (re-using old content). A world event as the climax and then a period of peace before it all starts again. Have one version of the story for each Coven so that it doesn't get zerged (and slow moving covens can even fail to reach the climax). Bulk it out with the normal farming and grind to train up and resource your character. That seems like it would be doable and quite fun, and the story could get richer as each cycle adds new elements for the designers to weave into the over-arcing story.

A good deal of what makes EVE a niche game is not just the FFA pvp aspect. The setting and gameplay play just as big a role. Many people who would love to play a PvP based dynamic world MMO wont touch EVE.

Hence Darkfall.

Yeah the pvp isn't the problem, it is that the actual gameplay is about as fun as watching paint peel.

I don't mind the gameplay personally. Its perfect if you want to casually read and get stoned while playing. But i never really felt inspired to go all lord of the flies mode. Which you gotta do to really get into the meat of the game. I am all over both this game and WoD. Both are pretty much guaranteed to be something "new". And i have faith in CCP (tho the specifics of development seem strange). Im not sure what kind of subscription base Darkfall is going to maintain but id be shocked if it was over 100k.

I'm really not sure what you mean?

If I want to join a fleet I join a fleet, if I want to futz about trading doing the 'Elite' for the 21st century I do that. I rarely play for more than a few hours at a time, and never stick to any schedule (one of the advantages of a truly world wide game is that it works in all timezones).

Others do the pve mission thing for casual play sessions or go all wolfpack and sneak about in stealthy ganking ships.


What 'meat of the game' do you think you are missing by playing EVE casually?

Being active in an established corporation and going above the rank of peon.

Shit, sir, being a peon is where all the action is.  :drill:

I feel sorry for the poor schlubs in cap ships.

Kinda cool thing going on here (http://www.darkdemonscrygaia.com/showthread.php?t=3022).  Roald Admundsen's (a central figure in TSW and in Norwegian history) Expedition Flag is up for auction at Sotheby's (http://www.sothebys.com/app/live/lot/LotDetail.jsp?lot_id=159529802).  One of the fansites are taking donations to bid in order to return it back to Norway, specifically Funcom's studios.

Kinda neat.

Beta might be coming soon. Or not. Just can't tell when everything might be part of the ARG.

At the very least it looks like the beta keys are all gone.  (http://www.darkdemonscrygaia.com/showthread.php?t=3404)

Based purely off speculation though.

I love the idea of ARGs, but for the most part, I have neither the patience or determination to participate in one. I'll play the game, but the stuff they've been doing since the announce? I can't get into it.

This twitter seemed to be part of the ARG, like everything twittered from this account, a protagonist of it just opened (with help of the community of course) a portal to Agartha and went through the portal. But nice things seem to be on the horizon since the current storyarc of the ARG ended with said protagonist stepping through that door. Here (http://www.crygaia.com/wiki/index.php?title=Timeline) you can find all the steps the community took to progress the ARG.

They really need a separate sub-forum for all the ARG stuff - only the mod can start / move a thread there, but anyone can post. Having it mixed in with all the other topics makes things very easy to miss.

IF you removed the really really long skill train times, and had twitchier space combat eve would have millions of subs.

Removing PvP would do the same thing.  :awesome_for_real:

EVE is great because it doesn't have millions of subs.  Maybe its elitist, but one of the reasons the game is appealing its community generally has a certain level of competence just to make it past the tutorial.  that doesn't mean their aren't JERKS, but there does seem to be less idiots running around that in other MMOs I've played. 

Are you talking about the same eve that I play?

There seems to be this myth among certain mmo players usually of the "hardcore" (pve'ers or pvp'ers) subset that a small player base inside a game where new players are driven away with an iron rod, always means less jerks. Eve would defiantly be a million sub game if it drastically lowered the skill grind, made caps ships 20x easier to buy and removed death penalty. But pvp would be broken without repair if the death penalty didn't exist and more uber tier ships flying around would expose more holes in pvp.

I think he just specifically mentioned your alliance.   :oh_i_see:

My post makes it pretty clear that I think EVE has plenty of jerks, but less idiots. 

What the crap was THAT?

EVE

I don't know why but I started laughing my fucking ass off. Damn fuck my suggestions, this is a fucking hardcore niche game. You literally can't get anymore hardcore than that without the internet exploding...

JUST A FYI, i have no idea what the last one is, i just looked for the most filled out spreadsheet on the internet for comparison of the UI.

Funny thing is it seems to have something to do with perceived star colors?

I've been playing the game for months and I don't recognize half of it.

I recognize it all barring the last white spreadsheet. But you can easily play the game and not delve into the "matrix".

Hence the other problem with Eve.

I've played Eve for months on and off and never learned how easy it was to do invention until CCP spelled it out for me in their newest tutorial.

A whole bunch of gameplay mechanics simply get buried.

I sort of like the lead dev thinks about his game but I still think he's going to make some seriously bad mistakes.

On the EVE subscription numbers, some more exact data from the horse's mouth (http://www.eveonline.com/devblog.asp?a=blog&bid=656)


so nearly 30% growth over last year.

Ok even I have to admit that's impressive.

So much for bringing back ghost training any time soon.

Wow I never saw this thread/game before today. Someone mentioned Hellblazer earlier. The description also sort of reminds me of Planetary (in a secret world = secret history way). It also reminds me of how Constantine describes magic to Tim Hunter in "Books of Magic".

Some weird ass counter on the Dark Days Are Coming website - link (http://www.darkdaysarecoming.com/)

Hasn't that always been there?

Yes, the counter has been around since they put up the pics of the ruined cityscapes of Tokyo, London, and NY.  Not sure if it was on that particular web site, though.

At least it's legible.

Also, I love the art for that game. :heart:

That counter counts down towards 21st December 2012, the end of the Mesoamerican/Mayan Long Count calendar (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesoamerican_Long_Count_calendar). It is said that after this date a "new age" (the fifth world) begins. So it's basically the newest "end of the world as we know it (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_eyFiClAzq8)" prophecy utilized by Funcom for a bit of marketing.

Three and half years to launch, then.   :awesome_for_real:

Read the latest post (http://ragnartornquist.com/?p=667) on Ragnar Tornquist's blog (http://www.ragnartornquist.com) for another tidbit about TSW, btw =P

Just because this is when the world ends doesn't mean the game will be anywhere near ready by then...

not that it stopped them before, of course. :oh_i_see:

That's when me and the missus are getting married. The fact that I found a woman that agreed to that speaks volumes.

I knew the world was going to end when Surly said he was getting married. ;D

Kind of a necro....

This still being made?  Seems like Funcom has gone completely dark on TSW.

I thought they started up a new round of stuff for people to figure out.

Yeah they actually picked back up around March of this year. Unfortunately, the forum community for this one gets more fucked up by the day.

This (http://www.crygaia.com/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page) will get ya up to speed on most of the important shit Snake.

After a long while away, I went back to have a look at TSW forums yesterday. Apparently appealing to the nutball conspiracy segment of the MMO market has a negative impact on post quality.

Trying to actually read through threads involved in teasing out the mystery is impossible. Plus looking at the solutions themselves I'm completely unequipped to tease them out.

Someone here likened the TSW community to "Lost" fans way back in the day. It was a perfect comparison then. They've went to a far, far higher level of fucking weird however. Like, attending UFO conspiracy investigator conventions kinda crazy.

Edit: Example, if Ragnar or any of the people they know to be associated with TSW twitter about anything, and I do mean anything, there will be a multi page thread about it within minutes. It's extremely fucking creepy. You know that feeling you get when you see someone do something so embarrassing it makes your guts roll and your skin crawl? It's like that.

Also Snake, looks like we'll be getting more info at PAX in a couple weeks. Funcom has some big reveal event planned (http://www.vg247.com/2009/08/14/the-secret-world-pax-showing-to-be-biggest-thing-yet/)

Awesome news

Niiiceee.

Cool

Sweet!  I figured this one had fallen off the radar.

The biggest thing yet about TSW could be pretty small given all we have is an ARG and a teaser video plus some screenshots.

Beta sign up is seen as a big announcement, despite the fact that sign up to actual start can be anywhere from a couple months to years.

edit: spelling is hard.

I signed up for Jumpgate Evolution Beta back in '99.

On a somewhat related note, Funcom just announced the opening (http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=25103) of yet another studio in Montreal. According to Ragnar, it'll house a good chunk of the TSW team.

Very, very cool.  Go here (http://www.darkdaysarecoming.com) to take the test and be included for consideration to beta.

Well, I'm the most dragony dragon ever.  Dragon dragon dragon. 

BUT IT GAVE ME TEMPLAR.   :ye_gods:

Have they released anything regarding these secret societies previously?  I haven't been keeping up with all of the crazy stuff on their forums since a year ago.

There's some other freaky shit going on also. Remember the Sanctuary of Secrets site that contained the beekeeper puzzles? It, for some time now, has shown only static. Now images are phasing in and out of the static. Looks like the next PR / puzzle / craziness drive is kicking off.

http://sanctuaryofsecrets.com/

Also, all hail the Illuminati. A new trailer  (http://www.dagbladet.no/2009/09/03/kultur/spill/the_secret_world/funcom/onlinespill/7939385/)is up..

I also went for Dragon but ended up with Templar.

Nice beta sign-up tool. Hope I don't have to wait another few months to actually see a result.

Also: full props for their trailers. They're just well done.

Forums are down, too much traffic I suppose.

English (http://translate.google.com/translate?js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dagbladet.no%2F2009%2F09%2F03%2Fkultur%2Fspill%2Fthe_secret_world%2Ffuncom%2Fonlinespill%2F7939385%2F&sl=no&tl=en&history_state0=) translation of the trailer page

That trailer is pretty cool.  I love the PR campaign for this game.

My excitement for this game is tempered by my hesitance towards Funcom.

That was fucking cool. Why does it have to be Funcom doing this?

Of course.

(http://homepage.mac.com/surlyboi/dragon.png)

(http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/39720/f13/tsw_00.png)

Also, from reading from the CVG article, your choice of society will determine your starting city. Fairly obvious, Illuminati in New York, Templars in London, Dragons in Seoul.

This is a terrible idea and one that too many games have used and I'm tired of it.

Horrible idea. Someone tell Ragnar NOW. I can't even start to explain, but sounds to me like they just officially announced the first step of the plan to waste away all the immense potential gathered so far.

Its fine is you can jump to another location from the onset. That's the real issue. However, if this is a factional game. Then I dont see an issue with it.

Seoul? Or Shanghai? 'Cause that sure ain't Seoul in all the promo art.

Woo, got Illuminati.  Not much of a surprise, though.

Edit: The trailer looked nice.  Reminded me a lot of Constantine, though.

Templar here.

I'm a Templar.


mwahahahaaa!

Odd.  Mine keeps looping the opening and hitting Skip does jackall.

Upgrade flash version?

Did that and Java.  Probably some issue with work computer.  *shrug*

The Secret World: So Awesome You Have to Upgrade Your Computer to Browse the Website.

I'm a little Dwagon!!~11!  :heart:

Dragon here as well.

See? Factions already imbalanced.

Fail.

Anyone that would rather play dragon than illuminati will get cut down by my JC Denton character.

(http://img186.imageshack.us/img186/8979/symbol.jpg) (http://www.freecodesource.com/image-hosting/view/img186/8979/symbol.jpg/)

JC  :heart:

Gotta play Deus Ex....AGAIN.

I got Illuminati. Heh, signed up for a beta where I have no idea what type of game it is.

Don't worry. You just joined a seekret society, and you will do a lot of evil things.

Dragon.

Schild you can try, but my Alex Denton just rebuilds from the ruins you left behind.  Like a good little Dragon.

I'm sorry, but the gaming community refuses to recognize that you exist. So, good luck witht hat.

Dragon as well, wooo.

Got dragon!

Like anyone should listen to the gaming community...

Hail Eris! All hail Discordia!

Dragon here too.

That trailer is fantastic too.

Dragon.

I...huh. I don't want to like it, because you know, Funcom. But damn if this doesn't look really attractive.

Illuminati.

As for the starting city thing, I'm sure they'll change it once beta starts and people wail and gnash. They can't afford another loss. Also, time to apply to Funcom Montreal :grin:

Templar here.  Looks pretty interesting.

Templar. Prepare to be terminally cleansed, American scum.

I have no real concept of what this will turn out to be, or for that matter, how it will turn out, but I got small nondescript butterflies of awesome in my tummy over it. Given the genre and the company, that can't possibly be a healthy feeling to have.

Also Templar.  Looks like at least a pretty original idea.  I'm expecting Vampire: the Masquerade meets The Da Vinci Code.  Should be cool :awesome_for_real:.

Dragon

Looks like the forums and the other site are both down, hopefully something interesting is about to happen.

This is what you want; this is what you get.

I'm excited by the lore. The screenshots aren't that inspiring, however. And with no gameplay mechanics announced, well...

Seoul now Surly. Way back in the first announcement it WAS Shanghai. Sometime between then and April of this year, they changed it to Korea. I haven't heard their reasons for doing so.

What screenshots?  Anything recent?  All I've seen is concept art and some stuff dating back before Dreamworld was updated to...Cheatah something?

The faction was deliberately misleading people about where they're from. Maybe they're still doing it.

Just these ones. (http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2008/08/17/the-secret-worlds-secret-screenshots/) I'm sure you've seen them.

 :hello_thar: Illuminati. While the Templar warmonger and the Dragons try to pick up the pieces we Illuminati shall be living the life you can only dream of.

Also interested, but yeah Conan was a burn...

Dragon.

Very classy and quite fun to do. A MMO in the modern world about hidden secrets and societies would be great fun if done well. It's also going to have some real challenges making it work, but at least it shouldn't be boring. Then again I guess the last "learn the secret" MMO was the matrix online and that didn't even come close to being viable.

If you have a forum account active your secret society. Maybe it will help with beta chances?
From the forums derived from the quarterly financials. Hope they announce something lovely at PAX.

Edit: The Secret World highlights

The Secret World, Funcom’s next full-fledged
MMO is progressing according to plan. The
game’s team size is currently around 100 people.

The development team reached several significant
milestones during Q2 including first in-game
versions of character creation, combat and
adventuring.

The DreamWorld Engine, powering The Secret
World, also received several significant updates
during Q2, with improved content production tools
and new graphics features being two key focus
areas.

The activity levels within the community of the
game grew significantly in Q2 primarily due to the
successful public relations activities initiated in
April, which has led to an increased level of
attention for the game.

The Company plans several new PR activities for
the fall to further stimulate interest in The Secret
World and to increase the community size of the
game.

Status:
100 people working on project
In alpha stage of development:
Combat iterations
User Interface prototyping
Character development
implementation
PVP testing etc.

Background:
Contemporary setting
‘Dark days are coming…’
Funcom’s proprietary Dreamworld
Technology engine

External activities:
Further game information revealed
at PAX in Seattle next week

Another dragon. I have no faith in this game ever going anywhere though.

A dangerous path.


So says this Templar.

So the Illuminati is full of pedophiles? Because otherwise that emote is not what you think it means.

I think you'd have to be crazy to expect much out of it, with all the shit that is out there.  At least it is a different concept.  That alone should keep me interested for at least a little while.

Well, it does say "sex and drugs" and "there are no rules" on their resume...

Got the Illuminati thing without aiming for anything specific and i don't think i picked relatively more answers matching their philosophy. Wouldn't be surprised if the result of test was generated in entirely random manner -- what a better way to screw with conspiracy junkies and make them furiously search for patterns where there isn't any :why_so_serious:

I want her to be my dragon...  :drillf:

(http://lesbiangamers.typepad.com/News/Rubi_WET_01.jpg)

Got templars, and noticed the clock ticking down on the site now.  1203 01 20(minutes) seconds, microseconds.

That's 3 years and some change. Without really checking i'd guess it's counting down to that Mayan "end of the world" date..?

That was my first guess, but I don't even know if the 1203 refers to days or if that's just an assumption.  'Sides, that would make the rollover of a day about 7pm central.  Where is it midnight then?

Just checked, Reykjavik, Iceland.  Guess I shoulda known that already.

12/22/2012 is when the clock would tick down (in Iceland)

DAY-UM.

I noted the website it's from. :drillf:

:facepalm:

Hilarious

Indeed :heart: (http://www.lesbiangamers.com/video-game-characters-in-the-closet.html)

We should do a gay gamer version of that list. Just pick every big name male character and say you get that "vibe".

Be a bit hotter if she hadn't tilted her head back so we got an up-nose shot.

Her saucy confrontational glare is what makes her a dragon, dude.

The general consensus on the forums (in response to about 100 and counting threads of "HAY GUIZ, I JUST KNOTICED...") is that the count down means nothing right now.

Terrible list.  Sometimes my own community disappoints me by trying a little too hard.

Solid Snake:  Masculine and the name says it all. :drill:

Figured you'd dig both.

Dragon

Illuminati

Yea, whatup, me and LC here are going to grief all you fuckers with SECRETS.

Dragon.

It's almost too easy to "pick" what team you'll end up on by answering the questions, since there are only 3 options anyways.  Not that I was trying mind you, Illuminati might have been cool too.

Sumbitch, you read my mind.

The closed door presentation info is embargoed until the 10th, so come this Thursday we should be seeing a bit more.

Dragon.

Am I the only one surprised by that this hasn't yet been re-branded as World of Darkness Online?

Not really, no, given that CCP owns the rights to that and is making it.

I hope so, WoD has so much less to offer, IMO.

14 pages in a thread for a FUNCOM game?

Wii.

Indeed.

*smackhead*

Probably shows you how enthused I was about WoD. ¬_¬

You need to get off that meth boi.  WoD has so much less to offer?   :oh_i_see:
It's only the most successful Pen and Paper IP (aside from DnD) ever.  And I mean ever ever.  People LARP it all around the world and some of the writing is studied in lit. courses, not to mention the vanilla table setting.
People have been clamoring for a WoD MMO for years and I can honestly say it's the one IP where only an MMO would do justice.  Out of all the IPs for every MMO ever, an argument can be made that WoD is ultimately the best setting for any MMO to be developed in.  The be-all-end-all if done correctly.  (good luck with that though)

Did I misinterpret your post or something?  sarcasm maybe?  'cause it doesnt make sense.  WoD has less to offer than some mystery generic transhuman horror game done by Funcom?  really?  cmon now.

Considering how storyteller centric white wolf games are, I really don't know how the feel of them will translate into MMOdom.  However, I remember playing (Freak Legion?) or something, where you were essentially these doomed mutants.  I remember my eyeball running away with skittersight only to be stomped on by a werewolf.  That was probably the most fun I've ever had with a white wolf game.  The rest of it was hit or miss trying to twist out a good game in spite of the mechanics.

I loved WoD, but only because of the GM and players.

There's a lot of faux history that's fun to play with given a good group, but if we're being honest most of the published stuff is bad wankery.  Their lead creative guy hated the setting.  That's why they did the revamp.  I sat in multiple panels at different cons where Achilli bitched about it.

So it could be fun if given the right people, I'll withold judgement until I see a product, but Surly isn't necessarily far off the mark.

All the angst-ridden Twilight-like emo-goth storyteller stuff is for the birds (pre-revamp).  But the rest of the stuff would make a great MMO.  It'd obviously have to be RP-centric, but seriously...  it'd be a damned good game if done right and contained the entire WoD; new stuff in particular like Changeling and the new Vamp, etc.  Shit though, I'd be happy if there was just a Vampire vs. Werewolf WoD MMO.

It used to be funny flipping through the books seeing how many different versions of Rasputin you could find

I was actually hoping this Funcom thing would be more along the lines of a Transhuman type game, but it seems like they're just going for some kind of generic mystery-horror Resident Evil thing.

I wonder how long they intend this ARG and rendered trailer to keep going.

Fuck yes it does. Like a lot of other people here have said, the lure of WoD was the GM and the players. I used to run my players through some insane shit and they loved it, That won't translate as well to an MMO as either of us hopes it will.

That said, all things being equal, I'll still take me some good, old-fashioned Cthulhuesque fight shit 'til you're insane fun over angsty vampires, werewolves, mages or changelings any day of the week.

The skeletal structure of the old WoD was a phenomenal feat of RPG meta plot engineering. To dismiss it wholesale because your greatest PnP wish is to have your eyeball chased by a werewolf says far more about how you spent you Cheeto stained nights and less about White Wolf's heyday.

I'm sorry, the angst-ridden psycho lounge is over to your right.

I'll have to get directions from the guy whose fondest memory of WoD was the book dedicated to playing PCs whose sole purpose was raping and maiming people. Freak Legion was the most puerile, 13 year old power fantasy book they ever released. To repeat: your view of this demonstrates everything about you, not about White Wolf or the intrinsic creative value of what they were doing in a macro sense.

Issues much?  I played the game once and the GM from the start told us the whole point was to die, and he issued prizes on who died the most creatively.

Which reinforces the point: White Wolf's strong points were the GMs and the players, and had little to do with the actual source material beyond vague guidelines. 

But don't let me stop you from frothing. 

Let's walk through this slowly. What do you think drove White Wolf to heights never seen for a PnP game (excepting D&D) during the late 90s when the larger traditional gaming public is both extremely picky and fickle?

Seeing as how WoD was about the GM and the players and most MMO closet-designers have always said the best MMOs have/and will be for, by, and about the players... it goes w/o saying that WoD would make a great TRUE MMO.  I'm not talking about the prior shittastic MMO schedule B that we're used to; I'm talking about something different.  For Gods' sakes, of course WoD would suck ported into the usual suspects of MMO design.

Now, your Lovecraftian horror stuff would, like you said, translate better into the current mold of MMO - and probably make it better if done right.  But WoD would require a different animal... errr, many different animals vivisected together.

Teenage Angst

Interview with A Vampire  :grin:
j/k  nah, WoD is still growing tremendously right now actually.  It's a nice product.  One can say it singlehandedly allowed decent looking women to join the gametable. 

See, right here? I know you're not interested in having an actual discussion and instead wanted to talk about how rad your old gaming group was.

No, I'm not interested in having an "actual discussion" with you.  I'm too busy reminiscing about my "Cheeto stained nights."

If you want to have a serious discussion, don't start it by being a dick.  I'm sorry I maligned your holy grail by not particularly liking the mechanics of White Wolf systems.  Get over it.

Touched a nerve, huh? And who talked about systems?

Vampirenerdsparkleslapfight!

If I knew about this I totally would have checked it out at PAX, oh well.

Ragnar says there are too many Dragons.

You know this.

I don't think ANY of this sort of thing lends itself to standard diku style stuff. So while we don't know what CCP is going to do with the WoD MMO (and I have a suspicion it turns out to be extremely expensive vaporware and WW ends up getting cut loose again five years from now) we know that CCP isn't terribly interested in doing diku. Which is good because even if EVE is not for me I can appreciate that it's different.

It paid off well. So I hear.

A WoD MMO needs to bring the drama. Under CCP's wing, I'm sure it will. As for TSW, we'll see - there's still a good chance it will be a MMO with great lore and game mechanics that were polished by Funcom.

You nailed it.  Another reason I'm not that worried as long as they take the WoD ball and run with it.  It's not as much about mechanics as it is about drama and "punch."  Would've made a better story setting than SWTOR imo.

Lovecraftian Dreamlands stuff >>> Lovecraftian horror... Especially for an MMO. I mean do you really think it'd be fun to play a game where your only two class options are "half-crazy pedantic academic" and "completely pendantic academic"?

(I say that despite the fact that I like most of HPL's stuff, horror and fantasy. Colour Out of Space rocks)

Character rollover would be hillarious, if based on the old RPG.

You see Chthulu.  Your character goes insane.. reroll.

I'd just have the game take over your character and you get to sit and watch as he/she/it goes insane (basically turns your PC into an NPC).  Similar to getting the hunger in a Vamp. game.  Someone can come along and snap you out of it though... which in some cases may mean "death."  Smart players would have friendlies nearby to take care of them as they lose their sanity, so griefers dont come along and put you out of your misery the wrong way...  like caretakers on a bad LSD trip or something.  okay, i'm gamedev rambling and this isnt the thread for such.

We all know Funcom wont institute any of the cool shit we come up with in here so whatever.  It'll be generic.  Bland.  In a different skin.  That's it.
I figure if they were doing something revolutionary we'd have heard about it already, NDA or not.  And Ragnar's latest info. tidbits are informative yet completely uninspiring (wow, a skill system with weapons 'n stuff... and stories 'n stuff.  And monsters are computer controlled and you form teams!  woot!).  There better be some sick, twisted game design secret where the entire dev cycle is one big illusion and release gives us a totally different game. 

Aaaaand they're off! (http://pc.ign.com/articles/102/1023335p1.html)

Massively (http://www.massively.com/2009/09/10/pax-2009-dark-mysteries-of-the-secret-world//) has a decent writeup as well.

(http://images.mmorpg.com/features/3495/images/3495_1.jpg)

(http://images.mmorpg.com/features/3495/images/3495_2.jpg)

Shambling mass!
(http://images.mmorpg.com/features/3495/images/3495_3.jpg)

(http://images.mmorpg.com/features/3495/images/3495_4.jpg)

After I change my shorts you'll be able to find me in my bunk...   :heart:

edit:


I'm chaffed. 

Wow...That looks awesome.

I remain skeptical because... well, FUNCOM.

AoC was the best first 20 levels of an MMO I ever played.  I will remain skeptical but this is really the only MMO I am looking forward to.

(http://images.marketworks.com/hi/55/55303/planetside_core_combat.jpg)

 :awesome_for_real:

Carefully constructed propaganda pictures of what might or might not be retouched in-game graphics for a pre-alpha game do not impress me.

Graphics, of course, are the very LEAST of what interests me in a this genre. I'd play a dwarf fortress multiplayer after all.

However, I will check back in a year to see where this is headed. It's wayyy too soon to know either way.

I don't know, those seem reasonable given Age of Conan.

Yeah, they said it's the second generation of the AoC engine.  AoC is already pretty close to that so I'm not entirely discounting those screen shots.

Confirmed in-game.

AOC has some of the best world graphics that I've seen.  I loved the mountains and the forests etc visually.

As I kinda expected, not much real info came out.

 - 3 factions detailed; another 3 hinted at (so perhaps there are 3 societies to start in and you can switch as you go along).
 - There will be guild leveling.
 - No levels and classes, but "society ranking gives the players something to strive for and also serves as a barometer of their progress in the game" and provides access to new content.
 - PvP for resources.
 - Appearance not linked to stats.
 - Central base areas certainly make it sound like a hub-and-spoke kind of game with instancing.

TSW is still probably the most interesting MMO not yet released. But I'm sure Funcom will give it a good go at grabbing defeat from the jaws of victory.

Like I said, there's nothing in any interview or design blog that just blurts out "I am a good game."  Graphics are sweet and the premise is awesome... but that says nothing for the design.   Heh, maybe it'll be enough for some people to just slap on a new skin, but for many it wont.  I need more from Funcom than this as technically, so far, AoC is more groundbreaking.

Pretty is nice, but we all know that pretty != fun.  I want fun.  If the fun is pretty, that's a huge bonus.  

Has Funcom learned how to make fun?  I'm not convinced.

This is the only time I'm going to say it in this thread. AoC started out as fun as any other MMO had. They just couldn't finish the job.

There was a lot right about AoC when it released... when you could get it to run longer than 15 mins. 

Mission generators with choice over rewards was brilliant. 

Arkham Horror - the boardgame: "Azathoth awakes. You all die."

It would make a tremendous MMO and one where nerfs to characters would be part of the game.

It looks like disappointing -- but logical-- next step on the "EQ2 -> AoC -> even more shiny realtime Poser" road. Which is fine i guess, just a style i can't bring myself to like personally.

Oh, they repeated that in AoC from AO? Nifty. I only made it to... 32 as a Bear Shaman during my free month I think. So I never got to any real dungeons or whatnot.

I fully disagree with this.

I am interested.  It's as close to a Shadowrun MMO I could hope for without elves.  And I bet it moves towards Cthulu as well, which makes me quiver.  So yeah.  Let's wait and see and watch closely.

So.... Tabula Rasa done right?

That's where I'm at on this.



Now that sounds awesome. On paper, anyways. Funcom, etc...

Hey, it looks like I can make black people!  Score!

The rest of the game looks pretty too.

Tabula Rasa could never be done right, sorry pal.

Very true.

Wait, with which part? That i think it's fine if Funcom wants to keep evolving this graphics style, or that i can't help but feel disappointed by their choice since i'm not personally very fond of it? :why_so_serious:

But srsly would love to see a video of their presentation, maybe it just comes together once it's in motion.

I'm going to be really angry when this game comes out only 1/10th finished.  Otherwise it looks amazing.

The fact it's non fantasy and the genre really has some exciting possibilities interests me. Even if this game sucks, and I assume all MMO's are going to until proven otherwise, maybe the next one in the same genre will do better.

The screens are evocative, in a very good way. They definitely look to me like AoC, but in a much more interesting world.

The no levels line seems bogus. You pursue social "ranking" in your faction, which unlocks access to better equipment, which is no doubt key to your becoming more effective and receiving and being able to take on tougher missions. By any other name.

The hollow earth PvP is sounding to me like Aion's Abyss, with three player factions duking it out instead of two + NPC. I'd like to know what a cell is, that's not inspiring. In fact the hollow earth has none of the appeal that those screens create - without a context it just sounds like make-work PvP. Like the AoC minigames.

It's still going to be a game about killing stuff and levelling, oh well. Great screens, though, the lore may be a lot of fun.

Do all the factions get swords or just the Dragon? Methinks the kiddies will all want to be Dragon if they have all the katanas.

Implementing a Templar faction without longswords would be remarkably stupid.

The interview said that race and weapon are personal choices and not faction specific.

It's hard to really get away from that for the simple fact there is progression (where should I progress?). You also in respect need to have some type of mechanic to measure my power versus target power. There are always unique ways to do that and I think the different approaches are the good factor here.

I agree that it is very hard to get away from that, but WAR did the 'we aren't going to have levels - here are ranks and reknown ranks instead' switch. The social ranking measure is just a way to gate content - which I understand the necessity of doing so - but it is a form of levelling. Especially since you just tied it into 'player power'. It also depends on how you can increase it - I'm guessing PvP action and PvE missions will help.

It's not a bad obfuscation, but I'll wait to see the full mechanic to judge it. I mean, you could potentially have social ranking with all of the different societies, meaning your character would have different abilities to interact with each, but the way it is described makes it sound more limited - you'd only have one rank for the society you are with.

From this bit (http://pc.ign.com/articles/102/1023335p2.html):

... it sounds to me like reskinned Notum Wars from Anarchy Online rather than Aion, actually. "cell" would be then just a hotspot which can be controlled by a guild cabal.

Interview with Ragnar at Rock, Paper, Shotgun (http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2009/09/10/the-secret-world-factions-pvp-details/#more-17499). Some details on factions and the PvP.

I'm sure you're right, I'm not familiar with Notum Wars.

I guess what I was driving at is that the hollow earth side of the game sounds almost completely abstracted from the rest of the very appealing setting, more so than Aion, actually. Three sides endlessly fight for territory in a purpose-constructed setting (not in the modern day streets like the rest of the game) to gain and hold resources which generally help their one-third of the server population, and which directly help the PvP guilds doing the fighting. I understand why it's designed like that: sequestered off, three permanent sides, it's a design going back to DAoC, it just seems bolted-on and yawn.

Unless the PvP itself is well-designed, and I suppose there's potential with the classless system and leveling supposedly leading to breadth of combat skills as opposed to raw power. But we've heard that before, it's all in the implementation, especially if the same system is used used for PvE progression. Upgrading weapons through the PvP resource "anima" - the main point of the battles for cells - does sound strictly linear.

Open warfare in the hidden places and politics and subterfuge in the surface world sounds good to me. If you had 100 mages lobbing fireballs around the city it's not really much of a secret anymore. This approach lets them keep both elements in balance. Though if the game revolves primarily around PvP I'm less interested.

IIRC, WAR didn't have any levels besides RR, correct? The whole idea being that RR was simply a way of telling someone's age/prowess and was dumped in the EA "MAKE IT LIKE WOW" debacle?

Or was that crazy early beta and/or I'm imagining stuff?  :uhrr:

Appreciate the clarification.

I agree the "battleground" for pvp resources grind seems pretty divorced from how the setting was portrayed. The more I see and hear the "Asian target audience" (Cant seem to source that, but Im 95% certain it was said) statement starts to become a bit more worrying. It also seems pretty much firmly a high fantasy setting. While I thought it was going for more a occult hiding in the shadows type of deal.

WAR had levels for everything.

Even its levels had levels.

WAR had levels, called rank from 1 to 40 and honor ranks, called renown rank from 1 to 80. Their claim to not have levels (did they even make this claim? I don't remember hearing it) would have never been deeper than "our levels are called ranks".

But the idea of a skill-based advancement system isn't exactly new or unknown, or impossible to guess at. UO, EVE, Darkfall, that type of shit is pretty much the only thing they could be referring to, right? EVE has a faction system that rewards better gear too, doesn't it? But it doesn't have such a focus that it simply takes the place of leveling.

RPS: Can you just explain the classless progression idea?

Tørnquist: We wanted to make a game system that was at home in the modern world.
...it has some important basic ideas: players will have a sort of deck of cards which will say how their character is going to be. They will be able to shuffle that deck to change how they play as they go along, they're going to open up more options for that deck as they go along. It's much more dynamic than other such games, you won't get stuck as the tank or the healer, and you should be able to contribute to the process and to the party no matter who you are. Clothes aren't going to have stats – you can choose whether you want to wear sneakers and a T-shirt, or if you want full goth outfit, or a dress and high heels. All those things are possible, and they're not going to effect how your character plays.

...you can play for a reasonably limited amount of time and get skills that will allow you take part in the group, even if the area is quite dangerous, and the party quite experienced. They will be able to go more places than you, have more options at their disposal, and be able to do missions you can't, fight enemies you cannot fight, but you will still be able to play with them in a group and contribute without having played as much as they have.

As you explore you do missions, and open up characters. There are areas that are more dangerous than others, and there are progressions from one area to another into more difficult encounters. You can go to harder areas, but you will struggle unless you are with a tougher group of players. But most importantly there is a linear storyline for you to follow, the story that explains why you can do all this amazing stuff. Following the story takes you to new locations in a sort of "ideal sequence".

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2009/04/22/interview-t%C3%B8rnquist-on-the-secret-world/

Funcom picks up the Enlighten (http://electronictheatre.co.uk/index.php/industry-news/3032-funcom-sign-enlighten-for-the-secret-world-a-age-of-conan) middleware for use in TSW.

Quote from Ragnar

I can see why TSW doesn't have any prospective release dates.

The official release date : when it's halfway done.

*sizzle*

Since the original article never bothers to explain it, Enlighten (http://www.geomerics.com/) is a package for real time calculation of radiosity lighting. Supposedly CCP also picked this up a while ago for their 'walking in stations' expansion for Eve.

I obviously have no idea how hard/easy it is to implement a system like that into an existing system.

It's probably not hard, plus the third party group would be looking to help Funcom implement it, but it just takes time.

Also, it's going into AoC as well, so it looks like they are linking it to whatever engine (Dreamscape?) that Funcom uses.

Just like the game their engine is named after. God I want to know how they are going to resolve that cliffhanger.

Going after what Tornquist said elsewhere, not before TSW and another unannounced project have been done.  :oh_i_see:

According to some sharedholder documents I saw when looking for info on AoC player numbers, Funcom has two 'casual' MMOs planned before they made their next major product launch. I'm guessing that TSW isn't one of their casual MMOs.

They might have also changed these plans - I haven't read any recent filings by them to see.

Yikes (http://www.funcom.com/wsp/funcom/frontend.cgi?func=publish.show&func_id=1365&table=CONTENT)

Odd, considering they just opened up an office in Montreal.  Unless they're using the cheaper labor in Montreal vs the more expensive labor in Norway.

Dark days have arrived.

Exactly. From Gamesindustry.biz; (http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/funcom-to-cut-20-percent-of-workforce)

Go go Canada! Though I'd be sad if Quebec became the next big hub for game development, damn francophones.

Please, the correct term is "Maplefrogs".

Maple would imply they're Canadian. :oh_i_see:

Granted. They're upstate New Yorkers with bad accents.

 :mob:

Fuck you, my family was producing maple products before Canada even existed.  

What's up with the retarded hate anyway?

This game isn't for you. Your power of perception is lacking.

Funcom sent out e-mails a couple of days ago inviting people take a test on their website and "win beta access" on their website. Not sure what that really means, but the test is a fun little bit of marketing which tells you which in-game faction you are most suited to.

I am a Dragon, apparently. It's on the www.darkdaysarecoming.com (http://www.darkdaysarecoming.com) website.

More like a few weeks ago.

My email arrived only a few days ago too. Must be staggered.

Actually, I think someone at Funcom worked out they should be sending emails to their database about how they will have a new game available (eventually).

Pity, because the forums are already a complete waste of space. It's full of useless suggestions, breathless following of Ragnar on Twitter and forum RP, all in the same sub-forums.

I agree. Checked out the forums and their doesn't really seem to be any reason for them to exist. There's so little known about the game that productive discussion is unlikely. Instead it's all angling for beta or establishing a "forum presence", which is probably also tied to the first.

It's an interesting comparison with Blizzard who keep information about their next MMO completely locked down.

This was funny, I received the "contest" e-mail on one of the mail adresses I registered with my old AO account and thought, 'why not'? Filled out the questionnaire, registered, thought I might do the contest a couple times, just in case I care about the beta.

Now I keep getting the "fill out the Secret World questionnaire" invitation on the mailboxes that I already registered while submitting the quiz, because apparently I expressed "Interest in Funcom products". I'm going to dub this "Recursive Campaign Mangement". I wonder, if I keep replying and using the same adresses, will the internet implode? Or Funcom?  :ye_gods:

People are running on the fumes from the ARG with a nice dash of crazy.

Looks like they are using TSW beta keys as a lure to bring people back to Age of Conan.

So basically its pay 45 bucks to get into a beta.  Then pay 50-60 more when the game goes live for the real game!

Desperation, 45$ for a guaranteed spot in a beta that could begin in years? Twelve months and get the expansion for free?!

Really does reek of desperation in the worst way.  Both the beta stuff and the xp boosts.

I dunno, if I was thinking of resubbing I can imagine that might tip the balance. I can't work out if it means existing subscribers who simply continue paying their subs are eligible or not.

while I am very interested in this game I have a problem paying money to test anything.  Ya I get a sub to an other game, but you get my point.

Well this was in part of my "OMG COME BACK TO CONAN" email about the sub prices.

In addition we have also increased the discounts on the longer subscription cycles: 3 months gives a 20% discount, 6 months gives a 30% discount, and 12 months gives a 45% discount.
Each bonus item can only be received once per account.

They're trying to steal money from eBay!

It's not really desperation so much as trying for a mini relaunch of the game. With the itemization revamp and added content, AoC is a much better game today than it was at launch. Of course you can't get a real relaunch; the best you can do is launch a major expansion and hope the media and players take another look. Which, to their credit, Funcom is doing as well. They haven't abandoned AoC.

If it were me, I would offer friends and family bundles too. Something like blizzard's refer a friend program with vastly decreased initial investments just to get people playing.

Or BJ's

This would be aided by the launching of a new server or two.  Achievers love a new server.

You could perhaps offer to activate nascent accounts for a free week or two and open a few fresh servers. Otherwise it looks like you are trying to suck a few drops of juice from a corpse.

Yes, and opening up a couple totally empty servers makes a lot of sense. Wait, not so much.

Naw your right offering a huge discount to a game you have already quit and whose future is extremely dire will be far more effective. If the game is radically improved then you would probably want people to see it? If you haven't tried it you probably would like a fresh server to do so. Either way if you don't have the people to populate a few fresh servers you are fucked anyway.

Who the fuck wants to invest in a3- 6-12 month subscription when by all appearances the game isn't going to be around that long, at least as something other than a wasteland. A game by and large you have already quit months ago. As opposed to who will try the game for a week or two and see the improvements and stick around? If you really believe that your game has improved enough to retain some of the lost subscriptions the free couple of weeks seems a better game plan. The other path has the appearance of bilking the rubes while you can.

You need to work on your reading comprehension, son.

This entire thing was triggered by an email offering former subscribers 14 days free play with double experience. If you then go on to subscribe for various lengths of time you get various incentives, with the 3 month incentive being guaranteed beta access to the secret world. Jamiko posted an except from that email in this thread, on this very same page, yesterday. Scroll up a page to find it.

I apologize, I thought it was offering a discount for multiple months combined with free beta and expansion.

Yeh, I got the email about this.  I can "level up twice as fast" in AOC with my new helmet that gives me a 10% increase in experience......

Now I'm not real good in math, but this just doesn't quite add up.   Also, not counting on the Dark Days thing making it to completion, so I'm not going to plunk down more money for that.

What is the AOC expansion likely to retail at? That's the only offer that even vague tempts me.

Who truly believes that Funcom will be able to properly track and implement the beta keys from this promotion when the time comes?

I'll say they'll track them, even if they go to the wrong person.

I bet Funcom doesn't even know they are planning a beta.

Actually, their account management stuff seems quite robust for things like this. I was surprised to find all my old AO info preserved when I set up for AoC, and my AoC account still shows as discrete items (with little pictures even) my headstart and post-release perks.

We track everything pretty well.  :heartbreak:

Gamespot has new video and interviews up regarding teh 3 secret societies.

Dragon is here (http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/thesecretworld/news.html?sid=6243637&mode=previews), Illuminati is here (http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/thesecretworld/news.html?sid=6243832&mode=previews).  Templar will be tomorrow.

Looks good to me. Three factions is probably a good number and they're all morally ambiguous. An illuminati might well do good because that's a path to the power they crave, A dragon might do evil because that will be more important in the long term.

... Of course, it's all meaningless if the game is half-baked.

Forgive me. This is what we do now, yes?

When it makes sense or is funny, sure.

When it's just uhhh, "hip?" not so much.

some of the comments under the Illuminati link are  :ye_gods: :uhrr:  :awesome_for_real:

I'm really interested in TSW and I like lore, but holy hell I wish they'd get to talking about the game features rather than vagaries of organisations that will be ignored by 90% of the player base.

The longer they don't talk about game features, the less they have to lie.

You should be happy they haven't said shit.

Well, at least you're optimistic.

That's not optimism, that's just giving them time to get their lies straight. (This applies to companies even with the best intentions, in fact, I'd prefer them not say ANYTHING until there's a full gameplay demo).

FUNCOM: Our games are better when you think they're vaporware!

FIFY.

I agree that it's better not to say anything, but TSW has been loud in not saying anything for quite a while.

(http://www.sensus-dp.demon.co.uk/VapourTrails.jpg)

Yes, I know I always say this.  Still.

Then stop paying attention to it.

But their vague offerings are so shiny...

I liked TSW when there was an extremely small group of people on their forums with their viral puzzles.  That was cool in a small signal to noise ratio type of way.

I just can't figure out how anyone is still getting excited over a Funcom MMO.

The same way we always do, Funcom uses good settings.  Even when it was someone else's setting it was a really cool setting that was different and it sounded like they were going to do it justice until the class list + details came out.

I was so excited for Anarchy, it sounded so cool the setting was something I could really get lost in and Funcom seemed (and really was in their way) committed to making the world and its story matter.

Getting excited for this, even if it is Funcom makes 10 million times more sense to me then being excited for games where just from looking at a ss of the ui I know exactly what the gameplay will feel like (hello Aion, ChampO, etc) and I know its shit and has been for over a decade.  Then again I'm like the biggest selected target hater ever so I should probably be ignored.

Just like last year, Merry Christmas ya dirty bastards. Christ, I can't believe it's been a year already....

Link (http://www.imagedump.com/index.cgi?pick=get&tp=556663)

Edit: As soon as I can learn how to internet correctly anyways....

Edit2: You just get a link this year.

Classy.

The girl zombie on the right is wearing an Innsmouth shirt.

As much as they want you to hate them, it's hard not to love Funcom sometimes.

Funcom is the lovable drunk of the MMO family. They have no chance of getting their act together, always cause a scene, shit always comes up missing after they've been there, yet you can never quite bring yourself to strike them from the guest list.

My favorite part about that is that one of them took the time to unbuckle Santa's belt.

That's uhmm. Well, if i was looking for one more game about zombies to put on the pile of million titles furiously trying to exploit this meme in the past year-two or so, i'd be all stoked.

But since zombies just make me go meh, welp.

And if zombies was all it was about, you might have actually had a point.

My point was rather, if from all things it's supposed to be about they choose to focus on the zombies for their promotional artwork, they can only blame themselves for whatever wrong impressions it'll give their potential audience.

Alternatively it can make one wonder if the change of direction isn't in fact coming. And/or how many of their nebulous ideas convert into content that isn't just shooting zombies.

It seems like everywhere I look there are images of a fat man in a red costume recently. Now it looks like Funcom are trying to jump on the bandwagon and explot this same tired theme. And I had such high hopes for this game.

I stand corrected. A game which tries to promote itself during xmas season with image of Santa Claus and zombies is obviously going to feature neither. Both are nothing but part of the traditional holiday imagery after all.

Forecasting gloom and doom is trendy and cool these days.  I just wish a little more thought and creativity went into it. 

(This should in no way be taken as some kind of defense for TSW, Funcom, or the entire video game industry )

Why don't we use green anymore?   :uhrr: :uhrr: :uhrr:

For the same reason the @Someone doesn't appear here - sandy mangina.  Different over-anal mod, same basic reason.  Oh wait, no, that couldn't be it.  It must be because it's not cool.

Someone started to use green on the vault network somewhere and so therefore it was not to be used here anymore.  Or somesuch reason.

1. People shouldn't need green when someone is joking.
2. @Someone isn't used because it's Twitter derived bullshit and there's a FUCKING QUOTE BUTTON.

A QUOTE BUTTON.

USE IT. IT'S FAR MORE USEFUL.

Like this? Did I do good? Do I win a prize?

You live to see another day, sir.

http://www.kingsmouth.com/

Apparently, viral marketing is in progress...

From the not-real-town page...


So, they moved Hogwarts did they?

That is almost certainly not what they're going for with Innsmouth (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Innsmouth) Academy.  :cthulu:

Yeah i know Miskatonic river etc etc, but this site almost seems to push beyond the earlier marketing "dark conspiracies and mystery" angle into almost Cthulu-lite parody, hence my comment about Hogwarts.  Maybe it's just me.

I think i liked some of their earlier marketing efforts better.

New Montreal CEO says (http://translate.google.com/translate?js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=1&eotf=1&u=http://www.jeuxonline.info/article/8029/the-secret-world-moult-projets&sl=auto&tl=en) '18-24 months'.  Page 3 (http://translate.google.com/translate?js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=1&eotf=1&u=http://www.jeuxonline.info/article/8029/the-secret-world-moult-projets&sl=auto&tl=en), if you don't want to read it all.  

My tagging is superior (http://translate.google.com/translate?js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=1&eotf=1&u=http://www.jeuxonline.info/article/8029/the-secret-world-moult-projets&sl=auto&tl=en)

Two years seems like a long time given how long they've been talking about this game.

From the above:


Even assuming for some translation issues (I'm assuming they mean "in seven games, ten if they succeed") it's an interesting strategy... but I don't think a good one. Certainly sounds like they are stretching themselves though, even with those games being a mix of F2P, social network games and sub MMOs. But yeah, another 2 years for TSW is worthy of an eyeroll, unless they are planning launch then and alpha / beta is planned for a 12 month stretch before then.

Doubt it though, since such a long testing period would cost too much.


 :grin:

It's super fun video (http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/thesecretworld/video/6248619?hd=1&tag=topslot;watchlink;1) time!

The video was awesome, the comments...  :uhrr:

That video was pretty stupid.

...

What?

Please show me on the doll where the Great Old One touched you. That video was   :drill:

Even the ad I got before the video was awesome.

I am Nikolai of Bank of Nikolai!  You can trust me, Look! I have pen!"

The ad was amazing.

The videos are just a waste of time and money at this point. Even if they're awesome.

I'm kinda disappointed I got no ad. The video was okay but not exactly oozing with originality. If this is supposed to be an MMO they can't be aiming for huge servers - 10.000 people running around playing the few survivors in what I gather is a small fishing town. Not that 200 man servers are necessarily a bad thing, but they stretch the definition of "massive".

I am of course just talking out of my ass with these numbers.

Frankly, I'd prefer the smaller number of players if they can actually deliver on the premise.

Kingsmouth will be an instanced mission in a game that will be heavily instanced. It's actually starting to seem more like Star Wars: The Old Republic (only with a smaller budget and less voice acting) than anything else.

still watching/waiting for this


only similar competition is CCP's WoD, I think

I got an ad for Windows 7.  The whole zombie video in Kingsmouth wasn't even close to the other videos they have released.

Because the old thread was old. With the reveal coming up, I figured we could use a fresh start to discuss the official info about to come out.

The Secret World In-Game Teaser Trailer for March 25th Reveal (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4SDoeoS5xI)

Not til beta, hombre.

All righty.

tasty

I'm starting to get a Deadlands vibe.

I'm totally setting myself up for a disappoitment by getting excited by this game. That's because the version in my head is all about storytelling, and not the inevitable reality that is a dikumud with a novelty reskin.

 

You're ignoring the Funcom sized elephant in the room. 

Taking bets on whether the game actually releases with this particular content.

Nope.  Can't have it.

I don't see why it couldn't.  Looks like EQ2's player/guild housing with some ranking stuff thrown in.

Since they have it all done in Anarchy Online it's probably one thing they can port without much fuss.

I'd be more concerned with them managing to implement other things. Like, coming up with actual game to attach to this guild hq system.

On that note, there's a pretty extensive feature list up on the main site (where I quoted from).  It's a fairly impressive laundry list.  Forgive me if this has been posted already, but I dont recall recently that it has.  Regardless, we'll know more in 36hrs eh?

That's really not a feature list.  It just reads like:

We have city zones that represent real life cities.  We are using a skill system rather than a class system with a lot of different combinations and cool loot.  It's closer to an FPS in terms of game play with three different "sides" that you can join and play.  However you can join guilds, I mean, cabals to play with your friends.  We have an achievement board and battlegrounds with "lol-next-gen-graphics-lol".

Few tidbits of info in tentonhammer (http://www.tentonhammer.com/events/gdc2010/tsw) sneak peek. On plus side: appearance tab.

Yes, I am very impressed by Funcom's bulleted list of sentences.

Green added.  Note taken.