f13.net

Spy shit.
Controllable spy teams.
Two factions.

That's it thus far.

Also, PS3. Needed to mention that again.

So, twitch?

Had to be done.

Weak.

PS3 = Weak Sauce.

Wasn't this one going to be RMT/Station Exchange type thing enabled as well?

Ah well.  

Still won't be buying a PS3 any time soon.

Because the first thing I think of when I think of thousands of people online is SPIES.

Dibs on Bond007.

I'm fucking stoked about it being on the PS3.

But are MMOs on a console really the "future"?  I mean, EQOA kinda sucked, and that was largely because an MMO on a console was wonky.  Or is there some special PS3 feature (besides the obvious HD stuff) that would make it so much better than an MMO on the PS2?

If they could make different platforms (edited for clarity: 360 and PS3) play with each other and fully support mouse / keyboard usage, sure.

I am guessing the biggest hurdle (besides legal issues) is the two different OS's a PS3 and 360 may use - if they do, or even use one at all?

Edit:  Further, if they can develop a game for one static 'build' (a PS3 for example), it *has* to cut their development time and QA costs significantly.

Yes.

Or.

No.

My argument is more sound simply because it's easier to avoid WoW on a console and the platform is unified.

What do you have to offer? Keyboard and Mouse? Easiest Fix Ever.

A console with a k/b and mouse is just a pc with limited upgrade options.

In the very least, it's not simply another high-fantasy PC rpg (mmo). There's genre-evolvement value in that alone. There's the untapped user base as well; even the RTS genre has made a stronger foray I would imagine with the recent 360 success of C&C3 (if the cited sales I saw were correct). MMOs have only had, what, poor EQOA and decent-at-best FF XI on the PS2 for measures of success.

There's a lot of potential for MMOs of different models. If devs want to really experiment with different world styles (varying degrees of a core world versus instancing) and different payment methods (eg; those that would suit a typical console game you only may play 2 or 3 months a year, but want to be able to pick up whenever you want and just enjoy), consoles are likely a much more open front. Such seems to be met with so much hostility in the established and often traditionalist PC communities. They likely suit the platform more too, not only with a larger acceptance of DLC (larger, certainly not total; re: BOHICA sentiment) but simply how folks consume games on consoles (far more at a faster rate).

Unified. Platform.

Christ. No one WANTS to upgrade for shit. We're just forced to. Bad argument. Thrown out. -50 FKP.

This will go well.

Also you are wrong Schild but I dont mind.  Rock on with your bad self.  This game will suck balls and the world will still turn.


When your entire concept was irrovably fucking smashT by reply #5 you need to l2dev.

The great thing about a theoretical game for my 360 is that I don't have to contemplate upgrading my vid card, RAM, or processor to have a chance to enjoy it.

That in and of itself is reason enough for me to buy MMOs (or ANY good/entertaining game) for my 360 (or PS3 if I had the interest and intent to own one).

The thing that I really don't like about mmo's on console is that either a) you'll be required to buy a keyboard to communicate or b) you'll be forced to use voice chat.  If someone can incorporate a keyboard well, I'd be fine with that.  I really don't want to be forced into a large world with voicechat... he;;, the general chat channel text in WoW makes me want to stab myself in the face. I can't imagine having to listen to it.

Its easier for the developers. Thats the only difference if you buy your PCs in one piece and never upgrade for shit.

They get paid to make the stuff compatible, so switching to consoles just makes their work easier. Which is fine if you get the games cheaper as a result. If not, whats in it for me? I admit I seldom upgrade these days, but another graphic card once in a while or more RAM is still something wandering into my PC once in a while. An option denied to me for the developers convenience? What are you schild, their fucking mother?

Again. EQOA.

But beyond that to the specifics of this game. I'm totally going to spy on you spying on me! Maybe you could rp DeNiro from the Fockers when you camp the Kremlin for phat lewtz.

I'm with schild on this one.

You want mass market appeal? Put a good, solid MMO on a console. FF11 doesn't count.

Although, while I can see why they'd put it on a PS3, I still don't think it's a smart choice.

Small userbase of hardcores already own PCs.

I never said limited upgrade options was bad or stated lots of normal people upgrade pcs, what I meant was, consoles are so advanced nowadays that the whole console vs pc argument should really die.  Today, consoles are pc's so it's like discussing which is better, a 4 wheeled motorcyle with a roof or a car.

Yeah, it really should. The only two reasons for exclusives are lazyness or greed. The days where console developed titles were worse because of hardware restrictions should be over. So nobody should give a fuck anymore.

I am not arguing the quality of the game. I could care less about the actual quality. 99.9% of the MMOGs out there suck balls and people are still making that shit for the PC.

I can't even begin to believe greed was mentioned....

I want a 1000 word piece on the 0.1% that don't.

Clearly, you've never played Yogurting.

And all I ask is that people master BBCode.

I FIXED IT DAMNIT!

And all I ask is that people master BBCode.


I saw it before you fixed it. YOU FELL VICTIM TOO.

LOOK AT WHAT YOU'VE DONE.

The graphics will be great. And there's a lack of competition. But it's still the PS3, which just isn't selling that great and is specifically for a kind of gamer not totally enraptured by MMORPGs. I completely understand the internal desire to support this platform. But they really need to try and stop owning all aspects of the user experience in some format they created themselves. This completely holds them back. Microsoft understands this, but of course is better positioned to leverage multiple platforms laterally too. Whether you LIKE those platforms is another story ;)

I'll play it if they include a PS3 in the $60 box.

Otherwise no thanks. I don't think I'm alone here.

I don't care about how much the PS3 has sold or whether I like it. I don't care about the internal desire to support the platform.

All I care about is 1. It most likely won't be a straight diku grind and 2. It's ignoring WoW.

That's fucking progress, whether the game is good or not.

Edit: AGAIN, I don't give a fuck about the fact it's on the PS3. It's the fact the PS3 ISN'T a PC. It could have been the DS for all I care (would've sold better on the DS too).

Then again unified platform is exactly what SOE wants to shove down our throats.

Now you not only have to buy a new game every 4 years, but you have to buy a new $700 system! Brilliant!

Again, no thanks.

This is a horrible argument. Once again, I don't give a shit about the platform other than the fact it's NOT a PC. Stop being a douchebag. By the way, the combined cost of the PS1, PS2, and PS3 at launch is less than the cost of a new PC. And you probably get a new one of them every 5-7 years - and only if you're frugal.

I am very frugal and I earn my living with this piece of shit. I don't know what the cost of a "new PC" is other than the $400 business boxes I buy here. That's no typo.

Incorporate like I did then you can write off your next computer system. I'm surprised you haven't already.

While platforms do optimize game performance for the masses, they often don't for the individual.  Any savvy PC person can get software to run extremely well on their system even without an annual upgrade.  The advantages to releasing titles this way must have to do with financial advantages they have due to obligations to produce for a single console.  

Edit: I guess they would also incur lower upkeep costs, fewer CSR needs, and less frequent patching due to limited restrictions.  Ok... I see more clearly how development is much easier in this manner.  You target one set of specs and don't have to worry about the myriad of box variations.

But how exactly is that different than needing to buy a $1500 computer every 2 years to play the newest PC games?

For everything except playing games and using the bleeding edge graphics applications, my 6 year old computer does just fine.

If you are not a person who buys a new computer every couple of years then you have a right to complain. But complaining about buying a console half as often for less than half the cost of buying a new PC to keep abreast of the current crop of games is silly.

You don't need a new PC every 2 years to play the current games. The system I replaced 2 weeks ago was the same system that I played AC2 beta/final on. I don't even remember what year that was. I am trying to forget AC2 in the meantime as well.

Man, I would LOVE a DS MMO.

Fuck, I might even play that Maple Story DS game if they ever port it here.

At least the interface lends itself better.

But seriously - getting MMOs on a console will only do good for the genre. It will, by default, have a higher and new audience for MMOs. You can't go making the same game you would make on a PC for this same market, which I think is why they're going for the spy angle.

Make it fit the platform, and an MMO can conceivably work on any given platform that has an internet connection.

Might as well target the platform that has the potential for a higher install base.

I haven't replaced my system since before Star Wars Galaxies (haven't really been THAT compelled - will be for UT2k7 though). I'm willing to spend money on the hobby to get the best possible experience (which unfortunately means owning all the consoles) and you aren't. Great. Next.

The thing is, a large number of people who complain about the pricetag of the consoles and how they are 'forced' to buy a new one every 4 years DO buy or upgrade heavily their PCs every couple of years.

And the majority of PC game developers seem design with the bleeding edge of 2 years ago as their baseline system.

The best possible PS3 experience is waiting until it's $50 and the games are $5.

Then again I think I'm moving on. I haven't even played God of War 2 yet.

I like Haemish's version of the future, and I eagerly await the day it comes to pass...

I fucking hate you little console gamer monkeys.  Go die in a cartridge fire  :-P


<completely changed post after reading the post below>

Yes. They really really are, because that's where mass market game development is going. PC's are going to be rightly "relegated" to niche.

And in my scenario, that is a FUCKING GREAT THING. Because consoles can suck up all the mouth breathers, with aversion to typing (because the console MMO should have voice chat from the get go, and preferably voice fonts) and little real thinking required or wanted. Then developers can hopefully build smaller, niche MMOG's that do interesting shit like virtual worlds, PVP, etc. etc.

But the PS3? I'd have hoped the game would be on a console with a large install base. Maybe by 2010.

C'mon who's going to play a massive on-line world where you hit a loading screen every 2 minutes.  What's the biggest zone you've ever seen in a console game?  Now express that as a percent of a typicaly MMO zone/chunk.

Huh? The PS3 will do more than just fine.

I hope they raise the price of the station pass when this one gets added  :roll:

Smed is already gloating in anticipation just by thinking about it. I am sure he already wrote the press release, which is the same as the last two with Gods 'n Heroes Vanguard The Agency written on it.

OOo, a modern recreation of Spy vs Spy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spy_vs._Spy_(computer_game))? =P

Whats a voice font?

I always wonder why people constantly forget that FFXI is a PS2 game. 2!

It has large zones, a large world, nice character and enemy models, etc. Anyone saying that a console has too many limitations to do a MMORPG has no clue.

Jesus fuck, people still bitching about the price of the PS3. Of course you don't need to upgrade your PC every 2 years, of course you can play on 640x480 on lowest settings. Of course you don't even fucking NEED a new console, you can toy around with the C64 or whatever. You don't NEED any of the shit we're discussing on this very forum section. If you want what I'd like to call an enjoyable experience and actually give a shit about the evolution then yes, you'd probably want to upgrade that box every now and then.

Sure enough, a lot of people won't get a PS3 for various reasons even if it had a superior library. I mean there's a good chunk of people who still in this day and age tries to argue that the GC or XBOX won the last generation and clearly had the best games. However, for people with an intrest in MMOs and already considering the buying the console this is great news. I would love to play MMOs on a console as long as it has keyboard support, and the chances of that happening is pretty large for the PS3.

Consoles are fine for me when I want to play a single player game, but I could only see playing an MMOG on one if it was like Planetside or something. Also, the idea of VOIP taking over as the only source of communication in MMOGs (console or otherwise) scares the shit out of me.

What was the last console that didn't either have a keyboard attachment or work with any USB keyboard? The N64?

N64 had one for the 64DD in Japan. Try the SNES era.

(http://www.e-lation.net/site/img/info_special/64dd/stuff_keyboard.jpg)

Yeah but the UI sucks.

Heh.

This is an SOE game -- the graphics are going to suck ass.

SOE Seattle. Graphics will be fine. Me thinks.

Unlike, say, the Xbox 360, all PS3s have hard drives. Hence they can stream world content off the hard drive just like PC MMOs do.

The Matrix Online graphics sucked ass. The character models were slightly better than the ones in EQ2 but the world looked horrible.

:google:

If we give him another couple minutes, do you think Trippy will quote himself and comment on it to keep the chain going?

 :-D

It's silly to argue against MMOs on consoles. Consoles are just another platform, voice chat is better than typing anyway, and being restricted to a gamepad tends to lead to better interfaces, without the 1000s of unintuitive controls you can get with a keyboard.

I don't own a next-gen console, because I tend to enjoy genres that come out on the PC. I bought an xbox1 for KOTOR, and if they release a great MMO or western-style RPG on ps3 or 360, I'll buy one. I care about games, not platforms.

Yes, but only with people you actually like or enjoy grouping with. When you bring it in as the main way of communicating with everyone, it blows.

Every MMO sucks if you play with random jerkoffs rather than friends or guildmates. I really don't see what you mean.

Purple monkey dishwater.

Yeah I did, but it (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voice_font) ("A voice font is a computer-generated voice that can be controlled by specifying parameters such as speed and pitch and made to pronounce text input") didn't seem to make sense in this context. Just wondering if maybe he meant some kind of voice masquerading function and if this stuff is technically practical yet.

My guess is he wants a text to speech converter in these sorts of games so you don't have to constantly be reading the chat box for those that aren't on voice chat.

Uhhhh duuuurrrrrrr. They already have it in many XBL games.

text to speech

right

ignore me.

Hello? Is someone talking?

The point was that you're ALWAYS playing with random jerkoffs in an MMOG, you just can't hear them.

Do we really need actual keyboards if all they are going to be used for is chat?

http://www.joystiq.com/2007/04/09/hands-on-pics-of-the-xbox-360-qwerty-keyboard/

Things like this seem really keen for a console MMO, flows well with all the cellphone texting folks do these days.

Try earlier.  The first time I ever typed up an email it was on the SNES.

In America? What? Pray tell, where did you get a hardware keyboard for the SNES?

I think we had to mail away for it.  Xband (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XBAND) was never huge, but I'm mildly surprised you don't remember it.  It was a modem that plugged in between your console and cartridge like a Game Genie, and let you play/chat/email over their service.  I had a record of 212-64 at Killer Instinct.

It was fucking awesome.  Nationwide service involved long-distance charges, so most people didn't bother, and thus matches all took place between people within the same calling area.  There was a whole little community of local teenage console nerds that played.  There were organized get-togethers, people started hanging out, a couple kids started dating, and eventually the whole social network migrated into real life.  To this day, over a decade later, I have very close IRL friends whom I would otherwise have never met.

Edit, PS:  There was even an Atari 2600 keyboard (http://www.atarimuseum.com/videogames/consoles/2600/keyboard/), though I never owned one.  And of course the Famicom had a keyboard available in Japan.

Integral voice chat: WoW is adding it Soon(tm). EVE has it already. Pretty much ever new MMOG from now on will have it. A lot of guilds have a vent/TS server anyway.

Consoles: More customers, standardized hardware, all-but-untapped market. Of course publishers want to move their money hat factories onto them.

Welcome to the 21st century. Enjoy your stay.

Not true if you are talking about the PS3. Might be true for the Xbox 360 depending on how many people bought a Core system and the system requirements for the game. Categorically false if you include S. Korea and China where the majority of the MMO players in the world reside.

LotRO has voice chat too.
I'm all yay about console MMOs, and PS3 ones are warmly welcomed.

Everyone I know has a pc. A few have consoles.

The problem with pc devs is that folks like Firaxis have a niche sewn up (adults, non-gaming pc). And then they throw in a 3d engine "just 'cause", and blow that entire demographic.

Mmo, spies, niche console...this is why the Agency would fail. WoW succeeds firstly because it runs on a goddamned toaster. Secondly because it runs on a toaster, it gains mindshare until you have to play it because that's what your friends play.

Kids don't play Runescape because that's what they want to play. It's free and they can play it at the library.

Speaking of fee, there's another barrier to entry. PS3-only and fee-based? Or is it one of those free deals?

I'm all for more good games, I mean...there's literally zero chance I'd ever play this, but more good games is a good thing overall. I just don't see this one lasting very long, if it even sees the light of day.

The communication thing is a red herring.

You are going to be playing PC-diku-retread-43887 using VOIP in a few years anyway, whether you like or not.

Keyboards will probably be needed anyway to maintain anything close to the variety of gameplay in a long running MMOG, in particular if you want to include an economic game. but nothing prevents anyone sticking a wireless keyboard on the side of a console.

The real downer about moving it off of PCs is that you have to design around shitty console technical specs.

Plus MMOGs often live longer than consoles. If this PS3 thing is going to me a long term MMOG it's going to have to hurry the fuck up and launch, or it'll find itself with only a couple of years till PS4 launch.

PS2 is backwards compatible.  PS3 is backwards compatible.  No reason to think PS4 won't be until they say it isn't.

Rasix, that post was so ridiculous it didn't deserve a response.

I was in a meeting and waiting on my turn to present.   :| 

Heh.

Many people continue to use a PS2 as well, they are still produced, and cheap to buy.  The install base is still larger than anything out there and one day a next gen console will hold that claim.

If people like the game, they'll be able to play.  It's a silly argument on many levels.

Most people I know do not have consoles and even if this game turns out to be robot-Jesus on a stick they are not going to buy a console just to play it. And the argument that there are so many great games to play on a console does not fly because if that was the case to them.......... well they would allready own a console.

The biggest reason for me is that when I buy a PC game it works on my computer, when you want a game on a console you have to make sure it's for the console you have or you are not going to play it. Not everyone is like Schild and has EVERY console platform.

There was some info about this that was floating around, from a podcast or something.

For 'equipment', you'll go on a mission and rescue a team member, like a scientist who is good at making helicopters or something. Then, when you bring him back to your base, you'll tell him to make you a helicopter of a certain kind.

You'll then get calls and stuff from your team members saying things like 'well, we can make it on time but it'll be slow, or I can make a deal with the Russians and get it done early'. But if he goes and talks to the Russians, there's a chance you'll get a call back with like 'we have your man, pay us ransom to get him back'. So you can pay the ransom or go on a mission to get him back.

I thought that aspect sounded really cool.

Let's abstract this.

The biggest reason for me is that when I buy a _____ game it works on my _____, when you want a game on a _____ you have to make sure it's for the ______ you have or you are not going to play it.

See if you can fill in those blanks such that it proves everyone else is an idiot.  My first suggestion is 1) PS3, 2) PS3, 3) PC, 4) PC.

So having a few different console platforms is a good thing? ?You never had a game you wanted to play but could not because it would not work on the platform you own?

schildaemish are right about the consoles being the future of MMOs. If there were a well done game, with an intuitive UI, good graphics and it came out for a system that had a great number of quality single and multiplayer games, I would get it. Unfortunately, right now the PS3 just doesn't have the number of other games available to make me start the slobbering. I don't own a 360 either. Maybe if Conan is worth a shit, I might look into getting one.

Comfortable couch catassing is the wave of the future. I will now call it "3C gaming" from now on.

Yeah of course, that happens all the time, like how I wanted to see the intro movie for Oblivion but my GeForce 6800 couldn't play it.  A few hundred dollars later and I can.  Or I could go back to stories of trying to play Ultima VII on a 386SX with 2MB of RAM.

My point is just that you are limited in your selection no matter what you have, and if you really want to be able to play any game ever, then you will just have to do what schild and I (try to) do, which is own one of everything.  In the case of PC games, you know you have to keep your shit updated all the time or you fall behind.  I even have a 468DX and DOS 6.0 on floppies laying around just in case, but I'm a dumbass.  Exult works great.

The funny thing is that the PS3 has much better BC than a Windows PC, when really it should not be so.

I believe you have it surrounded.

EDIT: And to attempt to NOT be a wiseass, I wasn't talking about text-to-speech. The keyboard/chat box is holding MMOG's back and has been for years. I bitched about it when WoW first came out and it's only gotten worse. These aren't text MUDs anymore, they actually require you to look at things beyond your combat spam. Chat bubbles was a good first step, group/raid-based VOIP is the next step. Adding voice fonts on top of that would be great.

Voice fonts, in theory, mask your voice so that nasally nerds like myself could speak and it would sound like Darth Vader, or a woman or whatever font I wanted to use. I think Xbox Live had them years ago. The key is making the fonts good, and with not overwhelming people with VOIP intrusions. For instance, you wouldn't hear everyone's conversation in general chat while walking through a city. You might hear a mumble mumble mumble of ambient noise and see icons or indications of someone's avatar talking onscreen. The icon might even indicate if they were begging/bartering/chatting so that item sellers could put out their shingle. Clicking on that person or selecting them in some way would allow you to hear that person's general channel if you wished and if they were allowing their general chatter to be broadcast. Of course, grouping with anyone would allow all in the group to use VOIP to you and hear your VOIP. Groups and raid groups could even be set up to allow moderators/leaders to set priority on who could talk over whom.

Oh, and the game should be on a Wii.  :-D

Not to derail this thread or anything, but if I'm not mistaken, from that same batch of information I got, it's going to be PS3 AND PC.

So, there you go.

Err, what? If the game says "PS2" on the box, it works on PS2. If you want it to work on PS3, make sure to look it up. I'm not sure if the PS3 supports PS2 100%, or if they have the same problem that Xbox 360 had. I'm too disinterested to look it up because I haven't bought a console for myself in, err, four generations I think it is now.

Meanwhile, on a PC, you're taking your chances. Only in the last year could you have something approaching a 90%+ chance of having a true plug-n-play experience. And that's only because of the years prior it took for some forms of tech to stabilize and for WinXP to become ready for primetime. Which, by the way, is right on the heals of Vista launching and forcing all sorts of fancing things that'll only result in stuff breaking again. And I say this as someone who can get around PCs quite fine. Take someone off the street on their five year old hand-me-downm and ask them to run LoTRO.

I also find it funny when people here say "most people I know have PCs". You're posting, frequently, in an MMO forum at a site where a lot of us came from MMOs and MMO sites before it, because you're that into MMOs. Of course you're smack square in the middle of the PC demographic. MMOs are young on consoles. Maybe that'll change, maybe not. It's not the technology of the unit. More than enough power. It's the entire UI and the user expectations rolled into one. I say the AAA killer-apps of the next generation of consoles will be MMO experiences though.

And that's a good thing because unless they take too much advantage of being connected to patch servers, buying something for a console pretty much means it'll work. Not sure how long it'll be in the post-Vista world before we'll be able to say that again about PCs.

True enough, but PC market penetration is unquestionably higher than consoles. Everybody has a PC. EVERYBODY. The vast majority are equipped with horrid integrated intel graphics and are infested with spyware working overtime as zombies sending out viagra spam for some guy named Dimitry in Vladivostok, so they aren't terribly suited for playing hot new games, but there's absolutely no question that PCs win.

WoW is polished until it gleams, addicting, fun to play and all that, no doubt, but a great deal of its popularity is due to the fact that the embarrassing beige pile of goatshit emachine your mom bought for $300 at officemax in 2003 with a $200 mail in rebate for signing up for MSN can run it just fine.

This stuff is an insult to the fine art of pointlessly ragging on consoles.

More people own PCs.

But more people who want to play games own gimped PCs that can't be upgraded consoles.

That is why, when you walk into EB (or locale appropriate alternative), there is a massive great console section, and a teeny weeny PC section.

PCs may be a higher spec platform, but they are quite obviously less popular for gaming than consoles.

There are more DVD players in the world than the cumulative total of all of this and the last generation of consoles. That doesn't mean anything either. And designing games for that "platform" is almost worse than PCs. You don't have the benefit of a single UI provider owning 95% of your market, and that's offset by the absolute expectation of how the things work.

Anyway, the point is that consoles sell more games than PCs. There's no disputing that. It's because of the consumers, the ease of that platform to them, because the entire industry has shifted to that, and because Daddy ain't giving up his rig to his kids just so they can play games on it. Particularly since he's probably playing on it. Because he's been doing so since Zork and Wizardry. There's a reason why the average age of a typical AAA-calibre MMORPG player only goes up.

There are far more chairs in the world than PCs. I demand a chair-based game - musical chairs for example. Seriously, where in the world can you not play musical chairs?

Or maybe a game based around dirt. Dirt has very high market penetration.

I am just saying when you buy a Chevy it's not like you can't drive interstate 80 because that was built for Fords and Toyota only. 

...and unless you have a race car, you aren't going to be able to drive in the Indy 500. I don't see your point? As everyone else has already said, because a game is for the PC, doesn't mean every PC can run it. It is far simpler and more reliable to know that when you buy a game with a 360 logo on the cover, it will work on your 360. It's also far simpler to know how to upgrade from a Xbox to a 360, then say to figure out if my current board will support the new graphics card etc... required to play the new PC game.

It begs a larger question, and it is comming. Of course I don't know when. And the question is general PC's  for general purposes vers specific computers for specific purposes. I can come at this industry from a few different angles. As a EE doing max min analsis to a drafter using autocad to a gamer. They require very different machines to do well. Productivy is every thing.

There's a distinct lack of info about this game availible via Sony, or Sony press releases, but there are articles in the newest Game Informer and PC Gamer magazine. I know that everyone in this thread has been saying PS3 Only, well, that doesn't seem to be the case, especially if PC Gamer is showing me a preview... In a copy I bought showing a Penny Arcade game preview. Also, I think IIRC the Game Informer article (which I saw at a friend's) said PS3 and PC? I'll need to recheck that.

I can say that the PC Gamer "preview" has a Winter 2007 release date?

/shrug

An article I read somewhere said it will be PC and PS3, and that they are considering allowing cross-servers for the platforms.

Right now, this game is some interesting ideas, generic concept art and the hype of being the Next Big Thing. Only time will tell if it will be worthwhile.

Finally, MMOGs on console - it's only this generation of console that connecting it to broadband doesn't seem that far-fetched and that MMOGs have become fast enough / streamlined enough to even really think about attracting a lot of console players to it. But there will be the console MMOG that will be the killer app and every console publisher is looking to that golden future.

That Killer App console title should be PS3/360 Diablo Online. That's not going to happen unfortunately, but it's what it should be.

I would buy an MMO for the Wii.

wiimote and nunchuk controls with voice chat.  Mmmm.

Yea, I want to play a 640x480 MMOG on a system with less than a CDs worth of internal memory and a graphics card with a buffer smaller than my wang.

Are you people retarded?

Did you guys see the trailer on Gametrailers?

Looks like a persistant FPS w/ humor ala NOLF.

This has potential. I like the idea of the NPC Operatives that you can get that can do stuff for you while you're offline.

Because WoW taught us that MMOs need steep sys reqs to be entertaining and popular?

(http://img101.imageshack.us/img101/5149/nigerpleasekj7.jpg)

And yet they managed to do it with FF XI.

No, they didn't. They packed a hard drive in it and sold it for $100. I don't see Ninty letting a 3rd party put out an MMOG with a 4-8GB smart media card or an external drive. The Wii simply isn't equipped.

They need to port WoW to the Wii.  They can call it WoWii.  You know, like "Wowee, I can't believe Schild hung himself in his bathroom after this sold a million copies!"

I think the Killer App for consoles would be a third person beat'em up ala Final Fight (haven't played Crackdown, so I can't comment, but that seems right too). If Diablo 3 allowed grappling and throws, I'd be there.

But that doesn't mean it can't. Just like the hard drive was made an option years after the PS2 was released.

Wii discussion in this thread? For shame.

Anyways, they're releasing on PS3 and PC.  Still no word whether it will be cross-platform (did I use that term right?).

I don't think so, since being on both PC and PS3 means it will be cross-platform.  Unless you were making a joke on the PC, in which case: lolz.

No, what's the word we use in order for PC players to play alongside PS3 players?

I'm having a hazardous week.

Gimpification?  I'm not sure either, but I'm always game to make up shit.

cross-sexual?

Interspecies gaming.

A pox on both your houses?

The Wii isn't equipped to support an external HD? Come again?

It's equipped for something on the bottom that will be either an HDD or a GBA/DS player of some sort. Or the slot will never get used. Like slots on ALL past Ninty consoles.

Gamespot Hands-On of The Agency (http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/theagency/news.html?sid=6172347&tag=gumballs;subtitle;2). It's also for PC. Did I win the thread?

I want to say wow that looks great.  But then again, features lists are features lists.

I bet that you could get MapleStory to run just fine on the Wii. Just swing the Wii-Mote and you'll be offing monsters in no time!

There's at least one exception there, hoss.  Two if you aren't just talking about bottom slots.

Huhuhuhuh... bottom slots.

Maple Story on the Wii would be fine, but it should use the Classic Controller.

I think that with all the "virtual world" MMOs that are out there, it is just a matter of time before the Miis that you make on your Wii are in their own MMO experience. And Schlid, I definitely disagree with your resolution argument. I'd say most people don't give two shits. If it looks decent in that resolution and it is fun to play, then it will sell. I think the popularity of cell phone games is a good example of that.


Granted I run in 1680x1050 on my PC and I love my widescreen monitor, but not everyone cares as much as (i would argue) the f13 community does about resolution.

Its also for PC.

NiX beat you to it. Boo on your lateness.

But I beat everyone to it.  Also, I make no sense.

That GameSpot interview has some huge features in it.

My bad.

It's ok, you were early in my eyes!

I didn't bother to read the article. I just saw it while downloading patches and figured I'd share. The concept just doesn't sound interesting in any way. I can't imagine it being that fun cause there's really no differential to the whole deal. I'd rather want the Spy VS. Spy stuff to be a part of a bigger deal instead of being the main focus. It becomes more like Splinter Cell death match when you put it the way they did.

Really? My takeaway from the video was.

Do heavily scripted missions with some buddies, with the possibility of "others" having a mission to stop you (PvP). Do stuff like this until some point, forum your own faction.. More missions/instances/world battles, and i'm sure just some good old street fighting may also happen, as you PvP V.S other Player factions etc...

FPS, Guns, Vehicles, Spy toys, Sabotaging PvP..... I'm guessing events?

EDIT: oh, and this is supposedly the game to which they applied "We learned allot from planetside"
 

^^ Planetside..... Sorta.

Gamespot:


Cool if it works, and minigames++

This is SOE. You'd be guessing wrong. Events mean live people being paid to play, and that isn't going to happen.

"What you wear" was in Tribes long before PS.

Amen brothah!

/duck

No need to duck.

Also FFXI has the job system, which is pretty close to "what you wear" although in FFXI you have to level each job separately and it isn't clear if that will be the case here.

I've always liked games that let you switch classes back and forth based on your current whim without having to roll a new dude.

Considering PS was an extension of Tribes...cool.Im just hoping it is more like PS's system, and not, well, full "Suits", more pick stuff you can use.  Point being, it seems they have applied some of PS to this new game, I’m hopping the best parts.

PS was an extension of Tribes?

You mean in the sense that it took the coolest part (y-axis movement for all) and removed it?  Oh and made everyone move at the speed of heavy armor?  Please dont insult the fucking brilliance that was Tribes1 by associating it with Planetside. 

There's a lot of hidden "history" here that isn't talked about much...but it's a platitude around the office to not talk too much about Planetside if Jeff Tunnell is in the room ;) (Jeff Tunnell was founder of Dynamix, the core company that made Tribes for those that may not know).

Sierra closing Dynamix was indeed one of gaming history's worst fucking tragedies ever.

That too, but if you look at the Lead Designer (I think it was, I don't even know the specifics myself) for PS, and then look at the employee list for Dynamix/Sierra before it was shut down, you better break out the tinfoil hat :)

Just saying :mrgreen: (yeah, lead designer), even the engine has surprising similarities way it handles objects, Terrain, Dynamic objects, ETC...... and faults (alpha sorting anyone?), i am surprised more people don't know this. Look at some of the "ability's" of tribes, and see the parts in various equip etc in Planetside.


Not to derail the thread....

Tribes1 was a fluke a fucking brilliant one but a complete fluke.

The thing that made it so incredible was the "bug/feature" that allowed people to ski.  Without ski'ing it was just an upgraded version of Microsoft's Outwars title with OMG vehicles (the most overrated fps feature ever imo).  With skiing it is still the absolute best CTF ever.  Hands down. No competition and I dont think there is a major ctf I haven't played except Q4 because really after 1 and 2 things could only go downhill and by that time DM held very little interest.

Funny story--skiiing really was a bug--and one that was damned hard to reproduce. Tribes 2 had quite the difficulty getting the "bug" back in to the play.

Yeah they never got it working quite right, which is why I didn't last long playing T2.  That and the default maps were awful, they were totally on the OMG TANKZ AND PLANES kick, which resulted in choppy bits of action and way too much downtime.

I only played Tribes 2, never Tribes 1, and I could never ski. I kept reading descriptions of how to do it, but I just could not do it myself. Very frustrating. Maybe I'm just dumb.

Skiing sucked. When Heavies would flag run because of that the game stopped being fun for me.

I dunno, I thought I could do it, but it wasn't this mind blowing revolutionary mechanic that Hoax is describing, so I might not have gotten it.  I thought it was just a way for runners to get some additional speed when heading downhill.  The diversity of the gameplay and complexity of the mechanics were what I liked, I thought skiing was just another movement trick, like strafe jumping in Quake.

Meh. I thought skiing was fun, but I didn't care for it as a full-on game mechanic.

Vehicles the most over-rated addition to fps? Heh. That's a good one.
That's called tactical gameplay. Your spazfest 'oldschool' fps is thatta way --> (insert Hellgate here)

The ELF gun is your friend for stopping flag runners/skiers.  Heavies too.  People get so pissed!  Nobody took the ELF.  ELF em, if they already have good momentum, you know they'll at least be close to the ground, toggle to grenade launcher/disk, get your flag back.  If you are in better position and ELF them before they get out of your base/flag  area, it was even easier.  Usually they were so bent on getting speed, they didn't defend themselves as well.  There were always people who were just better players (or insanely low pings? LPB's!), but you could really trip most people up with the ELF.

I never really got skiing down in Tribes2 (I drove the tank), but you almost had to learn it to be competitive in original Tribes.

The sound packs for Tribes were a huge chunk of the fun.  "Oh no you did not just shoot that green shit at me!"  Or play the Benny Hill theme when you have most of the other team chasing you :)

God your a fucking tard.

Forcing tactical choices to be made under greater pressure due to the speed of the game being much greater doesn't remove the tactical elements from the game.  In fact it doesn't diminish them at all.

Ugh, we already had one of these. Let's not do it again.

As much as I agree with Hoax (the vast majority of the time), he's as easy to bait as Slayerik. :heart:

If only you could combine the twich-FPS argument with some arcane UO reference... wait... no, that'd be bad.

Always preferred Team Fortress. Love your way of hating everyone who disagree with you, though.

I never really thought of TF as CTF. Half the time I totally forgot about the stupid flag and most people did too. Occasionally someone would go about the whole flag run business and die horribly. But, I guess that's because there was so much more going on that it didn't matter if you were running the flag, you were still having fun.


So, can we setup a TFC night?

That's like the hostages in CounterStrike.
If you just log in in a random server, you can only expect old-school deathmatch with some frustrated guys trying to save the hostages or to plant the bomb yelling at everyone else for "not playing right, go pack to quake you noob!".
If you singup to some no matter how crappy tournament, then it's different.

The point is I really dislike the CTF mechanic. Team Fortress is the only game I enjoyed (a lot) despite the darn flags.


I'm so in.

EDIT: a nasty typo

I promised myself no Team Fortress until the new one comes out. That's how angry I am at the delays.

Bring back precasting twitch, beyotch!

A lot of details have been coming out about this game lately:

From IGN (http://ps3.ign.com/articles/844/844374p1.html):






Gametrailers also a three part series of videos showing a walkthrough of the game (parts 1, (http://www.gametrailers.com/player/29479.html) 2, (http://www.gametrailers.com/player/29480.html) and 3 (http://www.gametrailers.com/player/29483.html)).

Wow that was pretty impressive.  I'm definitely going to keep this on my radar.

Hey, thanks for the fucking bronze medal, asswipes. Bu-bye.  :uhrr:

I was in relatively early Planetside beta, and the way I had always heard it was that Planetside was originally going to be a bit more like EQ with guns (i.e. it would have money, and npcs, etc), but setbacks or lack of planning stalled the project significantly (mind you SOE was developing SWG simultaneously, so their resources were mostly going that way), and it resulted with a shakeup that involved Dave 'Smokejumper' Georgeson coming on as the producer for the title, as well as other people who's names I haven't bothered to remember.

I don't think Dave was involved with T1 at all, but he was involved with T2 if I'm not mistaken -- which may be why Planetside seems quite a bit like T2 without skiing and slowed down. Things get a little murkier for me after that connection. All I remember is that Dave had a strong desire to apply story to the game, and I think it was him who came up with most of that "Humans go through a wormhole and get dropped on an alien planet and then start to fight" stuff. It was not a terribly compelling back story.

It was kind of interesting to be a spectator -- only a few months before the game asked for beta testers the entire Planetside page had gone silent. No dev updates. They even took the community forums down. I thought for sure the project was dead, but SoE managed to put it out, and it wasn't too bad of a game.

Sure as hell wasn't Tribes 1 though :P

Full re-classing and re-skilling between missions sounds awesome.

That looks like a blast.

Color me interested.

I'm going to really miss Sky, afterall its just so damn wrong that people are rewarded for working together in online games...

If I really need to flush out this point to explain how people stick w/ MMO's for the community bonds they form in-game & those bonds are less likely to develop if everyone is xXxLoneWolfSniperxXx6667 solo'ing to victory.  You can respond with blahblahblah WoW, at which point I'll remember your the guy who thinks Tribes was better off thanks to more vehicles...   :awesome_for_real:

Go
Play
<insert Single Player genre here>

jesus.

I missed something.

I was thinking the same thing, but I wasn't going to say anything.

Ah, natch.  Thanks.

Skim reading ftl.

"Agent Bob, we need you to head down to that warehouse and take out those alien drug dealers. If you succeed, we'll give you a Celeron laptop with Windows 98. If you can talk five other agents into going with you, we'll give you a top of the line Alienware system. Matter of fact, make it a raid and take the entire second floor with you we'll give you a Cray III."

Sounds like a government operation to me.  :awesome_for_real:

Well, it has to be soloable. Period.
But you need seamless transition to interesting group PvP.

Man, that game would rule as a sandbox, with player run Agencies struggling with never ending fight for world domination/destruction/salvation.  

Based on watching the GT footage, the "bronze medal" thing is just a statement that it's probably all you'll be able to pull off solo at the appropriate level for the content.  There are multiple objectives (building supports with bombs on the same timer, for example) that are just plain hard to complete by yourself.  The guy does say that you can go back after leveling a bit and do better.

Aye, that's my reading.

Oh ok, now it makes sense.

Ok, so the innovation is that group content is mixed with the solo content and you can solo the group content once you've outlevelled it? Gotcha.  :awesome_for_real:

I didn't realize anyone called it innovation.

From the looks of it, the best case scenario is a mix of TF2 and CoX, which sounds sort of awesome.

Ya know, it actually does sound pretty good, like they actually took a look at more than just the DIKU side of MMOs to make yet-another-MMO. While they talk about the PS3 limiting what they can on the screen icon-wise, I think that's the very best thing that could have happened to this project. Necessity, the mother of invention and all that. Having contextual access to certain abilities you chose before an FPS mission sounds a bit like COD4 actually, but with a GW-esque smattering of typing MMO convention.

I'm just happy this is for both PS3 and PC. On the one hand they would benefit their mothership by launching the PS3 version ahead of the PC, support HOME, all that stuff. But no the other, they probably have to do a lot more work to make this function on the PS3 than they do to make it work on a PC (both as a game as an extension of their infrastructure), so launching the PC version first recoups some of their loses ahead of time. But then that leads to the big question in my mind: hardware support.

The PS3 is still largely about Big Flashy Graphics. Someday it might not be, but it is right now. So will the Agency be designed for Big Flashy Graphics and therefore crush older PCs? Or will they be smart and have good legacy support and just do BFG for the PS3?

Guys, I've been kinda stoked about this for a while. :):)

Yes, but that seemed to be almost solely due to the fact that it was on the PS3, so we all ignored you.

Here's a lesson: Don't ignore me.

Sucka.

Hmm, I don't get this post. I see you've quoted something, but it's all blank. Are you making some kind of subtle point Velorath?

schild loves PS3. Unnaturally so. schild likes Agency. Velorath thinks schild likes Agency because it's on the PS3 he unnaturally loves.

Let's wait for launch, or at least beta before you break out the champagne, lest someone mention the I am Legend thread.

Hey, hey. I'm stoked about it. To Stoke, it is future tense. Could still suck.

Much like Wile E. Coyote must feel stoked every time he thinks he's about to catch the Road Runner, or when Charlie Brown thinks he's finally going to kick the football.

When I started hitting pavement, I'll start worrying. Until then I've got my tiny umbrella and acme solutions to solve my problems.

If this is as good as it looks I may have to buy a PS3.

Let's not forget it is Sony making a game for the Sony console.  We all know Schild is bad at Sony things. 

P.S.  First wii MMO will be the WoW killer.

Nintendo won't allow MMOGs on the Wii.

No patching is allowed, and they don't want any sort of named communication between players.

When they stop being fucking pussies, Pokemon will be the first MMOG. And it will rule all.

How is this different from saying you can solo in Everquest but it's 10x time slower than grouping?

This is being made by the team that made MxO. This is going to be an epic fail.

And who was MxO made by, what did a bunch of them do previously?

Make crap? The people that worked on MxO are not the same that worked on, say, NoLF and then later F.E.A.R. Also I forgot that SOE Seattle includes all the ex-Mythica people.

MxO wasn't that bad. They just forgot a little thing called content is all.

Oh, what Brad McQuaid could have taught them - aside from which pill to take.  :awesome_for_real:

Seriously though, it had a very robust library of clothing customizations, great combat animations (when they weren't screwing up,) and a very nice city map. Just kinda scary they thought repeating 4 missions over and over on the same set of enemies would be entertaining.

I'll take the ex-Mythica people over a lot of other folks these days. At least they had some interesting ideas that looked actually fun.

Proof in the pudding of course. I don't have any sort of faith in anything not installed on my computer.

Do you consider WoW the same as EQ in this regard?  You can't get the best rewards in WoW either without grouping.

If so, then I guess it isn't any different, but I hardly think the idea of giving greater reward for groups over solo players is that crazy.  The key is to ensure that soloing is still fun, and still gives a satisfying reward, even if it isn't the best one.

Must say it looks quite likeable. They aren't doing the 'tab to lock on' stuff from TR but appear to have regular aiming system from FPS, and between cinematics bits, the tricks you can pull off and the combination of sneaking/combat along with the graphics style that looks deliberately comic-like... it has some sort of Metal Gear Online feel to it. Jump in, grab mission to do either on your own or with others. Get ranking and rewards depending how well you do. Could dig it.

Lots of MMORPGs look fun *on paper*. The fact that MS gave up on them is particularly telling since MS's MMORPG standards are so low.

The technical infrastructure was absolutely horrid.

Hmm...MMO with FPS-lite gameplay made by SOE that Schild is stoked about. Why does that sound familiar?

Oh yeah. That. (http://forums.f13.net/index.php?topic=6346.0)

Oh, he went there. With a link and everything.  :drill:

I bite my tongue on that any time schild gets excited about a new game/system from the  :grin:


Yea, that has already struck me as sorta wierd. Iirc, the excuse at the time it was because of their legal case with Mythic (DAoC). But to me if you truly believed in it, you'd work through something like that, ya know, maybe change the game name or something.

I use Mythica and AC2 as examples of MS not caring about MMOs. I think they do get the idea of lobby-based multiplayer achievement-based experiences. I just don't think they particularly care about persistent worlds. Which to me is a shame because if anyone can spend the money to focus a group on raw derivative quality, MS could (though not through their studio).

I don't use VG as that example though. No matter who you are or what you want, you beat feet from that trainwreck asafp.

I bet this one has collision detection. Now shove it right up yer arse.

Someone said it already.  It sounds like an updated CoX with FPS gameplay.  What is their "elder game" mentality in this game.  Battlegrounds?  Agency vs Agency? 

I can't help thinking Spy v Spy.

But reading http://archive.gamespy.com/interviews/february04/mythica/ MS didn't give up on people, but rather on the MMO project due to 'shape of MMO landscape' etc. Considering the epic fails that happened to people who did try to release their shit, one could almost conclude it was smart business decision.

Yeah I was super stoked but then I read the whole IGN bit.  Nothing in there said anything about why I would want to invest my time in their gameworld if there even is one to speak of.  Sure console-style co-op and pvp missions sound fun.  But if that's all there is to it why call it a MMO?  So you can charge a monthly fee and make a PC port?  I wanted to get excited because excitement would be nice but right now this sounds like there's no reason to call it a MMO except to get that monthly fee, have no well scripted single player gameplay and tie it into your station pass.

Last i read, it was F2P.

I'm not understanding how you gain these other spy people that work or do stuff for you. However I'm fully aware it won't live to any creative new breaking gameplay.

Sorta into Agency, just as something new know it will be cheap game.

They are "Loot". On top of that, this whole thing is plugged in to text messaging, so, if you acquire a "Q" Like guys, and task him with, researching or something...he will text you with news about his latest contraption that is now available for you to use.

Same goes for a "Spy" or "Informant" type, they will TM you about leads or info that may be usefully for your next assignment, even to the point of opening an option that wasn't there before in the mission (Like, now there is a motorcycle there, in some bushes or something).

Basically Loot = Building a support network.

At least, thats my understanding on what i have read about the game.

Sort of a necro.  Just curious as to if anyone knew where this was development-wise. 

Still coming. I think it is due out 2009.

Some in-game footage was shown at E3: http://www.massively.com/2009/06/03/e3-2009-the-agency-in-game-footage/

 :drill: :drill: :drill:

DPS, Healer, stealth, and ranged/cc class.

Nothing new to see here beyond the drops and tilesets. 

Are you looking at the same thing i am looking at?

Listen to her describe the player archetypes. 

1) Combat = dps

2) Medic = healer

3) Stealth

4) Sniper = ranged dps/cc with tranq darts. 

Did I miss something in the intro?  Ok... the minigames look like fun.

You shut your disenfranchised cynical mouth right now.

You will not ruin this for me!!!  :shakefist:

Yes. Those were outfits or builds (pre made ones at that) that someone had already set up the ability's for (ala guild wars). Most likely just for E3.

What you are saying, goes contrary to the very base design of the game. I could be wrong, but this would be the first time ever (other than the faction styles) any form of classes, or archetypes have ever been talked about.

Your outfit = ability's. You can only bring so many of your ability's that your have, depending on what you want in a given mission.

Listen around the 14:00 mark. Her use of the word class at the beginning was unfortunate on her part.

Well, they seemed to have shooter bits in there complete with basic cover system. And switching pre-selected builds on the fly wasn't half bad too.

Hey, I hope I'm wrong.  I hope that I'm REALLY wrong and this turns out to be a great game. 

I heard the stuff about builds and it just brought my mind right back to thinking about how players will use the system to min/max.  If the game uses a grouping mechanic I will assume that players will immediately gravitate toward selecting builds to recreate the classic MMO triad: tank/healer/dps+cc.

I played the P&P game "Top Secret" to death in my teens.  I'd love to see it brought to life in an MMO.

Looks neat.  But how much shit actually needs to be infiltrated out there?  I'm thinking I'd get bored in a month or two.

Apparently, there is more than one way to complete a mission.

Sure.  I'm not knocking it.  It's a neat idea.  I'm just thinking that the whole spy thing is going to wear thin on me after awhile. 

They'll have a hard time incorporating other game options and play styles.  As in WoW, where there's solo play, raiding, POI grinding, dailies, crafting, PvP/BGs/Arenas and so on...

Don't see why any of these things couldn't be included in spy game. Well except crafting since iirc you get access to various crafters who make you shit rather than click 'make shit' button yourself.

Crafting is done by operatives, that ARE loot. (http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/theagency/video/6210156?tag=topslot;watchlink;1) Some missions are public, meaning two factions can go in, one attempting to do objective X, and one is trying to stop you.  The game is already solo able, but as he said in another interview, grouping will allow you to complete a mission with a silver or higher rating, where solo is a max of bronze (Rating = loot possible). PvP, again is all over. It comes in the form above, or from player agency's.

As for the rest, i don't think they apply, or are the only forms of game play that a MMO can have. Especially because this game does not do vertical power progressions like most RPG's, its based on opening more options of play (ALA Planetside).



EDIT: looks like i was wrong, there are 6 "roles" for every player (http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/theagency/video/6194243/the-agency-interview-2), you choose what role you want to be by mission (possibly in mission too?), this is separate from your alias, and roles can be customized.

Have they actually announced a launch date yet? The Agency was apparently "almost ready for release" 2 years ago.

Last I saw was 2010.

Gametrailers' E3 walkthrough demos:
http://www.gametrailers.com/game/the-agency/4932

I don't know how 'MMO' it is from that, seems more like a Guild Wars style everything is instanced with a central hub but I don't really care because it looks pretty entertaining.

More point and shoot FPS style gaming in my MMO's pls.

Wow. That was, err, interesting. Had a modern look with old school animations and presentation. Could there have BEEN more walking?

Certainly came across as different at least.

Looked cool to me.

I quite liked the build up, the style and a spy MMO is a nice fresh space to explore. That said the shooter bits looked pretty average and I'm not really interested in playing a FPS with 400ms+ ping. If they have Australian servers I might consider it but other than that I'll stick with TF2 for my FPS fix and a real MMO for everything else.

Oh, that and I still can't help feel that SOE sucks the soul and fun out of any game they make, but maybe they've changed.

Ross Geller?

Studio director and executive producer Matt Wilson, art director Corey Dangel, and producer John Smith leave the project to form a new studio called Detonator Games (http://www.detonatorgames.com/about.html).

'Seattle game development community' speculates the game is about to get re-designed and thus delayed, SOE says "nu uh".

source: Eurogamer (http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/no-reboot-to-the-agency-as-staff-leave)

The Agency has to be in development hell. When it was first shown two (or more) years ago, it was apparently almost ready for launch.

We still don't have a firm date for it to even start beta testing.

That game is as MMO as Chromehounds and Guild Wars.

Zip!

Should be playing The Agency "within weeks (http://www.gametrailers.com/video/gdc-10-sony-online/63915?type=flv)" as of March 30, 2010.  The Agency MMO to follow.  Whatever that means.  Guessing a single player offline game first. 

The Agency stuff starts at the 2 minute mark.

Single player, or limited multiplayer, most likely. Sounds like there was a significant amount of drift in the design scope of this product, and this was the most effective way to deal with that.

My personal gut feeling is that nobody anywhere is excited about this game, and this release strategy is something of a "get out of jail free*" card for SOE. They can at least put SOMETHING out on the market, so they can have something to show for their hard work. If that something attracts very little attention, they can safely jettison the MMO plans, and move on to the next project.

Personally, I didn't think this game would make it even this far, (Soveriegn II anyone?) but I guess all that Free Realms money coming in has changed the landscape a little.

Now another PlanetSide - that's a prospect I'm actually very excited about.

So this is the next peg on how to fuck up a "MMO" game? Start it off as a single player and then move to a multiplayer? And I thought paid open betas were too much too soon.

And here I thought I was back in the Green Monster Games thread again for a minute.

Eh, I'm really looking forward to it.  Have been for a while.  Was going over a list of MMOs (pseudo or otherwise) with a buddy that we were looking forward to (it was a short list :( ), and it's on it. 

I'll admit, my anticipation for it *may* rose colored by the otherwise shittastic lineup coming soon (within 1.5 years).  Pretty much everything else on the radar is derivative shit that I played back in 2000.  Or when I was a nerd in 5th grade playing D&D.

It interests me, too, though I'll have to get my hands on it to know if I'll actually enjoy it.  I like the concept though.

I wonder if the dramatic close up has been in the game for a while or if they were influenced by Borderlands.  I thought we had switched games for a moment.

This thing has been on "coming soon" for years... about time they either release or give up with it. In fact where are their next MMO's? Having EQ2 as your star performer is nothing to be too proud of, it's old now.

FYI, you guys are very far from the mark here.

That's about all I can say for the moment.

Tease.

Better to say nothing. 

Let the product do the talking when the time comes.

Well, I am no enemy of fun. So, please prove me wrong.

It's even worse than we thought?  :grin:

I could say more.

But I won't.

So, we have a bunch of people in the dark, a guy who knows but can't say a thing, and a guy who could talk but won't – the latter only chiming in to remind others in the know to toe the party line.

With all this intrigue, who needs the actual game?  ;D

Is our first mission finding ways to learn what they know?  Is it a new ARG?

What evidence do we have to suggest that a console MMO is going to be anything other than complete crap?

None, I'd say.

All videos to date have made it look like a multiplayer title set on maps that contain specific locations at which you can do cinematic 'cool' stuff. With a mix of PvE and PvP. To meet basic MMO criteria, it allows for some coop play and longer-term character progression.

However, The Agency has been in development long enough that these initial impressions may no longer be valid.

With the silence, I imagine it's getting a revamp which will be announced at E3.

No one will care.

I'm sure people who aren't as desensitized to hype will be all aflutter by the game.

I won't care. I'm getting increasingly jaded. The latest evidence to support remaining cynical until I see something in action is where Splinter Cell: Conviction fails to live up to its pedigree. Decent game, but man.

If it's got a hint of persistence, some cool loot, and fun gameplay, that's enough for me for a box buy.

Apparently it means jumping on the Facebook bandwagon (http://pc.ign.com/articles/108/1087928p1.html).

Awesome.  Killer mini-games.

It's Mafia Wars but with some actual gameplay content.

Wow, actually way more than that. It's got touches of most major Facebook game types. The mini-games of the Seek and Find variety are nice.

Kinda makes me want to play the actual Agency game.

Some of the achievements are nuts. "Complete a mission every day for a year."

Good for them, but I will not join face book to play this. I am sure they won't miss me. Its a shame too I wanted to play it.

Someone had a lot of fun doing the art for this game.

The real game is still coming out you know.

Yes, just stating I won't become a profile for this.

Okay I am very amused by the facebook game. Kinda mafia warsish with some actual game play. I really enjoy the search mini game and the word decrypt mini game.

I am really curious about the mmo here is hoping it is in good condition when it releases as it could be pretty amusing.

It was pretty good but eventually the game devolved into more-of-the-same. The mini-games were a nice touch, but there was little to drive me to keep playing the game. It felt almost an insult that they included RMT aspects. "Hey! Pay $5 and level 5% faster!"

Looks like things are going swimmingly (http://kotaku.com/5317168/layoffs-hit-sony-online-entertainment) (5% reduction in SOE staff).

41 people? I figured it would be a lot more with all the games they have under their banner. I guess PS and VG are on skeleton crews then.

Those 41 people are the 5% of their workforce.

Pretty sure that was Nix's point.

Suggests a total workforce of just 800.

They must use a lot of contractors I guess.

Vanguard has 15 odd people on the live team?  I doubt PS, EQ, or PotBS have much more than that.  SWG might be a bit bigger.  Free Realms, and EQ2 are the only games they have that resemble being alive and kicking.  Their Clone Wars game is just reskinning Free Realms, as far as I can tell.  Unless they're working on something they're keeping a real tight lid on, I would imagine 750 odd people is plenty for what they've got going on currently.

Yeah, that's what I was going for.


Good point, most of their games wouldn't require a huge staff to work on, unless they are working on something they aren't talking about.

DC Universe Online is there's as well. I wonder if Vanguard even has that many.

Probably not any more.  :awesome_for_real:

I just got a FaceBook alert that Alan Crosby wants to share some stuff with me in The Agency: Covert Ops.  My curiosity and my social-media compulsion forced me to allow this app.

My first mission?  Customize my avatar. :oh_i_see:

I should check it out again to see if they've made improvements.  Most of the mini-games are interesting the first few times around.  The "combat" mini-game sucked ass.

I did hear on the Clone Wars board that reaching certain levels gives you some Station Cash, but I have no idea how much.  (Nor cared enough to google.)

Another year in development for The Agency! (http://massively.joystiq.com/2010/12/07/soes-the-agency-delayed-until-late-2011/)

Thousands hundreds dozens three people no-one is mildly surprised at this news.

Not about surprise anymore, it's about anyone caring. At this point, nobody does and I imagine the game won't succeed because of how they've handled this.

Old news (I really haven't been following this game)this article (http://massively.joystiq.com/2010/06/16/e3-2010-the-agency-blows-up-in-our-faces-and-its-a-good-thi/) makes me think The Agency is a spy MMOG without any actual espionage.  :oh_i_see:

Necro!

In an odd rumor, apparently George Broussard of all people has been posting on twitter that SOE has massive layoffs planned for today including the closing of the Seattle studio making the Agency, and possibly the Denver studio (http://twitter.com/georgeb3dr).