State of the Game (FunCom official post) (August update on pg2)

[Ghambit]

He's tweeted that it'll effect the game none at all.  I'd be worried if they axed most of the writing and post-release coding staff though.

[calapine]

It's not something that makes you feel like it would be a good investment to resub, I'll say that.

I think that's everyones reaction upon hearing these news.. For Funcoms sake (and mine, as I am enjoying the game) I hope they get their act together.

*prays to Aten*

[Ghambit]

I wonder how much the rights to the game would cost (this is one game where it'd be worth considering owning the IP).  To me, it sounds like FC was expecting TSW to prop up their entire business.  That's just not possible these days, or rather very rare.  I almost wish a smaller house would've made the game.

Why not sell off some assets and prop up the stuff that works??  Dump AO, AoC, or both.  Prop up TSW and work on something else.

[Numtini]

Honestly, I can't imagine how they wouldn't have understood that this was a niche game or that their previous reputation was going to come back to haunt them.

[Ard]

Keep in mind he might not have even been working on TSW at this point.  They do have that other Lego mmo in the works also.

[trias_e]

Fun stuff:

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/7.387898-Former-Funcom-CEO-Faces-Insider-Trading-Allegations

I don't think I've ever seen a game fail so spectacularly due to reasons mostly unrelated to it's own merits.

Combination of the following:

1)  Funcom brand name lowers credibility and leads to high amounts of skepticism, both from fans and even reviewers who are not immune to conscious or subconscious bias.  I do believe if this game was released by a different studio it would have gotten better metacritic scores.

2)  SWTOR killed the sub-fee model in MMOs forever.  The box+fee model was absolutely and utterly dead for all new MMOs coming out from that point forward.  Funcom didn't recognize this and got tons of hate in the gaming public for it.  Gaming communities like rockpapershotgun that should have the kind of userbase that would be interested in the game, had an incredibly terrible reaction to the sub fee and weren't willing to try the game.  Hell, even Copernicus had this figured out, despite Curt Schilling's massive ego.

3)  Underwhelming beta events, which many of the poor reviews of the game stemmed from.  The word of mouth coming out of beta was awful as well.  The whole 'combat is terrible' idea that is perpetuated to this day by those who haven't played the game after beta continues to plague it.  Guild Wars 2 combat is not any better than TSW's, but one gets tons of flak and the other doesn't.

4)  Didn't launch with any sort of trial to capitalize on the crowd that would be willing to give it a shot but was incredibly wary of previous factors.  (There is a trial now, but it hasn't been advertised well.)

5)  Terrible marketing pre-launch.  No hype whatsoever.  Some lame facebook game that doesn't have anything to do with the game itself.  Ties into point 3, leading to mostly negative pre-launch exposure.

If the exact same game was made by someone other than funcom and was subless I believe it would have been at least fairly successful.  It's all really a shame and makes me sad.

[Lantyssa]

Sub-fee + item shop was probably the biggest mistake that made which they could do anything about.  One or the other.  Preferably the latter in this day and age.

[Segoris]

I don't even mind sub + cash shop since the shop was basically cosmetic. My issue was how high their prices are, which are absolutely ridiculous.

Though I still enjoy the game and will keep on playing, I just won't be spending cash in their shop.

[ghost]

It's not something that makes you feel like it would be a good investment to resub, I'll say that.

Yeah, unsubbing.  They got my money for September though, dammit!   

[Kageru]

Sub-fee + item shop was probably the biggest mistake that made which they could do anything about.  One or the other.  Preferably the latter in this day and age.

They might not have had a choice. They knew the game was probably going to be niche and carry a stigma due to being from funcom. At the same time they needed a solid revenue stream to deliver on their promise of regular and high quality content. They probably just figured this was the best bet, try and find a dedicated niche market willing to pay for the unique experience.

But any plan that promises rolling content releases is very vulnerable to a poor launch and negative retention rate.

[Maledict]

Readings the comments on that link re insider trading is interesting  - somone saying they were interested but didnt buy as it was just 'warcraft with guns'.  shows how badly Funcom advertised and marketed this fantastic little game because it is easily the most unique and different MMo to come along since EVE yet people outside just think its a modern wow...

[Ghambit]

What's ironic is this is probably one of the easier games to market out there.  It's not like there's isn't shittons of content to derive a good campaign from, quite the contrary.  This whole twisted "we will keep the world secret" idea really just backfired.

Really, imagine just a simple spot including missions like Ankh or the Amusement Park.  Or a huge fight over Fusang.  Then throw in some puzzles, stealth investigation, and sabotage.  Really, there's no excuse.   Maybe what we need is a proper fan-based campaign.

[Tannhauser]

I am their target market:
-Loves Illuminati, Cthulhu mythos and various conspiracy stories
-Loves MMOs, especially new ones
-Tends to overspend on gaming/MMO's

And I never heard this game was out until I stumbled upon it here.  Sure I knew it was in development, but they emphasized the puzzles and I got wary. Burned by Puzzle Pirates.  So, marketing fail.  Once I knew about it, I skimmed around here and the general gist was puzzle heavy with innovative but not amazing combat.  Someone here complained they nerfed themselves and there was no respec options.  Not my comfort zone.  Plus, Funcom.  Finally, I waited a week or two and really loved GW2 and haven't looked back.  No time for another MMO.  Schedule fail.

Lastly, I didn't know they had a free trial and now I'm deep in GW2 and MoP is coming quickly. 

[trias_e]

That is a shame, because you likely would have loved this game.  The setting is done amazingly.  They nail the atmosphere, the writing is great, and the 'everything is true' tagline is actually pulled off quite well.  Playing a cliched fantasy game like GW2 after this game is painful.  If you do get a chance, I really recommend playing it.

To your concerns: The puzzles are just some adventure game esque stuff that requires you to think and do outside research.  They are not a huge part of the game and are entirely skippable if you hate them (or just look at guides).  Respeccing in this game makes no sense due to the skill system.  Your goal is to unlock everything eventually.  If you hate your build it doesn't take long at all to build in a different direction, and the cheap first tier skills are perfectly viable and no less powerful than more expensive skills.  The combat isn't worse than GW2 IMO.  The active dodging is actually done better.

[Tyrnan]

I wonder if they were expecting the secret war facebook thing to be some big viral marketing hit and do a lot of the work for them?

[Genev]

I kinda assumed that was the point, i only use facebook for party organisation and pictures though, cba with games or apps or anything lieke that, so even though the game looked cool, i couldn't be bothered with it.

[Tyrnan]

Well yeah, but it just seems silly if they were expecting it to do all the work for them, rather than mixing it with other forms of marketing. Or maybe they figured the game would be niche no matter what they did and the marketing money would be wasted?

I was actually mildly curious about the secret war until I found out it involved facebook. I would have liked the in-game outfits but not if the only way to get them was to spam my (non-gaming) facebook friends with shit they're not interested in.

[Tannhauser]

I'm not on FB so maybe that's why I missed it.  Hey, they could cut the last part of the GW2 video out and use that. :)

[Numtini]

The fact that this was modern horror probably limited it to a niche game. I've heard for 30 years how people are tired of humans, elves, dwarves, orcs, half-orcs, and gnomes, but from table top D&D to WOW, that is the genre that has consistently bubbled to the top.

Past that, funcom is tainted. If they want to do another game, they should spin off a subsidiary that can't be tied to Conan and AO.

[palmer_eldritch]

Well yeah, but it just seems silly if they were expecting it to do all the work for them, rather than mixing it with other forms of marketing. Or maybe they figured the game would be niche no matter what they did and the marketing money would be wasted?

I was actually mildly curious about the secret war until I found out it involved facebook. I would have liked the in-game outfits but not if the only way to get them was to spam my (non-gaming) facebook friends with shit they're not interested in.

A lot of people got round that by making new Facebook accounts for their Secret War Characters (even though it breaks Facebook's TOS) which ruined the whole viral marketing idea.

[DraconianOne]

Lastly, I didn't know they had a free trial and now I'm deep in GW2 and MoP is coming quickly.  

They don't any more - trials over.  

EDIT: I are fuckwit. They no longer have a splash page about the free trial and the sign up is now relegated to a small box that looks like a newsletter sign up. I could not see it for looking the other night.

[Ghambit]

Might as well not be there if you can't find it.   
In other news, I'm still having a fuckton of fun.  Moving into romania pt. 2 and working my way through the elites.  I've met some pretty cool people in PUGs, which makes sense since the muggles have left.

I'll be branching into tankland tonite maybe to assist with grp. formation.  One thing that's in TSW's favor is the skill system is setup to favor a small gamebase.  A raw crit-strike elemental DPSer can be a leech healer in a few clicks.  So I'm getting over the fact that the population is small right now.

[Segoris]

I've met some pretty cool people in PUGs, which makes sense since the muggles have left.

[Assuming muggles means elitists and their type] This was a weird game where even most of the "elitists" were fun to group with. I think it came down to only having a couple of thing being absolutely needed whereas the rest of someone's build could be less cookie cutter, or have some variances based on gear, etc. Also, a lot of them stuck together in their own groups between long lockouts on Nm dungeons, the gear progression needed to clear content, and re-teaching some of the fights isn't always fun in NM (which is why we always make Palmer explain them :p)

Actually, the worst experience in this game was the total opposite of from the assumed definition of "muggles" when someone who didn't understand the idea behind progression in NM mode and demanded we finish a NM dungeon because he has never finished one before (pretty sure it was his first night in NM based on lack of understanding bullions, lack of gear, and lack of realizing how badly he was being carried). That got old real quick to a point I'd have preferred someone calling me "brah" while telling me I'm 3% lower in dps than the maximum my gear potentially can reach for the entire night.

[Ghambit]

I dont understand how someone starting NM's could have a gear problem when you're required to run all the elites (typically numerous times) before you can even get in.  By then you should have a full set of signeted blues.   

As for dmg., it's so dependent on skill combos and situation that gear is secondary many times DPS-wise.   The only way to figure that out is to sit in the test chamber and stare at logs.

[Segoris]

His gear was just showing that it was quite likely his first time in a NM is all I was saying, which didn't help his case when whining like a little kid and demanding a full clear on an instance (even one which has not been cleared by the group he was with).

Though you don't have to run all of the elites more than once before being able to go against the GK, and signeting blues is kind of pointless IMO based on how fast they're replaced compared to how often you get an actually useful signet.

[Ard]

It's not a gear problem with nightmares, it's that the way they're made.   You're not intended to get all the way through them when you're just starting out.  You'll generally maybe get the first and possibly the second boss down if you're in elite blues, but you'll get stopped hard by a dps check after that point.   You need both good skills and good gear to get past those.  There's a vast difference in your ability to dps and survive between ql10 and ql10.4.  Even with good gear, and the ability to get to them, the end bosses are still a gamble at best against the RNG allowing you to win or not.  Nightmare is just a mess in some regards.

[Ghambit]

Game is 1/2 off for the next 24hrs.  $25.