Funcom's new MMO: The Secret World

[A Black Falcon]

(Funcom: The Longest Journey, Dreamfall, Anarchy Online, Age of Conan (upcoming))

It's got Ragnar Tornquist designing it, so the story and writing are guaranteed to be exceptional (Ragnar Tornquist is awesome! TLJ... so great... and his writing about game design is quite good too, in his blog and stuff.). It's also got some great concept art... gameplay? Who knows, we'll see. But I'm definitely interested.

Oh, they're also actually aiming at an adult marketplace... horror theme, M rating, concept art with partial (monster) nudity, and (best of all) presumably actually a script that assumes you're not an idiot...

http://kotaku.com/gaming/the-mmo-formerl...259777.php
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=154656

There are a lot of pieces of concept art now (and more gameplay details), but I'll post just a few...

[Dark Jaguar]

Is it just me or is it that whenever a company makes an MMO, the alure of all that CASH MONEY just overwhelms them and totally changes their business model to "drug overlord"?

[A Black Falcon]

It's Ragnar Tornquist, though...

[A Black Falcon]

Trailer from several months ago that I missed:

http://ve3d.ign.com/videos/44667/PC/The-...iler-Redux

Evidently we'll be hearing more soon. :)

[Weltall]

No H.P. Lovecraft influence here. No, sir.

[A Black Falcon]

At least it looks like well done Lovecraft stuff, though. Using influences from a great writer isn't always bad... Eternal Darkness, for instance, which was one of the best games on the Gamecube and was a blatant Lovecraft ripoff. :)

[Weltall]

I loved Eternal Darkness.

I also think Lovecraft was a horrible writer. Never really enjoyed anything he did.

[lazyfatbum]

Your sarcasm is gigantic.

I'm in love with the camo pants girl on the left.

[A Black Falcon]

Actual game information about the game's three factions! I hadn't seen much before...

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/thesecret...e=previews

Also, a personality test to see which faction you align with best at the official site. http://www.darkdaysarecoming.com/

[A Black Falcon]

The first four actual ingame screenshots... too bad it's a monthly-fee MMO, I'd love to actually play it. :)

http://loading.se/news.php?pub_id=8220

[A Black Falcon]

<object width="640" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/4VAs8-wtE_8?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/4VAs8-wtE_8?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="385"></embed></object>

[Great Rumbler]

Can't wait for this to come out, do well initially, and then for everyone to drop it after the first free month ends.

[Dark Jaguar]

I bet the first quests involve killing Kobolds. I hate rat dog men and all the MMOs that make them and their completely irrelevent "stole our foodstuffs" antics always mucking up intros to MMOs. It really sets the tone of "nothing you do will ever change the world".

[A Black Falcon]

This is set in a modern day world with secret societies that have magical powers though DJ, I doubt there are kobolds...

Can't wait for this to come out, do well initially, and then for everyone to drop it after the first free month ends.

:(

That does happen often though, doesn't it. Monthly fees aren't very nice. The alternative appears to be cash shops though, so I don't know which is better...

Also, their previous MMO, Anarchy Online (which was of course sci-fi) did decently, so I'm sure it'll be technically competent. The artwork's pretty good, too. How much fun it'll be we'll see, but I'm hopeful. Oh, the skill limit thing sounds great (like Guild Wars maybe, if I heard them right?).

I will say though, an MMO where people just dress like normal everyday people? Kind of boring compared to the usual sci-fi or fantasy settings... but I know, that's the point, being different. And it definitely seems like it's succeeding at that, it doesn't look like your average MMO, and that's a good thing. Overall, sounds good, I think. Or unique, at least.


I do have to admit though, one reason I'm looking forward to it is so that hopefully Funcom can make part three of The Longest Journey... the multiple cliffhangers at the end of the second game are so cruel!

[lazyfatbum]

You are a member of an elite force that is compared to Gods, generals of all humanity and your decisions sway the course of all things.

But right now you need to gather 300 cherries, find a lost pig and recover a love letter in a volcano. SEE YOU IN 3 MONTHS.

The teaser trailer and the artwork got me excited. The actual gameplay... i'd rather waste my free time with tactical flash games.

[A Black Falcon]

Hah, yeah, MMO gameplay is pretty repetitive...

That is my main issue with it, all you do is fight stuff. In single player PC RPGs, there isusually more variety -- conversations that actually last, story, puzzles in the environment, conversation puzzles, and more... but in online RPGs all you do is fight. It's definitely a big flaw.

[Dark Jaguar]

Well that's the big flaw in MMOs. I'm starting to think that the entire concept of an MMO is doomed from the start, and we should all just go back to "small party" online RPGs like Phantasy Star Online. You just can't change the entire world without screwing everyone else on the server out of that experience, past and future players, and that's not acceptable. You can "instance" places, but any ol' online game can already do that, that's nothing special. There's that recent "phasing" thing, but now how is it really online? The world changes for you and ONLY for you, but talking to others it's clear they're very literally not in the same WORLD you are in any more, sometimes you can't even see them until they "catch up" in the story. I really don't see the upcoming Knights of the Old Republic changing that basic fact any time soon.

In the end, what exactly DOES one get out of the "massive" part anyway? Can anyone tell me that? It's not like you do much more than pass BY anyone you aren't in a party with. Maybe you can impress them with all your neat fake stuff, and there's that big arse "online economy", but seriously, who gets joy out of pretending to run an eBay business? I say just make these things "standard online", and then you can change the world all you want with your party of friends. Plus, the "persistent world" element need not apply (since as I mentioned, that part really doesn't DO anything when the world remains static forever anyway, Animal Crossing it ain't).

Of course it all comes down to how even the most "casual friendly" MMOs are designed from the ground up to waste as much of your time as possible. Leveling up takes weeks to months even at the quickest, and from there it's all about gathering better and better full sets of new shiny armor and weapons. Sure there's leveling and gear upgrading in standard RPGs, but it's set up so even in the most "grindy" single player games it's all somewhat seamless with the adventure, you feel like you're doing something, and it only takes about a week or two at MOST to max out your character and get the nicest gear you can. No matter the designer's claims, if every single new dungeon depends entirely on getting silly rare drops from the previous one just to stand a chance (on 40 people), then it's wasting my time.

[A Black Falcon]

http://www.thesecretworld.com/news/subsc...r_required

Well, it's finally happening -- they're dropping the monthly fee in TSW! So yeah, I'll have to get this game now, probably when it goes on sale sometime. I don't want to have to pay monthly fees for games, but for a single cost? Yeah, I want to try this for sure.