Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
The Secret World: My Wife the Noob and TSW
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
Not everyone knows all things about all MMOs. Once in awhile, a rank amateur joins the legion fans surrounding the MMO-niverse. In our latest look at The Secret World, we check out the game through the eyes of a n00b. See what she thinks and then leave your thoughts in the comments.
My wife’s not what you would probably call a “gamer”. Sure enough she’s played games over the course of her life, and she’s once sported a healthy (but passing) interest in social games. She’s also fond of the sort of more active titles you’ll find on the Wii and Xbox Kinect. But MMORPGs? She leaves that stuff to her husband, and rightly so. I’d never wish her the sort of unhealthy obsession with virtual worlds I find myself making a living with. I’m nerd enough for the both of us, thank you. But that doesn’t mean she’s not interested in my passion. She’s gone to events with me, taken notes at panels, and last year even met Ragnar and the Funcom crew working on The Secret World while we were at New York Comic Con.
Read more of Bill Murphy's The Secret World: My Wife the Noob and TSW.
)
Comments
That's a great write up. It's refreshing to get your wife's opinion on TSW. I think you should hire her to give reviews on all new MMO's coming out. I completely agree with all her points; they are very valid. The biggest beef I had was that I never spoke or had the ability to make a choice during a conversation while playing. I don't get why we don't speak in the dialog...
Lovely story
"wipes eyes" Your a lucky man.
I did get my gf to actually look at me a couple times (listening) when talking about the conspiracys though. I thought that was a big step forward from saying "I don't want to here about any game!" haha
Twitter Facebook RantOnRob Youtube
Very neat story. It makes me remember my first time playing an MMO.
It's not about fighting, it's about balance. It's not about enlightenment, it's about balance. It's not about balance.
I stopped reading at ...not getting rewarded enough.
I agree it is a nice write up.
Having just fled SWTOR I was happy to see that my character did not speak in the cutscenes. In swtor it was nice to hear my character speak, but a lot of times when i would pick a dialog choice and my character would speak - I would think to myself- thats not what I wanted to say! Makes the cutscene shorter anyways to not have my toon speak. I am not saying either way is bad just different and not a gamebreaker at all - just a different way of doing things.
Yeah, having a voice in the cinematics does wonders. Just look at SWTOR. Nothing like being in a group and having a cinematic where you can't be sure who is talking because three different characters have the same voice or making a choice and hearing the same line for the hundredth time. That doesn't even really match with the choice you made.
No thanks. Choices definitely but they can shove the dialogue option. Wasn't sure I was ever keen on the concept and SWTOR pretty much showed me it is a fairly awful thing to do.
Anyways, nice article...
1. For god's sake mmo gamers, enough with the analogies. They're unnecessary and your comparisons are terrible, dissimilar, and illogical.
2. To posters feeling the need to state how f2p really isn't f2p: Players understand the concept. You aren't privy to some secret the rest are missing. You're embarrassing yourself.
3. Yes, Cpt. Obvious, we're not industry experts. Now run along and let the big people use the forums for their purpose.
nice story but last thing i want is my wife gettin into pc gaming mode and takin over..no ty..she can stick to washing the dishes(joking of course)
I do agree that everone having the same voice was a lil odd too.
Good stuff Bill!
BigCountry | Head Hunters | www.wefarmpeople.com
My biggest problem with swtor character voices was that there were no choices. I wanted to make an old "don't mess with him" smuggler, but I couldn't because no matter how my toon looked he spoke like a sauve sarcastic young flyboy.
Thank your wife for us Bill. This was a great viewpoint that we don't get to often and it was refreshing.
Very cool, if only I could get my wife to use a computer enough to even begin the journey of playing a game. Tell her WASD and she would be like what where I don't see that on the screen LOL.
But I do give her props for actually enjoy watching me play on rare occations. She always interested in what the new flavor of game is today.
As always Bill, nice insight.
Subscribe
www.twitch.tv/chief_sarcan
twitter.com/Chief_Sarcan
www.youtube.com/user/ChiefSarcan
Visit http://yokaiblog.wikidot.com for TSW Guides
I created and mapped an xpadder profile to a 360 controller. She might prefer a gamepad/controller over the mouse and keyboard if its any easier. xpadder works pretty good with TSW.
My wife helps with char creation also, but that's about as far as she goes with these games. The only video game she has shown any interest in is Super Mario on the kids Wii...
Now pinterest.com, holy cow she is a crack head when it comes to that....LOL
BigCountry | Head Hunters | www.wefarmpeople.com
My wife is intrigued by the secret world as well, but definately is not a mmo-virgin. she's been playing MMOs with me since may 8th 1999.
In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move. - Douglas Adams
Yeah, character having a voice sounds like a great idea in theory, until you actually experience it. TOR gave my character voice and every time i spoke my thought was one of the following:
"that doesn't sound like my character"
"that's not what my character would say"
"why does my character sound like a retard?"
"that's not what i meant"
"why do i keep repeating the same things?"
"why does my character sound exactly the same as everyone else?"
Having played both TOR and TSW, i'll happily take TSW's strong, silent type. I do think there is an evolution to be had in voicing your character in MMOs, but i think that evolution is you (the person behidn the keyboard) voice interacting with the NPCs, not a bunch of pre-recorded snippets of dialogue. (For example, TSW's NPC interface says something like "yourself" and you click on that button to ask the person about themselves, it would be very cool if instead i could look at the option of "yourself" and say into my mic "tell me about yourself" and the NPC would answer.)
"Id rather work on something with great potential than on fulfilling a promise of mediocrity."
- Raph Koster
Tried: AO,EQ,EQ2,DAoC,SWG,AA,SB,HZ,CoX,PS,GA,TR,IV,GnH,EVE, PP,DnL,WAR,MxO,SWG,FE,VG,AoC,DDO,LoTRO,Rift,TOR,Aion,Tera,TSW,GW2,DCUO,CO,STO
Favourites: AO,SWG,EVE,TR,LoTRO,TSW,EQ2, Firefall
Currently Playing: ESO
nice article. She needs a blog so I can find out what happens to Widget next!
P.S. I can relate to hating bad hairstyles in games.
the poster formerly known as melangel :P
Would be a good read.
Nice write-up and proper behavorial science.
*pictures Bill in a lab coat with a note pad, observing his gaming female and frantically making notes*
We need a few more specimen to get a more objective sampling, but this is a great start.
My brand new bloggity blog.
Great stuff. Loved the title.
I try to be a noob anytime I log into a new game, to see the world with fresh eyes and no expectations. It tends to take a bit longer to ramp up, but it also highlights immersion factors and things that seem lacking.
I'd love to hear from Megan again.
I agree with this entirely, througout the playthrus of TOR, Sith Warrior, Jedi and Agent, there were so many times I thought..wait..that's..not what I picked.. OR why are you saying that again? The warrior in particular every option was just one psychopathic line after another. I Likez murderz, derp. Got to the point I figured my warrior had downs or something.
Then once I started grouping anytime someone was the same class I tried to look at the brightside of being taken out of the elements by the fact that that person had my voice. I figured hey maybe i'll get to hear different dialogues that I wouldn't normally pick..but they all sounded the same, same tone, different words.
When I did TSW I was happy to be the quiet protagonist frankly, heck I even had it in mind when I created my character. This guys a thinker, an internalist.. Thankfully the cut scenes let that happen.
i do also agree, not to mention, that while npcs have only few dialogs each, main char is expected to talk to all of them, therefore even haveing only 1 male and 1 female voice to choose from would more ore less TRIPPLE the amount of voice recording needed
This was a great article! Thank you!
TSW is the first MMO, or any video game besides Mario Kart Wii for that matter, that my wife has shown an interest in. If it happens I will be curious to see how her expereince relates to that of the wife in this account. Oh and to the author, gratz on your victory lol , i have been trying to get my wife to play mmos with me for ages...