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Global Agenda: Hands-On Preview & Video Interview
Dana
Member Posts: 2,415
At E3 2009, MMORPG.com had a chance to sit down and play Global Agenda. The MMOFPS from Hi-Rez Studios in Atlanta makes great use of the Unreal 3 Engine and compares favorably with some classic shooters. Plus, it's an MMO. We also talked to Executive Producer Todd Harris on camera about the game.
Global Agenda pulls off hands-to-hand combat beautifully.
My Assault character had this absurd electric battle axe. It looked awesome and at first, it seemed pretty useless. But as I got more comfortable with the game, it became an amazing tool, powered by the tight maps.
In one area, we were having a firefight back and forth on a walkway, with one solid wall and one side open to the air. At first, both sides dug in and just lobbed rockets and bullets back and forth. It was a stalemate.
At least, until I broke out the battle axe.
;)
Read the preview here.
Watch the interview here.
Dana Massey
Formerly of MMORPG.com
Currently Lead Designer for Bit Trap Studios
Comments
Another game that is more like Diablo than a MMO. I just don't believe it fits in the MMO category.
The distinction we're using, and I'm the first to admit it's pretty arbitrary...
There is a virtual world common area where people run around and such, rather than a text list of matches.
Dana Massey
Formerly of MMORPG.com
Currently Lead Designer for Bit Trap Studios
From the Global Agenda forums, hope it helps:
Is Global Agenda a "real" MMO?
I've heard that Global Agenda has a lot of instancing and relatively small battles. Is the game a "real" MMO?
Global Agenda's unique fusion of shooter-based action, role-playing mechanics, and grand territorial strategy gameplay can make the game difficult to easily pigeonhole into a "classic" game genre. At Hi-Rez Studios, our number one objective is to bring a fresh, insanely fun game to market -- not necessarily to fit neatly into an existing category.
That said, however, the game has a broad set of features that MMO players have grown accustomed to and that are traditionally considered when discussing whether a game is a "true MMO."
These features include:
Player vs Environment missions with boss fights
Player vs Player missions with different objective types
A large-scale, persistent territory control framework and Campaign
Multiple character classes and subclasses
Character levelling and progression
Skill trees
Social Hubs
Achievements
Loot with various qualities
Blueprints and crafting
Economy and auction system
Gear upgrades
Alliances and Agencies (our version of "guilds").
Grouping systems (for easily teaming with other players for missiosn)
Character customization and dyes
Flair and seasonal items
Alliance/Agency/Group/Side/Team text chat
Integrated Voice Chat
Thirty+ different major weapons/devices for each class
Scores of character emotes
A "Raid" system that is part of the campaign system that allows coordinated teams of up to 60 persons (working inside up to 6 different strike teams) to simultaneously raid the enemy, working toward a common raid objective.
Single server-shard per major geographic region -- meaning you can communicate with and compete with/against tens of thousands of other players.
keeping more then a close eye on this game, it is looking like it will be the best MMOFPS attempt so far.
GAMC
RDYUP.com - Connect.Compete.Game (My Website)
Wow, can't say i've ever heard anyone call it diablo. Probably because it's different in pretty much every single way. Please do some research before making a statement like that.
Since the reviewer could only really talk about the combat, the game will also have a very fleshed out agency (guild) vs agency system, where each group can fight to lose/win territory to other groups, using diplomacy and allocating their limited resources to try and further their own agency. These campaigns last 45 days each and then reset (to some degree), and it's probably what'll be the meat of the game, in addition to regular scrimages that don't affect the persistent world of global agenda.
GA wont be an arena shooter dressed up as an MMO, I feel I can say that much. Obviously the combat has been the highlight so far, bu the beta is coming soon, and hirez will likely start rolling out more information about the rest of the game, which is sounding very interesting.
The devs are also very active in the community, so if you have questions you can stop by the official forums and likely find an answer from someone that is actually on the team. There are also many community polls the devs set up to try and get an impression of what the community wants in an arena FPS, in an MMO, and in GA. This is in addition to a number of fansites (like GAMC) that can prove to be very useful to people who are looking to learn more about the game.
with any luck, we will see more of global agendas features come beta.
GAMC (damn you zig88!)
Your right the game isn't being hyped as the second coming, no-one is comparing it to WoW and "gasp" it might be fun to play for a change.
Seems to have enough features to be a mmo. The genre needs new ideas that are actually workable and playable. I'm looking forward to seeing how it turns out. Could be a sleeper.
Is GA like DF only with different weapons? Just a thought
I think I understand what he meant when he tried to compare it to Diablo 2, but a better comparison would probably be Guild Wars, which no one contests as being a MMO. Social hub areas where everyone meets and a fully instanced world with mission mapped areas you can only visit for your mission.
While this game might meet the MMO standards for this site, it most certainly does not for a lot of the posters.
For me, central sites where you meet to group up for instances is more or less a diablo clone. So if you can't include diablo on this site you can't include this group either. That also includes crimecraft APD and the like.
All these games are so far from what most of us think as an MMO as to be a real stretch to include them.
I could care less whether or not a developer classifies it's own game as an MMO. What I do care about is specific mechanics or characteristics of the developer's game. One important aspect of all of "Shooter-type-MMOs" being released for me is how the PvP is being implemented, basically is it going to happen on a server or is going to be Peer-to-Peer. The interview implied it was taking place on a server but could be just the alpha code and demo. If the majority or all of PvP is Peer-to-Peer then that is one mark in the negative column for me.
i think it does, however, meet more of the requirements to be listed on this site than some games that have recently been added
Honestly I don't understand the big MMO question of it. This is designed almost exactly the way Guild Wars is and nobody tried to say Guild Wars wasn't a MMO. My personal opinion is different, but I'm curious why there's a double standard when it comes to classifying Fantasy games as MMOs vs Other. I get the feeling this one's being treated differently because its a FPS style "MMO" and that's new territory for so many of us.
That's because they can't classify it to any other mmo out there at the moment, so what they don't understand, they question if it's really an MMO.
You may want to find a different term to use than "diablo clone," especially since that already means something very sepcific. A diablo clone is something like sacred or titan quest. just putting that out there.
If you consider something instanced like GW not an MMO then thats something totally different.
Have you ever played Diablo?
That's not at all how it works. If we were listing games with text lobbies where you jump into instances and no common areas, you might have a point, but since that's not at all what we're talking about...
Dana Massey
Formerly of MMORPG.com
Currently Lead Designer for Bit Trap Studios
Sorry a MMO is a game where you are free to roam the land and meet those people journeying in the same world, not meet in any kind of lobby to enter an instance.
These games are all just multiplayer FPS games skirting the rules to get the MMO label on them. They are in no way MMO's.
really, I've seen plenty of people question the massive quality of guild wars(personally i usually refer to it as a single player mmo)
and yes this may be partly due to this game being an fps rather than a hack'n'slash(i tried darkspace which i would class as more of a lobbied space shooter but still think it could be classed as an mmo(just not sure about the rpg bit)), but for my part it's down to SOE making a guild wars style game that maxes at 8v8 combat and how can that deserve the title of massive????
Have you ever played Diablo?
That's not at all how it works. If we were listing games with text lobbies where you jump into instances and no common areas, you might have a point, but since that's not at all what we're talking about...
doesn't soldier front, saga and a few others count as games with text lobbies?
but i agree global agenda does meet the requirements to be on the list of this site, although i still think its title of mmo is questionable(after all there isn't a huge difference between a text lobby and a graphical one)
According to you. What is a MMO?
MMOGs create a persistent universe where the game continues playing regardless of whether or not anyone else is. Do they need to be all located on a single server like Eve or Darkfall or are games like WAR, WoW with multiple servers allowed?
MMOGs host a large number of players in a single game world. Does it have to be instanced or open? EQ2, Age of Conan, Guild Wars are all instanced yet classed as MMO's.
Global Agenda will be a MMOFPS from what i can tell. So it will be a MMO.
I just don't get why people want to exclude games. I hate labels personally and just like to play fun games with and against others. I would love it if all games have large open worlds on a single server able to accomodate hundreds of thousands of people simultaneously but am realistic enough to know technology infrustructure needs to catch up to people's expectations.
While I wouldn't call this a Diablo clone, it most certainly is not an MMO and is not an FPS. It's a persistant third person shooter with an avatar-based lobby system. Huxley falls in the same category minus the third person as combat is in first person. The only MMOFPS on the market and/or announced is Planetside.
That's not to say Huxley or Global Agenda aren't fun, they just aren't Massively Multiplayer Online First Person Shooters per the definition of those words. You can try to categorize them as such, but you would be incorrect and it detracts from your otherwise good review of the game.
Oh what a surprise! The first comment in the thread is yet again about whether this game is an mmo or not.........and now thats all anyone seems to be able to talk about when referencing this game.
Is it a persistent gameworld? Yes.
Is the character you create a persistent one that is still there when you log back in? Yes.
Can you "level up" and customise your character by playing the game? Yes.
Can a "massive" number of players log into the same gameworld, meet up with each other and go on missions/adventures together? Yes.
Can you're actions have a lasting and meaningful effect on the gameworld? Yes......more so than other mmos in fact as most of them are static gameworlds in which the only thing you can change is the level of your own character.
Does this game have all the qualities that class it as an mmo? Yes of course it bloody well does.
Is all the whining about this game not being an mmo annally retentive and completely retarded? Yes it most certainly is.
Have you ever played Diablo?
That's not at all how it works. If we were listing games with text lobbies where you jump into instances and no common areas, you might have a point, but since that's not at all what we're talking about...
What is the difference between a 3D lobby and a text lobby?
Isn't the name you have in text just another kind of avatar? The matching sure as hell is very similar, whether you have a text lobby or a 3D lobby.
Guild Wars has nothing to do with MMO.
The devs of GW even admitted that themselves.
All of you being so confused about MMO - consider this:
Massively is the key word. 32 vs.32 is not massively. In that case Battlefield would qualify. If you have hundreds of players in the same world, then we are beginning to talk.
WoW endgame doesn't even qualify as an MMO. Instances with 40vs40 is not massive at all. The only reason why you can even call WoW MMO, is the leveling game from 1-80 (or whatever the level cap is these days).
Just a FYI: I haven't played WoW since Burning Crusade, so if they added something new (like World PvP), then I stand corrected. But in the old WoW, endgame didn't qualify as MMO.
Personally I have a few more qualifiers, like the level of persistance - which heavy instancing works against - and impactability on the world - but that is just me. And if you include those, then even the leveling game of WoW will come into question. But again, that is just me.
I've tried out a few of the other MMO third person shooters currently in the beta testing stage and was disappointed. Global Agenda looks like just what I was waiting for... can't wait to try this awesome looking game.
-GAMC