To the intial MMOers glance, TSW really appears to be yet another generic MMO copy, but when you take a closer look and give it a bit of time, you find a real Diamond. I was one of those people, I saw it, I wasnt interested. I got invited to the Beta weekend, It was ok, I had nothing better to do as I was on leave for a month so I decided to pre order and play. 2 days later im hooked, 5 days later im addicted.
This game offers storyline immersion that goes back to games of the older generation. Where you were glued to your screen wanting to know what happens next. The quests are a puzzle and take actual thought process to work out (though you can cheat with google if you get stuck, i did) making the game less of a droll grind. The leveling system is pretty quality, it allowed me to look through all the skills and find combinations that work best and work towards them. By the end i had 3 different healer builds, a DPS build and an AoE DPS build. All which id designed myself.
The idea is by the end of the game you can get all skills, though having done all the missions and only having 30% of them, I can see its going to be abit of a grind.
Ive been playing since 18th of june early access, so thats what 30 days? I dont regret it, loved it. Only thing is, Ive played alot and ive smashed all the content. Im not one for sitting back and watching every single cutscene, sorry it bores me. Im not one for spending an hour working out a quest, sorry, 30 mins and ill google it. I play for fun, i dont find the alternative fun. Lest to say ive had alot of time off and ive wanted to play it as much as I can.
Questing? Fun. Groups? Fun. Instance require tactics and group coordination to overcome. Great! Cabals? Lacking abit of content, they're basically glorified chat rooms. Graphics? Absolute quality.
The endgame doesnt seem to offer much tho, which is why ive decided to shelve this game and come back to it in a few months. Once you've done the main storyline and all the quests. You've got two options Nightmare Dungeons, and PVP. Nightmare dungeons are like the name suggests, a nightmare to do. Most bosses are bugged, so you cant complete them. And you cant raid the same dungeon for another 16 hours if you dont finish it, which you cant becuase its bugged. And doing a higher Nightmare? you must be joking, you need the gear from the lower ones.
So im left with only two alternatives, gather all exploration & lore achievements for bits of clothing. PVP until my eyes bleed, all so I can raid a dungeon in hope the boss mobs dont bug. And lets say I do that for the next two weeks and manage to get 3-4 purples? What then?
Lest to say, great game, thoroughly enjoyed it and I am returning when they create some sort of sustainable endgame content, ie cabal citys/bases, a better pvp reward system & maps, a way to get more AP other then grinding mobs/instances. In its current state it will easily provide a month joyful content. But in true Funcom fashion they forgot to add endgame.
If you disagree/agree, crack on, just thought I'd share my experience in the gaming having done pretty much everything. Cheers!
You don't get to claim you were glued to your seat to see what happens next, then say you skipped the cutscenes. You burned through the content by skipping the heart of the game; it's story. Your review and assessment is thereby flawed to me, and entirely invalid.
Its the fault of the players to take any shortcut and then start to complain about the length of the journey.
This is the kind of foolish comment that turns people off. I am at the end and I didn't take any shortcuts. While I did not 'live' on the computer, I did play almost every day and heavily on the weekends.
A good game, content limited. I like the game but it is SHORT. I am happy they are having monthly additions but 5 or 6 quests (particularly in low level zones where Q10 are going to 1-2 shot the local mobs that offer a short time sink) are not going to fix this.
If PvP was more enjoyable, I would have something to do for the foreseeable future but (for me) it's not.
It's kinda hard to one-shot investigation uests, no matter your QL ;p And those are majority in the first update.
For people that burn fast thru content this, and any other game this days is gonna be short, yes, however that doesn't account for most players.
Nothing wrong with that playsytle or speed, other than games won't last for them.
Most players are around the XP indicators for staring Egypt if you check chronicle and do some math. At most.
That's very impressive indeed. 8/12 of his cabal mates are rank 13 and have similar stats, albiet not quite to that level.
over 800 missions completed. Wow, just wow.
You can't design a fun and lasting MMO for these kind of people, other than them go play those Asian grinders.
These people are even able to chew away an entire WoW expansion within 1 to 2 months, clearing all the RAID content and then sit in Stormwind or Ironforge 24/7 showing off their gear.
Luckily. These people are a very very tiny minority.
This is the first post I've seen for this game of someone within a month of release to decry a lack of content. I'm sure the deluge to follow.
I'm going to give all of you a hint who like to power game. Don't buy an mmo until it is 4 or 5 years old or wait for the day when you see a game that actually spent an extra 4 or 5 years of development, on top of the initial 4 or 5 years specifically to add content before release. Which, won't happen, I'm here to tell you.
Any game you could name will have threads in the first month about the lack of content. Necro some if you want. You can't prove me wrong.
NO MMO EVER HAS released with any more than 1 years worth of content for casual gamers and no more than 3 months of content for power gamers. EVER. Not because they are lazy, because it is simply not within the realm of feasibility to do so. For more reasons than you could imagine or even understand.
Get used to it, get over it, slow down your power gaming or gain some patience and wait a few years so that the game has enough content to suit your needs.
You will never ever find an acceptable amount of content on release if you are a power gamer. EVER. Period.
This is the first post I've seen for this game of someone within a month of release to decry a lack of content. I'm sure the deluge to follow.
Actually it's a way of bragging without actually coming out and saying...omg I'm so uber I played non stop and one of the first to complete everything. Many treat MMOs like a race because they want the self-gratification of being one of the first to finish something. Many get into CB well before launch, take notes and follow a system of completion knowing the best quests/missions to take and the best exploits to gain the most amount of EXP.
I'll point to a few examples. Diablo 3, SWTOR, Rift, Cataclysm for WoW - but honestly the last few years this has always been the case with any game that doesn't have a rediculous grind attached to them. Oh and EQ longevity? Yeah it's called major grind. Back then that was acceptable and players had to kill things to get high enough to complete new content with new quests. It's not acceptable now. That's why you have people able to burn through content now. Plus the internet and all its hints and guides also written by Beta players help too.
To the intial MMOers glance, TSW really appears to be yet another generic MMO copy, but when you take a closer look and give it a bit of time, you find a real Diamond. I was one of those people, I saw it, I wasnt interested. I got invited to the Beta weekend, It was ok, I had nothing better to do as I was on leave for a month so I decided to pre order and play. 2 days later im hooked, 5 days later im addicted.
This game offers storyline immersion that goes back to games of the older generation. Where you were glued to your screen wanting to know what happens next. The quests are a puzzle and take actual thought process to work out (though you can cheat with google if you get stuck, i did) making the game less of a droll grind. The leveling system is pretty quality, it allowed me to look through all the skills and find combinations that work best and work towards them. By the end i had 3 different healer builds, a DPS build and an AoE DPS build. All which id designed myself.
The idea is by the end of the game you can get all skills, though having done all the missions and only having 30% of them, I can see its going to be abit of a grind.
Ive been playing since 18th of june early access, so thats what 30 days? I dont regret it, loved it. Only thing is, Ive played alot and ive smashed all the content. Im not one for sitting back and watching every single cutscene, sorry it bores me. Im not one for spending an hour working out a quest, sorry, 30 mins and ill google it. I play for fun, i dont find the alternative fun. Lest to say ive had alot of time off and ive wanted to play it as much as I can.
Questing? Fun. Groups? Fun. Instance require tactics and group coordination to overcome. Great! Cabals? Lacking abit of content, they're basically glorified chat rooms. Graphics? Absolute quality.
The endgame doesnt seem to offer much tho, which is why ive decided to shelve this game and come back to it in a few months. Once you've done the main storyline and all the quests. You've got two options Nightmare Dungeons, and PVP. Nightmare dungeons are like the name suggests, a nightmare to do. Most bosses are bugged, so you cant complete them. And you cant raid the same dungeon for another 16 hours if you dont finish it, which you cant becuase its bugged. And doing a higher Nightmare? you must be joking, you need the gear from the lower ones.
So im left with only two alternatives, gather all exploration & lore achievements for bits of clothing. PVP until my eyes bleed, all so I can raid a dungeon in hope the boss mobs dont bug. And lets say I do that for the next two weeks and manage to get 3-4 purples? What then?
Lest to say, great game, thoroughly enjoyed it and I am returning when they create some sort of sustainable endgame content, ie cabal citys/bases, a better pvp reward system & maps, a way to get more AP other then grinding mobs/instances. In its current state it will easily provide a month joyful content. But in true Funcom fashion they forgot to add endgame.
If you disagree/agree, crack on, just thought I'd share my experience in the gaming having done pretty much everything. Cheers!
You don't get to claim you were glued to your seat to see what happens next, then say you skipped the cutscenes. You burned through the content by skipping the heart of the game; it's story. Your review and assessment is thereby flawed to me, and entirely invalid.
So because he chooses not to sit through UN-interactive cutscenes, his review is flawed? Yet one could not watch the cutscenes and still get the context of the story via the quest tiers where you actually interact with the story. Yet you harp on him for not doing the part that just requires watching. Okay.....if he was griping about the story, then you would have a case. He wasn't. You don't. Next.
Fun while it lasted. Best quest content I've ever experienced. Played each mission at least once, have repeated the final three zones three times now...It's just becomming boring as fuck. http://chronicle.thesecretworld.com/character/Zouce
Great story, but once you are "on vacation" good luck staying interested.
Fun while it lasted. Best quest content I've ever experienced. Played each mission at least once, have repeated the final three zones three times now...It's just becomming boring as fuck. http://chronicle.thesecretworld.com/character/Zouce
Great story, but once you are "on vacation" good luck staying interested.
Well said and right on target. Thank you for linking your chronicle as well. Game could have been phenomenal but isn't worth a monthly sub right now. It's too SMALL. Rift has the same problem as an example of another game that has vast potential but is so small it's pointless to play for any type of longevity. . Right now.
MMOs need to be built with longevity in mind and not promises of more content to keep me paying(although this should be a given, it's what MMOs do, if they are smart). You need a good track record first, IMHO. Funcom does not have that. Neither do many other companies, especially YOU, Blizzard. Charging people a monthly fee when the last content update was over a year ago or more. So sad. Trion is the ONLY company to have NOW proven they can add content on a consistent and rapid basis, yet the game is still small and I still lack things to do. TSW seems to have followed the same build idea. Wonder if they can keep up with the monthly content updates they plan and how much they will expand the game.
I'm not opposed to trying it out again in 6 months to a year to see how it's grown, that's for sure. The game has potential. But then, SWG was always touted as having massive potential and they wasted that endeavour.
I've been playing every night about 5-6 horus a night since release, but that is due to the guide writing and stuff we're doing at http://www.unfair.co
We've just finished the main story completely last night, and still have the last zone and a half of Transylvania worth of missions to do.
I've done virtually no PvP yet, only one Elite Dungeon Run, as said above, still have a ton of missions to complete.
I've got about 5 days played time total on my character.
I'd say all things considered, there's quite a bit of content to be had here. And if they release any amount of content on a monthly basis, it will keep things going for some time.
Based on the site stats we record, it seems the mass majority of players are just entering Egypt. So based on that, and new content supposedly coming monthly, the average player will never run out of things to do.
Hey TSW Players http://www.unfair.co/ for Mission guides, Lore Locations and stuff....
I've been playing every night about 5-6 horus a night since release, but that is due to the guide writing and stuff we're doing at http://www.unfair.co
We've just finished the main story completely last night, and still have the last zone and a half of Transylvania worth of missions to do.
I've done virtually no PvP yet, only one Elite Dungeon Run, as said above, still have a ton of missions to complete.
I've got about 5 days played time total on my character.
I'd say all things considered, there's quite a bit of content to be had here. And if they release any amount of content on a monthly basis, it will keep things going for some time.
Based on the site stats we record, it seems the mass majority of players are just entering Egypt. So based on that, and new content supposedly coming monthly, the average player will never run out of things to do.
You are right, majority of players who are not power gamers have just started to trickle in to Egypt. Trans is very quite in comparison. There are players around but not that many. So yes FC have no need to freak out because some people who can spend 10 hours a day in front of pc are done with quests and main storyline.
I love your website by the way, helped me many times when i was stuck ona mission.
I think what they're saying is that if the games were sandboxes, players would find ways to amuse themselves, beyond the content provided by the developers.
Yeah but this is a themepark MMO. Anyways skill wheel was suppossed to keep people busy and players like me would take months to max it whereas even that wasn't enough for OP.
Doesn't have to be a sandbox. Take a look at WoW. There are a lot of things that players can do at the endgame besides raiding and PvP. You can craft, collect mounts and pets, archeology, instances, MoP is adding that whole pokemon thing. You can also create alts and since WoW has multiple zones per level range, you can potentially avoid repeating the content.
TSW is simply lacking in alternate things for players to do and that's why people leave once they run out of missions. The skill wheel is not enough incentive especially if filling it requires running the same quests and instances all over again.
Edit: as a reply to your other post, it doesn't have to be infinite. It should be enough to keep people occupied until the next content patch.
However it took WoW 8 to have all this content. Give any MMO 8 years after release and you will have enough content in that particular MMO to last you a long time.
Example.. STO came out 2 years ago and has more enough content to even keep a F2P player busy as well as AoC.
You people who have "finished" TSW have played WAY too many MMOs and won't EVER be content. I beta tested TSW and am a current sub. I have never see the end...why? Because I don't eat through an MMO like it was candy. WTF is wrong with you people? You aren't supposed to devour a game. Quit playing if you go through content this fast....friggin eh!
Fun while it lasted. Best quest content I've ever experienced. Played each mission at least once, have repeated the final three zones three times now...It's just becomming boring as fuck. http://chronicle.thesecretworld.com/character/Zouce
Great story, but once you are "on vacation" good luck staying interested.
Well said and right on target. Thank you for linking your chronicle as well. Game could have been phenomenal but isn't worth a monthly sub right now. It's too SMALL. Rift has the same problem as an example of another game that has vast potential but is so small it's pointless to play for any type of longevity. . Right now.
MMOs need to be built with longevity in mind and not promises of more content to keep me paying(although this should be a given, it's what MMOs do, if they are smart). You need a good track record first, IMHO. Funcom does not have that. Neither do many other companies, especially YOU, Blizzard. Charging people a monthly fee when the last content update was over a year ago or more. So sad. Trion is the ONLY company to have NOW proven they can add content on a consistent and rapid basis, yet the game is still small and I still lack things to do. TSW seems to have followed the same build idea. Wonder if they can keep up with the monthly content updates they plan and how much they will expand the game.
I'm not opposed to trying it out again in 6 months to a year to see how it's grown, that's for sure. The game has potential. But then, SWG was always touted as having massive potential and they wasted that endeavour.
Sorry, but tell me about an MMO that is able to sustain powergamers who play 10-16 hours a day in front of a PC for longer than the first month? Some extreme Asian grinders aside. Which I can't call exactly fun, having to mindlessly kill a million mobs to advance one level. /shrug
You simply CANNOT design a fun and lasting game for these type of gamers. Not even a well designed sandbox can keep these people entertained for long. Period!
Like many people already mentioned, the vast majority of people are still playing on Solomon's Island and now barely started trickling into Egypt.
Those are the main audience and they have plenty of content to go still for months to come.
Fun while it lasted. Best quest content I've ever experienced. Played each mission at least once, have repeated the final three zones three times now...It's just becomming boring as fuck. http://chronicle.thesecretworld.com/character/Zouce
Great story, but once you are "on vacation" good luck staying interested.
Well said and right on target. Thank you for linking your chronicle as well. Game could have been phenomenal but isn't worth a monthly sub right now. It's too SMALL. Rift has the same problem as an example of another game that has vast potential but is so small it's pointless to play for any type of longevity. . Right now.
MMOs need to be built with longevity in mind and not promises of more content to keep me paying(although this should be a given, it's what MMOs do, if they are smart). You need a good track record first, IMHO. Funcom does not have that. Neither do many other companies, especially YOU, Blizzard. Charging people a monthly fee when the last content update was over a year ago or more. So sad. Trion is the ONLY company to have NOW proven they can add content on a consistent and rapid basis, yet the game is still small and I still lack things to do. TSW seems to have followed the same build idea. Wonder if they can keep up with the monthly content updates they plan and how much they will expand the game.
I'm not opposed to trying it out again in 6 months to a year to see how it's grown, that's for sure. The game has potential. But then, SWG was always touted as having massive potential and they wasted that endeavour.
Sorry, but tell me about an MMO that is able to sustain powergamers who play 10-16 hours a day in front of a PC for longer than the first month? Some extreme Asian grinders aside. Which I can't call exactly fun, having to mindlessly kill a million mobs to advance one level. /shrug
You simply CANNOT design a fun and lasting game for these type of gamers. Not even a well designed sandbox can keep these people entertained for long. Period!
Like many people already mentioned, the vast majority of people are still playing on Solomon's Island and now barely started trickling into Egypt.
Those are the main audience and they have plenty of content to go still for months to come.
Why are you assuming that this player and myself are power gamers who play for 10-16 hours a day? I've played maybe 4 hours a day on average and for 2 weeks have hit transylvania. 1 more week and I would have completed the rest of Transylvania and the main story quest. Leaving the only thing left to do is to repeat content. Even Rift kept me for at least 2 months and that's a small game. I also remember WoW at launch keeping me with 1 character for 3 months to cap. Then I was able to make 2 alts and have completely different leveling experiences with them, the only repeat content being pvp and dungeons. I still remember being amazed at finding new content out in the world in WoW up and through BC. These games can and have launched with enough content to keep people quite happy for enough months to pop out more content.
Why are you assuming that this player and myself are power gamers who play for 10-16 hours a day? I've played maybe 4 hours a day on average and for 2 weeks have hit transylvania. 1 more week and I would have completed the rest of Transylvania and the main story quest. Leaving the only thing left to do is to repeat content. Even Rift kept me for at least 2 months and that's a small game. I also remember WoW at launch keeping me with 1 character for 3 months to cap. Then I was able to make 2 alts and have completely different leveling experiences with them, the only repeat content being pvp and dungeons. I still remember being amazed at finding new content out in the world in WoW up and through BC. These games can and have launched with enough content to keep people quite happy for enough months to pop out more content.
Doesn't change the fact and what others have been saying that majority of players are still on solomon island or have started to enter Egypt . I entered Trans 2 days back and zone is dead compared to Egypt and solomon island. So for those who can spend 4 hours or more daily maybe the content isn't enough but i bet a lot of players would take few more weeks till they finish trans, lairs, dungeons on elite and nightmare difficulties.
WOW when launched didn't have that much content as you are trying to show. Only difference is that games like EQ and WOW artficially slowed down the leveling. Doesn't mean it had lot of content. I played WOW at launch and at times leveling used to feel like a huge grind. I am glad devs don't use artifical means to slow down preogression anymore.
The next victim of content locusts is going to be GW2. Forums are goign to explode with same topics from power gamers.
You might not be a power gamer on the level to those that have done it all, but still... most people is barely starting Egypt.
Games are designed for the majority of people, otherwise they are not actually cost effective.
For the majority of MMO players (no most of us posting here don't really represent the majority of actual players) yes, you are a "power gamer" as you breeze thru games more than twice as fast as they do.
Fun while it lasted. Best quest content I've ever experienced. Played each mission at least once, have repeated the final three zones three times now...It's just becomming boring as fuck. http://chronicle.thesecretworld.com/character/Zouce
Great story, but once you are "on vacation" good luck staying interested.
Well said and right on target. Thank you for linking your chronicle as well. Game could have been phenomenal but isn't worth a monthly sub right now. It's too SMALL. Rift has the same problem as an example of another game that has vast potential but is so small it's pointless to play for any type of longevity. . Right now.
MMOs need to be built with longevity in mind and not promises of more content to keep me paying(although this should be a given, it's what MMOs do, if they are smart). You need a good track record first, IMHO. Funcom does not have that. Neither do many other companies, especially YOU, Blizzard. Charging people a monthly fee when the last content update was over a year ago or more. So sad. Trion is the ONLY company to have NOW proven they can add content on a consistent and rapid basis, yet the game is still small and I still lack things to do. TSW seems to have followed the same build idea. Wonder if they can keep up with the monthly content updates they plan and how much they will expand the game.
I'm not opposed to trying it out again in 6 months to a year to see how it's grown, that's for sure. The game has potential. But then, SWG was always touted as having massive potential and they wasted that endeavour.
Sorry, but tell me about an MMO that is able to sustain powergamers who play 10-16 hours a day in front of a PC for longer than the first month? Some extreme Asian grinders aside. Which I can't call exactly fun, having to mindlessly kill a million mobs to advance one level. /shrug
You simply CANNOT design a fun and lasting game for these type of gamers. Not even a well designed sandbox can keep these people entertained for long. Period!
Like many people already mentioned, the vast majority of people are still playing on Solomon's Island and now barely started trickling into Egypt.
Those are the main audience and they have plenty of content to go still for months to come.
Why are you assuming that this player and myself are power gamers who play for 10-16 hours a day? I've played maybe 4 hours a day on average and for 2 weeks have hit transylvania. 1 more week and I would have completed the rest of Transylvania and the main story quest. Leaving the only thing left to do is to repeat content. Even Rift kept me for at least 2 months and that's a small game. I also remember WoW at launch keeping me with 1 character for 3 months to cap. Then I was able to make 2 alts and have completely different leveling experiences with them, the only repeat content being pvp and dungeons. I still remember being amazed at finding new content out in the world in WoW up and through BC. These games can and have launched with enough content to keep people quite happy for enough months to pop out more content.
28 hours a week on a single game is a lot and quite above average. It's not hardcore yet sure.... but it's still a lot.
I am talking about those people that have maxed out everything already within 3 weeks. They have played at least 10 hours a day straight! Period.
How many AP have you spend? How many SP have you spend? How many builds have you tried?
And these powergamers claiming they have done everything. I am pretty sure they haven't geared up through nightmare mode yet.
Nor have I seen a single zone boss being unlocked yet. Yet alone a region boss or even a world boss. Who is suppose to drop the best stuff available ingame.
The above IS Endgame! And it will keep you occupied for quite some time to master it, unlock it, collect it, etc, etc.
And saying it's repeating content..... well hello! Is that any different than other MMO's like WoW, EQ2, Rift, LOTRO, etc??
Why are you assuming that this player and myself are power gamers who play for 10-16 hours a day? I've played maybe 4 hours a day on average and for 2 weeks have hit transylvania. 1 more week and I would have completed the rest of Transylvania and the main story quest. Leaving the only thing left to do is to repeat content. Even Rift kept me for at least 2 months and that's a small game. I also remember WoW at launch keeping me with 1 character for 3 months to cap. Then I was able to make 2 alts and have completely different leveling experiences with them, the only repeat content being pvp and dungeons. I still remember being amazed at finding new content out in the world in WoW up and through BC. These games can and have launched with enough content to keep people quite happy for enough months to pop out more content.
Doesn't change the fact and what others have been saying that majority of players are still on solomon island or have started to enter Egypt . I entered Trans 2 days back and zone is dead compared to Egypt and solomon island. So for those who can spend 4 hours or more daily maybe the content isn't enough but i bet a lot of players would take few more weeks till they finish trans, lairs, dungeons on elite and nightmare difficulties.
WOW when launched didn't have that much content as you are trying to show. Only difference is that games like EQ and WOW artficially slowed down the leveling. Doesn't mean it had lot of content. I played WOW at launch and at times leveling used to feel like a huge grind. I am glad devs don't use artifical means to slow down preogression anymore.
The next victim of content locusts is going to be GW2. Forums are goign to explode with same topics from power gamers.
Yes, WoW DID have that much content. I could roll a night elf, take him to level cap via Kalimdor quests. Done. I could then roll a Human. Take him to level cap via Eastern Kingdom quests. Done. Then I could do 2 races on the horde side, completely different experience. On the 3 or 4th character there started to be some overlap but it was diverse and fast enough and by that time new content was in the game. This was vanilla WoW.
I disagree about GW2 for a few reasons. One, it's awesome and has kept me interested even over 3 months of beta weekends, never had a game keep me excited while playing beta. Two, no monthly sub and therefore I'm not feeling robbed if I, for some reason, end up with no content to keep me occupied. Third, the replayability is very high as each race has their own starting area, content scales to level, and there is no kill stealing or ninja looting.
Finally, to your first point. Ok, so CASUAL players are still on Solomon or just now entering Egypt. Great, good for them. Game seems to be built for the ultra casual player. Glad they have one to play. A good MMO caters to both hardcore gamers and casual. Or at least semi hardcore, which I would put myself in. Again, I don't hate this game, it's not a horrible game, it's just too small and too short. I'm coming from many games, my tops being FFXI, WoW, Lotro, SWG and I never had those game lose me due to lack of content or world size in less than a months time. It's definitely an issue with TSW whether it's an issue for casual players or not, it doesn't make it any less real.
Fun while it lasted. Best quest content I've ever experienced. Played each mission at least once, have repeated the final three zones three times now...It's just becomming boring as fuck. http://chronicle.thesecretworld.com/character/Zouce
Great story, but once you are "on vacation" good luck staying interested.
Well said and right on target. Thank you for linking your chronicle as well. Game could have been phenomenal but isn't worth a monthly sub right now. It's too SMALL. Rift has the same problem as an example of another game that has vast potential but is so small it's pointless to play for any type of longevity. . Right now.
MMOs need to be built with longevity in mind and not promises of more content to keep me paying(although this should be a given, it's what MMOs do, if they are smart). You need a good track record first, IMHO. Funcom does not have that. Neither do many other companies, especially YOU, Blizzard. Charging people a monthly fee when the last content update was over a year ago or more. So sad. Trion is the ONLY company to have NOW proven they can add content on a consistent and rapid basis, yet the game is still small and I still lack things to do. TSW seems to have followed the same build idea. Wonder if they can keep up with the monthly content updates they plan and how much they will expand the game.
I'm not opposed to trying it out again in 6 months to a year to see how it's grown, that's for sure. The game has potential. But then, SWG was always touted as having massive potential and they wasted that endeavour.
Sorry, but tell me about an MMO that is able to sustain powergamers who play 10-16 hours a day in front of a PC for longer than the first month? Some extreme Asian grinders aside. Which I can't call exactly fun, having to mindlessly kill a million mobs to advance one level. /shrug
You simply CANNOT design a fun and lasting game for these type of gamers. Not even a well designed sandbox can keep these people entertained for long. Period!
Like many people already mentioned, the vast majority of people are still playing on Solomon's Island and now barely started trickling into Egypt.
Those are the main audience and they have plenty of content to go still for months to come.
Why are you assuming that this player and myself are power gamers who play for 10-16 hours a day? I've played maybe 4 hours a day on average and for 2 weeks have hit transylvania. 1 more week and I would have completed the rest of Transylvania and the main story quest. Leaving the only thing left to do is to repeat content. Even Rift kept me for at least 2 months and that's a small game. I also remember WoW at launch keeping me with 1 character for 3 months to cap. Then I was able to make 2 alts and have completely different leveling experiences with them, the only repeat content being pvp and dungeons. I still remember being amazed at finding new content out in the world in WoW up and through BC. These games can and have launched with enough content to keep people quite happy for enough months to pop out more content.
28 hours a week on a single game is a lot and quite above average. It's not hardcore yet sure.... but it's still a lot.
I am talking about those people that have maxed out everything already within 3 weeks. They have played at least 10 hours a day straight! Period.
How many AP have you spend? How many SP have you spend? How many builds have you tried?
And these powergamers claiming they have done everything. I am pretty sure they haven't geared up through nightmare mode yet.
Nor have I seen a single zone boss being unlocked yet. Yet alone a region boss or even a world boss. Who is suppose to drop the best stuff available ingame.
The above IS Endgame! And it will keep you occupied for quite some time to master it, unlock it, collect it, etc, etc.
And saying it's repeating content..... well hello! Is that any different than other MMO's like WoW, EQ2, Rift, LOTRO, etc??
Nope..... welcome to MMO's.
I never repeated WoW content until my 4th character and/or endgame. What you mention as endgame is endgame for some player types. For example Raiders. They have quite a few games to give them what they want. I'm not one of them, therefore a Raiding endgame isn't an endgame to me. So, world bosses, that isn't an endgame mechanic I would ever do, hence not endgame for me. But you miss the point. I'm not picking apart what it does have, but what it doesn't have and should have. Game is too small, it's not a hard concept to understand here, folks.
Fun while it lasted. Best quest content I've ever experienced. Played each mission at least once, have repeated the final three zones three times now...It's just becomming boring as fuck. http://chronicle.thesecretworld.com/character/Zouce
Great story, but once you are "on vacation" good luck staying interested.
Well said and right on target. Thank you for linking your chronicle as well. Game could have been phenomenal but isn't worth a monthly sub right now. It's too SMALL. Rift has the same problem as an example of another game that has vast potential but is so small it's pointless to play for any type of longevity. . Right now.
MMOs need to be built with longevity in mind and not promises of more content to keep me paying(although this should be a given, it's what MMOs do, if they are smart). You need a good track record first, IMHO. Funcom does not have that. Neither do many other companies, especially YOU, Blizzard. Charging people a monthly fee when the last content update was over a year ago or more. So sad. Trion is the ONLY company to have NOW proven they can add content on a consistent and rapid basis, yet the game is still small and I still lack things to do. TSW seems to have followed the same build idea. Wonder if they can keep up with the monthly content updates they plan and how much they will expand the game.
I'm not opposed to trying it out again in 6 months to a year to see how it's grown, that's for sure. The game has potential. But then, SWG was always touted as having massive potential and they wasted that endeavour.
Sorry, but tell me about an MMO that is able to sustain powergamers who play 10-16 hours a day in front of a PC for longer than the first month? Some extreme Asian grinders aside. Which I can't call exactly fun, having to mindlessly kill a million mobs to advance one level. /shrug
You simply CANNOT design a fun and lasting game for these type of gamers. Not even a well designed sandbox can keep these people entertained for long. Period!
Like many people already mentioned, the vast majority of people are still playing on Solomon's Island and now barely started trickling into Egypt.
Those are the main audience and they have plenty of content to go still for months to come.
Why are you assuming that this player and myself are power gamers who play for 10-16 hours a day? I've played maybe 4 hours a day on average and for 2 weeks have hit transylvania. 1 more week and I would have completed the rest of Transylvania and the main story quest. Leaving the only thing left to do is to repeat content. Even Rift kept me for at least 2 months and that's a small game. I also remember WoW at launch keeping me with 1 character for 3 months to cap. Then I was able to make 2 alts and have completely different leveling experiences with them, the only repeat content being pvp and dungeons. I still remember being amazed at finding new content out in the world in WoW up and through BC. These games can and have launched with enough content to keep people quite happy for enough months to pop out more content.
28 hours a week on a single game is a lot and quite above average. It's not hardcore yet sure.... but it's still a lot.
I am talking about those people that have maxed out everything already within 3 weeks. They have played at least 10 hours a day straight! Period.
How many AP have you spend? How many SP have you spend? How many builds have you tried?
And these powergamers claiming they have done everything. I am pretty sure they haven't geared up through nightmare mode yet.
Nor have I seen a single zone boss being unlocked yet. Yet alone a region boss or even a world boss. Who is suppose to drop the best stuff available ingame.
The above IS Endgame! And it will keep you occupied for quite some time to master it, unlock it, collect it, etc, etc.
And saying it's repeating content..... well hello! Is that any different than other MMO's like WoW, EQ2, Rift, LOTRO, etc??
Nope..... welcome to MMO's.
I never repeated WoW content until my 4th character and/or endgame. What you mention as endgame is endgame for some player types. For example Raiders. They have quite a few games to give them what they want. I'm not one of them, therefore a Raiding endgame isn't an endgame to me. So, world bosses, that isn't an endgame mechanic I would ever do, hence not endgame for me. But you miss the point. I'm not picking apart what it does have, but what it doesn't have and should have. Game is too small, it's not a hard concept to understand here, folks.
WoW was in development for more than 5 years with a huge dev team and quite an epic budget for that time.
EQ2 was in development for more than 5 years with a huge dev team and quite an epic budget for that time (especially with all the voice overs and epic music that went into it).
Game studios don't have that luxury anymore these days. They get 3 years tops these days to launch an MMO. That's it.
Just look at SW:TOR and how much money was spend on that turd of a game? Rest my case.
For what has been pushed out over the past 5-6 years post WoW, EQ2 and LOTRO.... then both Rift and The Secret World are one of the best releases of these past 5-6 years.
WoW was in development for more than 5 years with a huge dev team and quite an epic budget for that time.
EQ2 was in development for more than 5 years with a huge dev team and quite an epic budget for that time (especially with all the voice overs and epic music that went into it).
Game studios don't have that luxury anymore these days. They get 3 years tops these days to launch an MMO. That's it.
Just look at SW:TOR and how much money was spend on that turd of a game? Rest my case.
For what has been pushed out over the past 5-6 years post WoW, EQ2 and LOTRO.... then both Rift and The Secret World are one of the best releases of these past 5-6 years.
The Secret World apprently has been in development for over 5 years before they released it.
The Secret World (formerly known under the working titles Cabal and The World Online)[6] is an MMORPG from developer Funcom (makers of Anarchy Online and Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures), the development of which has been officially confirmed on March 6, 2007
Comments
You don't get to claim you were glued to your seat to see what happens next, then say you skipped the cutscenes. You burned through the content by skipping the heart of the game; it's story. Your review and assessment is thereby flawed to me, and entirely invalid.
It's kinda hard to one-shot investigation uests, no matter your QL ;p And those are majority in the first update.
For people that burn fast thru content this, and any other game this days is gonna be short, yes, however that doesn't account for most players.
Nothing wrong with that playsytle or speed, other than games won't last for them.
Most players are around the XP indicators for staring Egypt if you check chronicle and do some math. At most.
You can't design a fun and lasting MMO for these kind of people, other than them go play those Asian grinders.
These people are even able to chew away an entire WoW expansion within 1 to 2 months, clearing all the RAID content and then sit in Stormwind or Ironforge 24/7 showing off their gear.
Luckily. These people are a very very tiny minority.
/end thread
This is always a memorable moment.
This is the first post I've seen for this game of someone within a month of release to decry a lack of content. I'm sure the deluge to follow.
I'm going to give all of you a hint who like to power game. Don't buy an mmo until it is 4 or 5 years old or wait for the day when you see a game that actually spent an extra 4 or 5 years of development, on top of the initial 4 or 5 years specifically to add content before release. Which, won't happen, I'm here to tell you.
Any game you could name will have threads in the first month about the lack of content. Necro some if you want. You can't prove me wrong.
NO MMO EVER HAS released with any more than 1 years worth of content for casual gamers and no more than 3 months of content for power gamers. EVER. Not because they are lazy, because it is simply not within the realm of feasibility to do so. For more reasons than you could imagine or even understand.
Get used to it, get over it, slow down your power gaming or gain some patience and wait a few years so that the game has enough content to suit your needs.
You will never ever find an acceptable amount of content on release if you are a power gamer. EVER. Period.
/thread
People who are "finished" with the game already...fell free to post your chronical links so we can admire your completion of all the games content.
Actually it's a way of bragging without actually coming out and saying...omg I'm so uber I played non stop and one of the first to complete everything. Many treat MMOs like a race because they want the self-gratification of being one of the first to finish something. Many get into CB well before launch, take notes and follow a system of completion knowing the best quests/missions to take and the best exploits to gain the most amount of EXP.
I'll point to a few examples. Diablo 3, SWTOR, Rift, Cataclysm for WoW - but honestly the last few years this has always been the case with any game that doesn't have a rediculous grind attached to them. Oh and EQ longevity? Yeah it's called major grind. Back then that was acceptable and players had to kill things to get high enough to complete new content with new quests. It's not acceptable now. That's why you have people able to burn through content now. Plus the internet and all its hints and guides also written by Beta players help too.
They'll just link to some random in the top 100.
I think it's a good game but I'm nowhere near ready to call it too short. Barely into Egypt.
So because he chooses not to sit through UN-interactive cutscenes, his review is flawed? Yet one could not watch the cutscenes and still get the context of the story via the quest tiers where you actually interact with the story. Yet you harp on him for not doing the part that just requires watching. Okay.....if he was griping about the story, then you would have a case. He wasn't. You don't. Next.
Fun while it lasted. Best quest content I've ever experienced. Played each mission at least once, have repeated the final three zones three times now...It's just becomming boring as fuck. http://chronicle.thesecretworld.com/character/Zouce
Great story, but once you are "on vacation" good luck staying interested.
Too Short is one of my favorite rappers.
Vault-Tec analysts have concluded that the odds of worldwide nuclear armaggeddon this decade are 17,143,762... to 1.
Well said and right on target. Thank you for linking your chronicle as well. Game could have been phenomenal but isn't worth a monthly sub right now. It's too SMALL. Rift has the same problem as an example of another game that has vast potential but is so small it's pointless to play for any type of longevity. . Right now.
MMOs need to be built with longevity in mind and not promises of more content to keep me paying(although this should be a given, it's what MMOs do, if they are smart). You need a good track record first, IMHO. Funcom does not have that. Neither do many other companies, especially YOU, Blizzard. Charging people a monthly fee when the last content update was over a year ago or more. So sad. Trion is the ONLY company to have NOW proven they can add content on a consistent and rapid basis, yet the game is still small and I still lack things to do. TSW seems to have followed the same build idea. Wonder if they can keep up with the monthly content updates they plan and how much they will expand the game.
I'm not opposed to trying it out again in 6 months to a year to see how it's grown, that's for sure. The game has potential. But then, SWG was always touted as having massive potential and they wasted that endeavour.
I've been playing every night about 5-6 horus a night since release, but that is due to the guide writing and stuff we're doing at http://www.unfair.co
We've just finished the main story completely last night, and still have the last zone and a half of Transylvania worth of missions to do.
I've done virtually no PvP yet, only one Elite Dungeon Run, as said above, still have a ton of missions to complete.
I've got about 5 days played time total on my character.
I'd say all things considered, there's quite a bit of content to be had here. And if they release any amount of content on a monthly basis, it will keep things going for some time.
Based on the site stats we record, it seems the mass majority of players are just entering Egypt. So based on that, and new content supposedly coming monthly, the average player will never run out of things to do.
Hey TSW Players http://www.unfair.co/ for Mission guides, Lore Locations and stuff....
You are right, majority of players who are not power gamers have just started to trickle in to Egypt. Trans is very quite in comparison. There are players around but not that many. So yes FC have no need to freak out because some people who can spend 10 hours a day in front of pc are done with quests and main storyline.
I love your website by the way, helped me many times when i was stuck ona mission.
However it took WoW 8 to have all this content. Give any MMO 8 years after release and you will have enough content in that particular MMO to last you a long time.
Example.. STO came out 2 years ago and has more enough content to even keep a F2P player busy as well as AoC.
You people who have "finished" TSW have played WAY too many MMOs and won't EVER be content. I beta tested TSW and am a current sub. I have never see the end...why? Because I don't eat through an MMO like it was candy. WTF is wrong with you people? You aren't supposed to devour a game. Quit playing if you go through content this fast....friggin eh!
Sorry, but tell me about an MMO that is able to sustain powergamers who play 10-16 hours a day in front of a PC for longer than the first month? Some extreme Asian grinders aside. Which I can't call exactly fun, having to mindlessly kill a million mobs to advance one level. /shrug
You simply CANNOT design a fun and lasting game for these type of gamers. Not even a well designed sandbox can keep these people entertained for long. Period!
Like many people already mentioned, the vast majority of people are still playing on Solomon's Island and now barely started trickling into Egypt.
Those are the main audience and they have plenty of content to go still for months to come.
Why are you assuming that this player and myself are power gamers who play for 10-16 hours a day? I've played maybe 4 hours a day on average and for 2 weeks have hit transylvania. 1 more week and I would have completed the rest of Transylvania and the main story quest. Leaving the only thing left to do is to repeat content. Even Rift kept me for at least 2 months and that's a small game. I also remember WoW at launch keeping me with 1 character for 3 months to cap. Then I was able to make 2 alts and have completely different leveling experiences with them, the only repeat content being pvp and dungeons. I still remember being amazed at finding new content out in the world in WoW up and through BC. These games can and have launched with enough content to keep people quite happy for enough months to pop out more content.
Doesn't change the fact and what others have been saying that majority of players are still on solomon island or have started to enter Egypt . I entered Trans 2 days back and zone is dead compared to Egypt and solomon island. So for those who can spend 4 hours or more daily maybe the content isn't enough but i bet a lot of players would take few more weeks till they finish trans, lairs, dungeons on elite and nightmare difficulties.
WOW when launched didn't have that much content as you are trying to show. Only difference is that games like EQ and WOW artficially slowed down the leveling. Doesn't mean it had lot of content. I played WOW at launch and at times leveling used to feel like a huge grind. I am glad devs don't use artifical means to slow down preogression anymore.
The next victim of content locusts is going to be GW2. Forums are goign to explode with same topics from power gamers.
You might not be a power gamer on the level to those that have done it all, but still... most people is barely starting Egypt.
Games are designed for the majority of people, otherwise they are not actually cost effective.
For the majority of MMO players (no most of us posting here don't really represent the majority of actual players) yes, you are a "power gamer" as you breeze thru games more than twice as fast as they do.
28 hours a week on a single game is a lot and quite above average. It's not hardcore yet sure.... but it's still a lot.
I am talking about those people that have maxed out everything already within 3 weeks. They have played at least 10 hours a day straight! Period.
How many AP have you spend? How many SP have you spend? How many builds have you tried?
And these powergamers claiming they have done everything. I am pretty sure they haven't geared up through nightmare mode yet.
Nor have I seen a single zone boss being unlocked yet. Yet alone a region boss or even a world boss. Who is suppose to drop the best stuff available ingame.
The above IS Endgame! And it will keep you occupied for quite some time to master it, unlock it, collect it, etc, etc.
And saying it's repeating content..... well hello! Is that any different than other MMO's like WoW, EQ2, Rift, LOTRO, etc??
Nope..... welcome to MMO's.
Yes, WoW DID have that much content. I could roll a night elf, take him to level cap via Kalimdor quests. Done. I could then roll a Human. Take him to level cap via Eastern Kingdom quests. Done. Then I could do 2 races on the horde side, completely different experience. On the 3 or 4th character there started to be some overlap but it was diverse and fast enough and by that time new content was in the game. This was vanilla WoW.
I disagree about GW2 for a few reasons. One, it's awesome and has kept me interested even over 3 months of beta weekends, never had a game keep me excited while playing beta. Two, no monthly sub and therefore I'm not feeling robbed if I, for some reason, end up with no content to keep me occupied. Third, the replayability is very high as each race has their own starting area, content scales to level, and there is no kill stealing or ninja looting.
Finally, to your first point. Ok, so CASUAL players are still on Solomon or just now entering Egypt. Great, good for them. Game seems to be built for the ultra casual player. Glad they have one to play. A good MMO caters to both hardcore gamers and casual. Or at least semi hardcore, which I would put myself in. Again, I don't hate this game, it's not a horrible game, it's just too small and too short. I'm coming from many games, my tops being FFXI, WoW, Lotro, SWG and I never had those game lose me due to lack of content or world size in less than a months time. It's definitely an issue with TSW whether it's an issue for casual players or not, it doesn't make it any less real.
I never repeated WoW content until my 4th character and/or endgame. What you mention as endgame is endgame for some player types. For example Raiders. They have quite a few games to give them what they want. I'm not one of them, therefore a Raiding endgame isn't an endgame to me. So, world bosses, that isn't an endgame mechanic I would ever do, hence not endgame for me. But you miss the point. I'm not picking apart what it does have, but what it doesn't have and should have. Game is too small, it's not a hard concept to understand here, folks.
WoW was in development for more than 5 years with a huge dev team and quite an epic budget for that time.
EQ2 was in development for more than 5 years with a huge dev team and quite an epic budget for that time (especially with all the voice overs and epic music that went into it).
Game studios don't have that luxury anymore these days. They get 3 years tops these days to launch an MMO. That's it.
Just look at SW:TOR and how much money was spend on that turd of a game? Rest my case.
For what has been pushed out over the past 5-6 years post WoW, EQ2 and LOTRO.... then both Rift and The Secret World are one of the best releases of these past 5-6 years.
The Secret World apprently has been in development for over 5 years before they released it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Secret_World
The Secret World (formerly known under the working titles Cabal and The World Online)[6] is an MMORPG from developer Funcom (makers of Anarchy Online and Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures), the development of which has been officially confirmed on March 6, 2007