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The Secret World: 'We Won't Back Down' - State of the Game Letter Arrives
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
Ragnar Tørnquist has published the August State of the Game letter for The Secret World. In it, he frankly addresses the recent Funcom lay offs as well as prognosticates about the future of TSW. Among other things, he tells fans that the team is not going to play it safe and is dedicated to keeping The Secret World today's most unique MMO.
So what's ahead in upcoming issues? There's a ten-person raid in New York scheduled for October, and it's not like any raid you've ever played before. We have a bunch of auxiliary weapons on the way, and more character customisation improvements. We have a huge and exciting new feature pencilled in for Christmas, which ties into the achievement system and gives a lot more meaning to the usual 'Kill 1,000 Vampires' goals. (After all, who hasn't wondered what it would be like to have some vampiric abilities to play around with?) We're creating intermediary decks with brand new clothing rewards; we have a ton of new missions and storylines in development; and we have a huge new adventure zone scheduled for next spring, bringing players back to Tokyo's Ground Zero, to face brand new threats, meet new characters, play new missions and explore an intriguing urban environment unlike anything you've ever seen in an MMO.
Read the full letter on The Secret World's site.
Comments
Certainly a man with passion.
TSW - AoC - Aion - WOW - EVE - Fallen Earth - Co - Rift - || XNA C# Java Development
The parent company had too high expectations (big sub numbers) for a game that was obvious was going to appeal a small part of the mmo market.
as such the parent company will want this game to go f2p to bring in more short term cash and there is nothing these guys can do to stop it, no matter how much content is delivered..
well i have no objection with it goin f2p like most games these days..has long has they dont thin out the missions..i,e i want them to keep to the same format..if it helps i,m all for it.
From a PR point of view... a terrible letter. It only speaks to its fans and is borderline condescending to everyone else.
Won't comment on the content as I'm really not interested... unless they bring in centaurs of course. /sarcasm
http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/10/view/forums/thread/308418/News-on-the-engine-upgrade.html
And you guys believe this company?
lol.
What are you talking about? Funcom is listed on Oslo børs.
Im a shareholder in Funcom. And there is no parent company.
No, FunCom has no plans to implement a patch based solely on the personal opinions of a vocal minority.
The animations are fine.
I don't usually root for games. I figure if a game fails, the developer did something wrong and it the game should fail. Survival of the fittest and all that. With TSW though, I find myself wanting the game to recover. I don't even play the game. I have no interest in paying a sub and I have no interest in going from quest hub to quest hub and ending up in a repetitiveendgameraidgeargrind either, but I still would like this game to do better.
I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.
'Course, it could go the way of CoX, and get shut down.
This is the Irony of the situation. This is why TSW is in the shape it's in. It's getting by but it's not storming the industry. Because it's a decent niche game. But nothing spectacular...Unless it's niche appeals to you. But unfortunately, that's not most. Sure there are plenty of people who want options in the market. Adn TSW offers one. It's always good for players to have the game of choice.
But rooting from the sidelines watching on without participating isn't going to help the game. Not even remotely suggesting you should unless it's a game that appeals to you..just stating a fact) But TSW just lacks mass appeal.
But in the end.....I think TSW's biggest problem can be prefaced with "For the money.............." Meaning, the game just doesn't deserve it's revenue model.
Well, they shouldn't have put it there. I got tired of it after the first few quests. I wouldn't be surprised if that's why a lot of people in the beta didn't buy the game. I would be surprised if the general feel of the game changed considerably after the newbie zone too. This update talks about a 10 man raid. It's a raid...one of the main reasons I've stopped playing MMORPG. Raids are too much on the OCD end of the spectrum. I need things closer to the ADD end of the spectrum.
In any event, I'm not going to buy the game and sign up for a sub to find out if the feeling of running through quest hubs goes away. I do want this game to do better than it has, but the setting and the story wasn't enough to overcome the feeling that I was just doing the same old things with different graphics.
I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.
Here's Another one of Funcom's issues. This is the same problem in all thir games. Why they make all their starter zone experiences different than the rest of their game on all their games is beyond me. I didn't play AoC (I've ony heard), but in AO, the Noob Island does not prepare you for what's ahead. It's totally different
But rooting from the sidelines watching on without participating isn't going to help the game. Not even remotely suggesting you should unless it's a game that appeals to you..just stating a fact) But TSW just lacks mass appeal.
But in the end.....I think TSW's biggest problem can be prefaced with "For the money.............." Meaning, the game just doesn't deserve it's revenue model.
Yeah, that's why I don't usually root for games. It doesn't really do anything. But the game doesn't feel like a good buy to me. I can recognize that it's a good game, it's just not a game I feel like I want to play. I would seriously consider playing without a subscription. I would definitely play if I could run my own personal server.
I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.
Yep, in october content patch the animations will be 33% more horrible..
For the time being seem they're focusing their attention into making new content instead of tweaking the animations, and I do think it is what the game needs right now.
What can men do against such reckless hate?
Considering they just laid off folks and are trying to maintain regular releases for their latest game, I'm not surprised they will delay the engine upgrade for AO. Let's face it, AO is not the current money maker (or even the potential money maker at this point), so it would be foolish for them to concentrate any of their resources on that game right now. TSW first and AoC second at this point, with a very small strike team focusing on the smaller, more micro-market MMO gaming field. Concentrating on core interest markets is the future of MMOs, and I think it's the right choice for Funcom. The days of big budget AAA MMOs are gone.
I make spreadsheets at work - I don't want to make them for the games I play.
I agree with ragnar on the latter, but levels, no, if anything "warring guilds" does that more than tsw.
Huh? I think you need to learn to read and I don't think troll means what y ou think it does.
Also, I rarely comment the TSW forums, I don't like the game there's not much else to add to that. I always state (and since you've checked you should know, "play whatever floats your boat"). I will however smack down posts that are filled with misinformation or hate-posts and such and don't really give a hoot one way or the other if you like "my precious GW2" or not. All that matters to me is that my friends, guild and I like it.
In this specific case I'm talking about PR (as in public relations, ie my job). And as said, this is a bad letter to put out. Nowhere did I comment about any of its contents. If you don't get my line about the centaurs, and think it means something different than what I wrote, well then... I can't help ya out.
That's my feeling too, though I did play it.
Where it hurts is that the biggest issues with the game IMO, a sizable number of buggy, broken quests(don't tell me I just don't know how to solve them, I do), are issues that I doubt dictated the lackluster box sales. People just looked at the overall idea and sounded a collective "meh.". Which sucks for me because I like the premise ALOT.
I do have to wonder if they turned alot of people off having box sales, a sub, AND a cash shop.