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Rockpapershotgun article: Gamescom preview and footage
MMO.Maverick
Member CommonPosts: 7,619
Here's a nice article regarding the Gamescom from the Rockpapershotgun site:
It starts with:
' The The Secret World reveal at GamesCom began with a video that rapidly confirmed a heaving mass of conspiracy theories. “Stonehenge is a portal!” flashed the text. “The Dead walk the Earth! Noah’s was not the only ark! The Merovingian bloodline is pure!” After 30 seconds of these, I was laughing. After a minute and a half, I realised Funcom’s point. In making a setting where absolutely everything is true, you immediately get a world as rich and fantastical as any fantasy setting, but one that everybody’s already familiar with.'
Tornquist apparently is planning to take his experiences from The Longest Journey and Dreamfall with him, and intends to implement puzzles, secrets and mysteries within TSW (for those adepts, find the TLJ and other references in the video, or look it up on the official forums 
). As the article states:
At around this point Ragnar first mentioned the puzzle missions, leaving me a little stunned.
“We’re actually putting teamplay into things other than combat. We have puzzle solving and investigation, and we’re not afraid to challenge the player. Even going outside the game to do research to find the solution.”
I responded by saying the thought of an MMO that makes you stop what you’re doing and, well, think was a bit mind-blowing for me.
“Yeah! But that’s exactly what we’re doing. We’re tired of games that just give you a marker on the map and tell you to run there, do something and run back. We want people to actually be challenged. Yes, we have missions that are just about going and killing demons in inventive ways. I mean, those missions are fun too, we have a great mechanic there, but the missions that intrigue me are the ones that encourage you to decipher ancient heiroglyphs or find the code to the door to solve an Illuminati mystery. We have a lot of these puzzles and riddles, and people can choose from different mission categories. So if you don’t want to, you could progress without doing the puzzle missions. If you don’t want to use your head, you can focus on the combat stuff.”
The ACTUAL size of MMORPG worlds: a comparison list between MMO's
The ease with which predictions are made on these forums:
Fratman: "I'm saying Spring 2012 at the earliest [for TOR release]. Anyone still clinging to 2011 is deluding themself at this point."
Comments
I'm very much looking forward to TSW. Always good to see new footage, thanks for the info.
Thank you for that link. I have had an interest in this one for some time, but I havn't really looked up much about it. No character levels is interesting, and for some reason I think it will play like GW did. If it does, I think I could be very happy with it.
Disagreement Heirarchy
The game is being developmed by Funcom, which means don't believe anything the devs brag about before launch. Wait until other players have bought the box and played for a few weeks.
The devs were bragging about AOC's PVP for a year before the game launched. When it launched, there was no pvp system at all.... 6 months later a very simple system was added, and it took almost 2 years after launch for anything resembling a real pvp system was actually in the game. Of course that pvp system mostly involved mining nodes and not fighting.
The point? Funcom brags about things they have 'planned'. While they probably have every intention of making it work that way. History has shown (twice) that Funcom cannot launch a MMORPG with the things they spend so much effort bragging about.
Wait until after the launch to buy.
I understand where you're coming from, but my worries are somewhat lessened by the fact that Funcom is being so quiet about this game... they're not talking alot, making a lot of promises.. they are behaving different this time, and i'm hoping that maybe this translates to even bigger changes in how they are operating.
I know. I really like the new lead developer of AOC also. We'll see how it all shakes out in the end.
I never said I'll never buy another Funcom product again. But I will never buy another Funcom product again within a month of it's release.
I very much like the idea of mystery and conspiracy MMORPGs. AoC has some strong points like graphics and the entire Tortage part. I am quite hooked. Though I guess we have to see. (No brainer. We always do, right?)
The problem is, after the first people do the puzzles and write the walkthroughs, the mystery is gone. Noone will do the puzzles, they'll just be asking in global chat what the answers are.
AoC has dungeons that require players to work in unison to work switches to open doors. It was great for the first people who had to figure it out, but then it just became another gimmick.
This kind of stuff works better in a singleplayer game, where there's nobody yelling: It's the green switch! GOGOGOGOGO!!!!"
-Letting Derek Smart work on your game is like letting Osama bin Laden work in the White House. Something will burn.-
-And on the 8th day, man created God.-
The nature of the mmo genre I suppose. Still I'd rather they put that stuff in there than not. It is kind of funny that what ruins a mmorpg the most is other people.
It is possible to write puzzles with the same fundamental priciple but alternating answers dependant on circumstance. I can think of several off the top of my head and I'm guessing it's not out of the question to then have these multiples alternating to the different places aswell.
So while it may be true a spoiler could be written (also to some degree spoilers have to be searched for) giving away the basic principles of puzzles it would still require effort to solve on an individual basis. The hint at external research for some situations is an amazing idea imo, it wouldn't be something I would want too often but as a back story quiz for some of the more epic quests it sounds very intriguing. Making it so that not all puzzles are necassary to solve to complete (to a lesser degree) would be a good idea especially for a more complex finale's.
This has less to do with TSW alone and more as a way I would like to see mmo's go in general but I can understand how it's not going to be to everyones taste and so this would always be in a ddition to a stable combat mechanic. The ideas they have shown for theirs looks good but that doesn't mean anything until we get a hands on, it did look as though balance would be a nightmare but tbh I have never been a fan of balance anyway.
-----
The person who is certain, and who claims divine warrant for his certainty, belongs now to the infancy of our species.
When a game company is quiet about a game it rings alarm bells. It especially rings alarm bells when no 'official' release date is set. But then Funcom live in a world which is just 'vague' and do things to suit them not their potential customers. Hence vague has suited for quite some time now.
They are beginning to realize there reputation proceeds them and it is not very good. Be very much concerned of anything they the company says. Track record says poor release with alot of problems and slow to apply fixes. No tolerances for criticitizen on there froums. None
MAGA
Some people cried about the overload of info hype that AoC and WAR had, some people cry about the restraint that companies like ANet, BW and FC now with TSW use in what they release regarding info. It's never right in the eyes of some.
In some cases it isn't so much about the company policy regarding the release of information, but it is about those people themselves: no matter what a certain company does, they will always find fault in its actions, and the company will never be able to do anything right in the eyes of those people. Because of their stance towards that company.
You see it SOE, you see it with NCSoft, you see it with other game companies, and you see it also with Funcom.
They're a year and more away from release, 5 months ago we knew next to nothing about GW2, Rift or TERA and those will all release in the first half of 2011. TSW's stream of released information is good enough for now.
The ACTUAL size of MMORPG worlds: a comparison list between MMO's
The ease with which predictions are made on these forums:
Fratman: "I'm saying Spring 2012 at the earliest [for TOR release]. Anyone still clinging to 2011 is deluding themself at this point."
Tornquist created a charming adventure - The Longest Journey about 10 years ago. Secret World seems to be something unique, something special. The setting is a very Lovecraftian, I couldn't ask for more. Eagerly anticipating its release.
REALITY CHECK
I'm not blaming anything, you complained about them advertising for beta several years before the game is actually released, and I gave you a specific reason as to why that complaint is not valid. you can either concede my point or move the goalposts again. You do have a good point though. It is true that some companies fare better than others in harsh economic times. Toyota is doing fine in spite of their dozens of recalls and faulty equipment, but GM goes bankrupt. That's the nature of the world, I suppose. Funcom had to lay off 20% of its staff, and as a result the game was delayed between one and two years. Since then they've opened a development branch in Canada and things have picked back up from the looks of it.
this is basically where stand, and while I don't expect Funcom (or it's fans) to accomodate me and not speak about the games they make I still have to roll my eyes when reading anything these guys say they are going to do. Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me.... it's about impossible to buy this game on the strength of devs word you just have to not care about the initial investment to even consider giving launch day money to these guys again.
Yes many of the features sound good but that was also the case in AOC, and I'm fairly certain AC too.
but yeah, to call this game Fantastic is like calling Twilight the Godfather of vampire movies....
Edited because Cyphers inspired me to give the game and its devs a chance.
While I agree that caution is certainly not unnecessary especially when it comes to Funcom, it's also a given that both situations, AoC's and TSW's, aren't the same. For once, the dev teams aren't the same, another thing is that the game director is a different one.
For TSW you have Tornquist, who made The Longest Journey and Dreamfall, and if AoC is taken into account then also those great games should be taken into account because it's the same creator that is involved in TSW.
Besides that, you can already see differences in the way that information is released, with the big testorone-hyped information releases of a AoC, in contrast to the ARG's and the more no-nonsense, low key approach of a TSW.
The ACTUAL size of MMORPG worlds: a comparison list between MMO's
The ease with which predictions are made on these forums:
Fratman: "I'm saying Spring 2012 at the earliest [for TOR release]. Anyone still clinging to 2011 is deluding themself at this point."
Please keep your posts related to the topic of the thread.
i dont know about the other game but for AoC, the cries wasn't about the overload of info hype; it was about that NDA that they didnt lift. Its true though, there was an overload of info. I remember one such video in which funcom devs showed how mounted combat worked, how viable, fun etc it was. ah the good times.
Thanks for the news btw.
I need more vespene gas.
People mentioning funcom and the AOC fail is getting old...they make it seem like because they made mistakes they'll continue making mistakes in all the games they make...and then I say so what if they make mistakes lol doesn't everyone? I've had my eye on this game for a while, I hope it succeeds. I mean imagine 10 years later and Funcom releasing another game and you'll probebly see "remember that AOC fail some 13 years ago, I wouldn't get my hopes up if I were you."lol.
no elves or unicorns count me in
Lets see Funcom..check
Mr tornquiest...check.
Bringing things form longest journey into the game..check.
Me likely to buy and play this game...check.
That combo worked in 2 games, i'm going with it will probably work here to.
Infact i already signed up for a chance at the beta (whenever that is)
This last part is off topic sorta but the only thing i don't like about this game is thats it's holding up Tornquist from making the second part of Dreamfall Other then that though, this is another game i'm looking forward to.
Help me Bioware, you're my only hope.
Is ToR going to be good? Dude it's Bioware making a freaking star wars game, all signs point to awesome. -G4tv MMo report.
DDO also has (simple) puzzles and for some reason my group never feelt the need to rush things. it might be the DM system (narration) that simply immerses you more, or DDO is played by people that dont WANT to spoil the fun because they identify themselves with the tabletop genre.
Another possibility is that dungeons are more often than not about progression of a quest, lvling, content and not loot like WoW (mostly) about gear. So there would not be a need to rush to the end since there are no epics waiting for you with iLvl 9000.
I dont know how much TSW depends on itemization and how its balanced so cant say anthing constructive as of now, but it might be that its mechanics (no lvls, no item-lvls, etc) just do not give any benefit in rushing the dungeon or puzzle (except if someone needs to leave for work or sth.).
Additionally, from what i gathered, the game relies heavily on replacable stats/skills so re-rolling might not be its intended playstyle.
Take for example WoW where re-rolling as another class is pretty much guaranteed during your playtime as the guild maybe will need a healer than a tank.
In the upcomming Star Wars The Old Republic, Bioware pretty much said they WANT you to re-roll to experience the other 9234829834920 story-choices.
But in TSW, as long as skills are re-speccable and/or there are no skill/talent-trees that lock you down in any "class" there might never be a desire to re-roll and re-do old content.
Like in EVE you might train your skills completely independently and then why re-roll and re-do old content if you can just start using heavy guns instead of your melee abilities.
So i do not see that big of a problem here.
Also lets not forget that in my opinion Tornquist is not stupid, he probably already heard of Myst Online: Uru Live, the short lived MMO based ENTIRELY on puzzles and will have taken the missteps of those developers into consideration while designing this game.