I love the concept of MMOs. Creating a character and designing him or her to look just the way you want, playing in a massive world filled with other people, and getting items and gold from playing sounds like the epitome of fun to me. However, every single MMO I've played has "grind." I don't care how long it takes to level--I'm talking about how the game gets insanely repetitive. And call me crazy, but I just don't see the fun in pressing hot-keys to do skills, and killing enemy after enemy in the same boring fashion. No MMO to date has held my attention for any reasonable amount of time.

Instead, I play FPS games. (I'm currently loving TF2 and CoD4.) However, even though the gameplay is fun enough to keep me addicted, I don't get the same sense of achievement that I do with MMOs. The unlockable items in CoD4 can't compare to the leveling up and gaining gold and equips and stat points that MMOs offer.

The Agency offers both FPS gameplay that can hold me in for a long time, and MMO rewards that let me see my progression and make me feel good that I played for a long time. In theory, it's the perfect, ideal game (at least to me).

Also, looking at the developer interviews, it's obvious that they're focusing on fun as the number-one thing to develop the game around. That sounds like a no-brainer, but it's amazing how many developers forget that gameplay, not graphics or depth or anything else, is the most important thing. Look at WoW: sure, tons of people play it, but almost nobody quits and then says that they're glad they played. Most people look back and says it was a waste of time, and that they played because they were addicted, not because it was fun. I think that, in the future, when I finally quit The Agency (since everyone quits every game they play eventually), I'll actually be glad I played it.

There is, however, potential for serious flaws in the game. One thing that I'm unsure about is how they'll possibly make enough PvE content to keep everyone entertained if 100% of it is instanced missions. Nobody wants to do the same mission 5 times. Also, I do realize this is SOE we're talking about, and that does worry me somewhat. However, with such an amazing concept for a game, I really want to be optimistic. Perhaps the devs will amaze us with tons of new missions and content with each new patch, and perhaps SOE will change their ways; maybe they'll learn that if they listen to what the majority of their players want, they'll make more money in the long run. Hopefully, that will be the case, and we'll finally have the perfect game; one that offers the best of both the FPS and MMO genres.

I agree 100%... This game is for me and you. But not for some other people. But one thing is for sure. You and I are gonna love it!

Well, like I said, there's potential for serious flaws with the game, so it's not 100% certain that we'll love it. But, in my opinion it definitely has the most potential of any upcoming MMO, so let's hope for the best!

great points! I'm really looking forward to this game, yet there is still not enough information available for me to say one way or the other. I do hope they keep pushing and things start to show up. I'd love to beta test this game to get a feeling for how it will be. I've been looking forward to this game for soooooo long :P

I think that this game is on the right track, and I agree with most of what you said.

I think that this is one of the games where instancing will work very well, it keeps the game feeling like you are participating in a story which is good for immersion. Nothing would kill that more then to be on a secret spy mission and then 5 other spy's come up and do the same thing as you.


Also on the fears of SOE, I know they have done bad in the past on a FEW games, but they are blamed for more problems then they should have. Its internet hysteria.

I think with this title, going onto the PS3 as well, is going to have less chances of a NGE type event.

One question I have had on it is that I have seen other people say that they are going for a "M" rating, does anyone have a link to that?

Originally posted by Nightshades

One question I have had on it is that I have seen other people say that they are going for a "M" rating, does anyone have a link to that?

Look at the one scene where the ParaGON dude busts into the room and puts hundreds of bullets into the fat guy with his minigun--not one drop of blood. That's a T-rated game if I've ever seen one.

but let us not forget the quote used after that scene, "What the F---?!"

I'd suspect it to be rated Teen, with the obvious gameplay may change during online play stamp

For the game being only in Alpha the game graphically looks really good. Could be one of those darkhorse sleeper types that does extremely well. Hope to see and hear more on the game soon.

To be honest, I would say the success of this really depends on which gets released first; The Agency, or Huxley (another MMOFPS, which has been in development for ages.)  At least imho, whichever one of those gets released first, is probably going to end up being the more popular one, because the first true, modern MMOFPS is going to be VERY popular if done right.

(note: I put modern underlined as games like WWII online and Planetside are both MMOFPS, but A) both of them are 5+ years old, B ) have a very steep learning curve and C)Have lackluster graphics)

Huxley will be late 2008 at the very earliest.

Look at Webzen's website! They have games listed scheduled for release in 2005 that still haven't been released.

http://www.webzengames.com/

As much as I dislike SOE, the game does look good from what I've seen, but my huge worry is about the micro-transaction system they are going to be put in. John Smedly is already toting on how much more the EQ2 players are coughing up compared to the regular subscription prices (the article is on this site somewhere), so are they going to nickel and dime everyone to death is the biggest question.

There is a rather large debate going on behind the scenes in the mainstream development business right now. All of these large corporations are really trying to bring RMT into every game at this point and all they have is big dollar signs in their eyes. While SOE seems to be willing to stride bravely into the new frontier, others are being more cautious. I just hope for all of our sakes that the RMT is not esscential for game play.

I do agree that this is something to worry about. A F2P system is actually better than a P2P subscription system, if items are priced reasonably... but that's a big if.

Also, SOE has not officially decided on a payment policy. They're still considering P2P, and they're even considering a Guild Wars style payment, which would be amazing! ($50 to buy the game, free to play forever, no item shop, $50 more for each huge expansion pack)

See, I was under the impression that no matter what it was going to be free-to-play with micro transactions. Mr. Smedly has stated quite a few times in many, many interviews that the RMT/micro-transaction model is the one SOE wants to go with. Legends of Norath (probably misspelled) I guess was SOE's experiment in RMT and it hassupposedly worked for them.

I've been watching a forum/blog war over on Raph Koster's (Worked on UO, SW:G, EQ2) site for a few days now on this very subject and let me say that it's not pretty. While I understand that game development is for profit, charging your customers for every little thing, especially what they used to get for free, seems a bit too greeedy for my tastes.

Originally posted by Dracis

See, I was under the impression that no matter what it was going to be free-to-play with micro transactions.

Here's a preview from January 8: 

pc.ign.com/articles/844/844373p1.html

"The development team is currently wavering between subscription-based fees, a Guild Wars buy the expansion process, or a pay-per-item type of service (so basically it's still up in the air)."

Sounds like they're trying something different, I'll be keeping an eye on this game just to see if they can pull it off.

Well, I guess that's good to know and I sincerely hope they stay away from the RMT. Who knows, this could be a hit for SOE and possibly even a bit of a redemption for all the previous mistakes as well.

Looks like you can snipe people...what more is there?  Sniper action in MMO...

This game looks really good. It is different from any game I've ever played. Cant wait until it is released.

IF they make it so you have to throw a few bucks in to get some uber machine gun, you could always skip and and just Headshot with your pistol :P

If they throw this on their station pass (which i already have) i would definitely try it out....but I am NOT a fan of microtransactions, and probably wouldnt play it if it were so.