While at GDC we had the opportunity to talk to Ragnar Tørnquist, producer and director of Funcom's The Secret World. In part one he talks about the game's modern setting, classless character development, and more.

Watch Setting and Character Development

Should be INTREASTING. I do BELIVE that funcom just STUMMBLED onto somethig GOOD. What CAUGHT My eye is that it is going to be available for the X-BOX wonder if they are going to wait for the 720 to come out first??

One thing to keep in mind, FUNCOM cannot be trusted. Dont fall for the hype, the marketing shpeel, the "promises"..ect Take this project with not just a grain of salt, but the whole salt shaker.

I don't believe anything Funcom says either.

Originally posted by Rabenwolf

One thing to keep in mind, FUNCOM cannot be trusted. Dont fall for the hype, the marketing shpeel, the "promises"..ect Take this project with not just a grain of salt, but the whole salt shaker.

Sorry but the world will do just fine and dandy without your doom and gloom.  There isn't a gaming company out there that has delivered every promise they have made so take a breather and relax, being high-strung is bad for the arteries.

Words of wisdom.

You guys don't know, or you have forgotten. This is the same guy that brought the world:

I expect good things.

I think with both Ragnar's efforts and the fact that this new MMO isn't tied down to something semi-bland like the Conan universe, allows Funcom some bit of potential compared to AoC.

I am intrigued.  On the one hand, Ragnar seems to know what he's doing, on the other hand, Funcom is difficult to trust and dubious at best.  I have to admit I'm split right in the middle with this one.  I'll try and be hopeful.

Originally posted by Locklain

Originally posted by Rabenwolf

One thing to keep in mind, FUNCOM cannot be trusted. Dont fall for the hype, the marketing shpeel, the "promises"..ect Take this project with not just a grain of salt, but the whole salt shaker.

 

Sorry but the world will do just fine and dandy without your doom and gloom.  There isn't a gaming company out there that has delivered every promise they have made so take a breather and relax, being high-strung is bad for the arteries.

 

Totally agree with you Locklain! There are far too many ppl out there posting negative comments and spelling doom b4 games even have a chance to come out. Give Funcom a chance at redemption.

Originally posted by Krayzjoel 

Totally agree with you Locklain! There are far too many ppl out there posting negative comments and spelling doom b4 games even have a chance to come out. Give Funcom a chance at redemption.

For many people age of conan was their chance at redemption for releasing a game and it fell far short of what was promised.  A lot of people gave funcom the chance and funcom promised they would not repeat the mistakes of anarchy online, that they had learned their lesson, etc.  That was their given chance. 

Funcom at this point needs to earn their chances.  They will have to suffer through all the criticism, because fankly they brought it upon themselves.  They will have to work extra hard to prove this isn't the third in a trilogy of bad releases for the company. 

Originally posted by Krayzjoel

Originally posted by Locklain

Originally posted by Rabenwolf

One thing to keep in mind, FUNCOM cannot be trusted. Dont fall for the hype, the marketing shpeel, the "promises"..ect Take this project with not just a grain of salt, but the whole salt shaker.

 

Sorry but the world will do just fine and dandy without your doom and gloom.  There isn't a gaming company out there that has delivered every promise they have made so take a breather and relax, being high-strung is bad for the arteries.

 

 

Totally agree with you Locklain! There are far too many ppl out there posting negative comments and spelling doom b4 games even have a chance to come out. Give Funcom a chance at redemption.

I really cant but help but see you two as being easily gullible sheep. If you see a big red button that says "push" on it, and when you press it you get shocked. Then you see another button on the exact same machine that says "push", will you blindly press it without associating it with the previous result? You see its logical and rational to understand cause and effect. Shame on you for fooling me once, shame on me for fooling me twice, is a good catch phrase.

Only the childish of mind, those who cannot think rationally, will use "doom and gloom" tagging as a way to counter argue re-occurrences in history. That means yes, Locklain, you fail at thinking rationally, and dubbing my comment as unwarranted "doom and gloom" says a lot about your credibility.

Funcom has continued to release mmorpgs that have fallen way short of their marketing promises. Lies, deceit, corruption both with developers and game masters, their company is pretty much earned the reputation of being untrustworthy.

If you cannot learn to take what they say with a grain of salt, be cautious and assume that they wont deliver, then you will not get fooled again by them. Its simple really. Theres nothing doom and gloom about it, just history repeating itself and if you are disabled to the point of not accepting the pattern, then perhaps you are the exact type of person they target. The Dumb Consumer.

Funcom's launch periods are the worst in MMORPG history. False announcements, broken patches, everything done to keep the player subscribing for the next few months after a launch. They dropped a lot of their support for AoC to work on this project when AoC needed the most work, when it wasnt even delivering what it was supposed to at launch. Remember, this is the company that didnt even test their patches, that allowed rampant cheating, and has on numerous occasions been caught double charging credit cards just to make a bit more money, which they dub as an error, and only fix if you complain about it.

Just dont be stupid, its simple.

Originally posted by Rabenwolf

Originally posted by Krayzjoel

Originally posted by Locklain

Originally posted by Rabenwolf

One thing to keep in mind, FUNCOM cannot be trusted. Dont fall for the hype, the marketing shpeel, the "promises"..ect Take this project with not just a grain of salt, but the whole salt shaker.

 

Sorry but the world will do just fine and dandy without your doom and gloom.  There isn't a gaming company out there that has delivered every promise they have made so take a breather and relax, being high-strung is bad for the arteries.

 

 

Totally agree with you Locklain! There are far too many ppl out there posting negative comments and spelling doom b4 games even have a chance to come out. Give Funcom a chance at redemption.

 

 

I really cant but help but see you two as being easily gullible sheep. If you see a big red button that says "push" on it, and when you press it you get shocked. Then you see another button on the exact same machine that says "push", will you blindly press it without associating it with the previous result? You see its logical and rational to understand cause and effect. Shame on you for fooling me once, shame on me for fooling me twice, is a good catch phrase.

 

Only the childish of mind, those who cannot think rationally, will use "doom and gloom" tagging as a way to counter argue re-occurrences in history. That means yes, Locklain, you fail at thinking rationally, and dubbing my comment as unwarranted "doom and gloom" says a lot about your credibility.

Funcom has continued to release mmorpgs that have fallen way short of their marketing promises. Lies, deceit, corruption both with developers and game masters, their company is pretty much earned the reputation of being untrustworthy.

If you cannot learn to take what they say with a grain of salt, be cautious and assume that they wont deliver, then you will not get fooled again by them. Its simple really. Theres nothing doom and gloom about it, just history repeating itself and if you are disabled to the point of not accepting the pattern, then perhaps you are the exact type of person they target. The Dumb Consumer.

Funcom's launch periods are the worst in MMORPG history. False announcements, broken patches, everything done to keep the player subscribing for the next few months after a launch. They dropped a lot of their support for AoC to work on this project when AoC needed the most work, when it wasnt even delivering what it was supposed to at launch. Remember, this is the company that didnt even test their patches, that allowed rampant cheating, and has on numerous occasions been caught double charging credit cards just to make a bit more money, which they dub as an error, and only fix if you complain about it.

 

Just dont be stupid, its simple.

 

One long post of you grasping at straws to justify your paranoia . . . If $50 is that big of a deal to you perhaps gaming is not your forte, eh?

With a new game director I think this game stands a chance.

However, I hope they actually listen to beta testers this time. The concept is amazing and (just like their other MMO's) this seems to have superb potential. Lets see if they can prove everyones expectations wrong and release a complete game at launch!

I as a pre-AoC forum dweller with 2 years and 1500 post on the pre-forums cant even begin to discribe how much I disliked the game, the caster system was beyond horrible, melee was fine but the world (on my computer at that time) looked like shit. The game was a big "wtf is this what Ive been waiting 2 years for" that kinda game.

Problem was I had as a fan over-hyped the game and taken basicly every promise from devs as state of fact. I have just recently downloaded and started playing the trial and well.. its ok, perhaps even good depending on how you look at it.

As for Funcoms credability well its a bit torn but then again with a new game whol know eh, defently worth trying anyway.

As for promises I remember a certain WoW dev promising housing.. and guild basing, well its been years and still nothing. Till there are vids or sreenshots of something, promises are nothing but a guide-line, which in turn is easily taken over by in real life commercial reasons.

Dreamfall was one of the best adventure game of its type I ever played. It had flaws but in summation it outshone anything I had played before, in terms of the combination of amazing graphics with quality storytelling. I have the greatest respect for Ragnar Tørnquist, but his ability has only been proven in the area of storytelling and bringing that to a solo player game. He has not produced anything to this scale, however I think he will rise to it.

But AoC had a dedicated team, a team with vision. Vision is not enough, they made bad decisions and ran out of money to prepare the game properly for launch. RT is not immune to those factors, I wish him the best of luck though as an old timer of the Dreamfall forums.

Originally posted by Rabenwolf

Originally posted by Krayzjoel

Originally posted by Locklain

Originally posted by Rabenwolf

One thing to keep in mind, FUNCOM cannot be trusted. Dont fall for the hype, the marketing shpeel, the "promises"..ect Take this project with not just a grain of salt, but the whole salt shaker.

 

Sorry but the world will do just fine and dandy without your doom and gloom.  There isn't a gaming company out there that has delivered every promise they have made so take a breather and relax, being high-strung is bad for the arteries.

 

 

Totally agree with you Locklain! There are far too many ppl out there posting negative comments and spelling doom b4 games even have a chance to come out. Give Funcom a chance at redemption.

 

 

I really cant but help but see you two as being easily gullible sheep. If you see a big red button that says "push" on it, and when you press it you get shocked. Then you see another button on the exact same machine that says "push", will you blindly press it without associating it with the previous result? You see its logical and rational to understand cause and effect. Shame on you for fooling me once, shame on me for fooling me twice, is a good catch phrase.

 

Only the childish of mind, those who cannot think rationally, will use "doom and gloom" tagging as a way to counter argue re-occurrences in history. That means yes, Locklain, you fail at thinking rationally, and dubbing my comment as unwarranted "doom and gloom" says a lot about your credibility.

Funcom has continued to release mmorpgs that have fallen way short of their marketing promises. Lies, deceit, corruption both with developers and game masters, their company is pretty much earned the reputation of being untrustworthy.

If you cannot learn to take what they say with a grain of salt, be cautious and assume that they wont deliver, then you will not get fooled again by them. Its simple really. Theres nothing doom and gloom about it, just history repeating itself and if you are disabled to the point of not accepting the pattern, then perhaps you are the exact type of person they target. The Dumb Consumer.

Funcom's launch periods are the worst in MMORPG history. False announcements, broken patches, everything done to keep the player subscribing for the next few months after a launch. They dropped a lot of their support for AoC to work on this project when AoC needed the most work, when it wasnt even delivering what it was supposed to at launch. Remember, this is the company that didnt even test their patches, that allowed rampant cheating, and has on numerous occasions been caught double charging credit cards just to make a bit more money, which they dub as an error, and only fix if you complain about it.

 

Just dont be stupid, its simple.

 

Originally posted by Isturi

Originally posted by Rabenwolf

Originally posted by Krayzjoel

Originally posted by Locklain

Originally posted by Rabenwolf

One thing to keep in mind, FUNCOM cannot be trusted. Dont fall for the hype, the marketing shpeel, the "promises"..ect Take this project with not just a grain of salt, but the whole salt shaker.

 

Sorry but the world will do just fine and dandy without your doom and gloom.  There isn't a gaming company out there that has delivered every promise they have made so take a breather and relax, being high-strung is bad for the arteries.

 

 

Totally agree with you Locklain! There are far too many ppl out there posting negative comments and spelling doom b4 games even have a chance to come out. Give Funcom a chance at redemption.

 

 

I really cant but help but see you two as being easily gullible sheep. If you see a big red button that says "push" on it, and when you press it you get shocked. Then you see another button on the exact same machine that says "push", will you blindly press it without associating it with the previous result? You see its logical and rational to understand cause and effect. Shame on you for fooling me once, shame on me for fooling me twice, is a good catch phrase.

 

Only the childish of mind, those who cannot think rationally, will use "doom and gloom" tagging as a way to counter argue re-occurrences in history. That means yes, Locklain, you fail at thinking rationally, and dubbing my comment as unwarranted "doom and gloom" says a lot about your credibility.

Funcom has continued to release mmorpgs that have fallen way short of their marketing promises. Lies, deceit, corruption both with developers and game masters, their company is pretty much earned the reputation of being untrustworthy.

If you cannot learn to take what they say with a grain of salt, be cautious and assume that they wont deliver, then you will not get fooled again by them. Its simple really. Theres nothing doom and gloom about it, just history repeating itself and if you are disabled to the point of not accepting the pattern, then perhaps you are the exact type of person they target. The Dumb Consumer.

Funcom's launch periods are the worst in MMORPG history. False announcements, broken patches, everything done to keep the player subscribing for the next few months after a launch. They dropped a lot of their support for AoC to work on this project when AoC needed the most work, when it wasnt even delivering what it was supposed to at launch. Remember, this is the company that didnt even test their patches, that allowed rampant cheating, and has on numerous occasions been caught double charging credit cards just to make a bit more money, which they dub as an error, and only fix if you complain about it.

 

Just dont be stupid, its simple.

 

 

I disagree.  He may be at bit insultive in his tone, and perhaps appear trollish in general, he still makes some valid points on Funcom, in which case could hold some relevance.  Let's all be honest with ourselves.  Funcom doesn't have the best track record (and said mildly).
 

Originally posted by Locklain

Originally posted by Rabenwolf

One thing to keep in mind, FUNCOM cannot be trusted. Dont fall for the hype, the marketing shpeel, the "promises"..ect Take this project with not just a grain of salt, but the whole salt shaker.

 

Sorry but the world will do just fine and dandy without your doom and gloom.  There isn't a gaming company out there that has delivered every promise they have made so take a breather and relax, being high-strung is bad for the arteries.

 

Amen.......and to all the others who cry "Foul"every time a game doesn't go as plan/promised right from the start....Stop buying games right from the start..learn to recognize f@cking hype already. It's been around forever and has run especially rampant since the beginning of the world wide web and media explosion of the last 20 years. Try...my god...actually waiting until the bugs are worked out before you try a game. If developers know they won't get the initial sales because of cautious consumers...then maybe they will actually have longer beta runs ...and release more polished games. Unfortunately..the same people spouting "Liar Liar" bullshit are the same people screaming for immediate release....because ...essentially ...they are a bunch of  spoiled brats.

I was not impressed with Age of Conan in the least bit, but in my opinion Anarchy Online (despite the awful launch) is among the few good MMOs in the genre's history. The way I see it, what the genre has come up with up to now in comparison to its potential is so underwhelming that I don't mind the failures, I just detest the unimaginative ones. I'll take an imaginative game with a horrible launch over "polished same old" any day.

And, Tornquist is on this one. He made The Longest Journey, which is just a masterpiece of adventure gaming. And I dig the basic concepts on this. So I'll give him a chance here.

 So is this just a super hero game with no costumes?

It sounds more like a Chtulu-esque adventure game to me than an arcadey superhero game.

To be honest, this is the sort of stuff I was expecting to see from CCP's future World of Darkness MMO.

Originally posted by Nikopol

To be honest, this is the sort of stuff I was expecting to see from CCP's future World of Darkness MMO.

Pretty much the same thing for me as well... and it's something I couldn't have possibly seen coming. Who knows, perhaps this could be an interesting era for MMOs, with new titles coming in the future (WoD, SW:ToR, Blizzard's new MMO and this).

I have to admit that I really like what is being said about the game so far.

No classes, no levels, the setting of the game is interesting also.