This is of course just my opinion. I have been lucky to get to play TSW.  At first the game is easy, go here do this, figure out some easy to not easy puzzles.

 The part where I see a lot of the casual gamers losing interest is, a large number of online players these days just want to be told what to do and how to play. They dont want to think about how skills and abilities work they just want to see a skill tree and know how many of point x they need to buy that new attack animation. TSW does not coddle these kinds of players. The players will have to actuall read and do some basic research in their chosen weapons. Just saying I want to use a sword aka blades for the game, will be fine for the starting area but you will quickly find you need to branch out if you wish to do well.

 I made this mistake when starting the game and didnt diversify much other than going all blades. I got to the next zone and vs some mobs I simply got owned.

The current community is pretty darn good, after asking for advice over chat and getting some links I was able to understand the different "states" and get an idea of the basics of trying to create "synergy" between skills and my two weapons of choice.

What was frustrating at first is now great. I actually have to plan out my build and work on not just what weapons I like to play but how to create synergistic outcomes with those weapons. Btw creating these synergies creates effects that grant greater damage or other beneficial effects.

My advice for anyone wanting to play The Secret World is this. Have fun. If you are not having fun step back and do some basic research into your chosen weapons. Ask for advice either in chat or on the forums. USE THE FORUMS. There are some great posts that will become available at live that have excellent explanations on everything from crafting to building decks, to how to change something you dont like.

Again just my Opinion.

Hope to see some of you at Launch.

Originally posted by Chuckanar

 

 

 The part where I see a lot of the casual gamers losing interest is, a large number of online players these days just want to be told what to do and how to play.

The current community is pretty darn good, after asking for advice over chat and getting some links I was able to understand the different "states" and get an idea of the basics of trying to create "synergy" between skills and my two weapons of choice.

Isn't it Ironic that you would consider yourself an average gamer after putting them on blast for being told what to do and how to play.   The average gamer can develop or steal something that works in any game. Some weapons just arn't strong when compared to others and synergy is pretty obvious, maybe it is to hard to do any development balance or the game is releasing before it was finished, I don't know.

Originally posted by tares

Originally posted by Chuckanar

 

 

 The part where I see a lot of the casual gamers losing interest is, a large number of online players these days just want to be told what to do and how to play.

The current community is pretty darn good, after asking for advice over chat and getting some links I was able to understand the different "states" and get an idea of the basics of trying to create "synergy" between skills and my two weapons of choice.

Isn't it Ironic that you would consider yourself an average gamer after putting them on blast for being told what to do and how to play.   The average gamer can develop or steal something that works in any game. Some weapons just arn't strong when compared to others and synergy is pretty obvious, maybe it is to hard to do any development balance or the game is releasing before it was finished, I don't know.

I would have to disagree...synergy is pretty obvious, yes, but how to get it is another thing.  Then you have certain weapon combos that work well in some instances that don't work well in others.  I really don't think it's balancing (Im sure some things are unbalanced), but give me an MMO that was released and every class was perfectly balanced...none.  I, myself, have tried about 8 different weapon combos and just finally found the one I like for my gameplay style....that doesn't mean the other's didnt work, it just means I like this one much better for me.  To trivialize the character skills and Attributes and how intricate, detailed and free-form they are tells me you are either a troll or you played the game for 20 minutes and realized you didnt like it.   This is one of the best features of the game.

This game will fail because it is created by Funcom. The makers of the failed Age of Conan. Enough said. I dnt know why people dont look to who makes the game more when deciding whether to play it or not. Take for example, SWTOR, made by Bioware...the failures who made Warhammer Online (Fail).

Look at the makers, look at their history and how they lack support for critical updates.

Originally posted by ZigZags

This game will fail because it is created by Funcom. The makers of the failed Age of Conan. Enough said. I dnt know why people dont look to who makes the game more when deciding whether to play it or not. Take for example, SWTOR, made by Bioware...the failures who made Warhammer Online (Fail).

 

Look at the makers, look at their history and how they lack support for critical updates.

I thought Mythic made WAR BEFORE EA bought them.  I didn't think EA had anything to do with WAR until later on and had nothing to do with the development process, but rather as publishers?

Color me confused.  Edit: Sorry, you said Bioware not EA.  Still....I don't think they had anything to do with Mythic failing.

Originally posted by ZigZags

This game will fail because it is created by Funcom. The makers of the failed Age of Conan. Enough said. I dnt know why people dont look to who makes the game more when deciding whether to play it or not. Take for example, SWTOR, made by Bioware...the failures who made Warhammer Online (Fail).

 Look at the makers, look at their history and how they lack support for critical updates.

No need to say anything more. This says enough about the value of the whole post

People want to be able to make build decisions intuitively in the game.  If you can't figure it out more easily in game than out, then there's a problem.  If you have to meta to be able to play and enjoy the game, then it's not going to see the popularity, interest, and likely success it could have.  People want to figure this stuff out in game via the game.

Originally posted by cutthecrap

Originally posted by ZigZags

This game will fail because it is created by Funcom. The makers of the failed Age of Conan. Enough said. I dnt know why people dont look to who makes the game more when deciding whether to play it or not. Take for example, SWTOR, made by Bioware...the failures who made Warhammer Online (Fail).

 Look at the makers, look at their history and how they lack support for critical updates.

No need to say anything more. This says enough about the value of the whole post

It is true, but isn't obvious because they are diffrent parts of the same company under diffrent names.  Bioware needed more developers so most of them came from Mythic.  A lot of the head developers of SWTOR came from mythic, which is strange.  Both SWTOR and Warhammer have a lot of parallel design decisions, like keep the factions seperate, make the bad guys more polished and cooler looking than the good guys, how loot is aquired, the entire end game of both games was directed by the same guy and feels the same.  Bioware likely only worked on the leveling stories and quests, which were well recepted.

Same concept as TSW needed more developers so many of them came from Age of conan so there will be features that play the same.

Thought TSW players considered themselves erudites, which would make simple analogies way to easy.

@Chaod: I'm sure which weapon combos to use will be set in stone three or four days after launch, most of the base skills are the same on the build calculator, the only diffrence is the math are hidden just like SWTOR and there it took about three days to come up with the top builds and say some classes are junk while othere need to build this way.  Funcom isn't known for balance.

Actully age of conan hasent failed and playing strong, also thay made anarchy online and that is one of the oldest mmo's going,

And yet anarchy is also still very strong so i wouldent call funcom a fail.

I couldn't get past the horrid, repetitive combat myself. Very boring and uninspired. Such a shame, because this game has potential.

Funny that the reason I don't like it is the exact opposite of why Age of Conan sucked, lol.

Originally posted by tares

Originally posted by cutthecrap

Originally posted by ZigZags

This game will fail because it is created by Funcom. The makers of the failed Age of Conan. Enough said. I dnt know why people dont look to who makes the game more when deciding whether to play it or not. Take for example, SWTOR, made by Bioware...the failures who made Warhammer Online (Fail).

 Look at the makers, look at their history and how they lack support for critical updates.

No need to say anything more. This says enough about the value of the whole post

It is true, but isn't obvious because they are diffrent parts of the same company under diffrent names.  Bioware needed more developers so most of them came from Mythic.  A lot of the head developers of SWTOR came from mythic, which is strange.  Both SWTOR and Warhammer have a lot of parallel design decisions, like keep the factions seperate, make the bad guys more polished and cooler looking than the good guys, how loot is aquired, the entire end game of both games was directed by the same guy and feels the same.  Bioware likely only worked on the leveling stories and quests, which were well recepted.

Same concept as TSW needed more developers so many of them came from Age of conan so there will be features that play the same.

Thought TSW players considered themselves erudites, which would make simple analogies way to easy.

 

I'm sure which weapon combos to use will be set in stone three or four days after launch, most of the base skills are the same on the build calculator, the only diffrence is the math are hidden just like SWTOR and there it took about three days to come up with the top builds and say some classes are junk while othere need to build this way.

Alright, here's some more explanation since it seems you need it: Warhammer Online was made by Mythic Entertainment, not Bioware. To anyone who dug deeper into the people list of Bioware Austin would also see that the majority came from elsewhere than Warhammer, and realise that a couple of persons that went to a follow up company doesn't mean the whole team or even the majority came from there. Not that it matters much anyway. After all, Mythic Entertainment teams also came from DAoC, UO's Richard Garriot and friends went to Tabula Rasa, and the Blizzard teams responsible for D2, WC3 and SC, a lot if not most of them spread out as well.

So, on top of that the poster I replied on was wrong, everyone who has a slight notice on how the gaming business or any industry or cooperation works, realises that a lot of people move around and that after years teams have little in common with former teams, even or better said certainly not when there's only a couple of names from this or that former game in those new teams.

As for the weapon combos, shrug, sure there'll be top builds, then if those become trends other people will come up with counter builds against them where as people always will add their own flavors and touches to the builds they use, just like they've done in other MMO's. The advantage here is that they're not restricted by class in their deck building. But then again, it's nothing that you have to worry about, since it's obvious that you're not interested in playing the game anyway and that other MMO's hold far more your interest, even if it's such that you spent most if not all of your posts on this site on TSW

        I think what cracks me up about TSW is how some players think that its rocket science or something.... ITs like "WHOA I figured out how to look up something online, Im a genius!!"...... Theres a ton of single player games that are light years more complicated......Also once you solve a TSW quest its solved forever......Just because the game isn't WoW doesn't mean its the most complicated game ever......

Originally posted by Theocritus

        I think what cracks me up about TSW is how some players think that its rocket science or something.... ITs like "WHOA I figured out how to look up something online, Im a genius!!"...... Theres a ton of single player games that are light years more complicated......Also once you solve a TSW quest its solved forever......Just because the game isn't WoW doesn't mean its the most complicated game ever......

Compared to other MMO's where questing often can be done on autopilot with no thinking at all, yeah, quite some quests in TSW have more of a thinking challenge to them than the majority of quests seen in other MMO's. But hey, if you really want a challenge, you should try the ARG's, enough of a brainbreaker for you there, if you'd dare

It isn't the most complicated game ever, but quite a number of its quests are of a higher (intellectually) challenging level than what has become common in questing in other MMO's.

Originally posted by tares

Same concept as TSW needed more developers so many of them came from Age of conan so there will be features that play the same.

The "top" guys for TSW didn't have the top positions in Funcom when AoC launched, so the decision making is quite different in my eyes. I have played both AoC and TSW.

What AoC has brought is mainly the engine and what worked and didn't work. A lot of features have been made from the bottom up in TSW that they have a really hard time modifying AoC to do.

Anyway, regarding the OP, if he is the average gamer and can come up with these meta thoughts around the game, doesn't that imply that the average gamer will infact understand the game? For the players with less game experience TSW's "new" way of doing things might feel completely logical, something I have seen happen.

Regarding the builds and so on, just getting the 14 abilities from the inner circle of a single weapon is a "premade" build from the developers. It's not the most powerful, awesome build around, but it works. After that you can try out one or many of the decks they have provided. If you think some missions are too hard, you can just group up with likeminded people. There is nothing wrong with grouping up in a MMO. ;)

Originally posted by Blackbrrd

Originally posted by tares

Same concept as TSW needed more developers so many of them came from Age of conan so there will be features that play the same.

The "top" guys for TSW didn't have the top positions in Funcom when AoC launched, so the decision making is quite different in my eyes. I have played both AoC and TSW.

That is true there was a small skeleton crew developing TSW, when age of conan launched.  The top guy will have a lot of say in the direction and he was diffrent but the initial staff working on TSW were not all department heads.  Game engine seems to be the great time and money expense in both projects so a lot of engine developers, concept artist, writers, etc but I'm unsure of how many where TSW exclusive but it was supposedly very few when Funcom announced layoffs after Funcom and investors considered Age of Conan a failure, it was reported on one of the 33 million in losses articles but I can't recall the source but that was the first time I heared about TSW, so I was thinking it would release in 2014.

Is there enough diffrence at the top of TSW to have attention to detail in reguards to skill balance, game mechanics, content quality and quantity, polish of major features, balance updates,  quality control of patches, purpose of endgame, bugs and glittches, tech issues, etc and other things that Age of Conan got wrong over and over again.

Originally posted by cutthecrap

Originally posted by Theocritus

        I think what cracks me up about TSW is how some players think that its rocket science or something.... ITs like "WHOA I figured out how to look up something online, Im a genius!!"...... Theres a ton of single player games that are light years more complicated......Also once you solve a TSW quest its solved forever......Just because the game isn't WoW doesn't mean its the most complicated game ever......

Compared to other MMO's where questing often can be done on autopilot with no thinking at all, yeah, quite some quests in TSW have more of a thinking challenge to them than the majority of quests seen in other MMO's. But hey, if you really want a challenge, you should try the ARG's, enough of a brainbreaker for you there, if you'd dare

 

It isn't the most complicated game ever, but quite a number of its quests are of a higher (intellectually) challenging level than what has become common in questing in other MMO's.

I agree. Seriously, if you think you're super smart for doing a puzzle quest, try playing EVE, and see how that goes. TSW isn't the "thinking man's mmo" (stop this please), but it does require a greater degree of intelligence and attention spam than most mmo's. ARG's are indeed much harder than investigation missions even.

However, i believe TSW is too much of an "alien" game for some. Not saying it's better, just too different in some areas that many players just don't like. For example, our character doesn't talk. To me, and many others, this is how it should be, but many feel awkard about it, specially after SWTOR. Also, there's a heavy focus on lore and story, which annoys many, but i think that's a very important part of a themepark.

There are lots of flaws of course (hope the combat does get better later on and after the "miracle path" peole are talking about), and it isn't the most unique game either, but i do think that when it is unique, it's too weird.

Originally posted by Blackbrrd

Originally posted by tares

Same concept as TSW needed more developers so many of them came from Age of conan so there will be features that play the same.

The "top" guys for TSW didn't have the top positions in Funcom when AoC launched, so the decision making is quite different in my eyes. I have played both AoC and TSW.

What AoC has brought is mainly the engine and what worked and didn't work. A lot of features have been made from the bottom up in TSW that they have a really hard time modifying AoC to do.

Anyway, regarding the OP, if he is the average gamer and can come up with these meta thoughts around the game, doesn't that imply that the average gamer will infact understand the game? For the players with less game experience TSW's "new" way of doing things might feel completely logical, something I have seen happen.

Regarding the builds and so on, just getting the 14 abilities from the inner circle of a single weapon is a "premade" build from the developers. It's not the most powerful, awesome build around, but it works. After that you can try out one or many of the decks they have provided. If you think some missions are too hard, you can just group up with likeminded people. There is nothing wrong with grouping up in a MMO. ;)

Well the origional AoC engine was replaced by the engine they are using on TSW...so they basically have live fire testing of the TSW engine via AoC.

Im sure that the didge mechanic will be the same as AoC...and to be honest, theres a lot of combat systems that were phenominal in that game, and id love to see in TSW though isnt possible under the current skill system.

So AoC didnt bring the engine, they made this engine for TSW and stuck it into AoC years after that game launched in order to flesh out issues ect...also im assuming this engine will be more versatile and give them more room to work with AoC ect.

Originally posted by Crunchy221

Originally posted by Blackbrrd

Originally posted by tares

Same concept as TSW needed more developers so many of them came from Age of conan so there will be features that play the same.

The "top" guys for TSW didn't have the top positions in Funcom when AoC launched, so the decision making is quite different in my eyes. I have played both AoC and TSW.

What AoC has brought is mainly the engine and what worked and didn't work. A lot of features have been made from the bottom up in TSW that they have a really hard time modifying AoC to do.

Anyway, regarding the OP, if he is the average gamer and can come up with these meta thoughts around the game, doesn't that imply that the average gamer will infact understand the game? For the players with less game experience TSW's "new" way of doing things might feel completely logical, something I have seen happen.

Regarding the builds and so on, just getting the 14 abilities from the inner circle of a single weapon is a "premade" build from the developers. It's not the most powerful, awesome build around, but it works. After that you can try out one or many of the decks they have provided. If you think some missions are too hard, you can just group up with likeminded people. There is nothing wrong with grouping up in a MMO. ;)

Well the origional AoC engine was replaced by the engine they are using on TSW...so they basically have live fire testing of the TSW engine via AoC.

Im sure that the didge mechanic will be the same as AoC...and to be honest, theres a lot of combat systems that were phenominal in that game, and id love to see in TSW though isnt possible under the current skill system.

So AoC didnt bring the engine, they made this engine for TSW and stuck it into AoC years after that game launched in order to flesh out issues ect...also im assuming this engine will be more versatile and give them more room to work with AoC ect.

I did mention the game engine.  It wasn't great in beta but they did nothing at all in age of conan right after the expansion for a whole year to port the TSW engine there so it has to be improved.  Will it support 50v50v50? doubt it, but it will go in anyway.  I do know the new engine didn't improve age of conan sieges and caused excess server lag but it was fixed after a few months and half the players quit.

Originally posted by tares

Will it support 50v50v50? doubt it, 

It supports more and people know this for a fact already.