PVP:Yes | Distribution:Retail | Retail Price:n/a | Pay Type:Subscription
Desktop Client | System Req:
ION Look at The Agency
MMORPG.com's Carolyn Koh recently attended an Open House for Sony Online Entertainment's Seattle offices where they are busily building the spy-based MMORPG, The Agency. Today, Koh brings us up-to-date on the game, its rating and more.
SoE took advantage of the 2008 ION Games Conference this year and had a media open house for The Agency at their Seattle offices. The Open House started at 7:00pm and the last panel ended at 6:00pm, so a few of us hoped that there would be food. There was. Food, drink and a couple of booth babes, representing the U.N.I.T.E. and ParaGon agents. I looked around for burly Duncan but was doomed to disappointment. The presentation though, was no disappointment despite their showing the same trailer from CES 08.
Media and friends were treated to a display of the concept art of The Agency, a small tour of the studio, many artists and devs to speak to, many whom sported a temporary ParaGon tattoo for the night and of course, the presentation by Lead Designer, Hal Milton.
The Agency is a fast action spy thriller game in a world of espionage and intrigue. A world where spies and operatives are ubiquitous and their covers and fronts, merely a nod to tradition. Two factions oppose each other in friendly competition, and faction selection is a stylistic choice.
“The U.N.I.T.E. agent is your suave, sophisticated James Bond type, while your typical ParaGon agent is less Grey Goose, more Jack Daniels.” Said Hal as he ran us through the character creation screen.
We saw a bit of a concept build earlier, where a female agent put on an alias – a slinky little black number and flirted her way past the bouncer into a night club with pole dancers. “This is probably going to be an M rated game,” quipped John Smedley to the laughter of his audience. The art is unabashedly “beautiful people.” At character creation, players do not have the ability to customize facial features but may select faces, hair, body types and height in keeping with the themed “look” created for The Agency - It’s unashamedly T and A and big guns.
Clothes make the man and in The Agency, this is very true. Outfits are associated with roles and players change roles by changing outfits. After all, you couldn’t jolly well “stealth” your way into a party wearing body armor and packing an Uzi. You’re more likely to be able to do it wearing party clothes and concealing a gun on your body.
There are three basic roles in game that you can play:
Combat:
;)
The Tactical Specialist is your basic tank. Good defense. Able to take a few hits.
The Weapons Specialist needs little further description.
Stealth:
Special Ops will have better offensive abilities such as defusing bombs and cracking safes.
Psy Ops have the ability to reduce AI effectiveness and has good manipulation and hacking skills. “These are not the droids you seek.”
Support:
The Field Medic will be able to get a wounded or disabled party back on their feet and into action with a quick jab.
The Field Tech handles defenses, such as laying mines, repairing armor in the field and drop turrets.
Operatives are “living loot” and operate behind the scenes as well as infield. They all have their own personalities and may go off on little side jaunts and be unavailable to you at critical times. Operatives also gain xp and levels as you use them. They extend the story, as they can go everywhere you can’t. Operatives can be sent on intelligence missions and you can lose them if they get captured or killed. Hal warned that they can be duds.
“If you have a demolitions expert nicknamed Butterfingers, I wouldn’t be too confident about his abilities. However, there may be missions which are suicide missions and you won’t want to send your best operative, but in order to advance in this mission and open up others, you have to send a sacrificial lamb. Now’s the time to use Butterfingers.
Operatives have all the same roles as players do, with an additional Social role. This role is basically used for intelligence gathering. Where they make friends and influence people. They go where you can’t and if successful, they report back to you. If unsuccessful, you may find them missing or perhaps in the harbor with concrete shoes. You may even receive a ransom note for them. Now you have to decide whether to let them live or die.
;)
The final number of operatives a player can have on his roster has not been determined as yet, but numbers of 50 to 100 have been tossed around. In reference to Operative personalities, they will have advantages and disadvantages, akin to the old RPG system of Pros and Cons. For example, your best infield operative that you want to deploy on a mission may be deathly afraid of rats and you have to go through an underground tunnel. He or she may well balk and refuse to go, or get distracted so badly, he cannot properly assist you. One operative may also refuse to work with another, or two could hook up and take off for a week together.
To start, a pool of 500 different operatives that a player could potentially obtain will be available. Some may only work for one faction and not the other, and they are also uniques who may join you on a temporary basis – perhaps for a mission or two, then they will fade back into the woodwork.
The Agency will also have PvP play and this is strictly consensual, and is accessed via a lobby in game.
“This is Lord of the Flies,” Hal quipped. “And the Devs’ jobs are to keep Piggy from getting his head bashed in with a rock.”
Players may elect to go into casual PvP space and play against friends and rivals, or joined ranked matches where players are evenly matched. Just remember. No matter how high or skilled you are, a headshot is still a headshot. Bang. Dead.
So that’s the new information on the Agency, and it was back to partying and my getting people to lick the big ice sculpture of a gun. That’s Art Director Cory Dangel.
;)
Anyone have an idea when this is planning for launch?
Thanks.
Since it is going to be a cash store MMO, you can chalk this up as another mediocre SOE offering.
Smedley has lost any sense of the MMO market he once had, time for him to be the big boot.
I actually wonder if there are people that will play it? I won't but if there are people still playing DnL and SWG, then I'm sure someone will play this one too. Taking $OE out of the picture, I don't see this going well because its a store game, where you buy things for real money, yet is still free to play otherwise.
However, that formula kind of works for Guild Wars, but I think $OE is taking it to a different level. I've this kind of system is popular with Korean MMO fans, but I've also read that the western markets can't stand this kind of system.
I suppose we will have to see how this plays out.
Word.
I'm sure people will play it upon first release -- it's going to be free after all. Depending on how much the mincrotransactions proliferate can dictate lasting power though. Perhaps SOE will regularly open up new servers to bring new blood in (and then charge a hefty transfer fee to those who don't want to start again.)
Finally some new news on this! I thought this game had been given up, with the lack of anything from SOE. Still, I cant wait for it to come out, as this was the reason I signed up on MMORPG.com
It isn't a store game. They offer a service where people can buy loot from other players for real money. People are going to do this anyway, they offer a safe way to do it. All the loot can be found in game, you don't have to buy anything.
The Agency is certainly getting alot of attention. If only this amount of attention was spend on other SOE MMO titles they would not have to put all of their eggs (talent and time) into this title and "Free Realms"
Its saddens the current and the Cancelled SOE customers that the same energy is spent on the older titles.
I can hardly wait to see if these new PS3/PC MMOs from SOE will be all that and a bag of chips.
Based on Customer service history , I am betting not..
Of course people are going to play it. Not everyone is adverse to cash stores or the Sony system of buying from other players.
And since we all know people use real money to purchase currency and powerleveling on line, and since we know it's big business, it stands to reason that this will not phase many.
Also, given that it is not sci-fi or fantasy, it offers another type of game to the genre.
It's really a shame that Apple isn't spending as much time working on the previous generations of their ipods too -- it saddens their current and previous customers....
We get it, you're the clown all swg vets adore and you despise SOE. Do you have something better to contribute?
Actually, Smedley has stated that it hasn't yet been determined whether "The Agency" will be subscription based or FTP. A lot will depend on the success of their upcoming FTP game, "Free Realms", targeted at the tweenybopper set.
As to whether the Western market will go for a FTP game, he cites the success of Runequest and their 11 million active players.
See www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24735969/
SOE's reputation for pulling the rug out from customers and fundamentally changing their games aside, this will be a RMT revenue game and I refuse to play any form of approved RMT including developer sponsored RMT. Why play a MMOG where people are allowed and encouraged to buy their way?
I have a great idea , Why don't you visit me at the Rodo Report
http://groups.myspace.com/Rodoreport
There we can talk more freely - I am looking forward to it
JESTOR!
I am definatly going to try this. i thought SOE did a fantastic job ( and still are) with Everquest 2 and i want to support new innovations and environments in MMO gaming.
Looking forward to this
http://images.mmorpg.com/features/1953/images/1953_1_t.jpg
...And so we meet the 1st recipient of the SOE G.I.R.L (Gamers in Real Life) Scholarship program? Way to go SOE! Great job bridging that gender gap!
If this game wasn't SOE I might look at it. I will never touch a SOE product no matter what it is. I don't care how good any game they make in the future is.
Too many lies, scams, and bad buisness practices from this company.
SOE=bad buisness that will not hesitate to rip people off or lie to them if they see a potential $$.
No offense to anyone on a SOE game that is lucky enough to not experience this.
I certainly will play it. If the content and style will not change substantially, of course.
I'm assuming this is for PoS3 only? Havn't cared to look, anyway I would try any MMO regardless if it was cash shop attached or not! However I won't spend what little money I have for gaming on a PoS3 just for this....heh I've played and enjoyed many of Asian F2P MMOs with cash shops too.
Would be nice if SoE would stop being so dumb about all their MMOs and stop ruining them! Kinda odd that they keep doing this and makes me wonder how many players keep supporting these ideas for SOE to keep doing what they do.
Guess I missed the part about it being a cash shop game before :(
I'll try it anyway just because it has a different setting.
What I'd REALLY love to see is an MMO that transcends genre by allowing the character to jump from setting to setting [World 1 is fantasy, World 2 is "modern", World 3 is Modern + Magic, World 5 is a space opera, etc] A GURPS or generic d20 skill set could form the backbone of the system with particular rules for each world [magic works here, but not there, etc]
If I can play for free, get all the items for free and sell them to other players for real cash (and most likely a little royalty to SOE) count me in. Somehow I envision more sellers than buyers in this game for some reason.
You have to join a lobby for pvp. Good God man, that is lame. LOL.
It's going to be available for PC as well. The more I read about this game, the more I wanna play it (a bit effy with the RMT though but maybe they'll change their mind...LOL). Heh The whole operative description sounds really interesting imo.
With SOE driving, I'm betting this game will be unremarkable. I'm not a SOE hater, I just don't have any faith that they can pull something like this off.
I love the James Bond style. Keeping an eye on this one for sure.
This is sounding interesting for me, there are some good cash shop games. I'm looking forward to the Agency and hopefully it will be like Planetside or CS. It sounds interesting, hope there is a CB test coming soon. I want to sign up!
But remember some people really dislike SOE and will do anything even LIE to try and mislead this community, even worse then SOE has done.
"The Open House started at 7:00pm and the last panel ended at 6:00pm, so a few of us hoped that there would be food. "
You guys time travelled during the Open House? Man, I'd be hungry too.
Seriously though, thanks for the info on the game. I'm interested to see how this turns out.
And SOE could conduct a "We want you back," campaign to win back those customers who no longer plan on purchasing SOE products/services. It would not be difficult and the costs for such a campaign I believe would be justified in restoring reputation and bringing old customers back. The sting of SWG just didn't hit a couple of hundred of thousands of costumers...
But unfortunately, SOE keeps on going about how great, exciting and cool things are going. The past is the past, nothing can be done, just ignore it and look to the next products.
So let me ask you all here. How many of you would tell a friend that paying up front for a year's subscription is a good thing to do with SOE? How many of you actually continue to do so to this day?
Yep, it is all those SOE haters that invented the idea that The Agency was going to involve RMT.
um, you must not play any mmo games then. even ftp games like diablo2 would buy/sell items on ebay. yes, it's not an actual mmo; but it is free and people paid real money to buy items for it.
priceless is the irony of the two above quotes.
so, if someone lies about lies and someone lies about lies which are about lies... does that mean we can all LOL and SOE didn't just screw over POTBS on their "distribution/marketing only" end of the deal? that in no way did SOE involve itself in any of the myriad monumental screw-ups with all of the SOE games?
LOL indeed. LOL indeed.
but hey, it's not my money they're eating up. when SOE dorked up cancelling a sub the SECOND time, i learned my lesson. so even on the non-gaming side of the house - SOE is just bad news.
but LOL some more, it's priceless indeed. LOL and LOL.
keep in mind, according to very smart posts, it's SOE haters that are spreading lies. Curse those liars at Live Gamer Exchange~!! Curse their SOE hating souls~!!
fanboi'ism and idol worship don't cut it for MMOs. fanbois are the spreaders of the disease of misinformation far more often than not, and their blind worship (when paid attention to by dev teams) is the death knoll of any mmo.
honestly, i'm to the point where i have to conclude that fanbois are either kids or griefers who just enjoy trying to mess over people playing mmos by deluding devs into thinking bad is good and vice versa.
What did SOE lie about The Agency? They have been telling folks that they were going the RMT route for quite a while now. The only ones that apparently were caught off guards are the haters.
I for one am actually looking forward to this game myself if i have a ps3 when this game comes out i will get it for my ps3 or i might upgrade my pc to run this game hopefully it will be free to play so that way i won't have to worry bout time cards and stuff
There are many subscription revenue games that don't use RMT and many of those MMOGs forbid RMT sales between players and are proactive in banning the players that do. So there are plenty of developers to support other than SOE that don't whore themselves out.
SOE has been trumpeting this game as an RMT from it's inception, where have you been?
Cash shop means no play for most of us. You should not be able to buy your way to the top. Go out and try some of these free to play games, it is obvious from the start to see the cash shop players. If that does not bother you fine, but it seems to me that it completely undermines the purpose of these games, to develop your character. Cash shop players just buy the character, they develop little.
Now don't go evading that SOE has not lied when it comes to the Agency. SOE has a track record of being deceptive. Please read over what occurred with the Trails of Obi-Wan expansion for Star Wars Galaxies.
As for lying, difficult to prove before a game is launched, but I can point one small lie already; which has been made known to SOE for a year now. Let me ask, does SOE strive for quality with this title and by rating as mature, should provide some (mind you, not full) realism to the title?
Since SOE is behind it,it will have depth and a lot of content.I will probably give it a shot at least ,even though spy type MMO's are not my thing.
although i do not agree with item mall games and the sort i am willing to give SOE the chance to prove they have an idea and way to make it work.If there game is good and it works out where by you only have to pay 15 bucks/mnth to play a decent game,then it works out the same and won't matter to me one way or the other.If however they dumb down the game so badly[this is the norm] that you are forced to spend 20 bucks a week to remotely play the game the way it was intended,then it will join all the other asian F2P games in the junkyard.
We all hate F2p item mall games,but at the same time we have only seen it done the asian [korean] way.SOE innovates usually and others are soon to follow so no matter how there concept is concieved,let's wait another few months after and see if all the other devs jump on the bandwagon.
If anyone has seen that one interview with some of the top dogs from wahammer and some of the other new games coming out,it was VERY apparent they are also thinking of ways to make item mall games work.So lets just wait and see if perhaps SOE can do it better,who knows i am as skeptical as anyone else.
We have seen both European and North American RMT sales in MMOGs as well.
Roma Victor - developer sells in game coin
Eve Online - developer sells game cards which can then be traded in-game for in-game coin.
Everquest 1 and 2 - SOE sells playing cards which can be exchanged for in-game rewards.
Many developers sell Preorder and Collectors edition release versions of their games by including in-game rewards.
It's all bullshit and I refuse to participate in such a bastardization of the MMOG virtual world concept, one where real money does not exist and should not garnish in-game rewards. All in game rewards must be earned within the confines of a virtual world boundary thru expended effort or trade of earned virtual items/coin/services.
IMO it shows these DEVS have ZERO confidence in there product,even though i realize these bribes have no monetary value and cost them nothing as far as real word money goes.
It is very easy with the internet to deliver videos and blogs and hype on gaming sites and such to market there product.
I really can't EVER see an item mall game work,because we all know they are going to design the game so that you use the item mall not so you don't use it.However like i said,if it worked out whereby you only end up paying the same as you would normally[$15/mnth]then it's cool.This will NEVER happen however because they would have to pay out enough bandwidth to support all the freebies on there servers.