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The Agency News - E3 Progress Report
Posted by Jon Wood on Jul 24, 2007 | 34 comments in our forums
When MMORPG.com writer Carolyn Koh attended this year's E3, one of the "must-see" games had to be The Agency from Sony Online Entertanment. A first in the genre, The Agency will put players into the world of super spies and mercenaries. Today, Carolyn files this report.
"It's a spy adventure. You go into it for the action, the lust, the adventure, the intrigue, the romance! Think of James Bond. Espionage. The Bourne Identity," enthused Corey Dangel, Art Director for The Agency. The Agency by Sony Online Entertainment was announced just weeks earlier at their Gamer Day. Set in the modern age, it will be their AAA spy thriller MMOG. Players can approach the world of espionage in two different ways. Join U.N.I.T.E or ParaGON. I asked Corey what the attractions of each faction were.
"Well," he answered, "U.N.I.T.E. is the 'official' agency. They project a suave, sophisticated image. Think of the James Bond type. ParaGON, on the other hand, will evoke images of the freelance bounty hunter types." He continued telling me of the variances in gameplay between the two. The U.N.I.T.E. agent might use sophisticated methods of getting through to an old booby-trapped warehouse to gain an objective, such as obtaining the codes to the security system or disarming it somehow, sleeping the guards with gas; while the ParaGON agent might just storm the gates with a truck and bazooka, tossing a few grenades along the way. Hmm... somewhat like Bruce Wayne in comparison to Frank Castle? I asked this question, comparing two famous comic book vigilantes. Corey admitted to not being familiar with Frank Castle (The Punisher), but told me that they were working on the creating the two agencies' recruitment videos which would be part of the game and show what the two groups are about.
;)
Read the whole report here.
Sounds cool. Will have to wait to hear more and see where it goes. Sounds like it could be fun but have to see something that makes me think it is not going to be something like Planetside.
Yes I played SWG, yes I was burned but not as much as SOE themselves. Love the idea of this game and will be following closely, I think its a great, 'original' platform to bring to an mmo and one that I persoannly think will lend itself very well if done right.
I must admit, at this stage I dont have much faith, but I have much hope.
It's built for the PS3 so wonder how it'll turn out.
So it wont be for PC? This sounds great but, as usual with most MMOs, I hope the hype does not set up a false hope in players.
This is weird...
I look at this game...and I feel exhausted. I guess I am getting old. Or delusionned toward SoE.
I guess I will try to understand and figure this game later, now is just not a good moment I guess.
It will be built for both platforms.
So it will essentially be a PS3 port like the game Final Fantasy was a PS2 port
Wonderfull.
This game has my attention. I hope it can keep it.
I think this game will be a Very tough sell, unless they can come up with some major hook. Just saying it's an espionage game "like James Bond" is way too vague to be compelling. Also comparing it to movies is hazardous since the feeling of Suspense and Drama created by a film doesn't translate very well to an open ended mmog, unless maybe it's heavily instanced. I dunno maybe they'll pull it off but at first glance it just feels like 'flop in the making'
Looks like a Shooter MMO like ww2 online. Hard to believe they can capture the feel of James Bond, maybe Mack Bolan. The picture indicate this.
I don't like the comment on PvP scenarios. Battlegrounds can be fun, but open PvP is generally a lot more fun. The game had originally appeared to be more PvP and community based but now it looks too PvE. In anycase it would be fun to play on a nice flat screen with a PS3.
ROFL
I was reading real fast and at first when I can across this:
...such as obtaining the codes to the security system or disarming it somehow, sleeping the guards with gas; while the ParaGON...
I thought I read "sleeping with the guards... with gas"
For just a second I thought... why do you need to tell me that the guards I distract by sleeping with them have gas?
I'm intrigued. They need some unique futures for this game to succeed.
Looks nice so far! , hope it will be a succes
This looks like it will be a true third generation MMO. I like the integration of text messages to portable devices, and the fps approach. I think SOE will be able to do a good job on it. I think they have learned from past mistakes... IE SWG.
Seems like a good sell for a console but a bad sell for the experienced mmo crowd that are PC gamers. This kind of idea would have to be heavily instanced to be truly enjoyable and it probably will be. Imagine an open world of spies with 20 agents around each corner, sneaking around has never been harder :P
I was thinking the exact same thing.
I'm looking for a good MMO that offers player housing, player cities, and a strong community built on interdependancy. I cannot see that happening in this game, but I can see it being successful for the console market.
Aw hell.....I was all stoked for this game.....
1. it's produces by sony...-100 out of 100 points
2. It's being made for console as well....another -100 points.
This game has been dumbed down to be a simple Spy vs Spy WoW clone imho and is no longer worth keeping tabs of.
Produced by SOE meaning what? it's going to flop? SWG was one game man, give it a rest. EA dropped Earth and Beyond, Turbine dropped Asheron's Call 2 and now NCSoft dropped Auto Assault. If your gonna play the SOE fails card with every SOE game, atleast play fair and just say you are ignorant of other companies failures and just hate SOE.
As for MMO's on console systems, I couldn't agree more. MMO's should never be cross platform. Make them either just PC or just console, not both. Trying to make a game that works on a console is almost guaranteed not to compare to similar PC MMO competition.
And I think the "WoW clone" phrase has been over done. WoW wasn't the first MMO ever made and WoW owes a lot of it's game mechanics to previous MMO's.
SOE has more than 1 failure, ever heard of Matrix Online, Vanguard ?
Being made for the PS3 eh. Oh goody, a console port. Allow me to express my interest at playing an MMO that's been dumbed down:
::yawn::
Matrix Online was developed by Warner Brothers, not SOE. It was bought by SOE for the sake of doing so, nothing more.
Vanguard was Sigil's failure, SOE is currently in the process of fixing it.
As for this, have to agree with most, it just seems like it would be a 'cool, i'll play this, but I really wouldn't spend money on it' kind of concept. It's neat, but it doesn't look like there will be much depth to it, which makes it not a long-lasting experience.
You mean the Matrix Online produced by Warner Brothers game studios and acquired by SOE in the deal for the rights to make the DC Comics MMO?
And do you mean Vanguard Saga Of Heroes originally produced by Sigil Entertainment and Microsoft Game Studios? You know, two totally entities completely separate from SOE? SOE took over as publisher of Vanguard about 5 months before the game launched, and when then later purchased the game outright from Sigil.
Like the man said, just admit you don't have one clue what you are talking about, and that you just don't like SOE.
They are SOEs failures now. Also I have nothing against SOE, I'm more into developer hatred :P I dislike Turbine for example and Mythic. :P
How do you define failure? People still play all of the SOE games, so they failed because they do not have 9 million users like WoW? Asherons call 2 failed because it is no longer available, it failed but I don't think any of SOEs game can be called failures. Not as successful as other games maybe.
I think it looks pretty cool. I like the idea of the text message to my cell phone idea when important things that affect my character happen. but as was said already, the idea of 20 spies walking around a city would make me not feel like a spy at all. Maybe if there were distinguishing stats that I could acquire to make me the "best" spy... but still I'm not sure. Also they said about the console thing; I tried to think about all the past mmo's I've played and wondered how those would turn out if they were made into a console game and I couldn't see how it could be done. Though I suppose consoles can be hooked up to the internet now so I imagine it would be like xbox's halo 2 or oblivion only with more people. It could work. I'll wait till I try it in beta b4 I completely condem it though. Looks cool and will follow for future updates.
Most MMOs are failiures because most MMOs these days are based on very promising IPs... D&D, Star Wars, LoTR, Matrix, etc...
Yes people still play SOE games... people on the "Station"... Station is an artificial respirator that keeps crappy games alive by selling membership packages. Matrix should be dead. SWG... STAR WARS Galaxies... should be at the 5 million registered users marker... it cycled so many people in and out it's not even funny. SWG is a failure.
As for Vanguard... if Microsoft was smart enough to pull out when they saw Sigil wasn't going anywhere and was holding on to it's "carte blanche" contract. SOE should have pushed back the release date... like NCsoft did with Cryptic and City of Heroes. Vanguard has butched is launch so horribly... it's a failure.
EQ2... well it may be named Everquest 2 but we all know it never became the "next everquest". I think the jury is still out on EQ2 but it is far from having met the potential anyone would have predicted it would have when it was announced. It was dwarfed by WoW and EQ1... so it's poor performance can be said to be... circumstancial.
SOE has a bad track record for handling people's accounts, billing and providing customer service as well.
SOE has many offices and different teams has different track records... this is being develloped by SOE Seattle. However, there is a trend of bad decisions from the higher ups. This game could be great... but I can see some fucktard suit coming up with dumb decisions and pissing off the player base... the PC version anyways.
This game sounds promising. I hope it has depth but it's not likely from an action based MMO. Also
Mid 2008 Beta now, interesting. So much for speculating about a mid 2008 release.
Coincidentally enough, how they will charge for it has not been determined, i.e., they are exploring different revenue models including microtransactions. Based on what happens with their release of Free Realms will determine the pricing model for the Agency. http://mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/135661
When I first heard about the game, I was like 'ah, could be cool.' Then I saw the game demonstrated via the streaming video from the sony online gathering and was more like 'Wow that looks sweet, hope it turns out as cool as it looks.'
So yea, I'm looking forward to this one with mild anticipation. :) It's definitely a unique approach to MMOGs.
I saw several of the sneak previews and think that the game looks really good. The enthusiasm that Hal and Matt show when talking about it shows how much they put into the games. That being said, they were excited about Mythica as well and that didn't help when MS decided to drop it.
The game play looked awesome, you can see some of it here, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ucbrLaV0aM. About 3 1/2 minutes in they show actual gameplay footage. Pretty awesome stuff. The team seems to have some really cool ideas, especially the rare operatives that you can collect and trade with other players. These serve as the crafting system, you'll be able to purchase schematics and using your uber scientest (think Q in bond terms) create the awesome car with all the cool gadgets on it. It will not be click based crafting as elite agents have others to do their work for them. Instead if will be real world time based, it might take an hour to make that rocket launcher, while the really awesome car takes a week. This time goes by whether you are in game or not. Even to the extent where you might get a text message or email saying, hey I finished and it's ready next time you log in. Really cool.
They are making an inter dependency between the operatives. My operative will be able to make something that yours cannot, but yours will be able to take what I make and make something awesome that mine cannot make. This will encourage you to work together to make the truly awesome stuff. In fact, it will be a primary reason for joint agencies (guilds) as that will allow a greater mixture of operatives and their abilities.
Each player will have a roster limit of operatives that grows as they become higher ranked. This will mean tough choices about who to keep, thus playing into the inter dependency aspect as no one will be able to have all the operatives they need to make the really cool stuff. So the economy will revolve around resources, plans, and even the operatives themselves.
What is with those MMO's that are being rushed out of the door? I mean the game has only been announced a few months ago, and now the beta is already in midsummer 2008!? It took SOE 4 years to make EQ2 (Or somewhere around 4 years?), Blizzard spend years of development on WoW.
Keep in mind that many of these companies now have experience with building a MMO. They might also have access to and experience with the game engine, rather than having to invent something from scratch. As companies release more MMOs, their production time could be drastically shortened and still provide a quality product. It just depends on the experience level and the resources available.
They've been working on the game for 2 1/2 years already. So it's not being rushed. In fact they mentioned several times that the reason they couldn't mention dates is that they have not yet hit the exit gates on the internal alpha. Once they do that they'll finalize the schedule for the rest of the dates.
Also, they mentioned that by using the unreal 3 engine it allowed them to quickly prototype levels, thus they see what works and what doesn't faster, increasing the iterative speed. They didn't need to wait 2 years to have an engine in place before they could see what works.