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The Secret World Previews: PAX Faction Reveal
MMORPG.com's Carolyn Koh was present at Funcom's recent Penny Arcade Expo information reveal for their upcoming MMO, The Secret World. Today, she files this report.
By Carolyn Koh on September 10, 2009
Funcom's reveal of The Secret World at PAX 2009 is only the third time they have released information about the game, but according to them, it is the most important as they provided the media more in depth information on the Secret Societies - which are the player factions in the game. Secret Societies and the game play associated with them play an integral role in The Secret World. Set in the modern-day, real-world, in an imagined parallel universe where magic co-exists with science, where monsters and demons are real and Secret Societies have grown to recruit man to combat the very real evil that seeps in unseen, players will fight the darkness and save the world!
"Our goal is to divide players," said Erling Ellingsen, Director of Communications for Funcom. What he meant by that is that players must choose one Secret Society to align with and Cabals (player guilds) must select a Secret Society to align with. The Cabals will have housing and will gain standing in their chosen Secret Society just as players will gain standing and be ranked.
Lead Production Designer Ragnarr Tornquist spoke to us about the three Secret Societies: the Templars, the Illuminati and the Dragon as the trailer rolled. The tenets of the Templars are "Tradition, Loyalty and Law." They are the old school folks. Headquartered in the heart of London, they are the righteous and holy crusaders against evil. Do not confuse them with the Knights Templar, which was merely an upstart offshoot from the original. These are the guys that will raze a village to eradicate a single source of evil as they believe that sometimes, sacrifices have to be made in this crusade to keep the world safe. They believe that they ARE the chosen in the war against evil and their headquarters stand bright and shining as a symbol against the darkness. Their signature weapons are two hand guns.
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The Illuminati are the most secretive of the Secret Societies, yet they believe that power is the cornerstone in the fight against the darkness. The entrance to their underground headquarters is in an old abandoned warehouse somewhere in New York City. They are ruthless, ambitions and their organization runs like a Corporation. "Sex, Drugs and Rockefellar," is their motto and they believe in survival of the fittest. "Do or get done," is a favorite quote. They are the bad boys of the occult world and they make sure everyone knows it. Their signature weapon is the automatic assault rifle.
The Dragon teach the true Sun Tzu and are manipulators and agitators in the factional war and practice what they call the Art of Chaos. Headquartered in a monastery in Seoul, Korea, members of The Dragon practice patience and attainment of balance. A favorite quote is "We create chaos to achieve balance." They prefer the silence and elegance of the ancient weapon of the Samurai, the katana.
Although united in the war against evil, the Secret Societies are rivals for control of the scarce resource known as Anima. Players and Cabals will compete for this scarce resource in The Battle for Hollow Earth. A 24/7 persistent battle between the factions where cells containing Anima will have to be held 24/7 for the faction with sovereignty to benefit from it. We got to look at some artwork of this area and it looked like an organic spherical honey-comb celled structure. This is located in the depths of the ancient city, Agartha.
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We were also given a look at three more factions: a heraldic shield with a lion's head in profile and a sword behind it named "An Old Enemy," a square knot and kanji for snake named "A New Opponent" and a banner with a rising sun, named "Rising Tide of Changen" Although in typical Secret World fashion, no further explanations were given. Funcom would neither confirm nor deny if these were allied NPC factions or possible enemy factions
Precious few other details were available at this time, such as player progression. "Progression is not level and class based," said Ragnarr, "but through skills and powers. How you put your character together is important, but it can be changed." Progression within the Secret Society of your choice is also important. All progress will be tracked and will be published on leader boards on the game website.
Different Secret Societies will have different starting areas and players will always spend time in their headquarters as that is your base of operations and your social space. This is also where your vendors and mentors are and where quests are obtained.
The story is important, but players can still do what they like and will not be forced to follow a linear storyline. Exploration is encouraged and combat promises to be fast paced with the use of a wide arsenal of weapons available, from magic to knives to machine guns. Each Secret Society may have its own signature style in dress and weapons, but players can choose to customize their character's look and choice of weapons as they like.
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Check out some more related screenshots and artwork.
This game has the potential to kick some serious butt.
If people can get over the Funcom part of things, I think the game will do very well.
That's 'Ragnar', not "Ragnarr', btw...
Super exciting and great screenshots...
Really great! I can't wait for this game!
The mystical side of things, the reality of our existence...it's all in there.
Can't wait.
You said Funcom?
Thats all I need to know.
foul me once, bad on you. foul me twice, bad on me.
Interesting setting, has some potential.
Not sure how the PVE / PVP mix will be to me, seems like it might just be a PVP guild wars playground at endgame. That could work of course, but PVE is more my thing.
Having someone at the helm though that has never really worked on an MMO worries me though (yeah, he was there around AO and wrote that book, but 'ol Gaute was behind AO then, Ragnar just did story). I loved TLJ back in the day, but Ragnar has said several times he wasn't really an MMO person, even when he worked on AO, so seems an odd choice to lead an MMO team. Kinda like being skeptical about TOR until we see how the MMO parts are gonna work. I am sure the story elements here will be awesome too, might work but I think I'll deploy a 'wait and see' Will probably wait till after the game has been out a while and the gameplay is known before I let another title fool me with hype.
This game looks very promising,they must take their time and make sure it is polished when released.This game can be a winner and for once we gonna have a real MMORPG.
The only bad thing about this game is Funcom is making it. That alone turns many people off.
The idea for the game though is completely solid and I hope Failcom learned from its AoC failure.
I'm right there with you. I learned my lesson about the funcom hype machine. I've played a lot of games that were rocky at launch, but Conan just felt like bait and switch. Most of the things that were interesting to me weren't in at launch and several of them will never be. A year later, Conan still doesn't look like the game it was advertised as. That game is a colossal waste of the graphics capabilities. Environments look great, character models are excellent.. all the gear looks like ass. Maybe getting outside the strict confines of an established IP will correct that problem. I certainly won't get my hopes up about this game... but I'll keep a close eye on user reviews after it launches and I might look in to it if I hear enough good things.
Been following the game for a bit over a year now. Definately shows some promise in the concept and story. Will have to see how it is implemented before making any serious comments on it.
There has been some fun on their forumns which may hint at the detail in their story lines but, it was few and far in between. Like the trailers, they are definately awesome but, like the SWTOR trailer need to have the disclaimer
"Images in KICKASS Trailer do not reflect the reality of ANY game that you can play at the moment".
This new released info keeps me more and more interested. Of course, only when the final game is released we will know if this game lives up to its promise. I'll be following this one closely.
I'm right there with you. I learned my lesson about the funcom hype machine. I've played a lot of games that were rocky at launch, but Conan just felt like bait and switch. Most of the things that were interesting to me weren't in at launch and several of them will never be. A year later, Conan still doesn't look like the game it was advertised as. That game is a colossal waste of the graphics capabilities. Environments look great, character models are excellent.. all the gear looks like ass. Maybe getting outside the strict confines of an established IP will correct that problem. I certainly won't get my hopes up about this game... but I'll keep a close eye on user reviews after it launches and I might look in to it if I hear enough good things.
I think the realistic armor is one of the best parts of AoC, You can usually tell if a person has their MMO roots in PnP or in Streetfighter by how they like their visuals.
I have been playing the associated ARG all the way back to when the viral campaign started online with a planted story in a European gaming mag.
I have seen the HUGE depth of research and connections they have found not just for the ARG but from the things they were finding while researching the making of this game.
I am dismayed that you are forced to join one of the Secret Societies right off the bat, as it probably would have been alot more compelling if you had to earn or be invited to join, and furthermore had the choice to buck the system and go independant.
You may have noticed that the first two Societies you have heard of from conspiracies and history, but the third one looks made up. Actually, this is not the case. Its full name is The Green Dragon Society and it is legendary in the far east and reaches from the far past all the way through Hitler's Germany and beyond. Search for Green Dragon Society, The man in the Green Gloves, Tibet, Shambala, and superhuman.
Also I would like to quash the rumours that there is actually a fourth faction you can join Clockwork or The Clockwork Society. This was just created by a bunch of trolls who thought that the game had so many conspiracies in it that nobody would notice a joke one, and no one would just let it die. It doesn't exist, There is no conspiracy... just move along.
Don't pay attention to the Sherpas an the Smothies, and for gods sake DONT FEED THE TROLLS!
I think the realistic armor is one of the best parts of AoC, You can usually tell if a person has their MMO roots in PnP or in Streetfighter by how they like their visuals.
I think many agree that AoC had a lot of things it brought to the MMO table, it just managed them very....very.... VERY poorly.
It had all the potential of being a pretty F'in good game. One that might not have ...as everyone likes to bitch about...."killed WoW" but could have at least stood side-by-side WoW as another game people could play for some entertainment.
But oh well...
Why pick Illuminati, when the designers anyway chose to ignore pretty much everything about the historical counterpart. Just stealing the name is quite lame. Yeah, you can make them an occultist corporation, since they were seen somewhat as enemies of the church and yeah, there are some conspiracy theories which connect them somehow with the USA but overall the whole idea here sounds like a lost opportunity to make something cool.
Illuminati originate in Bavaria, Germany. They are based on the idea of enlightenment (hence the name, see illuminate) and their known members were anything but low-life criminals. In fact, one of the reasons why this secret order gathered this attention was because their members were part of the elite of the German society of that time (most famous poets, composers etc.). The idea of an occult elitist organisation pulling the strings behind the scenes is what makes them interesting, not that they are a gang of punks, drug dealers and pimps.
First of all ALL of The Secret World is the Occult in the games eyes (as in fighting the occult, knowing about its secret existence, etc.) and to quote Ragnar Tormquist "there is no religion tied to any of the Secret Societies".
Secondly most of the histories about the Iluminatae were that they started off with good intentions, then got corrupted by power, greed, and wealth. At a certain point they supposedly shattered into subfactions.
Thirdly, while based on allot of history, some of it is fictional and rewritten as needed. Take Dragon for example. It was started in Japan, fought Russia and then China, and then allied with the Germans because of common beliefs involving Tibetan Supermen. That is if you believe they exist at all.
Before you trash it, wait and see if they make it work first, mmmkay?
Despite the terrible launches I have liked both of FunCom's MMOs a lot. I played AO a long time and had a really good time. I currently play AoC and am having a really good time with that game as well. That said I think that Erling guy is a nut and I have no faith that the games launch will be successful. Like I said I like FunCom's games and am not a FunCom hater at all. I think the game will be good, I just don't think they know how to get the launch part right. It’s like they just don’t know what to do.
Oh I knew it was a mistake to read this with an actual release so far away. Curse you Ragnar, I want this game now )=
I keep my eye on any game that isn't yet another fantasy rip off.
I'm pretty excited about this game despite it being developed by Funcom.
I haven't been antcipating a game like I am this one for quite awhile.
The idea is solid, the story seems pretty well put together so far, and the faction thing works. AO is a perfect example of that in practice. If they make the PvP similar to AO where there are zones that need to be held and not all out PvP I am totally on the bandwagon for this game. I really like the way PvP was handled on AO with certain zones being free for alls, other zones were by choice, and yet other zones that were PvE.
Have I mentioned I'm stoked about this game?
I have a feeling this game is going to be instanced. These bland intros without indept feature info is very hard to even speculate if the game is going to be any good. Some games have good features on paper but totally fail at making them fun.
There is a thread about instancing.
"ZAM: Based on some of the gameplay footage, it looked like you could go into this modern day world. Since this is based on our Earth, you've got to have some game zones. Will there be zoning? Instancing? How big is the game world going to be, and how open is it going to be, versus how instanced?
Ragnar: I'm not a fan of instancing at all. That really sort of bugs me all the time, but some people don't care at all. We're going to avoid instances as much as possible. Instancing is something that you sometimes have to do to protect newbies - especially at launch. Our playfields are very large. We want to avoid loading screens. For example, going from London to New England isn't going to be like clicking a map and seeing a red dot go from one place to another, that's not what it's going to be like. It's going to be seamless. There's going to be very little loading, and hopefully it's going to be instantaneous. We want you to be able to move in a way that fits the mythology of the game, that actually makes sense. It's not going to be like "what the hell? Why am I in New England right now? I was just in London!" It's going to actually make sense. I can't explain why it's going to make sense, but it will make sense. There might be some instancing. We're going to have instances and places like dungeons, or something we'll call dungeons, and those will be more team based experiences. Those will be instanced. The open world stuff we're going to try to avoid instancing as much as possible. We want to make sure that you feel like you're in a living, open world, and you're traveling around that and exploring it. Like I said, our playing fields are large and they are epic and it's going to feel that way, yet you're going to be able to travel seamlessly. Lots of promises, but we'll see. I just don't like instancing, so we'll try to avoid those."
Erling "fat lying pig" Erlingsen is involved - this game cant be any good then. Mst of the things failcom tells is a lie, just like with AoC.
Yeah, I'm not going to be a sucker a second time. If Funcom some how managed to buy say World of Warcraft from Blizzard I would cancel my sub immediately...I will not buy nor use anything that has the taint of Funcom branded on it.
AoC had a failed launch but is not a failed game, it did not live up to the hype but then no MMO ever has.
“…and Secret Societies have grown to recruit man to combat the very real evil that seeps in unseen, players will fight the darkness and save the world!”
Sorry but who wrote this, Carolyn Koh? Is there some sort of secret message here or just a typo? :)
I agree that I would have liked to have started as an independent not allied with a society myself. Even if only in the starting location. But at some stage we would have to join a society to progress, no option there if the PvP mechanics are going to work properly.
What's the typo supposed to be?
I think it makes sense to have to ally yourself with a society from the start. If there is a way to chose it later that would cause more problems than they need, and it really wouldn't bring anything to the table. You'll still need to pick one before you can do anything interesting. The idea here is that only members of the societies know what's really going on, so you need to be a member of a society to fight what's really going on. It makes perfect sense.
This game is going to be great. Its nice to have another MMO that is made in modern timeline with a bit of magic involved.
Funcom may have made a mistake with the early launching of AoC but that doesnt make them a crappy company. They wouldnt want to make the same mistake twice now would they?
It is skill based progression and less instanced, it also has some interesting concepts and fresh ideas for an MMO.
Something about this reminds me of Neil Gaimen and his sandman series, even the artwork looks like his illustrater.
I have all the faith that this is going to be a very good game! And I am sertainly going to play it.
Ragnar is a top notch guy that can make good games, with great story and fun gameplay. See Dreamfall and The Longest Journey.
He has been working on The Secret World since even before Funcom got hold on the Conan IP.
The problem however is this Erling guy.
I am absolutely baffled why they put him on the PR position again to promote this game?
He has done so much damage to their company. It's not even funny.
It's safe to say he did even more damage to Funcom's reputation, than even Gaute did.
At least Gaute finally took responsibility and resigned from the company.
Erling should have done the same!!
Because now, the moment people see this guy popping up in The Secret World videos, presentations and articles.
People will be insta reminded from Age of Conan and all the Anti Funcom aka Failcom rage will unleash again.
So so stupid!!
Not if people like you didn't remind other people by writing these comments.
We're trying to forget about the bad times.
Give them a chance.
(:
All im going to remind folks of here is of Funcom's track record of the games they put out it is not good. There track record says and loudly " LET THE BUYER BEWARE "
Jihad works both ways
Guess you never played either Dreamfall nor The Longest Journey.
Otherwise you wouldn't be saying this stupid bullshit.
Anarchy Online had a very rough start. Everyone knows that. Yet it turned out to be a very good game and up till today still plenty of people enjoy it.
I never got the hang of it and don't like the game. Each to their own. Just personal taste.
Still this game running today with a decent population. Far better then most of the so called tripple A crap that has been released these last years that either went down within a year or are crippling with subscribers.
Cheers
Guess you never played either Dreamfall nor The Longest Journey.
Otherwise you wouldn't be saying this stupid bullshit.
Anarchy Online had a very rough start. Everyone knows that. Yet it turned out to be a very good game and up till today still plenty of people enjoy it.
I never got the hang of it and don't like the game. Each to their own. Just personal taste.
Still this game running today with a decent population. Far better then most of the so called tripple A crap that has been released these last years that either went down within a year or are crippling with subscribers.
Cheers
The fact remains that they " Funcom " puts out alot of hype and delivers an unfinished product that folks are paying to beta test for months and longer. You say nothing to disspell this and im not along in my thinking.
Jihad works both ways
Name me one MMO, except LOTRO, that released the last 3-4 years that didn't turn out to be a PAID beta at launch?
The whole MMO genre is in a down spiral since the last 3 years. To blame it all on Funcom isn't fair.
They screwed up royally with Age of Conan. Granted.
But so did Mythic with Warhammer Online.
So did Sigil with Vanguard.
So did WB and Monolith with Matrix Online.
So did NCWest with Tabula Rasa.
So did Frogster/Acclaim with The Cronicles of Spellborn.
So did Aventurine with Darkfall.
So did Turbine with Acheron's Call 2 and Dungeons and Dragons Online.
And I can go on.... and on.
Turbine in this list screwed up BIG TIME with two games even, from wich one is now RIP and the other went F2P.
Yet they did very good and delivered one of the smoothest launched in that year with LOTRO.
I give Funcom a chance, with Ragnar at the helm, to do finally well with The Secret World.
And hey! It's pretty simple.... if they screw up again with The Secret World, it will be the end of the company. Then all you haters will see your wish fullfilled.
I don't see that happening. But we will see when the time of launch comes.
Cheers
Name me one MMO, except LOTRO, that released the last 3-4 years that didn't turn out to be a PAID beta at launch?
The whole MMO genre is in a down spiral since the last 3 years. To blame it all on Funcom isn't fair.
They screwed up royally with Age of Conan. Granted.
But so did Mythic with Warhammer Online.
So did Sigil with Vanguard.
So did WB and Monolith with Matrix Online.
So did NCWest with Tabula Rasa.
So did Frogster/Acclaim with The Cronicles of Spellborn.
So did Aventurine with Darkfall.
So did Turbine with Acheron's Call 2 and Dungeons and Dragons Online.
And I can go on.... and on.
Turbine in this list screwed up BIG TIME with two games even, from wich one is now RIP and the other went F2P.
Yet they did very good and delivered one of the smoothest launched in that year with LOTRO.
I give Funcom a chance, with Ragnar at the helm, to do finally well with The Secret World.
And hey! It's pretty simple.... if they screw up again with The Secret World, it will be the end of the company. Then all you haters will see your wish fullfilled.
I don't see that happening. But we will see when the time of launch comes.
Cheers
Track Record, Track Record, Track Record, it says TSW will be no different.
Jihad works both ways
You didn't answer my question. But then again. You are the stereotype troll. At least we won't see you in the game. Right right? That's a big plus already.
Have fun wasting your life bashing games on the internet!
ignore the out-of-work trolls please :)
ss and artwork look awesome, but ofc ill wait till it actually launched, then ill see if its worth the money
The producers of this game have said they are very much against instancing and prefer a seemless world. So they are going to try to make the world as seemless as possible. I would expect a world that will be something similar to how AO is set up. They didn't say that there won;t be instances though, but they were very adamant that they will be kept to a minimum.
Check out the thread on the official site for more info:
www.darkdemonscrygaia.com/showthread.php
Faulty logic.
Just because the industry as a whole has turned into crap does not somehow justify Funcom's following suit.
"If everyone else jumped off a cliff, would you too?"
Idiocy is still idiocy.
I hate the fact that all 3 factions are fighting the same evil. They need to be at odds with each other for good PvP.
I know that historically the Illuminati aren't evil (although the Templars would certainly feel they are), it seems like the best faction to play the bad guy role. Have them work towards taking over the world. They don’t have to be 100% aligned with the monsters, just trying to take advantage of the situation to gain power. Make the Templars work towards trying to save the world from the Illuminati and the monsters, and have Dragon be in the middle, helping whomever benefits them the most at the time.
Also, I’d LOVE to see this merged with a Whitewolf concept. Werewolves vs Vampires vs Mages. That would give you 6 factions. Vampires would naturally align with Illuminati as master manipulators. I’m not saying they wouldn’t fight each other occasionally – but they are both looking to manipulate and take over the world in different ways. Mages would align with the Templars – not because they are holy – but because they don’t like Werewolves and Vampires. Again, mages could end up fighting with the Templars because the Templars see magic as evil, or the mages want power too – but in general they’d have more against the other factions. And the Werewolves could go any direction they want – just like Dragon.
See – now we have a killer MMO.
How or why would anyone trust a company as dishonest as Funcom again? Lots of companies make bad games but none lie or are as dishonest as Funcom. Even if they made a fantastic fun game many people will refuse to reward a company as dishonest on Funcom simply out of principal.
Ahh funcom, i love the fact that they dream big. I'm pulling for em.
What? What has Funcom done that is so bad? I am not understanding some of the trolls in here.
Yeah I don't understand it either.
I mean.... the government is ripping you off each and every day.. till the day you die.
Funcom did it once with AoC and it's like the end of the world.
Im not blown away.
No I dont hold Funcoms past against them and yes I want to play a great mmo like anyone.
But all that amounted to was a cock tease.
Wake me up when this game is a month from release.
This game looks exciting and the whole "HP Lovecraft " theme is something refreshing for an MMO
I just have serious doubts that Funcom can develop an MMO like this due to past experiences ..e.g. AOC .I will wait till the game is released and then see the feedback from players before spending any money
Ok do they intend to actually have this game work correctly out of the box? And is everything they use to advertise going to be included at launch? Anything else about this game means nothing until I hear them talk about that if they intend to have a third mmo launch anywhere near the first two no thanks they can keep there paid beta.
I think the realistic armor is one of the best parts of AoC, You can usually tell if a person has their MMO roots in PnP or in Streetfighter by how they like their visuals.
I love the apparent snideness of this remark my roots are planted firmly in 1st edition Dungeons and Dragons and I don't like that junk they wear in aoc either. Never played a "streetfighter" where the toons wore armor so you lost me there.
What's wrong with the armor in AoC? It looks like something someone would actually wear when they run around killing stuff. It looks believable. I like that.
http://www.dagbladet.no/2009/09/03/kultur/spill/the_secret_world/funcom/onlinespill/7939385/
Not sure if this has been posted yet. Found on a Norwegian news site.
Funcom, you need to give Erling Ellingsen a raise. He is doing a hell of a job fooling these people AGAIN. Even so soon after AoC launched, he can still do it.
The only peson who needs to get a raise is Ragnar Tornquist.
AFter delivering the WIN of Longest Journey and the WIN of Dreamfall chapters, he is going to deliver the WIN in mmo form - The Secret World(after all this man was behind many innovations in Anarchy Online, so its assuring that TSW won't fail).
Even better yet, Funcom should just focus all the budged available into Ragnar's projects.
If anything I see AoC as a quick cash grab plan in order to finance their next big project, TSW.
Of course Aoc is getting fixed and currently became into an awesome game, but I never saw AoC as the focus of Funcom's marketing. It was just there, as a cash grab, as a test of engine for tsw, etc. It was there, while TSW was secretly being created ever since 2002.
So yes, I am quite sure that TSW, with Ragnar Tornquist at helm, will be the best mmorpg ever released.
Too late for that, they released Anarchy Online way too early with tons of bugs that were reported in Beta. And they took forever to fix them. some of them were pretty serious, their netcode was horrible and caused alot of rubber banding.
* A prominent psychologist says that lowered expectations is the key to happiness. Now that Funcom has allready shown you that it's a company with the amoral capacity for swindle, do you think maybe you can take down your enthusiasm 10-15 notches?
* You say you can't wait. Very well, if you really can't wait, then you do something radical as a consequence. Like breaking into the FC HQ for the code or hibernate on opiates. If you're not gonna do anything special at all, you can and will wait.
It sounds like you are just being rude for the sake of being rude. "I cannot wait" is a figure of speech and you damn well know it. People always get excited over games when the company releases PR tidbits this early in the cycle. Stop acting like an angry idiot.
Wrong.
You're the one acting like an angry idiot. I never attacked anyone personally. You do and to top it off you forgot to take your brain for a spin first.
I offer something which may be the first step in a series of techniques that enables people not to respond to promises with the no questions asked format of a consumer automaton.
How did you contribute today?
I love AoC and am playing now. But the above is the only complaint I currently have about the game. I like that it looks like someone in this setting would actually wear as well. Realistic and tough. However my problem is that everyone looks a little to much alike. And sometimes alot. Also this is compounded by the problem this causes (imo) wherein as your character develops he doesn't look a whole lot diffent than he has all along. Tortage included. It isn't about the look of the armor to me its the lack of diversity. I remember seeing a behind the scenes video before the game was lauched and one of the modelers was showing all the armor models in the game on models of player character lined up row after row (ie. lots of models; lots of armor). So I don't think it is a matter of it not being in game. I think it is a matter of some kind of limited drop tables or something like that, they maybe they haven't gotten around to addressing.
I know when I see higher level characters, like around 75 plus, the armor starts to look very cool in terms of style, diversity both as individual pieces and as sets. But once you get the sets everyone looks the same again. Yeah, I know this is the way the high game is with every other x, y, z MMO I guess where this level range is concerned I wish you could mix and match more instead of players looking like clones. I would really, really like this MMO, and others for that matter, to take a page from LotRO where you can "turn off" what armor is visible allowing for what ever you have underneath, whatever it may be, to show to instead. That seems like a great feature which I don't understand why more MMOs don't follow.
But yeah as to your comment above... I like the realistic way it looks as well, I just wish there was more diversity in regards to what you do find and equip.
Can I get some of those drugs your on? They sound like the best money can buy.
Whats TSW but just another money grub atempt for their next project? This is flawed logic due to your personal intrest in the concepts of a game, that will most likely never materialize. Ya maybe my logic is flawed too but atleast their past supports my logic.
I told a jerk they were a jerk, and that makes me feel better. I am not trying to contribute anything, per se; the article for this thread does that. We are discussing it. People are excited, and they have every right to be. You are being rude in assuming that they are automatons because they are interested in a game. This is a forum for talking about games we like or are interested in. That is precisely what we are doing. You seem like someone who hates Funcom and is trying to cloak it in intellectual affectation. And you are taking common colloquial sayings and taking them literally to make a point that did not need to be made in the first place, and thus sound very much the fool.
More to the point, it is not just your "points" that are rude, though they are, it is your manner. "Do you think maybe you can take down your enthusiasm 10-15 notches?" That is a rude way of saying what you mean. Your little story about breaking into Funcom and saying "you can and will wait" is an equally rude way to stating your point. So you are rude not only because you are saying things that do not need to be said because you assume the people you are talking to are too stupid to think critically (which, can I say, that if they are too stupid to think about the game critically, they are not going to listen to you in any case), but you are doing it in a way that is rude itself.
I do not like rude people. You are a rude person. I tell you that I think you are rude and that I do not like you. It makes me feel better to tell jerks they are jerks. Because I am here to talk about games, not argue with trolls...or whatever you are.
I am none of those things. ^^ You are arguing against your own projection.
You are right in standing up, for yourself and to champion those whom you feel are being subjected to abuse.
I commend you for your motives, but you're barking up the wrong tree and in so doing you are becoming what you seek to confront.
Conclusion: Thread policing takes more than good intentions and you should now write a post arresting yourself for being abusive.
I will not respond to further posts from you regarding this matter as your derailment of the topic has gone more than far enough.
Hrm, AION's amount of content is easily within reach. While I enjoy AION (pre-ordered collectors edition), it is *lacking* content, it certainly doesn't suffer from TOO MUCH lol. I feel for the Korean and Chinese players who had to suffer with the early versions. But I guess they tend to enjoy grinding much more than the western audience, so it might not be as bad as I would have thought for them.
This alone makes this game win :)
You were not in the chinese closed/open beta phases then, I assume? :)
Going by the pure fact that its developed by Ragnar Tornquist,I see no problem in content.
I'll take Funcom-occasionally-we-release-too-soon over NCSoft-we-don't-know-what-is-europe any time.
Every funcom game i've played has been worth the money I spent on them easily, not world-shatteringly good, but not a waste of time by any stretch - maybe I'm just lucky.
people need to whine less. AoC and AO were quality imo and I played AoC at launch, the key with launches is , don't rush, just relax and enjoy the funny bugs =p
As a games dev myself I have a lot more patience than the average consumer it seems, since I know how painful deadlines can be :)
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Looking forward to this on the edge of my seat, everything seems to be in place, no levels, no classes, contemporary with mythological / insidious themes. ALL CHECK, PLEASE TAKE AS LONG AS IT TAKES TO MAKE IT WORTHY, PLEASE!
I don't mind funcom, AoC was a decent game overall, it was just missing a few major components in the endgame such as working raids, city sieges and balance (gem stacking) which made everyone leave once they levelled up to a certain point.
I am keeping an eye on secret world because I will give anything that isn't generic fantasy a fair shot. As for the factions, I it will be interesting to see how it plays out, but I wouldn't mind some better sandbox features as in guilds make their own factions and choose where they want their HQ to be. Probably a hopeless dream at this point.
FuncoN?
No thx. Already got burnt once. Tired of empty promises. :/
The other thing that delights me, at this point anyway, is that finally we will begin to have a few threads WITHOUT the words, "looks like just another WoW clone" in them. This is the second game I have seen in the past week, that appears to be nothing....nothing at all....like WoW. And that is, at the very least, a LITTLE exciting!
I still play WoW (among other games), but I am interested in seeing the MMO genre expand beyond that. I don't want WoW to go away, I just want some developers to have the balls (and enough MONEY to be willing to GAMBLE) to take chances to explore BEYOND the borders of that style. CHOICES. I want to be able to play WoW, but I also want to be able to login and play some MMO that is ENTIRELY unlike WoW.
let the beta testing begin!
With Funcom it can never be too early or too often!
I hope they don't fuck this one up. I really would like to play it.
The concept of this game looks pretty cool, and for once it seems that a game is learning from DAoC and putting three factions into their game. I must admit I got burned by AoC like pretty much everyone else, but if people look at the track records of MMO developers, then no games are going to be worth playing in the future.
The big question is how playable is this game. AoC looked awesome, but when duels become all about circlestrafing around your opponent, it falls fast. Add the poor zone design which lead to all kinds of accusations of spawncamping and unncessesary drama, and there are certainly issues Funcom needs to address.
All in all, the concept intrigues me, but time will tell if Funcom is able to live up to the hype.