The Secret World

[Marius]

Anyone else really interested in this game?

I'm really hoping it has great RP potential. And the modern day setting is really intriguing.

Apparently it's launching April-May this year, which has just snuck up on me.

The only sucky thing is Funcom told me I'd be getting a beta invite as a result of my testing for AoC, but so far nothing. :/ And I hear many are in the same boat. So right now I'm just waiting for launch day and hope it won't be as crippled by launch bugs as AoC was. Funcom are really good at responding to beta feedback, but the lack of such a beta so far is a little concerning.

But it will be Funcom's third MMO, and third time's a charm... right? What I do like about their MMOs, despite the bugs, is that they're always very immersive and lore-focused. So they make great RP games, even though mainstream titles usually have them beat on end game and debugging.

Because of that they tend to be my first choice for MMOs.

[Tim Colwill]

Man, I can't tell you how interested I am in this game.

Well, I guess I wrote like a whole pile of articles about it for the site, but yes. Yes. I want to play this game very, very much.

[Marius]

We needed a topic here too with the launch date so close.

And I'm kindof disillusioned with Star Wars right now. Good game, but lore was too restrictive to do much RP in. The expanded universe has pretty much dictated how every character is, and the possible plotlines.

The Secret World seems much more like a 'blank slate' game. It's got big enough of a publisher budget behind it to make it good, but not too much to make it safe and non-innovative. I'm really interested in what they do with it.

[Tim Colwill]

Definitely agreed. I'm not usually a heavy RP'er, but I'm super interested in the meta game of TSW and how they intersect it with existing lore and research into the occult, as well as the mechanical possibilities of a classless, level-free system. Plus I'm just a huge Lovecraft nerd so there's always that side, as well.

[Artful-dodgeR]

+1 eleventy billion times. This and the 40k mmo are really the only 2 on my radar... And i have high hopes.

[Mekon]

Plus I'm just a huge Lovecraft nerd so there's always that side, as well.

I have to say, that is a leading hook for me.

Bring on April!

[Mythor]

Templars forever. <3

Got super excited about it last year when it looked like they'd have an ARG and stuff set up but nothing much has come of any of it. So just casually keeping an eye out for anything that sounds like beta or release news.

Then the Templars shall take over the world.

[Marius]

I'm going with the Illuminati.

[Tim Colwill]

Me too! Good man.

[Marius]

Something that gives me a lot of hope for this game is that it's been built on the Age of Conan engine.

The engine was buggy when first used, but now it's had three and a half years of live development and testing. The result is that Age of Conan both looks better and runs smoother than The Old Republic. I get massive memory leaks in TOR, but none in AoC.

On top of that, The Secret World's graphics are a bit more stylised and less intensive than Conan's, so it shouldn't be as demanding.

So I'm hoping for a relatively painless first play experience. There will be bugs, but using a mature engine with a lot of dev experience behind it gives the game a significant advantage. They can focus on getting the systems right, rather than with Conan a huge part of the early struggle was getting the engine to work.

And then there's the whole customer loyalty part. I've subbed to AoC since the start, and unlike many others, don't hate the game - it provided me with thousands of hours of enjoyment.

[Artful-dodgeR]

Team Dragon here

[Marius]

Here's a promotional video.

http://au.gamespot.com/the-secret-world ... o-6349173/

[Kaimahi]

The latest Massively article
http://i.massively.joystiq.com/2012/02/ ... ret-world/

I

[Artful-dodgeR]

The latest Massively article
http://i.massively.joystiq.com/2012/02/ ... ret-world/

I

Non-retarded version: http://www.massively.joystiq.com/2012/0 ... ret-world/

[André Axe'm]

For a frustrating tease, go to http://www.funcom.com, click on nothing, then type '33'.