The Secret World is a Little Less Secret (ZTGD Preview)

Cat writes: Last Friday at PAX I was ushered into the most ill-conceived meeting booth ever erected on an Expo floor. Yes, room F, allocated to Norway's Funcom, was adjacent to the Harmonix booth. Thank goodness those guys had mics. In spite of the auditory hardship, Ragnar and Martin persevered, showing off details of their game and swearing me to secrecy until today. The Secret World is intense, rooted in conspiracy theories and covert power struggles, so I was happy to comply. After all, maybe these guys know something I don't.

I've always thought a cool concept for an MMO would be one based on the real world, the whole world, and that's just what Funcom is doing here. Of course, they make it a little more dynamic than a whole-world rendition of The Sims, incorporating secret societies, ancient secrets and a massive struggle for resources, territory and above all power. The major players are divided into three factions, all trying to to control the world, even the fate of the world, with motives ranging from pure to self-serving and methods often void of moral compass.

[meepmoopmeep]

i'm not an MMO player but this game sounds very good
wish they would make more MMO's for consoles

[Cat]

I think that will become increasingly viable as consoles continue to move in a more "PC" direction - consoles are no longer as fixed as they used to be, and like MMOs console games have DLC, updates, patches...it's all very PC. Though the current MMO game-makers are encountering some roadblocks on the journey to console.

[meepmoopmeep]

yeah, hopefully games like FFXIV & The Agency are big hits on consoles so console gamers don't miss out on any future MMO's

i really like the atmosphere and art direction of TSW, hopefully they'll make a Mac version for me to try out.

[Odion]

The biggest road block to an MMO really working on a console is control scheme, nothing replaces being able to have dozens of actions/spells hotkeyed.

[Cat]

@Odion, that's the player perspective, I got the sense they're encountering even greater difficulties than that (more in my interview with Cryptic)

[meepmoopmeep]

true, but they have keyboard periphs for consoles right? or they could make one

controllers themselves have quite a bit of flexibility for assigning things,
though not in great depth as a keyboard, obviously.

i think any MMO for console needs to have console in mind first and foremost to really work

[Cat]

LOL of all the things revealed in the presentation at PAX, none of it had to do with bringing the game to consoles - we're all off-topic!! ;)

I'm a Templar initiate, how bout you?

[Skerj]

Dragon here, make sure I get my beta access Cat and I'll deliver that thing you wanted me to deliver that one time. They should have brought this out in the first place instead of messing with Conan, also where is my Anarchy Online upgrade!?

[Cat]

Given what happened during Conan's first year, I guess I'm ok with the timeline. They've learned so much from that first year, and all the benefit of those hard lessons can be applied to TSW.

[Xephon08]

Given that this company was responsible for some of the worst launches in MMO history there is a very high chance this will fail. Their track record is just not good.

Also on the whole control scheme on consoles the PS3 supports KB and Mouse so i don't see why that can't be an option, after all FFXI supported keyboard controls the only thing that limited it was Square's awful interface.

[Cat]

Yeah, I guess I feel like I'm not here to gamble on, predict, or try to gauge the likelihood of success after launch - just to say that what's here so far looks so cool. And I hope not to be disappointed.

[Anemeros]

I think that using a keyboard is overrated. Sure, having all those hotkeys and the precision of a mouse sounds nice, but I've never been more comfortable gaming than I am with a controller in hand.

For example, I've played games like Max Payne 2 and Hitman: Blood Money on PC and consoles, and on PC doing something as simple as MOVING can be cumbersome. Console controllers allow for such a smooth and balanced gameplay experience that I've never felt on a computer.

On topic... The video associated with this game is super slick. I hope they don't waste their budget doing fancy vids, though. Pour some of that money into development, please.

[Cat]

The CG vids? Yeah, some company in Hungary (name escapes me right now) is making those for them