[rabb1t]

Just announced for PC and Xbox 360 - The Secret World. No launch date yet.

The Secret World takes place on an Earth in the 21st Century in which pretty much every ancient legend and modern-day conspiracy theory you've ever heard of (and probably a few you haven't) is true. According to the press release accompanying the announcement, "...there really is a world within ours, a secret world where magic exists, monsters roam and ancient forces are fighting for the dominance of earth. It is a world of legendary stories, ageless conflicts and powerful cabals." The released concept artwork shows off the skylines of New York, London and Shanghai along with preliminary sketches for monsters, demons, character studies and a few other locations from the game.

GameSpy article

IGN article

IGN concept art

[rabb1t]

Teaser trailer

I hope the 12/21/2012 reference isn't a launch date. Conspiracy on the official board is that said date is the time-frame the game takes place. I can’t see the game taking more than 2 years from ‘now’ to launch since it supposedly has already been in production and is semi-playable and uses the same core engine as AoC.

[rabb1t]

Massively - GDC09: The veil lifts on The Secret World

Players will not find themselves restricted to just playing in the modern world, however. Portals will let the player slip back and forth through time and space, from events in the past to horrifying looks of the future. These portals will level let players slip into places deep within the world that hides beyond sight -- the world that humanity has ignored and forgotten.

Following in the steps of newer MMOs, TSW will be run on a skill based system. There will be no classes to any character when the game is started or any "levels" on a character that will be used to label them. It is simply up to the player which paths they wish to persue. The game will be offering a wide range of skills, going from close melee combat, to ranged combat, to magical combat, to even investigative and non-combat skills.

[AsheMan]

I have a hard time getting excited over a Funcom product. It's definitely a "wait and see" type of deal.

[Arctic_Slicer]

Originally Posted by rabb1t

Teaser trailer

I hope the 12/21/2012 reference isn't a launch date. Conspiracy on the official board is that said date is the time-frame the game takes place. I can’t see the game taking more than 2 years from ‘now’ to launch since it supposedly has already been in production and is semi-playable and uses the same core engine as AoC.

As the poster above me said that's not a release date but a reference to the "time" the game takes place. December 21st is the winter solstice and the one 2012 is extra special as it is the last day on the Maya long count calender. For those of you who don't know the Maya long count calender is regarded as the most accurate in the world by precisely predicting Lunar and Solar eclipses 100s of years after the Maya civilization had come to and end. With the calender scheduled to soon come to an end; there are a growing number of people who believe that the 12 of December in the year 2012 will make the end of civilization as we know it. The game uses this date as a reference to the "time" this game is meant to take place.

[gtlaxsk8er]

Originally Posted by rabb1t

Massively - GDC09: The veil lifts on The Secret World

Crud, I had an idea like the time and space jumping portals for an mmo a while ago. Def a wait and see type of thing. The concept sounds interesting though.

[rabb1t]

Massively - PAX 2009: Dark mysteries of The Secret World

[Dragon-RD]

For once I can't think of anything that grabs my interest in a new MMO. Honestly not one thing remotely interests me about TSW

[MagicNumbers]

I like the back drop of this game. I hope it's half decent, if only for some new blood in the market.

[mmorpeegee]

Lol cliche overload watching that movie...

It looks interesting though. I like magic in games but a different kind of fantasy world besides pixies and stuff would be very welcome. As usual though, it's all about the gameplay, and as someone else said... hard to get all that excited about a funcom game after AoC. Will wait n see.

[MagicNumbers]

I've never played AoC and I've never read anything about it. What's the deal with Funcom and AoC?

[AsheMan]

Really bad release. Almost comparable to Vanguard but not really as bad. Lots of bugs, lots of broken content, really poor performance, and missing key features advertised on the game box itself. It was so bad that stats like str, agil, int, etc. did NOTHING. You could get gear that would have +5str, +10int and it made no change whatsoever. They tried to say it was a display bug but after weeks of forum users proving stats did nothing they finally admitted there was a "bug" and patched in a fix (which made stats slightly better than nothing).

[Fozzik]

If nothing else, the marketing / website for this game has been very intriguing, with all the puzzles and coolness. I'll definitely take a look at this one when it comes out. I like when people do some original and imaginative things, and still build in quality. The fact that their promotion has been so thoughtful gives me a good impression about how the game may come out. *shrugs* Of course it might not be anything I end up wanting to play...but I'll definitely take a look.

[rhagz]

Funcom and MMOs are like oil and water. AO was a disastrous release. AoC was even worse somehow. It's a shame that the ideas behind this game are intriguing while the execution is likely to be terrible.

[rabb1t]

Originally Posted by rhagz

AO was a disastrous release.

While true, what pretty much everyone seems to forget is that the game itself lasted an extremely long time (and I think is still going as free to play.) It got several expansions and offered one of the most diverse skill systems I've seen in a game to date. (Those who played UO say it's the closest they've seen implimented.) For some reason people only seem to remember the bad with AO, yet it's one of the few MMOGs that actually did really well.

That being said, FunCom historically has a bad history with technical issues, particularly at launch, and making patches that can sometimes break more things than they fix. I'm holding out hope though that they've learned their lessons.

I'm honestly more concerned about content and that they are saying there will be no levels than I am about if they can get over their technical hicups or not. A level-less game sounds very difficult to pull off to me. (In terms of keeping players interested in progressing, and how that progression happens.) The fact that it sounds like an arcade game online is actually one of the more interesting draws for me, as there have been so few MMO-FPS games.

[mmorpeegee]

AO was funcom, what was the Microsoft MMORPG that I always get it confused with?

[Loampounder]

AC, Asheron's Call?

[mmorpeegee]

Originally Posted by Loampounder

AC, Asheron's Call?

Ahh thats it I always get those mixed up. I never played either but I've seen a lot of people who really liked AC. The first one at least.

[rabb1t]

Ah true, AC also had a very freeform skill system. It launched something like 4 months after EQ, so most who got into MMOGs were already in EQ. But, now that you mention it, that's another people compared to UO's skill system. (I never played either, but I believe AC was very similar to UO in that you built up individual skills, and some skills combined to make 'classes'.)

[mmorpeegee]

Yes. I played a little independent MMORPG a few years ago and a friend I made in that game often talked about AC as his favourite MMORPG, even above EQ.

AO never interested me at the time, although I was in a full blown EQ addiction back then. It's amazing how long ago that is though and how far the industry has moved on since then. So I think a new game could be completely incomparable to their older game, even if it is the same company.

Maybe.

It's weird because in all this time since EQ and AO, gaming has moved on so far, but MMORPG's have been kind of stuck in time.... The big game today is STILL WoW which to me is just EQ with a lick of paint really. It does have a few nice ideas like the battlegrounds and stuff but it's still pretty much the same experience. Running around clicking hotkey activated abilities on mobs that have very little AI and you just stand face to face, toe to toe with them and wail at each other. So it's weird because I wonder if all of a sudden, some game will come out of nowhere and will be leaps and bounds ahead of this. Usually games gradually evolve so you can see these changes coming, but because MMORPG's haven't really evolved much yet, maybe one game will surprise us all with a massive bunch of evolution all at once.

Or maybe not... and we'll still be here in 20 years wondering about which game will finally re-energise the MMORPG genre ;P