The Secret World

Deimos_Masque:

Nothing happened to it but video games are now way too common place for mindless fun to be something you pick up a new concept for.  Even most casual gamers want more than mindless fun when they are dropping $50-$60 on a game.  For example I have no problem dropping $20 for Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and that's really only mindless fun and nostalgia.  But more than that i want some substance to my entertainment.

That is a decent argument right there.  Yes even mindless games do need to evolve at some point and which they had.  Take Saints Row 2 as a fine example.  While Grand Theft Auto 4 trys to be more realistic and gritty Saints Row 2 pretty much went the other direction.  Saints Row 2 is pretty colorful, fun, and for the most part worth that 60 dollars that I payed in order to get it.  It is Grand Theft Auto clone at its core, but what it makes it stand out from all the other Grand Theft Auto clones is that this game is pretty awesome.  It is pretty much gang violence put in a way as a theme park.  May not be for everyone, but it is one of the best games I had played for a long time.

On the other side of this is the internet networks that each game console has.  Each of them are selling fun mindless games and wonderfully crafted games that demands a lot of thinking as well.  The most expensive I seen tend to be 20 bucks and that is for a old game from a older system.  Most games tend to be around 10 dollars.  Given I only have playstation 3, wii, and pc as my gaming platforms.

DavidT:

Yes even mindless games do need to evolve at some point and which they had.  Take Saints Row 2 as a fine example.  While Grand Theft Auto 4 trys to be more realistic and gritty Saints Row 2 pretty much went the other direction.  Saints Row 2 is pretty colorful, fun, and for the most part worth that 60 dollars that I payed in order to get it.  It is Grand Theft Auto clone at its core, but what it makes it stand out from all the other Grand Theft Auto clones is that this game is pretty awesome.  It is pretty much gang violence put in a way as a theme park.  May not be for everyone, but it is one of the best games I had played for a long time.

You just won this thread.  Gain 10 experience points.

As for me, I'll check out Secret World.  Why? 

Don Strudel:

It has a woman using a katana against the Cloverfield monster.

This.  This just screams awesome.

Klonoa:

Don Strudel:

It has a woman using a katana against the Cloverfield monster.

yish

@Jimmy Hopkins.

I just want to let you know that I had to steal your avatar for my Skype account. Too funny, couldn't stop myself

:(

DavidT:

Considering WoW has 11 million users and still growing I say it is doing pretty damn well for a game that is mindless

I can't believe someone is claiming that eleven million people can't be wrong or are obviously wise to a good thing due to sheer numbers.  Examples to use as counterpoint are so numerous as to be overwhelming.  Of course given that numeric mass being potentially flawed is the point of dispute, perhaps the weight of examples might not be worthwhile to mention.  Eleven million people must have supported something worthless and stupid for quite some time... can anyone think of something?

People do alot of senseless and stupid things, share much in common they wish they didn't, and don't seem to care about intelligent versus stupid television or movies or books or games for that matter.  As much has been stated time and time again.  World of Warcraft seems to me the senseless and popular focus of this period.  That's my outlook.  Glad to share it.  Now back onto the trail...

... Secret World is just another MUD made graphical.  In game terms, it seems like a big concept where the concept won't be followed much by the game-play.  Probably another unintended test for AI perception and decision.  Eh.  I guess it's just as best to say I'm not into it as it's been described so far.

septembervirgin:

I can't believe someone is claiming that eleven million people can't be wrong or are obviously wise to a good thing due to sheer numbers. 

Sort of like how the vast majority of people in this forum pretty much said your nWoD revision was a bad idea? 

In any case your entire post did not counter any thing at all that I said.  World of warcraft is no way a original game.  Hell it is everquest 2.0 with warcraft paint.  It is certainly not the greatest MMORPG.  I seen better.  However it is a MMORPG that is successfully geared towards the general public and that is where it is extremely successful at.  Don't expect wonderfully crafted puzzles, or intelligent debate.  What makes it sell is that it is simple to understand and people can jump right on in compared to other MMORPGs.

So all ready I proved it is mindless and that people will play it.  The fact it was 9 million users some months ago and is now 11 million proves that it is growing.  Considering it charges like 76 dollars per six months from the deal I got it would make about 152 dollars a year per user.  Times 152 dollars by 11 million and you would have one billion six hundred seventy two million dollars per year.  To think you even said Blizzard cannot make a MMORPG.  I say they are doing pretty damn well for a company that can make a MMORPG.

septembervirgin:

I can't believe someone is claiming that eleven million people can't be wrong or are obviously wise to a good thing due to sheer numbers.

You'd be right, if it was "they can't be wrong about enjoying a game."  You can't tell someone "You didn't enjoy that!"  Its like all the people saying that people who like the Transformers Movies are WRONG because it was "stupid"

DavidT:

Sort of like how the vast majority of people in this forum pretty much said your nWoD revision was a bad idea? 

Okay I think I went too far with that.  For that I am sorry.

However if you are going to call eleven million people stupid for playing a game that they enjoy and willing to fork over money, then yes I think you got some rude comments coming towards you.

DavidT:

However if you are going to call eleven million people stupid for playing a game that they enjoy and willing to fork over money, then yes I think you got some rude comments coming towards you.

You are mixing things, they lower the game standards to be playable by a majority of people. basically the game is dumb down, doesn't mean that all the people enjoying it are dumb though.

shiva666:

DavidT:

However if you are going to call eleven million people stupid for playing a game that they enjoy and willing to fork over money, then yes I think you got some rude comments coming towards you.

You are mixing things, they lower the game standards to be playable by a majority of people. basically the game is dumb down, doesn't mean that all the people enjoying it are dumb though.

i quit once BC came out because it became too easy.  honestly a lot of my buddies still play and they are all intelligent and enjoy it.  however, i dont enjoy it and don't play anymore.  simple basic logic is hard to understand huh?

If you are not having fun, then you are not having fun.  That I can see and hope you find a better game.  I am just happy you are acting mature about it and not saying 11 million users are wrong for playing a game that they enjoy.

Don Strudel:

"Horror" is supposed to be something that makes you feel fear, although different people are scared by different things. The Secret World is not scary at all. It's more like pulp fiction, where the plot boils down to "fight aliens and save the world." I prefer something with a little more substance, like the accumulation of wealth and power and socio-economic-political conflict (haves versus have-nots, for example, or snobs versus slobs). My biggie is that whatever you do should be something relevant to your personal goals, not being a generic rent-a-hero with no life. "Good versus Evil" is so last season.

Was this game actually advertised as "Horror", tho? Not in any of the material I see for it. I could understand these reactions if it were false advertising, but I just don't see that...

As it is, it looks a lot like Scion to me, which also can match your description here.

Dex

David, don't take it all so personally.  If we're not having fun with something and don't play it, then yes, we will find a better game.  Better games are being made.  Better games are being considered and designed even by those who don't presently have a corporation.  Eleven year olds are thinking, "I could make a better game..."  And these are the game designers of the future.

DavidT:

If you are not having fun, then you are not having fun.  That I can see and hope you find a better game.  I am just happy you are acting mature about it and not saying 11 million users are wrong for playing a game that they enjoy.

What we should ask ourselves is "does it matter that many millions of people wouldn't play World of Warcraft by preference"?  How about the millions of people whose voices go unheard that aren't really interested in that game nor the MMO that are in circulation presently?  That doesn't matter at this point because better games are being designed (like World of Darkness Online or so I hope).  I do not much like

We're not saying that, I'm not saying that, and you know we're not saying that -- whoever you are.  Furthermore that's not your point as you've tried to say, even after being rude to me.

What you actually believe is that by pointing out that eleven million users are a socially neutral sum (just as much as one user is).  Furthermore you are suggesting that if eleven million people are said to adore a thing, it's because that thing has a benefit it imparts.  Just as MacDonalds is affordable and convenient, just as Myspace is free and fake, just as Reality TV seemed so exciting and valiant.  Of course, millions of people feel paper and pen role-playing games are beneath them while other amusements are not.

We could go into this deeply.  I remember someone once saying to me that negative interest and lack of participation isn't a measure of failure.  Lack of money isn't a measure of failure too.  I can say that World of Warcraft fails for me and my artisan friends, my upper middle class friends, and many middle class and lower middle class friends.  I could claim it fails for a few of the spirit folk but who the heck cares if an invisible person is playing an MMO or not?  Who would know unless he was also invisible on an invisible webcam?

End result: I don't like WoW.  Some other guys don't.  Some spirit folk think it's avoidable.  World of Darkness Online, the potentiality for GURPS Online, and the potentiality for Shadowrun Online interests a few people but evidently whatever got Mobsters 2 and APB and WoW into the world hasn't been progenitor to Shadowrun and GURPS into the MMO field yet.

Why care about Secret World when seven thematically similar paper and pen games that could become MMORPG could trump it easily?  Say World of Darkness Online, Chill Online, Nightbane Online, GURPS Horror Online, Red Death (Ravenloft Modern) Online, Cthulhu Now Online, and Over the Edge Online.  There are many more examples.  I could cite Bureau 13, Spycraft variants, etc.

We should care about Secret World because...?

Considering you are still posting I would say you care about it, or care enough to bash it.  Other wise you would had shrug and moved on like you said before in one of your posts.

DavidT:

Considering you are still posting I would say you care about it

Sometimes we do not care about the topic someone mentions so much as a larger topic that is associated with what is mentioned.  Yet we all have much to say in regards to the subject of MMORPG including Secret World.  You certainly do as well, although we are not all going to be fanzy about a game that seems to compete with WoDO -- if it has no strong quality to offer its substandard concept.  Sure, Steve Jackson Games has been a bit too parody oriented with its conspiracy based games, leaving a hole that others fill.  However, the hole is still there and I do know someone who is at least claiming to be working on a Secret Society MMO -- hopefully it's more than vaporware.

The two MMO mentioned largely, WoW and Secret World, are MMORPG so to speak.  And I am interested in MMORPG.  I did not do a keyword search for WoW nor Secret World but for MMORPG.  And here we are.  I'm just spreading entheta, just like every other sensible person on the bulletin board.