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Infiltrating SOE to get a sneak peek of The Agency
Eurogamer's Oli Welsh had a chance to visit SOE headquarters and chat with Hal Milton, Lead Designer of The Agency. We think it's fair to say this is the most we've heard about the spy-MMO in a long time and it has us excited about what we might find out at E3 2009.We have known for a while that SOE was aiming to release The Agency on both the PC and PS3, but we weren't sure if they could pull it off. Apparently, development for the console is going well because Oli got a chance to watch two developers play a mission together on both platforms and says it looked pretty good. When asked about whether or not the game would use the subscription or F2P/RMT model, Hal responded by saying that they are aiming for the lowest barrier of entry for PS3 players, which probably lends itself to the latter.The interview uncovers many details on planned methods of progression, including a mashup of reputation, influence, skill/item usage (à la Darkfall?), operatives, and XP unlocks. Operatives are one of the more difficult concepts to understand and the author explains them in an interesting way: "...operatives are loot, and hopelessly irresistible loot at at that. Pursuing and sorting an ideal roster will be akin to assembling a perfect gear set in an RPG - if your gear argued with itself, made more gear for you while you were offline, and you could equip 100 pieces at once at max level."To learn more about the game including their plans for missions, the environment, PvP, and even gambling mini-games, check out the monster three-page interview.
The Agency interview informs on character progression and skills
Information on The Agency has thinned out over the past few months. Still, nothing lasts forever, and like a cool breeze in the summer, a gust of sweet new information has wafted out via an interview with Hal Milton on The Agency HQ fansite.While no new media comes with said interview, there's plenty of information on special role (The Agency's term for classes) abilities, character progression and even some talk of bouncing bullets off walls. In fact, there's so much interview that The Agency HQ has decided to parse it out over the coming weeks. Hopefully we'll get some new screens or even a gameplay video by the end of it all.So until that time comes, we'll all just have to play spy around our house with BB guns and bond music in the background. Everyone does that, right?
Massively week in Review
Joystiq's sister site Massively.com has all the news you'll need about MMOs. Here's the best, brightest, and most interesting stuff from the last week, all in one convenient place for your MMO minute. Massively's exclusive pre-launch Moria interview with Jeffrey SteefelMassively chats with Jeffrey Steefel, Executive Producer for Lord of the Rings Online the night before the release of LotRO's first expansion. Mines of Moria is now live, and from the sounds of things the servers and players are having a great time of it. Massively's ArenaNet interview: The past, present and future of Guild Wars PvP Massively catches up with ArenaNet Game Designer Isaiah "Izzy" Cartwright for a brief interview regarding the past, present and future state of PvP in Guild Wars. Follow along after the cut for the full interview and some exclusive PvP screenshots supplied to us by ArenaNet. Massively checks in on The Agency with Lead Designer Hal MiltonMassively talks over the current state of The Agency's development with the animated and always-interesting lead designer Hal Milton. Hal shares with us a bit of insight into what they're currently working on, give us a few fun facts to chew on, and makes us actually look forward to next year's summer con season.
Massively checks in on The Agency with Lead Designer Hal Milton
As we noted yesterday, The Agency isn't canceled. Despite that mixup from Gamefly's automated notification system, the FPS/spy title from the SOE Seattle studio is still going strong. Joystiq spoke with the SOE subsidiary briefly yesterday, and we had the chance to do so as well. Being the MMO nerds that we are, we just had to go a bit outside the scope of this latest mixup - mechanics are far more interesting than drama!Join us as we talk over the current state of The Agency's development with the animated and always-interesting lead designer Hal Milton. Hal shares with us a bit of insight into what they're currently working on, give us a few fun facts to chew on, and makes us actually look forward to next year's summer con season. We didn't think anything could do that. Spy social engineering at work!Read on below the cut for our full discussion.%Gallery-12934%
Joystiq interview: An update on 'The Agency'
Following The Agency's unfortunate and incorrect "cancelation" by GameFly yesterday, SOE reached out and asked if we'd like to talk to the game's lead designer, Hal Milton. Considering the title had been dark for quite some time, it certainly seemed like an opportunity to ask a couple direct questions about the current development state of The Agency.Joystiq: So, what's going on with your game? It keeps popping up on radar, but it appears like nothing seems to be going anywhere.Lead Designer Hal Milton: (laughs) Well, it's going a lot of places in our studio. We announced the title rather early, showed some pre-alpha last January. It's really important that we did this. But, if we have the team in different places around the world talking about the game, how are they supposed to be working on the game?So, you've got your heads down right now making the game?Yeah, since we showed off some stuff in January, now our designers are fleshing out about six or seven locales. Working on Operative functionality, backstories, story lines. It's a lot of content. Between content and feature support, there's a lot of work to be done. We don't want to keep having hype sessions just showing movies and crap. We need to make the game and not just keeps promoting it. After we went dark in January, it's been a really, really, blessed thing.
No cross-platform secret agenting in The Agency
Although it was dangled in front of us like a tantalizing carrot, it looks like you won't be able to get any cross-gaming action between PS3s and PCs out of Sony's upcoming spy MMO, The Agency. Last year, designer Hal Milton told us the developer weas looking at it, but in a recent interview with Eurogamer it looks like he's closed the door on things for good. You can thank Shadowrun for ruining it all."PC guys say, 'PS3 guys have aim assist and the controls nerfed for them'. And PS3 guys say, 'PC guys have a mouse and keyboard - it's all easier for them'. Even if it's not true." Not that we're complaining, because Shadowrun made us a bit mental. But this really needs to happen in a fun way sooner or later. Which title is going to be able to nail it down and make it work? Super Mario Crossover Party Platformer 2: Now With More Fun has our money.
Two new videos of The Agency show more action
The more of The Agency we see, the more interested we get. G4's X-Play recently showed off two new videos featuring more in-depth looks at gameplay than we've gotten to see previously. In speaking with Director of Development Matt Wilson and Designer Hal Milton, we get to see glimpses of various elements, such as cool spy gadgets a la James Bond's Q, and how the Operatives can help you in your missions.We've got both videos after the jump, and you'll find them in larger resolutions on G4's site.[Thanks, Steven!]
ION 08: The Agency update and RMT confusion
While attending the SOE open house event last night after all the ION 08 panels were finished, we got the chance to sit down with The Agency's lead designer Hal Milton. He talked about the game at length, which of course meant our ears and eyes were firmly directed in his direction. The first thing we feel is important to mention before getting into some new juicy details, is the recent news about downloadable content for the spy-fueled action MMO. You see there's been some confusion and in speaking to Hal he expressed his desire to clear things up. Players will in fact be able to purchase things with their hard earned money in The Agency, however, these items will not be weapons or equipment. To be clear: From what Hal told us, nothing that gives one player an instant leg-up over another will be for sale. With that out of the way, lets get on to the new information.%Gallery-22924%
ION 08: SOE Seattle studio tour
Our mission: infiltrate SOE's Seattle studio, obtain intel on The Agency, regale the awesomely hyperactive lead designer Hal Milton with questions from left field. Operatives were dispatched, urban primitive ladies were photographed, and foyer introductions were presided over by a really cool gun. Stay tuned for more news about living the life of an elite agent, and check out the gallery for tour photos featuring concept art from The Agency, giant robots, and a not-so-secret reveal.%Gallery-22924%
Q&A with The Agency's Hal Milton: Part two
In the second installment of The Agency Q&A with Lead Designer Hal Milton, we learn a bit more about operatives and how they will work. If you missed the first part of this Q&A from last month, you can find it here. Also be sure to read all of our continuing coverage of SOE's upcoming spy MMO.The Agency's operatives seem to be the largest RTS or micromanagement angle of the game. You can collect them, upgrade/level them and send them out to do their own specialized dirty work for you. This includes everything from stealthy assassinations to investigative reporting to filing paperwork. There will also be an item-based aspect of the operatives where you can gain the rarer ones after especially extensive quests. Hal even touches on the possibilities with operative-based PvP, which could essentially be very comparable to Guild Wars' Hero Battles.
Spying on The Agency
Hal Milton, The Agency's lead designer, recently had a lengthy chat with GameSpotUK about Sony's upcoming spy MMO. He revealed quite a bit of new information about the game, including its spy versus spy (PvP) mode.PvP will have a mix of arenas supporting both casual and official game types. There will also be optional crossover missions that start off as PvE and morph as UNITE and ParaGON agents come into conflict over shared or competitive objectives.At launch hundreds of PvE missions will be available and take place throughout Europe, Central America, and East Asia. The modular system will allow them to easily expand to cover the globe.%Gallery-12934%
CES 2008: A covert intel briefing on The Agency
Earlier this month, Sony Online Entertainment finally gave the gaming world a full-on look at The Agency. The unique title, a brand-new blend of the shooter and MMO genres, was featured in a hands-on talk over pre-recorded video; a compromise in the face of demoing an online title in the unfamiliar surroundings of Las Vegas. That talk, given by the mile-a-minute lead designer Hal Milton, has been covered endlessly at other sites. You can view the complete discussion in video format, or read a great writeup of the event over at GamersInfo. Some of the most interesting tidbits the developers were willing to discuss that day weren't on the guided tour. Lead Designer Hal Milton and Design Director Matt Wilson were willing and able to discuss several aspects of the project still in the development stages with us and our friends at Massively; we were able to pick their brains on the game's business model, the fantastic world they're creating, character advancement, future content additions, and the numerous challenges of creating a game that straddles two platforms. Easily one of the most refreshing things about The Agency is the humor that the developers are aiming to introduce to the world, as Hal Milton explains: One of the things I love about the spy genre is that everyone automatically gets it. I love fantasy, I love sci-fi, I love writing those stories, but whenever I try to describe the game concept I have to go in and back-fill for like ten minutes. "And then Sir Clamdar of Thobordoxy grabbed the Handbag of Doom." Or, "the year was 2753, and the Federation ..." Most people don't care. They just want to jump into the world and know where they stand, as opposed to being dropped into a world completely clueless. That's what's great about the Agency, there's a lot of similarities but our world is so different from the real world that they start to experience the humor and flavor.Read on for more 'covert intel' you may not have seen discussed elsewhere on this blockbuster in-development title.%Gallery-3830%
Cross-platform support still up in the air for The Agency
While it hasn't been completely ruled out at this point, SOE hasn't made a decision on whether to make The Agency cross-platform compatible between the PS3 and it's distant cousin, the PC. Lead designer Hal Milton said, "we're evaluating cross-platform support" and then completely closed the topic with the declarative "we're not prepared to make a statement at this time." The Agency isn't the only game set to release on PS3 and PC without the confirmation of dual-platform support between the two. Seeing as how we're breaching a new frontier here, we are beginning to wonder if PS3 gamers can, or even want to live a happy co-existence with their PC brethren. Although critically flawed, Shadowrun seemed to offer a pleasurable cross-platform experience between the PC and the Xbox 360. What do you think? Can SOE pull it off with The Agency? %Gallery-3823%
Joystiq interview: Hal Milton, lead designer, The Agency
How much more proof to do you need that Sony's The Agency has a devious lead designer working on things? Here's a picture of the guy as a young lad, suspiciously posing with a handheld Merlin game. Remember all the codes and secrets you had to punch into that little red devil? Plus the little raspberry sound it made when you got things wrong, ah ... the memories.Joystiq caught up with The Agency's Hal Milton recently, between secret missions and long hours up in Seattle where he's hard at work on this new MMO/RPG/CIA/FBI/U.N.C.L.E. title. Check out our interview with him after the break, and visit us tomorrow where we'll be hanging from guy wires and wearing a stealth suit into producer Sherry Floyd's office for some answers as well.%Gallery-3830%
