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Chaos Theory: The Secret World's single-server tech
Something went missing during this month's launch of The Secret World. Do you know what it was? No, snarkonauts, it wasn't "fun." The game is certainly an acquired taste, but it's nonetheless doing pretty well for itself in terms of word-of-mouth and happy early adopters. No, what was missing was a parade of lengthy launch-week queues (and QQs for that matter). I've been present for every AAA MMO kickoff since Star Wars Galaxies in 2003, and The Secret World marks the first time I've been able to log in when (and where) I wanted to log in on day one. RIFT, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Aion, Lord of the Rings Online -- all of these were "polished" launches by most accounts, and yet all of them featured horrendous launch queues that often stretched from minutes to hours. Why was The Secret World so different?
Chaos Theory: The Secret World was worth the wait
Folks, I have to be brutally honest: I'm old. I have a family, two jobs, and more time-consuming hobbies than one man should. And yet it pains me to log out of The Secret World. Last Saturday I slew demons (and Illuminati) in Funcom's new MMORPG for 10 hours straight. Actually, I took a 30-minute dinner break, so I guess it was more like nine-and-a-half. The point is that I looked up at my clock, said holy crap when it told me that the sun was about to rise, and scratched my head trying to remember the last time that happened. I've been playing MMOs since the late 1990s, and when I say that I've pretty much played them all, that's not hyperbole. Right now, TSW is running a close second to Star Wars Galaxies as the most enjoyable title I've experienced to date. And keep in mind that it's been live for two weeks.
Chaos Theory: Tornquist on The Secret World's launch, future
You know, this is probably obvious if you've read my coverage of The Secret World thus far, but I'll just go ahead and fess up: I dig the game, and watching Funcom knock the cover off the ball is gratifying in a strange sort of way. That's why I didn't get too upset when my opportunity to interview creative director Ragnar Tornquist was upstaged by the firm's huge news dump this afternoon. The company shocked gamers and industry watchers by promising monthly content updates and a whole bunch of other stuff, some of which I had asked about in a series of questions we sent Funcom earlier in the week. The resulting answers are still worth a read, though, particularly if you're pinching yourself over TSW's successful launch and its rosy future.
Chaos Theory: Early access to The Secret World
Dark days aren't just coming, folks -- they're already here. And they're glorious. As you've probably surmised, Chaos Theory is a new column all about The Secret World. What you might not realize, however, is that this addition to Massively's feature roster was a little bit last-minute. Don't get me wrong; I've been looking forward to this game for a number of years now (heck, I signed up on DarkDemonsCryGaia.com waaaaay back in May of 2007, before Massively even existed!). Up until very recently, though, we had no plans to cover the game on a recurring basis. That changed over the early release weekend as I spammed our editors with zomg-I'm-having-a-blast-and-you-should-totally-let-me-write-about-this emails. Sure, I played the press beta and largely enjoyed it for what it was, but now that I'm in the game proper, tooling around on my own characters and taking the time to soak up the stories, the lore, and the mechanics, well... let's just say that we'll have plenty to talk about for the foreseeable future.
The Secret World dev blog details three-faction PvP
Curious about The Secret World's PvP implementation? Funcom lead designer Martin Bruusgaard has penned a new dev blog that you'll want to read. It's a pretty lengthy post once you consider that TSW features three distinct PvP flavors in the form of its fight clubs, battlefields, and warzones. Each of the game's hub cities features a fight club, which is basically an anything-goes arena. Bruusgaard says it's ideal for build-testing, dueling, and anything else that players dream up. You can also travel to rival faction fight clubs when you tire of laying the smack down on your allies. Battlefields are all about fighting over legendary relics in hidden locations across The Secret World. Places like Stonehenge and Eldorado serve as the game's answer to instanced small-group PvP, and Funcom has added a few mechanical twists in an attempt to freshen things up. The warzone is a 24/7 persistent PvP area where the game's three factions duke it out over various controllable facilities. The game will launch with one warzone (Fusang Project), which features perimeter defenses and an Anima Guardian that players must subdue before securing the zone. Fusang Project supports 200 players simultaneously, so look for large-scale PvP battles that reward combatants with tokens and "substantial buffs" for the victorious faction.
Leaderboard: Two factions vs. three factions
Two vs. three: It should be a cut-and-dry affair. After all, three is always better than two? Maybe... but maybe not. When it comes to factions in MMOs, the line seems to be split between two and three, and I think a good case can be made for both. Two factions is the majority approach for MMOs that have them, and it's easy to understand why. We can comprehend an "us vs. them" mentality in almost every walk of life. If you're not with us, you're against us -- that sort of thing. Two factions draws a line in the sand and requires little explanation for people to understand that one side is naturally better than the other. Three factions, on the other hand, is a godsend for PvP in particular. By having a third faction, it's much less likely that one side can dominate the battlefield eternally, as the other two sides can team up to put an end to that nonsense. Three factions also offers more variety and arguably stronger factional identities. So what say you? Two or three? Cast your vote after the jump!
Prime releases web-based guild creation tool
It's been rather quiet at the Prime Battle for Dominus camp lately, and aside from last week's guest appearance by Warren Weems and John Kenison on our Massively Speaking podcast, we haven't heard any new info about the sci-fi title in some time. Happily, Pitchblack Games has just sent out a press release revealing the availability of a guild creation tool for its three-faction PvP game. The tool requires an account on the Prime website, and players may search for an existing guild or create their own. The creation process results in a unique section of the Prime site and also reserves the guild name in the game itself. [Source: Pitchblack Games press release]
