The Secret World

Seems like Funcom (Anarchy Online, Conan) has revealed another mmo - The Secret World. Finally something else than traditional fantasy... so far not much is known, but the forums are up - http://www.darkdemonscrygaia.com/. I'm a bit sceptical because it's again cross-plattform. Well, guess you can take Age of Conan as some kind of test if this works out... but somehow I fear we'll see dumbed down controls and gameplay...
I'm still excited... I'm getting fairly tired of traditional fantasy.

There have been various articles about it in Norway (FunCom is Norwegian). So far, what we know is that it's set in the modern world, in cities like New York, London and so on. Also, there will be dark conspiracies in this setting which the players will fight against, and for some reason our world now has various fantasy elements such as magic. Other than that we know very little, but we do know they are trying to "think differently" on this one, and that it's intended for a mature audience so they don't have to limit the content.

Here's the best article about it so far:
http://gamer.no/nyhet/pc/funcom_forteller_om_the_secret_world/39288

I'm gonna try it. I will also try World of Darkness MMO when that comes out.

at http://www.darkdaysarecoming.com/

This is what I did to get to the image of a city.

When three symbols appear, simply wait.

Then when it says Dark Days are Coming, press on the blurry O in the word Coming.

That will give you an image of a city overshadowed by angry clouds with a circle in the center that has the NASA humanity symbol thing.

Thats about as far as I got since I dont like puzzles...

Update: After that, theres words "RTV Yorker" on the right-hand side at top of a building. Click on that. Then you get to the puzzle thing.

There are three sets of symbols in the puzzle, found by clicking on three different places in the city image (those with lights / words). I cant figure out what the symbols mean, so I give up (after searching google for these symbols, couldnt find them).

And I cant figure out the damn puzzle so I'm gonna go play World of Warcraft...

Sounds like a not new idea we already have 2nd life. Web 2.0. Ill see how this game/virtualsomthing is gonna try compete.

zakhal said:

Sounds like a not new idea we already have 2nd life. Web 2.0. Ill see how this game/virtualsomthing is gonna try compete.

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It won't be anything like 2nd life mate... 2nd life is one big pos. My guess is that it will be more like traditional MMORPGs just with some kind of mystery/horror setting - have a look at these artworks, they pretty much show the direction of the game:

http://www.pcgames.de/?menu=browser&article_id=601223

@Ammon777
If you solve the puzzle you'll just get to the forums - that's the link I gave you in my first post.

Yeah, this isnt like 2nd Life. This is more like normal MMOs.

@ionstormsucks: Ohhhh. So I wasted 15 minutes for nothing, lol.

Ammon777 said:

Yeah, this isnt like 2nd Life. This is more like normal MMOs.

@ionstormsucks: Ohhhh. So I wasted 15 minutes for nothing, lol.

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Hehe, ya well... actually the game was cleverly announced. A few days ago a poem poped up at Eurogamer.net and three clues to solve the riddle:

"The words provide the clues."
"The letters points to three cities of Gaia."
"The inticate web holds secrets to the dream of fallen earth.”

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The poem itself:

A GRIM, ODD, ARCANE SKY
ANY GOD, I MARK SACRED
A MASKED CRY ADORING
A DREAMY, SICK DRAGON

Here is a screenshot how it looked on Eurogamer.net - http://www.pcgames.de/?menu=browser&article_id=600995&image_id=653458

Now, if you look at the poem for some time you'll realize that each line is an anagram for DARK DAYS ARE COMING. If you went to the website www.darkdaysarecoming.com then you came to the puzzle you tried to solve... and if you found that one out it lead you to www.darkdemonscrygaia.com - the forums...

Can you also explain how the riddle is solved? Where should the six symbols be placed? I am just curious

Morticia said:

Can you also explain how the riddle is solved? Where should the six symbols be placed? I am just curious

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You had to proceed in the following way:

First you took each line of the anagram and visited the appropriate website:

http://www.agrimoddarcanesky.com/

http://www.anygodimarksacred.com/

http://www.amaskedcryadoring.com/

http://www.adreamysickdragon.com/

You can go and visit them, they are still there. Each of the websites shows you a symbol and a piece of the sun.

Now if you go to www.darkdaysarecoming.com you will find these four symbols hidden in the picture (if you can't find the spots you have to click have a look here http://img412.imageshack.us/img412/3028/fundstellenmg5.jpg ). Each time you'll get three different variants of a symbol, but of course only one is the right one to choose. Have a look at the four websites you visited before, they will tell you which symbol is the right one and where to place it in the circle (have a look at the sun piece). The symbol will snap into place where you can rotate it. If you can't solve it - have a look here - http://klaas.goerdes-ol.de/temp/crygaia.jpg.

Thank you very much

But I still can't solve it I placed the symbols on their places according to that picture (the last one) but still nothing happens, I can click on the spots but the figures on the circle are locked and I can't do anything. What is supposed to happen?

Edit: now it works, I needed to place only one on the correct spot. Thanks for the help

Morticia said:

Thank you very much

But I still can't solve it I placed the symbols on their places according to that picture (the last one) but still nothing happens, I can click on the spots but the figures on the circle are locked and I can't do anything. What is supposed to happen?

Edit: now it works, I needed to place only one on the correct spot. Thanks for the help

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Np, originally the reward was of course that you had access to the forums as well as to the few artworks... I think it was a nice way to announce a game.

A small update on the puzzle - obviously the riddle about Funcom's new game did not end here. A person called "a friend" (obviously some Funcom employee) has created posts with further riddles in the official forums and send cryptic mails to registered forum members - you can read everything that happened so far here: http://www.darkdemonscrygaia.com/showthread.php?t=342

I saw that already on Monday and I wondered what was going on, it seemed more to me that someone was spamming the boards, because the posts got deleted mots of the time and there was always someone to repost them. Thanks for the clarifying

I have to say, this is a very original way of creating interest around a game. Nice work, I like it, I hope they keep it up and keep handing out various riddles and so on.

I never played the longest journey, but I grew great respect for funcom when I played AO. That game had so much to it. The posts the lead guy there (I can't remember his name) would generate so quickly were amazing. He really is a very smart man. I'm very suprised that AO wasn't more popular. Because I like funcom, I'll buy Conan even though its an action game.

This riddle thing and e-mails is very interesting and a very original way to get the community involved.

roqua said:

I never played the longest journey, but I grew great respect for funcom when I played AO. That game had so much to it. The posts the lead guy there (I can't remember his name) would generate so quickly were amazing. He really is a very smart man. I'm very suprised that AO wasn't more popular. Because I like funcom, I'll buy Conan even though its an action game.

This riddle thing and e-mails is very interesting and a very original way to get the community involved.

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I'm not quite sure from what point on you played AO, but I was there when the game went live (even before that... I was in the beta). And the start was probably the most disastrous one I've ever witnessed. It still pains me until this day. And it was something that Funcom knew. The last few weeks of the beta the boards were full of posts where testers were asking Funcom NOT to release the game in its current state. Funcom just ignored them. They knew they had an absolutely unfinished product and released it anyway.
In the following weeks and months Funcom did their best to make things worse. You began to play a character of a certain class, then a patch came and your class sucked. And we're not talking about a WoW nerf here. No, we're talking about being able to solo mobs several levels above your own on one day and being not even able to solo some green shit on the next. They constantly changed the classes and the game system in ways that we're simply rubbish - they had simply no plan what they were doing when they released the game. Almost every single aspect of the game was flawed.

I don't even want to go into details when it comes to technical problems...

Funcoms way to deal with criticism - and with all due respect, they really deserved to be criticised - was similar shitty. Posts from players that were complaining on the boards were simply deleted. Feedback and support were simply non-existent. Overall Funcom was simply not honest to their players - you don't treat paying customers like that. Not even Blizzard does that.

Funcom had an immense subscriber base within the first few weeks (for that time). But they lost most of it because they were simply not listening to their players. And really, this wasn't WoW where every idiot wants something different and believes that Blizzard has to fulfill these individual wishes. In the case of AO the player demands were of a much more homogenous nature.

Thus said, I have to admit that I really liked AO... or better its potential. The problem was that 90% of this potential was wasted by Funcom.

When I left AO I was so disappointed and fed up with Funcom that I was certain I'd never play one of their games again. Oh well, I guess I'm over it. I'll probably give AOC a try, and if Funcom's behaviour towards their players should have changed and the game is good, I'll mostly also try TSW. I'm a big fan of modern horror, and I really like it that Funcom tries to do something different than just fantasy.

I played through beta and release. Release went better than I thought it would, having beta'd it. The main problems (for me at least) was the horrible lag in cities, the memory leak, and all the server down time. But, they gave us a free month on top of the free month if I remember right.

Also, if you think back to how much that game offered at release (the implants, the belts with the nano slots, all the weapons and abilities, the map upgrades, etc) you have to understand why it was buggy. And it worked in my favoror. I had lvl 125 implants at lvl 60. I had the super necklace from the balls you get from running the solo missions. It catered to my solo play, and as a lvl 60 I was unbeatable in pvp. I even beat a lvl 110 person. And I love AO for allowing me not just to be a badass, but be a badass in an mmo and be able to kick the crap out of everyone. I was a god. Its worth the bugs and lag and downtime.

I only checked the forums that gave game info, like class and general gameplay, so I don't remember deleted topics or whatever. I do remember (I think his name is gunther or something like that) making really long, intelligent posts.

I have never visited a forum just to cry or complain. I knew the game was buggy, funcom knew the game was buggy, complaining about it, even though I was in beta and 100% aware of what I was getting myself into, just seemed like a waste of time. So I missed the whole customer service crapness. The first time I posted on an online forum was at rpgdot, before that I just lurked and basically used forums as a way to get info.

I definitely see where you are coming from though, but if your goal was to abuse the bugs (using buffs to get the stats up to equip implants way above you, running short solo dungeons close by mission terminals for those balls for the necklace) and really, really understand how to min/max the rest, you might have had as good of a time as I did. But, if you are one of the people that like to socialize in mmorpgs and aren't really a munchkin min/maxer, I can see where you are coming from a lot better.

roqua said:

But, if you are one of the people that like to socialize in mmorpgs and aren't really a munchkin min/maxer, I can see where you are coming from a lot better.

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I came from an exceptionally well designed game - Everquest - to a game that seemed to have no design at all - AO. I have nothing against character building, it's a part of most rpgs, but it somehow should make sense. And in AO it simply didn't. The whole rule system was so unbelievably flawed. That just isn't normal. I mean every MMORPG changes a few rules once in a while. There were nerfs in Everquest, in DAOC, in WoW, the list is endless... but not like in AO.

I had high hopes for AO, the developers promised a lot. For example the ongoing storyline that was canceled after just a few episodes, and never picked up again.

But the most disappointing aspect in AO was really its wasted potential. Funcom had created an awsome looking game. The scenery was sometimes just breathtaking - unfortunately it also was very empty. You know, you were running through the desert and then suddenly you came to some kind of huge factory or something... the problem was the "or something." There just was no way to find out what it was what you just found. Funcom totally forgot to put in the background information. There were no NPCs, or computers or any other way to be found that could deliver such information. If find a crashed ship in the middle of nowhere then I want to find out what it is, what happened, etc.

You really have to see that AO had a pretty good start. They had quite a few subscribers, but most of them left because they were simply disappointed of the game. It is not unusual that players complain about this and that and threaten to cancel their accounts, but it is very unusual that they actually do it. In the case of AO many of them did, because they were simply fed up with Funcom. A friend of mine kept playing long after I had did exactely that, and he witnessed first hand how the game was basically going downhill. Servers were almost empty at some point. Admittedly that changed a bit since they introduced free play.

But let's face it - a lot of MMORPG players don't care for money. I certainly don't. I'm more than willing for good entertainment. You (roqua) said you were wondering why AO wasn't more popular - that was Funcom's fault, and their fault alone. It isn't enough to make a beautiful game (which AO without doubt was), you also have to try and get a feeling for what players want.

Yeah, I agree. I think EQ was utterly terrible and meaningless. Chargen and dev was non-existant, and it was devoid of solo play. To each their own. My favorite mmorpgs have been AO, AC, SB, and WoW, so, excluding wow, I like pretty crappy and unppular games, kind of like my taste in sp games I guess.