Reverberating the Praise

So honestly… I started writing this out over on a friends blog.  She posted something that resonated with me so much, that I just had to respond.  However as I cleared the end of my fourth paragraph, I came to the realization that I was not posting a response, but writing an entire damned blog post on her site.  Granted it is not unusual for me to rattle off a two or three paragraph response… but this was entering the territory of the ludicrous.

The Spinoff Post

I’ve been pretty lousy at keeping up with Google Reader lately.  So after a busy morning I sat down to read a few posts, trying to grind down the massive count a bit.  I know I have said this before, but my blogroll is literally what I read, so I try my damnedest to read each and every blog that I am in essence “advertising”.  It was to my pleasure that near the top of the stack, MMOGC had thrown up a brand new post. 

First off you have to go over there and read it right now, because it covers a topic that has become very near to my heart.  In her post titled “Funcommunication” she goes into a length how amazing Funcom has been at bringing us, the players, into the experience.  I have to say that I agree completely, and she managed to put it into words far better than I have done to this point. 

A Bigger Shout Out

I mean I have given shouts out to the Funcom staff in several posts, but I don’t think I have really covered the magnitude of the experience.  I’ve thought a few other companies in the past have done a great job interacting with the community, but that said Funcom has really taken it to the next level.  Players tend to have completely unrealistic expectations for games companies, I am just as bad as anyone about this.  However having this level of constantly interactivity, has been extremely humanizing.

So while we get frustrated about the bugs, seeing a constant effort to try and fix things makes the pill a little easier to swallow.  As a programmer I know, that you have to pull off a lot of layers of false assumptions about a bug before you can really get to the root of it.  In the case of the chat system issues, they were basically occurring in a way that could not be lab tested.  There is no real way to get hundreds of thousands of players to connect to your development server.

While it was annoying, and I am glad that time is behind us I cannot describe how much I appreciate being “kept in the loop” about what was going on.  So much marketing babble and spin works its way into patch notes and announcements, that it is really refreshing to see the equivalent of “we thought we fixed it, but I guess we didn’t, we are trying something else”.  No one is all knowing, and as a programmer we usually operate on our best guess.  When dealing with extremely complex systems, the wrong answers are often times more telling than the final solution.  Be it through the forums, live streams, official blog posts, or twitter, I am always impressed with the level of candor shown towards the community.

Amazing Customer Service

Another point that I have to harp on is just how great the customer service has been.  GC writes in her post:

Honestly? I was pleasantly surprised. On a Saturday evening, right smack in the middle of a busy celebration weekend, both my husband’s and my tickets were answered by a helpful in-game representative within ten minutes, and within another five we were all fixed up and ready to go. Let’s face it, bugged quests are irritating as all hell and no one ever likes running into them, but the sting sure is lessened by a prompt response and swift resolution to the problem. I was very satisfied.

Granted, based on the inevitable complaints on the forums, not everyone has been as fortunate. So maybe you can say that my husband and I just happened to hit the GM lottery.

I can say without the shadow of a doubt that she did not win the GM lottery.  It might be because of the level of evolvement with the community, but for whatever reason I have simply cared more about The Secret World than I have most games in the past.  Always in the past it felt like my petitions had little to no effect on the game world.  I am notorious for figuring out a work-around to avoid bugs, and then just ignoring the fact that they actually exist rather than reporting them.  In this game however I have been a bug reporting fiend.

So far it has not mattered what I have reported, be it a problem with geometry or the chat issues not actually being fixed…  I have always received a prompt and courteous response.  I’ve put in somewhere between five and a dozen petitions since launch, and in every case I have had a tell from a GM within ten minutes.  The vast majority of these times, it was far closer to five minutes.  In one instance, I reported a bugged encounter in a dungeon, and we moved on to the next boss.  The GM responded before we were through the first phase, and patiently waited for us to finish the fight so I could more properly respond.

I remember one night, I had petitioned a GM about a geometry issue or as I call them ‘”The Potholes” of City of the Sun God.  There are a few places in the world, with gaps that you cannot see before accidentally falling into them.  While I was typing up my petition, another player fell in the hole with me and used /reset to get out.  I could have done the same, and ultimately I did to free myself, but I figured that if I didn’t report it, it might not get fixed.  The GM took the time, and asked me to go back to the hole, so they could properly document the problem, and make sure it was on the list of known issues.  This little attention to detail really gives me hope for the future of the game.

Phenominal Community Team

I know specifically I have harped on this before, but if I am going through the process of making this post anyways, I have to take a moment to talk about Ragnar and Morteia.  Other companies have been involved with the community, but Funcom really sets the standard here.  They are constantly responding to players, and answering questions directly.  Maybe it is silly, but it feels somewhat awesome to have the Creative Director or Community Manager share your post with the community. 

Thing is it goes so much deeper than just rebroadcasting links.  It feels like we are getting let in on some secret, like they are leaking little bits of information to the diehard fans.  So when they answer a question, or hint at some upcoming feature we get all giddy with excitement.  MMOGC gives the great example of Ragnar talking about upcoming work from Peter Stormare.  I mean that is awesome, while he might not want to be known for this, I cannot picture Satan without thinking of his amazing performance from Constantine.  This man belongs in The Secret World so much it almost hurts!

Why This Matters

The Secret World still has a lot of bugs, and there are a good number of features that have been frustrating to deal with. In most other games, these would have been deal breakers, because the layer of clinical distance from the user community gave the impression that they frankly did not care about my gameplay experience.  Normally my tolerance for frustration is pretty low, I have trouble looking past a bad UI or controls to see the story underneath.  While I really like the UI and controls, you can read my original review of beta weekend and see that I was less than favorable.

So upon reading that, you might ask yourself what changed?  In many ways the game has changed drastically since beta weekend, and improved in almost every way imaginable.  But I have to say that a good chunk of why I can look past the rough edges at times, is thanks to my experiences with customer support and the community team.  They are the face of Funcom to me, and my regular dealings with them has allowed me to handle the quests going wonky, and getting stuck on geometry.  My frustration is always tempered with the feeling like they actually care, and are working to try and make the game a better experience for everyone.

Not Just a Love Song

So it is pretty easy to write this post off as a love song towards the company that runs the game I happen to be playing.  I mean I have rambled on for 13 paragraphs at this point, about my awesome experiences with them while playing their game.  For me it goes deeper, as bloggers it is so easy to dwell on the negative aspects of a game.  It is so much easier for me to pull myself away from a game I hate, to write an angry rant than to log out of a game I am really loving.  The problem is, all this negatively just turns into a wall of sound, where every opinion, dissenting review and frustrated plea becomes a indistinguishable from the mass of angst.

Instead I think we are better served spending our time, pointing out the things that are going well, the individuals that are in fact doing right by the community.  Each week it seems like we hear of another game flailing, another round of layoffs, and more pox upon the industry.  We need to highlight the good in gaming, and make sure those people feel appreciated.  So here you go Funcom, I really appreciate your efforts, and that of the amazing team that has created The Secret World.  While I am somewhat angsty, about not being able to get the nifty Steam swag, I wish you all amazing success with that new venture.

Good Job!

106 Miles to Chicago

It seems like the Secret World community as a whole is still coming down off the high that was the Monthiversary celebration weekend.  As a whole I think the weekend was a rousing success.  It gave several friends of mine time to get in and see if the game was for them.  I know of at least four converts, and two of those are now proud holders of a lifetime account.

Coup De Grace

Honestly I think the concept behind the weekend was a master stroke.  The 24 hour buddy passes are just simply not enough time to decide whether or not the game really resonates with you.  There have been some discussions in my cabal, namely between myself, MMOGC, and PaganRites… and the basic idea is that it takes at least 10 hours of gameplay for you to really “get it”.  That is to really understand why this game is so unique, why it is worth playing, and grasp the deeply intricate combat system.

Sypster over at Bio Break theorizes that the celebration weekend, is essentially a way to offer a “free trial” without actually saying those words.  I totally think this was the core of the weekend, it let anyone who has a Funcom account try the game.  But even more than that I think it was a great way of building customer loyalty.  While getting to your 30 quest mark, might have been a daunting task for someone brand new to the game.  For those of us who are veterans, we were able to easily cut a path through some of the easier quests.

As a result it also made Kingsmouth an extremely active place.  For all that activity, I was pleasantly surprised in the relative lack of “asshattery”.  People seemed genuinely helpful to the new guests inhabiting our servers.  I know I answered more than a few “newbie” questions, and in my time trying to knock out some of the easy quests, jumped in and saved more than a few overwhelmed players.  So while this was a great trial weekend for new players, for us veterans it became a really easy way to earn enough item shop currency for some spiffy items.  The positive is that there are very few items on the cash shop that cost more than the 1200 points you earned from the quests.  The only negative however is that they are in fact “bonus” points, and will expire in September.

A Mission from God

TheSecretWorld 2012-08-07 20-41-29-91

They’re not gonna catch us. We’re on a mission from God. – Elwood Blues

Over the last several days since the release of Issue #1, I’ve been on a mission that has completely consumed me.  Essentially I decided that while everyone was off doing the brand new content, and trying to get in their thirty quests for the celebration weekend, I would start my hunt to kill all the rares in the world.  I still have a long ways to go, and some of them have been rather maddening (Mr. Freezie I am looking at you), but I’ve made a pretty massive dent in the total.  I have no clue if I actually get anything for doing this, but it is one of those things that I am obsessing over.

So far I vanquished 27 of the 38 total “achievement rares” in the world.  Here are the ones I have found and destroyed (minor spoilers):

  • Nattfari – Draug in Kingsmouth
  • Mr. Freezie – Zombie in Kingsmouth
  • Soloman’s Omen – Undead Bear in Kingsmouth
  • Father Appleby – Undead Priest in Kingsmouth
  • Dunwich Road Horror – Mud Golem in Kingsmouth
  • Coach Roarke – Zombie in The Savage Coast
  • Lurking Revenant – Revenant in The Savage Coast
  • The Collector – Scarecrow in The Savage Coast
  • Umbral Brood King – Ak’ab in The Savage Coast
  • Penumbral Elevated Caste – Ak’ab in Blue Mountain
  • Algernon – Wendigo in Blue Mountain
  • Bastard of the Brine – Deep One in Blue Mountain
  • Billy’s Muse – Shadow Thing in Blue Mountain
  • Gronarch the Exiled – Sand Golem in Scorched Desert
  • The Lost One – Ghoul in Scorched Desert
  • Deathstalker – Scorpion in Scorched Desert
  • Ainn the Harbinger – Plague Golem in Scorched Desert
  • Corrupted Egyptologist – Filth Infected Cultist in City of the Sun God
  • Kiya, the Pharaoh’s Concubine – Tomb Guardian in City of the Sun God
  • Emissary of the Dead Nations – Ghoul in City of the Sun God
  • Cretaceous Shisocerca – Wasp in City of the Sun God
  • Village-Eater – Troll in Besieged Farmlands
  • Ursine Horror – Undead Bear in Besieged Farmlands
  • Demolisher – Siege Breaker in Besieged Farmlands
  • The Nameless One – Deathless in Shadowy Forest
  • Traitor of Basarab – Vampire in Carpathian Fangs
  • General Blasius – Filth Infected Human in Carpathian Fang

I won’t lie, some of these have already been a massive pain in the ass.  There was one specific spawn that I essentially camped most of the weekend, killing the placeholder every 15 minutes.  It took two full days of doing this off and on before the rare I needed spawned.  Others like Mr. Freezie and The Lost One, spawn in such high traffic areas, that essentially as soon as they are up they have aggro’d onto someone.  I am sure I will take a break before too much longer, since I too would like to se the new content. Up to this point however, I have had a blast tracking down all these dangerous beasties.

The Nightmare Begins

guardian

A few weeks back the little five man team I have been running with, finished all of the elite dungeons and with much effort especially on the part of the dps, managed to get through the Gatekeeper encounter.  I have to say, that even looking back the dps version of The Gatekeeper was insanely difficult, and I am still shocked I managed to get through it without lowering my standards and changing to one of the more standardized builds.  I still plan on doing a write-up for exactly how I managed to down The Gatekeeper as Shogtun/Blades, but I just haven’t had the time to finish it up.

Getting our Asses Kicked

As difficult as the encounter was, I have to say it really did nothing to prepare me for the difficulty of nightmare dungeons.  This week our little team finally started attempting the hardest mode of the dungeons currently available.  At first we decided to dip our toes into Darkness War, since so many of the instances have a number of little painful bugs right now.  We were completely overwhelmed by the amount of damage taken, and the amount that we needed to output.

After some regrouping, we decided to start working on the first instance, Polaris.  I think we were a bit gunshy in trying to assume that the first dungeon was going to be the easiest.  We attempted that login in SWTOR, and found out that honestly The Esseles ended up being one of the most difficult of the hardmodes.  Thankfully Funcom did not do this to us, and we’ve managed to make a pretty big dent in the dungeon.  It is funny that we are treating this 5 man as though it were a raid essentially.

OHGODSQUID

On our first night, we struggled our way through the encounters, learning the mechanics as we went.  All of us are pretty reluctant to try and look up strategies for the encounters.  It is so much more enjoyable to have those “aha” moments for yourself, than to try and do things the way someone else says you have to.  Honestly most of my raiding career was this way as well.  We invested in taking the time to find a strategy that worked for our specific groups makeup.

Last night we returned and had most of the bosses “on farm”, as it were.  We are still struggling massively with the “OHGODSQUID” as I refer to it.  I think towards the end of the night we were formulating some new ideas on how to beat the encounter.  Hopefully we will go back in tonight, make some adjustments and dine on some mutant calamari.  Then of course will come the real challenge, but I won’t go into it for sake of spoilers.

I Has Purplez

The awesome thing that makes the struggle worth it, is that pretty much everything in the zone drops much better gear than we have seen to this point.  So only going in and being able to kill a few bosses is completely worth the effort.  So far we have managed to outfit our tank in a number of really massive upgrades, and our healer in a new headpiece and weapon.  The amount of difference this has made has been significant, in the difficulty of the encounters.  They have gone from “OMGWTF” to hard but manageable with a lot of work.

Last night we got our very first purple dps item, and through the luck of random numbers I managed to win it.  So I have a little purple tint to go with my blue tones.  The funny thing about gear in this game, is that always before people would link the item and dressing room it, and there would be a chorus of “man that looks cool”.  In The Secret World, these items are just better stats, so in a way you just don’t get nearly as attached to any one item as you did before.

Honestly I am completely okay with this.  My emotions are wrapped up in my outfits, my cosmetic items, and the ability to mold any weapon to look like whatever happens to be my current favorite.  The talismans, simply become a means to an end, a way to perform better and make life easier on your friends.  Always in the past I was reluctant to upgrade out of full sets of gear, because I hated looking like an unmatched hobo.  But now when the gear comes down, with slightly better stats, swapping it out becomes a completely no-brainer.

Linkspam

Going to wrap up this post, since I have the development live stream going in the background.  I still have to give a shout out about how badass it is that they have been giving us a semi-weekly view into the inner workings of the game team.  In closing going to throw out a series of links.  There have been some great articles posted about the game, so these are definitely ones you should read.  Please note, not all of these are super positive about the game, but that is completely okay.  I’ve always said this was not going to be a game for everyone.

  • First up we have a review of the weekend by Kadomi at Live Like a Nerd.  She went into the game expecting nothing, but got completely hooked.  Talks about the “missing time” concept many of us have experienced while playing the game.  I swear it was only thiry minutes!!
  • GC over at MMOGamerChick, also a guildie, does a great write up about her post celebration “hangover”.  Great read, because really the weekend was so much fun it was draining.
  • Maeve over at Multiplaying, gives a great review of the game that has become her latest addiction.
  • Kotaku gives a pretty even-handed review of the game.  You can tell the writer actually played it in production, unlike some of the other reviews I have read.
  • Psynister and Fynralyl are a husband and wife duo that tried the game together this weekend.  While they liked some things, they were overall turned off by the game.  Both are well worth the read, because a lot of the things they mention, are things some of the TSW diehards love the most.
  • Rowan over at I Touched the Sky, posted a rebuttal of sorts.  Not in the sense of trying to state that Psyn and Fyn are wrong by any means, but to answer some of the points they brought up.  Also extremely worth the read.
  • The new episode of Enochian Frequency is ready to go.  I highly suggest listening to the podcast regularly especially if you are interested in the real world lore behind the lore.
  • Lastly I wanted to give a real quick shout out to Scarybooster and Feliz.  Feliz has created a beautiful new skin for Scaryworlds.com, I highly suggest you check it out and tell them what you think.

#TSW Monthiversary

My butchery of the English language truly knows no bounds.  Yesterday I pulled together the word “troubulation”, a mixture of troubles and tribulation.  Today I am either coining or stealing the term “Monthiversary”, because today is the one month anniversary of the launch of The Secret World.  It has been one great month, and was capped by the release of the first of the monthly content updates:  Issue #1 (patch 1.1) Unleashed.

EHMERGAHD!

TheSecretWorldDX11 2012-07-03 20-26-38-08I find it amusing that to date, I have yet to do one of my traditional “omg you have to play this” posts for the game.  I think the reasoning is twofold, firstly I was informed that it has become almost stereotypical for me to say something is the “best game ever”.  Looking back and my posts, and tweets and google plus ramblings…  I can see the pattern.  This game deserves so much more than one of my now clichéd “EHMERGAHD BORST GERM EVAH” post.

Secondly, I’ve come to the realization that it is so much harder to blog about something, when you cannot fathom stopping playing enough to actually write.  For the first few weeks after release, I simply could not be bothered to stop playing the damned game long enough to put words on paper.  So while I had topic after topic swirling around in my head, I’ve reached a level of obsession that I have not had since the early days of Everquest and World of Warcraft.

Never Judge a Book by it’s Author?

TheSecretWorldDX11 2012-07-04 22-11-28-41 (1)The Secret World has been an interesting experiment to me.  Funcom is a company that I had pretty much written off based on the fact that I never really enjoyed either Anarchy Online or Age of Conan.  So while all the trailers really played into all of my sci-fi/horror obsessions, I just did not want to believe that this company that had left a bad taste in my mouth, could produce a product I wanted to play.  I even had friends argue with me, about how frankly stupid it was for me to judge this company based on experiences from a decade ago.

I’ve come to realize over time that I am often very wrong, and I’ve never been so happy to admit it before.  After the very first open beta weekend, I knew I was hooked and would be for a long time.  I wrote up my beta weekend impressions, which apparently some thought were negative, but immediately afterwards I went out to the Secret World website and ordered my lifetime subscription.  The game brings something to the genre that has been sorely missing in the last few games I have played:  Copious amounts of “Fluff”.

Pen and Paper Experience

TheSecretWorldDX11 2012-07-03 16-53-31-91Playing The Secret World, feels like playing under every great pen and paper game master.  You know those GMs that take the time, to think everything through, and provide lots of handouts for the players?  Ragnar Tornquist is one of those game masters, and we are together playing one of the best “modules” I have ever experienced.  I know, there I go with the hyperbole again… but damnit it is true.  This game reminds me of every good tabletop gaming experience I had over the years.

Funcom and The Secret World team has created this living, breathing world that we get to go adventuring in.  Everything works like you think it should, you can look up addresses in the phone books, execute commands on the computer terminals, and in game references work like they would in the real world.  The world and atmosphere, just feel right, and there is a constant uneasy quality to everything you do.  You know you are treading in a world on the edge of oblivion, the music, the scenery, and the interactions keep you constantly aware of this fact.  On top of all of this the writing and story is simply amazing.

Oh the Tales They Tell

TheSecretWorldDX11 2012-07-07 10-45-25-06I know I went on at length about the story telling experience behind Star Wars: The Old Republic.  That game featured some of the best interactive storytelling I had experienced in a video game.  The Secret World really raises that bar, while SWTOR was good for a game, some of the dialog in TSW stacks up against some of the best novels I have read.  While I cared about my character and direct companions in SWTOR, I actually care about almost every character in The Secret World.  You never interact with generic imperial officer number 47 here, every character has a motivation, unique mannerisms, and a story that is worth finding out about.

With the first monthly issue, they are going back and fleshing out the tale of Carter, one of the most endearing characters from the Innsmouth Academy.  When I originally quested through the Savage Coast, this was one of the many characters I really wanted to learn more about and sure enough they are giving it to us.  I really look forward to learning more about the characters I have come to love.  There have been several nights I’ve been on mumble, with friends, discussing this or that character and what we thought of the outcome of a certain quest.  Of course, keeping our thoughts and opinions bottled up until everyone in the channel had completed it, often becomes painfully difficult.  But we have a firm no spoilers rule.

Proof is in the Playing

tacomemeI can blather on and on about my love of this game, and of the tacos.  But you won’t understand either reference completely until you’ve actually sat down and played the game.  Luckily for you, in honor of their first month, and the release of their first content pack…  they are allowing anyone at all to play for free this weekend.  From today, August 3rd at 4PM GMT until Monday, August 6th at 7AM GMT all players with a Funcom account can download the game, log in and try it out themselves. They are hosting a meta-game this weekend as well, where you can win a special in-game t-shirt and 1200 bonus points for completing 30 missions during the event.

So if you find yourself wandering what all the excitement is about, download the game and play it for a few days.  The truth of The Secret World, is that it takes probably 12 hours minimum gameplay for you to really grasp the complexity and intricacy of the game.  Saying that, I know now that this game will not be for everyone.  I’ve said it before, but the game is a niche game, and completely knows it is a niche.  I will not hold your hand, and tell you what you should be doing.  Often the developer takes an almost cruel pleasure in “trolling” the players, but behind all of this is an extremely rich gameplay experience.

You Have to Decide

TheSecretWorldDX11 2012-07-07 21-28-33-32 (1)I think a third reason behind me not doing a “Why you should be playing Secret World” post, is that for the first time in a long time I cannot say with any certainty that this is the game you should be playing.  The Secret World is a very personal experience, and each player will find things they like and dislike about it.  This is not a “shoot down the middle” and “target all the things” type game.  You have to work for your fun here. If you are looking for a theme park ride, expect it to try extremely hard to kill you in the process.

What I can tell you, is that the game is extremely rich and rewarding.  That the team behind it is extremely open to the community, and offers some of the best customer support I have ever seen.  I’ve gotten every single ticket I have opened answered in person by game staff, and in all cases within 15 minutes.  They have amazing folks supporting the community like Amber Skinner (@Morteia) and a Creative Director that constantly responds directly to tweets.  While there are numerous bugs, all of this and their dedication to keep ironing things out makes the game enjoyable to experience.

Ultimately, you are going to have to download the game, put in some hours of game play and determine whether or not it is right for you.