Ten Ton Hammer - Taking MMO Gamers to the Next Level!

Another change to normal MMO guidelines is the character construction that is being talked about in Funcom’s fact sheet. It seems like a very open character policy and that can be either very good for players or leave them confused about the types of decisions they make when building a character.

Be who you want to be: There are no classes or levels. Experience the freedom of complete character customization at every stage: flexible character creation, unrestricted and almost limitless combinations of clothing and accessories, and skills directly shaped by your actions during play. Experience a reactive, fast-paced combat system that allows you to defeat enemies using anything from martial arts to black magic, from legendary armaments to modern firearms.

While skill-based games are coming back into popular with titles like Fallen Earth, Mortal Online, Darkfall and Earthrise, it seems like The Secret World will offer similar sorts of options to players. That prospect seems very exciting indeed and could offer some great opportunities for players.

Besides these brief write ups, Funcom has taken a very different angle on marketing The Secret World. If you look at the site: Sanctuary of Secrets you will find all sorts of puzzles and clues that will help players figure things out about The Secret World’s mythology. Ten Ton Hammer asked Erling Ellingson to comment on the site and its unique style of drawing players’ attention, he said:

“Sanctuary of what? I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about. But there do seem to be a lot of strange things stirring on the web these days, and I am sure the secret societies of the world are watching it with a keen eye.”

As gamers, we all know that figuring out things is in our blood. We constantly seek to answer the question, defeat the boss, and solve the puzzle. Has Funcom hit the right spot at our very core to get us excited about the game? Right now the buzz over The Secret World is growing fast, game journalists at GDC were very excited by the trailer and the hidden mysteries that Funcom is creating with the game. Again Funcom is ramping up the hype machine, something they are very good at, for better or for worse.

But you can't fool the players. The MMO community is incredibly intelligent, yet this time there seems to be a lot of enthusiasm behind The Secret World despite Funcom’s mistakes in the past:

“I love the puzzles they're doing. Sanctuary of Secrets is the most recent and it was a lot of fun. And hopefully it paid off for what we got from it. It looks like Funcom are putting a lot of effort in to this one and I hope it has a good launch,” said Metal.

We also asked Ten Ton Hammer players if Funcom had successfully reinvented itself with the new information on The Secret World, Metal had this to say:

”As for re-inventing... YES. They're taking the mistakes from Conan and learning from them, and I hope they take the time they need to finish the game delays or not I'm going to be playing this one.”

Yet a good chunk of our premium members still have their doubts about Funcom. When commenting on The Secret World, Ten Ton Hammer member Bobfish added this point:

“I will say this though, TSW will be a great game, it just won't be ready when they release it.”

Centrik weighed in with a different response:

“I know I am looking forward to it a lot, second only to DCUO. As for what I'm looking forward to, it would probably be the setting/backstory/genre combined with a classless system. Hopefully Funcom can make a classless system actually work (not going to name recent failures). However more importantly, I think this setting will be great for an MMO.”

In closing, the point must be made that MMOs are a marathon not a sprint. Many games work hard to build up launch buzz and eventually drop down from the mountain they build. No one has said this industry is easy. Funcom has run the marathon with both Age of Conan and Anarchy Online. Hearing Craig talk about the improvements on AoC has players taking a second look at the game, and nothing beats word of mouth marketing. It is good to see AoC now growing again with a strong direction and learning from its mistakes. Age of Conan at least *seems* like it is now stronger and more rewarding and worth a second look. These lessons continue to grow with Funcom as they prepare for unveiling The Secret World. With lots of great puzzles and mysteries to solve, players are already excited and the game information has barely scratched the surface. We sure hope that the rest of The Secret World lives up to the hype.