EA Co-Publishing Funcom's Secret World MMO

[DoctorFinger]

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5003/5342327213_289fa4e3e3_z.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/colonyofgamers/sets/72157625791464820/)
Click to see the rest of the images

Funcom has announced that their upcoming MMO The Secret World will be co-published by Electronic Arts through their EA Partners program. Signing on with EA Partners means that development is moving forward (always a concern with MMOs), especially after some major layoffs (http://www.colonyofgamers.com/cogforums/showthread.php?t=12461) at developer Funcom back in 2009. Unfortunately the announcement doesn't include any new info on when the game will be released or even enter an expanded beta phase.

The Secret World is one of the more interesting in-development MMOs due to it's setting. Rather than a fantasy world of elves & dwarves or a sci-fi future, TSW is set in the modern day, albeit a modern day filled with hidden myths, monsters and conspiracies. Funcom also touts the freeform, class-less gameplay, which they say provides for a huge degree of personalization.

[Widgetcraft]

I'm sure it will be way better than their other two half-baked MMOs.

[Shieldmaiden]

If they can make it as good on launch as AoC is now, they'll have a nice little game on their hands.

[inmostlight]

The only reason I'm even remotely interested in this is because it's by Ragnar Tornquist. I loved The Longest Journey and (to a lesser extent) Dreamfall, kinda curious to see what he's doing with an MMO. But I'd probably still prefer an adventure game instead.

[Satertek]

Anarchy Online wasn't half baked, it just had crappy expansions.

[MagGnome]

I'm really disappointed that Ragnar has spent so much time working on this instead of a single player title, especially a third entry in The Longest Journey series.

[tacitus]

Warning AoC rant follows ...

I am leery about any FC MMO. I drank the Age of Conan coolaid even with all of its problems; I was a believer. But they treated us early adopters like total crap. I somehow got suckered into buying the Collectors edition; what a piece of junk. About 6 weeks are so into it they changed the way levelling was handled thus blocking off much of polished content off from my Primary toon. Notice the 6 weeks ... those of us who saw the potential in AoC and actually signed up for the long haul were screwed. Now, if FC had said "hey early adopters" come back pay for a month and we will give you "Rise of the Godslayer" free I would say ... OK I will give it a shot. But we have no meaningful apology from FC - sorry, 10 days free is meaningless when I essentially paid for 6 months and only used it for a about a month. So FU to FC. You fooled me once.

[Widgetcraft]

Anarchy Online wasn't half baked, it just had crappy expansions.

It was literally unplayable at launch. The installer didn't even work properly for most people.