SOE Officially Announces The Agency, FreeRealms

Today the embargo ended for news on Sony Online Entertainment's two newest Massively Multiplayer Online Games. One, entitled The Agency is slated for the PS3 and PC formats, and will feature a spies and mercenaries theme so far unseen in the Massive genre. The other is FreeRealms, a fantasy title deliberately aimed at non-traditional gamers. It will feature whimsical gameplay and offer users the ability to create their own content, another first for a Massive title. Gamasutra has an interview with Matt Wilson, the studio director of SOE-Seattle, discussing the inspiration behind The Agency . "I think our big inspiration to develop this game actually came from watching movies. If you pay attention to all of the summer blockbusters there are lot of movies that come out around the spy/espionage genre. Whether it's James Bond, or the Bourne series all the way from Mission Impossible or even TV shows like 24 or Alias, it is a really big genre of information that is out there."

Comments

And here.

[Pojut]

And here, my friends, will SOE feel the full brunt of the backlash of their raping and pillaging many games in the MMO genre.

The very fact that SOE is at the helm will cause many people to not even want to READ about these titles, much less play them (and yes, I am one of the many folks pissed off at what SOE did to completely DESTROY Star Wars Galaxies which was, at one time, probably the best and deepest MMO around)

Re:And here.

[Bieeanda]

Amen to that. If what they did to SWG is any indication of their attitude toward 'non-traditional' games and content, aimed at the so-called masses, then SomeUnlikelyDefinitionofFree-Realms is dead already.

It certainly doesn't help that SOE has gone from being the mill against which all MMO grinds are measured, to becoming the industry's elephant graveyard, where the likes of Matrix: Online, Vanguard and SWG go to die.

Re:And here.

[WCMI92]

"And here, my friends, will SOE feel the full brunt of the backlash of their raping and pillaging many games in the MMO genre.

The very fact that SOE is at the helm will cause many people to not even want to READ about these titles, much less play them (and yes, I am one of the many folks pissed off at what SOE did to completely DESTROY Star Wars Galaxies which was, at one time, probably the best and deepest MMO around)"

Yep. SOE has sown the wind and shall reap the whirlwind.

They have the absolute worst reputation amongst all MMO developers and are probably the most despised company amongst MMO developers.

Hopefully soon we will have our Pre-CU SWG back, it's already playable with most combat working over at www.swgemu.com

To those thinking of trying those games: DONT.

SOE has and WILL make drastic gameplay changes, including completely invalidating your character achievements even deleting whole aspects of the game! That is what they did to SWG. If they did it before they could do it again.

SOE is not trustworthy enough to invest the time that a MMO requires into.

Re:And here.

[DoohickeyJones]

Sony didn't buy Sigil...it just became the publisher of Vanguard. I remember the day. It was as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced.

Re:And here.

[garylian]

It always seems that the most vocal critics of SOE are the ones that played SWG. Since that game wasn't very good to begin with, I don't see how them taking a chance and screwing it up even further, warrants such hate. Rabid SWG players "Pre-CU" are more disinterested in taking a hard look at the game from a honest viewpoint than UO players were. The bottom line is, subscription numbers were dropping, new subscriptions weren't being picked up, and the common thread of people leaving or not joining was "this game isn't a whole lot of fun." Some people will complain about anything for eternity. I still know people that think the Planes of Power expansion for EQ1 ruined the game because travel became easier. Most folks loved it, though.

It's rare you will get a UO fanatic to admit that unless you were into a gank-fest type mindset and in a guild that were similarly minded, UO sucked for anyone interested in soloing or non-PvP combat, until it was revamped. When it was revamped, the people that would have loved that change had already left for EQ1 and weren't coming back. It was a classic case of "too little, too late". The remaining player base was mostly furious over the change, as the gankfest had ended. It's kinda funny that once they didn't have folks not interested in PvP to attack and kill easily, the PvP side of the game (the dark shard) was almost always deserted. I'm hoping they git it right in the upcomming beta for the new UO.

It was similar for SWG. Most people that really wanted to play the game (myself included) left well before the CU update. SOE was trying to stop the bleeding of customers of a game that had a title that should have rightly seen several hundreds of thousands paying and playing, but instead saw a dwindling subscription base. In doing so, they got it wrong, but they tried. They've admitted they botched it, even. But, they had to do something. SWG was dying a slow but painful death, and only the diehards that actually enjoyed the crapfest that was SWG have kept on whining. Much like UO, the change came way too late, and pissed off the majority of the remaining subscriber base.

They did a great job with EQ1. Lord knows I played it for 5.5 years straight. And so did a large number of other people. Until WoW came out, it was the biggest MMO in North America, by most people's reckoning. I stopped playing after I got into the closed beta for WoW, seeing something that would fit a more casual playstyle better than EQ1. That lasted a whole 9 months after release, and then I was bored out of my skull with the poor endgame that WoW had.

They got off to a bad start with EQ2, and it got crushed by WoW, and rightfully so. But, I'd say that today's EQ2 beats WoW. It's very solo, duo, and group friendly, with the largest raid force needed stuck at 24. After quiting WoW and going back to CoH and some CoV, I went back and tried EQ2. I haven't left since, despite several beta runs in games like LotR:O, V:SoH, and others.

And a few people have ranted about Vanguard sucking. Well, it sucked before SOE got involved with it, and it's gonna suck for a long time, unless it gets a serious revamp. You can't blame SOE for V:SOH's weaknesses and all around crappiness. Sigil did that on its own.

Maybe if Tabula Rising really pulls it off, I will slow down on EQ2. But for now, I'm very happy with this SOE game. And so are a lot of folks that come over from WoW, having burnt out on the end-game content there.

The bottom line is, SWG players need to get over it, much like UO players need to get over it. I'm sorry a game you loved got altered in a way you and most of the rest of the subscribers didn't like. But just because 1 game was altered that way, doesn't make the game company suck. There are a whole lot of other games that sucked that some people really liked, that got canned instead of the company trying to fix things. At least SOE tried, even if they did screw it up.

Re:And here.

[777a]

Since most people are mentioning SWG I'll put my comment about PlanetSide (think Tribes with 100's of players and minor character levelling).

I fair enjoyed PlanetSide, a new patch with bug fixes and a heavily requested feature would be released every few weeks, and all was well. The developers were active both on the forums and in the game, all was well, the golden age of PlanetSide.

Then they annouced that they'd bring in clan owned bases and 'platoons' (groups of squads), in the next patch. It sounded really good, really got the clans excited.

Then clan owned bases and platoon got delayed by a few months so the developers could work on 'Core Combat', an expansion pack nobody wanted.

I can't remember how much they charged for the expansion pack, but the concept of it pretty much annoyed me, SOE didn't hire outside developers to create the expansion, they took away the developers who were upgrading the main game.

I can't find out the monthly price of PlanetSide (good job Sony, hiding it from potential users), but I'm going to guess at $15/month.

If $15 / month pays for developers+bandwidth+servers, then if the subscribers are deprived of the developers (bug fixes / updates) for a few months either the monthly fee should reduce, or the expansion pack should be free. Those developer hours were already paid for in the monthly subscription, selling them again as an expansion was crooked.

There was a bit of a backlash, the expasion was pretty poor, many forum members refused to buy it, instead moaning that they wanted clan owned bases and platoons.

A few weeks later SOE released clan owned bases, which couldn't be upgraded unless members of your clan bought the generally useless expansion pack.

After that SOE bug fixes / new features slowed up.

Disgruntled, but still, I carried on subscribing...

A few cheats were well known by the more experienced players, but they were obvious and not used by respectable clans, but used by a lot of idiots, example: automatic weapons would fire 5 rounds/second, by binding the mouse wheel to fire (or using a macro) you could fire much faster.

After SOE not fixing the bugs a player (can't remember his name) did a video demostrating the bugs which had been known about for months. Instead of fixing the bugs SOE banned the player.

That was pretty much the last straw for me, I sent them an angry email and cancelled my subscription.

For me to sign up to another Sony product they'd need to demonstrate vastly improved customer service, and their RIAA / rootkit actions over the past couple of years make me think its got worse. Much worse.

first for a massive?

[the dark hero]

The other is FreeRealms, a fantasy title deliberately aimed at non-traditional gamers. It will feature whimsical gameplay and offer users the ability to create their own content, another first for a Massive title.

That...uhhh...sounds like Second Life with a little WoW thrown in for good measure.

Re:first for a massive?

[Bluetick]

Yeah, but... Second Life isn't a game.

Nice

[Esteanil]

This looks like one of those times the Sony boycott will be easy to uphold :-)

Remember SWG?

[cmize]

After what they did to Star Wars: Galaxies I will never play another game connected in any way to SOE. Why put in the time, effort and money when they will inevitably make drastic changes to the game in a lame attempt to match WoW's subscriber base?

Re:Remember SWG?

[SpacePunk]

That's a tall order. They removed 37 individual professions which you could mix and match, and made 9 'iconic' professions that best fit a 12 year olds idea of what star wars is about. That's just the tip of a very large ice berg. It was a sandbox game for the most part. It was YOUR adventure, now it's just one of Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Princess leia, etc... SOE completely re-worked the game, and forced a lot of players out that had the money to maintain multiple accounts. It is no longer an adults game.

You can do the research for the rest. The detractors of what SWG once was are the same 12 year old audience that it was changed to impress.

Re:Remember SWG?

[Todd Knarr]

Bear in mind that, contractually, SOE had no say whatsoever in any of the things you complain about. In fact, SOE vehemently objected to every single one of them. But LucasArts, and George Lucas personally, have the final, absolute say over all game mechanics, rules, customer-service policies and such in SWG. SOE are essentially contractors doing the server administration, providing CS bodies and providing some coders working to specs provided by Lucas. The general opinion about SWG I've heard from the SOE people here in San Diego, from the front-line CS up to the execs, is "Never again.". And frankly I'm not suprised Lucas screwed up SWG with NGE, look what he did to his own movies with episodes 1-3.

Nice troll :), but I will bite

[Anonymous Coward]

SWG was an MMORPG with a difference. You have to remember that most current MMORPG's are Everquest clones. You also got to remember that Everquest clones are RPG's light.

There is typically NO moral choice. If there is "evil" and "good" they are often purely based on race, and completly seperate the players, only to interact in Player vs Player combat. In Everquest 2 players can betray their alignment and go over to the other side BUT that is a one time deal.

You do NOT choose your own alignment like in the heavier western RPG's. You do not really choose anything in an Everquest Clone.

In many ways they are closer to the japanese RPG on rails. You choose your race, this determines wich class you can pick. You then venture into the world were you complete quests of increasing difficulty. With that comes XP that gives you new skills and better statistics. You BARELY get to affect this.

This is important to remember as a lot of recent MMORPG's try to make a big deal about how you can customize your character.

This is BULLSHIT, with Lord of the Rings Online being one of the biggest bullshitters around. Your class will dictate what stat bonusses you will be looking for, a hunter needs agility, a champion might etc. Yes in lotro a guardian can indeed choose the agile way or the might way (block and stun, parry and area-affect-attack).

The simple fact is that Everquest clones will give you your equipment through quest rewards and loot drops, the useless stuff you sell and the stuff that fits your class you use. Do NOT enter an EQ clone if you have a fashion sense. People wear what gives them the right stats NOT what looks good. Color coordination? Please.

In quests you do NOT choose how to advance, your alignment/race/class has quests which you either do, or don't do. You do NOT choose your own path.

So was SWG different? Oh yeah.

First off, no classes as such. Instead you choose your race, and then could make your own mix of wich proffesions you wanted. NO restriction based on race.

Most new players would get started in ALL of them, only later specializing in what they liked best. You could be a sniper/medic, a scout/doctor. Oh sure, some combo's made more sense then others and sadly many players just went for what somebody had figured out to be the most combat effective BUT still, you could choose, and for every uber-specced player there was one who played a combo they just plain liked and fuck the stats.

To give you an example of just how fucking big a deal this is. In LOTRO I am a guardian, this means NO ranged skills until level 30 at wich I can finally shoot a bow. Badly.

There are a lot of humanoids wich run away, annoying as hell when you are a close range fighter. In LOTRO I just got to deal with it. In SWG I could always create a melee character with a bit of ranged to shoot those cowards in the back.

Another HUGE difference was how you got your equipment. EVERYTHING was made by players. Loot drops only contained resources for crafting.

In most everquest clones crafters have to really grind the first few tiers/levels because nothing they make is in demand. Why should I pay you for your craptastic sword when I got a far more powerfull one from a random loot drop?

Another difference is that by default your character was neutral, neither aligned with the rebels or the empire. You could work for either, and even join their sides BUT you did it in the same world as everyone else. NO seperated cities.

A final note of intrest, SWG NPC's interacted with each other. In SWG I been rescued from certain death by imperial patrols, fought alone side herbivours against predators and gained the aid of the locals.

The mobs did NOT just stand around to be attacked or attack, they interaced with each other. This was NOT like EQ clones wich put guards in places to prevent mobs from wandering into safe zones. Imperial patrols were targets themselves and could easily be

I'm thinking more like...

[Moraelin]

SOE has and WILL make drastic gameplay changes, including completely invalidating your character achievements even deleting whole aspects of the game! That is what they did to SWG. If they did it before they could do it again.

They did it in other games already. Try EQ2 whole classes swung between random extremes, and the whole set of spells got changed at least twice. E.g., one of my characters swung from primarily dual-wielding damage-dealer, to primary tank who can't even solo random mobs without a tower shield, to primarily two-hander specialist. It doesn't even have the same abilities as when I designed that character. And crafting got changed into something not even resembling the same thing.

Now admittedly, I don't claim it's anywhere _near_ the magnitude of the SWG NGE fuck-up. That's not even close. SWG didn't just get randomly changed, it got turned into a whole other _genre_. You just can't top _that_ kind of achievement. Still, it just shows the kind of random changes to one's characters that Sony won't think twice about doing.

That said, if I'm to take a wild uninformed guess about the future:

I'm thinking more like... anyone else remember that in SWG smugglers _still_ can't actually smuggle? That content just doesn't exist.

Or that they created 4 flavours of the trader class in the NGE, and made them not able to even do the normal quests (since being stuck at combat level 1 kinda makes it impossible to actually kill anything for a quest fast)... and nerfed 3 flavours out of 4 into mostly making a loss? (Now duly noted, crafting in a lot of games, WoW included is mostly a time-sink on the side. But that's just the point: it's a secondary activity of a character mostly geared towards adventuring. But making a class that can _only_ craft and then making them produce worse stuff than the drops off random desert chicken, is kinda harsh.)

Or that they actually broke the Entertainers (you get items like posters which should start a quest, but they don't actually do anything), and the random generated quests send you to dance for some tourists... in an empty room without any tourists? Or that it tells you all the time that Entertainers are masters of extracting information from people, yet the content to actually do that simply doesn't exist after the tutorial?

Or that there's a shitload of levels of Politician, yet you went from zero to max the instant you join a city, since the content for all those levels just didn't exist?

Etc. :P

So I'm having this mental image of a SOE game with spies... that can't actually spy. And mercenaries which are stuck doing the same randomly generated quest over and over again, because that's all the mercenary content, but can't actually get any meaningful mercenary employment :P

Additionally...

[Moraelin]

In addition to what was already said, let's put it like this: the NGE turned the whole game into a whole other genre. It went from being a SF MMORPG to a FPS with a bad interface, plus a rigid no-choices class system which just says which special attacks you get at which level. The most common metaphor for it is that they turned SWG into Planetside, but that doesn't even do it justice: it's a Planetside with a bad interface, and with actually less freedom than Planetside.

Pay attention to that part about turning the game into a whole other genre, please, and you'll probably understand why most people are annoyed by it. Imagine that you've signed up for, dunno, Eve Online because you like the space combat, and after a couple of years it gets suddenly turned into Everquest instead. Oh and you get to choose a fantasy class instead of your customized ship. Sorry, there's no way to play your old character as it was any more.

Even if you don't think that one is inherently a worse game as such, it's the whole thing of turning it into another game. You can surely see how that would annoy a lot of people. A lot liked the old game, and just don't like the new mechanics and wouldn't have signed up for the new game.

And forcing everyone else to pick a fundamentally different character class is a pretty obvious (and justified) reason for discontent. Imagine that you've actually invested time and energy in creating and levelling up a very specific flavour of character... and suddenly you have to pick from a list of 9 fundamentally different ones, because your old combination is no longer available. Imagine that even the interface doesn't work like it used to any more.

If you're familiar with, say, WoW, imagine that you've wanted to play a hunter. Say, a very specific flavour too, like Beastmastery spec hunter, or Marksman spec hunter. You've done quests, you've grinded your epics, you've spent time at the auction house getting just the right kind of equipment for that character. Because, you know, that's the character you wanted to play. (Feel free to replace with whatever class you actually liked, if that makes the metaphor easier to swallow.) Then imagine that a patch came and just deleted that class. In fact, it deleted both pet classes, so switching to Warlock isn't an option either. Sorry, pal, pet classes are out. We'll let you switch to another class, though. You can be a scrapper, tanker, defender, controller or blaster like in COH now.

Oh yeah, also imagine that they just decided to get rid of the talent trees and the old abilities too. Having a choice of spec was so difficult to balance and all. You may have carefully planned advancing your character, but that goes right into the garbage bin. Now everyone gets to be a clone of everyone else, and uniformly get a pre-determined skill every 5 levels.

Surely you see how that would piss off a lot of people, right? It's not even whether the new classes are "worse" as such (although methinks they are.) People get emotionally attached to that character, and having it unilaterally nuked and turned into something fundamentally different... well, it's gonna feel like that character just got raped. Yet that's just what SOE did in the NGE.

Now also imagine that there was a prestige class, available only to people who've grinded the other classes to level 70. (Which actually would be less grind in WoW than the old SWG "hologrind" to Jedi.) So you've grinded like a slave, dumped thousands of hours into mindlessly levelling up a bunch of unrelated classes (half of which maybe you didn't even like in the first place), did the same quests and shot the same NPCs over and over again... and finally got your prestige class. Now you're a Jedi. Bloody finally.

Now imagine that the same patch comes by and nukes all that achievement, and makes it one of the normal classes available to all newbies. In fact, imagine they got rid of the old Warrior class, and made your Jedi just the melee tank class. Yep, that was another stunt Sony pulled in the N