Dev Discusses Upcoming Spy-MMO, The Agency

Kheldon writes "The MMO Gamer recently sat down with Lorien Gremore, lead producer on SOE's upcoming spy-shooter MMO, The Agency. They discussed various aspects of its development, such as the 'stickiness' of session-based games, striking a balance between FPS and MMO players, and whether or not The Agency even falls under the definition of a traditional MMO at all. 'You might be in Prague, and experiencing play with a lot of different other players; you might have come in at your field office and gone out into the city, encountering many other players doing missions that you are also doing,' Gremore said. She added that the game's areas are large enough to have 'lots of different people in them, collecting intel, engaging in public combat, all of those types of things. These areas are big enough that there’s shops, there’s secret spaces, photos to be taken of suspicious objects, things like that. They’re all out there in the world. We’re really trying to create a balance, where you’re encountering a lot of social situations, chances to get into groups with other people, just by merit of the fact that you guys are doing the same sorts of things in the same sorts of places.'"

Comments

Wow, still isn't out

[JazzXP]

I remember seeing a trailer for this a couple of years ago. I assumed it had already come out without any hype around it. I guess like most games, they've released a trailer way too early. I think it hurts sales doing this too. Build up hype, people get excited assuming it's coming out soon, then something else comes out in the mean time and then you're over the hype. Seems to doubly apply to MMO's. At least to me anyway. Was super pumped for Jumpgate, now I'm not sure if I'll get it or not.

Looks full of fail

[QuantumG]

We've got this idea for a game see, and it's about spies, but rather than come up with any truly compelling gameplay we're just going have a really big world and put it online.

Re:Looks full of fail

[Shadow of Eternity]

Sounds about right.

I'd like to see an MMO that's like a cross between Hitman and The Ship, only without the pants-on-head stupid that plagued both of them.

What's the point of being a spy?

[srothroc]

Why should we care about being a spy in a game where everyone is a spy? Part of the fun in the idea of being a spy is that you do neat stuff while masquerading as a normal person... among normal people. If everyone's a spy, it's kind of boring, sort of like playing a Hitman game where everyone is the Hitman...