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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.'"
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.
For your next mission, I want you to collect 12 pictures of supermarkets, 14 mysterious hats and a lost 'spys briefcase'..
Intel gathering MMO? Really?
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.
How we know is more important than what we know.
"John Ubuli, Fictiana's prime minister, was assassinated tonight. Apparently 12502 assassins entered the embassy simultaneously screaming 'LEEEEROY JEEenkins!'"
I'm not gonna knock the game yet... it has an interesting twist to the normal beat-em-up mmo's so will wait and see how they implement it. As it's an mmo, you will always have the grind factor etc so will just have to weigh up the good points.Some ideas that come to mind are:
(*) it would be cool to be travelling the world disguised as normal npc so other players may not be able to tell you're a player unless they have higher skill and so you never know how many people may be after the same target.
(*) You could be in rival spy-assassin companies and build company/player reputation.
(*) Being able to use sniper weapons, cameras etc like an FPS
(*) Ability for espionage, infiltrating rival companies or sabotaging their objective etc
Spy's engage in combat?
This sounds like a mix between WoW and Splinter Cell. That'll be just ACE.
Finally had enough. Come see us over at https://soylentnews.org/
MMOs, historically, haven't really been able to do anything about the problem that, in game, everyone wants to be the protagonist; but every protagonist needs extras.
Something involving spies seems much more problematic than usual in that regard. Meet another PC? Oh, now what are the odds that he is a spy, no matter how clever his cover?
So basically it's like meeting an American in Europe?
How we know is more important than what we know.
Hey, we aren't all spies. A few of us actually do work for the state department, for real.
A sober American...
Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
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...
http://www.tenjou.net/
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/96/Spy_vs_spy.gif
"Kill 'em all and let Root sort 'em out"
Indeed, and a few "Civil Servants" are actually employed by offices other than GCHQ! It's a good cover, though... A little too good...
Finally had enough. Come see us over at https://soylentnews.org/
For which, as an American, I would like to apologize for. For some reason, it seems that a college right of passage is to spend thousands of dollars, fly over an ocean, and get so wasted that you don't even remember boarding the plane.
The "Sober American" is just a myth--much like the Loch Ness monster, the modest Frenchman, and the employed Briton.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Not insightful! I don't know anything! It was a joke about fake spies! I didnhcde\s7805[NO CARRIER]
Finally had enough. Come see us over at https://soylentnews.org/
Or people who RTFA.
Bark less. Wag more.
... the first MMO will use public surveillance cameras for input when populating their environment with NPCs.
I hope they have car chases. Dibs on the Aston.
American? Oh no, I'm from Canada.
Oops! What I meant to say was: "American? Oh no, I'm from Canada, eh?".
Yet, maybe sadly for me, their CEO starts blogging about Planetside Next and I get all Pavlovy and run to sign up.
Save the Music; Save the World at http://www.TuneTriever.com (Our latest Android game)
Which isn't a coincidence. It also makes me want this game.
i like the "you are what you wear" classlessness. It's one of my favorite features of PlanetSide(PS). i despise classes in other MxxGs.
Normally i'd say the 4 player teams is lame, but in this case it fits with the setting. It does erode their claim that it is a massive. Only the public spaces are massive. Sounds a bit like Global Agenda (which i didn't care for after being in the beta).
Switching to third person is clever, as long as there is no auto aim BS. The over the should shit is fine for an MRPG, but not for something calling itself a shooter.
Missions SHOULD be PvP, one agency defends, the other attacks.
The lack of persistence is disappointing. What my team does in Prague has no effect on what your team does in Prague. It's counter strike with a loose plot tied on to it. PS has one and only one instance and everything is persistent and interconnected. My team capturing Hossin gives your team on Ishundar a benefit. Hossin stays captured until someone takes it back. In tA, the map resets.
PvP appears to be tacked on like it is in much of GA, WoW and other massives, rather than a part of the whole game.
i hope they find a way to make console and pc players integrate. Without auto aim the PC players will wipe the console players with little effort. Or maybe... consoles should *GASP* allow keyboard and mouse as input!
Utilizing the synergization of benchmark e-solutions to pre-workaround action items!
If you try to leave, you'll find yourself on an island, subject to the whims of Number Two.
..as opposed to British tourists in Europe, who are the very models of restrained sobriety.
I have tried several different consoles and always ended up selling them (XBox,PS3,Wii) because the gameplay is completely underwhelming overall. This is just another console title, and as such leaves me completely uninterested.
PC Gaming is inherently superior, the games tend to be more challenging and complex (because the interface for them makes that possible) and the idea of MMO gaming on an console is just full of suck IMHO.
Call me a dinosaur or whatever, I really don't understand the attraction to consoles at all. I have played them and the most enjoyable game I can think of (the one that had me playing it the most) was downhill skiing on the Wii. Halo I finished with a friend in 18 hrs of straight gameplay, but having finished it had no desire to ever touch it again. Assassin's Creed I don't think I got past the tutorial. Consoles, meh. I would rather get my teeth cleaned that touch another one.
"The first time I got drunk, I got married. The second time I bought a chimpanzee, after that I stayed sober" Arian Seid
The sex. Because you cannot have a good spy story without the sex. Apparently, everyone in this game has sex with everyone else. And all the female characters are named "Pussy Galore."
The cancel button is your friend. Do not hesitate to use it.
I agree with your point on knowing that every other PC is a spy. I thought the same thing earlier. But I disagree that you can't still fell like the protagonist. FFXI gave you cut scenes (that your character was in) that made you feel like you were more the center of attention (like a single player RPG). WoW now is capable of having people on different phases of an area. For example, in one area there is a fort under attack...you do quests to help the fort and actually push back the enemies changing the landscape and action in the area. If I were designing and MMO I would look at these. Some people hate cut scenes though...so the phasing idea might be better...the only negative is people who are in different phases can not interact with each other in that area.
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