Out of Pod Experience

So lemme start by saying that my first MMO was Anarchy Online (a Funcom game). From there I heard about EVE Online, but detoured into WoW for a few years before I came here. Now, over a decade later, I've pre-ordered The Secret World and I do believe I've gone full circle.

I'm going to be staying here. EVE is pretty much my permanent vacation home. But I think I've gotten to the point where it's time to settle and stop trying out every damned MMO that springs up and stick with just one/two that I'm satisfied with. One already being EVE, of course.

I like EVE so much that I'm willing to keep my sub running indefinitely while I play another game for a bit.

But, I'm so tired of trying out new MMOs only to find it's another version of WoW. This TSW game definitely isn't that.

Is anyone else going to come around next week/two weeks? My ingame name will be Paxcorpus, already have it reserved.

I was interested to learn more stuff on TSW, but after asking a bit on the official forum and watching some gameplay videos from beta weekends, I figured it's gonna be even worst than AoC, which is quite an achievement. So all in all I won't even try it.

I used to play Anarchy Online when it just came out. There were some technical issues with the game early on resulting in people renaming the company Fukcom instead of Funcom. After the initial few months the game became much more playable though.

What I remember most fondly are the social gatherings that were organized among the players in a club in Omni-1 named Baboons. Despite the issues with the entry hall causing enormous amounts of lag (even when nobody else would be inside) people still cared enough to get stuck for +5 minutes just to participate in what could best be described as a mix between RP and a 3D chatroom.

I'm probably going to skip on The Secret World initially, but I might check it out when it's been out for a few months (Funcom has a history of terrible game launches). It's mostly the involvement of Ragnar Tornquist (who also made The Longest Journey) that has me interested. If you're playing the game, let me know what you think of the presentation of the story elements.

Only other MMO I care about this year except eve is Guild Wars 2.

Made the mistake of preordering SWTOR after I was in the beta, got bored at level 24 and quit after month one.

I quit WoW a long time before that because it's too nerfed and dumbed down now.

Eve is the only game I'll always keep playing.

Got a beta invite ages ago, just completely ignored it...

if anyone wants a key let me know... i won't bother with this beta. nor the game...

So one of the forum-goers saw a post of mine on the TSW forums and shot me a closed beta key, so that I can play now and until head-start. I played through the beginning sequence, the weapons training sequence and made it up to the "fast-travel hub" sequence.

The first sequence felt like a mix between The Matrix and Left 4 Dead. Combat was responsive and the UI wasn't too complicated to figure out.

Second sequence, I was given every basic type of weapon you can start out with in the game and tested each of them on "zombie-dummies." Decided to go with dual-pistols and a katana as a side-weapon later on. The most intriguing part about this part of the game is where they show you the skill-wheel. It is absolutely massive. I think I chose a skill which allows you to heal party members after doing a certain amount of damage with your pistols.

Third sequence brought back memories. I had a mission to travel to this new area. I'm under NDA so I'm not sure if I can go all out explaining all of it, but for those who've played Anarchy Online, Funcom went ahead and copy-pasted "the grid network" and made something very similar for TSW. So, in other words, you should be able to instantly travel from London to Manhattan.

What I can say is, this definitely is not World of Warcraft. It feels more like a mix between... Anarchy Online, The Longest Journey and a third-person shooter. It is rich with little perks and pieces of information you can find. There's an entire ingame system that logs all of the lore you discover and achievements you acquire.

The only thing that was kind of a downer was the character creation. There needs to be more face options. Although, there is talk on the CB forums about there possibly being way more than what we have after launch.

I'll post more if I can.

edit: (I'm pretty sure all of this information and gameplay is available to those who participate in beta weekends)

edit edit: okay, nevermind, the NDA was just lifted!

lol I feel your pain.

Why's that? If I remember correctly, AO was all dungeons and missions before NW. Did the PVP flagging system even exist? I know there were the arenas. I used to hang out in the Tir arena all the time, even as Omni.

I too am a closed beta tester and so far I have loved every minute of it. I've been playing and testing games since AO and this is a really refreshing break from modern MMOs. I have it preordered and I don't regret it. Fun on has really learned from the awful launch of AoC and this is really something special. Very polished, bugs were usually squashed in sub 24 hour timeframes and the stor is absolutely awesome, not to mention creative and immersive. You will not be disappointed with this game. Much like eve is the thinking mans Internet spaceship game TSW is a huge step up in terms of difficulty and actually challenging yourself opposed t WoW or SWTOR.