Posted by Alec Meer on September 30th, 2009.
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Aieee! Seems Age of Conan devs Funcom aren’t in the rudest of health – they’ve just announced 20% of their workforce is being let go, and their hopefully-incredible MMO The Secret World has been delayed by “some months.” Conan’s upcoming expansion isn’t affected, apparently. Best of luck to those who’ve lost their jobs, and, selfishly, let’s hope The Secret World doesn’t have to compromise itself as a result.
Posted by Jim Rossignol on September 10th, 2009.
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The Secret World is fast becoming the most promising MMO title on the horizon. The first handful of images are here, and you can click on any of them for a hi-res version of the full thing. For more information check out our older interview here and brand new PvP, combat, and faction info here.
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Posted by Jim Rossignol on September 10th, 2009.
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Yesterday we spoke to The Secret World project lead Ragnar Tørnquist. He revealed a whole bunch of new information about the urban fantasy MMO of monsters, secret societies and mysterious evil, which is now sounding increasingly awesome: a (sort of?) real-time combat system for PvP, a subterranean city for the secret societies for fight over, and a mutual war against evil and darkness in the real world. Along with the three factions he’s revealed a little about their HQ buildings, the share social hub for each faction, and the PvP impact of guilds, or cabals as they will be known. More promising, perhaps, is an MMO that eschews traditional vertical structure of RPGs, opting for a “horizontal” advancement that will allow people to contribute to higher end PvP stuff from the very start. Yes, there’s every reason to believe that Funcom might finally be on the right track. Read on for our chat with Tørnquist, or go here for our previous interview.
Posted by Jim Rossignol on September 7th, 2009.
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FunCom is soon to release a wad of new information about its MMO The Secret World (check out psychological profile for your faction recommendation), after being shown at PAX, but currently it’s still being kept secret by The Man. The moment we can kill them all we’ll have all the details, but until then you’ll have to make do with this really rather pretty CGI trailer. Clearly it reveals nothing of what happens in-game, but it suggests a lovely spooky atmosphere. And a pretty girl fighting a weird bird beast. Which is enough.
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Posted by Jim Rossignol on April 22nd, 2009.
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Funcom’s contemporary dark fantasy, The Secret World, is an MMO with a cliffhanger ending. So says its creator, Ragnar Tørnquist. In fact, it’s claims like this that make this one of the most significant MMOs currently in development. Hell, with CCP not having released any details at all for World Of Darkness, this is probably the most interesting forthcoming MMO we’re aware of. Anyway: braving the nightmarish audio confusion of my echoing speakerphone interview setup, Funcom’s project lead took some time out to talk about the game, with its conspiracy theories and modern mythologies, and his feelings about high heels. Of course I didn’t start by asking any relevant questions, and asked about Anarchy Online instead.
Posted by Jim Rossignol on April 7th, 2009.
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Where do you go after Conan The Barbarian? To a contemporary conspiratorial supernatural setting with a cute girl and a horrific monster, of course! “A world where magic is real and monsters roam…” Funcom’s next MMO is The Secret World, and it is revealed in a whirl of internet magic beyond the jump. Not revealed by us, of course, because we’re too wee, but by the all-seeing eye of GameTrailers. There’s two bits, so watch the first one first, as it’s got the beautiful Ragnar “Dreamfall” Tornquist talking about his creation. “Fight rising darkness!” Anything for you, Ragnar. “This is an MMORPG without classes, without levels, this is completely skill-based,” Ragnar, now you are teasing us! You naughty beast!
Posted by John Walker on August 18th, 2008.
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A few months back, before the release of Age Of Conan, I took a trip to Funcom to finally meet The Longest Journey creator, Ragnar Tørnquist. Having keenly followed his career since the wondrous The Longest Journey, he’s someone I’ve always wanted to interview. So at last given the chance, we sat down to chat… for over three hours. The results are now to be seen, and in this first part we begin by discussing the nature of MMOs, and then spend a lot of time talking about the role of the Storyteller in gaming, before finding out how Ragnar tried to get swearing into a Spielberg-endorsed kids’ game. (Portions of this interview previously appeared in PC Gamer).
Posted by John Walker on August 17th, 2008.
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Two screenshots of Funcom’s next MMO, The Secret World, have appeared. Semi-officially put out, they’re from Funcom’s quarterly report, and they’re confirmed as for real by lead dev, Ragnar Tørnquist. In fact, he says on his blog that he took them himself.
For Norwegian readers, there’s speculation about what they might mean here. For the rest of us, there’s the usual collection of cryptic hints on Rangar’s blog.
