Funcom's Secret World is Anti-Grind

[ChromeAlchemist]

About time this game resurfaced. I find people's input on this to be interesting, and I'll respond to them later, however I am excited for this game.

 

[Nutcase]

Grind is what separates the noobs from the pros.

No, that would be skill.
Grind only separates the no-lifers from the rest.

Imagine grinding an MMO for two years and some newb who just started a month ago hands you your ass. The social pecking order would be all out of whack. MMO players are split into two groups. Those who spend their lifes working to perfect their characters and those who occassionally pop in for fun. These groups can't mix because it would destroy any real sense of accomplishment the game has to offer.

If the two-year veteran lacks the skill to beat a newcomer, tough.

 

[Booze Zombie]

They know what they're doing, I hate grinding for the most part and this sounds pretty exciting.

Better write this down "Secret World".
Hmm, that was easy... too easy!

I've heard this somewhere before . . . . Was it every other MMO that's been released in the past four years? Yeah I think that's where I heard it before!

Every single MMORPG in the last three years has said "less grinding more playing"? I find that very hard to believe.

 

[Yokai]

If this is good, it'll be one of the first MMOs I actually care about. I hope it has proper third-person-shooter style combat, too. If it eliminates the grind and has fun and exciting combat, I'll buy it. The setting sounds interesting too.

Tabula Rasa was pretty good for a bit. Really it was just let down by a bizarre setting, a lack of content in the midlevels (there's no grind! Now kill 2000 bad guys because we forgot to make enough missions!) and, of course (and most terminally) Richard Gariott is actually more dangerously insane than Peter Moleneux...

But yeah, you just described Tabula Rasa.

That was a game I totally missed. Well, I guess there is hope for MMOs after all. Tabula Rasa not made by Gariott sounds promising.

 

[Poomanchu745]

Conan did a lot of things right that made me play it for as long as I did. But in the end it just lacked something that eventually made me part ways. I gotta say I trust funcom to some extent at this point but will definitely wait to see how it is on release as Conan was a big jumbled POS until it got fixed. But will definitely keep an eye out for this one.

 

[Caliostro]

The "no grinding bit" sounds interesting until you consider that it's not nessicarly even a good idea. Grinding exists like it currently does because to be honest it works. Casual MMORPGs have been attempted before, but typically fail due to a general lack of long term goals and accomplishments, as well as chasing away the hardcore crowd. A lot of those browser and free to play MMORPGS were specifically developed to try and draw in a casual crowd.

Not to mention the fact that grinding is needed to prevent people from going through content too fast, and/or encouraging people to replay what is there. They can only produce so many zones and so much content. If they want people to keep playing they have to keep people occupied with what is there until they can produce more content.

This is not at all true, and the fact that so many developers subscribe to that theory is most of the reason I avoid MMOs like the plague.

Games like Counter Strike, Jedi Academy and such have no grinding and the former is still a landmark in online gaming, while the second manages to stay "barely alive" 7 years after release with 0 support from the developers. These are just examples, but the bottom line is, if the GAMEPLAY is good enough people will play the game... to play the game. Because the game is fun. Which, to my mind, is what a game should be.

Games that introduce grinding usually do so because they're NOT fun to play. They're boring and repetitive, and need to artificially inflate gameplay so people stick around for a shallow ego stroke everytime the "level up" message shows up.

 

[Azmael Silverlance]

These guys would need crap load of content if they dont want to have alot of grinding....what happens at end game then?
It just seems impossible to not have grinds in a MMORPG since they dont hav eendings!!!
Way i see it they should like...put 5,000 dungeons with all cool items to have equal chance of droping...that way even if farming the instances its still gona be hard to get bored of them -_- i mean 5k -_-.....thats alot!

But will just have to wait and see.....i personally think grindign is a good thing...just have to make it ...less boring!

 

[samsonguy920]

'Twill be interesting to see if this pans out to be mostly true. 'Tain't like this is the first time that grind has been promised to be gone.

 

[Shamanic Rhythm]

Whatever. I won't be buying it after wasting my money on AoC, which was practically still alpha-quality when it was released. And then instead of putting in all the stuff that was supposed to be in AoC at launch, they just started work on a new game.

 

[Twilight_guy]

If you remove the grind by making everyone equal with no improvements over time it essentially becomes MMOFPS. If you add grind that continuously adds rather then having to grind in game then it isn't original(EVE did it.) If you reduce the time necessary to grind then you have are just reducing a problem to a smaller problem that hasn't gone away. If you remove the grind then you lose your core audience of people who grind for ever little point just because they can (people who grind for grind) and replace it with a more fickle group that does not usually play MMOs. As I see it, remove the grind from an MMORPG is like removing the color from a rainbow. Yeah, you could do it but you'd be messing with the point.

 

[lacktheknack]

...Myst Online already has killed grind.

Come ON, Funcom, finish the Longest Journey series! I'm DYING over here.

 

[viciouspen]

Hmm interesting....if they can pull it off properly I'd pick it up to play ever so often.
Sounds like the kind of thing that would be fun to play to get a change of pace.

 

[The Heik]

an anti-grind MMO? I'm in.

The only reason why I refrained from most MMOs was because they wouldn't let get into the primary story as quickly. If Secret World can hold on it's promise of anti-grind, then I will definitely have to look it up.

 

[AvsJoe]

I can't fathom an MMORPG without grinding. That seems to be the core of the gameplay. It separates the veterans from the new guys and the greats from the not-so-greats. Good luck to these guys but I highly doubt that they'll change the industry.

Funcom is ... [snip] ... just horribly dated.

Dude, if the Escapist handed out forum awards for best replies, this would definitely win something. Thank you for the informative and interesting read.

 

[tcurt]

Honestly if I was Funcom, I'd work with their Anarchy Online liscence [sic], and develop an EVE/Earth and Beyond like space RPG engine. Then blend the two together, into a great independant science fiction property with both ground based and space based gameplay. Much like what Star Trek tried to do. Honestly I think Anarchy Online has been due for a direct sequel for a while now, for all it's great ideals it's just horribly dated.

There's been a promised graphical update for a couple years to AO, and video demos to show it off, but players are still waiting, waiting. Then again, they have been very kind to Froobs.

 

[Daipire]

An mmorpg without grind is like a religion without god, a movie without main characters or booze without alcohol. People don't care that much about grind, thats why mmorpgs are hugely successful anyway.

 

[Lucifron]

Read tons of hype about Age of Conan. Felt tons of disappointment upon release. Won't be convinced until I've tried The Secret World.

 

[Sevre]

Any word on a release date? It looks much different than the original screens I saw.

 

[Jeronus]

Grind is what separates the noobs from the pros.

No, that would be skill.
Grind only separates the no-lifers from the rest.

Imagine grinding an MMO for two years and some newb who just started a month ago hands you your ass. The social pecking order would be all out of whack. MMO players are split into two groups. Those who spend their lifes working to perfect their characters and those who occassionally pop in for fun. These groups can't mix because it would destroy any real sense of accomplishment the game has to offer.

If the two-year veteran lacks the skill to beat a newcomer, tough.

You have a point there, but has anyone ever devoted a good chunk of their life to any game and became even worse than when they started? This game advertises where all the playing time in the world won't put you ahead of the newbies. Hardcore MMO players won't flock to a game where new players stand on equal footing with the elite. There is no sense of accomplishment in a game where everyone is equal from beginning to end.