For Those of You Interested in The Secret World

[Sprkly]

That makes me sad for TSW. I see why Funcom is doing it. It's a rather brilliant marketing strategy, but at the same time, I think (like many others) that they should have given priority to the fans who've been on board from the beginning - the ones who post on the forums and already have their guilds assembled. The people who've been driving the early TSW community deserve a spot in beta. I don't think they should have to play a Facebook game to get a spot. Just my 2 cents.

[Klinical]

pity they didn't anticipate demand and scale their website appropriately...

hehe.. quoted from the official tsw forums:

Steps to create your own DoS attack.

1. Develop a highly anticipated game. Don't give info and tease the public.
2. Put a timer on your page counting down to "beta".
3. Sit back and watch the mahem.

[Jezebelle]

So this is what it takes to get me to even consider FaceBook. I think I'm going to take my chances without it. Whatever exclusive content comes with this "Secret War ARG" I'll just have to do without.

I got a key from the Pets vs Monsters stress test and applied it to my (at the time) paid AO account, which supposedly guaranteed me a place in the beta. I have yet to receive any invitation or even so much as a notice about the beta coming soon associated with that "key." Probably because it would only work with a PAID AO account, and that account is no longer paid.

I'm increasingly concerned about how this is being handled, but it's a little early to throw in the towel. There's still plenty of time for them to offer beta access to those who showed early interest, and the Secret War thing really is a good idea. There's just no need for them to announce what other criteria they might have for beta invitations.

[Vallikat]

Just some info for you Jez regarding your prior beta access, per Tarib:

"Hi everybody, we just wanted to clarify some of the confusion around the announced beta sign-ups today. We are opening up the sign-ups on the 26th of August, and we would like everyone interested in The Secret World to sign up! That is because not only does it mean you have a chance at grabbing a spot in the beta, but it will also play a key role in upcoming campaigns and all those intriguing ARG style activities that tend to surface from time-to-time.

This is, in effect, an additional entry to those that have gone before. It doesn't negatively affect any previous chances you have entered into (or indeed won), so this is something that everyone can sign-up for when it opens next week!

So even those of you who already have a guaranteed spot in the beta (whether that was through competitions, or the Age of Conan incentives) should still sign up, so that you get to be involved in future experiences. It will not adversely effect your existing claim, and you don't want to miss out on the updates as we gear towards beta and launch! Those who already have a guaranteed spot in the beta, will get that access granted at an appropriate part of the beta process."

[Meenstreek]

Okay...the count down timer ended and then they added 4 more hours to it and now it's ended again but if you look at the timer it's "broken". I think this may be another one of those games that Funcom used to announce the game and the forums 4 years ago.

Any thoughts?

Edit: Interestingly enough, http://secretwar.thesecretworld.com throws a 403 Access Forbidden meaning that subdomain has at least been configured on their server.

[Vallikat]

That's what I think too Meenie. I posted something along those lines about a million pages ago but it got burried as soon as I hit enter.

Basically, this reminded me of my first ARG, which happened to be an EA game called Majestic.

Website lured me in, but everything I tried would not allow me to download even though it looked like it was active. After much searching I found a download link. Video which is supposed to kick off the game crashes, and Ta-da...the game is afoot.

So I started to think about that and this broken timer thing and EA's involvement and basically I think you're right.

But I wish to hell they weren't encouraging spamming. We'll never be able to sort it out if the threads grow as fast as they have been.

[Jezebelle]

Thanks for the info, Valli. I wasn't so much concerned that the Secret War ARG was /replacing/ the old keys, but more than the old keys would only work if the accounts they were applied to are active /now/. Seems kinda silly to me to pay for a few months of AO just to wait and see when the beta invite might come in.

I'm not avoiding the ARG because I'm worried it will mess up the key I already have. I'm just being stubborn about the whole FaceBook thing. If I really thought the old key wasn't going to work, I might consider the FaceBook thing, but I'm not that worried about it yet. From the looks of things, it might take them a little while to get it all straightened out and working smoothly. I'll just wait and watch a little while.

[Vallikat]

Yeah it's definitely messed up. I do use facebook and even I'm hesitant about this aspect of it. We'll have to see how it turns out tomorrow I guess.

[Nushen]

Confirmation from Funcom about the PvM beta key. We'll get an email about it, but not likely on the very first day or so of the beta. It's still garaunteed if you entered the key to your AO account page. We just have to be a little more patient than the 5,000 people spamming their forums right now, and in a minute... and in two minutes... and 5 minutes after that 'cause they got hungry... and another couple seconds after that... and then again 'cause they've lost all sense of reality outside getting a free beta key so they forgot anything exists outside the F5 key and trolling the Devs. And gawd help the nearest McDonalds' patrons and employees if they lose internet for 30 seconds.

[Mivat]

Having followed the mayhem on the TSW-site for a few hours last night, I'll have to say that I'm laughing my head, kidneys, 'nads and pinkytoes off because of it. Rarely have I seen so much angst, rage, emotion and utter stupidity as was seen there.

That being said, I do think Tarib and the other mods should not have promised beta-keys for the first post on a certain page. Within minutes if not seconds, one of the threads went from 90 pages to well over 120.

[Meenstreek]

Ya, it was pretty horrible. The timer stopped (well, the first time) stopped at midnight for me and then they set it go for 4 more hours. I went to bed, woke up at around 5am (hour after it stopped again) and followed for about 8 or 9 hours off and on. Posted a kitten picture as well .

I agree, those "next post gets a beta key" thing was stupid. But anyways, I hope the delay was pre-planned and not because of technical difficulties. If they can't get a damn signup form or a simple facebook game to launch on schedule.....than what hope is there for TSW in April '12?

[Mivat]

[quote="Meenstreek"I agree, those "next post gets a beta key" thing was stupid. But anyways, I hope the delay was pre-planned and not because of technical difficulties. If they can't get a damn signup form or a simple facebook game to launch on schedule.....than what hope is there for TSW in April '12?[/quote]

I'd say that for those of us that has been through a few launches of FC's games, we'll have enough patience to overcome it I also think that they grossly underestimated the interest people would have in TSW, judging from the mayhem on the boards.

Somehow I knew picking up two yearly subs for AoC was a good thing

[codrus]

"Due to technical difficulties we have decided to postpone the first phase of the Secret War experience and the beta registration until further notice."

The nostalgia reminds me of AO's release.

Source

[Shigy]

http://www.thesecretworld.com/news/secr ... on_delayed

yeah

[Tastyvixen]

*facepalm*

[Meenstreek]

From what I've been hearing, The Secret War (Facebook game) is being created by another company and is the one that is causing all the hangup. Funcom is just taking the fall to not name any names. I think I'd like to get confirmation though, might talk to som funcommies (that doesn't sound right...) to get confirmation.

[Mivat]

I find it hilarious that people get so bent out of shape about a Beta-signup event for a closed beta, to be honest. Then again, this IS what I've come to expect from MMO-players of this day and age.

Hopefully FC have learned from the launches of AO and AoC.

[Meenstreek]

I find it hilarious that people get so bent out of shape about a Beta-signup event for a closed beta, to be honest. Then again, this IS what I've come to expect from MMO-players of this day and age.

Hopefully FC have learned from the launches of AO and AoC.

I think they have Miv and also from what I've read in an article that was Google Translated from German to English, EA have been riding them very hard to get everything right.

I believe

[Mivat]

Hopefully FC have learned from the launches of AO and AoC.

I think they have Miv and also from what I've read in an article that was Google Translated from German to English, EA have been riding them very hard to get everything right.

I believe [/quote]

Hopefully they will It's still a sad fact that many won't try out both AoC and TSW due to how FC has handled things in the past, just like many won't touch a product with an SoE-tag on it. Can only hope it gets better.

[Vallikat]

The Secret War has started...

www.thesecretworld.com