Funcom what would it take?

[Grimseethe]

I don't get you Funcom you make good games them abandon them.
SWL, Conan.
You own two IPs that have no competition.
There isn't a single MMO that's exists that is anything like SWL, not even the sub genre.
Even Conan is unique in that its mature and has nudity and such.
You own the market for two types of MMO yet you do nothing with them, i dont get it.
It cant be a money issue, you're currently making the Dune MMO which must cost many millions to make, are you going to abandon that also?
Some communication would be nice.
SWL could be a goldmine in the right hands, never before in 25 years of MMO playing have i so much as been unnerved by a mmo, but SWL is genuinely unnerving at times.

I doubt any dev will see this, but if not for us do it for yourselves, everyone likes money.

[Mournblade]

I would love to see SWL get a lot of Tender Loving Care. I have played the game on and off since it launched as The Secret World, and there are some things to love about the game. It isn't in good shape, but it could be. I think Funcom has been seeking a bigger hit, instead of looking after what it already owns.

[Snowskeeper]

Even Conan is unique in that its mature and has nudity and such.

What a bizarre way to describe ownership one of the most famous media properties of the last century

I love the Secret World as a setting but there's a reason they're still pumping time and money into Conan Exiles, and it ain't that Exiles is a better game than either iteration of SW.

[Liralen]

I've been a big fan of Funcom since Anarchy Online.

So I played TSW at release, then SWL. I started with two other players - my husband and son. We all were MMO vets, beginning with Everquest. Accordingly, one chose DPS abilities, the other chose healing, while I chose a hybrid, AR/sword, i.e. , not stellar choices by any of us.

From the very beginning, it was hard to stay together as a group because of all of the solo only instances, which each of us took a varying amount of time to do, which left the others waiting. My husband dropped out in Egypt, while my son didn't quit until doing all the Transylvania content, long before Tokyo was released, which of course killed TSW because of AEGIS, which SWL thankfully removed.

I remember reading on the TSW forums, over and over again, that Blue Mountain was where players were quitting. In hindsight, that was probably due to the Beaumont fight, which even in SWL is still solo.

Instead of fixing the solo only instances, Funcom thought we'd prefer reticle combat instead.

I gave Conan a pass because it appeared likely to attract the type of people I don't really want to be around.

So I don't have a lot of confidence in Funcom now, especially with Dune, which I had read long before the first Dune movie. Dune has had a long and troubled history with cinematic productions as well as previous games. I was pleased with Star Wars when the movie was first released only because before than, Fantasy and Science Fiction were just for weirdos like me. Star Wars made the genre cool. But as a long time F & SF reader, I recognized that it stole a lot from Dune and other great F & SF novels, including the Foundation series.

On the other hand, Anarchy Online and SWL (and even TSW) still exist despite its abysmal player numbers, unlike Star Wars Galaxies. So Funcom still deserves the benefit of a doubt at least.

[Grimseethe]

Originally posted by Snowskeeper:

Even Conan is unique in that its mature and has nudity and such.

What a bizarre way to describe ownership one of the most famous media properties of the last century

I love the Secret World as a setting but there's a reason they're still pumping time and money into Conan Exiles, and it ain't that Exiles is a better game than either iteration of SW.

Doesnt matter how famous it is i was just showing how it differs from the competition.

[Snowskeeper]

Originally posted by jamie6429:

Doesnt matter how famous it is i was just showing how it differs from the competition.

The way it differs from the competition is that it's one of the biggest and most recognisable brands of the 20th century, not that there are naked people in it.

[Snowskeeper]

most people under 30 dont know or care about conan, you cant say thats wrong, because its so clearly not

It is, though.

[Handoiron]

Originally posted by Snowskeeper:

The way it differs from the competition is that it's one of the biggest and most recognisable brands of the 20th century, not that there are naked people in it.

There are naked people in it, that's why it's one of the most recognizable brands of the 20th century....

Heck, it was too R rated to make toys out of it so they dropped the rights to make Conan toys and made up an entire cartoon universe for Masters of the Universe instead of just capitalizing on the "recognizable brand".

In the case of AoC and TSW both, Funcom didn't just abandon either... there just wasnt enough people interested in either game to justify spending more money on developing them.

Originally posted by jamie6429:

You own two IPs that have no competition.
There isn't a single MMO that's exists that is anything like SWL, not even the sub genre.
Even Conan is unique in that its mature and has nudity and such.

This is very much NOT a positive feature... it's a symptom of the reason that neither game is their main focus... they just aren't popular enough to provide a paying customer base to allow devoting development resources to.

If the theme of either gamer were popular enough to justify development, then some time in the last decade and a half that they've been around some other company would have jumped into the genre with a similar theme to capitalize off of the popularity.


Both games are incredibly niche themed, AoC for it's overt sexuality and outright sexist objectification and SWL for it's comparatively low fantasy factor in a genre completely stacked with fantasy games.


Saying that either is an amazing opportunity is kinda like saying having an outhouse installed for your bathroom is great simply because no one else has one....

[Grimseethe]

Originally posted by Handoiron:

Originally posted by Snowskeeper:

The way it differs from the competition is that it's one of the biggest and most recognisable brands of the 20th century, not that there are naked people in it.

There are naked people in it, that's why it's one of the most recognizable brands of the 20th century....

Heck, it was too R rated to make toys out of it so they dropped the rights to make Conan toys and made up an entire cartoon universe for Masters of the Universe instead of just capitalizing on the "recognizable brand".

In the case of AoC and TSW both, Funcom didn't just abandon either... there just wasnt enough people interested in either game to justify spending more money on developing them.

Originally posted by jamie6429:

You own two IPs that have no competition.
There isn't a single MMO that's exists that is anything like SWL, not even the sub genre.
Even Conan is unique in that its mature and has nudity and such.

This is very much NOT a positive feature... it's a symptom of the reason that neither game is their main focus... they just aren't popular enough to provide a paying customer base to allow devoting development resources to.

If the theme of either gamer were popular enough to justify development, then some time in the last decade and a half that they've been around some other company would have jumped into the genre with a similar theme to capitalize off of the popularity.


Both games are incredibly niche themed, AoC for it's overt sexuality and outright sexist objectification and SWL for it's comparatively low fantasy factor in a genre completely stacked with fantasy games.


Saying that either is an amazing opportunity is kinda like saying having an outhouse installed for your bathroom is great simply because no one else has one....

In my hands both games would be making millions, all i can say.

[Handoiron]

Originally posted by jamie6429:

In my hands both games would be making millions, all i can say.

Sure... but who would you paying those millions to??? because obviously, neither game is a big money maker for an actual game developer. Just check reality....

Both games were released and had expansions made for them. Both games development slowed down as time went by.

Just like most persistent games, both game's revenue stream eventually faded away to the point that continuous development was just not financially feasible.

Unlike most "popular" innovative game titles, neither game has a single clone copying it. In comparison to most "popular" games, both faded to the point of financially forced slow down and stop quite quickly.


Obviously, most people reading these forums will probably agree that the games themselves are fun and enjoyable. This means the only realistic conclusion is that the problem with both games is that they just don't attract a large enough number of players. That isn't going to change just because someone throws tons of money at them, the basic issue of unpopularity will always be there.


In the case of Conan theme, obviously Conan Exiles is doing well, mostly due to the brand being applied to a proven style and genre, unlike AoC.

In the case of TSW franchise, there just isn't any reason to expect a magical shift of the target player base to such a low key fantasy aspect. Honestly, TSW would have done MUCH better as a FPS/survival style game with RPG elements that it ever did as an MMORPG set in the real world in modern times.

[Angel Phoenix77]

There is a line in the movie Replacements, it would take heart. There is only one company that has shown contempt for their own game. And they are Cryptic and the game champions online.

[Socipat]

Tell me you don't pay SWL with out telling me you don't play SWL.

[Grimseethe]

Originally posted by Socipat:

Tell me you don't pay SWL with out telling me you don't play SWL.

Explain, hundreds of hours in game.

[Socipat]

Originally posted by Grimseethe:

Originally posted by Socipat:

Tell me you don't pay SWL with out telling me you don't play SWL.

Explain, hundreds of hours in game.

Tell me you don't play MMOs with out telling me you don't play MMOs because if you did you would know that hundreds of hours in an MMO does not mean hundreds of hours PLAYING an MMO.

[Grimseethe]

Originally posted by Socipat:

Originally posted by Grimseethe:

Explain, hundreds of hours in game.

Tell me you don't play MMOs with out telling me you don't play MMOs because if you did you would know that hundreds of hours in an MMO does not mean hundreds of hours PLAYING an MMO.

So you think i spent hundreds of hours sitting in agartha doing nothing, not actually playing?

Actually forget answering, can you explain your original point, do you disagree with something ive said?

[Shibubs]

Originally posted by Handoiron:

Originally posted by jamie6429:

In my hands both games would be making millions, all i can say.

Please. The game TSW died because Funcom butchered it and alienated the fanbase.
I've seen you Whiteknight this company for the longest time, it did bad because Funcom func'ed up. SWL is a hollow game compared to its former self and the gameplay + changes we were promised never came, instead a dumbed down version with plenty of content removed.