Im really not sure what all this 1-3 weeks to clear all the content is about.
I had the game for two months at launch, when there was less content, and I didn't get anywhere close to clearing it all.
I think theres a lot of people skipping a hell of a lot of content to make these claims.
I've been playing casually since last fall, and my highest character is in Transylvania but probably less than halfway thru. I haven't tried any dungeons after Solomon Island, have very limited experience with Lairs, and haven't touched any DLCs except Last Train to Cairo and first mission or two on A Dream to Kill. Why are some people in such a tearing hurry?
I've said it all along and I'll continue to say it: People tear through these games because they've (largely) come from a single-player/offline gaming background, where it's a kind of "badge of pride" to "finish" games as "fast as possible".
Most of them came to the MMO genre with WoW. Problem is, rather than adapting to the "never ending", on-going adventure feel of the genre, they forcibly shoe-horned their single-player "finish it as fast as possible" playstyle into it. They insisted that developers change the games to meet their inflexible gaming habits.
Since MMOs don't have a "finish" - they're forever expanding and evolving, and there is no "Win Screen" - players have adopted "Level Cap" and "End Game" as a surrogate "win condition". And so, they race through the game, skip past tons of content, barely even pay attention to the content they do complete (no time to pay attention! I gotta gooooo!!!!), and burn through it as fast as they can.
Then they get to the end-game, they burn through that content (usually grinding on raids, etc to gear up), they reach the "peak" of what they can do in the game at that time, and then say "Okay, so now what? This game sucks! There's not enough content! I'm going to __Shiny New MMO Here__ instead! They're launching with a ton more content and the developers know how to develop a MMORPG!
And they do... And they proceed to do the same thing all over again. The "tons of content" they boast about is meaningless, because - just like the previous game.. and the ones before that - they're going to completely skip most of it anyway. Why? "Because I gotta get to end game ASAP!! No time for content!! I've gotta goooooooo!!!".
And so, one MMO after another, after another, after another falls onto their "crappy MMO" list. Why? Because MMO gamers like that are their own worst enemy. So long as they insist on "beating MMOs", rather than "playing them", no MMO will ever exist to satisfy them. It isn't possible.
My conclusion is that there's a large population of people playing MMOs who really shouldn't be playing them.
TSW is a MMO for patient people, for thinkers, for people who know how to appreciate the depth of lore, puzzle-solving, storylines, excellently written and beautifully voice-acted characters, believable environments with enough atmosphere to choke a horse. It's not a game for the impatient, for those who think the combat system is "the most important part of the game", that "storyline isn't important", or that "end game is all that matters". It's for those who can appreciate and immerse themselves in a meticulously crafted world, not for those who just "gotta gooooooo!!!" every moment they're logged in.
There's a definite anti-intellectual, anti-journey, anti-story, anti-depth sentiment among the MMO community. Most newer MMOs are forever cranking up the hand-holding and coddling, while creating ever more shallow experiences. So long as that trend continues, TSW will remain a niche title.
And for me, that's absolutely fine. I love what Funcom have created in TSW. It's a brilliant game.
Im really not sure what all this 1-3 weeks to clear all the content is about.
I had the game for two months at launch, when there was less content, and I didn't get anywhere close to clearing it all.
I think theres a lot of people skipping a hell of a lot of content to make these claims.
I've been playing casually since last fall, and my highest character is in Transylvania but probably less than halfway thru. I haven't tried any dungeons after Solomon Island, have very limited experience with Lairs, and haven't touched any DLCs except Last Train to Cairo and first mission or two on A Dream to Kill. Why are some people in such a tearing hurry?
I've said it all along and I'll continue to say it: People tear through these games because they've (largely) come from a single-player/offline gaming background, where it's a kind of "badge of pride" to "finish" games as "fast as possible".
Most of them came to the MMO genre with WoW. Problem is, rather than adapting to the "never ending", on-going adventure feel of the genre, they forcibly shoe-horned their single-player "finish it as fast as possible" playstyle into it. They insisted that developers change the games to meet their inflexible gaming habits.
Since MMOs don't have a "finish" - they're forever expanding and evolving, and there is no "Win Screen" - players have adopted "Level Cap" and "End Game" as a surrogate "win condition". And so, they race through the game, skip past tons of content, barely even pay attention to the content they do complete (no time to pay attention! I gotta gooooo!!!!), and burn through it as fast as they can.
Then they get to the end-game, they burn through that content (usually grinding on raids, etc to gear up), they reach the "peak" of what they can do in the game at that time, and then say "Okay, so now what? This game sucks! There's not enough content! I'm going to __Shiny New MMO Here__ instead! They're launching with a ton more content and the developers know how to develop a MMORPG!
And they do... And they proceed to do the same thing all over again. The "tons of content" they boast about is meaningless, because - just like the previous game.. and the ones before that - they're going to completely skip most of it anyway. Why? "Because I gotta get to end game ASAP!! No time for content!! I've gotta goooooooo!!!".
And so, one MMO after another, after another, after another falls onto their "crappy MMO" list. Why? Because MMO gamers like that are their own worst enemy. So long as they insist on "beating MMOs", rather than "playing them", no MMO will ever exist to satisfy them. It isn't possible.
My conclusion is that there's a large population of people playing MMOs who really shouldn't be playing them.
TSW is a MMO for patient people, for thinkers, for people who know how to appreciate the depth of lore, puzzle-solving, storylines, excellently written and beautifully voice-acted characters, believable environments with enough atmosphere to choke a horse. It's not a game for the impatient, for those who think the combat system is "the most important part of the game", that "storyline isn't important", or that "end game is all that matters". It's for those who can appreciate and immerse themselves in a meticulously crafted world, not for those who just "gotta gooooooo!!!" every moment they're logged in.
There's a definite anti-intellectual, anti-journey, anti-story, anti-depth sentiment among the MMO community. Most newer MMOs are forever cranking up the hand-holding and coddling, while creating ever more shallow experiences. So long as that trend continues, TSW will remain a niche title.
And for me, that's absolutely fine. I love what Funcom have created in TSW. It's a brilliant game.
Spot on... Thats why I think TSW is better than never...All the locust left ...
My only major complaint is the performance on the average gamer's computer. During such events like the current 'golden' one you will find yourself in more of a horrible slideshow than a game. The boss fights in this event are also very dull very quickly but if you want all the shiny stuff you must do them. So I'm slogging through as low as 5 FPS for the next 2weeks.
Funcom...pleeeeaasse optimize your game! How is it every game I've played of yours is plagued with rubber banding?! I'm looking at you AO.
Spot on... Thats why I think TSW is better than never...All the locust left ...
Well, the game itself has been awesome all along.
I'd agree that the community saw a major improvement once all the locusts did their "content burn" routine, got through their complaining phase, and moved on to their next self-inflicted disappointment... err... I mean their next MMO.
Far more friendly community, far more helpful discussion, far more people looking for groups for various groups... far less complaining and trolling.
I finally finished the "Dawning of An Endless Night" (I got really sidetracked and didn't get back to it 'til just earlier today lol) and, all I can say is... holy sh*t. I already loved the game before, but after that finale (confusing as it kinda was)... yeah... No question, it has shot to the top of my short list of "all-time favorite MMOs". It will be "my game" for a long time to come. Utterly brilliant. And from what my Cabal-mates tell me, future Issues only get better.
For those who might have completed it but don't recall the ending... and for those who'd like a glimpse of the otherworldly weirdness of that particular mission (and believe me, there's lots of it in the game).. Here's a shot I took during the conclusion... looking all stylish in my sweat pants .
Originally posted by Lucrecia My only major complaint is the performance on the average gamer's computer. During such events like the current 'golden' one you will find yourself in more of a horrible slideshow than a game. The boss fights in this event are also very dull very quickly but if you want all the shiny stuff you must do them. So I'm slogging through as low as 5 FPS for the next 2weeks. Funcom...pleeeeaasse optimize your game! How is it every game I've played of yours is plagued with rubber banding?! I'm looking at you AO.
Eh... I've yet to play a MMO, no matter what the engine or the system, where crowd-drawing events like this didn't result in a major hit to the game's performance. I've been on MMOs where there was literally a 3-5 second delay between frame updates. Good luck even getting a single skill to fire off correctly in those situations.
You're talking about a *lot* of data being processed by the CPU, and graphics rendering going on on the GPU.
MMOs aren't designed around those situations being "the norm" (since they aren't), and so I really don't think there's anything for it.
By comparison, you can run through Agartha at even the busiest times (lots of people right on the main platform), and it performs just fine.
That said, I've been able to participate in it pretty well by turning the detail levels down to their lowest, and keeping my camera angled toward the ground more, so I'm blocking out most of what's going on around me, but can still keep track of what's going on. I picked that trick up several MMOs ago .
Originally posted by Lucrecia My only major complaint is the performance on the average gamer's computer. During such events like the current 'golden' one you will find yourself in more of a horrible slideshow than a game. The boss fights in this event are also very dull very quickly but if you want all the shiny stuff you must do them. So I'm slogging through as low as 5 FPS for the next 2weeks. Funcom...pleeeeaasse optimize your game! How is it every game I've played of yours is plagued with rubber banding?! I'm looking at you AO.
Eh... I've yet to play a MMO, no matter what the engine or the system, where crowd-drawing events like this didn't result in a major hit to the game's performance. I've been on MMOs where there was literally a 3-5 second delay between frame updates. Good luck even getting a single skill to fire off correctly in those situations.
You're talking about a *lot* of data being processed by the CPU, and graphics rendering going on on the GPU.
MMOs aren't designed around those situations being "the norm" (since they aren't), and so I really don't think there's anything for it.
By comparison, you can run through Agartha at even the busiest times (lots of people right on the main platform), and it performs just fine.
That said, I've been able to participate in it pretty well by turning the detail levels down to their lowest, and keeping my camera angled toward the ground more, so I'm blocking out most of what's going on around me, but can still keep track of what's going on. I picked that trick up several MMOs ago .
I've tried everything to bring performance up during this event. At least everything that has been mentioned on their forums: turning off the UI (not the best choice for anyone), turning off the combat log, turning off all spell particle effects (which has to be done every time you zone), setting everything to low (including advanced tab:setting to zero), playing in 800x600 (instead of native 1920x1080), staring at the ground(cause that's fun..)...ect.
In the end: Funcom is well aware of this issue. Yet they still have these major events that involve getting a lot of people in an area (after 20 or so players I start seeing the loss.. 40 or so it becomes unenjoyable). It's inexcusable. And no: of the games I've played, it has never been this bad. Even GW2 wasn't this bad. "Oh, but TSW has higher system demands then GW2!" Well, yes, however I will then easily repeat: they should not be making these sorts of events and putting their subscribers through the terrible decision of doing it despite of how horrible it is (for pony! Err..for shiny!) or avoiding the event and missing out. Funcom keeps making this terrible decision and then telling us to "look at the ground people...it really helps! "
I say I will not take such a lackadaisical stance and instead keep reminding them that some of us expect more than a 5-10 FPS show.
Hey.. I'm a big fan of Funcom. I have an Anarchy Online logo tattooed on my back to prove it. So I'm not hating here. There is no need to defend their poor decisions on this matter.
In the end: Funcom is well aware of this issue. Yet they still have these major events that involve getting a lot of people in an area (after 20 or so players I start seeing the loss.. 40 or so it becomes unenjoyable). It's inexcusable. And no: of the games I've played, it has never been this bad. Even GW2 wasn't this bad. "Oh, but TSW has higher system demands then GW2!" Well, yes, however I will then easily repeat: they should not be making these sorts of events and putting their subscribers through the terrible decision of doing it despite of how horrible it is (for pony! Err..for shiny!) or avoiding the event and missing out. Funcom keeps making this terrible decision and then telling us to "look at the ground people...it really helps! " I say I will not take such a lackadaisical stance and instead keep reminding them that some of us expect more than a 5-10 FPS show. Hey.. I'm a big fan of Funcom. I have an Anarchy Online logo tattooed on my back to prove it. So I'm not hating here. There is no need to defend their poor decisions on this matter.
I'm not "defending" them on it. I'm just saying "it's par for the course" in my experience, given all the processing that's going on when you have that many people in such a small area, spamming the hell out of their abilities, etc. Not that it should be. Just that it is, and that there are ways to mitigate it if one wants to participate regardless.
For me, it's an event drawing a lot of people, and with my experience in MMOs, I've yet to see one where performance wasn't brought to its knees. For me, perfomance in this event in TSW has been among the better I've seen. As always, YMMV.
Sieges in Lineage 2 are a lag-fest to this day, and that's on ~9 year old tech. Besieged or Campaign Battles in FFXI could get pretty bad. I remember events in Matrix Online causing similar problems. And so on and so forth. I'm surprised when there isn't a major hit in events like this.
As an AO player, you may recall performance being horrible during certain raids. I recall one was Tarasque in Camelot Castle. I never got to face off against them personally, but I've heard plenty of horrible-stories of how terrible the performance could be during it, especially if you had a group trying to fend off would-be attackers in PvP, as well as the main raid group fighting the boss itself.
I'm not even very impressed by the current event in TSW to begin with. It's pretty boring to me overall. The lore behind it is cool. The rewards are neat. The actual activity itself, though? Eh... The first couple times was fun, but then it started getting boring, and I went back to missions.
Could they come up with activities that don't amass quite so many people in one area? I'm sure... Perhaps they could break it down to multiple such events happening simultaneously in more places at once, across all zones, so people are more spread out and you don't have such large groups trying to crowd the same 2 or 3 each time. 'course, I dont' know how their architecture is set up to handle something on that scale.
That's pretty badass about your tattoo. I keep thinking I'd like to get a game-related tattoo... Just not sure which. There's several to choose from.
the game is top notch and the pve part is the best one around (try to go FFXIV and "kill 10 bugs" over and over again)
but it could and should improve more.
The community is getting polished by "time" only "smart player" that understand the value of story/rpg remain and Funcom should start relay on those players a little bit more
No devs can keep up with the speed of players playing the content but maybe the content should be left (to a small degree) in the hand of an elite of players
we have a main story going on and this is a story driven MMO but as side story there is the 3 faction conflict... in my opinion this conflict should be left in the hand of players to develop in order to let the players create content...
I dont want a 100% sandbox players (taken as mass) are too stupid to be able to use wisely that degree of freedom but inside the main box of a well driven and well written themepark i would allow one brench of the action/story to be more sandbox type and in my opinion in TSW the 3 faction conflict would be perfect to allow that.
Originally posted by ThumbtackJ My experience on Grim (the last few days) has been that 90% of the players are in Agartha spamming in LFG. I just started again after having played a little at launch, so I'm still in Kingsmouth. I do see players going by every so often (not a lot, but a fair few), but nobody is interested in even talking, let alone grouping. My experience may not be typical to every other server but it's enough to put me off a bit. I know soloing is completely viable, but if I wanted to solo a game, I'd buy a SP game, not an MMO. I've tried to join cabals, but no dice so far. I've had two people send me tells asking what faction I'm in, but when I told them (illuminati) they said NVM. With all the other good games out with healthy(ier) populations, it's got to the point where I feel like I should just give up on this game. As much as I want to like it, the community is very lackluster (amongst other, non-community related issues).
I think Agartha is cross server and all the zones are in your respective server.
I'm on Arcadia and there were loads of people in KM when I was a while ago. The Egypt zones were empty (I think it's most peoples' least favorite part of the game anyway, I'd have to agree.) but now I'm in Transyvania and it's full of life again. My friend and I get groups everytime we want to run dungeons, the most we've waited so fair 30 minis and it din't matter about the faction..Top that with how active the chat/people were in the recent event, lots of helpful/talkative people and it's safe to say that you might be on the wrong server.
Don't sweat it,its a buy to play game .at most in 30 days people will resume playing this awesome b2p title.why?because this game is horror ish!so after a while you all need something else to calm you down.so reaching endgame is a long term process.this title is the perfect filler.like your raid start in 2 hour ?perfect timing to progress.
In the end: Funcom is well aware of this issue. Yet they still have these major events that involve getting a lot of people in an area (after 20 or so players I start seeing the loss.. 40 or so it becomes unenjoyable). It's inexcusable. And no: of the games I've played, it has never been this bad. Even GW2 wasn't this bad. "Oh, but TSW has higher system demands then GW2!" Well, yes, however I will then easily repeat: they should not be making these sorts of events and putting their subscribers through the terrible decision of doing it despite of how horrible it is (for pony! Err..for shiny!) or avoiding the event and missing out. Funcom keeps making this terrible decision and then telling us to "look at the ground people...it really helps! " I say I will not take such a lackadaisical stance and instead keep reminding them that some of us expect more than a 5-10 FPS show. Hey.. I'm a big fan of Funcom. I have an Anarchy Online logo tattooed on my back to prove it. So I'm not hating here. There is no need to defend their poor decisions on this matter.
I'm not "defending" them on it. I'm just saying "it's par for the course" in my experience, given all the processing that's going on when you have that many people in such a small area, spamming the hell out of their abilities, etc. Not that it should be. Just that it is, and that there are ways to mitigate it if one wants to participate regardless.
For me, it's an event drawing a lot of people, and with my experience in MMOs, I've yet to see one where performance wasn't brought to its knees. For me, perfomance in this event in TSW has been among the better I've seen. As always, YMMV.
Sieges in Lineage 2 are a lag-fest to this day, and that's on ~9 year old tech. Besieged or Campaign Battles in FFXI could get pretty bad. I remember events in Matrix Online causing similar problems. And so on and so forth. I'm surprised when there isn't a major hit in events like this.
As an AO player, you may recall performance being horrible during certain raids. I recall one was Tarasque in Camelot Castle. I never got to face off against them personally, but I've heard plenty of horrible-stories of how terrible the performance could be during it, especially if you had a group trying to fend off would-be attackers in PvP, as well as the main raid group fighting the boss itself.
I'm not even very impressed by the current event in TSW to begin with. It's pretty boring to me overall. The lore behind it is cool. The rewards are neat. The actual activity itself, though? Eh... The first couple times was fun, but then it started getting boring, and I went back to missions.
Could they come up with activities that don't amass quite so many people in one area? I'm sure... Perhaps they could break it down to multiple such events happening simultaneously in more places at once, across all zones, so people are more spread out and you don't have such large groups trying to crowd the same 2 or 3 each time. 'course, I dont' know how their architecture is set up to handle something on that scale.
That's pretty badass about your tattoo. I keep thinking I'd like to get a game-related tattoo... Just not sure which. There's several to choose from.
It´s the same in WoW. Back in my time in Vanilla WoW when we organised Open PVP Raids against the horde or when horde Guilds were invading us, we sometimes had Battles With over 200 People on the screen.
It was a hell of a fun, but it was a total lagfest nonetheless!
Game is pretty cheap going at $12.99. I love the voice acting (and some of the quests) in this game; might as well get it now unless you are waiting for the $5 bargain deal. That may happen during this year’s Black Friday event.
I'm having a difficult time with people who get to end game content in 2 weeks...promoting the game. I do not think a person asking if they should play a game is asking for a 2 week romp. (well some might be) I know that doesn't interest me. If I want a single player game, I'll go and play one of the ones that I have and love, not an MMO.
First PC Game: Pool of Radiance July 10th, 1990. First MMO: Everquest April 23, 1999
Originally posted by Stone_Fountain I'm having a difficult time with people who get to end game content in 2 weeks...promoting the game. I do not think a person asking if they should play a game is asking for a 2 week romp. (well some might be) I know that doesn't interest me. If I want a single player game, I'll go and play one of the ones that I have and love, not an MMO.
Well, altogether, I've played this game for a good 3-4 months (on and off at first, but I'm in it for the long haul now). I've reached QL10 with one QL10.1 piece, but that's the extent of it.
Content-wise, I haven't finished all the storylines yet (still in Egypt, haven't done "Vanishing of Tyler Freeborn" (issue 5) or "A Dream To Kill" (issue 7) yet. I've completed "Dawning of An Endless Night" and "Last Train to Cairo" (both are brilliant, IMO... 'Cairo' more so). I have only done 2 or 3 Elite dungeons, and have a ways to go before I can defeat the Gatekeeper to unlock Nightmares. I've dipped my toe in PvP a bit, but haven't gotten into it fully yet. I have yet to fill out any of my Skill Wheel branches entirely.
So, in terms of "content completed", I'm not even really half-way through what's available, yet I've been playing a lot, and loving the hell out of every moment.... well, mostly. That London Underground (Illuminati) mission gave me a thorough ass kicking. It frustrated me in a Tetris kind of way, if you get my meaning... cursing at the screen while re-starting the mission because you're determined to get through it...
So, given your concerns, I think I could be a good measure of someone giving a recommendation of the game, without having raced to level cap in 2 weeks.
I'm considering issuing a full review of my own for the game on MMORPG.com... which would be a first for me. I've never written a review for any MMO anywhere, ever lol. I'm moved enough by this game, though, to at least give it serious consideration.
I would highly recommend this game with some qualifiers in mind:
::: Do not attempt to play it like your typical/standard Themepark MMO. It is nothing like that, and you will find only frustration.
::: Do not try to race through it, do not skip cut-scenes or ignore dialog, but take it all in. This game is quite a lot deeper than it initially seems, with brilliant writing, inventive and diverse quests/missions and some seriously atmospheric world/environment design. Trick is, you have to take it in at "people speed", not race through it
::: Avoid using walk-throughs or solution guides as much as possible, even for the investigation quests. If you find yourself really stuck, then ask someone else in-game, or give in and find help online... but try to limit it to just the part you're stuck on. Resist the urge to read forward and get the solution for the rest. There's a definite sense of "a ha!" that you get in solving it that is immensely satisfying. You're robbing yourself of that moment and undermining the experience if you simply follow a guide to get through it instead. You might surprise yourself with how much you can actually figure out on your own.
::: Do not attempt to follow the storyline exclusively from one zone to the next. This is something that messed me up in the beginning, and I actually was rather put off by it at first. The main story arcs will, at some point, continue on into the next area, and you may find you're not at all ready to take it on. I had my ass firmly handed to me a few times, and I kept wondering what it was I was doing wrong with my character. It was discouraging at first.
Well, what I was doing wrong was trying to follow the main storyline straight through, like a train on a track. I'd gotten used to that approach in other MMOs and just sorta carried it on into TSW. This isn't the way the game is really setup. FC's intent is to have people fully take in each area, explore the content, discover various missions/quests hidden around, do the dungeon content for that area perhaps. Along the way, you can experiment with different builds to find the one you enjoy. You'll obtain AP and SP to put into expanding your build outward on the ring, while improving your skill Tier. Before you know it, you'll find yourself well-enough suited to move on to the next area, take on its content and pick up the main story where you left off.
::: Mix it up! There's a lot you can do in this game that isn't even related to missions or reaching end-game, and it can all be enjoyable. For example, just last night I spent a good couple hours with some Cabal mates and folks from other Cabals working on a Scarecrow hunt. Basically, there are achievements you get for killing a certain number of a given type of enemy. Last night, Scarecrow was on the menu. Now, it might seem like "oh great, another pointless grind to drag out the time you play it". But that's not really it. At least not for me. For one, the achievements are not mandatory, and anyway you find you're unlocking them by just playing in many cases. But for me, the event was more about hanging out and chatting with my Cabal mates and others... about TSW, about other games, movies, etc. We discussed the possibility of a Cabal-run "Where in the World is Carmen sanDiego" type event which grew out of a Cabal mate's penchant for dressing up like the titular character. And so on.
I put a lot more Scarecrow kills on my character, got some decent drops and a nice chunk of SP and AP (which went straight toward the new Elementalist/Blood build I'm working on)... but most of all, it was a fun time, hanging out with fun people.
::: Dig in and take the time to learn, understand and effectively use the game's skill system. Don't just follow build-guides, put the points where you're told to and equip the skills where you're told to. Take the time to understand why those skills are reccommended, and why you should use them in that given setup. In The Secret World, the "Why" is every bit as important as the "What". Understanding the "Why" of a given build/setup will greatly help you in coming up with your own once you're familiar and comfortable enough with it to do so. I can't emphasize this enough.
Something I notice when I watch people playing TSW (on YT, etc) or see people describing it, is that they seem to spam the same one or two buttons over and over again. Then they complain about how boring combat is. And I agree... that would be boring as hell! The thing is, the people who are doing that are not using the combat system to its fullest.
They will, at most, use the "builder and finisher" setup - because that's the most familiar thing to them, based on many themepark MMOs out these days. the thing is, while that concept is where most other MMOs' combat system ends, it's the foundation for where TSW's combat system begins.
TSW's combat/skill system is a lot deeper than it first appears on the surface. The basic concept is that you have Actives and Passives... builders and finishers. Some actives have different effects, beyond just putting out damage. Some might, for example, put a certain debuff on the enemy. And that's where the fun starts; it's where passives come in. There will be passives that will activate based on the debuff you just inflicted on the enemy. And then the result of that passive can further be exploited by another active, or passive, or combination of the both.
So, let's say you have an attack that puts an "Affliction" (a DOT) on the enemy. You can unlock and equip a Passive ability that may say, for example, "If you hit an "Afflicted" target, it will also become impaired and unable to act for 3 seconds, with a 20 second cool-down for the passive to proc again ('cause it would be broken if you could chain stun a mob to death)". Well, cool, right? You've got an Afflict built right into your main builder and if a mob can't hit you, you don't lose HP, it makes your life a lot easier.
But it doesn't stop there. You have another Active ability - say, a Finisher that does significantly higher damage to an enemy if it's Impaired. So now, with just two of the several possible states you can put on a target, you've managed to Afflict it, Impair it, and then do greater spike damage on a finisher. But it doesn't even stop there... With 7 slots for Actives and 7 for Passives, with over 500 possible skills overall to be unlocked - many passives aren't weapon-specific and can be used in any build - you have numerous possible builds you can experiment with.
If you set it up well, get a good collection of passives and actives, working together well to create a nice chain between them - what's known as "Synergy" in the game... you will most definitely not be wanting to spam the same 1 or 2 keys over and over again. I mean you could... and it might work out in the end... but that would make the fights take much longer than they need to, and would make the overall experience far less satisfying. And it is quite satisfying when you find a build you've put together takes your character's ability to a whole other level from what you were doing previously. You're using the same gear, the same QL overall... but all of a sudden, you're doing far more damage, purely because you've found a more effective build to work with.
You can ultimately create several setups, for farming, for solo missions, for dungeons, etc. And you can come up with some really creative and quite effective builds with enough experimentation. It's a tinkerer's dream, really.
This is a part of TSW that is just brilliant and, it seems, many never even get to understand... at least based on what I've read/heard from others since it launched.
::: Take the time to understand the crafting system. Or, at the very least, learn and understand the nature of different weapons, the QLs, the different types of glyphs and the materials each is made of, how to craft them, how to use them, etc. Same goes for Signets. Understanding that can help you out even more, and even improve your already well-devised Skill build-out.
::: Find a good community to join, aka Cabal. TSW has a largely awesome community, very few a-holes, and people who are actually willing to help out new players get through the tougher content (aka Nightmare dungeons). There's a channel called "Noobmares" (I think that's hwat it's called), and it's created by people who specifically want to help new players learn and complete the game's Nightmare dungeons. I can tell you that, in my MMO experience, that willingness of people to give their time to helping and teaching people the ropes in a MMO is rare. It's a good indication of this game's community's quality overall, though. For what it's worth, I've yet to add a single person to my Ignore list, or even feel tempted to... something that's equally rare (at least for me).
In all, The Secret World is a brilliant, brilliant game. Yes, it has bugs. Yes, there are some design decisions they've made that might make you wonder what they were smoking when they decided to implement them. Those may be deal-breakers for some, not so much for others. Personally, with all the "good" I find in TSW, the "bad" is barely even a concern. But that's just me. YMMV.
Loved the graphics, setting, sound and music. The premise is great and the investigation quests are a lot of fun. Dungeons have interesting mechanics and are a lot of fun as well. The theater is a great idea and the barber shop is implemented well with the lore. The ability wheel is a cool concept and has a lot of depth. Three faction pvp is nice since it balances itself out easier than two faction.
Your character feels like it sort of floats in front of the environments. There is not a lot of object interaction save for a ladder or cellar door here and there. You cant sit in chairs or lean up against walls which is annoying because npcs are doin that all over the place. The cash shop is a rip off and the cosmetics shouldve been put into the game as an activity players could do themselves. Like a fashion designer or some such thing. Lots of missed opportunities having a modern day mmo. No housing or vehicles in a game where it makes perfect sense to have. The crafting is a half ass rip from minecraft. It is a complete joke and frankly an insult to anyone with half a brain. Seriously. You're playing a present day mmo and yet you gather metal scraps, put them in a box in the crude shape of a gun, and an assault rifle pops out. Are you fucking kidding me? As far as the dialogue, your preferences will probably differ from mine. Lots of people love it. I thought it was juvenile at best. It felt like it was written by 14 year olds who still think cussing is cool and snicker when someone says vagina.
Anyway, great concepts. Some not executed so well.
Loved the graphics, setting, sound and music. The premise is great and the investigation quests are a lot of fun. Dungeons have interesting mechanics and are a lot of fun as well. The theater is a great idea and the barber shop is implemented well with the lore. The ability wheel is a cool concept and has a lot of depth. Three faction pvp is nice since it balances itself out easier than two faction.
Yep, u r right
Your character feels like it sort of floats in front of the environments. There is not a lot of object interaction save for a ladder or cellar door here and there.
Nah,there is much more interaction environment than in any other mmorpg
You cant sit in chairs or lean up against walls which is annoying because npcs are doin that all over the place.
But you can climb on ladder. And Yes, you can sit, sing, and do lots of shit. - /emote and TAB The cash shop is a rip off and the cosmetics shouldve been put into the game as an activity players could do themselves. Like a fashion designer or some such thing. Lots of missed opportunities having a modern day mmo. No housing or vehicles in a game where it makes perfect sense to have.
Lol. yeah. Power to the people.
But mate, i like my Monster Hunter jacket. I dont want Montsers Jacekts impostors. The crafting is a half ass rip from minecraft. It is a complete joke and frankly an insult to anyone with half a brain. Seriously. You're playing a present day mmo and yet you gather metal scraps, put them in a box in the crude shape of a gun, and an assault rifle pops out. Are you fucking kidding me?
Its not crafting its assembling. You dont craft "things" . As far as the dialogue, your preferences will probably differ from mine. Lots of people love it. I thought it was juvenile at best. It felt like it was written by 14 year olds who still think cussing is cool and snicker when someone says vagina.
Lol. Who the hell says vagina except you? Anyway, great concepts. Some not executed so well.
Executed well, but can be better. Sorry my bad english, not native...
It's the best written mmorpg I've ever played, worth of novels IMO. Yes you will be able to build and rebuild, but you will have no where to use you unique awesome builds.
It depends what your looking for. I find it to be another action combat video game just like the others. You go around doing quest to get exp and level while fighting and doing puzzles that you look up in their in game browser to solve. The crafting in game is poor at best and that is about it. I wish I could sell you my copy.
Originally posted by bcbully It's the best written mmorpg I've ever played, worth of novels IMO. Yes you will be able to build and rebuild, but you will have no where to use you unique awesome builds.
I found there were a few well-written characters (for an MMO) but the internal consistencies in the setting were too glaring and the constant resetting of the mobs broke any hope of immersion.
Also the gameplay and quests were pretty feeble as well so any promise of adventure from a semi-interesting character was cruelly dashed.
Originally posted by bcbully It's the best written mmorpg I've ever played, worth of novels IMO. Yes you will be able to build and rebuild, but you will have no where to use you unique awesome builds.
I found there were a few well-written characters (for an MMO) but the internal consistencies in the setting were too glaring and the constant resetting of the mobs broke any hope of immersion.
Can you give examples of the internal inconsistencies, which I'm sure is what you meant? I'm curious what you're referring to, and simply saying "there are glaring internal (in)consistencies" isn't really saying much. It's like someone asking you "what did you do today?" and you say "Oh, a bunch of stuff", and leave it at that. We get the idea that you did things, but have no specific idea what.
Constant resetting of mobs? I've had that happen maybe three times, and it was usually due to me simply getting outside their range, or on a spot they couldn't reach. In most other cases, if I was on a spot they couldn't reach, they'd simply start using ranged attacks.
Also the gameplay and quests were pretty feeble as well so any promise of adventure from a semi-interesting character was cruelly dashed.
This is another very vague complaint. We have no idea why you feel that way, just that you do. What made it feeble to you?
(possible spoilers)
I found the idea of tracking someone down on a moving train, having to hop from car to car, climb along the sides, fight off attacking enemies while a fire burns its way down the cars toward me, ultimately facing down the main antagonist and kicking him from the top of the train to have been one of the most interesting and exciting series of events I've experienced in any MMO ever. And that was just the finale of one story arc.
Putting together the clues and retracing the steps of a hobbyist conspiracy theorist, to ultimately follow him into the very surreal and dream-like world inside the Fog around Solomon Island, and learn of what it's doing to people was quite fun, very imaginative, and rather creepy.
The are many examples to be given of missions and quests that I, at least, have never experienced in any other MMO I've ever played. Not even close. They've been anythingbut feeble, and the sense of adventure has been quite strong. Then again, what you consider Adventure and what I do could be entirely different. And anyway, I have no idea what in particular you found lacking.
Originally posted by Zeppelin4 It depends what your looking for. I find it to be another action combat video game just like the others. You go around doing quest to get exp and level while fighting and doing puzzles that you look up in their in game browser to solve. The crafting in game is poor at best and that is about it. I wish I could sell you my copy.
I'm assuming you did, but I hope you realized that the idea of the in-game browser was so you could look up clues provided in-game during missions (typically Investigation Missions). Many people seem to be under the impression that the idea of having the browser in-game was to make it easier for people to pull up walk-through guides. That isn't it.
There are clues in the form of Bible verses, Latin writings, morse-code, and many other things that require you to google them in order to track down and figure out.
There are entire websites created specifically for the game. A few are for The Orochi Group, The Town of Kingsmouth, and a blog by Tyler Freeborn, which was discovered by future players 2 years before the game even launched. Tyler Freeborn has an entire Issue storyline dedicated to him, and his blog gives a lot of background on himself and his investigations. All of those examples, and more, contain information that's required to solve different missions, and to provide background on the various people and places in TSW.
That's why there's a browser inside the game. The Secret World is supposed to take place in the modern real world, where all these things are available. So, they make use of them in-game as well. Funcom also runs ARGs via Twitter, many details of which are reflected in the game as well.
TSW is not a standard "generic fantasy MMO #14325". Trying to play it like one (which many seem to do, based on complaints I see) is bound to be a disappointing experience. Square peg, round hole and all that. It's quite a different game from anything else out there.
Are you saying you have played The Secret World, TangentWorld, and missed all the inconsistencies?
I have not. But that's neither here nor there. I'm not the one making the claim.
You stated that there are internal inconsistencies in TSW. I asked you to provide some examples. Whether or not I would understand them is irrelevant. Frankly, you don't know me well enough from Adam to make that judgment anyway. There's a number of reasons I might not be aware of such things - such as simply not encountering them yet. Or, perhaps because they simply don't exist.
So, will you provide examples of the internal consistencies you claim to have found? Or are you going to play dodge-ball, and I'm wasting my time asking?
Are you also saying that no-one can find TSW quests feeble?
I find that a very hard claim for someone, even a devoted fan, to make.
I assume you read my post, so you tell me. Am I saying that?
I'll answer that for you. No, I'm not.
I didn't say anything. I, again, made a request, and I'll make it one more time: Will you provide examples of what you find feeble, and why?
Comments
Well said.
Spot on... Thats why I think TSW is better than never...All the locust left ...
Funcom...pleeeeaasse optimize your game! How is it every game I've played of yours is plagued with rubber banding?! I'm looking at you AO.
Well, the game itself has been awesome all along.
I'd agree that the community saw a major improvement once all the locusts did their "content burn" routine, got through their complaining phase, and moved on to their next self-inflicted disappointment... err... I mean their next MMO.
Far more friendly community, far more helpful discussion, far more people looking for groups for various groups... far less complaining and trolling.
I finally finished the "Dawning of An Endless Night" (I got really sidetracked and didn't get back to it 'til just earlier today lol) and, all I can say is... holy sh*t. I already loved the game before, but after that finale (confusing as it kinda was)... yeah... No question, it has shot to the top of my short list of "all-time favorite MMOs". It will be "my game" for a long time to come. Utterly brilliant. And from what my Cabal-mates tell me, future Issues only get better.
For those who might have completed it but don't recall the ending... and for those who'd like a glimpse of the otherworldly weirdness of that particular mission (and believe me, there's lots of it in the game).. Here's a shot I took during the conclusion... looking all stylish in my sweat pants
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Eh... I've yet to play a MMO, no matter what the engine or the system, where crowd-drawing events like this didn't result in a major hit to the game's performance. I've been on MMOs where there was literally a 3-5 second delay between frame updates. Good luck even getting a single skill to fire off correctly in those situations.
You're talking about a *lot* of data being processed by the CPU, and graphics rendering going on on the GPU.
MMOs aren't designed around those situations being "the norm" (since they aren't), and so I really don't think there's anything for it.
By comparison, you can run through Agartha at even the busiest times (lots of people right on the main platform), and it performs just fine.
That said, I've been able to participate in it pretty well by turning the detail levels down to their lowest, and keeping my camera angled toward the ground more, so I'm blocking out most of what's going on around me, but can still keep track of what's going on. I picked that trick up several MMOs ago
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Eh... I've yet to play a MMO, no matter what the engine or the system, where crowd-drawing events like this didn't result in a major hit to the game's performance. I've been on MMOs where there was literally a 3-5 second delay between frame updates. Good luck even getting a single skill to fire off correctly in those situations.
You're talking about a *lot* of data being processed by the CPU, and graphics rendering going on on the GPU.
MMOs aren't designed around those situations being "the norm" (since they aren't), and so I really don't think there's anything for it.
By comparison, you can run through Agartha at even the busiest times (lots of people right on the main platform), and it performs just fine.
That said, I've been able to participate in it pretty well by turning the detail levels down to their lowest, and keeping my camera angled toward the ground more, so I'm blocking out most of what's going on around me, but can still keep track of what's going on. I picked that trick up several MMOs ago
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I've tried everything to bring performance up during this event. At least everything that has been mentioned on their forums: turning off the UI (not the best choice for anyone), turning off the combat log, turning off all spell particle effects (which has to be done every time you zone), setting everything to low (including advanced tab:setting to zero), playing in 800x600 (instead of native 1920x1080), staring at the ground(cause that's fun..)...ect.
In the end: Funcom is well aware of this issue. Yet they still have these major events that involve getting a lot of people in an area (after 20 or so players I start seeing the loss.. 40 or so it becomes unenjoyable). It's inexcusable. And no: of the games I've played, it has never been this bad. Even GW2 wasn't this bad. "Oh, but TSW has higher system demands then GW2!" Well, yes, however I will then easily repeat: they should not be making these sorts of events and putting their subscribers through the terrible decision of doing it despite of how horrible it is (for pony! Err..for shiny!) or avoiding the event and missing out. Funcom keeps making this terrible decision and then telling us to "look at the ground people...it really helps!I say I will not take such a lackadaisical stance and instead keep reminding them that some of us expect more than a 5-10 FPS show.
Hey.. I'm a big fan of Funcom. I have an Anarchy Online logo tattooed on my back to prove it. So I'm not hating here. There is no need to defend their poor decisions on this matter.
I'm not "defending" them on it. I'm just saying "it's par for the course" in my experience, given all the processing that's going on when you have that many people in such a small area, spamming the hell out of their abilities, etc. Not that it should be. Just that it is, and that there are ways to mitigate it if one wants to participate regardless.
For me, it's an event drawing a lot of people, and with my experience in MMOs, I've yet to see one where performance wasn't brought to its knees. For me, perfomance in this event in TSW has been among the better I've seen. As always, YMMV.
Sieges in Lineage 2 are a lag-fest to this day, and that's on ~9 year old tech. Besieged or Campaign Battles in FFXI could get pretty bad. I remember events in Matrix Online causing similar problems. And so on and so forth. I'm surprised when there isn't a major hit in events like this.
As an AO player, you may recall performance being horrible during certain raids. I recall one was Tarasque in Camelot Castle. I never got to face off against them personally, but I've heard plenty of horrible-stories of how terrible the performance could be during it, especially if you had a group trying to fend off would-be attackers in PvP, as well as the main raid group fighting the boss itself.
I'm not even very impressed by the current event in TSW to begin with. It's pretty boring to me overall. The lore behind it is cool. The rewards are neat. The actual activity itself, though? Eh... The first couple times was fun, but then it started getting boring, and I went back to missions.
Could they come up with activities that don't amass quite so many people in one area? I'm sure... Perhaps they could break it down to multiple such events happening simultaneously in more places at once, across all zones, so people are more spread out and you don't have such large groups trying to crowd the same 2 or 3 each time. 'course, I dont' know how their architecture is set up to handle something on that scale.
That's pretty badass about your tattoo. I keep thinking I'd like to get a game-related tattoo... Just not sure which. There's several to choose from.
the game is top notch and the pve part is the best one around (try to go FFXIV and "kill 10 bugs" over and over again)
but it could and should improve more.
The community is getting polished by "time" only "smart player" that understand the value of story/rpg remain and Funcom should start relay on those players a little bit more
No devs can keep up with the speed of players playing the content but maybe the content should be left (to a small degree) in the hand of an elite of players
we have a main story going on and this is a story driven MMO but as side story there is the 3 faction conflict... in my opinion this conflict should be left in the hand of players to develop in order to let the players create content...
I dont want a 100% sandbox players (taken as mass) are too stupid to be able to use wisely that degree of freedom but inside the main box of a well driven and well written themepark i would allow one brench of the action/story to be more sandbox type and in my opinion in TSW the 3 faction conflict would be perfect to allow that.
I think Agartha is cross server and all the zones are in your respective server.
I'm on Arcadia and there were loads of people in KM when I was a while ago. The Egypt zones were empty (I think it's most peoples' least favorite part of the game anyway, I'd have to agree.) but now I'm in Transyvania and it's full of life again. My friend and I get groups everytime we want to run dungeons, the most we've waited so fair 30 minis and it din't matter about the faction..Top that with how active the chat/people were in the recent event, lots of helpful/talkative people and it's safe to say that you might be on the wrong server.
It´s the same in WoW. Back in my time in Vanilla WoW when we organised Open PVP Raids against the horde or when horde Guilds were invading us, we sometimes had Battles With over 200 People on the screen.
It was a hell of a fun, but it was a total lagfest nonetheless!
http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msusa/en_US/pdp/The-Secret-World-PC-Game/productID.253775900
Game is pretty cheap going at $12.99. I love the voice acting (and some of the quests) in this game; might as well get it now unless you are waiting for the $5 bargain deal. That may happen during this year’s Black Friday event.
First PC Game: Pool of Radiance July 10th, 1990. First MMO: Everquest April 23, 1999
Well, altogether, I've played this game for a good 3-4 months (on and off at first, but I'm in it for the long haul now). I've reached QL10 with one QL10.1 piece, but that's the extent of it.
Content-wise, I haven't finished all the storylines yet (still in Egypt, haven't done "Vanishing of Tyler Freeborn" (issue 5) or "A Dream To Kill" (issue 7) yet. I've completed "Dawning of An Endless Night" and "Last Train to Cairo" (both are brilliant, IMO... 'Cairo' more so). I have only done 2 or 3 Elite dungeons, and have a ways to go before I can defeat the Gatekeeper to unlock Nightmares. I've dipped my toe in PvP a bit, but haven't gotten into it fully yet. I have yet to fill out any of my Skill Wheel branches entirely.
So, in terms of "content completed", I'm not even really half-way through what's available, yet I've been playing a lot, and loving the hell out of every moment.... well, mostly. That London Underground (Illuminati) mission gave me a thorough ass kicking. It frustrated me in a Tetris kind of way, if you get my meaning... cursing at the screen while re-starting the mission because you're determined to get through it...
So, given your concerns, I think I could be a good measure of someone giving a recommendation of the game, without having raced to level cap in 2 weeks.
I'm considering issuing a full review of my own for the game on MMORPG.com... which would be a first for me. I've never written a review for any MMO anywhere, ever lol. I'm moved enough by this game, though, to at least give it serious consideration.
I would highly recommend this game with some qualifiers in mind:
::: Do not attempt to play it like your typical/standard Themepark MMO. It is nothing like that, and you will find only frustration.
They will, at most, use the "builder and finisher" setup - because that's the most familiar thing to them, based on many themepark MMOs out these days. the thing is, while that concept is where most other MMOs' combat system ends, it's the foundation for where TSW's combat system begins.
TSW's combat/skill system is a lot deeper than it first appears on the surface. The basic concept is that you have Actives and Passives... builders and finishers. Some actives have different effects, beyond just putting out damage. Some might, for example, put a certain debuff on the enemy. And that's where the fun starts; it's where passives come in. There will be passives that will activate based on the debuff you just inflicted on the enemy. And then the result of that passive can further be exploited by another active, or passive, or combination of the both.
So, let's say you have an attack that puts an "Affliction" (a DOT) on the enemy. You can unlock and equip a Passive ability that may say, for example, "If you hit an "Afflicted" target, it will also become impaired and unable to act for 3 seconds, with a 20 second cool-down for the passive to proc again ('cause it would be broken if you could chain stun a mob to death)". Well, cool, right? You've got an Afflict built right into your main builder and if a mob can't hit you, you don't lose HP, it makes your life a lot easier.
But it doesn't stop there. You have another Active ability - say, a Finisher that does significantly higher damage to an enemy if it's Impaired. So now, with just two of the several possible states you can put on a target, you've managed to Afflict it, Impair it, and then do greater spike damage on a finisher. But it doesn't even stop there... With 7 slots for Actives and 7 for Passives, with over 500 possible skills overall to be unlocked - many passives aren't weapon-specific and can be used in any build - you have numerous possible builds you can experiment with.
If you set it up well, get a good collection of passives and actives, working together well to create a nice chain between them - what's known as "Synergy" in the game... you will most definitely not be wanting to spam the same 1 or 2 keys over and over again. I mean you could... and it might work out in the end... but that would make the fights take much longer than they need to, and would make the overall experience far less satisfying. And it is quite satisfying when you find a build you've put together takes your character's ability to a whole other level from what you were doing previously. You're using the same gear, the same QL overall... but all of a sudden, you're doing far more damage, purely because you've found a more effective build to work with.
You can ultimately create several setups, for farming, for solo missions, for dungeons, etc. And you can come up with some really creative and quite effective builds with enough experimentation. It's a tinkerer's dream, really.
This is a part of TSW that is just brilliant and, it seems, many never even get to understand... at least based on what I've read/heard from others since it launched.
::: Take the time to understand the crafting system. Or, at the very least, learn and understand the nature of different weapons, the QLs, the different types of glyphs and the materials each is made of, how to craft them, how to use them, etc. Same goes for Signets. Understanding that can help you out even more, and even improve your already well-devised Skill build-out.
::: Find a good community to join, aka Cabal. TSW has a largely awesome community, very few a-holes, and people who are actually willing to help out new players get through the tougher content (aka Nightmare dungeons). There's a channel called "Noobmares" (I think that's hwat it's called), and it's created by people who specifically want to help new players learn and complete the game's Nightmare dungeons. I can tell you that, in my MMO experience, that willingness of people to give their time to helping and teaching people the ropes in a MMO is rare. It's a good indication of this game's community's quality overall, though. For what it's worth, I've yet to add a single person to my Ignore list, or even feel tempted to... something that's equally rare (at least for me).
In all, The Secret World is a brilliant, brilliant game. Yes, it has bugs. Yes, there are some design decisions they've made that might make you wonder what they were smoking when they decided to implement them. Those may be deal-breakers for some, not so much for others. Personally, with all the "good" I find in TSW, the "bad" is barely even a concern. But that's just me. YMMV.
This game had a lot of potential. I pre-ordered.
Loved the graphics, setting, sound and music.
The premise is great and the investigation quests are a lot of fun.
Dungeons have interesting mechanics and are a lot of fun as well.
The theater is a great idea and the barber shop is implemented well with the lore.
The ability wheel is a cool concept and has a lot of depth.
Three faction pvp is nice since it balances itself out easier than two faction.
Your character feels like it sort of floats in front of the environments. There is not a lot of object interaction save for a ladder or cellar door here and there.
You cant sit in chairs or lean up against walls which is annoying because npcs are doin that all over the place.
The cash shop is a rip off and the cosmetics shouldve been put into the game as an activity players could do themselves. Like a fashion designer or some such thing. Lots of missed opportunities having a modern day mmo. No housing or vehicles in a game where it makes perfect sense to have.
The crafting is a half ass rip from minecraft. It is a complete joke and frankly an insult to anyone with half a brain. Seriously. You're playing a present day mmo and yet you gather metal scraps, put them in a box in the crude shape of a gun, and an assault rifle pops out. Are you fucking kidding me?
As far as the dialogue, your preferences will probably differ from mine. Lots of people love it. I thought it was juvenile at best. It felt like it was written by 14 year olds who still think cussing is cool and snicker when someone says vagina.
Anyway, great concepts. Some not executed so well.
I found there were a few well-written characters (for an MMO) but the internal consistencies in the setting were too glaring and the constant resetting of the mobs broke any hope of immersion.
Also the gameplay and quests were pretty feeble as well so any promise of adventure from a semi-interesting character was cruelly dashed.
I'm assuming you did, but I hope you realized that the idea of the in-game browser was so you could look up clues provided in-game during missions (typically Investigation Missions). Many people seem to be under the impression that the idea of having the browser in-game was to make it easier for people to pull up walk-through guides. That isn't it.
There are clues in the form of Bible verses, Latin writings, morse-code, and many other things that require you to google them in order to track down and figure out.
There are entire websites created specifically for the game. A few are for The Orochi Group, The Town of Kingsmouth, and a blog by Tyler Freeborn, which was discovered by future players 2 years before the game even launched. Tyler Freeborn has an entire Issue storyline dedicated to him, and his blog gives a lot of background on himself and his investigations. All of those examples, and more, contain information that's required to solve different missions, and to provide background on the various people and places in TSW.
That's why there's a browser inside the game. The Secret World is supposed to take place in the modern real world, where all these things are available. So, they make use of them in-game as well. Funcom also runs ARGs via Twitter, many details of which are reflected in the game as well.
TSW is not a standard "generic fantasy MMO #14325". Trying to play it like one (which many seem to do, based on complaints I see) is bound to be a disappointing experience. Square peg, round hole and all that. It's quite a different game from anything else out there.
Are you saying you have played The Secret World, TangentWorld, and missed all the inconsistencies?
If you failed to spot them then you may not understand them if I pointed them out.
Are you also saying that no-one can find TSW quests feeble?
I find that a very hard claim for someone, even a devoted fan, to make.
Gee. Try us.
I have already posted my review of this game via the forums and it can be found using the site's search facilities.
I assume you that this site does have search facilities although some uber fans will tell me this is a mere "claim".