Operatives sneak info out....
Bustenhause has been really cracking down... With my operatives hard at work getting part 3 of our interview completed, we decided to test Bustenhause's defenses. So they snuck a couple pictures of the suave and debonaire Corey Dangel. So far so good. I've uploaded the pics to the Team Page.
I've sent warnings to Matt "M" Wilson, as Corey was already on Bustenhause's list, but now "M" will be as well.
PS. If I didn't know better, I'd think that maybe Corey is programming R2-D2 with the plans to the death star.
I've sent warnings to Matt "M" Wilson, as Corey was already on Bustenhause's list, but now "M" will be as well.
PS. If I didn't know better, I'd think that maybe Corey is programming R2-D2 with the plans to the death star.
Seamster one ups Bustenhause...
Tracy Seamster, game designer for The Agency is interviewed on Notes on Game Development.
The Busty one is not going to be pleased, I'm warning all my operatives to look out for retaliation.
Thanks Massively.
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Notes On Game Dev: Now that you’ve moved on from quest writing for EQ, has it been renewing to step into The Agency? How does that differ in terms of what you’re writing and how you’re going about it? Tracy Seamster: One thing I really enjoy about The Agency is that it’s all new to me. I’ve written medieval fantasy for over ten years now, so a modern setting is really refreshing. It’s also challenging in that I now need to stow away all the knowledge I have about Norrath. As The Agency is more real world, there’s no need for Ye Olde Dialogue any longer. That’s a little of scary! I’ve never written anything modern before. I’m not implementing anything (yet), either, so that changes things a bit. Instead of coming up with an NPC, planning the story arc, placing all the mobs and then writing all the text associated with it… I’m just writing text. Our level designers are doing the current implementation based on the broader context of our missions. I’m writing backgrounds, so most of what I’m doing at this point will be released in little tidbits rather than grandiose quest dialog trees. It’s interesting to be on a game team this early in its process. EQII was near beta when I joined the team, so I always felt like a latecomer to the party. At this point with The Agency, we’re still making decisions about all sorts of cool background things. It’s like buying a house and getting to choose your paint colors! I can’t wait for players to experience the game for themselves. |
Thanks Massively.
Eurogamer beats Bustenhause
Eurogamer has a great new article on the game.
Followed by this interview.
Thanks foreversardonic and Krypteia.
Quote:
| As intricate as this system is, the Seattle studio is elaborating it yet further. Some missions might require operatives to be sacrificed; they also have morale ratings you'll need to manage by sending them on R&R (although that in itself has its dangers in the spy world). They might have recruitment criteria based on the CIA's MICE system for turning enemies into double-agents (money, ideology, coercion and ego, if you were wondering). Operatives also have their own stats, including such personality data as their blood type, star sign and whether they tend towards good or evil. These will trigger a series of side-stories as operatives in your roster fall out and need to be let go, or made to settle their differences. |
Quote:
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Eurogamer: The proven successes in the MMO field are time-sinks - it's how they work, how they make that subscription seem worthwhile. Making a less time-intensive title, does that worry you at all? That's an operative getting in touch in the top right. Probably telling us not to shoot that guy. Hal Milton: Absolutely not. The whole making sure I can't play any other game but this one, because if I don't play for 4 hours I'll get behind my friends - that's not why we make these titles. The way to keep people in your world is to say, hey, you can play for 30 minutes or three hours and you're going to have a great time, and if you go away for two weeks and come back, there's stuff waiting for you. Multiple MMOs that require a time-sink are really difficult because of that time-sink, but I can play multiple shooters, I can play Animal Crossing, I can play a bunch of games that have pseudo-persistent elements that track over a year or more, and they keep me engaged. |
Bustenhause goes on the offensive…
We must have hit Bustenhause where it really hurt, as it appears Bustenhause has gone on the offensive big time. After breaking our operatives legs last week, this week Bustenhause blew up our datacenter. Not only did it bring us down, it also brought down 9,000 others.
Thanks Slashdot.
The datacenter has been brought back online, and we are in the process of adding additional security to ensure that it doesn’t happen again. As you can see, thwarting Bustenhause is dangerous work.
Fortunately, this setback is only temporary, we are still hard at work analyzing the intel from Part 3 of our Q&A with Hal Milton. Hopefully, we’ll be at the point where we can present it to you very soon.
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Originally Posted by Anonymous Writer
"Customers hosting with ThePlanet, a major Texas hosting provider, are going through some tough times. Yesterday evening at 5:45 pm local time an electrical short caused a fire and explosion in the power room, knocking out walls and taking the entire facility offline. No-one was hurt and no servers were damaged. Estimates suggest 9,000 servers are offline, affecting 7,500 customers, with ETAs for repair of at least 24 hours from onset. While they claim redundant power, because of the nature of the problem they had to go completely dark. This goes to show that no matter how much planning you do, Murphy's Law still applies."
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The datacenter has been brought back online, and we are in the process of adding additional security to ensure that it doesn’t happen again. As you can see, thwarting Bustenhause is dangerous work.
Fortunately, this setback is only temporary, we are still hard at work analyzing the intel from Part 3 of our Q&A with Hal Milton. Hopefully, we’ll be at the point where we can present it to you very soon.
Contingency plans...
Our contingency plan is starting to show some success. We've gathered some new camera shots and present them to you for analysis.
Some of these have been seen before, but were missing from the gallery. And if you haven't checked out the pictures from the ION trailer, make sure you do.
Some of these have been seen before, but were missing from the gallery. And if you haven't checked out the pictures from the ION trailer, make sure you do.
TTH hacks into security camera...
TTH has a new video of the ION SOE open house.
Quote:
| A great bonus to the 2008 ION Games Conference was an Open House hosted by SOE Seattle, which featured their upcoming First Person Shooter MMO game, The Agency. Thanks to SOE's normal flair, the party seemed to be a great success. The crowd was presented demos, an ice sculpture, and even a few models dressed as characters from the game. Ten Ton Hammer was on hand and has put together a video of Matt Wilson addressing the crowd at the event. Take a look and enjoy! |