[Megathread] Secret World Legends

[Rooflesstoofless]

You are misunderstanding my point.

Scenario A: Let's take 100 gamers at random and force them to play and review TSW.
Scenario B: Let's take 100 gamers who went out and purchased TSW, and get their reviews.

Scenario B will produce higher ratings than Scenario A, because of selection bias. Why would you buy the game if you didn't like puzzles?

I'm just saying that--for a niche/specialist game--critic's reviews of TSW are more like Scenario A, and user reviews are more like scenario B. A disparity in scores is to be expected.

If what you were saying was true it would more or less yield the same (or similar results) with every game out there.

EDIT: Also, look up survivor's bias. You are using it wrong in this scenario.

[Lily Crowley]

I really liked this game. There is something missing however, but I cannot quite put my finger on that. Looking forwards to patches and expansions

Just gonna mention some of the positive and awesome things with it then! Ah yes, SPOILER ALERT!

1. The Ur-Draug in Polaris, Kingsmouth.

Holy.fucking.shit this is a BOSS FIGHT OF AWESOMENESS! Me and my mates did it in beta, with dungeon appropriate (maybe slightly lower) gear and was it hardcore! The difficulty, the mechanics, the design of the boss, all so amazing I got shivers down my back the first time I did it! Blizzard has something to learn of this one.

2. Main Story Quest "Dawning of an Endless Night"

Particulary Step 13 & 18.
Step 13 sends you into the solo dungeon Blue Ridge Mine, an incredibly horrifying dungeon whom I have a love/hate relationship with. The layout is maze-like, pitch dark and the enemies are gruesome, I ended up staying down there for what felt like hours and being frustrated as hell. But at the same time, I think its genius. It makes you shiver, its induces fear and a feeling of epicness.
Step 18 is just pure awesomeness cause of the including of Roald Amundsen and his notes lying on the ground, a voice reading to you in your head, in splendid Norwegian! (Yeah durr I know Funcom is Norwegian. But it amazes me how they dared put something like that in the game and how the guy who reads the notes are just like the storytellers of old. I listened to a lot of cassettes and saw tv documentaries when I was a kid, and this voice is scaringly alike the dude that spoke about those things back then!)

3. The Illuminati/Dragon/Templar Faction Quest "Into Darkness".

Can you say horror movie? This quest is horrifying and splendid. It carries out slightly different for each faction but I can say that both Dragon and Illuminati sides are really cool. Damp, dark warehouse with a secret that will rattle your soul and possibly insides? Oh yes.
I cannot wait to get to know what "Morninglight" has to do with this mess.

4. The Black House in Savage Coast.

This. Just go there and have a peek!

5. The Draugr speaking in old Icelandic.

6. The storytelling in dungeons.

7. Hardcore difficulty on a lot of the quests. Yay for using our brains for once! (and google haha!)

8. Moon Bog in Blue Mountain.

I THOROUGHLY resent the place, but it is truly unique, so I appreciate that.

Tons more, but these are the things that made me really enjoy the game thoroughly!


Added [spoiler] tags for ya! -sj

[Borzo]

I'm going to have to agree that in general, niche games (that are marketed as such) get much higher USER scores then "general audience" games. Niche games are bought by people who know what they want, and know what they're getting themselves into. So they're more likely to be satisfied with their game and rate it highly.

Games for a massive audience generally get low user reviews simply because you can't please everyone all the time. Marketing for these types of games are meant to grab EVERYONE'S attention... but the fact remains that many people buy these games WITHOUT know what they're getting themselves into (because they bought into the marketing hype). This leads to lower user reviews and more unhappy customers.


At the same time, professional reviews aren't from a "niche perspective", and the reviews reflect that -- very rarely does a niche game get a 9/10 or a 10/10. I agree that they're *supposed* to be representing a more general audience.

But I also agree that advertising $$$$$ skews professional reviews greatly. There's no incentive to review a game highly if money is not at stake. But if you're gaming website is pulling in over $10,000+/month to advertise SWTOR, Mass Effect, Diablo, or whatever the game of the month is, then there is a HUGE pressure to review the game highly.

Also, some publishers add restrictions on content based on whether or not a site reviews their game high enough. If you want to put out your review before other sites do, you have to review it highly. If you put your review out first --> more visitors/hits --> more $$$$$ for you.

Reviewing a game - even by a small site - can make the difference between $1,000 and $10,000 in one month. That's a lot, especially if it's a small site run by a handful of people. Same thing applies to big sites too though - just that their revenues are even higher.

[Rooflesstoofless]

8. Moon Bog in Blue Mountain.

omg...that place was a nightmare...literally. I'm not a vocal gamer at all but that place made me snap. One wrong step in that place can make it really tough to stay alive and about the third time I got agro with my agro so I could agro while I agro I yelled, "F&&k you! I'm hunting all you bitches doooown!"

[Deleted]

i would have bought it, if gw2 wasn't so close

[Sj]

You are misunderstanding my point.

Scenario A: Let's take 100 gamers at random and force them to play and review TSW.
Scenario B: Let's take 100 gamers who went out and purchased TSW, and get their reviews.

Scenario B will produce higher ratings than Scenario A, because of selection bias. Why would you buy the game if you didn't like puzzles?

I'm just saying that--for a niche/specialist game--critic's reviews of TSW are more like Scenario A, and user reviews are more like scenario B. A disparity in scores is to be expected.

Not everyone who chooses to buy a game ends up enjoying that game. I can see where you're coming from, but honestly I think the disparity comes from those who buy the game will actually take the time to really check it out. Reviewers... well there are many things that come into play: personal writing style (positive/negative overtone, shock factor), time actually spent playing, and whether or not they approach the game experience as a chore.

As a professional reviewer myself (not gaming, unfortunately) I understand how it works, I just don't like it. Luckily for me, I don't have to affix any ratings to quantify the quality of what I get stuck listening too. The tl;dr of it is I think there is a lot wrong with game reviewing these days, mainly lack of good reviewers and too much interference from outside sources.

[Repefe]

That's why reading reviews is so useless. For main stream games you get overhyped reviews where flaws are overlooked, for niche games you get underhyped reviews where flaws are game breaking. Makes reviewers look like they are full of ****. Only thing reviews are good for is to see what new games launched and for that the review title with game name is enough.

[grabemx]

i would have bought it, if gw2 wasn't so close

Well that's the beauty of it. You can have both and only need to sub for one

To be honest I am more of a casual gamer and I feel that TSW is pretty casual since there really is no "raid environment". So I will probably be in the camp of people who play both TSW and GW2

[Sj]

http://forums.thesecretworld.com/showthread.php?t=54334

A couple of pics from TSW's first raid in NYC!

Info about free 3-day trial: http://crygaia.com/free-three-day-trial/

Info about Issue #2, including ROCKET LAUNCHERS!!! http://crygaia.com/issue-2-diggin-deeper/

[Deleted]

http://forums.thesecretworld.com/showthread.php?t=54334

A couple of pics from TSW's first raid in NYC!

Info about free 3-day trial: http://crygaia.com/free-three-day-trial/

Info about Issue #2, including ROCKET LAUNCHERS!!! http://crygaia.com/issue-2-diggin-deeper/

That raidboss looks pretty cool!

[Sj]

That raidboss looks pretty cool!

It looks like it may be the monster from this trailer:

[zito]

http://forums.thesecretworld.com/showthread.php?t=54334

A couple of pics from TSW's first raid in NYC!

Info about free 3-day trial: http://crygaia.com/free-three-day-trial/

Info about Issue #2, including ROCKET LAUNCHERS!!! http://crygaia.com/issue-2-diggin-deeper/

Chainsaws are nice. I already quit however Im debating to play this or rift. If gear from raids is better stat wise then nightmare mode dungeons I won't be returning as I prefer rifts gear grind.

[Sj]

Chainsaws are nice. I already quit however Im debating to play this or rift. If gear from raids is better stat wise then nightmare mode dungeons I won't be returning as I prefer rifts gear grind.

Yeah I've no clue what the raid gear looks like. I'll poke some of my contacts and see if I can find out!

[Deleted]

Yaaay, free trial thingy. Now i can get all of my friends to play.
And i found the game for just 230 sek ~ 27 euro.
This is such a wonderful day!

[Rooflesstoofless]

It looks as though Funcom is going with the conventional raiding scheme for the game which leaves me more than a little disappointed.

I already have other games which I've invested a lot more of myself into that follow the same suit so I was really hoping for something different from a group of people that have gone about doing an MMO a little different from everyone else. I can do the dungeon grind then raid thing in MMOs that offer more to do on the side. I was quite content on keeping my sub with them till I learned how raiding was going to happen and that the next zone wasn't going to happen till 2013 and it would be Tokyo instead of Maya/Yucatan.

[Borzo]

I'm not sure if having 1 single raid means that they're "following suit with a conventional raiding scheme like everyone else". All it means is that they have 1 single raid.

Also, they had initially said that the gear level from raids will be the same as those from nightmare 5-mans. Has that changed recently? Is raiding now going to offer gear superior to that from 5-mans?

[Sj]

Raid gear will most likely be QL 10.4. That's not finalized though.

[Deleted]

Anyone know the size of the raid yet?
5-man?
10-man?
15, 25, 25?

[Borzo]

Anyone know the size of the raid yet?
5-man?
10-man?
15, 25, 25?

Not too long ago they said 10 and 20.

[zito]

Raid gear will most likely be QL 10.4. That's not finalized though.

so what is 10.4...? So I'm assuming Q10 gear is not normilized after nightmare meaning rift it is for me.