Ok so we all know Cryptic is planning a new MMO. Details of which have not been released. However, the current issue of Gameinformer issue 206 June 210 has one tiny blurb about STO. That the console port is off. Well we knew that. However the endline is intrguing.
"The good news is that the company has filed a trademark for City of Heros 2."
Take that as you will. I caught it and reported it.
Which could easily be a red herring.
Its not unheard of for companies to trademark various names regardless if they intend to use them or not, just to keep them out of the hands of others.
Ok so we all know Cryptic is planning a new MMO. Details of which have not been released. However, the current issue of Gameinformer issue 206 June 210 has one tiny blurb about STO. That the console port is off. Well we knew that. However the endline is intrguing.
"The good news is that the company has filed a trademark for City of Heros 2."
Take that as you will. I caught it and reported it.
You are suggesting that they are creating a sequel to a game that they already created and subsequently sold to compete directly in the same genre as a game they just released (CO)?
so we've got neverwinter nights and city of heroes 2, neither of which seem to conform to the concept art readily available on the cryptics own website.
so we've got neverwinter nights and city of heroes 2, neither of which seem to conform to the concept art readily available on the cryptics own website.
And Hogwarts Online. That's rumored to be in the running.
I've also read rumors that cite a Hellgate spin off.
And also another rumor from posts at a different site that Stargate could be a possibility.
You are suggesting that they are creating a sequel to a game that they already created and subsequently sold to compete directly in the same genre as a game they just released (CO)?
silly...
I am suggesting nothing. There has been confirmation that Cryptic is doing a new MMO. They sold City of Heros. Gameinformer reported they Tradmakred COH 2 here in the US. I presented the facts nothing more. Hence the title "may have been revealed."
so we've got neverwinter nights and city of heroes 2, neither of which seem to conform to the concept art readily available on the cryptics own website.
concept art since proven ( by Jack Emmert's words ) to be 5 years old and just stuff they leave there because they like it.
Atari bought Cryptic to make them an MMO based upon their existing property. That property is Baldur's Gate or Neverwinter nights. Both are D&D products and until they work out the deal with Hasbro going to court to regain their rights to D&D for Atari breaching contract then it would be foolish to make those. So it has to be a new concept. I'd also suggest that COH2 would be another nightmare. If they sold the rights to the concept they can not make a sequel without NCSoft selling them a rights license to do so ( the same way CBS did with Perpetual ) and for Atari to pay royalties for it ( something they are notorious for defaulting upon (see Turbine court case ))
Atari stated to their shareholders that they are looking to make games from their own IP so as to avoid royalties.
concept art since proven ( by Jack Emmert's words ) to be 5 years old and just stuff they leave there because they like it.
Atari bought Cryptic to make them an MMO based upon their existing property. That property is Baldur's Gate or Neverwinter nights. Both are D&D products and until they work out the deal with Hasbro going to court to regain their rights to D&D for Atari breaching contract then it would be foolish to make those. So it has to be a new concept. I'd also suggest that COH2 would be another nightmare. If they sold the rights to the concept they can not make a sequel without NCSoft selling them a rights license to do so ( the same way CBS did with Perpetual ) and for Atari to pay royalties for it ( something they are notorious for defaulting upon (see Turbine court case ))
Atari stated to their shareholders that they are looking to make games from their own IP so as to avoid royalties.
I think it would be nice if they did the Chuthlu one.
I think it would be nice if they did the Chuthlu one.
Cthulhu is a dodgy area too. The books are public domain ( being out of copyright through age ) but a number of companies are laying claim to the copyrights of the Cthulhu concept already ( there are newer things based on the concept that are very much in copyright including an awful PC/Console game I have ) do I'd expect that to go right into a court as well. Maybe Atari don't care about that? they will be spending so much of next year in court perhaps another one does not matter?
I think 12 year old girls would rather watch silly vampire love stories than play an online game in the hope of pretending to snare a vampire boyfriend.
I am suggesting nothing. There has been confirmation that Cryptic is doing a new MMO. They sold City of Heros. Gameinformer reported they Tradmakred COH 2 here in the US. I presented the facts nothing more. Hence the title "may have been revealed."
Minus the fact that it was NCSoft not Cryptic that trademarked it - yeah.
I think 12 year old girls would rather watch silly vampire love stories than play an online game in the hop of pretending to snare a vampire boyfriend.
I think you underestimate the desperation of teenagers. Have you seen any Twilight slashfiction? terrible stuff...
Secret World, which is highly influenced by the H.P. Lovecraft books and comes from Ragnar Tornquist's own indication, is actually a product of Funcom.
From all indications, despite the general reputation Funcom has, Secret World should prove to be highly entertaining for a number of reasons...
Alot of people will point at Anarchy Online & Age of Conan and scoff at this, however they do need to keep in mind that the person in charge of both of those MMOs at the crucial points that could make or break them, was Gaute Godager, who has since left the company after Age of Conan. While official record states that he left to pursue other avenues, unofficially there is a mountain of evidence to support the premise that Funcom asked him to leave, and bought his half of the company as a parent investor/owner.
Another thing to keep in mind is that alot of the advancements and growth of AO is due to Craig Morrison, arguably the best thing to happen to Funcom in a long while. Craig Morrison originally started with the AO project, and was later moved over to Age of Conan. Alot of the improvements in AoC from the point Gaute Godager left up till the present are the result of his involvement. It is likely that when Secret World goes live that Craig Morrison will be moved to the Secret World project and Colin "Means" Gregg will be moved over to Age of Conan from the AO project.
Ragnar Tornquist, one of the original developers of AO has gone on record stating that prior to coding any of the Secret World MMO, that they spent literal years researching conspiracy theories, monster folklore, and secret societies so as to be able to incorporate the best of all that they could into Secret World. Alot of the levelling in Secret World is rumored to be based off of solving puzzles, rather than purely hack-and-slash or your current run-of-the-mill quests nowadays. Ragnar has also gone on record in a interview as stating when asked what would occur when people started posting the answers to the puzzles for others on the Net, that people would find out that the answers posted on the 'Net would likely not be the correct solutions for their own puzzle, even if they had the same one. This suggests that there is some type of variable controller to assess a character's actions and tailor the puzzle to them individually.
On a final note, due to Gaute Godager's involvement, Funcom has been pretty bad about releasing games with glaring issues or a ton of bugs, however one thing about Funcom that no one can deny is that over time, they will polish and fix what they have up until the point it shines brighter than the sun. All it takes is patience while they travel to this point.
All things considered, I'm glad Funcom is doing Secret World..I'd really hate to see it with the STO engine, and I'd be highly disappointed were anyone else to be doing it.
Comments
Its not unheard of for companies to trademark various names regardless if they intend to use them or not, just to keep them out of the hands of others.
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/ncsoft-trademarks-city-of-heroes-2
You are suggesting that they are creating a sequel to a game that they already created and subsequently sold to compete directly in the same genre as a game they just released (CO)?
silly...
And Hogwarts Online. That's rumored to be in the running.
I've also read rumors that cite a Hellgate spin off.
And also another rumor from posts at a different site that Stargate could be a possibility.
I am suggesting nothing. There has been confirmation that Cryptic is doing a new MMO. They sold City of Heros. Gameinformer reported they Tradmakred COH 2 here in the US. I presented the facts nothing more. Hence the title "may have been revealed."
concept art since proven ( by Jack Emmert's words ) to be 5 years old and just stuff they leave there because they like it.
Atari bought Cryptic to make them an MMO based upon their existing property. That property is Baldur's Gate or Neverwinter nights. Both are D&D products and until they work out the deal with Hasbro going to court to regain their rights to D&D for Atari breaching contract then it would be foolish to make those. So it has to be a new concept. I'd also suggest that COH2 would be another nightmare. If they sold the rights to the concept they can not make a sequel without NCSoft selling them a rights license to do so ( the same way CBS did with Perpetual ) and for Atari to pay royalties for it ( something they are notorious for defaulting upon (see Turbine court case ))
Atari stated to their shareholders that they are looking to make games from their own IP so as to avoid royalties.
I think it would be nice if they did the Chuthlu one.
Cthulhu is a dodgy area too. The books are public domain ( being out of copyright through age ) but a number of companies are laying claim to the copyrights of the Cthulhu concept already ( there are newer things based on the concept that are very much in copyright including an awful PC/Console game I have ) do I'd expect that to go right into a court as well. Maybe Atari don't care about that? they will be spending so much of next year in court perhaps another one does not matter?
I think 12 year old girls would rather watch silly vampire love stories than play an online game in the hope of pretending to snare a vampire boyfriend.
Minus the fact that it was NCSoft not Cryptic that trademarked it - yeah.
I think you underestimate the desperation of teenagers. Have you seen any Twilight slashfiction? terrible stuff...
I have not seen Twilight anything. I'm a 45 year old man remember?
From all indications, despite the general reputation Funcom has, Secret World should prove to be highly entertaining for a number of reasons...
Alot of people will point at Anarchy Online & Age of Conan and scoff at this, however they do need to keep in mind that the person in charge of both of those MMOs at the crucial points that could make or break them, was Gaute Godager, who has since left the company after Age of Conan. While official record states that he left to pursue other avenues, unofficially there is a mountain of evidence to support the premise that Funcom asked him to leave, and bought his half of the company as a parent investor/owner.
Another thing to keep in mind is that alot of the advancements and growth of AO is due to Craig Morrison, arguably the best thing to happen to Funcom in a long while. Craig Morrison originally started with the AO project, and was later moved over to Age of Conan. Alot of the improvements in AoC from the point Gaute Godager left up till the present are the result of his involvement. It is likely that when Secret World goes live that Craig Morrison will be moved to the Secret World project and Colin "Means" Gregg will be moved over to Age of Conan from the AO project.
Ragnar Tornquist, one of the original developers of AO has gone on record stating that prior to coding any of the Secret World MMO, that they spent literal years researching conspiracy theories, monster folklore, and secret societies so as to be able to incorporate the best of all that they could into Secret World. Alot of the levelling in Secret World is rumored to be based off of solving puzzles, rather than purely hack-and-slash or your current run-of-the-mill quests nowadays. Ragnar has also gone on record in a interview as stating when asked what would occur when people started posting the answers to the puzzles for others on the Net, that people would find out that the answers posted on the 'Net would likely not be the correct solutions for their own puzzle, even if they had the same one. This suggests that there is some type of variable controller to assess a character's actions and tailor the puzzle to them individually.
On a final note, due to Gaute Godager's involvement, Funcom has been pretty bad about releasing games with glaring issues or a ton of bugs, however one thing about Funcom that no one can deny is that over time, they will polish and fix what they have up until the point it shines brighter than the sun. All it takes is patience while they travel to this point.
All things considered, I'm glad Funcom is doing Secret World..I'd really hate to see it with the STO engine, and I'd be highly disappointed were anyone else to be doing it.