Funcom half-yearly 2019 financials

And somewhere along the line someone lost the memo that if players are expected to keep spending money you have to give us something to spend money on .

Yup -

And here we are. Players aren’t spending money because Funcom isn’t spending money

I would disagree somewhat, since there was (and still is) a sizeable chunk of stuff that they already have from TSW. Which most certainly will not be making it’s way over here, and that is not because Funcom didn’t make enough money - because some spent a lot and funcom chose to move on.

so somewhere that line ends with “ok, we made enough money, lets not waste more time” and shipped them off to “other projects”.
Now i have no problem with other projects, they gotta make that money, and you’re right - it is and was no secret that it was relaunched to help break those shackles and usher them out of the final throws of debt. I just found the rewording of the branding odd since it’s not even driven by it’s story anymore (I have odd humour i guess)

Right now, i would pay for ALL of the missing content and more - on top of my subscription.
If the offer was even available as “optional content DLC’s” -

@Jess
The Agent system is a way for them to add content - without actually creating zones and assets.
They just create some agents, with story chain missions and lore, that may or may not lead to “awesome rewards” or Achievements.
That can all be done by one person.
It is in no way like a Facebook or mobile game or a game within a game or even a standalone game.
It’s just a means to an end.

Explore the dark corners of Agartha and meet some of its oldest residents. Push forward against dangerous enemies and collect great rewards.
Now that you’ve been going up through the ranks of your faction, it is time to get yourself a team of rookie agents and send them on adventures of their own.
As a results of the events that ended at the top of the Orochi Tower, continue the main story mission and follow up on a lead which will send you on your way to a brand new country.

(the roadmap is no longer updated - some would lead you to believe that it’s because the public are too critical, when the reality is there is nothing to add to it)

The Agent network was used to reveal Dark Agartha, because of course - this is your final destination, a perpetual daily recurring challenge that uses scaling of your choosing and something to spend AP/SP on.
“We stand at the end of all”

(This link also contains the info on the Talisman imbuers for 4 pips)

This is probably the last of the content for SWL - anything else will be added to agents mission chains and lore.

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Oh yeah, we are clearly done with the story updates. And it breaks my heart to no end.

I have loved all the story content for the game, even South Africa (despite how short and fast it felt), but there is clearly not enough money in it to keep that going. They want me to accept like, agent missions and stuff, as the continuation of it, but that is just not nearly the same nor the best way to do it.

And what ever happened to that TV show they breathlessly anounced, eh? (lulz)

Sigh…

For the record, I blame no one about it. MMO’s died and that is the reality of it. If Secret World became a novel series or something, and I choose not to follow it, that is on me. Just a sad state of affairs I suppose.

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That’s the thing, When they say MMO’s died,- yet there is a gap in the market for MMO’s - there really isn’t anything quite like TSW/SWL out there, I certainly can’t find anything and this is a extremely niche game which makes it hard if they don’t quite know how to market it to audiences. It’s complex since it does have a lot to offer.

I for one don’t play it for the story. Yeah, it’s good absolutely no doubt about that - great even. But it’s not my driving factor to want to play everyday. It has many aspects that appeal to different play styles some RP, Some raid, Some group, some solo, Some PVP (could have had more) Some RP, etc and some all.
And that’s where they seem to fall because they want to appeal to all, I believe it can. It really does have potential to have a hell of a lot more to continue it’s story while encompassing along the way all of the above. But appealing to all at this level is hard with no team. I actually thought that’s is what they were going to do with SWL when it launched.

It doesn’t even get proper promotion, yet It still has life and it has the work already done to lay out it’s future.
The decision on what and how can only be made by those above working out some plans and giving some permissions for work to be done.In whatever form that may be. But the snails pace of trickling updates reflects the lack of manpower.

It’s not about “it doesn’t make enough money” - it makes money, it does what they wanted it to do, a small stream from just one of many revenue sources. Funcoms pot gets distributed among current projects and that is the same with all of their projects. This one is just not the current one. It has a quirky but familiar dumbed down internet browser game feel with a small layer of complexity should you delve further. But on it’s face, it’s exactly what they want it to be. People do buy the stuff.
A spokesperson is left like a lorum ipsum until such a time comes to update it’s text, announce it’s maintenance or other.

TV series? Tumbleeds drift by

As for Novel Series - have you checked out? . . .

https://blodweddmallory.com/unofficial-legends-series

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F1 F2 F3 F4 F5

I almost thought i lost them since they were on my old laptop which is fried. Luckily I put them in an old forum topic.

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Thanks @Ceruleana and @Drenneth for sharing the photos. It reminds me that there were some good times to be had and a great community to share them with.

Personally, it would take a lot more than another level of grind to get me interested again. To me that doesn’t sound like hope. That sounds like a short delay to the death of the game. But to each their own. If people are still having fun, enjoy it while it lasts.

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As someone that loves the story, I’m at least hopeful that the MoM game they’re publishing is set in the same universe. With the right kind of cross-promotion, then maybe, just maybe, they could reinvigorate interest in SWL?

Preferably not a new Woodsman’s talisman but heck if it works, go for it :stuck_out_tongue:

Bought The Park, never played it.
Never bought Hide and Shriek.
Won’t buy MoM, Martian Talisman or no.

Currently playing WoW classic.
TSW & SWL = uninstalled.

For as bitter as I am, and many of us are, we will always have TSW and our experience from TSW. Some of us were lucky to have a similar experience in SWL. And don’t let anything ever take that memory from you, or taint it. It’s hard. I know.

TSW / SWL was a magical thing, no matter what comes (or doesn’t come) next. And we were all a part of it. Cherish those memories. But, Buzz on, sweetlings. Buzz on you crazy bees.

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Alas, there doesn’t seem to be much promotion of MoM at all, much less any potential cross-promotion. This video discusses the issue:

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The problem is, if MoM does turn out to be a great game (i.e. it has good gameplay and good performance in addition to a good story), SWL would be a let-down by comparison (the gameplay is rather mediocre, the performance is :poop:).
As such, if Funcom can win over new customers with MoM, it might be wiser not risking alienating those with SWL. They’ve done quite enough of that among the old fan base.

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Alternatively, the problem is promotion. Funcom hasn’t ever exactly set industry standards in that field, to say the least. Which is what I find unintentionally hilarious with their attempts to become a publisher. I mean, even if they say they’ll advertise the games like they were their own… well, that’s not exactly setting a high bar.

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The way SWL is that “Everything is true” and based on conspiracy theories of secret societies and the Hollow Earth etc
Then the Earth would be flat and this does not exist

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It would be interesting if the developing ‘co-op shooter’ is actually a pseudo-MMO in the Secret World universe and ‘shooter’ is just code for first or third person RETICLE combat that may involve aiming depending on class/weaponry. Secret World Legends just being a MMO reboot that tries to get as far as it can (depending on profit; it got to 2018 but not the potential 2019-2020?) but otherwise attention moved onto the next actual new game in the franchise.

They test out relatively more action combat with us to see how much of it works/is accepted and how much of it is a bust.

I don’t expect this. But I’m posting these here so you all can point to it with “HE WAS RIGHT!!!”

The Coop Shooter will be in the Mutant Year Zero universe. They said as much in the financial stream.

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I don’t think they are doing another MMO.
I don’t think dune is an MMO either.
Not really interested in anything else funcom Have done or plan to do. TSW/SWL peaked my interest for a unique reason or combination of unique reasons, and this is something that has never been replicated
nor ever will be imo

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Mutant Chronicles. Loosely the same universe, but it potentially covers a lot more ground/space.

even though dune might be interesting, I’ve pretty much lost all hopes in FC as a gaming company that will take care of their products and games, and keep them updated with new content. why waste time playing dune, no matter how fun it could potentially be, if it might very well get dropped in a year or 2? like SWL.

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I’m going to go out on a limb here and say even Funcom can’t be so monumentally stupid as to treat the Dune game as poorly as TSW/SWL. That’s so well-known a franchise the world at large might take enough note of them behaving badly it’d actually hurt their reputation with potential business/project partners.

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But that would require things like ‘foresight’ and ‘planning’ and ‘allocation of money’ which Funcom has never shown a historical precedent to reasonably do, however.

Well, they still haven’t completely f’d up Conan Exiles. Hopefully whoever is responsible for that will get to make critical calls for the Dune game, rather than Scott Junior.

Funcom does care for its games. The games that are doing well financially, that is. Those games get regular(-ish) updates and stuff.
The games that don’t bring in enough money? They get little or no resources allocated to them, and thus not much in the way of updates.

Nowadays Funcom seems to be much quicker to stop working on games that perform badly financially than they used to be. The games largely don’t get a second chance.

While this sucks for us players, it is a fact that Funcom’s financial situation has become much better than it used to be so perhaps it makes good sense from a business point of view.