Anyone else have this problem during loads?

I can't get the game to start right now, I'm guessing the login/patch servers are hammered. I'll try later.

Sounds like a typical Funcom game. And that is coming from somebody who was a big Anarchy Online fan back in the day.

@jozzy said:

Sounds like a typical Funcom game. And that is coming from somebody who was a big Anarchy Online fan back in the day.

Yep. I was a huge Age of Conan proponent, loved every minute I played of that game, but I'll be the first to say that I wouldn't expect anything less than a broken game from Funcom. The problems you're seeing right now are likely going to be the same problems you'll still be seeing in the game 3 years after its release if history is to repeat itself.

Personally, I'll still give them a chance.

@SlasherMan: I played AoC for a while too and loved it much of that time. I also had high hopes for it getting better. I believe it could have done much better with a different developer at the wheel. Funcom simply demonstrated a slight lack of competence with it.

As if the game's occasional issues weren't driving people away enough, the real killer was the way Funcom made a habit of completely ignoring valid complaints and suggestions from the community months and months after release. Instead, they chose to continue writing off people's complaints as mere childish whining - arguing that every MMO has a rough start. They refused to admit that they were a little out of their league...up until that rough start turned into a rough year, then a rough two years, then the player base shriveled up, then people at Funcom started getting the axe.

By that point, even a competent team couldn't bring back all the customers they pushed away.

I'm willing to give The Secret World a chance because it looks like an interesting and different concept for an MMO. But I sincerely hope Funcom understands that aside from some early bugs and reasonable launch issues, the days of "every MMO releases broken like WoW did" are basically gone. Unless the game is offering something just so revolutionary and mind-blowing that people are willing to deal with brokenness, there are too many decent options around for that sort of thing.

There is SO MUCH that I wish I could tell you all about the CB on this game. However, the NDA is one of the strictest I've ever seen, so I really can't. What I can say is that the OB client doesn't appear to be the same build as the CB one by about 1 or 2 patches (They only release a full build every month rather then a bunch of tiny patches throughout). Many of your technical concerns are valid, but the content itself is consuming. I think you'll see the same once you get in.

Or maybe I'm a sucker for real world lore and mythology.