Thursday, February 16

33



I am not so good at chasing round forums and websites any more. So I would have completely missed this if Geeky wouldn't have pointed it out. Thanks Geeky, you are my hero! The Secret World, or actually FunCom itself, added a lovely piece of ARG to their website. Click anywhere on the page that is not a link, and press the number 3 twice.

I have do idea what it means. Maybe I should go visit the official forum at DarkDemonsCryGaia.com, but first I want to try to figure something out by myself. And that dilemma is one thing I am a bit worried about with the game. They have added these great secrets that will be fun to discover. But how will they make this a multi player experience? As a solo player I can ignore the internetz. But part of the fun is to discover/explore these things together. As soon as you do that we'll run into TSWiki.com or TSW-Zam.com and all the answers are there. I am too much fanboi to even think The Secret World will disappoint me, but will it succeed as massive multiplayer experience?

12 comments:

  1. Right now, i'm more enthused about this.

    Seems more viable in the long run given the way MMO's and internet communities have evolved over the last decade.

    I'm sure I'll ahve fun with Secret World when it comes out, but I fear puzzles will not be what invigorates the MMO industry, or its veterans.

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  2. Yeah, Pathfinder looks promising. But I can't really get enthousiastic about a game that is at least two years away. TSW is maybe just two months away.

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  3. That's the porblem with all you causal players. You need instant rewards, no attention span whatsoever...

    :-P

    I know what you mean though.

    But I seem to having a "no spoilers!" mood regarding TSW though. Also a "should I get ME3 first?" feeling, and as well a subdued dread TSW will be a great game wasted by trying to put it in an MMO mold like SW:TOR.

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  4. Oh and while Pathfinder looks promising, I keep expecting them to reveal themselves to be Brad McQuaid's latest venture if you know what I mean.

    A lot of the ideas were touted 2 years before Vanguard released as well.
    Still, a Fantasy MMO with Eve-like economy and user generated content with truly dynamic PvE...
    Would be so great.
    And Pathfinder P&P RPG's secretly a D&D 3.5 fork so ought to be a good combat system not populated with a ridiculous ammount of skills (looking at you here EQ2, AoC Rift, SW:TOR) I really don't fancy another MMO where I need 48 buttons on a "hotbar". 20-24 really ouhgt to be the max. Less can be more.

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  5. Yes, that Bard McQuaid feeling is why I didn't even read all the details on it yet. Too many grandiose ideas, and too little actual implementations yet to believe what they promise.

    And I very much agree with the hotbar too. Less is more. The 7 active and 7 passive powers of TSW sound promising.

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  6. Here's another to keep us busy...

    http://www.thesecretworld.com/1958/

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  7. You can also get there via the "33" route. Click on the "R" rune and then the button in the middle. It was the only thing I had found so far yet from the rune door. And I have no clue yet what the information is really giving. I did of course visit the youtube link. Not a bad song.

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  8. Here's a clue: http://linux01.gwdg.de/~alatham/stego.html

    STEGANOGRAPHY



    JPHIDE and JPSEEK are programs which allow you to hide a file in a jpeg visual image. There are lots of versions of similar programs available on the internet but JPHIDE and JPSEEK are rather special. The design objective was not simply to hide a file but rather to do this in such a way that it is impossible to prove that the host file contains a hidden file. Given a typical visual image, a low insertion rate (under 5%) and the absence of the original file, it is not possible to conclude with any worthwhile certainty that the host file contains inserted data. As the insertion percentage increases the statistical nature of the jpeg coefficients differs from "normal" to the extent that it raises suspicion. Above 15% the effects begin to become visible to the naked eye. Of course some images are much better than others when used a host file - plenty of fine detail is good. A cloudless blue sky over a snow covered ski paradise is bad. A waterfall in a forest is probably ideal.

    This is available as a Linux version for interested parties to experiment with: jphs-0.3.tgz - compressed tar signature

    It is also available as a Windows and DOS version ready to run. This is not because I am a Windows/DOS fan but rather that the products need to reach a wider audience. My main
    concern over Windows/DOS is not that they are making a few people very very rich but rather that the source code is not available for scrutiny and there may well be built in trojan horses. Be that as it may they are a fact of life and in any case it was fun learning visual C++.

    Download from here: JPHS for Windows

    August 1999 - Allan Latham alatham@flexsys-group.com

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  9. No, sorry. No clue what to do with your clue. I actually tried to jseek the background image, but I could only find a small version of it. The background is actually animating...

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  10. I got it from this:

    Starting up boot sequence
    Startup command acknowledge
    System loading - Kernel File K. Mitnick
    Urizen Ur-Unix Version 17.4.2:
    Fri Apr 24 23 20:32:54 GMT 1998
    Copyright (c) 1998 Blakewill Computer, Ltd.
    Copyright (c) 1989-1998 Open Software Foundation, Inc.
    physical memory = 1.00 PB
    Searching SSD devices
    rdisk0 bus 0 target 0 lun 0
    rdisk1 bus 0 target 1 lun 0
    rdisk2 bus 0 target 2 lun 0
    Ethernet address=8:0:20:7:58:jk
    Disk Space = 5.00 PB SSD RAID-0
    Checking disk quotas: done.
    WARNING, LOW DISK SPACE
    Tue Jul 14 14:47:45 EDT 1998
    STP Task
    DQM, EXP, JCM, JSH, PDM, SCP, TQM
    Starting safe mode
    Loading test mission
    Loading http://tinyurl.com/32jsmk
    Hit F11 to enter or exit fullscreen mode
    Register user:

    Besides SSD's in 1998 the tnyurl seemd the most interesting bit in there. Could be you have to check some of the sites, mentioned. But the problem with Steno is of course you never know if somehting's there or not.

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  11. The page that showed up when following '33' had a youtube.com link in stead of a tinyurl.com link. I had completely glanced over that changed URL. I am not so good at picking up subtle differences, I guess :)

    The '33' leads now just to darkness. Maybe I should JSEEK that. But that is a swf, not a jpg.

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