Four, three, seven
December has arrived – with Christmas decorations (good), shorter days (not good), and wet snow that melts into a sea of slush (bad), covering up the slippery slick ice (superbad)1 – and we are now less than two weeks away from Funcom’s biannual company product presentation, where the whole company gets to see what everyone else has been working on the past six months.
Of course, most of us know exactly what the Age of Conan team has been up to; after all, we get to play the Beta (excellent), and the runaway PR train is going full speed into the home stretch (mixing metaphors at every station along the way). But few people in the building know much about The Secret World, seeing as it’s, you know, so super secret and all.2
The week after next, therefore, we’ll be showing off the fruits of our labours to about two hundred people, all of whom are sworn to secrecy (and employed by Funcom, so there will be no spy reports – unless those spy reports originate with me). And the fruits (of our loins labours) are fresh, juicy, and tasty (and blended; think smoothie). We’ll be showing off about twenty minutes of live, never-before-seen multiplayer gameplay (and that’s because of time constraints, not because we don’t have more than twenty minutes to show3), plus some other really awesomely cool kick-ass stuff that I can’t say anything about.
People, I’m sure (and hope), will be absolutely thrilled.
This upcoming presentation is our (as in the TSW team’s) biggest milestone yet, and the whole team is working full steam to deliver something so completely and totally fucking awesome4 that we’ll literally blow people’s eyes out of their sockets. (Boom. Squelch. Ooze.)
Don’t you wish you could be there? Exploding eyeballs are fun!
Without spoiling too much, and to keep the speculation going, here are three words that may (or may not) describe exactly (or partly, or not at all) what we’re going (or not going) to show (or not show) at the internal (yes) presentation (or is it?):
Nábleikr
Angell
Solomon
Because of current PR and marketing priorities, that’s about all you’re (officially) getting for a while. TSW won’t (officially) begin to emerge from under the shroud of secrecy until after Age of Conan has gone live. (Officially. I’m not saying there will be total silence, as conspiracies tend to have a life of their own, and, as some of you know, the game appears to have stirred up some controversy in certain circles. Make of that what you wish.)
I’ll be back before the deadline, however, and I’ll say as much as I can without the marketing warbots being activated and set to kill, not stun. (I kid, I kid. The marketing warbots are mostly harmless, and carry no nuclear ordinances.)
- Still, December is on the list of good months, mostly because, yay, Christmas! January and February, however, have much to answer for, and should really know better. ↩
- Secrecy is one way to maintain a sense of mystery, and mystery, as you all know, is
importantthe Key to Success. ↩ - We do. ↩
- The f’s and a’s, by the way, are in honour of those who question my ability to express myself in a mature and intelligent manner. I like to prove you right. ↩
Would “Key to Success” in footnote 2 refer to the Solomon clue, as in the Solomon Key? The Seal of Solomon is the first thing that pops into my overstuffed-with-too-much-ancient-mysteries-and-conspiracies head.
I’ve seen the word Nábleikr” around too, might have something to do with one of the old Norse sagas (the Edda I think). I only speak Australian though so I have no idea what the word means.
Angell however has me beat; is it someone’s surname, or just a typo of Angel?
I have the final episodes of Deadwood season two awaiting me though, so this TSW mystery will have to wait. Yep, Deadwood is that good! It’s about the only thing (apart from Kate Beckinsale) that can drag me away from a TSW/Ragnar Tornquist mystery.
PS That’s a brilliant coincidence you linked to the Edmond Halley wiki, Ragnar — I bought Hollow Earth by David Standish today (Amazon). Halley’s a major figure in early Hollow Earth theories. Gah, Deadwood can wait, I’m reading my Hollow Earth book and researching!
If only Dr Elsa Schneider could see me — I’m as giddy as a schoolboy!
Well, the Icelandic-Latin-Danish lexicon I found here translates it into the Latin ‘pallidus’ and ‘luridus’ (I didn’t attempt the Danish ‘dødbleg’) which, funnily enough, translate to the English pallid and lurid/pale.
Looking at that section on Hollow Earth on the Halley wiki article, Halley apparently imagined the hollow part’s atmosphere to be “luminous”.
Hmm…
The “it” I was referring to was ‘Nábleikr’, obviously.
Awesome, thanks for the translation Wandrew. The “luminous” info sheds some light on the mystery as well.
Gah, I’m torn. Watch Deadwood, read Hollow Earth, or investigate the TSW clues… **rolls a six-sided dice** Deadwood it is, chat with you in a couple of hours. I bet you’ll have the mystery solved by then.
Ragnar, I must correct you:
“Secrecy is one way to maintain a sense of mystery, and mystery, as you all know, is MAGIC.” -Cortez (somewhat)
Anyway, I see you like teasing us with things that we don’t know :@
Regarding the nature of complete secrets, I just happened to putter upon this Potter quote in the depths of my mind:
Which probably means that more people know more about TSW than you’d like them to, Ragnar, but also that more people people know less about TSW than they’d like to.
Also, does the title “four three seven” has something to do with TSW?
437 is the number of the entry. Watch the address line.
If 437 is the number of the entry, what happened to 435 and 436?
It’s a conspiracy, I tell you.
Well, 7 ate 9…
er, bad joke. :rolleyes:
This game is going to be simply amazing.
I am completely and utterly jealous of those who will be seeing the game in two weeks.
That said, I’m almost glad that there’s so little info available for the game right now. It would just be waaaaay too distracting
They’re probably on the draft stage. Hey, perhaps one of them is Dreamfallen part trois? Who knows…
Wow… you’re a funny man, Ragnar, a funny man.
(urgh.. still having problems logging in using firefox)
*laughs
That reminds me of that pakistan guy from Seinfield.
“You’re a bad man, a very bad man!” (in his own accent ofc)
Do we get to wave our pinky back & forth for the funny quote if Babu gets to wave his index finger back & forth for the bad man quote? As a bonus, the extended pinky is classy.
That was the funniest (and possibly the most creative – it would have been merely derrivative to choose different words) response I could possibly ask for.
*pinky wave salute*
“unless those spy reports originate with me”
Weeeellll…you know, Ragnar, that if you, I don’t know, leaked information to me and I printed it, I wouldn’t let anyone know it was you….. >.>
Ragnar:
While I imagine you’d love to share more of TSW if you could, I also figure it’s got to be pretty gratifying and flattering to see so many people get worked up and excited over the little hints given out here and there.
Hey Ragnar, I’m sure you’ve heard about this and have your opinion on the matter, and maybe care to share that opinion?
What I’m talking about, is:
a) the already mentioned GameSpot scandal that started a wave of mistrust not only for GameSpot materials, but game reviews overall;
b) the tragedy (for viewers) that is the writers’ strike in America.
Always nice to hear your opinion about outstanding issues
“b) the tragedy (for viewers) that is the writers’ strike in America.”
Yeah, damn that one. They’ve ruined my favorite show.
Yup, I have been waiting for months for episodes of Prison Break and Avatar. Meh.
b) the tragedy (for viewers) that is the writers’ strike in America.
Only if you watch TV. Yes, the implications are pretty much true…
Terry: If I leaked information to you, I would probably find my tenure at Funcom cut tragically short. But keep an eye on this blog; I might leak some (non-sensitive and carefully selected) information to myself.
Tyger: I’ve been meaning to post something on (b) for a while, but there’s so many opinions (more informed than mine) out there already, it would end up sounding a bit superfluous. Not that I mind sounding superfluous; my career has been built on it. I just don’t want to get dull. Still, I might post something on it, particularly now that we seem to be in for a looong wait.
As for (a)… I’m not sure I want to touch that one. I find it a bit disturbing to see everyone jumping to conclusions, and from what I know of the ‘biz’, the truth is never as black-and-white as people would have it – and it’s very unlikely there some sort of giant conspiracy behind it all. GameSpot lives and dies by the trust of its readers, and the publishers are too smart to screw (too much) with that.
Yume: “Deadwood” is great show indeed. I also recommend you “The Wire” – I’m sure you’ll like it, even if it’s another genre.
Ragnar: We’re waiting for more informations. Sounds exciting
.
does anyone else here besides ragnar live in Oslo?
@pipedream: Probably. Personally, I live a couple of hours away.
Yeah, I live two hours away. Why are you asking:P?
I live two hours away. Why do you ask:P?
I live about 3 hours driving away hehe…
About 45min away from my Norwegian home though.
(still having problems logging in on Firefox btw)
I live about 3 days driving away hehe…
About 45min away from my Norwegian home though.
(still having problems logging in on Firefox btw)
Two posts by me?
..Seems like this editing business isn’t fully up and running yet either.
Anyway – “days” is correct.
I’m about 10′000 miles from Oslo, and 10 hours ahead in time. Despite living in the future, I still don’t know how Ragnar’s TSW presentation went.
Thanks much for the TSW clues, Ragnar; Solomon and Edmond Halley especially, they give us a very intriguing sneak peek of TSW. By the way, am I hot or cold with August Belmont and the Belmont family’s ties with the Rothschilds/Illuminati? Please say hot, or warm at least — think warm thoughts up there in the freezing Arctic.
I believe I’m about 4,000 miles from Oslo. What is that, like 30 minutes by car?
About 45 minutes drive away from oslo…eh sry, ment 60 minutes (if I stick to the speed-limits).
Man, I’ve missed this blog. Haven’t had a permanent net connection since October here in London. I’ve missed Dreamfall and The Longest Journey as well – so much so that I just bought both games again this morning! (Limited Edition with the art book and CD.) I have no idea how close London is to Oslo…
Compared to Oz? Relatively close…
Little out of place question…but I thought they would only publish this special edition in America? I live in Germany but I would really like to get my hands on one of these too….
you can order the special edition on the funcom website ^.^
So, Ragnar, I can’t help but ask… What did you think of our new portal:
http://www.crygaia.com/cgn/
?
I found the special edition at the store ‘Game’ in the UK…
Merry Christmas everybody. I hope your holidays are wonderful!
Merry Christmas guys.
Merry Christmas to all of you!!
Merry Christmas, Ragnar!
I meant to wish you Merry Christmass two days ago… but, oh well, that didn’t happen.
Merry Christmass!
Where has Mr. Tornquist gone?
According to the information I found on the Edda, there are two kinds of dead, the helblár (blue/black) or Nábleikr (corpse pale).
As for Angell I found Three possible answers. Appearantly the authority on the ozone hole and the effects on the Antarctic is meteorologist James K. Angell, In Belmont is one of the first SPCA’s, The MSPCA, and it was started by a lawyer called Angell, whose name is now on their animal hostpitals. Finally, and a less likely candidate is Sir Norman Angell, a Nobel prize winner that wrote very famous and well researched books disproving the value of war and predatory mercantilism in books like “the Great Illusion”, “The Fruits of Victory” and “The Money Game”.
The Key of Solomon, which I have actually read and handeled, is a how to book on magic, conjouration and summoning mainly, from what little I saw. It could also refer to a reputed underground world that he had found during the extensive mining for metals he was reputed for.
Speaking of Solomon, I also just remembered and had to double check with google, but the fictional book “King Solomons Mines” and its hero Alan Quartermane, were the first of the books in the whole genre of the lost underground worlds. This is by skeptics given as the reason that there is little credence to the story that King Solomon actually found an abandoned underground civilization in one of his mines that was like Petra only underground.
Ragnar, a buddy of mine is having trouble getting TLJ to run on XP SP2, dual core machine, with the older 4 CD set, is there any way to make this work? It worked fine up until Chapter 5 and then phooey. The site has lots of simlar posts and we wondered if there is a fix you can share with us>>>>??? for this wonderful game…..we love it…
thanks for any help on this..