February 1, 2010

Our vision for Global Agenda was to combine elements from our favorite genres:  the combat of a team-based shooter, accessible character progression of an RPG, and emergent conflict, production, and politics between player-formed groups competing for limited territory and resources like a giant strategy game.  Plus jetpacks, because who doesn’t like jetpacks?!

Like our game, our pricing model is a hybrid, designed to offer players maximum flexibility:

- With a one-time purchase players can enjoy the game casually with features comparable to other multiplayer online shooters.

- And players that opt for the monthly subscription have access to ongoing content updates and premium features including ‘Conquest’ - the strategy meta-game that enables groups to compete over specific, persistent territory locations on the world map.

As an independent studio, we’ve had the luxury of developing a title that can be hard to categorize, but aims for ‘fun and engaging’ above all else.  We hope you enjoy the game.

Todd Harris
Global Agenda, Executive Producer

In the lead up to the launch of Global Agenda on Feb. 1, 2010, Hi-Rez Studios is thrilled to provide details on events surrounding the game’s opening.

Tuesday, January 26 - Last Day of Beta!!

Tues., Jan. 26, is the last day of Global Agenda’s beta. To celebrate, Hi-Rez employees will be randomly entering certain match-made PvP Missions, spawning bots that are normally reserved for Conquest (Alliance vs Alliance) gameplay and/or for PvE missions.

Want to crew a vehicle or bot and take on the enemy? Or see how you fair against 10 real players plus the Viking Boss (pictured below)? Tuesday night is your chance to find out.

Wednesday, January 27 (End of Day) – Game Available for Download.  Name Reserve Begins.

Global Agenda is currently expected to be available for download on Steam by end of day on Wednesday, January 27.

Watch GAServerStatus on Twitter on Wednesday for the announcement of when the game is live on Steam.

Once the game is active on Steam, players may install it ahead of the Early Start on Friday. Following installation, players will be prompted to activate the game on the Global Agenda website (NOTE: You need to do this even if you’ve already registered a beta account). To do so, simply follow the prompts after installation.

If you miss the prompt following installation, you may activate your "Live Key" by simply right clicking on the Global Agenda Live game in Steam and selecting MANAGE GAME ACCOUNT. After you choose this, you will be directed to the Global Agenda website. Follow the prompts.

REMEMBER: YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO LINK YOUR “LIVE” ACCOUNT ON THE GLOBAL AGENDA WEBSITE UNTIL THE LIVE GAME UNLOCKS ON STEAM ON WEDNESDAY, AND YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO PLAY UNTIL THE EARLY START BEGINS ON FRIDAY JANUARY 29.

After you link your "Live Key" to your Global Agenda account, you will be prompted to claim your name. Current Beta players will have the option to keep their current name or choose a new name.

If you were the owner of an Agency in the Beta that had at least 3 players in it, you automatically will be assigned to an Agency of that name in the Live game (as long as you link your Live key by Feb. 1), but you will be the only player associated with that Agency. If you wish to keep the Agency, simply do so and start inviting people to it. If you wish to disband the Agency, you may, and then create or join another.

Friday, January 29 – Early Start Begins

Level Up Early!!

The Global Agenda Live servers are expected to be available to play LIMITED CONTENT ONLY during most hours from Friday January 29, starting at ~3PM US Eastern (Noon US Pacific, 20:00 GMT) until Sunday, January 31, ending at ~5PM US Eastern (2PM US Pacific, 22:00 GMT).

During this time, players will be able to do the following ONLY:

1. Create one or more characters (up to their max of
2. Play the INTRODUCTORY MISSIONS (Levels 1 to 4)
3. Play limited PvE and PvP content up until LEVEL 10. Once you reach LEVEL 10, no queues will be active.
4. Explore Dome City, create and form Agencies.

Monday, February 1 – Launch!

The day is here!! Players that pre-ordered and registered their Live Key on Steam ahead of this date will find their No Elves head flair and Commonwealth Helmet in their in-game mail, retrievable at the Shipping & Receiving Dock in Dome City.

Tuesday, February 2 – Conquest!

Conquest Zones are expected to unlock for all players beginning on Tues., Feb. 2. In Global Agenda Conquest, player-formed agencies compete for scarce territory, resources, and technology on a persistent world map. Create and upgrade facilities, attack and defend territories, and engage in Base Raids, production, politics and deception on your way toward world domination. Global Agenda: Conquest is expected to require a subscription to play after March 3, 2010, so buy the game early to play free!

For the game’s launch, five zones will be open, each for two-and-a-half hours a day. Taking advantage of Global Agenda’s unique “One World” server architecture, all players world-wide will participate in a single game universe and have the ability to compete against one another. But individual Conquest zones (as well as non-Conquest contest such as Mercenary PvP and PvE missions) will be primarily hosted on instances running in distributed data centers. The Obelisk and Echelon zones will run primarily on servers hosted in Europe. The Sovereign, Citadel and Warlord Zones primarily will run on servers hosted in North America.

Hi-Rez is working on additional server infrastructure, so that new zones can be hosted on Oceania servers at a later date (at times convenient to Oceania players – exact dates for server availability To Be Announced).

Stay Current

Follow GAServerStatus on Twitter to keep up to date on the latest server availability.

Our Lawyers Made Us Say It!

Launching a video game is always an exciting endeavor, but sometimes things may not go 100% as planned, or we may discover a better way to do something as we see players experience the game. The above represents our current intentions as of the day this article was written, but things could change unexpectedly. Watch the Global Agenda Forums, this blog and GAServerStatus on Twitter to stay current on the latest info!

PC Gamer previews “The spy-fi shooter/MMO you’re about to love too”

if you’re playing as Robotics, you’ll focus on laying medical crates, missile turrets and other support structures in the field to create mini-bases to resupply and protect your allies, but you’ll be vulnerable to sneaky opponents playing as Recon, who can sabotage turrets and backstab. Medics and Assault characters are usually seen side-by-side, pushing onto capture points or other objectives with the Medic’s healing ray tethered to his minigun-toting best friend to keep the hitpoints flowing.

Pick up a copy of PC Gamer today.

Read the article, now available on GamesRadar!

Will’s illustrations are featured in the Commonwealth art book and poster available inside the Limited Edition Game Box.

Will, tell us what you do at Hi-Rez.

I’m a Senior Artist at Hi-Rez. I spend most of my time doing concepts for the environments in Global Agenda- everything from rough paintovers to Disneyland-style maps of levels and detailed landscape and architectural renderings. I recently contributed to the illustrations for the poster and timeline book that shipped with the GA collector’s edition box. I work exclusively in Photoshop with a Wacom Cintiq digital tablet monitor.

Describe how you got into the gaming industry; how long have you worked on games and what brought you to Hi-Rez Studios?

I’ve been working full-time in the game industry since 2000, making illustrations for Vivendi Universal Games titles like Curious George and Spyro the Dragon before moving on to Hi-Rez. I heard about Hi-Rez from another illustrator named Skip Kimball, who referred me here after he went to Radical to lead the art team on “Prototype.” I originally just fell into the games industry by accident when an art school buddy who was busy with other projects passed along a job lead at an educational software company. I kept in touch with people there and one project led to another.

Describe your video game experience; when did you start playing? What really got you thinking about game development?

I’m showing my age, but I actually started playing games on the Commodore 64. I tried programming some graphics when I was about 10 and quickly realized that my talents lay elsewhere. Years later when I was in college, Myst came out. I loved the detailed environments in that game and I decided that’s what I wanted to work on. But that same year FPS games just exploded, and the requirements of frame-rate made graphics go to crap for about five years. Counter-strike got me back into PC games again, and I jumped at the first opportunity to make one.

What is your favorite Global Agenda class/character to play?

Probably Recon, but being a good one means you’re a total a-hole, so I only play that class with my alt.

What part of Global Agenda are you most excited about?

I enjoy seeing people get blown up on the environments I design.

What experience do you draw from when creating the content that you do for the game? Is there anything specific you draw from for inspiration?

I was fortunate enough to spend several years designing storefronts and fixtures for flagship Disney stores. I had to work with architects and think about how my designs would actually get built, and even do plan and elevation views to scale. Now when I design for virtual environments, I still try to make them look like they could really be built, and be structurally sound. Although GA has a futuristic setting, I try to keep things plausible by researching present-day environments and then extrapolating them into the future. I do my best to avoid ripping off well-known sci-fi franchises like Star Wars and Aliens. Instead I go directly to the source. With GA, my inspiration was a mix of industrial/military technology and cutting-edge architecture by people like Frank Gehry and Norman Foster.

What advice do you have for someone who wants to break into gaming?

I can only speak to my specialty, which is environment illustration. I guess my advice to budding artists would be to spend a lot of time drawing, painting and learning perspective before you try to break into the industry. Technology changes all the time, but the fundamentals of art never do. No software will help you make great art if you don’t have the chops. Once you put in the time to learn your craft, just be persistent and your portfolio will speak for itself.

What are some of your favorite games?

Jumpman- You never get over your first game.

Counter-Strike- I’ve logged more hours in Chateau and Italy than I care to admit.

Company of Heroes- The sound of that V2 rocket coming down still gives me chills. Jawohl!

What do you do in your free time?

When I’m not playing with my kids or running, I’m in therapy trying to get over the last four Braves seasons.

What is on your iPod/MP3player?

Cannibal Corpse and ABBA.

Seraphina Brennan over at Massively.com wrote a couple of great articles about Global Agenda last week

First, his thoughts on Global Agenda: Conquest:

Global Agenda: Conquest mode is the game’s take on a real-time strategy game versus an FPS. Your alliance of agencies can take ownership of the Global Agenda world and lay claim to valuable resources to build agent modifications, weapons of mass destruction, and even more fun little tools. But you must guard your territory carefully, as other alliances will have the option to siege your land, forcing you into battles for domination of the map.

Read the whole article here!

Also, his take on how Global Agenda’s squad-based combat still creates a massive experience when you overlay the game’s unique framework for territory control:

Why is there so much ado about the nature of an MMO? Why are so many fixated on the 10 vs 10 nature of Global Agenda and not the bigger picture of what the game has to offer? Why do we scoff at the idea of 100 person instances when it was designed to give the player more flexibility?

Today, I want to play the devil’s advocate, as I do in so many of my opinion columns. I want to take on the defense of Global Agenda as an MMO title, and I think I have enough evidence to prove that it’s massive — just not in the way you normally consider MMOs to be massive. And, personally, I think this is only good news for the industry at large.

Check out Brennan’s full take on it here.

Check out the latest Global Agenda trailer!

The Older Gamers send Reoh into Global Agenda’s Beta all the way from Australia. Curious about the ping time from down under?

“The results of my gameplay experience were quite surprising, I experience little lag related issues while playing the game in both PvE and PvP! I don’t know what they’ve done with the code but somehow it really didn’t matter that I was on the other side of the world.”

Read the full review here!

GamesRadar talks about what makes Global Agenda a different kind of MMO.

At first sight it plays like an MMO. You pick your character class (Assault, Medic, Recon, Robotics), choose a look, and then make your first picks from the skill trees. The interface continues the theme: a traditional MMO tray of icons, health and power bars and unlimited ammo. So then you try the first PvE mission – perhaps you’re a sniping Recon, attempting to take out an evil robot, and you’re dying. Many times. Until the moment it clicks, your perspective zooms out, and you realize this is actually a third-person action game you’re playing. You need to run, dodge, hide, cloak, throw bombs and dive for cover.

Read the full article here

Time Magazine featured the lovely gals of Global Agenda in their Techland blog:

Since both men and women are available as player-characters shooting guns, the developers thought it was silly to have cleavage-baring ladies with no protection. “It’s a little easier in fantasy games as it could be explained away with magic, or her ability to finesse around the other characters,” explained lead character artist Sean McBride. “It’s a little different when you put guns into the mix and think about someone not wearing body armor around their heart.”

Read more here!

TenTonHammer talked to Todd and got some details about PvP gameplay.

“The promise of Global Agenda is an MMOG that has both the story and comfort level to convert shooter-averse MMORPG fans into territory conquering PvPers, yet has enough grit to appeal to hardcore shooter fans. While the maps mission types may seem familiar, interesting twists such as jetpacks and movable, destructible… respawn beacons may change the contours of now conventional online shooter gameplay. That Global Agenda ties all this and more into a full, persistent, large-scale PvP oriented package makes this title one to watch in early 2010.”

Read the whole article here