The Secret World Remains A Secret
With it being announced on Tuesday that Star Wars: The Old Republic will be going free to play in the autumn (yes, we’re still getting over the shock of that one), an email arrived in my inbox today inviting me to try out that other big and even newer MMOG, The Secret World, for free this weekend “to celebrate that the game is one month old.”
Yes, that’s one month old.
Now I’ve not played The Secret World beyond clicking through a couple hours during the beta, so I’m in no position to judge the quality of the game at any level (which I understand is quite high and the game distinct from virtually every other MMOG out there – which is a very good thing), but the fact that the marketeers of the game deem a month of existence worth celebrating could be construed as either very worrying or a little bit desperate. It’s a strategy that suggests to me that The Secret World is not nearly doing as well as was hoped. SWTOR at least managed three months before EA instigated a series of free weekends to help tempt people to try the game, which has led to EA’s game going free to play within a year of its release. I’m of course being a little facetious, but at SWTOR’s rate of conversion The Secret World will be free to play before the summer’s out.
Maybe I’m reading more into this than there is. Maybe free weekend trial offers are more prevalent among the dwindling number of subscription games than I’d noticed, although as someone who plays Eve and keeps an eye on Perpetuum, neither game seems to resort to free access very often, if ever.
Then again, when it comes to the increasingly inevitable switch from pure subscription to a freeplay model, Funcom have never shied away from doing whatever was necessary. Anarchy Online, after near-disastrous beginnings, was something of a trailblazing game in that regard and is still pootling along after 11 years. That being the case, there’s an argument to suggest that The Secret World is in good hands.
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I think all the naysayers need to play the game before they judge. I was sceptical about TSW, after AoC, until I played it during the open beta weekends. As a long time MMO player and having gotten sick of the endless wow clones spewed out I have just simply loved it.
I dont know the subscriber numbers but the weekend could simply be a promotion, and the celebration weekend was a fun event. I see heaps of people in the game all the time. We will have to wait and see but if this isn’t a success I truly wonder for my fellow gamers.
Subscription, or F2P.. I’ll still be playing. I just hope they keep up the awesome level of content already in game.
By all accounts TSW has nailed the fundamentals and created a game that is different from the crowd, but you’re right about content. Happily Funcom have survived long enough to know what’s ahead of them in that regard.
I won’t be playing the game myself. I didn’t enjoy the beta and supernatural conspiracy themes don’t interest me. I don’t know anyone playing the game, or have the time to join them if there was. I hope it continues though.