It's true! http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/12/12/interview-the-secret-world-drops-subscription/

The game is going to the same model that Guild Wars 2 has; one-off purchase with in-game store.

This is fantastic news for me as I've always wanted to try this for a prolonged period, not just a beta weekend here or there. Will this convince any of you guys? Will you be giving the game a go now that there's no on-going cost?

Not so . . . secret anymore, huh?

Great, I'm really interested to play this.

I'll buy it now.

Seriously, if an MMO wants me to check it out, they need to have no subscription fee. I have no problem giving them money for things that I deem worthwhile, but this idea that I need to pay a subscription fee when I'm a gamer that plays A LOT OF DIFFERENT GAMES just doesn't do it for me anymore.

Welp, time to resinstall

I.... Yes.

I actually think I'm going to buy this. Thought it looked pretty decent during all the Rockpapershotgun preview pieces, so I'm inclined to buy it now.

@dekkadekkadekka: So does this mean the trial isn't available anymore? Can't seem to find the place to sign up for it.

As someone who did play this game for about 2 months, I think anyone who is even vaguely interested in it should give it a try.

When I build a new PC at some point next year (likely summer) I'll probably get it.

@Wampa1: Yeah, it looks like the trial has gone. That's a shame.

I'll seriously consider it now.

I always thought the setting of that game to be more interesting than fantasy MMOs like Guild Wars or WoW. As long as they don't limit the content in ridiculous ways like EA does with TOR i'll be really interested in it now.

Hmm... I already own this game. I may go back to it if it's free to play.  
It's not a bad game for an MMO. I just don't want to pay the fee anymore (mainly because I can't afford to and it seems like it's shouldn't be necessary with how MMOs are run these days).

yeah i'm probably gonna dip my toe in the game now.  I really found the game setting interesting, and i think this approach is better than going completely free to play.

@Phatmac: @jakob187: @GetEveryone: @Pr1mus: @Marz: If it wasn't for The Walking Dead, I would say that The Secret World is my 'narrative experience of the year.' The writing is some of the best that I've seen this generation, the acting is spectacular, and it has enough tonal variety (tragedy, comedy, hopelessness and plenty of self-awareness) to keep things well paced throughout the adventure. So for you maybes/probablies, I'd say to check it out for sure.

There is one caveat: the core combat is pretty clunky. It has active dodging and whatnot, but there are plenty of awkward animations and it severely lacks the kineticism (that's a word, right?) that it needs. But if you could get over something like Dragon Age: Origins, I think you'd be just fine here.

I think the introduction of this video serves as a good example of what The Secret World has done to 'quest text' while showing off some of the quality writing and acting. I found this content to be the highlight of the game (along with the game's exhaustive codex/lore database). It has a way of just pulling you into the lives of these people and their fascinating acceptance of the supernatural.

I really dislike subscriptions for MMOs, and so I suppose that's why I didn't give this game much notice, not even looking into what it was about...the premise is very intriguing, so I'll definitely be considering it now.

I'll probably pick it next time it's on sale. It's been awhile since I was heavily into an MMO but I still enjoy checking them out.

@project343: My friend played the shit out of it, and I got to watch him play for a bit. It looked like a great game that I wanted to play, but I'm just done with subscription fees all around. Having played non-sub MMOs like DDO, LOTRO, and GW for so long, it was difficult after the collapse of TOR post-1.2 patch to justify paying a subscription fee anymore.

@jakob187: So this update must have you pretty happy then. It seems like a really inoffensive business model. They have a cash shop with frivolous things, they aren't decapitating the non-subs with restrictions, and the game's "issues" (large content packs) are becoming paid DLC for a reasonable $5 price tag.

Re-install time ! :'D

Well fuck now kind of wishing I picked it up on black Friday.

There is now a possibility that I will play this in the future.

This is the one MMO that I will now try due to it being free to play. SWTOR went free but I have been a subscriber since the summer so the free update didn't do much for me.

@project343: Here I was telling myself that I'm done with MMOs after I just couldn't do another "kill 20 of this" quest in TOR (those "bonus quests" are in-fucking-sane) and now your post sold another copy of The Secret World. I really like the secret society setting, in fact you could say that it's my second favorite after sci-fi and all the narrative stuff seems super interesting. I hope you don't have to fight too much between the story bits.

Hmmm, maybe I'll jump back in. I wonder if they nerfed my build to oblivion or just let it ride.

@Demoskinos said:

Well fuck now kind of wishing I picked it up on black Friday.

winter sale my man

@altairre: There is still plenty of 'kill X of these' and 'collect X of these.' It is very much in-line with the sort of stuff you'd find in SWTOR or WoW. But they have different types of missions that vary things up a bit. Sabotage quests are basically stealth quests that have no/little killing and focus more on keen movement through locations, and the investigations missions (which I'm sure you've heard about) are very elaborate ARG-style puzzles that will have you translating Hebrew to Arabic and whatnot. But you still have kill quests... they're just coated in spectacular narrative context.

*Edit:

The video example that I provided actually leads into a pretty cool mission where you are traveling throughout the mansion's history, effectively solving the deaths from the past. Really neat narrative context, but you do spent a lot of that mission killing supernatural enemies that spring forward in the time-bending process.

So please don't buy this game thinking it'll be a singleplayer Ragnar Tornquist game without MMO grind.

Good to hear. Now it's just Tera and Warcraft left. Yes, Tera has a F2P server but it caps at level 28 out of 60.

I don't expect Warcraft to change until "Titan" is revealed.

@project343: Well, at least there is something different to some of the quests. I also have no problem fighting mobs on my way to a target or killing/collecting some amount of X if it's not too much. In TOR you have those bonus quests where you have to kill up to 60 dudes to complete them and there is absolutely no narrative behind it (I still did them almost always because I was afraid of being underleveled). That broke it for me eventually and I stopped at lvl 41 not even seeing the end of the class story. You mentioned Dragon Age: You sure fight a lot in that game but there was always something happening at the point where it began to drag.

@altairre: The big problem with Old Republic was the fact that the majority of their sidequests felt like filler narrative that you had to do along the way to your next meaty story mission. The Secret World has a pretty strong main story, but the most impressive thing is that a lot of the side narratives are just as good if not better than that main mission. Moreover, the game is very loosely structured. There are no levels per se, sidequest givers are marked on the map, and you can only take one primary sidequest at a time: effectively removing the extremely linear-feeling 'quest hub' flow. What this amounts to is something more akin to a GTA game: you see mission markers on the map that activate lengthy stories/adventures in this fleshed out world, you become wholly pulled into them, and then you're done with that node.

And I'm not really sure what you're talking about with Dragon Age: Origins. I was mostly referencing it for the clunky combat. The Secret World feels similar, but also mixes in some really abstract CCG/deck building mechanics into the skill system (like the original Guild Wars, I guess). Like Dragon Age: Origins, the joy comes from seeing these characters, seeing these stories, and building your character; but unlike Dragon Age: Origins, the game does not have the tactical party management. It relies more on you building your skill deck, combining skills in creative ways, and executing again and again on efficient combat rotations with your creative deck concoction. There are entire 10-hour stretches where you can become reliant on a particular setup without any variation until the game's difficulty forces you to reevaluate (or sheer creative experimentation); these stretches would be fine if executing on those rotations was fun, but it tends not to be.

Well alright then, now I'll buy it.

@SeanFoster said:

I'll probably pick it next time it's on sale. It's been awhile since I was heavily into an MMO but I still enjoy checking them out.

This!!!

After having had some fun with star wars old republic (but sadly not enough time...), it proved that i can enjoy mmo's. So at the right price i can see myself jumping in.

@super2j said:

@SeanFoster said:

I'll probably pick it next time it's on sale. It's been awhile since I was heavily into an MMO but I still enjoy checking them out.

This!!!

After having had some fun with star wars old republic (but sadly not enough time...), it proved that i can enjoy mmo's. So at the right price i can see myself jumping in.

As a heads up, it's 30 dollars now on amazon if you're interested.

@DystopiaX said:

@super2j said:

@SeanFoster said:

I'll probably pick it next time it's on sale. It's been awhile since I was heavily into an MMO but I still enjoy checking them out.

This!!!

After having had some fun with star wars old republic (but sadly not enough time...), it proved that i can enjoy mmo's. So at the right price i can see myself jumping in.

As a heads up, it's 30 dollars now on amazon if you're interested.

30 seems to be the normal price for it now, it's the same price on Steam too. It'll probably be on discount soon in a the Steam sale, so just wait for it then.

Also, even if you don't end up playing them, i recommend at least playing the intro the the Dragon or whatever the asian faction is. It's...interesting.

I am definitely going to reinstall this now. I really enjoyed my time with the game but with the fall season being so packed with other things to play I had cancelled my sub.

Never played an MMO but I am interested by this (and the one that GB talks about all the time that doesn't exist anymore) but I'll probably wait till it goes to a F2P model.

It was available for £3.74 on GMG last week. Definitely wait for Christmas sales if you're looking to jump in now.

The Secret World is a great game. It is a little light on the amount of quests, but the quality of quests is unmatched.

I might give this another whirl now. I thought it was pretty good when I tested it at launch - great quest videos... but really, really terrible combat.

First time I've ever actually cared about any questgivers in an MMO, despite having a long and sordid history with the genre.

Interesting.

"No offer found for given key"

Ughhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Now I have to deal with customer service. Hope it's a smooth process.

I bought this game when it came out, and played for a couple months. I'm glad to come back to it, and I hope this brings in a lot more people.

I will definitely give it a shot, it seems like the type of MMO where the gameplay doesn't revolve around the endgame so the leveling content won't end up as filler.

As an avid fan of MMOs, I strongly recommend trying this one out. The setting is fantastic and unique, as it is not fantasy RPG number 5371. There is also some really really well done quest design and writing that does not insult the intelligent of the player.

On the other hand, the combat is basically MMO combat, so if you are looking for something there, there isn't much new besides some extra movement mechanics. The only reason I really stopped playing was I got too lazy to be rebooting into Windows to play games (When so many other MMOs are already available on mac side) and that my time for gaming as a whole was cut down a lot. Still, it's really worth giving it a shot if you like the genre. If you don't...it probably own't change any minds.

@Levio said:

I will definitely give it a shot, it seems like the type of MMO where the gameplay doesn't revolve around the endgame so the leveling content won't end up as filler.

Since there are no levels per se and all/almost all quests can be repeated, you're fairly correct in saying that. A lot of great little narratives, stories and puzzles. And it has some of the best designed dungeons I have ever experienced.

That said, there is a lot of content to sift through, and it tends to be designed around small little individual adventures. Playing TSW 10 hours a day will burn you out fast, but 1-3 hour play sessions work great.

Considering I have been subbing it since release, yeah, guess I will play it some more. The Secret World is the most forward thinking mmo in years, Guild Wars 2 is about as innovative as WoW by comparison.

@Karkarov said:

Guild Wars 2 is about as innovative as WoW by comparison.

I don't know if I would say that. Conceptually, there are a lot of monumental high-level design concepts at play within Guild Wars 2 that are so far ahead of everything else in the genre. Sometimes these design concepts do not manifest themselves in meaningful ways for the player to appreciate, but they are underlying experience and are certainly 'forward thinking' (their lack of trinity being a big 'buzz' one). And both games also share a lot of the same core forward-thinking philosophies (removing a lot of the vertical progression, the whole game as the 'end game').

The big difference between the two, for me, is that Guild Wars 2 severely lacks combat/skill customization... but it's actually a ton of fun to engage in combat. TSW is the exact opposite: such a breadth of skill/combat customization, but it feels and plays like shit.

Hmmm... maybe it's time to get a PC.

Wait... no achievements? ._.

Is it still on sale for 30 bucks? Or, was that another game I had gotten an email aout?

@project343 said:

@Karkarov said:

Guild Wars 2 is about as innovative as WoW by comparison.

I don't know if I would say that. Conceptually, there are a lot of monumental high-level design concepts at play within Guild Wars 2 that are so far ahead of everything else in the genre. Sometimes these design concepts do not manifest themselves in meaningful ways for the player to appreciate, but they are underlying experience and are certainly 'forward thinking' (their lack of trinity being a big 'buzz' one). And both games also share a lot of the same core forward-thinking philosophies (removing a lot of the vertical progression, the whole game as the 'end game').

The big difference between the two, for me, is that Guild Wars 2 severely lacks combat/skill customization... but it's actually a ton of fun to engage in combat. TSW is the exact opposite: such a breadth of skill/combat customization, but it feels and plays like shit.

I wouldn't say GW2 is far ahead of everything else in the genre, though it is one of the more different MMOs that is actually good. TSW is about as different from the rest as GW2 is, just in a completely different way. It's a bit disappointing that the combat side is so poor, even though combat isn't really a focus in this game, since that's what's going to be used to compare it to other games in the genre.

Saying GW2 is as innovative as WoW though....i'm not sure how to take that. WoW has been extremely innovative, whether you want to admit it or not.

@Shirogane said:

Saying GW2 is as innovative as WoW though....i'm not sure how to take that. WoW has been extremely innovative, whether you want to admit it or not.

A lot of World of Warcraft's additions have been pretty evolutionary and additive to the traditional MMORPG formula (pet battle system, LFG, etc.). Guild Wars 2 does quite a bit to turn the whole formula on its head, rather than simply adding to it. The non-linear/explorative structure of the game's questing structure is fundamentally different from the modern day formula of linear quest hubs, and like I said, the distinct lack of combat roles completely changes the group dynamic in dungeons.

Nothing WoW has ever done has been revolutionary. It's just a damn fine evolution. Not that this gives me any more credibility, but I love WoW, and I love Pandaria (it actually made it into my top 10 games this year). I just think it's a bit much to call WoW innovative when the most it has done for the genre is pull in mass audiences with tons of approachable, streamlined, and polished content.

Amazon is selling the download version of Secret World for $15 dollars. Good timing :)