The Secret World NDA lifted

· by · in MMO, The Secret World. ·

Yes, I’m behind the times. As some of you already know I lost my dad last week, so even TSW is taking a back seat right now.

Nonetheless:

As of today, Closed Beta testers are no longer bound by the non-disclosure agreement. This means that testers may now speak freely about their experiences in the current and future versions of the Closed Beta. Sharing of screenshots and gameplay videos of the current and future versions of the Closed Beta is also allowed.

I’m not in the mood for a long review, but I will say:

– I preordered

– I’m enjoying it, despite far less time to play than I would have liked, RL issues, and hardware issues

– I was even considering going for the lifetime sub but Green Armadillo (one of my blogosphere’s resident cynics and smartypants) reminded me that games are going Free to play faster than you can say “vanishing player-base” these days, so I’m still thinking about that one. Still… part of me wants to do it, not just because you get some fun goodies but also because I’d like to show support for Funcom and for this game in particular.

– I think the game is boss. Not everyone will. In my case however I suspect it will entertain me for quite a while.

– A somewhat more thorough Impressions post may follow, or not, depending on how RL stuff goes. We’re not allowed to talk about previous versions  and I haven’t yet experienced the post-NDA beta, so it also depends on whether I get a chance to play in the post-NDA world before launch.

13 responses to “The Secret World NDA lifted”

  1. I’m so sorry for your loss. 😦

    I’ve also been in the beta. I’ve preordered and bought the lifetime sub cause I want to encourage companies to take risks with MMOs that break the old Diku-MUD model. TSW is pretty damned different, in a good way.

    I’ll make one of each faction but think Dragon will be my main. The Lumies are a bit too appealing to little kids, with the whole sex/drugs/power thing, though I have a Robert-Anton-Wilson-kinda love for them. The Templars are all about defeating evil, which I like, but they seem like they’re prone to being sticks in the mud. Dragons are all about chaos and seem more tricky and unpredictable, which I enjoy. How about you?

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    • Thanks for the kind words. 🙂

      Pretty much right there with you on the Dragon thing, which is kind of unfortunate in a way because most everyone else I know seems to think the same way. I’ve played all three to varying extents and so far I think the Illuminati are weakest in how they’re presented – I think you need to know your Robert Anton Wilson to really understand them, and most people probably don’t.

      Templars *are* sticks but there’s a lot of leeway in how stick-like one chooses to be with them. And of course the Dragon aren’t exactly paragons either – though they do offer more options for self-determination, at least at a surface level.

      Still not sure what faction I’ll play most come release. I was a bit dismayed at the overwhelming numbers of Dragons I saw running around – I do kind of like to be an underdog… We’ll see.

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  2. My sincerest condolences on the loss of your father.

    A game going F2P is really no reason to not get a lifetime subscription. I say this as someone still on the fence about getting GM but possible F2P doesn’t even factor into my reasons why not.

    There’s a history of lifetimers ably compensated once their game goes F2P. I have yet to hear one complaining peep from such cases. Most often, I hear people say how glad they are they got the lifetime account even after their game goes F2P.

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  4. I am sorry for your loss, my sincerest condolences. It can be a tough time to go through.

    As for lifetime subscription vs F2P – games are only “free” for those who would never consider a lifetime subscription anyway. If you would consider such a subscription, chances are that you would still end up paying a decent amount of money anyway, regardless of payment model.

    But since they will continue to sell the lifetime subscription after launch, you can just wait a bit and perhaps buy later. I have not bought an LTS for TSW, but I am considering it – part of that is also to support a game developer that tries to be a bit different. In the past for some of the more traditional MMOs my interest was kept for maybe 5-6 weeks (LOTRO, Rift, SWTOR etc), so if I am still enjoying TSW after the second month I might end up buying an LTS.

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  5. I hadn’t heard about your fathers passing, you have my sincerest condolences, it’s hard losing a parent.

    As Winged Nazgul mentioned, lifetime subscribers are often compensated by a better F2P experience (such as the LotRO lifetime which I purchased.) And since a lifetime sub makes the game subscription free, after the initial payment anyway, you can offset it against the time it takes to go F2P. In the case of LotRO that was a few years so it ended up paying for itself anyway.

    I probably won’t be playing at release, as much as I want to since the release date is also my birthday, since I’m currently quite busy finishing up a long running project (and I want to get paid!)

    When I do play, I was considering Templar. But considering my propensity to altaholism I’ll probably create an alt for each side, if the game allows it.

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  7. My sympathy as well Ysh. Having just spent the last couple of days with my own father, my heart goes out to you and the loss I know you must be feeling.

    I echo your TSW sentiments. I am preordered and fully intend to play. My brother is also hooked and went lifetime, for the reasons Stropp outlined above. Games that have gone F2P have (without exception I think) tossed in around $5 a month in in-game currency on top of the full suite of options. In a game like this, that cash would come in handy.

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  8. My condolences on your loss; I’m facing that with my own father, so have some idea what you are feeling.

    This weekend’s open beta is actually the first time I played TSW, and I enjoyed it enough to preorder. While it won’t replace EQ2 in my heart it is a great alternative just from being so different!

    I assume it will go FTP within a year, but I don’t find that a push against the lifetime sub. I never regretted taking that option with LoTR (even though I doubt I played enough to justify it) as even with an ostensibly FTP game I always want the benefits of ‘gold’ anyway. I’m assuming of course that as Turbine did they would make their ‘lifers’ permanent gold subs of course.

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  10. Just fell off the fence and pulled the trigger on the lifetime sub. Always regretted not doing so with previous games but TSW is head and shoulders above the previous ones I had considered so it’s all good.

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    • Yeah, I was planning to do the same, but cash flow remains a bit of a problem at the moment, not to mention time to play. I’m not even sure I’ll be able to make launch, though I’m going to do my damndest to at least log in briefly.

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