In the dark fantasy MMO The Secret World, the release of update #10, the next content patch, is finally approaching in the first half of December. However, they still want to celebrate Christmas. But are biannual content patches enough?
The Secret World is getting fresh content. In the first half of December, meaning within the next two weeks, it is finally expected: update #10 will be released. This content patch is titled “Nightmare in the Palace” and will address, among other things, the red-light district of Tokyo.
For Christmas, TSW typically plans several horror-themed events. In addition to End of Days, Krampus, and Hel, they have come up with something new. For the first time under the Christmas tree: “The Christmas Conspiracy.”
Update #10 will be the first major content expansion since June of this year, at that time, update #9 was released. In the meantime, only a few events have taken place, especially around Halloween they have been active, and the cash shop occasionally received fresh items.
Mein MMO says: The Secret World finds itself in the unfortunate position of having fallen significantly short of commercial expectations. Whether biannual updates are still relevant for a buy-to-play game today is highly questionable. It is certainly not the solution that the developers had envisioned. Similar issues are faced by games like Lord of the Rings Online. One might almost think that they are riding into the sunset.
At operator Funcom, they have learned from past problems, which were partly self-inflicted (The Secret World was released directly against Diablo 3 and Guild Wars 2). Now, Funcom is focusing on smaller games like Lego Online.
This should not be a farewell to TSW. On the contrary, it should serve as an encouragement to look at the game for what it is, not for what it could potentially become: The Secret World indeed has its own charm, and anyone who feels connected to the MMO genre should at least try it. There are always special offers, for example on Steam, to explore the world of TSW for 5€ and experience the extraordinarily strong quests.
Fans of the MMO genre often call for alternatives outside of well-known paths. Here is such an alternative path. It is quirky, unique, creepy, perhaps not in the best shape anymore, and you might be jumped by zombies at any time – but it is there.
