FC: State of the Game, July 10th 2012

[Mardonge]

Hi all,

Welcome to the inaugural The Secret World State of the Game update!

(Right, so that's a mouthful. In the future, I think I'll shorten it to TSWSotG, because that's a LOT easier to remember.)

We've had an exciting first week, and we're thrilled to see that everything has gone incredibly smooth so far. There have been some bugs and issues, of course, and we're fixing those as quickly as we can, but things are really stable and our players -- you guys! -- are very, very happy with the game. And that makes us very happy, too!

Now that players are progressing further and further into the game, uncovering all those things we've managed to keep secret for years and years, we're starting to see a lot of questions about what's next. What does the future hold for The Secret World, for our players and subscribers?

Well, I'm finally allowed to reveal a FEW of the things we're working on, and I'm really excited to be talking about what's ahead for The Secret World.

We're going to be releasing fresh and tasty new content FREE to our subscribers on a regular, monthly basis. The first update is due on Tuesday, July 31st, and we will be releasing more details about that particular update later this week -- including a couple of fun surprises. (You're going to love it.)

So what will these updates contain? I'm glad you asked! I won't spoil too much, but here's an overview of some of the things we have in the pipelines:

* Mission packs on a monthly basis! The first few packs will contain new investigations for every adventure zone in the game -- but we also have more action and sabotage missions planned for the near future. These missions will feature fully voiced cut-scenes and new media pop-ups, and will match the quality of the missions currently in the game. Oh, and like everything else in our monthly updates, these packs are FREE for our subscribers!

* New weapons! We will be announcing our first auxiliary weapon soon (one clue: bigger, slower, more explosions) and new auxiliary weapons will be released on a regular basis. Combat in The Secret World will continue to evolve, and it will pay to expand your character in multiple directions!

* Raids! We're well into production on our first raid, and there will be more information about that in August! But as a teaser: The Big Apple will never be the same

* We've already announced our plans for expanding and improving character customisation: The Modern Prometheus and Ockham's Razor are opening in New York and London respectively in August, Execution later this year in Seoul. Pangaea in London will receive new stock, and we will add more accessories and clothing as rewards for both achievements and missions

* Chronicle has entered public beta, and we'll keep enhancing and growing that service according to player needs and wishes! Our intent is for Chronicle to become a living, breathing community in itself, and a place where players will go to measure and compare themselves against others, to check out the profiles of their co-players and rivals, and -- in the long run -- to become a living chronicle (zing!) of their player characters

* We have a player-versus-player dungeon in the early stages of planning -- in a brand new geographical area. More on this later this year!

* And speaking of dungeons, we're also working on a dungeon finder tool, allowing players to more easily put together a team to handle the instanced content

* Seasonal events won't go unnoticed in the secret world, and both Halloween and the Winter Solstice are important milestones for those who dabble (and dive deep into) the occult. Expect plenty of content to tie into both events -- including new missions, new characters, new monsters and some twists and turns that will keep players on their toes

* We're in production on two large, new and incredibly exciting adventure zones -- both of which will be announced in August. New geographical regions, new characters, new missions, new drops, new challenges, new monsters, new lore that will carry the story past its first act and into its thrilling and shocking second act!

* Improved cabal functionality is on the drawing board and will be seeing improvements later this year

* And we're not forgetting about our social players! We have some cool functionality tied to the Albion in London coming up very soon, allowing role-players and would-be thespians to spread their wings

* Pets will be updated and upgraded as we go along! More pets, better pets, and some cool surprises in store for pet owners!

* And last but certainly not least: Combat will receive constant polish and tweaks to make things look and feel better. Keep an eye out for more revisions to our effects and animations this autumn -- and the inclusion of auxiliary weapons will make combat even more exciting!

This isn't all. In fact, it's just the beginning, so stay tuned! The Secret World will keep growing, and there will always be a reason to go back to your favourite places, to dig deeper into the mysteries of Solomon Island, Egypt, Transylvania, New York, London and Seoul...and beyond.

So stick around, folks -- there's tons more to come, both this week and in the very near future. Thanks for reading, and have fun playing the game!

Ragnar Tornquist
Senior Producer & Creative Director,
The Secret World

[Hyde]

I'm a bit scared of a dungeon finder in TSW. I mean, heck yeah, I'll use it ... but in WoW / Rift / etc ... you had a trinity with a well defined listed of who could claim what role in the group. I can see a LOT of people with a LOT of weird builds thinking that they can do their job ... and being wildly ineffective.

[Malosar]

And also the state of WoW after dungeon finder where everyone just sat in cities waiting for dungeon finder to pop.

[Kilajan]

right now you send 1 guy to an instance, and when he joins. everyone gets teleported there anyway. so it wont make that much difference tho. except that you remove allot of pressure on the chat servers.

[Hyde]

right now you send 1 guy to an instance, and when he joins. everyone gets teleported there anyway. so it wont make that much difference tho. except that you remove allot of pressure on the chat servers.

For people in organized Cabals, yes, but most of the "dungeon finder" usage is by people who are looking for completely random PUGs.

I'll admit it ... I do this ... it is sometimes nice to have a group that you can yell and scream at without pissing off your friends