When I first heard of
The Secret World, my reaction went something along the lines of "A new game created by
Ragnar Tørnquist?! Well, while it may not be
Dreamfall Chapters as I would have liked, that's still pretty swee- wait... MMO? Bah. Could not care less in the slightest. Next?"
And then, much later, here's
the first LJ post I made that mentioned it. The only reason at the time that it piqued my interest at all was the talk of that supposed "single-player mode" which now doesn't seem to have had much merit to it, as I haven't heard anything about it since then. Beyond that I still didn't care a fig about the actual MMO aspect of it at all.
The more I read about it over time, however, the more the game began to interest me in general, even despite my typically anti-MMO nature.
Fast foward to today. I just read
this, which contained the line
"Most of the content in The Secret World
is true massively multiplayer content, and it's definitely something we feel is important in an MMORPG, and we're not trying to compete with single-player RPGs." And, you know what? It doesn't bother me. Somehow, it doesn't trigger my rabid antipathy for all things MMO, even though it totally should.
The Secret World is something of an anomaly for me. I still don't much care about any and all of the other MMOs that are being released lately and have been released in the past.
Ultima Online... World of Warcraft... City of Heroes... Final Fantasy XI... Final Fantasy XIV... Star Wars Galaxies... EVE Online... Guild Wars... Star Trek Online... DC Universe Online... The Old Republic... Rift... none of those games or the many other MMOs out there really interest me at all, precisely
because they are MMO games. Don't get me wrong, as I'm not saying those are all bad games (and I wouldn't know one way or another because I haven't played them and don't really follow them, aside from whatever 'Net Natter I hear about them). I'm just saying they don't do anything for me, because I am not, generally speaking, into MMO at all, or even just regular run-of-the-mill multiplayer, for that matter. And yet
The Secret World, which is also most definitely a MMO, has me very much interested in it. And, in many ways, it is a complete mystery to me as to why this is the case. I'm still trying to figure that one out. The only real reason I can definitely put my finger on is the second point in
this other article I just finished reading, i.e. my primary interest in it, at least initially, was because Ragnar Tørnquist has such a big involvement with it.
The Longest Journey and
Dreamfall are both incredible games, and knowing that the guy behind those games is one of the driving forces behind
The Secret World, and what that implies, is a big part of why I care about it. If he hadn't been involved, I'm pretty sure my interest in it would have been and would still now be equal to my interest in all of the other MMOs I listed above. In other words: almost completely non-existent.
Anyway, as I've said before and will probably say again, I really, truly hope this game doesn't end up being all hype and no real substance to back it up. I'd hate for my first ever foray into the abyss that is the MMORPG to be a lackluster one.