Cancelled The Secret World Subscription

I loved the idea of The Secret World more than the actual game it turned out, the idea of playing in an action horror MMO set in modern day times was really enticing and to run around as a modern day gunslinger uncovering secret society plots and fighting demons, undead and monstrosities from beyond was something right out of a Stephen King novel.

I did actually enjoy the game a bit, but ultimately it never grabbed hold of me to delve further and make it a long lasting game due in part to my life situation where it is and also due to the lack of what I really love at core.

No Fantasy Genre

Sword and sorcery is just where it’s at for me, there is something lacking in such a dark universe where everything is shades of dark grey with no true heroes and villains or worse villains and vile demons being the only real choices.  I missed the fantasy aspect of it, the rescues the knights, kingdoms, paladins and high level good vs. evil aspect.

Not Family Friendly

I have two boys ages 5 and 8 now and most of my game time involves having to play something either with or around them.  This means Wizard 101 dominates most of my gaming time, but Runes of Magic was clean RPG MMO fun too.  The Secret World was just Adults Only oriented and not something I could enjoy playing with my kids or around my kids due to the horror and disturbing elements of the game.  Again, cool if you love horror but not really kid and family friendly.

Monthly Subscription Fee

The $14.99 per month is very steep, and honestly I don’t think any game is worth paying $60 for the retail box and then another $170+ per year for the monthly subscription.  It was worth testing, but with Star Wars: The Old Republic going free to play in the fall, I predict The Secret World will adopt a free to play model at some point as well.  There are just too few games to spend that much playing just one.  Guild Wars 2 for example is a 1x $59.99 and no monthly subscription and the model worked very very well for the first Guild Wars and expansion packs.

In the end, The Secret World was a temporary distraction but the mechanics of the game and the darker elements rooted in reality just weren’t as fun for me as the fantasy genre.  This is one reason why I also gave up on Star Wars: The Old Republic after three months, it was fun but side quests were too repetitive and it just lost appeal with thousands of jedi/sith everywhere and no real sense of rarity with such characters.

-Justin Germino