LOTRO, Secret World, & Rift with an End-Game View
The Secret World Announces Store Changes and Veteran Rewards
Joel Bylos, the Secret World Game Director, has been out of pocket for a bit since he was head down with the team over in Montreal. His first post clears up a couple of items that had been kicking around, and so far from the initial glance I like them.
First up, he talks about the changes to the store and this relates to new pets and the ability to make those pets account bound as opposed to character bound. This doesn’t apply to me (I’m only playing one character now) but this is a nice and welcome change. Essentially if you pay 100 points (I’m making up that number) for a character bound pet, you would pay 125 points (25% premium) to make that same pet account bound. You’ll also see in the store an option to unlock a previously purchased pet for the 25% difference. I really wish other games would take this approach and hopefully they’ll expand this idea to cosmetic items as well
In addition, they had announced the whole concept of a veterans reward system when they made the business model change and are now starting to flesh out the details. It is still a work in progress but essentially there will be a new set of currency that will be available for GM pack owners (lifers) and subscribers as well. Each month you’d get an allotment of these points in addition to your allotment of TSW points for DLC and the like. I don’t expect there to be any way to convert from one currency to the other, but that would nice too 
This is another nice perk and the items they’re talking about are things that I would love to use and aren’t anything game-breaking (IMO). Some examples are:
- repair consumables – these would be awesome for cases where you don’t want to pop back to town, a bit more painful on some missions then others now with the increased death penalty
- Bank/AH/Mail cosumables to bring these items to you
- Faction flavored Combat dummies
- Veteran outfits, titles, and pets
- secondary conduit or region teleport
- mission cooldown reduction consumable
Certainly this system will all hinge on how many points we get on a monthly basis and how much the items cost but I can think of cases when all of those items would certainly be helpful but not overly powerful that they hinder gameplay for those that don’t have them.
I’m also excited to see what all Joel has up his sleeve for his next “State of the Game” post slated for later this week.
I’d be curious to hear what others think of his post, especially those who aren’t subscribers or lifers.
-
-
#2 written by DocHoliday 4 months ago
Yeah, I don’t really understand how this is at all bad for GM pack owners – things keep getting better. For any game looking to make a shift, I think TSW is the model to follow. No difference in gameplay between those who just have the box and members/lifers, optional DLC that’s still “free” for members/lifers, consistent new stuff in the store on a weekly basis, and vanity rewards for those who have been around for a longer period. The comments from Joel on the expiration of the bonus points is something I think they learned from Turbine as for many people (myself included) without much to spend our points on, there’s virtually no way to get money from us without jacking up the prices.
People seem to forget that not only is Funcom a bigger company then just the TSW team, but that all this restructuring (the recent articles are just rehashing the changes announced back in early December) was announced prior to TSW’s business model change. Prior to that change TSW was still making money, and I’m pretty confident in saying they’re only going to improve on that! If I had to wager a guess, I would say Conan is in more trouble then TSW – but recent interviews with the TSW CM team sound pretty confident this is all just a big deal about nothing.
Either way, I’m enjoying the game and I’m more then happy with the way I’ve been treated as a lifer and I’m excited to see what they come out with this year.
-
-
- Comment Feed for this Post
Status: Grandmaster since a month after launch.
While “many lifetimers”, means some people in the games forum, feel bad about this i personally am fine with the current changes.
Going B2P brought in new players and made some of my friends return to the game, albeit at a casual basis. The system with free points here and there allows me to roam through the item store and get stuff i’d probably have spent money on in the old setup.
All in all, the deal is similar to LotRO where people with old lifetime accounts now are envied by other players, as they have all the advantages on their hands. The GM pack in TSW feels quite the same. The current risk, of course, is the financial situation of FunCom. It’s no secret that they struggle and while i hope that they survive, there’s simply no guarantee for that.
Either way, i can’t loose. Even in the worst case, that they close down in a few months, i spent just a little more money than a years subscription but got much more in return. And if the game and company survive, what i very much hope, even more fun and goodies are ahead of me.
In my book, TSW is the best MMO i spent time in since SWG was shut down by NGE, and i’ve been through plenty of online games since then, so how could i say no to free goodies in the game now?