Roughly two years ago, a Belgian friend of mine sent me a link to “What is your secret society test.” WTH I thought? Of course I clicked the link and was taken to a flash screen that eventually asked, “what secret society are you?”.  Intrigued I took the test.

Of course, me being the evil one, I qualified for the Illuminati.  Sex, Drugs, and Rockefeller!

During the press conferences leading up to Gamescom, Funcom announced that The Secret World is finally coming out in April 2012.  When I went to the main page of The Secret World website today, I saw that the official beta registration will start in 6 days, on August 26th.  I of course have this in my calendar because there hasn’t been many MMOs in the past few years that have intrigued me as much as The Secret World has.

In the beginning, it was only the secret society test and very little information, but over the years Funcom has leaked out tidbits to wet the whistle.  What has intrigued me the most is there’s no classes or levels in this game.  If you’re a MMO player, you know that they’re all based on some sort of class and level system no matter how much they let you branch out.  It’s a piece of code, it has limits.  However, The Secret World touts a true free form character customization.  I have to wonder if there’s a limit to the game design that will eventually lock you into a certain path?

The setting is a modern day setting.  To my knowledge, there aren’t any MMOs currently like this.  I know that White Wolf and CCPGames (makers of Eve Online) are working on a Vampire the Masquerade/World of Darkness MMO.  However, I haven’t found out if it’s going to be present day as in, 2012 or beyond, or if it’s going to go back to the 90’s which is the true setting of V:TM since it was written back then.  But back to The Secret World, it is a modern day setting and they claim you’ll get to travel to both real locations and places of myth and legend.  Since one of the secret society questions mentioned Alantis, I can only imagine it’s in the game.

You’ll be able to fight modern terrors as well as those of fantasy with modern day weapons as well as magic.  Players will also be able to customize their characters as far as weapons and clothing.

Well, I guess I’ll try to patiently wait 6 more days and hope I can get into the beta and find out more about The Secret World.  Of course, if I get into the beta I’ll probably have to sign some sort of release stating I’ll keep my gob closed until the game is released, but I think I can handle that! I can only wish that today I was over in Cologne, Germany at Gamescom to check out The Secret World a little more closely! I really do hope this lives up to my MMO expectations.  Not that I have time to actually start another MMO…

You can go check out more about The Secret World at it’s official site.  Make sure you enter your email address to get game updates if this game intrigues you as much as it intrigues me!