Funcom's Joel Bylos has started a new video blog chronicling the countdown to the end of the world on 12-21-12. Joel is now a self-proclaimed doomsday prophet. See what he's got to say about the impending apocalypse.

Originally posted by Theocritus
     Kinda ironic seeing that TSW basically was the end for Funcom itself with its poor sales.......

Kinda ironic players want WoW clones but say they dont...

That was pretty damn funny. And taking stabs at other games as well! lol

BTW, sounds like the 12/11/2012 event for TSW will be either F2P or B2P. Or maybe another free trial...

Originally posted by Theocritus
     Kinda ironic seeing that TSW basically was the end for Funcom itself with its poor sales.......

I don't know why people are jumping at this. Maybe it wasn't posted with good intentions but it's not that off the mark. TSW did sell poorly and it was below Funcom's expectations.

Calling it end of Funcom may be hyperbole but Funcom did say they were gonna shift to smaller budget, systems driven games instead of developing big budget AAA titles with dev content driven games. Personally, i wish both TSW and Funcom the best. And i liked the video too, it was funny :)

BTW, drop the box price and make it free download+sub maybe? If they are looking to change their pricing and don't wanna drop the sub altogether i mean.

I think it’s far more likely to be a f2p trial period and not full f2p, a week long before Christmas or something.

Originally posted by FromHell
I think it will be a free trial until Dec 21 to experience the world ending ingame event+ARG

This makes the most sense, with what he said about The Secret World orgy.

Originally posted by TalulaRose
F2P would do nothing for TSW because the cash shop really offers nothing worth buying. No point in having more people ingame if it doesn't bring in $$.

I would imagine they would change their cash shop for a f2p transition.

Originally posted by Kuppa

Originally posted by TalulaRose
F2P would do nothing for TSW because the cash shop really offers nothing worth buying. No point in having more people ingame if it doesn't bring in $$.

I would imagine they would change their cash shop for a f2p transition.

I angree! i think they will make it f2p option with sub like in Swtor

Originally posted by Kuppa

Originally posted by TalulaRose
F2P would do nothing for TSW because the cash shop really offers nothing worth buying. No point in having more people ingame if it doesn't bring in $$.

I would imagine they would change their cash shop for a f2p transition.

Yeah . . . pay (per zone) to unlock non-story missions past Kingsmouth . . . pay to advance past faction rank 6 or so . . . gear management slots in the cash shop (this was originally planned but changed to ingame currency before launch after player protests) . . . pay to play any faction other than Dragon. I would expect something like a Conan / LOTRO "Freemium" (ghastly neologism) model if this does happen.

I also have more than a slight suspicion that this video is an elaborate piece of trolling by Joel aimed at all the folks who have been predicting TSW to go f2p within 6 months of launch.

Originally posted by dancingstar

Originally posted by Kuppa

Originally posted by TalulaRose
F2P would do nothing for TSW because the cash shop really offers nothing worth buying. No point in having more people ingame if it doesn't bring in $$.

I would imagine they would change their cash shop for a f2p transition.

Yeah . . . pay (per zone) to unlock non-story missions past Kingsmouth . . . pay to advance past faction rank 6 or so . . . gear management slots in the cash shop (this was originally planned but changed to ingame currency before launch after player protests) . . . pay to play any faction other than Dragon. I would expect something like a Conan / LOTRO "Freemium" (ghastly neologism) model if this does happen.

I also have more than a slight suspicion that this video is an elaborate piece of trolling by Joel aimed at all the folks who have been predicting TSW to go f2p within 6 months of launch.

Crafting, no point to it atm. Would have to revamp it to make so they could charge $$.

Including the Story there is approx 500 quests. Could offer some for $$ but that would take away from alot of what the game has to offer. The pvp is very much broken and they couldn't charge for any of that in its current state.

There are only 3 factions and no classes. And there is no ingame difference between the factions other than minor story tweaks. Would someone actually pay to play another faction just for that? Remember, a selling point was there was no need for alts.

 Couldn't restrict certain classes like AoC or the other freemium games as they have no classes. Restricting weapons wouldn't work, That would take away from another main selling point, the ability to learn any ability in game. That would also force them to redo the mobs ingame as some require specific abilities with conditions to beat. Which in turn affects some of the quests.

It was made to be F2P sounds good but when you look at it there are some big issues that would force them to do a serious overhaul to make it possible.

Instances would be the only thing that could be doable but if they limited abilities then that would stop people from doing NM mode. Normal and Elite have no need for anything other than the basic skills heals, dps, tanking. And how many would pay for NM mode?

The only thing that could be doable would to charge for the somewhat monthly updates like DCU. A few quests, some abilities.

Originally posted by Gymrat313
I don't wanna die without trying out "The Secret World" :(

You don't have to, there's a trial, if you finish 30 quests you even got some cash to spend in the store :)

TalulaRose +1. Nice, detailed list, I also think they won't go f2p. It was a great vid though, the face on the suits when Joel said skip the subscription, it's no longer required... funny stuff.