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The MMO genre has evolved into little more than extensive solo games, according to lead designer of The Secret World Martin Bruusgaard.
Speaking to VideoGamer.com, Bruusgaard described how the developers of their upcoming MMO plan to bypass the apparent trend of solo-questing in the genre. The game’s use of ARG-like Investigation Missions, he explains, will encourage users to play together in order to solve puzzles.
“We had already done a couple ARGs with great success, it really blew our minds how it took off. We started with ARGs really, really early. Random people would find these tiny clues and suddenly you’d have thousands of people who work together in order to solve these things.
“That’s one of the other things we wanted to do with this game. We wanted people to work together. So many MMOs are just solo games now. You just play next to people and then it’s only once you start raiding at end level that you start teaming up. It’s always been a focus to try to get people to play together.”
He added that it’s becoming increasingly rare in modern MMOs for grouping to take place until very high level.
“I really wanted to have that group confidence back into the zones. Half of the time you solo all the way to the end and then it’s like ‘now you need five players to kill the boss’. You just get five random people and then the group is bad. That’s not really group play. You have the public quests in WoW – they’re more like a competition. You only try to be the best one there to try to get the blue loot.”
The Secret World incorporates these puzzle quests alongside more traditional missions in order to create a hybrid of MMO and Adventure Game.
It is currently scheduled to launch June 19.
