{"id":1020,"date":"2012-08-22T12:17:14","date_gmt":"2012-08-22T02:17:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.daedalist.com\/conjunction\/?p=1020"},"modified":"2013-12-15T15:49:39","modified_gmt":"2013-12-15T05:49:39","slug":"the-secret-world-sexual-assault-by-any-other-name-is","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.daedalist.com\/conjunction\/2012\/08\/the-secret-world-sexual-assault-by-any-other-name-is\/","title":{"rendered":"The Secret World: Sexual Assault By Any Other Name Is…"},"content":{"rendered":"

Funcom, the developer of The Secret World<\/em> announced bad returns on the back of poor sales of the MMO<\/a>. They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re taking on measures like \u00e2\u20ac\u0153temporary layoffs\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in order to reduce operating expenses. In my mind, couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have happened to a nicer crowd.<\/p>\n

You see, I gave TSW a try. I really wanted to like it: an MMO with a modern setting and the premise that players are members of rival clandestine organisations looking to control the world through their manipulations of occult forces? Awesome! It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s like Call of Cthulhu<\/em> and Foucault\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Pendulum<\/em> and the Illuminatus! Trilogy<\/em> all rolled into one!<\/p>\n

On the gameplay side, it sounded a little innovative. You don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t level, per se. Instead, as you gain experience, you get access to a skill tree, which you can chop and change to your liking and needs. Gun-toting combat wombat? Easy. Pistols-and-fists gun-fu? Got you covered. Chaos magic and shotguns? No sweat. And getting new skills is frequent and easy, so you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll feel like there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s less of a grind.<\/p>\n

And finally, the thing that tipped me over the edge: investigation missions that require some serious thinking. In the vein of Call of Cthulhu<\/em>, these quests tell you there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s something to be found out and leave you to your own devices. Newspaper archives, libraries, town hall records, even the Internet are at your disposal. SOLD!<\/p>\n

So off I went. A month after launch, there was a free-play weekend to attract new players. A great opportunity to give it a shot (especially since Funcom was asking $60 up front, and then $15 monthly subscription). I created a Dragon character, since their pitch was, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153You may have heard of the butterfly effect. We were the ones who told the butterfly where and when to flap its wings.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d A great philosophy that captured what I wanted out of the game.<\/p>\n

The opening sequence was great. My character lay on her bed while a bee crawled inside her mouth. Over the course of some weeks, she developed magical abilities, then was violently abducted to Korea. Once there, I had a chat with a recruiter, then was taken upstairs into a hotel where the following happened to me:<\/p>\n