They are going to end up offering enhancements that provide advantages in play. They are not going to make any money selling smiley face decals to put on your leg armor. A large amount of money has gone into the development of this game, and the publisher deserves to obtain some realistic return on their investment. Just yesterday, Funcom laid off half of their staff (roughly). Is The Secret World going to suffer because of it? Absolutely.
By refraining from selling premium mechs (you don't know how badly I want to type "mecha"), clan tech, coolant dumps, enhanced ammo, etc., this game is doomed to failure before it is even launched. The publisher should not worry about establishing a parity between players who won't/can't spend money on in-game items, and those players that are willing to do so.
If they don't sell enhancements, the only way to make the game financially viable is to release it with a paid subscription model. For myself, I'd be willing to go either way. This is a game that someone should have developed 5 or more years ago, and I'd hate to see it ruined (when it finally gets released) by people who think they should be able to play the game without paying for it. The problem is that this game runs on large servers that require reasonably beefy Internet bandwidth. These things are not free, and they are a repeating cost. If the publisher doesn't make enough money selling smiley-face decals or pink camouflage, they are not going to let the game live very long. Tabula Rasa, anyone?
I think they should release the game under a subscription model, and be done with it. Failing that, offer enhancements as I described above. They can make things as fair (or unfair) as they like, but if the publisher has a player willing to spend $15 (for example) for an Assault Mech, they should take the money and let the player walk around in the Assault Mech.
As for my wish, I'd love to see single player content.
Edited by JCP, 23 August 2012 - 09:47 AM.