The Secret World: ideas for longevity and attraction

In response to this article, I present 3 ideas to make this game (a MMO of global conspiracy and magic) more relevant:

I won’t pretend to understand the complexity of their situation. but I keep obsessing over a couple zany suggestions:
* they should go free2play for existing classes [edit: factions?], while introducing a new [faction] that requires a subscription. This new group should be based around the bilderberg conspiracy angle (that a small group of rich people run the world).
The story of the MMO seems like it would support the concept. And you might foster a new dynamic where the existing factions desire p2p against the rich.
They could then seek press coverage about their dark metaphor of “class” warfare, and the 1%.

They could even get a little meta when discussing which group the developers are favoring (let the rich purchase more health in the middle of a fight. let them fight dirty. make them a real bitch to kill. But also have them drop some amount of valuable in-game currency when defeated. play up this in game imbalance as a conspiracy that the company is fighting).

* they could sell items in their store that are purposefully mysterious/obscured. (maybe they already do?). Its fun to daydream about a game tackling recent eastern legislation head on (Japan is making it illegal to sell digital items, if it isn’t clear what you’d be getting?). I’d love to see this game getting headlines for confronting social grey areas head on, around the world.

* I’d love to see one class geared towards clicking/queuing attacks (for people who want to grind), while another class is geared towards complicated button mashing fighting.
It’d be fascinating to support these two different gameplay approaches in the same game, and see which people are drawn into.

I know it’s too late to actually tackle any of these ideas. but. snarky useless comments are free! HA HA HA.

[I’ve been excited about TSW since it was first announced (great ideas, and cool style). But my brain wasn’t built for MMOs. i’m waiting for it to go free to play so I can check out some of these story missions that the Giant Bomb guys said were pretty great].

…
EDIT:

Further thoughts on this game, thanks to this article at The Penny Arcade Report, “Life After Layoffs“:
It seems like there are a ton of different ideas about what went wrong with the sales for this game (its kinda weird there isn’t more consensus?).

For my part: I think the developers innovated just enough to scare off current MMO addicts , but not enough to draw in people who loathe MMOs.

* Supposedly a large chunk of modern MMO players are gangs of pals who endlessly join new MMOs until they can max out their levels; then they run off to the next new thing. This group of stat addicts would have no interest in The Secret World’s innovation to do away with leveling.

* my anecdote (as a MMO hater): I really want to get into a MMO, just to understand why people love them. But I’ve had bad experiences with Star Wars Galaxies and DC Universe Online. I was thinking of trying to Secret World just because it seemed so cool. but what I’ve read makes it sound like another painful grind waiting to happen.

I wanted to try it for the stories, and I wanted to try The Old Republic for the stories, but both seem like grind ships that have now sailed.

Not saying this is Universal Truth or anything. just sharing my anecdotes/perspective (for anyone who wonders “why didn’t more people buy TSW?”). I plan to try the 3 day trial, just because TSW continues to sound excellent. Hopefully this weekend.