Just missed the mark on MMO's. EA, you suck.

"Taking place on our earth, in our times, The Secret World (TSW) is inspired by history and mythology, modern conspiracy theories and ancient mysteries. For there really is a world within ours, a secret world, where magic exists, monsters roam and ancient forces are fighting for the dominance of earth. It is a world of legendary stories, ageless conflicts and powerful cabals. In this world, even modern cities hide secrets. In this world, players can take part in the greatest conspiracies of our age, and battle the forces of darkness across the world and throughout time."

The beginning of this sounded OK, then they ruined it by adding monsters and magic. It makes me wonder why companies keep trying to release medieval MMO's, at some point you would think they would realize the market is dominated my World of Warcraft and Everquest, which is why every attempt ends in failure. How about an MMO based on current day spies? There are plenty of conspiracy theories to create quests around, and plenty of factions to play for. Where as WOW has Azeroth, Outland and Northrend regions, why not Have New York, Moscow, Beijing, Prague and New Jersey as locations? (Yes, I said new Jersey, glad you were paying attention). Making it in present day would help keep it out of Blizzard's Crushing Dominance over that genre.

Now to mention the next topic. I was just made aware of this news, via Fidgit.com:

The henchman for sale is unique for starting out with four skills (it seems that none of the henchmen already in the game start out with more than two skills). If you buy "Jimmy Lira", as he's called, you could promote him to underboss to get a henchman with six skills. Right now, you'll never have a henchman with more than four skills. But since these henchman are the characters you play when you're online, this still stinks as a way for players to buy an online advantage.

The level 4 weapons for sale aren't in the game unless you buy them. As it is, you start out with access to all types of weapons at level 1. A pistol, shotgun, machine gun, magnum, and sniper rifle. As you play, you can find level 2 and level 3 versions of each weapon. You can then spend money giving your henchmen these upgraded weapons. However, there are no level 4 weapons in the game until you buy them from EA.
If this is true, it would mean that players who made "Micropayments" would have an advantage over players who just bought the game by itself. Once again, EA demonstrates its ability to squeeze their customer base. I hope there is a backlash, and your sales flop.

And if my information is false, oops, my bad