"That is not dead which can eternal lie. And with strange aeons even death may die."
- The Call of Cthulhu, by H.P. Lovecraft
On the surface of it there's no question as to whether or not Secret World Legends is a live game. The servers are up, and there are updates - so yes, by that definition it's a live MMO, and the fact that there are updates means it can't really be described as being in maintenance mode. All the same there is doubt and speculation about the future of this game, and for good reason.
Funcom announced at the end of September that they were about to release 'one of the biggest updates EVER' for SWL [their emphasis, not mine] and I have to wonder at their choice of wording. Sure, I don't doubt that is one of the biggest updates (EVER) for the game post-revamp, but that's like saying ten minutes of drizzle in the Gobi desert is the biggest rainfall (EVER). It's true, but only because the bar is set so low.
The (biggest) update (EVER) was essentially a balance pass, that tweaked a bunch of numbers mostly to do with endgame content. It would be nice to think that this is merely laying the groundwork for future updates which will actually provide what people want - i.e. new story content - but to be honest I stopped getting my hopes up for that after The Park. April of 2018 was the last time the story of SWL actually advanced, and that's not a remotely healthy update schedule for any MMO.
Right now this doesn't matter to me much. I've only just finished with Solomon Island so there's still a lot of this game ahead of me, but it would be reassuring to know that there was more to come, no matter how far away I am from it at the moment.
I'm not especially worried about SWL shutting down* - if Funcom can keep the lights on over at Anarchy Online and Age of Conan then there's no likelihood of them pulling the plug on this game, but for all that they keep the games running there's little indication of them ever doing more than that. I imagine the upcoming Dune game is the focus of their attention right now, at least until the next shiny thing distracts them.
Still, it would be nice to see some stirrings of life, even if I think it will be a very strange aeon in which we see Secret World Legends truly awaken from its slumber.
*I really shouldn't tempt fate like this. The last time I wrote about my confidence in an MMO's longevity an announcement that it would be shut down came less than a week later. I apologise in advance if there's any bad news about SWL in the next few days.
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