14 DAY TRIAL // The Secret World is one of the most interesting MMO concepts announced in a long time and now the developers working on the game at Funcom have announced that the game will include a number of large scale Players versus Player battle zones for each of the in-game factions which will be entirely separate from smaller faction engagements that take place elsewhere in the MMO.
Ragnar Tornquist, who is the leader of development on The Secret World, has told TenTonHammer as part of a bigger interview that, “They are not instanced and they are always active. On each server, that warzone is persistent and possibly filled up. As for how many we have, we’ve announced the one we have here – it’s a city in China. We don’t have a name for it just yet, and we’re not ready to reveal how many there are in the final product just yet.”
He also talked about the consequences of playing the warzones, adding, “You’ll also be gaining ranks within your secret society via missions in PvE and PvP. Your relationship to your faction and your war against the other factions’ secret societies will be the focal point of the game to some players. Each society will have its own story.”
Depending on which faction the player aligns himself with the narrative linked to players versus player engagements will chance, even if the locations and the challenges stay the same.
Despite the focus on PvP The Secret World will also include more than 100 hours of Player versus Environment content and the developers will add more after launch to make sure that players are kept satisfied even if they are not interested in fighting others.
Funcom says that it will open a beta stage for The Perfect World to test some of its core concepts on August 26 and the full launch is planned for the month of April 2012.