When the year-end Massively Overthinking asked about game resolutions, I honestly answered that I don’t really make any because I hadn’t ever done that and didn’t expect to start. Many of the goals I make as I play throughout the year are pretty specific to what is happening at that time and what I feel inclined to do right then. But the topic stuck with me, and I began thinking about what goals I did have in The Secret World.
Once I started thinking about it in concrete terms, I was able to pinpoint a few more things I’d really like to accomplish this year. It turns out there are some that are more overarching than just an in-the-moment whim. So here they are: my 2017 TSW goals. At the close of this year, you can help me gauge how well I did. (Ironically, since this column was usurped by other topics hogging the spotlight for a couple of weeks, my first goal has already been achieved. Go me!) And please, add any goals you have in the comments!
1. Earn my Panoptic Core outfit
1. Earn my Panoptic Core outfitGetting to cross something off your to-do list is always a great feeling, right? And doing it early on can energize you to keep going and cross more off. I can actually say that I have already successfully achieved one TSW goal this year! My goal was to finally finish off the ability wheel and get myself the Tron-like Panoptic Core outfit. I haven’t been far from it for a long while, but since there really weren’t any abilities I actually wanted to buy, I kept saving my ability points for building my museum. However, during our last stream I said to heck with that and bought up the remaining ones in order to finally finish.
It seems fitting that I finished my first goal on Friday the 13th, a lucky day for me and a very fitting day for being in The Secret World. And now that I have started my year off with a win, it’s time dig into the other goals.
2. Fill my Museum of the Occult
Speaking of saving AP for my the Museum of the Occult, I also need to spend it there! Although I save, I haven’t yet placed any actual displays. Now let me be clear that this goal does not mean I need to finish the museum! But I think it is reasonable to get at least two wings completed in a year. Perhaps I will focus on New England and Oddities. Or maybe one or both of the Transylvania wings.
Part of the hang-up for this goal is actually related to the next goal. You can’t place your displays until you have acquired enough of the appropriate lore. Ergo, I need to collect the lore…
3. Create a Bestiary Lore guide
OK, so this one may be more of a decade goal than a 2017 one; I’ve been working on it steadily and haven’t even found one sixth of the new bestiary lore out there. There’s a bunch to be found, so this is going to take me a long, long while. In all the time since this launched last June, I’ve gathered only 38 of 249. The lore itself isn’t necessarily hidden in super hard-to-find or to-get-to places, but it is scattered throughout the game, and as my two main characters have completed much of the content, it’s not as easy to stumble across in my daily adventures.
4. Complete The Unseen achievement
Unlike the first goal, this one is going to take me a while — just hopefully not as long as the third! Folks who have been following Emy Goldenbutt’s adventures on OPTV already know that I have a long way to go to completing this. If you haven’t been watching: I have a long way to go! The Unseen is a title (and a clothing item) that you get for successfully completing all the sabotage missions without being caught. Sometimes you have to avoid dying as well. And of course, there is the timed Black House run. I will get this! Of all the goals, I think this one will have the most direct attention paid to it (many of the others can happen in the course of doing other things, but this one needs undivided attention).
5. Entice a friend to play
This goal is actually kind of a selfish goal. Of course I am all for encouraging others to play TSW; it’s still my favorite game and one of the most unique offerings out there. But beyond getting more players in loving and supporting the game, I want to be there and relive the game from the eyes of a newb. See I don’t just want friends to play; I want to play alongside them. I want to hear all their reactions as they discover and experience the great things of TSW for the first time. I can never experience any of the missions for the first time again, but I can enjoy those feelings of wonder and shock vicariously as they emanate from a groupmate.
6. Finish all the game missions on one character
You may think that since I have been playing The Secret World since launch, there’s no content I haven’t done, no missions I haven’t completed. Well, you’d be wrong. Part of the reason is that near the end of the main mission, before the release of Tokyo, I switched from my Templar main to an Illuminati thanks to the reader votes on my Choose My Adventure. At that point, Emylia was born, and she became the stream queen of TSW. She showed off all the events, soaking up tons of XP in the process, and leveled without really doing the regular progression of the story. My Lumie continually stumbles across side missions and main missions that I previously passed up or just plain missed.
Right now, because of the new bestiary lore, it might be a good idea to just make a new character and run through everything form the beginning. This would work perfectly with goal #5 above.
7. Finally do a raid
Although this goal is actually naturally embedded in the goal above (it is a mission after all), I have it separate on purpose. I’ve actually had this goal in the back of my mind for a long time. I have poked into the NY raid area, but I have never actually participated in it. I’ve done the Flappy event raid, and I have done other holiday event raids, but I have not yet taken part in TSW’s established raids. That’s something I just need to do.
8. A new outfit a day
Not all goals need to be mega intensive! This goal is aimed at appreciating more of TSW’s unique features. Just because it will be relatively simple doesn’t make it any less worthwhile. It’s easy to stay in a favorite outfit you’ve developed in TSW, but the clothing system is one of the really neat aspects of the game; not utilizing the wardrobe more feels almost blasphemous. So I am making it a goal to change up my toon’s outfit every single day I play her. This way, along with appreciating the variety, I can show off many more of the amazing pieces available when I stream.
9. Attend at least three RP events
Being an avid roleplayer, I’d think that this goal is a given. However, due to the nature of this job, I actually have missed a good many events. When my mind gets stuffed with many events in many games, something gets overlooked. Then add real life to the equation, and it can feel like a lost cause. But perhaps one of the main culprits is my tendency to want to share everything in game with you through livestreams; I have found I just can’t roleplay when I’ve brought an audience along with me that I’m also interacting with. So this year I am going to make more of the effort to immerse myself in this world I love so much.
10. Host an event
Something I really miss doing in games is creating and hosting events for players to enjoy. So besides attending events, I want to create one. I’m going to give myself some leeway and not pigeon-hole what type of event here — who knows what inspiration will strike. It could be writing and performing a play in the Albion Theater, or making a movie, or holding races. Maybe it will be a bazaar, or a carnival, or a speed-dating type of get-to-know-you event for individuals or cabals. maybe I will manage a small ARG of my own. Who knows? But before 2018 I want to add one small bit of player content into The Secret World.
Is it real? In The Secret World, rarely is it not. Conspiracies, ancient legends, paranoia, secret societies, chaos — they all swirl together in a cacophony of reality. In Chaos Theory, MJ Guthrie infiltrates this secret world, exposing the truths that lurk beneath the surface. The big question is, can you handle the truth?
