Wake-up call, citizen. The world you live in is a shallow simulacrum of the real one, with secret societies and back-room backstabbers controlling how you live, work and think. And now you've got the chance to play a videogame about them! Funcom's action-MMORPG, The Secret World, is gearing up for its upcoming beta, and it wouldn't be a conspiracy-themed supernatural thriller if there weren't some sort of ARG component to the proceedings. Want in on the beta? You'll have to jump through some game-ified, social-media, alternate-reality, welcome-to-2011 hoops for it.
Above: Joining a secret society is so easy, one starts to suspect Dan Brown has been lying to you for years
Hit up the site for The Secret War, the ARG precursor to The Secret World proper, and you'll be asked to choose your faction – or take a personality test to have the Secret Society Sorting-Hat lump you in with one of the game's three factions. This gets you in the door for beta candidacy, but to guarantee your spot – and get access to better in-game items for you to test – you'll have to work to build the robust, high-visibility online presence coveted by all secret societies by enlisting friends, sharing Secret World assets and info, and further blurring the boundaries between the ancient quest for global domination and a really long-running game of Farmville.
Work hard enough and you'll be rewarded with beta access, with more and more spots on the team opening up between now and the game's 2012 launch. Taken the test yet?
Aug 30, 2011
