The Secret World to contain persistent, large-scale PvP warzones

Funcom's Ragnar Tornquist has said The Secret World will contain large-scale PvP battles between the Dragons, Illuminati, and Templar factions, which will be separate from the smaller PvP zones in the MMO.

Speaking in an interview with TenTonHammer, Tornquist said the larger PvP battles will take place in warzones which will be persistent in areas with larger populations and buffs from warzone capture points are faction-wide, giving players all the more reason to pitch in to the fight.

"They are not instanced and they are always active," said Tornquist.  "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.

"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.  You will go to some of the same locations, and see what even seems like the exact same story—but different results and things will happen.

"You’ll have to see it to believe it. The full story can only be gleaned from talking to those of other factions who have seen the events unfold from another angle."

The path to your faction's glory in these warzones, will be the capturing of respawn points which will also reward factions with better rankings. There will also be optional internet quests for PvPers, where they much search through websites for esoteric clues.

Those not looking to partake in the PvP experience, will still have plenty to do, as the game will contain "several hundred hours" of PvE as well.

Beta sign-ups for The Secret World, start August 26, and the game is slated for an April 2012 release.

Thanks, Massively.