If you're not an avid observer of the Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) gaming genre like I am, you may not realise that this year has been a huge one. Star Wars: The Old Republic (SWTOR) launched late December 2011 (ABC Tech review here) , Guild Wars 2 (GW2) launched just last week, World of Warcraft sees its fourth expansion Mists of Pandaria go live in late September and Funcom released The Secret World (TSW) a little over six weeks ago. It's the latter one that I want to talk a little more about, as I'd argue it's a great case study of how innovation can actually create more pain than pleasure for a developer - at least in the short term.

TSW is the most interesting MMO I've seen in a long, long time. Set in the modern world, it brings something very new to the table. Good Game reviewed it a little while back and it garnered a deserved 18.5/20 rubber chickens. The gameplay overall is interesting, 'levelling' isn't the central premise, crafting is very different, graphically it's very impressive (for a MMO at least) and interface-wise there are some really cool ideas (an in-game web browser is one of many). For the first time ever, I bought a lifetime subscription after only a dozen or so hours of play - I'm not easily impressed but I have been this time.

So given TSW had over 1.3 million beta-testers, how has it done in the marketplace since launch? Pretty poorly: 200 thousand copies were sold, there have been staff layoffs (although this isn't that unusual post-launch) and the next major content update has been delayed. Like any MMO, there were glitches at launch and there are certainly some that remain, but overall the game is immersive, innovative in a range of areas and actually does something different from the dominant fantasy themes. Unless a post-apocalyptic, zombie infested world is your idea of a fantasy of course.

There's never one reason why any game is a success or failure, and in MMOs there's a much longer timeframe required to judge whether it's doing well. The trouble is, investors appear to have less and less patience for an MMO to do the comprehensive development it needs prior to the revenues being generated. This can lead to releases earlier than desired by the developers, with the idea that further content and bug fixes can easily be rolled out afterwards. Which is true, but like investors, MMO players can be unforgiving and unless a game is close to what it's been hyped up to be, players will be damning in their criticisms. Both SWTOR and TSW appear to have suffered from this fate - with both having disappointing launches and low subscriber numbers compared to forecasts.

However, both still have huge potential - the critical issue is whether BioWare and Funcom respectively will provide both games the time they need to reach their potential. There are already calls for TSW to move to a Free-to-Play model, and SWTOR has already made that announcement. It's something that has proven to be successful for games such as Lord of the Rings Online, but every game is different, with no guarantees of it ensuring longevity.

I play four MMOs at the moment, and I can say that TSW is the most fun of the four of them. Once GW2 has settled down to be an expected success, and the expansion honeymoon is once again over for WoW, it'll probably continue to gain subscribers at a healthy rate, particularly if Funcom delivers on its promised monthly content updates.

In the meantime, the real test is for Funcom and its willingness to foster a game over the longer-term. The signs are positive so far - but if decisions are made in the short-term that lead to the game being compromised, then a serious negative precedent has been set for those attempting to try something different. That is going to make for less fun for all of us.

David has been writing on virtual worlds since 2006 and has been using them since 1993. You can find his website The Oceanic Gamer here