Ron declares he is working on a new Monkey Island

[Guga]

I don’t know if the secret is related to Guybrush. In the first chapter, there are other characters who sailed to Monkey Island to discover the secret. Herman Toothrot and the Sea Monkey captain come to my mind

[seguso]

IIRC, he also said something like “after waiting 30 years , I’m afraid you will be underwhelmed”. This is not compatible with the secret changing through the years.

[Someone]

@LowLevel

After 30 years I would just accept anything that explains to me what the freakin’ secret is.

I don’t want to be the party pooper, but we don’t know if he will reveal the secret in RMI (or has he stated somewhere that he will reveal it… ).

[seguso]

Even better! that means there will be another one next!

[LowLevel]

@seguso

if the secret had changed during the years, it would have been deliberately misleading for Ron to talk like that. I mean, it would have been deceit

But he could have changed it after his last statement about “the secret”, for example during the development of RtMI.

@Someone

we don’t know if he will reveal the secret in RMI

That’s true, I’m assuming that he will because in the past he said that he would have revealed it in “MI3a”, but we don’t even know if his old idea for MI3a is similar to RtMI.

@seguso

that means there will be another one next!

I don’t look forward to waiting another thirty years.

[Matt]

@joemonsters

the interview where Dave and he say that the timeline doesn’t matter anymore.

I’m imagining a Quantum Leap paradigm where we jump into different scenes and characters to fix the timelines

[seguso]

@LowLevel

But he could have changed it after his last statement about “the secret”, for example during the development of RtMI.

Can the secret have stayed the same for 30 years and then suddenly changed at the last moment? Implausible: imagine how many times Ron must have fantasized about it through the years. If it held scrutiny and introspective reflection for 30 years, it must be solid. The probability they found a flaw after not finding it for 30 years is very very low.
(and dave too has known the secret for 30 years, so the same holds for him)

[Someone]

@LowLevel

I don’t look forward to waiting another thirty years.

If that means that we’ll get definitely another MI game from Ron, I would do!

[Frenzie]

@seguso

imagine how many times Ron must have fantasized about it through the years

I imagine he was busy with other things.

[seguso]

Even so, in 30 years he must have had plenty of occasions to think about it. Absurd to believe he’d never ask himself if the secret would really hold water, and to realize only at the last moment it woudn’t really work…

[seguso]

Admittedly, for writers , there are ideas that seem to work on paper but not when you try to actually write the dialogs. But you need to be an inexperienced writer for that to happen…

[LowLevel]

@seguso

If it held scrutiny and introspective reflection for 30 years, it must be solid.

But it doesn’t seem to me that it did hold scrutiny for thirty years, actually.

Ron himself addressed its underwhelming nature saying “The problem with the Secret of Monkey Island…”.

While I don’t think that the secret could have changed much (it needs to stay coherent with all the hints given in MI1 and MI2) I don’t think that we can exclude that Ron didn’t modify it to make it less underwhelming, now that he has to make an actual game.

[seguso]

He could have improved it, I agree. (If the idea allows that)

[seguso]

…though , in my understanding, Ron wasn’t saying the secret is actually underwhelming. Only that it might appear underwhelming if narrated (summarized) in a forum post. Once in context it wouldn’t. I don’t think he was actually pointing out a true “problem” with it.

[LowLevel]

I agree, Ron probably didn’t think that the secret has an intrinsic problem, but only that people will probably find it underwhelming because of all the mystery aura built around it by fans:

The problem with the Secret of Monkey Island is that it’s built up sich a mystic, that when I finally do reviel it, you’re all going to go “That was dumb”.

[seguso]

Do you guys think the secret is about that specific island (Monkey Island)? Because we’ve already visited it. What else can it contain?

[Someone]

@LowLevel

(it needs to stay coherent with all the hints given in MI1 and MI2)

Why do you think so and which hints do you mean? I can’t remember any hints regarding any secret in the games… (beside the open end in MI2)

[seguso]

I seem to recall Ron said he had decided the Secret from the beginning? So it’s possible there are clues in MI1 and 2.

It would be great if , after playing RTMI , we realized there were clues in the first two games

[LowLevel]

@seguso

Do you guys think the secret is about that specific island (Monkey Island)?

I’m not sure if it is related to the island itself, I have always thought that the secret is related to the anachronisms, because of this:

This isn’t a historically accurate game. In fact, you’ll see when you play that there are a lot of anachronisms, like the vending machine at Stan’s used ship yard. They’re there to add humor to the game of course, but they also have a secret, deeper relevance to the story – but I’m keeping that secret for the sequel.

Source.

@Someone

which hints do you mean?

I consider all the anachronisms implicit and vague hints at some revelation that has to be made by Ron, yet.

[seguso]

At that time of the interview, MI2 hadn’t been released yet. Ron seems to be saying the anachronisms are clues for the ending of MI2 (which he calls “the sequel”).