Even assuming it’s the same thing he had in mind in 1990 and hasn’t been changed… could it possibly be different from all the various things people have guessed?
Sorry, I just have distinct memories of the interview where Ron said that if he said the Secret, people would call it dumb. And then I saw the design documents.
Unbelievable that the secret didn’t leak in 30 years
OH well, we are going to get the original 1990 secret. As I (ahem) predicted 
And we now know it’s a complex thing, which requires a lot of backstory.
Yes, you predicted it!
Why is it a complex thing? 
It’s mentioned in the ars interview. In mi1 they considered revealing the secret but it would have taken too much of a backstory
Have you read all the interview?
I’ve intentionally skipped parts… I’m quite torn about how much I should read new articles…
What’s your approach with potential spoilers?
Maybe some of that backstory has been already given in MI2? (Guybrush’s parents…)
Also…
Believe me, when it comes to keeping his mouth shut, Ron is an ace. 
I read it all and I haven’t seen any spoilers
Yes, but regardless of how you define “spoiler”, did you see the warning about possible spoilers, before reading the article? If so, why wasn’t it enough to deter you from reading the article?
I’m trying to understand other people’s approach to potential spoilers.
I had read the warning but it seemed reassuring enough. Also I don’t mind plot spoilers, for me it’s all about puzzles and ambience…
Oh right, now I remember…
But seriously, you guys don’t think the “original original” Secret was the hellgate detailed in the design documents from 1990 (or earlier)? The whole thing about there not actually being a treasure of Monkey Island, just the crack in the earth?
That would mean Ron has been lying for years, so I think that’s not it…
I really don’t know anything anymore and I’ve stopped wondering. I’ll just embrace this puzzling feeling for two weeks and then everything will be revealed.
Lying in what way? The document is there - Ron’s words.
I wish I was an expert at finding old interviews. There was one interview where he said you could figure out the Secret by playing MI1 alone if you paid attention… there was one where he said people’s guesses have been “close”… there was one where he said so many years had passed that if he said what the Secret was, people would just think it was “dumb”.
His comments have been so vague that we couldn’t really call it “lying” regardless of what the Secret is nowadays.
Doesn’t he often say that the writing process evolves as you create a product, that you come up with things at the end that you hadn’t planned in the beginning? There were probably twelve or so different things in 1990 that could be considered Secrets of Monkey Island, as people have noted multiple times… for example, isn’t the voodoo soup navigation a secret itself?
So even though Ron Gilbert’s design documents have him referring to a secret hellgate as the focal point of the original plot, he could very easily have had something different in mind by the time the game was finished. And that still would have been 1990.
EDIT: I’m trying to find those pages now for “The New Monkey Island” designer doc which first mentioned LeChuck and I think replaced “treasure” with “secret”, but the internet is filled with RMI stuff, heh…
Yes, but definitely it’s unlikely to be the same secret mentioned in the title of the game.
The secret should be important enough to deserve that spot.
You should try searching in this forum. All those documents and many Ron’s quotes have been mentioned here more than one time.
Okay, archive.org had them all. The “New Monkey Island” document isn’t very topical; it mentions the “secret” only to say LeChuck was searching for it, and it later describes the specifics of Monkey Island without referencing back to it.
It’s the earlier Mutiny document that sticks in my mind.
“It is their sacred purpose to see that no one discovers it’s secret or location.”
“it’s secret”
Grammar aside, this was the secret of Monkey Island written by Ron Gilbert in the earliest stages of development before Guybrush, LeChuck, and Elaine existed. The ORIGINAL secret of Monkey Island.
But again, Ron has recently told us that an idea grows and changes during development. If we get a focus other than the hellgate, it’s probably because the hellgate was demoted to “less important”, with a new Secret replacing it as the game was finished.
EDIT: Note also: the reference to “overcomes your mind, drawing you deep into things better left unseen - undone” echoes the Voodoo Lady’s warning and is vague enough to lay the foundation for the Secret being mind-altering, reality-warping, or even meta-breaking.
Scenarios such as “evil voodoo curse targeting your mind”, “revelation that you are all kids in a carnival”, and “Thimbleweed Park is a video game” can all conceivably be made to fall under the defition of: something different is beneath this crack.
At that stage, couldn’t the Secret be what we found in the giant monkey head?
At that stage? I think it’s arguably a combination of MI1’s underground mushroom hell along with MI3’s portal to hell that the villain uses to raise an undead army.
I swear the MI3 designers must have had access to that document. LeChuck’s scheme in Curse is Governor Fat’s, except with a carnival because of MI2.
@LowLevel I think it’s now almost certain that the Secret is really something about the Island, or something physically located in Monkey Island.
Because we know Guybrush is returning to Monkey Island to find the secret, something we didn’t know earlier.
So the best possible outcome for you 
Who knows, maybe this location is strongly connected to the Secret:
“it overcomes your mind, drawing you deep into things better left unseen - undone”
“You will see things better left unseen. You will hear things better left unheard. You will learn things better left unlearned.”
That’s the only sentence of your post that I’ve read and I will not read this thread again in these days.
Sorry pal, the game is very near and I think that I would enjoy the game more it I stop this 31 years old guess game right now. 
It’s almost bunker time, for me!