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Mythic closes, 'end of an era' for former MMO studio
We saw this coming, but it doesn't make it any less regrettable: Long-time MMO studio Mythic Entertainment has been shut down by EA. "We are closing the EA Mythic location in Fairfax, Virginia, as we concentrate mobile development in our other studio locations. We are working with all impacted employees to provide assistance in finding new opportunities, either within EA or with other companies via an upcoming job fair," EA told Kotaku. Former Mythic lead Josh Drescher tweeted his reaction to the news: "Condolences to everyone at Mythic today. It's the end of an era, but you were all part of something amazing." Mythic shuttered Warhammer Online last December, while Ultima Online, Dark Age of Camelot, and many Mythic developers moved over to Broadsword Online Games this past February.
Molyneux on new Dungeon Keeper: 'This is ridiculous'
EA's received hefty doses of criticism following the launch of its free-to-play mobile version of Dungeon Keeper, thanks in particular to the game's reliance on microtransactions. One person voicing displeasure with the game recently is Dungeon Keeper's original creator, Lionhead Studios co-founder and current 22 Cans head, Peter Molyneux. "I felt myself turning round saying, 'What? This is ridiculous. I just want to make a dungeon. I don't want to schedule it on my alarm clock for six days to come back for a block to be chipped,'" Molyneux told the BBC. "I don't think they got it quite right, the balance between keeping it familiar to the fans that were out there but fresh enough and understandable enough for this much bigger mobile audience." EA quietly safeguarded itself against poor reviews for Dungeon Keeper on Android in particular, as it was revealed last week that anything less than a five-star review was diverted to a feedback form within the app. Given Molyneux's penchant for the, shall we say, unconventional, if he's calling you 'ridiculous', something somewhere has gone terribly wrong. [Image: Electronic Arts]
Ultima Forever's trailer welcomes players back to Britannia
Mythic's Ultima Forever: Quest for the Avatar is coming this spring to iOS devices, so we suppose it's the appropriate time to get worked up about this latest evolution of the Ultima series. The studio's released a quick trailer that showcases some of the game's locales and combat as well as promising (but not showing) that "decisions have consequences." The cooperative online RPG will be released for free with optional microtransactions. While it's not quite an MMO, Ultima Forever clearly has aspirations of making headway in the mobile market. Give the trailer a look and let us know if you think you'll be hopping on board the latest Mythic fantasy train!
Rise and Shiny revisit: Dark Age of Camelot
About once a year I like to take a look back at Dark Age of Camelot, the classic PvP MMO by Mythic Entertainment, just to reassure myself that older MMOs are still some of the best around. Dark Age of Camelot comes from that older crop of titles like Asheron's Call and EverQuest, games that still shine despite their age. Of course the next logical question is, "If these games are still so good, why aren't more of us still playing them?" There's an easy answer, really. First of all, we don't spend time sitting around listening to our favorite albums or watching our favorite movies constantly, but we still appreciate them, possibly more than we did when we first found them. Next, all games are finite for us as individuals. There is no MMO that offers endless content if we take away the endless player-made content that comes from roleplay or exploration. No matter how good a game like Dark Age of Camelot was and still is, many of us have already experienced it quite a bit. It's only human to become slightly bored with something we've played with time and again. But once again, I've spent a week in a game that shows it's always a good thing to check back on our favorites. They just might surprise you all over again.
Rise and Shiny revisit: Ultima Online
What can I say about Ultima Online that hasn't been said before? This week, the grandparent of MMOs turns 15 years old. In MMO terms, that's a long, long time. In fact, Ultima Online is the measuring stick for resilience. Think about it: Does any of us believe that many modern MMOs will last even half that long? While it's very possible, it's also very hard to imagine. For many different reasons, Ultima Online still maintains a playerbase, continues to be developed, and even attracts new players. It also runs on a subscription model and will likely continue to do so. If you read the transcript of my recent livestream with the UO devs that was so generously typed out by Ultima Codex, you know that I asked about a free-to-play or freemium Ultima Online and received this as an answer: Actually, there's no use to do free-to-play. We have a good number of key players. So, at this time it's not really something we're looking at doing. That was Producer Bonnie Armstrong. Oddly, I received some form of the free-to-play question from people who are not playing the game currently. The players inside the world seem just fine with the payment model. Has this old-school approach helped the game last this long? I'm not sure, but during this annual return to Britannia, I found the same great game I do every time I visit.
Previously on MV TV: The week of September 22nd
It's that time of the week again, people! Time for those unlucky few who missed our livestreams as they went live to click beyond the cut and enjoy my favorites of the week. It's hard picking them out, so I reach out to the team and ask which ones deserve to be highlighted. Honestly, all of the livestreams deserve the spotlight, but it should be no surprise to find out that individual streamers find their own streams to be the best of the best. I tend to agree, and every week I am surprised at just how no-nonsense and informative our streams are. Be sure to bookmark our livestream schedule calender so that each week you can tune in to your favorite. Feel free to suggest titles for streaming and to chat it up with our streamers live as they play! This week we have MJ returning with her favorite games like EverQuest II, Aion, The Secret World, Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, and Guild Wars 2. Richie joins in with his current favorite, Guild Wars 2, and I round things off with an hour spent with the Ultima Online developer team, a goblinball session with community leaders in Allods Online, and a tutorial on building a house in Wurm Online! Trust me, if there is one goblin-kicking, dev-interviewing, house-building livestream series that you should watch, it's this one!
Warhammer Online encourages murder most foul
In the happy, carebear world of Warhammer Online, we've reached the time of year when the clouds break to let in a ray of sunshine that warms the souls of all it touches and sprinkles hearts with... oh, forget it. It's Murder-o-Rama, aka the Night of Murder. Mythic's annual WAR bloodfest centers around players attempting to appease a gruesome Elf god by taking out contracts on each other's lives. From February 9th through the 22nd, players will try to complete Tome of Knowledge tasks by completing "Marked for Death" quests and killing those with a dripping red skull-and-crossbones over their heads. The rewards are worth the effort, though, with items like Lobbin' Noggins, Khaine's Caress, and a fun pike sporting your opponent's head that you can slam down next to a defeated foe. It's the yearly holiday your mother always warned you about, but you never listened then and you're probably not going to start now.
Warhammer Online releases patch 1.4.5 highlights
Despite Mythic Entertainment's recent winnowing of the Warhammer Online servers -- bringing them down from four servers to a measly pair -- the company is still hard at work developing patches for the RvR-based title. Patch 1.4.5 will be hitting the live servers tomorrow, January 31st, and it brings a number of interesting changes and also ushers in the return of fortresses, which should be good news for open RvR fans. With the recent Skaven invasion, a number of relics have been found in myriad underground tunnels dug below the game's fortresses. Players will be charged with guarding their faction's relics while attempting to purloin those of the enemy. The Grovod Cavern scenario is also making a return, allowing two teams of 12 players to duke it out in the crumbling cave. But this time, there's a twist: Players will be taking control of two teams of Skaven; hilarity will ensue. To top it all off, 1.4.5 is bringing fortresses back into play (after they were removed some time ago), which should hopefully encourage players to head back into the open RvR lakes for fun and profit. For the full details, just head on over to the Warhammer Online official site.
Dark Age of Camelot storms the castle with Patch 1.111
People of Midgard, Albion, and Hibernia -- fight for glory! The call to battle is strong and never-ending, and Mythic is looking to your continued diligence and thirst for blood to keep Dark Age of Camelot's PvP raging. For its part, Mythic has delivered the latest tantalizing update to the game today, Patch 1.111. To keep the battlefield skirmishes hot, the studio has added new RvR missions to the Frontiers. This should hopefully cause a greater amount of conflict as players strive to accomplish their tasks. Patch 1.111 also includes a host of class tweaks (including a huge buff to Thanes), additional controllable pets for Animists, and new Atlantis quests. These quests start at level 30 and will help players garner more Atlantean Glass for their artifacts, which should help ease the pain of grinding out Master Levels. The patch is currently live on all servers.
Ring in the new year with Warhammer Online's Keg End
Amidst the news of server merges, Warhammer Online fans could probably use something to celebrate, something to lift the spirits a bit. So it's fortunate that the annual Keg End celebration is just around the corner, giving everyone a chance to get drunk and rowdy even by the already aggressive status of the world's inhabitants. Running from December 14th until January 4th, Keg End is a chance to celebrate in style in the Dwarven tradition. The rewards for the event haven't changed much this year, with the usual assortment of Party Kegs, Keg Taps, and Battlebrew Backpacks. There are giants roaming the field looking for their own ale and a handful of sporting battles, and there are plenty of special drinks to be sampled just for the event. So get yourself ready to log in tomorrow and take a nice roll through fields filled with blood, beer, and battle. Especially beer.
Waaaghon Ho!: Warhammer Online merging servers following free transfers
Saddle up, rough riders: It's time to head to more fertile lands! Starting next week, select Warhammer Online players will be given the option to transfer between servers for free. The decision is Mythic's attempt to merge underpopulated servers, and the company hopes that this move will drive up the action in RvR for previously quiet locations. Players on the Gorfang (North America) and Karak Azgal (Europe) will be able to move house to Badlands and Karak Norn, respectively, starting December 14th. Once this happens, Gorfang and Karak Azgal will be marked as "Legacy" servers, keeping new players from rolling on them, and then after three weeks, the two servers will be shut down completely. Any characters left on those servers will not be playable until they transfer to their new homes. Mythic is also paving the way for guilds to move wholesale to new servers, with more information about this coming next week.
MV Guide: November 7-13, 2011
MV Guide is a weekly rundown of the MMO gaming events planned on Massively's Livestream channel. Every week, the Massively staff logs in to play various MMOs live and in person, and we'd love for you to drop by the channel and visit. We have a combination of regular weekly games and new surprises, so you'll find a variety of titles to take a look at. During livestream events, you can participate in the live chat, ask questions to learn about the game, and simply spend some time with Massively staff and readers. (Of course, livestream events are subject to the whims of outside forces like server-side gremlins once in a while.) Follow along after the jump to see what's on this week's schedule!
Rise and Shiny recap: Warriors Saga
It's unfortunate when my normal Rise and Shiny decision-making process bites me in the butt. I generally try to find games semi-randomly, but there really is no random choice for a guy who is pretty aware of almost any title coming out in the U.S., like I am. When I saw Warriors Saga splashed across the front page of Massively, I decided to take a chance and Rise and Shiny the heck out of it. Well, nearly a week later and several hours into the game, I can tell you that there is so much that still needs to be done to the title that it is almost not fair to give you my first impressions. But alas, I have the super-seriously tough job of playing games for a living, so click past the cut and I'll tell you all about it.
Warhammer sticking with its subscription model
Those of you holding out for a freemium conversion for Warhammer Online may as well resign yourselves to waiting on the upcoming Wrath of Heroes MOBA. In a new piece at PC Gamer, BioWare-Mythic vice president Eugene Evans says there are still no plans to give away the game aside from the ongoing endless trial that covers the title's newb tier content. "Right now, we're focused on Wrath of Heroes as our free-to-play offering in the Warhammer universe," Evans said at this week's GDC. "We believe in the community of players who are playing Age of Reckoning. Yes, we could have attracted a lot of players to it [via F2P], but it's unclear how long you'll keep them. We wanted to support our game as it currently exists."
Dark Age of Camelot unveils its 10th anniversary masterpiece
It's not every day that an MMO turns 10, and Mythic is taking full advantage of the situation to hype up Dark Age of Camelot's impressive milestone by treating players to a few goodies. First up is a highly detailed mural depicting the conflicts, races, and classes of DAoC over the years. Mythic has been revealing the mural piecemeal over the last few weeks before finally unveiling it today to the playerbase. In addition to this poster, Mythic's unleashed Producer Stuart Zissu to film a video laying out the plans for the game's celebration. Zissu talks about the new training hubs designed to get beginners on their feet, epic encounters in the world for groups to tackle, moral arcs that give players concrete choices to make, UI changes, and the 10th anniversary t-shirt. Players logging into the game in October will also find that they'll be enjoying several bonuses to XP, crafting, and more. You can watch Zissu get the crowds pumped up for the party after the jump!
Mark Jacobs elaborates on departure from EA Mythic
It's been a couple of years since Mark Jacobs abruptly left -- or perhaps was let go -- from EA Mythic, but curiosity around the split persists in the MMO industry. Yesterday, Jacobs opened up about the event that occurred after EA's acquisition of Mythic and BioWare. Long story short: The merge brought about changes, and Jacobs wasn't on board with them. "They made a decision on a direction they wanted to go and obviously, as we put out in our joint statement, that wasn't a direction that had a role for me, or at least the role that I wanted. It really is as simple as that. Or at least publicly. Whatever went on behind the scenes, whatever we talked about, I have no intention of sharing that," he said. Jacobs insists that EA has been kind to him in the subsequent years. "One thing I'll say publicly about EA, they have been very good in what they've said post-departure regarding me. Similarly I've been good about what I've said about them post departure." He has since gone on to form a new company to create social and mobile games. In an ironic twist, Jacobs says that the idea for getting into the social gaming market took root while he was at Mythic, but he left before acting on that notion.
Ex-Mythic CEO starts new casual studio after two year hiatus
After disappearing for a little over two years, Mark Jacobs is back with casual game company City State Entertainment. The studio, located in Fairfax, Virginia, quietly opened in March and is working on an iOS and Android title for Q4 2011. "I'm tired of strings and being told what to do by other people," Jacobs told Forbes.com. "[At City State], we're a very collaborative group where we talk about everything, and that's what you need if you really want to be successful." The last time Jacobs was really heard from was back in 2009, when he departed MMO company Mythic, a company he founded, following hostile executive politics between Electronic Arts, BioWare and Mythic. BioWare Mythic is currently developing freemium title Warhammer Online: Wrath of Heroes.
Dark Age of Camelot gears up its newbies
As part of Mythic's continued efforts to introduce a "New User Journey" experience that's friendly to Dark Age of Camelot beginners, the studio has turned its attention to the ever-crucial subject of gear. In a new dev diary by DJ Frazier, the dev spells out the problem: "For a new player who wanders into battlegrounds, especially ones like Thidranki or Molvik, they will often find themselves losing almost every fight they encounter, simply because they are playing against people who have had a chance to outfit themselves out in the best equipment they can find for their level range." Because the team fears that this armor disparity proves to be a dealbreaker for many newbies, the devs are retuning the gear that players get during their leveling up process to be more durable and competitive on the battlefield. The two main paths of leveling -- PvE questing and RvR battlegrounds -- will both offer solid picks of gear when patch 1.110 hits. Players who risk the battlegrounds will find themselves in possession of top-notch weapons and armor, whereas those who choose to quest will find themselves "90% of the way there" with their gear. Hopefully, these changes will create an environment that's much more welcoming to newcomers to DAoC.
New bounty rewards coming to Dark Age of Camelot
Dark Age of Camelot is taking aim at bounties. Specifically, the development team is taking aim at the bounty points that players can now earn via quests in the game's battlegrounds. Longtime players have no doubt noticed this change, and in the latest developer diary for the game, Kai Schrober outlines the team's plans to continue improving player experience via a new set of equipment purchasable from special bounty vendors inside the battlegrounds. The equipment available isn't meant to just be good -- it's pre-templated and should bring characters close to the apex of their abilities. The goal, obviously, is to help players feel rewarded for their participation in the game. But the diary also goes into detail about more enhancements to gameplay, including new epic events surrounding quest hubs and new teleporters to give players easy access to battlegrounds. It's a laundry list of improvements for DAoC, a clear sign that even though the past few months have been a bit quiet for the game, development hasn't abated.
Warhammer Online celebrates third anniversary with bonus XP, veteran goodies
It's time to raise a glass to Warhammer Online, as Mythic's fantasy PvP title turns three on September 18th (time flies when you're WAAAGHing, we suppose). What's on tap for the inevitable celebration? Bonus XP/RP, of course, and a whopping 10 days of it. Starting today, players can enjoy increased advancement potential and loot a few fireworks from the twitching carcasses of their foes. Also, three-year veterans are being recognized for their loyalty, as Mythic is gifting them with a Jack-O-Lantern vanity pet and an endless supply of both chaos black and blazing orange dyes. Don't forget that the 1.4.4 patch was recently deployed, and the Wild Hunt event is currently ongoing. Finally, check in with Massively on Sunday for our three-year Warhammer Online retrospective.
