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Free for All: Interviewing Achaea's Matt Mihaly for MUD May
MUD May has been a very enjoyable experience, but the main thing I learned is that a month is not long enough to cover all of MUDdom. Not by a long shot. The fact is that MUDs have a much longer history than graphical, 3-D MMOs, and here we are on an entire site dedicated mainly to those! We owe a lot to MUDs, but I always try to point out to current or former players that we should not refer to these games only in the past-tense. They are still alive, filled with players and ongoing. That means they are just as viable and worthy of mention as World of Warcraft. How many of our favorite 3-D MMOs will be around for two or more decades? These wonderful games do need to improve in many areas, though. Some MUD developers are attempting to bring these text-based MMOs into the future, none better than Iron Realms Entertainment's Achaea. I sat down with Matt Mihaly, the CEO and Founder of Iron Realms since 1995, for an interview to talk about Achaea and the future of MUDs.
Earth Eternal facing the prospect of shutdown
There's incredibly bad news today about Earth Eternal, the free-to-play browser-based MMO from Sparkplay Media. Or we should say formerly from Sparkplay Media, as it appears that hard times have hit the company with resounding force. In an extremely sad letter, CEO Matt Mihaly has informed players that Sparkplay Media has been all but shut down, with only two remaining employees (including himself) taking care of closing down the company and trying to sell the game to another service provider. Although the game is not currently being shut down, Mihaly is frank about its prospects: it entirely depends on whether or not another company will pick up the hosting costs of running Earth Eternal. For the time being, the game has made all of its microtransaction items free for all players, in hopes that whatever the game's ultimate fate, players can enjoy it for a little while longer. Our consolations go out to the team behind the game, and we offer our sympathies for what has no doubt been a painful process for the entire staff.
China declares day of mourning, closes all entertainment venues
News of the earthquake that hit China last week was devastating enough to gain worldwide attention immediately, even more so as the numbers of killed, injured, and missing rose with every new report. As China begins recovering this week, officials declared a day of mourning for today. Flags flew at half mast, citizens wore white paper flowers, and even rescue workers paused for three minutes to remember the victims. So what does this have to do with MMOs? Matt Mihaly, the CEO of Sparkplay Media, is in Shanghai this week and dropped us a line to let us know that those aren't the only things being done for today's day of mourning: "...all entertainment options in China have been shut down today (4/21). That includes everything from karaoke bars to entertainment tv channels (non-news channels are blacked out here today) to online games." That's right, no MMOs in China today. And while we at Massively love our games, we can't help but approve of this measure of respect for those affected. [Thanks to Matt for the tip!]
Matt Mihaly talks microtransactions and Earth Eternal
It looks like we're not the only ones on the block to talk to Matt Mihaly, as Gamasutra has recently sat down with the Sparkplay Media CEO. The topic of the conversation: microtransactions.Matt's no stranger to microtransactions, having utilized them back with Iron Realms Entertainment and their many MUD games. His talk with Gamasutra starts out focusing on how microtransactions can generate a very modest income, but mainly center on a small segment of the game's population paying the most to play the game.Beyond microtransactions, Matt gives a few very interesting details about the development of Earth Eternal and how it reached the form it's in today. Did you know that originally Earth Eternal was going to be a hyper-violent and hyper-sexualized fantasy MMO before it evolved into the playful multi-race animal/fable theme? No? Then you might want to check out the full article, as there's more where that came from regarding the game's evolution.
Meet the Sparkplay Media team: Part Two
Yesterday we introduced you to the lead designer and concept artist from Sparkplay Media, the makers of the upcoming free-to-play MMO Earth Eternal. Today we have more behind the scenes action for you as we continue our "Meet the Sparkplay Media Team" feature and introduce you to the lead writer and one of the programmers that work so diligently on this new MMO.In today's feature we get the inside scoop on the microtransaction store and story from Sparkplay's CEO and lead writer of Earth Eternal, Matt Mihaly. Plus we're also getting a peek inside what goes on during the coding of Earth Eternal with Ryne Anderson, one of the programmers.
Massively speaks with Sparkplay Media's CEO on Earth Eternal pt. 2
How have the launches of FusionFall and Free Realms affected Earth Eternal? Have you changed your development or goals in any way because of the success of those two games, or have you stayed the course and continued to build things your way, disregarding those two games?Not really, no. Games like Runescape and Habbo have had more influence on our plans than either of those two games, simply because they're so much bigger. FusionFall and Free Realms have gotten a lot of press in the last year, but neither of them have achieved the level of success that games like Runescape and Habbo have. Actually, nobody really knows how Free Realms is doing outside of SOE. Three million registrations doesn't tell you much about how many active players they have as you don't know how quickly players are churning out of the experience. With the massive dollars they spent on marketing too, it'd be surprising if they couldn't get a few million registrations. The challenge for them (and everyone else in this space, including us) is to convert that fleeting attention into long-term, loyal players. "We're more in the vein of a classic fantasy MMO than a collection of minigames." How will Earth Eternal separate itself from the growing free-to-play genre in America? What will make this game stand out?We're a different kind of experience from FusionFall or Free Realms. We're more in the vein of a classic fantasy MMO than a collection of minigames. I think where we stand out is by offering the best browser-based fantasy MMO out there. We've made the decision to have no humans, elves, or dwarves (or gnomes, hobbits, or anything else too close to human), preferring instead to offer everything from humanoid lizards and falcons to the Clockwork and Yeti. We're definitely fantasy but we want to stay away from the pack, almost all of whom have the humans/elves/dwarves thing going on. We've also got an enormous number of races for players (unlike the two games you mentioned) – 22 at launch.Considering all of Earth Eternal's development, what part of the game are you the most proud of? What is that one feature you can't wait to show off?The number one thing I'm proud of is how much our team has managed to do on relatively little funding for an open world 3D MMO (about five million dollars.) As far as game features go the biggest feature I'm looking forward to showing off is our Groves system, which will be introduced at final launch, a few months after we go into open beta. Thanks so much for your time, Matt!
Massively speaks with Sparkplay Media's CEO on Earth Eternal
With Sparkplay Media's first game, Earth Eternal, going into beta, we got the chance to sit down with the CEO of the company, Matt Mihaly, and pick his mind on a variety of things related to setting up shop in the free to play genre.Matt's no stranger to the massively multiplayer space, holding a strong background as the CEO and founder of Iron Realms Entertainment, a company dedicated to creating multi-user dungeons (MUDs) including Imperian, Aetola, Achaea, and Lusternia. If that wasn't enough, Achaea was one of the first games to introduce the sales of virtual goods, making him one of the pioneers of the base that free-to-play games now stand on.So what's his thought process behind Earth Eternal? What are some of the things we can expect from the MMO that's sporting over 22 races? Hit the continue reading link, and find out!
In Development: Earth Eternal
Earth Eternal is an upcoming MMO by developer Sparkplay Media, and it's definitely something different. In EE, you'll be able to play as one of 16 races, each one an anthropomorphized animal form, known collectively and colloquially as 'Furries'. It should be noted that Sparkplay apparently didn't even consider the Furry lifestyle when they created EE; they're more fans of the talking animal genre of fantasy films, as put forth by Disney, et al.Gamebunny recently caught up with CEO and Creative Director Matt Mihaly for a second interview concerning the game and everything that's happened since their first conversation. There's no hard release date so far, but it will be a free-to-play MMO, so if you're at all interested, give these interviews a look and start thinking about what sort of animal you most identify with; chances are it's in the game! Personally, I'm dying to be a plant creature, as shown above, running around in my own little pot and everything![Thanks, David!]
