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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.
Producer Josh Drescher no longer employed at Mythic
EA Mythic games producer Josh Drescher dropped a bomb on Twitter this morning: "Not EXACTLY how I expected the day to start: As of 11:00 AM today, I am no longer an employee of EA Mythic." Details are sketchy, but they come from the man himself. The animosity level is low to nonexistent; Josh says it was a layoff, not a firing, and he still loves Mythic. He obviously can't give details at this point -- and doesn't have many to give if he could. What does this mean for WAR and Mythic? There's no word from that corner yet, but we'll be keeping an eye out for more news. In the meantime, is anybody looking for a devastatingly handsome, well-seasoned producer/designer?
Developer round table: MMO betas, page 2
First, the question needs to be defined – open beta or closed beta? In a closed beta, the goal is to get everything fixed.
Interview sheds more light on Warhammer Online's trial
Times have been somewhat erratic for Warhammer Online, but most everyone can agree that the switch to an endless free trial was a positive move for the game. It's almost transparent how the change came almost immediately following the changes made in patch 1.3.2 to streamline the starting experience, but it's a wise move all around and makes the game more accessible than ever before on both levels. Producer Josh Drescher recently sat down with the Zam network to talk a little more about the rationale behind the change, as well as the limitations on the experience. As Drescher points out, one of the major limits toward any sort of time-limited trial is that many players feel pressured for form an opinion in a very constrained timeframe. For more casual players, it can be almost impossible. The new move makes it both easier for players to take their time, and easier for players to try it, hibernate, and then try some of the new features as they come out. For more of the specifics, as well as a rather oblique non-answer to the question of Warhammer Online's future in light of recent layoffs, take a look at the full interview.
Mythic removes time limit on WAR free trial
Warhammer Online's October newsletter just arrived in our mailboxes and its full of frothy WAAAGH!. Predominantly featured are the 1.3.2 updates, which most of us already know about including the removal of fortresses, a new keep difficulty system, client performance improvements, and of course, the New User Journey. Check out the video podcast with producers Jeff Skalski and Josh Drescher for a full run down. A couple interesting bits stuck out for us. First, as Werit points out, Mythic has removed the 10-day time limitation on their free trial. Players can now experience all of what tier one has to offer without worrying about a looming deadline. This should work out quite nicely with the New User Journey. We also noticed the release of a new Warhammer-themed living card game by Fantasy Flight Games called Warhammer Invasion. This should be of interest to those who just can't get enough order or destruction in their day. Finally, you should come back in one hour for our exclusive GameX interview with Matt Shaw and James Casey as they discuss the free trial and explain their decisions behind the 1.3.2 changes.
New WAR dev interviews have a slightly different tone
MMO studios are often chided, if not outright derided, for sounding as though their words are being translated by a public relations or marketing babel fish. Fans must commonly navigate on-message superlatives while trying to seek out nuggets of real information. Mythic Entertainment has never been entirely immune to this, especially during their Warhammer Online pre-launch communications.Frank of the the Overly Positive blog recently picked up a slight change in tone from the WAR developers though. In a series of interviews with Gaar, it seems as though they are cutting through the marketing-speak and discussing things plainly and openly. Some might claim that it's too little too late or that Mythic has finally come to terms with their current situation, however, few can argue that it isn't a breath of fresh air and a step in the right direction. Step One is to admit there is a problem, right?As for what you'll learn from the interviews themselves, there's actually quite a bit. Josh Drescher shines some light on Mythic's thought process moving forward with the game and Nate Levy explains some of the issues the Combat & Careers team are dealing with specifically.
Warhammer's 1.3 (Land of the Dead) public test has begun
Mythic just began rolling out phase one of their highly anticipated 1.3 patch (Land of the Dead) for Warhammer Online. This phase will focus primarily on combat and careers and the new expedition mechanic, so players won't actually be able to enter the new Tomb Kings zones just yet.What's that saying; "Good things come to those who wait?" Keep telling yourself that - it will get you through the long and chilly desert nights.This will be the fifth massive patch for WAR subscribers in 2009 and its contents rival any of the others. Just to name a few highlights, patch 1.3 will introduce The Land of the Dead, a new sigil system that replaces wards, additional keep upgrades, and additional career balance focusing on AoE and crowd control abilities.Land of the Dead information came pouring out of Baltimore this week as Mythic was participating in Games Workshop's annual Games Day event. Our very own Colin Brennan was there and got plenty of juicy details, including a zone overview, hands on impressions, and interviews with Mark Davis, Josh Drescher, and Paul Barnett. He hasn't even posted everything yet, so keep checking in! The 1.3 patch is set to launch mid-June.
Games Day '09: A moment with Paul Barnett and Josh Drescher pt. 2
So, I know this is on many player's minds. Is this going to replace city raid content?Josh: No. Ok then. Josh: Well, I mean the short answer is no. Paul: My answer is totally no. "This is a long term, total commitment from our studio to our players and to our newer players coming along." Josh: Long answer, I've been with Mythic for eight years. I was here before Camelot launched and we know what this type of content does to a greater RvR campaign. While the RvR campaign is certainly more diverse and larger in Warhammer than in Camelot, but we know pragmatically that by tying the content to the campaign and requiring success on the battlefield to gain access to this content, that success may push you towards capital city content. Even if RvR is not your focus and your focus is to get down into the dungeon, you're going to wind up working your way towards the capital city. It just happens organically, so we're really not concerned about that too much. At the end of the day, if people end up deciding that they enjoy this content more than city capture, we never felt that we need to integrate the players into the game in one set, specific way. Personally, I really love scenarios over everything else. I don't have much time to play, so for me, 15 minute scenarios are the way to play. That doesn't mean I won't engage in RvR, but overall I get 15 minutes here, 15 minutes there, and scenarios will always be my core fascination. But there are other people who like large-scale raid content, who don't like RvR or PvP. This is a great way to have them go down and get that Disney Land experience while running through well-thought out content, but there's also that added danger that at any moment enemy players can swarm in. Also, as Paul likes to say... Paul: I don't like building fart balloons. *Laughs* Paul: It's like the extended cut of a great movie. You have the main core of the movie, but you also have that extended stuff. You can watch the main core of the movie, but if you really want to obsess and you really want to see all of the detail you can watch the extended cut. It's more of the same, but it's new and cool. That's what it is. The movie is still the movie, our game is still our game, regardless.Ok, so, this is basically a small expansion, honestly. Where do you see Warhammer going from here?Paul: Go straight, go straight, go straight, go straight. This is a long term, total commitment from our studio to our players and to our newer players coming along. Try it out, it's never going away, it's only going onwards and upwards.Josh: I agree with Paul. Our boxed expansion schedule, such as it is, is probably going to mirror very closely to what we did in Camelot -- an alternating sequence of free expansions via patches and then boxed retail expansion content. Almost certainly you will see retail expansions in the near future, but you will certainly keep seeing free expansions as well. "To go to a person at a time like this when unemployment is rampant, the economy is in the tank, and retirement funds have gone away and say, "Hey, can I have 10 to 15 dollars of your money every month to play my game?" is actually a pretty bold request." We've always felt the relationship we, the developer, have with our players should be something more than just simple money extraction. At least 50 percent of it should be grateful generation of wonderful things for them to have for free.All right. Now the hard question. 300,000 subscribers -- how do you guys feel about that? It's the number you started with, and it's the number you currently hold now.Josh: There is no start and there is no now. Now, as a company, we're legally not allowed to comment on those numbers any further than what was reported, but we're very happy with the enthusiasm and continued dedication of people all over the world who have played Warhammer for the last nine months.It's been a really difficult time not just for the games industry, but for everyone. To go to a person at a time like this when unemployment is rampant, the economy is in the tank, and retirement funds have gone away and say, "Hey, can I have 10 to 15 dollars of your money every month to play my game?" is actually a pretty bold request. So for people to come to us and say that the commitment we've shown and the game that we've built is worth that kind of display, we have nothing but thanks for those people. We are unbelievably grateful that they've stuck with us and we hope that this type of content that we've been developing for the last nine months is an indication of our dedication to our end of this type of interaction. They trust us to do this, and we're trying to make good on our end of it and bring great things to them consistently.We are very happy with where the game is. We would obviously love to have more people try Warhammer, which is why we have the trial out...Paul: Which you can download right now!Josh: And we're very happy to continue on into the future. Also, this event is the last thing I'm allowed to do before I go get married. I'm very excited, I'm getting married next Saturday.Paul: It's an exclusive for Massively!Josh: I love you Aubrey, please continue marrying me. Put that in big bold letters. Breaking news: Josh loves Aubrey. I will totally do that. Josh, Paul, thank you so much for your time! The sands of the Tomb Kings are coming as the final release in the Call to Arms live expansion, the Land of the Dead approaches! Massively has your back with coverage from Mythic Entertainment at Games Day '09, so get your WAAGGGHHH ready for RvR mayhem as Massively re-arms for WAR!
Games Day '09: A moment with Paul Barnett and Josh Drescher (also, Josh loves Aubrey)
Even with all of the excitement occurring at Games Day, Mythic's Paul Barnett and Josh Drescher still had a moment to sit down with us at Massively and talk a little shop about Warhammer's overall status, Mythic's future direction of the game, and why players should come back and experience the Land of the Dead. But they're tricky folks, Paul and Josh! They even tried to turn the interview back around at us at some points! But we stayed strong for you readers, and were able to get some interesting answers out of them regarding Warhammer Online. Also, we have exclusive coverage that Josh indeed loves his fiancee, Aubrey. Yay marriage! Interested in the full interview? Hit that link and read on!
Apparently, the reaper likes to WAAGGGGHHHH!
Here's something we never expected to put in the same sentence -- Blue Öyster Cult and Warhammer Online. Yes, you heard us completely correctly and this isn't some kind of hallucination.Eric Bloom (a level 40 sorcerer on Ironfist, mind you) and fellow bandmate Richie Castellano went for a tour of the Mythic Entertainment offices back in March. What ended up happening after was not only a tour but also a step into the recording booth as they teamed up with Paul Barnett, Josh Drescher, and Brad Derrick to record "Kiss My Axe (While I Drink My Beer)!"The song is a ballad dedicated to the dwarven slayer's ways of drinking, killing, killing, and did we mention drinking? If there's any man who doesn't fear the reaper, it's certainly a dwarven slayer.Mythic is offering their song free for download over at the Warhammer Online main site.[Via Giant Bomb]
Mythic's Josh Drescher interviewed on patch 1.2, official forums, and beyond
The always witty and rambunctious Syp of the WAAAGH! Blog recently had a chance to chat with Warhammer Online Producer, Josh Drescher. Josh took time out of his busy schedule to give some insight behind Mythic's patching process, stance on official forum moderation, and how they try to achieve class balance.Don't be surprised to see another monster patch rivalling that of 1.2 in the future, but expect many smaller patches as well. Their only patching philosophy is not wanting to follow a defined patching schedule because doing so can lead to all kinds quality of issues. The official WAR forums are heavily moderated to prevent "Internet toughguys" from cluttering up the discussion. Mythic hopes their forums will be a place where they can hear the players' voices easily and clearly and the players can hear what the devs are saying and planning without having to scour the Web.Josh also paints a picture of the ever-complicated issue of combat and careers balance. To learn more about this and other creamy WAR goodness that came up in the discussion, make sure to head over to the WAAAGH! blog for the full scoop.
The WAR on Twitter
It seems that any game company that wants to get the word out about what they're doing, or simply to generate buzz, leverages social networking. Many companies are now using that diminutive yet potent power of Twitter and Mythic Entertainment is no different. The WAR Herald has announced that it's now twittering updates on Warhammer Online hot fixes, dev blogs, and topics of interest to the WAR community in general. The WAR Herald isn't Mythic's only Twitter presence though -- both Paul Barnett and Josh Drescher have feeds as well, followed by a growing legion of Warhammer Online fans. Mythic has announced the first expansion to Warhammer Online! Check out the announcement itself, the two brand-new classes coming to the game, and the enormous new dungeon/zone slated for a few months away! Plus, don't miss any of our ongoing coverage as Massively goes to WAR!
Warhammer developers weigh in on 1.1a RvR changes
Yesterday, just a day before this morning's announcement of the 1.1a patch to Warhammer Online, we had the chance to speak with some of the leading lights in the Warhammer development process. Adam Gershowitz, Associate Producer Josh Drescher, and Designer Brian Wheeler laid out the ins and outs of Realm vs. Realm changes in our discussion. Said Josh Drescher, "The core philosophy for 1.1 as regards RvR is to guarantee you a rewarding time in open field combat. It should be just as rewarding as spending an hour anywhere else in the game. We want to address the problem where players would want to participate in open RvR, but had limited time and felt they would be better rewarded in a Scenario. We were specifically addressing that in this update this time around."Read on below the cut for our full discussion.
Mythic working on expansion and 'new-new classes'
If you go to Paul Barnett's personal blog, you'll discover two enticing things. One, there's a lot of videos with him doing his thing in a pretty much unfiltered manner. And two, you can grab sneak peeks at upcoming Warhammer Online updates and fixes in general. Today Paul posted a video in where he flashes a sheet of paper filled with his thoughts on expansions and new careers, but not just one's we've heard of apparently. Nope, Paul quickly points out that these are "new-new careers" before Mr. Josh Drescher (also featured in the video) pulls the latch shut on that topic. Oh, how they love to tease us.So now we're left the with a question: Are these new-new careers to possibly replace one of the old ones, or for an eventual expansion? We wouldn't be surprised if they were for both, honestly. Don't put it past Paul -- a man who just finished having a wonderful time playing D&D over the weekend -- not to have oodles of careers ideas written on pieces of paper. Check after the break for the latest video update.
Destruction's dominance is temporary, says Mythic's Drescher
Today the 24th episode of Massively.com's companion podcast, Massively Speaking, is live. In it, we talk with Warhammer Online's Josh Drescher and Dan Enright all about the game since launch. We had a great time, but we felt that we needed to ask some tough questions for the community. We went for the good stuff, asking about everything from Public Quest imbalances to the grace period miscommunication last week. One question in particular we wanted to make sure got addresed, and that was the percieved imbalance between the Order and Destruction factions across the servers. Drescher said that all signs point to Destruction's dominance being temporary.Josh Drescher: There's something about the kind of person who likes to Beta test MMOs that draws them towards the badguys. All throughout Beta we saw a disproportionate popularity on the Destruction side. We know from previous games we've worked on, the good guys tend to be significantly more popular. Everyone wants to save the princess and have shiny armor. Even though we don't offer any princess saving in our game, we knew that the good guys were going to wind up generally more popular in the long term.What we're seeing now is that people looked at server populations on launch day and made a choice. "Oh, I've heard bad guys are really popular, I want to be on the side that's most popular." They chose Destruction characters initially.Dan Enright: Actually, a lot of people have been going in and choosing Order deliberately. Whether they saw the shorter queues or knew they'd have more opportunity to participate in Scenarios, or they just wanted an increased challenge ... we're seeing a lot of people move to Order.Be sure to check out the full interview in Massively Speaking Episode 24! Did you enjoy this? Make sure to check out all of our previous Warhammer Online features, and don't miss any of our ongoing coverage as Massively goes to WAR!
Josh Drescher interviewed about Warhammer Online on the BigCast
This week, our sister site Big Download's weekly podcast features a casual interview with Warhammer Online's associate producer Josh Drescher. Topics covered range from how things went leading up to the day of launch last Thursday, the current situation on previously cut content, how said content would be implemented when eventually returned and ... frozen whales and Bacon Salt? We're not sure exactly how to describe it to you without being even more confusing, so you'll just have to listen in for yourselves. There's also lots of discussion of PC gaming topics and tomfoolery abound for anyone looking to pass the time on a drive home or at the office desk as they whittle away the hours.
The MMO Report offers part two of their Warhammer Online special
Last weekend, as a preview before the launch of Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning, G4's MMO Report ran a special video touring the Mythic offices with Paul Barnett as guide. This week, the show follows up with a more serious look at the game from the other frontmen on the team: Josh Drescher, Jeff Hickman, and Mark Jacobs. Join the hearty crew as they run through the features list for the game and wax eloquent about the project they've spent years developing. Frankly, if you've been reading Massively and (even moreso) if you're already playing you probably know everything they have to say. Still, there's nothing like watching a passionate nerd talk about their life's work backed by dramatic fantasy music. Click through below the cut for their passion unfiltered. Did you enjoy this? Make sure to check out all of our previous Warhammer Online features, and don't miss any of our ongoing coverage as Massively goes to WAR!
Mythic releases trio of WAR launch day videos
As busy as the Mythic folks have been gearing up for launch this week, they still took the time to have some fun and meet some fans. All of their antics have been recorded for your viewing pleasure, with the credits posing as a particularly entertaining -- if not lengthy -- video. Also, our hope is that Josh and everyone exposed to too much radio-frequency energy at least gain some kind of superpowers. There's a lot to watch between the three separate videos, but it's all fairly entertaining for any fan of the Warhammer Online guys. We hope they're starting to recover from launch day at least a little bit, but if these videos are any indication then they've only just begun.
The BigCast @PAX08 Special: Warhammer Online
Massively's sister site Big Download has a very special podcast with Jeff Hickman, Paul Barnett and Josh Drescher from Warhammer Online. Of course, you probably don't need us to tell you that these fellows made for a very interesting podcast, but what you do need to know is that this edition of the BigCast is very NSFW, so it may be wise to wear some headphones. As it happens, there isn't much talk about Warhammer Online. Instead, you'll hear a lot Mr. Barnett asking everyone questions and the ever-informative Josh Drescher pitch a very wonderful radio ad for Bacon Salt -- because everything should taste like bacon.As someone who was a part of this endeavour into the unknowns of German hotels, taxis and of course, Bacon Salt, this blogger can tell you it was a wild ride that you won't be remiss for listening in on.
Seen@PAX08: Warhammer Online team going all out
We've spent a lot of time stomping around the exhibition hall at PAX this year and there are plenty of sights to see. One constant of the show floor was the never-wavering, always-happy-to-see-you team at the Warhammer Online booth. They also liked to make strange "w" signs with their hands at us. We think it's probably some east-coaster thing or maybe a esoteric European gang sign. It could've also been related to Warhammer Online, but that's probably unlikely.This was the first year that Paul Barnett, Jeff Hickman and Josh Drescher were there to answer questions, chat with fans and generally be cool, approachable guys. While hanging around the booth after our (soon to be available) interview with Jeff and Paul, we lost count of how many times they posed for pictures, signed things, repeatedly discussed issues, or just generally made themselves available for poking and prodding throughout the day.%Gallery-30683%
