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The Perfect Ten: MMOs that died in development hell
If you know me, you probably know that I have a weird fascination with alternate history. You know, the daydreams of historians when they're not rewriting the past to suit the latest trends. "What if?" my mind wonders, especially when it comes to MMOs. You see, for every game that actually makes it to launch, there are several that die gasping and alone in the bowels of development hell. Sure, many of these are pathetic creatures that didn't really stand a chance anyway, but there are some that could have made an impact on the industry if they had reached release and been halfway decent. We'll never know what a world would look like with these games in them, but we can always muse, "What if?" Continuing Perfect Ten's recent dark streak, here are 10 MMOs that died in development hell; it's to our eternal loss that we'll never get to play them.
One Shots: Thar be dragons
It would be a rare fantasy MMO that didn't have a posse of dragons roaming the land (or flying through the skies), and Guild Wars 2 certainly does not break that trend. It doesn't mean that going head-to-head with one is any less intimidating, however. Reader Paul sent in this little meet-and-greet with Puff, saying it was when his Asuran Mesmer first encountered a dragon. Let's just hope he remained alive to have a second encounter. Asurans often look like popcorn chicken to dragonkind. It's not just flying lizards in this week's One Shots! What wonders await you, I wonder?
Some Assembly Required: Community as content
Not too long ago, I had the opportunity to cover an occasion during which an in-game community came together and created a new player-run annual event. Born as an anniversary follow-up to a service event for the young terminally ill player Ribbitribbit, the new tradition focused on celebrating that very community that pulled together to create him a dream playground within EverQuest II. If the game lacked a sense of community in the game before that original project, it certainly didn't after. After tugging at my heartstrings for a while, that experience made me reflect on how much our communities are really a cornerstone of player-generated content. How often have you attended or participated in an event or run a mission created by someone other than yourself? And yet, when discussing important tools and elements needed to support player-generated content, we often overlook the necessity of a vibrant community. It's like trying to bake a cake without adding the flour. Or how about this analogy: You can give folks a giant tool box full of a shiny implements and tell them to build a house, but not much will happen without the actual wood and materials! So to foster PGC, games need to foster building communities.
Mythic community manager bids a sorrowful farewell
It looks as if yesterday's EA layoffs are hitting MMO gamers closer to home than originally thought. In a post today on BioWare's Warhammer Online forums, Mythic's Timothy Chappell announced that he has been let go. Chappell was the community manager for Warhammer Online, Ultima Online, and Dark Age of Camelot. I am very sorry to say that I was informed that my position was no longer needed. Though I had many titles I was handling for Mythic, I grew to love and appreciate all the communities and only wish I could have had more time or resources to get more involved with them. Though I had only been in the position for a little over a year, I will miss a great many of you and hope that you keep in touch. The news is of particular concern for Warhammer, which also lost its lead developer earlier this week. Ultima Online, by contrast, assured players of its continuing operation in a producer's letter last week. [Thanks to Fozee for the tip!]
Warhammer Online's Keaven Freeman leaves Mythic
Lead Developer Keaven Freeman is no longer heading up Warhammer Online. Freeman wrote a goodbye post on his personal blog stating that he is leaving Mythic Entertainment to "explore new growth and new career possibilities." "It is with heavy heart I report I am leaving Mythic Entertainment. I have worked with Mythic since 2007, and it quickly became my family," he said. Freeman expressed his gratitude to the company and fans, saying that his time with WAR was rewarding: "I'm by no means saying everything was perfect -- there was a lot I could have done better, in hindsight, but I think we really managed to take some giant steps forward as well, as non-perfect as those steps may have been."
Jukebox Heroes: Battle music!
It's time once again to take a week off from looking at specific MMO soundtracks and open ourselves up to a theme instead. The topic? Battle music. Yeah, it can be some of the most obnoxious music in the game, especially after hearing it for the 3,000th time, but every once in a while I hear a piece that has some merit to it. These are the ones we want to examine today. What makes for a good battle music track? I think it has to get you excited without being annoying or grating and not so loud or incredibly noticeable that you can't help but get tired of it sooner rather than later. It was actually pretty tricky to pull together six such tracks for this column, but I managed to do with with the help of Colonel Bugle up there. He's got the best MP3 collection around.
Ultima Online producer's letter talks vendor search, vet rewards, and more
Ultima Online producer Bonnie Armstrong has penned a new producer's letter designed to do two things. One is to disseminate some of the ideas in the pipeline for 2013, and the other is to quell any community uncertainty stemming from the recent EA layoff announcement. Some of the coming updates include a second house on Siege, more accessible veteran rewards, and vendor search functionality that should eliminate the need to use third-party script sites to find who's selling what. Read all about that stuff and more at the official UO website.
Warhammer Online: Wrath of Heroes goes down swinging today
Warhammer Online: Wrath of Heroes' final month is up and the game is scheduled to be closed at 5:00 p.m. EDT today. That doesn't mean the title will be going down without one heckuva fight! According to Wrath of Heroes' Facebook page, the developers are spending the last few hours in battle with the players. The team has also added a chance for killers to transform into vampire chickens or bloodthirsters. If you're just now finding out about the sunset and want more information, check out EA's FAQ on the closure. [Thanks to Adam for the tip!]
One Shots: Back in the day...
A few weeks ago I asked everyone to send me in screenshots of pre-2004 MMOs... and only Brad delivered. Seriously, people, you've been shown up by Brad. Brad gets the gold star. Brad gets the golden ticket and can come on a once-in-a-lifetime visit to see the fabled Massively word factory. Brad is my hero. Brad (if you didn't catch his name) sent us in this shot of Ultima Online: "So much fun with vendors! This is a shot of Angelica's on the Chesapeake Server -- a popular shopping spot in Felucca to grab gear on the go. It was one of the few player-owned vendor spots in a protected zone near Lord British's Castle. This would have been taken around 2002. Notice the detail of the fish tank made from stacked cloth and the flowers made with an onion and two cooked eggs!" Yes. Notice Brad's eggs, people. In them you can see the reflection of your failure. Aw, just kidding!
Mythic developers discuss the swan song of Wrath of Heroes
Warhammer Online: Wrath of Heroes is shutting down near the end of the month, but it turns out that the developers have a few last hurrahs for the game. A recent fansite interview sheds some light on the new heroes that are coming out during the game's final month of operation, with 17-18 heroes being fast-tracked for release. The game's main currency, Gold, will be able to purchase everything in the cash shop including Gold Boost items, intentionally creating plenty of money for players to enjoy the last bits of the game. What's not coming? Most anything else that was in development, including some heroes that the developers just didn't have enough time to finish. There were also Scenarios in development that aren't close enough to completed to be functional; while pushing out heroes quickly is a priority, a half-finished Scenario is fun for no one. Fans looking for fine details on exactly which traditional Warhammer factions will be represented in the last month can look at the full interview.
Warhammer Online: Wrath of Heroes is shutting down next month
Mythic's experiment in turning Warhammer Online into a microtransaction-flush MOBA has failed. The studio announced that Wrath of Heroes will be closing on March 29th. Wrath of Heroes went into open beta in late 2011 and never officially released. Producer James Casey wraps things up with a few bittersweet memories: "I think we created something special and I would not trade the time creating it or playing it (on all those Friday Fight Fests and anonymously almost every day) for anything." While players' gems will not be refunded, Mythic is planning to release "work in progress" heroes at a quick pace and discounted rate up to the game's shutdown. Additionally, players who purchased and had gems between the first of the year and today will be treated to a free month subscription and a chest of goodies in WAR. [Thanks to Etaew for the tip!]
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!
WAR weathers difficult weekend, compensates players
Warhammer Online certainly has seen better weekends than this past one. Because of a nasty bug that caused immense amounts of lag spikes and zone crashes, Mythic was forced to take WAR's servers down while the team worked to isolate and fix the problem. The good news is that the issue has been fixed via a new build and the studio is working on a "compensation package" for those affected. The goodie package includes 10 days of game time, a golden writ, a seven-day XP and RP booster, a special title, and 10 lesser bone wards. The team is still checking some details in regard to the compensation period but will be letting players know when and for whom this package will be available.
The Game Archaeologist: Origin stories of modern MMO studios
A good origin story always captivates me, especially when it gives me a new perspective on something I've come to appreciate over the years. I love looking back at actors' first few films or hearing about how, say, Atari and Microsoft got their start. With MMO studios, these origin stories abound and are equally fascinating to me. For example, who would've known that the makers of a couple of SNES titles would one day be running the largest MMO in the world? Or what if few gaming hobbyists in the '80s hadn't created MUDs and then gone on to revolutionize online PvP play? Today we're going to go back to the very beginning of several modern MMO studios to see when and how they came into being. Who knows... it might change how you see them forever.
Dark Age of Camelot launches an update and answers player questions
If you've been playing Dark Age of Camelot for a while, odds are good that you've acquired a lot of things. You've got a set of Epic Armor, you've got tons of items clogging your bank, and you've got a pair of fuzzy bunny slippers that you don't remember buying but you now refuse to remove. The game's latest patch does not improve your slipper situation, but it does improve Epic Armor, add new Epic Weapons and Accessories, allow for remote bank access, and increase the stack limits on many items. So everything else gets better. Does that satisfy you? No? You want to know more about the future of the game? Well, then, you can feast your eyes on a new set of community answers from the development team addressing the future update plans for the game as well as which areas will not be seeing much improvement (throwing weapons, for instance, are pretty much up the creek). So there's plenty for DAoC fans to enjoy. However, no one enjoys those bunny slippers. Seriously. Wear armor like everyone else. [Thanks to Etaew for the tip!]
Ultima Forever wants you to learn about yourself
Mythic Lead Designer Kate Flack has an interesting interview up on Gamasutra about her experiences with developing MUDs and how she's rejecting the industry standard when it comes to crafting Ultima Forever (legal disclaimer: This online multiplayer title is not an MMO, but hey, it's online Ultima so shh.). Flack says that because most MMOs are based on a DikuMUD standard, they all more or less play the same. She says that there's a freedom to starting from a different standard and developing from there: "It's a way of playing that doesn't necessarily have the same assumptions underlying them. It gives you a breadth of background and heritage that you can pull from. Just because it's always been done that way doesn't mean I have to do it the same way." Part of this design shift is in asking "sophisticated questions about ethics" to players, which is a vital part of the Ultima franchise. Flack says that Ultima Forever will be more nuanced and involve tough choices that will make a personal impact on gamers: "I want to make you stop, think, and go, 'Huh!' and then learn about yourself, because games can do that."
Some Assembly Required: Kick(start)ing the sandbox genre
Sandbox aficionados are known to reminisce about the "good old days." You know, that time long lost in the past when the greats of open-world play like Ultima Online and Star Wars Galaxies (pre-NGE of course) enjoyed their heyday. Many a lamentation has also been heard about how things have never been the same, or how nothing has filled that void. Of course, the sandbox never died. In 2012 we started the year off with a guide to games sporting sandbox features to scratch a variety of virtual world itches and we ended with a look at some promising upcoming titles for 2013. With plenty of choices abounding, why are sandbox fans still decrying the lack of a home? It could be because they want one home for everyone to settle in together, basically one game to rule them all. But how realistic is that? Even with the plethora of offerings now, many folks want to play their ideal sandbox, and everyone has their own idea of what the perfect one would be (and conversely, what would kill it). Perhaps the answer, then, is to forget about a single universal home that accommodates the masses and actually create a number of niche games where people find exactly what they are looking for. Wait, that's already happening? Enter Kickstarter.
The Perfect Ten: Memorable marketing campaigns
I took only a single marketing class in college, so by no means am I an instant expert in anything but being on the receiving end of marketers' nefarious experiments to manipulate me so that I buy their stuff. I did take away the lesson that all marketers are professional liars who have no shame or dignity. Pretty much the same as a blogger, so I guess I have a backup career. Believe it or not, MMOs get off easy when it comes to notorious marketing campaigns. Anything on the following list, good or bad, is a pale shadow of what we've seen in the larger video game industry. Still, there have been plenty of attempts to promote MMOs in ways that make us either applaud or laugh at the studio (and sometimes both at once, which takes coordination). After doing some staff polling and internal polling, here are 10 memorable marketing campaigns from the era of MMORPGs. Maybe they're all winners in that they got noticed by at least one person, even if they're the most foolish notions in history. Here we go!
Dark Age of Camelot runs bonus weekend
Mythic has a special treat for the Dark Age of Camelot players who patiently waited through some recent downtime: a generous bonus weekend starting... right now. The bonus weekend affects the different server rulesets in a variety of ways. All servers will generate 200% more XP and 200% more bounty points in specific areas. Realm points are also being handed out like candy, although you'll need to consult the master chart to figure out how your server benefits. The bonus weekend goes from today (Wednesday) through Monday, January 28th.
Reminiscing about Warhammer Online with Mark Jacobs
When it comes to the 2008 phenomenon of Warhammer Online and the story of its rise and fall, there's one obvious source for the full dish: Mark Jacobs. The former big kahuna of Mythic Entertainment is now CEO of City State Entertainment, and while Jacobs is no longer in the WAR business, he's still passionate about making games and talking about his past experiences. We sat down with Jacobs to look at WAR and what he thought went right and wrong with the title. Even today, many gamers are passionately divided on the game's build-up to release and design decisions. Some lay the blame at Jacobs' doorstep, while others admire the passion and vision of this MMO creator. So what does Jacobs have to say when put to the question about WAR's outcome? Find out in this exclusive interview!
