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[Column] General: RIP Mythic
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
It's not my fault. Mythic's closing, which was revealed last week, did not come about due to any curse associated with me. Admittedly, I've written quite a bit about the studio and its projects. I can say the same thing about Origin, NetDevil, Artifact Entertainment, Nival, Cryptic, Destination Games and more. That all of these are now either gone completely or substantially changed from what they were is, I assure you, purely coincidental.
Read more of Richard Aihoshi's The Free Zone: RIP Mythic.
Comments
I wish they would just keep one server going and make it f2p. Put in a cash shop if needed, cut staff down to as low as possible, 1-2 gm's for the server and leave it.
Hell I would start playing the game again that's for sure. I may end up resubbing again before it goes away cause I just love the game but it is dated.
Passing of a titan that's for sure.
This ^
Played-Everything
Playing-LoL
Mythic was dead before the ink was dry on the buy out by EA.
Seriously...its not like EA doesnt have a long storied history of buy Dev houses and eviserating them and throwing the carcass on a dung heap.
And I dont usually do this....but Richard....proof read your article...several odd wordings and missed typos. It's latter not later as an example.
I've observed that some studios, like the games that they create, are more or less products of their time and, thus, are restricted in their ability to recreate the magic of an early game. Case-in-point, Bioware. Their early games not only shined but also had a distinct feel that seemed to be lost around the time of the Dragon Age and Mass Effect sequels.
Mythic (even with all its original talent on board) couldn't make "another DAoC". Any attempt would lack some of that original DNA. I believe even Mark Jacobs' Camelot Unchained will suffer to some degree when the game releases and the most ardent of DAoC fans get their hands on it. Indie MMOGs can at best hope for a niche of a niche for as long as gamers today expect top-shelf visuals, monumental amounts of content, and all the modern bells and whistles.
I'd love to jump on the EA hate train as well, but Mythic was long dead before EA came along. If anything, EA bought them some time. Sorry, just no innovation, really.
Crazkanuk
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Azarelos - 90 Hunter - Emerald
Durnzig - 90 Paladin - Emerald
Demonicron - 90 Death Knight - Emerald Dream - US
Tankinpain - 90 Monk - Azjol-Nerub - US
Brindell - 90 Warrior - Emerald Dream - US
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DAoC arrived when the audience for MMOs was a much smaller, more patient, and dare I say... "more nerdy" group of on-line fans who enjoyed a community feel to their game.
It was a "right game for the right audience" at its height, which included Foundations housing and the original Frontiers RvR. Each faction had a delicious feel to it, and leveling was more of a "mob hunt" (which wasn't such a bad thing) rather than quest chasing and achievement gathering.
Today's developers have a much different, much larger audience out there, and I doubt that the old pre-WoW flavor of game will be seen again.
Thanks for the memories, Mythic!
"I'm a nerd, and I'm pretty proud of it." - Gilbert, Revenge of the Nerds[1984]
I know that's when I unsubbed and moved on
"So, will we ever see another Mythic / DAoC? I wish I could list off a bunch or even a couple of likely candidates, or even just tell you that I'm confident we will. Unfortunately, I'm enough of a pragmatist that if forced to wager for or against this happening, I'd put my money on the later. How about you?"
I can think of one:
City State Entertainment, LLC
aka
Camelot Unchained
Grumpy
anyway this office was already dead for me, just this decision ended for all this brand .
Maybe it's possible, but what did you call a "indie". For example we are two developers to create our MMO, we are indie. And yes it's possible for a small team to create MMO.
We believe that the biggest problem for independent is to have coverage by the media. All sites are flooded with news MMOs for "big" and we feel there is no independent MMO.
An independent MMO, unlike blockbusters needs a lot fewer players to be profitable and therefore continue to exist.
It's a shame that the press does not help independent MMO to exist when they are not already known. On the one hand the players often complain that MMOs fail to renew, has to be original, but at the same time, indie (who often looking to make new things) are ignored. It really a missing link!
Making an MMO is much more complicated than a classic game. I think it is important not to make crowdfounding too soon. Game design and ideas on paper are still very far from the final result because there are too many parameter when players are added
I think indie devs must agree to a large part of their MMO without money, and when they really concrete, perhaps Alpha. Then this is a good time to do a crowdfunding.
Then, as MMOs are very dependent on their community, and it is important to involve the players as soon as possible, it really is a good system even without talking about money.
Of course, I play the game I'm developing: Gangs of Space.
Why? This is the only MMO Shmup that exists to my knowledge. Then I like space, top view, and of course all features of the game that really match what I expect from an MMO.
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Ho and if i replay you post, that's because UO is for me the best MMO of the world, and DAoC was not bad too. That's sad for Mythic.
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Grouroux, Game Designer
Gangs of Space > Indie MMO Shmup Roguelike > Join Alpha : BEE7E-3B768-7626A-2A740
Camelot Unchained needs to get some PvE going for it if it is to get even remotely close to the success of DAoC IMO.
Get some PvE in the game and it could be set for a big success. Unlike what many people think there was so much more to DAoC than just the RvR.
Personally, I played DAoC for years. I was in a PvE guild, and played 80% PvE and 20% RvR. The fact that the PvE server (Gaheris) is still alive in DAoC speaks volumes about the quality of DAoC PvE I think. For comparison the PvP server was closed down years ago.
A Indie studio that I love is Grinding Gear Games (GGG). Although their first game Path of Exile is an oldschool ARPG it is still listed as a MMO here on mmorpg. The game is FTP, but not P2W and I can highly recommend it to anybody who haven't tried it. Named GOTY 2013 by several gaming sites, including Gamespot. Path of Exile is by many fans, including my self, regarded as a much better ARPG than Diablo 3, quite an achievement for an indie developer I'd say.
I would love to see GGG develop a MMORPG in the future, but that wont happen any time soon as they are currently only working on maintaining and expanding on Path of Exile.
It is simple time. The most graphically impressive, technically impressive and expansive a game needs to be, the more time is required to make it happen. Whether you have more people in a short time or less people over a long time, the cost is the same or very similar.
Look at Watch Dogs, the biggest new IP release ever, 4 million copies sold in a week. Probably around $60 million in net revenue... that, given the nature of the game, the number of platforms, the marketing and "next gen" visuals... it is entirely possible it hasn't actually turned a profit yet. I'm sure it is almost there, but Ubisoft don't do things cheap.
Mergers & Acquisitions...
http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1014633/Classic-Game-Postmortem
I forget that some people like PVE
I suppose success could be seen as peak subscribers? (DAoC == 250K, EVE == 500K) I personally believe a RvR only game (Camelot Unchained) can achieve those type of subscriber numbers. No it will never hit WoW peak subscribers.
Then you never worked on a game before and have no clue what is needed... it costs a lot because of software alone for each person for say Maya is $ 3500 that's one person... Add that for each person, then Photoshop about 1200 ... each person, then a game engine.... I could go on for days. Then over head for the office , and oh you need to pay people.... The list goes on and on and on... SO again, why does it cost so much??
I worked on many games, and have my BA in Game Production, I have seen why it cost a ton. and people whine about 60 bucks for a cheap hobby... So give me a break with the whole it should not cost a lot... iT a real job to program a game and not easy by any means, very stressful job at that with all the whiners today.
EA destroys everything it touches, it buys you out, milks you dry and tosses you away.
This is like eleventh once awesome dev house that it has destroyed...it doesnt just destroy the dev house, it ruins their reputation first.
Westwood = awesome before EA, awful after EA
Origin = Awesome before EA, awful after EA
Bullfrog = Awesome before EA, awful after EA
Bioware = Awesome before EA, awful after EA
...the list goes on and on...
http://kompaniet.mine.nu :+: #kompaniet @ QuakeNet
I agree with this but then again EA pushing them into releasing WAR when it wasn't finished did them no favours and was probably responsible for WAR's poor retention. Over 1 million Beta sigs should have made for a decent audience, if only they'd been allowed to finish the damned thing.
EA strikes again.
Steam: Neph
Its a sad day for me to hear this news.
I have been in and around the mmo gaming industry for about a decade and a half now and my article on mythic studios was my first published content online and for gaming news. My first big interview was with mythic, and they were some good people there.
I wish them all luck as we can imagine they will land on their feet. and best wishes to them in their personal and professional lives.
Hasani
You're a game developer? Then why don't you tell us all what you worked on.
Overhead for an office? Anyone can find adequate space for less than $1,000 per month.
Photoshop $1200 each? No. It costs $10 per month. This is something that each developer should have on their own.
Game engine costs? It depends on the engine. Unreal Engine is very cheap. There are plenty of great engines that are affordable.
Maya costing 3500? I'm not sure about that one. Regardless, how can Maya costs even hold a candle to the typical $50,000,000 to $200,000,000 campaign.
It generally boils down to dumb $ decision. A $600 hammer.