Loric Games Tabs Industry Vet Jeff Hickman As CPO, Raises $4M In Latest Funding Round | MMORPG.com

System · January 30

Loric Games Tabs Industry Vet Jeff Hickman As CPO, Raises $4M In Latest Funding Round | MMORPG.com

Loric Games, the studio founded by former Mythic Entertainment and BioWare devs have announced that it just closed a funding round, as well as the appointment of industry and MMO vet Jeff Hickman as the company's new CPO.

Read the full story here

ShankTheTank · January 30

I was the first to arrive.

Angrakhan · January 30

I wish them the best of luck, just not so sure we need yet another sandbox survival game.

Sovrath · January 30

Angrakhan said:

I wish them the best of luck, just not so sure we need yet another sandbox survival game.

Couldn't that be said about most any popular game genre?

Samhael · January 31

Angrakhan said:

I wish them the best of luck, just not so sure we need yet another sandbox survival game.

It's 2023/2024's version of the battle royale. Have more, whether you want it or not!

Angrakhan · January 31

Sovrath said:

Angrakhan said:

I wish them the best of luck, just not so sure we need yet another sandbox survival game.

Couldn't that be said about most any popular game genre?

No. Sandbox survival seems to be the current soup du jour for whatever reason. It used to be everyone was doing MOBAs. Then it was PUBG clones. Now it's the sandbox survival game. For some reason gaming latches on to trends and a bunch of developers hop on the "me too" bandwagon to try and cash in on the current in vogue gaming genre. Sandbox survival just seems to be what's currently in. I predict the "extraction shooter" genre is next up to bat.

ValdemarJ · January 31

Crafting builders with survival elements are popular with people I know because they're the closest thing to a shared living world players can get right now. When something else comes along and lets players inhabit a world and adventure together, then it will also take off like wildfire.

Most of these games let players host private servers and adjust game settings to suit their preferences.

No MMOs let people do any of that. MMO worlds are largely static with a world that can be changed in only the most superficial ways, if at all. They offer little to no creative outlet or real community building.

Maybe a big part of the popularity trend are people who are disappointed with MMOs and just wanted persistent multiplayer RPG worlds.

This game is way too far out to know one way or another what it will end up like. They're still collecting funding for their concept. Two or three years down the road and it could look like something totally different.

Scot · January 31

ValdemarJ said:

Crafting builders with survival elements are popular with people I know because they're the closest thing to a shared living world players can get right now. When something else comes along and lets players inhabit a world and adventure together, then it will also take off like wildfire.

Most of these games let players host private servers and adjust game settings to suit their preferences.

No MMOs let people do any of that. MMO worlds are largely static with a world that can be changed in only the most superficial ways, if at all. They offer little to no creative outlet or real community building.

Maybe a big part of the popularity trend are people who are disappointed with MMOs and just wanted persistent multiplayer RPG worlds.

This game is way too far out to know one way or another what it will end up like. They're still collecting funding for their concept. Two or three years down the road and it could look like something totally different.

I agree with you that most themeparks do not have the shared living world feeling that they used to. But some still do and new ones can as well, for all its issues the relatively new NW seemed to pass that benchmark to me. Sandbox does create more of a community feeling, but back to my old beef, not sure how survival elements help build a shared world?

It does seem to me that developers have slapped survival on sandbox and are making out they have reinvented the wheel, or at least some gaming media are taking it that way. Regardless of that, I applaud sandbox making a comeback in such a big way. My wish and it is naught but wishful thinking, is that a themepark "meat" and sandbox "bread" sandwich of a MMO will get made. A thempark core surrounded by the sandbox badlands, creating the best of both worlds.

ChildoftheShadows · January 31

Scot said:

ValdemarJ said:

Crafting builders with survival elements are popular with people I know because they're the closest thing to a shared living world players can get right now. When something else comes along and lets players inhabit a world and adventure together, then it will also take off like wildfire.

Most of these games let players host private servers and adjust game settings to suit their preferences.

No MMOs let people do any of that. MMO worlds are largely static with a world that can be changed in only the most superficial ways, if at all. They offer little to no creative outlet or real community building.

Maybe a big part of the popularity trend are people who are disappointed with MMOs and just wanted persistent multiplayer RPG worlds.

This game is way too far out to know one way or another what it will end up like. They're still collecting funding for their concept. Two or three years down the road and it could look like something totally different.

I agree with you that most themeparks do not have the shared living world feeling that they used to. But some still do and new ones can as well, for all its issues the relatively new NW seemed to pass that benchmark to me. Sandbox does create more of a community feeling, but back to my old beef, not sure how survival elements help build a shared world?

It does seem to me that developers have slapped survival on sandbox and are making out they have reinvented the wheel, or at least some gaming media are taking it that way. Regardless of that, I applaud sandbox making a comeback in such a big way. My wish and it is naught but wishful thinking, is that a themepark "meat" and sandbox "bread" sandwich of a MMO will get made. A thempark core surrounded by the sandbox badlands, creating the best of both worlds.

Archeage was as close to a theme park sandbox that I’ve played. It was almost perfect until greed took over

Sovrath · January 31

Angrakhan said:

No. Sandbox survival seems to be the current soup du jour for whatever reason. It used to be everyone was doing MOBAs. Then it was PUBG clones. Now it's the sandbox survival game. For some reason gaming latches on to trends and a bunch of developers hop on the "me too" bandwagon to try and cash in on the current in vogue gaming genre. Sandbox survival just seems to be what's currently in. I predict the "extraction shooter" genre is next up to bat.

Well I remember when first person shooters were all the rage, or when theme park MMORPG’s were coming hot and fast.

So yeah if something becomes popular then then some developers will want in. How about games like Myst? I remember different games trying to follow the whole adventure/puzzle trend.

I think most every genre cycles through the "game of the moment" syndrome.

Scot · February 1

ChildoftheShadows said:
Archeage was as close to a theme park sandbox that I’ve played. It was almost perfect until greed took over

I only played Archeage briefly, the guild was in three other MMOs I think and it did not catch on well enough with the few of us who had a look. In hindsight I don't think we gave it the time it deserved to get a true feel for the game.

Kyleran · February 1

Scot said:

ChildoftheShadows said:
Archeage was as close to a theme park sandbox that I’ve played. It was almost perfect until greed took over

I only played Archeage briefly, the guild was in three other MMOs I think and it did not catch on well enough with the few of us who had a look. In hindsight I don't think we gave it the time it deserved to get a true feel for the game.

Same, I started out in the Western Alpha as a member of a larger , well organized gaming guild with big plans and such fun we had in those early months .

Then came the official launch and what crapshow it all became.

I was unable to log in due to long queues for over two weeks.

Reports from guild members who did were terrible, the land rush was chaotic, bots and cheating were rampant, no way for the guild to get together and build the cities we had planned.

I never did log in, tried once 6 months later only to find out my alpha package pledge rewards such as 3 months of sub time and other gifts had expired and were lost since I didn't claim them within the initial window since launch.

I never tried again.

Scot · February 1

Kyleran said:

Scot said:

ChildoftheShadows said:
Archeage was as close to a theme park sandbox that I’ve played. It was almost perfect until greed took over

I only played Archeage briefly, the guild was in three other MMOs I think and it did not catch on well enough with the few of us who had a look. In hindsight I don't think we gave it the time it deserved to get a true feel for the game.

Same, I started out in the Western Alpha as a member of a larger , well organized gaming guild with big plans and such fun we had in those early months .

Then came the official launch and what crapshow it all became.

I was unable to log in due to long queues for over two weeks.

Reports from guild members who did were terrible, the land rush was chaotic, bots and cheating were rampant, no way for the guild to get together and build the cities we had planned.

I never did log in, tried once 6 months later only to find out my alpha package pledge rewards such as 3 months of sub time and other gifts had expired and were lost since I didn't claim them within the initial window since launch.

I never tried again.

The poor launch meant no other guildies joined us and we could hardly report back that the issues were a flash in the pan. We should have gone back a year later but this was when great MMORPGs were coming out every couple of years, so we were complacent really.

ultimateduck · February 1

All of these old Mythic and Dark Age of Camelot people being showcased as if that means something. If they aren't going to make a Dark Age of Camelot 2, then their involvement means nothing to me.

cameltosis · February 1

The only time I ever received a (temp) ban from a game was for insulting Jeff Hickman on the official SWTOR forums.

Jeff was absolutely useless when he was working for EAMythic on WAR, but luckily back then he had basically no power. He just spent a fair amount of time lying to the community and then insulting the community when he got called out.

However, when he was working on SWTOR he actually had some power. Every time his name came up as being attached to a feature, you knew that feature was gonna be rubbish. And again, in SWTOR he spent a lot of time lying to the community about all the improvements and fixes that were coming to the game, then insulting the community when we called him out of his failure to deliver.

This is not good news for Loric Games.

Scot · February 3

ultimateduck said:

All of these old Mythic and Dark Age of Camelot people being showcased as if that means something. If they aren't going to make a Dark Age of Camelot 2, then their involvement means nothing to me.

I don't think we can just ask them to pull DAOC 2 out of a bag, but yes I wish they would start! Meanwhile what they are doing elsewhere is of limited interest until we see a great new game, then they get the praise.

ultimateduck · February 6

Scot said:

ultimateduck said:

All of these old Mythic and Dark Age of Camelot people being showcased as if that means something. If they aren't going to make a Dark Age of Camelot 2, then their involvement means nothing to me.

I don't think we can just ask them to pull DAOC 2 out of a bag, but yes I wish they would start! Meanwhile what they are doing elsewhere is of limited interest until we see a great new game, then they get the praise.

That's kind of the point. If it isn't DAoC2 or a modern game like DAoC, then their involvement is irrelevant to me.

Arglebargle · February 6

The genre bandwagon jumping suffers from the considerable lag in developing games. By the time you've gone through your five to eight years of development, the genre is overcrowded, and the new sparkly garners all the attention.

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Loric Games Tabs Industry Vet Jeff Hickman As CPO, Raises $4M In Latest Funding Round | MMORPG.com

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Loric Games Tabs Industry Vet Jeff Hickman As CPO, Raises $4M In Latest Funding Round | MMORPG.com

Comments

Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV