f13.net

As you can imagine, it's been a rather interesting few weeks at Mythic. I promise to post a much longer letter here but the rest of the day is filled with interviews and questions and then I fly out for a few days with the folks at EA. I'll try to find time to post here during that time but if I can't, I will do so upon my return.

As always, there is nothing wrong with being skeptical, worried or cynical (traits that are near and dear to my heart) but we will prove over the next 15 months why we deserved your trust and faith from the beginning.

WAR is still coming and nothing will change, except for the better and nothing will stop that.

I'll leave you will one final bit, we didn't need to do this deal, we chose to do this deal because of what it meant to Mythic today and to our company going forward. It was a grand slam home run.

...

Hey, I'm between interviews so I want to make a few other things clear:

1) There are no changes in Mythic's personnel as part of this deal, none. I'm still heading up EA Mythic but with a different title, that's all. Many companies have tried to buy Mythic over the last 2 years and all of them started the discussions with "If the founders aren't going to stay, we are not interested." Frankly, you couldn't get me out of Mythic with a crowbar.

2) GW has fully blessed this agreement. They are excited about the possibilities for Warhammer going forward.

3) EA, like every other publisher in the industry, has had its ups and downs with developer acquisitions. As a long-standing developer, I know most of the key people at all the companies that have been acquired by EA as well as other companies. The key for Mythic going forward is no different with EA than it was as an independent, if we do a great job everything will be great. If we don't, well, we will have no one to blame but ourselves. That is no different than it is for us as part of EA or on our own.

I'll leave you will one final bit, we didn't need to do this deal, we chose to do this deal because of what it meant to Mythic today and to our company going forward. It was a grand slam home run.

I'll leave you will one final bit, we didn't need to do this deal, we chose to do this deal because of what it meant to Mythic today and to our company going forward. It was a grand slam home run.

Does Sanya still work for them?

What do we get out of it? The deal only got signed two hours ago! I haven't seen the pie charts! But off the top of my head, they have marketing budgets that we do not. Nearly our entire budget is focused on development. I'll bet there's a lot more that will be announced in the coming months, but you're talking to the web weenie - I have zilch for authority here.

Games Workshop has final say over everything still. That has not changed.

Can any Brits come in here and vouch for me that the English do not give a warm cup of hell about American companies and how great said companies might think they are? I suspect GW is utterly unimpressed with EA's money or clout, and they are entirely focused on us taking good care of THEIR license.

EA won't be hanging in forums. That's the job of my team  :-)

Thank you EA, I was on the verge of becoming a fanboi for a mmorpg in development.  Your acquitition has effectively killed off that tempting feeling.  Kudos to you, happy to be jaded again  :evil:

EA, like every other publisher in the industry, has had its ups and downs with developer acquisitions.

Speechless.

Wasn't UO originally designed to last 3, 4 years tops?  Just curious.

Someone remind me of the ups. 

Zet, you need to change your avatard to Vin Diesel. 

Someone remind me of the ups. 

I think the most important thing that could happen is... wait - does anybody care?

Other notable stupid relationships include:
Mutable Realms and whoever funded them
Themis and IGE
David Bowman and David Allen
Grimwell and Gamergod (what can I say, it was a bad idea)
Those Gizmondo Guys and Everybody
Starforce & UbiSoft

I'm sure I can think of more, but really, at the end of the day does anybody care?

Once someone joins EA, they're dead in my book. It's a shame, I liked a lot of the people at Mythic and I know this came down to the choice of a couple individuals. But Mythic is now dead to me. I wouldn't let the people in f13.house buy Battlefield 2 or any other EA game and this now applies to Mythic. It's just how it has to be. I can't make the point otherwise. Vote with your wallet, whathaveyou. Yea, it's sad, but they've no one to blame but themselves. EA is on the same level as the Starforce people in my book.

I believe it was six months.

But Ultima has a forum?

Blame yourself, gringo.

This was a serious question.  As a business decision it was only designed to last x amount of time.

Someone remind me of the ups. 

Yes, but you're mentioning specific games, and the question was about the EA-> Dev relationship.  Where are the dev houses that produced those games?  Sucked dry of talent until they were dissolved, maybe?  What Dev house has flourished (and therefore been an "UP" in the story) under the EA banner.

Isn't Maxis owned by EA? I think they're doing fairly well :)

SAN FRANCISCO (Dow Jones) -- In an effort to bolster its presence in the online multiplayer video game business, Electronics Arts Inc. said after Tuesday's closing bell said it has agreed to acquire Fairfax, Va.-based Mythic Entertainment for an undisclosed sum.

EA, which is the market-share leader among independent video game publishers for games on consoles, handheld and wireless devices, will form EA Mythic, a studio dedicated to developing massively multiplayer online role-playing games ( MMORPGs).

Mythic is the developer of "Dark Age of Camelot" and is currently developing an online version of "Warhammer," under license agreement with Games Workshop.

"The acquisition of Mythic definitely expands its exposure to the MMORPG market because of the 2007 launch of Warhammer Online, which may be the most anticipated MMORPG coming to market," said Evan Wilson of Pacific Crest Securities. "There is little opportunity left of Mythic's current title Dark Ages of Camelot, which has seen its popularity decline since late 2004."

Michael Pachter, analyst with Wedbush Morgan, agrees the "Dark Ages of Camelot" is a fading franchise, yet says that the move gives EA's development team much-needed expertise in creating online games for the PC. With EA acquiring a development team of 175 people, Pachter estimates that the acquisition cost to be as high as $80 million.

In its 2006 fourth quarter completed in March, revenue from EA's Internet services division was 6% of total revenue, down from 5% a year ago. The Redwood City-based company has seen growth at its marquee online franchises like "Ultima Online" fade as gamers have taken to MMORPGs like Blizzard Entertainment's " World of Warcraft," the most successful online role-playing game to date.

"The real thing is that it's not to revitalize old franchises, but to position its expansion into Asia," said Pachter. While publishers have been slow to push console games in Asia due to piracy concerns, online role-playing games have given rise to top developers like NetEase.com Inc. (NTES) , Shanda Interactive Entertainment Ltd. (SNDA) and Webzen Inc. (WZEN) . The analyst, who rates EA " strong buy," says EA could still make an overseas acquisition to even further bolster its global MMORPG presence. The Mythic acquisition, says Pachter, is a " baby step" that also translates well into tackling the European markets.

EA said Mark Jacobs, president, chief executive and co-founder of Mythic will become vice president, general manager of EA Mythic. Rob Denton, vice president, chief operating officer, and co-founder of Mythic will assume the role of vice president, chief operating officer of EA Mythic. The transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of fiscal 2007.

The acquisition comes over a month after reporting quarterly results that spoke to ongoing challenges in the video game industry. Its forecast for the current year helped send its shares to a series of 52-week lows.

EA's last acquisition came in October, when it paid around $680 million to buy leading wireless games publisher Jamdat Mobile.

EA (ERTS) shares were unaffected after closing the day up 0.5% at $41.41 in afternoon trade.

Yes, but you're mentioning specific games, and the question was about the EA-> Dev relationship.  Where are the dev houses that produced those games?  Sucked dry of talent until they were dissolved, maybe?  What Dev house has flourished (and therefore been an "UP" in the story) under the EA banner.

In its 2006 fourth quarter completed in March, revenue from EA's Internet services division was 6% of total revenue, down from 5% a year ago. The Redwood City-based company has seen growth at its marquee online franchises like "Ultima Online" fade as gamers have taken to MMORPGs like Blizzard Entertainment's " World of Warcraft," the most successful online role-playing game to date.

But I agree with you :) I was kidding about the fact that they used to be a great software house 20 years ago. I agree that they are more like a calamity now.

Warhammer can't challenge WoW. WoW ALREADY IS a better Warhammer Online.

WAR as it currently designed is not a WoW challenger because its not follow Diku grind exp/items model.  That and it's pvp focus is why I *was* interested in it. But that's all out the window now.

Seriously.

No.

It will be about as successful as a "WoW-killer" as all the "EQ-killers" were at taking on EQ.

It will be about as successful as a "WoW-killer" as all the "EQ-killers" were at taking on EQ.

Repeat after me:

I will not fall for pre-alpha MMO-hype that promises me none of the same old tired features and instead ALL NEW XTREME RADICAL GAMEPLAY!@!!

I was giving a serious answer.  I am pretty sure UO was guesstimated to have a life span of around six months by its creators.

Mark Jacobs is a lollercoaster. Sig material right there.

How far will men in tights get you? For Mark Jacobs (shown, right) and the team at Mythic Entertainment--developers of the stalwart MMORPG Dark Age of Camelot, as well as the upcoming Warhammer Online--it means cashing out to the tune of millions.

Yesterday, the 9-year-old Mythic was acquired by opportunistic Electronic Arts. As was the case with EA's acquisition of mobile game publisher Jamdat, the purchase of Mythic gives it instant credibility in the online space, an area where it has sputtered and underwhelmed (apart from the breakthrough Ultima Online).

With a recent track record that includes the underperforming Sims Online, the canceled Earth and Beyond, and the forgotten Motor City Online, a theory of acquisition rather than organic growth makes it look as if the die to acquire was cast some years ago.

GameSpot spoke with Jacobs, and biz dev exec Owen Mahoney from EA shortly after the news was announced.

GS: Does Electronic Arts pick up Mythic's entire back catalog, including Dark Age of Camelot?

MJ: Absolutely. As part of the deal, obviously, EA looks at Camelot and goes 'this is a historically important franchise, one that is still a very popular one' and they are excited about the prospect of seeing what can be done with it going forward.

GS: Have you given up on being an independent game developer?

MJ: My dreams never revolved round being independent...my dreams revolved around making great games. It was always about making great games. At the beginning, nobody wanted us, nobody wanted Camelot. But our dream [at Mythic] has been, and remains, to simply make great games.

GS: And this deal...

MJ: ...is an opportunity to fulfill my dreams in a way that, frankly, wasn't possible as an independent.

GS: From the perspective of managing risk in a sector that takes a lot of money to compete, how was Mythic approaching the future as an indie shop?

MJ: What would make it difficult for Mythic, or any independent [developer] going forward is the competition. You have companies like Vivendi, which have made a lot of money with WOW and are committed to going big in the online space. And you have Sony, which is also one of the pioneers in online games, and still a big believer in the online space. And you have other companies looking at this market hard, and rather greedily, and seeing that they want a piece of it. So as an independent, my path to compete with those guys was going to get harder, not easier. Not only over the next two years, but over the next five years.

So we were faced with a choice. We could stay independent, and that had some risk. Or we could go with EA, and that also had some risk. What made the choice simple at the end was that EA said we were going to have the opportunity to not only make Warhammer the best game we could make it, but going forward, other games as well. That was pretty tough for us to turn down.

GS: What current EA brands would you personally love to see made into an MMO?

MJ: Certainly EA has a lot of interesting IP out there. [But] the last thing I want to do is give any of the competition information as to what we are looking at. But the key for us is looking at what EA [owns], looking at what else we'd be interested in, and whether it's owned by EA currently or is out and available.

What's going to make the best MMO?

EA has said that they are driven to make great games. And to create as well [as leverage] their own IP. What's going to happen over the next weeks, and next few months, and over the next few years is that Mythic and EA are going to sit down and start, and then continue, a dialogue about what are going to be the strongest products that Mythic as well as EA can do in this space.

We're certainly going to be pushing hard for Mythic to be the guys to do it.

GS: How do you compete with World of Warcraft?

Owen Mahoney, EA SVP of corporate development: It's not 'how do you compete with WOW?' It's 'do you believe in the MMO market or not?'

GS: And?

OM: We really believe in the MMO market as a rapidly growing segment and instrumental to our worldwide growth in North America, Asia, and Europe. We feel very strongly about the segment.

GS: Were there other developers you considered acquiring?

OM: Candidly, we looked around the industry and talked to a lot of people and came to the conclusion that the executives at Mythic, and the team they put together, are among the very best in the industry. So it came to a pretty clear conclusion in our heads that this was the right deal to do.

GS: How many studios did you consider?

OM: Several. I can't help you out much more on that. As EA, we get approached by a lot of people and we talk to a lot of people.

GS: Are there lessons still discussed from the previous MMO products from EA, specifically, The Sims Online, Motor City Online, and Earth & Beyond?

OM: The number one lesson is the number one lesson out of the games business in general, and that's: Gameplay is the most important thing that we do. And you need to focus on that first and last.

GS: Will Warhammer be one of the first MMO titles to test the waters of the online console space?

MJ: I can say this much: As you know, we showed a console version of Warhammer at E3, running the entire time while the PC version was running. We look forward to talking to the other guys at EA of course, with Microsoft and Sony, and any console maker, about doing a console-based version of Warhammer. We have those rights...they were acquired by Mythic and were acquired by EA. It's safe to say we are going to be looking at all possibilities for the Warhammer franchise. Whether we are going to be the first...first doesn't matter, best does.

GS: Thanks Mark and Owen.

Yes, but you're mentioning specific games, and the question was about the EA-> Dev relationship.  Where are the dev houses that produced those games?  Sucked dry of talent until they were dissolved, maybe?  What Dev house has flourished (and therefore been an "UP" in the story) under the EA banner.

we probably don't care, but isn't the point to ask "What is EA planning to do in the MMO space?"  They didn't do it just to rehab DAoC or foster WHO.  I bet.

Repeat after me:

I will not fall for pre-alpha MMO-hype that promises me none of the same old tired features and instead ALL NEW XTREME RADICAL GAMEPLAY!@!!

We really believe in the MMO market as a rapidly growing segment and instrumental to our worldwide growth in North America, Asia, and Europe. We feel very strongly about the segment.

Great avatar Sairon.  What is that?

EA & GW in the same bed, it is a toss up as to who will end up sore in the morning.

Like I said, Tiburon (the studio that does the EA Sports line) is left to do their own thing.

GS: How do you compete with World of Warcraft?

Owen Mahoney, EA SVP of corporate development: It's not 'how do you compete with WOW?' It's 'do you believe in the MMO market or not?'

As long as that thing includes making the newest Madden game on time, under budget and without really changing it much from last year's version.

Great avatar Sairon.  What is that?

Apparently Mythic themselves didn't believe that they would be competitive with WAR. What a fucking disgrace to sell out to EA of all companies. I bet they got loads of $$$ but trying to hide with "we just want to make the best games possible" is just low, allthough expected.

yeah, all our games will suck now

Insert Quote
If Mythic really thinks that they are going to stay 100% the same as they are now (with this recent EA thing) they are stupider (or is it more stupid?) than what I thought.  Part of buying into or buying companies like that is to assimilate them into their "collective" if you will.  Sounds like some kind of Borg thing, but that's how it is.

This is the most ridiculous post in the entire thread. If EA offered me and my family financial security for life in the form a big ol' hat-o-money(tm) in return for handing over a business with no tangible or saleable assets, I'd bite their hand off. So would anyone else who is smart enough to be capable of building a business that EA might want to buy.

And what the fuck else do you expect them to say?


 :roll:

Well that's how it's sold to the shareholders, but in truth most mergers are really just corporate penis extensions in teh short to medium term. Benefits through assimilation are rarely secured for several years after an acquistion if ever. In EA's case they usally let the existing company run through a few development cycles before gutting the company, sacking everyone, and moving a few brand managers back to head office.

I imagine very little will change at Mythic at least for a couple of years.

BTW, I never said I would never sell. I said I wouldn't sell unless we got what we needed to protect the Mythic employees, WAR and GW. Well, we did.  :-)

I'll also say something else, we turned down deals that were worth more money than the EA deal but EA's commitment to Mythic and WAR made the EA deal the best one for Mythic to take. And I also want to give credit to our investors (Abandon Entertainment and TA) who supported our reasoning 100%. Many kudos to them for their support.
.................

I wanted to check with EA before I posted this note and I just did that so here's the first bit of news to come out regarding WAR. As part of the deal, EA is going to put significantly more development resources into WAR than Mythic was going to be able to do. Obviously, I'm not able to say what that is in terms of dollars (this is a party line and the neighbors have itchy trigger fingers - one of my favorite movie lines) but it is significant. Development timeline remains the same though as does the game design, no worries there for those prone to worrying.  :-)

SHANGHAI (MarketWatch) -- Investors will look for the next piece of EA's China strategy to fall into place following the company's acquisition of Mythic Entertainment, and Google will hunt for deals after dumping its Baidu stake, this week in China.
Electronic Arts and other major videogame companies have struggled this spring, as delays of next-generation game consoles have raised uncertainty. But last week's Mythic acquisition (while not a huge deal financially, in the $70-80 million range) adds a component that will play a key role in EA's future business, especially in China.

This deal is an obvious precursor to EA's initial foray into China's massively multiplayer online (MMO) games sector, which has been dominated for several years by local operators The9 Ltd. NetEase.com Inc and Shanda Interactive Entertainment Ltd

EA has largely sat on the sidelines as the MMO sector of the global games industry has transformed itself from a niche play to a significant force -- mainly on the strength of China's millions of Internet café residents.

It appears that EA has now put itself in position to turn around its China business, which has historically been a sore spot due to piracy concerns, the absence of a console-game tradition (high-end game machines are generally out of Chinese gamers' price range) and the difficulty of securing approval to market game titles from China's daunting plethora of regulatory bodies.

EA has been working hard to secure a foothold in China's online game industry, engaging several players in negotiations or partnership conversations. This process is reportedly ongoing, but with Mythic EA gets the upcoming Dark Age of Camelot and Warhammer Online titles, which will provide valuable operating experience. Bringing the "pogo" casual game platform to China will balance EA's hard-core online game offerings and target the relatively untapped female gamer segment. And the $680 million October 2005 acquisition of Jamdat will eventually port many of these EA elements to China's most common communications platform.

What is the ultimate potential of MMOs, in China and elsewhere? Answer: it depends. On many factors. But by the time the Mythic deal closes in the second quarter of 2007, EA should be in a better position to give investors visibility into its console games business, and also provide insight into an online game strategy for China. Until then, hold on tight.

That article is full of nonsense. Buying Mythic to open up the Chinese MMO market? That's like buying a french chef to open up the US hamburger market.

Electronic Arts, the world's biggest computer games firm, is setting up a development studio in China.

The firm said it hopes to have 500 staff at the Chinese arm, which should help it capitalise on the massive demand in Asia for online gaming.

We believe that in order to increase our online sales in Asia, we will need to devote significant resources to hire local development talent and expand our infrastructure, most notably, the expansion and creation of studio facilities to develop content locally. In addition, we are establishing online game marketing, publishing and distribution functions in China. As part of this strategy, we may seek to partner with established local companies through acquisitions, joint ventures or other similar arrangements.

EA Asia is the fastest growing region within Electronic Arts, the regional HQ is based in Hong Kong and studio operations are located in Japan and China.

UPDATE 1-EA to buy online game developer Mythic

SAN FRANCISCO, June 20 (Reuters) - Electronic Arts Inc. (ERTS.O: Quote, Profile, Research), the world's biggest video game publisher, said on Tuesday it will buy Mythic Entertainment, beefing up its portfolio of online role-playing games.

EA did not disclose financial terms of the deal, which was expected to close in the company's second fiscal quarter, the company said.

Silicon Valley-based EA -- which is looking for growth outside its core console gaming business in the United States and Europe -- is eyeing key Asian markets like Korea and China, where online games dominate.

Mythic, which will be renamed EA Mythic, developed "Dark Age of Camelot" and is working on another keenly anticipated fantasy-themed title called "Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning".

Both of those are what are called massively multiplayer online role-playing games, which allow thousands of players to simultaneously carry out missions or battles in virtual worlds.

Such games are attractive to publishers since they usually require a monthly fee on top of the roughly $50 cost of the game itself.

The most successful online role-playing game ever is "World of Warcraft", developed by Blizzard Entertainment, a division of French media giant Vivendi (VIV.PA: Quote, Profile, Research).

EA publishes an online role-playing game called "Ultima Online," but is better known for its sports, racing and shooting titles. (Additional reporting by Lisa Baertlein in Los Angeles)

I wonder what style Mark Jacobs chose for his "Money Hat."

I'm sure it's fantastic.

Yes, I'm purposefully trying to derail. Isn't Mythic supposed to be dead to us now?

Yes, I'm purposefully trying to derail. Isn't Mythic supposed to be dead to us now?

What's EA's crime again?

And so that makes it totally cool to fuck over your employees.  Cause hey- someone else might not be doing it.

In the defense of all gaming companies. Crunch Time mostly occurs due to developers being a bunch of fat lazy gamers. Seriously, if people kept on track and actually did their work instead of having "dick around and do nothing" Friday and "I don't like Monday I think I'll sleep in Monday" and maybe put an extra hour or two in here or there - well - things would be a bit different.

In the defense of all gaming companies. Crunch Time mostly occurs due to developers being a bunch of fat lazy gamers.

Llava , So they didn't win a massive payout over that in a lawsuit?

I challenge any dev on here to tell me one company they've worked at that hasn't made them work at least 1 month or more of continuous crunch time to get a release out on time.

Third, our Cryptic company culture is not one of 12 hrs./day, 6 days/week. We believe that our employees have families, friends and outside interestes. One's job should enrich life, not detract from it. We're very proud that we don't run a sweatshop (as opposed to the horror stories in the industry).

The point is, you asked what makes them the badguy.  I pointed to an example of them very clearly being the badguy.  There are very few other articles available on the internet showing concrete evidence of shitty actions on EA's part.  Rarely is it so concrete.  But, fact is, they were dicks, they are dicks, that particular situation may have been resolved, but that doesn't magically make them not dicks now.

There is always a better job out there, my count so far is three flat out "this job sucks" quits.  I recently got shafted by losing a shift bonus and forced to work a shift pattern that's actually worse than the one I was on.  It hasn't really affected my view of the IT company I work for, I know it's one of the largest in the world and it's not personal slight directed at me.  I just went for another job within the same company and more than made up for the lost salary that way.  There's worse things in the world than your employer treating you like shit, they only get away with it if you are stupid enough to let them.

That's only one way to slice it though. The other is to question the idea of reasonable. Maybe Valve and 3D Realms have it right. Games take time, don't rush them.

Perhaps crunch time exists not to finish on time, but to finish early.

In the defense of all gaming companies. Crunch Time mostly occurs due to developers being a bunch of fat lazy gamers.

Um no, that's not how it works.

There's a lot of reasons for EA to acquire Mythic, but the Asian market isn't one of them.

Oh oh oh oh oh oh, do tell!

In my experience so far, crunch cycles happen for two reasons.

(a) We bit off more than we can chew and are unable/unwilling to adjust our schedule accordingly.

-or-

(b) Feature Creep after the planning/spec deadline and we're unable/unwilling to adjust the schedule accordingly.

There's a reason for Scotty's old engineering advice, whereby the boss asks for a schedule and the good engineer replies with a schedule about four times as long as he thinks it will actually take.

Of course, if you don't actually have a schedule or any organization supporting scheduling.. well.. then you might as well just be a bunch of guys in a garage.

In my experience so far, crunch cycles happen for two reasons.

(a) We bit off more than we can chew and are unable/unwilling to adjust our schedule accordingly.

-or-

(b) Feature Creep after the planning/spec deadline and we're unable/unwilling to adjust the schedule accordingly.

There's a reason for Scotty's old engineering advice, whereby the boss asks for a schedule and the good engineer replies with a schedule about four times as long as he thinks it will actually take.

Of course, if you don't actually have a schedule or any organization supporting scheduling.. well.. then you might as well just be a bunch of guys in a garage.

There's nothing wrong with  working in a Garage! (http://www.garagegames.com/blogs/32699/10646).

You know what else is good for morale in the tech industry?

(http://forums.f13.net/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=7376.0;attach=1770)

for a whole lot of uh.

Mythic is the most competent mmorpg development team out there.

I ignored that statement as being just another foaming at the mouth DAOC fanboi who runs around spouting shit like "DOAC has the best pvp EVAR!!" all the time...

Really?

You think so?

I mean, WAR looks good, and DAoC certainly had its charms, but if Mythic is the most competent team out there then we're in a sorrier state than I thought.

Well, who has been more competent?

I can't think of anyone?

Who's more competent?
Every company for every game we're playing instead of DAoC.

Me, a fanboi? Hell, I've barely played it, man. I wasn't coming from that angle at all.

I'm sure that with EA's bank account they could have found a magic number that would make a partnership seem palatable to Blizzard.

Afterall, the potential income is in the BILLIONS.

But I doubt if EA has the ability to not fuck up in the MMOG arena regardless of who they buy/hire/partner with to do the design and implementation.

Why the fuck are we having excremint beauty contest anyway?

"ooh look, the definition of that peanut really brings out the log shape in that one, clearly it is the superior turd!"

Competent MMO company...   :roflcopter:

Bah... stupid keyboard.

On the edit:

1.  I don't think any of the people here who still play DAoC say stuff like "best PvP evar!1!"  We say stuff like:  despite it's flaws,  best fantasy mmo pvp available right now. 

The DAoC players here are generally pretty good at pointing out the huge and glaring flaws.  Despite those,  it's slightly more engaging than the competition.

2.  There is no grind in DAoC.

Speed of leveling hasn't been a problem in years.  You can solo a toon two high 40's/50's in about 2 days played, depending on class.

Mythic has been pretty good at saying "we fucked up" and fixing the ToA mess.  Most artifacts can be done in one or two nights of following around a scheduled artifact zerg.  MLs are done 3 levels at a shot now,  so that's not bad either.

3.  Class balance is fucked.  Not because there are a couple of classes that are extremely overpowered mass killing everyone at all times,  but because some classes are so specialized or situationally overpowered.

Animists, bainshees, and heretics are massively overpowered in any siege situation.  Animists and heretics generally suck balls everywhere else.  The balance in aoe available between realms is messed. etc etc.

Hell, people complain about the grind in CoX.  Remember staying in a fins group for hours and hours?  Forget the ToA grind.

And yeah, I know there are alternate servers where you can avoid that crap.  I don't much care- that it was there is proof enough.

Who's more competent?
Every company for every game we're playing instead of DAoC.

Every company for every game we're playing instead of DAoC.

There are lots of queued games now? I thought that was the exception (and mostly WoW being too popular). SOE, if you forget the SWG team, is pretty strong. Planetside (will we EVER see another MMOFPS with as much FPS as PS?), EQ (the new M59), and especially EQ2 which has really improved to the point where it's actually enjoyable to play for the most part. Turbine was good with Asheron's Call, and DDO didn't seem to bad.
All MMO companies are incompetent? :) Gogo Bethesda!

Pssst. Sky.

Huxley, duder. Is that even on your radar?

Hell half the old farts around here should appreciate that sort of development, what with their whines about how twitchy EvE is.

Blame Discover magazine. I had officially stopped thinking about Spore (again) after the last E3 demo.

I fully support "When it's done"...but it's tough. Honestly, though, I'd rather wait another year and have more features put back in (like autochemical reactions and interstellar gas interaction mentioned in the article).

TUESDAY JULY 25


Games Workshop Group PLC revealed in January a slump in first-half earnings and warned full-year results would fall short of market expectations.

The company blamed the decline on falling demand for games relating to the 'Lord of the Rings' film trilogy.

Trailers of forthcoming Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000 computer games were previewed at E3 recently. Should the games be of a similar quality to the trailers, Altium's David O,Brien anticipates that they will be huge sellers. Unfortunately, the company will only receive royalties from its licensed IP, he pointed out.

Meanwhile, O'Brien pitches for year to May 2006 pretax profits of just 2.0 mln stg, down from 13.9 mln, for EPS of 4.6 pence against 29.2. Despite this, the analyst reckons the payout will be held at an uncovered 19.0 pence.