The Sky IS Falling: Mythic and Bioware Merged By EA

Big news today, Mark Jacobs is leaving Mythic as EA merges Mythic with Bioware.

Today we have important news to share with the community. EA is restructuring its RPG and MMO games development into a new group that includes both Mythic and BioWare. This newly formed team will be led by Ray Muzyka, co-founder and General Manager of BioWare. With this change, Ray becomes Group General Manager of the new RPG/MMO studio group. BioWare’s other co-founder, Greg Zeschuk will become Group Creative Officer for the new RPG/MMO studio group. Rob Denton will step up as General Manager of Mythic and report to Ray. BioWare’s studios remain unchanged and continue to report to Ray.

Mark Jacobs, current General Manager of Mythic will leave EA on June 23, 2009. We thank Mark for his contributions at Mythic and wish him the very best going forward. Mark played a major part in the success of Mythic with his contribution as General Manager and Lead Designer of WAR.

Mythic retains a strong team led by Rob who co-founded Mythic in 1995. Rob played a critical role in the development of Dark Age of Camelot. In his previous role as COO, he was responsible for all day-to-day management of the studio including all development, operations and support.

Please join us in celebrating the union of these two award-winning studios.

By the way, don't say I didn't say so. From my Predictions for 2009 post.

5. WAR will still be around by the end of 2009, but who remains around to develop it may be drastically different.

This should serve as further historical proof that EA is poison for any company or development studio that it consumes. Give Bioware a couple years to ferment and we'll be right back here.

May Star Wars: The Old Republic rest in pieces, broken and abused.

Aion Launch Set 4 September

Aion is set to launch:

Your adventures in Aion begin this September! NCsoft is proud to announce that Aion launches in North America on September 22, 2009 and makes its official debut in Europe starting September 25, 2009.

Not only can you find the game at your favorite retail store, Aion will also be available as a digital download at NCsoft.com, Direct2Drive, and also through Steam this September.

Don’t forget to take advantage of the special preorder promotion at participating retailers now to receive access to the Closed Beta events as well as a head start to your journeys in Atreia.

Take to the skies and become a part of a stunning world brimming with otherworldly inhabitants, mysterious enemies and ancient secrets. There is no reason hesitate - Become a part of Aion this fall!

Did I make it clear enough that the game will be available, at launch, via Steam? Woo woo!

My First Micro-Transaction

I've gone and done it. I've completed my first micro-transaction.

The game? Domain of Heroes.
The item? Starter pack, which gives increased inventory, an increased logout timer, a mule, guild-worthiness, chat message size increase, and extra wishes (wishes being the dual currency of DoH).
Price? $9.99

Anyone that has played or seen Domain of Heroes may be shocked that I spent money on it, but I had the $10 sitting to the side from a work-related bonus, so I wanted to treat myself.

Also, I felt comfortable supporting the development of DoH. The game is still rough around the edges, but looks to be maturing into an awesome casual web game. The developers/support folks are nice and can often be found online actually playing their own game and interacting with the playerbase. The community is also top notch.

Having played DoH for a couple weeks now, I've started to realize how narrow minded my game mechanic thought process has been during my years playing of AAA MMOGs. While DoH doesn't go too far off the beaten path, there are tons of small changes, along with the "set it and forget it" playstyle that make it refreshing to play.

All of this combined to increase my willingness to complete a micro-transaction.

Warhammer Top 5

Jeff Hickman recently outlined Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning's top five issues in his recent Executive Producer's Letter.

Based heavily on that feedback, our current “Top 5” areas that we are giving significant attention to are:

1. Addressing concerns related to Crowd Control and Area of Effect abilities.
2. Continuing to improve client and server stability and performance.
3. Strengthening and improving the Tier 4 experience.
4. Improving server population distribution – both in terms of overall population and realm balance.
5. Improving itemization and the overall distribution of “carrots” (rewards) throughout the game.

My comments:

1. It's sad that Mythic didn't learn anything from Dark Ages of Camelot, which had the same exact problems. Repeating mistakes is bad.

2. Performance was great in beta, but took a nosedive after launch. During my playtime, Mythic never recovered. This was probably the number one reason casual players left the game.

3. Tier 4 sucks. Horrible game design. Laughable at best.

4. Everyone knew it was going to be an issue at launch, so not sure why they are thinking they can address it now. The basic game design makes balance impossible. Without fundamental game changes, this is a lost cause.

5. I thought the rewards were pretty well distributed until players hit the roadblock that was level 40. At 40, rewards are sparse unless players grind and even then its fairly minor in terms of upgrades. Most of the low end 40 gear should have been made accessible in the mid 30s.

Domain of Heroes: Caught Between Progress Quest and a MUD

Domain of Heroes, a free web-browser MMOG, has caught my attention as of late. Part text-based MUD, part graphical adventure game, DoH is:

Unlike any other browser RPG

Other games feel like...well...like using a website. Not us. Domain of Heroes uses the most modern technology - you never leave the game page!

Play anywhere, anytime, for FREE.

Domain of Heroes is a FREE browser-based massively-multiplayer web RPG/PBBG. What a mouthful!

You can play at home, at school, at work (yes, we condone it), or at the coffee shop — as long as you've got a browser and an internet connection, you are ready to be a Hero!

You can play on PC or Mac, PS3, Wii, even iPod Touch!

Unlike Free Realms or Quake Live, Domain of Heroes is operating system agnostic and requires nothing outside of what a normal web browser provides. This makes it a TRUE web-browser based game in my book.

The true beauty of the game is that it almost plays itself ala Progress Quest. Players simply "set it and forget it". Journey to a location, search for monsters, and a player's character will do all of the work as battles cycle infinitely until the character dies or the player leaves the area. This makes it great for the casual gamers out there or the "no worries boss, I am really working, not playing web games" gamers.

With that said, combat can be involved as well. Characters have multiple skills and options during combat. In the early levels these are not needed as much, but the higher up a player levels (max being 75), the more involved in the combat a player will want to be.

Outside of combat, the game offers a surprising level of depth. There is a PvP conquest system where warring factions can take over areas of the game world. There is an open trade channel and a market to play for items. Guilds and guild tools are offered as well.

Lastly, there is an amazing amount of possible class and race combos. To exemplify this, I am playing as Heartless the Squirrel Illusionist! Yes, I am playing as a small, furry rodent most often found in one's backyard.