Posted 11/07/09 at 01:49:18 AM by Nathan Grayson

Warhammer Online’s making an offer you can’t refuse. And that’s not because you’ll be sleeping with either a) the fishes or b) a horse head if you turn it down. (At least, we don’t think so…) No, the offer’s allure stems from the fact that it’s completely free! And unending! How can you say “no” to that?

Ok, so there is a bit of a catch. While Warhammer Online’s free trial may have done away with that “10 days” nonsense, your character still goes back on the shelf once he/she reaches level ten.  Also – presumably to prevent spam accounts – sending mail and selling items on the auction house is prohibited.

On the bright side, though, most of the game is streamed after you’ve bitten off an initial 1 GB chunk of data, so getting up and running is quick and simple. Almost as quick and simple as upgrading to a paid account!

Yeah, Mythic, was that good? Did we sell it well enough? Sure, we take check—Hey! Is that microphone still on?!

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Posted 07/09/09 at 12:05:38 AM by Nathan Grayson

With Star Wars: The Old Republic making such lofty claims as being the Death Star to World of Warcraft’s Alderaan, many people forget that the upcoming MMO is actually BioWare’s first. Fortunately, the renowned RPG factory is no longer orchestrating the colossal space opera all by its lonesome. “Yeeeehaw,” we can only imagine Mythic screaming, shortly after the two developers’ recent merger. “BioWare, let’s blow this thing and go home!”

“Oh yeah, without a doubt,” BioWare co-founder Greg Zeschuk told Eurogamer when asked if Mythic would be lending some of its considerable MMO know-how to Star Wars: The Old Republic’s development.
 
Moreover, Zeschuk added that the two merged-but-still-somehow-independent companies have a lot to gain from swapping notes – not just for The Old Republic, but for Mythic’s games as well.

“I think we always have lots of opinions to share, Ray and I,” he said. “We've both played Warhammer, and actually I've still been playing it on and off for a while, so I think for us it's not too much a popularity boost as just the fact that we can probably bring perspectives to the table that will be new and perhaps helpful to the guys from Mythic in the same way from an online perspective they can certainly share with us.”

And so, the two companies lived happily ever after, developing games about endless slaughter in pursuit of loot and power. *Sniff* Brings a tear to the eye, doesn’t it?

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Posted 06/27/09 at 03:27:47 AM by Nathan Grayson

Yesterday, we found out that Mark Jacobs, General Manager of Warhammer Online developer Mythic for 15 years, recently left the company after EA put it in the Large Hadron Collider with BioWare. We did not, however, find out why. Today, in a farewell letter, Jacobs himself clarified things slightly, but failed to spill the beans on why exactly he couldn’t stick around to see Mythic become one with BioWare’s biomass.

“Early in May, Electronic Arts let me know that they wanted to make some changes within the Games Label and as a result of those changes I have been out of the office (and out of touch with the team, game, etc.) since that day,” he wrote.

“I have helped shepherd Mythic through good times and bad, through near bankruptcy and through our many successes.  During my tenure there my duties have run the gamut from being CEO/GM to doing some of our legal work to acting as lead designer and even using my personal credit cards/credit to pay for the phones we used when we launched DAoC back in 2001.  While I will miss doing those things (well, some of them anyway) for the studio, what I will really miss are the people at Mythic.”

As you can imagine, Jacobs – not exactly a man known for his fury – had little to say about whatever happened behind the curtain between him and EA.

“If you are looking or expecting me to damn EA or anyone there, you will be sorely disappointed.  Over my 23 years of making games professionally I have refrained from attacking the competition, former and/or current partners, other game developers, etc. except on a few very rare instances.  I have no intention of breaking with tradition at the present time and I hope my track record in this regard remains unchanged for the rest of my career.”

As always, we wish Jacobs the best in his endeavors and can’t wait to see what he does next.

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Posted 06/26/09 at 12:12:43 AM by Nathan Grayson

Hot on the heels of Bethesda and id’s recent trip down the aisle, we’ve got another pair of game developers joining hands. This time, though, the two developers were already living in the same bloc of the EA Empire, so no one actually bought anyone. Instead, RPG powerhouses BioWare and Mythic simply did a bit of restructuring, resulting in a new RPG and MMO super team.

BioWare General Manager Ray Muzyka is taking the reins of the newborn colossus as General Manager, while BioWare co-founder Greg Zeschuk is serving as Group Creative Officer. Meanwhile, non-group operations are to be managed by respective studio heads, with Rob Denton stepping in as General Manager of Mythic.

But what about former Mythic General Manager and co-founder Mark Jacobs? Well, as of June 23, he’s out. Apparently, Jacobs left of his own accord, though according to an unnamed former Mythic employee, that’s probably hogwash.

“People are shocked and in disbelief about Mark leaving,” he told Massively. “…I can’t even fathom Mark leaving a company he loved so much, it was his life. Personally, I can’t see that this is voluntary in any shape or form.”

Granted, that same source also said that Jacobs had been on sabbatical for the month leading up to his departure, so he’d been doing the business equivalent of tearfully averting his eyes any time someone mentioned the words “leave” or “goodbye” for quite some time – since long before employees knew about the merger, it seems.
 
So, anyone have any conspiracy theories they’d like to throw out? Aside from the old “EA has a secret underground puppy slavery ring” song and dance, we mean. At least put some effort into it.

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Posted 04/10/09 at 02:54:24 AM by Nathan Grayson

Do you play MMOs? Do you – as MMO-related Youtube videos have jammed into our noggins on many occasions – also listen to fantasy-oriented power metal? Well, if you’re anything like us, the two tastes go great together until the vocalist starts belting, yet, when he speaks of glorious battle, fails to mention game-specific character classes, locations, and damage stats. Totally kills the immersion of downing the same legendary baddy for the hundredth time.

Well, while Blue Öyster Cult and Warhammer Online haven’t quite satisfied our rigorous demands, they’ve certainly come close. See, as it turns out, clamshell-themed rock and rollers Eric Bloom and Richie Castellano are both card-carrying WAR addicts, so they teamed up with Mythic to put their love into the form of a song, while also avoiding potential lawsuits!

The result, called “Kiss My Axe (While I Drink My Beer)"… doesn’t sound anything like vintage Blue Öyster Cult, but it’s still pretty good. It’s easily the best song about Warhammer Online’s brand new Dwarf Slayer class we’ve ever heard.
 
So, crank your speakers, put the horns in an upright position, and give it a listen. With any luck, it’ll wash away the taste of listening to DragonForce’s “Through the Fire and the Flames” for the – well, how many times have you downed that raid boss again?

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Posted 03/17/09 at 02:20:42 AM by Nathan Grayson

Trying to decide whether to take another walk down the aisle with Warhammer Online or try your luck with a different MMO of equal value, but just can’t bring yourself to end this excruciatingly long game of eeny-meeny-miny-moe? Well, if giving you gifts can be equated with love – and we don’t see any reason why it shouldn’t be – then Mythic loves you more. Always remember that.

Why? The developer is now offering a Call to Arms re-enlistment program which – if you’ve gone astray from Warhammer’s flock – never gives you up and never lets you down with 10 free days of playtime, all the rested experience you accrued while you were pursuing other options, and “a unique quest chain with bonus reward items.” We don’t see any reason not to at least give it a shot.

So, you’ve caught, like, 30 tigers by their toes now. What’s it gonna be?

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Posted 03/11/09 at 02:05:46 AM by Nathan Grayson

When worlds collide, things tend to end badly. Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning tried to send its ragtag, wax-on, wax-off-trained team of novices against WoW’s dojo, and it lost more than a few teeth. And now, Warhammer’s taking one giant leap right into a different world: its own.
 
Mythic recently announced (and presumably carried out) mergers between 43 servers on the first ever MMO competitor on The Biggest Loser. Characters and items stored on closed servers were apparently transferred to pre-existing, less corpsified servers.

If your old server’s now hosting TF2 matches for angels, note that all of your character’s items, friend lists, guild info, and ignore lists should have transferred to your new server, while items listed for auction, guild alliances, and in-game mail and attachments, unfortunately, will forever languish in the Internet’s lost-and-found box.

(On the bright side, though, we just discovered that "server merger" is really fun to say. Try it. Hey, don't judge us; we're bloggers -- not grief counselors.)  

So, for those among you whose entire world was destroyed, how are the new digs looking?

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Posted 02/04/09 at 10:59:13 PM by Nathan Grayson

Update: GM Mark Jacobs confirmed that Mythic has seen a rash of lay-offs. However, he didn't dig into the who's and why's of this sad state of affairs.

Looks like the Fat Lady and Porky Pig are eying Warhammer Online as a possible next gig, though no contracts have been inked just yet. EA surreptitiously tossed Warhammer’s subscriber numbers into its recent investor call, probably hoping no one would notice the compact number’s squeaks and squeals. Unfortunately, the little tyke mumbled its way into an avalanche.

After announcing that Warhammer Online’s subscriber base has dropped from its rapid rise to 750,000, all the way down to 300,000, developer Mythic apparently axed 60-130 of its employees. Even worse, senior designers have reportedly been told to take a hike as well. Granted, this is only a rumor for now, but we’re seeking confirmation from Electronic Arts.

Regardless, though, things are looking grim for Mythic’s incredibly promising MMO. Here’s hoping the game’s upcoming series of live expansions can save this raid from completely wiping, but to be honest, we’re not hopeful.

See, economy? This is why we can’t have nice things.

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