12-10-2003, 01:19 PM
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State of the Game
December 10, 2003
===================================
Folks,
It's the holiday season, and I want to wish everybody who sees this message a happy holiday. I have a lot of news to share with the community, and I hope that the community sees this message as a special and unexpected holiday announcement from Mythic.
First, let's take a quick look at what's going on in the world of Camelot and Mythic. I'm happy to report that as of December 1st, our US server subscriber base is higher than a year ago at this time, and our subscriber base for our European partners is growing steadily as well. So, from a purely business standpoint, Mythic is better off today than it was this same time last year.
Second, in October, we released our second retail expansion pack, Trials of Atlantis, with much fanfare - and some fanfoul. Trials of Atlantis was our response to player requests for more quests, more story-based encounters, and complicated puzzles. By creating an expansion pack with these new features - a departure from the original game and first expansion - we were making a bold statement for Camelot. As most of you know, after the release of ToA, some bugs were discovered in the master level and artifact encounters. However, no matter when the bugs were discovered, that is still no excuse and we apologize for the problems and we are working very diligently to resolve these issues.
Third, the number of people who are working on DAoC today is higher than it has ever been. Between the two teams of DAoC (Live and Expansion), we have more developers working on DAoC than ever before. We've been hiring developers at a frantic pace (over nine in the last month) without losing anybody. Our plans to release both Frontiers and another retail expansion pack are right on track and nothing will stand in their way. Nothing, that is, except for what you are about to read.
There is more to Mythic and DAoC than simply a subscriber count and what I'm about to say will surprise a lot of people and be followed, I'm sure, with a bit of skepticism by some people after reading this message. We are, as always, grateful for the community's support during the last two years. You've supported us through our good decisions and bad decisions, you've supported us while other big-profile games have been released, and you've supported us by continuing to be our customers. Now is our time to give something back to you in a most unexpected way.
It would be easy for us to keep doing what we've done over the last two years. After all, why argue with a successful model that has worked for us and other companies? We could keep two full teams working on separate parts of DAoC and release expansion packs for both retail (ToA) and for subscription-based (Foundations). However, Mythic has never been about taking the easy path. We've never been shy about admitting our mistakes, nor reticent about accepting well-earned kudos. So, we have made a decision which that will shake up that model and take us down a different path.
As of the New Year, Mythic will devote both its entire DAoC teams to subscription based content (just like Foundations) for at least the next quarter or more. We will be reintegrating the teams with one mission, to take DAoC to the next level and in a way that all of our customers can support. The DAoC Team will be focusing on new content (the RvR expansion which you will be hearing a lot more about starting this week), new features and updating and redoing the existing areas of DAoC. Additionally, we will continue to work on any issues that are currently associated with ToA encounters and of course, any new issues that might arise based on that expansion pack. For those skeptics who will simply say that "Mythic is cutting out the expansion team and putting them on Imperator," that is not the case. Mythic currently has two full teams working on DAoC and all of those people will be still working on DAoC next year; they will just be working on DAoC LIVE content. I made a promise last year about DAoC's future a
nd not only are we keeping the promise, we are expanding on it. Never before in the short history of MMORPGs has any company followed this path (at least not with a team this size). We are proud to make this commitment to our players and only once we are totally satisfied with the state of the game, will some of us go back to work on a new expansion pack. Looking forward, selling a couple of hundred thousand boxes (per expansion pack) is great but that shouldn't be our guiding star. The star should be our commitment to making DAoC the best MMORPG on the market, and we are showing our commitment to our game and to our players by this action.
So, what does this mean to the average player? It means we will be able to devote more developers to our RvR expansion and so we will be able to put in more additional features than we originally planned. It means that there are going to be development resources available to improve the game visually and through updating of older areas, that wouldn't have been available otherwise. It means a continuing commitment to adding features to DAoC that wouldn't have been added until after our next retail expansion or beyond. It means that 100% of the developers' time will be spent on improving the game for players today and not waiting until the retail expansion.
As required by lawyers everywhere, the usual disclaimer that this letter is a guide as to what we hope to do and not as a guarantee of any kind. I always hate saying this but that's what lawyers are for, to make us say things that we hate.
As always we thank the community for its continued support and patronage of DAoC, and I hope that this letter finds you and your families well during this holiday season.
Mark
State of the Game
December 10, 2003
===================================
Folks,
It's the holiday season, and I want to wish everybody who sees this message a happy holiday. I have a lot of news to share with the community, and I hope that the community sees this message as a special and unexpected holiday announcement from Mythic.
First, let's take a quick look at what's going on in the world of Camelot and Mythic. I'm happy to report that as of December 1st, our US server subscriber base is higher than a year ago at this time, and our subscriber base for our European partners is growing steadily as well. So, from a purely business standpoint, Mythic is better off today than it was this same time last year.
Second, in October, we released our second retail expansion pack, Trials of Atlantis, with much fanfare - and some fanfoul. Trials of Atlantis was our response to player requests for more quests, more story-based encounters, and complicated puzzles. By creating an expansion pack with these new features - a departure from the original game and first expansion - we were making a bold statement for Camelot. As most of you know, after the release of ToA, some bugs were discovered in the master level and artifact encounters. However, no matter when the bugs were discovered, that is still no excuse and we apologize for the problems and we are working very diligently to resolve these issues.
Third, the number of people who are working on DAoC today is higher than it has ever been. Between the two teams of DAoC (Live and Expansion), we have more developers working on DAoC than ever before. We've been hiring developers at a frantic pace (over nine in the last month) without losing anybody. Our plans to release both Frontiers and another retail expansion pack are right on track and nothing will stand in their way. Nothing, that is, except for what you are about to read.
There is more to Mythic and DAoC than simply a subscriber count and what I'm about to say will surprise a lot of people and be followed, I'm sure, with a bit of skepticism by some people after reading this message. We are, as always, grateful for the community's support during the last two years. You've supported us through our good decisions and bad decisions, you've supported us while other big-profile games have been released, and you've supported us by continuing to be our customers. Now is our time to give something back to you in a most unexpected way.
It would be easy for us to keep doing what we've done over the last two years. After all, why argue with a successful model that has worked for us and other companies? We could keep two full teams working on separate parts of DAoC and release expansion packs for both retail (ToA) and for subscription-based (Foundations). However, Mythic has never been about taking the easy path. We've never been shy about admitting our mistakes, nor reticent about accepting well-earned kudos. So, we have made a decision which that will shake up that model and take us down a different path.
As of the New Year, Mythic will devote both its entire DAoC teams to subscription based content (just like Foundations) for at least the next quarter or more. We will be reintegrating the teams with one mission, to take DAoC to the next level and in a way that all of our customers can support. The DAoC Team will be focusing on new content (the RvR expansion which you will be hearing a lot more about starting this week), new features and updating and redoing the existing areas of DAoC. Additionally, we will continue to work on any issues that are currently associated with ToA encounters and of course, any new issues that might arise based on that expansion pack. For those skeptics who will simply say that "Mythic is cutting out the expansion team and putting them on Imperator," that is not the case. Mythic currently has two full teams working on DAoC and all of those people will be still working on DAoC next year; they will just be working on DAoC LIVE content. I made a promise last year about DAoC's future a
nd not only are we keeping the promise, we are expanding on it. Never before in the short history of MMORPGs has any company followed this path (at least not with a team this size). We are proud to make this commitment to our players and only once we are totally satisfied with the state of the game, will some of us go back to work on a new expansion pack. Looking forward, selling a couple of hundred thousand boxes (per expansion pack) is great but that shouldn't be our guiding star. The star should be our commitment to making DAoC the best MMORPG on the market, and we are showing our commitment to our game and to our players by this action.
So, what does this mean to the average player? It means we will be able to devote more developers to our RvR expansion and so we will be able to put in more additional features than we originally planned. It means that there are going to be development resources available to improve the game visually and through updating of older areas, that wouldn't have been available otherwise. It means a continuing commitment to adding features to DAoC that wouldn't have been added until after our next retail expansion or beyond. It means that 100% of the developers' time will be spent on improving the game for players today and not waiting until the retail expansion.
As required by lawyers everywhere, the usual disclaimer that this letter is a guide as to what we hope to do and not as a guarantee of any kind. I always hate saying this but that's what lawyers are for, to make us say things that we hate.
As always we thank the community for its continued support and patronage of DAoC, and I hope that this letter finds you and your families well during this holiday season.
Mark
