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Folks,
Hmm, let's see, a "Mythic Sucks" thread started and being fed by guys who just (Nov and Dec) created accounts here. Shocking, absolutely shocking. Must be coincidence or is that troll I smell?
I'll take a few seconds just to quote some facts:
1) Assertion - DAoC wasn't as successful as AC, UO, EQ, etc.
Truth #1 - In terms of sub numbers DAoC was higher than AC and around the same as UO. These numbers are a matter of record and have been cited by numerous people over the years. EQ and of course WoW were more successful but on the other hand, DAoC cost only 2.5M to make in 18 months and its earnings to cost ratio make it one of the most successful games, not just MMOs, of all time. Its profit margin is even higher and based on what I know of almost all the other studios out there, was the best of any of the aforementioned games because of the game's lower costs for bandwidth, servers, etc. DAoC is 6 years old and still running. Sure the numbers are going down as they have been since WoW but *every* MMORPG that was launched before WoW took a hit from that game.
Truth #2 - In terms of Metacritic, DAoC was the 2nd highest rated MMORPG of all time with only WoW having a higher Metacritic. Check it out yourself if you don't believe. DAoC got an 88 and even our first expansion, Shrouded Isles got an 85 (which is higher even than most MMOs, AC and AC2 included).
Truth #3 - DAoC was the most successful MMORPG in Europe prior to the "WoW era". Nobody, not even EQ, had the same success in Europe that we did. This includes AC1, AC2, UO, EQ and all the other smaller MMORPGs that game out prior to WoW. I'm not sure about FFXI though so I'm not including it. I'm only talking about subscription-based MMOs of course so Runescape with its mixed plan and some other games like it, aren't included. No matter what, I think we held the title of most successful MMORPG in Europe for at least 3 years and we dwarfed the other MMOs that came before us in Europe.
So, as the second highest rated MMORPG of all time and one of the most financially successful MMOs and the most successful MMORPG in Europe, I think we can be kinda proud of DAoC.
2) Assertion - DAoC failed because of Trials of Atlantis and because we made RvRs do PvE.
Truth #1 - DAoC's numbers were going down as expected even before ToA. We tried to do something bold with ToA and we messed up. At least we had the courage to say, even at the time, that we messed up and then spent lots of time working to correct it.
Truth #2 - If the PvE required for ToA had been better, the PvEing wouldn't have been as big of a deal but as I just said above, and countless times before hand, it wasn't so it made it worse. Burning Crusades required WoW's people to PvE and yet less of a stink was made about it because they did a better job with it than we did and we paid the price for it.
Assertion - ToA sucked, Mythic sucks and WAR is going to suck because we didn't listen to the players
Truth #1 - Which players would this be? There are so many opinions floating around any MMO that the idea of a unified group of "the players" who know how to fix/make/create a game is an urban legend. If we listened to "the players" and made our decisions based on them our games would suck because opinions vary so much it would be impossible to finish the game. What we listen to is the "the players' voices" and then decide on our own, which is the best way to do things.
Truth #2 - We listen more to our community than any other developer of a major MMO as our betas have proven. Sometimes we listen and make the wrong decisions but anyone who says we don't listen either means we are not listening/listened to him or frankly, is lying. The changes we have already made to WAR prove that beyond a shadow of a doubt.
Assertion - We are keeping out the players because WAR isn't ready
Truth - We have delayed beta and the game before, and will do so if necessary again, to make sure WAR is a great game. I will not apologize nor be sorry for doing so in the past and if it happens again, I won't be sorry then either. So, guilty as charged. That's what all the great developers do and we want to be considered in the same breath as people like BioWare and Blizzard and you don't get there by cutting corners or releasing a game before its ready. We will take the time we need to make the game great, period, end of discussion.
Oh, given that these assertions are all kinda old, here's an old response from me, brought back this one time for our trollish friends.
Here, have a cookie, trolls like cookies.
Mark
  Warhammer Club http://competition.wt-schule-meerbusch.de/"Mit scharfem Stahl und kaltem Herzen werden wir auf unsere Feinde herniederfahren. Die Schwachen sollen sterben, auf dass die Starken überdauern, und niemandem soll Gnade gezeigt werden. Dann, und nur dann werden unsere Feinde erfahren, was Angst wirklich bedeutet."
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