Mythic – MMO Fallout

Ultima Forever Shutting Down August 29th

With Mythic Entertainment dead and buried, the last remnants of the company are beginning to fall. Ultima Forever is the latest domino to fall, with Electronic Arts announcing that the servers will come down on August 29th.

While the past year has certainly been quite the adventure – in Britannia and beyond! – that adventure is now drawing to a close, as the time has come for us to say goodbye. As of Aug 29th 2014 (11:00 AM EDT), Ultima Forever will be shutting down its online services, and will no longer be available to play.

Ultima Forever launched in 2013, where the initial excitement over another Ultima game quickly made way for disappointment. What might have been a promising title was bogged down thanks to a greedy and overbearing cash shop. In honor of the last month, players will receive boosts to rewards and have armor degradation disabled.

(Source: Ultima Forever)

Mythic Entertainment Closes Its Doors

Electronic Arts has announced that Dark Age of Camelot developer Mythic Entertainment has been closed down. Mythic Entertainment are the creators behind Dark Age of Camelot and were acquired by EA Games back in 2006. Mythic Entertainment’s luck ran out when Warhammer Online launched to overwhelmingly negative reception. While Warhammer Online would not shut down until 2013, Mythic made an attempt at a MOBA game based on the Warhammer fantasy lore. The Warhammer MOBA was cancelled mid-beta due to similarly poor reception.

Mythic also released Ultima Forever and Dungeon Keeper, mobile free to play titles based off of classic properties. Ultima Forever has fallen off of the rankings and Dungeon Keeper is ranked 260 in strategy games on the iPhone. Development of Dungeon Keeper will transition to a new team.

“We are closing the EA Mythic location in Fairfax, Virginia, as we concentrate mobile development in our other studio locations. We are working with all impacted employees to provide assistance in finding new opportunities, either within EA or with other companies via an upcoming job fair.”

Broadsword Online has been in charge of Ultima Online and Dark Age of Camelot for the past few months already, and service will be uninterrupted.

(Source: Gamasutra)

Ex-Warhammer Dev Asks For Singleplayer Client

Warhammer Online may be offline forever, but its world may not be lost to us forever. Andrew Meggs, tech guy at City State Entertainment and ex-engineer at Mythic Entertainment, took to his blog to explain that while players may not be able to enjoy Warhammer Online as it was, it is within Mythic’s capabilities to at least let them roam around the world. As it turns out, most MMOs have the capability of running in singleplayer mode. There are no quests, no NPCs, no other players, but the point is that players could see the world that Mythic put so much effort into creating.

This won’t compete with any current or future game, because it’s not a game anymore. But it’s a place for the die-hard fans to visit by themselves, to reminisce and remember the times they had there with others. It’s something the hundreds of developers who worked on it will still be able to run for their kids someday. It’s a piece of history for Professors of Game Studies in 2113 to better understand what MMORPGs looked like before the neural implants.

Would you like to see a Warhammer Online virtual museum?

(Source: Shinytoys)

MMOrning Shots: To Waaagh! And Back

Warhammer Online comes to a close today, after five years of operation. As much as we joke here at MMO Fallout about the MMO and just about everything else surrounding the game and its developer, we’re always sad to see a game shut down. There might not have been a lot of people playing Warhammer, but you can’t deny that they were a dedicated bunch. Warhammer Online still sits in quite a few eyes as having the best player vs player combat on the market, and the only true successor to Dark Age of Camelot.

While we are on the subject, has anyone seen Mark Jacobs’ upcoming MMO, Camelot Unchained?

Warhammer Online Details Refunds

In case you’ve forgotten, Warhammer Online shuts down tomorrow. In a post on the Warhammer website, Mythic has detailed exactly how players will be compensated for their purchases. If you have made a purchase after November 1st, or had any game time remaining on your account on the same day, you will be refunded in full. If you purchased with a credit card, you’re all set as it will be refunded automatically. Anyone who paid with a game card will have to contact Mythic’s billing support. The same goes for unused game time codes.

According to the news post, refunds will start going out December 18th with the entire process possibly taking up to 90 days to complete due to the amount of work required. Check out the entire notice at the link below.

(Source: Warhammer Online)

Warhammer Opens All Accounts For Last Push

Warhammer Online shuts down December 18th, and to send off the game with style Mythic has decided to open up all accounts for a last month and a half of bashing in skulls. There will even be some people playing Warhammer. A post on the official website notes that all accounts in good standing as of October 31st are welcome back, alongside NPCs that will offer level boosts.

To give Warhammer Online a proper sendoff we are opening the game to anyone free of charge that has or had an account in good standing starting October 31st, 2013. We will be adding new NPC’s to the game in order to power up your characters as well as other unique experiences for everyone to enjoy as we say goodbye to Warhammer Online over the next few weeks. So please join us and help say goodbye to Warhammer Online in one last big WAAAGH!

See you in-game.

(Source: Warhammer Online)

Wrath of Heroes To Shut Down, Mythic Denies Refunds

Eventually someone will realize that despite the success of games like League of Legends, Heroes of Newerth, and Valve’s DOTA 2, the MOBA genre is not the next line of games where companies can put out any product and simply sit back and watch the money print itself. Originally announced in 2011, Wrath of Heroes was supposed to be a slimmed down version of Warhammer Online. All the fun of Warhammer’s scenarios without the countless hours of boring crap that is required by an MMO. Regardless, the game never caught on as well as hoped, and as a result Mythic has announced that the servers will come down on March 29th.

Wrath of Heroes is perhaps another example on why spending money in a game that is still in beta is a bad idea. Wrath of Heroes will shut down having never left beta status, and Mythic has revealed that none of the gem purchases made by players will be refunded. While we have seen other companies perform partial or full refunds when a game is shut down mid-beta, Mythic has decided to not go down that route. Instead, any player who played after January 1st, 2013, or those who have an outstanding balance of gems, will receive one free month of Warhammer Online as well as a treasure chest with items for the MMO.

Undoubtedly this announcement will fuel discussion as to why a game still in beta was required to hit financial goals.

(Source: Wrath of Heroes)

Warhammer Online Adds Items Doubling/Nullifying Exp

Believe it or not, Warhammer Online is still running and still has one or two people manning the ship, even if the steering wheel is rotting from neglect, the hatches have not been battened in a long time, and the poop deck could use a good swabbing, and there’s the little matter of that ice berg that the ship hit in 2008, and the crew going AWOL to work on the S.S. Wrath of Legends. Still, you can rest assured that somewhere, someone at Mythic occasionally looks into Warhammer Online long enough to ask the question “how can we continue improving the experience?” Put your hands down, a Vanguard-style revamp is still not the answer.

Warhammer Online’s upcoming 1.4.8 patch aims to unify the various Realm Vs Realm currencies under one roof: War Crests. But the new feature that sets itself apart from the rest of the update is the new vendor that will be available in the capital city. The vendor sells items in exchange for War Crests that alter the way in which players gain experience and renown. There are books that, when equipped, double either experience gained, double renown gained, or double influence gained. A fourth book completely stops any experience gain from monsters or players.

So if you want to stay in Tier 1 forever, and who wouldn’t, now you have the option to. Patch 1.4.8 goes live on December 3rd.

(Source: Warhammer Online)

Bioware Mythic Is Just Mythic

Keeping track of how Electronic Arts names its studios is difficult, considering that subdivisions are shuffled around and renamed quite often. EA acquired Mythic Entertainment and renamed them Bioware Mythic. In a post on the Warhammer Online website, Mythic has announced that it is divorcing itself from the Bioware name. From now on, you can just call them “Mythic Entertainment.”

In the wake of a new focus our studio has recently changed its name from BioWare Mythic to Mythic. Everything else stays the same – our passionate teams will continue to support and develop our existing titles as well as working on some new and exciting projects.

It appears that Mythic will be taking on development of Ultima Forever, as it is listed as a Mythic game on their new website even though the official website still lists it as a Bioware title.

(Source: ~~Bioware~~ Mythic Website)

Ultima Online Ask & Answer #6

Ultima Online has published the sixth Ask & Answer and there are some interesting questions for gamers, regardless of whether you play Ultima Online or not. For instance, did you know Ultima Online doesn’t have a full personal message system in place? The team is working on one, according to the Q&A. In addition to upgrading the game’s personal message system, there are plans in the works to add in new tools to help players find vendors in crowded cities. Unfortunately, once again the question of will there be a classic shard is a sound no.

There are a few more questions in the Q&A. Ultima Online recently celebrated its fifteenth year of service with the introduction of the new ruler of Britannia: Lord Blackthorn.

(Source: Ultima Online)

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