2006 was an eventful year in the world of MMORPGs, and Dan Fortier returns to his MMOWTF column this week to give us a look back at the year that was.

The year started off with so much promise. Warhammer Online went from a cancelled vapor title into Mythic's new flagship game. While Dark Age of Camelot had received a few graphical upgrades courtesy of a new expansion, it was clear that an RvR successor had been chosen. Shortly after April Fools day, Mark Jacobs, the CEO of Mythic, came out and told us that not only were they not selling out to EA, but that they weren't even in talks with them about a merger/buyout. Imagine our surprise when a mere two and a half months later he inks a deal that puts EA in front of Mythic's name. Paul Lee, the President of EA, was later seen doing a /chicken atop the Mythic HQ in Virginia, but all photos have since been bought or destroyed.

Read the column here.

So, ummmm, does this mean that this year you (the site)will actually aproach the various dev teams out there,their games, and your written information on them from the perspective of a customer,rather than that of a company  living off the finacial droppings they send your way ?

Now,wouldnt that make 2007 an improvement over 2006 in at least some small way,for the consumers ?

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Cryptic cuts a deal to make a Marvel MMO. As much as I’d like to see another Super Hero title, why would you try and compete with yourself?

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I've never understood the mentality of not doing this. UO lost out when EA cancelled UO2, and they'll keep going down that road for some reason...

Think about it. As a company would you rather own one of the many games out there for a given genre, or two or three? So what if they are "competing" against each other; they also can share tech/resources/etc. just like big companies do when they merge to gether. This whole concept of not competing against one's self is "management school" thinking, and doesn't really work once you reach the streets.

Dude this entire column is tongue-in-cheek . . . . get a sense of humor

POS Entertainment hahahaha . . . never heard of them before but that cracked me up

Originally posted by japo


 "What...the FBI can only do one thing at a time?"

Originally posted by japo

Originally posted by Stradden

2006 was an eventful year in the world of MMORPGs, and Dan Fortier returns to his MMOWTF column this week to give us a look back at the year that was.

The year started off with so much promise. Warhammer Online went from a cancelled vapor title into Mythic's new flagship game. While Dark Age of Camelot had received a few graphical upgrades courtesy of a new expansion, it was clear that an RvR successor had been chosen. Shortly after April Fools day, Mark Jacobs, the CEO of Mythic, came out and told us that not only were they not selling out to EA, but that they weren't even in talks with them about a merger/buyout. Imagine our surprise when a mere two and a half months later he inks a deal that puts EA in front of Mythic's name. Paul Lee, the President of EA, was later seen doing a /chicken atop the Mythic HQ in Virginia, but all photos have since been bought or destroyed.

Blah, blah, blah.....

The FBI recently busted an illegal Lineage 2 operation called L2Exrtreme.  It's good to know that beating up some hackers takes precedence over other investigations that involve the security of the entire country.  Good job keepinmg your priorities staright guys.

Read the column here.

What are you...F&%$ing stupid or something?  What...the FBI can only do one thing at a time?

You've made some pretty stupid comments during your short tenure as a "writer" but this just shows how friggin' stupid you really can be.

I guess the Feds can't take a few ( out of several thousand) employees to invetigate a Federal crime that you apparently think they should allow to be broken. 

I don't expect you to read this since this would interfere with your "writing" your next column...apparently you can't do two things at once and assume the same for others.

I guess that since you suck at your job you assume others can't be successful either...wake up dude.

Yes, 2006 was definitely a year of "marking time" with my old standby games (CoX and AO, mostly) while I waited for something truly fun and innovative to be released, which never happened. There are certainly MMOGs out there worth playing, but they're all beginning to feel a bit dated. Here's hoping 2007 will bring something new to the table.

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Originally posted by brostyn
How can the biggest letdown in gaming history not be mentioned? Dungeons and Dragons started it all. Then Turbine comes out, and somehow manages to royally screw it up. Unbelievable. You know its a bad year when D&D is a flop. .

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I agree. It was odd to give no mention of Auto Assault or Dungeons & Dragons Online. I think DDO is a great non-MMO game, that is better categorized along with titles like Guild Wars and Diablo 2. I enjoy playing it, on and off, during the year. Turbine/Atari made the huge mistake of trying to market it as an MMO and we've seen the result of that ill-conceived attempt.

MMOWTF said:-

Dark and Light and Horizons continued to run their respective traveling circus shows, each drawing shudders from audiences across the country with their sideshow tricks and snake oil salesman routine.

While neither game has worked right from the beginning, it takes a special kind of suck to surprise me and these two have succeeded. Tulga Games, the developers of Horizons, were swallowed by EI Interactive in July which in turn was eaten by Pixel Magic just last month. Throw in some unsecured billing transactions and a PR smokescreen and you can’t do anything but shake your head. Dark and Light has had it’s share of bungles in the financial department this year too. Not only do they still not have a button to cancel on your account page, but they also charged hundreds of players that never signed up for a subscription.

not entirely accurate - Tulga Games bought Horizons from the squabbling greedy backstabbers aka Artifact Entertainment who developed the game. EI's theiving ineptitude was cynically pushed to one side as essentially the same concern rebranded themselves as Pixel Magic. the lessons the MMO community continue learn from this soap opera continues to break new ground

Here's my perfect 2007 in review:

January: A group of Mythic employees splinters off of EA Mythic to create "Impertator", but as a MMOFPS instead of a classic MMO. (Plantside ain't seen nothin' yet)

Febuarary: E3 is revived in the form of the World Electronic Game Expo. Hosted annually in Seattle, WA. Every booth in the expo is REQUIRED to have at least 1 booth babe.

March: Dragon Warrior(Quest) Online and Secret of Mana Online are announced for the Wii.

April: J.R.R.Tolkien rises from is grave to strangle the Creative Director for LoTR Online and take his place in development of the game.

May: Age of Conan releases along with the annoucement of a 5-part movie series. "CROM!"

June: All the employees at Code Masters are found at the site of a mass suicide with a single note pinned to one of the bodies reading "We're so sorry, Dragon Empires"

If anyone wants to continue feel free, if half of these things happened it would make 2007 the best year ever!

I guess it's nice to know ya can't even exclude politics in any discussion... keep your priorities straight sir.. or was that your plan from the beginning?  Other than that little blip of idiocy the rest of the column was rather nice.

Oh, and what I mean is this-

The FBI does this:

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is a federal criminal investigative, intelligence agency, and the primary investigative arm of the United States Department of Justice (DOJ). At present, the FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crimes, making the FBI the de-facto lead law enforcement agency of the United States government.

And the CIA does this:

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is an intelligence agency of the United States Government. Its primary function is obtaining and analyzing information about foreign governments, corporations, and persons, and reporting such information to the branches of the Government.

So yeah, the FBI doesn't have anything to do with securing homeland security.  They enforce it.

Originally posted by raedon023

I guess it's nice to know ya can't even exclude politics in any discussion... keep your priorities straight sir.. or was that your plan from the beginning?  Other than that little blip of idiocy the rest of the column was rather nice.

Oh, and what I mean is this-

The FBI does this:

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is a federal criminal investigative, intelligence agency, and the primary investigative arm of the United States Department of Justice (DOJ). At present, the FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crimes, making the FBI the de-facto lead law enforcement agency of the United States government.

And the CIA does this:

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is an intelligence agency of the United States Government. Its primary function is obtaining and analyzing information about foreign governments, corporations, and persons, and reporting such information to the branches of the Government.

So yeah, the FBI doesn't have anything to do with securing homeland security.  They enforce it.

Ah the internet where Wikipedia drains the abilty to think from everything it touches.

The FBI site seems to give that impression.

http://www.fbi.gov/terrorinfo/counterrorism/waronterrorhome.htm

Although it was just a joke, he is right that the FBI are responsable for investigating and breaking up criminal/terrorist plots that DO threaten the security of the whole country. They don't have unlimited resources, so yes, tracking down hackers who are just running a game server is pretty dumb.

Originally posted by japo
Hmmm...

A guy names his column WTF and my post gets deleted because I  question his ignorant comments and call him stupid....WTF?

I guess the author can make disprespectful comments about others, using the "I'm a columnist so I can do that" crap...but don't do it back to him.