Official Word :)

"Folks,

Mythic has always been committed to maintaining a high level of development and customer service to our MMO players. In anticipation of rumors regarding staff reductions here at Mythic today, this seems like a good time to provide some insight into the future of development, customer service, quality assurance and play testing at Mythic. Though we are resizing the team to move from a pre-launch to a post-launch size, we remain fully committed to creating and delivering the best WAR experience.

We have a very exciting schedule planned for new WAR content and that schedule is unchanged. Over the next few months, the announced "Call to Arms" live expansion events, new careers, new Tomb King themed area and RvR dungeon will be made available to our players as planned.

With respect to customer service, quality assurance and play testing, prior to the launch of WAR, we hired additional people to deal with the rush of demand associated with an MMO launch and to insure the best possible experience for our players. We accomplished that goal and as a result we had the smoothest-ever launch of a major MMO. Since the launch last year, the demand for customer service has gone down as players become more familiar with the game. Obviously, demand for a large QA and play-testing staff also falls after launch. As a result, we saw a staff reduction which is in line with the company-wide initiative. In no way does this conflict with our commitment to customer service. Staffing numbers will always map to consumer needs ? it goes up when we launch new products and expand popular ones, and comes back down as players become familiar with the game.

Although we now have fewer developers on the game than we did leading up to the launch, WAR still has a larger dev team today than we ever had for Dark Age of Camelot. At Mythic, we?re committed to maintaining the trust of WAR players ? we?re going to deliver the content and service that keeps you playing.

Mark"

And apparently one of the producers?(?) Spike Alexander isn't working at Mythic anymore according to his facebook, lol.

Originally posted by Furyus

I'm so confused by the posts on this website.  All this talk of subs dropping below <insert random number> and EA will pull the plug!

You do realize EQ1 and DDO (random examples) are still running with easily (I'm guessing just as everyone else) subscribers than WAR has, presumably less than WAR will have a year from now.

It's possible people don't mean the game will shut down when they talk about pulling the plug, but that the funding stops, meaning the game will continue on a skeleton crew while the majority of people are put on other projects. Keep the fans, reduce the costs.

Originally posted by Pheace

Official Word :)

 

"Folks,

Mythic has always been committed to maintaining a high level of development and customer service to our MMO players. In anticipation of rumors regarding staff reductions here at Mythic today, this seems like a good time to provide some insight into the future of development, customer service, quality assurance and play testing at Mythic. Though we are resizing the team to move from a pre-launch to a post-launch size, we remain fully committed to creating and delivering the best WAR experience.

We have a very exciting schedule planned for new WAR content and that schedule is unchanged. Over the next few months, the announced "Call to Arms" live expansion events, new careers, new Tomb King themed area and RvR dungeon will be made available to our players as planned.

With respect to customer service, quality assurance and play testing, prior to the launch of WAR, we hired additional people to deal with the rush of demand associated with an MMO launch and to insure the best possible experience for our players. We accomplished that goal and as a result we had the smoothest-ever launch of a major MMO. Since the launch last year, the demand for customer service has gone down as players become more familiar with the game. Obviously, demand for a large QA and play-testing staff also falls after launch. As a result, we saw a staff reduction which is in line with the company-wide initiative. In no way does this conflict with our commitment to customer service. Staffing numbers will always map to consumer needs ? it goes up when we launch new products and expand popular ones, and comes back down as players become familiar with the game.

Although we now have fewer developers on the game than we did leading up to the launch, WAR still has a larger dev team today than we ever had for Dark Age of Camelot. At Mythic, we?re committed to maintaining the trust of WAR players ? we?re going to deliver the content and service that keeps you playing.

Mark"

 

And apparently one of the producers?(?) Spike Alexander isn't working at Mythic anymore according to his facebook, lol.

Nicely put propaganda, he almost made it sound like firing all those people is just a normal thing big succesful MMORPG's go through, that is was always planned and happens to every MMORPG out there. Yeah, very funny. I'm sure Blizzard fired most of their GM staff and developers as part of this natural cycle lmao.

---

Originally posted by Pheace
Official Word :)
 
"Folks,
Mythic has always been committed to maintaining a high level of development and customer service to our MMO players. In anticipation of rumors regarding staff reductions here at Mythic today, this seems like a good time to provide some insight into the future of development, customer service, quality assurance and play testing at Mythic. Though we are resizing the team to move from a pre-launch to a post-launch size, we remain fully committed to creating and delivering the best WAR experience.
We have a very exciting schedule planned for new WAR content and that schedule is unchanged. Over the next few months, the announced "Call to Arms" live expansion events, new careers, new Tomb King themed area and RvR dungeon will be made available to our players as planned.
With respect to customer service, quality assurance and play testing, prior to the launch of WAR, we hired additional people to deal with the rush of demand associated with an MMO launch and to insure the best possible experience for our players. We accomplished that goal and as a result we had the smoothest-ever launch of a major MMO. Since the launch last year, the demand for customer service has gone down as players become more familiar with the game. Obviously, demand for a large QA and play-testing staff also falls after launch. As a result, we saw a staff reduction which is in line with the company-wide initiative. In no way does this conflict with our commitment to customer service. Staffing numbers will always map to consumer needs ? it goes up when we launch new products and expand popular ones, and comes back down as players become familiar with the game.
Although we now have fewer developers on the game than we did leading up to the launch, WAR still has a larger dev team today than we ever had for Dark Age of Camelot. At Mythic, we?re committed to maintaining the trust of WAR players ? we?re going to deliver the content and service that keeps you playing.
Mark"
 
And apparently one of the producers?(?) Spike Alexander isn't working at Mythic anymore according to his facebook, lol.

---

Wow. Just... wow. After this news, I have to revise my thinking.

I don't think they have the six months to wait for content. If MJ has anything at all ready, he needs to put that into the game now, and not wait for some big "expansion" package deal. They may not have enough people later to finish stuff.

Even if its only fixing one classes' crowd control advantage, put it in now.

Originally posted by popinjay

 

---

Originally posted by Pheace
Official Word :)
 
"Folks,
Mythic has always been committed to maintaining a high level of development and customer service to our MMO players. In anticipation of rumors regarding staff reductions here at Mythic today, this seems like a good time to provide some insight into the future of development, customer service, quality assurance and play testing at Mythic. Though we are resizing the team to move from a pre-launch to a post-launch size, we remain fully committed to creating and delivering the best WAR experience.
We have a very exciting schedule planned for new WAR content and that schedule is unchanged. Over the next few months, the announced "Call to Arms" live expansion events, new careers, new Tomb King themed area and RvR dungeon will be made available to our players as planned.
With respect to customer service, quality assurance and play testing, prior to the launch of WAR, we hired additional people to deal with the rush of demand associated with an MMO launch and to insure the best possible experience for our players. We accomplished that goal and as a result we had the smoothest-ever launch of a major MMO. Since the launch last year, the demand for customer service has gone down as players become more familiar with the game. Obviously, demand for a large QA and play-testing staff also falls after launch. As a result, we saw a staff reduction which is in line with the company-wide initiative. In no way does this conflict with our commitment to customer service. Staffing numbers will always map to consumer needs ? it goes up when we launch new products and expand popular ones, and comes back down as players become familiar with the game.
Although we now have fewer developers on the game than we did leading up to the launch, WAR still has a larger dev team today than we ever had for Dark Age of Camelot. At Mythic, we?re committed to maintaining the trust of WAR players ? we?re going to deliver the content and service that keeps you playing.
Mark"
 
And apparently one of the producers?(?) Spike Alexander isn't working at Mythic anymore according to his facebook, lol.

---

 

Wow. Just... wow. After this news, I have to revise my thinking.

I don't think they have the six months to wait for content. If MJ has anything at all ready, he needs to put that into the game now, and not wait for some big "expansion" package deal. They may not have enough people later to finish stuff.

Even if its only fixing one classes' crowd control advantage, put it in now.
 

I gave WAR until December 2009 yesterday. I'll give it until summer 2009 or so now, tops.

And honestly, even if they added all the planned "expansion" stuff to go in tomorrow, people won't come back. It wasn't the abundance of dungeons and classes that made people quit. It was the complete lack of normal replayable content and endgame.

I can't find the official link to Mark Jacobs statement though, anyone able to provide?
 

Originally posted by Pheace

150-175k is a bit too much probably but I would not be surprised if it's between 200-300k now, a lot of discontent in the last month (on other forums at least ^^)and no real reason to believe the decline has stopped or even reversed especially with servers like REM etc proclaiming "death", there seems to be a new server every week. (on the Vnboards at least :))

I had to comment because you mentioned my server specifically.  I was under the impression that maybe ed Eye Mountain was one of the only servers doing well.. since I play several hours a day and I don't see any reason for all the doom and gloom people post here.  RvR is active every night, our guild is growing all the time.  I can say with absolute certainty that our server isn't dead or dying.  Looking around it certainly seems there are more people paying than ever before.

Originally posted by Salvatoris

Originally posted by Pheace

150-175k is a bit too much probably but I would not be surprised if it's between 200-300k now, a lot of discontent in the last month (on other forums at least ^^)and no real reason to believe the decline has stopped or even reversed especially with servers like REM etc proclaiming "death", there seems to be a new server every week. (on the Vnboards at least :))

 

I had to comment because you mentioned my server specifically.  I was under the impression that maybe ed Eye Mountain was one of the only servers doing well.. since I play several hours a day and I don't see any reason for all the doom and gloom people post here.  RvR is active every night, our guild is growing all the time.  I can say with absolute certainty that our server isn't dead or dying.  Looking around it certainly seems there are more people paying than ever before.

What level are you?

---

We accomplished that goal and as a result we had the smoothest-ever launch of a major MMO. Since the launch last year, the demand for customer service has gone down as players become more familiar with the game.

---

This part is the "LAWL" part.

Is he actually saying that they are firing customer service because there just aren't enough complaints for them to handle and they are just twiddling their thumbs in cubicles because everyone knows how to play the game now, hence no calls?

WTFROFL Mark!

Originally posted by Salvatoris

Originally posted by Pheace

150-175k is a bit too much probably but I would not be surprised if it's between 200-300k now, a lot of discontent in the last month (on other forums at least ^^)and no real reason to believe the decline has stopped or even reversed especially with servers like REM etc proclaiming "death", there seems to be a new server every week. (on the Vnboards at least :))

 

I had to comment because you mentioned my server specifically.  I was under the impression that maybe ed Eye Mountain was one of the only servers doing well.. since I play several hours a day and I don't see any reason for all the doom and gloom people post here.  RvR is active every night, our guild is growing all the time.  I can say with absolute certainty that our server isn't dead or dying.  Looking around it certainly seems there are more people paying than ever before.

Well, search through the Vnboards and you'll find a thread especially catered to REM calling for server transfers, pretty sure they referred to the WHA server forums as well and spoke of a few guilds transferring.

I said "dead" because it isn't, yet, but it's heading there, according to certain players at least. I'm not saying they are right or you are right but there's always people with different thresholds on every server, there was a thread going where nearly everyone agreed their server was dying apart from the resident fanboi who just "didn't see it". And I'm sure you could find the exact reverse in other situations.

In any case, that's why I said "proclaiming" which means it is hearsay. Time will tell as once it starts it's unlikely to stop unless the overall pop of the game grows. When people start leaving, other people will hit their thresholds and leave, triggering even more people. Viscious circle.

 Ow, and the prevailing arguments isn't that it isn't alive several hours a day during prime time, it's that it's not alive during the rest of the time.

lol whocares about expansion when ppl are leaving b/c of the bad end game and UI and combat and itemization and crafting and balance and skills and bugs and bugs and bugs.  Wait did I just say the whole game needs revamp?

Originally posted by Honeymoon69

lol whocares about expansion when ppl are leaving b/c of the bad end game and UI and combat and itemization and crafting and balance and skills and bugs and bugs and bugs.  Wait did I just say the whole game needs revamp?

 

 

 

They should hire some people from SoE, in particular the ones involved in a certain NGE deal of SWG LOL

all of the problem they had were brought up back in beta for a long time but they thought they hit a homerun with the IP didnt really care much about beta tester's suggestion.  At the end it was just a flyball in the center field and 2 outs.

Originally posted by Honeymoon69

all of the problem they had were brought up back in beta for a long time but they thought they hit a homerun with the IP didnt really care much about beta tester's suggestion.  At the end it was just a flyball in the center field and 2 outs.

 

 

 

WAR should have never been allowed live the way it is. It's almost like big MMORPG developers never learn from the few good ones out there. They should have listened when people said there was nothing to do and noone to do that nothing with in the first place. I'd fire most of them for sure. Oh wait, someone already did.......

I am a huge fan of the Warhammer IP and I was massivly disappointed in what Mythic produced but they were working on it and going to sort it all out so I stuck it out until December.

It came clear that after people just sat in scenarios just to level and that Mythic had missed the point that people would do the easiest thing to level and it was lonely if you weren't in camp waiting for scenarios to pop.

Now that there is what amounts to massive layoffs I can see mythic going the way of Westwood and Earth & Beyond and EA pulling it and spending their money on yet more sequals as they know they will get their cash back from them.

To my mind the whole MMO industry needs a good rethink about where it is going as 2008 was terrible and I can't see it get any better.

 Obviously, demand for a large QA and play-testing staff also falls after launch.

Yes,why pay people to QA and play test when you can have people pay you to do it,eg subscribers?

Originally posted by Mykell

WAR isnt bad but with so many other games out there (WOW, LOTRO, EQ2 etc) it doesnt excel in the one thing that makes it different from the others.....RvR.

This! Mythic should have focused on their strengths. DAoC was known for its RvR mechanics. So Mythic had a lot of expertice in this area. Yet they decided to create WoW clone with some little bit of DAoC flair. They hyped RvR in Warhammer as the major feature. Yet endgame is mostly PvE grind. How does that fit? I still believe their is a market for the PvP crowd. Just read the WoW forums. It seems not many are happy with the current state of PvP unless you play a FoTM class. Mythic had the chance to develop such a game. But unfortunately they decided to make the game more similar to WoW than DAoC

On top of this: why couldn't they just use a proper game engine ...

Warhammer hit a snag due to the wow expansion for sure, once the cools down I am sure we will see a rise in WAR.

What amazes me however is why they even made Warhammer... why not make Warhammer 40K online and beat Blizzard to the SciFi MMO scene? Once they make (and they will..) Worlds of Starcraft it will be too late, and Warhammer will just be one of many trying to catch up. 

Originally posted by mcharj11

Originally posted by Oneish

Warhammer hit a snag due to the wow expansion for sure, once the cools down I am sure we will see a rise in WAR.

What amazes me however is why they even made Warhammer... why not make Warhammer 40K online and beat Blizzard to the SciFi MMO scene? Once they make (and they will..) Worlds of Starcraft it will be too late, and Warhammer will just be one of many trying to catch up. 

 

A 40k MMO is already being developed by Vigil games, a studio of industry veterans formed by THQ. It has been in development since 2006 so i expect screens and videos this year.

oh really , well that will be interesting. I hope they actually do some good reaserch before letting the game out.

would love to see a company make a good game with a good ip.

---

Originally posted by Oneish
Warhammer hit a snag due to the wow expansion for sure, once the cools down I am sure we will see a rise in WAR.

---

"Warhammer Online was developed by Mythic Entertainment and simultaneously released in North and South Americas, Europe, Asia, Australia and New Zealand on September 18, 2008".

Two months pass....

"Wrath of the Lich King was released on November 13, 2008, selling 2.8 million copies within the first 24 hours of availability. This makes it the fastest selling computer game of all time, beating the record set by the previous World of Warcraft expansion The Burning Crusade, which sold 2.4 million within its first 24 hours".

Tons of people left Warhammer long before WOTLK released. They did not quit Warhammer in anticipation of WOTLK. They quit Warhammer for a variety of reasons, the most common being that after the first month the game went snoozy on you. Warhammer's fall had nothing to do with WoW setting snags and pulling people away from Warhammer.

Warhammer got those subscriptions to run away all by itself. You really need to stop blaming Wow for Warhammer's ills and be honest about the situation. Letting Mythic off the hook by pointing at Wow is what they are hoping everyone will do.

Originally posted by Oneish

Warhammer hit a snag due to the wow expansion for sure, once the cools down I am sure we will see a rise in WAR.

What amazes me however is why they even made Warhammer... why not make Warhammer 40K online and beat Blizzard to the SciFi MMO scene? Once they make (and they will..) Worlds of Starcraft it will be too late, and Warhammer will just be one of many trying to catch up. 

Yes, let's see, Mythic creates a sci-fi to beat Blizzard to it. They release a game with the same quality and replayability as WAR. Blizzard then creates a sci-fi with the same quality and replayability of WoW.

Which game do you honestly think people will play with WAR in the back of their heads still and the huge failure it has proven to be? I doubt they can even get the funding from EA to begin creating one on top of that.

And besides Warhammer 40k is already being developed I believe, hopefully by someone quite a bit more competent than Mythic.

Oh and like the guy above me explained, it's getting seriously old to blame WoW for every single downfall of the new MMORPG's coming out. Maybe it's the games that are total crap, ever think of that? And most people had already quit by the time WoTLK came out. I'm not playing either of those 2 games right now but I stuck with WoW and the new expansion a heck of a lot longer than I did with WAR. And most likely I'll return to WoW sometime in the next few months. Will I return to WAR with the fluff "expansion"? Not a chance in hell.