Greetings everyone and welcome back to the Wayback Wednesday recap. We took a small hiatus but came back with one of our best episodes yet featuring Dark Age of Camelot. Last time we ventured into the world of DAoC we did so in the New Frontiers as members of the realm of Midguard. As promised we looped back around and went to Cathal Valley to make up for missing it last time.
A number of things have changed over at the Dark Age of Camelot camp since we talked last. The most visible change was Mythic dropping Bioware from their name. They are solely known now as Mythic Entertainment once again (they are still owned by EA). The reason for this is to refocus and strengthen their brand name. Talal Saad, formerly a developer for DAoC, has been promoted to Assistant Producer and project lead for the game. This is a big step up for Talal but after many dealings with him I can attest that Talal lives DAoC and will be a good steward for the game. We were also introduced to Tim Chappell. Tim is the new Community Manager for Mythic and has taken over for Kai Schober. If you didn't already know, Kai has gone on to become the German Community manager for ZeniMax entertainment and is working on Elder Scrolls Online. I talked to Kai before the show and rest assured he still loves DAoC and we could possibly see him again on a future broadcast.
Talal was more open during this broadcast than I have ever seen him before. He answered more questions in an hour and a half than he has answered in 2 or 3 of the previous episodes. One of the first bits of information that he announced is that characters on the Mordred server will finally be able to transfer to Ywain. While all the details were not provided, we should expect these transfers to be available in January. The team is also in the process of redesigning the Champion Quests. These quests will reward players with a new set of epic armor.
Talal and Tim also answered a number of viewer questions throughout the evening. Card asked about having more events for players. Talal stated that this is an initiative they are actively looking into. They want to directly engage their player base in these events. They also want to provide the opportunity for fans and players alike to earn real rewards. It was then that we announced that we were giving away five 30-day time cards throughout the evening. The viewers Crumworld, Jkwel, Matthewkane, Malatryx, and Epiclyralphy all won a free 30 days of DAoC.
Another popular question was about the herald: what is Mythic doing to increase functionality and why was it limited in the first place. Turns out the primary reason for the limited function was player safety. As the code became more antiquated and hackers abilities became more sophisticated it was determined that the herald prevented a number of possible security breaches. Mythic decided to remove a lot of the functionality instead of allowing the Herald to act as what Tim referred to as a "hacker hotel." Tim also talked about the fact they are constantly trying to improve the herald. While Tim doesn't believe it will ever have the guild functionality that it used to, Mythic does strive to put events and other pertinent information on the herald.
Another question that we had a good discussion about is DAoC and how to make it a free-to-play game. Players and developer alike agree that you cannot just flip a switch and let everyone back on the servers without a plan to monetize the game. The question is what could you charge for. Would you as the player pay for cosmetic items in DAoC? Would you pay for small PvE quest packs when the primary focus of the game is RvR? Also with the game being focused on killing other players how would you keep the game from becoming what many would call “pay-to-win” if you could buy weapons, armor, or power boosts? If DAoC was converted to a free-to-play, game what would you pay for in a marketplace to keep the game afloat? Next time we have a stream I'll random off a 30-day time card from all the responses in the comments below.
There was a host of other questions answered during the stream covering everything from plat caps and revisiting loot tables on old PvE encounters, to emailing previous players in a campaign to bring back old vets to the game. The next time we visit DAoC will be on January 9th and we will finally be a part of the Albion realm. The adventure will take place in the Thidranki battleground so prepare your level 20-24 characters.
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Now for tonight? Well this week’s Wayback Wednesday will focus on Asheron's Call 2. In a surprise move Turbine flipped a switch and brought a game that no one was talking about back from the grave and set the whole Internet abuzz. Was Santa really to blame for this resuscitation or does Turbine having something (a sequel perhaps?) up their sleeve. We will speculate about this on MMORPG's Live stream channel at 9:30 EST. You can find me on Facebook or harass me on Twitter long before that with your best guess. As always thanks for watching!
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