NEWS En Guarde?

[Petra Fyde]

​

So it's bye bye Mythic and hello Broadsword for Ultima Online and Dark Age of Camelot. The company name alone is inspirational and uplifting; bringing a smile to many a veteran UO player. How many of us began our venture into online gaming as a warrior with broadsword in hand?
Broadsword describe themselves as a team of passionate, hardcore gamers. Only the most cynical could doubt the passion and commitment of our UO Producer, Bonnie (Mesanna) Armstrong. We, the players, sincerely hope that the rest of the team are of the same calibre; because most of us are pretty passionate about our games too.
We eagerly look forward to seeing where Broadsword's passion will lead us. We at Stratics will be here, as ever, supporting the teams to the best of our ability.
Our Editor in Chief gives her views on this news.

 

[kelmo]

 

[startle]

Hope springs eternal...

 

[Arroth Thaiel]

'Till some multi-national fracks up the spring.

 

[startle]

'Till some multi-national fracks up the spring.

Say what?

 

[Lefty]

Nothing new here, EA sends the red headed step child to another baby sitter.

 

[G.v.P]

So it's bye bye Mythic and hello Broadsword for Ultima Online and Dark Age of Camelot.

Wait...so Mythic Entertainment is now known as Broadsword? I thought Mythic was going to retain their name and work with Broadsword.

Beginning February 1st, 2014, Mythic Entertainment Co-Founder Rob Denton’s new studio: Broadsword Online Games (http://www.broadsword.com) will partner with EA’s Mythic Entertainment to operate, support and develop Ultima Online on EA’s behalf. Electronic Arts will continue to provide billing and account services through its Origin™ portal. Broadsword and Electronic Arts will work closely together to ensure a bright future for Ultima Online. For future inquiries and support, you can contact [email protected].

Kind of like how Pixar re-joined Disney? Hm.

How many of us began our venture into online gaming as a warrior with broadsword in hand?

Viking sword, 1999.

 

[Petra Fyde]

Wait...so Mythic Entertainment is now known as Broadsword? I thought Mythic was going to retain their name and work with Broadsword.

no, Broadsword is not Mythic.
Mythic Entertainment is still in Fairfax and still dealing with all the non-MMO games that are under their control
http://massively.joystiq.com/2014/0...-new-studio-take-over-daoc-and-ultima-online/

Broadsword are operating out of offices in Herndon, as you can see from Kyronix's profile.

 

[Draxous]

This sounds like a feel good campaign to shoot rainbows up peoples arses.

You guys may not have been paying attention, but there was a big net neutrality battle lost recently that opened the doors for ISPs to limit bandwidth that will no doubt begin to have implications on games like this (if it hasn't already). Already there is an assault on AWS (amazon's cloud service) and you can bet your bottom half that the war is soon to come.

Given the poor performance of the cloud so far. I wonder if everyones not paying attention.

Another name, same people pushing the same stuff. Hopefully, they listened. History shows, they probably didn't.

 

[GalenKnighthawke]

The negative reaction to this news I really find quite hilarious.

I can understand "meh." I can understand flat apathy. But for the news to actively be taken negatively is just dumb.

Am I optimistic? Not really. But, realistically, this news cannot be negative. The worst case scenario for us right now is that anything terrible that happens now likely would have happened anyway.

-Galen's player

 

[Arroth Thaiel]

Say what?

Sorry startle,

My really terrible attempt at non-sequitor humor.

"Hope Springs Eternal"

Springs....like water from a spring.

Fracking.....like what is happening with oil and gas prospecting in the Midwest/Eastern US, leaving peoples wells with volatile tap water, etc. Much of which is done by large oil & gas companies.

Therefore, in my mind, multinational corporation using fracking and messing up the "springs" of potable water.

Get it? No. Yeah, my bad.

 

[LetheGL]

If this new small studio goes belly up will UO go with it? That's the only thing that kinda worries me. Otherwise, I think it'll be good to have a small focused group take over things..

 

[G.v.P]

I wouldn't be too worried...they're outsourcing to an established, legit company that is still relatively "in the family," which should be able to function with more precision due to the contractor status. I look forward to the transition.

 

[Viquire]

Drax is commenting on things related to the internet, that are completely outside the control of any gaming company. There are some features unique to UO that may make it of more interest where those changes are concerned, especially in overseas markets, but right now the focus is on "everywhere, all at once".

As always I welcome fresh energy and more resources. Now the only thing left to do is see what the future holds.

 

[Taylor]

If this new small studio goes belly up will UO go with it? That's the only thing that kinda worries me. Otherwise, I think it'll be good to have a small focused group take over things..

Not necessarily. The new company doesn't own the title. EA owns the title. Broadsword is publishing/operating it.

 

[Mitzlplik_LS]

Is it any wonder people are so pessimistic when it comes to the handling of UO? Time and time and time again,balls were dropped,promises made and nothing but disappointment with more promises to follow. After see`in whats out there in terms of UO and UO alternatives (still UO) I fail to have much faith that they can even catch up to their non official counterparts. So much more done with so much less. Really makes me wonder why even the most trivial of fixes/changes take so friggin long with OSI:UO. Especially since official UO had/has an actual TEAM. I personally feel stupid or naive for buying into some of the BS about why things are at a stand still and things like factions STILL aren`t adressed. A slue of other things could be pointed out very easily.

Hope only lasts for so long,after that is gone..... just don`t care.

 

[LetheGL]

Not necessarily. The new company doesn't own the title. EA owns the title. Broadsword is publishing/operating it.

That's good news! Thanks for the reply.

 

[Dot_Warner]

The pessimism and optimism both have their place in this debate.

That being said, the optimism at this point is based more off wishes and dreams rather than any cold, hard reality.

Broadsword is made up of ex-Mythic employees. As Mesanna said: "...Mythic Entertainment Co-Founder Rob Denton’s new studio: Broadsword Online Games (http://www.broadsword.com) will partner with EA’s Mythic Entertainment to operate, support and develop Ultima Online on EA’s behalf."

The DAoC producer said, "Mythic Entertainment co-founder Rob Denton and a number of Mythic veterans (including two members of Camelot’s original team!) have formed a new game studio - Broadsword Online Games!"

Thus, we know the track record of at least some of the new management. Not all, but some. Going back through the history of Mythic, we can objectively judge their performance. They had multiple games to manage in the past and we know what state they are in now: DAoC has had minimal new content outside events, UO has limped along with smatterings of new content and global events, WAR and its offshoot never fared well and are now both dead. Currently Mythic is on a downhill trajectory with two less than stellar performing mobile games.

Compare the UO site to the DAoC site. Ignoring the Publish 85.3 post, you see a stark difference in communication. DAoC already has a new Community Lead. While we can hope UO receives similar enrichment, recent history would indicate that we may get the short end of the stick. Consider how often the last community person, Kai, who was split between all of Mythic's games, bothered to post or respond to UO players on any UO-related forum or post to the UO site. While I know certain people like to cite the vitriolic nature of some posts as a limiting factor in Mythic's posting, even a brief survey of the other game's forums showed similar behavior. I really, really hope to be proven wrong in the near future as Mesanna announces our own official, Broadsword employed Community Lead, but I'm not going to hold my breath.

I'm trying to be optimistic about this new change in management, but I'm not going to ignore the past and solely engage in wishful thinking.

 

[Draxous]

Drax is commenting on things related to the internet, that are completely outside the control of any gaming company. There are some features unique to UO that may make it of more interest where those changes are concerned, especially in overseas markets, but right now the focus is on "everywhere, all at once".

To say it's completely outside the control of any gaming company is completely false. This is a precursor to an assault on every gaming companys business. You may not understand how lobbying works, but this is something every gaming company from small to big should be lobbying against.

Also, recently, if you noticed, the games performance went to crap and they had to remove features in order to restore it to a respectable level. Ponder on that for a minute. This is intertwined. Period.