We’ve been quiet for a while over here, but that’s about to change. As you all know, we’re applying the polishing touches on our huge Zone 3 update. But we’re also going to be making some website changes. Big ones. Our website has been long neglected, but our crack team has put together a killer new site that will be unveiled very soon! Probably even this week. Right now we’re tentatively scheduled to bring down this site on Thursday morning, and we’ll be down for several hours while we make sure everything is hooked up right. When we come back up, a sparkling new Mythos site will be revealed.
There are a couple of things you need to be aware of. When the new site comes up, there will be no more beta sign ups. Also, the invitations granted to your account will no longer work, so send them out now if you’ve got ‘em! This is because we’ll soon be transitioning into an Open Beta Test, where anyone can download and play Mythos! There’s a lot to be excited about, and the action is going to be fast and furious from here on out. Buckle your seat belts!!!
Online Welten, a German gaming website, has posted up an interview they conducted with Travis Baldree who is one of the main guys behind Mythos. The interview has been kindly translated by Online Welten into english, so head over to their site to read the whole thing. Here is a snippet from it:
OnlineWelten: Everbody who sees Mythos the first time, starts yelling “Diablo”. But how close to Diablo is Mythos really?
Travis Baldree: The core gameplay and feel is very, very similar to Diablo - but the structure of the world, and the instanced gameplay are much more akin to Guild Wars. In the end, with the random map system and the focus on speed, packs of monsters, and constant expansion of content, it’s starting to become its own beast.
OnlineWelten: Escpecially in Germany they are many sceptics concerning ingame-content bought by reallife money. How would you argue against those people? Better said: How would you convince them to pay?
Travis Baldree: We’re trying to refrain from just selling `powerful items` ingame - instead we’re charging for features like pets, respecs, cosmetic items, fireworks, and bonus items that might increase your luck or a similar attribute. We still want you playing the game. And with a dual currency system, players can legitimately trade for anything - even purchased items or services - without ever spending any real money.
OnlineWelten: If you have to describe Mythos in just three words…
CVG has interviewed Max Schaefer about Mythos and talked to him about the business model, the game’s features and the payment model behind the game.
They also talked to Max a bit about the computer market in general.
Is it tough dealing with the stigma that’s attached to free MMOs that feature real-money transactions? Often it’s the case that those willing to pay are the ones to access the best items in a game…
Schaefer: Only if you SELL the best items in a game! We intend to have all players find their items by adventuring and killing monsters, or by crafting them. The ‘pay’ players may have an easier time doing it, but the same items are available to all players. There is a stigma with ‘free’ MMOs, but there’s also a much smaller barrier to entry, so we hope that we can convert the sceptics with direct evidence.
WanderingGoblin and their sister site IncGamers got an exclusive interview with Taylor Balbi at this years Game Developers Convention.
We know Taylor Balbi as the Mythos Community Manager. The interview mentions the team at Flagship Seattle, what Mythos itself is like, what other games it is similar to. Taylor also talks of the different classes and the races and shows them off ingame. He also talks of future classes to be added, but does not specify when or what they are.
There is also talk of open beta in March! Yay!
He also talks about the payment system, which will include Real Money Transactions. The things that will be sold will make the game more fun, but will not be a necessity. Also things like special maps will be used for entire parties, not just people who bought them. The paid items will also be able to be traded ingame.
There is talk of the crafting system, which will have a tier based system of skills specifically for crafting.
Attention all Game Industry Veterans and Hopefuls! If you happen to be going to the 2008 Game Developers Conference here in San Francisco, you should stop by the Nvidia section and chat with us. We will be showing off Mythos to everyone there and hope it gains some more popularity. Most likely you’ll run into myself Taylor Balbi, or if you’re lucky you’ll catch Scapes there. We’ll be there Wednesday through Friday open to close and look forward to seeing you there!
Curse.com has posted up a new video preview of zone 3, and while we have similar videos already, they also provided us with a Q&A session with Travis Baldree.
The Q&A goes through some interesting questions including talk of PVP, Zone Sizes as well as story lines.
Quests and lore. Right now you do not feel too involved in the storyline and the lore aspects of the world. This could be improved upon greatly with more interesting and unique quests. Perhaps class specific quests and/or epic quests. Also, adding more lore and storyline development (i.e epic quest) would make the players feel part of the world a lot more. Is there any such plans for the future?
Definitely, and we’re acutely aware here of the lack of story in the game. We’re looking at doing some simple ( but hopefully stylish ) mini-cinematics to set the stage for the world, and our third Zone is more ‘lore-centric’ than previous zones, telling the story of what happened to the Dwarven race. We’ve also started adding books to the game with snippets of story. We sort of went about development backwards given our initial purpose as a network test. In the beginning, having the mechanics in place was the most important thing. Now that we’ve got the game up and running and enjoyable, we’re beginning a big effort to inject more story and lore into the game. We are also looking at new quest types to break up the flow of the game more.
There are many interesting questions to read, so head over to Curse and check them out.
Stropp’s world blog site has posted up their second preview of Mythos, this time levels 6 through to 12.
I was going to title this post Mythos 6 - 10, but I got a bit carried away and leveled up to twelve. It’s not hard, Mythos is one of the games where I can easily get to the end of a quest and tell myself I have time for one more.
CVG, a gaming website, has today published a huge five minute long video of the new Mythos Zone on their website.
They also briefly talk of what Mythos is like.
The game world works a bit like Guild Wars. Each zone has a central town, a number of instances of which can exist depending on the population level in this hub.
Once you leave the hub to embark on quests, everything is instanced and randomly generated, from paths through to dungeons to the dungeons themselves.
So, once you venture into the wild, it’s either just you on your own or you with your party of plucky fellow adventures pitted against the opponents the game throws at you.
When it’s on full public release, you’ll be able to download and play Mythos for free, which is bloody brilliant in our book.
The video is played in their own player, which sadly can not be embedded so here is a link to it.
Stropp’s World, a gaming blog, has published up an interview that they took with Max Schaeffer, who is the executive producer of Mythos.
The interview is full of information on what is to come as well as information on what the pricing system will be like. A snippet is provided below, but I suggest heading over to Stropp’s site to check out the full interview as it’s full of interesting information.
Stropp: It’s been previously announced that Mythos will be free to play. Can you tell us what revenue model you will be using? What incentives will there be for players to pay extra?
Max: We will be using an RMT model. Our goal is to provide a wonderful, robust free experience, but offer attractive options for people who are willing to pay to get extra luxuries, or enhance their adventuring. We don’t want to simply sell the best items - even paying players will have to go kill monsters to find the best loot. Also, we plan to let players trade the in-game cash currency for items with non-paying players. This way, even the cash items will be available to free players, and we’ll avoid splitting the community into the haves and have-nots.
Stropp: There’s been quite a lot of discussion around the MMO blogging community recently about RMT. How do you intend to deal with third party gold and item sellers?
Max: It’s very difficult to stop item selling. Instead, we are investigating actually allowing players to sell items though a secure in-game marketplace rather than resorting to Ebay. We don’t think gold farming will be a huge issue in Mythos, however, since the RMT currency cannot be farmed, and the in-game gold doesn’t buy you everything you need. Nevertheless, we stop gold farming whenever we can.
As some of you may have noticed, we have a fresh new batch of Mythos Beta testers joining us. Welcome to all of you! So far we’ve hit a CCU record of 975, and should break 1000 this weekend! We’re not 100% sure what is going to happen once everyone is on, but it should be fun to watch! Please help make everyone feel welcome, and remember, the Mythos Beta is an international test, and all languages may be spoken in chat. We ask that everyone is respectful and understanding of our growing community and diverse demographics.
Mythos Guru was founded early in 2007 as the first fansite and forum ever dedicated to Flagship Studios' online game, Mythos. It caters to an international base of players and guilds. Following in the footsteps of its predecessor Hellgate Guru, Mythos Guru shares a proud tradition of sponsoring and organizing community backed projects and events, and a powerful skill calculator. More
