While not strictly related to Blizzard, we’ve been following the progress of the former Flagship Studios’ developers, so this is relevant.
GameCyte has a new interview up with two of them who have started a new studio, Runic Games, who are Max Schaeferand Travis Baldree. The interview delves deep into why the company moved, why they think FSS failed like it did. It specifically mentions the current state of FSS right now as well. Specifically Max makes an emphasis on the fact that for all intents and purposes Flagship Studios is closed down, and Bill is just there to finish off the closure.
Max then goes on to talk about his brother and his involvement with the team. It then goes on to talk about if FSS had any chance of staying open. They then talk of the sorts of games they want to make with the new studios.
Next they talk about the game’s (Mythos) differentiation with Diablo 3 and Sacred 2, as well as the whole colour issue in Diablo 3. Lastly they mention that Namco at the moment is just handling the box sales of Hellgate London, but there is no current knowledge of what they plan to do with the game later.
GamesRadar has interviewed Max Schaefer, with a quote entitled “We just wanted to whack skeletons with clubs”. Such is the simple premise of Mythos, a game that’s incredibly fun not in spite of, but due to its overall simplicity and straightforwardness in design. Here’s a snippet from the aforementioned interview:
GR: Mythos is a rarity in the MMO sphere in that it’s completely free of subscription fees. What brought about that decision? Distaste for the current publishing model? The need to compete in a WoW-dominated market? Something else entirely?
MS: We’d like to think we’re clever enough to have made up this model, but the truth is that it’s become the dominant business model in Asia, and is quickly coming to the US/Europe market. Certainly, it’s foolish to compete directly with WoW, but even if there was no WoW, we would still be moving in this direction. We like the model because of the low barrier to entry. You don’t need to go to a store, buy a box, and commit to payments on a game you’re not sure you want to play. We are confident in Mythos, and confident that people will want to participate after they’ve tried it out.
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.
We’ve finished preparing the transcript for the Mythos DevChat that we held earlier today on our IRC channel. If you missed it earlier or arrived late, or simply want to go over the questions and answers, you can check it out here!
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
