Recently, former Mythic co-founder Mark Jacobs has been on a media blitz talking about his next MMO project: Camelot Unchained. Sound familiar? It should, as Mythic still runs Dark Age of Camelot. As you can imagine, this has stirred up a bit of controversy. I am of two minds on the subject. First, I'll put on the Blogger hat.
Blogger. Over the years, Mythic has been very good to me. Through the core tester program and several visits to the studio, they have really made me feel involved with a game I love (WAR). That has earned them some loyalty from me, which is only natural.
During one of Mark's early interviews about CU, he basically threw his team under the bus for WAR's shortcomings. I don't know Mark, so I can't say if it was intentional, but as the leader the buck stops with him. So using your team as an excuse is pretty weak.
I also find it strange to be going up against your former company by making pretty much the same game. The working title even has Camelot in it, and we know it has 3 realms, which happen to be the some of the same as the original title. Again, I'm a bit biased when I have my blogger hat on, but come on.
Now, time to slide on the gamer hat.
Gamer. I can't help but be interested in what Mark is selling. I never played DAoC during it's heyday. The game feels too dated to try and get into now. So a new version of DAoC definitely piques my interest. I love progressing via PvP, I also love distinct classes and lots of them. Those are both features Camelot Unchained is offering. It would seem to be right up my alley.
On the downside, the game has no funding at the moment. A kickstarter is planned to go live in March where they hope to earn millions of dollars. That's a pretty lofty goal which only a few games have managed to pull off. What happens if they don't reach it, is CU kaput? Even if they do reach it, the game still needs to be built. So it'll be a while before anyone gets to play it.
So yeah, I'm a but torn over Camelot Unchained. It sounds like it could be very interesting, but it also seems wrong to go after your former company like that.
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