Mythic Announces New DAoC Expansion; I Try Not To Cry
Betting on the bull in the heather
If there is any question in anybody's mind that Mythic is now in "death grip on the existing subscriber base until Warhammer is released" mode, this should put all doubts to rest. From the official site :
- A New Playable Race for all Realms - The Minotaur. Half man, half bull, the Minotaur is so powerful he can wield two-handed weapons with a single hand.
- A New Player Class for all Realms - The Mauler. Unlock this new brawler class and channel the elemental powers of the earth.
- A New Dungeon - The Labyrinth. Deep beneath the island of Agramon, this vast maze is the largest single dungeon in any MMO.
In short, Mythic couldn't be bothered (either fiscally or creatively) to come up with a new race, class, and content for each realm, so every realm gets some kind of Greek bullshit shoe-horned into the back story. (Lest you remind me that Trials of Atlantis is also some Greek bullshit shoe-horned into the back story, there was at least a decent attempt at making it into a lost world discovered story.)
And if there's any question in anybody's mind that Dark Age of Camelot is de facto closed to new subscribers, that issue too has been settled:
- New Levels - Champion Levels 6-10. Five additional Champion Levels allow players to expand their powers, abilities, and items slots.
Gone is any hope that the core PvE lands will receive the overhaul they've needed for years, and gone is any hope that there is any game left except the RvR end game. And don't get me wrong, RvR can be a kick in the ass. The DAoC RvR game is still head and shoulders above any other PvP implementation, including (especially, actually) World of Warcraft's. But the core lands have been seriously neglected, and the only real way to get to level 50 remains the TD-BG shuffle. This new mega-dungeon, The Labyrinth, will probably add some much-needed dimension to the shuffle, but it certainly doesn't address the fact that you can cross the entire length of Hibernia, Albion, or Midgard without seeing another player.
I don't know if anyone from Mythic reads my lame little blog, but let me just say in closing that I'm Mythic's number one fan. Alright, maybe Mythic's number 12 fan. But I'm definitely in the top 20. I played DAoC on day one. I went miles out of my way to buy Shrouded Isles, and I gave Trials of Atlantis a much fairer shake than most. When Mark Jacobs announced Imperator, even as I gazed at the press release in slack-jawed-wtf-wonder, I wanted to believe. (I also breathed a sigh of relief when Imperator was cancelled, because even rabid fangrrl-ism will only take you so far.) I believed in Mythic as a company, and I continue to believe in EA/Mythic as an entity. There's a lot of talent tumbling around those offices in Fairfax.
So it's difficult for me to say that I never gave up on you Mythic, but with regards to the world you pulled me into, you gave up on me. I just don't buy that DAoC can't continue to be a vibrant and colorful world, even with Warhammer around the corner. I just don't buy that it can't co-exist, and as a fan I am disappointed with the message this expansion sends.
Such a shame for Mythic's last independently produced product to signal the end of their most successful product. I wonder if the Oracle at Delphi would have predicted such a tragic conclusion.
August 17th, 2006 at 6:29 am
So you’re saying I shouldn’t have another crack at it then? I loaded up the free trial last year and had a go and found it wasn’t too bad up until the point where I got involved in combat.
I got killed by the rat* spawn.
I couldn’t believe it. Nothing I clicked on would get my lame-ass pissant warrior to get his sword out and fight back. No icons, no right clicking, left clicking, swearing or hitting the keyboard.
This probably demonstrates how crap I am at games and why I should stick to WoW but being killed by the rat spawn? That’s pretty disheartening.
*This may be a little inaccurate. It might have been a rabbit.
August 17th, 2006 at 9:53 am
F7, iirc, is the default attack key. I always re-mapped it to the A key. Unfortunately the ui is another one of those things that’s desperately needed dev loving for years. It was fine at launch, but definitely sub-standard compared to the state-of-the-art today.
As for having another crack at it…it really depends. If you don’t mind grinding for a few months, doing nothing but task dungeons and battlegrounds until you’re 50, then give it a shot. But definitely play on the classic servers unless you want to add another couple months or more of grinding just so you can even compete in RvR.
The game, as it was originally designed, *was* fun. Unfortunately Mythic chose to focus narrowly on the end-game, and let the beginning and middle game suffer.
August 17th, 2006 at 11:07 am
The number one reason to play a particular MMO is because it is the one your friends play. There’s nothing wrong with DAoC that a group of friends adventuring together couldn’t do; when I returned to DAoC after the fist time I left, it was because some friends wanted to try it out.
I had a blast.
Otherwise, in older games like DAoC, EQ1, UO, etc.; you’re so far behind everyone else that there’s no hope of enjoying the game as it was meant to be. If you’re going to start a new game without knowing anyone anyway, you might as well choose a newer game where a lot of people are as new to it as yourself.
I’d advise sticking with WoW until a new game that catches your imagination is released.
August 17th, 2006 at 3:56 pm
Actually, and largely because of you Tipa (so you’re entirely to blame and I might sue you in a couple of months ;D), I’m playing EQ2 at the moment, with the odd bit of SWG thrown in. Although it turns out that my WoW subscription is paid up for the next 6 months I haven’t logged into that for a few months.
Isn’t basic DAOC free subscription these days or is that only Anarchy Online?
August 18th, 2006 at 7:59 am
Weird, usually love GW products but something about WoW just discourages me from even entertaining the thought of playing. Been playing EQ2 since a few months after the start and have finally started to lose the love. Was contemplating DAOC, but after Ms Night’s review above I will have to keep searching.
August 18th, 2006 at 9:10 am
I loved DAoC. I played it the day it came out and still say it was the most stable release of a MMO I have ever seen. I had so many good times in PVP.
I miss you Mythic. I don’t want to get back together, but just wanted you to know that. Sometimes when I am playing another game, I call out your name.
August 18th, 2006 at 12:50 pm
I played DAoC for …2 or 3 months at release (can’t quite remember) and due to the time required to achive top-level in mmo’s (usually) and participate in top-level content I decided that I would only invest time into one and only one character. I chose this stealthing, bowman type (can’t remember the race/class….might have been an elf or shorty type). Then I think my class got nerfed a couple times and I got discouraged, cancelled, and never came back.
A game I have come back to when I take breaks from other games and am currently enoying is City of Heroes, albeit I’m exclusively playing on the villain side now. It’s not perfect by any means and does get repetitive at points (although…that could be argued for most of these games), but what it does have going for it is you really do feel like a “superhero/villain” after you’ve got some levels under your tights and you can tool around solo easily, group/find groups relatively easily (some suck, some don’t)….it just has an ease of play and entry lacking in other games. And my friends and I have run a small supergroup of 4-5 players since the game started. In most games, unless you’re guild is 100+ players, there’s not much point and you can’t do shit. But I think CoH is really realizing that the “fantastic four” style supergroups make up a large core of their play base and will support it even more.
Missions and encounters are dynamically geared towards not only the number of team mates, but you can also set your own difficulty rating to make your missions (quests) more challenging if you want to. And I believe the highest level team mission, which is a Strike Force (like a raid), on the villain-side can be done with just 8 players (not 40, and not even 20). This is a very challenging and enjoyable amount to play with and ahieve.
I’m sure there will always be a niche for epic 40-100+ man content but I have long since graduated from that. I need games who’s scales still feel epic and fun, but can be attained with numbers more easily attained by engaging my closest group of friends and more on my terms (real-life time-wise).
August 18th, 2006 at 12:55 pm
Over at Slashdot, Zonk posted a review of GenCon 2006 which had some unflattering things to say about Mythic’s followup to DAoC:
So who knows how it will all turn out.
I’d be pretty interested in another kinda historical setting for an MMO, and who better to do it but Mythic? I don’t think Warhammer is as strong a brand as Warcraft, and it’s very obvious they are very similar.
But then, that was always Mythic’s other strong point; copying someone else’s game.
August 21st, 2006 at 11:39 am
Well I am definitely going to try Warhammer when/if it comes out. I know WoW was based on Warcraft and I didn’t ever get into Warcraft because the art was so ugly. For the same reason I can’t force myself to play a game where the only vaguely attractive female is character is an animated corpse. If Warhammer ends up being a WoW clone with better art, then at least I can stand to look at my toon and the ones I’m playing with. I would bet that Mythic will do a great job with Warcraft though. I LOVED DAoC before ToA.
Lately I’ve been playing a lot of CoH for basicly the same reasons nerd has been. The game is fun with 1 player, or 2 or 3 or 4 or 5 or 6 or 7 or… well you get the idea. It’s a great time no matter the size or makeup of your party, and I have to think NCSoft was doing something right when they designed it to make it so.
August 23rd, 2006 at 6:20 am
Okay, my turn to play the wistful DAoC remembrance game!
I remember DAoC forcing me to use the ATI chipset. [Do they still require it?] So I traded my ub3r leet Dual Voodoo2 Graphics accelerators [old school SLI ftw!] for a Radeon 128. I then spent 2 weekends volunteering in the high school computer lab for the privilege of scavenging a PIII 450. [Coppermine core bitches!!] After a format/re-install of 98 I spent the next 72 hours getting ker-pwnt in Hibernia with my gimp warden, Leoh Van Allen.
Good times, noodle salad.