jeff-hickman posts

Mythic invites former Ultima Online players to "Return to Britannia"

by William Dobson Sep 28th 2009 at 1:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Events, in-game, News items, Ultima Online

Did you ever have an Ultima Online account? If you did, then Mythic's new "Return to Britannia" campaign is aimed at you. All closed accounts in good standing have been reactivated, and will remain open until the 16th of October. Content up to and including the seventh expansion (Mondain's Legacy) will be playable by old accounts, which puts this offer in line with the 14-day free trials, with the added bonus of being able to play your previous characters.

The "Return to Britannia" campaign is part of the celebrations for Ultima Online's twelve-year anniversary, but keep in mind that the game's first expansion in years also launched earlier this month. Mythic Entertainment's Jeff Hickman made a statement about the offer: "UO was the first love of many MMORPG players, and it still holds a special place in their hearts after 12 glorious years. I think returning players will be pleasantly surprised to find a thriving and vibrant community from around the world ready to welcome back their former compatriots and include them in their ongoing adventures."

If you're keen to get back into UO, the client can be downloaded here, and Mythic is encouraging folks who can't remember their old details to try EA customer support.

Tags: ea, electronic-arts, free, jeff-hickman, mythic, mythic-entertainment, return-to-britannia, ultima-online

Looking ahead to WAR's second year

by William Dobson Sep 21st 2009 at 6:30PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Events, real-world, Events, in-game, MMO industry, PvP, Warhammer Online, News items

Although we've seen celebrations for some time now, with the Wild Hunt event and a couple of special scenario weekends, Warhammer Online's actual birthday came and went at the end of last week. Executive Producer Jeff Hickman took the opportunity to sum up some of the things that the development team will be focusing on, moving forward into year two:

"In addition to the four new careers, numerous Live Events, the medallion system, Keep upgrades, city siege improvements, and other new features, we're now turning our focus to improving balance, performance, and the Tier 4 game play experience."

Also on the cards for improvement is the "new-player experience", an area that many MMOs have fine-tuned later in their life with excellent results. The birthday celebrations haven't quite wrapped up yet either, with the "Isha's Sorrow" event taking place over the coming weekend in the Temple of Isha scenario. It may have been a bit of a rocky first year for Warhammer Online, but we'll hold out hope for year two. Happy Birthday WAR!

Tags: anniversary, birthday, ea, electronic-arts, executive-producer, first-birthday, ishas-sorrow, jeff-hickman, mythic, mythic-entertainment, new-player-experience, one-year-anniversary, scenarios, temple-of-isha, war, warhammer-online, wild-hunt

AGDC09: Jeff Hickman speaks on WAR's shortcomings

by Seraphina Brennan Sep 17th 2009 at 6:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Business models, Culture, Game mechanics, MMO industry, Warhammer Online, News items

During one of the many speeches being given at the Austin Game Developers Conference, Jeff Hickman, producer of Warhammer Online, spoke candidly on what he thought were WAR's failures and where Mythic could have done better. While Hickman has cited more than a few reasons WAR has been caught in the mire, the central theme to all of them is the ease of PvE gameplay and a game that doesn't inspire social interactions.

Hickman points out that they wanted the game to include a full battery of social features, including open groups, public quests, and other grouping tools, but they failed to design the game itself to encourage grouping. Part of this lies in the player versus environment quests where the gameplay was too easy and players didn't have a reason to group up.

Tags: agdc, agdc-2009, failures, jeff-hickman, mythic, mythic-entertainment, open-parties, public-quests, shortcomings, war, warhammer-online

Mythic details plans for WAR at PAX 2009

by William Dobson Aug 30th 2009 at 12:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Events, real-world, Events, in-game, MMO industry, Warhammer Online, News items

Mythic will be representing Warhammer Online at Penny Arcade Expo in under a week's time, and to help attendees plan ahead, they've now given some details about their showing. Members of the development team will be hanging out waiting to talk to fans, and one of the biggest topics they'll be keen to discuss is the game's one-year anniversary and accompanying Wild Hunt event. By the time PAX starts (the 4th of September) the event will be halfway through so players will have had time to experience it before chatting with the devs. They will also be showing off other recent content updates.

Although not specifically related to Warhammer Online, it is worth noting that Mythic Entertainment Executive Producer Jeff Hickman will be taking part in a PAX panel session on Friday the 4th. Along with other members of the industry, Hickman "will re-examine the basics of game design and explore what it means to design in today's videogame industry." Catch the panel at the Unicorn Theatre from 10:30am to 11:30am. As usual, if you visit the WAR booth you won't come away empty handed. The swag is similar to what Mythic gave away at Games Day Chicago: the Empire Cherub shirt (limited in supply this time too), and in-game items Snorri's Spikes, Chompin' Teef, Shroud of Imrathepis and the Razored Skinning Knife.

Tags: chompin-teef, empire-cherub-shirt, game-design, game-design-101, jeff-hickman, mythic, mythic-entertainment, one-year-anniversary, pax, pax-2009, penny-arcade-expo-2009, razored-skinning-knife, shroud-of-imrathepis, snorris-spikes, unicorn-theatre, war, warhammer, warhammer-online, wild-hunt

Mythic may take radical approaches with Warhammer Online

by Brooke Pilley Jun 26th 2009 at 7:30PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Warhammer Online, News items

As Warhammer Online fans wait for a post-BioWAAAGH! pep talk from Mythic's new General Manager, Rob Denton, they'll have to make due with part three of an Executive Producer's letter from Jeff Hickman.

The letter primarily discusses the ways Mythic plans to resolve the top 5 issues identified last week by various focus groups. Warhammer Alliance has an excellent summary in bullet form for those unwilling to wade through the whole article (though we suggest you do for full context).

Jeff makes a few really interesting comments in his letter that jumped out at us.

He states that Mythic is still committed to Dark Age of Camelot and Ultima Online and will be sharing their plans for both titles in the near future. We know about the new UO expansion but haven't heard much about DAOC lately. Where oh where are you, Origins?

It appears Mythic is "looking at some fairly radical approaches" to address server population issues in WAR. Maybe we'll finally see that realm queue system they had working pre-release...

Finally, it sounds like fortresses may be on their way out if Mythic can't find some way to fix them. Andy Belford had this to say: "How do we make it a fun encounter while not diminishing the epic feel of it? At what point do we say, enough is enough, and cut off the offending appendage?" Radical indeed.

Tags: andy-belford, dark-age-of-camelot, jeff-hickman, ultima-online, war, warhammer-online

More reactions to BioWAAAGH!

by Brooke Pilley Jun 25th 2009 at 12:30PM

Filed under: MMO industry, Warhammer Online, Opinion

We've been keeping our eyes on various blogs and forums discussing yesterday's big news that Mythic and BioWare are being restructured under EA's new MMO/RPG gaming division and that Mark Jacobs is no longer working for EA. Here's a summary of what we've found so far.

Many people are under the false impression that Mythic and BioWare have merged. One of Mythic's developers made this clarification: "We're still Mythic Entertainment, an Electronic Arts Studio, as we have been. I've posted this elsewhere, but we're not 'merging.' We are still a completely separate entity within EA, just as Bioware is, simply now grouped under the same MMO/RPG grouping and reporting to one person, collectively."

Tags: biowaaagh, bioware, blizzard, brad-mcquaid, featured, jeff-hickman, joystiqfeatures, keen, mark-jacobs, mythic-entertainment, richard-garriott, rob-denton, swtor, warhammer-online, world-of-warcraft

Jeff Hickman open letter highlights Mythic's top 5 priorities for WAR

by Brooke Pilley Jun 18th 2009 at 11:00AM

Filed under: Fantasy, Warhammer Online, News items, Opinion

Those of you stalwart enough to bore through Jeff Hickman's most recent Executive Producer's letter, which incidentally reads like a list of 1.3 patch notes conjured by the PR department, may have picked up on the mention that Mythic is assembling focus groups to determine the current concerns and issues with Warhammer Online.

I can actually confirm this for you since I'm a card-carrying focus group member. The below list of top priorities is entirely accurate based on what I've been hearing as part of this group and in conversation with many current and ex-WAR fanatics.

Addressing concerns related to Crowd Control and Area of Effect abilities.
Continuing to improve client and server stability and performance.
Strengthening and improving the Tier 4 experience.
Improving server population distribution – both in terms of overall population and realm balance.
Improving itemization and the overall distribution of "carrots" (rewards) throughout the game.

It's easy point out that many members of the WAR community have been vocal about these "Top 5" issues since release. We can only hope that the time and resources freed up by the launch of Land of the Dead will finally erase them from the game. Erasing them from memory may prove slightly more difficult.

Tags: community, executive-producer, focus-group, jeff-hickman, mythic-entertainment, open-letter, priorities, war, warhammer-online

Jeff Hickman, FAQ, and Grab Bag are all about Land of the Dead

by Brooke Pilley Jun 6th 2009 at 3:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Expansions, Warhammer Online, News items

The Land of the Dead must be coming soon because Mythic has gone into marketing overdrive these past few days. Jeff Hickman just addressed the WAR community in an open Executive Producer's letter and we've seen the new RvR mega-zone featured in both an official FAQ and community Grab Bag.

It's a bit strange seeing Jeff Hickman in print since he's usually on the front-lines doing live interviews. Also, WAR fans have gotten used to seeing Mythic GM, Mark Jacobs, deliver these kinds of letters in the past. Actually, Mark has been remarkably silent since March when he delivered his 6-month State of the Game and 1.21 patch highlight announcements.

At any rate, you can find out pretty much everything there is to know about The Land of the Dead in these three recent articles. Want to know the ward requirements for the PQs, lairs, and dungeons? Curious about lockout timers? Wondering what the heck a "Vessel" is? Head on over and check these resources out!

Tags: faq, grab-bag, jeff-hickman, land-of-the-dead, mark-jacobs, mythic-entertainment, war, warhammer-online

Come on in, the WAR is lovely

by Seraphina Brennan Feb 17th 2009 at 8:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Business models, Classes, Events, in-game, Interviews, Warhammer Online, News items

Warhammer Online has plenty on their plate for the coming months. The whole Call to Arms expansion is bringing live events, two new classes, a brand new dungeon themed from the Tomb Kings, and plenty of changes and additions to RvR combat.

So what does creative director Paul Barnett and executive producer Jeff Hickman do on their spare time? Well they go to the New York Comic Con and film silly videos about Warhammer with MTV Multiplayer! While the video is amusing, the two also get into some of the nuts and bolts of WAR, including a few reasons why any player should give their game a try and what they're doing to make the whole experience better. Also, they have giant foam warhammers. You just can't turn down giant foam warhammers.

Tags: call-to-arms, comic-con-2009, dwarf-slayer, jeff-hickman, mythic-entertainment, new-york-comic-con-2009, orc-choppa, paul-barnett, rvr, war, warhammer-online

Huge Lands of the Dead update via WAR/Eurogamer dev chat

by Brooke Pilley Feb 5th 2009 at 4:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Classes, Events, in-game, Game mechanics, Interviews, Warhammer Online

Eurogamer just hosted a live dev chat with Mythic Entertainment's Warhammer Online staff. Present in this conversation were Executive Producer Jeff Hickman, Senior Creative Director Paul Barnett, Senior Designer (careers) Rob Hinkle, and Live Producer Destin Bales.

Mythic staff elaborated on many parts of their game and business from launching in new countries, to the new Slayer and Choppa careers, and balance. Perhaps the biggest reveal was a plethora of new information about Lands of the Dead. They spilled the beans on a number of interesting details, including a live event leading up to LotD that will essentially be a huge Order vs. Destruction battle for who can gain early and exclusive access to the dungeon (for a limited time). This "RvR-gated ultimate sandbox" zone is expected to change hands nightly and will have content for smaller group sizes up to that of a warband (24 players). Paul Barnett elaborated on some similar mechanics to Darkness Falls from DAOC by saying LotD will have, "tokens, other loot methods, a wide level range, and the thrill of your enemy always breathing down your back."

Do yourself a favour and check out the entire dev chat log because there are so many more details than this!

Tags: dark-age-of-camelot, darkness-falls, destin-bales, dev-chat, jeff-hickman, mythic-entertainment, paul-barnett, rob-hinkle, rvr, war, warhammer-online

Choppa. Slayer. So what's the big deal?

by Brooke Pilley Jan 29th 2009 at 12:30PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Classes, Lore, Warhammer Online

With today's announcement that the Slayer and Choppa careers will be added to Warhammer Online, you may be asking yourself, "So what's the big deal?" Most of the people asking this probably aren't WAR followers, which is understandable. There are, however, people who play WAR that don't really think these two careers should be a priority for Mythic right now given all the other issues. I'm writing this article to prove the non-believers wrong and shed a little light on why the Choppa and Slayer are so cool for the Warhammer novice.

First, let's look at the main similarities between these two careers. The Choppa and Slayer were both tested back in WAR beta. Actually, the Slayer was called the Hammerer back then, which was basically a cheap knock-off because Mythic and Games Workshop couldn't work out lore issues. The basic concept of the Hammerer was quite Slayer-esque in that it was a surly dual-wielding melee DPS dwarf. Mythic decided that the Hammerer and Choppa weren't quite on par with the other careers so they were cut (along with the Blackguard and Knight of the Blazing Sun) from release. Note: the BG and KotBS were added shortly afterward.

Continue reading below the cut where we'll continue to look into their similarities and specific characteristics.

Tags: choppa, dwarf, featured, greenskins, jeff-hickman, joystiqfeatures, opinion, slayer, war, warhammer-online

Mythic announces the first live expansion to Warhammer Online!

by Michael Zenke Jan 29th 2009 at 11:30AM

Filed under: Fantasy, Events, in-game, Expansions, New titles, Warhammer Online, Massively Interviews

Massively.com recently had the chance to speak with Warhammer Online Executive Producer Jeff Hickman. Mr. Hickman laid out for us the much anticipated 'bombshell' news for their PvP-focused MMO: an entire expansion being released over the next few months as live events.

Warhammer Executive Producer Jeff Hickman: We've been launched for four or five months now, and all we've done for this time is looking at the game, listening to our players, playing the game ourselves. We've been drilling down into all of the little pieces that weren't quite right for us. We've been looking at client/server stability, what we can do with the RvR system, introducing the two new classes ... we've drilled down on any and all concerns that players might have to perfect the game as it stands right now.

With that starting to be under control, we looked ahead and said to ourselves, "we have about four or five months to do some really interesting, cool new events." We're calling it a live expansion. We're trying to hit really hard for players that haven't tried Warhammer, or perhaps players that tried it and then went off to play Lich King or something like that. We want them to come back, see all the improvements we've made, and all the new content coming up.

We're calling it "a Call to Arms."

Read on below the cut for full details on the expansion, head over to the official site for their take, or click through to one of our related posts for further information:

Gallery: Warhammer Online: Call to Arms

Tags: bitter-rivals, breaking, call-to-arms, choppa, expansion, featured, jeff-hickman, lands-of-the-dead, mythic-entertainment, night-of-murder, slayer, tomb-kings, war, warhammer-online

Comic-Con 09: Warhammer Online pulling out all the stops

by Brooke Pilley Jan 28th 2009 at 1:30PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Events, real-world, Warhammer Online, Comics

Courtesy of Wlodi's Photostream at Flickr

Get ready for WAR, comic geeks (it's a rule that geeks can call other geeks geeks)! Paul Barnett and Jeff Hickman of Mythic Entertainment will be leading a team of Warhammer Online developers and community managers to New York Comic Con '09 next weekend (Feb. 6-8), and by the looks of their ambitious schedule, it seems they really want to impress new and old fans alike. For a full list of NYCC events for the hardcore gamer, check out the official NYCC-09 gaming page.

Their booth (#1449) will be set up all weekend and should he a hive of activity where attendees can chat with the WAR team, mingle with other players, nab some sweet swag, and check out the latest WAR gear. Saturday, Feb. 7 will be their busiest day, starting with Jeff and Paul hosting a presentation chock-full of goodies about Call to Arms, Bitter Rivals, and the two new careers (Room #1A08 @ 11:15AM). This will be followed by poster signings at 2:30PM, a MMO Round Table discussion at 5:30PM (Room #1A24), and a Dev Meet & Greet at 9:00PM (Dave & Busters Time Square). Not to be outdone, Sunday, Feb. 8 will feature an RvR competition starting at 12:00PM where teams of nine will battle in a best two out of three elimination match. Premade characters will be provided and the winners will earn "awesome" in-game items and renown as the first official WAR RvR Tournament champions.

Further details below the cut...

Tags: jeff-hickman, mythic-entertainment, new-york-comic-con, nycc, paul-barnett, warhammer-online

WAR's new Zone Domination system in development

by James Egan Jan 18th 2009 at 6:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Game mechanics, Patches, PvP, Warhammer Online, News items

Without a doubt one of the liveliest people we know of in the MMO industry, Paul Barnett, put out a YouTube video this week in celebration of his birthday, and brought Warhammer Online devs Jeff Hickman and Colin Shannon in for some updates on the game. Perhaps the most interesting thing revealed is WAR's new Zone Domination system which is currently in the works. It's intended to supplement Warhammer Online's realm-vs.-realm system by providing more compelling ways to capture zones. Hickman says, "If you can capture everything in a zone and hold it, claiming the Keeps and dominate that zone, then you have a very good chance of capturing the zone." Or, as Barnett summarizes, Zone Domination will give players more reasons for defending and holding objectives.

Colin Shannon also provides an update on the reduction of crashes in WAR, and there's (perhaps) a ray of hope mentioned at the end for having multiple items in the mail system. Check out the video embed below the cut for more on the state of the game, and what new features WAR players should be getting in a forthcoming patch.

Tags: colin-shannon, fantasy, game-mechanics, jeff-hickman, mail, mail-system, patches, paul-barnett, realm, realm-vs-realm, realms, rvr, territorial-control, video, videos, war, warhammer-online, youtube, zone-control, zone-domination

Warhammer Online's fortress changes begin rolling out

by Kyle Horner Jan 8th 2009 at 10:00AM

Filed under: Fantasy, Warhammer Online, News items

Players had been experiencing some stability issues playing Warhammer Online's endgame Fortresses -- the bits before the capital cities -- until yesterday, when a new system went into place for the Phoenix Throne, Dark Crag, Vortex, and Darklands servers. This system is going to be rolled out over the coming days onto all of the game servers, which is a plan that smacks of cautiousness on Mythic's part. Or in other words, they're being wise and avoiding server imploding en mass.

So what's the big fix? Well, it's an implementation of a threshold system. What was happening before, is that Fortresses would get so full of players -- 500 or 600 of them -- that the entire thing would essentially crash for everyone. It was a big crash-a-thon. Now, when the player count approaches certain thresholds the game will start teleporting rank 35 and below players entering the fortress area into the nearest warcamp. Then, rank 37 players at the next threshold, before finally rank 39 at a final threshold. Mythic hasn't stated what the exact numbers are for each of these caps, but hopefully it's a high enough count that too many players shouldn't feel frustrated when they attempt to join in the battle and find themselves staring at a vendor or trainer.

This is just the first fix of what Jeff Hickman recently promised as one of many (see video above) that should be coming sometime in the future. And with the rapid-fire rate that past updates have hit the game, we have no reason to believe otherwise.

WAR has gone 1.1! Check out our full coverage of the 1.1a patch, along with our interviews exploring upcoming content and the open RvR changes. Plus, don't miss any of our ongoing coverage as Massively goes to WAR!

Tags: ea, electronic-arts, fortress, jeff-hickman, mythic, mythic-entertainment, paul-barnett, pvp, war, warhammer, warhammer-online