Overly Positive

These days, you get the sense that Mythic’s just plugging away at WAR. Seemingly unconcerned at past transgressions and not particularly worried about the upcoming MMO releases on the horizon, the folks who develop WAR are starting to hammer away at the existing problems of the game.

Typifying this is the 1.3.1 And Beyond Producer’s Letter, written by Jeff Skalski. Let me first say that even though I’m a bit biased because I’ve met Jeff and he’s a standup guy (and dangerous in certain situations), that it is nice to see some other voices pipe up at Mythic these past couple of letters. WAR players have been so used to Mark Jacobs being the de facto “voice” of Mythic that when he left it was uncertain if one person could fill his very sizeable shoes. What has appeared, however, is a collective voice from a variety of sources from senior management on down that has frankly been refreshing to hear. If Mythic has any one strength, it is the humanization of their team, and putting Jeff, Gabe Amatangelo, Andy Belford, Jess Folsom, Martin Smith, and more in front of the keyboard or camera can only help that.

But aside from appearances comes a refining of the style that letters such as Skalski’s latest Producer’s Letter seem to exude – the same sort of changing voice of WAR that I referred to before. There are a couple of things that I’m referring to that point to this style shift. One of these is the reveal of specific details and mechanics. Gone are the more hype-worthy, marketing-style tomes of the past, replaced with instead, hard facts about what is happening, how things are working, and when they are taking place. There’s a detailing of the revamped city siege mechanic from beginning to end. There’s talk about the ORvR revision to Keeps with second ramps and other improvements. There’s talk about the other secondary improvements such as friends lists and summoning stones. More meat, and less fluff, seems to be the tone of the letters, and that is a welcome change.

Another is the subtle and indirect addressing of player concerns in these letters, by citing the problem, stating the analysis, and talking about the solution. Several times you can even see Jeff play devil’s advocate when he does this, addressing concerns about changes and fixes, recognizing the fact that they’ve been given, and then briefly addressing them. He doesn’t do this necessarily with the kind of blustery confidence you expect in these letters, but with a matter-of-factness that says “this is why we did these things, and we hope you understand where we’re coming from – but we know not all of you are happy”. That, to be honest, is as close as you’re going to get from a developer saying in a letter like this that mistakes have been made and they need to be rectified. As much as some people want the rush of hearing from a developer’s mouth that they suck, it is A)sadly a short term feeling of satisfaction that doesn’t address the core issues and B)not good business sense, especially from a watchful investor’s point of view.

The last comes with with a certain sense of cautiousness with revealing details and teases. 1.3.2, the next patch in the cycle, had a few interesting bulletpoints, all served with the usual “not 100%” disclaimer. Significant points include detaching fortresses from being required for city siege and an apprentice/hireling system to make it easier for people to play with each other. These only appear in short detail, but only with the level that Mythic appears to be comfortable with. We’ve seen this page out of an MMO PR playbook before – from Bioware – so perhaps some of that may actually be rubbing off on Mythic’s communication.

Really, no one patch is going to be the panacea to WAR’s multitude of problems. The key is to crawl before walking, and that once knocked down, knowing to take baby steps to get to a point where there’s confidence. This is the place that WAR is currently, and probably will be for the next few months, so letters like Jeff’s will be a welcome change in reports about WAR. Like the old saying goes – there’s no where to go but up.