I backup here a critic against Mythic I wrote on Anyuzer forums. About the role of the communication and the community.

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Walter Yarbrough:
If you’ll note, we only hyped DAoC about 6 months before release.

So, expect the same thing from Imperator. Quite frankly building people to a fever pitch now is . . . . um . . . silly.

So, I should be mean and conclude that Catacombs is still more than six months from release?

You see, everything is tied. Anyuzer hasn’t a bad opinion about Mythic and it’s not just him, it’s a very common point of view. Mythic is probably the only quite successful mmorpg company that hasn’t an insane amount of hate tied with its name. It’s not something falling from above, it’s their precise and deliberate choice. And they succeeded. Mythic is the company that most used the old LtM and derivates as a springboard, just to shut everything down when the place didn’t look anymore positive for them. But what happened then?

What I suspect is that the real feeling is another: indifference.
You can check many communities about mmorpgs and you’ll always see that noone discusses DAoC (aside me, Freakazoid and a few bored Vault spammers). If it happens it’s sporadic. Another sign is that if you ask any of the passionate mmorpg players why they don’t play DAoC the answer is always the same. Exactly what Anyuzer wrote, not because the game is bad, but because of a real lack of interest.

I think that the “indifference” is possibly the worst thing that could happen to a mmorpg. It’s not about building the hype when it’s needed, it’s about bringing back some enthusiasm into the genre. And again, not in the form of pointless hype, but with something interesting and positive to say. Ideas, passion. Trying to tickle the community and use it as a positive resource. Something that should look *alive and vibrant* and not trite, old, silly and modest already on the ambition. And this happened before DAoC’s launch because of LtM.

But after that positive episode (that Mythic contributed to suffocate) Mythic started a progressive retreat that is still going on now. The latest results are the suppression of the Team Leaders and the progressive silence on the already poor Vault boards. And it is evident that the game lacks completely a community trascending the game itself. Yes, there are still guilds and the game promotes the interaction, but everything is reduced, simplified, essential. There’s no commentary, no dialogue, no interest to go on and promote the game, see it improve and grow. No passionate players. At the end of this process they surely suffocated most of the negative feelings, but they also suffocated the interest and enthusiasm. They produced a snoozing community. They produced indifference.

And I think it’s the main reason why a mediocre game like the first EQ is still more successful (and hated and debated).

We’ll see if six month from Imperator’s release there will be someone interested. I think Mythic is overstimating its capacity to reheat the hearts. In particular if they don’t change their attitude.

It’s not the lack of information. It’s the lack of dialogue and involvement.

Anyway, we’ll see. Good luck.

Marc Jacobs:
For those few of you who are saying that we did this because we can’t take criticism, I have a quick point to make.

– If that was the case, why would we still be here or have any Mythic presence on any site?