MMO veterans open new studio

[SamSkumm]

ArtCraft Entertainment by former devs of Ultima Online, Shadowbane and Star Wars: The Old Republic

Experienced MMO developers have opened a new studio that aims to offer a fresh take on the crowded genre.

The new company, ArtCraft Entertainment, has been set up by J. Todd Coleman and Gordon Walton, GamesIndustry reports. And the pair have hinted at their vision with an online manifesto.

"I don't want to kill more rats, fill another experience point bar or collect another meaningless badge," it reads. "I want to play a game, against players where my actions, my decisions and my skill my determine if I win or lose.

"Allies. Enemies. Alliances. Betrayal. Risk. Conquest. To compete with thousands of other players for a chance to claim the throne. Even if I lose, the experience won't feel hollow. I don't want another worthless trophy.

"I want to play to crush."

The last couple of paragraphs hint as something akin to Game of Thrones, which fits with the regal banner found at the bottom of the page (pictured above).

Whatever the duo is planning, you can register for more information below the manifesto. A countdown suggests a more detailed reveal in 53 hours (at the time of writing).

Walton has been developing games since 1977, including five years working on Star Wars: The Old Republic. He has also managed Ultima Online and The Sims Online.

Coleman, meanwhile, co-founded Shadowbane creators Wolfpack Studios. He has also worked at KingsIsle Entertainment.

SOURCE

So rev mmo players what do you think of this?

that little speach in the middle got me excited for a genre i dont even play lol

 

[RivaCom]

So I'm always excited for something new. However what their talking about isn't really new. To start, what the guy is talking about is in fact Shadowbane itself. It's a sort of, claim land, allies, and build an empire. This is very , very similar to UO and the latest Dark Fall online:unholy wars. For example, DF Online, You pick a race, and thats it. You spawn into a world naked and there are couple of starter things you can do. There is no classes and you can practice different weapons or try to learn mage. There are NPC's that you can go out and kill for some loot but the man point of the game is to form a guild, form alliances, find a plot of land, gather resources, claim the land and try to build a kingdom. Then other guilds can attack your land and try to take it over etc etc. This was Shadowbane and UO in a sense. So honestly it really isn't anything new, it's more or less saying we don't want to try and beat World of Warcraft or any other game that tries to beat WoW(IE: SWTOR, Wildstart, ESO, etc).

That being said, the initial Idea for darkfallonline was awesome but it was the lack of resources that killed what could of been a great game.

This is the third "Awaking" you could say for MMO Dev's, First with Pantheon:ROTF which is from Brad , the original designer of Everquest 1. Which I have fully funded and will be in the initial Alpha release. The second was ex developers of DaOC(another great game) who are recreating DaOC. Now this, We will have to see who does well.