FiringSquad: What is the current status of the game's progress and when will it be released?
Phil Shenk: The game is currently in “friends and family” alpha, meaning that everyone on the list is either someone we know personally, or a family member. VERY shortly, we will start adding people who have signed up for on www.mythos.com. We will also implement an invite system, so that testers can invite their friends to play. We have an aggressive schedule for ramping up the player-base, mostly since we need to test the system that Hellgate will use (and we expect that to he pretty huge!). If you want to play soon, the best strategy is to sign up on our website. The ultimate release date, we’re not saying yet. I’ll just say again that our plan for rolling this out is pretty ambitious!
FiringSquad: After Mythos' release, what will Hellgate Seattle's future plans be like? Will it continue to support Mythos after Hellgate London's release?
Phil Shenk: Yes! We have big plans for Mythos, and we’ll continue to grow it for as long as people are playing, and we’re having fun. The game is designed from ground up to be extensible and alive. When we stop calling it “beta” we don’t think of it as “done”… it will just keep going and going.
FiringSquad: What can you tell us at this time about the online network that will be set up for both Mythos and Hellgate London?
Phil Shenk: The online network is being built by Ping-0, a company jointly owned by Hanbitsoft and Flagship Studios. Ping-0 was formed with the express purpose of building the best online infrastructure in the industry. Obviously, the first two games using this technology will be Mythos and Hellgate, but we’re building it to last far into the future. It will utilize all of the expertise we brought with us from Blizzard, and we’re adding many new features to take it to the next level.
FiringSquad: Finally is there anything else you wish to say about Mythos?
Phil Shenk: We are so excited to have this out there, and see people playing it. The response for sign-ups so far has been incredible, and people are already telling us that they are addicted. The team up in Seattle is super-energized, and we can’t stop coming up with ideas that we want to try. All signs point to a very fun beta, for both our fans and for us! Sign up, and join the fun!
And now for something a little different...
With our FiringSquad Editors Challenge sponsored by Intel moving into the Challenge round, it's time to get to know our contestants a bit better. Therefore we'll be cramming sharing their mblogs with you on a daily basis. All jokes aside, it's pretty cool getting to know such skilled writers. Anyone who witnessed the bloodbath that was Round 2 of the Editors Challenge can attest to their writing abilities.
In no particular order therefore, here are the Matrix homepages of our contestants.
BucNews - Self-promotional master. Probably gets laid a lot.
CanadaDave - I think he used to work for DailyRadar (let's see how many of you clowns get THAT reference!)
darrellwu - A MS Paint artiste and fan of the famous pancake bunny
Power666 - Get thee behind me, Satan! There's a lineup to read this blog
kevinSpiess - Let's call him Primary Colors, because he sure likes Red, Green, and Blue
Droniac - I think he really, REALLY likes Unreal Tournament. I thought we chased all those "people" away with out Quake 3 and UT reviews...
OgreFade - Apparently he's a giant robot with the rank of Commander
DaugWok - Apparently AFK, in pursuit of a road runner
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