Mythica: Interview
Wouter "Hyrrix" Ryckbosch, 2003-09-17

In a few months time, and especially since its remarkable presentation at E3, Microsoft's upcoming mmorpg Mythica has become one of the most anticipated mmorpg's out there. Featuring every player as an immortal hero in the Norse mythology and offering Private Realms with tactical warfare; Mythica certainly promises a lot. We had the opportunity to ask some questions to Matt Willson, executive producer of the game. To make yourself familiar with the concept of Mythica, it is recommended to read our Preview of the game first.

Matt Willson: The Private Realms are all about dynamic play—we're creating them for players to explore and experience in the style they most prefer. So, while you may enter as a member of a party, there are goals and challenges for your particular character to accomplish—whether with sword, spell, stealth, or otherwise. Players can also choose whether to participate as party leader or member, or even as a solo adventurer.

Only a few Private Realms must be completed—these "Gatekeeper" Realms mark the transition from one plane to the next, but you will encounter them only if you want to cross to that next plane. The rest are entirely up to you—whether you wish to play them or not, and how you play them if you do. Many Private Realms can be repeated, though in some cases completing the same goal leads to dimishing returns. In other cases, players can choose to repeat a Private Realm and scale up its challenge, in terms of both difficulty and reward

Matt Willson: The storyline is something we're definitely making an integral part of the game. After all, you've been brought to Asgard for a specific purpose. The gods have recruited you to help join their fight against Chaos, as embodied by the Fire Giants, harbingers of Ragnarok.

As an Immortal on the path to Godhood, you'll face off against the Fire Giants and directly resist their influence in the planes. Part of this means fighting against their Corruption, the force that Fire Giants use to draft mortal factions into their army. By resisting Corruption, players will take an active role in stemming the tide of invasion—eventually leading to ultimate battles against the Fire Giants themselves.

Matt Willson: Definitely less camping. In Mythica, you're meant to play like a god. That doesn't mean camping the same spawn point as hundreds of other competing players. It means you and your party battling alone against a horde of a hundred slavering monsters! It means great deeds, and greater dangers. It means real adventure. A large part of this comes from the Private Realms, which provide that sense of personal heroism missing in other MMRPGs.

Mythica is also a class-based game, and your character class plays a definite role in any given party. The game's tactical emphasis shows best in these classes working together to achieve overall success. For example, let's say your party is composed of a Pyromancer, Huntress, Warrior and Berserker. You're assualting an icy fortress of Jotunheim, and against you stand a horde of trolls led by a brutally tough Storm Giant. The situation, needless to say, does not look good.

In this party, the Berserker plays an offensive role, throwing himself against the troll horde. This is where he excels—in fact, the more damage the Berserker takes, the more he can dish out. The Warrior, on the other hand, plays a better defensive role, with thick armor and taunts to draw over any trolls who break through. The Hunter, an expert shot and concentrated damage dealer, focuses his efforts against the Storm Giant boss. And the Pyromancer, best at siege warfare, hurls heavy fire against the fortress itself.

All of a sudden, it's a bad day to be a troll.

Matt Willson: Oh, there are certainly raids. While the underlying theme of the Private Realms is private, hand-crafted experiences for your individual party, there are also circumstances where a larger number of players will come together. Known as Raid or Guild adventurers, these bring together a "party of parties" within a single Private Realm. To take on Muspellheim itself, after all, you'll need a little from your friends...

Matt Willson: "Typical" is also tricky to define. We're really looking to provide all sorts of combat situations. In general, these will include battling teeming hordes of creatures, as well as single uber-boss monsters. With Mythica's destructible environments, combat also encompasses siege warfare...which means don't forget the heavy weapons and other objects hidden about!

We also want combat to bring you a sense of fighting like a god. Expect it to be extremely fast-paced and extremely destructive. You can send your mortal opponnents flying through the air. You can toss them aside, four at a time. Even the largest monsters can be knocked back, and knocked down (with some of the most intimdating anaimations I've seen, when they slowly climb back to their feet, grab their weapon, and rejoin the fight!).

Matt Willson: As your character progresses through Mythica, you are given choices in how you wish to advance—both in ability and appearance. After all, appearance means a great deal when you've invested considerable time and effort into your alter-ego. We understand and respect that, and plan to offer several ways to make sure that character appearance is a dynamic, ongoing process.

Some aspects of your appearance change through the worship system. Other changes come through the collectible appearance system, which allows characters to collect items that alter some element of their cosmetic appearance (gaining new ornamentation, changing hairstyle, and so on).

A juicy example, eh? All right...imagine you've entered a Midgard city, and there, walking toward you down the other side of the street, is the toughest Warrior you've ever seen. Even his beard is intricately braided in a style you've never seen before. Now, if you're polite...very, very polite...the Warrior might let you in on his secret—inside a certain Private Realm lives a hidden vendor who can sell you this new style. Of course, the going won't be easy. Perhaps the vendor is located in a secret ravine, or sells his wares only to truly worthy customers (namely, those who've completed several of the Private Realm's goals). But if you really want that beard style, it's yours for the questing.

Matt Willson: We believe the game will be...and must be...enjoyable for the casual as well as the dedciated gamer. With our emphasis on classes, there should always be space in a party looking to fill every role for best success. Plus, with Private Realms of various sizes and with plenty of objectives to complete, casual gamers should always feel like they can log on for whatever time they have to spare, and have something they can do—some goal, however large or small, to try and achieve.

Matt Willson: Well, I would question the term "limited." There are Physical and Magical focuses, each with two class roles, and each of those with two specific classes. So that's eight classes, each of which can be combined with the influence of any, or all, of the three mortal factions.

It's your dealings with the mortal factions (the Humans, Alfar, and Dvergar) that influence your further development. The factions you help will serve you in kind, providing worship, access to skills...even shaping your appearance! Those that you hinder become new enemies to face. So your "goodness" or "evilness" is all relative—depending on which mortal faction you ask.

As for skills, these are gained through your patron god as well as your mortal faction, and even through assorted quests. Skills are used largely in combat, but their usefullness doesn't end there. Many skills help with crafting, exploring, worship, and other key aspects of the game. A favorite skill? Tough call at the moment. As a fan of the stealth classes, I'm partial to the Hunter's ability to go invisible and sneak ahead. But the Stormwright's power to freeze his opponets and blast ‘em apart is also undeniably cool. And although he hasn't been properly introduced yet, the Demonologist has the rather tempting skills to drag minions into the world and shape them for battle.

Matt Willson: I've spoken a lot about the Private Realms—the hand-crafted content, the variable goals, the challenges you'll face. We really feel these will set the standard for massively multiplayer gaming, especially in terms of the MMP holy grail—bringing the best of the single player RPG experience to the MMP space. So in terms of design, we're focusing largely on our Realms. At the same time, we're also making sure that the public spaces are just as challenging and rewarding as they can be, as well as visually appealing. Mythica will ship with six of the nine planes of existence, each one presenting its own unique and dramatic environment, from rugged Midgard, to frozen Jotunheim, to the hellish flamescapes of Muspellheim.

To get from place to place, there are several methods of travel. Not the least of these is your longship, an intricate part of exploring the planes. There will also be methods to cross from plane to plane, which we'll unveil at a later date. For now, we'll just say that crossing the planes can be done only after they're initially unlocked—a process not easily undertaken, and not for the coward!

To quote the gods, "Fearlessness is better than a faint heart, for any man who puts his nose out of doors. The length of my life and the day of my death were fated long ago." It's hard to say it any better than that!

Matt Willson: We're bringing a tremendous amount to the game from Norse (and related) mythology—the planes of existence you'll visit, the creatures you'll face, and...yes, even the gods you'll meet! For a start, the Aesir and Vanir gods define your character class and help provide your skills. But their association with you is anything but in name only.