We just received a press release from the people at Mutable Realms, developers of the (u)mmorpg Wish. It announces the depart of Dave Rickey, game designer on the project, from the company. According to the press statement, he completed his design work and will now leave to pursue other opportunities. Here's the bit:

Huntsville, AL - January 3, 2003 - Today it was announced that Dave
Rickey, Game Designer for the Ultra-Massive Online Game "Wish" from
Mutable Realms, had completed his design work and was leaving to
pursue other opportunities.

"It's been gratifying to work with the excellent team here at Mutable
Realms, and I anticipate a great future for the project," said Rickey.
"It's always hard to say goodbye, but the project is well in hand now,
and I anticipate it will set a new standard in the market for online
games."

"I would like to thank Dave for his excellent contributions to our
project," said Marc Laukien, President of Mutable Realms. "We wish
Dave all the best for his future career, and are certain that he will
not only successfully contribute to new projects, but advance our
industry as a whole."

We'd like to wish Dave good luck on his new projects as well.

Update: Dave Rickey himself reacted in a topic on the Waterthread Forums, giving this as his explanation:

 I can't talk much about what happened here, all I will say is that I was confident in the project, and had every belief that I was going to be able to be proud of the results. Until Tuesday, I expected to go the distance. Life is full of surprises, ain't it?

Unlike the original press release, Dave clearly indicates that he didn't finish the design of the game, but that certain conflicts arose on Tuesday that forced him to leave the project, apparantly. We'll keep you updated.

Update part 2: As a first reaction, Mutable Realms president Marc Laukien refused to discuss the issue any further. He did however point out to us that Wish existed long before Dave Rickey joined the development team.

Dave was only about six months part of the Wish team. He made very valuable contributions over this period, but the core game design was done long before he joined.

Without wanting to hastily jump to conclusions, it seems natural to us that there was a conflict over a certain design issue that caused Dave and MR's ways to split. Again, we'd like to wish both Dave and the Mutable Realms staff the best of luck with their future plans.