GE in Japan!!

In JAPAN, GE is starting a World Tournament for the second time!!
For more, click: http://www.4gamer.net/news/history/2007.08/20070827154636detail.html

HGLD ship date announced for SEA!!

IAH Games has announced the release date for Hellgate: London in South East Asia. Following the US release date of Halloween, 31st October 2007, South East Asia will also launch on the 31st of October 2007. Though if you take the time zone difference, we will technically be launching before them.

If you want to read the whole article, please click here at:

http://www.playhgl.com/

GE rank on 17173.com

GE increased 4 ranks from the last poll taken August 14th on 17173.com !!

Check out the original page at http://mnd.17173.com/

Mythos Closed Beta Test Reviews!

Retrieved from THIS IS GAME.com
http://www.thisisgame.com/board/view.php?id=116256&category=410&subcategory=

Mythos! You just can't stop!

Putting aside any possible harsh criticism, we can consider Hellgate: London as the all grown up Diablo while Mythos is a all A+ student brother of Diablo. It is not only because the game is made by the creators of Diablo series, but also it maximized the great features of Diablo.

Being one of testers of Mythos closed beta test, I want to say the game has leaped over previous single and network play style that were one of strongest features of Diablo, and advanced to real MMORPG. I wondered what made me stay up all night and play this same old hack & slash game. And I have found out why.

Mythos shares the same merits of Diablo

Diablo is considered as the most classical masterpiece in the game industry, and it still has the unique features that cannot be found even in other recent titles.

And Mythos is standing upon the unique factors that only Diablo has, such as item search, Diablo style action, randomization and etc.

No item is the same! – Item forming system

Mythos adopts almost exactly the same item format that Diablo has. Right now, there are five classes of item equipments in Mythos.

The first class is the general item which is the basic equipment that doesn’t have any particular skills. The second class is the blue item. They have one to two options for various skills. The third is the purple item which has three to four skill options and fourth is the green, with five to six skill options.

Last but not least is the fifth class, the socketable item. It has a slot to put the jewels, and the players can become stronger using the jewels they have.

The green item is not always the best to use. Since the basis of this equipment is for the wizards, the power and accuracy rate option not really necessary. So, it’s the best when you have the item with the options you really need. Well, that’s pretty obvious. ^^

Diablo-style action

Usually, it’s awkward to call “action” to action in most MMORPGs. It’s because the moment the player attacks the enemy while already in the range, the game itself calculates the accuracy and the avoidance rate, and decides whether the enemy got away or not.

In other words, when you get hit by the enemy, despite how you play the game, the server makes the decision itself in most MMORPGs. This system is used to minimize the problems of circuits. However, Mythos is different. No matter how well you attack the enemy, once the enemy moves out of the range, your attack is ineffective.

Mythos also has clear definition of deathblow, avoidance, and block, in addition to set features of each skill according to each condition which make the battle so dynamic.

Three classes, and 9 styles

At this point, Mythos has three classes; Bloodletter(Warrior), Pyromancer(Wizzard), and Gadgeteer(Shooter).

Each class gets three different play styles according to the way of investing skills. You can invest on the skill with more than two play styles in the same class, but it will not be as efficient as you hoped, because of the skill tree structure.

Skill Tree in Mythos seems it has relatively less type of skills. The reason for this is to solve the blind point of upbringing skills in tree structure; the problems from having useless stats that had been invested to early skill.

In Mythos, every skill tree has the main skill in the beginning, and by investing the points to each style, other surrounding skills becomes activated. Also, even it is the skill that had been ensured from the beginning, by investing points; you can make big efficient increase in certain gap.

In conclusion, the skill tree system of Mythos will solve the problem of being slightly dull from having few skills.

Unique classes and style of Mythos

Bloodletter: does mostly up-close attacks, ‘Power’ is the main stature.

Martialists: Relatively ordinary warrior type. There are passive skills that increase the attack and defense power. They are good at both handed weapons, and capable of handling multitude enemies by using stomp skill. They also use wheel wind, the symbol of Barbarian in Diablo2.

Crimsonates: They gain strength and attack potential by causing bleed damages. They can also cure the party members by enemy’s bleed. There is a synergy when they are with the member who has the character which induces the bleeding.

Red Hands: They can bring up the enemy as their minions by knocking them down with the sword. They are similar to Necromancer in Diablo2. They can strengthen the minions or have them as the offerings and regain the strength. They can also use the minions as the bomb to damage the enemies.

Pyromancer: Mostly attack with magic, and ‘wisdom’ is the main stature.

Cinderblades: They use spells and swords mostly, and they get stronger as they die. They attack the enemies with the flame on their weapons. With their spells, they use the blinding glow for close up attacks. With Phoenix, their health reaches 0 while the phoenix buff is active; they are reborn in a fiery explosion that deals damage to nearby enemies.

Flamecasters: They mostly use the fire sorcery like Meteo, but do not have much defense ability. They can attack and damage multitude enemies. They are very aggressive in attacks. They reduce their own strength to increase their sorcery damage.

Coalsmashers: They lay down a field of fire on the ground. They can also cause a burning cauldron of lava to erupt from the ground to erupt from the ground, temporarily slowing enemies that are caught in.

Gadgeteer: Use rifle for distant attacks. ‘quickness’ is the main stat.

Duelists: They attack enemies nearby with the rifles. They mostly have agressive skills, and make quick and strong but short range attacks. They look like an ordinary gunman.

Munitions: Every skill they have is toggle type. They don’t have any active skills. They do everything by basic attacks. They seem relatively weak in the beginning, but once they have more skills, every skill adds up to the basic attack, and the destructive increases. They perform most gunman-like attacks.

Gadgets: They take out the various gadgets from their pocket and make supplemental effects. They hover nearby, occasionally curing the party members and temporarily make the enemies as their side.

※ In addition, items like spears, arrows, and cross bows that need power and quickness at the same time appear in the game which tell us that there are good chance that other classes will come out soon.

It’s not yet perfect, BUT!!

There are many distinguishing factors in Mythos as to Diablo. However those are just numbers not quality.

Even though the Gremlin and Satyrs replaced the Humans, and rifles, gadgets instead of arrows, in many ways, Mythos has every merits of Diablo, and that makes the game cliché.

However, thinking the reason why Diablo faded away from us, Mythos has brighter future. Diablo is the package game with network platform so only limited patches were done since updating new contents was very difficult. Also, it didn’t have any towns where you could meet other gamers.
Gamers got bored and tired since they couldn’t meet any other players when they didn’t have any new contents to play.

Mythos is different. There will be Continuous contents updates, maps where the gamers meet and co-play. Mythos is getting ready to be optimized as the online game with its solid background. I cannot wait to see the up coming updates.

在《Mythos》中忘记黑夜白昼
Mythos Beta测试 体验后记

如果说《暗黑之门：伦敦》是在《暗黑破坏神》基础上进一步发展出的作品的话，《Mythos》 则可以被看成是直系继承了《暗黑破坏神》血脉的作品。之所以这么说不仅仅是由于《Mythos》是由参与过暗黑系列开发的人员亲自操刀制作，更是因为这个游戏从本质上继承并且把《暗黑破坏神》的优点最大化了。

笔者在参与了《Mythos》的Beta测试之后 发现《Mythos》在《暗黑破坏神》原有的单机play和联网play基础上更发展了适用于多人连线RPG的特征。虽然都是单纯敲击鼠标和键盘砍来砍去的hack & slash游戏，还是让笔者一上手就着迷的忘记了白天黑夜， 让我们探究一下它的魅力何在吧~
/ 执笔Thisisgame Machine

※《Mythos》 还在开发之中，内容可能会有变动。
融入了《暗黑破坏神的》优点的《Mythos》
《暗黑破坏神》这个可以称得上‘古典’的游戏尽管已经上市很久了，但是即使时至今日拿出来和最新推出的游戏比较，还会发现它存在着很多独特的游戏趣味性。而《Mythos》则把《暗黑破坏神》堪称精髓的趣味性都融入其中。这些要素包括寻找游戏物品，暗黑特有的动作方式，人物养成升级方式以及随机地图等。

不会重复的游戏物品
《Mythos》几乎移植了整个《暗黑破坏神》的游戏物品形式。现在《Mythos》的装备物品等级一共分为5大类。第一类，没有特别能力存在的一般装备。第二类，附着1~2种能力选项的蓝色物品。第三类，附着3~4种能力选项的紫色物品。第四类，附着5~6种能力选项的绿色物品。第五类，能够在物品上嵌入收集到的宝石的安插式物品。 值得注意的是得到了绿色物品不一定全是好事，就像在魔法装备上装载力量或者命中率提高选项是浪费一样，选择装载自己需要选项的装备才是王道。

你还没有被命中，这就是暗黑式的动作系统！
一般的MMORPG的动作系统，在玩家瞄准，在射程范围内攻击敌人的那一瞬间 命中和回避的几率已经被算出，能不能命中已经被决定了。同理玩家操纵的人物被攻击的时候，这个人物的反应也已经被服务器决定了。这种动作系统是为了将反应时出现的问题最小化而设计的。但是在《Mythos》游戏中不管一方怎样攻击，如果跳出了射程范围就可以避开对方的攻击。致命打，回避，防御等的区分也非常明确， 将麻痹对手，放毒，速度减慢，喷火等各种能力特性最优化。玩家可以在更加动感的战斗中得到更多的乐趣。

3大职业分类，9种细分职业
现在《Mythos》一共有3种大的职业分类，包括 Bloodletter (战士)，Pyromancer(魔法师), Gadgeteer(射手)。
根据磨练的技能，3大类职业又可以细分为9种不同的职业。虽然理论上在同一大类的职业中花时间提高2种以上的细分职业的技能是可能的，但是在考虑能力树的结构时，这就是一种降低效率的做法了。

《Mythos》技能树的技能种类看起来比较少，这样设计的理由是为了解决技能树结构的缺点，即玩家在游戏初期花时间养成的技能今后用不到而被浪费的问题。

作为基础的那个技能出现在技能树的根部。在某个细分职业上投入的技能点越多周边的技能被活性化的程度就越高。而且即使是在初期磨练的技能，以后投入一定程度的技能点以后也可以大幅度提高使用效率。

总之，《Mythos》的技能树结构方式既可以最大程度避免技能死藏在手里，又可以避免技能树的种类较少让人感觉到单调。

极具特色的《Mythos》大分类职业和细分职业整理

Bloodletter：以近距离攻击为主， 强调‘力量’
Martialist：比较平凡的战士型职业。拥有提高攻击力和防御力的passive技能. 能够灵活的使用双手武器。善于大力顿足利用在一定范围内产生的冲击力来对付多个敌人。

Crimsonate: 能对敌人施行‘失血破坏’来补充自己或组员的体力以及攻击力。如果和组员中能够诱发流血的人物合作能产生更强大的效果。

RedHand: 用剑打败对方之后，把对方变成自己部下。和《暗黑破坏神》中的死灵法师相似强化部下的能力或者把部下看作一种牺牲品，补充他们的体力后增强后用做攻击武器或者引爆部下造成地方伤害。

Pyromancer：以魔法攻击为主， 强调‘智慧’

Cinderblade: 和魔剑师相似但是拥有越是垂死之前越是强大的特性。可以在武器上附着火焰来攻击敌方。施魔法打开保护膜后主要进行近距离攻击。人物受伤体力下降到一定数值以后，使用最终技能‘凤凰’时能够产生巨大的威力，并且通过损伤敌人来恢复自己体力。
Flamecaster: 虽然和Meteo一样使用强大的火焰魔法，但是完全不具备防御能力。同时可以攻击众多敌人。从最终技能是释放自身的体力来增强攻击破坏强度可以看出这是一种典型的攻击型职业。

Coalsmasher: 拥有能够引燃地面放倒多个对手的技能，还拥有在地面上喷上熔岩放慢敌人的速度并趁机攻击对手或者召唤神族巨人暂时增强防御力的能力。 但是和 Flamecaster 相比， 一次的攻击力较弱。是一个各方面能力都比较均衡的职业。

Gadgeteer：使用枪支的远距离攻击， 强调‘敏捷’
Duelist:拥有利用来福枪快速处理掉聚集在狭窄地区内对手的能力。动态的技能，快而狠。但是射程不远，整体感觉是较平凡的枪手。

Munitions: 完全没有动态的技能， 所有的技能都是on/off的静态技能。试图用基本攻击解决所有的问题。在刚开始游戏的时候会觉得人物较弱，但是当所有磨练的技能都加入到基本攻击后破坏力急速上升开始拥有傲人的威力。能够远距离射击。射出的子弹在墙面反弹后都能够攻击敌人的资深枪手。

Gadgets:
口袋里面隐藏里各种各样新奇古怪的玩具，从爆炸娃娃到到处行走恢复队友体力的玩具，甚至还有把敌军暂时变成朋友的玩具。随便掏出几个就会有奇妙的附加效果出现。

※ 此外还可以预见像枪 弹弓 弩等同时需要力量和敏捷性的新物品，新职业的登场。

虽然还是有不完美的地方，但是。。。

使人意外的是《Mythos》和《暗黑破坏神》的差别要素从数量上还是很多的，但大多体现在较次要的部分。不管是在人类外追加小精灵和半兽人也好，使用枪 弹弓 弩甚至玩具也好，《Mythos》在移植了《暗黑破坏神》的优点的同时也失去了‘新鲜感’。

但是想到《暗黑破坏神》被我们渐渐遗忘的根本原因的时候，上边的否定意见也就可以释然了。
暗黑系列作为联网PC游戏，增加补丁受到限制，就更不要提增加新的游戏内容了，而且游戏内没有交流的空间，使玩家沟通变得困难。 以上也是造成玩家流失的原因。 到现在为止也一直有人指出《暗黑破坏神》游戏性的缺点。

但是《Mythos》是不仅可以持续更新游戏内容，有供玩家交流的专用地图更是把经受过时间考验的游戏性网络化， 这一切都让今后《Mythos》又有怎样新的内容公布变得值得玩家期待。

If you want to read the original article on Thisisgame.com, please click the link below

http://www.thisisgame.com/board/view.php?id=116256&category=410&subcategory=

Hellgate: London on 17173.com

If you want to read the whole article, visit
http://news.17173.com/content/2007-08-21/20070821101306879,1.shtml

GE news on IGN

Sword of the New World Review

As much as we'd like to herald the excitement of discovery...
by Emily Balistrieri

August 9, 2007 - There are going to be people who really enjoy Sword of the New World. People who enjoy Lineage II, for instance, were probably falling over each other with anticipation before this game came out. And that's understandable because it's a Korean-style MMO with an exciting Columbus age of discovery feel, a richer noob experience, and a great soundtrack. It's a grind, but I remember starting out in Lineage II, and the grind has come a ways since then. Unfortunately, despite Sword of the New World's successes in many departments, the gameplay itself is probably going to hamper its ability to attract people from outside the niche market this type of MMO caters to.

Check out the whole article here!!

http://pc.ign.com/articles/811/811558p1.html

GE news on 17173.com

Check out the GE news on 17173.com

GE producer interview for GE loclization element for CN service
Summary: As the time getting closer to GE CBT in CN, press interview to 金學圭 with user's questions, mainly focuse on how GE will develop suitable elememt for service in CN market.

if you want to read more, here is the link!!
http://news.17173.com/content/2007-08-20/20070820155105075,1.shtml

MAX interview on 17173

17173.com posted the MAX interview.
If you want to check out the whole article, click the link
http://news.17173.com/content/2007-08-19/20070819112158679,1.shtml

Mythos Preview on TIG

This Is Game.com has posted the preview article of Mythos closed beta.
Here is a glimpse of it.

Mythos! You just can't stop!

Putting aside any criticism, if Hellgate: London is the expansion version of Diablo, you can say that Mythos is the direct line family member of it.Not only because the game is being developed by the creators of Diablo series, but also it maximized the great features of Diablo.

Being one of testers of Mythos' closed beta test, the game has overcome from previous single and network plays that were one of strongest features of Diablo, and become MMORPG.I wondered what made me stay up all night playing the same hack and slash game. And I have found out why.

if you want to look at the whole article, here is the link.
http://www.thisisgame.com/board/view.php?id=116256&category=410&subcategory=

Hellgate: London @ www.playhgl.com

Here is the link if you want to read the whole article.

http://www.playhgl.com/

[Press Release] Hellgate: London CB in Korea this SEPTEMBER

HELLGATE™: LONDON Starts Korean Closed Beta in September
HanbitSoft reveals new Korean Hellgate: London screenshots

Seoul, Korea (17 September, 2007) – HanbitSoft announced today that 2007's most anticipated PC action RPG, Hellgate: London, will begin closed beta testing in Korea this September.

“HanbitSoft and Flagship Studios have agreed that Hellgate: London will be in closed beta by this September,” said Alex Kim, Chairman of HanbitSoft. “Hellgate: London is a high quality title and is already in good shape; completion is just ahead of us. Unless unexpected problems show up, the closed beta will go smoothly and be over shortly.”

Mr. Kim added, “We are truly sorry for the late start of this test, especially after having announced selected testers. HanbitSoft and Flagship Studios are doing their absolute best to provide you the highest quality gaming experience they can, and we will release a more specific schedule very soon.” Mr. Kim added that the localization process for Korea is almost at an end.

With this announcement, HanbitSoft released screenshots of Hellgate: London’s newest Korean version. The latest screenshots depict the surface of a ruined London and some of its many randomly generated "dungeons," as well as other various scenes not yet shown.

Hellgate: London, in development since 2004 by the principal creators behind the global blockbuster action RPG franchise, Diablo®, will ship October 31st.

MAX interview on Korean WEB

Interview with MAX!!

Hi
News for you on Mythos!!
We have released a written interview with Max Shaefer about Mythos.
Check it out!

Flagship Studios COO - Max Schaefer 专访

Q: Max! 请你介绍一下自己好吗？ 你在旗舰工作室和Mythos主要负责什么工作呢？
A: Hi~我的名字是Max Schaefer， 是旗舰工作室的创始人之一，现在担任COO的工作。
我有15年做游戏的经验，其中最主要的成绩就是参与了北方暴雪的创建和《暗黑破坏神》系列游戏的工作。 现在在旗舰工作室负责创建《暗黑之门：伦敦》粒子系统和兼任Mythos 的执行制作人

Q: Mythos这个游戏已经进行了多久了？ 能告诉我们一些有关Mythos诞生的内幕么？
A: Mythos项目已经进行了1年半。 刚开始的时候我们非常渴望聘用曾经策划游戏《Fate》的 Travis Baldree， 因为我们觉得他能够抓住并表现暗黑最吸引人的灵魂部分。但是当时面对的情况是Travis不能离开西雅图，所以我们只能想出以一个特别的方式合作。那时我们正在进行《暗黑之门：伦敦》，并且正在寻找一个可以测试网络体系结构的方法。我们最终想出的办法就是制作一个本质上和《暗黑之门：伦敦》运作一样但是更加简单，用现存的工具和技术就制作出来的测试用游戏。几乎就是在测试用游戏出来的同时我们意识到这个游戏值得我们投入更多的精力。

Q: 因为游戏开发人员并没有集中在一起，你们是否遇到沟通不便的问题呢？你是怎么管理组织的呢？
A: 因为大家都用使用messenger 来保持联系，所以我们在沟通上并没有遇到困难。所有的意见都得到了及时地交换。但是最大的功臣是Travis，他严格的管理使得我不用在组织的管理运作上费神。

Q:你觉得Mythos最大的特征是什么？
A: Mythos 最大的特征是这个游戏既不复杂又非常有趣。Mythos 的世界是让人放松的，熟悉而亲切的，同时也是具有原创性的。 战斗起来非常的爽快干脆并且非常有互动的感觉。人物也很讨巧和俏皮。 完成任务的时候不需要花掉玩家整个周末。Mythos 能够让人会心一笑。

Q: 很多人都提到Mythos 让他们想起了《暗黑破坏神》。 两个游戏之间有什么联系？Mythos 和《暗黑破坏神》有什么不同和相似之处么？
A: 旗舰工作室有大约17个人曾经参与《暗黑破坏神》的开发工作。 比现在留在暴雪的人数还要多。暗黑的灵魂已经融入到我们的作品之中，所以这种联系是切不断的。 但是《暗黑破坏神》的世界和Mythos 的世界是非常不同的。《暗黑破坏神》的世界更加黑暗，具有直线型特点。
而Mythos 更具有多人连线游戏的特征。


Q:当人们把Mythos 和《暗黑破坏神》比较的时候，你们会不会觉得有压力呢？
A: 当然会。我们总是迫使自己使新的作品超越以往，这种需要从当初在暴雪那个充满竞争氛围和承诺做到最好的环境中就得到了培养。甚至延续到现在的旗舰工作室。

Q: Mythos 的封测进行的怎么样？确实对游戏改进有所帮助么？ 大致有多少人参加，从他们那里得到的反馈如何？
A: 有几千人参与了这次的Beta封测。他们的回馈非常的棒，对改进游戏的平衡性和其它部分非常有帮助。我们和参与测试的玩家每天保持着联系。 游戏社区以及公会被建立的出人意料的好，他们的活动非常积极而且充满激情，让我们非常感激。

Q: 你并没有给Mythos的封测设定一个结束的时间。为什么？测试会进行到什么时候呢？
A:尽管Mythos 已经变成了一个独立的重要项目，但是我们决定保持这个项目的灵活性并不打算改变让Mythos 帮助测试《暗黑之门：伦敦》的网络体系技术的初衷。，

Q: Mythos 什么时候会公开给公众呢？ 它的封测已经开始进行，很明显Mythos 的开发进度要快于《暗黑之门：伦敦》。 它会被抢先公开么？
A: 这是个暗藏玄机的问题。我知道同时发布两个重要的游戏是很疯狂的。 特别是对像我们这样刚刚起步的独立开发公司。 但是这就是我们正在做的事情。 随着公司开发力量的增加我们会持续完善游戏然后公布给大众。Mythos进度确实是比《暗黑之门：伦敦》快一些， 因为我们需要它去验证将要执行在《暗黑之门：伦敦》的技术。现在我们还不确定是否将Mythos放在《暗黑之门：伦敦》之前完全公布给大众，但是我们会尝试。 如果没有做到的话它将会紧随《暗黑之门：伦敦》和玩家见面。 暂时我们会集中精力在测试中完善。

Q: Mythos 和《暗黑之门：伦敦》的不同之处在哪里呢？
A: 这两个游戏使用同一个图形引擎，开发工具以及网络体系技术并且在设计感也保持了一致。可以说这两个游戏有非常多的相似之处。如果你只是看游戏截图的话会觉得它们根本就是两个不同的游戏， 但是在玩了一段时间之后你会感觉到它们相传一脉。

Q: 有没有特别想对中国玩家说的话？
A :我想说我工作中的一大乐趣就是可以到不同的国家和地区旅行，在那些有我们游戏的玩家的地方。 我最爱的地方之一就是中国。 我们深感荣耀和荣幸能够把我们的游戏介绍到中国。并且成为以惊人速度增长和发展着的中国游戏开发产业的一部分。上次的上海和北京之行让我们非常期待能够再次拜访中国。 你好~中国。

English version

1. Max! Tell us a little bit about yourself! What are your main roles in FSS and Mythos?
Hello! My name is Max Schaefer, and I’m the COO and co-founder of Flagship Studios. I’ve been making games for 15 years now, most notably in co-founding Blizzard North and working on the Diablo series. With Flagship Studios, I wear a lot of hats, from making particle systems for Hellgate: London, to serving as Executive Producer for Mythos.

2. How long have you guys working on Mythos? Tell us a little bit about the birth of Mythos? (When, and how you guys came up with the idea.)
The Mythos project is about a year and a half old. It began with a desire to hire Travis Baldree, who was the mastermind of the game Fate, which in our opinion best captured the hook of the Diablo games. Travis couldn’t leave Seattle so we had to come up with a creative way to work together. At the same time, we were moving along with Hellgate: London, and were looking for a way to test our network architecture. So we came up with the idea of making a test game that would work in fundamentally the same way, but be simple and easy to create with our existing tools and technology. Almost immediately, we realized we actually had to make this game something more.

3. How many developers are working on Mythos? Is everyone at FSS Seattle?
For the first six months, it was just Travis. Now they are up to 9 developers, all in Seattle. Due to the nature of the project, they work together with the network team at Ping0, and with the guys here in San Francisco from time to time.

4. Isn’t it hard to communicate when most developers are away? How do you control
This question got cut off, but I’ll try to answer. The communication isn’t hard at all, really. We all use instant messenger programs, and are fully networked, so we’re in constant contact. But the main reason is that Travis runs a tight ship, and as a result it’s not exactly a high-maintenance organization.

5. What do you think is the strongest feature of Mythos?
The strongest feature of Mythos is simple, concentrated fun. The world of Mythos is comforting. It’s familiar, yet original. The combat is crisp and responsive, the characters are endearing and mischievous, and the quests don’t require that you set aside a whole weekend to complete. Mythos makes people smile.

6. Many people say Mythos reminds them of Diablo. Does it have any connection? How is Mythos similar and different from Diablo?
We have about 17 people at Flagship Studios that worked on the Diablo series – more people than Blizzard has. The spirit of Diablo infuses our work, because our spirit infused Diablo. There will always be a connection. But the world of Diablo was a very different one than Mythos. Diablo was darker, more linear, and didn’t quite have the MMO feel that Mythos does.

7. When people compare Mythos with Diablo, do you feel any pressure?
Of course we do. We always feel pressure to do everything better than the last time. I think that need began with the competitive atmosphere and commitment to excellence at Blizzard, and lives on today at Flagship Studios.

8. How is the closed beta going on? Is it helpful? Roughly, how many are participating, and what are their responses?
There are thousands of people participating in our beta, and their response has been fantastic. We’re getting a lot of help with balance and suggestions, and we’re interacting with them every day. The community is shaping up to be unusually positive and enthusiastic, which we appreciate very much.

9. You didn’t set any time limits in Mythos’s closed beta. Why? Do you know when this test will last?
While Mythos has become a real, major project for us, it’s also still serving as a test bed for the network technologies for our upcoming Hellgate: London release. So we’re keeping the project flexible and not committing to anything that might compromise its role in doing that.


10. When will Mythos be open to public? Since its closed beta is ongoing right now, the developing process seems faster than HGLD. Will it be open before HGLD?
That is a tricky question. It’s sheer insanity to try to release two major titles at the same time, especially for a startup, independent developer. Nevertheless, that’s pretty much what we’re doing. We’ll continue to scale it up and bring it to the public as our capacity to do so grows. Mythos is one step ahead of Hellgate: London because it’s serving to prove the technologies that then get implemented in Hellgate. It’s unclear right now if we’ll open up fully to the public before the release of Hellgate: London, but we’re sure going to try. If not, it will be shortly afterwards, and in the interim, we’ll be scaling up the testing all the time.

11. How is Mythos different from HGLD?
In some ways it’s similar, especially structurally, but they look and feel like completely different games. Hellgate: London is a more serious, deep game. It’s futuristic, played from the first-person or close third person perspective, as opposed to the isometric, fixed-camera view of Mythos. However, there are many interface conventions and mechanics that are shared, so if you can play one, learning the other should come easily.

12. What are the similarities? (HGLD and Mythos)
Since we share a graphics engine, development tools, and network technology, plus design sensibilities, there are many similarities. If you look at screenshots, they look like completely unrelated games. But if you play a while, you can see the common blood between them pretty easily.

13. Anything you would like to say to gamers in china?
Yes. One of the best parts of my job is that I get to travel to all the places in the world our games are played. One of my new favorite places in the world is China, and we feel privileged and honored to be able to bring our games to Chinese gamers, and to be a part of the exciting and awe-inspiring growth and development of the game industry in China. Our last trip brought us to Shanghai and Beijing, and we can’t wait to see much more in our next visit! Ni hao, China!

Mythos on GXleague!!

http://www.gxleague.com/mmo/news.asp?id=1384&sec=2&typ=2 check out the Mythos article on GX League!!

Mythos News

hey all.

This is Mythos news that had been posted in Korea.

http://kr.news.yahoo.com/service/news/shellview.htm?linkid=16&articleid=2007080114442019144&newssetid=492

You can also read it in English and Chinese

『Mythos』, newer, better, different Diablo

Diablo has born again, but this time it’s online.

Flagship Studios recently revealed another title called Mythos, which is very similar to the world famous Diablo. Mythos is developed by the crew who developed Diablo, including Phil Shenks, former core member of Diablo developers. Mythos has many features similar to Diablo, and it succeeded in gaining its reputation as “Diablo Online” from the testers who have participated in the last alpha test held this April.

Since Mythos is newly created online version of Diablo, most critics say that it will be different from many other games that have been shown lately.
Its new characters and skills, control, interface, and story tell us whole new, different challenges the developers have gone through, and we can feel the difference from Diablo. Dive into the magical fun of Mythos. This will throw away your heat in this hot summer.

Mythos
Type: MMORPG
Developer: Flagship Studios
Publisher: HanbitSoft Inc.
Platform: Online
Website: www.mythos.com
Etc.: July 18th, first closed beta test, ongoing.

Fresh, new changes, and challenge… and infinite amount of Quests that will bring you the mysterious experience.

■ Reveal the secret of ULD
Mythos is an online, action role-playing game that is free to download and free to play. Set in the land of Uld – a fantasy world arising from the ashes of an epoch-long war of darkness – players assume the roles of fantasy heroes as they explore, adventure, and quest through entirely randomized dungeons and environments. With an elegant point-and-click interface and an accessible “isometric” perspective, Mythos is poised to have near-universal appeal. The game allows thousands of players to interact within the same world while using mostly “instanced” dungeons to create unique gaming experiences suited for both solo and group-minded players.
As players journey into Mythos’ ever-expanding universe, they select one of three races (Human, Elves, or Satyros) and opt to play as a particular character class using a huge variety of skills and items. Through heroic quests players search for gold, gems, armor, and weapons, while unlocking the secrets of Uld. Mythos presents a constantly expanding, continuously updated world where something new lurks around every corner.
Mythos is an online role-playing game developed by Flagship Seattle, a subsidiary of Flagship Studios. Mythos is currently exercising the online technology and services behind the multiplayer component of the highly-anticipated action role-playing game Hellgate: London. Mythos will be digitally distributed in North America and Europe in 2007 by Ping0. HanbitSoft, Flagship Studios’ partner in Ping0, will be responsible for distributing Mythos in Asia.

■ Fascinating Battles
Every character in Mythos has its own uniqueness. One character class is added to this closed beta version. Mythos introduced another class that uses guns.

This class has characteristics similar to hunters. They can cure the party friends and maximize their ability to attack, as well as install turrets on the ground. These qualities make them very necessary and essential in party play.

Many changes can be found compared to the last version which was shown at the alpha test. The skill tree has been totally upgraded, and this allows the warrior and the wicked to show off their powerful skills. The fascinating battles of powerful characters are another fantastic experience you can get from playing Mythos.

■ Updated mysterious fields
Another fascinating feature you can find in the phantasmal closed beta version is the new updated field. The currently updated mysterious field brings you the new experience of field battles in Mythos. The field which connects the area to area brought many changes in methods of transferring to the map.

It is same as the alpha version that once you choose which area you want to go, the instant transfer occurs, but in the closed beta version, you can also run through the field. This way the major fun of fast progress stays, and currently added adventurous features also allows you to experience unexpected various events and items.

Interview with Young June Shin, the project manager of Mythos at HanbitSoft

“It is differentiated from Diablo”

Q. How is closed beta service in Korea?

Since Mythos has not been yet localized, the gamers have to log into North American servers. We chose small number of gamers who are enthusiastic enough to do so. Because we selected small number of testers, the subscription period was very short, and we didn’t do much PR or marketing. We feel very sorry for not giving opportunities to many gamers. I hear that they were very disappointed.

Q. Many critics and gamers say that Mythos is a lot like Diablo. What do you have to say about this?

It definitely has many features from Diablo. But there will be a lot more contents added in the future and we will deliver the better experience to the gamers. Especially, the cute characters and upgraded field battle with mysterious background already show difference from Diablo.

Q. What do think is the most differentiated feature in the game compared to Diablo?

The way you have to buy the map in order to search through the dungeon is the most differentiated feature. The divided levels allow the player to buy the right map and go on. The randomization also makes Mythos always fun to play.

Mythos, 更新更有趣的《暗黑破坏神》


单机版《暗黑破坏神》在网络里重新诞生了

由旗舰工作室 开发的 和《暗黑破坏神》形态相似的Mythos一经公开就引起了玩家和游戏业内很大的关注。

包括 Phil Shenks 在内的《暗黑破坏神》系列的核心开发者参与了Mythos游戏的开发。 今年4月Alpha测试进行以后，Mythos被评价成网络版的《暗黑破坏神》很大程度说明了这个游戏具备了《暗黑破坏神》系列的核心趣味性。

因为Mythos可以说把第一个将动作和RPG游戏结合的《暗黑破坏神》网络化了，使得Mythos和现在市面流通的游戏有着很大的区别。不仅如此因为增加了新的人物和技术，移动系统，用户界面以及故事又给玩家带来了和《暗黑破坏神》不一样的新鲜感。享受由Mythos 所带来的不同于《暗黑破坏神》的趣味性，在炎炎夏日也可以说是消暑的好办法

Mythos：
游戏类型： MMORPG
开发公司：旗舰工作室
发行公司：HanbitSoft
Homepage: www.mythos.com
游戏平台： 网络游戏
其他： 7月18日 内侧

新鲜感， 充满挑战性，未知的神秘体验 以及‘无穷无尽’的任务
■ 揭开Uld的秘密
Mythos以 Uld 命名的新纪元时代的战争的幻想世界为背景。从神秘的氛围好象玩家可以感受到
在Uld 里面隐藏着难以捉摸的秘密

玩家可以在人类、精灵、Gremlin中选一个种族来解开Uld世界隐藏的秘密。在市面上的MMORPG中从来没有见过得的种族， 并且每个种族都有着自己独特的个性和技能，玩家可以体验到多彩的冒险旅程。
比如拥有比人类更加强壮的肝和肺，总是在抽烟的Gremlin， 头上长角的人类等这些只有在Mythos才能看到的独特人物。虽然还没有公开关于他们的故事， 只是看到他们独特的造型和战斗类型就能充分的诱发玩家的好奇心。不仅如此. 玩家在完成任务的同时也能够一步一步接近Uld世界的秘密。

■ 人物们展开的华丽的战斗
和独特的人物造型不相上下的还有Mythos人物的战斗类型。以前的版本曾经将职业分为战士和魔法师但是在封测时又增加了使用枪的新职业。
这些新职业者不仅拥有能够治疗组内成员并且将他们的攻击力最大化的能力，并且有着能够在地上建造炮塔型武器的特殊力量。像猎人一样的他们以枪支作为主要武器，在ＭＭＯＲＰＧ游戏中非常重视组队战斗而他们又是组队战斗时必不可少的人物，这一切就值得玩家的期待。

技能树的大幅度更新使得战士和魔法师能够更加炫耀他们强大的技能。强大的人物在战斗时所展示出的华丽战斗是Mythos另外一个吸引人的地方.

■ 营造出梦幻般神秘氛围的封测版本新加入了野外场景。
强调了神秘氛围的新场景使得野外战斗成为可能。起到联结不同地区作用的野外场景使得地图间的移动方式也有了很大的变化。打开世界地图选择目的地之后，就能够像漫画中一样实现瞬间移动。在这封测中通过野外场景来实现瞬间移动既使得移动到目的地的速度加快，因为移动到的地方的不可预知性使得游戏更加有趣。

Q: 在韩国进行的封测情况怎么样？
A: 因为这次的测试是通过北美的服务器进行的所以只选择了极少数的积极万家参加。 因为只选择了少数的玩家并且召集玩家的时间过短所以几乎没怎么宣传，很多玩家因为没有得到机会参加感到非常遗憾。

Q. 听到了很多Mythos 和《暗黑破坏神》非常相似的评价 ，您的想法怎么样？
A:确实是应用了很多《暗黑破坏神的》游戏元素。但是为了给玩家带来更大的满足感增加了许多新的游戏系统。特别更加了更多精致的人物，野外战斗方式，梦幻的背景等和《暗黑破坏神》差别化的要素。

Q.游戏内最大的差别化部分是什么？
随机地图是这个游戏最大的特色。特别是可以根据自己的级别来购买相应的地图。 而且每次进入地图时地图的构造都会随机变化。增加了游戏的变化性和趣味性。