Mythica MMORPG Cancelled By Microsoft

Ivan writes "Microsoft announced that it has cancelled Mythica, its internally developed massively multiplayer PC RPG with a Nordic twist. The official website has the formal cancellation announcement, but additionally, 1UP spoke with MS reps who gave a few more details, noting 'the company had two MMORPG projects in development -- Mythica, and an as-yet-unannounced title. Rather than support the development and eventual maintenance of two MMORPGs in an already crowded and highly competitive market, Microsoft cancelled Mythica to make room for its other game.'"

In other words...

Translation: All you Mythica developers, we have a few NT bugs to fix... (fp) :-)

The 'as yet unannounced title"

The new game is tenatively titled "Vaporquest."

Bluster

Unannounced title my ass. The game probably sucked or they were having developmental or legal problems. I wish big corporations just be tell it straight about these things.

Re:Bluster

Microsoft is funding what will be a VERY high profile game. It will most likely announce by the end of the month.

The company is called Sigil Games Online [sigilgames.com] and is made up of the creative minds that designed the original Everquest. Sigil has hired up a lot of the Everquest talent, (which may account for the odd ball expansions that have been released. ie PoP, LoY, GoD, and Luclin). Also, Sigil has only hired experienced people. Expect a good game out of these people. They are MUD players, Pen and Paper Players and people who suffered the problems of the original MMoRPGs. They also have ears directly connected to the online community and they listen to what people like and dislike.

Re:Bluster

Microsoft is funding what will be a VERY high profile game. It will most likely announce by the end of the month.

Ok, ok, ok... they spent about $500 million dollars and it's got like, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Independence Day and X-Men all on the same, like, team and it's an MMORPGEFPSSIMPAR so it's got these really cool controllers on wheels and stuff, and then there's like 50 different screen resolutions and it runs on Macs and stuff too. It's going to be sooooo cool.

Re:Bluster

The company is called Sigil Games Online and is made up of the creative minds that designed the original Everquest. Sigil has hired up a lot of the Everquest talent, (which may account for the odd ball expansions that have been released. ie PoP, LoY, GoD, and Luclin). Also, Sigil has only hired experienced people.

You mean the people that brought you Evercamp. Obviously you either didn't play or have forgotten what EQ was like pre-Kunark. Where the world was so mob-underpopulated and item-underpopulated that there were 120+ people in Lower Guk. Class balance was a joke (and still is to this day). Mage pets were broken for two+ years. Necros were more valued for their pets with fine steel daggers to tank than a warrior with full plate and SSoY's. Not to mention the broken quest system that made you camp for rare items for real life days on end.

Brad McQuaid, John Smedley, and most of all Abashi/Absor never listened to the players. They had "The Vision(tm)" and all other views be damned.

It is a trait of these developers...

All of them, from Brad McQuaid, Raph Koster, to Lord British, they all have egos the size of planets. Reading their posts to various forums and industry sites it is evident that they cannot learn. Well I will be nice, I have seen much from Brad recently, but Raph proves time and time again his disconnect.

Hell even Jessica Mulligan, who wrote Biting the Hand - a sometimes hard look at the gaming industry, turned into what she/he claimed was the problem. After taking the helm of AC2 and now AC1 she seemed to operate in a manner completely opposite of what she was preaching beforehand. Granted turing around the Turbine ship wasn't going to be easy but its moving.

The problem comes down to the fact they hit on success and suddenly feel as if they are the only ones with opinions that matter. Which probably explains why most are fearful of doing another game or if they do it it never lives up to expectation.

Counting Magic Beans

> Here's where the bean counters get involved. A player-oriented decision would be to make a high-level expansion, realize that you will only sell it to half the playerbase, and make it a no-holds-barred high-level expansion. Instead, they try to add low-level features to market to the LCD so that the majority of the playerbase will buy it.

The problem is that, in the market that these games live in, the bean counters must be involved. SOE cannot afford to issue a major expansion that only caters to (and will only be purchased by) a fraction of their player base. While this makes it rather difficult to issue a proper expansion, it's economically required by the business model. Saying they should just pick a segment and cater to that segment would be suicidal.

That said, they have tried to release expansions targetted to certain segments, with stuff put in for the rest. Planes of Power was virtually all for high end characters, with one VERY important and game-changing low-end addition (the Plane of Knowledge, which virtually eliminated the market for porters and made spell acquisition much simpler). I take that as an example of a well done expansion, that targetted one group but didn't leave everyone else out in the cold, and people who were not of a sufficient level to enter the experience areas still went out and bought it for access to the PoK. Then came the Legacy of Ykesha, which was also meant to be a high end expansion with some low end content and benefits. I take this as an example of a badly done expansion, because the "try to please" reach was much broader in LoY than it was in PoP. Since the high end content wasn't high enough to draw people out of the Planes of Power zones, the low end zones were still too high for the weekend gamers, and extra bank space wasn't sufficient to drive people to buy it if they didn't also want the zone content, not many felt the need to buy it.

So, in short, I don't think that trying to please a broad segment of the gamer base is a bad idea, and in fact it's necessary to the survival of the game. When it's done well, it really works, and I disagree that it can only be done well by focusing on small portions of the player base.

Virg

Re:Translation:

God, I wish there was a -1, Retarded.

Listen. Good software takes three things: time, talent and money. Microsoft has the money, the developers have the time and the talent. Sorry the developers took the money and didn't just build an RPG on their own time for the sheer love of it, but babies like to eat and landlords like to crack the skulls of deadbeats. I think the developers at Sigil aren't hurting because their money came from the "evil giant" who brought such horrors into the world as a workable ubiquitous operating system, a fast-enough web browser and a homogenous, interconnected office suite.

What do they, Microsoft, have to do with the project? Well, they selected the team, they put up the money. They've done the production work even if they haven't directed the fool thing. It is Microsoft who said, "There shall be an MMORPG" instead of "There shall be Yet Another Inferior Space Simulator from Chris Roberts."

Microsoft wanted to make a game, and wisely chose not to micromanage the project because their strong suit is not game making, it's writing the world's number one operating system (and office suite (and browser (and a shitty web server))). They do the same for the Macintosh version of MS Word -- loan the core code to a non-MS team, who make a good program rather than a shitty one that looks like Microsoft did it.

How does paying programmers to produce a game make them an evil company? And what are they supposed to do with their "monopoly capital," sit on it until it turns into a golden fucking egg?

I'm not going to play this game. But not because it's from Microsoft. I'm not going to play it because I want to raise a puppy and some kids and finish restoring my 1973 Super Beetle, three things you can't do when you're playing an MMORPG.

Re:Bluster

They also have ears directly connected to the online community and they listen to what people like and dislike.

So did Shadowbane, and Horizons, and Asheron's Call 2, and Star Wars Galazies, and Neocron, and Anarchy Online, etc. etc.

There are two problems here. What online RPGers -say- they like and what they will play are two different things. Everyone claims to hate camping and level grinding, and yet...you build an online Skinner box and you'll get players camping ph4t l3wtz that they have a 10% chance of getting once a month.
Second, the ideal MMORPG is basically not possible with current technology. Developers aren't able to make a living, breathing world with millions of independent intelligent NPCs, a game world that adapts on the fly to player behavior, deformable terrain, meaningful political systems, and so on. In the real world, the best you can hope for is a sort of virtual Disneyworld, which is able to move thousands of players through scripted encounters and quests. The notion of a gameplay experience truly unique to any particular player is just not going to happen....yet.

Whatever Microsoft and Sigil games may offer, it's not going to change the world.

Re:Bluster

Microsoft was sued by Mythic (makers of Dark Age of Camelot) over the similarities between the names "Mythic" and "Mythica". I guess Microsoft thought they'd lose and decided to scrap the project.

So...

...that was the source code that was released. Maybe they are going to rewrite it in XML?

I was really looking forward to this game. It looked like it had some real potential. If I am going to invest in a game where i pay fees to pay, I want it to be a stable company with some future.

Re:So...

If I am going to invest in a game where i pay fees to pay

i see you do like the microsoft model

M$ Games?

I always looked at windows as an RPG - well, at least a good fight engine.

MS's MMOGs

Considering Microsoft's "other MMOG" is a as yet unannounced game from Sigil Games (sigilgames.com) I can't say I'm suprised.

Sigil Games, founded by Brad McQuaid, one of the original creators and producer of Everquest before leaving for Sigil, is working on a 3rd generation MMOG as he calls it.

Say what you will about EQ, but it's still the market leader for MMOGs here in the US. He's hired a ton of talent from the original EQ team to build his game.

Can't say I blame Microsoft at all for betting their chips on Sigil instead of Mythica, considering Turbine already bought Asheron's Call 2 back from Microsoft and running a MMOG isn't cheap, though you can make most of it back over time.

Re:MS's MMOGs

Right now, Final Fantasy Online has more subscribers than EverQuest (worldwide). I don't know the exact numbers, but EQ is between 400-500k and FFXI is between 500-600k. I think Final Fantasy's astronomical growth rate demonstrates that the current MMORPG market is not saturated. Personally I'm glad Microsoft is giving Brad McQuaid the opportunity to take back the MMORPG title. A good choice, but Richard Garriot would have been better. Richard Garriot created the first version of Ultima Online with $250,000 and a handful of hobbyist text MUD designers. And UO, with graphics relatively unchanged since 1996, is the third most popular MMORPG with around 250k subscribers. Imagine what Garriot could do with some real money! Well for once, I'd like to say best of luck to Microsoft. Mythica was obviously not going anywhere. And Sony needs a nice ass whopping after ruining Planetside and SWG :) McQuaid may just have what it takes to bring the fun back to MMORPGs.

Re:MS's MMOGs

Richard Garriot is current working on an MMORPG called Tabula Rosa under the Korean publisher NCSoft. NCSoft also published Lineage, currently the largest MMORPG in the world with around 4 million subscribers. So it seems as if "Lord British" will get a great chance to show what he can do with some real money.

Re:MS's MMOGs

I think Final Fantasy's astronomical growth rate demonstrates that the current MMORPG market is not saturated.

No. It demonstrates that the worldwide MMORPG is not saturated. For English speakers, though, there are plenty of MMORPGs available (I'll leave the question of whether they're good or not to others).

Unfortunately, the MMORPG market seems to be locked into a painful, stagnating track. Specifically, everyone sees the success of Everquest and wants to attract the people who like that game. Thus, every game seems to be emulating EQ with relatively minor tweaks (probably inspired by reading threads written by people who are angry about something in Everquest). The problem with being on this track is that people who didn't enjoy, or got tired of, Everquest see little reason to try the latest, greatest MMORPG given how much they all tend to resemble each other.

Me, I'm just going to bide my time until they get about two years into Star Wars Galaxies. With spaceships and the inevitable balancing/tweaking/content additions, I'm pretty sure I could enjoy it. :)

Re:MS's MMOGs

No. It demonstrates that the worldwide MMORPG is not saturated. For English speakers, though, there are plenty of MMORPGs available (I'll leave the question of whether they're good or not to others).

Unfortunately, the MMORPG market seems to be locked into a painful, stagnating track. Specifically, everyone sees the success of Everquest and wants to attract the people who like that game. Thus, every game seems to be emulating EQ with relatively minor tweaks

I think the potential MMORPG market is immense. There are plenty of people who would enjoy such a game, if they were introduced to a) computers, b) gaming in general, and c) online gaming. I know a few people who were pushed through that path by their husband or wife, and (to their own surprise) found great enjoyment ini playing MMORPGs.

The Sims Online tried to tap some of this market. Despite its failure, the game managed to draw in something of a new crowd; people who weren't big on RPGs or online gaming.

I see two opportunities for MMORPG companies:
1) Market expansion a la Sims Online: attracting more of the mainstream crowd. That doesn't mean writing a game that everyone likes; it means writing a game that has appeal outside the current MMORPG player base.
2) Separation and rationalisation of the graphics engine, game world functions, support, and billing function. As the player base widens, I think it will be increasingly hard to develop a game that has appeal to everyone. Instead, if you have a generic (but evolving) game world engine, a single billing and support entity, and flexible graphics engines, then you will be able to develop and run multiple MMORPGs at a lower cost. You may be able to profitably run a niche-market game for perhaps 20.000 subscribers, if you have 10 such games. That way, you'll be able to tailor each game to the wants of a small group of players, rather than being forced financially to write a game that tries to be everything to everyone.

Chrikey

Microsoft is putting out yet another MMORPG in an already way too crowded marketplace? I understand the 13$ a month business model is good, but not spread as thin as it will be with all this competition.

Re:Chrikey

If the MMORPG is mobile-capable, e.g. PocketPC (which I *HIGHLY* suspect) then it is not a crowded marketplace anymore...even at $3 a month it'll remain pretty lucrative.

MS Game Development Strategy

I've never been a fan of MS games, but wouldn't it make more sense for them to focus attention on cross-platform games that they would be able to market both for PCs and for their XBox system? Perhaps the second MMORPG mentioned in the article meets this critereon while the cancelled game doesn't.

Re:MS Game Development Strategy

I don't think the XBox Live system allows for PC intereaction. This is due to the high number of PC users that like to cheat in games. Although, a cheat device for the XBox was released to some, and many people stopped playing the games that cheats existed for and went on to other similar games. Take Return To Castle Wolfenstein for instance. It was one of the biggest online games for XBox for a good while, until a bunch of people started cheating. Almost everyone stopped playing that and now plays other games.

Smart move!

For once I agree with something MS did. There are already too many mediocre MMORPGs floundering around in the marketplace. It's only a matter of time before some of them are forced to close their doors. As I understand it, there are a bunch of them (like Anarchy Online) that are caught between having too few subscribers to make a significant profit, but too many to pull the plug without facing a significant backlash. Aside from pure financial considerations, though, I wonder how much Mythic's lawsuit [com.com] played into the decision (that's Mythic, developer of Dark Age of Camelot, as opposed to the just-cancelled project Mythica).

Re:Smart move!

I'm sure the lawsuit was a factor too. But, like you said, the market is going to get saturated quick. Not as much room for shitty games in a place where you have to pay per month. That means a game must not only be interesting enough to make a sale, but good enough to keep that intrest over a long period of time. More, people are only going to be willing to plunk down so much. 1-2 games is probably the max for most people.

I'm betting between the lawsuit and the promise of Sigil they figured this wasn't worth it and just stopped.

Re:Smart move!

Though you're generally right about the plethora of mediocre MMORPGs out there, I knew some people involved in Mythica, and they are surely not mediocre developers. And from what I've heard from them, the game was shaping up to be anything but a mediocre release, which makes this announcement quite shocking. I understand it from a business perspective, but it seems like this game had a really good shot at serious success. The naming issue was probably easily addressable, and surely is not behind the cancellation.

Bad Day

First Barbie breaks up with Ken [cnn.com] and now this! Augh!$@, my fantasy word is crumbling to pieces. :((((

Re:Bad Day

Barbie breaks up with Ken

Another fine shining example for a society with a 50% divorce rate.

Should also make a great cultural addition to "The Apprentice" (keep your own job by abandoning your neighbor), "Survivor" (let's all get together and decide who to ostracize) and "American Idol" (let's make sport of human cruelty).

What a joyful day indeed.

Re:Bad Day

They where not married, they where just dating.

Ah, thanks for clearing the confusion surrounding the marital status of Barbie and Ken for us geeks. I can understand why you're posting anonymously.

Title for the other MMORPG ?

Inspired by real life events...Raiders of the Lost Code [slashdot.org].

Source Code Leaks

MS makes a brilliant move to preemptively kill projects, in an effort to stem any further source code leaks.

"No source code here to leak, project's axed, move on."

GBA = The new home for turn-based strategy games?

Having less MMORPGs on the market would mean the consumer base would be focused in fewer games. Theoritically this means companies would be more inclined to make less buggy software and improve the game overall.

In a perfect world that is. While this is true in the long run, you won't see these results any time soon.

M$ chickened out

With the new Final Fantasy online released and Evercrack continuing forever, it's no surprise they stepped out.

Of course if Bill Gates was the final boss that 100 players can team up and attack, this game will be a sure hit even with ascii graphics.

Wow this news is really surprising.

A few hours after the source code leaks their big programming prodject is put on hault? Try this theory on for size, mabey the programers are working on the longhorn sourse code seeing as that by trend microsoft is to edit code, not rewrite it. Now they have to write code. Anyways I personally expect alot of things they were working on to come down over the next few weeks.

Re:Wow this news is really surprising.

A few hours after the source code leaks their big programming prodject is put on hault? Try this theory on for size, mabey the programers are working on the longhorn sourse code seeing as that by trend microsoft is to edit code, not rewrite it. Now they have to write code. Anyways I personally expect alot of things they were working on to come down over the next few weeks.

"Their big programming project"? Game developers working on Longhorn? Not likely. Microsoft has a bunch of big programming projects going on all the time, and there's little sharing between them. People working on Visual Studio are not going to be pulled off to work on SQL Server, and game developers are not going to be put on Longhorn (unless the developers in question are looking to change jobs within the company and go through the proper interview loops in the new groups and get accepted, of course).

Assuming the Mythica developers were internal to Microsoft and not part of an external company that Microsoft publishes for (Bizarre Creations, Gas Powered Games, etc), the team may be parceled up across different games in the MGS division, or they might be developing a different game. They're certainly not working on Longhorn.

Finally, cancelling projects in any company, not just Microsoft, doesn't happen overnight. Whether or not the NT source was leaked likely had no bearing on this decision at all, as it was surely made weeks ago.

You foil hat might be just a bit too tight, I think.

I just hope

I hope this trend does not continue, although I'm sure they have their reasons for this. I play Asheron's Call which is produced by Microsoft, developed by Turbine and I'd hate to see it go down the toilet too. To be honest I think Microsoft should stop trying to spread its roots of evil and focus its development on their operating systems. I'm sure we can all agree on that.

As well...

This avoids any possibility of continued legal action by the makers of "Dark Age of Camelot".

Not sure what the status of that suit was but with no game MS doesn't have to worry about taking a lawyer from their crack team of legal-ninjas scouring the globe for teenage website operators to sue.

The plot of the unannounced MMORPG:

A group of warri^H^H^H^H^Hprogrammers fights against droves of bugs and orc^H^H^Hsalesdrones as they quest towards the evil land of Mordo^H^H^H^H^HLonghorn!

To be released in 2004^H5^H6^H7...

to make room for its other game

Most likely because the root cellar is already stuffed to the drip rails with spot-lighted mule deer and snare-trapped rooster pheasant...

You think the streets of Seattle are tough, try going out in the woods.

Release the Code!

Please sir, could I have some more?

A Sad Day

Let me start this off by saying I'm not a big fan of Microsoft in General.

But that game was amazing. I got to play it ( An Alpha or Pre-Beta ) at GenCon, and it was really fun. I can't remember alot of details, so mod me as you will, but from what I remember gameplay was very intuitive for an RPG, let alone a MMORPG, and battles were face-paced and quick, and very heartpounding.

This is coming from a 3 year EverQuest addict. I'm sorry to see this game going.

I told you!

'Microsoft cancelled Mythica to make room for its other game.'

See I told you it is bloatware

Instead of MMORPG mythology...

They really should do MMDOWXP, massive multiprogrammers debugging of Windows XP, yeah. Otherwise Windows become a mythology itself in few years.

MS-MMORG: The Borg

To MS, _life_ is a MMORPG, one in which you WILL be assimilated.

This is becoming too common :(

Cyan and UBI just cancelled URU live as well. They gave excuses that not enough people signed up for the game to make it viable so they pulled the plug and promised a bunch of expansion packs instead...which sucks IMHO.

It seems like there just aren't enough gamers interested in paying a monthly subscription to make it profitable for game makers. That, and the fact that a lot of willing customers are still stuck with dial up internet access and can't enjoy these games anyways. Maybe when everyone can get easy, inexpensive access to broadband these games will garner more interest. In the meantime, I'll just keep hosting my lan parties.

-Pat

Official Announcement

SEATTLE - Microsoft said late Thursday that it would immediately halt development of "Mythica", an online roleplaying game that was scheduled for release in the second half of 2004. A Microsoft Studios spokesman stated, "After reviewing similar titles in the massively multiplayer Online gaming genre, we determined that our game was too stable. It is a disappointment given the talent, experience, and track record we have here at Microsoft at creating buggy software. Unfortunately, the competitive market did not allow us time to include enough crashes or exploits in our game to make it competitive for a launch this year."

Truth is nice for once.

Wouldn't it be nice if all other game companies were as forthcoming with game dev info (hello 3DRealms)? As much as I dislike MS, It's nice to see a company just come out and say it. "This game is toast, just letting you know"

On a roll...

So... ah... if you're not going to be using the Mythica source anymore, do you mind if we have it?

Mythic?

Wasn't there a game named Mythic that had the nordic gods? And didn't they take MS to court over trademark or something to that effect. I seem to actually remember a story on /. relating to that precisely. Well, if they lost is there any smooth way to change the title of their upcoming game and admit defeat? Of course not, so they'll just say they've been working on some other MMORPG and change the name that way.

Screenshots

Some early screenshots [mythicarealms.com] of the game that will no longer be. Looks pretty good, nothing fancy, but of course there is much more to a game than just the visuals.

Micro$oft buys World of Warcraft

Obviously they didn't. But if Halo is any indication as to how MS markets games, then I don't see why Microsoft wouldn't buy out Blizzard either.

I can see the horror now. Microsoft gains the rights to Warcraft. They then scrap plans for the PC and Mac version of World of Warcraft. Now, they can port it over as an X-Box exclusive to boost its sales.

Don't think it can't happen. Well life has tought me a few lessons. Such as, money talks in the right amount.

I For One..

.. can't wait for the new MS game!

Duke Nukem Forever Online... man. This is gonna be great. Anyone know when it'll be out? ;-)

Oh no

As long as Blizzard doesn't kill World of WarCraft, I don't care. : )


-Colin [colingregorypalmer.net]

so sad...

so sad for the team of patch developers that were earmarked for this project. In other news, patching Windows will now take place "up to five months after bug is found". :-)

Just A Thought

Maybe they saw that 400k people signed up for the World of Warcraft beta and realized that there was no point competing with the best! (I know that half of them were Korean but Blizzard games still rule) Probably everyone posting on this forum has wasted countless hours on titles such as Starcraft and Diablo 2...

Mythica

like most myths, turns out to be mythical.

FFXI! WoW! CoH!

Between Final Fantasy XI, Worlds of Warcraft, and City of Heroes ... I think a lot of people could care less about what MS is releasing (or shutting down for that matter). I don't think what MS is doing could be considered wrong, but I do believe this is going to hurt them later in the market. Who says that their next project won't be scrapped so quickly as well? MMORPG players will get really ticked if they keep having games released with no future support ... playing a MMORPG is a huge investment in time for some.


- A s M -

Games that dont suck!

Ok, it's amazing, but I think most you are utterly clueless about the best mmorpg's in devlopment...

Beyond Worlds of Warcraft (which is going to be a carebear festival! blah!), the really great new titles scheduled for release in 2004/05 are:

1. Lineage 2 : www.lineage2.com
2. Darkfall : www.darkfallonline.com
3. Dark and Light : www.darkandlight.com

you folks are limiting your expectations and vision to that which is thrown at you by the established game companies and gaming magazines... get a clue please, and check out the REALLY great mmo's coming out. Dont be scared just because they are pvp-based...lol!

Good

I'm not trying to troll, but the only other Microsoft MMORPG that I've tried was Asheron's Call 2, which sucked ass. I've heard that AC2 has gotten better now that development has been handed back to Turbine. Anyway, as far as I'm concerned, the more Microsoft pulls out of the already saturated MMORPG genre, the better. They've got better things to do.

Too many MMOs

I'm a long time MMO player, and I remember when they used to be fun for the sheer novelty. These days it seems like every software company is putting out one or two MMOs, trying to get thier own monthly cash cow. I suppose this could do something about the overpopulation on the servers of long running MMOs like EverQuest, but i assume it will only attract more players of low intellegence to the genre. "Hey, got any good gear a mage can use?" "Think you could power level me to 30 real quick?" "Can you spare a few platinum for this sword i NEED?"

Re:Hmmmmmmmmmm

I'm really glad to see you're not a bandwagon Microsoft smasher... [/sarcasm]

FYI, Microsoft just released [microsoft.com] the source code to Allegiance, a multiplayer game that was years ahead of its time but died due to lack of publicity and players.
As for this project, since it isn't finished I don't quite see the point in releasing the source. It wouldn't be quite so useful, and modding a MMORPG is not on the top of my list.

Re:Good thing this isn't the Matrix

Were you trying to be funny?!

Doesn't the lameness filter catch such horrible attempts at jokes?

;)

Re:Good thing this isn't the Matrix

I laughed.. so it wasn't an attempt, it works. Good job ignore people like him.

Re:Interesting

Bob? BOB?!? You bring up a failure from TEN YEARS AGO when they didn't have a desktop monopoly and the only people who had computers were smartass teenagers and stock brokers?

I mean, why not just give them shit for Microsoft Decathalon, or Hyperterminal, or Microsoft Works?

Re:New game titled announced

The sequel, Linux Command Console, where you pile through random character combinations to figure out how to get it to work was also announced today.

Re:Interesting

Microsoft usually just releases software half-done and lets the market kill it. Bob, anyone?

Like all the Windows incarnations, Office, Internet Explorer and Xbox you mean? The market sure killed those off...

I hate a lot of their products and business strategies as much as the next geek but if you're going to attack them, at least use some semblence of a plausible argument.

Par to the course

in the MMORPG genre that seems to be the thing to do. EverCrack had a patch day every week. Plus unannounced critical patches. To tell you the truth they were good for my social life back then, because I'd actually get off the net and do something. But trust me, MMORPGs are not even close to complete when they are released. And yes, I feel this fits right in with Microsoft's business model. Oh, except that in EQ they sometimes did admit they have a problem and at least pretended to try to fix the problem.