I Must Give Shout Outs To Muh Homies

Posted on July 12, 2006 by Scott Jennings| 45 Comments

TASS is authorized to announce that Matt Firor is no longer with EA Mythic. He headed up the development of DAOC as its producer through launch, first expansion, and thereafter.

When I mention the good people that I left behind at Mythic, Firor was on that list. He was very much involved in the nuts and bolts of game development, and had a very realistic attitude towards what was possible and fun.

Firor on the stress of balancing a live game: “Everybody that wants their character to be more powerful, raise their hands! (gleefully waves arms in air)”

Firor’s response to what he’d do with a dream $100 million MMO development budget: “Make four $25 million games.”

I know the Internet TRUTH BRIGADES are immediately streaming toward the Batforums with the tolling of doom for Mythic, but, like me, his move was more about location than anything else. Since marrying he was commuting on a daily basis from Hunt Valley, MD to Fairfax, VA. There’s only so much of that a wife will put up with.

But if you’re wanting to make an MMO studio in old Microprose territory, the number of people who’ve overseen a successful MMO launch can be counted on one hand. So all you folks with mad VC cash email him already.

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  • Zappa

    I am sorry to see him go. This is the first of the many that I think we will hear of in the up comming months leaving Mythic for one reason or another.

  • http://tidehorizon.blogspot.com Tide

    Good luck to Matt. Luckily, I only have to fly-in to our Mothership every once in a while (and suffer the Leesburg Pike). So I can’t imagine doing a commute down to that area daily. I thought the batforums were sekret? keke?

  • http://www.beafraid.com Hellfire

    When Lum speaks of you with respect I tend to think you’ve done something to deserve it…or bribed him. Either way, good show.

    With luck your next endeavor will be one I play and enjoy :P

  • blachawk

    Well you can’t really blame the ‘TRUTH BRIGADES’. The timing of this makes it sound like it’s happening under dubious circumstances.

    Despite Mark Jacob’s endless interviews claiming it’s all sunshine and lollipops at EA Mythic, I’m getting the feeling that the real changes are starting to seep in. IMO it seems as if he’s trying to convince himself that it was a great move more than he is trying to convince his audience.

    In any event DAoC won’t be shut down until maintenance cost exceeds subscription revenue / expansion sales margins. Whether EA’s neutering of the Mythic’s old structures and policies bring that day closer or farther away remains to be seen. EA has done a fair job (by reports I’ve seen anyway) of keeping UO in the black, despite turning it into a game that… well I won’t rant on that.

  • http://www.neenerneener.net kwip

    Last year, Matt drove an hour to see us off on the MS Walk – just to say hi. He couldn’t join us on the Walk, but he drove that way just to show his support. I had never met him before that day. Talk about great first impressoins! He’s an amazingly great guy.

  • scottj

    > The timing of this makes it sound like it\’e2\’80\’99s happening under
    > dubious circumstances.

    …or perhaps it was planned for a while, but was delayed until the sort of payout a Mythic founder would get from an EA buyout? I dunno, call me wacky here….

  • blachawk

    Yeah obviously you are much more well informed on the subject. I’m sure he made out like a bandit selling off his stock. But still, his leaving the company wouldn’t affect the payoff from his stock sale unless the deal wasn’t going to go through without him there to help complete the takeover.

    Well I suppose there’s too many variable in the equation that I have no way of knowing, so I’ll just shut up now.

  • Merkwurdigliebe

    His commute would appear to be in the area of 70 miles one way. And I thought my 40-mile one-way commute was bad.

    Worst part of this is reading the doomsayers’ posts on VN about this.

  • http://none Shapechanger

    You just gotta ignore the doomsday stuff.

    People need to take care of themselves and their lives & families first.

  • Lietgardis

    Good luck, Matt!

  • http://hgamer.blogspot.com Heartless Gamer

    Doom doom doom!

    I think that was being chanted well before Frior left :P

    I’ve just been taught that history is a pretty good teacher. EA fucks MMORPGs until they are drier than .

    Best of luck to the man… he kicked ass in DAoC :)

  • http://www.eqclerics.org Boanerges

    I read this as

    “Matt is the coolest MMOG dev. Ever. So hire him. This has NOTHING WHATSOEVER to do with EA buying Mythic. So move Along.”

    Whatever the case, best of luck to him. Shorter commutes ftw.

  • nmw

    “But still, his leaving the company wouldn\’e2\’80\’99t affect the payoff from his stock sale unless the deal wasn\’e2\’80\’99t going to go through without him there to help complete the takeover.”

    I know nothing about the game industry, but in oil it would be quite common for a contract to specify a payout in the case of a buyout. In some cases as much as a years salary for an executive. That is no small change.

  • http://camelotvault.ign.com Swanny

    Matt is a grade “A” great guy, I been lucky enough to talk to him a few times, he has an amazing passion for DAoC, I always enjoyed listening to him talk about the game. Best of luck Matt!!!

  • http://gonoki.de Gonoki

    hm

    EA = :(

    Matt = :)

    EA + Games = :(

    Matt + Games = :)

  • http://www.cesspit.net/ Abalieno

    but, like me, his move was more about location than anything else.

    *shrugs* You are losing credibility.

  • Freakazoid

    C’mon Ab, that doesn’t mean he’s disregarding those “other” reasons, including the highly unlikely event that he was visited by Lord British during the middle of the night below lum’s balcony on a horse with a lute, singing to lum about making a better UO together.

  • blachawk

    That reminds me of a metaphor for the takeover I thought of earlier, the Avatar (Garriot/Jacobs) failed to stop the Guardian (EA) from coming through the Black Gate and now their world has been conquered.

    Yeah, probably lame, but I found it a little amusing in the shower.

  • scottj

    Ironically, if I wanted to make a better UO I apparently should have stayed at Mythic.

    Abalieno: feel free to malign my “credibility” if you want. It’s not like I have much reason to lie. I work at a competing company. If Matt starts a new studio… I’ll *still* work at a competing company.

  • Chant

    So he chose his family over his work? Good man!

    If EA Mythic and DAOC suffers because of that, then so be it.

  • Fred

    Scott: Abalieno has lost his own credibility a long time ago with his rant site. All I see is “yay” EVE Online, “boo” anything else. He sees conspiracy theories all over the place.

  • http://www.theworldtakes.com damijin

    Good luck to Matt!

    And boo to all the people causing senseless unfounded drama.

    (though it does make for good reading at work)

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  • http://www.camelotaddict.com Camelot Addict

    Matt Firor has been a friend and supporter (of Camelot Addict) for years.
    The game industry can be a tough place to be when the players are on your case, but I think he’s done superbly.
    Cheers to Matt in his new endeavors! And thanks for all the Arpees!!!

  • http://www.wwiionline.com Dana V. Baldwin

    I hope Matt all the best. While I haven’t erected any catapaults on the Albion round table in many moons, I loved his work. More than that, his presentations and input to panels at AGDC have been among the most interesting. Far more insightful for us lesser recognized than the press slathered rants and quasi acadmeic blow jobs of some. Frior always came across on target, to the point and with his feet firmly planted in reality. Best wishes indeed.

  • http://relmstein.blogspot.com Relmstein

    It doesn’t really matter if he left for personal reasons or to avoid working indirectly for EA. Mythic is in the gaming underground’s spotlight until Warhammer Online is released. A lot of people see this as the leading game to challenge World of Warcraft and any personel leaving is going to spark some creative blog entries.

    relmstein.blogspot.com

  • http://larianlequella.com Larian LeQuella

    I had the pleasure to talk to Matt and I really like the guy! Best of luck! I can totally understand wanting to move for location. As soon as I retire from the Air Force, I’m moving to New Zealand. I’m sure VN pundits could spin that to some sort of doom and gloom scenario. ;)

  • http://bigumuse.blogspot.com Jen

    I’ve only driven around Boston, and that’s one experience I never hope to repeat. Seattle gridlock is hellacious, but I think the East Coast’s traffic is near to the lowest circle of hell. I can’t imagine any substantial commute around DC every day.

  • JP

    Anyone who is associated with the expansion that cost DAoC 100,000+ subscribers really should have been fired. ToA, for those who have been living under a rock. That’s corporate America for ya, though. They don’t seem to base job performance off of job performance.

  • http://ve3d.ign.com/ Apache

    Last time I checked, Camelot lost those players during the Catacombs/DR era. ToA, love it or hate it, is the only expansion that people even still play. The rest are graveyards.

    Anyhoo, GL Matt!

  • http://forage.org 99ways

    Wondering is this has anything to do with EA’s buy condition of Mythic by making them stop development of Dark Age 2?

  • Freakazoid

    Apache, you must be living under some sort of rock made of crazy, because last I checked everyone moved to the new non-TOA servers.

  • http://ve3d.ign.com/ Apache

    Classic servers are noob.

  • http://www.cesspit.net/ Abalieno

    Apache is actually quite right.

    After ToA (end of October) I think DAoC had a considerable boost of active players, till about January. Then people figured out the huge problems and started to be truly disappointed.

    But ToA has been Mythic’s most ambitious expansion. Gone wrong, but still their greatest effort.

  • Che

    In Europe ToA is well accepted. Most Players are doing mainly RvR anyway.

    After 4 Years of absence from DaoC i find the RvR System very challenging. Hope that Matt\’c2\’b4s Visions for a new, better MMORPG comes true in an other SW-Studio.

  • http://www.mmogchart.com SirBruce

    ToA was controversial, but what largely hurt DAoC was WoW… you can see that just looking at my charts. Similarly, Renaissance was very controversial in UO, but what really hurt it was UO:3D and…. you guessed it… DAoC.

  • BigD

    People seemed fine with TOA Untill NF and the revamped RA’s came out. ALL the tanks that had worked so hard for Battle master just felt like they got whooped with the useless stick. NF is just to big IMO.

  • http://ve3d.ign.com/ Apache

    yeah, New Frontiers needs to be about the quarter of its current size.

  • webej

    I wish him the best too.. But I am not sure this is the real reason.. Why! well I have never known a man to go live where the wife does. It is the other way around.. When someone gets married the wife comes that is just part of it.. So with husband with a great job runs to where the wife is.. This just seems off base to me..

    We are talking about Corp. here and owning our own Co. it is just better to say the nice thing when things go changing hands.. Im sorry I just dont buy it..

  • imweasel

    Just fyi…

    DAoC started dying long, long, long before ea came on the horizon.

  • imweasel

    “Gone wrong, but still their greatest effort.”

    And people wonder why shit is still produced, marketed and consumed by the mass of sheep that is the gaming community.

  • http://www.killtenrats.com Zubon

    well I have never known a man to go live where the wife does. It is the other way around.. When someone gets married the wife comes that is just part of it.
    There are captured spouses of both sexes. On a societal scale, yes, it is usually the wife, but you have n=1 here, not a general case. Maybe you meant it another way, but the comment seems to be “He must be a liar because I am sexist.”

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