EuroGamer Article

[Talolan]

Can Camelot Unchained kickstart MMOs?

I'm more excited about Camelot Unchained than any other MMO in development. Freeze the image that popped into your head when you read "MMO" - what did you think of? Did you picture an astronomically expensive game taking ages to make and desperately ticking boxes to satisfy an audience as large as World of Warcraft's? Throw that image away, because Camelot Unchained is quite the opposite.

Camelot Unchained is ruthlessly designed for a niche, an MMO audience that enjoys a three-realm war (RVR) between players and only players - there is no PVE progression, no fighting monsters for experience or for equipment. Everything in the game is designed with this everlasting war in mind. It's experimental, and made by a small team that wants people playing it and testing ideas as soon as possible - by January, if all goes to plan. Best of all, Camelot Unchained makes no bones about not being for everyone, because by only costing $5 million - rather than 10-times or 50-times that - it doesn't need even hundreds of thousands of subscribers to make it a success.

There's no publisher involved, which explains a thing or two, because Camelot Unchained is a Kickstarter hopeful, one of the first of its kind. Nearly two-thirds of the lofty $2 million goal has been raised with a week to go, so it's on course but it will be tight. If it reaches that $2 million goal then a further $3 million in private funding will be thrown in, the idea vindicated and investors convinced. $2 million will come from the pocket of Mark Jacobs, the founder and leader of Camelot Unchained developer City State Entertainment, and the other reason this MMO has a chance. He founded Mythic Entertainment and made Dark Age of Camelot, the MMO that coined the term RVR, and the one that is the inspiration for Camelot Unchained. Jacobs' RVR ideals shone brightly again in Warhammer Online.

Read the whole thing at the link above.

[Roxanne]

I really do love Mark Jacobs and I hope his vision gets made. Any chance of getting him back on for another podcast in the future?

[Talolan]

I really do love Mark Jacobs and I hope his vision gets made. Any chance of getting him back on for another podcast in the future?

A Very good chance if the kick starter makes.