:3
I’ve spent more time entering codes than actually playing the game.
Mythgard has entered maintenance mode. :(
Or more positively, the card set is now fixed so it’s never been a better time to start collecting!
I personally have put the large part of my life savings into this game. Most of the team have worked at far below market rates to make it. All out of love for what we were doing. I’ll forever be in their debt for following me into this venture, for their tireless hard work, and for the precious things they’ve sacrificed on the way. As time passed, our team members have dropped off one by one due to a need to provide for their family and to seek some measure of financial security. I don’t think any of them did so because they truly wanted to. At last, our numbers have dwindled to the point that it’s simply no longer possible to continue creating additional content.
Yeah, that sucks.
I think one of the problems was it is kind of too similar to other CCGs (especially Magic) even though it has a lot of interesting and fresh mechanical layers. Maybe the free to play CCG market is overstaturated. I dunno.
I would go so far as to say this as a certainty. Since Hearthstone especially, there are a lot of them out there, and they don’t have much to differentiate them from one another.
They’re handing the game off to another company who plans to renew development.
Interesting. I wonder how often these dev team handoffs end up benefitting the game’s development?
I booted this up today, planning to maybe build a deck, play against the AI, see how it bears up next to the other card games I’ve been playing lately.
One of the first things I noticed was a new approach to the artwork. Which I had previously appreciated, because it clearly eschewed the anodyne cartoony look of most free-to-play card games. Mythgard set itself apart because it wasn’t an attempt to appeal to the kids who are more likely to badger their parents to buy ingame junk. Its darker artwork had touches of horror and cheesecake that you wouldn’t see in a Hearthstone. (A friend of mine appropriately made fun of me for calling this artwork “adult”, but in the parlance of videogaming audiences, I do feel it’s the best word to describe Mythgard’s artwork.)
So, my feeling is this, from a card called Grease Monkey, is “adult”…
…in the sense that you’re not going to see it in games for kids.
Well, you’re not going to see it in Mythgard either. Because this is how it looks now:
I don’t even know why they bothered. Throwing a dishtowel over a tightly clad ass just makes the person who put the towel there look dumb. Who did he think he was fooling? How did it at all change the attitude of the image, which is clearly a pin-up worthy of a tool calendar, the side of a bomber, or a collectible card game that isn’t trying to appeal to the Hearthstone crowd. It’s laughable.
I quit out after seeing that. Not because I care about the Grease Monkey’s ass. I mean, it’s a fine ass as far as fantasy asses go, but there’s much more to the artwork than asses and cleavage, and it’s still fully present in the game. But I quit out because measures like this imply a certain type of developer attempting to appease a certain type of audience, and I’m not that audience. So good luck to Mythgard with their new towel placement schemes! Maybe it’ll bring them the commercial success that otherwise eluded them when they had “adult” artwork.
I’ll hijack this fine art discussion to ask: what is your new avatar from? There is a new game from the Sentinels of the Multiverse guys?
I’m pretty sure that’s Captain Cosmic from Sentinels of the Multiverse - Wrath of the Cosmos expansion pack. The Sentinels of the Multiverse guys are working on the “Definitive Edition” update of the whole Sentinels line, the base set is done and the first expansion “Rook City” is shipping last I heard. Digital Sentinels also just got the Earth Prime expandalone funded so there’s more coming on that front too - and probably in the far future there’ll be a Definitive Edition Digital Edition.
It is indeed from the Definitive Edition of Sentinels of the Multiverse, aka version 2.0 of the game. Which I couldn’t resist checking out, and subsequently and unfortunately, discovering how much more manageable Sentinels is with the new ruleset. So now all my boxes of Sentinels 1.0 cards are tragically obsoleted. And the videogame port, too. :(
I had an avatar up there from Caves of Qud, which I haven’t played in forever, so I figured I’d swap it out for something I have played recently. And as @warrenac shrewdly spotted, it is indeed Captain Cosmic. I’m pretty sure he’s a drawing of one of the game’s designers?
According to the latest update, printing on Rook City just got underway and it should be shipping next March.
Ooh a new Captain Cosmic! All the official art is from Adam Rebottaro - he’s got a twitter if you want even more of his works!
I had no idea this existed, and I have been now reading a bunch about it… And I can’t wait for all that goodness to come to the tablet version.
Heck, even with just new pictures and revised lore quotes, I would have been on board, but some of the rework ideas sound very good!
Right, but I meant that I thought the actual Captain Cosmic is supposed to be a drawing of one of the designers himself, right? Although I’m not sure why I think that.
But, yes, loving the artwork! Which I would not call “adult”, so no need for any dishtowels on these cards to avoid offending anyone!
Hmmm, Citizens Anvil and Hammer were based on Christopher and Adam although I don’t remember at all regarding Captain Cosmic’s design - he does rock a pretty stylish beard.
Ooh - the artwork actually brings this back on topic - there was a conversation around the Sentinels artwork actually being too much male gaze, what with all the skintight outfits with idealised proportions, so even that is not immune to offending folks - and maybe even more so, since there’s a lot of … cheesecake? … in superhero art in general and a some Sentinels art definitely evokes the same kinds of poses.
Then again, the original plan for the Definitive Edition was to mainly update the art, so Adam is definitely pretty tough self-critic. I personally find even the oldest Sentinels art really charming (but I’m likely biased by my love for the game), and all the newest stuff in all the different styles is super impressive.
Interesting. Most of the complaints I’ve seen about the art were just describing it as amateurish or bad, which I can’t agree with. Especially circa Definitive Edition.
Ah, I did not know that! I guess Captain Cosmic just looks like a game designer, so I made certain assumptions. Although maybe he’s just going for the Gordon Freeman look?
I have no issue with the Sentinels artwork, which seems like an affectionate take on the silver age of comics. If someone has a problem with the representation of sexuality in silver era comics, I can see why they might also have a problem with Sentinels. But there’s also a very modern sensibility to Sentinels, and it seems to me you’d have to try pretty hard to be offended by it. :)
Furthermore, I don’t see any sign of the Sentinels artwork backpedaling from the previous game, which is the issue I have with the changes in Mythgard. When it was released, Mythgard’s art intentionally leaned into sexuality and horror. That was part of its appeal. It was a game for people who didn’t need – or want – the kid-safe cartoony World of Warcraft quality that permeates Western free-to-play games.
And now the new Mythgard developers are literally trying to hide that stuff behind fig leaves, as if that’s going to bring in new players?
“Hey, videogamers who might have been offended by tight pants! We’re sounding the “all clear” signal! The game is now safe for you to come play! Yoo hoo, where are you? Are you coming? We can make more changes if you want!”
With the caveat that I don’t play this game, the balance and composition of the Grease Monkey card after that dumb towel is added is way better to my eye… and I feel less like some tatted-up biker chick is about to blow a greasy fart in my face and give me pinkeye. I certainly don’t think it’s meaningfully less “adult” or “sexy.” Do you have other examples of this insidious plot to change Mythgard’s art? Is it possible you’re blowing this out of proportion, and the only reason this card’s art was changed was because someone in the company thought it looked better or even sexier this way?
Edit: Just showed my wife these same two images without giving her any other prompts or context. Ironically, she thinks the one without the towel is sexier, but only because the “I can see the towel fluttering behind her once the bike starts up and that seems farty.” However, she agrees with me that the one with the towel is indisputably a better composed piece of art than the first: the towel balances out the image better than a giant black latex ass sitting on top of an equally black tire in the dead center of the frame does not.
I really don’t get what you mean here?
I’m afraid I do not, but I’m not sure why you’re calling it “insidious”. Do you think that’s what I’m claiming? That’s not my intent. I’m more just complaining about a new developer sticking conspicuous fig leafs on the artwork for no discernible reason.
Well, sure, it’s possible. But do you believe that’s what happened? I would be surprised if that were the case.
As for “blowing it out of proportion”, that’s also possible, but I didn’t think I was overreacting. What would have been a more proportionate response? To just ignore it? I’m asking genuinely, because I thought it was interesting enough to share, and it bothered me enough to complain. But I’m not claiming anything “indidious” and I’m not trying to manufacture any outrage or exaggerate my own reaction.
I’m not sure how to clarify beyond what I wrote. Maybe if I paraphrase? Basically, it seems to me like the new developers of Mythgard aren’t happy with one of my favorite elements of the game, it’s artwork. It seems to me they’re making changes to mute what I liked about the artwork, which is what I’d expect in a game being engineered for a wider appeal. If that’s their approach, I’m not really interested in playing the game.
Does that clarify? I hope it doesn’t sound like I’m some incel demanding tits-and-ass in his games! I hesitated to even post because in some circles, that’s probably how this would be received. But it’s honestly one of the few videogame related experiences I’ve had lately, so here I am. :)