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| Thrones of Chaos: The True Story of the Ownership Change by Dana Massey,MMORPG.COM  MMORPG.com is convinced Thrones of Chaos deserves a clean slate, find out whyAfter extensive interviews and research, MMORPG.com is pleased to add Thrones of Chaos to our game list. This title, being built off the game once known as Mourning, is being developed by Portland, OR based Loud Ant Software LLC and promises a hardcore PvP experience in a fantasy setting. The original Mourning project had been delisted by MMORPG.com in a famous incident involving developer abuse of our staff, among other things." title="Thrones of Chaos: The True Story of the Ownership Change">MMORPG.com is convinced Thrones of Chaos deserves a clean slate, find out why After extensive interviews and research, MMORPG.com is pleased to add Thrones of Chaos to our game list. This title, being built off the game once known as Mourning, is being developed by Portland, OR based Loud Ant Software LLC and promises a hardcore PvP experience in a fantasy setting. The original Mourning project had been delisted by MMORPG.com in a famous incident involving developer abuse of our staff, among other things. Later, they attempted to launch the game in an almost unplayable state after a pre-order debacle. Since then, the game was sold, but due to confusion involving a partner company called Nuanced Entertainment, we once again removed the game from our list until we could confirm that it was indeed in fresh hands and a legitimate title. Before returning it to the list, we spoke to Loud Ant CEO Colton Burgress, the CEO of Nuanced Entertainment Adam McCall and the original Producer of Mourning Andrei Gireada. The game's original owner refused to be interviewed for this piece. The three men clarified their roles, some of the history and confirmed that the project had indeed completely changed hands. "We currently have two of the Romanians from the old development team working as consultants", explained Colton Burgess of Loud Ant Software. "One of them is consulting on the server side and the other on the client side. It would have been impossible to continue using the assets without their help as much of the documentation was in a different language. Eventually though we will be fully versed and not need any outside help any longer". Andrei Gireada, the game's original producer, confirmed what Burgess told MMORPG.com. Since the sale, he had been retained to give advice to the new company, but the rest of the company - save one other - are not involved. "I have been giving advice to the new team", Gireada told us. "I pointed them the problems and the features that were not working". Gireada also told us that he will have no long term involvement in the project as he and his team plan to start in on a brand new MMOG project in the next few months. The interviews also clarified the confusion around the involvement of Nuanced Entertainment, which led to the game once again being removed from the site shortly after we relisted it last time. "Nuanced Entertainment approached us four months ago and offered to form a partnership and offered to work on the game", Burgress told MMORPG.com. "However, what they promised never materialized, so we are not working with them any longer". Adam McCall, the CEO of Nuanced, confirmed this. "Currently, there is no involvement of Nuanced Entertainment in ToC, except for me", he told us. I had originally planned to bring a small group of dedicated members of my own team to Loud Ant, but I did not. I only brought myself". Famously, McCall was revealed to be a teenage through his MySpace page shortly after the game returned to our list. As someone who has been working on this space since I was 16, it is good to see others so ambitious at a young age. McCall clarified his role in the project further. "I can confirm my age of 18 years old", McCall explained. "My occupation is currently an assistant to the Project Manager". The game itself is being produced in the United States by a full independent development studio. "We currently have a team of around twenty professional developers", Burgess explained. "Some are working remotely within the USA, most are on location here in Portland". MMORPG.com was provided with resumes of each of the developers to confirm this. Once it was confirmed that this was indeed a new company, we had to ask simply, why would they choose a product with such a chequered history? "We were looking to get into the MMOG industry but did not want to build completely from scratch", he told us. "After having a few different projects evaluated by consulting firms that work within the same industry this was the one that ended up fitting our needs best. "This allows us to build upon some solid ideas and bring a professional touch to the existing assets and also allows us to enter the market fairly quickly and at much less expense". And what about those people who got taken in during the pre-order phase last time? "I feel bad for those that feel they were taken advantage of", Burgess admitted. "We are going to give all these people free life time accounts. In addition, we are going to have a trial or beta of some kind so that players can check out the title (for free) before it goes commercial". He went on to admit that he knows he has an uphill battle to gain people's trust and made a promise that he hopes will begin building it: "You won't be seeing any pre orders being taken unless it is through a notable publisher/distributor". With these assurances made, MMORPG.com is pleased to return Thrones of Chaos to clean the slate and return the game to our list. The new company deserves a chance to be judged on their own merits and we hope everyone gives them that. write your comments about the article :: © 2006 Game News :: home page |