Dark Age of Camelot player says Mythic’s end was a slow fade, not a sudden cut

Electronic Arts recently closed Mythic Entertainment, a developer active for four decades that created the massively multiplayer online roleplaying game Dark Age of Camelot.

Adam W, a reader who played the title from the early 2000s until its decline, says the studio's closure was the result of long-term attrition rather than a single corporate decision.

W began playing Dark Age of Camelot after a friend sent him a video of the game in the early 2000s. He described the title as his first MMO, noting that it offered a mix of player versus environment and player versus player combat.

The game supported solo play, small groups, and large encounters involving more than 100 players. W started as an infiltrator on the Prydwen server and later led top-end raids.

He recalled instances where a raid of over 60 players would fail against difficult bosses. His guild would then continue the challenge as a group of eight, progressing through the dungeon more carefully than a large group could manage.

By the end of his time in the game, W was part of Public Enemies, a top PvP guild. The group played a fixed roster of eight players each evening.

Members sought other groups of eight for fair fights but also challenged random groups of 20 to 30 players. W noted that these larger, unorganized groups were often easier to defeat.

The player base for Dark Age of Camelot shrank rapidly after World of Warcraft launched in 2004. Many players moved to the new title immediately, causing server populations to drop.

As the population declined, the English servers were merged into a single server. W said Mythic never fully recovered from this loss of players.

W continued playing until there were no regular opponents left. He eventually sold his account on eBay, a move that violated the terms and conditions.

The account featured a realm rank 11 infiltrator, sorcerer, and paladin, along with multiple other characters across several servers. Despite the game's decline, the account was still in demand.

W tried World of Warcraft after leaving Dark Age of Camelot but found the player versus environment mode more enjoyable than the player versus player mode. He stopped playing because adult life and work left too little time for the commitment the game required.