DARK AGE OF CAMELOT'S REALM VS REALM CLUSTERING PATCH : DAOC Discussion

FAIRFAX, VA - FEBRUARY 9, 2005 - Mythic Entertainment®, developer and publisher of the massively-multiplayer online role-playing game Dark Age of Camelot®, today announced that the game's Realm vs. Realm (RvR) clustering patch resulted in one of the largest battles ever seen in an MMORPG. Last night, players participated in a massive RvR combat session where more than 1,500 characters simultaneously fought one another on a single battlefield. RvR is Mythic's unique implementation of Player vs. Player (PvP) combat, and this unprecedented RvR session was made possible through the new server clustering technology, which was launched on several Dark Age of Camelot servers on February 8.

In Dark Age of Camelot®, players choose to create characters from one of three different Realms - Albion, Hibernia, and Midgard - based on the myths and legends of Arthurian England, Celtic Ireland, and Viking Scandinavia, respectively. Other characters in a player's Realm are their allies and cannot be attacked, but players in enemy Realms can - and are - attacked on sight. This "Realm vs. Realm" combat takes place in a special region on each server called the Frontier, which is populated by Keeps that Realms may siege and control. The more Keeps a Realm owns, the more territory they control. Constant ongoing battles between the Realms take place within the Frontier as players battle to wrest control of Keeps away from their enemies while attempting to defend their own Keeps.

"The challenge and scale of RvR battles have always been a key element of Dark Age of Camelot's success," said Matt Firor, Executive Producer at Mythic Entertainment. "By implementing clustered servers, a first in any MMORPG, we've guaranteed that players on all of our servers - not just the high-population servers - have the same exhilarating RvR experience."

Server clustering was designed by Mythic Entertainment® to facilitate stronger RvR on lower-population servers. It allows players from different Dark Age of Camelot® servers to participate in Realm vs. Realm combat together. Previously, only players on the same servers could fight one another in RvR. Funneling the population of four server's of players into one clustered Frontier zone led to one of the largest - if not the largest - battles ever held in an MMORPG. Groups of hundreds of players roamed the Frontier, laying siege to Keeps and challenging huge armies of enemy players.

"Clustering these servers was so successful that we are launching another server cluster today," added Firor. "Players of the game now have more friends to group with, as well as more enemies to fight, in RvR. It's much easier to find keep sieges to participate in, territory to defend, and in general have even more fun time in our Frontiers than ever before."

----http://www.mythicentertainment.com/press/server_clustering_feb_9.html----

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