Firor sent a fabulous story to Scott in celebration of DAOC’s Ten Year Birthday. Read it!
My own two cents: Scott is being a little too modest, here. What he is not saying is that he wrote that CS tool, from scratch, in six weeks. His brainchild outperformed every other such program available in 2001, and he did it with no time or resources. In a closet. An actual, literal closet next to a poorly ventilated bathroom used by 40 heavy smokers.
*My* office was a very nice coat closet that had its own window. The only real problem with it was that the coat hooks were directly behind my chair and at the same height as my skull when I stood up.
Anyway. My contribution to this stroll down memory lane: Like everyone else, I’d been working solidly for six months without coming up for air on my own tasks, so I absolutely did not know any of the stuff that Firor talked about in terms of numbers and load expectations. I also did not know anything about business projections or prior MMO sales performance. All I knew was what the beta testers were saying and how many people on the big news sites were excited about the game. So I figured we’d hit 100K customers easy, right out of the gate, even though that was by no means a guarantee for AAA MMOs in 2001. I also assumed that everyone shared my confidence.
When we actually hit that number, I was too green, too inexperienced, and too ignorant to realize what we’d achieved. For me it was just… yeah? So? When’s the first patch? I walked in on one celebration (involving shots of either scotch or whiskey in dixie cups, I don’t remember because I’m basically a slushie drinker) and just stared at everyone, like, “sure, I’ll have a shot, but why are you all so happy? And what about this quest problem?”
I think it was Mark Jacobs at the celebration lunch a few days later who asked me why I wasn’t bouncing off the walls, and I said something like, “Of course we’re a hit. It’s been obvious all along.” He just stared at me, speechless, for the first and last time in his life.
Now that I have more context, in terms of what the odds really were against us and how close we came to not launching at all… my god. In some ways, I would give anything to be that confident about anything, ever again. On the other hand, I was an insufferable git, so it’s for the best that I have a clue now.
I’m pretty sure that as soon as Scott finished the CS tool, we got cracking on the Herald. That was fun. No one had anything like the Herald at the time, so it was exciting to just invent something. And as with pretty much everything else about DAOC, we did it because we didn’t know we couldn’t.
It was the most fantastic, most glorious experience. The seven of you were there with me. Thanks.
Without you channeling both the players’ and the developers’ voices it wouldn’t have been such a glorious experience. Thank *you* Sanya, for setting the high bar for community way back in 2001.
Also, being crammed into a coat closet just added to your charm. =)
Marty, that is the sweetest thing you’ve ever said, and you were ALWAYS a sweet-talking fool
Thanks 
Thanks for your part in it all Sanya. <3
“What about this quest problem?”
That’s what I would call the Tweety Distortion Field. Duty above all else!
My own closet office was a corner office with two windows.
Of course you couldn’t actually push the chair back from the desk. I think it was 4′ wide? Maybe 5′ ?
With out you Sanya DAoC would have never made it to where it has. With you DAoC Could go SO much further. You and you alone were the Operator that linked the players to the producers/devs.
You told them what we wanted and why we needed it. In turn you told us why we were nuts and why we couldn’t have it. You created the position which you filled so well for so many years. With out you building and maintaining the lines of communication the game would have soured very early.
When you left our community the community spiraled. They tried to replace you and on occasion they found someone that conveyed your since of dedication to the community. But all to often they had no personal flair to their post on the herald which left their post dry and less appealing. The position will never be filled the way you did
Nice memories. You added a lot to the “Camelot experience”.
So did… DO… you, Mr. Kai
(Wait, I know you did WAR, but am I cutting and pasting you onto DAOC? Lord, it all blends.)
I started to work for DAoC EU in July 2002, so my personal decade will have to wait until next year.
Fond memories. You’ve played an immense part too. Thanks for all that you did Sanya.
Thanks for all the awesome stories, and great memories, Sanya and Scott, and Walt, and everybody else that was part of that glorious game.
FWIW, I’ve still not seen anything for any other game that fills the niche the Herald did during the glory years (maybe it still does?), honestly. It was fantastic.
Just a voice from the cheap seats: Thank you for everything you did. What fantastic days those were. Just…thanks.
Thank you Saynya, for being all you were. As many posters has said before me, the DAoC experience wouldn’t have been the same without you.
I even remember you mentioning one of my mails on the herald once, that made me stretch my back a bit
I still to this day ask myself why I dont see post on the herald with Sanya’s name on it. I miss your post and still yearn to see one posted in the future. Thank you for your part in Daoc , I know it made my experience superior!
Brad Walker
October 10, 2011 at 9:08 am
With out you Sanya DAoC would have never made it to where it has. With you DAoC Could go SO much further. You and you alone were the Operator that linked the players to the producers/devs.
You told them what we wanted and why we needed it. In turn you told us why we were nuts and why we couldn’t have it. You created the position which you filled so well for so many years. With out you building and maintaining the lines of communication the game would have soured very early.
When you left our community the community spiraled. They tried to replace you and on occasion they found someone that conveyed your since of dedication to the community. But all to often they had no personal flair to their post on the herald which left their post dry and less appealing. The position will never be filled the way you did
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
LOLZ either your a Sanya alt, or you are perhaps one of the biggest suck ups in the world lol. This game was gonna be big with or without Sanya.
Such wonderful memories.
To this day, I consider DAoC’s combat system to be best. It is, by a vast amount, the one I enjoyed the most. That post you linked to stated that Brian Axelson was responsible for all the aspects of combat… I wish I could tell him how much I loved it. The chains, the reactives, actually having to PAY ATTENTION instead of just hitting 1 2 3 while you’re watching TV and have game sounds completely off! I’ll never understand those that do that. Why even play the game, if it’s not worth your attention? To this day I have not enjoyed combat in any of dozens of MMOs as much as I enjoyed DAoC’s.
The Herald was wonderful, and I lay the accolades for that squarely on your shoulders, Sanya. Thank you. Thank you, many times over. The care you put into your work shines through, and encourages the players to return care of their own. It worked for me, that’s for sure!
10 years, my god! My DAOC videos on YouTube (search for KallistiUK) still get loads of comments about “the best MMO community ever” and this came from the overall game community fostered by the Herald and Sanya and percolated down onto the individual servers. There was genuine respect between the players even of opposing factions -even though the Hibbies were on “easy mode”
The day 500 Mids Albs and Hibs turned up in Odin’s Gate on Galahad for the Teletha memorial will be a day I’ll never forget.
I wish I could take compliments gracefully, because y’all would be entitled to some grace. But you’re stuck with me. Thanks for all the kind words.
A lot of the credit for the Herald ought to be going to Scott, who coded all of it and designed most of it, and Firor, who protected me professionally so I could write whatever the hell I wanted to. There were really only a few occasions over the years (until he left in 2006) where I had a gun to my head when I posted, and well, I’ve since learned that things aren’t always as simple as “Hey, I think we should track this stat” and “Hey, I want to explain something.”
Nothing quite like your first experience with a MMO, or anything for that matter, including sticking your finger in a socket. Both are usually heavily anticipated until the shock slams you to the floor
I sincerely hope that all the folks that put so much of themselves into the early days of DAoC and the first few wondrous years are all doing well and happy, because they certainly deserve it.
But seriously Sanya–and I don’t mean to come off as some kind of slavering fanboi–but I look at the communities (read: official boards) built around the games I play (ok…game, singular…I’m getting oooold) and your influence is obvious. I doubt that anyone’s going to be able to get away with the brutal honesty you got away with back in the day, but I can see that the current crop at least partially gets community. Not all the time, but often enough. (and the companies that still don’t get community…well I just don’t play their games.)
DAOC wasn’t just revolutionary for all the features it’s recognized for. It was revolutionary for how a community should be run. And you and your team didn’t even have official forums to pull it off.
So thanks again. You’ve left a legacy so I’m afraid you’re just going to have to suck it up and accept it.
I lived in anticipation of the next update on the Herald. Thanks for everything you did for us Sanya.
Was a great game. Enjoyed it while Mythic was running the show, in hindsight, all the things that pissed me off about DAoC made the things I liked about it more enjoyable.
Thanks for the work you all did.
There, you heard me say it Tweety. Do I still have to eat my hat?
I’ll just say this: reading the “grab bag” always brought a smile or a chuckles – fond memories indeed
I can’t believe I missed the 10 year celebration date! I just wanted to echo everyone’s thanks to you Sanya and any other oldschool Mythic employee that may read this in making such an amazing game. No video game had ever infiltrated my life or fascinated me like Camelot, and I doubt another one ever will.
For years and years I have more in-game memories than I do real-life ones. My highlights: Killing low-level Albs with a ram, sneaking our Hibernian trouble-making asses into Albion, ridiculously massive three way battles in the old Emain Macha, spending untold number of hours on add-on programs trying to make the game even better — I’m sure irritating the dev team along the way — sorry guys.
Anyway, thanks again for making such an impact on my life and so many others. /dance
One thing I miss is the Roundtable events. It was always great to meet fellow DAoCians and the folks running the game. I was a huge explorer and I can remember running around Vanern Swamp as a lowly 15 and witnessing the first 50 ding, although I didnt know it at the time. DAoC was also my first real PvP experience.