'He Got Death Threats From Fans' - Heroes 3 Dev on Story Behind Co-worker's Departure
David Mullich, director of Heroes of Might and Magic 3, told us about how the game's lead designer, Greg Fulton left the development team. 'I think that he received some death threats from some of the fans [...],' he said.
Few games enjoy as much adoration as Heroes of Might and Magic III. Despite the passage of years, this iconic masterpiece is still considered excellent - and is unlikely to ever fall from its pedestal. Nevertheless, it hides a dark story.
A faction from the wrong fairy tale
It is associated with Forge. Older players will certainly remember what is this about. Younger ones, however, deserve a few words of explanation. It was supposed to be the ninth playable faction in the third Heroes - it was planned to be added to the game as part of the first DLC, Armageddon's Blade. However, this did not happen, as fans criticized Forge very harshly.
How harshly? We'll get to that in a moment. Let's start with the fact that the faction was presented at E3 in 1999 - a few months before the expansion's release, which eventually took place on September 30. Units were demonstrated, a city screen, a handful of promotional graphics... including the one below.
Today it's probably not as impressive as it was almost a quarter of a century ago. However, know that it was the concept artwork of the Naga tank that was too much for the fans who were already turning their noses up at Forge. After all, this technologically advanced faction was pulled straight from the Might and Magic series, which mixed the conventions of high fantasy and science fiction. The community preferred that the series stays true to the former.
Wave of hate and death threats
A wave of hate swelled in the then fledgling Internet. Players demanded explanations - some using unsophisticated vocabulary, and some with disregard to good manners. They even threatened to boycott the DLC if Forge was not removed... and even threatened the developers with death....
In the end, developers from the now-defunct studio New World Computing caved in and Forge did not make it into Heroes of Might and Magic III - it was replaced by Conflux, faction based on elementals (only years later, fans made attempts to recreate the Forge). However, the whole issue has not been forgotten. One of the reasons it remained in the minds of both the community and the developers was the fact that because of these death threats, lead designer of HoMM III - Greg Fulton - has abandoned the team.
Heroes 3 behind the scenes
David Mullich - the game's director - told us about the background of these events. From his words, it seems that the choice of materials for the presentation was very random. "I walked into the office, just grabbed a piece of paper and said: 'Here - pick something from here' [...]." Today Mullich says that if he could have, he would have acted differently then.
As for Fulton, the developer confirmed that he left NWC precisely after the Forge affair.
GAMEPRESSURE: We heard the story that one of the people that worked on HoMM 3, Gregory Fulton, left… Is it true that he left because of the backlash for the Forge content?
DM: Greg Fulton was our lead designer. Yeah, it was after that backlash. He decided to leave. I think that he received some death threats from some of the fans and he was disappointed that our management didn’t take that very seriously. But there may’ve been some other reasons as well – that could’ve been the straw that broke the camel’s back for deciding to leave. But he didn’t just leave the company. He left the gaming industry altogether after that [Fulton's only work after HoMM III: Armageddon's Blade was Command & Conquer: Renegade from 2002].
Had it not been for the harsh criticism of Forge and the death threats he received, would Greg Fulton still be making games? Would he have been the author of more HoMM games? If so - would the future of the series have turned out differently? We can only speculate. However, it is better to treat this situation as a lesson or a warning... - decide for yourself. This is of great importance because nowadays this type of toxic situation is much more frequent and on a wider scale. In March 2023, threats were reported by developers of Rust. Much more profilic were however, those received a few years earlier by Laura Bailey - the actress who provided her voice to Abby in The Last of Us: Part II.
The full version of the interview with David Mullich can be found below.
