RunesGate - a story of MindArk being MindArk

As far as I know there wasn't talked about this in public. So here we go. I'm just writing this as I can remember it, it might not be 100% accurate.

During the development of Monria the team behind Monria had the idea of using runes in a specific way on Monria. Monria, Cthulhu, runes... it fits. But MindArk told them it wouldn't be possible to implement these runes. A little later the team was suprised to find an implementation of runes very similar to what they've imagined in an Content Update for Planet Calypso in Cyclops Depths. They've asked MindArk how this could be possible and MindArk ensured them that it was purely coincidential and nobody involved in the development of Monria was involved in the development of Calypso.

Then we had this interview with Planet Calypso game designer Joakim Antonsson, in which he randomly revealed that he was in fact working on both Monria AND Calypso at some point, thus proven that MindArk had lied to their partner, the Monria team. One person back then a co-owner of Monria read this interview and was suprised by this fact, he contacted me and told me the details of this story. Afaik they didn't take any further action.

However, this revelation did have and it still might have consequences. All interviews had to go through David Simmonds, back then CEO of MindArk. And that's probably the reason why we never again got any interview with any MindArk or Calypso employee. Thanks, David...

So to sum it up:

• MindArk probably "stole" intellectual property of one of their partners
• MindArk told their partners their idea would not be possible to implement, then used parts of it for Calypso
• when "caught" MindArk lied about it to their partner and tried to cover it up
• when accidentially revealed by an employee in an interview they've killed the messenger, in this case EntropiaPlanets.

Any MindArk or Calypso or planet partner employee reading this? Up for an interview? Let us know :)