When the game finally released in 2008, it already had an active modding scene churning out ambitious mods. There was an economics professor commenting on medieval economies and giving feedback! People who were real experts gave feedback, and that was really valuable and useful." We had a special suggestions forum, and some of the discussions there were really mind-boggling. "We also had a really knowledgeable community. "We learned a great deal from the community, and some people started doing mods and then ended up working with us," Yavuz said. Players picked Mount and Blade up immediately and spread it around, funding development and building a fanbase and a community at the same time. A day later, the forum post had grown into a thread five pages long. Out of options and just a little red-faced, Yavuz posted a link to their online store to a couple of forums and left it at that.