Interview: Camelot Unchained's Mark Jacobs Talks Release Window, Communication And More

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harken33

The Good: He has been great at acquiring investment funding.

The Bad: He has been piss poor with communication to the community at least in recent years.

The (It's going to be) Ugly: Increasing the communication with the backers is good but there is not a lot of good will left. He is going to have to overcome some very negative interactions especially if this communication is two way.

Angrakhan

Pretty sure the "necessary changes" were the elimination of pie-in-the-sky features that were technically beyond the team upon which they had gotten wrapped around the axel. Dropping whatever those were will get the team unstuck and put the project in a position to actually finish. Something CIG should have done with SC years ago. The question is will what remains actually be fun and engaging to play or will it be another let down like WARs RvR end game?

Slapshot1188

Is it wrong that there is this tiny part of me that goes to their website and whispers "For just a few more dollars you can get the 'All Future Expansions' perk from the Founders Store"?

Davidoff85

December 31th @ 23h59:59....still a 2025 release right ?

elric_of_melnibone

Why not just publish the actual interview transcript for people to read? That's always more interesting. Is that not a thing on websites anymore?

lotrlore

elric_of_melnibone said:

Why not just publish the actual interview transcript for people to read? That's always more interesting. Is that not a thing on websites anymore?

Personally, I don't like them and have never liked reading them myself. I like providing additional context and commentary with interviews. 

That said, it's not like we won't ever do that - with email interviews that's about all you can do, really. And some interviews just play better that way. We have one coming up that will likely just be a transcript. But this is purely the way I prefer to read them and write them. I'll definitely take that feedback, though. 

Scot

lotrlore said:

elric_of_melnibone said:

Why not just publish the actual interview transcript for people to read? That's always more interesting. Is that not a thing on websites anymore?

Personally, I don't like them and have never liked reading them myself. I like providing additional context and commentary with interviews. 

That said, it's not like we won't ever do that - with email interviews that's about all you can do, really. And some interviews just play better that way. We have one coming up that will likely just be a transcript. But this is purely the way I prefer to read them and write them. I'll definitely take that feedback, though. 

Surely some editing is necessary? We don't need to keep reading about Mark demanding another dry Martini and bourbon biscuit etc.

lotrlore

Scot said:

lotrlore said:

elric_of_melnibone said:

Why not just publish the actual interview transcript for people to read? That's always more interesting. Is that not a thing on websites anymore?

Personally, I don't like them and have never liked reading them myself. I like providing additional context and commentary with interviews. 

That said, it's not like we won't ever do that - with email interviews that's about all you can do, really. And some interviews just play better that way. We have one coming up that will likely just be a transcript. But this is purely the way I prefer to read them and write them. I'll definitely take that feedback, though. 

Surely some editing is necessary? We don't need to keep reading about Mark demanding another dry Martini and bourbon biscuit etc.

I think any transcript interview needs to be edited for clarity for sure. I like to ramble with my lines of questioning, and a lot of times devs can talk endlessly about the projects they are clearly passionate about.

This is partly why I like parsing the information this way. If I just posted a transcript of some of my interviews as is, they might be nigh incomprehensible, lol.

BrotherMaynard

"Some express disbelief that the game will hit the release window next year, while others are incredulous at their long wait."

Assuming it was a direct quote, I would like to express my disbelief that after 12 years someone else than Mark Jacobs calls this a "highly anticipated MMO".

Grymmoire

Dr. Victor Frankenstein throws the switch. Electricity crackles down the massive ancient coils.

Victor triumphantly shouts, "It's alive!"

Sovrath

BrotherMaynard said:

"Some express disbelief that the game will hit the release window next year, while others are incredulous at their long wait."

Assuming it was a direct quote, I would like to express my disbelief that after 12 years someone else than Mark Jacobs calls this a "highly anticipated MMO".

Anticipated or not, "if" it launches (let alone makes the launch date) it will be slammed.

You have the die hards who always believed.
You have the fans who want it to launch but who didn't hold their breath.
You have the so called "bored" players who are looking for something, anything to play.
You have the curious who want to see what all the hub-bub was about. Alternatively the curious who just see it for the first time and are "curious."
The generally "miffed" or indifferent players who finally want to see what became of the game. Even though some of them have stated they have completely lost interest. But they'll be there.
The absolute beside themselves haters who are so angry (for whatever reason) that they will want to play it just so they can verify that their anger and rage are justified and so they can tell everyone about it ...

Should be interesting.

cheyane

Love all these tongue in cheek remarks. Then again Mark deserves it.

Viper482

Not even reading the article, I don't believe one word this asshole has to say.

waveslayer

ok, nothing to see here, moving along...had to bring someone else on to tell him that the game is still 2 years away...whats been going on for the past 12

Wargfoot

I don't understand how 12 years of failure makes the news.
At what point does a 'developer' not deserve to be in the news at all?

10 years of failure, 20 years of failure, 30 years of failure... are we going to be doing another article on the "new roadmap" for this game in 15 years?

It's tempting to open a kickstarter, post screenshots, and know that I can literally troll the gaming commuity and news sites for decades and still get press anytime I say something - even though I've nothing to show for it.

Get in now: Founder's Packs $4000.00

Slapshot1188

Wargfoot said:

I don't understand how 12 years of failure makes the news.
At what point does a 'developer' not deserve to be in the news at all?

10 years of failure, 20 years of failure, 30 years of failure... are we going to be doing another article on the "new roadmap" for this game in 15 years?

It's tempting to open a kickstarter, post screenshots, and know that I can literally troll the gaming commuity and news sites for decades and still get press anytime I say something - even though I've nothing to show for it.

Get in now: Founder's Packs $4000.00

That's going to fail.

It has to be:

Founders Pack (EarlyBird) 100 packages available $3500
Founder Pack (Last Chance) 200 packages available $3750
Founder Pack: $4000

And you also need to add stretch goals based on your pledge date:

Goal #1 = LIFETIME 50% discount on all shop purchases. $100,000 TIER
Goal #2 = Founders Forum Access. $200,00 TIER
Goal # Last one =  Something really awesome to make people on the fence jump in

And you must be pledged by the date we hit that to get the bonus.

Let's do this.  You can be the face of the company.  We can add Sovath or one of the other folks with some kind of art inclination to craft some screenshots.

Kyleran

I'll be happy to slag on this effort as I seem to be a negative influencer.  Whatever I don't like or support seems to be something the masses go wild over (see Palworld)  so your campaign is sure to be a huge success with my trolling.  

  

BrotherMaynard

Slapshot1188 said:

Is it wrong that there is this tiny part of me that goes to their website and whispers "For just a few more dollars you can get the 'All Future Expansions' perk from the Founders Store"?

Personally, I was disappointed when I saw your post in the other CU thread not to see this:



Very disappointed...

Slapshot1188

BrotherMaynard said:

Slapshot1188 said:

Is it wrong that there is this tiny part of me that goes to their website and whispers "For just a few more dollars you can get the 'All Future Expansions' perk from the Founders Store"?

Personally, I was disappointed when I saw your post in the other CU thread not to see this:



Very disappointed...

Yeah for that amount of money Marc would need to give me weekly lap dances

lotrlore

Slapshot1188 said:

BrotherMaynard said:

Slapshot1188 said:

Is it wrong that there is this tiny part of me that goes to their website and whispers "For just a few more dollars you can get the 'All Future Expansions' perk from the Founders Store"?

Personally, I was disappointed when I saw your post in the other CU thread not to see this:



Very disappointed...

Yeah for that amount of money Marc would need to give me weekly lap dances

I live in Vegas. That seems awfully cheap for weekly lap dances.

MarkJacobs

Hey, just wanted to drop in and thank MMORPG for the coverage, positive, negative, or so-so, I appreciate it. BTW, I'm in agreement a lot of the criticism and hopefully all of it will be taken care of this year as work continues on FSR, CU, and the engine.

Thanks everybody for reading the stories and commenting as well!

That's it, I'll go now.

BTW I don't give lap dances otherwise there were a lot of crypto folks out there a few years back that were interested in what we were doing and were willing to throw money at me (I also turned down a few ICOs that people wanted to use my name for). I'm still not interested. Not now, not ever.

TTFN.

Kyleran

Welcome back Mark, don't be a stranger 

Slapshot1188

MarkJacobs said:

Hey, just wanted to drop in and thank MMORPG for the coverage, positive, negative, or so-so, I appreciate it. BTW, I'm in agreement a lot of the criticism and hopefully all of it will be taken care of this year as work continues on FSR, CU, and the engine.

Thanks everybody for reading the stories and commenting as well!

That's it, I'll go now.

BTW I don't give lap dances otherwise there were a lot of crypto folks out there a few years back that were interested in what we were doing and were willing to throw money at me (I also turned down a few ICOs that people wanted to use my name for). I'm still not interested. Not now, not ever.

TTFN.

Welcome back Mark.

All I ask is don't tease.  Do not say 2025 CU launch, string us along to Q3 2025 and then indefinitely delay.  And be open about what "launch" means.  When you set low expectations and exceed them, you get a positive reaction.  When you set high ones and under deliver, some people (like @kyleran ) can be very merciless.

lotrlore

MarkJacobs said:

Hey, just wanted to drop in and thank MMORPG for the coverage, positive, negative, or so-so, I appreciate it. BTW, I'm in agreement a lot of the criticism and hopefully all of it will be taken care of this year as work continues on FSR, CU, and the engine.



Thanks everybody for reading the stories and commenting as well!



That's it, I'll go now.



BTW I don't give lap dances otherwise there were a lot of crypto folks out there a few years back that were interested in what we were doing and were willing to throw money at me (I also turned down a few ICOs that people wanted to use my name for). I'm still not interested. Not now, not ever.



TTFN.

Thanks for checking in here, Mark, and welcome back to the Forums. Always willing to chat when y'all are. Cheers!

Babuinix

Hey Mark just wanna ask how much of your game dev journey hick ups can be blamed on Chris Roberts? Asking for a friend

J/K

Just keep doing what you're doing, f*ck the haters.